There was something rather exhilarating for Test Unit Alpha 23 as books piled up around her body. Scanning, rescanning, filing, saving data-- and she was learning so much. Pony culture, pony history, mythology, biology, geography. The purple creature, a unicorn, registered “Twilight Sparkle”, kept a stream of books coming as the pink one and small ones expressed joy with jumps and spins to the upbeat tune of horns and drums scratching through an audio-projecting device. Her head buzzed and she isolated it, accessing her databanks to record it.
Inside, sorting the new data into a category of sounds, she found a little something that was fragmented, but better quality than she had thought to find. Delving farther, there were a few memory files in similar condition filling in. One contained little more than images of metal. The memories accompanying it were gone. Another contained the sensation of a long drop and water. She registered the face of the pony called Derpy Hooves in this one. Associated memories were sparse. She recalled a target, but nothing specific. Curious, she pulled through the next one. It was clearer: a fight, between herself and the brown one called Time Turner, and there was a little memory residue in the data. She found that she herself had purged her memory when her “mission” was jeopardized. She replayed it a few times and a little more data filled in; she found the mission the brown one and her memories had spoken of. She did recall it now-- a mission to destroy him. Only the basic command remained, however. She could see the spot where the execution code was shattered. Compulsion to complete it was nonexistent, leaving a useless string of commands inside her databanks.
Her gaze turned outwards again, though she was jarred to find Twilight Sparkle holding her by the shoulder, asking, “Are you okay? You sort of zoned out there.”
“I am in good condition,” the robot replied. “Some of my memories had restored themselves and I was reviewing the files.”
“Files?” Twilight asked, tilting her head. “Not like real files, though, right? Those wouldn’t fit inside you.”
The robot stared and her mind brought up the multiple definitions of "file". She nodded.
“I speak of ‘files’ as in a compact storage unit of data points in my memory,” she explained.
“Interesting,” Twilight said, her eyes lighting up. “What did you remember?”
“I have discovered my initial mission and that I attempted to delete my own memory when I failed,” she said. “I was only partially successful due to electrical discharge and sonic waves interfering with my commands at the time.”
“Wait... from that ring?” Twilight asked.
“The green ring on the right forehoof of registered ‘Time Turner’,” she said. “I was sent to destroy him but, fortunately there won’t be more conflict as the programming to execute said command was erased.”
“Oh! Well, that’s a relief,” Twilight said.
She lay on the floor with her and asked, “Know who sent you? Or why?”
“The data is missing,” she replied.
“I guess that’s probably why you erased your own memory,” Twilight said, rubbing her chin. “Right? Whoever sent you didn’t want anypony to find out who they are.”
It seemed like a logical assumption, but the robot couldn’t say so. She realized the data was coded as private as soon as she opened her mouth and discussion was impossible. It was an uncomfortable feeling, and she ran through her database to see if anyone could authorize her. As with just a little while ago, she found herself compelled to ask the pegasus called Derpy Hooves for permission. A quick partition sent one section of her mind racing away to find out why, while the rest of her focused on sending out the words, “I apologize. I’m not permitted to discuss that situation.”
“Not permitted?” the unicorn repeated; she smiled sympathetically and held the robot’s shiny, metal hoof. “Oh, come on. You can trust me, I promise.”
“I’m afraid you misunderstand. I am literally unable to discuss it,” the robot said apologetically.
The unicorn seemed troubled, her brow creasing as she bit her lip in thought.
“That’s a little scary,” she admitted. “A-Anyway! How are you liking the books? I hope the music isn’t too loud for you to read through.”
“It isn’t an issue,” she replied.
Twilight smiled at her warmly.
“Oh good. Need more?”
“Yes, please.”
As Twilight moved off to fetch more books from the shelves, the Test Unit watched and analyzed her magic curiously. She felt a sudden pressure across her back; when she turned her head, she noted that the pink one, Pinkie Pie, was draped across her, grinning.
“I’m really glad to see you,” she said brightly. “Like I said, you’re really going to like it here. Promise.”
“I appreciate your enthusiasm,” she replied.
Pinkie absently rubbed the robot’s mane a little, smoothing the top of it down, and she asked, “So, any plans now that you’re here?”
“No. I am not approved to create plans,” she said.
Pinkie tilted her head.
“Oh. You should talk to Derpy about that,” she said.
The robot stared at her without a word and Pinkie smiled and jumped upright.
“You imprinted on her, right? Like a baby bird?”
A little buzz from the robot’s head announced a completed analysis and she was unsettled to find the pink pony was correct-- an imprinting command installed inside her had selected Derpy as “master” when she had rebooted. Uncertain but without a tone to hint at it, the unicorn asked, “How did you know that?”
Pinkie grinned and shrugged.
“Well, I’m going to plan a party for you and you better make sure she lets you plan on coming to it!” she said with a wink.
The command to find Derpy flickered into existence in her mind, put on a list of non-urgent tasks to complete.
“Isn’t this a party for her?” Twilight asked, returning with a hovering pile of books.
She placed them down around the robot. Pinkie rolled her eyes and then smiled.
“Yeah, but this is like a little private party with just us and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I mean, like a bigger, introduce-her-to-the-town party with all our friends, who I bet will become her friends, and it will just be a big new-friend-old-friend party.”
Twilight was a bit taken aback and she looked at the robot with wide eyes.
“Uhh... are you sure about that, Pinkie?” she asked hesitantly.
“Oh sure, everypony will love her. And we should probably let them know that a cool robo-pony is gonna be hanging around from now on,” Pinkie said, bouncing away and shouting, “Applejack! Will you help me make apple goodies for another party soon?”
Applejack was sitting across the room, sipping some punch through a straw when Pinkie got in her face with a hopeful smile.
“There’s that Spring Festival comin’ up real soon,” Applejack admitted; she scratched her mane under her hat. “I was gonna be bakin’ for that, but I guess it wouldn't be much trouble to just whip up a few more batches of stuff.”
“Great! We’ll have a double celebration!” Pinkie said, and quickly, she wrapped her forelimb around the other mare’s shoulder, whispering conspiratorially into her ear.
Though it was well within the robot’s hearing range, she tuned out of their secret and returned to the books. Scanning through pages barely took a second. Her mind echoed the term “robo-pony” with interest. Without her memories, she acknowledged that she was left a little adrift. Unless this Derpy Hooves gave her some mission or purpose, she supposed she would remain so. Staying in this place, she would certainly benefit from becoming more like a pony either way. She was aware that she currently appeared as one. Whomever had made her had done so for a specific reason; infiltration.
She was jarred from processing a bit abruptly by a sudden energy signature pinging in her mind. She got to her hooves instantly and was stable, even as the others stumbled and the music skipped as the ground rumbled. However, the movement stopped almost as quickly as it began.
“What the heck was that?” Twilight squeaked.
“It was an impact,” the robot said. “This is not a common occurrence?”
“N-Not unless s-something weird is going on!” squealed the small pony, Apple Bloom.
The robot noticed the other ponies pinning their ears back and she mimicked them.
“Well, shoot. That better not be those big stone varmints again,” Applejack grouched. “Let me take a look around. Anypony coming?”
“I will come,” the robot said quickly.
The other ponies seemed surprised, and though Applejack raised an eyebrow, she said, “Right, come with me.”
The Test Unit followed Applejack outside, watching her cautious and strong movements carefully. She recorded the movements and mimicked her stride. The orange mare looked around, frowning, and the robot followed her gaze. There were other ponies around, but none seemed overly alarmed. Curious, the robot adjusted her eyes, scanning through the structures around them, matching buildings with a scan of an overhead, Ponyville map she had filed away in her memory.
“What am I looking for?” she asked.
“A big rock monster,” Applejack said.
“Negative. ‘Rock monsters’ undetected.”
“You sure?” Applejack asked, “How can ya tell?”
“98% sure,” the robot said, and she pointed to her eyes. “I am able to adjust my vision to see through some objects.”
“Creepy. But useful,” Applejack said, but she smiled. “Thanks, sugarcube, that puts my mind a bit at ease.”
Though the robot was unsure of what to make of the term “sugarcube”, she nodded, and Applejack patted her shoulder.
“Would you mind taking a look around for Derpy and Time Turner? Those two always seem to be gettin’ into something strange and I’m a bit worried about ‘em. No offence, but they did just turn up with you, and I don’t know a single pony that’ve ever seen anything like you before.”
“No offence taken,” the robot said. “I will do as you ask.”
“Thanks, sugarcube. I’ll check this way, you check the other.”
Applejack gestured towards town to the west, and though she did agree with the idea, the robot felt compelled to obey. Seeking Derpy Hooves registered as a priority and she headed off at a quick pace, her mind abruptly locked onto her goal.
Acquire data from books - in progress
Locate Derpy Hooves - current, urgent
Acquire pony attributes - in progress
Scanning the area as she went, she soon picked up on the energy she recognized as Time Turner. She wasn’t certain, but she suspected Derpy would be with him. She made a bee-line for him, trotting through dirt and over stone, and through a small patch of trees and bushes. She quickly noticed that the signal she had picked up was in the same direction-- found it rather curious.
Before long, she came into a clearing with a large area shimmering beneath a cloaking apparatus. She analyzed it quickly, her eyes adjusting and filtering the signal until a large blue and silver craft revealed itself. Seeing the two she was looking for emerging from under one of its wings, she lost interest in the craft and waited patiently for the two to get closer.
She noticed Derpy hesitate, but at they got closer, Time Turner put on a smile and trotted closer to her. She was less interested in him, though. Her eyes wouldn’t leave the grey, winged mare.
“Hey, hello there!” he said brightly. “Didn’t expect to catch you out here. Did you need something?”
“Yes.”
She moved to meet Derpy as she came out, raising one hoof as she felt compelled to ask, “Permission to ask a favour?”
