//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Conflict // Story: Project New World // by NinjaMare //------------------------------// The sun was already high up in the sky when the R.O.V.E.R unit finished powering up, ready to begin its task of documenting the world its in, and leave the investigation of the equine settlement to a new unit that would document the ponies better than it. But as the machine was finished powering up the R.O.V.E.R’s A.I noticed a dome of an almost transparent energy surrounding it, which of course has the mechanical beast trying to analyze it by using both its eyes to scan the strange dome. The machine even used its tails tendrils to see if the dome has a physical form, or if its just a screen of light bending around the machine. But just as the robot was about to touch the dome, it shattered like glass, causing the tail to pull back. Acting like it was startled and surprised. Once the shattered remains of the dome vanished into thin air, the R.O.V.E.R stood up and looked around itself looking for any remnants of the dome, the A.I still fixated in studying the dome’s unique energy. However there wasn’t a trace of the dome around anymore, so the machine switched to going back to its prime directive. Venturing away from the lake, the mechanical beast clambered up a nearby hill to get a better look of the land, but as it reached the top of the hill and scanned the area the machine noticed something above settlement. Above the town the R.O.V.E.R unit saw what looked like a fairly large black cloud was hovering over it. Using the zoom function in its head camera, the R.O.V.E.R unit saw that the cloud was actually a collection of new creatures that the robot has yet to document. Zooming in as much as its eye could allow, the mechanical beast could see what the new creatures looked like, although the distance still made it difficult to see them in perfect clarity. Returning its eye visibility back to normal the R.O.V.E.R made it sway down the hill, and towards the town so that it could get a better look at the new creatures. After a quick trot, the mechanical animal enters the town, via the park, and as it entered the towns boundary the R.O.V.E.R was able to see the new creatures that made up the black cloud. And seeing them attack the equines of the town. As the chaos of the situation happens around it, the R.O.V.E.R unit takes the opportunity to study the new creatures better. They appeared to also be equine in nature as well, but they have a great amount of insect like qualities about them that were greatly intriguing, such as having what appeared to be carapace covered bodies and insect like wings. A rather unusual thing that the machine’s A.I has noticed, is the series of holes along the creatures legs, which should make them un-useable and yet the R.O.V.E.R clearly sees a few specimens galloping about, chasing the equines that inhabit the town with no issues. Another interesting thing that the machine has discerned from these, insectoid-equines, were the sounds they made, which sounded like high-pitched chittering and chattering. One of the insectoid-equines leapt at one of the normal ponies, appearing to try and catch it like a cat would do with a mouse, but the equine was able to escape it’s would be assailant. Zooming in on the insectoid-equine as it gave a defying screech, the machine saw that its mouth has two long fangs protruding from its mouth, with a series of smaller predatory-style teeth running along the inside of its mouth. The R.O.V.E.R’s A.I has concluded that these insectoid-equines must be predators, and that this is a swarm that was on the hunt for their next meal. While still studying the creatures, the machine’s body jerked slightly as something collided with it. Using its tail camera, the R.O.V.E.R sees what appears to be a viscous green slime ball sticking to its back, just bellow its radio antenna. A few more of the sticky globs strike the mechanical beast, hitting it with the force of a baseball bat. Looking away from its back the robot looked for the source of the green slime, and found a small pack of seven insectoid-equines hovering above it, and were spitting the green slime globs at from their mouths. They appear to be trying to subdue the R.O.V.E.R so they could feed on it. Looking up to the sky where the insectoid-equines were, ready to launch another barrage of green globes, the R.O.V.E.R’s camera lens widened as much as it could before releasing a blinding flash of light! The screeching cries of the insectoid-equines were so potent that the microphones in the R.O.V.E.R’s head nearly spiked as they reached such a high pitch! Taking the opportunity it had created, the mechanical animal made a run for it, as it’s second main directive of self-preservation kicked into its systems. But as it made an escape attempt the machine’s eye camera saw a new pack of the insectoid-equines give chase after it. Galloping through the town, the R.O.V.E.R ran past many of the quines that were either captured by the invading swarm, or were still being chased by the predators much like itself. Reaching the town’s central district the machine skidded to a halt, and took off to the left but stopped as another pack of the insectoid-equines cornered it. now with two packs of the creatures perusing it, and no possible way to escape, the R.O.V.E.R’s side hatches on its shoulders opened where its laser muzzles emerged from. The tendrils in its tail also emerged as the machine prepared itself to defend itself. The first pack of predators began their assault by