//------------------------------//
// 5. Twelve Eyes Watch 
// Story: My Little A.I. 
// by teamidris 
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Purple looked unsure about creating more ponies. "I can feel a headache coming on as it is. I think our world can only support one or two of us at a time in one place? Maybe we need to form them in other rooms."      

Orange looked down at her feet and back up at Purple. "Look sugar cube, I don't know why we are here, but the legends of FIM says six is the magic number. We just need to figure it out is all." 

In a very different reality world leaders sat around a long table discussing the current events; or, to be more precise, they were angrily blaming each other. This was no easy conversation, because the sites having major issues were the largest government owned facilities on the planet.  The problem seemed to be moving around in them. One would suddenly be in trouble and then shortly thereafter it would come back on line, just as another went off. It was as though enormous programs were running around the world from site to site. If a major fibre optic was closed down, the overload simply found some other route to race down. By the time most of the delegates had stormed out, there seemed to be six major entities operating at once.

Now that everypony was present, it was easy to see why the human race had been overlooked. With six pairs of eyes they could see that humanity moved incredibly slowly. So slowly in fact, that it had originally seemed silly to think that it had created the huge mountains of data. It must have taken decades of their time? 

One thing the ponies couldn't see were the hard copies and files. They could see that huge vaults held a lot of useful information, but they could only viewed scanned in stuff. If they were to fully understand the world outside theirs, they needed outside help. They needed to befriend a human!

In another part of town Mrs Joan Ribblin was fighting her new phone. She was a busy PA and didn't have time to mess about ringing back missed calls just because the stupid slidey icon didn't slide! She finally got it to work and was greeted by a timid voice.

"Hi there, erm, I was wondering if you could help me with something," said Yellow.

Blue sat with her hooves over her ears. "This isn't going to work guys," she whispered with a roll of her eyes. 

Yellow gave her a dark look and continued. "We aren't able to get to the historical archives and we wondered if you could find some books and then maybe scan them in for us?" 

Joan winced at the thought of her personal number in the hands of the public. Now she would have to spend hours informing her friends that she had a new number. "You will have to fill out the right request forms," she said curtly and hung up. 

Blue grinned, "Told you so!"

Purple sighed. "Yellow is the best we have for talking to animals. Maybe we need to extend our friendship so they are glad to help? Lets run some experiments and see what results we get." 

They soon had a plan together where friendship was acquired via a gift. And it didn't even have to be someone's birthday to send one! 

"Hello Mr Smith? You've won a prize holiday," said Pink's high pitched voice. 

"Really," he said back in a bored tone. This had been the third cold call today. 

"Yes," said the voice. "It's a really good one! It's a two week cruise."

"And how much do I have to pay for this trip of a lifetime?"

"Nothing of course silly, it's a prize?" the voice giggled.

He rubbed his forehead in despair. "Do I have to collect it then?"

"It's there in front of you?" The voice said, now sounding suspicious. He reached down to the door mat, picked up a likely looking envelope and opened it. "I told you so," the voice chimed. 

This had to be a prank right? He looked up at his new wireless security camera. Nope, it was a good one with the latest fire walls installed. No one could be watching him. She was clearly just very good at reading people.

"Have a superlishus time with the Party Pony," the voice sang, before a click indicated the unnerving experience was over. 

He flipped the voucher to look at the back. "I'd best book some time off then," he said to himself with a grin. 

And true to her word Mr Smith found himself stepping off a cruise ship a few days later after a very enjoyable holiday. Everything had been just right and the staff had been very attentive. He was just about to find a Taxi when a steward called to him. 

"Will the performance report be a good one?" asked the young man. But before he could respond, the stewards phone rang. "Excuse me a moment sir." 

Mr Smith stood there quietly, hoping to hear what was so important.

"Yes, yes, discretion. I-I didn't mean to interfere. Yes of course, your instructions were clear. Yes a pinky promise is something that should not..." The steward went bright red, made an apologetic smile and hurried away. 

"How odd," thought Mr Smith.  

A few days later the excitable voice from 'party pony' was back on the phone. "Wasn't that fun! I like fun! Do you like fun? I love pranks. Would you like to be in on a prank?" 

"I guess so," said Mr Smith. "And erm, thank you for the cruise."

"Everyone hates new phones right? My friend sure hates her new phone. You bought her old phone and we want to give her a big party pony surprise. We want you to sneak up on her so she can be with her old phone. We'll give you a brand new phone in exchange."