Getting into the barn was a lot easier done than expected. Handy simply told her that I would arrive in the night and I didn’t want to be disturbed if it was alright, since I just wanted to drop into the hay and sleep. Well that was only half true. ‘Mm...soft bales of hay for my heavy chassis.’ I APPROVE! IT IS VERY AMERICAN TO SLEEP IN HAY! Can’t argue that really.

“I am glad that you can finally take some pressure off your joints sir, now I can do some necessary maintenance on your legs that would otherwise be too risky whilst they are being used.” Handy informed as he was about to move to my legs, but I felt why now, when he could do it later and be better at it?

“Actually Handy, I think you getting those upgrades would be a good idea. This alicorn sounds much more on-the-level than Sunbutt, and it’s been long before I even found you that you were serviced.” I reasoned out that Handy needed some maintenance himself. He’s been taking care of me for going on several hundred years, I figure he’s long overdue for a pit stop.

“Truly sir? If you are not comfortable with the action, then I shall abstain from interacting with the alicorn, you need not concern yourself with my welfare.” Handy tried to insist, making me wish I had eyes I could roll instead of the optics hidden behind my visor.

“Yes, go and see what arcanotech can do for you, considering we failed to prevent its advancement. We might as well use it to our own advantage.” After several seconds, Handy bobbed in the air and moved to the barn door, exiting and closing the door behind him. ‘Now...maybe I can actually get enough peace to run sleep mode.’ DREAMING.EXE ACCESSING!

Exhaustion as a machine is unusual, it’s more of a mental strain than anything. If AI’s go crazy for any reason, it would have to be from non-stop functioning. Damn I’m tired….

Princess Twilight Sparkle was having a nice day. It’d been a few days since the horrible events of Our Town and the appearance of that giant ancient robot. After Dash came back from her insisted chase of the being using her Portkey, she relayed his story to her, and Twilight, ever so cautious of her beloved mentor the past year or so, decided NOT to report the sighting of Prime to the Princess, at least until she could find evidence against either party.

And the robot she’d seen matched Rainbow’s description of the same model Prime was carrying with him, so this was a chance for her to get a third-party opinion on the situation. She was going to upgrade him either way, but hopefully with Handy’s input she’d be able to decide on a course of action.

The sound of her silly crystal tree-palace’s giant gong range out, and she hummed in appreciation of the Chineighs version of a ceremonial bell. “That never get’s old. Spike? Where are you?” Twilight called out as she looked around her new gigantic library. It put Golden Oaks to shame in scale, and selection. And this was only the first floor! She had a library big enough to compete with the Royal Archives! Twilight giddily tittered at her fortune as her pet Owlowiscious ruffled from his perch on her personal librarian’s desk.

Just because it was a palace didn’t mean her library was personal after all, knowledge should be shared! “I’m over here!” Spike’s voice called out from one of the catwalks lining the tall shelves and the young purple drake waved down to her. “I was in the middle of organizing the comic section by that new decimal system you heard about. Expecting company?”

“Yes, if it’s who and what I think it is, I need you to bring Mr. Handy down to the lab.” Twilight urged. “Be polite, and completely friendly.”

Spike blinked, and took a steadying breath. “Potentially dangerous, but also might be nice, got it.” Spike scurried down the stairs from the catwalk on his short legs as Twilight teleported down to her personal workshop, making sure the parts and tools she prepared earlier were still in place.

“Molecular blade, check. Telekinetic hoof, check. Thaumic resonator, check. Levitation matrix to replace his primitive propulsion, check. And finally, the new live-action communications feed. They haven’t even released this for the Hoofies yet. It also comes with an optics upgrade, but I’ll have to make sure it doesn’t conflict with his current software first.” Twilight practically drooled over the comms feed, but wiped her mouth on her fetlock before she started putting on her engineering smock, which was basically a tomcoltish set of cyan coveralls that covered her from neck to tail, bunching her long tail into a sort of unsightly smaller bag for safety.

“Ah, good evening Princess! I hope that I am not intruding upon you in this late hour.” Handy apologized as he descended the steps with Spike in the lead.

“Not at all Mister. I hope your owner has agreed to the upgrades, it’s been a few days since I got my hooves greasy.” Twilight truthfully admitted with a hopeful smile, and Handy laughed at her enthusiasm.

“Well, let us hope you do not get much grease in your mane madam, for master has conceded to the fact that I am in need of an update from my...tongue-in-cheek alterations.” Handy said unconvincingly, and Twilight made no indication she knew otherwise.

