Super Pony Taisen

by Valsion

SPT Chapter 2

Two weeks have passed and never before has a letter caused such a commotion. The archeological society of Canterlot and the engineers association were gathering with the princesses to prepare for studying the steel ship as they called it. Princess Celestia has requested for the elements of harmony to stay at the dig site offering to send servants from the castle to take care of their duties in Ponyville as well as bits from the royal treasury to make up for eventual losses. But right now she made her way through the marble hallways with her sister by her side. She already heard the chatter of the archeologists as well as the engineers who have been summoned due to the mechanical nature of the ship.

“Are you nervous sister?” Luna's inquiry shook Celestia out of her thoughts. Her eyes still on the large wooden doors that lead to the meeting hall she sighed. “Of course Luna, the time before our birth is a mystery even to us and finding such an artifact.” The smaller Alicorn understood what her sister meant. They did not even know where they really came from and everything before they 'came to be' was completely unknown to them. That is why they always had a soft spot for archeology. “I know what you mean Tia, but maybe this steel ship can finally provide us with some answers.” Luna smiled weakly she still feels guilty about Nightmare Moon and tries her best to hide her discomfort.

Finally they reached the door and Celestia wasted no time opening it. As they entered the hall the chatter of the scientists ceased and they stood up and bowed respectfully to the Princesses. The large hall consisted of three rows of benches on either side of the room as well as two thrones for Celestia and Luna. One Celestias side were white banners with a sun symbol on the wall and blue banners with a moon symbol on Lunas side.

As the alicorn sisters reachd their thrones the sun princess looked into the crowds before finally speaking. “Please rise, we are here to discuss an important matter.” Almost in synch the scientists stopped bowing and sat back down and Celestia continued. “The subject for today’s meeting is the steel ship found in the coltave desert. Professor Strata, could you please read Professor Diggers report to us?”

At this a green earth pony with a brown mane rose from his seat. He cleared his throat and levitated a scroll out of his bag and in front of himself then he began to read. “The object in question is a ship-like structure made out of steel hence why we call it steel-ship. The age is unknown as well as who build it.”

With a deep breath the Professor continued with the description. “It has a large drill for a bow, the buzz saw in the middle seems to be made to keep rocks from hitting the tower behind it. Said tower seems to be the bridge of the steel-ship. We have also found what looked like cannons on top and on the side of the ship indicating that it was made for fighting.” Strata wanted to avoid using the word 'war'. Equestria in all of it's history only came close to a war once. At this he nervously glanced at Princess Luna who held her head down in shame as if she knew what he was thinking.

“There are wings on the side at the length of the tower and at the back there were several openings. We believe that these openings are some sort of propulsion system.” With that he finished describing the steel-ship and continued with the rest of the report. “While cleaning the hull the Pegasi have found what looks like an entrance for personnel on the side as well as four large openings above the wings, two on each side. The personnel entrance height and length indicate that this ship was made for bipedal creatures with an average height of 1.8 meters. Professor Digger is currently waiting for the engineering team to arrive so they can take a look inside.” With that he concluded the report and looked at the princesses expectantly.

“Thank you, Professor Strata.” After a polite nod the Professor sat back down and Princess Celestia turned to the other side of the room. “I trust that your engineering teams will find out how the technology of the steel-ship works Professor Clockwork.”

The rows of the engineers were only half full. Engineering was not a very lucrative field in Equestria despite there being those who could call themselves 'royal engineers'. After all why would you need technology if magic can do the job just as well. Engineers and machinery were mostly used in towns and cities with a little to non existing unicorn population and even those mostly just worked with whatever they got. Such a technological masterpiece was unfortunately far beyond their current understanding.

A brown unicorn with a metallic silver mane rose from his seat. “I'm afraid that's hard to tell. From what we heard whoever built the steel-ship must have been technologically far more advanced than us.” He closed his eyes and began thinking. “The only way to actually figure out how the steel-ship works would be to go inside and try to use it. Experimental trial and error if you wish.” He opened his eyes again and looked expectantly at the sun princess.

