Chapter 23: The Abandoned Survivor

The Mane 6 and the Princesses watched as the Shuttle flew off into the sky, carrying their enemy with it.

Twilight sighed in frustration

"They got away! I can't believe it!"

"Do not worry Twilight, I'm sure we'll be able to stop them soon, as I am certain they will return." Celestia said to her former student.

"I can always fly after them" Dash suggested

"There is no point in pursuing them currently, they will be headed out of the atmosphere, where we can't follow."

Rarity walked out with Fluttershy, who came limping along as the joined their friends.

"Did you get those ruffians?"

"No Rarity, they got away" Twilight responded

"Oh dear, what ever shall we do? They are free to cause more chaos!"

"Do not worry my little ponies, I am sure we will defeat them soon enough" Celestia said, attempting to reassure her subjects, before she and her sister flew off to go check on the Guardsponies. The group walked back inside.

All of the Droids in the room were dead, except the blue and white R4 Unit, who was over in the corner, shaking and with a smoking hole in his body. Almost all of his panels were open, exposing the various tools within. Clearly the accidental shot from Twilight caused an overload in his systems.

"Maybe this little feller knows somethin'" Applejack said gesturing to it.

The group approached the Astromech, who slowly began to roll back ways away from them and let out a low almost moan-like sound of fear, as it began to shake further, clearly terrified.

"Hold on little feller, we ain't gonna hurt ya'" Applejack said, trying to reassure the small machine that displayed nothing but terror to them right now.

They continued to slowly step closer.

Suddenly a few panels on its chest popped open, and a set of small claws and a zapper popped out. Then R4 unit then rolled into the corner and sat there shaking, clearly ready to defend itself.

Fluttershy limped forwards, and gave a small smile at the small droid.

"Umm…" she began in her soft voice "excuse me, you don't have to be afraid. What my friend Twilight did was an accident. We don't want to hurt you, we just want to talk" she said, trying to be as friendly as possible

The Astromech seemed to understand her and trust her a little better, because it retracted a few of its arms and seemed to shake less.

"My names Fluttershy, can you tell me yours… if that's okay with you?"

The R4 unit simply beeped its name in Droidspeak, R4-F6

"I'm sorry, um, could you say that again?

The R4 unit beeped again, saying that its name in droid speak, as it was the only language it was capable of speaking.

"I'm sorry Twilight" she said, turning to face her "I don't understand what it's saying."

"We'll take it back to the castle, see if we can find a translation spell"

"Okay." She turned to face the Droid again "Would, um, would you like to come with us?"

The Droid shook its head no.

Twilight stepped forwards

"That wasn't really a question, we need to analyze you."

The droid shook its head again and extended its zapper again, and held it out towards the group as it began to roll towards the stairs. Suddenly Applejack whipped out her trusty lasso skills and coiled her rope around the droid, attempting to pull it over. The droid simply rolled backwards, and extended a circular saw from its chest, cutting the rope of and continuing its escape.

R4-F6 was preparing to try and make a flying leap down the stairs when it was surrounded by a purple aura and held in the air.

Twilight pulled him over to her with her magic.

"Listen here you little rascal, you're coming with us-OW!" Twilight said as he extended its small claw arms and pinched her nose and cheeks, causing her to drop him.

The Droid attempted to turn and run again, only for Rarity to grasp him with her magic at a safe distance. Well, she thought it was safe.

The droid extended a small hose and began to spew oil all over her from it.

"EW EW EW!" She said, as Twilight zapped it with a stun blast of magic. The droid let out a small whimper and fell limp.

The droid was dropped to the floor, and Applejack tied around it with more rope, making sure to hold its saw panel shut.

"Ugh, this is going to take forever to clean out!" Rarity said, as he tried to wipe the oil off her coat with a towel. "Just who the hay does this little ruffian think he is to attack such fashion!"

Applejack pushed the droid upright , and began to pull it on its wheels by a rope.

"Alright, let's get this little troublemaker back to town."

Twilight said, beginning to walk down the stairs.

"When I get back I'm going to the spa!" Rarity said quickly following her."

