//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Introductions and intrusions // Story: Hero factory; Equestrian Breakout // by SidwaysStraxus //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle woke up groggily early next morning. “Ugh… I can’t sleep.” She walked over to the window, peering through it; she could see the smoldering crater that had formed at the edge of town. She walked quietly downstairs. “Maybe some reading will put me back to sleep.” “Who” Twilight turned to the window. Sitting on his perch was Owlowiscious. Twilight sparkle managed to smile at here nighttime assistant, even in her tired state. “Good morning Owlowiscious” “Who” “To you” “Who” “To you- right, you’re an owl…” Twilight giggled at her mistake. She looked over at the clock. “Five in the morning? I guess that’s not too early to start the day.” She walked into the kitchen and made her way towards a cupboard marked “in case of pinkie pie; lock cupboard” she opened up the cupboard and pulled out a coffeemaker. Waiting for the water to heat up, she walked over to the window and looked outside. The moon was slowly lowering in the distance, and the soft glow of the sun could be seen coming over the horizon. The streets were empty, and the howl of a timber wolf could be heard coming from the Everfree forest. The sound of the wind slowly blowing through the village made it seem as though the town was deserted. The sky was filled with storm clouds for the storm later that day, and the sunrise illuminated them with colors. “It’s moments like this that make this place seem so peaceful.” Twilight thought. However, the peacefulness of the town was disrupted by a sharp exclamation. “WOAH!” the sound of someone crashing snapped twilight out of her train of thought. She looked toward the source of the noise. She ran outside to find a strange sight. Just outside her door a figure with orange and white armor was face down in the ground. “Oh my goodness! Are you alright?” twilight rushed over to the side of the figure. Upon further inspection, the figure appeared to be bipedal. He had two strange devices he was holding, one seemed to be an object which resembled a small cannon, and the other object resembled a metal shield. “Oh… that smarts…” the figure groaned. “I’ve been through worse though.” The figure struggled to get to his feet, but collapsed to the ground. “Could you give me a hand?” Twilight was perplexed by this predicament; she had hooves, not hands. “Um…” “On second thought, just help me up.” The figure groaned. “My bad for the miscommunication.” Twilight nodded and helped the figure to his feet with her magic. She levitated him inside and set him down on the couch. “You should rest here, you had a nasty fall.” She stated. “Even with that armor, you still might have broken something.” The armored figure nodded. “Sorry if I scared you.” He rubbed the dirt from his eyes. “Was anyone else out there with me?” he looked over to Twilight and pulled a double take. “Is there something wrong?” Twilight asked. “Not really, it’s just equines don’t usually talk where I come from.” He looked around the library from the couch he was on. “Nor can they read…” Twilight was skeptical at the figure’s statement. Every pony in Equestria could read. every pony on the planet even. “You’re not an alien are you?” she questioned. “Well the term ‘alien’ is a bit rude, but I’m not from this planet at all.” He thought for a moment. “Do you have a star chart around here? I probably could show you.” Twilight turned to Owlowiscious and nodded. The owl then flew from his perch and around the library. Then the lavender unicorn realized something. “Oh, how rude of me I haven’t introduced myself; I’m Twilight Sparkle, princess Celestia’s student and the caretaker of the Ponyville library.” The figure stifled a laugh when she told him her name. “I’m sorry, I’m Julius Nex. And I’m a Hero.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at his statement. “Basically, think of it like an interstellar policeman. It’s our job to keep peace in the galaxy.” Owlowiscious flew over to him with a star chart. “Thank you” Nex then looked over the chart rather quickly. “well that’s unexpected.” Twilight walked over and looked at the chart. “Apparently…” he continued. “this galaxy is right next to the one I’m from.” Thunder brushed aside another low hanging branch and stepped into the clearing. In front of him was the tower he saw from earlier. It was larger than he expected. He walked over to the door and knocked lightly on it. “Occupied” Thunder blinked. The tower was too big to be an outhouse. There was a wise guy at the door. He knocked again. “Hey… no speak equestrian” Thunder frowned; he knocked harder on the door. “Go away! I’m reading twilight!” Thunder snapped. “Open the door you wuss!” “Never!” Thunder growled. he briefly considered blasting the door down with his nebula gas cannon, but he wasn’t going to ruin his streak of good behavior… no matter how much the guy deserved it. Without thinking, he knocked on the door again. “What’s the password?” “Password?” Thunder parroted. “Sorry, that was last week.” Thunder was seriously considering whether he