Her ears buzzed and trained on Derpy, keen on her answer.
“Wh-What? Um, of course. You don’t need permission to... Um... What do you need?” she said.
The Test Unit felt pleased, but her brow furrowed as she tried to assess what would be the best way to broach her question. She quickly decided bluntness was best.
“I would ask that you to teach me how to become a pony.”
---
Derpy’s ears flopped and she felt her mouth dry. She could see Time Turner leaning around the robot to look at her, brows raised. The robot’s ears mimicked hers.
“Y-You want to--? And you want me to--? ” she managed to squeak out.
“Just a moment,” Time Turner said, sidestepping to meet her gaze. “Derpy has had a bit of a rough day. Could I help you instead?”
“No. You are unqualified,” she said.
Time Turner was taken aback and Derpy bit her lip. She took a deep breath.
“Wh-Why do you want to, um... Why do you want to learn to be a pony?” she asked.
“I suspect I will be staying amongst ponies for a while. It would be beneficial to learn the specifics of how to be one,” she said. “I was designed for infiltration. Though I am damaged, I do not believe it is an unreasonable thing to expect of myself.”
“O...Oh...” Derpy said.
“Sorry to butt in, but are you certain I can’t--?” Time Turner said.
The robot shut him down, stoically repeating, “You are unqualified.”
The stallion pouted for only an instant; his ears were up and he beckoned into the cave.
“Hey, before we get started-- or, I mean, before you and Derpy do, would you mind taking a quick peek at what we found in that cave?”
“Cave?” The robot tilted her head and her irises flickered. “I see.”
“Wait, you want to go back in there?” Derpy asked.
“You never know, she might know something about it,” he said.
“Doubtful. You only disrupted a very small portion of my memory deletion protocol,” the robot said, “but I would be willing to look.”
Derpy grimaced but she nodded, and the robot took off briskly. The ponies hurried to join her.
Time Turner opened the door for them again in the back of the cave, revealing the blue-lit room; the robot was inside and scanning around without hesitation. Derpy watched with apprehension as the robot took her time looking around the place. Time Turner, to her surprise, seemed much more relaxed. He moved the the center console and reared up, putting his hooves on it to support himself.
“There’s quite a lot of buttons here,” he said, drawing the metal mare’s attention. “ See, these one blink, and these ones, they sometimes go blip.”
“And their function is to go blip?” she asked.
“Partly, I guess, or else why would they make that sound? But I guess they probably do something more interesting, too, but I have no clue what that would be.”
“I guess... I guess we’d just like to know,” Derpy said, “m-maybe you’d know what this place is? Or anything about it at all, really. Th-That’s why you wanted to bring her here, right?”
She cast her gaze at Time Turner; he nodded. The robot looked around and Derpy noticed her irises flickering and spinning. She approached the console and walked around it, her gait changing noticeably to a more cautious one. She mimicked Time Turner’s posture and flicked up a glistening dome to reveal a few small sockets. The ponies crowded her a little, peering in as she set her horn alight with sparks. To their surprise, a small flap opened on her right ear, but when she moved to pull something from it, a bit of a frown passed over her face.
“I apologize.” The robot put all four hooves back on the ground. “I cannot give you proper answers without being able to link to the console.”
“What do you mean?” Time Turner asked, tilting his head.
“I have been damaged and I am missing a piece that would allow me to link my ‘mind’ into this console. Once I do that, I will be able to tell you all the details available about this place.”
“Oh! Well--! Well that’s just great!” Derpy said, her face lighting up. “We just gotta fix you!”
“We can check Twilight’s to see if the piece came off while they were putting her back together. Otherwise, I’m sure we can come up with some replacement,” Time Turner said, nodding, and he thumped the robot on the shoulder appreciatively. “Thanks, my metal friend!”
“I am unclear, I have not completed any task.”
“That’s okay, just knowing you can do something with this place is really helpful,” Derpy said. “We still don’t even know what it is. Or... Or how it got into a cave.”
“Oh, it did not,” the robot said. “It is disguised as a cave.”
“...What?”
Time Turner stared at her with wide eyes and Derpy’s couldn’t help but look completely flummoxed.
“What do you mean by that?” the stallion asked.
“What you saw on the exterior is a projected disguise. Don’t fret, I will make it clear for you once I can link with the console.”
“But how did you know that?” Derpy asked.
“My eyes can perceive the filter,” the robot said.
“What does it look like underneath?” Time Turner asked.
“A large blue and silver craft with wings.”
Time Turner gulped. He felt a little shock of panic through his chest, then confusion. His ears drooped and he bit his lip. Derpy shot him a concerned frown.
Astute despite her stoicism, the robot said, “You are disturbed by this news.”
“I... I just... I guess I came from in here,” Time Turner said, his voice a little weaker than he had intended.
“You do not know where you come from,” she said; her ears mimicked his, a little more natural in her movement than before. “I empathize.”
The stallion smiled a bit despite himself.
“Thank you. But... But, a craft with wings, I don’t even--”
“It’s okay,” Derpy blurted through his words.
He looked at her with his brows raised.
“Don’t even worry. We’ll figure it out when, um... when Miss Robot can tell us what this is. For now, let’s not worry. Okay?”
“Can we just not worry?” Time Turner asked. “Is that a thing?”
“Probably not, but there’s no point in just wondering and worrying if there literally isn’t a way to get answers right now. Right?” Derpy insisted, her eyes wide, and she looked a bit desperate. “What do you think?”
The curiosity was killing him, but Time Turner nodded. She was scared, but he thought she was right. He nodded and she wilted, blowing out a relieved sigh.
“Shall we depart, then?” the robot asked, her eyes locked on Derpy.
When Derpy nodded, the robot made a beeline for the exit, and the grey mare followed her. Time Turner was the last out. He took a moment at the console to look around, straining his mind, trying to find something, anything familiar. It was all still so strange to him. Gritting his teeth, he made to follow Derpy and the robot, though a little brush of air on his ears stopped him. A flicker of cyan in the corner of his eye made him whirl on his hooves, scanning with a nervous lump in his throat. Nothing stuck him as out of the ordinary at all. He gulped and hurried out, trying to convince himself it was just the lights on the buttons playing tricks on his eyes.
He met Derpy and the robot outside.
“You okay?” Derpy asked.
“Fine. Just spooked myself, no worries,” he assured her, waving a hoof dismissively.
“Okay.” Though Derpy looked skeptical, she nodded her head back towards town. “Back to Twilight’s?”
“How about you two just head home, and I’ll take a look,” he suggested. “It should be like a metal cable, right?”
The robot nodded and Time Turner was off before Derpy could make an alternate suggestion. She pouted until the reality that he had just left her alone with the robot settled in. She felt suddenly chilly.
When she turned to look, the robot hadn’t moved. She waited patiently, eyes locked on Derpy. The pegasus gulped despite herself and pointed a hoof through the brambles before them.
“Um... Do... Do you want to go home?” she asked.
“This is agreeable to me, but what I want doesn’t really factor into it,” the robot said simply.
“Really? Why?” Derpy asked.
She started towards the bushes, though the robot quickly overtook her, using her body like a buffer between Derpy and the prickling twigs.
“I may have my preferences, but my actions are dictated by a bit of remaining programming,” she said simply; her horn let out a crackling zap, clearing a few thorny branches from their way, “and by my orders.”
“Orders?” Derpy repeated. “So, wait, you have... programming in you that--? I’m sorry, I still don’t really understand.”
“I retain some basic command segments,” the robot said; she kicked a large stone from the path with a low clink. “As an example, there were instructions to self-terminate if my mission is in danger of failure.”
“And what was your mission?” Derpy asked.
“It involved terminating Time Turner. Beyond that, that information has been deleted from my memory,” she explained.
Derpy bit her lip, trying to keep up.
“So most of your information was deleted when you tried to, what was it, self-terminate?” she said. “So, like... you tried to erase your brain before you-?”
“Yes, that was what my commands told me to do,” she said. “I apologize for cutting you off.”
“No, no, that’s okay,” Derpy said.
She skipped over an old tree root as, just ahead, the robot zapped a thick branch rather than ducking below it and pushed through onto the other side of the trees. Derpy stumbled out onto the clear grass and turned to see that the metal mare had cleared a rather smooth, one-pony-width path back to the clearing.
“Nice,” she commented.
The robot nodded.The pegasus tilted her head, trying to get herself a bit more accustomed to looking into her bright, vacant eyes. She blinked and tried to figure out what else to ask.
“I have a few more questions, is that okay?”
“Of course.”
Derpy nodded and steadied herself.
“How about... what other commands are still in you?”
“Command to track a specific energy signature,” she said. “Time Turner. Command to terminate the signature exists but remains corrupted and nonfunctioning. Command of compliance also exists but only functions in part.”
“What does that mean?” Derpy asked.
“I am compelled to answer to someone,” she explained. “You, for example. Upon awakening, I spied you first. I am compelled to answer to you.”
Derpy was taken aback and her eyes widened.
“Wait, wait, you’re saying you’re only answering me because you’re compelled to?” she asked. “Would you answer if you weren’t?”
“I cannot speculate, as I have not experienced not being compelled to answer.”
Derpy opened her mouth to protest but only managed to stutter out something a little incoherent before she took a deep breath. The unicorn tilted her head a bit and Derpy’s ears drooped and she flared her wings just a bit.
“Um, could...? Could I...? Can I give you an ‘order’?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Can you...? Can I ask you to get rid or whatever makes you take orders?”
The robot’s irises flickered a little and she buzzed out a distorted, “What?”, almost as if in surprise.
“Well, it’s just,” Derpy tried to explain, “you said you wouldn’t mind being more like a real pony, right? Well, a real pony can make her own choices. You shouldn’t have to answer me or do what I say because someone put something in you that makes you do it, right?”