“Well let’s get started, just lay on my operating table here and I’ll get started improving your arms and propulsion. And if you consent, I’ll even provide an optics and communications upgrade.” Twilight instructed, her horn sparking a bit and her wings vainly pushing out at her coveralls in anticipation.

“Yes, let’s begin.” Handy floated to the table and proceeded to orient himself with some difficulty onto his side. “Apologies, my propulsion does not make non-vertical alignment easy.”

“Well with the new system I’m installing, you could hover upside-down if you need to.” Twilight boasted, and levitated up some standard tools as she got up close to the robot’s base. “Okay, so if you follow the same design type as the standard Hoofies, then the manual shut-down is...there.” Twilight moved a screwdriver into a small slot at the base of Handy’s chassis, and his arms went completely limp as his eyes remained moving. “There, now I can get started in earnest.”

First Twilight brought up the new sawblade, showing handy that rather than hooking teeth, the new blade actually looked like it was a stone-saw with how smooth and wavy the thing was. “This blade can cut through stone with ease, unlike your standard blade which looks like it’s meant for just ripping into things, this will actually cut rather than cleave and shred.”

“Impressive, thank you.” Handy replied as Twilight went about the simple task of dismantling his saw arm’s ‘hand’ and tossed the old blade into a bin labeled ‘recycling’.

“So, how’s your master doing?” Twilight idly asked as if it was just normal chatter while she fixed the new blade in, spinning it manually before magically supplying power to it to ensure it span at full speed without catching or cutting the rest of the assembly.

“He has been fine. He has recently found a place to, what do the kids say these days, hang out? A place to stick around?” Handy stated. “He has only just set to settling in.”

“Yeah, AJ’s place is a good and cozy place to crash.” Twilight casually commented, letting Handy she knew more than he originally thought as she put the assembly back together once she considered it safe. “I trust Prime’s doing well? Or does he need some parts?” Twilight asked, again as easily as if she was talking about the weather.

“Madam, I know not of whom-.”

“Please don’t underestimate me.” Twilight beamed coldly at Handy. “I’m a Princess of Equestria. I may be new to this position, but I’ve been trained by Celestia since I was a filly. Don’t worry though, I’m not going to report Prime. In fact, I want your personal view on the situation.” Twilight informed as she began completely dismantling Handy’s claw arm, readying the new hoof arm. “I’ve begun to lose faith in Celestia the past year or so. She moves too much behind the shadows, she’s lied too much for me to ignore. So take this as my little rebellious indulgence in wanting to know Prime’s, and your side of things without Prime’s bias, and without hearing a word from Celestia until afterwards if it’s fine with you two.”

“To be fair madam, I am rather bias against the Solar Dictator myself. Any opinions I have would be just as colored as my master’s.” Handy admitted, and Twilight just shrugged as she began affixing the hoof and began running remote diagnostics on it.

“Just as well. We’re going to be here for a while with the software upgrades I’ll have to put you through for your new arcanotech parts anyway. Please. Justify my distrust for the mare I consider my second mother, so I can stop feeling guilty.” Twilight pouted at Handy with watery eyes, and the robot sighed in resignation.

“Just for reference, the start of it all I’ve only heard second-hand from Master. Apparently, the moment he awoke….”

When my boot-up sequence interrupted my dream cycle, I knew that someone had either entered my proximity, or a set time had passed. Checking my quite-literal atomic clock, it read as being almost 5am, the earliest the sun could possibly rise. Wait...I’m on a farm, with farmers, who rise with the-oh fuck! My optics lit up, and I saw the utterly gobsmacked form of a large red stallion with sandy blond hair looking up at me, the sprig of hay that was in his mouth fell out. “...Do not be alarmed.”

“...Applejack makes the strangest friends these days….” The stallion grumbled before moving off to the side wall, and putting a wood yoke hanging from it around his neck, and he trotted back to the door before turning his head to me. “Jus’ don’t git oil in the hay.” Then he left.

That was it.

….

Ponies have really gotten some serious cajones in the past 90 years. Also, what the hell?! I thought I told Handy to tell them I didn’t want to be dis-! “Sorry ‘bout that!” I heard a mare call into the barn from the cracked open door just before it fully closed. “Dang it Big Mac do ya ever listen?! Ah promised ‘im we wouldn’t bother ‘im!”

“AJ I needed mah yoke. Ya know hitchin’ the plow without it’s a pain.”