“Thank you for your honest answer Professor Clockwork.” Again the nodded politely in at him. “We now know roughly what they found but we still don't know what exactly we are dealing with. I would recommend that we adjourn this meeting and continue as soon as we get the reports from the engineering teams that have been sent to investigate.”

Various murmurs of approval resonated through the hall. “So it is decided. The meeting will be adjourned and we will continue as soon as we get a report of the engineering teams.”

With that the meeting concluded and the scientists left the hall, most of them chatting among themselves.

The princesses were still sitting on their thrones. Celestia looked at her younger sister who kept quiet during the whole meeting. “Please tell me what's bothering you.”

The night princess was taken by surprise but quickly composed herself and whispered. “Oh, it's nothing.” But her older sister didn't believe her. “You are still feeling guilty are you?” The smaller alicorn wanted to protest but was cut off. “You know that nopony blames you.” A tear rolled down Luna's cheek. “I do.” With those words the younger alicorn ran off before her sister could stop her. Celestia could only watch and hope that the damage that Nightmare Moon and the banishment have done to her sister would heal.

While the meeting took place Twilight had already welcomed the two dozen engineers that were sent to study the steel-ship. They got almost all of the exterior cleaned up and were now waiting for the first trip inside the metal monstrosity. Pinkie Pie, Spike and Rainbow Dash were most excited about this, they would spend most of their time at the makeshift guard stations that were set up on the openings above the wing trying to get a look inside. Even Rarity and Fluttershy were intrigues by the ship even though the timid pegasus pony was more afraid then interested.

After their descend it took them a few moments to shake the engineers out of their stupor.

“This is amazing.” Said Spark, a blue Unicorn with a blond, frizzled mane and what looks like a thunderbolt for a cutie mark. “If whoever built this must have been at least a thousand years ahead of us in technology.” The rest of his colleagues chattered enthusiastically among each other.

Then Professor Digger stepped forward. “We have already made out an entry point.” The archeologist pointed to a rope bridge that has been build on the side of the tunnel leading all the way up to one of the wings. “There are some opening just above the wings. We'll take those to enter.” The other scientists nodded in agreement and followed the Professor.

Professor Digger, the engineer teams and Twilight and her friends made their way across the bridge. They had Rainbow Dash carry Pinkie as they discovered that the giddy pony made the rope bridge sway in dangerous ways. “This is so exciting we couldn't go inside for so long but now we can finally take a look inside oh I'm so excited about what this thing looks like inside.” The pink party pony rambled on but Rainbow Dash was not annoyed this time.

“I know this is gonna be so cool I hope they have lasers in there that would be so awesome.”

Twilight sighed at the wild imagination of her friend as they arrived before the entrance. Professor Digger spoke briefly to the guard stationed in front and then they could finally go inside.

As they went through the long tunnels, miners helmets on their heads they first noticed the rail that led apparently all the way to the back. Fluttershy first refused to go inside until they promised her that there was absolutely no danger inside and Spike was carrying a lantern for Rarity because she didn't want to wear 'one of those ugly hats'-
Twilight walked next to the chief engineer Spark. “What do you think this rail is for Professor Spark?”

The other unicorn turned his head around. “Oh please Ms. I'm no Professor, just call me Spark. As for the rails, I don't know but there's a theory that you can use rails for a slingshot-like launch system where a hook gets attached to the object you want to launch and that hook speeds the object along the rails until the rails end and the object gets propelled forward.”

“So they launched something with this?” Twilight asked.

Spark just shrugged. “It's the most likely answer since the rails lead directly outside but the question is what.”

Suddenly one of the engineers yelled. “Come quick there's something written on the wall!”

The other ponies ran towards the engineer who called them. Their miners helmets illuminated the words on the wall.

“I know this writing.” Professor Digger stepped directly in front of the wall. “This is the same old writing style I found in some other ruins.” The Professor squinted his eyes and concentrated on the writing. “Ku-ro-ga-ne launch dock 4.”

