//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: A bad egg in Equestria // by Alkem //------------------------------// A bad egg in Equestria. Chapter 2 High above the clouds a lone pegasus was flying over to her destination, a rainbow trail formed behind her as she flew by. The flying mare carried a cloth bag around her shoulder, inside was a newspaper. "Wonderbolts MISSING!" the headlines read. The cyan colors pony was traveling to the site where her heroes were investigating the numerous pony disappearances, until they too went missing. Ponies were more afraid than ever to go near the Everfree forest. The princess had already announced a full investigation was to begin to find the cause of these baffling disappearances. That wasn't enough for the mare, she didn't care for organizing or planning she wanted to go now and find out what happened, even if that means going by herself. I can't believe their gone. Noponies doing anything about it, so now it's up to me to find and rescue them. Maybe if I do they'll finally make me a Wonderbolt. She shook her head as to rattle the idea away. This is no time to think about that I have ponies to save. She arrived to the town, her mind focused on saving her heroes, but something was very odd. She looked around but there was no sign of anypony anywhere. The report spoke about ponies going missing from the town, but it looked like everypony had vanished. "Hello? Is anypony here?" There was no reply. She moves further into the abandoned burg. Looking around she saw houses, shops, cart stands, and a school. It reminded her of home, except with pony wandering about. She continued on her lonely search until she came closer to the edge of town, where it meets the Everfree forest. There she noticed a long trial that lead into the forest. She could tell it belonged to a pony that was being dragged, since that one time she had to literally drag her friend to her own birthday party. The pegasus began following the trial into the forest; if she could find the missing pony villagers then maybe she would find her heroes. Deeper and deeper into the forest she went, her desire to fly was stopped for that fact that the vegetation was too dense to flap her wings properly. She could fly above the tree, but because she would lose sight of her only lead, she continued cantering, following the trail. As she looked at the trail the thoughts she had been trying to ignore increasingly nagged at her. Who or what could have done this? Why are they targeting ponies? Probably the one that worried her the most was why she hasn't seen any wildlife since she entered the forest. She tried to ignore those thoughts but couldn't, the feeling that something was watching her had the pegasus on edge. The pegasus had been trotting for miles, everything started looking the same to her, and all she saw was tree after tree. She then heard sounds the likes of which the pony never heard before. The winged mare galloped to the source of the sound. She jumped out of the forest into an open area, When she got a look at it she was speechless. It was a town, she thought, a town made entirely of metal. All the buildings which spewed black cloud, the odd looking statues that stood all over the place, even the ground she walked on, all of it made of metal. Metal wasn't strange to ponies, they use it all the time, but this was overkill. For the pegasus pony, it all felt so unnatural, the constant clanging her hooves made against the ground started to hurt. She already missed the feel of her hooves on soft clouds or even dirt; she began to flap her wings to avoid having to continue stepping on the metal floor. She was amazed by all she was taking in, but like the town before the mare noticed that this place was completely empty. Asides from the metal statues all over the place there was no sign of life. She began to look around for signs of anypony, looking over to the distance she notice a structure different from all the others, a giant metal tower. How did I miss that? It doesn't matter, if the Wonderbolts are here they probably went in there. The lone pegasus took off, straight for the tower; she could feel the presence watching her intensify. Arriving at the foot of the tower, she couldn't but look up at all the lights and gears, flashing and moving about, like the metal town surrounding the building, it was unlike anything the pony had ever seen, probably anypony had. She flew around the tall cylinder formation, searching for anything resembling an entrance. The sounds of a door opening caught the pegasus's attention. Without thinking, she flew straight in before it even finished opening. She flew straight in with no second thought of danger, slamming into a wall in the dark. A little dazed from the collision, the mare picked herself up and tried finding her way around. A bright blinding light went off. "Welcome…Welcome" A voice rang out. The stinging sensation gone from her eyes, the pegasus with the rainbow mane got a first look at her surroundings. "Where am I?" She yelled out. "Why you're-" "Where are my friends?" the pegasus continued, cutting off the voice. "You know it's rude to interrupt when someone is talking, especially when I'm in the middle of answering you're questions." The pony paused her questioning, to see where this was going. "As I was saying you are in my factory. Seeing as you barged in here I'd say its fair you at least told me who you were." "My names Rainbow Dash." "What an unusual name, then again you do look a little different compared to the others pony with wings. Oops, I guess I sort of answered your second question." "What have you done with them? I want to see them, right now!" the mare ordered, as she stomped her hooves on the metal floor. "My dear little pony, hmm that has a nice ring to it, you've already seen all your friends." "What?" "Surely you remember seeing them all over the place as you came." The only things I saw were those...She finally realized what he mean by that,"What did you do to them?" "Why I just gave them some improvements, they like the changes I made so much they decided to stay