lobbing more globs at the R.O.V.E.R, but its lasers reduced them to smoldering goop as they were shot out of the air. The pack tried again to attack the machine, but again the green globs were shot out of the air and dropped to the ground in smoking chars. One of the insectoid-equines gave off a piercing screeching hiss which caused the microphones in the R.O.V.E.R to spike again, the machine fired its lasers at the creatures managing to shoot down a few of them, but two members of the pack managed to close in on the machine. half of the creatures tackled the machine doing little damage, but the collective weight was enough to rock the machine, almost causing it to lose its footing. The R.O.V.E.R began to wildly stomp its feet at the creatures, not to kill them but to make them back away from it, while also using its tail to swat the creatures away. And while it seemed to have worked, the R.O.V.E.R was caught off guard as several bodies slam down onto its back causing it to buckle slightly. The tail camera slinked up to look over its body to see what crashed down onto it, which were five of the insectoid-equines. The creatures began drool the green slime from their mouths, and seem to be coating the machine with it, but the R.O.V.E.R slung the creatures off its body as the tail snatched each on up, and tossed them aside. As the robot flung the creatures off its body, the robot saw one of the creatures flying straight at it, mouth wide open ready to bite down on it. But before the creature could reach the robot, it was knocked out of the air by a violet energy projectile. Turning to see where the projectile came from, the R.O.V.E.R saw the lavender unicorn and its herd mates galloping towards it, but its vision of the ponies were cut off when a glob of slime collided with its head and the end of its tail! Now blinded the robot began to thrash about widely, knocking over the stalls and other objects in its surroundings, but all of its thrashing about made it easier for the two packs of predators to combine their efforts, and slam into the machine with enough force to knock it on its side. The fall caused some of its systems to short-circuit, and collision with the swarm and the ground bruised up some of its parts and armor plating. Sensing that it was in danger of being destroyed, the R.O.V.E.R unit sent out a distress signal back to Home Base for retrieval. And after a minute of sending the signal, the robot received a signal to shut itself down to reserve power, and send all of its data to the Home Base’s main computer in case it was destroyed before help could arrive. Luckily though, the R.O.V.E.R was about to be rescued as a large portal opened up just a few feet from it, and its rescuer steps out. ~~Twilight Sparkle~~ Today started out like any other day for Twilight. She woke up at seven am sharp, as always, and once she has awaken began to tidy up her bed as well as herself before starting the day. Once her own self maintenance was done with, the unicorn ventured down to the living area where she meandered to the kitchen for breakfast, which by the smell of food being made was pancakes, eggs, and some lightly cooked hay. “Good morning Spike.” Twilight greeted the little dragon as he finishes cooking up the last bit of hay. “Morning Twilight.” The little dragon greeted back as he placed the plate of hay on the table. “Breakfast is all made, and ready to eat.” The unicorn gave her dutiful assistant a pat on the head, and a quick peck on the cheek for a job well done. “So Twilight what’s on the list for today?” Spike questioned as they both sat down, and began making their plates of breakfast. But as they made their plates, Spike noticed that his caretaker/sister figure looked a little, uncertain. Like something was troubling her as she thought over Spike’s question. After a few brief moments Spike seemed to grasp why Twilight was being silent. “Are you still wondering about that creature from yesterday?” the unicorn gave a small nod as she fiddles with the hay and eggs on her plate with a fork. “I’ve scoured through all the books of the library last night, even the ones from my personal collection I brought from Canterlot. And there’s NOTHING like it in any of them!” Twilight’s frustration was emphasized as her fork struck her plate, hard enough for it to break the plate by accident. “Ponyfeathers!” Spike shook his head as he watches Twilight get a new plate, and place her food on it. “Twilight I know your freaked out by this creature, heck! I’m freaked out by it, but all of this worrying is making you so, antsy.” Spike said as he scarfed down one whole pancake into his mouth, nosily chewing it before swallowing. “Maybe you should take a break from trying to figure out what the creature is, and study something else.” The mare gives out a tired sigh before giving a small nod. “Maybe your right Spike.” Twilight admitted. “I guess seeing a metal creature that can creature portals, and apparently can fire magical blasts…” As Twilight finishes off her statement of the unknown beast, which Pinkie has started calling Gleam because of how its body shines in any source of light, the unicorn and dragon went about to actually eating their breakfast. Before everything got to cold. Several minutes have gone by and in between bites of food, the pair talked about what they’ll be doing for the day. Twilight decided to try and study up on some new magical spells that she’s been meaning to study, but with the incident in the Crystal Empire and the days following Gleam’s arrival, she’s hasn’t gotten a chance to even read a single page. As for Spike, no surprise came to the unicorn when she heard him say he’ll visit Rarity and see if she, needs some dragon muscle or assistance. While Twilight found Spikes crush on Rarity cute at first, lately its been, eye rolling. And the fact that Rarity either seems to be blind by the dragons ‘not-so-perfectly-hidden-gestures’ of affection, or is leading the poor guy along has been making the unicorn a little irritated. ‘Maybe I should talk this over with Rarity, and get her to let down Spike easily, and GENTLY!’ Twilight internally monologued to herself, actually thinking of doing it first before Spike get’s a chance and before she reads. And considering Spike takes an hour to buff his scales to look more, dashing, she would have plenty of time. ‘Actually I should probably—wait.’ Twilight stopped in mid bite as she noticed something out the kitchen window. “Twilight, what’s up? You look like your staring something down?” Spike questioned. “Spike, do you know if its suppose to be cloudy, or rainy today?” the little dragon tapped a clawed digit to his chin as he thought for a sec. “No. at least, I don’t think so. Why?” Twilight got up from her seat and made her way over to the window, with Spike following behind her. reaching the window the pair looked out…and on the horizon they could see what looks like a large storm cloud. But the black mass wasn’t moving like any cloud they’ve seen. As the pair continued to watch the odd cloud close in on the town, Twilight squinted her eyes a bit as if she was trying to see something microscopic, but almost immediately her eyes went wide as she saw something else. And the shocked expression on her face caused the little dragon to develop a worried look. “Twilight?” Spike said before Twilight shouted in high tone. “CHANGELIGNS!” Sure enough, the black cloud wasn’t a storm cloud or any kind of weather production. It was a swarm of changelings! Both Twilight and Spike then watched as members of the swarm began divebombing into the town, their bodies covered in green flames as they barreled down onto the towns ponies, stalls, tents, and buildings. Causing all the ponies to scream and shout in shock and awe! the same went to the pair in the library, when a rouge changeling came crashing through the library’s roof, and snarled and hissed at the pair. Twilight immediately placed Spike on her back, and prepared to tangle with the changeling. Which came in the form of a swift pounce from the buggy equine, fangs bared, and forelegs outstretched! The unicorn used her magic to teleport the both of them outside the library, where they heard a dull and painful thud against the trees interior wall. “What are the changelings doing back?!” Spike squawked in panic as Twilight began galloping as more changelings came crashing down around the library. “I thought Cadence and Shining Armor got rid of them!” “They must be remnants of Chrysalis hive!” Twilight shouted over the screaming and shouting ponies, and the hissing and snarling changelings. The two even heard one changeling cry out. ‘Revenge for our fallen queen!’ before flying off after a pair of mares. “And it looks like they want revenge for their fallen queen!” “Twilight!” the unicorn heard the voice of her farm pony friend cry out, and seeing Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash making their way towards her and Spike. “Girls! is everypony—LOOK OUT!” the group ducked as a changeling came rocketing over the three mares, before being hit in the face by a magical blast from Twilight. “Girls!” Twilight shouted as she galloped to her friends. “Are you three okay?!” “Yeah we’re fine.” Rainbow said as she picked herself up. “We were on our way to Sugarcube corner, see if Pinkie and the Cakes were alright.” “Then let’s not waste time!” The group made a made dash through the town, passing by fellow towns ponies were either running and hiding, or trying to stand up to any changelings that corned them. as the quartet of mares and one dragon made it to Sugarcube Corner, they saw the doors burst open by a trio of changelings covered in, cake batter? They then saw a rarely not so happy Pinkie Pie, party cannon in hoof along with Fluttershy. “NO PARTY CRASHERS ALLOWED!” the pink mare shouted as she fired another blast of cake batter. “Glad to see you two are safe.” Twilight said to the two ponies who trotted over to them. “Twilight, do you, or any pony knows what’s going on?” Fluttershy asked worriedly, poor mare looked like she was about ready to have a heart attack. “I think their from Chrysalis’s hive, and by the sound of it they want to take revenge for their queen.” “Let them try!” Rainbow Dash said as she flapped her wings, still unable to fully fly because of the nasty burn she got from Gleam. “If they want to mess with Ponyville, I’ll show them—” The ponies were cut off when a sharp whizzing sound echoed through the town, and quick flash of red light came from just beyond the end of the street. “Talk later, save Ponyville now!” Pinkie all but galloped down the road, wailing a battle cry as she drags her cannon with her by means of her tail. the others quickly followed after their pink friend, as they went about helping out any pony they came across, and knocking down any changeling that got in their way. As the group continued on their rescuing crusade, they eventually reach town square, where they saw Gleam being attacked by twelve changelings, one was lunging at the creatures face ready to dig its fangs into the creature. Acting on instincts, Twilight fired a blast of magic towards the