Spark came up right next to the Professor. “I knew these rails were for launching something but what's a Kurogane?”

Professor Digger shrugged. “I guess it's the name of this ship.”

Pinkie Pie meanwhile bounced past the engineer team. “Oh Kurogane, I like that name. Nice to meet you Kuro!” The others gave her a puzzled look as she said hello to the ancient artifact.

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Kurogane, sounds cool. It sounds like a name for a superhero.” She struck a pose to emphasize her point.

“There's a door here!” One of the ponies has continued to look around while the others looked at the writing. The rest of the team galloped over to where the voice was coming from. In front of a steel door with no handle. Spark looked at the door confused. “How do we open a door without a handle?” He looked around trying to think when he saw a pad with several buttons on it at the side of the door.

“Could this be used to open the door? Stand back everypony I'm going to try and get this unlocked” Every pony took a step back as he reached into the pad with his magic trying to make sense of it but before he could do anything something happened. The rest of the ponies gasped as a little glass window on the pad started to glow with a green light.

Spark too gasped as he noticed the glow. “Incredible, this device absorbed my magic.” He smiled now that he knew how to power this ship but that smile fell as he realized what this the buttons and numbers on the pad meant. “Oh no, we're gonna need a code to open this door.”

“May I try it?” Everypony turned around to look at the yellow earth pony who just spoke. His name was Cogwheel. He had a steel gray mane that was kept short, wore thin brimmed glasses his cutie mark was a pair of cogwheels.

Everypony was a little confused but Spark still stepped aside to let him try. Cogwheel was now in front of the pad. He had to lean on the wall to reach it but as he was high enough he held his hoof in front of the pad and closed his eyes in concentration. Twilight and her friends, Professor Digger, Spark and the rest of the engineering team stared with fascination as Cogwheel slowly started to put in number after number.

With a last click the pad started beeping and the door opened up. “The code is 519372.”
Cogwheel turned to the rest of the ponies who stared at him with disbelief. Twilight was the first to recover. “But... HOW? How did you get the code right? ON THE FIRST TRY?”

Cogwheel rubbed the back of his head. “Well, I always had a... connection with machines. In fact I got my cutie mark on a school trip when we visited a factory. One of the machines was busted and the repairponies were trying to figure out what was wrong. I was curious and took a closer look and as I touched the machine I somehow just knew what was wrong.”

Pinkie Pie let out a loud gasp. “Oh my gosh. That's just like my Pinkie sense just with machines. This is so awesome.” Faster then it should be possible the pink pony rushed to Cogwheels side and pulled him into a hug. Twilight meanwhile decided that if it was really like the pinkie-sense she shouldn't challenge her luck again. Instead she suggested that they moved on and everypony was more than happy to oblige.

They moved through the steel corridors of the ship with every single hoofstep vibrating through the halls. Rarity's interest in the ship slowly started to diminish. “Did the builders of this ship have no sense of style at all? Nothing but cold metal wherever you look. I really need to spruce this place up.” The other ponies just wondered how the fashionista could possibly think about renovating an ancient artifact of unknown age and origin. The only one who wasn't put off by her sense of priorities was the purple dragon on Twilights back.
“I'm sure you could turn this thing into something amazing Rarity.”

“Oh why thank you Spike.” The white unicorn looked pleased that at least someone agreed with her while Spike just had a giddy grin on his face.

Then the ponies come to an intersection. “Now wich way?” Twilight asked. Spark trotted up next to her. “I'd say you and your friends come with me and half of the team while the other half explores the right side. Cogwheel, you stay here so that we can easily reach you in case we run into any mechanisms that we can't figure out ourselves. Alright then, let's go.”

The two teams went their ways and soon enough Twilights team reached another door and Spark stopped the team. “Hold on. We'll try this door.” Spark lit his horn and transferred some of his magic into the keypad next to the wall. As it came to life he used the code given by Cogwheel and the door opened.

As they entered the room the first thing they noticed were several open pod-like objects on the wall. They were open and inside of them were seats that had strange sticks with red buttons on them on the armrests and upon closer inspection they saw pedals on the bottom as well as a glass panel with a board full of buttons below directly in front of whoever sat in the chair.

