A Spirit Thing
It’s alright… don’t worry… you’ll be okay…
The Cutie Mark Crusaders trembled as they cuddled together out of extreme fear on a highway in a world none of them understood. Sweetie Belle’s ear perked. She swore she had just heard someone.
Come on, girls. We don’t have time for you to fear this world like this! We gotta go go go!
Scootaloo’s ears shot up and her eyes blew open in a snarling, furious rage. “Who’s there? Answer me! You won’t hurt me!”
Come on. Stand tall. You can’t ride on fear forever.
Apple Bloom joined her friends in relaxing her grip. “What the hay?”
Three faces materialized in front of them – three apelike beings with concerned looks on their faces. Scootaloo gripped her friends tighter and glared. Sweetie Belle looked back and tried to bury her head deeper into Scootaloo’s chest. Apple Bloom was unsure whether to be scared or curious, so her face was alight in a mixture of both emotions as their hallucinogenic visitors addressed them as the rest of their bodies materialized.
The trio of impossibly tall beings showed no threat whatsoever in their actions. One was enrobed in blue armor, with gentle curves, a segmented chest plate, a body suit, angled markings and a red jewel on his helmet and gray-green, kind and sympathetic eyes. Another was dressed in deeper blue armor with red stripes along the front, white spikes protruding from his shoulders, and brown hair exploding out in all directions from a hole at the bottom of his pointed red and blue helmet. His eyes spelled cocky, youthful and anxious. The last one was downright intimidating. He was a robot with angular red armor broken with gems of green and plates of white. He had long, flowing blonde hair, and a large yellow Z painted on one shoulder. His entire facial look was pure ferocity embodied, the pinnacle of the perfect warrior.
“Just who in the hay are you,” Scootaloo demanded, “and why are we here?”
The red one looked at her and shrugged. “Beats me. I don’t know what happened, either. As for who I am, I’m Zero, leader of Special Unit Zero and one of the Maverick Hunters.”
“The only way we’re going to know what happened is to battle through these mechaniloids and find out if Sigma’s still at the end of it all, or if something else is,” the one garbed in lighter blue said. “I remember this area – it was one of my first missions as a Maverick Hunter, if not my first.”
“I’m dreamin’…” Apple Bloom said, holding her head in her hooves. “I’m dreamin’… I’m in bed on Sweet Apple Acres and this is all a nightmare…” She turned and buried her face in Scootaloo’s chest with Sweetie Belle, who was sobbing hysterically.
The light sapphire being and Zero looked at each other, then nodded. “If it would help you, we could guide you on your journey,” the one with the blonde head of hair said.
“How do we know we can trust you?” Scootaloo demanded. Her eyes showed grim determination, but inside… well, she honestly wouldn’t have minded buckling to the other thing in her eye as well, the liquid one, like her friends had.
“Well, for starters, we’re the only ones who can lend you the ability to live in this world,” the darker oceanic one said. “Call me Axl.”
The lighter blue one tentatively squatted and smiled kindly, looking at the alabaster pony in her friends’ protective grip. “Come on, little one,” he said. “What’s your name? I’m X.”
“She doesn’t have to talk to the likes of you!” Scootaloo shouted. “You don’t look very trustworthy, with your armor and… whatever those tubes are on your flanks. Besides, you look like ghosts! We-”
Scootaloo stopped when she felt a shuffle against her form. Shyly, Sweetie Belle turned to the thing in blue addressing her. She opened up her scared, sad eyes and gazed deep into his.
“Sweetie Belle, what are you doing?” Apple Bloom asked, having turned to look at her friend herself. “Ya don’t know what these things are capable of!”
Sweetie Belle sniffled. “If they wanted to kill us, they would’ve done it by now,” she observed. “I don’t think this one would kill us.”
“I’m X, and no, I wouldn’t,” the being identified as X stated plainly. “My mission is to defend the sanctity of true life from those that wish to defile it. I hope for peace, but sometimes…” hearing something move behind him, he cupped his hand into the shape of a cylinder, and he turned around. Taking aim at a mech shaped like a wheel that was rolling its’ way towards them, he shot three energy blasts and blew it up. “Sometimes one must… declare war to achieve peace.” A sad look crossed his eyes. “This way was not what my creator wanted.”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom leapt back and screeched at the explosion.
“Sweetie Belle! He’s dangerous! Get back! NOW!” the Apple family’s youngest ordered.
Instead of obeying, Sweetie Belle looked at the deep blue robot with a measure of concern. The one named X looked on the verge of tears.
He muttered, “Damn you, Sigma… Why won’t you stop harassing innocent lives?”