changeling, knocking it out of the air and tumbling onto the ground. “Quick, Gleam run!” Fluttershy shouted to the creature, but the poor thing was tackled by a dozen changelings, knocking it down to the floor. “Gleam!” “Quickly, cocoon the beast before it causes any trouble!” one of the changelings barked as he, and five others began spreading a green slime over the creature. “Let him go!” Twilight shouted as she, and her friends galloped to the creatures rescue. But them, and the changelings, were all stopped in mid-action…when a large rectangular shape portal just, appeared not five feet from where Gleam was. And what came stomping out of the hole in space…no creature would ever forget. If the ponies thought Gleam was a giant creature compared to them, then this new creature was a titan! Its towering form was at least 18ft tall, or perhaps even more. Its body was broad and muscular, and has an upright frame, its skin like Gleam looked as if it was made of metal. But while Gleam was comprised of green, greys and blacks, this titan was dark blue with silver grey, except for its one eye. Which was thin as a tail, and shimmering brilliant red. As the titan fully emerged from the portal, the rift closed behind it as the towering creature scanned the area, its one eye giving everything a menacing piercing red glare. Even the changelings were shaking at the sight of it. as for Twilight and her friends, they were simply dumbstruck at seeing the creature, so much so that they all fell right onto their flanks as they looked up at the titan. The titan then looked down at Gleam, seeing it partially covered in green slime, with the changelings still standing on it. A very low and DEEP groaning sound emitted from the titan, as it took heavy ground shaking steps towards Gleam, the deep rumbling movements causing the changelings to shake themselves out of their stupor. “We’ll take that beast down like we did this one!” one of the changelings shouted as he bolted into the air. “Prepare to—” Before he could finish his sentence the changeling was swatted out of the sky, the titan’s right claw smacking down on top of him and sending him crashing to the ground…where bones and carapace broke and green blood erupted from the wounds and mouth. The rest of the changelings, as well as the ponies, all shuttered as they just watched the titan effortlessly kill the bug stallion, like he was a common house fly. The remaining eleven changelings practically, and literally wet themselves as they looked upon the dead body of their fellow hive mate, but a thunderous step from the titan caused them look up at it…and see its red eye peering down at them as it growled a deep growl. “Let’s get out of here!” a female changeling screeched as she took to the air, and was quickly followed by the other ten. As the small pack flew off, a larger changeling covered in obsidian armor entered the town square with a larger portion of the swarm behind him. “So that’s the beast you spoke of, it’s bigger than I thought.” The obsidian armored stallion said. Before a skinner changeling shook its head. “No that’s a different beast.” He said. “It matters not, let’s restrain it and continue with the attack!” the swarm behind the armored changeling hissed and cheered as they all took the air, and all thirty changelings charged at the titan. As the changeling flew towards the titan, Twilight watched the behemoth turn to face the swarm, its eye glowing brighter as it raised its left claw. “NO WAIT!” Twilight cried out as she was going to try and stop the changelings—but was too late. The ponies watched as the creatures arm sucked in a large quantity of air, creating sharp whizzing sounds in the process. Then from the palm of the titan, a burst of air shot out with such force that the backlash actually knocked away anything within ten feet of it, including Twilight Sparkle and her friends. As for the changelings, the moment that the rushing air came in contact with them, they were battered and pulverized, their carapaces being crushed and their organs being smooshed like fruit as blood erupted from their brutally crushed forms, as they were sent flying. While the dirt brown roads were painted lime green. The rest of the changelings that were either nearby to see the effortless massacre, or close enough to see the destroyed bodies fly about, they all screeched in horror before flying away. Looks of horror and fear etched on their faces as they flee. When she recovered from her violent brush off, Twilight simply stared at the titan as it watched the changelings fly for their lives, before watching it tend to Gleam. Ripping the green slime off its body before firmly grasping the downed beast, while another portal opened up close to the titan. All of the ponies of the town emerged from their hiding places, or recovering from their tussles with the changelings, they all watched as the titan drags Gleam through the portal. Disappearing from their world as the rift closes shut, leaving everypony dumbfounded…and still wrought with fear. Not just because of the changeling hive that attacked them, but of the now clearly otherworldly creatures that can appear and disappear on a whim. “T-Twilight…” Spike warbled as he clung to his caretaker, still rattled at seeing a good amount of changelings just, killed, with little effort. “W-we…” Twilight tried to speak, but her nerves were all rattled from what has transpired this morning. However her senses have returned to her after a moment of her trying to re-collect herself. “We need to tell Celestia, a-and Luna about this.”