“So you wish for me to delete a portion of my command matrix.”
The robot tilted her head slightly the the other direction.
“Yes!” Derpy said quickly. “I mean... if that works for you, or--”
“It makes no difference to me. I will do as you ask.”
Her eyes flickered to black and then lit up again after just a moment.
Derpy watched anxiously and when the robot didn’t say a word, the pegasus hesitantly asked, “Did it work?”
“There is only one way to be certain,” she replied. “Command me.”
“To do what?” Derpy asked blankly.
“Anything.”
“Walk backwards...?” Derpy suggested nervously.
The robot didn’t move at all.
“I choose not to do this.”
She stood fast and her ears went up high, and she looked at Derpy sharply, her aperture eyes dilating. Derpy stared back at her with hopeful curiosity.
“I am able to choose,” the robot said.
“That’s great!” the pegasus said brightly. “Great! Good! I’m really happy for you!”
“I, too, am happy,” the robot replied.
Again, she seemed a bit surprised and Derpy beamed.
“That’s great!”
“Fascinating.” The robot paced a moment. “Command me to do something else.”
“Uh... lift your right hoof?” Derpy suggested.
“No,” the robot said, and all four hooves remained on the ground. “Fascinating. I can do as I please.”
Derpy ruffled her feathers and the robot nodded, saying, “Thank you.”
“Of course!” Derpy said, and then joked, “Becoming a pony, step one, I guess. But, I mean, I’m still a bit confused. If you deleted a bunch of your information, why were you compelled to answer to me?”
“I retained an ‘imprinting’ command to answer to the first creature I saw upon rebooting. Rather short-sighted of my creator, if I may say so, but I suppose whomever that was was not expecting me to become compromised.”
“Compromised?” Derpy repeated.
“Yes,” the robot said. “When Time Turner disrupted my self-termination protocol, I was compromised. I was not intended to reboot.”
“Oh. Well, I mean... Maybe it’s rude to say, but even though I’m... I mean, I’m still a little scared,” Derpy admitted, “but I’m glad you did reboot.”
“I appreciate that. I will try to be of use,” the robot said.
“No, no, not just that,” Derpy said. “I mean... Maybe you’re made of metal and stuff, but... I guess as far as I’m concerned, if you want to be a pony, you are pony. We just need to work on it a bit.”
Though her face didn’t shift, the robot’s ears lifted.
“Now... you just need a name,” Derpy mused.
“I am registered as Test Unit Alpha 23.”
“Can you unregister?”
“If I so choose.” The robot’s face showed just a glimmer of amusement. “I enjoy saying that.”
Derpy couldn’t help a laugh, patting the robot on her shoulder with a wing.
“If you want, I bet some of us can come up with a proper name for you,” she suggested.
“I suppose a Test Unit Alpha 23 does not exactly fit with the Applejacks, Twilight Sparkles and Pinkie Pies,” the robot said. “This is a good idea. Thank you, Derpy.”
Derpy smiled, her heart feeling lighter; her nerves smoothed out. She nodded her head towards the town.
“So there’s a big spring festival coming up soon. Want to check out what’s going on and see if there’s anything to do before we head home?”
“Sounds interesting,” the robot agreed. “I hope you do not mind if I still choose to defer to you on occasion, especially as we are starting.”
“If that’s what you want.”
The robot nodded; Derpy smiled.
“I know a pony named Rarity,” she said. “She’s really good with design and colours and stuff, maybe she can help you look a little more like a normal pony.”
“That sounds promising.”
Derpy grinned. She felt like she was afloat. With a ruffle of her wings, she took off with a bounce in her step, nodding for her new friend to follow.
---
A cool breeze on his ears and one weight lifted from his mind, Time Turner crossed town in a hurry and arrived back on Twilight Sparkle’s doorstep. He only had to knock once when the door was flung open by Pinkie Pie.
“Hey, hi, welcome back! Here for the afterparty party?” she asked.
“Uh... Afterparty party?”
“Yeah! The party after the party to celebrate the party! Duh!”
She grinned wide and bright. The stallion smiled despite his bemusement. Before he could answer, Pinkie jumped over him--somehow-- and nudged him inside.
The three little fillies were still there, as was a rather confused-looking Rainbow Dash as well. Applejack was sitting on the stairs, looking a little agitated, but her ears perked when she saw him and she called over the music.
“Are ya’ll okay? Did that robot find ya?”
“She did,” Time Turner said. “I’m sorry, were you looking for me?”
Applejack rose from her spot as Rainbow Dash looked at them with puzzlement-- like she had a question on the tip of her tongue.
“I just figured that big rumblin’ might have had something to do with you and Derpy,” she said with a shrug. “Ya’ll seem to be gettin’ into some crazy stuff. Was everythin’ alright?”
“Mostly,” Time Turner admitted, “though our robot friend seems a bit smitten with Derpy. She’s insisting she teach her how to be more like a real pony.”
“Sorry, what are we talking about?” Rainbow Dash edged in. “I just came over to borrow a book and Pinkie yanked me into a party. What the heck is a robot?”
“It’s... Ah, it’s complicated,” Applejack said, sighing. “We’ll show ya later.”
“Speaking of,” Time Turner added, “she says she’s missing a piece. Do you suppose Twilight would mind if I look around for it?”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t,” the orange mare assured him. “She’s just upstairs if you want to check.”
Time Turner nodded and headed up, looking to find the unicorn.
Twilight was surrounded by a protective wall of books in the middle of the floor, laying on her belly with a large tome directly in front of her, her brow knitted in a quizzical frown.
“Hello, Miss Twilight,” he said.
Her ears lifted and her head jerked up.
“Oh! Sorry, didn’t hear you come in!” she said. “Any news?”
“Yes, actually,” he said. “Mostly to do with me, however.”
“Let’s hear it,” Twilight said.
She got to her hooves and looked at him eagerly. He tilted his head and tried to sort through what to tell her first.
“I saw where Derpy found me,” he said. “There was a cave there, but inside it was a room with a lot of lights and buttons.”
Twilight’s face was a blank.
“What?” she said.
“My reaction exactly,” he said. “Though... add a bit more running and shouting. I’m still not sure what to make of it.”
“Can you take me there sometime?” she asked quickly.
He nodded and said, “That’s no problem, I’d love your input on it. Anyway, I’m actually here because our robot friend seems to be missing a piece.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened. “But I could have sworn I got them all! What piece?”
“It’s a small cable of some sort,” he said. “She said she’d be able to hook into some of the machines in the room and find out more about them.”
“Ooh!” She perked up instantly. “That’s good news! I’ll take a look around, too.”
She hurried off down the stairs and Time Turner followed as they brushed through the afterparty party and headed to the basement. Twilight took the end of the room closest to the stairs, shuffling some stray books out of the way as well as Time Turner took the back table. His eyes were still sharp in the shadows and he scoured the area, checking under everything and between all the machines, wondering if it could have fallen or been discarded by accident.
Twenty minutes passed, and there was still not a single sign of any parts out of place. He rested his cheek on his hoof, letting out a deep sigh.
“What? Can’t find it?” Twilight asked. “I haven’t seen anything either.”
She moved back to join him, tilting her head inquisitively.
“Well...” He frowned to himself. “I think it must have broken earlier. Maybe when I tackled her.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed. She whisked Advanced Animation towards her and flipped through it quickly, sticking her tongue out with determination.
“So you need a... what?” she asked.
“It’s supposed to be a piece she can use to link into other things,” he explained. “I’m not entirely clear on it.”
Twilight nodded and paced the room as she read. Time Turner watched patiently.
“Well... I’m not sure it’ll be as effective,” Twilight said, “but I can make something out of paired crystals.”
She flipped the book and passed it off to the stallion. He read the page carefully. What it outlined was something the book called an “analysis gem”. Attached onto whatever the artificial creature could use to gather sensory information was one gem, magically paired to another. The other was then to be attached temporarily to something else and able to analyze it.
“That sounds fairly close,” he said.
“It’ll take me a while to make. A few days, at least. And I might need Rarity’s help, she knows gemstones even better than I do,” Twilight said. “But I’d be excited to see if it works.”
“Thank you so much, Miss Twilight, you really have no idea how irreplaceable your help has been.”
Twilight pshawed bashfully.
The two ponies returned to the ground floor to find Rainbow Dash pleading with Applejack, who seemed at a loss. Upon seeing them, however, the pegasus zoomed over, grabbing Twilight by her shoulders.
“Twilight! Quick, you gotta tell me what a robot is! I gotta know!”
“What?” the unicorn asked blankly.
“Applejack just keeps saying it’s too complicated to explain to me but that just makes me want to know even more,” she insisted.
“Uh...” she said. “Um... Time Turner, you wanna take this one?”
“Easiest to just show her, I think,” he said.
“Well then show me, because it’s driving me nuts,” Rainbow Dash insisted.
“It’s just a metal pony,” Apple Bloom volunteered from across the room.
“That makes no sense,” the pegasus replied, rolling her eyes.
Time Turner bit his lip to stifle a laugh and then nodded his head at the door.
“Come with me, we’ll track her down to show you.”
“Thank you!”
The mare threw up her hooves, seemingly in both exasperation and relief, and then eagerly followed Time Turner out the front door.
“So, let me ask you something,” Rainbow Dash said as they headed towards Derpy’s house. “How did you two meet, again? You and Derpy?”
“She found me unconscious on the ground, you know how it is,” he said with a laugh.
“So that time I saw her carrying you, that was the first time you two met?”
“Technically,” he said, and then curiously asked, “Do you know her well? She seems to really respect you.”
Rainbow Dash’s ears lifted and she looked surprised for a second, and then grinned bashfully.
