“To everypony; Got any movement yet?” Dash asked through the transmitter.
She and her squad had been patrolling in circles over the endless desert for a long time since morning, with zero success. The sun was currently at its highest point of the day.
“Negative.” High Winds responded on Dash’s left wing.
“Same here.” Surprise answered by Dash’s right wing.
“Nope.” Zoom said by Wind’s wing.
“Then where is it!?”
“No idea, Dash. Could it change direction?” Surprise asked.
“That's also a chance, but if its direction was ‘Appleloosa’ in the first place, then we should already see it, right?” Wind asked.
Rainbow thought. Could something have happened to cause the machine to change direction? And if so, what happened?
But before Rainbow could say her point of view, she noticed something in the distance…she couldn't say what it was. Fata morgana? No… She definitely saw the silhouette of something big.
"Do you ponies see a tall, not very familiar silhouette at ten o'clock?"
"Um… you mean over that hill?" Surprise answered first, which only confirmed that she was seeing the same thing.
Rainbow then turned a little left, which her way squad followed.
“Contact! Climbing to Two thousand hoofs! Bombs ready to release!” She said, again, into the transmitter.
As they climbed, the silhouette kept getting bigger and smoother.
After they reached the required height, their contact was already quite visible.
A tall three-legged machine was prowling the desert, mysteriously heading AWAY from the Appleloosa.
“Oh my…goodness…” Rainbow was speechless. After all, this machine was the first she had ever seen! Actually, she didn't expect it to be so tall.
“Zoom, keep up with my right wing and try to aim onto its legs! We will surprise that piece of steel from above! It looks like it hasn’t spotted us yet. Wind and Surprise, stay at this height.” She said, as she dived right into the machine with Zoom by her right.
1500 hooves, 1000 hooves, 500 hooves, 400, 300, 200…
“Bomb away!” Dash said, pressing a button attached on her front hoof, that makes the bomb release.
“Bomb away!” Zoom mimic.
When the bombs were released, the two pegasuses faced a medium G-force that was not strange to them.
The bombs just...bounces from the top of the machine's shield, landing into the hot sand in front of the Tripod, who just sttoped its next step.
*BOOM!! BOOM!*
The massive sandy dust just went into the air, covering the entire machine. Meanwhile in the air, the first attack was a great fail. Now it was time for plan B.
"Right… Listen, when the dust falls, we'll provoke the machine until it starts to follow us. I plan to throw it from a nearby canyon." Dash said.
“What, why?”
"The bombs did nothing to it! But we can try to destroy it by falling. There is a canyon nearby."
“You think it’s the canyon deep enough?”
“Well-”
The squad looked back to the ground. The machine has just come out of the dust.
A medium hatch has opened on the left side of the ‘head’, revealing once again the laser that melts and kills everything on its path. Hissing noise could be heard even at a height of 2000 hoofs.
*Bzzzt!*
The lazer almost hitted Wind, who got scared and almost lost control over her wings.
“Okay. THAT’S a problem.” Zoom said.
"Go to the canyon! I'll force the thing to follow me!" Dash said, flapped her wings, and flew on the machine.
Rainbow dropped to a height of about a couple of dozen hooves above the ground. Flying by the ground, the tall machine noticed her and aimed its laser box at her.
“Time to show them some tricks…”
She flapped her wings even harder, gaining more speed.
*Bzzzzt!*
The laser beam was way up behind her. The machine struggles a little to aim more accurately. So the Tripod aimed a little infront of her.
*Bzzzt!*
She turned her wings to such an angle that she began to climb sharply and flew past the machine.
Rainbow slowed down a little looking behind her.
The machine faced her and slowly started following her.
"Let's slow down a bit…" She said as she slowed down a bit so the machine could catch up.
*Bzzzt!*
The laser went through her head and threw a cloud of sand into the air, into which she flew directly.
“Blah! Okay, nevermind!”
As they slowly got closer to the nearest canyon, she looked back again.
The machine still followed her, but their aim began to improve.
“Like a ‘Mouse and Cat’ game!” She said speeding up as she dodged another laser.
When she finally reached the canyon, she noticed that it was deep enough. If they tricked the machine into going off the cliff, it would smash very, very hard against the rock below. Ideal…
She then noticed her squad was on the other side of the slope, waiting and hiding behind rocks at the same time. So she flew to them.
“Quick! Attach your bomb to my waist!” She said to Surprise, who just pressed the button attached on her hoof too, leaving the bomb to fall on the soft sand. There was no danger of the bomb going ‘boom’.
“You are going against it by yourself!?” Wind said.
“Heck yea! I mean- We may be a ‘Slowing’ squad, but Soarin’ didn’t say a word about ‘destroying’ the machines!”
“You're stupid.” Surprise could only said.
“Stop talking and better move up!” Zoom said, looking at the other side of the canyon. The machine stopped just a few meters before the cliff. Its head was turning from side to side while the prismatic laser box was still outside, looking the same way as the head.
“A little more time and… You are ready to go, Dash!” Surprise said, as she finished attaching the bomb to Dash’s waist.
“Good. Now let’s hope for the best.” She said, as she spread her wings and flew back to the machine, that just wanted to turn back to its original direction.
The machine looked at Rainbow, as she gained height.
*Bzzzt!*
Yet again, the laser missed her by a few inches, leaving cyan pegasus to reach ideal height, where she stopped and looked at her target.
Then she pulled her wings to her waist and let gravity taking her to the ground. She was free falling for a few seconds, until spreading her wings yet again to slow down to aim.
“To Tartarus with you!”
She pressed the button, releasing another bomb onto the machine that was near the cliff.
The machine stopped tracking the pegasus and instead began to track the bomb that fell directly right behind.
*BOOM!*
There was no dust. Just a black smoke from the explosion and a few rocks that hitted invisible shield of the machine.
Then…
*Crack!!*
Yes. A loud crack could be heard, as Rainbow flew back to her squad and looked back at the machine at the same time.
An uneven hemispherical crack encircled the machine. The ground slowly began to crumble under the machine and the rock on which the machine stood began to crumble too. The machine was very heavy for the cliff after a little jolt. But before the machine could react, it lost ground under the legs.
As Rainbow landed on the ground, next to her squad, she slowly looked over the cliff.
*BOOOM!!*
A huge explosion engulfed the canyon floor and shook the surrounding rocks. Moments later, a huge cloud of smoke rose to the level where Rainbow and her group took a leap back as this huge blow came.
Nopony said a word as the huge black cloud slowly rose into the atmosphere.
Then Zoom slowly walked to the cliff too, looking down to the canyon floor.
Then he took out the camera, turned it on and started filming the crash site.
It was like hell on earth. He couldn’t say what was head and what leg, but one thing was clear…
“Rainbow?” He said, looking back to the cyan pegasus, who was still taken back by the explosion.
“Target Destroyed.”