“Madam Trixie. It is ready,” the secretary said to her employer.
Trixie Lulamoon wasn’t looking at her. She was turned toward the window, admiring the city. She could see so much from atop of her building. She could see what would be hers. This city. She was intelligent. Therefore, she succeeded where her father failed. She built an empire of technology, but it wasn’t enough.
What more could she want? Her company was already at the top. She had money. She had glory.
She needed power. Not the kind of power that allows one to wield incredible magic capable of destroying anything. She thought of the power someone had when they’re respected by all, and when nothing was refused to them. Her father always told her that this was how the world worked. He wanted to be above everyone, to prove how great he was. However, he failed. Trixie would always remember him as a failure, a weak fool, somepony that couldn’t succeed in this world. He died without accomplishing anything.
Trixie would show how much different she was from her father. Even if he was a fool, he taught her well. When someone was at the top of the world, he succeeded.
Even though Trixie wasn’t at this point. She still accomplished many things. Now, villains and heroes were in her way. She would show everyone how great she was. Her plan was still a secret, even among her company.
She turned around, now facing her secretary. A grinned appeared on her face.
“It is?” she asked almost excitedly.
Her secretary nodded. Trixie stood up and followed her employee. They both used the elevator to go down to the first floor. When they arrived, they ignored the working employees and stopped in front of an antimatium door.
Trixie glanced at a black glass plate beside the door. She used her magic on it and a few seconds later, the door opened. Trixie and her secretary entered as the door closed behind them. They passed by several scientists and engineers working on… weapons! These weapons looked quite dangerous, some of them even bigger than an average pony. However, there weren’t only weapons. It looked like there were other machines, but their role was unknown to Trixie. She didn’t play a big role in their construction, the scientists built some of them based on her needs and they called her to see them only when they were finished.
Trixie finally stopped. The scientists, seeing her, stepped back to let her admire their work.
It was a machine; a robot with a humanoid form. It was connected to several wires and wasn’t moving. Trixie looked at it, inspecting every part of its body. Its hands were big, big enough to strangle a pony. The scientists gave it a “muscular” form. Surely to add a better look, because it was made of metal; a robot didn’t need muscles. It had a mouth, as Trixie wanted it to be more realistic. She didn’t want to speak to something that didn’t move its lips. She looked at one of the scientists and nodded, signaling him to turn it on. The scientist turned around and clicked several buttons on his console. Now, it was powered up. The robot moved one of its fingers, then its entire hand. Its black eyes started glowing and turned red. Trixie smiled as she saw it looking around.
“Welcome to this world, SK-0,” Trixie said while grinning. The robot looked at her, then took off the wires connected to it. Now it could move freely.
“What is my mission, mistress?” SK-0 asked in a robotic voice as he bowed to his creator.
“Hmm, this A.I. isn’t bad. It knows how to show respect,” Trixie said to the scientists. They smiled, proud of their work. “You are the first model of my ‘Superpony Killers’. You already know what your mission is.”
SK-0 didn’t say anything, its eyes simply started flashing. After a few seconds, they stopped. SK-0 stood up and started walking toward the opened antimatium door.
“My mission is to kill super heroes and super villains. Starting with the superhero: Princess Midnight,” it said as it jumped out of the building, scaring some employees.
SK-0 was gone. However, Trixie wasn’t worried. This robot had propulsors on his feet and his back, allowing him to fly. He’d find Midnight quickly. The super hero came here twice, and Trixie had taken advantage of those moments to take some strands of her mane, strands that fell while she was fighting. SK-0 had her DNA registered in its database, by using its captors it’ll find her easily.
“Madam. I am sorry to ask this, but why did you want this machine to have this form?” her secretary asked.
“Because this form is better when it comes to fighting. Besides, I’m sure you heard about this legend that mentions these strange creatures called ‘humans’. I heard they are powerful monsters capable of mass destruction. I thought their form would be the most appropriate for my first Superpony Killer.”
***
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Fizzlepop asked as she glanced at Twilight’s head.
“I’m fine. Like I said, I just fell down the stairs,” Twilight answered. Her head was partially covered with bandages because of her fight with Rockhead. Of course, she couldn’t tell Berry that she got that in a fight. Nopony knew that she was a hero. “I won’t be able to work at the library though. Thank you for coming here, Berry.”
“I couldn’t abandon a friend in need. When I saw that the library was closed, my first reaction was to see if everything was alright with you. Now that I know how badly you’re hurt… I’ll stay with you today.”
“You don’t have to… I…”
“Twi, please. I just want you to be safe.”
“Ugh… Fine.”
