Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity visit the DELOS resort, whose motto is "Boy, do we have a vacation for you." And boy do they . . . possibly their last.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity are visiting the DELOS resort. It consists of 3 worlds where guests can live out their every fantasy. There's Aviworld; the fast and furious lifestyle of Ancient Pegasopolis. Magicworld; nobility and magic duels of Ye Olde Canterlot. And Dodgeworld; adventures in the Dodge settlements of the Equestrian mid-west. Each world is maintained by reliable cybermagic technology, and run by lifelike robot ponies. The robots are programmed to provide guests with an unforgettable vacation, and the technology is designed to provide all of it in complete safety. Here one can relieve frustrations and satisfy desires; all in a controlled environment. The trio of friends know they'll enjoy their stay at DELOS; the ultimate resort where nothing can possibly go wrong . . . go wrong . . . go wrong . . . gooooo wwwwwrrrrrooooonnnnnggggg.
Ponified adaptation of Michael Crichton's Westworld.
"Hi, Mary Sue of DELOS again. For those of you who don't know what DELOS is . . . well, as we've always said, 'DELOS is the vacation spot to end all vacation spots'. At DELOS, you get your choice of the vacation you want; there's Aviworld, Magicworld, and of course, Dodgeworld. Let's talk to some of the ponies who've been there . . . pardon me sir, what's your name?"
"Huh? Oh I see . . . I'm Fancypants and this is my wife Fleur de Lis, and we just got back from Dodgeworld."
"Tell us how you liked it."
"We've always had an interest in how earth ponies manage to get through the hardships of life without magic, and if the words of acquaintances back home are anything to go on, I'd say that Dodgeworld does a truly splendid job of recreating their lifestyle in a way that's easily accessible to not just ponies, but to all sentient creatures on this planet of ours. All in all, I give this resort the highest of passing marks."
"Thank you . . . and you ma'am?"
"Yes?"
"What is your name?"
"Oh, I'm Raindrops, and I've spent the past few days in Magicworld."
"Tell us how it felt being a pegasus in a world themed around the typical unicorn lifestyle."
"I'll admit I thought it'd be impossible to gel with nobility, but they don't see commoners as intrusive in Magicworld, rather they see us as getting a taste of what we'll never have in the outside world. Looking at it that way, they treated me with the same respect and indifference that they treat each other with both at the resort and in regular life. Simply put, I had a wonderful time."
"Thank you . . . and how about you sir?"
"My name's Jib Jab and, you're not going to believe this, I've been the sheriff of Dodgeworld for the past week and a half."
"Did it feel real to you, being the sheriff?"
"It's the realest thing I've ever done, I mean that."
". . . And what about you Mr . . . ?"
"Filthy Rich, and I've spent the last few days in Aviworld."
"Tell us how the staff keeps earth ponies such as yourself safe and sound up on a cloud."
"Well, earth ponies and unicorns are required to wear these specially designed horseshoes that allow the wearer to walk on clouds like a pegasus; kind of like the cloud walking spell unicorns often use except the effects are continuous. As a backup safeguard, non-winged guests are required to wear parachute saddlebags that deploy when the cord is pulled. By the way, I'd like to say that, despite my lack of wings, I had the most enjoyable vacation of my entire life and encourage anypony who can afford it to visit this most magnificent resort."
"Thank you Mr. Rich . . . well, those were some comments of ponies who've just returned from DELOS. Why don't you make arrangements to take our airship to Aviworld, Magicworld, and Dodgeworld? Was it worth the thousand bits a day?"
"Yeah!"
"It sure was!"
"Heck yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"Yes!"
"Of course!"
"YEEEAAAHHH!!!"
"Contact us today, or, see your travel agent. Boy, have we got a vacation for you."
The landscape that made up Equestria's western coast was rocky and violent; hundred meter high cliffs jutted out into the sea, waves bombarded the bases of said cliffs causing them to break apart, and little to no vegetation could be found along most of the coastline. It was these factors that turned many potential settlers away from this side of the country and build towns along Equestria's other three coastlines instead. All of this did have a bright side, however, to the owners of the DELOS corporation; the biggest privately-owned company to operate within Princess Celestia's jurisdiction. It gave them lots of free space which they had used to build what they touted to be the vacation resort to end them all.
DELOS was founded in the year 955 S.M. (Solar Millennium) by a small group of earth ponies for the purpose of bringing to their kind many of the abilities possessed by pegasi and unicorns through technological means. Now, 50 years later, their products are owned and operated by over 84% of Equestria's pony population. Such success led the company's owners to branch out into other areas, one of which being amusement and the DELOS resort being a by-product of this expansion.
Built little more than a year ago, the DELOS resort has generated over 1 million bits in revenue for the company thus far, with projections for the next year being twice as much. The resort rests on an island located about 5 miles off Equestria's western coast, with the only official method of transportation between said island and the mainland being the Kazum Airship, which makes exactly one trip everyday between the two destinations. Said airship was currently making its trip for the day to the DELOS resort, with about 50 out of a possible 80 seats being occupied by passengers. Three of these passengers, however, were quite special compared to the rest.
"Boy howdy, Ah can't wait to live like my forefathers did way back when," Applejack stated as she read from a DELOS brochure.
"Applejack, darling, you already do at Sweet Apple Acres," Rarity teased, reading from her own brochure.
Applejack huffed. "What the hay is that supposed ta mean?"
"C'mon girls," Rainbow Dash said from her own seat behind them, "we're here to have fun, not bicker and moan about each others' lifestyles."
The unicorn and earth pony sighed and returned to reading their brochures. Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, returned to her fantasizing about becoming the speed queen of Aviworld. Between the three of them they had enough bits for three days each at the DELOS resort starting tomorrow, which Rainbow hoped would be enough to make an everlasting impression on the staff. After all, she wanted everypony she came across to remember that she was the fastest flyer in all of Equestria and always would be.
The prismatic pegasus was interrupted from her fantasies, however, by the flight stewardess' voice over the loudspeaker at the front of the airship. "Your attention please, we will soon be arriving at DELOS. Once you've exited the airship, head to the front gate of your selected world. Further instructions will be given once there."
"Best vacation ever, here we come!" Rainbow shouted, much to the annoyance/embarrassment of her two friends.
About five minutes later the airship Kazum landed on a concrete plaza overlooking the neighboring sea. As Applejack stepped onto the exit ramp, a sudden gust of wind blew her hat right off her head. Panicking, she frantically tried to grab it back, but to her disappointment it landed in the water out of anypony's reach.
Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who were just behind their blonde maned friend, were about to offer their services to retrieve AJ's hat when a lasso was thrown from beyond their peripheral vision by somepony unknown to them. The lasso landed right on the stetson hat, neatly wrapping around it in the process, before a sudden tug yanked it right out of the water and back up onto the ramp.
"Y'all might wanna be careful Miss, cause the winds around here can get mighty strong."
Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all turned around to see a stallion holding the lasso's other end in his mouth. He had a goldenrod coat that shined brilliantly in the afternoon sun, a dark brown mane atop of which he wore a stetson hat just like Applejack's, and bright blue eyes. His Cutie Mark was, fittingly enough, a picture of a twirling lasso. Applejack extended a hoof out in greeting.
"Thank ya so very kindly sir; you have no idea just how important my hat is to me."
The stallion extended his own hoof and shook AJ's. "I reckon I can understand that. I'm Prickly Pear by the way."
"Applejack, and it's a pleasure ta make yer acquaintance."
"Well c'mon Applejack, let's walk and talk."
As the two country ponies set off toward the gates, Rarity and Rainbow Dash remained fixed to their spots in disbelief.
"When did we turn invisible!?" Dash exclaimed.
Rarity, meanwhile, simply shrugged and sighed. "Why can't I find a gentlecolt like him?"
Rainbow sighed herself and began flying towards the Aviworld gate. "See ya Rarity."
"Goodbye Rainbow Dash," Rarity called back. And with that, she began making her way to the Magicworld gate.
Applejack and Prickly Pear chatted the whole walk to Dodgeworld. The more they learned about each other, the more Applejack saw the potential for a strong friendship between herself and him.
Prickly lived on the outskirts of Hiddenite where he worked as a shepherd for his parents' sheep ranch. The story of how he got his Cutie Mark was remarkable; he had woken up extra early one day to check on the sheep, only to find them all gone and an entire side of the corral torn apart. His father had been teaching him how to use a lasso for herding, and Prickly decided then was the best time to see if he'd gotten the hang of it. Picking up a nearby rope and tying it appropriately, he set off to locate the missing herd. After a few minutes he found them, wandering aimlessly around a large outcropping of rocks. Using a stick to fling a nearby rattlesnake toward the rear of the herd, he managed to get the sheep running. Using his well-toned hooves, he managed to come up alongside the leader and, with one good swing of his lasso, got the rope around the sheep's body and began the nerve wracking (to him) process of guiding the herd back into their pen. By the time he made it back inside, his parents were up, who were quick to inform him of his newly acquired cutie mark. He'd been herding those same sheep ever since. It all reminded Applejack of the many times she stopped various herds from stampeding through Ponyville, with snakes being the most common provocation.
Applejack wasn't the only one interested in hearing about past experiences, however; Prickly Pear was just as (if not more) interested in hearing about Applejack's life as an apple farmer/Element Bearer. He enjoyed hearing the various stories of how she and her friends would wield the Elements of Harmony against every foe they themselves took down. Prickly was also interested in learning more about what the Element Bearers were like in their day to day lives, especially the two they had left at the gates: Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Applejack couldn't help but admire Prickly's uncommon interest in the smaller/simpler aspects of life.
When it came to talking about their destination, however, AJ realized she'd need Prickly's guidance if she wanted to make the most of her vacation. As soon as their destination came up in the conversation, Prickly took it upon himself to make it clear just how truthful all the advertisements about DELOS are. When they say everything is designed to feel as authentic as possible they mean it, and first time visitors can easily feel nervous or hesitant to trust all the safety regulations. Applejack, of course, made it clear she wasn't afraid of anything the resort had to offer and simply asked Prickly to help her have as much fun as possible. Prickly could do nothing but smile and agree to her request.
After walking for about 20 minutes, the country duo finally came upon the Dodgeworld reception building. With goosebumps spreading all over her body, AJ followed Prickly inside to check in to her room. Maintaining the front desk, AJ saw, was an older mare with a short white mane, light brown coat, and also wearing a stetson hat.
Figures, Applejack thought, Ah'll bet my left hind leg everypony here's gonna be wearing my hat's family members.
The mare was reading some papers out of Applejack's view behind the desk, and didn't even acknowledge the two of them until Prickly spoke to her.
"Hello, me and my friend here just arrived and need a couple 'uh rooms; preferably right next to one another."
The mare looked up from her papers and seemed to "analyze" them for lack of a better term. She moved her head and eyes all over both of them a couple of times before smiling and getting up from her seat to retrieve a couple of keys behind her.
"Enjoy your stay in Dodgeworld," she said to them, hoofing the keys over. "For food, dinner's at seven and breakfast's at six thirty; eat lunch on your own. It don't look like much here but, we have everything."
She immediately resumed looking over the papers. AJ couldn't help but be a little unnerved by the mare's monotone way of speaking, and she decided to speak to Prickly about it once they were back outside.
"Hey Prickly, Ah've got a question; what was up with the receptionist in there?"
"Whadd'ya mean?" he asked.
"Ah mean she's . . . not normal."
Prickly smiled. "Well AJ, she isn't exactly a normal mare in the first place."
Applejack blinked. "Ya mean she's one of them robots?"
Prickly nodded.
"Is the whole staff made up'a robots?"
Prickly laughed. "Almost. If ya want, I could point out all the real, live ones so ya have somepony to talk to other than me."
Applejack blushed. "Well, thank ya but no thank ya, I'll get used to it."
"Suit yourself," Prickly replied as they began making their way to the hotel.
Located about one mile above the island, Aviworld was the quickest to reach of the resort's three worlds. Like the old city of Pegasopolis, as well as all pegasi establishments that came afterwards, Aviworld was made entirely out of cloudstuff. As for keeping the floating world from leaving the island, pegasi technicians constantly monitored air currents swirling around the base and made adjustments whenever necessary. As to the appearance of the world itself, one thing was clear: the resort's designers had done their homework.
Rainbow Dash looked around Aviworld in awe of the sights. The entire world had been designed to resemble a giant colosseum, with the center used for aerial jousts and the surrounding wall housing the hotel, steam baths, dining hall, and armory among other things. All throughout the structure there hung replicate paintings of Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy as well as other pegasi soldiers who must've had some historical significance if they were featured alongside their leaders. Several statues of Commander Hurricane alone also adorned several spots around the world, to which Rainbow pondered the accuracy of in regards to the actual Pegasopolis before shrugging and making her way to her room.
"Let's see . . . 4 . . . 8 . . . 15, ah here we go, room 16."
Rainbow used the key to her room and went inside. Looking around, Dash found the room somewhat quaint compared to the outside structure. It consisted of the typical stuff one would find in a hotel room: a couple of mid-sized beds, a desk, a nightstand with a candle atop it, and a window looking out over the island while the bathroom consisted of a sink, toilet, and simple one-pony shower. All of this was, however, built to resemble an actual ancient pegasopolian hotel room.
With a grunt, Dash heaved her belongings against the wall and plopped down onto one of the beds, intending to take a good, long power nap. She didn't get the chance, however, as she heard a knock at her room's door before she could so much as blink.
"Oh for pony's sake, come in!"
-----
Received response:Come in.
Scanning for intent clarification . . . intent deemed positive.
Initiate greeting protocol+query:"Good afternoon, would you care for a tour of Aviworld?"
Awaiting response . . . response received.
Received response: Ummm, no thanks; I was just about to catch some Z's.
Scanning for intent clarification . . . intent deemed negative.
Query: Denied
Initiate secondary query:"Would you like anything else then?"
Awaiting response . . . response received.
Received response: No thanks, just leave for now.
Scanning for intent clarification . . . intent deemed negative.
Secondary query: Denied
Exit: Granted
Walking protocol initiated . . .
The DELOS resort's two land based worlds took up the bulk of the island's space, with the CCC (Cyber Control Center) and the front gates filling in the rest. Between Dodgeworld and Magicworld, however, Dodgeworld covered more landmass. This was because in order to truly simulate the atmosphere and situations one would experience in the old Dodge settlements a vast expanse of land was needed to recreate the deserts surrounding said settlements, in stark contrast to Magicworld where the common nobility tended to stay indoors and idly chat with one another. As such, Magicworld was crammed alongside the island's eastern coast to make room for more desert.
Upon depositing her luggage in her room at the hotel, Rarity decided to stroll around the world and take in the sights before dinner started. Looking around, Rarity saw that (assuming Ye Olde Canterlot's depiction here was accurate) the capitol city of Equestria hadn't changed its aesthetics too much over the last millennium. The city's building motif still consisted of spiraling towers and everything was constructed with only the most exquisite of building materials. As she looked around, Rarity even saw some buildings that she immediately recognized from her various trips to modern day Canterlot, albeit with lower structural quality. The increasing sense of familiarity left Rarity wondering why the Princesses were so hesitant to change Canterlot's appearance by the time she arrived at the Royal Palace for dinner.
Even the home of Equestria's rulers was identical to its modern counterpart in design and aesthetics. The only noticeable difference, as far as Rarity could see, was that everywhere the royal insignia would be there was instead the stylized purple D of the DELOS corporation. Rarity couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the Ds emblazoned on the uniforms of the robotic guard ponies, as it totally clashed with the golden armor they were wearing. Even funnier was the fact that the real Royal Guard ponies were every bit as robotic as these actual robots.
Making her way into the dining hall along with the rest of Magicworld's guests, Rarity was amazed at the glorious banquet provided to the guests: present were potato wedges, hay fries, apples, oranges, bread & butter, flower sandwiches, applejack, lemonade, and so much more.
