Inferno Flare hummed to himself as he equipped himself with his Duelist Arms and headed off to where Burst was training Spike to use his Duelist Arm. But before Inferno left, he stopped by Rarity's room. "Hey Rarity. I'll be headed out to help Spike with his training. Want me to pick you up something on my way back?"
"No thank you darling." Rarity answered with a smile. "Nothing that I wouldn't be able to get for myself."
"Alright then." Inferno said with a nod. He then noticed the new spool of rainbow-colored thread in Rarity's hands. "When did you get that new fabric?"
Rarity smiled. "Coco gave it to me as a sort of apology gift for all the trouble I received from Suri. It also holds a lot of sentimental value for Coco. I'm almost afraid to make something with it for fear of tarnishing the value held by the memories attached to it."
"Whatever you do with it, I'm sure it'll be great." Inferno said as he wrapped one of his wings around Rarity before giving her a goodbye kiss. "Have fun with the rest of the girls. Celestia knows you've earned this little vacation after putting your heart out there during fashion week." And with that, Inferno headed out the door and flew off to where Burst was training Spike. "How're things coming along?"
"Pretty good." Burst said with a nod. "I guess all the time Spike spent on the shooter games at the arcade helped to build his visual tracking and reaction time. I'd have asked Steel if he had some actual targets to shoot up, but I figured giving Spike some moving targets by tossing some cans would give him some practice hitting aerial targets."
"Take that!" Spike cried out as he shot down another can! A flaming green energy blast shooting out from Spike's arm cannon! "So am I anywhere near your guys' level yet?"
"Slow down there bud." Inferno said with a chuckle. "Target practice is one thing. But it's another to fight an opponent that can actually hit back." Inferno was about to ready his weapons when the sound of clanking mechanical footsteps were heard throughout the entire city. "Uh, you guys heard that too right?"
"Yeah." Spike said with a nod. "Kinda sounds like a massive machine is moving." Just then, Fang called in to report that he'd heard the noise too.
"Whatever the source of the noise is, it's massive and made of a lot of metal." Fang said as his ears twitched as he listened in on the mechanical sounds. "I think I can hear it slowing down. Me and the others are starting to gear up. How so can we expect you to link up with us?"
"Immediately." Burst answered. "We'll teleport over to you now. Inferno? Contact Twilight and the girls. Something tells me we're going to need all the help we can get."
Inferno nodded. "Already on it." As soon as Inferno made his call, he looked to Spike. "Well Spike, I think you're about to get a whole lot more than you wished for." The three grouped together, and Burst teleported them to the location of the rest of the Elements of Heroism. The Main 6 arrived not long after. With Fang leading the way, both teams of elements made their way to the source of the noise. And what they saw made both teams of heroes freeze in their tracks. An entire army of machines was marching towards the city!
"So. . . who sent out the droid army?" Akage asked in an attempt to relieve the tension. It didn't have much effect, but everyone appreciated the ninja trying to add some levity to the situation.
A commander figure stepped forward. "Big Saturn told me to expect some resistance. " Commander Covington noted. "But I didn't expect such a small force to be foolish enough to stand against the might of the Machina Army." He then decided to make himself known to his enemies. "I am Commander Covington! Leader of the grand robotic army you see before you! In the name of Big Saturn, we claim this city as ours! Oppose us, and-!?!" Commander Covington was met with a shot from Burst Stream's blasters!
"What makes you think you've got the right to take what isn't yours you overgrown tin soldier?!" Burst snapped as he holstered one of his blasters and drew his sword! "The only place you're going is the scrapyard!"
"So it looks like you are all foolish enough to fight back." Covington said shakily as he was a bit scrambled from the lightning blasts from Burst's blasters. "A-A-T-T-TACK!" Machina Soldiers, Snipers, and Defenders marched forwar! However, they were slow due to their mechanical nature. Giving the heroes a significant advantage!
"Everyone hit the ground running!" Twilight and Burst ordered as both teams of elements rushed forward! Immediately throwing themselves into the fray! However, when some of the heroes were close to landing a hit one some of the Machina Soldiers, a smaller robot detached themselves from the larger units and took the hit instead!
"They've got shields that sacrifice themselves?!" Steel Edge said in shock as he witnessed the smaller Machina Gearframe explode upon being hit! Steel then cleaved the Machina Soldier advancing on him in two! "Too bad they're a one-use defense!"
Tyrannus was blasting wave after wave of Machina Soldiers! The blasts of thunder frying any that tried to slash at him with their blade arms! However, he noticed Fluttershy was being targeted by a Machina Sniper! Ty flew over to her, and blocked the shot with his body!
"That shot doesn't pack much of a hit." Tyrannus muttered as she charged at the Machina Sniper and punched a hole right through it! A mass of circuits and wires left crackling as he removed his fist! "But your poor choice of target is what set me off." Ty then proceeded to smash through the waves of Machina forces surrounding him and Fluttershy! Either by pounding them with his fists, or slicing into him with his raptor claw gauntlets! He then noticed that Commander Covington was still twitching from Burst's shot, and an idea came to him. "Fluttershy! Stay close to me!" Powering up his magic, Tyrannus summoned a series of thunderbolts that struck down the Machina advancing on him! Reducing them to burnt scrap metal!
