Suddenly, the door to the boutique flew open. “HI~!” Pinkie cried. “Spike, are you here? I need your help! The Doctor and Ditzy aren’t home and Twilight is busy up in her castle and—” She stopped, glancing around the room. “Oh, so you already know about these guys, huh?”
“Pinkie! Run!” Carrot shouted.
The pink pony merely smiled. “Oh, don’t worry about me. Actually, if anypony should be worried about me, it’s them!” She waved a hoof at the little silver robots, and then pulled something out of her hair. It was another silver robot, apparently immobilized by threads of cotton candy which bound its dozens of little legs. “So,” she said smiling brightly. “Who wants to come after me now?”
There was a moment of brief consternation among the troops, and Spike made use of it. “Come on,” he roared, kicking little crabs out of the way to clear a path for the mares. “Run!”
Nopony waited to be asked twice. Four sets of hooves galloped across the floor. The old stallion tried vainly to block their path, but Spike stopped to lift him up and set him firmly over the top of a curtain rod. Daisy swatted a crab off of Carrot’s back, and Rose kicked another across the room. Pinkie chucked her captive crab squarely into a collection of others, sending them scattering like tenpins. Lily cowered in the midst of her sisters and sister-in-law. Quickly, however, they had made it out the door. “Great, we’re all here, now let’s gogogo!” Pinkie said.
“Wait,” said Rose, eyes widening. “What about Hyacinth?”
All six pairs of eyes fixed on the mare, still balancing on the dress figures as best she could. Carrot sighed. “Hold on.”
The yellow mare leapt back into the fray, silver crabs swarming her, climbing up her sides. The farmer shook herself fiercely, sending the robots flying like drops of water. She spun around, delivering a firm buck to the dress forms. Hyacinth shrieked and fell onto her sister-in-law’s back. The crabs made another strike, but Carrot was already off and running, back toward her wife, back toward the door, back toward safety. And then a silver robot launched itself at her face.
The assembled watched in horror as Carrot reared back. A slim metal tentacle slipped out and slid around to the back of her head. The mare flinched for the briefest of seconds, her head snapping back abruptly and then falling forward, Hyacinth pitching off her back and into a sea of crabs. Or she would have had Spike not incinerated her with a burst of green flame. Moments later, another burst of green fire deposited the terrified mare next to Pinkie Pie.
“Carrot,” Daisy whispered, horrified.
As though in response, the yellow mare lifted her head once more. Daisy gasped slightly, stepping forward, but Pinkie pulled her back firmly. “Don’t look,” she whispered, sorrowful. “Don’t look.”
But Daisy didn’t listen. She saw the blank expression, the empty eyes in the face that she had woken up next to and gone to bed with for fourteen years. Her own eyes watered, and she pitched over backward into Pinkie’s hooves.
“Spike?” Pinkie asked quietly. “Do you know what those things are?”
“No,” the dragon replied brusquely, slamming the Boutique’s door closed. “And honestly, I don’t much care.”
The premier party pony frowned slightly. “You don’t?”
“No. ‘Cause whatever those things are, I think they’ve got Rarity. And that means, no matter what those little creeps are, I’m gonna ROAST them,” Spike finished his declaration with a snarl.
The conscious members of the Bouquet family all backed away from the angry dragon. Hyacinth leaned over to Rose. “Rather intense, isn’t he? It must be the artistic temperament.”
Spike took in a deep, shuddering breath and sighed out slowly. Pinkie, meanwhile was squinting, unperturbed at the robot she held in her hooves. “Okay… who else in Ponyville would know about… OOH! Come on, everypony, we’re going to the bar!”
Hyacinth frowned slightly. “My dear mare, this is not a problem that can be solved with alcohol. Poor dear Daddy has been addled out of his wits! Oh, he was such a sharp mind in his youth…” she trailed off, shaking her head.
Pinkie, meanwhile, was happily paying no attention whatsoever and pronking off in the direction of the Stick and Carrot. The Ponyvillians exchanged glances and shrugged. Better to trust Pinkie than stay here like sitting ducks, after all.
