Marionettes

by Godzillawolf

The Puppeteer Part 2

=Weapons Factory – Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars=

Standing on the other side of the lobby (while not extremely wide, it was very long, likely for the sake of lines) was none other than Masquerade herself, her face still as a statue and Mrs. Marshmallow beside her with her perpetual smile. The Director of S.M.I.L.E.'s cutie mark was now in full view without the brightness of her room drowning it out: a pair of silver interlocking, perfectly symmetrical gears. Behind her stood a small army of agents, with a number of Elite Agents among them. A large enough army that the attackers were outnumbered.

Pinkie Pie blinked, looking around them. “No ambush?”

“The very fact you anticipated an ambush is the reason there is no ambush,” the Director replied in her typical blank way. “I anticipated that you would anticipate it given your leader and the fact you are in an enemy base. If you anticipated an ambush, your commander would just put up a shield to protect you, and our attack would simply waste more energy than it would cost him.”

“Oh...so no ambush because you knew that we knew there'd be an ambush?”

“Yes.”

“But what if we knew, you knew, that we knew there'd be an ambush!”

“Did you?”

“...Maybe...”

Shining Armor cleared his throat and stepped forwards. “You must be Masquerade...”

“Director Masquerade the 45th to be exact, but Director is enough. You are Prince Shining Armor Sparkle, husband of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. You are co-ruler of the Crystal Empire and former Captain of the Royal Guard. Most importantly, you are the elder sister of Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the Director replied, as if reading off the statistics of an appliance from a list than a person's background for both of them. “We have met several times, but you remember none of them. We really wanted you for our agency, Prince Shining Armor.”

Shining Armor felt his blood practically turn to ice and a splitting headache start to form. Memories of ponies in back suits offering him a place among their ranks, only for him to turn them down when they explained what that would entail erupting to his mind. Multiple times. The former captain of the royal guard shuddered in a cold sweat, feeling ill at the realization his memory had been tampered with.

“But you always decided to make our meetings simply a dream, ignorant to our agency's existence...” the mare said. “But that is ultimately a beneficial thing. You are a knight in shining armor. That is your place in the grand machine that is fate and you fill it well. Our part of that machine is to do that which white knights like you should not be expected to do. To make you one of us would ultimately have been putting a rivet where a screw belongs.”

The former Captain of the Royal Guard tried to read anything from the mare's body language or expression as he did his best to regain his wits...but it was like trying to read a statue.

Applejack looked to Pinkie Pie. “Can yah read that mare, Pinkie Pie?”

Pinkie Pie shuddered and shook her head. “No...she's...she's not like Maud...not at all...”

Seeing that expression on Pinkie Pie's face made a cold chill go down Applejack's spine. Seeing Cheese Sandwich react the same way made her blood run cold.

“...I know I'm not good at expressing myself...” Maud Pie, standing next to them, said, her tone as emotionless as always. “But I don't think that mare even knows what she should be expressing.”

Masquerade looked over the assembled group like she was surveying a collection of machinery. “You are attacking Moirai. You have a reason. State it.”

Shining Armor quickly regained his composure, but still shuddered a bit at the newly resurfaced memories. “Director Masquerade: your organization is charged with enslaving sapient constructs, using illegal brainwashing magic, conspiracy, kidnapping, terrorism, and many other crimes. It is to be dismantled at once,” he explained, doing his best to keep a professional manner of speaking despite the situation.

“The Princess founded this organization to be independent of herself,” Masquerade replied without a pause or hesitation. “We are not bound by any law or order she has or will dictate by her own orders. We have done nothing wrong.”

“You misunderstood your mission statement,” the Prince of the Crystal Empire replied. “Princess Celestia, and I quote, said you were 'independent of my royal authority,' that does not mean you are independent of all of Equestria's laws nor have no pony to answer to. In addition, myself and Princess Cadence, as the rulers of the Crystal Empire, were never made aware nor agreed to any of that. Therefore, your planned attack on our kingdom is an illegal act, and as its co-ruler, I consider it an attempted act of terrorism.”

“I see. Would canceling Project Siege and taking no further action against the Empire or its citizens be sufficient to cease your attack?”

“No.”

Masquerade and Shining Armor merely stared at one another for a few moments, the Director remaining stoic and statue-like. If any of this bothered Mrs. Marshmallow, she didn't show it either. The Maid merely stood there with a big wide grin on her face.

“...I don't like that...” Pinkie Pie said, with the same expression as when she'd been disturbed by the smiles at Our Town. “Her smile is...not quite wrong but something is...off!”

“You don't understand,” said one of the agents with Masquerade. “We are helping Equestria. We have saved countless lives and saved many from remembering tragic events. This is all to ensure the best possible fate for Equestria and without us this country would fall to ruin! You have no right to do this!”

Shining Armor narrowed his eyes. “And what about the ponies who died because you stood by and did nothing or allowed a monster to roam free across Equestria? How many families have you separated or lives have you ruined? Did you ever think whether or not you have the right to do anything you did? You had good intentions but this has to end before more ponies get hurt!”

“Fate gives us the right!” the agent screamed back. Several others nodded along with us.

The former Captain of the Royal Guard gave a sigh. “That's not true and we have proof of that...But first, there's one more thing I need to bring up.”

The captain of the royal guard brought in a shield bubble containing the Elite Agent he'd defeated prior. The stallion was currently trying to run off in some direction, his mind not seeming to comprehend that a bubble was around him. “You all believe the Marionettes are mindless machines...but look at this...”

A collective gasp rang out from many of the agents as Shining used his bubble to position his captive such that exposed mithril and oil was in plain view on the stallion's back.

“Your agency has been using the Marionettes to reinforce their own numbers,” Spoiled Rich explained, stepping forwards. “The Marionettes...the Marionettes are sapient beings with minds of their own, something I can now attest to knowing for a fact...and any of you could be one. Which means you can either continue to see them as 'just machines' knowing full well you or a friend might be one, or accept you've been enslaving sapient beings for your own ends...believe me, that is not a fun realization and I'm speaking from experience.”

“And the Tree of Harmony is the one that order us tah take set 'em all free,” Applejack explained, coming forwards and standing next to the other two. “And on top of that? It's right peeved at what yah did tah Gypsy! It gave us a map tah guide us when we beat Tirek and it used it tah tell us so!”

The Stallions' side of the room quickly turned into a bustle of confusion and debate, with Masquerade and her maid being the calm at the eye of a storm.

“He's a Marionette...no...that's impossible!”

“How...how can this be...We've been doing what it wanted, haven't we?!”

“I didn't sign up for this!...Did I sign up at all?! Did any of us sign up at all?!”

“...We are all just cogs in a machine anyway, it doesn't matter if we are a metal one...”

“This must be a test by the Tree of Harmony!”

“Liars! This must be a trick!”

Applejack snarled, leveling a glare. “Reality check! Ah'm Applejack, the Element of Honesty! If yah all know meh as well as yah think yah do, then yah know one thing's true about meh: mah lyin' stinks like the hind end of a skunk and Ah'm proud of that! If Ah was lyin', yah'd know it!”

“She has a point! Applejack's a really bad liar!” Pinkie Pie commented in her normal cheery way. “I mean REALLY bad!”

The Stallions' side of the room became more of a chaotic mess of debate and confusion.

However...There was no screaming of 'this cannot be happening' or 'you have no right to do this' from the Director. No meltdown at one of her darkest secrets brought to light or the prospect her organization might be wrong.

“Alright then,” Masquerade finally replied with no change in tone or expression. “You are clearly set in your opinion on this matter. I will not try any further to turn you from it with words.”

The mare then looked over her shoulder to her agents. Some where looking around in shock, others looked like they were having an existential crisis, others a crisis of conscience, still others not changing at all. Her expression did not change.

Miss Marshmallow did a ballerina spin to follow the Director's gaze. “HEY! AGENTS! THE DIRECTOR WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK!” she yelled at a volume that made Shining Armor conclude she had used the Royal Canterlot Voice, but still not losing her cheery tone.. The agents were suddenly still.

“Now. If any of you who are not resolute in your resolve to uphold this organization and all it stands for are to leave right this moment. This situation is not one for a damaged, misplaced, or misaligned cog,” the Director explained, not a hint of anger nor compassion in her tone. “The reason Marionettes have been used to supplement our number is because it was necessary. Our recruitment was too low and our organization would fail if it was not done. That is the first, last, and only reason it was done. We kept this secret because we believed it would impede our organization's functions if it were known because of this exact situation. This is the first, last, and only reason that measure was taken. I make no further justifications or explanations because none exist. Any of you could be an A or EA series Marionette at this moment unknowingly. The Marionettes are not believed by this organization to be sapient. We also cannot confirm nor deny their statement regarding the Tree of Harmony at this time.”

Masquerade took off her sunglasses, revealing her doll-like eyes. “However. If any of you are also not resolute in your resolve that our organization is now wrong and must be destroyed, simply stay out of this. Your cog has no place in their machine either. No matter which side you fight on, a cog that cannot decide which way to turn inhibits both machines. Pick your machine or lack-of-thereof now.”

With that...about a third of the agents separated from the main group (still leaving a large number). This subgroup split into thirds again. One group was too catatonic from shock to realize their friends were carrying them. The second group slowly approached the heroes' side and joined their ranks (and were instantly forced to Pinkie Promise they weren't double agents who would betray them and removed their suits for sake of identification). And the last group simply walked away never to be seen again the rest of this battle. Masquerade still had 2/3 of the group she had brought with her and the heroes had gained 1/9 of it.