It's official, Rarity thought to herself, I'm in paradise.
Before guests started serving themselves, however, a procession of trumpets played from the opposite end of the room from the food. Rarity looked over to see several robot-guards parting before . . . something. Craning her neck to see better, Rarity gasped at what she saw: an alicorn stallion strode behind the guards in a most dignified yet still joyful manner. He wore a purple robe adorned with several types of jewels and rimmed in white while a crown much like Celestia's sat atop his head. He had a black mane with a white streak splitting it down the middle while his coat was a moderate gray and his eyes a light blue. As the alicorn stallion came closer, however, Rarity saw something embedded in his leg that made her heart sink: a bolt.
He's another robot . . .
Sighing in frustration, Rarity stood attentive like all the other guests. Once the alicorn stallion was standing in the center of the room where everypony could see him clearly, he raised his right front hoof and began speaking in a monotone, yet surprisingly soothing in Rarity's mind, voice to them all.
"Greetings guests. For those of you unaware of my identity, I am King H.D. and I welcome you all to partake in this magnificent feast prepared by the castle chefs. You may now dine."
And with that, King H.D. turned around and walked back the way he came as all the guests began to take up plates and eating utensils and head over to the food, ready to fill up and chat idly.
Sleeping in a hotel was quite an unusual experience for Applejack. Sure, she was familiar with sleeping in stuff other than her own bed back home, but there was something about hotels that set this apart from all of AJ's previous experiences. Since she couldn't pinpoint exactly the feeling was, she dismissed the thought altogether and performed her typical early morning routine: get up, stretch, shower, and lastly put on her stetson. Once she was done, she left her hotel room and walked down the central hallway toward the outside where she and Prickly Pear agreed to meet before going to breakfast together.
Upon coming outside, Applejack took the opportunity to observe her surroundings. Having visited Dodge Junction before, Applejack could see that the resort's designers put a lot of effort into accurately depicting the look and feel of the old timey town and its accompanying settlements. Looking down the street both ways she spotted the sheriff's office/jail, saloon, post office, and other things she knew existed in Dodge Junction; all constructed to look exactly like their authentic counterparts. Even though Applejack had visited various Dodge settlements before, she had never truly gotten the chance to live like one would about a century ago when the area was first being settled. With this vacation, however, she could do just that.
"Like the sights, huh?"
Startled, Applejack turned to see Prickly staring out over the mock town as well.
"Sweet Celestia, Prickly! You're gonna give me a heart attack if'n ya keep that up."
Prickly just chuckled in response. "C'mon, let's go have breakfast."
They made their way next door to the hotel's dining room. Like everywhere else in Dodgeworld, it was designed to look like it came straight out of the past. Applejack counted 7 other guests eating when they entered and sat at the bar. The bartender came up to them shortly afterwards.
"What'll it be you two?"
"Ummm, I'll have some warm milk and eggs," Applejack responded.
The bartender just stared at her blankly, eliciting a confused expression from Applejack.
"Just get us two ciders and hay fries," Prickly said, then gestured to Applejack with his head. "She's new in town."
"Very well," the bartender stated, then left to pull together their orders.
"What was that all about?" AJ asked Prickly.
Prickly looked at her with a slight smirk and leaned forward, resting his front hooves onto the counter. "Remember that I'm the expert on fitting in around here, and if'n ya wanna do just that then heed my advice. For all intents and purposes, we're livin' in the early days of Dodge Junction right now. And in those early days they didn't serve eggs n' warm milk for breakfast."
Applejack listened to his words with interest and pondered them in her head before the bartender returned with their fries and ciders. Looking over the food, Applejack noticed the hay fries weren't deep-fried like she was used to; rather, they were steamed. Looking into her cider drink next, she actually found it to be very similar in appearance and texture to her family's homemade cider. This made Applejack realize just how old-fashioned her family's methods were. Not that she was complaining, or going to do anything about it, of course.
Shrugging her shoulders, Applejack took hold of her cider and was about to take a swig from it when a bump from behind caused her to spill some over the front of her body. "Oh for the love of hay," she whined as she turned to look at who bumped into her.
What she saw contrasted from what she expected. Instead of a cockney-ed, smug little jerk she gazed upon a stallion whose entire body seemed to be polished to a shine. He had a pure brown coat with a black mane and wore a white stetson atop his head. What really puzzled AJ was the stallion's Cutie Mark; D-S-01.
"Say uh, Prickly," AJ said as she pointed towards the unusual stallion, "what's up with his cutie mark?"
Prickly looked around AJ toward the stallion. Applejack couldn't see it, but Prickly's smile turned into a scowl at the sight of him.
"That's one of the resort's robots; more specifically one of the villains."
Applejack turned back to him. "Villains?"
Prickly looked her in the eyes. "Each world has a robot programmed to act as a villain so any guests feelin' up to it can be the hero and take 'em down. Not everypony in the past was righteous Applejack; there were outlaws every now and then, which makes them a necessary attraction to this resort. Now, Ah'm no robotics expert or nothin, but I'd imagine his Cutie Mark is some kinda production or model number or somethin'. It helps too, since otherwise-"
"Sloppy with your drink?"
Prickly and AJ briefly looked over at the robot stallion as he turned his head back to his own cider glass and took a gulp of it.
"Why that little varmit, thinkin' he can push me around and accuse me of being sloppy with my cider that I only spilled because he bumped me. I swear, I'm gonna give him-"
Prickly placed a hoof on AJ's shoulder. "In a minute AJ, let me finish talking."
Giving the robot a scowl of her own, AJ turned back to face Prickly.
"Anyway, like I was sayin'- it helps too, since otherwise it'd be darn near impossible tellin' robots from real ponyfolk. That's how good them technicians are with this stuff."
"You said he was this world's villain," Applejack said. "What's he called?"
"Jack O'Bones," Prickly answered. "All ya really need ta know 'bout him is that he's programmed to believe he owns this town. Just give 'im a good buck to the face and you'll put 'im outta commission for the rest of today."
Applejack smiled at the thought of payback and turned to walk over to Jack O'Bones. He was finishing his cider when Applejack tapped him on the shoulder. He slowly turned his head to face her, never once blinking or changing his expression.
"Now lookie here," Applejack told him, "Ah don't take too kindly ta anypony, even robotic ones, treatin' me like Ah'm a bucking bag. Now y'all best apologize fer makin' me spill my drink if'n ya wanna leave this room intact."
Jack O'Bones didn't respond for several moments to which AJ figured his circuits and stuff were processing everything she told him. When he did, he said it with no emotion, programmed or otherwise.
"Make me."
"All right, you asked for it."
AJ turned around and positioned her hind legs accordingly. Jack O'Bones' evasive protocol couldn't initiate in time as AJ kicked straight upwards into his metallic face. The sound of smashed titanium filled the room as onlookers watched with expressions varying from shock to smug as Jack O'Bones was launched into the nearest wall where he then fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, an indentation vaguely resembling him now present on the wall above him.
Applejack did nothing but take deep breaths for a while after finishing her deed. To her it felt so good to relieve her frustration with him directly onto him and not being held back by anypony. It was something her family said to her throughout her whole foalhood: frustration taken out on a perceived enemy only makes them frustrated in turn, to which they then take out on you in return in a continuous cycle. With these DELOS robots, however, such a cycle would never happen; they had no emotions, no free will, and only what little knowledge they were programmed with to function properly and accordingly. It was one of the many appeals of the DELOS resort, and Applejack found it very appealing.
"Wow," Prickly said from behind Applejack. "You pulverized him."
AJ turned around and smirked. "Years of applebuckin'," she proudly stated, flexing her hind legs.
By the time a couple of unicorn technicians had arrived to cart off the smashed robot for its daily check-up, Applejack and Prickly Pear had finished their breakfast and were heading out the door to explore Dodgeworld and see what kinds of fun they could have in it.
With each section of the DELOS resort being based on different places throughout Equestria's history, it's only natural that they'd have their own unique activities for guests to participate in. No effort was put in to make each world's entertainment value equal with one another as that wasn't the point. Each world was designed to stay true to the overall atmosphere of the place and time period it was themed after, so it's to be expected that each one would have a different assortment and quantity of activities to provide entertainment. To this end, Rainbow Dash had made a smart decision in choosing Aviworld for her stay, not just because she was a Pegasus, but also because her need for speed gelled perfectly with the lifestyle Ancient Pegasopolians had.
Currently, the cyan pegasus was strolling around the Cloudosseum that made up the bulk of Aviworld, looking for something where she could show off her top-tier speed. About halfway around the walkway from her room she spotted a line of ponies waiting to get through a door leading toward the central airyard where aerial jousts were held. Upon seeing this, Dash realized this was the line to get into said jousts.
Perfect, she thought, now I can show everypony my stuff.
With that she jumped into the line and, with forced patience, began waiting for her chance to joust.
Initiate taunt: "Abandon hope all ye who challenge me."
Awaiting response . . . response received.
Received response: Please go easy on me, okay?
Awaiting joust command . . . command received.
Received command: Let the joust . . . BEGIN!!!
Scanning for intent clarification . . . intent deemed positive.
Approval to joust: Granted
Being next in line to joust, Rainbow had a perfect view to the match before her; all seven seconds of it. Rainbow couldn't help but bawl over in laughter as the guest, a timid mare with a violet coat, black mane, and a clarinet cutie mark was blown away with one strike from the robot pony's lance. She didn't even have time to use her wings as she sailed through the goalpost on her side of the jousting field, thereby losing the match to the robot.
"Next up!" the referee shouted.
Happy that her turn had finally come, Rainbow Dash flew down into the dugout next to the jousting field and quickly changed into the protective armor she was required to wear. Brandishing her lance, she emerged from the dugout fully confident of her victory. She flew into position and took a moment to get a good look around the field. Behind the robot about twenty meters was its goalpost; Dash's being about the same distance behind her. Knowing she needed to get the robot through its goalpost to win, Rainbow took a moment to meditate and focus every last bit of energy she had into her wings. Once she was ready she brandished her lance to indicate to the robot she was an opponent.
"Prepare to meet your maker," the robot said. It's artificial mocking tone was quite impressive.
"I know my parents well enough," Rainbow replied, making no attempt to cover up her brash tone of voice.
Seeing both jousters were ready, the referee shouted, "Let the joust . . . BEGIN!!!"
Positioning her lance as best she could at level with her opponent's armored chest, Rainbow shot forward with a mighty burst of speed in an attempt at a 1-Hit KO. The robot shot forward about half a second after Dash did, aiming its lance right at Rainbow's own armored chest. It didn't connect though, and the robot was struck by the full charge of Dash's lance and, subsequently, pushed back several meters toward the goalpost.
Just when Rainbow Dash believed she had won, however, the robot acquired a strength boost seemingly from nowhere and began successfully pushing Dash backwards toward the opposite goalpost. Abandoning her previous 1-Hit KO strategy, Dash flew backwards and up away from the robot. It immediately did the same, however, and leveled with her before charging itself. Dash dodged just in the nick of time as the robot missed a blow that surely would've cost her the joust had she been less careful.
As Rainbow contemplated her next move, she saw several guests were watching the match from the walkway going around the field. Seeing all their awed/curious stares in her direction helped serve as a reminder for Dash as to why she was here; to show everypony her awesomeness. If she was going to succeed in that, however, she would need to think up a quick strategy for beating her robotic opponent that didn't rely so much on pure strength, as it had been made clear the robot had the upper hoof in that regard.
Dash was interrupted from her thoughts by her robotic adversary making another charge at her from behind. She quickly flew down out of his reach and proceeded to shove her lance upwards into its chest. The lance connected with a metallic clang and the robot was pushed upwards a few centimeters. It didn't matter, however, for as soon as it recovered from the blow the robot swooped around and took yet another shot at Dash from the opposite direction of her goal. Using her incredible speed once again, Dash dodged out of the way of the strike.
Speed is all I really have over this thing, she thought to herself, but that's not gonna win me this joust on its own. Wait a minute . . .
Dash grinned.
. . . this hunk of junk is toast.
The robot's programming could've never prepared it for what Dash did next. Using every last bit of strength in her wings, Rainbow began circling around her opponent in a dizzying display of prismatic colors that left its lock on mechanic utterly useless. Left with no protocol to follow for its current situation, the robot went into neutral mode. Dash took the opportunity given and quickly flew out from the circular pattern to deal a critical blow to the robot that sent it back several meters toward its goalpost. Before the robot could launch an attack in return, however, Dash zoomed forward and dealt another blow to it; this time in its light-armored head. The force of this blow pushed the robot back another few meters as well as deal it some cranial damage. Just like before the robot was kept from attacking by yet another speed strike from its cyan opponent.
Rainbow Dash kept at this pattern of speed strikes for what seemed like hours but was really only a few minutes, until she managed to deliver the final blow that sent it flying through the goalpost. Dash smiled as she watched the robot crash into the goalpost's back wall and fall to the cloud ground in defeat. Dash had discovered the secret to defeating the robot jouster, one that very few guests had managed to figure out. The average pegasus, or any pony for that matter, doesn't have the continuous strength to push back such a cyborg opponent. Instead, Dash had relied on quick and powerful attacks that would gradually push back the robot toward the goalpost where she then dealt the finishing blow with the last of her strength. This method of joust had but one drawback, however; had Rainbow Dash failed to deliver an attack before the robot could resume its joust mode it would've evaded her attack and broken the cycle, which would've forced the cyan pegasus to start it over.
All Rainbow Dash could think about at the moment, however, was that she had won. She looked up at the walkway to see the jaws had dropped on everypony who'd been watching and some began stomping their hooves in excitement as she looked up at them.
"Brave Heart is defeated!!!" the referee shouted. "The new joust champion of Aviworld is . . ."
"Rainbow Dash," she stated.
"The lovely Miss Rainbow Dash!"
Everypony watching started applauding her, to which Rainbow Dash had but one thought in her head.
"And then, get this, they started begging to be saved from me."
All the nobles sitting around the table burst out laughing for what seemed to be the umpteenth time.
"I must say, Miss Rarity, I never would've guessed the life of a Ponyville citizen could be so fascinating."
Rarity smiled. "Well, when you bear one of the Elements of Harmony you do tend to be involved in critical events."
All the nobles chuckled in response before returning to their breakfasts to which Rarity did the same. One of the items on her agenda was to improve her upper class social skills by spending all her time with every noble she came across in Magicworld. With every visit Rarity made to Canterlot she always felt like a black sheep amongst the high class herd, due in no small part to her Ponyville residency. The problem, she knew, was the doubt that always lingered in the back of her mind about whether she had the potential to rise from her humble origins and truly embrace the noble lifestyle; that, and whether she'd find solace in such a lifestyle. Right now, however, Rarity felt more confident in herself than she'd ever been when conversing with nobility in Canterlot. Perhaps it was due to not being subjugated to the class system while at the DELOS resort, though Rarity scoffed at the notion that she couldn't use what she gained from her vacation back home.
A little after she had finished her plate of eggs and hash browns a voice whom she recognized as King H.D.'s resounded from the upper balcony of the feast hall.
"Greetings my subjects. For those of you who may not know, the time has come for me to choose one lucky mare to be my co-ruler and your queen for the day. Their belongings will be temporarily relocated to my own personal suite here at the castle and they will also partake in judging the Duel Tournament later today. This is an honor worth your entire stay here in Magicworld, so don't hesitate to embrace it wholeheartedly."
Rarity felt as if the robot's last words were intended specifically for her, and while every other mare in the feast hall roared with excitement she sulked to herself. She'd yet to overcome her depression from knowing that H.D. was a robot himself. The thought of getting intimate with a "cybercorn" felt weird and especially uncouth to her.
Still, she thought, perking back up, I simply cannot pass up the chance to be a queen for a day.
