It was a beautiful day in Ponyville, the sun was shining, birds were singing and ponies were going about their daily lives. Above the citizens, on a roof a robotic changling stood. She was scanning the various ponies to attempt a disguise as this was her first time out of Celestial Labs and while Beaker had allowed her to leave it was under a few conditions. The changling, designated 5W-4P or Swap was currently blending in with the roofing so as not to attract undue attention to herself as her disguise matrix attempted to come up with a way to simulate a living pony, as opposed to a robotic one. Swap ran through her options, selecting one that used mostly her Holograpic Projection system. She deactivated her cloaking device and shifted with a slight buzzing sound, a smoother look appearing over her body, robotic sections covered by panels, her eyes attempting to take on a more natural look from the normal robotic iris. A cutiemark appeared on her flank, a image of two ponies and a half circle arrow over and under them, forming a circle. Swap lifts a hoof up and looks it over "hmmm. it looks perfect, even my laser cannon seems like a normal pony leg now. I suppose i could attempt a normal pony interaction." She moved to the edge of the roof and peered over the edge, getting ready to leap down when a sudden voice behind her sounded "HEY! what are you doing up here?" Swap looked over and saw a cyan pegasus hovering there, flapping her wings, her rainbow mane and tail shifting in the slight breeze. Swap did a quick assesment of herself, nothing she still had her horn and could pass as a unicorn. She paused a little and then in a hesitant manner, trying not to sound as robotic-y "I came up here to see what it looks like from above?" the cyan mare seemed to think a little bit and then flew away, most likely satified with that answer. Swap wiped her brow "that was a close one. Perhaps I should return home to find out more about interactions before returning to this place...." something pink shot by her and she turned to look to see what it was, coming to a halt at the sudden appearance of a pink pony on the roof next to her. The Pink pony began to speak a mile a minute, Swaps translation matrix going into overdrive as it attempted to process the sudden information, only picking out the words "Im Pinkie Pie, Party and New to Town." the rest was lost in translation. Pinkie bounced around the new pony on the roof, causing Swap to step backwards some, not realizing she was stepping toward the roof edge. Pinkie noticed and zoomed forward "HEYCAREFULYOULLFALL!" her sudden outburst attracted the attention of the ponies below, some of whom gathered around. Swap stepped back and raised a hoof to cover her face and mis stepped, falling off the roof and toward the ground. the stone ground greeted her and everything went black. Pinkie stopped on the roof, her mouth hanging open, her hoof outstretched. There was gasps from below and she darted down "please dont be dead, please dont be dea.....wha?" for once even the pink pony was stumped. IN the center of the crowd where the new pony had fallen was a changling, but it looked....different from a normal changling. Ponies stopped to stare, some speaking softly "did it come to try to take over?" "maybe there is more then one of them!" "it could be a scout, sent to spy on us" Twilight came pushing through the crowd a little bit, having been in the marketplace when the pony had fallen. She walked up to the strange changling and stared at it, tapping with with a hoof and she frowned "its made of metal...." Pinkie came over "is she dead?" Twilight shook her head "no....but its made of metal..." Pinkie brightens a little and darts off. a beep sounded and a section of lines on the metal changling lit up green, sparks flying out of a section of it. Twilight backed away, as did a few other ponies. Swap slowly powered on, one of her eyes lighting up, the other one sparking a bit, cracks across the glass. She blinks and across her working eye
"Rebooting System......
Recovery drive active.......Error.
left Optic damaged. screen damage detected." She slowly stands up, noticing the crowd
"Cloaking system offline.
disguise matrix offline.
warning. laser cannon damaged. Attempting to use will cause further damage. setting firing limit to 8. " she lifted her hoof cannon and stared at it, assessing the damage
'"Multiple external fractures detected. Internal regulation system offline." she peers around at the crowd, ears flicking a little
"8 laser shots allowed.
FLight systems operational. Error. Unable to activate. left panel unable to open." Swap began to feel a little panic, hearing the sounds of the crowd and seeing them as she came to the conculsion "my weapons are damaged and I cant fix them here. I cant flee either....can I?" she continued to run her systems check
"Horn undamaged. Magic system active. Magical charge at 3%. unable to teleport. Recharge at earliest convience." She backed up, pressed against the building behind her.
"Relocate to new location for extraction as per directive 27-5Q....." Swap tried to step to the side, but her left back left faltered, hissing and sparking and a fresh error message popped onto her eye
"Error: Left Rear Leg critical damage. Unable to relocate." Swap looked up, her good eye noticing that the purple pony in front of the crowd was stepping toward her. She opened her mouth but a garbled sound came out
"Auditory system malfunction. Possible cause from impact. Activating secondary auditory unit." while this was going on some of the ponies were talking "what is that noise its making?" "I think it might be trying to talk" "maybe it cant?" "that seems possible" Twilight took a few more steps toward it when it started to make the garbled sound and she stopped "Hello? can you understand me?" she jumped back at a buzz sound from the chest region of the strange changling. A panel flipped, revealing a speaker. It crackled a little and then gave a faint buzz "I hear you, Do not approach me." Twilight paused, a hoof in the air "is that a threat? Are you hear to attack us?" Swaps good eye focuses, the iris narrowing, a red targeting icon appearing along with a WARNING message, displaying the data once more about her damaged hoof cannon and that she only had 8 blast before it would shut down to prevent catastrophic overload. Swap cycled through her defences, once again finding most of them down and then a surprise
"Audio Supression System online. Activate?" She told it no for the time being but kept it active just in case she needed it. the Audio Supression system used a loud ear shattering sound to disable any and all biological ponies to allow for escape in the event of being compromised. Twilight took a step forward and Swaps ears went down, she bared her robotic fangs and hissed through her speaker "STAY BACK. I dont want to hurt anypony!" Unknown to her though, upon becoming damaged her system had sent out a distress call.