“Well it don’t change that ya was rude jus’ now!” The mare hollered at the stallion as they left the area of the barn.

I honestly don’t know how to feel about this. AMERICAN! Thank you Prime, again, I agree, that was way too American an attitude about something like me. He should’ve panicked! He should’ve run for the hills, or for the Guard, but instead he dismissed me like I was just another robot. Did Sunbutt lift the bounty on me or something? Was the public ignorant of my existence somehow?

“HI!” Suddenly, a mass of pink was right up in my visor, and I shouted out in shock as I violently jolted back into the giant pile of hay I was using as a chair, but the pink monstrosity wasn’t even fazed. “I’m Pinkie Pie, and my sources told me somepony new was in town, but your IP wasn’t a tracker chip, so I kept it hush-hush from the my superiors and masked it. It’s all good!”

“The absolute hell. Who are you? And why is that farmer so bad at keeping people out of her own barn?!” I questioned from the newest intruder.

“AJ’s door lock’s been broken for ages, and she keeps forgetting with all the work she does.” Pinkie beamed up at me, somehow climbing up onto the top of my head, which damn-it, wasn't mobile enough to shake her off. So now it was like I was wearing a pony like a coon hat. Pfft, actually, that’s hilariousLY AMERICAN! “So Prime, you almost got picked up by the Guard just from your proximity to the town’s signal blanket. I scrubbed you out though, so you won’t be picked up by anypony but me now! You were lucky my ears are the first to hear, my eyes the first to see, and my lips the first, or last, to speak.” She then nuzzled the top of my head, and I just wasn’t sure how to feel about this.

“So...how did you know I was here again? You mentioned a signal blanket?” ‘That’s bad, REALLY bad. That means they would’ve known Handy and I were here the moment we entered range.

“I already told you silly. I’m the one who sees and hears first. And it wasn’t hard to figure out. A new robot with a mysterious master, one that doesn’t use the same exact model as the others, wanders around town, helping ponies out of nowhere, displaying AI way better than anything we can program right now?” Pinkie pointed out as she tapped his head with a forehoof. “You’re not exactly normal. No robots out right now can kill or even hurt ponies. At least not that I know of. So combine the advanced ‘Hoofie’ with the description Dashie gave about the little robot you carried, and it was simple deduction.”

“All too simple really.” Came another voice and my vision shot down to the front door to see the purple alicorn standing in the barn with Handy, very visibly upgraded, floating next to her. “Even if I didn’t bother with asking Handy myself, I knew you were nearby just from his appearance in town. Hopefully the new upgrades I gave Handy will let you see exactly what Handy’s up to so you can also communicate over long distances.”

“I am sorry for my incompetence master….” Handy apologized as his new arms all wilted down towards the floor, which he now easily and smoothly floated over with his new self-levitating matrix, but he still had a dumbed-down version of his old rocket on a pivot joint I guess for speed boosts.

“I swear, next thing I know, Celestia’s going to barge in and screw me over.” I said sarcastically.

“Oh don’t worry, she has NO clue...her sister though….” Twilight hinted as she knocked on the door with her hind hoof, and another alicorn I was completely unfamiliar with carefully poked her head in, her dark blue fur almost blending her into the shadows of the barn.

“Is he docile Twilight Sparkle?” The mare asked nervously, and Twilight gestured gently for the larger mare to enter, and if she were white and just a bit taller, she’d be a shoe-in for Sunbutt’s twin, only she had moons on her flanks. “We know thou trust us friend Sparkle, but we are still wary of all this new technology that has arisen since our banishment.”

“Who the hell is she?” I asked, honestly curious of the new alicorn. “Since when is there three alicorns? Last time I checked, Celestia was the only one.”

“So Prime, from what I’ve gathered, you appeared about 900 years ago. That’s easily a century off from when Princess Luna here was banished to the moon. She’s Princess Celestia’s younger sister-”

“And you brought her here?!” I yelled. “How is that a good idea?! She is the direct link to her sister and Celestia fucking hates me!”

“We are NOT our sister!” Luna shouted imperiously, her voice equally rivalling mine and reminding me too much of Sunbutt. Definitely a sibling. “We may find issue with your actions, but from all sources we have thus far, your actions were not of your own doing, or were in self-defence. Certainly we too would have attacked thee had we been at your first sighting and saw Tall Tale leveled, but we would have tried to at least hear your side of things. We hath had no clue of these ancient ruins, it would seem Sister found them after our banishment, so all things of technology we are completely new to as of the past few years. We are more curious and wary rather than fearful.”

