Techorse

by Spirals95

Part 4 (chapters 13-17)

A train was headed down a railroad out in the desert of Equestria. It was about 30 cars long, all pulled by a very large steam engine. All of the cars on the train were a boring tan color and had a steel roof, but the steam engine was a bold red and gold color. At the controls of the engine was Gunslinger, a man determined to make a large wad of cash from the sale of the ponies he was going to collect. He was a reasonable guy usually, but if there was anything Gunslinger didn’t like, it was help from others. He did everything on his own, and did not accept any assistance in his work for fear that person might want some of the prize. Deception was his way of life, he lied to get what he wanted, and nobody complained because he was too quick of a shot. Gunslinger twisted the toothpick in his mouth violently as he looked around him in anger at all the extra help that he had been given by Wizard.

He thought to himself, “I don’t need those robots to help me. I can round up these ponies without the help of those darned machines.” The steam train was being flanked by a team of 80 robots from Bossman’s factory. They kicked up a large cloud of dust behind them as they kept up with the speed of the train.

Gunslinger picked up an intercom device and spoke into it to address the robots. “Listen up”, he barked, “Once we get to the town, you split up into two teams of forty. Half will attack the settlement; the others should go around picking off those tryin’ to escape.”

The robots immediately complied with the instructions. The group to the left of the train moved away towards the valleys, in order to go around the settlement and cut off escape. The other half of the robots stayed at a pace with the train. Gunslinger addressed his remaining troops, “Ok, you machines that stayed with me need to not go around like hogs in a garbage bin when we get there. I want to prove I don’t need your teleporter beams to capture the ponies. Once we arrive, you are to pretend you have live rounds in those cannons. Use your fist to convince them to board my train. Then we’ll ship ‘em back to the factory by hand. That’ll show old Wizard I don’t need no fancy beams to get my work done.”

One of the robots replied, “Boss, this is Unit 1. My last experience with the natives was less than optimal. I sort of got destroyed. What if the natives have a way of defeating us?”

Gunslinger had never thought of that before, and after coming up with a plan he replied, “Well, if you start takin’ losses, you can use your beam. But don’t simply flatten the place lookin’ for ponies. It ain’t necessary.”

“Understood, will comply.” replied the machine. Gunslinger locked the intercom back in place and adjusted a few levers on the train to make it use fuel more efficiently. He took a look at the settlement in the distance. It was an old western styled town, teeming with ponies worth sweet, cold cash.

The western styled man thought, “Those ponies will be good working animals. Out here they've learned hard work to survive and expand their little homes. They’ll be worth a mint back on Earth.” He noticed a sign up ahead, a large wooden one.

“Appleloosa, 150 miles”

Gunslinger laughed. “This is gonna be fun.”

Back at Ponyville, the team had agreed to discuss their plans to bring down the next human. They had chosen to meet once again in front of the library in case any more messages had come from the princess. As the town clock struck 9 in the morning, Twilight looked around.

“Where are they?” she asked out loud. The nine tones from the clock rang out through the town, cutting the silence. Life had been pretty quiet there; they were still recovering from the attack by the six robots. Nearly one third of the town’s population had been teleported into the factory. The first to show up was Techorse, who landed next to Twilight.

“I used my turbofans to get here as quickly as possible. Looks like I’m still late.” he said.

“Not as late as the others”, said Twilight with a bit of annoyance.

Techorse tried to help by saying, “You definitely said nine o’clock to me. Did you tell the others?”

“Uh-oh.”, said Twilight realizing it was her fault, “I don’t think I did. But I did tell them to meet here, so they’ll get here eventually, right?”

Techorse retracted the fans and suggested, “Well, while we wait, we might as well talk. Did you get a response from the princess yet?”

“No. I sent out a letter last night, but I haven’t got anything back yet. The princess must be in a stronghold of some kind and has no way of sending a letter back.”

He got an idea and asked, “Can I send a letter? I brought something the princess can use to contact us faster.”

Twilight hadn’t thought of it before, but perhaps in a time of emergency such as this invasion, a faster method of communication with princess Celestia was necessary.

So she responded, “Sure, but I don’t think you can send objects through.” They walked back inside and found Spike sleeping in his bed upstairs. “C’mon Spike, it’s time to wake up.”, said Twilight, nudging the dragon with her horn. Spike rolled over and pulled the covers back over his head.

“It’s Saturday.” He said sleepily.

Techorse said to him, “Spike, get up. It’s 9 o'clock in the morning, and I need your help.”