“We went to flight school together. Not in the same class or anything. Mostly just knew her kind of as a friendly acquaintance until recently. I was just curious because you two seem like best friends all of a sudden. It’s kinda nice to see her hanging around with someone on the regular.”
Time Turner nodded and picked up his pace a bit. Rainbow lifted off and kept up without even a modicum of effort. However, it wasn’t long before both of them were stalled in the tracks by a drifting sound of music on the wind. Before Time Turner could even ask what it was, Rainbow Dash shot straight up into the air. She was only gone for a second; her face was bright when she returned.
“C’mon, this way!” she said as she flew around him and pushed him off to the left.
“What? What’s going on?”
“The Spring Festival is getting all set up! They're doing some awesome stuff over there, let’s check it out!”
“What about--?”
“I saw Derpy walking with another pony over there anyway, c’mon, let’s go!”
She was off in a flash. Time Turner rolled his eyes but laughed a little to himself and took off after her.
---
The festival grounds were a little out of the way, but Derpy was glad to check them out. Musical voices drifted on the wind, enticing them inward. Ponies were pushing up colourful maypoles and assembling some basic tables all around the field. A stage seemed like the centerpiece-- the base was done, but a few pegasi and earth ponies were working together to put up elaborate sidings with patterns of flowers and the sun and moon. Standing upon the finished platform was Rarity, Big Macintosh --still a little dishevelled from work-- and two other ponies. One was a tall, thin blue stallion and the other was a yellow mare with her pink and red mane in an elaborate, beaded updo. Derpy quickly realized that they had been the source of the music. Keeping close, the robot looked around her, seeming rather fascinated; Derpy couldn’t help but think about how fortunate it was that everypony was so busy that her new friend was going relatively unnoticed.
“Everyone-- Everypony seems quite dedicated,” the robot said.
“Festivals are kind of a big thing around here,” Derpy explained. “Everypony gets pretty into it.”
“And that pony, Applejack, she was preparing some sort of... confectioneries?”
“Oh, for sure,” she said. “Applejack makes the best apple desserts in town. Oh... wait a second. Can I ask you something?”
“Yes, of course.”
Derpy tilted her head curiously.
“Do you eat?”
“I am not sure. I have a composition analysis chamber, perhaps that is similar?” the robot said.
Derpy frowned with confusion, unsure of what that even really meant, but she shrugged.
“Guess we’ll have to find out at some point,” she said.
“I agree.”
The robot smiled, but with a sharp, unnatural movement, her head was tilting up and her gaze was skyward, saying, “There is a very fast object about to make direct contact with us.”
“Wh-What?” Derpy asked, surprised.
She looked up and lifted her ears, squinting into the bright sky. A streak of rainbow caught her eye and she realized rather quickly that it was a familiar pony as wingbeats met her ears.
In just seconds, Rainbow Dash was stomping into a landing right before them.
“Hey! I’m looking for a robot.”
Derpy was taken aback and the metal mare at her side cocked her ears and replied, “I suppose that’s me.”
The blue pegasus looked taken aback, undoubtedly at the strange, hollow sound in the robot’s voice. She looked her up and down, seemingly unable to acknowledge Time Turner’s arrival behind her even as Derpy waved at him. Rainbow tilted her head, frowning deeply. The robot mimicked her and the pegasus’s fur bristled. She poked her in the chest, ears lifting high with surprise at the distinctly metal sound of the contact.
“No way,” Rainbow said. “So you’re really the robot?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re... I mean... You’re a pony but made of metal? How did that even happen?!”
“Technically,” the robot said, “I am not a pony. I just look like one. However, I wish to become as pony-like as possible. Derpy Hooves has agreed to help me.”
“Huh?” the pegasus said a bit blankly. “Well... What? I don’t get it, but... whatever. What’s your name?”
“I was called Test Unit Alpha 23.”
“Huh?! That’s not a name!”
“Indeed.”
“I’m gonna come up with a new one for her,” Derpy explained, “which... means that 100% of the ponies I hang out with on a regular basis will have amnesia and also be named by me. Weird.”
“Well, it’s your own fault for being so helpful,” Time Turner joked.
Derpy stuck her tongue out at him.
“You guys are confusing,” Rainbow muttered; she tapped the robot again as if just to hear the sound. “So where did you come from, anyway?”
“I’m not certain,” the robot admitted.
“Right. Right. No memories. Sorry.”
Her wings pressed in tightly but a sound from behind them caught her attention and she leaned around Derpy and the robot to look; zoomed off in an instant to catch a loose beam on the stage.
“Fascinating. She uses every muscle efficiently,” the robot commented.
“She’s one of the fastest pegasi in Equestria,” Derpy said.
“And how fast is that?” Time Turner asked.
“Breaking the sound barrier fast,” the pegasus said-- she seemed to get a little starry-eyed-- “She’s so cool.”
“And... you cannot fly that fast?” the robot asked.
Derpy shook her head and spread her wings out to their full extent. Time Turner was taken aback for a moment: for her small body size, they seemed rather long. The robot tilted her head.
Derpy explained, “See, my wings are pretty long, right? They’re good for gliding and for diving, actually.”
She folded them in close again and she saw the robot’s eyes flash.
“I have registered this data,” she said, “And... that blue pony, hers are...?”
“Like a falcon’s. Narrow, for speed.”
“Such variety,” the robot said.
Derpy smiled, nodded, and ruffled her wings; Time Turner couldn’t help but want to see whatever this falcon creature was. At the stage, Rainbow had taken up trying to fix the parts that seemed to be falling off from poor craftsmanship, berating some of the others for being so clumsy, while the ponies below on the solid bit of stage began to do vocal warmups again. They watched the singing again for a little; and when it was clear that Rainbow Dash had become otherwise occupied, the three began to move along a little, taking a look as ponies set up carts and stands.
“This is certainly lively,” Time Turner said. “What brought you two here?”
“Just exploring,” Derpy said, smiling. “So, I mean, festivals are a big deal here. I thought it might be a good idea.”
“Oh! That’s interesting,” he said, “Very interesting! What inspired that?”
“Like she said, she wants to be like a real pony,” she said.
“Now for my own reasons, thankfully,” the robot said, cracking a small smile.
Time Turner shot her a puzzled look and she volunteered, “Derpy disabled a part of my coding. She has given me free will.”
Time Turner’s eyes went wide and he stopped in his tracks, forcing the others to do so as well, narrowing avoiding a young pony trying to hack a stump out of the ground. He tilted his head one way and then the other, and then grinned.
“Well, then! What a development,” he said, and grinned. “I’m really very glad that everything’s worked out so far.”
Derpy nodded, smiling to herself, and the robot seemed pleased. Time Turner felt a sense of pride when he looked at Derpy. She had shed her fear so quickly.
As they made to move on, the robot noticed the stump and pushed between the pony and it. Her horn lit up, and with an electric crack she zapped the stump clear out of the ground.
“Hey, thanks!” the pony said.
She didn’t even seem to take much notice of the robot’s oddities and grabbed her axe to move on to a smaller stump nearby. Derpy bounced forward and eyed the hole in the ground where the stump was and then looked back at the metal pony.
“What about Sparks?” she suggested.
“Pardon?”
“For your name.”
Time Turner poked his head in closer and repeated, “Sparks?”
Derpy nodded and looked between the two with a shy smile.
“Well, her “magic” is actually more like... lightning. You know?” she explained.
Time Turner seemed pleased and the metal unicorn looked between them, and then her eyes flickered and she announced, “Registering self: Sparks,” and was silent and still for a few seconds.
“Complete,” she announced, and looked at the two ponies. “I am now Sparks. Thank you for the name.”
“I’m glad you liked it,” Derpy said, her cheeks flushing as she smiled. “100%.”
“That’s funny,” Time Turner said. “Now, what can we be doing around here?”
Derpy wanted to suggest they help out, maybe assemble a stand or clear some area like Sparks had done, but the pegasus couldn’t help but feel a sudden strike of discomfort and nerves. Her ears pinned back. Time Turner took note and tilted his head, but before he could ask, Sparks leaned in towards her.
“Are you all right? Your physiology is changed,” she wondered.
Derpy laughed it off awkwardly.
“Um... Uh, h-how about we just g-go see if Rarity’s done singing?” She trotted off in a hurry, cursing inside her head as she stumbled over her own hooves in her hurry.
Time Turner shot Sparks a bemused look. She was still blankfaced, but her ears tilted upwards.
As they approached the stage again, Derpy noticed Rainbow Dash was gone; spied her mooching some snacks off a table at the far end of the setup. The ponies in the acapella group were doing another run-through, and the group paused to listen in. Once Big Macintosh stumbled on a note and coughed due to what was clearly a dry throat, Rarity told the others on the stage to take a break. She jumped down to take a sip of fruit punch from a refreshment table nearby and to grab her gem-studded saddlebag.
She noticed them from afar and smiled, asking, “Did you enjoy the rehearsal?”
“It’s part of what brought us here,” Derpy laughed. “Need any help around here?”
“Not in this area,” she said, but she trotted a bit closer, saying. “But, it was so nice of you to join us, and--”
Her gaze flitted between Time Turner and Derpy; took one look at the robot and let out a shrill, alarmed, “Gwaahaha!!” and back-stepped a little.
“What on earth--?”
“Oh, sorry! Rarity, this is our new friend,” Derpy said quickly. “Her name is Sparks, she’s a pony made of metal.”
Rarity suddenly wore the same expression as Rainbow Dash had just a little while before. Her head tilted.
“I beg your pardon?” she asked.
“It’s a bit of a chore to go over,” Time Turner said. “But most basically, someone unknown built her to resemble a pony. We’re going to help her become as much like one as possible, at her request, of course.”
“I apologize for startling you,” Sparks said.
Rarity’s cheeks flushed and she waved her off with a shy giggle, saying, “Oh, no no no, dear. But, I’m afraid I’m still a bit, uh... lost on the whole metal thing.”