Inside of Celestial Labs, past the skeletal remains of the ponies who used to work there, the only pony still living there, a young filly in her teens was awakened by a loud blaring from one of her computers. She wakes up and stumbles over to the computer, looking it over
"Recovery Requested
Spy Unit 5W-4P damaged and compromised." Beakers eyes went wide and she grabbed a few of her tools and her wrist computer. She ran down the hall, grabbing a walkie in her magic "Daddy we need to get to the town quickly! Swap is in trouble!" She ran toward the entrance of the labs and tapped on her computer "bring up the blueprints for 5W-4P and any spare parts we have to my lab. I want them there when i return." the computer clicks a few times "Yes Miss Beaker." in the lobby a rust red robotic stallion was waiting. His yellow eyes rotated to look at the filly as she ran up and jumped onto his back, typing into her wrist computer "do not worry, we are coing to get you." She looks at the robot under her "go daddy go! she could be in trouble!" the stallion nods, twin side panels opening and a pair of thrusters extending outward and powering up, lifting them and sending them flying toward Ponyville at a rapid clip.
Back in Ponyville Twilight was doing her best to keep ponies back from the odd metal changling. It didnt seem to be threatening, but it was injured and anytime somepony got close it would hiss and lift up one leg, which would make a slight whining sound and glow at the end. From above Rainbow Dash was watching, wondering if she could dive down fast enough and catch the changling off guard, maybe help to capture it. She dove down at the changling, not aware that Twilight was trying to keep everyone away for a reason. Swap was keeping a watch on everypony around when across her good eye a message clicked into view "We are coming. Do not worry." Swap blinked a few times to dismiss the message, catching something racing toward her. She quickly rolled over onto her back, hoof cannon in the air and fired off two quick shots. The first one missed, but the second one grazed Raimbows wing, singing the feathers, sending the cyan mare into a crash nearby. Rainbow got up and looked flustered "ILL GET YOU FOR THAT!" she charged toward Swap, who leveled her hoof cannon again, aiming at the cyan mares head. Twilight got between the two quickly "RAINBOW STOP! shes defending herself, im trying to keep everypony away....." Rainbow tried to push past twilight "SHE DID SOMETHING THOUGH!" Twilight pushes Rainbow back "only because you were dive bombing her. Just stay back...." Swap slowly lowered her hoof cannon, which was smoking slightly and sparking in several places. Her ammo counter was down to 6 and she pressed against the building, still hissing if anyone got what she felt was too close. Unfortunatly for her a few ponies were starting to get bold and move closer toward her. Swap brought up the activation for the Audio Supression System. A high pitching whine/humming fell upon everyponys ears and they began to look around, wondering what it was. Swap looked up as her system recognized the hum of thrusters. B14-Z3 or Blaze shot over the crowd, folded in his thrusters and hit the ground with a loud THUD. Beaker leapt off his back and ran over to Swap "diagnostic mode now." Swaps good eye flashed a few times "Recognized Beaker. Accepting command." a small section of her neck slide open and Beaker plugged her little computer into it "mmmm i cant fix this much damage here...." Blaze had deployed a set of twin miniguns, a laser turret and one saw blade launcher and was menacing the crowd "Beaker we need to get out of here. NOW." Beaker looked over "I know daddy i know, just hang on." She removed a screwdriver from her tool pouch and jabbed the tip into the bent panel over Swaps thruster system and added pressure. for a few seconds nothing happened and then with a BANG the panel burst open. Swap extended a set of smaller thrusters, the twin turbines whirring into life silently and Beaker leapt onto her back "go go!" Blaze extended his own thrusters and leapt into the air, the turbines bursting to life, kicking up dust, the three leaving the ponies in the crowd in a coughing fit as they flew off. Twilight had covered her eyes and when the dust settled she magiced up some paper and a quill, sketching from memory the cutiemark she had seen on the rust colored robot. It looked like Celestias, but incased in a shield symbol. She wrote a note, asking if Princess Celestia had any idea about the odd marking and strange ponies, giving it to spike to send.
Swap and Blaze landed on the roof of Celestial Labs on the one clean landing pad. A hiss sounded and it began to lower into the building. Beaker gave Blaze a hug and he jumped off, leaving the espionage robot with her. Swap was sitting down, letting Beaker look her over "I'm not letting you out again for a while...until the dust from this settles." Swap nods "I will attempt to find a better way to learn next time." Beaker nodded as the elevator stopped, a wall hissing open to show her lab, a worktable, spare parts and her computer showing Swaps blueprints in detail on it. She had Swap get on the table and then shut her down, begining the repairs and occasionally clucking her tongue "you did a number on yourself....i wonder what happened."
In Canterlot Celestia recieved the letter from Twilight and opened it up, her eyes going wide as she scanned the contents and then made her way to the royal archives. The archivist greeted her warmly and asked "how might i help you Princess? Looking for anything in particular?" Celestia nodded a little bit "I need to see anything and everything we have on Celestial Labs.....
TO BE CONTINUED!