Masquerade nodded. “Anycreature else?” she questioned. When none of her remaining agents departed, she nodded again. “As for the rest of you who remain loyal to S.M.I.L.E., we will now engage Prince Shining Armor and his group with intent to silence them to preserve our agency its secrecy.”

“...That's it?” Applejack asked, blinking. The mare froze as Masquerade looked at her out of the corner of her dead eyes.

“Yes, Miss Applejack. My logic is sound: they would have either inhibited our side by inaction and hesitation or have given you an opening when fighting began if they defected mid-battle by making us fight on multiple fronts. Attempting to ambush them as they changed sides would only result in Prince Shining Armor putting up a shield to protect them. He is a pony with mana reserves sufficient to shield the entirety of Canterlot for several days straight while being drained by a Changeling Queen and still requiring several minutes of brute force assault to penetrate, the amount of energy he would lose would not be worth the potential gain.

“You clearly already have agents on your side to simply know Moirai would be at this current location at this current time, so nothing of strategic value is lost. Attempts to lie to keep them on my side when I lack important, need to know information would only succeed in destroying my credibility with my own people and losing even more troops as you poke holes in my attempted justifications. Placing them in your machine before our battle begins means we avoid placing ourselves in a vulnerable position that outweighs you gaining a few more numbers when we already outnumber you,” Masquerade explained, her voice never raising or lowering. Never gaining the slightest spark of a tone. Only her strange accent giving any flavor to it.

“But...but...what yah did to Bon Bon!” Applejack pointed out, at a loss for words.

“Bon Bon? Oh. Yes. Agent Sweetie Drops. I attempted to realign that cog many times. When it became clear it was a waste of time and energy to do so, I removed her from my machine and adjusted her to fit in society's where she would better fit. That is the first, last, and only reason for my actions in that regard,” Masquerade explained like a computer explaining its functions.

“As for my intent not to try and reason with you further: it is a simple matter of realizing attempting to convince you to do otherwise would be futile. We are all just cogs in a machine. Your cogs are, by nature, not made to fit with ours. You are the heroes who inspire, who thrive in the light and do all things unambiguously noble. We are not those kinds of heroes-”

“Blah blah blah! Do you ever shut up?!” Gilda asked, giving an annoyed look.

“I prefer to be thorough in explaining myself. Now, where was I? Oh yes. Our means are justified by our ends, not by being righteous. For that reason did we remain secret for all this time, and intend to remain so: the machine you are a part of needs our machine, but the two can never occupy the same space. It is like placing a heater and an cooler in the same space: it simply does not work. You, Miss Applejack, are an ideal example. To convince you to accept our way of thinking would be convincing Honesty to lie. Not only is that a paradox, it would negate the Elements of Harmony by making you a conscious liar, something counterproductive to our goals and intentions. This is my logic and I find it sound.”

The orange farmer took a step back as Masquerade turned to look her directly in the eyes. Applejack felt like she was looking at one of Applebloom's dolls...

“Speaking of you. I believe this is the first time I have ever met you. So before we begin, Miss Applejack, I have a question. Do you ever consider how fortunate you are?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“To be raised from birth to know where you belong in the great machine. To be a farmer from the moment you were born. To be such a finely crafted, well-polished cog.”

The orange farmer snorted. “Ma and pa...they raised meh tah be a farmer, alright...but in the end it was a choice Ah made mahself! They never made meh do anythin'!”

“I see. I wonder if I envy you for that,” Masquerade replied, not showing any hint of that emotion or any other. “Then again, I would not know it if I did.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow and fur standing on end. “Yah wouldn't what now?”

Shining Armor cleared his throat. “So you won't surrender, Director Masquerade?”

The Director almost robotically shook her head as she motioned for Miss Marshmallow to stand at the side of the room and put her sunglasses back on. “No. I am S.M.I.L.E. If it is to fall, then it is my place to fall with it. Attack.”

“Team, stay back! Let them come to us! Don't open things up behind us!” Shining Armor warned as the group prepared for battle. “Party ponies, fortify our position! There's too many to take out in the open! Push it forward or fall it back depending on how the fight's going!” Party Favor, Pinkie Pie, and Cheese Sandwich united to build a makeshift fort of partying supplies and balloons for their members to fire down from and to slow down the enemy. “Flyers! Keep them from getting over the wall! Mina! Spike! Lay down fire to slow them down! Anypony else who can do fire help them! Sugar Belle, Applejack, unicorns! Open fire with everything you've got! Everypony else, deal with anypony who gets over the wall! We're not going to win this if we have to fight them all at once! Go go go!”

Everypony listened to him. After all, he WAS the former leader of Equestria's entire military. The former guard captain looked to the door they'd come in through and put a powerful 'one way lock' spell on it so it could now only be opened from their side. They couldn't afford to be routed from behind.

As the two groups began clashing, the attackers' forward momentum now stalled in their tracks, Spoiled Rich was the one who chose to engage Director Masquerade herself. The retired agent leapt up and came down with a diving blow. The white pony merely caught her hoof with her own, stopping her completely despite being a unicorn fighting an Earth Pony. She twisted Spoiled's hoof and send her flying back several feet with a hard blow to the chest.

=Lost Odyssey – A Mighty Enemy Appears=

“Mrs. Rich,” Masquerade said, slowly approaching her opponent with her typical mechanical pace. “You have chosen to face me head on. It is because you know, do you not?”

The middle age mare got back to her hooves, coughing a bit from the blow. “How good of a fighter you are? Yes, I do.” The older mare jumped up and did several spinning kicks with her hind legs at surprising speed for somepony her age.

Masquerade easily blocked two of them with her forelegs, then formed a white gear made of her magic to act as a shield for the final blow. “That is part of it. I was referring to the fact you know me better than anypony on your team. After all, you were here when my mother was still alive. I am aware you learned a lot about parenting from her.”

Spoiled Rich's eyes went wide...then the white mare slammed a white magic gear into her face, tossing her back roughly. She quickly recovered, exchanging blows with the Director, but finding all her blows either being blocked or deflected. Masquerade caught her hoof and gave her several surprisingly hard punches to the ribs before she broke free. The moment the middle age mare landed, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Spoiled jumped up just in time to evade a pair of giant magical gears that nearly slammed together right on her, taking a chunk of her tail with them.

Masquerade forced Spoiled Rich to dodge several more magic gears on her way down and finally blocked the diving punch that followed with her forelegs. The impact cracked the floor Masquerade was standing on. Spoiled Rich noted that even in the middle of a fight, her opponent's expression did not change nor did she show any sign of strain. “You have gotten rusty, Mrs. Rich. Mother told me you could have been a department head if you desired it.”

The older agent swiftly threw a spin kick at Masquerade the moment her hind legs were fully back on the ground, only for her leg to be caught. Masquerade wrapped her front legs around Spoiled's and pivoted, driving the older Earth Pony to the ground with surprising force. Before Spoiled could catch her breath, Masquerade pinned her with a strong left hoof on her throat and held up her right leg.

With no sign of malice or sadism in her eyes, Masquerade manifested a thin magic gear around her free hoof and made it spin so fast the spokes were no longer visible. She moved it towards Spoiled's neck like it was a buzz saw, the older mare struggling under her but finding herself unable to break free.

However, Masquerade suddenly jumped off Spoiled Rich before she could finish, just in time to evade a super compressed shield sphere that would have hit her head on. “Prince Shining Armor...” Masquerade said, turning to look at her attacker without any hint of surprise.

Shining Armor offered a hoof to Spoiled and helped her up. “Don't fight her alone.”

“I underestimated her...” the older mare replied, coughing and rubbing her throat.

The two charged Masquerade, attacking her from both sides. The mare used a combination of CQC tactics and her magic gears to counter their blows, focusing on keeping both of them in front of her. While neither side held a huge advantage, Shining and Spoiled found themselves on the defensive until Masquerade slammed both back with her magic gears. The Director followed up by spinning around and bucking both in the chest, launching them back. As they landed, she formed a single massive white gear vertically around herself and took aim at Shining Armor. The gear spun around her rapidly, stirring up dust before launching forwards at the former Captain of the Royal Guard like a run away cart.

Shining saw this in time and put up a solid shield in front of him. The two attacks collided with a visible shockwave, the two struggling against one another until finally their magical barriers shattered and both jumped back.

=Local Forecast – Elevator – Kevin MacLeod=

“Hey! Get off me!” Teddy exclaimed, he and Ace being in the middle of the sandwich the group had formed on the elevator to Bright Future's lab.

“Sorry, but better Trixie on you than you on Trixie,” Trixie replied, then glared to Cover Story, who was on her other side.

“Hey! I didn't expect the elevator to be this cramped!” the android agent replied. “Be glad we're both made of metal!”

“Our team consists of two Alicorns, a unicorn, a Zebra, and five androids!”

“Ow! Twilight! You're on my wings!” Sunset exclaimed.

“Sorry, Sunset! Ow! Starlight, you're on MY wings!”

“Sorry, Twilight!”

Lightning Dust did the smart thing and used her pegasus abilities to stand on the ceiling, flapping her wings lightly while Zecora had a similar idea and posed meditatively on top of her staff. “This looked so much shorter when we were up there...” the turquoise android muttered. The only drawback to her idea was the speaker for the incredibly generic elevator music was directly beneath her.

“So...” Ace said, trying to find some wiggle room. Made of metal or not, he still had touch sensors and thus could be uncomfortable. “...Do you think our friends have been looking for us this whole time?”

“...Probably...” Cover Story replied. “But they probably ran into the cover up we put out there...or had their memories altered by Mindwipe.”