Once breakfast had fully concluded King H.D. had all the mares who wished to be judged come with him into a room located just beneath the upper balcony. As Rarity walked in, she noticed a staircase leading to the upper levels in the direction of the outdoor balcony. She realized at once where the newly appointed queen would be going once she was chosen. Once all the mares were lined up, King H.D. began his judgment.
Scanning for possible choices . . . scanning complete.
Choices available: 14
Queen judgement protocol initiated.
Scanning choice #1 . . . scanning complete.
Physical appeal of choice: 40.5%
Choice advancement: Denied
Initiate dismissal order: "I'm sorry, but you may now leave."
Scanning choice #2 . . . scanning complete.
Physical appeal of choice: 9.37%
Choice advancement: Denied
Initiate dismissal order: "I'm sorry, but you may now leave."
Scanning choice #3 . . . scanning complete.
Physical appeal of choice: 77.5%
Choice advancement: Granted
Initiate advancement order: "You may stay for now."
Scanning choice #4 . . .
-----
Rarity watched in mild bemusement as King H.D. walked along the line of hopeful mares, casting his verdict for each one as to whether or not they would advance in the selection process. Whenever he would tell one of them to leave the mare in question would trot back out the way they all came, their head hung low and sniffling in sorrow. Rarity didn't know what criteria H.D. was judging them all on, but she suspected it was physical attraction since all the rejected mares were, in her opinion, less than dazzling in their appearance. She was the last one to be judged and was told to stay, which Rarity gladly took as a compliment on her beauty.
In total, four mares out of fourteen were selected; all of them unicorns. One of them sported a bronze mane and blue coat with a lit candlestick Cutie Mark; another one had a magenta mane and pink coat with a wooden cross Cutie Mark; the last one was black-maned with an ashen gray coat and a more abstract Cutie Mark depicting three colored circles (one each of red, blue, and green) surrounding a fourth purple circle of greater size. Once all the rejects were ushered out of the room and the four chosen were lined up, King H.D. beckoned for the bronze-maned unicorn to follow him into another room opposite from the feast hall and balconies. Rarity and the other two mares just sat confusedly in place in response.
"Do you think she won?" Rarity whispered to the other two after a minute of silence.
"As if," magenta mane replied. "I outshine her in every way of queenship."
"That's not even a word," black mane replied in turn. "Besides, I know I'd make a better queen than all three of you."
"I beg your pardon!?" Rarity exclaimed. "I happen to be the Bearer of Generosity; surely one who wields an Element of Harmony would be the best candidate for so called 'queenship', would they not?"
"Generosity, eh? Then why don't you forfeit this contest out of generosity to me?"
"Because it would be a greater crime to risk letting an uncouth barbarian such as yourself win than to go against my Element."
"What did you just call me?"
"An uncouth, and apparently deaf too, barbarian."
"You'll pay for saying that!"
Before Rarity and the other mare could grab each others' throats, however, a transparent magic aura surrounded the both of them and separated them from each other in a strong telekinetic grip. The two of them were turned around so they could see King H.D. staring at them with a frown on his face. The bronze maned mare stood beside him with a hoof to her mouth, doing her best to stifle her laughter.
"A proper queen won't stoop to petty violence," H.D. admonished, releasing the two mares from his telekinesis. He then motioned for black mane to follow him. "Come."
The mare in question proceeded to do as asked while the bronze maned mare rejoined Rarity and magenta mane.
"We leave for one measly minute and you two managed to make enemies of each other?" she asked.
Rarity blushed. "I think 'enemies' might be a little too strong of a word."
"Yeah . . . sure," bronze mane replied as she extended her hoof. "I'm Firewater by the way."
"And I'm Morning Star," magenta mane said, breaking her silence. "And I'm sorry for boasting earlier."
"All is forgiven," Rarity assured her.
The three mares proceeded to chit chat until H.D. returned and swapped black mane for Morning Star. Black mane, whose name turned out to be Zacchino, and Rarity apologized to each other and affirmed that the best mare would win. H.D. and Morning Star returned and Rarity followed the cybercorn into the other room for the questions he would ask her; which she learned from asking the others.
"Now then," H.D. said as the two of them sat on their haunches onto a couple of cushions placed in the center of the room, "let's see if your worthy of becoming my queen."
"I shant disappoint," Rarity replied proudly.
King H.D. nodded. "First I must ask you this; off the top of your head why do you believe you're fit to be a queen?"
Rarity didn't need to think to answer. "That's quite easy my king. I am a bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony, specifically the Element of Generosity. I always strive to make everypony that I acquaint myself with happy by pouring my energy into crafting for them the most beautiful dresses they ever laid eyes on. Not only that, but I'm a far cry from the snobbish nobility that permeates Canterlot; I'm a proper lady through and through and I respect everypony equally even if they aren't truly equal."
King H.D. stood silent for a moment before nodding and proceeding with his next question. "Very good. Now then, what is your highest level of combat ability?"
Rarity blinked. "Pardon?"
"How skilled are you in combat? A queen, especially one who's to judge the upcoming Magic Duel Tournament, must be knowledgeable in the ways of fighting if she is to be respected by her subjects."
Rarity struggled to keep a dignified posture as she mentally panicked. She knew how to use telekinesis and beat opponents with her hooves as well as Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but when it came to proper fighting (i.e. martial arts and magic prowess) she was amateurish at best. She'd never bothered to learn offensive magic her whole life because, truthfully, she liked being seen as a damsel-in-distress type of mare. Her Element of Generosity shined through in more ways then her donation of self-made dresses to her friends.
Throughout her foalhood, Rarity would look at her colt peers with a sense of pitiful sorrow at their constant need to show off to satisfy their pride. While most fillies would be annoyed by such behavior, Rarity overcame her natural inclinations and saw colt pride in a different light altogether. With leadership positions in Equestria taken by mares most often, stallions' political opinions and talent recognition have/has waned over time to the point where they feel the need to show off their prestige and put down mare's accomplishments to feel useful. Rarity grew to sympathize with holders of such beliefs, feeling she could relate to them with her desire to be recognized as a top-of-the-line fashionista by everypony. Invoking her generous nature, she gradually became the damsel-in-distress, stallion-obsessed, flirty, ladylike mare she is today by letting colts/stallions take charge of happenstances in her stead.
The negative side to this, however, had shown itself as Rarity struggled to think up a believable lie to H.D.'s question.
"W-Well," she shakily began, "I . . . specialize in a unique type of fighting, one that involves the use of gemstones as projectiles and shield walls." She nervously grinned. "You see, my talent is in finding gemstones and carving them into desired shapes. Given enough gems, I can properly defend myself from attacks by condensing them into a wall, or sharpen them to a point for use as a knife or something similar. Nevertheless, I've seen plenty of fighting due to my status as a Bearer of Harmony and could for sure properly judge this Duel Tournament you speak of."
King H.D. stared in silence for longer than usual which unnerved Rarity. If he was programmed to associate nervousness with lying then she was doomed. Before long, however, King H.D. got up from his cushion and walked over to her. "Please turn around and don't look back."
To say Rarity was caught off guard was an understatement. Nevertheless, she did as instructed and waited for further instructions. Instead, she heard the sound of H.D.'s metallic hoofsteps fading behind her until they were out of earshot. Despite being confused, worried, and even a little fearful for her life, Rarity stayed right where she was, unmoving. About a minute later she heard his hoofsteps re-approaching her from behind and stop right behind her. She then felt something slide over her head, settling around the middle of her forehead. She instinctively reached up a hoof to feel the object; it had pointy spikes all around it, and was fitted with what she recognized as gems around the base. Rarity's eyes went wide as she recognized what was perched atop her head.
A crown.
She turned back to King H.D. who only smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder.
Scanning for ideal opponents . . . scanning completed.
Ideal opponents located: 1
Duel mode activated.
As Rarity waved to her new (temporary) subjects from the upper balcony, she felt a telekinetic grip not unlike H.D.'s latch onto her head. Before she could make heads or tails of what was going on, she was forced to look down towards the unicorn using the telekinesis on her. Rarity could instantly tell the pony was a robot from noticing the various bolts embedded underneath the artificial white hair all along its body. The pony in question wore a simple brown poncho over its back that concealed its Cutie Mark and sported a long black mane and tail. She couldn't see what color eyes it had as the cybercorn wore a mask over its face that bore an unusual pattern that vaguely resembled a pony's face. Before Rarity bothered to get a good look at said pattern, however, she reminded herself that her free will was being violated.
"What is the meaning of this you ruffian!?" she shouted to the robot.
Everypony in the cheering crowd, as well as King H.D. behind her, were confused at first before realizing she was addressing one of her subjects. It didn't take long to figure out which one, as the robot responded to Rarity little more than one second later as it released its telekinetic hold on her.
"My queen," it said in a typical robotic monotone voice, "I challenge you to a magic duel."
Everypony in the crowd gasped. Rarity, on the other hoof, was stunned; she was far from expecting one of her subjects, robot or not, to have the guts to challenge her. Once the robot's words sunk in, however, Rarity began to panic yet again. She was ill-equipped for a serious magic duel, even one against a bucket of bolts. On that note, she decided to stall for time.
"And your name is?" she asked the robot.
The cybercorn stood still as it processed Rarity's words before answering. "I am the one called Sin. Does my queen accept my challenge, or is she an incompetent mule of a mare?"
Rarity's brow twitched.
"Did that thing just insult your majesty?" she asked her non-robot subjects.
When she got a couple dozen hesitant nods in response, Rarity shocked everypony present by leaping off the balcony towards the robot. Before she hit the ground, however, Rarity used her telekinesis to catch and gently lower herself the rest of the way to the floor a small distance from Sin.
"I will defeat you without casting so much as a single spell," she said, taking a battle stance, "I accept your challenge."
Sin took a battle stance itself. "You will fall by my hoof, upon which I shall relinquish rule over your subjects."
"Never you will," Rarity stated. She pointed a hoof towards the offending robot. "Your move."
The two locked their gaze on each other, Sin randomly selecting a pre-programmed set of attacks and protocols while Rarity worked to anticipate his attack. Hidden underneath her confident exterior, however, one thought kept distracting Rarity from her focus.
Scanning target for damage clarification . . . scanning complete.
Damage dealt: Positive
Rarity struggled to get back to her hooves after being hit by Sin's last attack. She had been informed at the front gates yesterday that no robot is armed with lethal spells, but that did little to stifle her worry of being shamed in front of so many ponies.
Perhaps, Rarity thought glumly, I don't have what it takes to be a good queen.
"My queen!"
Surprised by the outburst, it took Rarity a moment to turn around to see King H.D. holding what appeared to be a jewel-encrusted mallet in his telekinesis. Before anything more could be said, he lowered the mallet down and let her grab it in her own telekinetic grip. Looking it over, Rarity would've been enthralled by the weapon's beautiful shine if she weren't in the middle of a duel. All she could do was return her gaze up to her king, who had the most heartwarming smile upon his face.
"Smash it my love," he instructed her.
With tearful eyes and a quivering smile, Rarity steeled her resolve and turned back around to face Sin. If Sin weren't a robot, it'd be cowering from the fiery glare Rarity was giving it. Letting out a mighty battle cry she charged at Sin and delivered a single, skull crushing blow to its head. It's mask was smashed into a thousand pieces exposing the circuits, wires, and various other cybernetic parts that made up the inside of its body. Rarity then delivered another blow to its head, this time smashing in from the top and effectively shutting down the entire circuitry of the robot altogether.
Rarity was panting heavily by now, feeling exhilarated from the battle. Then she heard a hoof stomp, followed by another, and another. Pretty soon the sounds of hooves stomping filled the feast hall all around her, and Rarity looked up to see everypony present roaring with applause at her victory. Rarity could only smile as she watched her subjects continue their cheering as two unicorn technicians came and carried away the twisted heap of scrap known as Sin off to be repaired. She looked up towards the upper balcony to see King H.D. smiling as well as he gestured for her to come back up. Rarity obliged, now ever the more eager to be a judge in the upcoming Duel Tournament. As she ascended the staircase leading to the upper balcony she had but one thought in mind.
This is, without a doubt, the best vacation ever.
The DELOS resort was different from other tourist destinations for many reasons. Not the least of which was the guests' allowance from the resort's owners to actually destroy any robot that populated each of its three worlds without charges. The only consequence a guest could receive from, say, "killing" an innocent robot civilian in Dodgeworld would be if whichever guest made reservations to be town sheriff decided to arrest said guest and lock them up in the jailhouse. Of course, the convicted guest could always flee into the desert and avoid being caught, but there was less fun in running from the law than in experiencing everything Dodgeworld proper had to offer.
All of this, however, wouldn't be possible if not for DELOS' team of expert unicorn technicians and their resolve to keep every single robot in DELOS at full capacity all the time. Every night, while the guests slept, the technicians would stay up late into the night repairing any recently damaged or destroyed robots for use the next day. All of it was done in an underground laboratory accessible via several hidden tunnels throughout the resort; off limits to guests.
Once night had fallen, and all guests were fast asleep in each world, the technicians set to work. After gathering each robot in need of repairs and diagnosing each one's condition each technician team was assigned specific patients depending on their expertise in robotics. They set to work using their horns to disassemble, reassemble, weld, screw, and anything else needed to fix each robot for use the next day. After having operated for a few minutes, the door to the laboratory opened to reveal an Earth pony stallion with a gray mane and tail, blue eyes, glasses, and wearing a lab coat not unlike the technicians'. He was Bite Back, one of the DELOS corporation's CEOs and head manager of the DELOS resort. Right now his objective was to perform an employee evaluation on the technicians, as well as to offer advice on repairing the robots in the most cost-effective ways possible. The first thing he noticed upon entering the room, however, was the twisted remains of Jack O'Bones on the first operating table to his right.
"Sweet Celestia," he remarked, walking up to the mangled robot. "What happened to him?"
"Mare bucked it real good," one of the technicians said. "Ol' Jacky here made her spill cider over herself when he accidentally bumped her."
Bite Back stroked his chin. "Is there a problem with his CC?"
"None that we could find sir, though the damage to the CMC may be too great to repair."
"If so use an AF-Xtra if we have any in stock. It should be better protected against head trauma then the standard model."
"Sure thing," the technician finished off the conversation and resumed his work.
Bite Back then proceeded to silently evaluate his employees as they worked to repair their respective charges. Being the resort's owner, it was naturally his job to make sure his employees (both living and robotic) were operating at full capacity. Neglecting one's duties when employed at DELOS was a safety hazard not just to the robots, but to the guests they interacted with on a daily basis. While guests were quite unlikely to sustain fatal injuries from interacting with the DELOS resort's robot occupants, they were at risk from various symptoms said robots were capable of inducing should things get out of hoof. For example, none of the cybercorns in Magicworld were programmed with any potentially lethal spells; a guest could only die if they allowed the robot to do so, and in that case DELOS couldn't be held responsible. However, the spells provided to the robots WERE capable of inducing migraines, skin rash, and blindness among other things, and certain precautions needed to be taken to ensure guests were never at greater risk.
"Rattler get overheated again?" Bite Back asked upon spying a technician team working on a robot rattlesnake.
"Aye," one of the unicorns replied. "This thing apparently spent a good full week frying in the sun before it was brought to our attention. A waste of money they are."
"Nothing's a waste for authenticity," Bite Back said before walking away.
It was true, after all. A real rattlesnake might die out in the desert and not be found for some time (if at all). The DELOS resort really went the extra mile for authenticity, even if the technicians hated it sometimes. The Rattlers in particular were a source of constant annoyance for them. More often than not a dead Rattler was found by a runaway Dodgeworld guest lucky enough to stumble across it and cared enough to inform the resort's staff of it. Very rarely did a guest encounter a live one and put it out of commission themselves as was intended. Despite all the annoyances, however, the unicorn technicians still did their job with the bravo that was expected of them.
"What's she in for?" Bite Back asked a team working on a robot slave mare from Aviworld.
