Over the course since his last attack, Fratello had been really hard at work, and by this point he had not only completely established a new robot army, but had finally created a robotic creation unlike any other, one that had far more power than anything he had built before.

“The time has arrived, my friends. Our army shall be activated, and our enemies will fall at the hands of our genius technology. The Robot Empire is about to make its first page in history.”

The active robots raised their arms up in cheer, but suddenly they heard the sound of someone else applauding over in the shadows. “How delightful…” said a familiar voice as she walked into the light.

“Chrysalis?!” snapped Fratello, she had found his secret hideout in the bowels of United Equestria. “But… but how...?”

“We have a little score to settle... TRAITOR!!” Chrysalis raised her arms and used her new, stronger powers to destroy all the active robots. Fratello tried to defend his work, but Chrysalis was much stronger than even he was now, and she soon had him at her mercy.

She would have destroyed him right then and there if she didn’t have a good use for him. She gazed at the large robot he had built. “This creation of yours-- it will do very nicely, and you’re going to show me how it works.”

“If you think I’d do that, you’re crazier than I am!” snapped Fratello, but it wasn’t as if he had a choice. Chrysalis blasted him hard and actually sent him sailing right across the table. “What are you going to do to me?” Fratello whimpered. Chrysalis gazed at him, then back at the giant robot and grinned wickedly.

So far, all was still quiet in United Equestria, but every creature remained cautious. Royal worldwide announcements had been made warning everyone about the imminent attack, and practice drills were held for the creatures to evacuate when the time was right, if necessary. Krysta had ordered her many subjects on her home planet to standby. With their warping abilities they’d really be able to help.

Not only was Starfleet remaining ever vigilante, but so were the Wonderbolts and any other creature skilled in fighting who wished to help out. The Griffons, the Minotaur, even the Diamond Dogs were willing to fight. They didn’t want the planet destroyed or there would be no more gems for them to collect. Spike even managed to convince many of the dragons to help out too, though it took some time as the dragons didn’t trust a pint-size like Spike who lived with ponies.

Best of all, Grand Ruler and Queen Celestia sent messages to other Starfleet legions on the other planets, including Major Cerise. All were on standby and awaiting further orders.

Lightning’s team had been busy in the training grounds-- getting into shape and preparing their weapons, and Twilight and friends had caught up on a little training themselves, though Twilight was still rather dismayed that after all this time, she still couldn’t unlock the power of harmony inside her, while all the others didn’t seem too concerned about that.

“Twilight, you’re making the mistake of relying only on one power to aid you.” Lightning said “Just leave it aside and work on your other skills.”

Pinkie Pie leapt by with her exercising outfit and making battle cries like a martial artist as she practiced her moves, and she leapt up high and snapped five solid boards in half with one kick. “Ha! That’ll teach you.” she gloated at the wood.

The other girls all were doing great too. Rainbow was even able to summon larger clouds with stronger lightning. She called it “STORM STRIKE!” and just one thunderbolt alone reduced a giant boulder into pebbles. “Yeah!” she cheered “I’m so ready-- Where’s the bad guys…?”

Rainbow tried but she wasn’t about to make any promises. She wanted so much out of the bad guys. “They’ll come when they’re ready to.” Buddy Rose said “But they’ll also find us ready as rain.” added Applejack as she made sure her lasso was tied good and tight.

Lightning was glad that everyone was ready, and he had one more gift for Twilight and friends. “Girls, I am happy to tell you that as of today, your commissions have been approved. You are now fully official Starfleet fighters.”

Then he motioned for the Spanish Twins to come out, pushing large boxes on carts. “Here you go, Chicas.” said Dyno. “Ay’, maravilloso! You’re going to love this.” added Myte.

Twilight and friends all huddled around, and Rhymey stepped forth ready to help open the boxes, he said…

“Because you’ve been good friends, and trained hard too,
We present this little gift, to help in battle through.”