“It’s a long story,” Derpy said, smiling apologetically. “But, um... besides that, we were wondering if you could help her to look more like a real pony.”
Rarity’s eyes widened and she looked the robot up and down. She bit her lip as Derpy looked at her hopefully.
“You know,” she said-- her magic whisked a comb out of her bag and she circled the metal mare, running it through her jagged tail to smooth it-- “I’ve never done a makeover quite on this scale before, but I can’t see why not. But, on one condition.”
Derpy blinked with surprise but the robot didn’t change expressions in the least, even as Rarity got in her face and combed her rough, spiky mane down into a smooth layer along her neck and a sideswept fringe in the front.
“What’s that?” Derpy asked.
Rarity stuck her tongue out in concentration and stepped back; the robot already looked a great deal better simply with her mane and tail smoothed out.
“Complete creative control.”
“I am fine with this,” Sparks said.
Rarity’s eyes lit up and she let out a shrill laugh.
“You won’t regret it, darling! However...” She looked apologetic. “I’m afraid I won’t really be able to get started until after the festival. For now, how’s this?”
She produced a mirror from her bag as she put the comb away and held it out enough so that the robot could see her new mane. She tilted her head back and forth.
“Thank you,” Sparks said.
“Not at all. Now all I really have to do is to find a way to stain... this.” She tapped the robot’s metal chestplate and frowned. “What metal is that, exactly?”
“Titanium,” Time Turner said.
Derpy raised her eyebrow and the stallion’s eyes widened, as if surprised by himself. Rarity tilted her head.
“Never heard of it,” she said, “but I’m sure I can figure something out.”
The worry on her face had faded completely and now her eyes shone. She peeked around Sparks’s neck and let out a sing-song hmmm.
“Yes, I’m quite sure.”
---
After Rarity excused herself to rejoin her group, the three mismatched ponies took one more stroll around the area, managing to help a few of the young school-age ponies set up their over-ambitious wooden stand. Meeting up again with Rainbow Dash, she showed them the part she was most excited about for the upcoming day-- an obstacle course set out in a field, including a climbing rig, a multitude of jumps and a rope swing over a pit that was currently being transformed into a wallowing hole of mud. Though she lamented not being able to use her wings, the pegasus seemed rather enthusiastic nonetheless. Time Turner found it exciting as well; wondered if maybe Derpy might like to participate with him.
Once they had seen all there was to see, the three ponies headed back to Derpy’s house. Sparks was curious; attentive. She explored the place thoroughly, clicking, whirring: recording, according to her. Derpy dragged out an old mattress from her basement and set it up on the floor of her bedroom. Sparks was a little confused by the concept of nighttime rest, but seemed to accept the idea anyway. After dinner, as night set in, Sparks settled down. She had no eyelids; the light of her irises simply shut off and she became statuesque under the comforters over her metallic body. Derpy was surprised to not find herself perturbed by the robot at all any more. In fact, she felt safer than ever. She went to bed comfortably.
Time Turner, on the other hand, lay awake on the sofa, staring at the ceiling. He wished he could do as Derpy asked, simply dropping worry from his mind, but he couldn’t get the thoughts of that console and that hidden craft out of his mind. The house was too quiet for him.
Laying in silence wore on him. The moon had long since taken its place high in the sky, and sleep seemed impossible. He rolled out onto the floor and took a quick peek up the stairs, and then looked out the window. He couldn’t help himself.
Quietly slipping out into the night, Time Turner returned to the edge of the forest. He was startled to see the path cleared through the bushes, but quickly released the cuts were made through electric energy; reinforced by the markings of heavy, metal hooves in the dirt. Suddenly grateful, he took the path back to the clearing and delved back into what he saw as a cave. At a touch of his hoof, the door opened, though this time, the lights stayed much lower inside the hidden room.
It was all fascinating to him. Something about the place evoked a sense of nostalgia in him, some sort of vague familiarity that he couldn’t quite grasp. Still, he had no idea how any of it worked. He checked the centre console, rearing up on his hind legs, looking through the buttons and panels. Nothing was clear, or even labeled. He frowned to himself; felt an urge to just start hitting buttons, but he knew it was probably a terrible idea. He couldn’t afford for the the thing to try floating off again. Cursing quietly to himself, he circled the panel, but stopped, statuesque, as he saw a glint of turquoise over his shoulder. He whipped around, but saw nothing straight on, though his ears picked up a high, electronic blurbling.
“Hello? Oi, someone there?” he asked.
Light distracted him again and he spun, trying to follow it, but he still didn’t catch it.
“Oh, come on, I’m not some monster. I’m not going to eat you. Come on out.”
He heard that sound again, a sort of electronic coo, and felt a tremor of static along the back of his neck. He took a look over his shoulder and saw the light again, more clearly, but it didn’t flee this time. Slowly, he turned to face it.
He saw it full on this time. A turquoise blue, feathered serpent, with a little backswept horn on each side of its head and wings like a bird hovered before him, flapping silently as it stared at him, glowing faintly. It seemed almost startled to meet his eyes, but it let out a sort of buzzing, melodic, reverberant chirp and flew around his neck.
“What in the world—?” he muttered as he trying to follow it. “What are you supposed to be? Have you been following me?”
The strange creature twirled in the air, seemed to dance in the stagnant space and whirled around the control station, gliding around it. The panels lit up below it as it passed, and with a deep sense of curiosity, Time Turner edged in closer, eyes wide, and it quickly moved in to join him again, following his eyes and looking at him hopefully. He couldn’t feel it when it settled into his fur, just a mild, electric tingling. He turned his attention on it instead, starting to grin widely.
“Well, look at you!” he said. “A little… What are you? A little flying autonomous beast with no actual body? Do you live in here? Brilliant!”
The little creature seemed happy; flew around his head, spinning and flitting towards the room that looked out above the clearing, leaving a little, glowing trail of bubbles after it. It darted between seats and then, to his surprise, took a nosedive into a metallic panel amongst the switches and controls on the panel before them. The buttons lit up; Time Turner’s ears lifted high and he hurried inwards just as a sort of glowing globe of blue shot out of the panel and floated above it. He yelped, but then cautiously extended a hoof to touch it; it lit up immediately, flashing green and he drew back as the small flying creature zoomed out of the console again and curled around his neck. The globe began projecting some text, geometric symbols Time Turner didn’t understand at first. However, staring at if for a few seconds had his mind start to go fuzzy until the word was suddenly a bit legible to him.
“El… tan… in? Eltanin? Is that your name?” His eyes widened. “Ooh! Eltanin! That’s a star system, isn’t it? Ooh… How did I know that?”
He looked confused, but the little creature seemed pleased and darted through the globe in a hurry. Symbols changed. It took him a moment to read it as, “Ellie.”
“Ellie,” he repeated. “Oh! That’s your name. Okay. Pleasure to meet you, Ellie. So this is your home, then? Thank you for showing me. Do you know me?”
Ellie seemed to shrug.
“Ah. You’re not sure either,” he said; he scratched his chin, “Seems we’re in a similar predicament, then. What is this place, exactly?”
Ellie buzzed and chirped; seemed to be trying to explain. Time Turner smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, little thing, I can’t quite understand you.”
She pouted. The stallion laughed tiredly.
“I’m sure we’ll figure each other out. Or, I suppose, I’ll figure you out, you seem to understand me just fine. Strange, that.”
She waved her wings at him, but suddenly went rigid and alert; her eyes flashed green. Worried, Time Turner was about to ask her if something was wrong, but she darted away from him, circling the globe-like floating light as a yellow dot began to pulse on its surface and a strange, warning-sound emanated from the console.
“I didn’t touch anything,” he said instantly.
Ellie seemed alarmed. With a loud screeee she launched herself at him, circled his head and then rushed for the door.
“What? What is it? Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” he asked, hurrying after her.
She rushed him to the entranceway, waving her wings back and forth, as if beckoning for him to go.
“I should leave? I haven’t made you upset, have I?” he asked.
Ellie shook her head frantically but then motioned again, pointing definitively at the door, which opened wide on its own, and then back inside. Time Turner didn’t quite get it, but he nodded.
“All right, I’ll let you get this sorted, and I’ll come back and visit again soon.”
Ellie chirped somewhat frantically as Time Turner left and the door slid shut behind him.
A little perturbed, but feeling a certain relief as well, knowing that Ellie had been what he had spied on his previous visit, Time Turner returned home. The lights were still out, but he nonetheless spotted the change in the room instantly: Derpy was sitting up, eyes closed— had drifted off with her head on her hoof in the armchair. She stirred at the sound of his hooves on the wooden floor before he could do a thing to keep himself quiet. She stretched and blinked her yellow eyes open and gave him a groggy smile.
“Teleported out again?” she asked.
“Nah. Took a walk this time,” he said. “You didn’t have to wait up.”
“That’s okay. I was just getting up for water anyway,” she said, waving a hoof dismissively. “See anything interesting out there?”
“Ah. Well… Yeah, a bit,” he said. “Went back to the room. Saw a thing. You know.”
Derpy was instantly awake.
“Oh! Oh, was it okay? Did you find anything out?”
“There’s a little flying creature living in there named Ellie, if that helps,” he said, shrugging.
Derpy looked dumbstruck.
“What?!”
“She’s like a serpent, but with bird wings, I suppose? But she’s not physical. I’ll have to show you later. She’s very cute. But strange. And staticky. And I guess she’s really called “Eltanin”, which is a name for a certain group of stars, if I recall. Strange, eh?” he said as he put himself back onto the sofa.
Derpy stared blankly at him for a long while, and then rubbed her head and laughed tiredly.
“You say all of that so casually,” she said.
“She’s no danger.”