should break the door down or not. However, his sensors began acting up. Something powerful was heading his way. He had to hide. Of course, he got one of those bad ideas of how to hide. Princess Celestia flew over the Everfree forest. even though she was the most powerful being in Equestria, she was cautious. Her nightmares seemed to become more realistic with each passing day. “where is it?” she scanned the forest below until she spotted a tower in a large clearing. She flew down and landed in front of the door. “What in the world?” Next to the door was a strange metal statue. “I’ll never understand his taste in art.” She then turned back to the door and knocked. “Who is it?” “It’s Princess Celestia, I’m here to see-” “he’s not here” Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow at the rather rude response from the door guard. “well then-” “he’s not here either” “well-” “no, no one is home, come back never” Celestia frowned. The facility wouldn’t like her breaking the door down again, but this was important royal business. using her magic, she reached over and lifted the statue up, preparing to ram the door down with it. “HEY! Put me down!” Surprised by the voice the princess threw the statue straight through the door, causing a crash and a series of cries of pain from the other side. “Oh God the back of my neck!” “my leg!” “MY ARM!” The Princess cringed with each yelp of pain she heard. A voice chimed in on the intercom from the door. “yeah, nice job breaking it princess.” Finally a small explosion could be heard from far inside the tower, followed closely by a sharp exclamation. “MEDIC!” Several minutes later “Remind me to never put Star Vortex on guard duty again.” Sidways grumbled as princess Celestia walked alongside him. On his back were fresh bandages from his jetpack exploding, caused by the statue from earlier crushing it. “She always has been a brat.” “I’m sorry about that little accident.” Celestia apologized “Don’t be, I would have rigged it with C-4” the green unicorn replied. “Melted it to sludge!” a fiery pegasus called. “pulverized it to powder!” A red filly joined in. “blasted it to kingdom come!” a yellow stallion called. “Have it sliced and diced!” a green earth pony mare finished. Celestia felt a bit better about the whole ordeal. “Is RaThor here, I need to speak with him.” The unicorn stallion nodded. “he’s in the forge as usual.” “Thank you” Celestia turned and walked away. Walking towards the forge where RaThor worked, the temperature rose to beyond what was natural in Equestria, even with the powerful heat wave that had covered the surrounding area. Stepping through the door, she was welcomed with a blast of heat. She looked around the room and called out. “RaThor!” “What is it?” the black and gold unicorn seemingly stepped out of nowhere. “Oh Princess Celestia. It’s been a while, how have you been? ” “Just fine RaThor.” The princess said hastily. “I need some help however…” The Unicorn’s smile faded from his face. “More nightmares?” he thought for a moment. He gestured to a nearby table. “Take a seat, I think this will take a while…” The princess slowly walked toward a workbench with a few seats around it, and the table was cluttered with scrap metal. “sorry bout’ the mess, I was in the middle of crafting.” The stallion sat down at the table. “I’m assuming it doesn’t have anything to do with Discord or Nightmare Moon.” The princess raised an eyebrow at his statement. “The look in your eyes says it all… it’s nothing you’ve seen before. And stop looking at me like I’m reading your mind, it’s annoying.” The stallion snapped. “it’s true that neither of them were in my dream. I don’t know how to describe it… whenever it shows up in my dreams, it’s surrounded by flames…” the princess paused. “And?” “And I can’t do anything to stop it.” “Ya say you just found him out there?” “Eeyup.” “And he was stuck headfirst in the ground?” “Eeyup.” Applejack looked over the unconscious being in front of them. It was most dark grey with spots of orange, and it had a silver head with some rather uncomfortable looking armor upon its shoulders and what appeared to be a cannon in one hand, and some strange device mounted on its back. The figure was about a hundred yards away from the barn, and Big Macintosh had only found him minutes ago. “Common Big Mac, let’s get him in the cart and bring him back to the barn.” Big Macintosh nodded and began to roll the huge metal figure into the cart. Big Macintosh stopped when he saw something. The figures chest plate armor was decorated with a golden machine-like decal that resembled gears in a clock, and in the center of it, a glowing white and cyan circle object with the letter H was attached to the armor. Big Mac looked over at Applejack, who was just as confused as he was. “What do ya reckon it’s supposed to be?” the orange earth pony questioned, and began reaching for the strange object. Before she could react, the figure’s hands shot up and grabbed her hoof before she could touch the glowing insignia. “Whoa nelly!” “Don’t touch.” Applejack looked up. The figure was still unconscious, but she could tell that he said it. She wriggled her hoof free and looked back at Big Macintosh. “Let’s get him back to the barn; I’ll get twilight to look at soon. She’ll probably make heads or tails of this thing.” “Eeyup” *Ring!