Spike finally rolled out of bed and replied, “Oh hey, Techorse! Good to see you again.”

Twilight coughed in annoyance and said, “Oh, so you’ll get up for him?”

The dragon answered, “I’ll get up to see that invention of his work anytime.”

“You mean this one?” said Techorse as he extended his robot arms out of his saddle.

Spike said, “Yeah! That thing’s awesome! Can we go outside and see the laser cannons in action?”

Techorse answered sternly, “No, the laser cannons are not a toy, I can’t just start shooting with them. Besides, I need you to do me a favor. Can you send objects to princess Celestia?”

He thought about it and said, “That might be hard. Not everything burns as easily as paper does.”

Twilight thought of something and said to them, “As long as it’s pretty small, I’m sure I can teleport the thing to the princess with a spell. You’ll have to send a letter warning about it first, I don’t want it to drop on her head.” Techorse’s robotic arms disappeared for a moment and retrieved a hologram disk.

He said, “This is what I’d like to send. It’s a hologram disk activated by magic. It allows for instant communication with the bonus of being able to see who you are talking too. I thought that if I kept one in my saddle and gave the other to the princess, she could contact us anytime she’d like to. We might be able to get information from her about Wizard’s minions whereabouts this way.”

Twilight asked, “But how will she use it?”

He explained how the device worked to her, “Well, Wizard would touch the disk with his hands to activate it. From the picture you showed me, I know the princess has a horn. Since the disk is activated by focal point contact, it should work fine.”

“Ok, that makes sense. Now write that letter.” said Twilight, pointing to a desk.

Techorse put the disk down on the writing desk and took out a piece of parchment. Spike tried to hand him a quill, but he turned it down.

“No thanks”, he said as he brought a weird looking metal stick out of his saddle.

Twilight looked at the strange device and asked, “What is that thing?”

“Ballpoint pen”, replied Techorse, “ponies never invented it because you don’t have thumbs to click the button.” Techorse began writing his letter with the robotic arms. After about two minutes, he clicked the button again on the top of the pen and stashed it back in the saddle. “There”, he said, “I’m sure this note will provide plenty of instructions.”

Twilight took the letter and read it, “Dear princess Celestia, this is Techorse writing, a friend of Twilight Sparkle’s. I know she has told you some things about me. Hopefully I can prove of some use to you as I help you stop this attack on your planet. In order to be of better service, I have asked Twilight Sparkle to teleport you a communications disk. In order to talk with me at any time, simply activate the disk by tapping it with your horn, and thinking about me, Twilight Sparkle, or one of our friends. The disk will automatically locate us and place a call. Once we pick up, you will be able to see us, and we will be able to see you. We can then talk about issues or receive orders. Tap the disk again with your horn to finish the call. I’m hoping this disk will allow for faster communication between us so that we can coordinate better against the enemy. Thank you for your time, Techorse.”

“A little informal, but I guess it will do.” critiqued Twilight.

“Alright Spike, send this out.” Spike took the scroll, lobbed it in the air, and then breathed fire on it. Immediately it was consumed and disappeared.

Techorse turned his head curiously and said, “I was wondering how you got letters to the princess so quickly. You have a living fax machine.”

Spike asked him with confusion, “A living what?”

The smart colt shook his head and replied, “Never mind, it’s a human invention.” Twilight turned her attention to the small disk. She concentrated on it really hard, and thought as carefully as possible in order to make sure it teleported into the princess’s throne room. The disk then disappeared in a bright flash.

“Well, did it work?” asked Techorse.

Twilight said, “The only way to find out is if the princess writes us back saying she got it, or she uses the disk.”

Techorse said while looking at the machine he was wearing, “Well, if I get a call, the other disk will start making sound from inside my saddle.”

There was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it.” said Spike. He walked over to the door and opened it for the guest. Immediately his expression went from a bored one to a happy and mellow one.

“Oh, hello Rarity.” said Spike in a smooth tone.

Rarity, a little confused by Spike’s change in voice, said, “Oh, hello Spike. Is Twilight here?”

Spike replied, “Yes m’am. Right in here.”

Twilight looked at Rarity and said, “Uh-oh. If Rarity’s the first one up, we’re probably in trouble.”

Rarity started to talk about last night, “I simply could not sleep. Not with all the terrible nightmares I had last night.”

Spike rushed over with a pillow for Rarity to sit on and asked, “What nightmares? You can tell me anything, Rarity.” Rarity tried to ignore Spike, but couldn’t ignore his kindness, and sat down on the large pillow.