Probably.
Maybe.
They all trotted after her.
From the eaves, the crabs watched.
A farmer, a mailmare, and a fashionista walked into Ponyville. There was no punchline. There was no noise of any kind. No ponies lined the streets. A newspaper fluttered across the street. “Well,” said Rarity. “This isn’t the most promising of sights.”
“Mebbe everypony else got abducted too,” Mac suggested.
Ditzy nodded. “Possibly,” she agreed. “We’d better keep an eye out…”
The trio trotted through the silent streets of the normally bustling township. It was surreal, like listening to chamber music in a nightclub. Each pony was silent, lost in thoughts of what their loved ones’ fates might be. Rarity worried desperately about Spike, and far moreso about Sweetie Belle. Mac’s mind ran amuck with fears of where Granny, AJ, and Bloom might have gone. Ditzy was plotting violence against anything that might have hurt her little muffin.
Then, a motion caught Rarity’s eye, and she turned. A smile split her face as she saw who was hovering in the alleyway. “Rainbow Dash!” she called. “Thank Celestia! You have no idea how worried we’ve been, what’s going—”
She faltered as the pegasus turned to face her the blue mare’s face was devoid of emotion, her eyes as empty as the grave. “Rainbow?”
Dash opened her mouth, and a low note boomed out, unlike anything a pony ought to be able to produce. From every corner, every trash bin, every window pane, little silver figures emerged. “Uh-oh,” Ditzy said quietly. “Okay. Um, options?”
“Scream fer help?” Mac suggested.
“Uh…” Ditzy said, but the rest of the sentence was cut off as Rarity quickly got on board with Mac’s plan.
Rainbow faltered in midair, a grimace crossing her face. The crabs froze for a moment before resuming their advance as Rarity’s shriek dwindled.
Ditzy swallowed. “Mac? Other ideas?”
“Well, y’all’ve got wings.”
“Yeah, but I can’t carry both of you. Or either of you for very long.”
“Weren’t suggestin’ it.”
The grey pegasus froze. “You don’t mean—”
“Go. Somepony’s gotta get help. Ain’t no good you stayin’ here, so FLY!”
Grey wings shot out like sails. “I’ll save you,” Ditzy whispered. “I’ll save everypony, I promise.”
Mac grinned. “Ah believe ya. Now, git.”
Ditzy flapped frantically into the air and over the crabs. Rarity backed into Mac. “Darling. If we don’t get out of this alive, I just want you to know that I’ve always found your fashion sense atrocious and would have made you give up that yoke for a suit years ago were it not for your sister.”
Mac let out a low, dry chuckle. “Ah got a suit already. If we’re confessin’ stuff though, Ah’d not mind a nice dress. Er. Some days it fits me better.”
Rarity glanced up at the farmer, momentarily surprised. Then she smiled. “If we get out of here, I’ll make you one of each, gratis,” she said firmly. “You deserve to look good regardless of gender. I think yellow would suit, with highlights in green, or perhaps orange. Brown, possibly. You're absolutely an autumn.”
Mac blushed. “Much appreciated. Course,” he added, eyeing the oncoming silver tide, “that’s prob’ly academic.”
“Quite. Well, it was good knowing you, Macintosh.”
“Likewise, Miss RaR5%6yhb&(kJH!k
The thing in Rainbow Dash’s body watched impassively as the large red creature fell to the ground, followed immediately by the small white one. Their brandings faded, transforming into the familiar silver hexagon that symbolized their march toward conquest, toward eternal life and complete control. The diamonds and apple appeared on the backs of the two shells that had been able to land the final blow. Good. The others could take it from here. Cold magenta eyes snapped toward the last location of the grey subject. It must not escape. With a few powerful wingbeats, the Dash-thing lifted off from the ground; slowly, grudgingly, for it was still unused to this flesh, but it would follow for as long and far as it could go. More than far enough.