"CS malfunction," the lead technician answered.
". . . Another one? Hmm," Bite Back mused to himself as he continued on with his employee evaluation.
The sun shone brightly in the cloudless sky above the Dodgeworld desert; said sky was always cloudless on account of the DELOS resort's lack of a pegasi weather team. Since no vegetation or wildlife was needed at the resort there wasn't any need to keep a supply of rainwater available. As a result, guests of Dodgeworld had to brave the extreme heat and humidity when wandering around the desert where air conditioning was non-existent. It was said heat and humidity that forced Applejack to wipe away a glob of sweat that had accumulated atop her eyebrows as she followed Prickly Pear through the desert.
"How much farther?" AJ asked Prickly, taking a large gulp from her canteen.
"Well," he replied, pointing towards a large outcropping of rocks just a few hundred meters in front of them, "the herd should be just beyond them rocks assumin' they've kept everythin' the same since Ah was here last."
"That's jus' it, Prickly," Applejack said, "what if they up n' changed locations since then? How're we 'posed to find it?"
"We'll find it," Prickly replied, turning around and playfully rustling AJ's mane. "Don't y'all worry yer pretty little head."
With a slight blush in her cheeks, AJ nodded and resumed following him through the desert. Prickly had promised to show Applejack the robot buffalo herd that resided in the Dodgeworld desert that day, but she was starting to lose her patience in finding it. Already they had checked most of its usual locations with no success, and Prickly assured her that it'd be in this last spot or he'd treat her to a big heaping pile of apple fritters upon returning home. Slowly but surely, the two reached the rocks and began climbing them.
"So, Applejack," Prickly said as they hopped onto the first rock, "tell me more about Chief Thunderhooves' tribe. Ah'd love ta hear what livin' flesh and blood buffalo are like as 'posed to the robots here."
"Well, Ah didn't really get ta know them all that well." Applejack wobbled a bit after hopping onto a rock, but quickly caught herself and righted out. "Rainbow Dash would better know what he and his tribe were like. Anyway, what's the robot tribe here like? Are they lifelike like all them other 'bots?"
"They sure as sugar are," Prickly stated. "DELOS doesn't lie when they say ALL their robots are made ta accurately portray their character."
"Fascinatin'."
In little more than two minutes the pair reached the top of the outcropping. From their position they could see clear to the island's western shore and the oceanic horizon beyond. Their gazes, however, lingered on the area just a few hundred meters in front of the rocks where the buffalo herd was currently grazing in a small grass patch.
"Well, looks like we've found 'em," Prickly stated.
"Finally," Applejack sighed as she collapsed onto the rock on her stomach.
Prickly Pear chuckled and sat down next to her. He then took out his canteen and gulped down some water before putting it back. "Ah take it yer not used ta smoldering heat in Ponyville?" he asked.
"Frankly, I don't see how anypony can get used to it," Applejack replied as she sat up on her haunches.
"When you've lived in the desert yer whole life, ya can't help but get accustomed to it."
"Lucky you."
The two stared out at the buffalo herd for a while, observing their movements and activities with a researcher's gaze the whole time. Every now and then one of them would ask the other a question regarding their own respective buffalo experiences, mechanical or otherwise, to which they would share accounts of how they inevitably ticked the buffalo off and almost got trampled, gored, rammed, or outright killed as a result. This was a source of countless chuckles from both of them, and it was from this that Prickly got an idea.
"How 'bout we go on down there an' mess with 'em buffalo?" he asked AJ, pointing toward the herd that was still grazing in the fake grass. "Share the experience with each other?"
Applejack smiled. "Sure thin' Prickly."
With that, the two began hopping down the outcropping of rocks towards the herd.
Query activated: "You dare to trespass on our sacred grazing grounds?"
Awaiting response . . . response received.
Received response:Catch
Scanning for intent clarification . . . scanning ceased.
Outside variables detected.
Scanning for variables . . . scanning complete.
Variable/s: Snake/s
Number of Snake/s detected: 1
Panic stampede mode activated.
Alarm protocol initiated.
Alarm activated: "RUN!!!"
Running protocol initiated . . . . . .
Applejack and Prickly Pear failed to contain their laughter as they watched the robot buffalo herd run away from the robot snake that Prickly threw at their leader. They were originally going to simply tease the leader to no end, but were lucky enough to have found a fully functional rattler close to the rocks. Picking it up with a stick, Prickly had carried it over and thrown it at the leader once he noticed him and AJ.
"Sweet Celestia," Applejack managed to spit out through constant chuckles, "Ah wish Ah had a camera right now, cause that was downright hysterical."
"Amen, Applejack," Prickly replied through his own chuckles. "Why's it when robot critters get up and spooked by them snakes it's hilarious but not when real, living critters do?"
"Maybe because there's no reason to worry about a robot's well-bein'?"
"Makes sense."
The two kept up the laughs for a minute afterwards before calming down. Applejack took out her canteen and was about to take a gulp of water when she heard a noise close by. Perking her ears, it sounded like a maraca being shook super fast. Looking in its direction she saw what it was; the rattler that Prickly threw at the buffalo had returned to them and was now shaking its tail and hissing very threateningly at them.
"Uh, Prickly?"
"Yes, AJ?"
"Look."
Prickly followed Applejack's gaze to the robot rattlesnake. With a smile, he glanced back at Applejack.
"Want me ta squash 'im?"
"Would ya?"
Prickly happily trotted up to the robot snake and raised his front hooves above it in preparation. Suddenly, the rattler lunged at him and struck just above his knee, sinking its plastic teeth into his skin and holding firm. With a yelp and shake of his leg, Prickly detached the little serpent from his person and hobbled back over to Applejack.
"Weird," he muttered.
"What?" Applejack asked.
"That wasn't supposed ta happen. Those robot rattlesnakes are programmed to always miss their strikes, or at least not to strike at any target that's close enough to be hit."
"Well, Ah don't know how these robot doohickeys work, but my only concern right now is whether you need medical attention."
Prickly smiled again. "Don't worry, all it gave me was a minor bruise. DELOS has limits on the realism factor of this place; they wouldn't put in anything potentially lethal to guests."
"Still, Ah reckon we should stay away from them Rattlers from now on," Applejack said as she turned back toward the rock outcropping. "C'mon, let's head back to town and get some lunch."
"Ya read my mind, sugarcube," Prickly replied as he turned around as well.
Applejack blushed slightly as she and Prickly began the long, arduous journey back to Dodgeworld proper.
DELOS' robot population was a prime example of Earth pony technology at its finest. Each and every robot was crafted by hoof (telekinesis) personally by DELOS' unicorn technician staff under the supervision of Bite Back, with only cyborgs of the highest quality being permitted for use in the resort. Said robots were under guidance, regardless, from the other half of the technician team; the half that operated during the day, monitoring the robots in case problems arose that required their immediate withdrawal from the resort.
This half of the unicorn technician team operated on the floor above where the robots were repaired by the night team. They monitored the goings on of the resort through a system of "Crystalvision". Crystalvision, as its name suggests, is the process of capturing images within light rays and transmitting them through specially selected and enchanted crystals. Such a practice had been exercised for a long time, even before the banishment of Nightmare Moon, but it was only recently that the use of Crystalvision was authorized to ponies outside of the royal family, and even then only the wealthiest ponies could afford to pay the taxes associated with its use.
Currently, one of the day technicians was staring at one of the many crystals set up throughout the room with Bite Back looking over his shoulder. In the crystal was a scene of two earth ponies climbing up a large outcropping of rocks in the Dodgeworld desert after having thrown a rattler at the buffalo tribe.
"He was attacked?" Bite Back asked the technician.
"Yes sir," the technician replied, using his magic to playback the incident in question. "The Rattler struck out and bit him after having thrown it at Chief M.B."
"Strange," Bite Back mused. "Then again, it's been a while since a guest came across a live one so we wouldn't know if there's a problem with their depth feedback system."
"What should I do sir?"
"Retrieve that Rattler and turn it over to the night team. I want everything nice and peachy when the princesses come for the meeting tonight."
"You got it, boss." The technician then left the room and proceeded to do as he was instructed.
"Hopefully this was an isolated incident," Bite Back muttered under his breath as he continued monitoring his employees.
Perfect. That was all Rainbow Dash could currently think of to describe her vacation in Aviworld. At the moment she was being catered to by three robot maids while she sat back in the joust champion's designated throne atop the Cloudosseum's north end. One was fanning her with an oversize canvas leaf, another was feeding her grapes straight off the stem, and the last was massaging her back and wings.
Rainbow Dash had spent the better part of the previous day jousting with any and everypony who challenged her for the champion's title. Most of said ponies she could tell weren't worth the time and only accepted their challenges because the champion was required to do so lest they forfeit the title back to Brave Heart. She continued this until she had defeated three-fourths of Aviworld's guests, at which point it became clear to everypony that she was invincible, and ceased with their challenges as a result. With her goal of becoming queen of Aviworld essentially completed, Rainbow Dash decided to start milking the perks of being queen for all they were worth, which is why she was currently being tended to by the trio of robot maids.
"Dear Crimson, do be a dear and give me a refill, would you?" Dash asked one of the maids, talking in her best mock Rarity voice.
"Yes, empress," the maid replied in the typical monotone voice before leaving.
Dash let out a contented sigh as she relished in how much better her back felt after having been massaged. She closed her eyes and was about to attempt catching some Zs when she heard the unmistakable sound of clanking armor. Opening her eyes, she lifted an ear to listen more closely. She quickly determined the noise was getting closer when she started hearing hoofsteps alongside the clanking sounds. Turning her head left, she spied Brave Heart trotting up the steps to her throne; his face in its typical expressionless position. That changed, however, when he reached the top of the steps and immediately lowered his gaze to her, his face adopting a look of determination.
"Empress," he said, "I challenge you to a rematch."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "You'll just get clobbered again." She proceeded to bite a grape off the vine.
"I have been honing my skills since our last joust." Brave Heart flexed his mechanical wings. "It will not be the same match as before."
Swallowing the grape, Dash looked back at the robot. "Fine, but only because I like the perks of being queen too much to give it up."
"Then it is on," Brave Heart affirmed with a wave of his hoof. "I shall see you in the arena by the next hour."
"This is gonna be fun to watch." Bite Back looked over the technician's shoulder to the crystal he was monitoring. Displayed was a split-screen image showing four different views of Aviworld's jousting arena from each corner. In-image, Brave Heart was moving into place on his side of the cloud field while the current empress of Aviworld, Elemental Bearer Rainbow Dash, as Bite Back had learned, did the same on her side. The cyan pegasus was decked out in a suit of shining silver armor. Every time she moved her armor would glisten in the rays of Celestia's sun, cloaking her in a bright gray veil that sporadically shielded her from view of the crystals.
"I'll bet," the technician replied.
As the two looked on, they saw Brave Heart and Rainbow Dash exchange their taunts and the referee inform them of the rules, despite its unnecessity. As soon as the joust started Brave Heart shot forward and poised to strike Rainbow Dash in the chest. Dash, of course, dodged and countered with a successful blow to Brave's right side, briefly disorienting him. Rainbow smirked, knowing she had trapped the robot exactly the same as before. In the blink of an eye, Rainbow positioned herself behind Brave and prepared to execute her winning strategy. She gripped tight her lance and shot forward, her aim targeting Brave's haunches. Suddenly, the robot darted out of her way, and Rainbow's mind went blank as she shot across the arena. The realization of what happened dawned on her just in time, however, and she abruptly halted her flight just meters from the arena's south wall. While Dash looked back at the robot puzzled, Bite Back and the accompanying technician looked at her with glee.
There had been a reason Brave Heart said he'd been honing his skills. In response to seeing Dash's strategy for beating the robot, during the night Bite Back made the call for Brave's hit recovery rate to be increased. As a result, the robotic gladiator could now recover from blows faster than even Rainbow Dash could fly. The reasoning behind this decision was simple: Rainbow's strategy all but eliminated the challenge of defeating Brave Heart. So, to make up for the oversight in the robot's programming Bite Back eliminated the usefulness of said strategy, and right now it was working like a charm as Bite Back noted from looking at the images present in the crystal.
Rainbow Dash gave exhausted breaths as she swerved and dodged Brave Heart's current barrage of attacks with declining stamina. She had expected to win easily again despite any upgrades Brave Heart may have obtained, but she quickly realized that wouldn't happen when he succeeded in avoiding every single attempt she made at the speed & strike tactic. To make matters worse, being a robot Brave Heart was immune to exhaustion and could keep up the fight indefinitely while Rainbow Dash could only go on for as long as her body allowed her to. And judging from her diminishing reaction times to Brave's strikes, she didn't have much time left.
After having dodged close to a couple dozen attacks, Dash felt all but a tad bit of her body's energy drain away. By now she was barely keeping herself in the air. Looking back to Brave Heart, she saw him charging yet again at her. Instead of dodging this time, however, Rainbow gently lowered herself to the cloud ground well before his attack reached her. To conserve what little energy she had left, Rainbow had decided to take the joust onto the ground. Normally she'd mentally berate herself for choosing land over air, but even if Dash had the energy to do so she wouldn't have; she knew victory was hopeless if she kept wasting precious stamina on staying airborne.
Brave Heart continued his charge anyway, adjusting the direction of his flight in response to Dash's landing. Panting uncontrollably, Dash put the last of her energy into leaping out of his way. She rolled over on the cloud ground a few times before coming to a stop standing on her hooves.
That's it, she thought, I'm finished.
With a sigh, Rainbow Dash collapsed to the ground. With all the fight in her gone, Dash waited for Brave Heart to come pick her up so he could throw her through the goalpost.
Well, being queen was nice while it lasted.
A few seconds went by without anything happening. With an indelible moan, Dash lifted her head up and turned in Brave Heart's direction. The robot was hovering just a few meters off the ground with his back to her, staring ahead of him in an apparent daze.
What the . . . ?
Dash passed out.
"What's wrong with him?" Bite Back asked.
"I don't know sir," the technician replied. "Should I retrieve him for diagnosis?"
"Yes, please."
The technician proceeded to exit the room and make his way out to Aviworld. Bite Back, meanwhile, kept staring at the image displayed within the crystal. Brave Heart was still fluttering in place while Rainbow Dash was helped out of the arena by the referee. All the while Bite Back watched he speculated what the problem with Brave's internal systems could be. Sure, command server malfunctions had happened from time to time, but in all prior cases the afflicted robot's system shut down in response as it was designed. To see that protocol now fail concerned Bite Back as it meant there was yet another oversight in the robot's design. This one, however, was far more serious, especially if it turned out to be a flaw in the core design. If that was the case, then every robot with the same core design was at risk of failing.
With a heavy sigh, Bite Back headed for a nearby hallway leading to his personal quarters. If there was one thing he needed above all else right then it was a good, long nap to relieve his stress.
King H.D.'s personal chamber was standard for a ruler of a Kingdom, be it real or pretend. It had an area of about twenty square meters and was located near the top of the Magicworld palace. The lime-green marble floor had a polished feel to it, the window's curtains were sewn from the finest red fabric that existed in Ye Olde Canterlot, and all the furniture was hoof-carved from the sturdiest of oak trees. Gold ornaments decorated the bed along every one of its wooden beams, enveloping it in a bright luminescence whenever the sun shone through the window at the right angle.
At the present time, King H.D. and temporary Queen Rarity were huddled together in the bed, sound asleep. Their slumber was interrupted, however, by a loud knocking at the bedroom door. Rarity groggily woke up and got out of bed. Squinting her eyes, she spied her jewel hammer propped up along the wall. More knocks came. With a growl at being woken up, Rarity grabbed the hammer with her magic and made her way to the door.
So help me . . .
Upon reaching the door she moved the hammer out of the way, just in case the matter at hoof was urgent, though she still kept it grasped in her telekinesis.