“What in tarnation are all these for?” Applejack asked while inspecting all the deviced inside of the pod.

Rainbow Dash was also puzzled by these strange seats. “Hey Twilight do you think you can power the whole room?”

“I'll try.” With that Twilight focused her magic and slowly fed it to the machines in the room. Everyponies eyes went wide as light started to flood the room revealing another door behind them as well as a large window. The glass panels inside the pods started to display what looked like the desert outside. Finally Twilights horn stopped glowing. “Okay that should do it.”

“Well done Ms. Sparkle. Could you take a look at this please? The rest of the engineers please see what's in that other room.” Spark called over from the last pod on the wall. As Twilight trotted over to the pod she noticed that the glass display in this pod not only showed a desert landscape but also some numbers and bars on the sides. The most notable thing was the bipedal shape in the upper right corner. It looked like it was wearing armor plates. The hands and feet were covered with heavy boots and gauntlets, the shoulders were triangular and the head was mostly faceless with some sort of slit where the eyes should be and almost horse-ear like flaps on top of it. Spike stood on Twilights back looking over her head. “What is that thing Twilight?”

Twilight was thinking but she couldn't think of anything similar to this. “I don't know Spike but I'm going to get a closer look.” Spike hopped off of her and the unicorn went into the pod. It was strange to sit like that, the only pony that could comfortably sit in this chair was probably Lyra. Then came a shout from the other room.

“We have some sort of control panel over here.”

“Is it for these seats?” Spark shouted back.

“No idea we're going to try one of these buttons.”

Immediately after the engineer said that a startled cry came from Twilights pod.

“TWI!” Applejack tried to stop the pod that was closing, trapping the unicorn inside but to no avail. “DASH! Go'n get Cogwheel!” The Pegasus immediately darted out of the door and through the hallway.

Fluttershy looked ready to cry while Rarity tapped her hoof on the pod. “Oh my goodness, are you alright Twilight?”

From inside the pod came a slightly muffled reply. “Don't worry I'm fine.”

“Don't worry Twi, Dash's getting that Cogwheel fella. He'll get ya outta there lickety split.”
Twilight felt comforted by Applejacks reassurance but as her fear melted away she got curios about the mechanisms.

The first thing she tried were the pedals and since she couldn't reach them with her hoofs she used her magic to push them down. Suddenly the pod started to vibrate alarming the ponies outside while the landscape on the display in front of Twilight started to move as if she was moving forward. Startled she lost her magic grip on the pedals and the pod and the display stopped.

“Twilight darling, what are you doing in there?”

“I don't know Rarity I just pushed down the pedals and the landscape in the display moved as if I was moving forward.”

Twilight heard something drumming on top of the pod.

“Do it again, do it again.”

It was obvious that Pinkie Pie wanted to have some fun with the pod and Twilight decided to indulge her and pushed the pedals again.

“T-t-t-t-this i-i-i-is fu-u-u-u-n.”

While Pinkie was shaking on top of the pod Twilight was inspecting the other devices inside the pod. She poked at the sticks on the armrests and noticed that they could be moved forwards and backwards. She pushed both of them forwards and now the display showed two, gauntlets covered blue arms that seem to come from Twilight.

“Spark! I think I found out what these pods are. They are some sort of training devices for piloting that bipedal thing we saw on the display. It's some sort of vehicle.”

Before Spark could reply the door to the room opened and Dash darted in with Cogwheel in her arms. The poor pony looked shaken but he quickly regained his composure and asked.

“Where is the control panel?”

Spark led him to the other room and just a few seconds later Twilights pod opened.
Fluttershy tackled the purple unicorn down and hugged her as she came out of the pod. Their reunion was cut short as Cogwheel came up to them and took a look at the pod himself.

“Thanks for getting me out of there.”

“Not at all Ms. Sparkle.”

Suddenly a pegasus pony from the other team bolted through the door panting heavily.