He and Starla and Lightning opened the boxes to reveal pony-mannequins standing upright and clothed in suits of armor almost identical to the ones lightning and friends wore in battle mode. The girls could hardly believe their eyes. The armor was rather beautiful, and each suit had the girl’s name instead of a citizen code and instead of the Starfleet insignia, Artie painted pictures of the girls’ respective cutie marks. The only other difference was the visors which were clear in colored coatings matching each respective uniform, and finally.

The girls tried their new suits on. “Wow! This feels incredible.” said Twilight.

Pinkie and Rainbow were amazed at how the armor was so strong, and still felt so light. Rarity almost had ideas to start new trends suits of armor, but Lightning gave her the look not to even think about it. She couldn’t actually make armor out of fabric anyway.

Fluttershy thought the armor was comfortable, and she actually even felt a little braver wearing it, and Applejack felt like “The head of the whole flock of sheep.” She felt like she could just order the sheep into their pens without having to physically herd them.

Lightning smiled and then he approached Twilight “One last thing.” He said as he held out a small box to her, and opened it to reveal a special medal for Twilight. She thought it was beautiful, “What’s this for?” she asked. “…Your promotion.” Lightning answered “You’re a Lieutenant now. You’ve helped us out a lot in this war, and you’ve earned it.”

Twilight didn’t know what to say, but her friends felt a little down for not receiving promotions, but they understood and did feel Twilight deserved it.

“Look out Chrysalis.” Starla said as she admired the team “We’re ready for anything.” But still, they had to wait for a move to be made.

Chrysalis could not reprogram the robots herself-- as she didn't understand their circuitry-- but she didn't have to. Digging deeply into Fratello's possessions, she came across a special disk that allowed her to program Fratello and all his inactive robots to obey her voice orders only, and after that, Chrysalis trapped him in a giant jar and placed him inside the power core chamber of the giant robot, now called Doom-Droid, and was going to use him to power it!

In almost no time, the robot-men had invaded the major cities, especially New Canterlot! Goldwin could see them through his telescope. “Your majesties!” he called.

“Take a look.” Goldwin said, letting her at the telescope. Celestia could the robots coming straight their way. “This is it. It’s what we’ve been waiting for.” Grand Ruler said. Then he turned and shouted “Go to red alert!”

One of the guards activated the alarm, and soon the whole palace was bustling about with guards rushing into action. “Charge!” shouted Captain Shaina as she and the royal guards soaring down from the palace, and the Wonderbolts soon joined them. “On to battle!” yelled Spitfire.

“Load the heavy artillery and standby!” ordered Celestia. As the guards and palace staff rushed around, loading the cannons and weapons, Lightning, Twilight and their teams came into the main room. “What’s happening?” asked Lightning, but they soon saw for themselves just by gazing out the window. “I’ve never seen so many robots all at once before.” said Starla.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Rainbow, all the others agreed, and the royals dismissed. “We’ll do our part here from the palace.” said Grand Ruler “If things get too rough, we’ll join you.”

Lightning nodded, and as Twilight and friends were still in their armor. Lightning and friends transformed, “STARFLEET MAGIC!!” once they were all transformed, Twilight and her team were next. “Well, this is it.” Twilight set. “Everyone set?”

The girls all nodded and together they shouted out their own special phrase; “HARMONY HOUR FRIENDSHIP-POWER!!”

Twilight and Lightning gazed and nodded at one another and shouted “PONIES UNITE!!”

Then they all headed out to join in the battle. Cadance watched as they all headed off. She felt so helpless still being locked in by the barrier and wished there was something she could do, but her aunt and uncle gave her the “Don’t even think about it” expressions.

Krysta and her husband Topaz, and all their fairies were working hard to evacuate the civilians to Sharma, the safe planet, guarded by Starfleet’s forces, as this battle was far too much to risk gambling on simple force fields for protection. One-by-one and in many lines, the ponies and other creatures marched into the many portals. “Come on! Keep moving! Keep moving!” shouted Krysta. Once all the civilians were safe. Krysta and Topaz ordered their fighter fairies to follow her to prepare a trap for the robot men, but it would take some time.