"Who dares disturb my slumber?" she asked.
Silence.
With an annoyed sigh, Rarity opened the door to find Sin standing there. Rarity's first instinct was to bring the hammer down on its metallic head and smash it a second time, but she thought better than to strike first and ask questions later. Keeping the hammer out of the robot's sight, Rarity stood up straight in an attempt to look as regal and imposing as possible. The cybercorn stood stock still, not moving even the slightest bit.
"What is so important that you needed to wake me and my hus . . . err, your King and Queen from their sleep?"
Sin didn't respond. It just continued to stand there doing nothing, even after being spoken to. Rarity waved her hoof in front of its face in a vain attempt to get its attention. She then tried poking it all over its body, wondering if it would react upon being touched in a certain spot. Yet again, her attempt at getting a reaction out of it was futile. Finally, Rarity gave up and set down the hammer so she could use her telekinesis to move Sin somewhere less in the way.
Suddenly, Sin charged up magic in its horn and lowered it so it was pointing right into Rarity's face. The move was so fast that Rarity couldn't even flinch in surprise as she stared down Sin's horn to the top of its metallic head. Sin then proceeded to walk slowly forward to which Rarity stepped back in response. They kept at it until Rarity was standing in front of the window and Sin was standing right beside the bed.
Rarity scowled. "What do you want?"
This time, Sin answered her. "The elimination of innocence."
"What?"
Before Rarity could fully process Sin's answer, it shot off its charged spell at her. Rarity ducked just in time as the magical blast sailed right above her and smashed through the window's curtains before shattering the window itself and shooting off into the distance out of sight. Panting, Rarity glanced up only to see Sin charging up another shot in its horn. Suddenly, just within the corner of her eye Rarity witnessed her gem-encrusted hammer being enveloped in a transparent aura. A second later, the hammer flew across the room and struck Sin in the side of its face. The hammer then proceeded to smash against Sin over and over, knocking it a little more toward the window each time. Rarity sidestepped out of the way when Sin reached her, and she looked on in stupefied silence as the hammer under-arced into Sin's stomach and flung it out the window, breaking even more glass in the process.
Rarity remained transfixed where she was for a few more moments before turning her head to H.D. who was sitting up in the bed, his horn glowing its transparent aura as he set the hammer back down against the wall. He then turned to look at her and, in one of the few instances of showing emotion, grinned.
"Was he bothering you?" he asked playfully.
Finally breaking out of her stupor, Rarity smiled.
". . . Well," H.D. continued, "he's not going to bother you anymore."
If only I could live here.
"So, think this'll be a good place to keep him?" Black Bolt asked her co-worker friend, Kooky Pie.
The two mares had just returned to the CCC with the malfunctioning Brave Heart in tow. After learning that their boss was napping they contemplated where they should leave the robot until the night crew began their shift. Normally broken robots were kept in a special storage room to wait for repairs, but the room in question was currently locked and the sleeping Bite Back had the key. Not wanting to disturb their boss, the two mares searched for an alternative place to store Brave Heart until night fell. Their choice ended up being the Aviworld GMC room.
"Yeah," Kooky Pie replied, "so long as nopony turns him back on and leaves him unattended."
"Alright then."
The two mares proceeded to leave, blissfully unaware of the blinking light currently shining within Brave's robotic retinas.
Applejack awoke with a pounding headache and aching joints. She felt the unmistakable touch of cold steel on her belly as she squinted through bloodshot eyes at her surroundings. She saw what appeared to be stripes running vertical just in front of her, to which she found amusingly odd. Once AJ's headache dulled and her vision cleared, she stood up and took stock of her surroundings. She gasped at the realization of where she was. The Dodgeworld jailhouse. The stripes from before were the bars of the cell she was currently trapped in.
"What the hay!?" Applejack grabbed two of the bars and violently shook them. She listened for the sound of approaching hoofsteps, but heard nothing. Panicking, she began pacing the length of her cell.
Okay, calm down Applejack. You'll get outta this so long as ya keep yer cool. Now, what was Ah doin' before wakin' up here? Ah was . . . at the saloon with Prickly. We had 'bout a dozen or so jugs of cider while we listened ta the piano playin'. Then . . . Ah left ta get some fresh air . . . and . . . and . . .
"Hello miss."
Applejack froze. She recognized that voice, and it made her scowl with the fury of a thousand suns. She whisked her head around to find Jack O'Bones standing on the other side of the cell bars, grinning maliciously at her.
"J.O.B.," Applejack muttered under her breath. "Y'all had better tell me why Ah'm in this here cell or so help me, Ah'll beat the livin' snot outta ya when Ah get out."
Jack O'Bones didn't reply. Instead, he merely laughed as he trotted away down the hall of the jailhouse and out of AJ's sight.
"Hey, y'all come back here, ya hear!?"
As the sound of his hoofsteps faded altogether, Applejack sighed and slumped down onto the cold steel floor. Suddenly, she heard a sound coming from behind her. Turning around she saw nothing, but could still hear it. Walking toward the cell's back wall, AJ realized the sound was coming from the other side of it. What's more, she could now clearly make out the sound itself.
Sizzling.
Confused at first, realization dawned on Applejack just in time for her to jump away from the wall as it blew up in front of her. She held her hooves over her Stetson for protection as she felt little bits and pieces of brick and wood chips rain down upon her. Fortunately she wasn't hurt, and once she felt it was safe she stood up and gazed out through the enormous hole that now adorned the back wall of her cell. On the other side she saw Prickly Pear, a wide smile upon his face and an empty box of dynamite clutched in his hoof against his chest. Looking at the box, Applejack saw that it had actually come from outside DELOS, meaning Prickly had smuggled it into the resort.
"Up for a jailbreak?" said stallion asked her.
Applejack went slack jawed. Her mind was buzzing with more questions than a math test, and she'd see to it that all of them got answered. Once she had regained her composure she calmly strode over to where Prickly was standing. Then, she casually lifted her Stetson off of her head and proceeded to smack Prickly Pear right upside the head with it. He dropped the box as he staggered back in surprise and fell to the ground on his back.
"What were y'all thinkin' usin' 'mite ta blow up the wall!?" she screamed in his face. "Ah could'a been killed!"
Prickly sheepishly smiled. "Sorry." He used a hoof to nurse the spot where AJ hit him. "Ah got thrown in here last time Ah visited and wanted an easy way out if it went'n happened again."
Applejack sighed. "Never mind 'bout that. Would ya mind tellin' me just how in the hay Ah wound up here in the first place?"
Prickly got up and shrugged. "Ah don't really know. All Ah do know is that y'all walked outta the saloon ta get some fresh air and didn't return. If'n Ah had ta guess though, ol' Jacky over yonder knocked ya out and tossed ya in there."
"Now, just how in the hay could he- . . . wait."
Applejack turned around to see Jack O'Bones galloping away from the jailhouse towards a carriage with a couple more robot ponies hooked up to it. Applejack and Prickly both watched with interest as he jumped up onto the carriage seat and said something to his robotic peers before they turned around and started galloping in their direction. Once they were close enough to see the wicked smirk on Jack O'Bones' face, it dawned on both AJ and Prickly just what the robot outlaw's intentions were.
"Ummm, Prickly?"
"I know."
With speed that could possibly rival Rainbow Dash, the two earth ponies turned around and began galloping for dear life away from Jack O'Bones. Not sure where to go, the two of them chose to round the nearest corner of the jailhouse and head out to the street in hope of getting some help. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single pony to be found outside.
"What now!?" Prickly asked, panicking.
Panicking herself, Applejack darted her head around in search of something, anything, that could prove useful for their current situation. She spied a second carriage by the front of the jailhouse just as Jack O'Bones rounded the corner and began charging at them from behind.
"Prickly!" Applejack began running toward the carriage to which Prickly followed.
Once they reached it Applejack jumped up onto the seat while Prickly ran around to the front and frantically tried to hook himself up to it. All the while Jack O'Bones was closing the gap between them.
"C'mon Prickly, hurry up!"
"Almost got it . . . there!"
Prickly began galloping as fast as his well-toned legs would let him, pulling the carriage with him just before Jack's managed to reach them. Living and metallic hooves alike pounded the dirt as all three hooked equines pulled their respective carts out of Dodgeworld proper and into the surrounding desert lands. Applejack looked back to see the town getting smaller in the distance while Jack O'Bones got bigger as his carriage started regaining the distance between them.
AJ turned back to Prickly. "Ol' Jacky ain't givin' up, Prickly! How do ya reckon we take care'a him!?"
Prickly briefly glanced behind him to see Jacky's carriage approaching from their right side. After swerving around a good-sized rock that laid in their path, Prickly began slowing his pace to let Jacky catch up to them.
"What in tarnation are ya doin'!?" AJ shouted over the sound of stomping hooves and rushing wind.
"Remember when y'all said ya were chased from Dodge Junction by yer friends!?"
"Yeah!"
"Think ya can imitate what Pinkie did, except more physical!?"
Applejack rubbed her chin. "I s'pose so."
"Was that a yes!?"
"Yeah, sure I can!"
With that settled, Prickly continued slowing down, stopping when Jacky's carriage was right alongside theirs. Applejack looked over to the robot outlaw pony who stared back with a confused look on his face. Setting her hat down on the seat so it wouldn't blow away, Applejack kneeled and then launched herself at Jacky, accidently sending them both careening off the carriage and onto the hard desert ground. After rolling over a few times in each other's hold they came to a stop by a couple of cactus plants.
AJ quickly got up off of Jacky and brought both her front hooves down onto his metallic cranium with a sickening crunch. Applejack almost winced at the sound of surrogate flesh getting squashed and metal crunching under her ferocious stomp. Jacky's now lifeless robot body twitched a few times before going perfectly limp under her fore hooves. With a deep sigh AJ fell onto her back, the adrenaline having run its course, leaving her body too exhausted to move anymore. She heard the faint sound of galloping hooves moving away from her, and a few moments later heard another pair approaching her until she saw Prickly come into her sight and stare down at her, an amused smile adorning his face.
"Need some help there, gorgeous?"
Applejack tried to stifle a laugh but failed. "Yeah, Ah reckon so."
Prickly helped AJ to her hooves and put a foreleg around her to help support her exhausted body.
"What say we find some place ta camp out for the night?" Prickly asked.
Applejack smiled. "Y'all read my mind, sugarcube."
With that, the two cowponies began walking toward a nearby rock formation, hoping to have a camp set up before night fell in an hour or two.
The sky over the DELOS resort was still in its twilight hours when Princesses Celestia and Luna arrived in their royal chariot. The pegasi guards pulling it descended onto a specially appointed landing pad atop the CCC building where Bite Back and a few technicians were waiting. The technicians were quivering like putty in the diarchy's presence. Bite Back, in contrast, watched them with an apathetic gaze that perfectly masked the worry permeating his mind. This was the first meeting between him and the princesses concerning the DELOS resort. While he knew the main topic at hoof was discussing renewed licensing of Crystalvision to the resort, Celestia and Luna had expressed concern over the resort's seeming over-reliance on cybernetics and the possible dangers that could arise from that.
Once the two alicorns stepped off the chariot Bite Back and the technicians bowed before them. "Welcome your highness-es," they all said in unison.
"Greetings dear subjects," Luna replied with a warm smile. "Please excuse us for but a moment to bring forth the night."
Bite Back stood back up. "Of course, princess."
The two alicorns turned to look out over the horizon. Celestia drew magic into her horn and focused on tuning it with the sun's energies. Once she had done so, she proceeded to fully lower the sun below the horizon. In the span of a few seconds the sky was drained of its warm coloring, leaving behind the black space and white stars of nighttime. With the sun out of the way, Luna copied her sister and let magic flow into her horn, working to perfectly tune it with the moon's own energies. Once she did so she lifted it over the opposite horizon and fully into the night sky. With the moon and stars now shining down upon the world, the princesses turned back to their hosts.
"Shall we proceed?" Celestia asked.
"Yes, princess," Bite Back replied. He gestured for the technicians to stand up and follow him and the princesses to the conference room downstairs.
Received command:-is well maintained and organized, princess. Yes, it does appear-
Scanning for intent clarification . . . intent deemed positive.
Approval to joust: Granted
Everypony reached the conference room and took their seats around the large table. Bite Back sat at one end while Princess Luna sat at the other end. The technicians all occupied the side to Luna's left while Celestia and the royal guards occupied the opposite side.
"Would you like anything to drink, your highnesses?" Bite Back asked.
"No thank you," Celestia replied.
"I would appreciate some of this Moranet beverage I've heard so much about," Luna replied. "Assuming, of course, some exists here and now."
"Sure thing, Princess Luna." He turned to the technician sitting nearest him. "Red, I believe Black Bolt has some in her cooler; ask her if she can spare a bottle."
"Yes, sir."
The technician got up and left the room.
"Well then," Celestia said, "let's get started, shall we?"
"Of course," Bite Back answered.
Celestia levitated a stack of paperwork, an ink bottle, and a quill from the golden saddlebag she was carrying and set it all down in front of Bite Back. Taking the quill in his mouth, Bite Back dipped it in the ink and proceeded to start filling out the contracts. There was no need to thoroughly read them; after all, Celestia was nothing if not trustworthy, and Bite Back never wavered in that trust. At the same time, however, Bite Back wished her highness would reciprocate that faith in her subjects to do no harm unto each other. No doubt said wish was in response to Celestia's very vocal concern over DELOS' robot population.
About a minute later Red came back with a clear bottle of a thick, gray liquid and hoofed it to Princess Luna.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome, princess," Red said, sitting back down and facing Bite Back. "Just thought I'd let you know, boss; Black and Kooky are asleep in the lounge."
"Figures," Bite Back snorted, finishing off the last of the contracts. "Well, I suppose we can make due without them tonight."
Celestia gripped the filled out contracts in her magic and levitated them back over to her and into her saddlebag. Luna, meanwhile, had taken a liking to the Moranet and was now guzzling it down at a rapid pace. Once she finished she levitated the bottle into a nearby trash can.
"Now then," Bite Back said, "you also asked that I alleviate your concerns over the nature of our resort, your highness."
"Indeed," Celestia answered, an impish frown forming on her face. "While I have the utmost respect for you, your company, and cybernetics in general my concern-"
"BURP!!!"
Everypony turned towards Princess Luna, whose cheeks were now a bright shade of crimson. "Excuse me," she said.
Celestia rolled her eyes and continued. "-my concern lies in the purpose it serves here. Re-creating a past era is fine, but some things are better left to the past."
"What, specifically, are you referring to?"
"Let me rephrase my statement; my concern is that the DELOS experience may become more genuine than what was intended."
Bite Back blinked, then stared, then spoke. "I think I understand what you're implying, princess. However, look at this from the perspective of a guest. The fact that many elements of the DELOS resort are potentially dangerous is part of the appeal. Everypony has their own fantasies regarding the past, but what they all share is the clash of righteous and wicked forces alike. To truly give life to such fantasies requires the presence of both."
"Yes, I understand that," Celestia replied, then shook her head. "I ask only for some assurance that no lasting harm befalls any of our subjects while under DELOS' care."
Bite Back smiled. "I can assure you, highness, that DELOS has taken every possible precaution to ensure nopony dies while in our care."
Celestia sighed. "Very well. Now, on to the matter of those CMC patents . . ."
The time was just a little after midnight when the princesses departed from the resort. Mist rose around the island, cloaking the resort in a spooky white veil that stood out against the dark night sky. The ocean's waves slammed against the island's cliffs, tearing away large chunks of rock and earth with each strike. A gale blew in from the south, sweeping across the entire resort.
The time was approximately one o'clock in the morning and the robot repair room of the CCC building was busier than ever before. In addition to the usual rattlers, maids, and faulty surveillance crystals, two of the resorts' main villains were now little more than a couple piles of scrap. Sin and Jack O' Bones were laid out on two adjacent operating tables. The technicians at work repairing them growled in frustration at the difficulty of essentially re-assembling two robots from scrap.