Meanwhile Inferno was engaging his own wave of enemies with Rarity at his side! Shots from Inferno's blaster burning through the Machina Soldiers and Defenders while Rarity thrust forward with her rapier and let loose a barrage of gem shards from her steel fan!
"Don't worry about holding back Rarity!" Inferno cried out as he impaled the Machina Defender charging at him from its exposed underside! "These things are just walking piles of scrap metal!"
"Already ahead of you darling." Rarity said with a smirk as she used her magic to create a magic glyph that allowed her to bounce off the air and strike from different angles! "Twilight's been helping me work on incorporating my magic into my attacks!"
Meanwhile, Steel Edge and Rainbow Dash were making air raids on the Machina army! Steel Edge raining down a storm of dagger constructs with his magic and firing blade beams from his sword while Rainbow Dash let her boomerang tear through the waves of robots!
"That's another wave down for me!" Rainbow Dash said with a smirk as her boomerang came back to her! "How about you Steel?"
"Well, if you wanna keep score. . . " Steel said as he landed on the ground! "I'm about to add several more waves to mine." Steel charged up his magic, and activated the Blade Charge technique! "Burst! Care to lend me a hand with this?"
"Got it!" Burst said with a nod as he powered up his magic and performed Blade Charge on his own sword! "Let's send them to the scrapheap!" And the two proceeded to cleave a swath of destruction through the advancing Machina army!
Arctic Ace was firing blasts of ice magic and shattering the enemies he froze while his brothers Dark Ice and Shadow Thunder joined him a defensive circle! Ice cleaving through enemies while Shadow jabbed at the Machina with his spear! Before long, the Machina menacing them were nothing but worthless scrap metal!
Pinkie Pie and Akage were weaving their way through the enemy forces until they had gotten cornered. "Hey Akage? Mind if I take you for a spin?" Pinkie said as she swung her yo-yo. Akage smiled and nodded as Pinkie wrapped her yo-yo around Akage's legs and swung him around using her Earthbound strength! Akage using the momentum to cut through the Machina Snipers and Soldiers advancing on him and Pinkie! "My turn now?"
"Naturally." Akage said as he took hold of Pinkie's yo-you and swung her around! Pinkie Pie kicking the heads off each of the Machina stragglers that had surrounded them! Nearby, Applejack and Magnet North were blasting apart the Machina Defenders that had decided to advance!
"These varmints just don't know when to quit!" Applejack groaned as she blasted one of the Machina Defenders! "And those annoying little guys that detach themselves to take the hit instead aren't making this any easier!"
"Just get up-close and personal lass!" North said with a smirk as he dove underneath a Machina Defender, and pumped his shotblaster so that the red barrel was on top! "Like this!" North fired off his shotblaster point blank and blew a massive nole right through its core!
As the battle raged on, Twilight got an idea. "Burst! Charge up one of your lightning spells! I've got an idea how to end this fight in an instant!"
"I'm all ears Twilight!" Burst called back as he cut down a Machina Soldier and shot up a Machina Sniper before doing a combination of both to a Machina Defender! "What did you have in mind?!"
"Everyone, get back!" Twilight cried out as she powered up the spell charge function of her Harmony Keeper and pointed it at Burst as he faced what was still left of the advancing Machina Army! "Get ready Burst! The second you're charged up, let 'em have it!" Twilight fired the spell charge at Burst Stream! With his spell hyper-charged, Burst let loose a massive stream of lightning on the advancing Machina Army! The lightning shot out with deadly spead and struck fiercely! Every Machina it struck was like a gigantic chain reaction of destruction! The intense surge of electricity overloading them and making them explode! Pretty soon, barely even a fraction of Commander Covington's forces remained!
". . . Retreat!" Commander Covington hollared as he and the remains of his invasion force clanked off back to Big Saturn!
Both teams of elements cheered in victory! The Machina Army had been repulsed! As most of the current couples decided to celebrate together, Applejack approached North.
"That was mighty reckless of you back there North." Applejack said. "You'e lucky that these buckets of bolts are none too bright."
"I know." North said with a sigh. "But I just want to look out for you out th-" North was cut-off by a kiss on the cheek from Applejack!
"Ah didn't say anything about not appreciating it." Applejack said with a smirk. "Maybe when this is all over, Ah can finally get to know more abou you." North just blushed as Applejack walked off. Rarity noting the confidence in her friend's step.
"Finally have your eye on some one?" Rarity asked with a coy smile.
Applejack lowered her hat. "Let's just say I'm starting to know what being treated like a lady feels like."
Meanwhile, in an abandoned machinery building, Big Saturn hovered as he stared down at Commander Covington. "It seems your formation was not as flawless as you'd thought it was Commander."
"How?!" Commander Covington fumed as steam hissed out from his head! "My formation was perfect! How were my forces so thoroughly defeated?!"
"Our enemies possessed superior weaponry." Big Saturn replied. "So maybe it's time as we, as the humans would say 'bring out the big guns'." Two new Machina units, one with a large cannon on its back and one that was built like a tank rolled forward. "Next time, we strike at the heart of the city. . . "