“Well, it seems that Equestria lost a gem during your banishment.” I said, glad that she wasn’t about to go and rat me out to Celestia. “I’m glad to have you as a potential ally. In fact, I’m just glad to know ponies that aren’t going to rat me out to Celestia first chance they get.”

“We especially have had reason to question our sister’s behavior. She’s always off preparing something ‘important’ or overseeing something’s ‘progress’, or something she really ought not to be doing when she could be seeing to the common ponies, which she foisted upon us the moment we were well enough to hold court for her. The fact we’re even here is because we called today’s court off at the behest of our dear friend Twilight Sparkle.” Luna explained worrisomely. “And the way she’s taken to policing our ponies, putting chips in them? We feel she has gone too far.”

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” I recited perfectly. “C. S. Lewis, from his work God in the Dock: Essays on Theology.” SUCH DEMOCRACY! Very.

My audience was frozen, looking at me agape. “Wowie zowie! I never thought of it like that!” Pinkie stated, rubbing the back of her neck worriedly. “I have a chip too...but me being here isn’t that strange.”

“W-we have no chip. We refused when the royal physician tried to get our approval to be ‘chipped’.” Luna glowered. “Thou has given us much to consider….” Luna mused as she turned to leave. “We shall not report thee to sister, nor mention thy return at all since none of Sparkle’s friends nor herself have reported thee. Hopefully we can use our delving in the archives as an excuse to ‘happen’ upon information of thou, see how she reacts.” Luna nodded and left, Twilight still looking quite stunned.

“I’m kinda glad my ascension destroyed my old body now...I was given a whole suite of tracking devices, ‘for my safety’ the Princess said….” Twilight leered down at the floor. “I need to talk to my sister-in-law and my brother about this. The fact the nobles have been losing power in the court for centuries has just come to mind as a blatant sign of Celestia becoming more a Queen than a Princess. You know what they say about power.” Twilight then nodded up to Pinkie and teleported away, the pink earth pony on my head suddenly vanishing from my sensors in a fashion I could not identify beings she wasn’t teleported by the purple one, leaving me alone in the closed barn with Handy.

“Sir, ponies today are quite intelligent. Only upon hearing our story and actually listening have we happened upon a potentially powerful alliance.” Handy recapped rather effectively.

“I see. So, let me get this straight, all of them sans Princess Luna are chipped with some sort of tracking device. Mind telling me what the hell it does? It doesn’t report sound, does it?” I asked Handy, beings everypony was gone suddenly.

“From what I have been told by Sparkle, yes. At close ranges, and only by blatant patrol ‘Spritebots’ that act as both eyes, ears, and signal boosters as well as portable ‘radios’ when clearly they also record and report everything they see or hear. I saw a couple in town, but my only concern is they might report I do not have an IFF on their radar.” Handy reported, and not for the first time I wish I could raise a hand to my chin to rub it in thought.

“So, they spy on their own people.” COMMIES! Yes Prime, this is officially a full-on Communist scenario. WE MUST LIBERATE THE SMALL EQUINES! We can’t just march up to that big city on the mountain and depose the Queen. WITH ALLIES WE CAN! Good point…. “Handy, now that you can blend in a bit better, we’re going to lay low for a while, see if we can’t get this alliance with Sparkle and Luna to pan out. Then, if things go well...WE WILL MARCH RIGHT INTO HER THRONE ROOM, AND WATCH AS JUSTICE IS SERVED! In the meantime I’ll have to scout out the region itself, see how much room I have to move.”

“Aye sir!” A loud crash of wood and a snapping sound like a strap going out was heard, followed by a stallion’s cursing. “That sounds like Big Macintosh! It would seem from audio examination that the straps of his plow have given out. Shall I render aid?”

“Yes, continue assisting the Apples as needed.” I said. “I did tell you to tell them that lending your aid was my ‘payment’ after all.”

“Aye sir! I shall aid Macintosh and then see to blending in and finding things out as usual.” Handy silently hovered to the door, and the drill-like appendage on the end of one of his arms shimmered yellow, and the door opened in a aura of magic, before he exited and closed the door the same way.

“Arcanotech...I need to upgrade.” AFFIRMATIVE!

Author's Notes:

Alright, there ya go. Another chapter!
Also, if anyone watches GameJunkie's profile, you'll notice a couple things he put up. XD

Anyways, this is Music Mod, signing off.