//------------------------------// // Ch. 5: Confrontation // Story: Impending Doom III: The Flip-Flopping Good Time // by TundraStanza //------------------------------// Grass was growing. The sun was shining down. Birds were singing as they flew along, minding their own business. One bird's song was cut short by a sudden beam of hot light. Another bird soon followed suit. The remaining bird chirped nervously, awaiting a response from its friends. Its life was gone in an instant. Phlip-Phlop exhaled across the end of her blaster weapon. "TIR, what did I instruct you to do?" "To stop my 'infernal dancing'?" TIR twiddled his small robotic hands. "No, TIR." The Irken put away her blaster and crossed her gloved arms. "With the memory-erasing?" "Um... reprogram the governing ponies, ma'am?" The trash-filled robot shivered in place. "And what did you end up doing?" She leaned her face down to look at him closely. "Wiping memories of the wrong ponies." TIR lowered his gaze to the grass beneath his legs. Phlip-Phlop released an alien taser. As the dual-pronged spring latched onto the robot, TIR let out a high-pitched yelp. The overdose of electric current convinced his body to flail his limbs while involuntarily floating in the air. After what felt like an eternity, the spring cooled back down and pulled back to the taser trigger. "Feel that? That is how honesty feels." Phlip-Phlop turned around. "Insubordination is a serious blight against the Irken Empire. Be thankful I did not scrap you for parts on the spot." "Oo! Time for the mercy dance!" TIR jiggled around. His motions were only slightly less sporadic than his sudden electrocution. Phlip-Phlop sighed and walked toward one of her high-tech boxes. "I need to re-calibrate the base's food storage. Something about it keeps making the food warm instead of cold. Just... stay out of my way." "Of course, Master." The robot saluted before continuing his solo dance. --- Bon Bon was on a mission; she was sure about it. The foreign scream, the cyborg visitor, and even the clinically insane hippogryph... it all added up. Aliens were going to try to take over Equestria. She wouldn't let that happen. She had to stop them! That was why she was creeping in a fake bush disguise. It fooled any pony that ever looked her way. The thing even hid her while she was inside a building with no plant life whatsoever. She was certain it was fool-proof, and aliens were the kings of fools. All she needed was a bit of common bacteria to break their invisible force fields. As she was slowly making her way along the dirt road, she made several sudden stops. Nobody on the right and nobody on the left could see through her brilliant disguise. The fact that there wasn't actually anyone along the road didn't disprove her assumption. She mentally retorted a "shut up" to an unspoken counter-argument. She could see it now: a No-Bell Peace Prize for the shelf, a Pink Heart of Courage to wear around her neck, and a proud Lyra to also wear around her neck. Exploration beyond the stars would have funds and be given resources to purge the alien invaders at their source. She could finally drop the charade of her secret identity and live a normal, happy retirement. She could- *Bonk!* ... slam face-first against a glass wall. Bon Bon fell onto her back while rubbing her now sore muzzle. She did a double-take at what was in front of her, or rather what wasn't in front of her. A bit more slowly this time, she reached out a hoof in front of herself. Upon making contact with an invisible wall that felt like a window, she smirked. Her head ducked down into her bush disguise and she shuffled the leaves around. When she popped back out, she pulled out a small knife-like tool. It had little sharp points on either side. After giving a good press into the invisible wall, she got to work cutting a hole. The sound of her cutting imitated a bone saw against a wooden board. She couldn't help chuckling at her progress. Once she was done cutting, she pressed her hoof hard against the cut-out. It fell over, leaving a hole just large enough for her to trot through. Upon stepping onto the other side of the wall, the scenery didn't look very different from the path she was on, save for one detail. She dashed over behind a tree and peeked around. Sure enough, there was a screen of ginormous proportions sitting in the middle of a clearing. Below that, were control pads of a weird pattern configuration. Some metal boxes were connected by wires and pipes off to the side. Shuffling through one of those boxes was- An alien! Bon Bon mentally cheered before shaking her head and covering her mouth. Can't celebrate yet. Need to detain that alien before saving Equestria can be assured. She pulled out a capped tool and extended the fiber wire from it, tightly grasping it between her front hooves. --- Phlip-Phlop turned her wrench among various bolts on her food storage box. She was half-tempted to set the box's temperature to "hot" just to get it out of "lukewarm". However, the other half reasoned that setting fire to her food supply would cause more problems, such as starting a fire and attracting unwanted life form intruders. Sighing, she held the box between two of her mechanical legs while continuing to make small twists of her wrench here and there. A rustling noise shuffled behind her. She jerked her head around. There was nothing there, at least as far as anyone else from the Irken Empire would've been able to detect. It was just her convulsing/dancing robot, her computer, and herself in this area. She went back to tightening bolts with the wrench in her gloved hand. She heard a similar noise again. Yet when she looked a second time, there was still nothing there. Although... she wasn't entirely sure this planet could sprout a random off-colored bush in such a short time. When she returned to her task, she made the wrench noises slower and more deliberate. Phlip-Phlop armed her unlimited blaster and shot a fiber wire just before it could get anywhere around