//------------------------------// // Chapter 39: Retrieving the Amulet // Story: Logic and Friendship. Roger! Roger! // by Anaylze //------------------------------// (2 hours earlier)  Kraken looked at the map of equestria where ponyville was standing. From Twilight explanation the Alicorn Amulet was in her home in the same village his army attacked went they had a base in the everfree forest before it fell to the ponies. Her house was also the same one where his commando droids retrieved OMM-340 from his prison.  He knew he would need to make this mission a stealth one if it were to succeed.  He turned on his com  “I need a commando droid squad and 2 probe droids to the bridge immediately.” he requested.   He waited for a reply for a minute before he got a reply.  “Yes, sir I will send them up right away.” a B1 in charge of droid management replied.  “However, most of probes are down on the planet, but we do have an assassin probe we can put to use.”  Kraken was surprised by this there weren’t many droids like that anymore, the assassin was not just one of the smartest droids in the droid army they also were silent killers as they should be. Having one on this ship could make his plan even more successful.  “Very well. Send that assassin probe.”  “Yes sir!” the droid replied before ending the call.  Kraken had to wait a few minutes before the Commando droid squad and the assassin probe to get to the bridge and when they finally got to the bridge, he was disappointed for them being late.  “You are 3 minutes late.” he told them   “Sorry General.” the captain of his squad replied  Kraken then pointed at a crystal castle on the holotable  “I have requested you and your squad to retrieve a magical artifact called the Alicorn Amulet. This artifact is located in the throne room of the former home of Princess Twilight Sparkle in the town of Ponyville. After our attack on the town, it is likely that the town will be under high protection. That is why we will place you in the Everfree forest far enough that you won’t get spotted by the enemy and close enough that it won’t affect this mission. However, since you will be doing it during the day you and your squad will need to be highly cautious. This is where the probe will come in and become a distraction so you and your squad can get inside the building. A shuttle will then come to pick you up once your squad has retrieved the amulet. Do you understand your task.”   “Yes commander.”  Kraken put his hand behind his back.  “Good. Your Shuttle will be prepared once you get to the hanger. Do not waste any more time.”  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Celestia and Luna looked at the map of equestria, after their recent failures they weren’t sure what to do next.  “What now sister?” Luna asked her sister  “We have tried to stop them and protect our home, but we couldn’t even protect the crystal empire without it falling.”  Celestia looked at her sister.  “I know. We've lost so many ponies from this fight with the droids. I’m not even sure what we could do next without losing too many ponies. I want to fight back, but with limited troops the best I think we can to sister is just keep a defensive position until we get a reply from the others. If the droids want to attack, we will be ready for them.”  She moved down as she started to show a frown.  “I just hope Twilight can hold long enough until we can find a way to rescue her.”  She knew that she could have teleported to the ship, she just couldn’t understand how she got coordinates to the ship. Without any way to get to her all they could do was hope she could hold on.”  “We can try to find a way to get to her in her dreams. Even if she is not on our home world anymore, I could still reach her.” Luna told her sister.  “I hope so sister. I'm just worried for my student.”  Luna put her hoof on her sister's shoulder.  “We are all worried about her sister.”  They both had a moment of silence for a few mins before the door burst opened. It was Glowing Brillance, and she was panting like she ran a marathon.  “Sorry to interrupt your majesties but 1&2 are just gone! I can’t find them anywhere in the castle!”  Both sisters reacted with shock.  “What do you mean there just gone!”  “Like I said. I have no clue where they are. All I know is that a let them explore the castle so they could know their way around a place.”  Celestia would have shouted something, but she instead thought about Twilight’s droids.  She then realized how Twilight might have got onto the ship after all. If the droids could still remember where or what their ships were, she could have got the information from them and teleported them to the ship Candence was on.  “Glowing Brillance. I think I might know where 1&2 could be.”  Luna and Glowing Brillance looked back at her with confusion.  “What do you mean you know?” Glowing said  “She right sister. How doist you know?”  “Well, the droids could have known something about their ships that might have helped Twilight get to Candence. It would have been the only way she could have got there.”  “Well, if she did that then all I need to do is repair another droid and maybe after I brainwashed it then we could get some information about the ships.”  Both sisters looked at each other and then back at Glowing Brillance.  “How long does it take to fix a droid?” Luna questioned  “Well. It would take a few days to fix one, but I do have one in mind.”  Both princesses looked at her with a weird look.”  “What do you mean you have one in mind?” Celestia asked  “You know the small droid that discord destroyed using his magic.”  “Yes?” both sisters said at the same time  “So, I was thinking I might be able redo the damage he caused to the little guy. However, it could take longer since discord could have done a lot to the droid. If it alright with you I can get to work on it.”  Celestia smiled “If this droid can help us find Twilight, then of course I will allow it!” she said happily  “I agree with my sister. We both will allow it.”  Glowing sighed with relief.  “Alright I’ll get to work as soon as possible.” She then left the throne room to get to work on the droid.  “Good luck Brillance.” Celestia said before she left the room.  The two sister looked at each other again, but this time with a little spark of hope.  “Maybe will be alright after all.”   “Yes Luna. I think we will.”  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  The sound of the shuttle landing in the Everfree forest was quiet, the prefect landing for a stealth mission  As the shuttle opened its door. The Leading Commando droid commanded his squad to move out with the flick of his hand. And the squad followed immediately.  When they got out of the shuttle the leading Commando droid looked around his surroundings, but it was all trees. However, one thing the droid knew was that this location was near the town with it being far enough away from the Separatist old base that they wouldn’t get caught by Equines forces.  The team headed in the direction of where the town is, and it wouldn’t take long take long. About 5 minutes at most.  When the squad came out of the forest, they found a problem. What cut them between the town was a large river.  Without any way to cross it the Captain contacted Kraken  “What is it, Captain?”  “General me and my squad cannot make it pass this river that blocking our way. What do you suggest how we can cross it?”  “That will not be necessary. There is a bridge that allows the train of the Equines to get through the town. It is advised that the assassin probe cause a distraction so you can get through.”  “Yes General” the captain replied as he commanded his squad to start heading towards the location of the bridge.  When the squad got near to the bridge, they noticed the many guard ponies that were standing around the bridge on high alert. If they weren’t as advanced in their stealth, they would have in caught.   He got his squad to hide in a line of bushes before they could get spotted. Sending the probe now would cause more problems for the mission can potentially get captured if not careful. But they wouldn’t need to wait as the sound of a train whistle echoed through the plains as it came out of a nearby mountain. The train had been taking in more refugees from their fallen cities into ponyville which became a type of home for them until they could relocate any of them to different towns.  This is what the captain needed  The captain turned to the probe and told it to head to the back of the train, but it had to move back into the nearby forest to not get caught by the guards and once it got out of the forest it had to make a quick run for it but had to do it from far away.”  The probe obeyed and headed back into the forest but then started heading left hidden from the guard's sight to the train that was slowly coming closer.  When the probe got to the edge of the forest it waited for the train to pass through, and when it did the probe quicky ran with its many legs and hopped on to the Caboose of the train.  One of the train’s crew members heard the noise of something moving around the cabin outside and he when out to investigate only to be met with a blade point inside his throat once he opened the back of the caboose.  There was no sound of screaming from the pony. It was a silent kill.  The probe moved the body back into the caboose and closed the back door before the train made it to the entrance of ponyville.  “Sir. The probe made it onto the train.” the commando droid told his captain.  “Good. Now we wait for the signal.” the captain told the droid  In ponyville the train stopped at ponyville’s train station. Many ponies came out of the train, refugees from fillydelpa and a nearby village close to Manehatten. Many of them had faces of fear and sadness and just as many had luggage that they took with them that had some of their belongings, it was a miracle that they even fit on the train.  “Where did some of these other ponies come from?” a pony guard asked another one. “I don’t think I saw them before when we came from fillydelpa.”  “They came from starlight’s village. It was attacked before Ceslestia could send any help to defend the town. The best we could do was get as many ponies out of the town as possible.”  “Do you think we could still beat these droids?”  “Of course! We still have princess Celestia and Luna. And they know what to do in the worst situations,”  Just as the guard was about to speak a mare shouting for help.  “CAN SOME PONY HELP ME! MY LUGGAGE IS STUCK!” the mare shouted  The two guards ran to the mare.  “Where is your luggage ma’am?”  She pointed inside the train.  “It’s stuck under my seat 3 seats over on the left side. I might have pushed it under there too far.”  The two guards when into the train cart and looked for the mare luggage. They found it under a chair, but when one of the guards tried to pull it out, he had trouble.  “Hey, can I have help here?”’  The other guard came to help his friend, but while they were trying to get the luggage out a door opened behind them loud enough for both guards to hear  “Conductor can you help us?” the guard asked as he turned towards the pony, but something seemed off.   The conductor's head was low to the ground, and it looked like his back legs were dragging across the floor.  “Are...you alright?”  The conductor slowly “Walks” over to the two guards. Neither of them were sure what to do, but then the conductor’s body was thrown right at one of the guards, which knocked him unconscious. The other guard couldn’t react in time before the probe lunged at him and stabbed him in the head before tossing his body out of the train and into a crowd of ponies.    Everypony started to panic at the sight of the spider-like droid which started using other ponies luggage and threw it at them. Many guards tried to stop the droid but failed as it was too fast for them to get a decent hit on it before getting killed after.  “You! Get as many guards as you can to get as many ponies out of here and stop this thing!”  The guard that was told this immediately ran to the entrance of the town as it was the close one that had guards.  