Fizzlepop smiled happily. They were both in Twilight’s apartment.The two of them have gotten closer quite quickly. They both showed the same interests: literature, movies, science, and magic. Fizzlepop was good at magic before her accident. She loved practicing; even though, she couldn’t continue experimenting because of her broken horn. She still found it fascinating. So being with Twilight, one of the best unicorns she’d ever seen, was pleasant.
As for Twilight, it was one of the best relationships she ever had, though Fizzlepop was only, at most, the second friend she had had in her life. She hadn’t even had this much in common with Moondancer! Twilight didn’t have anyone to talk to about science, as her parents weren’t interested in it in the slightest.
***
SK-0 flew above the city while turning on its scanner. As Trixie said, it had Princess Midnight’s DNA registered in its database. If it put the data on its scanner, finding her would be easy. It stopped flying and looked around. To track her down, it needed to detect her DNA first and only that would be the hard part of the mission. There were millions of people in the city, so tracking her would take approximately…
“10 minutes,” the robot said emotionlessly. It started scanning the area it was in and found nothing important. However, before it could fly away it heard an explosion below.
SK-0 looked at the streets and saw a grey stallion fighting with the police. He was pretty much killing them because he had special powers. It looked like he could control concrete.
“Analyzing the situation…” SK-0 said as its eyes flashed. “Supervillain attack.” It concluded after several seconds.
It knew what had to be done. Its mission was to kill the heroine Princess Midnight. However, Trixie’s main objective was to get rid of ponies that had superpowers. She wasn’t doing this for the greater good, of course, but because she was sure they were a problem for her. Her plans would never succeed because unlike them, she didn’t have special powers that placed her above anyone else. SK-0 didn’t care if its mistress was good or bad because its sole purpose was to obey.
As it descended on the ground, shaking it because of its landing, it surprised everyone in the area. The police stopped shooting at the villain and looked at the machine, not sure what to think of it. However, they hoped it was reinforcements.
The supervillain created a wall of concrete between him and the police, then turned around to look at the strange robot. He noticed it had a form similar to a young dragon’s.
“Who the hell are you?” the villain asked, not sounding afraid.
SK-0 didn’t respond and started scanning the villain in front of it.
“Villain: The Cementer. Real name: Falling Star,” SK-0 said as it finished searching its database. It directed its fists in the villain’s direction. “Surrender and you will not suffer.”
“You must be an idiot if you think I’ll do that!” The Cementer shouted as he put his hooves on the ground.
Suddenly machine guns came out of SK-0’s arms and it started shooting. Cementer smirked as a concrete wall came out of the ground, blocking the bullets.
“Looks like it’s on our side,” a police officer shouted.
As they were all ready to surround The Cementer, the villain jumped on one of their cars and started spinning. Before they could react, large spikes of concrete came out under them, impaling everyone.
Cementer started running out of the area. He could take out the police easily, but he didn’t want to lose his time with a giant tin can. As he was running, he noticed there were still several citizens escaping the scene. However, they were looking at the sky. Cementer stopped in his track and looked too. He widened his eyes and barely jumped out of the way as the robot from before punched the ground, creating a small crater.
“That was a close one,” he breathed.
SK-0 jumped towards the villain’s direction and tried to punch him with all its strength as Cementer created a concrete wall. Although, it didn’t stop the robot from punching through it. Cementer used this as a distraction to try to escape again.
The villain knew that his opponent was going to catch up soon. So, he decided to use the easy way. He jumped on a random car, used his concrete powers to rip the door off, and took out the mare inside.
“No! Don’t hurt me!” she shouted, terrified. Meanwhile, the other ponies got out of their cars. Cementer ignored her and took her by the neck, then used her as a shield as SK-0 came.
“I’m sure you know the usual speech. You let me go and I won’t hurt this lady,” Cementer said as he smirked. SK-0 didn’t respond and stretched its arms towards the villain. “Wait… Are you serious!?” he shouted as machine guns came out of the robot’s arms. Cementer threw the hostage in front of him and jumped behind a car as SK-0 started shooting. “Isn’t he supposed to be the good guy?! You’re insane!” he shouted as his previous hostage was shot down. Even some ponies that were hidden in their cars were shot dead.
Cementer breathed in and out, then jumped on top of a car and created a large spike of concrete that pushed back SK-0. Then, he created two walls to crush the robot while it was unbalanced, but it escaped by flying in the sky.
Cementer focused all his attention on the robot to be sure to dodge or block its next attack.
“Use of stronger weapons needed,” SK-0 said as other weapons came out of its back and pointed at Cementer.
“Uh oh,” the villain muttered as he recognized what they were.