“Come quick. We found something huge!” He said between breaths.

Everypony galloped after the pegasus who was remarkably fast for barely being able to breath. They came through another door into a huge hall and what they saw made them all gasp especailly Twilight and Spark. The steel giant in front of them stood at least 20 meters tall with blue armore covering it. The hands and feet were covered in what looks like heavy boots and gauntlets. The helmet showed no face except a red slit where the eyes should be and had two flat 'ears' on top of it. It was the same thing Twilight saw in the pod.

Everypony stood in awe at the sight while Fluttershy hid behind Applejack but Twilight had a glimmer in her eyes.

“It's... beautiful.”

Everypony forgot their stupor and instead gave Twilight a weird look.

Deep underground in the Everfree Forest the tall dog-like creatures known as diamond dogs were digging. But this time it was not for gems. Nightmare Moon herself descended into their mines and promised them a lot of diligent and most importantly quiet unicorn slaves if they helped her find a treasure she buried long ago. The dark alicorn did not take over the body of her ex-host Luna in a mere moment. She had moments in which she took control without Luna remembering and with the heavy depressions she felt back then it was easy to fill her mind with false memories to keep her from getting suspicious about the sudden blank spots.

The diamond dogs already found the underground ruins Nightmare Moon chose as a hiding spot for her treasure a thousand years ago and now it was just a matter of time until the key to her victory was dug out and she could crush Celestia, Luna and the elements of Harmony. “I found it, I found it!” The sudden yell of a diamond dog broke Nightmare Moon out of her daydream. She immediately teleported herself to the chamber where the yell came from. Large parts of the chamber were still covered with dirt but the most important part was right at the end of the chamber.

Nightmare Moons horn glowed as she removed the dirt from the large stone plate in front of her by herself. The last thing she needed is one of those dirt-dwellers to ruin the plate by scratching it up with their dirty but still very sharp and durable claws. In less than a minute the stone plate stood clean before her as if it was never buried and the words carved into the stone were now readable. Magic spells and instructions for the creation of giant golems. Not just pathetic small golems barely any bigger than a pony but huge monsters that can tear cities apart. Nightmare Moon began to chuckle, that chuckle turned into an evil laugh that caused the diamond dogs in the chamber to cower in fear.

As she finally calmed down she had a cold smirk on her face. “Now there's only one thing missing.” As if on command a small diamond dog, barely the size of a pony filly meekly stepped into the room. “M-mistress, I-I've returned.” Nightmare Moon turned to see the spy she sent to Ponyville to spy on the elements.

“Ah yes, what can you tell me about the current situation of the elements of harmony?”

The spy gulped in fear. “They were not there.”

“WHAT!” Dark flames engulfed the dark alicorn. This was bad. What if they were in Canterlot. If they were so close to the princesses she could not harm them before either Celestia or Luna found out. “WHERE ARE THEY!”

The small dog was cowering on the ground, covering his head with his arms. “I found out t-that they are in the c-coltave desert helping some pony called Professor D-digger.”

Suddenly Nightmare Moons rage stopped. Her furious expression changed into one of surprise until it finally grew into a wicked grin.

“In the desert. Far away from the Princesses or any civilization. This is perfect.”

One of the braver diamond dogs slowly approached her. “Does this mean we get the unicorn slaves?” The dog flinched as the alicorn turned to him but despite his fears she still seemed happy. “Oh have patience. I have to overthrow the false queens first but afterward I will give you your unicorn slaves. And a muzzle for each and every one of them.” Nightmare Moon was not lying. She figured out that giving them to the diamond dogs would be a fitting punishment for all the unicorns that refuse to obey her after the became queen.

“Now, I want you to clear out the rest of the ground in this chamber.” Then she pointed at a magic circle that was drawn on the stone plate. “And then you take some chalk and draw that symbol on the ground.” Her feature grew darker again. “But don't dare to mess this up. If a single line is off I will turn you into one of the gems you love so much. I will now go to rest. Do not wake me up before the circle is finished.” With those final words she teleported away to prepare for the spell she would cast soon. The diamond dog gulped. “You heard her. Clear the grounds and get me the best drawers you can find.” Half of the dogs in the chamber started clearing the grounds while the other half darted off to into the other parts of the ruins to find some drawers. Rex, the diamond dog in charge wondered meanwhile. Was it really a good idea to follow the orders of the evil alicorn?