Eventually, Bite Back arrived from his meeting with the Princesses and proceeded to evaluate his employees once again. It didn't take him long to notice the absence of Brave Heart among the damaged robots. Remembering the unusual behavior he was exhibiting, Bite Back was anxious to figure out what the trouble had been so the other two villains could be checked for similar faults.
"So, what's the damage?" Bite Back asked the team operating on Jack O' Bones.
"Honestly, boss," one of the techs replied, "I think this one's a lost cause. The CMC has been shattered to pieces, and all the circuits running from it have been shredded by the loose shrapnel."
"Can't you replace the circuits altogether?"
The technician looked to him and sighed. "We could, but the loose pieces are so scattered we'd need to dis-assemble Jacky from head to hoof to retrieve them all. We also suspect the pieces have managed to damage several more circuits throughout his body, which would only prove more troublesome if true. It's just not worth the trouble to repair him, boss."
Bite Back looked at the rest of the team, then to Jacky's mutilated remains, then back to the technician who now had a despondent look in his eyes. Bite Back could tell he felt bad about letting him down, but that he truly believed what he said. He looked once again at the rest of the team clustered around the table to see them now staring back at him with faces showing curiosity, anxiety, and exhaustion. Finally, Bite Back relented.
"So be it," he said. "Toss him in the scrapyard outside, then get a replacement Jacky ready for tomorrow."
Bite Back turned around to check on the team operating on Sin, but stopped when he remembered about Brave Heart. He turned back to the technicians he just talked to.
"By the way, have any of you seen Brave Heart? He was malfunctioning today and I don't see him anywhere in here."
The technicians looked at each other, then back to him and shrugged. Bite Back responded with clear urgency in his voice. "Make sure you find him before tomorrow. We need to know if the faults in his servers exist in all bots of the same model. Am I clear?"
The technicians nodded and proceeded to work at their new tasks. Bite Back, meanwhile, turned back to the team operating on Sin. Looking at the genderless robot, Bite Back was relieved to see that it wasn't in as nearly deplorable condition as Jack O' Bones was. Aside from a dented mask and dislocated limbs, Sin looked to be in good shape.
"What's the consensus?" Bite Back asked the team.
"Physically, it's looking good, boss," the technician closest to him replied. "However, there's something strange going on with the CS."
"Strange? How?" Bite Back looked over the technicians' shoulder at the exposed Command Server in the back of Sin's head.
"In a way, the CS is caught in a suspended state of inactivity." The technician moved so Bite Back could get a better view of the command server. "While this isn't strange in and of itself, the reports indicated that Sin was operating within normal parameters prior to being decommissioned by H.D."
"Could H.D. have done this to Sin?" Bite Back asked, looking closely at Sin's internals.
"Unlikely, sir. While physical trauma is capable of dislodging internal components and creating errors as a result, Sin's CS hasn't sustained any physical damage, meaning the problem most likely occurred before it fought the royals. But that's quite a paradox, since Sin shouldn't have been able to do anything with its CS essentially frozen."
Bite Back retracted from looking at Sin's internals. What the technician had said about Sin's condition didn't quite match up with his observation of Brave Heart's from earlier. Still, the last thing he wanted to do was risk the guests' safety, so he decided to risk that of himself and the technicians instead.
"Let's see if it'll work right now."
The technicians all looked to him in surprise. "Sir?"
Bite Back continued before more could be said. "We need to be sure the fault isn't hereditary to this model type. Besides, it sounds like we'll have better luck with diagnosing the problem if we observe Sin's behavior firsthoof. Now, is it ready to go, boys?"
"Yes, boss," they all hesitantly replied.
Bite Back smiled. "There's no need to worry, everypony. Now, just relax and wake it up. Oh, and make sure you shield everypony else working down here."
The technicians all backed away except for one, who used his horn to re-activate Sin's power circuit before following the others in stepping away from the table.
Scanning targets for damage clarification . . . scanning complete.
Damage dealt: Positive
Walking protocol initiated . . .
The DELOS scrapyard was located just behind the CCC building, right next to the corresponding cliff surrounded by a chain link fence. It was here that dead robots awaited the day they were transported by airship to the docks back on the mainland where they were shipped all around the world to be smelted down in foundries or disassembled and their parts recycled.
The scrapyard was connected to two dirt trails used by technicians for retrieving de-commissioned robots to be repaired by the night team. One trail followed the cliff edge along the coast for a ways before it diverted to Magicworld's front gates. The other trail only went straight for a few hundred meters before cutting towards the island's center and up to Dodgeworld. At the head of both trails was a sign indicating which trail led where.
With a megaton of pained effort, technicians Nycto and Redder heaved the irreparable Jack O' Bones onto the pile of junk nearest the scrapyard's entrance. The dead robot landed on the scrap with a sickening crunch and tumbled a little bit before settling in place.
"Well, that takes care of that," Nycto said, stretching to help relieve some of the aches in his back.
"Yep," Redder replied. "Let's go."
The two hadn't taken more than a few steps when they saw movement through the window next to the building's backdoor.
"What was that?" Redder asked.
"I don't know," Nycto replied.
Now slightly unnerved, the two of them cautiously trotted up to the door and opened it. The last thing they saw before falling unconscious was a stream of transparent magic shoot toward them at dazzling speeds. Sin stepped out of the building and scanned the two techs for damage. Once damage was confirmed, Sin used its guidance system to move right and up to the sign indicating which world each trail led to. Sin stared at the sign for a moment, as if deep in thought of deciding which world it should visit. Sin's guidance system eventually made the most logical decision it could find: go to both worlds. Sin's guidance system processed some more variables before deciding to visit Dodgeworld first.
With that, Sin fell into a hard gallop down the trail leading to the island's center.
Aching joints. That's what Rainbow Dash woke up to. The cyan pegasus had spent the better part of yesterday and the night resting up from her last joust with Brave Heart. That joust in particular had drained the normally energy buzzing speedster of all her strength, and even after a full night's rest she was still experiencing its after effects. Regardless, Dash was feeling much better now
She got out of bed and flexed her limbs to relieve some of the aches before heading for the bathroom. While showering, Dash reflected on her vacation thus far. She had fulfilled her goal of becoming the queen of Aviworld, and all it took to defeat the robot standing between her and achieving that goal was a little brainpower, something Rainbow would never have admitted to caring about in years' past. Now, however, Rainbow struggled for ideas on what to do with the last day of her vacation, having indulged in almost all of Aviworld's perks and amusements.
She stepped out of the shower and toweled off, then exited her hotel room and began idly strolling around the jousting arena. It wasn't long before Dash noticed that nopony else was present on the cloud walkway. Confused, she took to the air and flew out over the arena. Looking up, she noticed a couple dozen or so guests hovering above the Cloudosseum, appearing to stare out over the scape with panicked expressions. Dash flew up to one of the guests, a lime green stallion with a yellow mane, and tapped his shoulder. He turned to her, the panic clearly present on his face.
"What's going on?" Dash asked.
The stallion's expression changed from panic to incredulity. Before Dash could question him further, he grabbed her body with his hooves and turned her around, removing his hooves straight away afterwards. Rainbow's confusion was swiftly replaced by fear as she immediately saw what had everypony so panicked. All around Aviworld was nothing but blue ocean as far as the eye could see, the DELOS island having disappeared during the night. Although, upon more careful observation, Dash noticed several spots of landmass permeating the horizon that weren't there the previous two days. She felt some of her panic fade away when the realization of what happened struck; DELOS island hadn't disappeared, Aviworld had drifted away during the night. Regardless, the situation at hoof was serious, and being a master of weather-making/control Dash knew she'd be needed to help get Aviworld back to DELOS island.
Without hesitation Dash flew up a bit more so she was facing everypony in the air. Clearing her throat, she began speaking to them over the sounds of everypony's wings' panicked flapping.
"Everypony, listen up!!!"
Two dozen or so panicked faces turned to look at her. A good amount of faces changed from panicked to pleasantly surprised upon seeing their most recent empress in good health after her brutal joust the previous day. Right now, however, Rainbow Dash was more than just a mock empress of a themed resort; she was taking charge and guiding her subjects to solve the crisis much like a real empress would.
"We need to stop this over-sized cloud from drifting any farther out to sea. Once that's done, we can concentrate on figuring out what happened and how we can get back to the resort. I'll need everypony to follow my directions precisely to the letter for this to run smoothly. Am I clear?"
A few ponies murmured to each other, unsure of what to do. Before long, however, everypony reached the conclusion that following Rainbow Dash was the only way to overcome the current crisis. With nods of understanding, everypony flew up in front of Rainbow Dash to await instructions. Rainbow smiled, but replaced it with a frown as she looked out over the surrounding seascape.
I sure hope AJ and Rarity are alright . . .
An eerie silence descended upon Dodgeworld as morning dawned on the resort. Whereas on other mornings the street through town would be bustling with at least some activity, not a single soul could be found outside at the present time. Not a single true soul, anyway.
Sin walked down the street back towards the trail it had come into town from. The cybercorn had swept through every single building in Dodgeworld and claimed all the sleeping ponies as victims of its Mind Crush spell. With Dodgeworld purged, Sin set its servers on claiming Magicworld next. Upon sighting the trail Sin broke into a hard gallop once again, its server pre-programmed to save time on traveling whenever possible.
The first thing that crossed Rarity's mind as she woke up in her hotel bedroom was how much she missed being queen, as well as all the perks she got with the title. She missed very dearly the large double bed with cloud-soft sheets she had slept in the previous night, as sleeping in it had felt simply divine. And, though she felt embarrassed about it, she even missed cuddling in the (surprisingly) soothing embrace of King H.D. It reeked of irony, to be honest, that a mere robotic construct could be a more proper gentlecolt than a living flesh stallion. Then again, Rarity knew that Blueblood was the exception, not the rule.
With a wistful sigh, Rarity removed her sleeping mask and proceeded to undergo her usual morning routine. She got up and entered the room's bathroom wherein she showered, dried off, did her makeup, and adorned her high-class attire. Once her morning routine was completed, Rarity exited her hotel room and began the trip to the palace's dining hall where breakfast would be served very shortly. On the way there, Rarity remembered that King H.D. chose a new queen every couple of days, meaning he'd choose another one today. With a new spring in her step, Rarity happily thought about how wonderful it'd be to be queen again for her last full day at the DELOS resort. This fantasy continued on even as she entered the palace and made her way to the dining hall where breakfast was being served and nearly all of Magicworld's guests were in attendance.
As Rarity began approaching the breakfast buffet, however, a terrifying realization dawned on her.
I forgot to style my mane!
Panicking, Rarity struggled to remember where the nearest lavatory was; all the while making a futile attempt to cover her mane with her right front hoof. Once she remembered where the fillies' room was she broke out into an awkward three-legged gallop towards it, too anxious about fixing her mane to be concerned with what all the nobles in attendance thought of her. As soon as she entered the fillies' lavatory she rushed to the mirror and cringed at the sight that greeted her. Her mane was, quite simply, horrid. It looked as if she'd been sucked into a tornado and regurgitated like foal's mush. With a depressed sigh, Rarity pulled out an emergency comb she had in her saddlebag and began the assuredly arduous task of styling her mane.
While Rarity occupied the mare's lavatory, the noble guests outside in the dining hall chatted away incessantly with each other and daintily ate their self-served breakfasts like they always did. They stopped, however, when a faint cry of agony sounded at the palace's front entrance, followed by the unmistakable blast sound of a spell being fired. All the nobles glanced towards the dining hall's entrance just in time to see a certain masked robotic unicorn enter. While the nobles recognized Sin from a couple of days ago, they thought little of it and resumed their prior activities. They didn't have long to indulge in them, however, as Sin fired off a super-charged Mind Crush spell that enveloped every single noble present. The sounds of a couple hundred near simultaneous thuds echoed throughout the large dining hall as every noble fell unconscious to the floor, any items they had held following in their wake.
It was then that, in a rare case of remarkable timing, Rarity exited the lavatory. She made her way to the dining hall, her mane now curled accordingly, and glanced in only to be startled by the sight that greeted her. As Rarity attempted to wrap her head around what was going on, she heard hoofsteps approaching from her right. Turning, she noticed Sin making way towards her, its horn charging with transparent energy and aimed directly at her. All at once Rarity understood what was happening, and managed to dodge the subsequent spell fired at her before breaking out into a hard gallop towards the palace entrance. Intent on following through with its' objective, Sin turned and galloped right after her.
Rarity galloped aimlessly around Magicworld, making sure to swerve to one side whenever she heard Sin firing off another spell. Even though she knew it was to blame for everypony's comatose states, Rarity was still confused on just what was going on with the cybercorn. What concerned her more, however, was the absence of any staff members coming to claim the robot for repairs. While she didn't put it past the staff to be tardy on these matters every once in a while, she found it impossible to believe that a rogue robot would slip by their notice and make it all the way back to the resort proper unless something bad had happened to them. It suddenly dawned on Rarity that she was alone in Magicworld with an out of control robot hunting her down. Her panic rising, she turned a corner and spotted the front entrance to Magicworld. Without a second thought, Rarity made a beeline for the gate with Sin still hot on her tail.
Once through the gate, Rarity hopped swiftly down the accompanying steps into the tunnel that connected the trail leading back to the airship docks. She hadn't the intention of going there, however; with the resort's staff nowhere to be seen or found, Rarity was too concerned about her friends to even consider escaping without them. To that end, she turned off the trail upon exiting the tunnel and continued to gallop in what she hoped was the direction of Dodgeworld proper. After traveling a few meters she spared a glance over her shoulder to check if Sin was still following her, only to trip over a rock that sent her flying into a rocky ravine she had failed to notice prior.
Rarity could do nothing but scream as she fell towards certain doom.
The time was around late morning when Applejack and Prickly Pear arrived back at Dodgeworld proper. The two had spent the entire night roughing it in the cave after Jack O' Bones' failed assault. AJ was still grasping at straws for why and how she'd been thrown in the jailhouse, but Prickly had managed to convince her to let it go and take comfort in the fact that Jacky got what he deserved. The two of them had slept soundly all throughout the night before waking up at the crack of dawn next morning. After stretching a bit they exited the cave and headed back to town, AJ intent on making the most of her last full day at the resort.
That all got thrown into doubt, however, when she and Prickly found the town street completely devoid of life. They instantly knew something was wrong, since by this time the street was normally bustling with at least some activity. The fact that not a single pony could be seen anywhere unnerved both AJ and Prickly, intensified by the complete silence permeating the town as a result.
"Where is everypony?" Prickly asked with worry clear in his voice.
"Ah don't rightly know, Prickly," AJ responded as she glanced down an alleyway between two buildings. "It's 'till too early fer Kazum ta have arrived. Even then, Ah highly doubt everypony would be fixin' ta leave today."
The two cowponies approached the hotel and entered with caution. The inside was dark despite the rising morning sun, letting the pair see only the faint outlines of each door along both sides of the hallway. As AJ walked down the hall, counting the doors until she reached hers, she started feeling antsy for no apparent reason. Maybe it was the stress of being confused about what was going on, or concern for everypony who should've been up and about but weren't. One thing she knew it wasn't, however, was fear. Applejack had learned over time that being afraid was more a hindrance than a quality. While it helped to be cautious, turning one's rear on something out of reluctance to face it head on was inexcusable by her standards, and Celestia rue the day she herself succumbed to fear of anything other than fear itself.
As Applejack neared what she believed was her room's door, her right fore hoof bumped into something . . . warm . . . soft . . . and alive. She froze. Looking down at her hooves, AJ saw the unmistakable outline of a pony, a mare by the looks of it, laying halfway through the door next to hers with an amber lamp loosely clenched between her teeth. Her eyes were shut and her breathing was slow and steady, so she was alright at least.