Meanwhile, Lightning, Twilight, and friends had all arrived on the scene, along with many other Starfleet Fighters, who leapt through portals appearing in the sky and joined in the fight against the many hundreds of robot-men. The teams could hardly believe how many there were. “Let’s go!” shouted Lightning, and all the two teams dashed into battle, all of them punching, kicking or firing their magic or weapons. Twilight and friends were amazed at how well their new armor worked out so swell. They all got hit several times during the fight, but didn’t suffer much damage, even Fluttershy found the courage to attack the robots full force. She roared angrily as she leapt up and pounced right on them hard, panting and snarling “You’re… going to STAY DOWN!!”

“Be still my heart…
She’s tearing them apart.” He almost was caught off guard by three other robots.

Applejack held her rope and Buddy Rose held his whip. They both gazed at the many robots coming after them. They nodded at one another and lassoed the robots by the feet, yanking them off their feet.

A little bird could look down from the sky to see every corner of the land below swarming with fighting, small explosions, and magic emitting. However, the number of robots didn’t seem to decrease at all. For each one that was knocked out, two more popped up to take its place, even with the massive army of Starfleet, the royal guards, and Wonderbolts, they couldn’t seem to keep at bay all of the robots. Some were heading straight towards the palace.

“Artillery, get ready!” cried Celestia. “…Fire!” The shooters fired the cannons, firing magical bursts instead of hard cannon-balls. It seemed to help keep the robots back, but now very well.

Luna was flying overhead and fired some of her shots from the high up to help force the robots away. Celestia and Grand Ruler decided to head out and join her, when suddenly “Wait!” snapped Goldwin “Something else is coming. It’s Chrysalis.”

“What?!” their majesties snapped, and they all wondered why the robots weren’t going after her. “Wait a minute! Look…!” cried Celestia. That’s when everyone saw the giant robot, a near exact fifty foot copy of Fratello himself, following behind Chrysalis. “What is that?” shouted Cadance. Then they could actually hear Fratello’s voice from way far away. “Meet the instrument that will seal your fate, Ponies; the Doom-Droid!”

“Fratello!” cried Cadance. Shining Armor held his wife’s hand. “Easy, honey.”

Celestia and Grand Ruler saw this was defiantly their cue to go out there, and they ordered Shining Armor and Goldwin to keep an eye on Cadance, and the palace. “But…”

“No buts, Cadance.” snapped Grand Ruler as he and his wife headed off. Cadance could feel the stress start to get to her, in fear for her brother. She knew of course he had to be destroyed but, she just didn’t feel right knowing it was going to happen before her eyes!

The team and the army could the see Doom-Droid coming and Chrysalis levitating high in the air above it. Lightning, Twilight, and friends were starting to realize that the army of robots was just a decoy to set them up so they would use up some of their powers.

A Wonderbolt told them all to go, “We can hold the robots off.” The other Starfleet fighters and guards nodded in agreement.

“All right, let’s go!” Lightning said, and he Twilight and the others headed off to confront Doom-Droid.

“Fratello, let them have it!” shouted Chrysalis. “As you wish, my queen!” and Fratello gave Doom-Droid more power ordering it to crush the ponies.

Doom-Droid raised its massive foot, “Look out!” screamed Twilight! Everyone scattered out of the way as the huge foot slammed the ground, shaking it vigorously and causing the team to fall off their feet.

“Time for some real power!” snapped Rainbow and she soared up high forming the biggest storm cloud she could “STORM STRIKE” and she sent powerful lightning bolts crashing on Doom-Droid, but to everyone’s dismay, the robot’s armor absorbed the power of the electricity.