She placed a hoof against his leg with a firm clink. He looked down at her. Immediately, their souls connected. Each recognized a soft heart in the other, and they immediately knew what they had to do.
“I’m going to lend you my power to help you through this,” X said.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shrieked, “WHAT?!”
Sweetie Belle looked back at them, a dead-serious look in her eye. This was probably the most serious she had ever been seen by her friends, and it was a look that told them she had made up her mind.
“If we want to survive here, we don’t have a choice,” she said morbidly. “Everyone we know isn’t here anymore, girls. It’s just us. If X, Zero and Axl know how to live in this world, then we need to trust them. We don’t have anyone else to look to right now.”
She looked into X’s eyes. “We came from a peaceful land called Equestria. Our families and friends are there. It was peaceful. Serene, even. We don’t know how to fight at all. I’m Sweetie Belle, a unicorn and sister to Rarity. Scootaloo is the orange one. The pony with the bow in h-her hair is Apple Bloom.” A tear began forming in her eye, and she began shaking in fear. “I d-don’t know about them, but I-I’m willing to accept your h-help.” A short sob escaped her lips. “If you c-c-can help us…” she dropped onto her knees and sobbed again, desperation retching every word from her tiny body “…please help us get home. I'm so scared… I ju-just want t-to go home…”
A pang of compassion flooded the sapphire robot. X knelt down beside the sobbing unicorn and put a hand on her shoulder. Instantly, the ground around them lit up. The wind kicked up. All hair in the vicinity was blown around like a tornado had suddenly hit the area. Suddenly, white beams of light shot into the sky and began spiraling around the two in the middle. Soon, these beams were joined by rays of pink, purple and blue, firing off into the sky with a sound similar to X’s charging buster. The rays coalesced into a rapidly spinning spiral and dispersed in a flash of light and the sound of the robot’s released, upgraded charge shot from his first mission, leaving a singular, glowing pony on the earth below. She pulsed with white light, fading between alabaster and sapphire with every pulse.
When the pulsing finally slowed and stopped, it was Scootaloo who gasped first.
Sweetie Belle’s eyes were closed, but this time devoid of tears. Her body was enveloped in the exact same blue armor the being she had just conversed with was wearing, with holes in her helmet for her horn and ears. The twin appendages flicked away the last of the magical residue tickling their tips, leaving shards of ether to fade to obsolescence. The armor glimmered and glinted, shimmering in the evening sky. Her eyes slowly opened, and she looked ahead, emotionless and cold, pondering her new, completely unsafe role. Rarity would not approve. Rarity would deem it ‘uncouth’ or ‘savage’… but she was safe in Ponyville, not in this new, very obviously hostile land. She continued to stare ahead, silently analyzing, thinking, wishing, hoping, and even praying she would see home once more.
Scootaloo swallowed. She did not think, at any point in her life, that her friend would look more awesome than she herself did, but this time it had happened. Sweetie Belle had gained a sweet new look, and she was jealous of her.
“Darn it! Why does she get a cool new suit of armor?” she seethed.
The one who identified himself as Axl laughed. “Why? Because she wanted to survive! You don’t survive in this world without a weapon. Trust me. If the mechaniloids don’t getcha, the Sigma virus will.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo separated and looked into each other’s eyes. Both read indecision and fear, but both also understood that Sweetie Belle’s conclusion was accurate. Their families were still in Equestria, so they couldn’t rely on them. Since they were alone, they would not make it out of this world alive without some kind of weaponry. The only ones who had and knew how to use said weaponry stood before them, awaiting their decisions. Finally, they knew nothing of what to expect, so to receive some kind of forewarning or advice would be supremely beneficial and improve their chances of survival greatly. So it was with great admonishment that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo turned to Zero and Axl and swallowed, ready to give their responses. Scootaloo, of course, went first.
“I don’t know you guys. I’ve made that perfectly clear,” she started. “But Sweetie Belle’s right. We won’t make it out of here alive without some help. Besides…” she said, turning an apprehensively admiration-filled eye to Axl “…you kinda remind me of Rainbow Dash.”
Axl smirked with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, really? What’s that pony like?”
With that, Scootaloo’s eyes lit up, and she and Axl walked off on their own little tangent, leaving Sweetie Belle to simply stare into the distance at nothing as she began an intense, private conversation with X about what her form now allowed her to do, like copy an enemy’s weapon, charge up an energy blast, and even receive some pretty sweet upgrades, and Apple Bloom and Zero to talk. The young farm pony shuffled hooves awkwardly.
“So…” she began. “Nice weather we’re havin’, huh?”
