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First Awakening 1,183 words
Troubles1,632 words
Unit Area 41,892 words
Robot Unit 456770 and Citizen 400-891,571 words
He is not like us.2,299 words
Dreams that will never stop 3,097 words
Trapped2,831 words
Welcome to the revolution, Robot Unit2,438 words
Wires and Gears2,062 words
Flesh and Blood2,490 words
Dying 1,186 words
...Yet staying alive1,926 words
Blood is Thicker1,600 words
Welcome to the revolution, Robot Unit part 21,907 words
Raining Miseries 2,195 words
He is Watched2,332 words
The Rush2,257 words
The Capitol1,544 words
And a claw comes down...1,424 words
...And the Robot gets crushed1,797 words
The confrontation936 words
What happened after that710 words

Trapped

The two sisters sat there, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, staring at each other, while I was sitting here with a bent piston that Blossom had managed to bend even further. My leg is now in a locked position, as I am unable to move it, or do anything with it for that matter.

I shifted my good front leg, intending for the gear-grinding sound to vibrate through the air, drawing both sister's attention back to me.

"Why, how, what!?!?" Little Leaf stammered, lowering herself to the ground, both light green eyes locked on me.

"Uh, Little Leaf!" Blossom said, slowly standing up from her place on the ground. "I, I can explain."

"No you can't," I said.

"He's right, I can't." She face-hoofed herself, sighing.

"What are you doing with a Robot Unit? Here? RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOUSE!?" Little Leaf said, hyperventilating. "It, it must know now that I'm not sick! That your just blowing the day off! Blossom! WE'LL GET ARRESTED!" Little Leaf dashed over to her sister and hid behind her tail, trembling, and peeked out at me. She started to wail. "WE'LL GET ARRESTED! AND I WAS FLYING! IT SAW ME FLY!"

"Leaf! Calm down!" Blossom Wing yelled at her little sister, flicking her tail up as Little Leaf lost her grip and landed on the ground. Blossom turned to face her sister. She put a hoof on her back, got down close to her face, and whispered in her ear, "He's my friend." Little Leaf glanced between her older sister and me, then swallowed.

"F, friend?" She asked. Blossom nodded.

"Yes. And his name is Broken. Why don't you go over there and talk with him?" Blossom's voice cracked, and she put on the best fake smile she could muster. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

I couldn't tell if Little Leaf noticed or not, but she tentatively got up from her spot, and tiptoed over to me. She cleared her throat, and stood up a bit taller. But her voice still shook.

"H, hi."

"Hello."

"Uh, how are you today?" She cringed a little

"Good. And you?"

"Good. But.." She glanced back at her sister, then back at me. "But you don't look like you feel so good. Your piston..." She pointed to it. "Does it hurt?"

I glanced down at it. "No."

"Really?" She asked me.

"I don't feel pain."

"You don't?" I shook my head. "Well then, can I, can I touch it?"

"Sure." She tentatively reached out with her hoof and poked it, squealing and pulling it back as she did. Blossom Wing watched with worried eyes.

"It's, it feels cold," She said, giving it another poke, before finally running her hoof up and down it. "Wow!" She giggled. Blossom sighed with relief. "And you can use it to move?" She asked me, her eyes twinkling with curiosity. I lifted up my back leg for her to see, moving it up and down. She watched intently as the pistons moved along with it. "Wow." She said, starting to laugh. "I never noticed that before!"

"Yes, and now I have to fix him," Blossom Wing said, walking over to us and picking up a tool with her mouth. " So you're going to have to move, Leaf." Her little sister groaned.

"But Blossom!" She whined, but Blossom just shook her head.

"No, Leaf, I have to fix it."

"But can I at least see his other leg move?" She grabbed my good front leg with her hooves and pulled on it. I lost my balance and toppled forward, almost crushing the Little Filly. Blossom gasped, dropping the tool. But Little Leaf just giggled.

"You're so funny, Dusky!"

But it was not Little Leaf that had said that. This was a voice from a different filly, one that echoed through my mind and pounded against my metal skull, reverberating through my ear piece. And I know the filly who said that. I know that voice, like a long and haunting memory being opened back into the world.

"Blossom..." I said, staring down at the ground as the tiny sounding voice disappeared from my mind.

"Yes?"

"I think I am about to power down."

Then, I saw black.