“WHAT?!” was Starlight, Ace, and Teddy's collective response. The later two looked reasonably horrified.

“OW!”

“Sorry Twilight, forgot your ear was there,” Starlight muttered with a blush.

“They may have had their memories altered by Mindwipe,” Cover Story explained again. “If there was no other way to 'keep them out of it'...Don't worry, the moment you remind them of who you are, the spell will breakdown and they'll remember you. It's how the spell works, even Mindwipe can't change that.”

Ace gave a sigh of relief (or rather made the noise of one). “Thank Princess Celestia...”

Twilight blinked, looking at her student who was practically on top of her. She felt Starlight trembling. “Starlight?”

Starlight snapped to attention. “Oh...Nothing...just...the idea that they'd take away their memories of their friends too...”

“...I know, I'm angry too...don't worry, this will all be over soon...then they'll never do that to anypony else ever again.”

Twilight admittedly hoped Starlight had enough self-control not to let her anger make her do something foolish again. She'd seen Starlight blinded by anger.

“Well, I know if I see that jerk, I'm bucking him in the face,” Teddy spat, trying to kick something in frustration but being too constrained by those around him to do so and grumbling. “And why aren't you two on the ceiling with her? You've got wings?”

At this, the group was treated to the sight of two Alicorns facehoofing.

Finally the elevator opened at the bottom with a ding...and the group fell out in a pile, Teddy and Ace fortunately ending up on the bottom.

=Here We Are - Undertale=

As they got to their hooves, the group looked around them at their new surroundings. Unlike the joyless gray of rest of the building, this area was a chrome silver in color with blue lines of mana flowing throughout it. Technology of all sorts was scattered on various tables in various stages of construction, including pieces Twilight recognized as pieces of incomplete Marionettes. Glass tubes filled with water ran throughout the room, and into others of the same lab. In some places the pipes had openings that didn't seem to be for gathering water for experiments or other reasons.

Trixie and Lightning Dust both backpedaled when they turned and saw the same room from their nightmares, complete with nightmarish machine out of an alien abduction film. “Trixie was hoping that wouldn't be as terrifying in person...” Trixie said, shuddering a little.

“Same...” Lightning Dust replied with an identical reaction.

“So...this is where we were born huh?” Ace asked, trotting around and examining the various objects. “Can't say it wasn't what I was expecting.”

“If you were expecting something out of a scifi movie,” Sunset remarked, looking at a Marionette limb in the process of being constructed. She jumped when it suddenly moved in reaction to her touching it. Twilight noted it looked closer to Cover Story's than Trixie's.

“Oh, I was.”

“Oh...well, there you go.”

“...Is it weird I kinda find being built in a lab by a mad scientist less disturbing than imagining my folks doing what we learned in Mount Ed class?” the light brown android asked with a shudder.

The yellow Alicorn shuddered. “...Probably not...”

Twilight blinked, peaking into a room to find a familiar sight. “The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6,000?” she asked, looking at the Flim Flam Brother's machine sitting amidst what looked like a hanger used for constructing vehicles. It wasn't that it was here that was strange, it was that it wasn't in storage. Were they planning to use it for something else?

“So where is the old man?” asked Teddy, joining the group in looking around and finding what looked like another Marionette limb. The odd thing, however, was that the limb was considerably bigger and hallow inside. “And before anypony asks: no, I'm not calling him 'dad.' I already have a dad.”

“Point taken. We are all choosing who we call family based on personal preference after all. What with being robots who lack DNA...” Trixie replied. “Cover Story, any idea where we can find our creator?”

“Hard to tell, whenever I came down here to pick up or drop off a Marionette, he always stayed behind panes of one way glass or talked to us through a computer,” Cover Story replied, finding an icing crystal similar to the one Twilight had put in his cousins' chests on one of the tables, though one with a different design. “I've never actually met Bright Future face to face. I think the Director is the only one that has.”

Zecora, meanwhile, carefully looked around and then sniffed the air. “Maybe he is eating a dish? Because I smell fish,” she muttered, trotting over to a door. “On the other side of this door I think, is the one that we seek.”

Cover Story trotted over and entered a code, causing the door to slide open with a mechanical swoosh. On the other side was another pod like the ones Teddy, Ace, and Trixie 1.0 had been stored in, this one labeled G3T01. As they walked in, the room revealed itself to be very long with 17 more pods lining the wall. Two of them were foal sized, two were at least twice the height of ponies, and one was the size of Big Macintosh.

“Well...found our siblings...” Lightning Dust commented, looking wide-eyed.

Twilight trotted over to the first pod and peaked through the glass, finding Dumbbell's face on the other side. As with the others, he appeared to simply be sleeping.

Cover Story trotted along the pods, peaking inside. “Looks like they're all here except for Trixie, Lightning Dust, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon, just like Spoiled said.”

“Good...wait...” Twilight started, then counted again just to make sure. “Where are Longhorn and his crew?”

“Kept somewhere else probably,” the android agent replied. “Things didn't go too well last time they were activated.”

“...The basement?”

Cover Story shook his head. “No, they were still 'useful' last time I checked. Bright Future probably knows where they are.”

Trixie nodded, looking over the pods and coming to her own empty one. “Trixie sees. In that case, we should probably fi...fi...fi...”

“Trixie?” Twilight asked, trotting over to the now wide-eyed azure android. She followed Trixie's eyes...then gasped in shock at what she found. The others soon joined them.

“B-But I thought...” Cover Story stuttered in shock.

Two smaller pods set above Trixie's. In one was a crystal of some sort that just felt like nature and growth. In the other...was a pair of mechanical wings along with several thunder bird feathers that still crackled with lightning. The wings the same size and length as Twilight and Sunset's.

“Are these for me?!” Trixie asked, jaw dropping. Could robots faint?

Cover Story suddenly found all eyes on him. “I thought they scrapped this when she went rogue! I didn't know they'd be here! I knew Trixie wouldn't take it well if I told her about something that I didn't think we'd ever find!”

Twilight gave a small gasp, remembering the scans she'd done. She turned to Lightning Dust and performed the now practiced scanning spell. As she produced the scan projection, it became apparent that Lightning Dust's Marionette body had more in common with Cover Story's than it did Trixie's. No hole for a horn to attach or additional leg hydraulics, no additional parts for the limbs. “...Of course...I didn't bother scanning anything but Lightning Dust's wings because I thought their bodies were modular since they were from the same series...So Trixie was...”

“...I told you: we believed both of you were going to become Alicorns...” Cover Story finally said, looking down. “So your 'rival' was designed to become one later on when that happened, using multiple thunder bird feathers and a rare variety of magic geode. We hoped her having an established AI meant she wouldn't go berserk like the P Series did. If we hadn't lost track of Trixie, the plan was deploy her again as an Alicorn for you to get your key defeating...I thought we scrapped this when we lost track of her and Tirek and Discord got you the key! I didn't know!”

“Well, Trixie must be glad to hear that, right?” Sunset interjected, just...feeling that the android agent was being sincere. It was something she'd been rather good at since they'd defeated the Sirens. However, when she looked to the azure android, she was looking down, trembling. “Trixie?”

“Yes...Trixie was supposed to become an Alicorn...” Trixie said...then suddenly spun around, glaring daggers at her cousin.

“A-And you're not happy?” Twilight asked, everypony taking a step back.

“Happy?! How can Trixie be happy about this?!”

“Look, I know you didn't get them, but I'm sure we can install them somehow,” Sunset said in a calm voice. “I mean with how you've helped the Marionettes and were willing to risk losing yourself to your original personality just to help Teddy and Ace, I don't think anypony would say you haven't earned it.”

“That's the problem!” Trixie shouted, voice becoming hysteric and everypony taking another step back from her. “Trixie wasn't supposed to be an Alicorn because she earned it! Or because she wanted it! Or because she was fated to have it! She was supposed to be one so she could LOSE TO TWILIGHT SPARKLE AGAIN!”

Cover Story gasped, looking at her. “Trixie...I...”

“How is Trixie supposed to be happy about getting something that's been stripped of all its meaning?!” the azure android roared in anger, horn lighting up...then gasping as Lightning Dust put herself between her and Cover Story.

“...You're right to be peeved off. Just like I'd be peeved to learn that I was supposed to be a Wonderbolt just to lose to Rainbow Dash,” Lightning Dust replied, causing everypony to gasp at her language. “...But don't take it out on him. You and I both know he's not the one to be mad at. He's just as much of a victim of all this horseapples as we are.”

Trixie opened her mouth...then stopped, looking down. “...Trixie...Trixie supposes you're right...it's just...Trixie feels cheated...like somepony wanted to give her the crown to a kingdom, only for it to turn out to be a kingdom made of cardboard cutouts...Even I know becoming an Alicorn should mean something...I've had power that meant nothing, and it was horrible...”

Twilight's eyes shrunk to pinpricks, the image of a red eyed Trixie ruling Ponyville as a power-mad, megalomaniac flashing in her head. Zecora shuddered, remembering the evil artifact currently sitting back in her home behind as many spell wards and holy runes she and Twilight could manage to erect.

Sunset and Twilight both took a look at their wings...Sunset trotted over to Trixie and stood next to her. “...For what it's worth?...You're already smarter than I was...”

Trixie blinked, looking up at her. “Pardon?”