The robot shot several missiles, creating several explosions that covered the big street.
***
“What’s all that noise?” Fizzlepop muttered as Twilight lay on her bed. “Sounds like explosions.”
Twilight widened her eyes in panic and stood up.
“I’m sorry! I… uh… I have to go to the bathroom. You wait here, ok?” Twilight said before running to her bathroom.
Fizzlepop raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s weird behavior but shrugged it off several seconds later, thinking it was due to her being under stress of not being able to attend to her duties as a librarian.
Meanwhile, Twilight locked the bathroom door and transformed in Princess Midnight. She lifted her horn and teleported on the rooftop.
“Okay… Where’s the problem?” she muttered to herself as she looked around. Suddenly she noticed a large cloud of smoke far from her apartment. She narrowed her eyes and flew in that direction.
***
Cementer coughed because of the smoke. He didn’t take too much damage because he reacted in time and shielded himself with his power. However, the smoke created by the blasts entered his lungs and made it hard for him to breathe. He couldn’t fight like that. He stood up and looked around. The cars were wrecked and burning while the ground was in a disastrous state. The buildings were barely hit, but the inhabitants were panicking anyway. They were getting out as fast as they could.
“No wonder. That dude is crazy,” he muttered under his breath. He didn’t want to be heard. Maybe the robot would think he’s dead and leave him alone. “Okay… Time to go.”
As he was about to run off in the crowd of ponies escaping, SK-0 suddenly landed beside him and punched him in the face, sending him flying in a building. SK-0 didn’t hesitate to shoot more missiles, even if there was a possibility that there were still innocents inside.
“NO!” Cementer shouted, not knowing what to do. The punch was strong enough to disorient him, so he couldn’t use concrete to protect himself.
The missiles connected and created more explosions. SK-0 stood in front of the building as it collapsed on itself. The machine approached the pile of rubbles and started scanning it.
“No signs of life detected. Threat eliminated,” it said in a monotone voice.
“I don’t think so.”
SK-0 turned around and looked above the ground. Cementer was unconscious, held under an alicorn’s hoof while four civilians were held in her magic. SK-0 started scanning the alicorn.
“Hero name: Princess Midnight. Real Name: Unknown. No matching DNA with inhabitant of this city,” it concluded. While it was scanning the entire city, it didn’t find anyone that had a DNA matching Midnight’s. That should have meant she wasn’t here, however, she came out of nowhere.
Midnight narrowed her eyes. She released the civilians. They ran away after thanking her while she chained Cementer with magic. He was still a criminal she wasn’t going to let escape. SK-0 looked at the scene, then stretched its left arm towards Midnight.
“Surrender and you…” SK-0 started only to be interrupted by Midnight that impaled his left arm with her horn, tearing it off the robot’s body. She flew past it with the arm still on her horn.
“Damage received. Missing arm. She is stronger than planned,” SK-0 said as its body sparkled where its arm was missing. Midnight threw the arm on the ground and glared at the emotionless robot.
“You are only a machine. So, there is no reason for me to hold back and not destroy you. You will pay for what you did!” she shouted
SK-0 ignored her. It locked her in its vision and more missile launchers came out of its back. However, it didn’t even have time to shoot because the heroine shot them with magic bolts, causing them to explode on the robot’s back. SK-0 fell on its knees as its back was torn apart. Its eyes flashed, trying to scan all the damage received.
“Cri…tical da…mage,” it stuttered as it stood up. “You must die!” it yelled, prepared to launch another attack.
However, Midnight skewered it with her horn. She put her hooves on the ground, then shot a large magic beam that completely tore apart her opponent. SK-0’s head fell on the ground.
“Must… send data… to Mist…”
Midnight stepped on its head, crushing it to pieces. She didn’t care about what it was going to say. It was the first time she could release her wrath on something. That robot killed with no hesitation. Moreover, it shortened her time with Berry.
***
Fizzlepop looked around the apartment. She was asking herself what Twilight was doing. She’d been in the bathroom for quite some time now.
“I hope she’s okay,” she muttered before going in front of the bathroom. She knocked on the door. “Twilight? Need any help?” she asked but received no responses. She looked worried and started charging magic in her horn, creating sparkles. She knew it might be dangerous but…
“I’m fine!” Twilight’s voice called out, stopping Fizzlepop in her action. “I… ehhh… I didn’t hear you! I’m sorry! Don’t worry about me!”
“Okay. I’ll wait for you,” Fizzlepop responded before going back beside Twilight’s bed. She giggled, feeling silly. “I shouldn’t worry that much. Twilight is pretty much safe here.”