***************************

Me and Little leaf carried him all the way back to our house, and layed him on our mother's bed. It creaked with his weight, but it will have to do. We didn't really do much after that. Little Leaf and I just sat there, watching him. After a long while, she said,

"He's okay, right?" I looked down at her.

"Yeah. He's, he's okay. I have seen Robot Units power down like this before, when they are almost out of energy. They do it to conserve what little power they have left."

"Was he low on energy?"

"Maybe."

"Do you know when he last recharged?"

"... last night. He always tells me when he needs to recharge."

"Oh." More silence. I looked down at Broken. He seemed, dead. But he couldn't be dead. He told me, specifically me, that after he fell that he was going to power down. And he did. Nothing else to it. The fall could have resulted in loss of energy, maybe, but it was the way he sounded when he said it that ran chills up my spine. How vulnerable he sounded, how scared. I wouldn't say it out loud, but I felt like maybe it was more than just a fall that caused him to go under. Like how he heard that voice that made him drop out of the sky earlier, maybe something like that happened again? I don't know.

But his voice, it, it sounded... like a stallion's. Not his normal monotone, but in a higher pitch, clearer and smoother. I'm not sure if Little Leaf noticed it or not, but I did. And every time I think about it, the dream in which he transformed into a pony flashed through my mind.

"How long have you known him for?" Little Leaf asked me. I snapped back into attention, and glanced down at my little sister.

"One month."

"A month!?!?"

"Um, yes. One month."

"Is that why you were acting so weird all that time?"

"Weird?"

"Yeah," She grabbed a lock of her pink and green mane and started to twirl it with her hoof. "I knew you lied to me."

"You knew!?!?!"

"Um-hm," She said, nodding. "Was he the reason?"

"..."

"Blossom Wing?"

"... yes."

******************

My vision was red at first, then cleared to reveal the room that I was in. It was small, very small, and there where three beds. I was on one of them, and every time I shifted my enter of balance, it creaked and whined at me. Where am I? I wondered, rolling out from the hay mattress and landing on the wooden floor with a thud, making the entire room vibrate. A picture of four ponies fell down from the top of a dresser, glass tinkling across the floor. I sprang to my hooves, trying to avoid the sharp debris, but then realized that I could move my right leg again. I marveled at it. So Blossom Wing had fixed it after all. But could she have brought me here? I stood up straighter and got a better view of my surroundings. There was one window. It was broken, and dirt and grime covered it, blocking out any view. But the hole in it gave me enough of a view to know that I am on the night side of Unit Area 4.

"You're awake." I whipped around and saw Blossom Wing standing there, illuminated by a light coming in from another room.

"What happened?"

"You powered down." She took a step forward. "You don't remember?"

"No, I remember that. But what happened to get me in here?" I glanced around the room one more time before returning my focus back on Blossom Wing.

"Here? This is my house. And your in my bedroom."

"Your... bedroom?"

"Yes. And also my mom's, and Little Leaf's, basically, this is everyone's bedroom."

"Oh."

"Is he up?" I heard Little Leaf call from the room outside the bedroom.

"Uh, yes!" Blossom Yelled back. She looked back and me and gestured with her head to follow her. She walked through the doorway and into the light on the other side, and I walked right behind her, and in a flash I found myself in a tiny room, barely big enough for two ponies. Let alone two ponies and a Robot Unit.

Little Leaf was standing at a three legged table, paper on the table and crayons in her mouth, scribbling on a piece of paper. She looked up when she heard me come in. Her face brightened, and she rushed over to me, holding a piece of paper in her hoof. She glanced down at it, then back up at me, and smiled shyly. "I drew something for you." She held out the paper, and I grabbed it with the tiny claw from my chest. She marveled at it, her eyes growing as big as marbles, but my attention was on the drawing. It was me. Correction: It was me and her. Little Leaf looked up from the claw long enough to see my face. "I heard that you and Blossom where friends, so I thought that maybe we could be friends too? I've never had a Robot Unit friend before, so..."

Blossom looked at me, nodded, and then smiled. I glanced down at Little Leaf, who was looking up at me expectantly.

"S, sure," I said.

"YAY!" She yelled, trotting around the space. "I've got Robot Unit friend! I've got a Robot Unit friend! I've got a Robot Unit friend! YAY!" Blossom giggled at her little sister, shaking her head. She glanced up at me, then sighed.

