Now, the people of Canterlot had come to expect a lot of strange things happening in their town in recent years, especially when the kids of the local High School were involved. But today? Today, if they were to journey through the park on this lovely sunny afternoon, they would happen upon a sight that would be considered odd even by those standards. For right in the middle of the place, along one of the main paths going from one end of the park to the other, sitting quietly on a bench, was none other than Spike, local talking dog of Twilight Sparkle. But, that was hardly the most unusual thing going on, as the young dog was not alone here today. Sitting quietly beside him, staring at him intently, was what could only be described as a robotic dog, whom Spike was just casually involved in conversation with right now.

"And then, boom! I could just talk! Chased an animal down a hole, came out being able to communicate with everyone, how weird is that?"

The robotic dog, which, it had to be said, seemed to design to have a generally female appearance, wagged her tail at Spike's story.

"Woof!"

Spike chuckled.

"Yeah, guess that is the least-weird thing that's happened to me recently. All the monsters and magic and...well...you...it's all been a lot to take in."

"Woof!" his metallic companion replied.

Spike smiled to her in response.

"Thanks. It's nice to have another dog around to talk these things with."

Then, a look of thoughtfulness crossed his face.

"Huh...you know...I just realised...I haven't even thought of a name for you yet!"

He scratched his chin, thinking on that.

"Maybe...I could call you K..."

Then he shook his head.

"Nah...that one's been done to death...and also copyrighted probably."

Then a smile came to him.

"Oh! How about we just call you K-8 for now?"

"Woof!" K-8 replied.

Spike smiled again, opening his mouth to speak, only to be stopped when another sound was then heard.

"Woof?!"

The purple dog turned, seeing, to his surprise, that it was another of his kind, and one that he knew well. Winona. The female approached, looking, strangely enough, upset at something. Spike, for his part, chuckled nervously at her approach.

"Oh, hey, Winona. Geez, we haven't seen each other since...well...since Twilight nearly made us..."

A blush came to him, and he coughed in a clearly embarrassed manner.

"...you know what? Never mind."

But Winona, having reached the bench, suddenly hopped onto it on the other side of Spike from where K-8 was.

"Woof?"

Spike raised an eyebrow, looking from Winona to K-8 and then back again.

"Oh, this is K-8. Twilight made her. We were just talking."

Winona frowned.

"Woof!"

Spike seemed confused.

"What? What do you mean cheating?"

Winona growled at K-8, who, for her part, just blinked a bit and sat there. Spike, sensing a conflict, tried to speak up again.

"Okay, Winona, I don't know what's going on here, but I can promise you there's nothing going on between me and K-8."

Winona frowned again, prompting Spike to continue.

"I mean it!"

Then, realisation came to him.

"Wait...how could I be cheating when we weren't an item?"

Hearing that, Winona seemed shocked, then narrowed her eyes to him.

"Woof! Woof, woof, woof!"

Spike's blush returned.

"What?! You mean...you actually did want to...?"

He looked away.

"Oh...oh dear."

Then, before he could react, Winona had walked closer to him, giving him a look that, in human terms, would have been called a come-hither stare. Spike, understandably, deepened in his blush at this, fumbling his words.

"Oh...um...well...I..."

But, to the surprise of both of them, K-8 now stepped up, taking hold of Spike's paw and bringing him closer to her.

"What the...?" Spike began.

Winona, seeing this challenge, growled a little before grabbing onto Spike's other paw and pulling him her way, leading to a very concerned dog in-between.

"I...I have no idea what's going on right now."

The pulling continued for a time, with Spike just haplessly seeing where this was all going. Winona, as one would expect, was not putting up with this one bit, and so let go of him, growling angrily at K-8. As for the robot herself, she too attempted a growl, though one that sounded more artificial, obviously. Spike, after rubbing his paws at having been pulled for the last few moments, looked to them both with worry.

“Look, I think this is all just a big misunderstanding. We can all just...”

Sadly, he didn’t get the chance to make peace, as Winona once more grabbed onto him, pulling him over and embracing him in a tight hug.

“...Or we could just do this,” Spike commented.

K-8 continued to show aggression towards Winona, and the latter, in turn, held on tighter to her prize, all while Spike just sighed at his situation. However, unbeknownst to all of them, they were currently being watched as all of this played out. Twilight and Sunset, having arrived in the park themselves, were standing not that far away, and had their arms folded with looks of both intrigue and confusion upon them. Sunset, after staying quiet for quite some time, looked over to Twilight and spoke up.

“So...are we gonna...you know...stop this?”

Twilight placed a finger to her chin, considering that.

“We probably should. This conflict wasn’t at all what I intended when I made that robot for Spike.”

Looking to her, Sunset raised an eyebrow.

“Out of curiosity...what did you make her for?”

To that, Twilight shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh...you know...science.”

Slowly, Sunset frowned a little.

“You just wanted to see if you could, didn’t you?”

After giving a brief, but embarrassed-sounding giggle, Twilight nodded.

“Yep...pretty much.”

Sighing, Sunset shook her head, looking back to the three dogs. The situation had descended even further than before, with Spike now being held by both females. The poor pup looked as if he was being squeezed by a boa constrictor right now, looking completely at a loss on what to do, all while the two competing for his attention just glared angrily at one another. Sunset, blinking at the sight of that, soon smirked.

“So, we could help him...or...we could stand here and see how much more ridiculous this gets.”

Thinking on that, Twilight giggled yet again.

”Sounds good to me.”