One week has passed and everypony on the dig side has been busy with the new discoveries inside the Kurogane. They quickly decided that the best course of action was to try and reactivate the large steel statue or Gespenst MK II Type TT, as it was written on the side of them, to learn more about it. Twilight volunteered to be the test pilot and spend the week inside the simulator pod for training while the engineers were trying to get it fixed up to the best of their knowledge. They couldn't really make much sense of all the wires and circuits so they limited themselves to just replacing everything that looked damaged with something that filled a similar role.

The Gespenst was in a remarkably good state so the repairs were quickly finished but there were still other similar objects in the hangar. Some other Gespensts wich appearently also came in red, green and white. Some of them had three metal rods on one hand.

There were also two other steel statues in white and yellow that were different from the Gespensts. Their heads were rounder in form and without ears, on each hand were three metal tubes and on the shoulders were large barrel-like objects. Professor Digger translated their name as 'Schutzwald'.

Lastly there was one 'Guarlion' a much slimmer steel statue. It's body actually very thin and there were what looked like small fins on the side of each of the shoulders.

They learned that the hangar and the launch dock were connected and that the slits on the wall were in fact not decoration but a large door. After they were done with the repairs Twilight and several other unicorns levitated the Gespenst outside were they build a tent around it to protect it from the sand until the test drive.

The next day the dig side was bustling with activity. The engineers were checking the Gespenst one last time before the test drive. Twilight was already sitting inside of the cockpit while Spike was on the framework that was errected for maintenance and entering.
He was busy writing down a report for Princess Celestia.

Dear Princess Celestia,

you will be pleased to know that we learn more and more about the steel-ship or Kurogane and that we even managed to reactivate one of the steel statues we reported to you last week. In fact I am going to perform a test drive shortly.

If everything goes well I'm sure that we will find many uses for these marvelous pieces of technology.

We will continue exploring the rest of the ship after the test drive.

Please wish me luck.

Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.

Spike send the letter to the Princess and wished Twilight good luck himself as the cockpit hatch closed and the dragon made his way outside where the others were waiting to watch.

He sat down next to Rarity of course who was wearing a sun hat and sunglasses.

Fluttershy was next to her shaking a bit in anticipation and also because she was worried that something might go wrong.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie on the other hand were just as excited as Spike and Pinkie even got some popcorn from... somewhere.

“Oh my gosh this is gonna be so cool! I can't wait to see that steel statue moving.” Rainbow Dash was fidgeting in her seat the anticipation was almost driving her insane.

“Ah know sugarcube this trip turned out to be not so boring after all.” Agreed Applejack next to her.

Some pegasi then flew to the tent and pulled it open. Everypony leaned forward eager to see the Gespenst in action.

Suddenly Pinkie started to shake all over. “D-doozy!”

Rarity and the others looked fearful at their shaking friend. This was the worst possible time for a doozy.

Twilight was sitting in the cockpit meditating one more minute. Since they couldn't refit the cockpit for a pony yet she would have to use her magic to move the Gespenst but she trained the entire week for this. She took a glance at the numbers and bars on her display.

After learning a bit about the ancient language the builders of the Kurogane and the Gespenst used she found out that these numbers, bars and the Gespenst in the corner were there to show her the status of the steel statue. Energy, armo, speed some navigational devices. Finally the tent was opened and she prepared to move out as she saw something moving near the camp. First she thought it was a mirage as the sand rose in one spot but it was real. The sand near the camp started to build up and formed two large, bulky arms and a head. It was a sand golem but nothing Twilight has ever seen before. It was huge, almost the size of the Gespenst. The golem then started to move heading directly for the viewer seats they had set up for the test drive. Twilight gasped.