“...Back when I was Celestia's student, I wanted power. To be an Alicorn more than anything...but all I saw was an outline of what it really meant. Power. Power I wanted just to have it...And when I finally got it? All that power just for the sake of it and to show Celestia how wrong she was to deny me of it?...I became the very reason she did that in the first place...” Sunset explained, looking at her reflection in Trixie's pod. For a brief moment, she saw a cackling red skinned demon with fiery hair looking back. She then gave a chuckle, raising her wing. “The ironic thing?...I only got these wings and muscles when I wanted power for the right reason: to save the world I've adopted as my home and my friends who live there...I think that's the important thing, Trixie...Power is neutral. What we do with it decides whether it's good or evil and whether or not we deserve to have it. When I stole Twilight's Element and absorbed its power just to have power, I became something out of my nightmares. When I absorbed even more magic for the right reasons, I became something wonderful.”

Starlight Glimmer listened in on the conversation...and considered it. Back in Our Town, she'd always thought of power in a black and white context: those with power abused it and hurt others, those without it were hurt and abused. The only way to make it fair was to remove the power...But if it wasn't the power, but the ones who have it that mattered?

Trixie looked at Sunset's wings, then to the ones that had been intended for her. “Trixie...Trixie...thank you...”

“No problem...” Sunset replied, giving a reassuring smile and placing a wing on her back. “Now I have a question.”

“Yes?”

Sunset pointed to the upgrades above Trixie's pod. “If you got those right now and became a...mecha Alicorn...I guess. Why would you want that power and what would you use it for? Not what the Stallions wanted you to use it for, because that doesn't matter. What would you want it for?”

The azure android blinked in confusion, putting a hoof to her chin. “...Trixie thinks...right now...” she said, looking over the pods lining the walls. “...Trixie-”

Before the group could continue this conversation, they heard a door at the end of the hallway next to the final pod open. Zecora quickly motioned for the group to hide behind the other pods. As they did so, a big shadow was cast in the doorway and heavy footsteps rang out. The shadowy figure was roughly the size and shape of Iron Will, but even bulkier.

“T-That's Bright Future?” Ace whispered, eyes going wide at the sight of his creator.

“I'm just as surprised as you are,” Cover Story admitted, jaw dropping.

As the being stepped out of the shadows, they revealed themselves to be covered in mithril armor, blue mana lines running through it. Bright Future still had his back turned as he went to check on the final pod.

“He's a robot?!” Trixie asked in a hushed voice. “Is anypony here not a robot?!”

“Maybe he put his brain in the robot?” Ace suggested.

“We're not in Dragon Eggs Z,” Twilight asked with a sigh. “There's got to be a logical explanation...”

“I just woke up after over a decade in a pod to meet two Alicorns that weren't there when I went in, found out me and my friend are androids created by crazy secret agents who's base we're inside of, and fought a water controlling mermare, which I didn't even know were a thing. Is him putting his brain in a robot really that far fetched?” the light brown android asked, giving a flat look. Twilight couldn't help noticing his voice sounded a bit tired. And not in a physical sense.

“That's...a valid point...”

“And you've also fought an insane chaos god, a bug queen, me when I turned into a demon, the Sirens, an ancient unicorn king, and Nightmare Moon,” Sunset commented. “Wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen to us.”

“NIGHTMARE MOON IS REAL?!” both yelled in fright.

“Oh right, you were sleeping when that happened and last you heard she was a pony eating boogiemare...”

The hulking being in front of them spun around at the scream, revealing that instead of a head, he had a glass orb with a single dot of light at the center that illuminated a yellow pony's head floating in liquid. “AH!”

“AHH!” the group collectively screamed.

“AHHH!”

“AHHHH!”

“AHHHHH!”

“AHHHHHH!”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” both the heroes and the startled doctor screamed in unison.

Bright Future staggered and fell back against the wall, a light turning on at the bottom of his globe...revealing the head belonged to a yellow sea pony with a black mane and an angler fish lure on his head that was occupying a dome filled with water. He was wearing glasses and operating the robotic suit via a control panel with his fins. The panicked doctor's eyes finally fell on Teddy and Ace. “AH! You've returned from the basement to seek your revenge!” he screamed in terror, producing a remote control from his suit and pressing a big red button on it...

The two cringed...then blinked as nothing happened.

Bright Future blinked...then frantically pressed the button over and over until it shattered. “Why isn't this working?!”

“Failsafe?” Trixie questioned in a flat tone.

“Yes...”

“They're all fried.”

“Oh sea cucumbers...” the sea pony replied, eyes going wide. “Please don't hurt me! I did what your father asked and put your teddy bear in your pod!”

Teddy's eyes went wide. “Dad, wanted me to have my teddy bear?”

“Uh...Excuse me, are you Dr. Bright Future?” Twilight interjected before the sea pony could have a heart attack.

The sea pony blinked, standing his mecha suit up. “Yes, the one and only...And you're Princess Twilight...and Sunset Shimmer...and Starlight Glimmer...and several of my Marionettes...and...” he then blinked, looking at Zecora. “...Sorry, I have no idea who you are...”

“Zecora is my name, and I'm fine I do not have much fame,” the Zebra replied.

Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat. “Yes, it's me. And don't worry, we're not here to hurt you...”

“Oh...And Riptide?! What did you do with her?!”

The Princess of Friendship cocked her head. “Riptide? She's roughed up from fighting us, but nothing serious.”

The sea pony gave a sigh of relief. “Oh thank King Leo...”

At this point, the two sides of the room just stared at one another in awkward silence for a few moments.

“So...anypony else wondering how he built that suit without arms?” Starlight questioned. Everypony nodded.

Trixie finally emerged in full and cleared her throat (or at least made the sound of it). “Father. I believe we need to talk...”

=Lost Odyssey – A Mighty Enemy Appears=

Shining Armor put up a shield against several of Masquerade's magic gears being hurled at him and Spoiled. The Director countered by summoning a series of magic gears around her right hoof, each gear getting progressively smaller until it extended off her hoof into a cone. The gears began spinning at high speed, becoming a drill that she drove into Shining Armor's force-field with surprising force.

Shining grunted as his shield cracked, having to jump back as Masquerade finally punched through the shield and her drill embedded in the metal floor. The white mare allowed her drill spinning to propel her, blindsiding the stallion with a spinning kick and knocking him back when he tried to capitalize. Spoiled Rich gave a leap forwards, trying to kick Masquerade in the head before the Director freed herself, but her attack hit another magic gear that she did a back flip off of.

“I don't want to alarm you, Prince Shining Armor...” said Spoiled Rich, panting and sweating as she landed. Their enemy was untouched, but both of them were showing bruises. “But I'm not as young as I used to be and we haven't hit her once...”

Shining nodded, panting himself. Masquerade methodically approached them, face still like a statue and she didn't even seem winded. Nearby, their side wasn't fairing much better than them. Their 'fortress' was taking damage that needed constant repairs from the party ponies to stay up to keep the agents they had to fight at any one time as few as possible and they were being forced back, now occupying only a fourth of the room. Particularly given Shining and Spoiled were no longer taking down the Elite Agents, even with the Elite Agents that had defected (who were only evenly matched with their opponents). Their saving grace was that they were still keeping the enemy in front of them and able to keep their men in the fight while teleporting away defeated enemies to the 'jail' or Marionette agents retreating once revealed, but injuries would pile up to greatly and they'd run out of the stockpile of mana restoring candies they had sooner or later. And none of that was the real problem. The real problem was their forward momentum had completely stalled and their chances of reaching and destroying the mana engine were fading by the minute.

The former guard captain prepared himself to continue the fight. “I know. Don't worry, she has to run out of tricks sooner or later. We just have to wait for an openning.”

“I would not count on that,” Masquerade replied, holding out her right hoof and dissipating the drill spell. Four large magic gears formed around her foreleg, teeth interlocking to form a solid box. Two more gears formed off in front of her hoof and connected to the top and bottom of the original four before three sets of three gears appeared in a line between them. The three sets of gears all began spinning at high speeds, forming a chainsaw.

Shining Armor blocked a slash from her chainsaw with his shield and Spoiled Rich had to leap back to dodge a counter slash, her suit receiving a gash in it. “...Okay, maybe she won't...”

Masquerade looked up at her opponents. 'You have taken away my side's greatest advantage: our stealth. You dragged us out of the shadows were we held dominion for nearly a thousand years and forced us into the light. Moirai was designed to be the one place in the world we would not need to hide, but that is now a disadvantage. If we are victorious, secret passage ways and other such things will be added to Moirai's design. In this playing field, I am incapable of defeating you in terms of strategy. You have been the leader of Equestria's army and now the Crystal Empire's army while I am the leader of a group of agents trained for solo covert missions. In my element you would be no match for me, but an open battle is a situation a secret agent should never find themselves in. In terms of battle strategy, you are superior to myself and to attempt to beat you at that game is a amateur trying to defeat a grandmaster in their first game of chess. But there is still one viable way for us to defeat you despite our disadvantage: you have few fighters and we have many. Our endurance is far superior to yours. You are able to keep your forces in this fight far better than we can, but eventually you will run out of stamina and the resources you brought with you. By assembling every agent I could manage for one offensive and keeping you occupied so your shield can not be used to block us out while your forces recover as I have: victory by endurance for S.M.I.L.E. is inevitable.' she thought, emotionless even in her own mind and without an ounce of ego.

Shining Armor seemed to realize this factor as well, then had to dodge a slash of her chainsaw that cleaved a new gap in his armor. “We might be in trouble.”

Greta yelled as she was tackled to the ground, slamming through one of the chairs in the room.

“Greta!” yelled Gilda, preparing to dive to assist her, but finding an Elite Agent in her path. “Out of my way!”

“No,” replied the icy blue pegasus stallion in front of her. He manipulated the air currents around him and seemed to lower the temperature to the point his breath was visible. “Why should you care, Miss Gilda?”

The griffon snarled in rage. “Because she's my friend, dweeb!”