Back in Ponyville, the Mane 6 all entered the Castle of Friendship. Outside, many of the Guardsponies were having a small party, for their first real victory, drinking cider and such in a drunk-like state.

Inside, the Mane 6 were sitting around the cutie map, discussing the day's events and waiting for the captured Droid to reactivate for questioning.

Rarity looked well refreshed, having gone to the spa as she declared, and Fluttershy had bandaging around her front legs and right wing, to help her heal from her Blaster injuries.

Spike entered through the door with a Unicorn Pony,, who had been examining destroyed Battle Droids by order of Princess Celestia.

"Hey Twi! Check this out!" Spike said excitedly.

"What?"

The sound of 2 sets of metal footsteps were heard behind him, and 2 battered reassembled Battle Droid walked in.

Twilight got into her combat pose, opening her wings

"Behind you!"

"No no wait! He said "Glowing Brilliance here managed to figure out how they work! Well, sort of. Turns out their actually pretty simple, all the computer bits are in their head.

"So what did you do with these two?"

Glowing Brilliance, the unicorn who was studying the Droids, walked forwards with the 2 Droids following her.

"Well, I sort of worked with a magic spell, that swaps somepony's perceptions. Basically they're brainwashed to be on our side. Normally the Princesses would forbid this as it would be cruel to living things, but she let me do it because these things aren't technically alive."

"Fascinating! Can we do it to them all?" Twilight asked

"Well, no. You have to interface directly with their central control systems in their head, and it takes a few minutes for them to reboot with the desired effect. And it turns out… these things aren't all that… clever." She said "but at least they're on our side."

"Well we knew that, we distracted some earlier with rocks!"'Rainbow Dash blurted out.

The Droids stepped up to Twilight and saluted her.

"What are your orders commander?"

"I don't have any, um… what's your name?"

"I am B1-28401!

"I am B1-77356!

"Can we just call ya One an Two?" Applejack said "your real names are mighty technical and I'm not the one for all that."

"Roger Roger sir!"

"I'm a mare!" Applejack said, annoyed

"Oh, um yes sir, uh mare… sir." The droid said, obviously not understanding that being a mare made her a ma'am.

"So…" Twilight began "can they understand the little guy over there?" She said, gesturing to the inactive R4 Unit.

"Roger Roger! What are your orders?"

"Wake him up, I want to talk to him."

1&2 walked over to R4-F6, and pounded on his head. The droid's motor activated and he hummed to life. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He thought maybe he'd been rescued! But… wait there were ponies in the room. Not these blasted morons again he thought.

They all came over and sat down in front of the droid.

"So, let's start over again, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy." She said smiling "who are you?"

The droid extended one of its small arms to its face and face palmed, letting out small grumbles before repeating his name, which 1&2 translated for the ponies.

"RA-F6? What do you all have names of letters and numbers?"

R4 explained that it was a designation code, no different than her own other than not sounding ridiculous like hers and her friends.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash said "our names aren't ridiculous! They're awesome!"

R4-F6 ignored her.

"We need you to tell us a little bit more about your friends, the Confederacy as they called themselves" Twilight said, shifting the conversation.

R4-F6 shook his head.

"No?" Twilight said in bit of shock, expecting the droid to behave nicer now that they weren't fighting. "But if you don't tell us about their strategies or anything, many ponies could die!"

R4-F6 simply stated that he didn't care about them, as he didn't like them anyways. He continued by saying even if he wanted to, he was forbidden by protocol from revealing info to enemies.

"Come on, please?" She said, making her puppy eyes face again.

The droid simply refused again.

"Fine, then we'll have to do this the hard way. Fluttershy, stare."

Fluttershy turned to Twilight

"But, um, I really don't like to do the stare, remember?"

"These things aren't alive Fluttershy, could you please just do it."

"Okay… okay…" she said to herself as she stood up and let out her angry glare on the Astromech.

The droid turned it's head away, only for her to turn it back.

The droid began to whine a bit, but ultimately was unaffected.

"What?! But, the stare always works!" Twilight exclaimed

"Not always, it didn't work on Discord, remember?"

"Hmm… Discord! That's it! Maybe we need a little chaos to crack him!"