“Fools!” roared Fratello “Doom-Droid is energy absorbent. Observe...!” and with his words, Doom-Droid fired Rainbow’s lightning attack right back at them, only ten times as strong. Just that one bolt alone created a massive explosion that threw all the fighters everywhere.

“It can absorb our energy attacks?” cried Rarity. This was no good at all, they’re attacks would only make Doom-Droid stronger. Artie and Rhymey held out their weapons and tried to attack Doom-Droid physically, but as expected, their small size compared to the colossal robot didn’t do much of anything.

Chrysalis laughed at everyone’s futile attempts, but everyone wondered why she wasn’t coming down and attacking them herself. “I think she’s waiting for something.” said Dyno “Si, but what?” asked Myte.

Doom-Droid began charring up for another blast. “I don’t know, but I ain’t stickin’ around to find out!” squealed Applejack as she and the others ran for it before the blast was fired. Even though it missed, the ground quaked fiercely. “This is crazy. We’ll never beat it like this!” cried Starla “We need a bigger force.”

Everyone could see the royal ones heading straight for the battle field, and blasting many of the robot men below to help the army. “You two!” snarled Fratello.

“Fratello… family or not, we won’t let you do anymore damage.” said Celestia.

“It’s time.” Grand Ruler said as he and his wife held out their respective halves of the rainbow rod. They gazed at other and nodded, and they joined the two pieces together and the rod began to glow, consuming their bodies into light entities and whirling round and around.

“That’s it…” Chrysalis muttered “They’re doing just as I planned.”

Everyone watched in awe as the two forms of light swirled in spiral-loops and came together to form the giant humanoid creature everyone remembered as “Grand Celestial Ruler!”

Fratello was impressed, but assured everyone “Your pitiful ruler is no match for the power of the Doom-Droid.”

“We shall see.” Ruler said as they welded their rainbow staff, and began to attack Doom-Droid. At first it seemed to be working, as The Ruler managed to deal the massive robot a little damage, but suddenly the skies began to grow dark. “What’s happening?” cried Fluttershy.

All at once, a fierce storm had erupted, but instead of rain, it was bringing forth more chaos and destruction than ever. This was indeed Chrysalis’ doing. She was high up in the center of the sky and glowing brightly yet wickedly with magic. “It’s no use, ponies.” she taunted “With my magic spell in place-- the longer your ruler and Doom-Droid clash, the more destruction there will be.”

The Ruler heard this, and realized Chrysalis was right. The more power they and the Doom-Droid unleashed, the more violent the storm became and the more destruction there was. The Ruler knew it had to end this fast, so it powered up its staff, reciting the magical chant, and unleashed the “MYSTIC LIGHT!” the very magic used to destroy Titan in the previous war. However, as the shot hit Doom-Droid, as impossible as it was for everyone to believe, not only the storm grow worse, but Doom-Droid actually absorbed that magic too, powering it up stronger. “No!” The Ruler exclaimed in utter disbelief.

The army couldn’t believe it either. Doom-Droid could absorb the Ruler’s super attacks as well, and now it was powered up and ready to fire at it. The Ruler was able to absorb the energy back as well, but this made the storm ravage the kingdom even worse.

“The Ruler’s only making things worse!” Dyno pointed out, “Si, but without the Ruler, we don’t stand a chance!”

To make matters worse, despite all the robot-men they had defeated, a whole other army was marching into battle, and already the army was looking tired, and Doom-Droid was still standing strong, the storm was getting worse!

For the first time ever, Lightning was drawing a total blank. “I- I wish I-- KNEW!!”

In our next episode, things go from bad to worse with the chaos storm growing stronger, and the Ruler is getting weaker. The robot army is continuing to grow leaving the ponies vastly outnumbered, but Lightning suddenly gets an idea of how to even things out, but at a terrible risk.

Will this plan prove well, and how can the ponies hope to stop the ever expanding onslaught of robots?

Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!”

(Next Episode: “Part 2: Plotting Risks”)

My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season II

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 24: Part 1: Swarms and Storms