“Well”, she said, “I kept falling asleep, having a terrible dream, waking up, and then falling asleep again.”

Twilight asked, “But what was the nightmare about?”

She put a hoof up to her head, looked upward and answered, “Oh it was awful. That fellow in the woods kept chasing me down in a building of some kind with lots of winding corridors. I tried to escape, but eventually he caught me and… and…”

Techorse gave the answer, “He lopped off your head with his machete.”

Rarity put her leg down and nodded with tears in her eyes, “I kept waking up, but sometimes I got as far as being hung on the monster’s wall.”

Spike held one of Rarity’s hooves in his hands and said, “There there, Rarity. Twilight said that human is never coming back.”

Rarity said while sobbing, “I know, but If we lose to these humans, I don’t want to end up as a stuffed animal.”

Twilight comforted her friend, “Rarity, not all the humans are as cruel as Hunter was. Wizard is definitely the worst, but I’m pretty sure the others just wanted to make pets out of us. You’d end up in a great home, not as someone’s trophy.”

Techorse added with strong emotion, “And we’re not going to lose. I’m going to fight to the last breath, the last ounce of energy, and the last drop of blood to make sure your planet is safe from Wizard.”

“Overly dramatic.” said Twilight, rolling her eyes.

He admitted, “Ok, that was dramatic. But this is a very serious situation we have here on Equestria.”

Rarity said to him, “I’m so glad we have you, Techorse. At first, I thought you were just some male ape with no heart. Now I see you truly care, especially when you tried to grab that gun from that hideous man.”

“I’m glad you changed your mind about me. To be honest though, I sort of overheard you say those things about me earlier. It hurt my feelings, and I was determined to prove you wrong. Sorry about that.” he replied.

She said with surprise, “You were eavesdropping on me that night? Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have said those things about you anyways.”

Spike stroked Rarity’s mane gently and said to her, “I’m sure Techorse can forgive you.”

Twilight had enough of Spike’s loverboy behavior and commanded, “Spike, go upstairs please and let us talk.”

Spike reluctantly said, “All right. Goodbye Rarity.”

Rarity answered, “Before you go, I brought something for you in my bag.” Rarity took out an emerald and threw it to Spike. “I felt a little sorry for you; after all, you couldn’t come on any of our adventures. Thought this delicious emerald might cheer you up.”

Spike sighed in happiness, said “Thanks Rarity”, and then could be heard squealing in delight as he hurried upstairs. Techorse made the connection that Spike secretly admired Rarity, but decided the topic wasn’t important enough to bring up.

“Anyways” said the remaining male, “We’re going to have to eventually face Wizard’s next minion. So we’re back to square one trying to figure out which one and where he is.”

Twilight asked, “Do you have any leads? Remember anything from the past about the other humans?” Techorse thought for a second, then snapped the fingers of one of his robotic hands.

“As a matter of fact, I do remember one of them saying he was going to use a railway to deliver ponies to the factory without the use of those teleporter beams.”

“There’s only one railway which leads to the location of the factory.” said Twilight, “but it doesn’t lead through any of the larger cities in Equestria. He won't get that many ponies.”

Techorse said, “I forgot the guy's name, but he probably wouldn’t simply want to capture the most ponies. He’d want to go for the ones worth the most money.”

“The most beautiful ones.” whimpered Rarity.

Techorse raised a hoof and said, “Either that or the ones best suited for hard labor. This guy seemed tough enough to try and make workhorses out of us.”

Twilight began to notice Techorse was using the term ‘us’ to refer to ponies rather than ‘you ponies’.

She told him, “The only ponies that would be suitable for hard labor would be earth ponies like you and Applejack. They’re the only ones strong enough to resist the weight and stress of hauling.”

Another knock on the door brought the conversation to a halt again. Twilight walked over and opened it. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash entered without even saying a word.

“So”, said Rainbow Dash after settling in, “where’s this next human we’re gonna fight?”

Twilight said, “We were just talking about that, Rainbow. Techorse thinks he knows where one of them is, using the train tracks in Equestria to ship captured ponies back to the factory.”

Fluttershy said with a droop of her ears, “That’s awful.”

Rarity added, “Worst of all, this beast wants to only take the ponies worth the most money. He’s going to start either with us beautiful ponies first, or take all the laborers. Either way, it’s going to be simply dreadful.”