The stallion effortlessly dodged her swipes and blows now that he had her in a one on one situation. “And since when did that mean anything to you?” he asked, ducking a blow and punching her in the stomach, leaving a patch of ice. “I seem to remember that your last 'friendship' ended with you leaving that friend in a huff and never coming back.”

“Gilda!” Greta yelled, doing her best to dodge the blows of the red tied agent pinning her down. She saw the leg of the chair she'd been tackled through just out of reach of one of her claws.

Gilda broke the ice off her fur and did her best to dodge as she tried to catch her breath. “You don't know anything!”

“I do know that according to our records, G4T08's original mission ended in quite an interesting glitch,” the Elite Agent replied, blocking a punch and encasing her fist in ice. “She and Rainbow would have parted ways 'friends' (as it were) had we not interfered. How does it feel to know a soulless machine was a better friend than you were?”

Gilda saw red and pounced at him...only to be pummeled by fast blows that formed more ice over her and kicked back.

The Stallion flew forwards and caught her in a bear hug, trying to freeze her completely. “Cool off.”

The griffon tried to headbutt her captor repeatedly but he didn't budge. She began to feel numb as more and more of her body iced up.

Suddenly, a rainbow colored blur flew by, slamming into several agents like high-speed pinball before delivering a flying kick to the face of the icy stallion holding Gilda and catching the griffon. “You alright, Gilda?!”

“R-Rainbow Dash?”

“What?!” asked the agent that had been trying (and mostly succeeding) to beat down Greta, snapping up to see what was happening...giving Greta the opening to grab the broken chair leg and slam it into the side of his head with enough force to send him unconscious to the ground.

Rainbow Dash used a careful wing blade to help Gilda free herself. “You alright?”

Gilda shook herself to get circulation back. “Y-Yeah, thanks Dash...hey, Dash...I don't know if I said it before, but...”

“I heard. That guy was spewing horseapples,” the cyan pegasus replied, giving a smirk. “Yeah, we didn't part ways as best as we could have, but we're friends now. Water under the bridge. And Lightning Dust isn't a 'soulless machine' either. So no need to feel bad there, alright?”

The griffon blinked, then gave a chuckle. “...Alright...” she said, the two shaking hooves.

The Elite Agent suddenly flew up behind them, ice blades on his hooves and ready to strike...then groaned and doubled over in agony as Greta introduced the broken piece of furniture to a very painful area. As he was writhing in pain, she promptly beaned him in the head with it before he could recover, knocking him out cold.

The panting griffon looked to Gilda and Dash. “Don't...forget...about me!”

The trio shared a three way hand/hoofshake and returning to the fray, Rainbow Dash being both fresh and possibly the fastest pegasi alive certainly being a big help.

Daring Do chuckled, walking out of an open door with the rest of the Defense Disabling Team behind her. “She sure loves being the hero, doesn't she?” she asked, then took flight with Gear Shift and began their own assault. “Then again, so do I.”

“Well, I'm not partial to violence, but I suppose this situation calls for it...” Rarity noted, charging in and jumping into the fray with a loud 'HIYA!'

“Um...if you don't mind...I'm going to be the medic and take unconscious agents to the guard to teleport away...if that's okay...” Fluttershy muttered, eeping as she had to quickly fly away to avoid being a target.

“Well, I'm not partial to violence,” the Doctor commented, dodging an agent that charged him. “Though if I must, this han-hoof is still a fighting hoof!” he exclaimed as he raised his right hoof and prepared to defend himself.

“Doctor!”

The Doctor and the agent looked up just in time for Derpy to land flank first on the latter's head, driving him into the ground and knocking him out. “I'm so glad you're okay!”

“Yes, we're all fine and dandy. We had to hand off our captives to some nice ponies performing evacuations, always a splendid idea,” Time Turner replied, giving a smirk. “And I see your posterior is still an effective weapon.”

The mailmare blinked, then looked down at the Agent beneath her. “Oh...sorry...”

“Don't be! Now come on! We've got a fight to win!” he exclaimed, then jumped as Mina, Spike, and anypony else with fire power fired along the edge of the wall while the Stallions were distracted to drive them back enough to get some breathing room.

Masquerade turned to see the incoming reinforcements, her expression unchanging even as the fresh ponies suddenly arriving distracted and forced her stallions to divide their attention from what had been a straight forwards advanced. However, the distraction did give Spoiled Rich an opening to round house kick her in the face and drive her back. She simply got back up without any change in expression or tone. “I see. You had another team inside of Moirai the entire time. It is as I expected, Prince Shining Armor, you are a good strategist.”

The Prince decided not to say he'd only been one of plenty of brains to come up with their plan. “Help drive them back!” he called to the new arrivals...before getting bucked backwards by the Director and having to catch himself.

“Okay, so where are we going now?” Twinkle Shine asked, the group still following Gypsy as Alpha Hoof's division continued evacuation around them.

“It's...complicated...” Gypsy replied, rubbing her forehead like she had a headache.

“...So still can't tell us what you're seeing, huh?” the light-based unicorn replied with a flat look.

“Not so much that as I'm trying to filter through the possible futures to pick the best one...” the seer replied. “...Things are so chaotic right now the paths of fate are a bit messy. What with a massive battle going on. New paths open and close as time passes and we move around, so I'm hoping something clearer comes up.”

The group suddenly paused as some of Alpha Hoof's agents emerged from a room labeled 'Re-Education Chamber' carrying Crescent. The stallion looked like he was in a trance and had barely slept in three days.

“What happened to him?” Lemon Heart asked with wide eyes, still riding her familiar.

“Re-Education...” one of the agents replied, giving a shudder. “The Director puts any pony she doesn't feel are 'being proper cogs' in there to be...adjusted...Not fun, trust me...”

The mares shuddered, watching the stallion be taken away. “How could she do such a thing?” Lemon Hearts asked, shivering. The Angry Baby Lemon born from the mirror climbed up and nuzzled her.

“...Don't blame Masquerade too much for that one...” Gypsy replied, pinning her ears and looking down. “Masquerade has done a lot of horrible things and needs to be stopped...but building that room wasn't one of them. That was her mother's doing...and Masquerade knows the inside of it better than any pony on the planet...”

Dysfunctional family meetings could be awkward with normal families. This was decidedly not a normal family.

Bright Future seemed relatively reasonable (though that may have been because he was outnumbered by a number of powerful ponies, his creations' failsafes were fried, and no agents would be coming to his rescue) and had taken this to a table nearby. The doctor sat on one side in his robotic suit with his creations on the other side. The rest simply stood to the side watching. And watching...and watching...and watching.

“...Well...this is awkward...” Starlight stated with a sigh.

“They're a mad scientist who spends all his time cooped up in here and five androids who are...well, not that good at being open with their feelings to others who aren't androids and have admittedly justified reasons to be clopped off...” Sunset pointed out. “Kind of a recipe for awkward...Sweet Celestia, I hope my reunion with...well, Celestia isn't this awkward...”

Bright Future twiddled his mecha suit's fingers, not looking his creations in the eye while they simply glared back his direction. Cover Story kept trying to say something, but stopped short each time.

“Well, we need to do something fast, our time here will not last,” Zecora replied, still on watch duty.

Without warning, the door burst open and a pair of agents rushed in...then stopped, standing still as statues. Each one had either mithril or the bronze colored metal exposed somewhere on their body and was dripping oil.

“Ugh...” Sunset muttered, teleporting the androids to one of the containment prisons. They simply didn't have the mana to free them all right now, and given they still might be enemy combatants after that, they decided it was safer for everypony to it this way. “Well, at least we know the others are doing well, considering how many of them keep running in here to be repaired and reprogrammed.”

Twilight nodded before looking back to the incredibly awkward situation in front of them. “Maybe we just need an ice breaker to get them talking...” She tapped a hoof to her chin in thought...then carefully removed Teddy's teddy bear from the saddle bag it'd been in for safe keeping (after lots of convincing) and floated it over to him. “Uh...Doctor Bright Future...you said you were the one who put this in Teddy's pod?” she asked, as the blue android reflexively snatched it from her telekinesis.

“Oh, yes, that...” the sea pony replied, giving a nostalgic look. “Well...his 'father' was a retired agent, though from an earlier time when we were far more...noble, shall we say? He was intrusted with G2T-I mean Teddy!” he said with a jump when the blue android glared at him. “With Teddy for the trial and...grew attached. He originally wanted me to sneak you out so he could keep you as his son, but there was nothing I could do...so he settled for me putting your bear in your pod with you so you'd 'sleep soundly'...I felt like it was the least I could do, he was a friend of mine...”

Teddy blinked, looking at his teddy bear. “...Dad...really cared about me?”

Bright Future nodded. “Yes...he only let you go so they'd let him remember you...He's still alive, if you're wondering...Kept asking me if we ever reactivated you whenever he could find some way to...”

Trixie raised her head as Teddy processed that and had a few synthetic tears well up in his eyes. “...So...father...” she stated, noting him cringe when she said it. “...If you were willing to do that for him, you knew we were alive, didn't you?”

The sea pony suddenly turned off the light in his bowl and his angler fish lure went out, plunging the whole bowl into darkness. “Uh...n-no! Not at all! T-This is the first time I've h-heard of it!”

“...Then why did you have a 'shut us off' remote' on you?” Ace asked, narrowing his eyes.

“And why did you expect them to return to take revenge on you?” Lightning Dust asked, matching her brother's expression.