Zero simply nodded. “Yup.”
That’s who he reminds me of… he’s jus’ like my big brother Big Macintosh… she thought with a smile.
“So, what do you do for a livin’?” she asked.
He looked over at the robot in the distance. “See that thing on the hill?” he asked.
Looking over at the same, she nodded.
“I blow those up,” he said flatly. “X, Axl and I… we’re Maverick hunters. We have a long history with Sigma, so we know exactly how to fight his men. We’ve beaten him at least ten times, maybe more.”
“Ten times!?” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “What’s this evil virus thingy got agains’ your world, anyway?”
“He claims to want to set up his own utopia, one where he rules over everything and no humans exist. ‘For the good of the Reploid race’, he keeps saying,” Zero informed. “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s just blowing smoke.”
“Sounds like Night Mare Moon,” she said. “She wanted to make a world where the sun would never rise. Eternal night’s what she called it. My friends and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Did you want to?” Zero asked.
Apple Bloom nodded furiously. “We did, but we didn’t know what to do.” She froze. Her mouth curled up on itself as she remembered a slightly different detail from that night. “Well… I did. I didn’t know Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo back then, but now that I think about it we may have hid under the same table together. I wanted to help, for sure!”
“Who took care of it?” Zero asked.
“My sister Applejack and her friends Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash!” the red-and-yellow pony declared proudly.
“What do they look like?”
Apple Bloom thought a moment, puzzling over why he would ask that question. It occurred to the redhead that Zero had never even heard of Equestria until today, so she had to fill him in on everything about her sister and her friends. So she obliged. She told him about her sister Applejack, the orange-and-blonde palomino workhorse and main manager of Sweet Apple Acres. She told him of Fluttershy, the meek and mild butter-coloured pegasus with a pink mane and tail whose love of animals and others transcended her love for herself. She told him, like Scootaloo told Axl, about their pan-coloured daredevil stunt pony Rainbow Dash. She mentioned the purple unicorn librarian Twilight Sparkle and the two-tone pink party pony Pinkie Pie, and finally she talked of Rarity, Sweetie Belle’s sister and the chief fashion expert in Ponyville.
Zero was astonished at how well-connected this filly was. “So, how do you know everyone?” he asked.
“I’m the youngest member of the larges’ apple farmer family in Equestria,” she stated in a matter-of-fact way. “I think it jus’ happens when your sister’s jus’ about as well known as the Princesses.”
The reploid smiled. “You seem to have the most level head in this team,” he commented. “Sweetie Belle’s a little emotional. Scootaloo seems a little impulsive.”
“I don’t know ‘bout that,” the pony replied. “I think we all have our moments.”
The robot smiled. Very true.
“So,” Apple Bloom said, turning to her new friend. “What kinda moves do you got?”
Zero looked back and pulled his sabre out from his back holster. He held it at length and performed a couple swings with it. “I wield a beam sabre. I used to have a gun, but it got blown off at the start of Sigma’s fourth invasion. Now I pretty much use a sword exclusively.”
Apple Bloom stared nervously at the weapon, unsure of whether to run or be amazed.
Zero simply chuckled. “I’ll give you the basic tutorial if we decide to join together.”
Apple Bloom nodded. She sighed, then looked determinedly at Zero. “I’m ready.”
So, copying X, Zero knelt down and placed the palm of his hand on Apple Bloom’s head at the precise time Axl did the same with Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle looked back at her friends and smiled with a mixture of glee, softened with a sprinkle of regret. Both X and Sweetie Belle thought the same thing together.
Another group of innocents going to war… when will it end?
As her friends completed their transformations, all duplicating what Sweetie Belle had gone through before, save for some slight variations in colour of the non-white beams, they each bore a new armor that matched the reploid they had paired with. Apple Bloom’s Zero armor was only missing one thing – the helmet. That was replaced by her bow. Also, where Zero had a yellow Z on his shoulder, Apple Bloom’s bore a Golden Delicious apple. Scootaloo’s outfit was without the back white spikes. Her wings took the place of those decorations. The trio walked solemnly up to each other. Looking their partners over, a small dollop of confidence began to bubble up. Each of them slowly pulled out their weaponry, and they looked them over. They felt so dirty, holding these weapons of war, but they knew, even in their young minds, that they could not survive without them.
A smirk formed on Scootaloo’s face. It slowly spread to Apple Bloom’s. Then, it passed over to Sweetie Belle. Immediately, they knew what their common thoughts were, and the smiles grew ever larger. Suddenly, three hooves clapped together, and a three-fold sound exploded in unison at a volume that could shake the dead.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Maverick Hunters! YAY!”