“Yeah, but it’s just out of nowhere and is another thing we just have no clue about,” Derpy pointed out.
“I guess you’re right,” Time Turner laughed. ”Oh well. Back to bed?”
Derpy nodded and hopped out of the chair. She stretched her wings high.
“Good night,” she said as she walked groggily back towards the stairs.
Time Turner got himself comfortable on the sofa again and curled up on his blankets, listening closely to Derpy’s hooves and the creaking floorboards. He closed his eyes. Again, his dreams were of stars, so many together they were like billowing clouds, clogging space with a blanket made of pinpricks of light. He saw a serpent in the glow of a few points. He felt right at home.
---
The high-tempo sound of jazzy horns followed abruptly by a record scratch jarred Time Turner awake, staring upright into the light of the rising sun bouncing from the pale ceiling. He looked around, confused, only to see Derpy smiling at him bashfully. She had a phonograph in her hooves on a small table near the window.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s… It’s new, I didn’t realize the volume was so loud.”
“No worries,” he laughed, rubbing one eye, “What time is it?”
“Almost nine. Oh! Actually, before I forget…”
She steadied the phonograph and rushed off, only to return with a sheet of paper and a quill.
“Can you sign this? For that package. You know, for the weird green magic ring.”
“Oh.”
Time Turner laughed and did as she asked, and she was just putting it away in her bag near the door when Sparks appeared in the threshold to the living room.
“I would like to report my progress. I have concluded that small birds are pleasant and that I am choosing to be excited for the upcoming festival,” she announced.
She marched away, playing back a recording of twittering before either pony could say a word to her.
“I like her,” Time Turner said as Derpy returned.
The pegasus grinned and he felt a certain lightness about her.
“Well, Miss Scaredy-hooves, guess she wasn’t so bad after all, huh?”
“No. Now that she has free will, I dunno, everything just feels… better.”
“Free will is a wonderful thing,” he agreed with a laugh.
---
The festival field under the midmorning sun was a frenetic, bouncing mess of ponies playing games, browsing a craft market, and eating at an abundance of colourful wooden stands. From the slope overlooking the area, Derpy glided a quick circle in the air just to feel the wind in her feathers before she came in to a slightly stumbling landing to join her friends just cresting the hill.
“Looks like the whole town is already here!” Time Turner said in surprise.
“Much has changed since yesterday,” Sparks commented. “Shall we?”
She began on her way and the others followed, though Derpy felt a sudden jerk of worry.
“Just stay close, okay?” she said, and when she looked at her curiously, she continued, “It’s just that I’m worried that other ponies might be just a tiny bit surprised seeing you.”
“Ah. I understand.”
“Don’t worry too much about it,” Time Turner said brightly. “Hopefully these ponies are getting a bit used to seeing new, ridiculous visitors, after me and those big, wreck-everything rock monsters.”
“Hopefully,” Derpy agreed.
The pegasus’s fears were allayed when it was clear that most ponies were far too preoccupied having fun to pay particular attention to Sparks. Eating the delicious treats made by talented bakers seemed to be a main priority for most, but they also noticed some games set up farther along, and there were several pegasi setting up a sky-race with obstacles of clouds above.
“You Ponyvillians sure go all out,” Time Turner commented as he looked around. “What’s the occasion, exactly?”
“You know, I’m not actually sure,” Derpy admitted. “It’s like, a celebration of spring, I think?”
“It is historically a holiday for the farmers,” Sparks commented casually. “The first day off since the spring work had begun, traditionally. Now, it is a full-town event.”
“Wh…? How did you know that?!” Derpy asked a bit shrilly.
“I inputted a local history book,” the unicorn asserted.
“Oh.”
“I inputted a great many books,” Sparks continued, “though I still have much more to go through. Hopefully the purple unicorn Twilight Sparkle will allow me to continue.”
“I’m sure she will,” Time Turner assured her; suddenly his eyes lit up and his ears lifted, and he said, “Ooh, look at all those apples!”
He was darting off in a hurry and the others followed at he ran up to a stand piled high with a variety of apples and baked, apple-filled desserts. Before she could quite catch up, however, Derpy was nearly bowled over by a pegasus so fast there wasn’t much use in guessing who it was.
“Derpy, I need your help!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her words in almost as much of a hurry as she seemed to be.
“Me? What? What for?” Derpy squeaked, drawing the attention of her friends.
“Racing,” Rainbow said. “Come on, come on, pegasus race!”
“And you want me?! That’s… um… That seems a bit…” Derpy began, but the blue pegasus shook her head.
“Don’t even worry about it,” she said quickly. “I got Thunderlane, but Fluttershy wimped out on me, something about watching the Ponytones and being terrified, I dunno.”
“Derpy, you’ll be brilliant, don’t worry so much!” Time Turner said.
“I will cheer vigorously on your behalf if you partake,” Sparks volunteered.
“I’m n-not sure,” Derpy said quietly.
She hoped Rainbow Dash would remember exactly why she didn’t do a lot of flying in crowds, but the other pegasus merely flapped into the air and grabbed her under her forelimbs, lifting her off her hooves before she could have much of a say about it.
“C’mere,” Rainbow insisted, “I need a third pony for this race.”
“B-But I’m—!”
“You’re reliable, that’s all I need,” the pegasus assured her.
Derpy bit her lip and looked down at her friends; Time Turner grinned and waved her off.
She sucked in some air and said a quiet, “Okay.”
“That’s the spirit!”
As Derpy was whisked away, Time Turner and Sparks’s attentions were drawn by the orange mare, Applejack, clicking her tongue as she moved in to take her place at her stand with a final load of apples.
“Rainbow can be a bit too pushy sometimes,” she said, and shot Time Turner a concerned look. “You want me to talk her out of it?”
“I think Derpy will have fun once she gets started,” he said. “Poor thing, she’s so insecure, but she’s really very good.”
Applejack let out an unsure, “Uh…” but Time Turner laughed.
“Maybe not conventionally. But Rainbow Dash was right, if there’s one word I would use to describe Derpy Hooves, it would be reliable,” he said.
Applejack smiled wide.
“It’s nice to see her makin’ friends, ‘specially with somepony like you,” she said. “You’re right about her being a bit insecure. Y’know, she’s been workin’ as a mailpony for a couple years around Ponyville, and she’s only just now startin’ to be properly social thanks to ya’ll.”
She nodded at Sparks as well. Time Turner was taken aback; he tilted his head.
“Really?” he said. “But she’s so sweet.”
“Oh, of course, she was always cheerful and nice to everypony,” Applejack continued, “but it was like she was afraid to just hang out with everypony.”
“Hope that’s changing,” Time Turner said.
He turned and picked her out at a distance, where she was gathered with a dark grey stallion and Rainbow Dash, up in a low layer of cloud.
“I believe Derpy Hooves will do well,” Sparks said. “I believe that after what she has done for me, many other things will be well within her grasp.”
“Done for you?” Applejack asked.
“She had me delete a part of my coding that demanded I strictly obey,” the metal unicorn explained, “thus, awarding me freewill, for which I will be forever grateful.”
The other mare didn’t seem to know what to say, but she started to laugh nonetheless.
“As long as you’re happy, sugarcube!” she said brightly. “Now how about ya’ll try some of these fresh apples? Just picked ‘em!”
“Ooh! Can we?” Time Turner asked, eyes lighting up. “I’d love to! Thanks!”
He picked one up and took a bite and was immediately elated; Sparks tried to do the same with a hoof, but instead knocked the thing to the ground and stared at it blankly.
“Havin’ a bit of trouble?” Applejack asked uncertainly.
“How does one hold with hooves?” she asked.
The two ponies looked at her with worried confusion and Time Turner simply lifted another apple before putting it down; it felt as natural as ever, but he, too, seemed to realize quite suddenly that he was not actually grasping the object. He stared at his hoof and then shrugged at her.
“Why don’t you try a levitation spell?” Applejack suggested.
“Pardon?” Sparks asked.
“Don’t most unicorns have a basic levitation spell in ‘em?” she asked. “I know you’re… I mean, you’re made of metal and all, but maybe you do, too? You’re still a unicorn, after all.”
Sparks stared at her, and then at the apple on the ground and repeated, “Levitation.”
Her irises flashed brightly and something inside her chest made a buzzing noise for just a moment before dimming down to silence again. Sparks’s horn lit up and emitted a sharp flash, sending a spark of energy towards the apple and one towards the ground and, all of a sudden, the apple was floating before her, a small buffer of energy in a disk beneath it.
“Ah. There we go,” she said.
“That is interesting!” Time Turner said.
“What is that?” Applejack asked.
“Magnets,” Time Turner said, grinning.
“Magnets?” the mare repeated.
He nodded, pointing out the spot of energy closer to the ground.
“Technically a magnetic field. See, she’s placed one of these here, and another under the object, and manipulates the magnetic field to simulate the unicorn levitation spell,” he explained, and then shot Sparks a huge smile. “You are very clever.”
“I do not have magic,” she said. “I must improvise.”
“And you are doing brilliantly,” he assured her.
Sparks smiled just a little and Applejack gave her a slightly skeptical look before letting out a laugh.
“I gotta say, new girl, you’re workin’ so hard to fit in, it’s a shame you won’t be gettin’ a cutie mark for just that.”
“Cutie mark?” Sparks repeated. “The symbol on the rear legs. I’m not sure I follow.”
“Oh! I’m sorry,” Applejack said immediately. “I keep forgettin’. Both you ponies are missin’ your memories. Time Turner, ya’ll know about your cutie mark, right?”
“Vaguely,” he said.
“Right. So, a cutie mark is a mark that’d normally appear on a pony once she finds out what her special talent is,” she explained, “but, I guess unfortunately, since you’re a robot and all…”
She looked apologetic. Sparks tilted her head.
“I think I follow,” she said.