Techorse nodded and said, “I hear you, Rarity. Removing the earth ponies cuts off your strongest fighters against the robots. If this guy gets away with his plans, you’ll be left with ponies who are unable to hold their own.”

Rainbow spread her wings violently and said, “As long as we Pegasus ponies are left, we’ll always have the sky!”

Twilight warned her, “Wizard will probably find a way to attack your floating cities too. No pony is safe.”

Fluttershy quietly suggested to them, “If this human is really using a train, can’t we just take away the tracks?”

With a shake of his head, Techorse answered, “Blowing the railroads up would cause way too much collateral damage. I don’t think you’d be too happy having to build the railroads all over again to stop this one guy. What we need to do is search the railroads for him and then force him to use that potion and return to Earth.”

Rarity protested, “But there are miles and miles of railroad. We can’t possibly search every last square inch.”

“We’ll simply have to wait until a town comes under attack, and then go rescue it. There’s really no other way.” said Twilight sadly.

Rainbow Dash thought of an idea and let it out quickly, “What if we were to figure out where his train was headed, and then wait for him there? We could stop him before he even started attacking!“

Techorse said to her, “Great plan, but there’s many cities those railroads are connected too. We have no idea which one this guy’s going to pick.”

Twilight answered, “We can make a guess, though. Didn’t you say this human wanted the strongest ponies first?”

“Yes, I did.”

She continued with her idea, “Logically then, as we just said, he’d pick a town populated mostly by earth ponies.”

Fluttershy asked, “If it’s ok with you guys, I think we should ask Applejack. She has a big family you know, and they’re almost all earth ponies. I’m sure if we asked nicely she could tell us which town we should go to.”

Rarity rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, she’s going with us again, isn’t she?”

Twilight was annoyed with her attitude and told her, “We need the entire team in on this, Rarity. Just try to get along with her for once.”

Techorse said, “It’s settled then. I’ll go ask Applejack for some information, then be back with the results.”

“And bring her back in tow. She and Pinkie are as late as ever today.” said Rarity. After getting instructions from Twilight on how to get to the farm, Techorse stepped outside and turned on his turbofans. He lifted off and began his flight.

Gunslinger’s train had reached the outskirts of the pony town. He switched the track ahead and pulled the train to a stop on an emergency track away from the town. After the train came to a complete stop Gunslinger jumped off of the engine and took a look at the town from the mesa he was stationed on.

One of the robots pulled up and addressed his commander with his speaker, “Why are we stopped here? Didn’t you want to use the train to haul away the natives?

Gunslinger patted the robot on the side and answered, “Well, I reckon there’s no reason to get hasty. I say we pay a little visit to the town, let ‘em know what’s comin’ up to scare ‘em. Then we keep our promise and take every last pony in one easy strike. You just make sure those others get around to cuttin’ off their escape.”

The robot said, “Your plan will work. It’s so deceptive. The ponies will either have to board the train or be captured by teleporter cannon. They’ll have no choice.”

Gunslinger swung his fist in an arc and said, “That’s where we’ll get ‘em. We’ll make those ponies think they have a chance to escape, and then crush their hope with our pincer strategy. They won’t see it comin’.” The human stood in front of the robot and said, “Make sure you follow behind me into town, but don’t take a single shot unless attacked first. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” Gunslinger tipped his ten gallon hat and scratched his mustache. “I need you guys to scare them good, not blast them to pieces.”

“Affirmative.” hummed the machine, “I will instruct my half of our forces to follow you slowly into the town.” It then radioed out, “This is Unit 1 to all my team. Do not attack natives unless attacked first. Follow our leader closely until he orders an attack.” Unit 1 received 39 reports back from the units under his control. Gunslinger started walking casually into the western styled town.

As he walked passed saloons, homes, and businesses, he thought to himself, “I could get used to this place.”

The ponies in the town were actually ignoring Gunslinger for the moment. They had gotten used to non-pony creatures passing through the town, and were not too concerned despite the human’s unique appearance. Eventually, Gunslinger stopped in a wide open area, and then got up on a crate. “Hey, can I get Y’alls attention?” he asked. The ponies ignored him and continued on with their business. Gunslinger looked around, rubbed sweat out of his mustache, and asked again in a harsher tone, “Listen up! I’m taking this here town, so you best pay attention if you want to survive!” After being ignored again, he lost it. Gunslinger reached into his left holster, pulled out a large, heavily modified revolver, and pointed it up.

