It was freezing, the cold stone floor beneath their hooves was like stepping on ice.
"Sunburst, are you sure that she did this," asked the grey mare.
"Yes, I'm sure. Although I wasn't there I was just right outside." the orange unicorn points outside.
"You said that she did it to put out their misery? Is that correct?" the gray earth pony continued.
"Yes, one of them asked us to. Commander, is what Sweetie Belle did, was it wrong?" asked Sunburst continuing to levitate a book and quill to his side.
"No, actually its a good thing... I just wish this mess could be over soon. I am not sure what the plans are for her when we bring her in, but its not up to us to decide," the commander continued looking at the pony exoskeletons with a large hole drilled through most of them.
"I hope things will go her way, that filly needs something good... Sorry I mean robot." Sunburst pushed up his glasses.
"Call her whatever you want, I get paid the same at the end of the day," the commander begins to leave the room.
"I know its you that is convincing all of the ponies under you that Sweetie Belle isn't just a robot," said Sunburst digging his head into his book with a grin.
"Heh, I just wish they would listen. During training we had to take a special course on robots. Lets just say that it showed what a evil robot could do. I just hope we find Sweetie Belle before the evils of the world get to her first," the commander turned back to the exoskeletons. "It seems like its following close behind her."
Sunburst chuckles. "Sweetie Belle is quite possibly the strongest pony I know, if she can get through this, she can get through anything!" Sunburst smiled.
"That's something else I'm worried about... She can get through anything. If she refuses to come with us..." the commander narrows his eyes. "We might need a lot more horse power."
"Commander, we found tracks. It seems that it leads to some old ruins, we have a team checking it out now." said a yellow pegasus that ran into the room.
Sunburst and the commander quickly turns to the pegasus.
Sunburst examines the ruins as he follows the commander. Every building has been over run with foliage yet the air still seems stiff. He then looks ahead to see a white unicorn with a blue mane looking half awake and a purple pegasus looking into a big hole.
"Corporal what have you found?" asked the commander.
"Uh, we found what appears to be remnants of a battle, we are unsure if it was caused by the rob- I mean Sweetie Belle." said the unicorn shooting awake in a salute.
"Anything else?" the commander raised an eye brow.
"The other teams haven't gotten back yet, so yes," the unicorn rubbed the back of her head.
"WHAT IS THAT!" shouted Sunburst pointing his hoof at a large plant monster as it begins to tower above the purple pegasus. The purple pegasus looked back with tiny pupils as the plant moved its mouth close to them, the plant screeched piercing the pegasus's ear drums.
The commander and corporal looked over to the huge plant and then turn back to each other.
"When will the other teams get back?" started the commander.
"Not sure, should be any time now," answered the corporal.
The purple pegasus flies up to the three ponies as the she gets caught in a vine. "HELP!" then is thrown back to the plant monster. "AHHHHHHHH!!!"
"Oh! Also there was this weird door I saw in one of the holes here," the unicorn continued. "Slipped my mind,"
The commander threw her hoof into her face.
Sunburst looked closely to each and every stone while he writes in his book that he is levitating it to his side. "This is fantastic, This has to be over a century old at least!"
"Sunburst our mission is to find Sweetie Belle, not to look at stones," the gray mare said glaring at sunburst.
"Hey commander you might want to check this out," said the corporal reentering the room.
"Come on Sunburst," the commander trotted over to the next room and Sunburst followed hurriedly.
The group of three enter a large square room, in the center was a pedestal that held a trophy.
"Uh, now that is not at least a century old," Sunburst entered the room confused looking at a trophy.
"Corporal, what is it?" the commander demanded.
"It seems to be a trophy with three characters on it, one of which is the rob- Sweetie Belle. The other appears to be Daring Do which we do know is actually looking for ancient artifacts currently. The last one we are unsure, seems that its a stallion with a rubber chicken." the white unicorn darted around the trophy spilling off facts, then she stops to light her horn. "This was made with magic. Not just any magic however, an old magic that goes back further then a few centuries. Chaos magic.."
"Discord..." the commander narrowed her eyes.
"Wait, isn't he imprisoned in stone?" asked Sunburst.
"He is now reformed by the Elements of Harmony. Although he still is a lot of trouble for a lot of ponies, its also important to notice his achievements sense being reformed," the unicorn answered.
"Then why was he here? You would think that a single robot wouldn't be something Discord would have any interest in?" Sunburst questioned.
"Sweetie Belle is the sister of one of the Elements of Harmony," the grey mare then looks to the white unicorn. "I need your team to spread out and try to find Sweetie Belle, if not then the other two that are in this trophy."
The unicorn saluted, took the trophy and cast a teleportation spell.
The commander looks back to the orange unicorn. "Sunburst me and you are going up, we are going to figure out why Discord was here and what he has done."
Sunburst trotted over to the commander and put his hoof on her shoulder, then he casted a teleportation spell.
It was cold, the sun was setting over a field of apple trees as a large red barn overlooked the land. An orange earth pony raced home and throws the front door open revealing a filly trotting in circles obviously distressed while a orange stallion sits in a sofa with a frown. The two looks up in anticipation as they see the orange mare enter.