“...” Bright Futures turned his light back on and rubbed his fins nervously as all five were now staring at him. “Okay, I might have...maybe...hypothesized you might develop self-awareness...But I swear I didn't know! I barely ever see you active! Once your AIs are finished growing and I finish programming, I only do maintenance, upgrades, and installing failsafes! I swear by King Leo that's all my interaction with you! I only assumed you might become self-aware because the spam filter I made did once!...Long story.”

“Growing?” Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow. “I've taken programming classes and that's not generally a term applied to it...”

The sea pony nodded as he pointed his fin to a computer nearby while his mecha suit did the same thing. “Well, you see, the base AI needs to be...grown so to speak. So it's placed into a virtual environment and allowed to develop until they're 'old' enough to be put in a body and given proper programming. Think of it like letting an infant grow until they're ready to go to kindergarten...except with time moving at high speeds to the point an entire childhood happens in a few days...”

“So our nursery pretty much?” Lightning Dust asked, raising her eyebrow.

“...In a sense...It's also where you get the Cutie Marks...I found that when a Marionette develops a talent naturally in there, they're less likely to suffer certain...issues later. Sure, I design them for a role, and make them skilled at it...but the Cutie Mark developing in there is an important step...”

Trixie and her fellow Marionettes looked at their Cutie Marks in surprise.

“...So that's why Trixie's Cutie Mark appeared on the Cutie Map, it really is hers!” Twilight commented with a gasp of realization.

Bright Future tapped his shin with a fin. “Interesting idea...Note to self, question what the Cutie Map is later...I actually just finished putting G5T01's AI into her body and was about to get to programming...”

Trixie looked over at the pod containing her youngest sibling. “So she's basically a foal starting her first day of school in there?”

“Yes. More or less.”

“...Sunset, can you please let my baby sister have a traditional education?”

“On it...” Sunset Shimmer replied, getting the drift and heading over...then teleporting away a few more Marionette agents that rushed in for repairs.

“...Look...I...I didn't mean for this to turn out like this...” Bright Future replied, giving a sigh and looking down. He spent several minutes trying to say something before the words finally came. “I...I just felt...important doing this...”

“Important?” Trixie questioned, looking to her creator.

“Like I was a part of their stories...” the sea pony explained, looking to Twilight with envious eyes. “...After all, at least making their villains made me necessary to them...You see...I came to Equestria from Aquastria because, well, ever tried building something electronic underwater?! It just doesn't work!” Bright Future explained, going into hysterics that made Twilight think of Rarity. “So myself and Riptide came to Equestria to request Princess Celestia to give me funding so that I could build a lab and lead Equestria and Aquastria to a new, brighter tomorrow!”

“...This explains so much about Trixie, Iron Will, and the Flim Flam Brothers...” Twilight muttered, watching Bright Future slip into some good old mad scientist hamminess.

“But the Stallions met us first! Masquerade's great grandmother was in charge at the time...” Bright Future continued...then blinked, watching the group stare at him wide eyed. “What?”

“...How old ARE you exactly?” Starlight asked...then turned and teleported away a few more Marionette agents that rushed in.

“75! Same as Riptide!...Long story, involved reversing the polarity of an ancient youth draining crystal during an experiment and temporarily turning it into an 'age draining' crystal on accident,” the doctor announced. “Now, where was I? Oh yes, how we got here! You see, Masquerade the 42nd told me that my abilities would be a huge benefit to Equestria by helping her agency. She also offered me more or less unlimited resources so how could I say no?” Bright Future looked around the lab with a nostalgic smile. “And in those years, I've made all of this! All of this technology and innovation! The Stallions made Moirai, but I made the hardware to keep it going!”

“...And no pony will ever see it?” Trixie asked, a look of realization dawning on her as she thought back to his 'be important' comment. “You're just like Trixie! You can't stand for no pony to know it when you've done something amazing, can you?”

Bright Future blinked, turning to the android with an uncomfortable look. “...Well...the Stallions see it...”

“And use it for kidnappings, brainwashing, enslaving sapient androids, keeping ponies from learning about dangerous monsters roaming the countryside, and enforcing the 'one true fate' as they see it,” Lightning Dust pointed out in a snarky tone.

“...Okay, maybe it's not ideal but...I'm sure they've done some good! I mean it's not like I've been working away in this lab for years for the benefit of all ponykind above and below the sea and helped no pony but a bunch of power crazed, fate-obsessed tyrants, right?” Bright Future asked, then gave a nervous laugh. He then gave a sigh, himself and his suit slumping as he looked down. “...It didn't always used to be this way, you know...they only did the 'secret protectors' thing back when I joined, or at least that's all I saw...yeah, they were so stuck on their rules that they let monsters run rampant and probably performed a number of other illegal activities but...the brainwashing only really started in mass when Mindwipe joined us. Then enforcing fate only started when we got Gypsy...Look, I'm just the scientist! I have no control over what they do with my tech once it leaves my lab! The best I can do is refuse to make weapons! And even then they've made me make two and turned my long range mana transport system into this base's defensive guns!”

“But you would have to know everything in our rulebooks and what activities Agents are required to perform to program me,” Cover Story pointed out, finally speaking up. “Right?”

“...Well...yes...but...”

“...And making the Marionettes only started when they got you, correct?” Twilight asked, narrowing her eyes as she caught on. “...From the sound of it, every new thing they've gotten has just caused them to go more and more mad with power as they pervert it to serve them...And likely will continue to do so the more they get...”

Starlight looked the doctor in the eyes...and felt a twinge of something as the Doctor's frowned with a thoughtful look. “...You had the best of intentions and got so caught up in carrying them out, you forgot to care about what you were actually doing, didn't you?”

“...Well...I wouldn't say that...More...” Bright Future started, getting up and walking his mecha suit over to one of the computers. “...The memories and images I see down here...it's like watching a movie or reading a book...” he explained, pressing a button and displaying a video of Rainbow Dash saving her friends from Lightning Dust's mistake that looked like it'd been recorded from the top of Wonderbolt HQ. “...It...just didn't feel real seeing you all so far away...I felt like I could be a writer putting my creations into that story...It felt like I mattered...like I was helping Equestria by helping you grow...I didn't feel like anypony was getting hurt watching from here...”

“...Father?”

Bright Future cringed, then looked to Trixie. “...Yes...”

The azure android trotted up and looked her creator in the eyes, and did something she'd never done before in her life. She held none of her emotions back. The pain of finding out her memories were false, the pain of realizing she was an android, the pain of finding out she was missing a huge section of her life, and every bit of pain she'd experienced this entire time and had done her best to ignore or bury so they could focus on the mission. Her face fur grew wet. Her siblings all joined her, doing the same thing. Teddy took a few moments to get past his 'tough guy' facade enough to show the pain of missing his friends. Of missing Redheart.

“...Do we look like a movie now?”

Bright Future's stared at them for a few moments, eyes moving slowly from face to face. “...No...”

“...Trixie can appreciate wanting to feel special. She can appreciate wanting to be important...Trixie wants to be those things too...” Trixie explained with utter sincerity. “...But look around you. Look at all you've created! Look at Trixie!” Trixie said, showing the gash on her side from the battle with Riptide. “...Do you honestly think any of this stuff is doing any good sitting down here helping the Stallions and no pony else?! Is it even doing you any good?!”

“...”

Trixie didn't break eye contact with her father. “Answer Trixie!”

“Okay, let's see here...” the Doctor said, standing at an access panel Gear Shift had showed him. After much hacking to get the building's schematics. “Okay...come on...where are you...Ah! There! Derpy! Crash into that, that, that, and that!”

“Alright, Doctor!” Derpy called, giving a salute and crashing following his hoof, slamming hard into various parts of the room flank first and busting through them. Explosions rang out seconds later and water poured out of pipes, a wall of balloons quickly made by Party Favor resulting in it following into the incoming stallions and pushing them back.

“Good show, Derpy!”

Derpy smiled, flying down to him. “So, what did we do?”

The Doctor pointed back to the schematics. “Well you see, when we were back at the defense center, an alarm went off telling us that the main water reservoir for the cooling system has been depleted. What you just broke were the pipes leading from the reserve tanks. With that draining out, the mana engine should begin overheating soon enough.”

“And that's good?” the wall-eyed mailmare asked.

“Indeed! Once it goes, this whole place comes crashing down if I am correct! However, we still have to survive that long which makes it far from ideal...”

The group of heroes was still fighting, the fresh reinforcements and incoming water helping, but they'd only managed to force the Agents back a little bit. Enough to give them more some breathing room, but not enough to make any headway. At this rate, they'd still run out of stamina long before the Stallions ran out of men or the mana engine gave out, even with Fluttershy acting as a medic and Bon Bon's candies (which they'd inevitably run out of, even with three days worth).

=Lost Odyssey – A Mighty Enemy Appears=

Masquerade jumped at Shining Armor and Spoiled Rich, a pair of large swords composed of her magic gears (five large, spinning gears composing the blades) held in her telekinesis. She spun in midair, doing a spinning slash into Shining's shield and breaking through. As she fell, she kicked out, bucking both in the chest and knocking them back. The two just barely dodged a pair of follow up slashes.

The mare was sweating at this point, but still wasn't breathing heavily or showing any visible signs of injury of fatigue.

“Well...I see why she's the leader of the Stallions...” Shining Armor panted, armor full of cuts and dents and having a few more bruises of his own to show for it.

“...She better show it, given she was raised to take the position,” Spoiled Rich replied, in much the same condition and barely having a suit left.

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “Raised?”

“...She's Masquerade the 45th, remember?...To say how I raised Diamond was similar to them is like saying a fire is similar to a volcano...” the middle aged mare explained, preparing for Maquerade's next attack.