BANG

The teleporter burst in the air finally managed to get the attention of the townsfolk. Gunslinger replaced his gun, then smirked and said, “Finally, I have you ponies’ attention. Now listen to me you animals. I’m taking over this here town! You are now my property and will follow my orders if you know what’s good for you.”

An older pony with a mustache stepped forward out of the crowd and said, “This here’s my town, outlaw. You lookin’ for trouble?”

Gunslinger noticed the star on the pony’s vest and said, “I assume you are this town’s sheriff?”

“You’d be right about that.” replied sheriff Silverstar, “Now what do you want?”

The man answered, “I think you heard me pretty good. This town’s mine now, so tell your folks that if they want to come out of this ok, they’d best follow my orders.”

The sheriff spat on the ground and then replied angrily, “I took this job as sheriff to teach outlaws like you some manners. If you want to take this town, you’ll have to put me through the undertaker first.”

Gunslinger laughed and said, “That can be arranged.” The townspeople started running behind objects to get some cover, in light of the ensuing duel. All that was left was the sheriff and Gunslinger, facing each other off in the streets. In order to prevent distraction, one of the ponies crushed a tumbleweed under hoof before it could roll across the street.

Gunslinger drew his thumb across his face, and twitched his other hand in front of his left holster. Silverstar drew his hoof across the ground, like a bull about to charge. After a few moments of staring, the fight began. The sheriff fired first, quickly knocking an apple out of his holster and kicking it at Gunslinger. Gunslinger took the fruit to the chest, and it knocked him down.

“Ha!” shouted the sheriff, “looks like I win.”

Gunslinger got up, and as he brushed himself off, began laughing heavily and evilly, “That ain’t no bullet, pony. I’m still in this.” Silverstar backed up a bit, and then kicked another apple at Gunslinger. The human ducked this one, and it splattered harmlessly against a post on a building. Although he still had 2 more apples, the sheriff began running towards Gunslinger, attempting to ram him. Gunslinger spread his legs apart and crouched a bit, anticipating this move. Sheriff Silverstar ran closer to him. The human then drew his twin revolvers with lightning speed and fired a pair of shots. The twin red bolts hit Silverstar in the body, and he disappeared in a flash of light. The ponies of the town gasped, but could not scream as they stared at the spot where their sheriff had once stood.

Gunslinger then put his guns back, and shouted at the crowd, “Now that I’ve won this little match, this town’s mine. You now follow my orders. Tomorrow mornin’ I’m bringing around my train to your station. Be there at 11 o’clock sharp, and board the train. Surrender yourselves as my property, or you will suffer a worse fate than your sheriff.” The robots had arrived to back up Gunslinger, and they pointed their cannons at the scared townsfolk.

As Gunslinger continued to instruct them, a yellow male pony with an orange mane watched with anger.

He turned to a train engineer on his left and said, “This no-good stranger thinks he can come here and wreck our town, and take us as his slaves. We’ll stop him, but we need to keep the others safe first. Get as many folks out of town as you can on the train.”

The engineer looked at the robots and replied, “But Braeburn, those metal monsters will take us out before we can even get started loadin’ the train!”

Braeburn let his hat sink over his face a bit and said, “Steamer, we have to try. I’m going to make sure we get as many ponies out of here as we can before tomorrow morning.”

Steamer nodded his head, “I’ll start loadin’ up. Can you provide a distraction of some kind?”

The cowboy-dressed pony took a look at Gunslinger and said, “I’ll do my best. I ain’t scared of him.” The engineer pony stealthily moved away to begin evacuating the townspeople. Braeburn started walking up to Gunslinger with anger in his eyes.

He thought to himself, “Appleloosa’s fate is in my hooves. We’re probably done for.” Braeburn said bravely to Gunslinger, “Why are you doin’ this to us?”

Gunslinger looked down at the pony and mocked him, “Well, you sure are a brave little guy for standing up to me, considerin’ I just blasted your sheriff sky high.”

Braeburn gathered his courage and yelled, “I’m not scared of you, and I don’t see how you expect us to just show up and let ourselves be taken by you.”

Gunslinger grabbed him by the leather vest he was wearing and said to his face, “Listen pony, I run this place now. You will follow my orders or I’ll have you made into glue, boy.” As Gunslinger was talking, the ponies were slowly slipping away at the commands of the engineer and his crew.