When the guard made it there, he told all of them what was happening  “Everypony! There's a droid of some kind attacking the train station! We need as many guards as possible!”  “Alright. Everypony come with me, but two of you stay here.”  Many guards follow each other to stop the threat while two others stay on the lookout so no one else gets in   “Sir. Mutiple guards have left their post.”  The signal was shown.  “Move out and intercept the targets.”  The commandos then immediately jumped out of the bushes and ran towards the guards. The guards were about to charge at the droids but were headshotted by the captain.  “Move in.”  As the squad headed into the town, they kept themselves out of view by heading into allies of the town as more pony guards headed to the train station to stop the assassin probe.  For the squad it was easy to get to Twilight’s castles, the only problem was that the castle was also heavily guarded. Even if some of them when to help some of the others guards at the train station there were still enough that one could get away and warn the others guard that were distracted with the probe, but that’s a risk they had to take.  “Engage the enemy.” the captain commanded  The squad then when on the attack.  As blaster fire was exchanged with the enemy the guards tried to shoot back with their magic and others tried to charge, the droids dodge their incoming magic attacks, but two of them got tackled by two of the guards before they could fight back.  The captain was able to blast the two that tackle his squad before resuming fire taking out 3 others’  The ponies then started to throw their spears at the droids, but only managed to hit one as the remaining droids dodge skillfully and the captain caught one in midair and returned it back to the pony who threw it stabbing him in the chest.  The fight ended with the last guard trying to run away before being gunned down by the captain and 4 remaining commandos.  Once no other guards came the squad headed into the castle.  “Search the premise. Find the amulet.”  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  A guard got knocked back into a wall. He tried to shake it off, but he hit his head too hard and couldn’t focus his mind.  The probe droid was still on the attack, outmaneuvering the guards with speed that only a skilled runner could catch up with and with skill melee combat that any hit the guards threw at it the droid either dodged, blocked, attacked, or threw something at them.  This droid took out most of the pony guard, with the ones remaining tired of the constant movement of the droid. With the droid showing little signs of damage to its body.  “I-I can’t....keep up....with it.” a guard panted  “Come on....we got...this” another one said  As they were ready to attack a blast of yellow magic hit the droid from behind. The droid toppled over and damaged ones of its photoreceptors. It turned to look what shot it from behind but was pin down by a yellow aura  “It’s the princess!” the guard shouted happily at the sight of the princess coming down from the sky with Luna right behind her.  “Are you alright my little pony’s?” Celestia asked.  “Were alright princess.”  Luna looked at the droid with curiosity, but moved back as it tried to attack her, but couldn’t and instead its body shook trying to move a limb  “What type of droid is this sister?”   “I don’t know, but I won’t allow it to harm any more ponies.” Celestia then used her magic to crush the droid slightly. As she did this the droid set some type of sound before its eyes shut off and the droid stopped moving.  Celestia put down the droid with a calm matter.  “It was just one droid sister. We didn’t have to kill it.”  “I know Luna, but I don’t want a droid like this to kill ponies and get away with it. Not this time.”  She turned to the guards who were still tired from the fight.  “Were you able to get innocent pony away from the battle?”  The guards looked at each other then turned back to her  ‘i think so I don’t see any civilian casualties.”  Celestia sighed with relief  “That’s good.” unnoticed to her that things were going to get worst as Luna heard a strange noise come from behind her and turn to see where it was coming from.  “Umm. Sister. Thouist should see this!”  Celestia turned to see what was going on  The droid corpse had small droids with one large red eye and six legs coming out of holes on top of the droid head. They looked at the ponies in front of them and when for the attack.  “Look out!” Celestia said as she set up a barrier between her sister and the remaining guards. Another battle was about to begin. This time with smaller hard to hit targets.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  “Sir. I found the throne room.” a Commando droid said  The captain followed his droid companion to 2 large doors that were wide open. In the throne room was the sight of a triangular amulet with a diamond shaped gem in the middle and a small alicorn as a symbol.  The captain walked over to where the amulet was in and smashed the glass that was protecting it. In hand the captain held in his palms looking at it strangely as if something was supposed to happen.  The captain ignored that to contact the pilot droids.  “We got the amulet. Requesting a pickup now.”  “Roger, Roger. We are nearing your location.” a B1 pilot replied back  The captain then heard the faint sound of a shuttle not far away. The squad then headed to a nearby balcony not far from the throne room to get picked up from.  As the shuttle moved itself into position it opened its hanger and the squad entered. The mission was a success.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  As Celestia and Luna were finishing off the remains of the small droids that tried to stab them in the neck. They heard the sounds of something passing them from above. When they finished with the last one, they both looked up to see a shuttle they have now recognized so many times that it’s engraved in their brain.  “Sister. Is that what I think it is.”  “Yes. And I have a bad feeling that what we attacked might have been a distraction.”