“It's going to attack us.”

The ponies on the ground were in panic. Many were running away, the pegasi took off into the sky. Some ponies headed underground while others were too shocked to move.

Fluttershy was one of the latter ponies and only stared wide eyed at the large sand creature that was getting closer. Rainbow Dash saw that Fluttershy was too scared to move and headed back to grab her but she would not be able to reach her in time.

Fluttershy still couldn't move and instead closed her eyes as the sand golem raised one of it's bulky arms. She waited for the end but instead she heard the sound of something heavy hitting the sand. As she opened her eyes she saw Twilights Gespenst with one fist buried in the golems shoulder causing the raised arm to collapse.

Rainbow Dash reached Fluttershy and couldn't help but stare at the two giants.

Inside the cockpit Twilight pushed a button to activate the speakers.

“DASH! Take Fluttershy and get her to safety.” She threw another punch to the golems head while Dash followed her lead and took off with Fluttershy in her hoofs.

Then the golem suddenly grabbed the Gespensts head with the other arm and lifted her off the ground. Twilight was shocked at the golems strenght and before she could react the golems other arm regenerated and he punched the steel statue. The punch hurled Twilight several a good dozen meters away and the golem threw some of its sand at the fleeing pegasi.

The sand has hit Rainbow Dash who couldn't fly so fast because of Fluttershy and knocked her out. Then the golem made its way to the unconcious pegasi.

Twilight groaned inside of the cockpit. The impact shook her up pretty badly and blood was running out of her nose after she hit her nose on the pad in front of her. Then she saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy on the ground and the sand golem almost reached them. Frantically she got the Gespenst to stand up again and acivated the thrusters, making her glide over the sand. She would not make it in time.

All Twilight could think of was 'I need to save them, I can't let them die!' Then something new popped up on the display it read 'T-Link Ripper ready' Twilight briefly wondered what a T-Link Ripper was as she saw one of the buttons she was still unfamiliar with light up. Desperate to save her friends she pushed the button.

Rainbow Dash slowly came back to her senses. She stood up but her legs were still wobbly and she coughed up some sand. Then she noticed a huge shadow covering her and looked up at the giant sand fist that was raised above her. Now even she was too afraid to move as she stared at what was certainly her doom. But instead she just heard a sound like a boomerang flying through the air as two green glowing disks flew through the air and slammed into the golem, ripping huge chunks of sand away. Rainbow Dash managed to cover her eyes in time as the sand rained down on her.

Twilight couldn't believe it. After she pushed the button two compartments opened on the Gespensts sides and two metal disks floated out of them. Blades popped out of them and started to rotate. The T-Link Rippers started to glow bright green as they flew towards the golem tearing away the sand and revealing a large red orb.

Sudden realization hit Twilight. Of course, a golem of this size needs some sort of power core to hold it's form up. With new hope Twilight speeded towards the golem. As she reached it the golem slowly started to reform itself. She barely managed to grab the core before sand covered it again.

Twilight started to press the core between the Gespensts hands as one of the sand golems arms regenerated. It lifted the arm to bring it down on Twilight but before the huge arm could reach her the core shattered with a loud crack and the sand instead harmlessly rained down on her.

Twilight was completely motionless in the cockpit. She won, she seriously defeated a gigantic sand golem. As she saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy behind the now crumbled golem she smiled. That smile grew into a laugh of relieve.

“Thank you Gespenst. Thank you for saving my friends.”

The few ponies that were still nearby remained silent at first but then began to cheer at Twilights spectacular victory.

Above them a dark purple cloud hovered in the air. For the very first time Nightmare Moon was speechless. She couldn't possibly foresee THIS. Now the element of surprise was ruined and worse, they had something that could defeat her giant golems. There was no other choice now, she would have to prepare for war.

Authors note: Aaand the second chapter is done. This is the first fight scene I've ever written and I hope you all like it. Unfortunately I'm still currently without beta reader so until I can find someone I'll just have to revise the chapters if one of you can find errors so please leave comments and (constuvtive) criticism.