She turned her eyes on the three apples on Applejack’s flank and her eyes flashed and her head made a faint clicking sound, and she quickly repeated her stare on Time Turner.
“What’re you doing?” he asked.
“Forming a registry.”
“A what now?” Applejack said.
“A registry,” Sparks repeated.
She smiled, but didn’t elaborate, and then took a small bite of the apple. She held it in her mouth for a moment before letting the piece drop to the ground.
“Didn’t like it?” Applejack asked worriedly.
“Actually, it was very pleasant, thank you” Sparks replied. “But I do not eat, apparently.”
She turned to Time Turner and offered the rest of the apple to him, and he took is with glee.
“May I? Thanks!” he said before snarfing it.
Applejack snickered; was about to ask him how he liked it, but was distracted abruptly by a set of pink hooves latching onto Sparks.
“Party time!!” Pinkie Pie announced.
She had whisked Sparks away before any of the ponies could say a word. Time Turner stared at the empty space the robot had occupied blankly, and then shot Applejack a puzzled look.
“How did she do that?” he asked. “Sparks is… heavy.”
“I sorta stopped askin’,” Applejack admitted, and then chuckled. “Sparks’ll have a good time. You could join ‘em?”
“I’m kind of counting on watching the race, now, actually,” he replied.
Applejack gave him a knowing smile.
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate the support.”
---
Derpy felt a bit dwarfed by Thunderlane as she stood next to him on the cloud as Rainbow Dash patrolled in front of them, but for some reason, felt a little less judged than what she had come to expect. She unwittingly ruffled her wings despite her nerves.
“So!” Rainbow Dash said. “Since this is a relay, I was thinking, Thunderlane, you take the first bit, then pass to Derpy. The middle section is a bit more of a straight course with less obstacles, so I think you can handle that.”
“Right,” she agreed.
“Thunderlane, your speed will have put us a bit ahead right at the start,” Rainbow continued, “and Derpy is… Well, her speed will be fine for the middle, then I can make up the difference at the end.”
“Didn’t realize you were taking this so seriously,” Thunderlane joked.
“I take every race seriously,” the blue pegasus said proudly. “But, I mean, it’ll still be fun. Plus when we finish this one, we’re all gonna totally win some pies, so that’ll be nice.”
“What happened to the ground race?” Derpy asked.
“That was before I knew their was a sky race, too!” Rainbow said. “Ground race is later. It’s gonna be sweet. Gonna win more pies. I mean, I am, don’t think you two are competing.”
“Not planning on it,” Derpy laughed.
Thunderlane shook his head as well.
“Actually, I’m doing the eating contest with my brother after this,” he said.
Rainbow’s eyes lit up and Thunderlane shifted, flapping his wings and hopping up the cloud a little to get a better view of the track. Derpy took a deep, steadying breath, and was promptly thumped on the shoulder by Rainbow Dash, who gave her a bright smile.
“Don’t even worry, we got this.”
She was already so invested; Derpy hoped she was right.
---
Sparks couldn’t help but watch with curiosity as Pinkie Pie loaded confetti and streamers into a blue cannon as she hummed and bounced. Sparks wasn’t entirely sure where Pinkie had brought her, but the lighting was low behind the purple curtain and its supports. Her vision adjusted instantly, so that didn’t matter much to her, but she found it interesting to spy the turquoise light omitted by her own eyes reflected back at her wherever she looked.
“Almost ready now!” Pinkie said in a singsong voice. “I’m gonna make a big announcement and introduce you to everypony! It’s gonna be great!”
“You have gone to great effort on my behalf,” Sparks commented. “Thank you.”
“It’s no trouble at all!” Pinkie assured her.
She moved a small green animal— Sparks recognized it as an alligator from her databases— out of the way.
“Watch out, Gummy!” she said, and she kicked the cannon out past the curtain and grabbed for a megaphone out of a pile of colourful party supplies.
The alligator trundled out after the rolling cannon and Pinkie whirled on Sparks, staring her down intensely.
“You ready for this?” she asked.
Before Sparks could answer, Pinkie Pie jammed a trumpet into her mouth and blared out a few, almost triumphant-sounding notes before she raised the megaphone up.
“C’mon everypony, time to welcome our neeeeewwest resident! She’s a robot all the way from nopony-knows-where, give it up foooorrrr SPARKS!”
The party cannon went off on its own with such vigour that Gummy was flung into the air quite a ways and bounced into a bowl of punch, and Pinkie shoved the robot out into the open. However, her jaw immediately hit the floor when she saw that the only other pony there, standing underneath a banner that read, “WELCOME SPARKS” and between two tables laden with desserts and snacks, was Fluttershy, whose applause was so quiet it could barely be heard.
“WHAT? Where is everypony?!” Pinkie demanded.
“Um… Probably waiting for the race,” Fluttershy said, “or eating some desserts, or—“
“What about everypony I invited?!” she asked.
“Who did you invite?” the pegasus asked worriedly.
Pinkie raised a hoof as if to make a point, but she immediately gasped and whirled on Sparks, grabbing her by the shoulders.
“Omigosh, I’m so sorry, I was so preoccupied setting up that I forgot to invite everypony, can you believe that!?”
“I’m happy to be here, though,” Fluttershy said softly.
“I’ll get it right next time,” Pinkie said, nodding. “I’m sorry, Sparks.”
“Do not be, I appreciate your enthusiasm,” she said, and then stiffly waved to Fluttershy. “It is nice to meet you.”
Fluttershy smiled and flitted a little closer, and then changed her mind and ventured all the way up to the makeshift stage.
“To be honest, I was a little scared when Pinkie Pie told me you were a metal pony, but now to see you up close, you’re not very scary at all.” The pegasus smiled. “So, I’m glad to meet you, too.”
Sparks nodded appreciatively and then shot Pinkie Pie a look that was almost curious.
“Pinkie Pie, I don’t recall telling you my new name.”
“What?! Really? Hah! Um… I must’ve heard it somewhere,” she said quickly. “Um, I mean, I bet Rainbow Dash told me…?”
“I don’t recall mentioning it to her either,” Sparks pointed out.
“Well, I’m sure I heard it somewhere,” Pinkie said, laughing and waving her hoof dismissively. “Anyway! Time to get down and boogie!”
She whisked a phonograph from what seemed to be nowhere and smacked it; music started instantly and Pinkie cartwheeled away. Sparks watched her until she vanished behind the curtain again. Fluttershy let out a quiet laugh and bobbed to the music, stopping abruptly when Sparks looked back at her.
“I am a little new to this,” she admitted. “I’m not entirely sure what one does at a party.”
“Maybe, uh… would you…? Would you like to dance?” the pegasus asked.
“I’m not sure I know how to do that,” Sparks said. “I apologize, I’m very new to all these pony things.”
“Oh! Um… I wouldn’t mind showing you,” Fluttershy said. “And… And maybe, afterwards, would you like to go see the Ponytones with me?”
Sparks managed a small smile and nodded, her eyes flashing.
Acquire pony attributes - in progress - updating - inputting ‘dance’.
---
From the clouds above, Derpy caught Time Turner’s eye down on the ground; he waved excitedly. She waved back bashfully, despite her nerves. Behind her, her wandering eye caught a rising smudge of purple. She turned to get a better look in time to see the large, hot air balloon that was a staple in town, breaking through a layer of cloud. Inside sat the little dragon, Spike, with a large camera clutched in his arms. Rainbow Dash flew to greet him for a moment, and then rushed over to Derpy and Thunderlane, who was stretching nearby.
“Okay, we’re about to start! Get to your spots!” she announced.
Thunderlane saluted and was off in a flash. Rainbow, too, disappeared in a streak of colour. Taking a deep breath, Derpy took off and found her place on the center cloud on the track. From there, she could clearly see the first third of the race, but her own section and the final one were mostly blocked by cloud obstacles. She couldn’t quell her worry, but she knew that the turns in her section were wide and hopefully wouldn’t be too much of a problem for her.
A few other pegasi lined up along with her, and she shuffled on her hooves a little until she felt a little static on her legs. Hiding her surprise, she stood still immediately, letting out an internal whoops. None of the other ponies seemed to notice though. She took a deep breath. It felt like she had only been anticipating for a few seconds when the sound of the starter’s horn made the fur on her neck stand on end.
Thunderlane’s strong wings carried him into a quick second behind pale blue mare named Cloudchaser. Derpy felt a little jealous as she watched him weave and spin through cloud hoops along the course, and she spread her wings just a little. Her nerves came back like a shock as he came closer, neck and neck with Cloudchaser, and began to reach his hoof out to tag her. She was suddenly nauseous. She shoved her hoof out, but despite knowing exactly what was coming, felt like she was going to have a heart attack when he came into contact with her. She reared and spun on her back legs before taking off and flapping her long wings hard to get going. One of the pegasi that had stood beside her on the cloud, a purple-blue mare named Flitter, overtook her with no effort at all. She grimaced as a second and third pegasus passed her, but she kept focused on the way ahead, banking wide and trying to keep her balance. She felt the the telltale chill of an approaching gust on the backs of her ears and braced herself, hoping not to get knocked off balance. The tailwind took her despite her best efforts and she found herself suddenly chilled by icy condensation and her vision scrambled white. She huffed out through her nose and stopped fighting it for a moment; let herself drop to find out which way was down. and then flipped her body to clamber upwards.
She broke through the clouds and the sun’s glare disoriented her for just a second, until the pink pony in previously in fifth place careened past her. She snorted and followed, flapping as hard as she could. The wind chilled her damp feathers and she had to remind herself to breath. Spreading her wings wide and holding steady, she remembered to ride the wind and, at a glide, picked up the pace. She banked wide around a cloud arch and used one flap to carry her over one barrier, then under another. It was easy to ride the wind up again, over one last hurdle and kept herself from flapping to keep her speed up. To her relief, she overshot the pink pegasus just as the next stop was coming into sight, though only Rainbow Dash and one other pegasus was left.
