The Equestrian royals were rather surprised to one of their resident aliens grinning and carrying a small silver metal cube with her early in the morning. With the sun just beginning to peek over the treetops the entire clearing was bathed in golden light. Thankfully they were used to the mechanical clicking and groans as the metal edifice closed, not even realizing that the human had slipped outside reluctantly behind his companion.

That strange cube that the diminutive alien held grabbed their attention. It was silver as if the finest steel, but riddled with tiny holes on all sides that would have been impossible for an Equestrian metalworker to duplicate. As delicate hands set it down on the wooden table, the trio of Princesses noticed a large single button intricately cut into the top of the device. Before they could discover more, a soft slurping interrupted their thoughts.

Looking up, they all caught the redheaded alien facepalming at her companion. Every slurp turned out to a thin hose coming out of a port in his helmet, and into a lidded metal mug. All of them were curious as to what he, or it, looked like behind the shadowed glass plate. It was much harder to remain curious when trying not to laugh at the situation when the mug was softly slapped out of his hand, and the alien was splattered with the remains of what smelt like coffee.

Shaking her head, the female pressed the button inset on the cube and spoke when a red light illuminated. Removing her bare hand when done, the light turned to a flashing yellow for a moment, before the box spoke in a soft and fairly accented tone.

“Apologies companion. Defending Blade missed fast breaking, offense not meant. I Simulated Rose, hope this is working. Will learn from speaking.”

As one, a look of shock and curiosity, and in one case, unrestrained glee, shot across the faces of the royals. This was a completely unforeseen boon to their attempts to communicate. For a moment, Princess Luna had considered the possibility of a bomb, before realizing if they were wanted dead the aliens had easier methods.

After conferring for a moment, Princess Celestia reached a hoof forward and placed it on the button with an audible click. When the light illuminated, she began to speak, awkwardly at first, but picking up as she became comfortable. It was a minute or two of speaking before Twilight poked her softly and spoke, a soft blush crossing Celestia’s face. Apparently she had a habit of getting slightly long winded. With the hoof removed from the device and the yellow light blinking, it was time to wait.

“Talking horses, this is still so weird you know. By the way, how long are you going to make them wait when you can translate that real time? Still better than talking wyverns or something. Watch, the one that was trying to kill me only wanted to say hi.”

“Yeah, I can translate it in real time, but I’m analyzing it to make the program better. I’m nearly done so hold your horses. Oh, fucking hell, really? That’s probably offensive here. Thanks for that.”

It took way too much effort for Rose to keep her light irritation from showing on her chassis’ face. Yeah, Alex was an idiot sometimes, but he was her idiot. After a few more seconds, a lyrical voice flowed from the wireless speaker. It was all a song and dance show from Rose to make things easier, but they hoped it would pay off. In the end, it would be a lot easier to explain what an AI was when they had the proper words.

“Welcome to Equestria. I am Princess Brighid, this my sister Princess Aine, and Princess Boann. Princess Branwen and her husband Prince Aedan, will be back in several days. We look forward to learning about each other in friendship. Hopefully this device will make speaking much easier over time.”

The only thought came to Alex’s mind though all this as he turned to Rose.

“Did they sound Irish to me, or was that something you did on your end of things?”