"You got the wood, Brisk?" E-30 asked.

"Yeah, right here. We don't have any tools to build with though."

"Don't worry about that." E-30 called on his tiny little helpers, watching as a sea of insect-like metal swarmed the cart filled with wood planks. Comet almost shrieked when they skittered past his hooves. Brisk and Blue Wing stood farther away, and watched as the bots destroyed the planks, and began making a building out it. To them, it was like the house was growing out of the mass of metal bugs.

"I'll replace the material later, but wood works for now." E-30 said as he walked into the still growing house. The trio cautiously followed, making sure they didn't step on any of the builders.

In record time, the construction was complete. E-30 planned on adding to it in the future, but this would do for now. Rooms for each of them, and a basement storage area and workshop. We would need to start stockpiling materials as soon as possible.

Blue Wing stepped forward. "So, if you can build that fast, you don't even need us."

E-30 stopped at that. 'That's right, anything they do I can do faster on my own. Unless...'

He turned to them. "How about I try to make you your own microbot sets? I could make you suits to use them."

Comet's eyes widened as he stepped back. "You're gonna put those inside US?!"

E-30 quickly shook his head. "No, not inside you. Just external armor. Then you can help me build, and help you fight when we need to. You'll definitely need it."

Brisk shrugged. "That sounds good. When do we get it?"

E-30 thought for a second. "We'll wait for the first Moon Steel shipment. I'll want to see how I can get a system to interact with your magic. Right now, I believe we have a party to attend."

The four of them left the house, all of E-30's bots crawling back inside him. Coming from the outskirts and heading into town, normally there would be an increase of ponies, going about their day. That was this morning, however. Now, all the streets were empty, and E-30 had a feeling he knew why. They hadn't been here a full day, and Pinkie had wasted no time in preparing their Welcome Party.

They arrived at the large tree that had apparently been turned into a library. 'This is the second time I've been in a tree building...'

E-30 came forward and knocked. Inside, he heard loud giggling, then a loud shush, followed by "BE QUIET!". All three sounded like they came from Pinkie. The four of them looked at each other, before opening the door.

Unsurprisingly, the group of ponies inside shouted "SURPRISE!" as the lights came on. It looked like everyone in town was here.

E-30 looked around. "Well, this is-"

"Great, right?" Pinkie interrupted. "We don't have just one new pony, but four! Well, three and one human thing!" She went behind them, pushing them forward. "Now, go say hi!"

E-30 wandered around, meeting the new ponies. The trio decided to stay with him, though they didn't have to say anything since all the attention was focused on him.

A different trio, one made of children, came running up to him. The yellow one with a bow spoke first. "HI! My names Apple Bloom! This is Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Welcome to Ponyville! What are you?"

The one named Sweetie Belle elbowed her. He decided to answer. "I'm a human...sort of. I'm new around here." He gestured to the three behind him. "They're new too. Blue Wing, Comet, and Brisk."

The three children didn't seem to care about that last part. The one named Scootaloo came forward. "Do humans get cutie marks?"

E-30 was confused. "Cutie marks? What's that?" At this, the three kids all looked at each other in shock, before loudly talking over one another.

Blue Wing nudged him. "You don't know what a cutie mark is?"

E-30 shook his head. "Obviously not. I'm not from here, remember?"

Blue Wing turned around showing his ass. There was a picture of a pony covered in shadow, crouched low to the ground. "This is mine. Given the circumstances you found us in, I'm sure you can guess what it means. You didn't notice before?"

E-30 huffed. "No, I didn't notice. I wasn't staring at your asses."

Comet smirked. "Didn't you meet Princess Celestia first? I don't see how you could have missed such a huge cutie m-" Comet was cut off when Brisk smacked the back of his head.

At that moment, the three children calmed themselves down, turning back to the group. "A cutie mark tells you what your special talent, or what makes you unique!" Sweetie Belle explained first. Apple Bloom continued "We don't...have ours yet... but we'll get them soon! Because we are..." The three of them took a deep breath.

"THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! YAY!"

All four of them stared with wide eyes at the outburst.

Without missing a beat, they continued as if nothing happened. Scootaloo actually addressed the three ponies next to him. "So, what are YOUR cutie marks?"