"Hey, Prickly, check this out."
AJ heard Prickly approach behind her. "Who is that?" he asked.
"No idea," AJ replied, "but let's see if she'll wake up an' tell us, along with what in tarnation's goin' on around here."
Applejack gently nudged the mare with her snout. When this failed to wake her she tried again a little harder, only to receive equal success. Prickly tried next, attempting to wake the sleeping mare from her slumber with a few loud hoof stomps on the ground next to her left ear. When that failed, Prickly leaned down and placed his right ear against her chest. After a few moments, he leaned back up and turned to AJ.
"She ain't exactly asleep," he said.
"Well, then what in tarnation is she?" AJ asked.
"She 'pears ta be 'n some sorta coma. Thing is, comatose ponies shouldn' be able ta breathe normally without a breathin' apparatus."
"How'd ya figure that out . . . and whaddya think it means?"
Prickly shrugged. "Ah've learned a few tricks in my time, and Ah'm not sure what it means."
As the two contemplated what to do with the unconscious mare they heard what sounded like faint hoofsteps outside. Without a clue as to what was going on the two cowponies opted to stay in place, listening as the hoofsteps gradually neared their position. Eventually, the hoof fall pattern distinguished itself as that of a hard gallop and appeared to resonate from the east. With a worried glance to each other, AJ and Prickly cautiously made their way back to the hotel door and peeked around the corner in the hoofsteps' direction.
Rainbow Dash was very pleased with her "subjects". Under her lead, they had managed to halt Aviworld's path of drift and were now working on pushing it in the opposite direction. Rainbow could only guesstimate that the wind currents had stayed somewhat the same throughout the night. She hoped they had, otherwise they could very well have been pushing Aviworld farther out to sea instead of toward probable land. Most of Aviworld's guests were occupied with the actual pushing of said behemoth cloud, leaving only a couple hoof-picked by Dash for personal help. One was a teal maned, dark green coated stallion with gray eyes and a portable telescope Cutie Mark, named Shubie. The other one, also a stallion, was gold maned and black coated with magenta eyes and a gold bar Cutie Mark, named Gold Leaf. Rainbow had picked them for their proclaimed expertise in navigation and direction, respectively.
The three of them hovered over the slowly moving cloud fortress, discussing the best course of action to get back to DELOS island, as well as what could've happened to cause Aviworld to drift in the first place.
"Wouldn't it be more efficient to keep Aviworld stationed and send enough pegasi to check out each dot on the horizon?" Gold Leaf asked.
"Here's the problem with that," Dash answered. "We wouldn't have enough muscle left to keep it stationed." She looked down at all the pegasi moving the giant cloud fortress. "Everypony is struggling right now as it is, any less and the free-flowing winds out here will continue pushing Aviworld around."
"There's also the inherent danger of them getting lost trying to find their way back here," Shubie added.
"True, but it's quite an ambitious risk attempting to guide a cloud of this size, is it not?" Gold Leaf asked. "Everypony will eventually exhaust themselves and need to rest, at which point the winds will continue pushing Aviworld around regardless."
Rainbow glared at Gold. "Then I'll lend them my strength," she stated.
Gold frowned. "Even if you are the Rainbow Dash, one extra pony isn't going to matter."
Rainbow was but a hoof's length from Gold's face in a second, causing him to flinch in surprise. "I'm all it'll take to get us out of this mess."
Before Gold could respond, Rainbow sped off down towards the moving cloud fortress. She inserted herself between two pegasi near its south side and proceeded to push Aviworld along with her subjects. For all her efforts the cloud fortress' movements did indeed pick up significant speed. Gold and Shubie watched as they kept over the cloud fortress and, while impressed, knew it wouldn't be enough to get them to the nearest landmass before the winds proved to be too strong to overcome.
Just then, Gold spotted something in his eye's corner off in the distance. Looking up, he saw a dot in the sky about a few miles from their position. Despite being so far away, he could tell it was too big to be a bird or something similar. In fact, something about it seemed familiar.
"Hey, Shubie," he said, pointing towards the object, "look at that."
Shubie followed Gold's gaze towards the object and he too found it to be familiar. "Hey, Dash!" he called to her. "Come here for a sec!"
Dash was up with them in little more than a second. "What is it, guys?"
They both pointed towards the object and Dash looked. "Yeah, what about it?" she asked.
"Doesn't it look familiar?" Shubie asked.
Rainbow looked back at the object and pondered if it did. Before long, she realized what Shubie and Gold were hinting at and zoomed back down to Aviworld. She commanded all the pegasi to change direction towards the object, to which they had no qualms, and resumed with helping them herself to speed up the process. If Shubie and Gold were correct in their assumptions, reaching the object was of utmost importance.
Airship Kazum Pilot Skiel stood at the helm of said airship totally focused on his task at hoof. Transporting guests to and from the DELOS resort was a simple, but ever so nerve wracking job that required a clear mind to pull off without a hitch. While airships were designed with safety first in mind, if something did happen and the ship crashed into the sea it would undoubtedly be disastrous. Pegasi passengers could fly for help, sure, but they'd be hard pressed to find their way back to the downed ship amidst the vast ocean between the mainland and DELOS island. That was the one thing Skiel didn't take too kindly to about his job; it screamed trouble to build a resort so far away from the nearest help.
As Skiel was about to steer the ship slightly right to re-align with DELOS island's docks, he caught sight of something out the starboard window of the cockpit. Squinting his eyes, he gasped upon realizing what he was looking at; DELOS island's Aviworld being pushed by a whole bunch of pegasi towards the Kazum. The sight of Aviworld away from the rest of the resort was troubling to Skiel; it was a definite sign that something wasn't right.
When Aviworld was no more than one hundred meters from the airship, a lone pegasus mare emerged from behind the enormous cloud and flew up to the cockpit's window. She had a prismatic mane, a cyan blue coat, magenta eyes and a Cutie Mark consisting of a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt striking down from it. Skiel watched as the pegasus inaudibly spoke while gesturing towards the misplaced cloud. Skiel put a hoof to his ear to indicate he couldn't hear her, to which she groaned and flew around towards the side of the airship where the door was. Skiel heard the door open, followed by a brief commotion in the passenger's lounge, then a few shouts from the flight attendants before the cockpit's door opened and the rainbow maned pegasus entered, panting.
"Who are you?" Skiel asked her.
The pegasus took a deep breath and answered. "My name is Rainbow Dash." She then looked out the window at Aviworld. "And we have a huge problem on our hooves."
Pain. That was what Rarity felt upon waking up. The aches coursing throughout her body could best be described as feeling as if multiple persons were inside her, using her bones and muscles as makeshift drums. She remembered what happened to warrant such pain, and the realization that she was still alive amazed her. Rarity opened her eyes to find herself prone on her barrel with her fore legs stretched out in front of her, covered in bruises. With great effort, she glanced over her shoulder to see that her hind legs were in the same condition. The majority of her pain, however, was concentrated in the area around her barrel.
Rarity struggled to get up, the pain working to impede her attempts with every twitch of her legs. She slowly stood up on all four hooves and tested them out. She found that she could walk at a reasonable pace without hurting herself, but the aches in her barrel refused to cease. For a brief moment Rarity was afraid she was suffering from internal bleeding, but then she realized if she were there'd be the telltale sign of a purple blood sack forming around her stomach.
Rarity hadn't taken but a step forward when she heard faint hoofsteps approaching from behind her up the cliff. Turning around, she caught sight of Sin standing up at the top of the cliff. It didn't take long for the rogue robot to get a fix on her and begin charging its horn up for another Mind Crush spell. Rarity wasted no time in trotting away as fast as her aching body would allow, only to be forced to self-inflict pain when dodging Sin's spell. She groaned in agony before resuming her trot through the canyon, glancing back every few seconds to check on Sin's position. The robot continued with its assault until Rarity managed to disappear around a bend in the canyon, at which point it continued down the trail leading to the airship docks, intending to intercept its target in the Dodgeworld desert.
Rarity, meanwhile, was being forced to push her body beyond what should've been its limits. Every step she took sent a sliver of pain throughout her legs as she trudged through the canyon. Further adding to her misery was the sun's rays beaming full force down on her, making her sweat profusely and ruining her pristine white coat. Thankfully, the adrenaline rush of running from Sin was helping her to push through all the agony, and by the time she exited the canyon she no longer felt pain anywhere but around her barrel.
Unfortunately, the sun's rays only intensified with no canyon walls to provide spots of shade, and Rarity's already exhausted and sweaty body felt like it would burst with each feeble step she took. Glancing around as she walked, Rarity was repulsed by the barrenness of Dodgeworld's desert, though she knew it was to be expected. Rarity was never one for desert travel; all the times she had visited some settlement out in the desert wastelands of Equestria had been utterly miserable for her, and it always took a lot of restraint to keep from complaining to her friends about her discomfort.
As Rarity gaited through the desert she pondered what had happened to Sin. The masked robot had acted weird the previous day when it woke her from bed prematurely, which Rarity had dismissed as either part of its villain act gone extreme or a bug in its programming. Now, however, it was clear that the danger was the result of more than a simple bug, and there was no way what had happened at the dining hall was part of its act as Magicworld's villain. Then again, what Sin had said to her yesterday called the latter into question.
A world devoid of innocence . . .
Rarity was pulled from her thoughts when the image of multiple structures manifested beyond the brush in front of her. Focusing, she could make out two parallel rows of buildings situated within a wide open plain of barren, brushless land. It was Dodgeworld. Rarity's face split into a wide grin as she picked her pace up from a gait to a canter, ignoring the path around the brush and instead opting to cut straight across. By the time she made it across, everything from her barrel down was covered in scrapes and cuts. She was bleeding in several places but for once in her life she didn't care. She could fix herself right up once she entered town.
Civilization! Thank Celestia I've made it. Oh dear me, Applejack will undoubtedly get a kick out of seeing me sweaty and covered with filth. Oh, what does it matter? Let's see her run for dear life from a rogue robot unicorn and keep perfectly clean all the while. Yes, in fact, I ought to ha-
Rarity was pulled once again from her thoughts, this time by the ever familiar sound of a spell fired off from somewhere behind her to the left. Instinctively, Rarity leapt to the side as a blast of transparent magic energy slammed into the ground just a few yards in front of her, sending a cloud of dry dirt up into the air that was quickly carried away by a gust of wind. She dared a glance behind her to see that Sin was indeed there and still bent on eliminating her. How it managed to find her again so soon after their last encounter was shoved aside in Rarity's mind as she sprang into a hard gallop towards town.
The first thing that she noticed upon entering the town was its . . . emptiness. She could not see a single pony anywhere in sight as she ran down the only street in town. This would've registered in her mind that the situation at hoof was greater than she thought, if not for the fact that it was preoccupied with dodging the spells Sin fired every ten seconds or so. Suddenly, she spotted a couple of heads poking around the front doorway of one of the buildings. Squinting to see better, Rarity gasped once she realized it was Applejack and Prickly Pear. She instantly changed course towards them.
"Rarity!" Applejack exclaimed. "What in tarnation is goin' on?"
Rarity ignored her friend and skirted past them into the building, skidding to a halt in front of the unconscious mare in the hallway. Seeing that was all the proof Rarity needed to conclude that Sin had already been to Dodgeworld and gotten . . . most of the guests.
"Rarity!"
Rarity turned around to see Applejack and Prickly had turned back into the hotel and were eyeing her with looks of concern mixed with anxiety. Before she could warn them, Sin appeared behind the pair out in the street. Its horn was glowing yet again and ready to fire another shot.
"BEHIND YOU!!!"
It was too late. Sin fired its shot before the two of them had a chance to process Rarity's words. The spell struck Applejack dead center in the back of her head. Prickly, however, was not targeted and flinched upon hearing the spell strike no more than a meter to his right. AJ froze for a half second before her legs buckled and she fell stomach first to the hallway's floor. Rarity screamed internally as she slumped to her knees, unable to comprehend what she had just witnessed. The idea that Applejack, the stubborn, hard-working, tough-as-nails mare that she knew for the past few years could fall victim to that masked bucket of bolts called Sin had difficulty registering in Rarity's mind. Seeing Applejack fall to it, even if taken by surprise, only helped reinforce her fear that the situation at hoof was hopeless.
While Rarity wallowed in sorrow, Prickly took the initiative to get the two of them to safety. He turned to face the masked robot and charged. Just as Sin was about to fire off another shot Prickly stopped in front of it and, turning around quicker than one could blink, bucked his hind legs straight into Sin's metallic chest. Its spell was redirected into the air as Sin flew back a couple dozen meters from the force of Prickly's buck. It landed at the far side of the dirt street on its side where it flailed its robotic limbs around like a cow tipped over. Prickly didn't wait for it to right itself; he quickly ran down the hallway to Rarity and hooked his forelegs under hers'. He lifted the shell-shocked mare to her hooves and started to run down the hallway towards the backdoor when he realized Rarity wasn't following him. Panicking, he gave her a good shake with his hooves in a vain attempt to snap the unicorn to her senses.
As Prickly tiredly looked up, he saw Sin had righted itself across the street outside and was now making its way back towards them, horn already charging its next spell. Knowing their time was almost up, Prickly prayed forgiveness as he raised his hoof high above his head and struck Rarity hard across her face. Finally snapped to her senses, Rarity screamed a single word.
The barren scenery flew past Prickly and Rarity as they galloped through Dodgeworld's desert with speed that would make Rainbow Dash blush. They hadn't said anything to each other after Rarity snapped to her senses, knowing there'd be plenty of time to talk once their safety wasn't compromised. The two of them kicked up dirt and snagged bushels on their coats as they ran. In contrast to Prickly who started the chase relatively clean, Rarity's already grimy coat and dirty mane were further soiled by the clinging dirt and plants she picked up while running. In a tiny corner in the back of her mind, a little voice kept screaming at how absolutely horrid she must look and that no amount of soap and water would be enough to clean out all the crud sticking to her. For once in Rarity's life, however, she had her priorities straight and this little voice was drowned out by the rest of her mind screaming at her to keep running.
Once the two of them had galloped a good mile or so out of Dodgeworld and couldn't see any sign of Sin following in the distance, they stopped to rest at the base of a cliff overlooking what was probably the only body of fresh water on the entire island. Sitting just barely in the shade of the cliff was a brackish pond with all kinds of muck floating on its surface and several waterlogged trees sticking out near the center. One could easily guess that ponies were intended to jump off the cliff into the pond in lieu of a diving board; likely only used by daredevil ponies who weren't afraid of heights. It only helped solidify DELOS' promise of having a vacation for everypony.
Prickly dared a glance back in the direction they came from. All he saw was vast expanses of barren desert that lacked any sort of lush or pristineness, but he had a grim feeling it wouldn't take long before the masked robot relocated them. Still, for now they were safe.
"Ah think we'll be alright here," he told Rarity who sat next to him. "Fer a little while at least."
Rarity didn't answer, or move. Prickly looked at her and noticed she seemed to be lost in her thoughts again. Not like before, however, as he noticed her lips were quivering from what he could only guess was sorrow for seeing her friend get struck down by Sin. Always the gentlecolt, Prickly took it upon himself to comfort her.
"Hey there, it's okay, Rarity." He wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "Everything's gonna be alright in the end, just ya wait an' see."
Rarity wrapped both her forelegs around Prickly and leaned her head against his shoulder. She sighed, and then stared at the bright, blue sky. "I do hope you're right, darling."
Thankfully, Rarity didn't look at Prickly's face when she said this for it made him blush. They stayed in each others embrace for another minute before Prickly shrugged Rarity off of him and stood up to stretch. Then he spared a glance in both directions alongside the cliff before sitting back down.
"So, Rarity," he said, to which she turned to face him, "who was that masked pony anyhoo? Ah've never been ta Magicworld, but Ah'm guessin' it was the resident villain."