her face. A female creature's voice yelped in pain as the Invader turned on her heel. She scoffed through her zipper-shaped teeth and raised herself on all four of her metallic legs. "Puny life-form." She pointed at the bush that was mere inches from where she was just standing. "Did you honestly think that pitiful attempt could ever work on me?" A cream-colored mare with blue and pink swirls for a mane flopped out of the bush with a moan. "You know... for a second there... yeah. I kind of did." "Since you've managed to amuse me with your inferior intellect, I'll let you in on a little secret." Phlip-Phlop lowered her metallic legs just enough for her two boots to touch the ground. "I've been trained to counter assassination and hunting tactics from countless species over the last one hundred and twenty years alone... longer than you've been alive, I'm guessing." "I don't know what your end goal is, but you're not going to take Equestria!" The pony shook while she tried to stare the alien down with ferocity. Without fangs and red eyes, it was an insult to truly ferocious animals. "Perhaps you're right." Phlip-Phlop's blaster lowered right above the pony's head. "At this time, I'm leaning toward destroying this planet. I haven't decided yet." "You think destroying me will be the same as destroying the planet?" The pony smiled, despite the fear still shaking in her eyes. "There are ponies way stronger than me in this world. Even if you beat me, you'll have to answer to the rest of them." "All in due time... what was your name again?" The Irken raised the area above her eye plate that would imitate a brow. The pony frowned. "Dani Darling." "Fine then." Phlip-Phlop shrugged. "Don't be honest with me. It's not my job to carve grave markers anyway." The pony jumped with a rising uppercut. Her hoof collided with nothing but an "X" of Phlip-Phlop's gloved hands. Smiling calmly, the Irken fired her blaster. The pony ducked, losing a few of her mane hairs to the blast. Her bush disguise was ignited by the energy and melted to the ground. "Ha! You missed!" The pony jeered. Sparks and bolts raced around the pony, causing her mane to stand on end. With a dumbfounded smile, the mare leaned over and collapsed on her back. Her hooves twitched uncontrollably while a small cloud of gray smoke rose. Phlip-Phlop turned to see her dancing robot, devoid of the punishment shock she dealt him earlier. "Aw, drat." TIR lamented. "I thought for sure she'd be perfect for a dance partner." "I didn't realize you could weaponize yourself like that." Phlip-Phlop crossed her arms in a resting posture. "It was your taser, ma'am." TIR bowed politely. "I simply repurposed it at the last minute." "Well, looks like you owe me." Phlip-Phlop's PAK legs carried her over before shrinking and letting her sit down in the computer desk chair. "How about you start by disposing of the garbage you fried?" "Certainly, ma'am!" TIR saluted before promptly hugging the unconscious pony like a giant stuffed toy and dragging it away. "Computer!" Phlip-Phlop's fingers danced along a panel. "Reinforce the concealment dome. We don't need more pests." Understood. A couple programming equations flashed along the screen before the hole in the invisible wall closed up and sealed seamlessly. --- Bon Bon groaned and rubbed a hoof against her head. She shook off the dizziness before slowly pulling herself onto all fours. Looking around, she took a note that she was deep in the Everfree Forest. She could tell by how dark it was, even with the occasional spot of sunlight. But why was she here of all places? She thought hard about what had happened. The last she recalled, she had done some research on her recent alien evidence. She then took off to perform a preemptive operation to save Equus. However, everything after that seemed to be blocked by a blur. She chuckled to herself. Such a memory wipe only vindicated her belief that an alien was responsible for messing with her head. There was a series of growls. Bon Bon looked around the shady foliage. She was surrounded by glowing yellow eyes. A pack of timberwolves pawed their way into view. One of them howled while the rest got in postures ready to pounce. Bon Bon spat to the side. "I don't have time for this." The alpha timberwolf showed no interest in Bon Bon's schedule. It made the first attack by opening its mouth wide open and pouncing at the pony. Bon Bon made a sweeping motion with her body and used her back hoof to launch the timberwolf over herself. It ended up landing upside-down on top of two other timberwolves, crashing all three into scattered twigs. Two of the remaining pack mates did not appreciate the damage and retaliated. They sprang after their prey at the same time. Their combined weight was enough to hold the pony down, pinning her hooves at uncomfortable angles. She struggled, but couldn't get out. A torch flew out of nowhere and landed on top of a timberwolf's back. The flame ignited its wooden spine and caused it to yelp. Upon seeing the fire, the rest of the pack whined and whimpered as they scattered. Bon Bon tried to stand back up. One of her hind legs snapped and she winced at the resulting pain. "Bon Bon!" A familiar face hugged around her neck before acting as a makeshift support. "I thought you weren't coming." Bon Bon chuckled. "Listen, Best Friend." Lyra gave her full eye contact. "You may be a weirdo, but you're my weirdo. Nothing is going to mess with that. Now come along. We're getting you out of this forest." "But the alien's still out there!" Bon Bon flinched as her bad leg hit a tree root. "What good is fighting any kind of bad guy if you aren't in the best possible condition?" Lyra conjured a pair of magic hands both to light up their position and to move debris out of the way along the path. "Right now, you need proper rest, and probably some decent food if there's time." "I..." Bon Bon exhaled. "You're right." "Darn right, I'm right!" Lyra pulled her friend along the path into more familiar scenery. ---