* Fluttershy got up out of bed and shut off the alarm clock by her bed. She went about her morning routine, fixing breakfast for herself and Angel, brushing her teeth and feeding the animals she took care of. She liked the peace and quiet in the morning. *HOWL* The same peace and quiet that had been interrupted by a very angry wolf. “Eep!” Fluttershy froze and turned to the source of the sound in the Everfree forest, while various animals ran, flew, and scuttled back to their homes in fluttershy’s yard. Something Fluttershy would have done as well, had something not caught her eye; a flash of yellow and grey moving into the forest. “Wait! Stop!” she called, but it wouldn’t listen. As the mysterious figure retreated into the forest, she thought to herself. “He might get hurt if he comes across a wolf.” Though she didn’t like the idea; she had made up her mind. “Angel, watch the house while I’m gone, I mean if you would please…” The rabbit gave a quick salute, and she flew, slowly into the Everfree forest. As she faded from view, angel strolled back into the house. Making sure no one else was around, he snuck over to the closet, pulled out a small white fedora, and stood in the middle of the room, starting to monologue to himself. “You are one of the top Problem Sleuths in the city. Solicitations for your service are numerous in quantity. Compensation, adequate. It is a balmy summer morning. You are feeling particularly hard boiled today.” What will you do? Spike woke up groggily from bed. He yawned, and slowly made his way downstairs for breakfast. “Spike! Are you up yet?” Twilight called from downstairs. “Yeah Twilight” he said, still half asleep as he slowly made his way to the kitchen, and hopped on his chair at the breakfast table. A plate of waffles slid across the table to his spot. “thanks” he muttered. “No problem, mate” Spike stopped and thought for a moment. That wasn’t Twlight’s voice. He looked up and saw, working at the countertop stove an orange and white robot. Of course, this early in the morning, spike couldn’t muster up a proper reaction. “Twilight, why is a robot making us breakfast?” he asked in a very tired voice. Twilight looked up from her plate. “This is Julius Nex. He’s apparently a police robot, or something similar.” “The proper term is a Hero, really.” The robot called over his shoulder. “And, as for breakfast, it’s a thank you for Twilight helping me out when I had a nasty fall.” Spike just shrugged and went back to eating his plate of waffles while Nex turned off the stove. A knock on the library door was heard. Twilight walked to the door. “I’m coming” she called. She opened the door and Applejack walked in. “Mornin’ sugarcube.” The orange mare greeted Twilight. “ah didn’t interrupt anything did I?” “Hello applejack, no we were just finishing breakfast.” “Listen, I found something weird down at the farm, and I think you should go… check it…… out.” Applejack’s voice trailed off as her gaze rested upon Nex, who had just walked into the room. “er… hello.” “GRRRAUGH!!” Thunder threw the broken bits of furniture and machinery of off him. “Note to self. NEVER AGAIN.” He the grumpily started wandering around, not particularly familiar with how he wound up so far in the tower. “step one, teach the door guard a lesson, step two, suck up to the locals so they’ll let me off easy, step three, go home.” He wandered around before picking up a large source off energy moving near him. “Well, thank you for visiting us Celestia, It’s not often we get company here.” “Thank you for helping me with your insight about these nightmares RaThor.” “I’m a psychologist, that’s my job, even you remember that after so long right?” Thunder hid behind a large crate, waiting for them to pass by. Two of them, a black and gold horse, and the one that tried to use him as a battering ram. He stayed quiet until they passed by. “well how’s luna doing anyways?” “Perfectly fine now, but she’s got quite a penchant for those video games.” “I know, Sidways plays online multiplayer with her. Woe betide any player who come across those two.” The princess chuckled “I’m assuming they play the game… what was it called? Team... Fabulous 2?" The stallion burst into laughter. “Remind me to tell you the difference between video games and internet videos again sometime.” Soon, they were out of sight. Thunder followed them before noticing a door to his right. “Datacore access? I guess that would tell me where the heck I am." He walked over and put his hand on the door. At once, and alarm bell started ringing. “Scrap.” No one was prepared for what happened next. Author's Note im sorry to everyone that i didn't get to posting this sooner. i have been quite busy with such distractions such as; Hobbies! (Transformers fall of cybertron) School! And writers block (my own attention span.) Also, i need a few suggestions, i have plans for almost all the HF villians in this story except for Corroder and Meltdown. once again, im sorry this took so long. expect more soon.