Rarity nodded. "It's name is Sin. It is indeed Magicworld's resident villain, although it appears now to be Dodgeworld's as well, at least judging from the condition of that nameless mare back in that building."
"At least she ain't dead," Prickly exasperated, "which Ah'm also guessin' is true fer everypony else in both Magicworld and Dodgeworld. Ah'm jus' confused as ta what happened ta make that 'bot go buhserk."
"I don't know either." Rarity stood up and stretched herself before making her way towards the pond in front of them. "But I'll only be happy when my friends and I leave this accursed island alive and well . . . Applejack . . ."
"Ah told ya, everythin' will be alright, an' that fer sure includes AJ."
"I believe you," Rarity responded as she stepped into the pond. She swirled her hoof around in the water to accrue all the muck floating around her. Once she was satisfied with the amount she accrued, she lifted it up with both fore hooves and threw it all up onto the dirt bank in a giant, slimy pile. She nodded to herself after inspecting the water around her before proceeding to submerge herself entirely below the surface. She re-surfaced a second later, her coat covered in slimy pond water and her mane and tail drenched with little bits of muck clinging onto them.
"And might Ah ask what yer doin'?" Prickly said, still sitting against the cliff base.
Rarity huffed. "I'd like to at least attempt to clean myself before we get moving again." She wrung her mane with her hooves and scraped as much gunk off as possible before stepping out of the pond. She then proceeded to vehemently rub her hooves against her coat to dry off in lieu of using a towel. All the while she did this Prickly stared in amusement, a haughty grin spread across his face.
"Ya know," he said once she had finished, "ya could'a just let the sun dry ya up."
"Perhaps," Rarity replied, "but I'd rather not walk around with pond scum stuck to my coat." She began walking back towards him. "Now, why don't you clean yourself off so we can get a move on?"
Prickly laughed. "AJ sure was right 'bout ya'll; yer a mighty uptight clean freak."
Rarity huffed again. "Of course she would say that; it wouldn't be the first time."
"Indeed." Prickly stood up and stretched some more before walking towards the pond. "But if it'll make ya happy, Ah'll take a quick dip 'n this 'ere pond and clean up."
The two ponies had resumed their journey through the Dodgeworld desert once Prickly cleaned himself off. Though, in Rarity's opinion the cowpony stallion had done a horrible job at properly grooming his person, and had insisted upon scrubbing him clean herself. Hesitant at first, Rarity argued that having a gorgeous mare so much as touch him, let alone repeatedly and all over, was an opportunity far too good to pass up.
"Ah s'pose so; ya happen ta know a gorgeous mare 'round these parts?"
"Well, the best place ta hunker down might be in the CCC buildin'," Prickly replied. "It's where the staff repairs injured 'bots an' such."
"Good idea, let's get there as qui-AHH!!!"
Rarity was cut off by a blast of magic that impacted the ground in front of her, making her start and jump back in surprise. Turning their heads, the two ponies caught sight of Sin barreling down a nearby hill towards them, its metallic horn already charging up another shot. They didn't think; Rarity and Prickly began galloping away from the rogue cybercorn.
"How much farther is this CCC building, Prickly!?" Rarity shouted over the pounding of their hooves on the dry desert ground.
"Ah think it's 'bout a couple hundred meters over yonder!" Prickly quickly pointed a hoof to their eleven o' clock position before resuming his gallop.
"Alright, let's go!"
The two of them changed direction towards the CCC building and, what they hoped would be, safe haven from the masked robot hot on their tails.
"I'm sorry, but this is their central control center?" Rarity asked, disbelief prevalent in her tone.
The two ponies had managed to outrun Sin and enter the CCC building through the front door, which they quickly locked and barricaded with a plank they found nearby before collapsing to the floor in exhaustion. While the sounds of Sin ramming against the door rung repeatedly behind them, Rarity and Prickly took a minute to rest before getting up and taking stock of their surroundings. Rarity was displeased with what she saw, to say the least.
"Ah reckon so," Prickly replied. "Don't it suit yer fancy?"
Rarity huffed. "No, it most certainly does not. But I suppose I have no valid complaints since this place wasn't intended to be seen by the eyes of guests. Still though, a little decor never hurt anypony."
It was true, the interior of the CCC building was noticeably bland and generic in design. The walls were painted a single shade of gray and weren't adorned with any kind of decorations whatsoever. Above them was a popcorn ceiling that stretched down both directions of the hallway they were currently in, while a third hallway in front of them lacked a proper ceiling which left all the pipes, wires and such exposed. All the hallways were alight, but the ones in front and to the right repeatedly flickered which added a decrepit quality to the already unappealing interior of the CCC building.
"Maybe they're jus' not finished with buildin' this place yet?" Prickly suggested, turning his gaze between all three hallways in slow succession before turning his gaze to Rarity.
"I suppose," the fashionista replied. She cast a glance down each hallway herself before returning Prickly's gaze.
"Do you think something happened to the staff?" She pointed a hoof behind them to the barricaded door, still being rammed by a certain masked robot. "Maybe Sin got them all as well?"
"That's 'bout the only thing that makes sense," Prickly replied. "Come on, let's go see fer ourselves."
"Alright," Rarity said. She pointed down the hallway to her right. "I'll check down there."
"An' Ah reckon Ah'll check over yonder," Prickly said, pointing down the adjacent hallway.
With that settled the two ponies split up, hoping to get some answers as to what happened to the staff, as well as what made Sin go berserk.
It hadn't taken long for Prickly to realize that the CCC building was a lot bigger than it appeared to be from the outside. Most of the building was located underground, and Prickly had only spent a few minutes walking on the ground level floor before finding a stairway to the lower section. That was ten minutes ago.
Not a single pony, awake or unconscious, so far. Where is everypony?
The design of the CCC's underground section was every bit as bland and boring as the ground level. Just like above, the walls were painted a single shade of gray and also lacked any kind of decor. The same popcorn ceiling was installed above, but unlike upstairs it fully covered every hallway Prickly had been down. None of the lights he'd seen so far had flickered, which led Prickly to conclude that more resources were used in maintaining this section than the one upstairs.
None of the doors he'd come across were unlocked, so it came as a shock to Prickly when one particular door he tried opened with relative ease; the one with a sign that read Repair Laboratory. Stepping into the room, he started at what greeted his eyes. Lying around the various operating tables set up along the room were unconscious ponies in white lab coats and wearing hairnets over their manes and tails. Walking further into the room, Prickly finally began to understand what happened. Stepping around a cluster of ponies in the room's middle, he guessed that Sin was one of the robots they were repairing when something in its programming went screwy, resulting in it knocking out everypony present as well as anypony it came across afterwards.
Prickly was about to turn around and catch up with Rarity to share his discovery when he heard a faint noise echoing through the halls outside the laboratory. Swiveling his ears, he listened extra carefully to pinpoint exactly what he was hearing.
clop clop clop clop clop clop
Sounds like . . . hoof steps.
clop clop clop clop clop clop
Is it Rarity?
clop clop clop clop clop clop
"Rarity!?"
No response. Instead, the hoof steps pattern changed from a canter to a gallop, and were now coming closer to the Repair Laboratory. Now Prickly was concerned. If it was Rarity approaching in response to his call, then surely she would've answered. The hoof steps continued down the hall until they reached the door to the lab. Prickly lowered his stance in preparation for a possible fight should one arise.
The door re-opened.
It didn't take Rarity long at all to regret splitting up with Prickly. As she walked down the building's darkened hallways she couldn't stop herself from looking over her shoulder every five seconds out of fear for the unknown. It no longer mattered that the building's interior was generic and unappealing to her; Rarity was more concerned about the possible dangers lurking around every corner, ready to pop out and attack her once it was too late for her to escape.
After having walked down about a dozen hallways without a single unlocked door, Rarity spotted what appeared to be natural sunlight pouring into the building from around a corner. Cautiously, she made her way to the corner and peeked around it. At the end of the hallway was an open door leading outside. Rarity smiled as she happily cantered down the hallway toward the door. The natural, luminescent glow of the sun's rays possessed an inviting, comfortable aura that Rarity was sure would provide safe haven from her fears of the darkness. Rarity stepped through the door and let out a deep, long sigh as her fears washed away and replaced with awe at the view she had of the ocean in front of her. The sky was clear all the way to the horizon and Celestia's sun hovered directly overhead, indicating the time was around noon.
Rarity's peace was interrupted, unsurprisingly, by a blast of magic sounding off to her four o' clock position. With all the grace of a panicked mare used to jumping out of harm's way, Rarity side-rolled left and tumbled along the ground until the chain link fence of the DELOS scrapyard halted her. She quickly scrambled to her hooves and stared back at where she was to find Sin standing near the building's corner, once again charging up its horn to fire another shot.
Doesn't it ever take a break?
Rarity frantically swung her head around in search of an escape route. Seeing none, Rarity made a break for the scrapyard entrance just as Sin fired the next shot. Rarity thought herself quite fortunate that it was a scrapyard and not a garbage dump; unlike trash, she had no qualms with taking refuge in piles of rusted metal, frayed wires, and cracked magic circuits. She would still have to be careful not to severely cut herself, however, since no conscious medical help was currently present on the island.
Without a second thought, Rarity dove behind the first pile of scrap she saw just as Sin fired off a third round of magic. The ground next to the pile was hit, resulting in a wave of dirt washing over Rarity's newly washed coat. She didn't bother grieving, however; instead, she began crawling along the scrap pile away from the gate as fast as possible. Just before Sin rounded the scrap pile itself and turned in her direction, Rarity had already moved behind another pile out of its sight.
It was at this point that the adrenaline rushing through Rarity's body subsided, being quickly replaced by nerve wracking tension. She could hear Sin's hoof steps follow her movements alongside the scrap pile at a slow, softened pace that Rarity had yet to see from the masked cybercorn. It was unsettling; not because it frightened her, but because Rarity felt a sense of eerie calmness at the sound of its hoof falls. It was a feeling beyond simple fear, but the fashionista unicorn lacked the vocab skills to come up with an adequate description. She made a mental note to discuss this with Twilight upon returning to Ponyville.
Once Sin was about halfway along the scrap pile, Rarity resumed her crawling along the opposite side. After having moved naught but a few meters she spotted something lying half buried in the dirt just ahead of her position. Picking up her pace slightly, she made her way up to the object, which she proceeded to yank from the ground with her telekinesis. It was a rusted metal bar.
. . . Perfect.
-----
. . . walking protocol cancelled.
Scanning for target/s . . . scanning complete.
Target/s located: 0
Frustration protocol initiated.
Selecting random swear from database . . . selection complete.
Rarity swung the metal bar as hard as her telekinesis would allow right into Sin's face. The bar shattered Sin's mask into dozens of tiny pieces, but it held off the blow enough to prevent massive damage to Sin's innards. Sin staggered back from the strike and collapsed onto the pile of scrap just below where Rarity stood atop it. Rarity hopped down onto the dirt and turned to face the robot, metal bar still in grip and ready for use at a moment's notice. After flailing about for a few moments, Sin managed to upright itself and immediately turned to face the unicorn fashionista. The sight of Sin's true face shocked Rarity briefly before she recomposed herself.
Underneath Sin's mask was a view into the inner workings of his cybernetic body. For the most part all that was seen was metal framework, wires, and glowing magic circuits, but it was what lay in front of it all that drew Rarity's attention. A single eye existed underneath the mask on the right side. It was entirely red and had a glazed over, dead look to it that disturbed Rarity. Where the left eye would normally be there was instead a series of white wires running from the left side of Sin's face into the sole eye. In place of a mouth was what appeared to be an inside out microphone; no doubt how Sin (or any of the DELOS robots) talked. What further disturbed Rarity, however, was the slit-like appearance of the microphone. It resembled the kind of expression one who opens their mouth for a dentist would have; neither smiling or frowning but at the same time not neutral; just an open, expressionless mouth. It was easily the most disturbing feature of Sin's true face, and it sent a shiver down Rarity's spine.
Rarity was about to prep the metal bar for another strike when she felt another force latch onto it and begin wrestling for control. The fashionista looked up at Sin's horn and was unsurprised to see it glowing in a transparent aura as it attempted to snatch the metal bar out of Rarity's possession. She glared daggers into the robot's lone eye; she had every intention to wreck it for attacking her and everypony else, and it was only convenient she do it here in the scrapyard. That way, she wouldn't need to haul Sin's pulverized cybernetic carcass here herself upon completion.
Unfortunately for her, however, Sin's grasp on the metal bar proved to be too much to overcome. Rarity struggled to keep her grip tight on it, but every second it slipped a little bit out of her grasp until, finally, Sin broke it from her telekinesis and tossed it out of sight over the chain link fence. Rarity was too tired to panic; instead, she slumped to her knees and stared gloomily at the ground.
I've had enough.
"RARITY!!!"
Before Rarity realized she'd been called to, she felt a whoosh of air in her mane as something was thrown over her head towards Sin. She looked up just in time to see what appeared to be a robot stallion donned in ancient Pegasopolian armor slam into Sin, the force great enough to hurl them both into the nearest scrap pile with Sin underneath and unable to right itself. Wide eyed, Rarity looked behind her to see Prickly Pear standing near the scrapyard entrance with a javelin-esque weapon clutched in his mouth. Despite being full, his mouth easily betrayed what could possibly be the widest of smirks to ever adorn the face of anypony in history.
"Ya alright, pook 'eh pie?"
Rarity took a moment to process what just happened before answering him. "I'm alright, darling." She turned to look at the two robots and saw that the one pinning Sin in place was little more than scrap itself. The head had been all but torn off, the limbs were crushed and flat like pancakes, and the barrel was ripped open with its innards actually spilling out like fish guts. It looked as if a manticore had used the thing for a chew toy; Rarity almost pitied the thing.
"Ah found 'im in the underground laboratory," Prickly said, walking up to her, "Darn thin' came 'n attacked me fer no reason; y'all see what he got fer that."
Rarity stood up and used her hooves to brush some dust off her coat before turning to face Prickly. "Is it all finally over?"
"Almost." Prickly hoofed her the javelin. "Put Sin outta its misery."
Rarity smiled an evil smile as she turned to face the still flailing menace. "With the utmost pleasure, darling."
-----
Walking protocol failed.
Walking protocol failed.
Walking protocol failed.
*Error 444* . . . . . . . . .
*Error 56* . . . . . . . . .
*Error 390* . . . . . . . . .
*Error 71* . . . . . . . . .
*Error 23* . . . . . . . . .
System Crash
It was mid afternoon by the time Rarity, Prickly, and the still unconscious Applejack reached the airship docks to wait for the Kazum to arrive. It had been an arduous journey for the duo traveling across the island in the sweltering heat of the sun's rays, and even more so for Prickly who had to carry Applejack on his back the whole way, though Rarity helped with her telekinesis upon request. Once AJ had been set unto the concrete ground Rarity and Prickly collapsed next to each other in exhaustion, ever grateful for a chance to rest. Panting, Rarity let her eyes wander the surroundings aimlessly, at least until she spotted a most comforting sight in the distant sky.
"Prickly, look." She pointed towards the object.
Panting himself, Prickly looked to where she was pointing and smiled. "It's the Kazum, ain't it?"
"Well, that too," Rarity replied, "but I was referring to the fastest flyer in Equestria."
Confused, Prickly squinted his eyes to see better. It was then that he caught sight of a pegasus flying alongside the airship; one with a rainbow mane and tail.
Prickly whistled. "Rainbow Dash."
"Indeed it is," Rarity replied. "I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time swapping stories when this is all over."
They both laughed at that for a while as their salvation neared the docks. Once Rarity stopped, she returned to letting her eyes wander aimlessly. It wasn't long before they settled on a sign that Rarity hadn't noticed a few days ago upon first arriving. Emblazoned on it was the DELOS resort's slogan in bold print.