“You are the only two ponies I have ever fought who could keep up with me for this long,” Masquerade said, her voice and face still not betraying any emotion. She formed a line of interlocking magic gears, then had four larger ones combined onto the tip to form a war hammer. “I wonder if I am impressed. Then again, I would not know if I was.”

The mare jumped up, preparing to bring her war hammer down on Shining Armor's shield...only for a red and yellow blur to slam into her and knock her back.

=Dragonforce – Cry of the Brave=

“Sorry I'm late! We had a lot of work to do outside!” Spitfire said, landing next to the two in a super hero landing. Her suit was torn and ripped to reveal bruises and she was panting, but still on her feet. “We cleared out the ones still outside and locked them up in those cages you put up...then had to find a detour to get in here, the door was sealed shut tight.”

Shining Armor blushed a bit. “Yeah, that last part was my bad...”

“No, it was smart. Just inconvenient for us.”

“Oh yeah! The Wonderbolts are here!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, smiling wide as she, Gilda, Greta, and Gear Shift panted, still fighting their hardest and sporting their share of bruises.

“Watch your back!” Soarin' (uniform likewise damaged and his body bruised) shouted as he flew in and drop kicked an agent that tried to attack Rainbow Dash from behind.

“Got your letter, rookie!” Surprise called (in the same condition as her teammates), attacking an opponent of her own. “Sorry we're late! Had a big party outside!”

“You kidding?! I'm just glad you could make it!” Rainbow Dash called back, the pegasus seeming to get a second wind and picking up her pace as the other tired and battered, but still combat capable Wonderbolts zoomed in and joined the fight.

Masquerade got back to her hooves, glasses thrown off to reveal her doll-like eyes but little else changing. “Miss Spitfire. We had a mole within your organization. How is it you are here without them stopping you?”

“Little birdie told me,” Spitfire snarked back, taking a fighting stance. “Let me guess, big bad?”

“Big bad,” Shining Armor replied with a nod. “And a tough one.”

“I will have to pluck its feathers later then,” Masquerade replied. Her emotionless visage did not break, she merely summoned four of her gear swords and put another magic gear chainsaw around her right hoof. She charged, slashing and kicking at the three ponies.

Spitfire dodged a slash, then weaved through her attacks and slammed into her back, but was forced to retreat from a counter slash. The Director blocked a jump kick from Spoiled and knocked her away with a counter kick, forcing her to catch herself and backflip to avoid followup slashes from her gear swords. Shining Armor took advantage and blasted the unicorn in the back with his shield spell, but she managed to stay standing and cut another deep gash in his armor with her chainsaw. She then did a backflip kick, driving Spitfire to the ground as them are tried to attack her from behind.

“I don't know what I'm looking at...” said Sunset, watching G5T01 look at Twilight wings with child-like wonder. The android had the eyes of a crystal pony, her fur was a darker tone similar to Starlight's, and she had a light arctic blue mane. Her Cutie Mark was a golden staff ending with two wings and two serpents wrapped around it. Bright Future watched from nearby, unable to help chuckling. Starlight, meanwhile, was on 'teleport away any Marionette agents that rushed into the lab' duty.

“I can't believe you made a robotic Radiant Hope!...Why did you make a robotic Radiant Hope?!” Twilight exclaimed, then jumped as the robot poked her wings. When she turned to look at said robotic Radiant, the android booped her nose.

“Project Siege called for an attempt to resurrect Sombra,” Bright Future replied, looking at the newly activated robot in amusement. “Gypsy was the one that suggested G5T01 be modeled after Radiant Hope...something about 'it'd only be problematic if the real Radiant Hope somehow showed up in the middle of it.' Which I guess makes sense. After all, how could Radiant Hope still be alive after a thousand years?”

“ACHOO!”

“Bless you, Radiant,” said the small fairy-like creature composed of smoke and shadow next to her in their eldritch location.

“Thank you, Ira.”

“She's the first Crystal Pony android, one of G5's innovations...” Bright Future continued.

“You're pretty...” said Mecha Radiant, giving a cheery, child-like smile as she looked at Twilight.

“Uh...thanks...” Twilight replied, blushing a little bit.

“Oh! You're hurt!” the robot exclaimed, looking at the Alicorn's wound from fighting Riptide. “I'll help!” the little android put her horn to her wound and fired off a spell, healing it instantly.

Twilight gave a small smile. “...Thank you, Radiant...Wait, she can do that?!”

“And why is she acting like a little kid?” Sunset questioned.

“Simple: she's Radiant Hope's doppelganger and you canceled her programming. She still has her healing abilities needed for her role, but she might as well be a kindergartener on their first day of school...” Bright Future replied as Twilight manifested some building blocks for the newborn android to play with. “Admittedly, this is more amusing than I expected. Also why she's active rather than having a chat with her siblings like the others. She's got a base personality and foundation, but no memories or life experiences. So she doesn't know anything else to be surprised by finding out she's an android.”

Sunset giggled at the android's antics. “Probably for the best, at least she gets to grow up...maybe we should get her a foal body though...”

“...Perhaps...”

Sunset then looked nearby where Trixie, Lightning Dust, Cover Story, Teddy, and Ace were all sitting next to each other with cables plugged into the jack in each of their heads. Besides that, they simply looked to be asleep. Bright Future had opened the others' chambers to fry their failsafes, saving them the trouble of drilling a hole in the chambers like with Teddy and Ace. “So, how long have they been in there?”

Bright Future's walked his mecha body over and checked the computer connected to the pods and now to the five androids. “From their perspective, three hours.”

Sunset's eyes widened. “Wow, it's only been like 10 minutes out here.”

“This is the same supercomputer I use to program them. It has to compress time into a reasonable length just to make programming their memories possible. In there things move at the speed of code!” the sea pony scientist explained, slipping back into his mad scientist voice. “By that I mean by the processing speed of the supercomputer. If we really wanted to, I could speed it up to compress a year into an hour, but given the heat sink is currently dry, that'd be a horrible mistake...trust me, I've done that. It never ends well.”

As they'd discussed what to do next, the question of how to get the other Marionettes in proper condition to be moved (or assist in the battle if they desired) had proved a difficult one. After all, it wasn't exactly the easiest situation to explain, and if they lied only for them to find out the hard way while moving, it would be a thousand times more traumatic in the worst possible situation. Even with teleporting, there was a simple problem: teleporting them anywhere would leave them alone and either in status with no one keeping an eye on them or roaming the countryside/Ponyville/ect. with no idea what was going on. Then they realized a very simple solution: the Marionettes were AIs and they had a supercomputer capable of putting them in a digital world where they could control how fast time was moving with ease.

“I wish we'd had this helping Teddy and Ace, would've saved us about an hour so of explaining this to them in real time,” Sunset commented.

Twilight nodded. “It is useful though...we don't have three hours and they've got a lot to talk about before they're ready to go anywhere.”

The Marionettes were currently sitting in a cynic cottage in a soothing forest setting...next to a minotaur maze...and a fancy Canterlot castle...and several other things. To say finding a controlled, calming location that worked for all of them was complicated was a massive understatement.

“Alright,” Trixie said. The azure android and company stood in front of their brethren after a series of long conversations covering what was now old ground to her, Lightning Dust, and Cover Story (all three of which had 'admin privileges,' which she'd had to use a surprising number of times) with breaks to take it all in. Ace and Teddy had gotten the short version before (short being an hour long), but now they were able to get the long version, which they needed more than they'd admit. The previously unseen Trail Cutter was a Big Macintosh-sized green furred Earth Pony stallion with a red mane and tail, his Cutie Mark a dove. He simply sat in the back, watching with a face that Maud Pie would likely fully understand. His subconscious had apparently picked the cottage local. “So we covered 'you all have souls because you can all feel,' right?”

The other androids nodded.

“Yeah, I'm kind of okay with this,” Suri Polomare remarked. “...I like being immortal, m'kay? And this all means at least I have a way to get unblack-listed from the fashion industry!...I really do want to be a fashionista...That's me...”

“Iron Will doesn't care either. Iron Will is Iron Will no matter what he is!” Iron Will exclaimed in his normal dynamic way, flexing. “...Though it admittedly does confuse Iron Will that he's capable of flexing.”

“And we also covered that you can still push yourself regardless of being mechanical?” Lightning Dust asked. “Everydroid's got that?”

The other Marionettes nodded.

“And that just because we were all built to be bad guys it's our choice what we do now?” the turquoise android asked.

Her brethren nodded.

“And that we're working on letting us play sports and even if we can't, we've got other stuff we can do?” Ace asked.

The others nodded.

The light brown android trotted up and held out his hoof to the sports trio. “First all robot sports team sounds like a good idea to me, what about you?” After a moment of consideration, the trio all nodded and returned his high hoof. During the time they'd been in here, he'd had Trixie manifest a game court and played some sports with them to break the ice.

“Okay, now that that's all covered, we can continue about what happens next,” Trixie began, trying to act as authoritative as she could. She resisted the massive temptation to turn herself into an Alicorn with her admin privileges. “As Trixie explained; upstairs in the real world, a huge battle is currently happening to free us from our enslavement by the Stallions in Black. Now, Trixie knows not all of you are fighters...”

“That is an understatement,” Svengallop muttered, still trying to maintain his high and mighty mentality.

Flim tapped his chin. “Well...we are in a super advanced laboratory with plenty of raw resources and apparently our creator is a super genius...brother of mine, are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

Flam smirked in return. “I do believe so, brother.” He then turned back to Trixie. “We might have an idea for those of us who are not combat capable on their own to allow us to fight while being relatively safe...if our dear creator will help.”