with me. " "You liar! Tell me what you have done to the Wonderbolts!" "The "Wonderbolts"? Ah you must mean that trio of ponies like you. I almost mistook them for someone else when they arrived. Those blue uniforms were quite misleading, but yes they did arrive here. They showed up and asked the same things as you. Honestly barging into an unknown place and demanding answers, your race of ponies must be very brave or very stupid." The mare grunted, fuming with rage. "Where are they? Show you're self!" "In due time my dear, you be joining them soon." A large clanking sound echoed through the tower. The pegasus looked up and noticed something falling towards her. She managed to dodge in time. The object hit the floor with a metal "thunk". The pony flew down to investigate, it looked like metal cuffs. "You won't get me that easy." "You're right," the bodiless voice agreed. Another loud sound echoed. This time four large metal panels jutted out of the walls, they popped up so fast it caught the pony off guard. She shot upward to escape, but a fifth wall slammed down entrapping her within. "That was even easier. You see, I've learned something from my last encounter with you winged pests." Sparks began to appear within the box she was trapped in; she could feel a tingly sensation as the electricity intensified. A loud crack like thunder pierced her ears, as the shock of lightning ripped through her. A common pegasus fear is getting hit by lightning, and she was living it. Her muscles twitched violently no longer under her control. Her body felt like it was burning from the inside, the pain was too much for Rainbow Dash to bear and she collapsed. The panels returned back to their previous spot, leaving the pegasus lying on the metal floor, out cold. From above a strange flying machine, ball shaped in nature, lowered down towards the mare. Riding inside, was the mad Dr. Robotnik. His transport reached to bottom and he stepped out from it. "Place the restraints on her." he called out. Clunky metal orange creatures, along with a few sleeker looking ones advanced on the unconscious dash. One grabbed the cuffs from before, while the other held up their captive. The cuffs were clamped onto her wings, their weight force the feathery appendages down. The constant movement woke the pegasus up. "My my, your quite a tough thing to wake up so soon after that." She got a look at the face belonging mysterious voice; the most intriguing thing about it, besides the fact that it wasn't a pony, was the hoof marked black eye it had. Rainbow thrashed trying to reach out and give him another, but the weights placed on her wings kept her firmly in place. She kicked one of the metal creatures behind her, the blow knocked it off its feet, and the damage done caused it to combust. Rainbow Dash and the doctor looked over where the thing had blown up, there now sat a pony, the mare, a tan earth pony with light red hair, sat there too out of it to say anything. "You idiots! Be careful." Robotnik angrily warned. He then refocused his attention over to his new captive. "You know Ms. Dash it's quite rude to break robots when you're a guest in some ones home. Those other winged ponies also gave me a bit of trouble, but it was nothing serious." He said while rubbing the area of his face that was bruised. "I must say though, when I first saw one of you I was shocked, I thought it was some sort of mutation. But later I saw three more, and they came straight to me. While Earth ponies are great you "pegasus ponies", as that one equine said you were called, provide me with a unique variation. You can never have too many different kinds of robots I always say. The Doctor turned to his robots. "Put her on the converter, and take that one along as well." The black eyed doctor got back onto his contraption and started to fly away. "Don't worry Ms. Dash, as I said you shall be joining your friends soon." He looked over to his metal servants, "Informing me as soon as it's done." With those final words he vanished upwards, disappearing into the higher levels of the tower. The robots dragged her and the earth pony away. The lights went out, and all she could see was the blue and red lights that glowed from her holders eyes. Later we see the doctor stepping into a chamber; he was rather excited like a child receiving a surprise gift. The room was surrounded by his mechanical minions, all of them standing at attention as their master entered the room. At the center of the room was the device that spawned them all. "Ha-ha, let's take a look at my new toy." The doctor moved to the end of the device, opening the curtain to see the results of his newest subject. "Well, I didn't expect this. You look different from the other three that's for sure, but you don't look very different then you did before, aside from the spiffy metal appearance. I guess there was nothing special about you." Disappointed, the doctor closed the curtain and slumped back to his chambers, as he walked his belly bumped into something. He looked down and saw his newest flop. "Oh it's you. Wait a minute," he looked back and noticed he had moved quite a distance from the machine. "Oh now I get it you're designed for velocity. So I guess there was something special about you after all." He pats the creation on the head. "I know I say this a lot but I truly am the world's greatest genius." The robot, as if to prove itself to its master began to display its abilities. It rocketed around the tower, moving so fast its left a trail of fire still burning in mid air. "Ambitious aren't you. I guess there are differences even between ponies of the same subspecies, I've got to make a note on that." Rejuvenated by the outcome of his former flop creation, the Doctor turned back to face all his robot minions. "It's almost time to move forward with my operations. Soon we shall expand and begin to conquer this land. There's just one more subject I need to experiment on. The mad scientist points up to a monitor in the room and on the screen is a picture of a pony it wasn't an Earth pony nor did it have wings, no this one had a horn on its head.