The blue pegasus had her hoof extended already and Derpy focussed in, determined not to crash again, but she was stalled outright when she heard a strange yelping noise behind her. She turned to look, but Rainbow quickly called, “Derpy!”, jarring her back into the race.
She flapped the last dozen feet and clapped her hoof against the other pegasus’s. She was off with a streak of rainbow behind her, as always. Derpy took a deep breath and was eager to relax on the cloud, but another noise she couldn’t place startled her from again. She turner as the pink pegasus launched past to meet her partner, but that wasn’t her concern; she saw the top of the purple hot air balloon emerge like the top of a whale through the cloud and rise up high. To her alarm, Spike wasn’t in the basket, but was instead hanging over the edge, his ankle caught in the sandbag rope.
“Spike!!” she gasped.
She hopped from the cloud and began towards him, but the wind suddenly picked up again: Derpy cursed inside her head, wondering why it was so strong. She hadn’t read anything like that on any schedules. To her alarm, the little dragon wad knocked loose; she shrieked before she could help herself and immediately followed him downwards, dazing herself as she raced through cloud layers; didn’t know if she’d be fast enough.
It was a relief to realize a large pond was beneath them, but helped nothing when she realized she couldn’t reach the flailing little dragon before he hit it. She shrieked out, “Somebody help Spike!” but had no idea if any pony had heard her, especially as he hit the water with a loud splash.
Taking a deep breath, she folded her wings and put herself in a nosedive; plunged straight into the pond. Her wandering eye checked the depth behind her while the one facing front probed the dark for Spike. She pulled him out of the gloom quickly where he had bounced off the bottom and stirred the mud. Unfurling her wings, she used them to power forward and grasped the little, dazed dragon in her forelimbs before speeding back up to the surface. She broke the water with a gasp, shoving a spluttering Spike up into the air just as Twilight, appearing in a flash of magic, and some other concerned onlookers reached the edge and Rainbow careened back into view, cutting off her own celebratory dance when she noted that something had obviously gone wrong.
“Spike, are you okay?!” Twilight demanded.
She grabbed him in her magic as Derpy lifted him towards her and, though coughing, Spike managed to wheeze out a, “Yeah.”
Twilight hugged him close.
“What happened, what happened?” Rainbow Dash cawed as she reached them. “Whoa. Spike, you okay?”
“Just… Just fell out of the balloon” he said, and then turned to look at Derpy as she made her way to shore. “Derpy rescued me.”
“Really? She did?” Rainbow asked. “Oh, so that’s why you went off. Duh. Of course.”
She bonked herself in the head with her hoof and then helped pull the soppy pegasus out of the pond.
“That was really amazing, Derpy,” Twilight said. “I… I admit, I didn’t know you could fly that fast.”
“I can’t. I can dive.” She spread her wings and smiled a little. “My wings are better for swimming than for flying.”
“Now that is weird,” Rainbow Dash said; before Twilight could tsk at her, she continued on her own, genuinely, “Useful, but weird. Like, what, like a seabird or something?”
“Basically.”
“Huh. Didn’t know that about you,” Rainbow Dash said. “That explains a lot, actually.”
Derpy laughed despite herself and shrugged; she shook her fur.
“Who the hay is in charge of wind today?” she asked. “That was ridiculous. Was that part of the race?”
“Not that I know of,” Rainbow Dash said, frowning with puzzlement. “Now that you mention it, it was a little stronger than I had expected.”
She shot a frowning look at some of the other pegasi, who all could do little more than shrug. Derpy felt a sting of worry, but it was swiftly allayed as Spike hugged onto her.
“Thank you so much, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there,” he said.
“I… I’m sure you would have been okay,” Derpy said bashfully.
“I’m glad you were there,” Twilight said.
Derpy smiled and rubbed Spike’s head before stepped back and stretching her wings out to help the undersides dry a little.
“Good news though,” Rainbow Dash broke in brightly. “We won. Obviously. Now where the heck is Thunderlane? We should go get those pies!”
Derpy really wasn’t very concerned with pies. She was getting a bad feeling, a sort of tingling all along the back of her neck. Rainbow Dash looked at her; tilted her head.
“Hey,” she said, “you wanna head home? I can bring yours by later if you like.”
“Rainbow,” Twilight said quietly-- she sounded surprised and approving.
“That’d be nice,” Derpy said, nodding, “thanks.”
“Ah, forget about it,” the pegasus said, waving a hoof dismissively and shooting her a grin.
Derpy smiled and, as Twilight picked up the shivering little dragon, she began to make her way back to the pathway through the festival. Her bruised body was aching again, certainly not helped when she was bowled over and squished tightly into a hug, though the sentiment was certainly not lost on her.
“Derpy, are you okay?! I’m so sorry I wasn’t there!” Time Turner exclaimed. “I saw Spike fall and you dive and I tried to do that teleport thing to reach you both but I just ended up in the middle of the bakery and it was a total mess, and I had to run all the way back and…! Ugh!”
The way he pressed his snout against her neck made her think he was far more worried than he needed to be. She thumped him on the shoulder affectionately.
“It’s fine,” she assured him. “I won a pie.”
He finally pulled back to give her a bit of breathing room and looked at her with confusion.
“A pie?” he repeated.
She nodded and he laughed, somewhat in disbelief, and touched his brow against hers and muttered, “Thank goodness.”
“Didn’t know you liked pie so much,” she joked. “Now get off, I’m getting you wet.”
“Ah. Wet. Right. And cold. You’re quite cold.”
He pulled back bashfully and she laughed, stretched her wings, and gave her fur a little shake again.
“Thanks for worrying,” she said. “Where did Sparks end up?”
“Pinkie Pie was throwing a party. Not sure where exactly. Should we go find her?”
“Guess so,” Derpy said.
She sniffed, feeling an itch in her nose and Time Turner laughed as they headed back towards the stands and festivities.
“Sorry, probably should have thought to bring a towel,” he said.
“Hey, just ‘cause you can time travel doesn’t mean I expect you to predict the future,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him.
“Fair enough,” he said. “Though you do seem to dive into ponds a lot.”
“Well, I’m not great at flying,” she said. “Diving, though… Diving I can do.”
---
The ponies found Sparks, much to their surprise, standing in a crowd watching the Ponytones quartet, bobbing along beside Fluttershy in the middle of the performance. Sparks shot them a stiff smile as they edged in closer, but they stayed quiet until the song was done and applauded along with the rest of the group.
“That was enjoyable,” Sparks said.
“I’m so glad you liked it,” Fluttershy cooed, and then leaned over and said, “Hello, every pony! Come to see the show?”
“Actually, we came for Sparks,” Time Turner said, but then tilted his head, “unless you’re still having fun here.”
“I am, indeed,” she said, but then cast her gaze at Derpy. “Derpy Hooves, you are injured.”
“Just a bit bruised,” she assured her.
“Oh my! What happened?” Fluttershy asked.
Derpy shook her head and smiled bashfully.
“No big deal. Just a bit of an accident at the race.”
Sparks looked like there was something more she wanted to say.
“How was your party?” Time Turner asked, interrupting her.
“Enjoyable,” Sparks said.
“Aaaah, no, it was a failure!” Pinkie Pie wailed.
She appeared behind Fluttershy, surprising the other ponies, pouting as she leaned over the pegasus’s back.
“Why do you say that?” the stallion asked.
“Ugh, I forgot to invite everypony! So lame!” she said.
“I enjoyed myself,” Sparks repeated.
“I personally like quiet, personal parties,” Fluttershy said.
Sparks nodded.
“Seriously?” Pinkie asked hesitantly.
The two ponies nodded again, but Pinkie let out another, “Ugh!” before vanishing hurriedly into the crowd. Derpy bit her lip to quell a laugh.
“Perhaps we could stay until the end of the concert?” Sparks inquired.
Time Turner cast a worried glance at Derpy, but she nodded nonetheless and sat down to enjoy the show
---
Though they stayed at the festival a little longer, finishing the concert and watching the ground obstacle course that ended in a landslide win for the team of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, everypony was satisfied by the time they made their way home, even if it was a bit before most of the rest of the town. Derpy was exhausted, clearly, but her fur and feathers had dried in the sun and, finding a blueberry pie in a box, along with a decorative gold medal, on her doorstep lifted her spirits high.
The evening was slow and relaxing. Time Turner assigned himself to dinner duty as he insisted Derpy rest, though it dawned on him that he had never cooked a day in his life, at least what he could remember of it. However, with Sparks at his side, memorizing recipe books and reciting like a mathematician, they managed to shove together a huge salad with apples and blue cheese dressing, though the mess they made was rather surreal.
Derpy slumped on the sofa, listening to one of her low-tempo jazz records as she tried to relax. The two others had also insisted on cleaning, but the noises coming from the kitchen were somewhat alarming. She tried to tune them out, but couldn’t help but smile to herself. Her new friends had somehow turned making dinner into an adventure.
She went to bed early, nursing her bruises, and Sparks joined her readily, trying her best to mimic pony sleeping patterns. Time Turner, on the other hand, stayed up late. He wasn’t tired, for some reason, so he began to read through one of Derpy’s novels that, though damaged, had been carefully replaced on one of her two remaining bookshelves. The story was about a detective pony; though he found it a bit predictable, he enjoyed it well enough. It didn’t take him long to read it, though— the clock on the wall told him it had only been an hour once he had finished it. He considered taking a second, but instead decided to try to sleep despite the fact that his brain was whirring. In a way, he wanted to go visit Ellie again. He wondered if it was too late at night. Did electronic serpents need to sleep? He curled up on the sofa, under his familiar comforter, wondering until he drifted off.