Trixie nodded. “Sounds good, we have plenty of time to make up blueprints in here...Trixie will not force any of you to fight...but if you want to, she is certain our allies on the surface will be glad to have any...and I'm sure all of you desire to be free...”

Everydroid nodded.

“Any other questions?”

“Yes, will I be paid for this?” Well-To-Do asked, raising a hand.

Trixie gave him a flat look. “...You can be free so you can make money.”

The minotaur android tapped his chin. “Hmm...that's a hard bargain...”

The azure android facehoofed and looked to Lightning Dust. “Make sure to remind Trixie to have Twilight get every 'ethical business' book she has ready when we get back,” she whispered, the turquoise android nodding in agreement.

“Okay, I have a question,” Jet Set asked, glaring. “Why are you the leader?”

Trixie chuckled, looking back. “Because the One and Only Trixie is the oldest!...And has more experience in the past week with being an android than the rest of you, so she believes she's qualified.”

Cover Story nodded. “Trixie has matured a lot since this started, and she genuinely cares about all of you. She even helped fight all the way here just so she could save you, isn't that worth some respect?” He was tempted to point out he had Trixie completely beat in the fighting experience department...but he wasn't a leader and Trixie had him beat in leadership credentials at this point.

“That and she's best friends with a Princess,” Lightning Dust pointed out, knowing enough about 'pecking order' to know how suck ups work. Namely, there were suck ups at Wonderbolt Academy...none of which stayed suck ups for long.

“...Point taken...” the upper class android replied, though Trixie was uncertain if he agreed or 'Princess says so' was in effect.

Upper Crust nudged him. “...That said...we do have friends back in Canterlot we want to get back to...so maybe we can help if those two have a way to do so without getting our hooves too dirty...”

Trixie didn't question it, she knew first hoof how big of an ego crusher finding out you were a robot could be...that and no longer having 'BE JERKS!' screaming over and over in your head. “That's the spirit!”

“Also...do we have to consider ourselves siblings?” Jet Set asked with a disgusted look. “Because Upper Crust and I are married...and we like being married.”

The azure android smiled as the two shared a nuzzle. “No, you don't. We have no biological relation to begin with, it's just how Trixie chooses to see it...”

“Except us, seeing as we're twins,” Flam pointed out next to his brother.

“Okay...well, if it's what Upper Crust wants, I suppose I'll help how I can...” Jet Set replied.

Trail Cutter stood up, towering over his fellows and looked over the group. “I have a question,” he stated in a manner like he was still figuring out the tones to express emotions.

“Yes, Trail Cutter?” the azure android, looking up at her 'little brother'.

“If I help fight and free us, will I be able to watch birds?” the big android asked, face as unreadable as Maud Pie's.

Trixie blinked. “...Yes...”

“Then I will help fight...I like birds...”

According to Bright Future, Trail Cutter's programming consisted of 'you like nature and are a survivalist' due to his role having been canceled. That said, being a survivalist also meant he packed one big wallop, which they'd need.

Trixie nodded...then produced a dove using her 'admin privileges' and let it land on the huge android's hoof.

“Hello bird...” he said, giving a small smile as the bird tweeted to him.

“Any other questions?” Trixie asked, turning back to the rest of her kind.

“...So, Rarity's out there, right?” Suri questioned, the mare looking down.

“Yes...Why?”

“...We never really met before Manehattan, did we?” Her ears wilted.

Trixie shook her head. “Trixie is afraid not...but this means she's meeting YOU for the first time without those pesky failsafes, does it not?”

The pink android blinked. “I...I guess so...”

Trixie gave her younger sister a smile. “Then make a good first impression. First impressions ARE everything in the fashion industry, aren't they?”

Suri blinked...then slowly smiled. “Yeah...they are...M'kay...”

“Enough dilly dallying! Iron Will wants to get out there and kick. Some. FLANK!” Iron Will announced in his normal fashion...then became somber. “...So he can get back to Mrs. Will and Jr...”

Teddy blinked, looking up to the minotaur android. “You want to get back to your wife?”

“Yes! We met after I left Ponyville and got married a few months after that. Her name is Indomitable Will! She is the strongest willed Minotaur I've ever met! But she's also really kind, loving! Everything anyone could ask for in a wife! Nothing will get between me and her! Nothing!”

“What was her maiden name?” the 'younger' android asked.

“Indomitable Warrior!”

“Oh. That's the most awesome name I've ever heard...I kinda want to get back to my fillyfriend...I haven't seen her in a long time because these jerks locked me in their basement!” Teddy explained, kicking a digital tree with enough force to rattle it.

Iron Will blinked...then smiled. “Really? What's she like, little guy?”

“Her name's Redheart...” Teddy explained. “She went by Sweetheart, but she changed it because one of her cousins had the same name and it got all confusing...She's the nicest girl I ever met...she always had faith in me, even when no pony else did...sometimes even me...”

The minotaur android kneeled down and put a big hand on his 'big brother's' shoulder. “Iron Will understands! Don't worry, Iron Will will make sure you get back to your special somepony!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Because when push comes to shove, let nothing keep you from your love!” Iron Will yelled bombastically to the point Teddy cringed from the volume. “Well, you know, except for them firmly saying 'no.' You've got to respect their boundaries and no one likes a stalker.”

“Alright, everyandroid!” Trixie announced, giving her normal smirk. “Let's plan this out and get on the same page!”

Five minutes (in the real world) later, Trixie blinked back in her body. “Alright! Wake them up!”

Lightning Dust woke back up and shook her head to clear it. “That was weird. How long were we in there?”

“About twenty minutes our time, close to six hours your time,” Sunset replied as she watched Jet Set carefully help Uppercrust out of her pod.

“Geeze...So does that mean that we can think like thirty times faster than normal or something?”

“No, it's because the supercomputer is that fast, not because of your internal computer,” replied Bright Future, continuing to activate the other Marionettes.

When Trail Cutter emerged from his pod, he looked around. “...I lost my bird...”

Trixie smiled and produced a real dove from her hat and let it fly to him.

“Oh. Hello, bird.”

The azure android then looked to her father. “And father?”

Bright Future blinked, activating Well-To-Do. “Um...yes, Trixie?”

“...Can you do something for Trixie?”

The battle for Moirai was now far more even, with the attackers having managed to force their way (and their fortress) halfway into the room and taken down a good number of agents. Not only were the bolts a bit fresher than the rest of the attackers, they were also soldiers rather than just a rag tag bunch of misfits that needed to rely on strategies to team work to combat the Stallions. However, the attackers just couldn't seem to turn the tide all the way in their favor...and there were still far more agents than attackers.

=Lost Odyssey – A Mighty Enemy Appears=

Masquerade clashed one of her gear swords with Spitfire's wingblade, currently using a line of magic gears going across her back connected to two larger, rapidly spinning ones as a make shift gyro pack to stay in the air. The mare had finally taken a good bit of damage (as had her opponents), but showed none of it in her actions or expression. After kicking the Wonderbolt captain back, she used a giant magic gear to shield herself from a number of super compressed shield spheres...before Spoiled Rich jumped off several shield platforms Shining Armor set up for her and delivered a flying side kick to her stomach that broke her concentration enough for her gear pack to fall apart.

Every Wonderbolt had their signature tricks, it was simply the nature of the game (and naturally everypony knew what one of Rainbow's would be one day). In Spitfire's case, hers involved a pair of hidden pieces of flint hidden in the hind legs of her suit and the same weather magic used to make the Bolts' signature lightning trail's. She struck the pieces together several times until the lightning clouds she left behind her ignited into a flame trail as she dived down at Masquerade. “Time to show you why I'm called Spitfire!” the mare said, giving the Director a flaming, frontflip ax kick that she just barely managed to block with her forelegs. The impact still caused a small explosion and launched her harshly into the ground below.

As Masquerade started getting up, Shining Armor formed a condensed shield sphere above her head and slammed it down on her with as much force as he believed the mare could take.

When the smoke cleared, Masquerade just got right back up, showing no sign of pain or fatigue on her face other than her sweat. Her now tattered and burned sleeves revealed metal braces lined with hydraulics beneath.

“Why won't you just stay down?!” Spitfire asked in disbelief, panting heavily and knowing the Bolts would probably have to cancel a gig or two to recover from this.

“Because,” Masquerade replied, emotionless eyes turning to the Wonderbolt leader as she climbed out of the crater. “S.M.I.L.E. is literally my reason to exist.”

Suddenly, the floor launched up and spun around, throwing all three combatants around as a giant magic gear manifested. The Director summoned her gear chainsaw and prepared to strike...when suddenly the wall nearby exploded in a series of multicolored fireworks blasts.

=Megaman Cartoon Opening (Instrumental)=

Trixie trotted through the smoke, wearing her cape over her so that it hid most of her body and looking out from under her hat with a smirk. Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Lightning Dust, Cover Story and Zecora stepped up, standing next to her with determined looks. Bright Future and Riptide came up behind her, the former bandaged up and riding a wave of water with her tail protectively curled around mecha suit wearing scientist. Finally, the other Marionettes emerged from the smoke. Iron Will and Teddy both were wearing what looked like steel armor, the sports trio and Ace wielded an arsenal of sports equipment the mages had manifested for them, Trail Cutter stood overlooking everything with a stoic expression next to Well-To-Do, and the Flim Flam Brothers, Jet Set, Upper Crust, Suri Polomare, and Svengallop rode on what looked like the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6,000 but had clearly undergone a massive overhaul that included panels for the other four androids to man behind the brothers. The battle stopped as everypony turned to look to them.

To be continued...