The three stallions looked at each other, before showing their marks. Comet's was a picture of fireworks, and Brisk's looked like a wind symbol.

"Cool!" The three fillies said at the same time. Scootaloo imitated Blue Wings cutie mark. "Yours is like a ninja, you must have awesome ninja skills right?"

Blue Wing shrugged. "You could say that."

"So, how did you get your cutie marks? Maybe we could do the same thing!" Apple Bloom asked.

The three stallions looked at each other. "Maybe we can tell you later. We need to go say hi to everyone else."

The four of them walked off as the fillies said "Pleeease?"

E-30 looked at his companions. "So, how did you get them?"

Blue Wing chuckled. "I got mine while sneaking into school after hours. I tried to find the grade book to change my grades. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it, so I had to settle with loosening the screws on my teacher's chair so it fell apart when he sat on it."

Comet went next. "I got mine when I set off a huge fireworks spell in the halls on the last day of one school year."

Brisk finished. "Got caught shoplifting as a kid. I bolted out of there, and they never had a chance at catching up. After that, I joined the track team at school."

E-30 shook his head and laughed. "You guys are a bunch of degenerates, aren't you?"

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared, pushing a cart with a small cake on it. "Here you go E-30! I made this one specially for you."

'That sounds ominous.'

It looked like a normal cake. He hesitantly cut a piece, and instantly felt something off. There was something hard inside. He picked the piece up and looked at it. There were metal bolts baked into the cake.

He looked at Pinkie. "...What is this?"

She just smiled wider. "You're made of metal, right? Well, I figured you must also eat metal too! I wanted to try the cake, but the last time I ate metal didn't go so well."

E-30 looked back at the cake. Aside from the bolts, it looked okay. 'Shouldn't be a problem, I guess.' He ate the piece, and he could feel his robots rushing to break down the bolts as they traveled down his throat.

'Okay, I hate that feeling immensely'

The cake was good, however. "Thanks, Pinkie." She bounced up and down. "Your welcome!"

As she bounced away, a familiar form approached. It was different from the rest of the ponies here. It was a zebra.

'The same zebra I stole from. Great.'

She stared at him "I am Zecora, from the home in the woods. I believe you are the one who stole my goods."

E-30 felt embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry about that. I can help you get more if you need it."

Zecora continued to stare. Finally, she smiled. "You are a friendly creature, I'm told. Perhaps we can let friendship take hold?"

E-30 relaxed. "That sounds great, thanks."

Zecora nodded. "Farewell then friend, but I must warn you. Evil in the woods begins to brew."

With that, she left the party. The four looked at each other grimly. Twilight walked over to them, looking the same. "Zecora told you right? After the party, we'll need to begin planning our search efforts."

E-30 agreed. "Yeah, the sooner the better. We can't give him any time to prepare. In fact, I'll be getting more Moon Steel soon, so maybe you can help me with it."

Twilight's eyes widened at this. "Of course! Thank you for allowing me! I've always been trying to get some, but it's so hard to get a good quantity of. I'd love to test it magical capacity when-" And just like that, she cheered up talking about all the things she would do with the metal. E-30 hoped she would be able to help him make better use of it.

Applejack came up to him, looking amused. "Pinkie wants you to lift that table. Reenact that thing you did at the factory, y'know?"

E-30 laughed, heading over to the table, where Pinkie was in the middle of pantomiming lifting something over her head. When she saw him, she said "Ooh, there he is! Come on, lift the table!" She jump up, deciding to stand on the table. He laughed, before crouching down and lifting the table off the ground. Compared to the giant crucible, this was nothing.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered, before scrambling up him to get on top of the table too. Seeing this, there was a surge of ponies all finding their way on top of the table. In the back of his mind, he noticed a low power sign. 'Right. Not too dire, but I've got to figure that out.'

"Alright, that's enough. You're gonna break the table." He said as he put it back on the ground. They all laughed, getting off and resuming their conversations.

He turned to his friends. The three were laughing at his antics, but he could tell they were impressed.

The party was beginning to ebb, so he and his crew left. He had to get ready for that first shipment. 'Hopefully, I can recreate it on my own. That stuff is going to be very useful.'