"Broken," She said. "Do you mind if we go for a walk? We need to talk about... things."

"Okay..." I said, a little wary of her sudden change in attitude.

"Aw..." Little Leaf groaned.

"I, uh, we just really need to talk, Broken. You're okay with it right, Little Leaf?" She said, rummaging her hoof through her sister's mane.

"But we never got to eat the cake I made you for your birthday!" Little Leaf complained, pointing at what I thought was just a pile of slop in the corner. But it's a cake? Blossom grimaced, then shuttered.

"Why don't we save that for later? You will be a good little filly, right?" Little Leaf crossed her arms and pouted, but nodded. "Good. Broken?" She asked, opening the front door. I pulled the claw back into my chest, paper and all, and I walked out, waiting out there until she shut the door.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

She shook her head. "No, not here. I know a place that we can talk in private."

*******************

There is forest near my house, on the borders between Unit areas 4 and 5, where the long fence runs straight down the middle. Me and Tornado used to come here everyday when we where just foals, laughing and playing in the pond near the giant oak tree. We stopped coming after a while, and even though I never knew why, Tornado said that I should never go into those woods ever again, and I haven't, not until today. Because this is where I took Broken.

"Broken," I said, staring at my reflection at the water's edge. He stood near by, gazing at me. I could feel his eyes drilling little holes into my sides.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Stop looking at my flank."

"What!?! I, I wasn't! I mean, why would you think that I was-"

"Why did you power down?"

"What?"

I turned around to face him. "Why did you power down? What was the real reason?"

He stared at me for a moment before looking down at his own hooves. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" He glanced back up at me, then shook his head.

"I mean, I thought I heard something... never mind."

"Wait," I got up and trotted over to him, lifting his face up with my hoof. "What did you hear?"

"I thought I heard another voice."

"A, another?"

"Yes, but it didn't sound like the first one! It sounded like a filly, much older than your sister. Maybe around the age of 9."

"And... that's why you powered down?" I said skeptically.

"But Blossom, you don't understand! It sounded like I, like I knew that filly. I knew her Blossom. I knew her!"

I stared at him, my mouth open and eyes wide. In my mind, I was taken back to the moment when he was about to power down, when his voice changed. When he seemingly lost all connection to the outside world, when he looked gone. When he looked like he had died. That moment when he sounded so much different than his usual self, and here I was, watching as it happened again. His voice changed for a split second. And it sounded just the same as it did before. Like a regular stallion's.

Broken looked behind himself and then back at me. "What are you staring at?"

"I, you-"

Then, all of a sudden, I heard a sound of something rustling through the leaves, and it sounded big. "Broken," I said, stepping closer to him. Suddenly, a huge net came into view, and before either me or Broken could react, it swept us up and pulled us into the air, trapping us and hanging by a thread on a tree limb. Me and Broken where jostled around, me landing on my back and him on his head. We sat there for a moment, the wind swaying the trap back and forth, that is until I panicked, thrashing around.

"Help!" I cried out. "Oh please, somepony help us!"

"Blossom!" Broken yelled to me. "Stop thrashing! Your wings are getting entangled in the net!" I gave up when I realized that he was right. My wings where now wrapped up in a hopeless mess of feathers and thread.

"What are we going to do!" I cried out.

"Stay put where you are, that's what. And don't try anything." I tensed up when I heard the the voice. I twisted my head in the direction in which I heard it come from.

"Hello?-" Broken covered my mouth with his hoof, shaking his head.

"Quiet."

Suddenly a dark pony came into view. He had a gun strapped to his back, and he reached back and took it into his hooves. "Let's see what we have here, shall we?" He looked up at us and then dropped his gun. I nearly fainted.

Those purple eyes where all too familiar to me.

"Tornado!?" I shouted down at him.

"Blossom!?"

Suddenly, what seemed like thousands of ponies materialized from the shadows, and they all stared in awe at what they had captured inside the net. And I knew that they where not in shock of me, as Tornado was. They where all staring at Broken.

"We caught one!" Some pony shouted, and the whole crowd cheered.

"Welcome to the revolution, Robot Unit!" Another shouted.

And those were not happy smiles on their faces.

Author's Note:

Dun dun dun! Feedback please!
Oh, and a side note for Broken, "Stop looking at Blossom Wing's Flank!"

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