"Braeburn, Apple Bloom, Discord was sent to retrieve Sweetie Belle. You two can come along, we are waiting for him up at Twilights," said Applejack.
"Wait, ah have to tell Scootaloo!" said the filly in a panic.
"Rainbow is already on it! You comin' Braeburn?" asked Applejack.
"Yeah," Braeburn got up from the sofa.
Apple Bloom darted out of the barn and trotted full speed to twilights as Applejack and Braeburn tried to keep up.
The door was thrown open by a little filly, she then looked around the room with determination. She didn't find what she was looking for so she trotted inside with her head low. Two other ponies came through the door behind her with sweat dripping from their faces.
"Alright is every pony here?" asked Twilight looking around as Applejack, Braeburn, and Apple Bloom enter her home.
"That should be everyone!" answered Rainbow Dash.
"Alright then, I would like the fillies to wait upstairs! I setup some spells to protect it if anything goes wrong." Twilight looked at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
"Wait, what do you mean 'goes wrong'?" Scootaloo had a frown.
"Ah think that's a great idea Twilight! Girls, upstairs now!" Applejack stomped her hoof.
"Applejack, nothin' bad is going to happen!" shot Apple Bloom.
"Now!" Applejack stomps her hoof again.
"FINE! Come on Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said with a scheming face.
Apple Bloom trotted upstairs while Scootaloo followed after her.
"Fluttershy how long is Discord going to take?" Twilight turned to her friend.
"I wish I knew, but I'm sure he will come back very shortly," Fluttershy had a small smile on her face.
"Ugh, he better not take forever!" Rainbow cried. "Hey where is Rarity?"
"She is in the restroom, she will be out... When she is ready," Twilight started putting some of her books away.
"She's crying," whispered Pinky loudly while taking a bite from a cupcake.
"I'm pretty sure its tears of joy this time, which is a major improvement from... Well," Twilight turned to the group.
"Sweetie Belle is Rarity's sister right?" asked Braeburn.
"Yeah, she has taken it pretty harshly, we all have, but no were near as much as her." answered Fluttershy.
"I mean can you imagine, your own sibling, someone you trusted and loved so deeply just up and vanishes! And also figure out she is a robot!" Pinky shook Braeburn with a frown.
The group stared daggers at at pinky, she let go of Braeburn and grabbed another cupcake.
"I did a lot of research on robots ever sense Apple Bloom and Scootaloo first got back that night when we were making the dresses. I found out that Sweetie Belle had my only copy of: The Research of Robots, in Depth Knowledge. She probably found out when she got injured, anyway robots can be incredibly dangerous so we have to be incredibly careful tonight," Twilight levitated the book above her.
"Uh, maybe I should send Apple Bloom back, she isn't safe here," Applejack ran in a circle.
"Applejack, its okay. I did everything I could to make sure upstairs was completely safe, there was some advanced magic I came across when researching this topic, if Sweetie where to go up there then she would be just as powerful as any other filly. The only problem is that it takes half a day to setup and runs out within a day." Twilight reassured Applejack.
Applejack slowed her trotting then looked to Twilight with a smile. She opened her mouth to speak-
"Hey Twilight, are we talking Discord level dangerous or are we talking more like a chimera?" asked Rainbow darting in front of Applejack without thinking.
"Somewhere in-between. A robot can destroy an entire town in around an hour if they wanted to." said Twilight.
"Has Sweetie Belle... Done anything like that," Rainbow continued to question.
"Not from what we have heard, that's apart of the reason we sent out the royal guard. Also I can now communicate with the team searching for Sweetie, they found a unicorn that can cast message which is actually kind of rare, I can cast it too of course but its difficult always having it on and I have no clue if they need to tell me something or not," Twilight shrugged.
"When did you meet with the royal guard?" asked Fluttershy.
"Me and Rarity went a while ago, she wanted to talk with them so I translated her crying," answered Twilight.
Rainbow looked outside. "Man, its already dark outside, when is Discord getting here. All this talking is making me bored."
"I sure hope nothing bad has happened!" Fluttershy spoke softly.
"T-Twilight, are you there? Twilight, are you there?" said a voice in Twilights head.
"Yes, I can hear you!" answered Twilight in her mind.
The group turned to Twilight as she turned away and put a hoof over her ear.
"The connection seems a little spotty. Hey we found some chaos magic, did you send Discord to find Sweetie Belle" asked the voice.
"Yes we did, I was going to tell you here in a little bit but it seems you got to me first," answered Twilight.
"..." the spell was still going but Twilight didn't hear anything.
"Hello?" sent Twilight.
"Sorry I was speaking to the commander. We have reason to believe that Discord failed his task... Twilight, we might need your help, we are unsure how Sweetie Belle has dealt with Discord. Under the worst situation we think that we need the Elements," said the voice.
"Send me the coordinates, we will be on our way. Also have you found something that would make you think that?" asked Twilight.
"We found Daring Do and a pony named Cheese Sandwich severely injured," the spell ended.
The night air was freezing. It was silent, not even the wind whispered. Everything was still, all except for a robotic unicorn. Her red eyes shined through the darkness as it left tears on newly dead grass. The night was silent... All except for the metallic wails.