"Princess-Twilight-Are-You-Sure-I-Am-Malfunctioning?"
The purple alicorn had lead Scrappy into a dark room. Nothing in it besides a table with straps and a tray filled with tools. She had lured him into the Friendship Castle with a guarantee that Scrappy was indeed falling apart. Which he wasn't. She only wanted to disassemble a little bit of him. Just to see how he worked. Then she would put him back together, seal him back up, and nopony would be any the wiser. Assuming she would be able to successfully reassemble the machine. But curiosity surpassed her fears, and she got to work, strapping in the clockwork pony.
Which was useless, because it didn't put up any fight whatsoever. Not even when she pulled out a ratchet and started unbolting the Automaton's entire chestplate. Beneath, Twilight marvelled at the glowing streaks of magic slowly spinning the many gears. A glass pipe travelled up the machine's throat from a large box in his chest, which Twilight assumed to be its voice-box.
"Spike, pass me the monkey wrench."
"Twilight... are you sure we should do this?" The baby dragon was looking at Scrappy with wide eyes. He didn't exactly like the machine either but this just seemed wrong.
"Spike, if we shouldn't do this, would we be doing it right now?" She snarked, finding the monkey wrench herself and struggling to remove Scrappy's voice box. She was knocking out a few gears, but Twilight figured she would put them back when she had removed and studied the voice box.
"Princess-Twi-Twi-Twi-Twi-Twi-"
Great. She broke it. Twilight smacked at the voice box, Scrappy's repeating voice becoming more high-pitched and scratchy. Spike covered his ears. The voice was beginning to get painful to listen to.
Twilight leapt up in surprise when the door slammed open and a very yellow and very angry pegasus swooped in.
"TWILIGHT WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Fluttershy screamed over the cries of the stuttering Scrappy. It was the loudest and by far the most enraged Twilight had ever seen her friend. Maybe she shouldn't have tried taking Scrappy apart.
"Scrappy? Scrappy, can you hear me? Scrappy, sweetie, if you can hear me, nod your head."
The Automaton twitched its head up and down rapidly. Twilight felt herself breath a sigh of relief.
"I'm so sorry, Scrappy," Fluttershy was telling the metal pony, "I thought it was fishy when Twilight told you that she needed to fix something. I should've stopped her right there..." As she talked, she was timidly placing back gears. Fluttershy only successfully replaced half of them. Scrappy was still having short spasms. Fluttershy began to scold Twilight, which made the purple alicorn just feel worse and worse.
"You should have known that the magic that gives him life also lets him FEEL things, not just emotions. He can feel PAIN. He told me so. You know, next time you have the urge to rip somepony apart, why not just ask it a few questions first? I know pretty much everything about how he works, and that's because we TALKED. Shame on you, Twilight Sparkle. Princess or not, that was the worst thing I have ever seen you do. And you're supposed to be the Princess of Friendship, too." Twilight was on the verge of tears.
"But... Fluttershy, it's just a machine."
"No! First Discord, now you. Scrappy can feel. He had a mind. He has a soul! I know he does! He's the sweetest, most kind and helpful pony I have ever met."
"The Automaton isn't even a male... they don't have gender. Scrappy is an it, not a he."
"So? That doesn't mean he's not a living thing!"
"Of course he... it isn't!"
"And why not?" Fluttershy demanded angrily, popping the last gear back in place. Scrappy let out a loud whirring sound. His squeal of repeating stopped, and the Automaton found himself able to talk once more. He adjusted his lenses to the dim light of the room and surveyed the two mares. Fluttershy, his new master, was experiencing symptoms of stress. He moved over, and gently rubbed her shoulders with his padded metal hooves. She visibly grew less tense.
"Oh... Thank you, Scrappy..."
"My-Pleasure-To-Help-Master."
"Scrappy, I've told you before, I'm not your-" but Twilight took this chance to make a very valid point.
"See? Scrappy can't even think for itself. All it ever DOES think about is how it can be of service to a pony. And it is definitely not capable of showing true emotion. Like happiness, sadness, love-"
But Twilight was interrupted by Scrappy.
"Scrappy-Love-Master. Master-Very-Kind. Like-Maker. Scrappy-Miss-Scrappy-Maker. Scrappy-Love-Maker."
Twilight let that sink in while Fluttershy patted Scrappy's head.
"There, there, Scrappy. It's okay. I'm sure you miss your creator a lot."
"Wait... Scrappy... you remember who built you?"
"Yes-I-Have-Recorded-And-Memorized-Every-Moment-With-Maker. Then-He-Left. Never-Come-Back. I-Sad-Long-Time. Then-Meet-New-Master-Fluttershy. I-Am-Happy-Now. She-Nice. Discord-Not-Nice. Princess-Not-Nice."
Twilight gasped as she realized, while it was extremely dim-witted and robotic in its motions, that was indeed a pony's soul locked in a machine. Scrappy COULD feel. And he could feel the most alive of emotions, he felt LOVE. He loved his maker, his creator. And he loved Fluttershy, the only pony who had been nice to him since they had managed to reawaken him with the Elements of Harmony.
"I'm... I'm so sorry, Scrappy... I didn't know..."
The Automaton regarded her, expressionless.
"Is-Okay-Princess-Twilight. I-Forgive."
He began to move towards her, and, before Twilight knew it, she and the oddly warm machine were hugging.
"Scrappy-Love-You-Too-Princess-Twilight. Scrappy-Love-Everypony. Even-Not-Nice-Pony."