Gunslinger spat in Braeburn’s face and said, “As of now, I’ve got 40 more robots where these came from comin’ in from the valley. Even if you manage to get away from these 40 here, those will cut you off. Either way, I win. Now dance, you little 4 legged animal.” Gunslinger then threw Braeburn down into the dirt, and drew one of his revolvers. Braeburn took off running in a zigzag pattern as he tried to avoid the blasts. He narrowly escaped. The human then noticed that while he had been talking, the ponies had all slipped away. Gunslinger took off his hat and slammed it into the ground, realizing he had been duped.

The man ran up to one of the robots and ordered, “Find those ponies! Do not let them get away!” Just then, he heard a steam whistle, and noticed a train leaving a station in the distance. A third of Appleloosa’s ponies were attempting to escape on the engineer’s train. Gunslinger pointed to the steam rising from the train’s stack and yelled, “Get a dozen or so of your robots out there and stop that train! I’ll bring mine ‘round with the teleporter super cannon, and try to head ‘em off.”

“Roger”, said the machine, and it rolled out with 11 other robots to go after the pony train. Gunslinger ran back for his steam engine. He wasn’t about to lose his quarry due to a little distraction. They would pay for their lack of cooperation. As Gunslinger took off, a group of three buffalo were watching from a nearby hill.

The largest one in the middle said to his companions, “Brothers Quickstrike and Great Hope, the ponies have found themselves in a time of great sorrow. I know we’ve had troubles in the past, but if these metal beasts and their master of two legs finishes the ponies, our ancient stampeding grounds are the next thing to go.”

“What is your plan, brother Thinking Bear?” asked Quickstrike.

Bear replied, “We need to tell the chief about the metal beasts entering the valley. We must assist the ponies this time.” The buffalo turned around and began the walk back to their camp.

The engineers had about a 5 minute head start against Gunslinger’s robots. The train was picking up speed, but its coal powered engine could not move it fast enough. As a result, Steamer and his 3 best stallions were physically tied to the front of the train, pulling it along. Behind them, they could see the outline of the 12 machines catching up to them.

“What’s the closest town we can get too Promontory?” asked Steamer.

“No clue, sir”, replied his comrade, “far as I can tell, we just keep runnin’ until we get somewhere”. Steamer looked back at the robots getting closer.

He thought, “If those machines catch us, it’s over for every last pony on this train.” But he wouldn’t think about that fate, no matter how much his legs hurt, or how hard his heart beat. The earth pony was determined to save the ponies aboard his train. He looked at the tracks running parallel to the ones he was on, and saw another train approaching from behind. “Great, another train has pulled away! More ponies are safe.” he said. But his expression changed from happiness to horror as he watched a green box car on the other train open up to reveal a gigantic cannon. Pink particles began to charge up at the tip of the cannon as it began to glow a bright red color.

“Pick up the speed”, Steamer ordered, “there might still be a chance.”

Techorse landed at the entrance of Applejack’s farm. He retracted his turbofans and entered the gate. The green colt nearly blended in with the sheer amount of plant life at the farm. As he walked down the lane past the apple trees, he gave a curious look to a smashed robot missing most of its metal plating. Techorse decided to ignore the scrap metal and continue his hunt for Applejack. As he walked closer towards the barn, he heard a thumping noise coming from one of the many orchards. Deciding to investigate, he took a right turn, jumped over a whitewashed fence, and galloped off in the direction of the noise. It didn’t take him long to find Applejack kicking the trees to remove their fruit.

Techorse thought, “I’ve found her! But, should I let her keep working or interrupt now?” He decided to watch for a little while to see how Applejack worked her trade. Watching closely, he observed Applejack position buckets under the trees so that when the fruit fell off, the maximum number would enter the buckets instead of hitting the ground. She would then give a mighty back-kick as she did in the forest to cause the fruit to fall off the branches. After this, Applejack would put the buckets on a special mount on her back to carry them back to a wagon. Techorse assumed she simply took the apples to the barn for storage.

He thought now would be a good time to ask Applejack about the various towns, so he walked up behind the orange pony and said, “Oh hey, Applejack. Glad I finally found you.”

Startled by the surprise greeting, she turned and met him with a hoof to the head, and Techorse fell over backwards.

Applejack looked at her “attacker” and said with relief, “Techorse! Don’t scare me like that! Thought you were a snake or somethin’ ”

Techorse got up, rubbed his head with a front hoof, and replied, “I think it’s more that you weren’t expecting me to find you working. I thought we all agreed to meet at the library again.”

Applejack’s ears drooped, and she frowned.

“I’m really sorry. I just have so much to do.” she apologized.

Techorse replied, “I know, I know. You do have a lot of work as a farmer, and I can’t blame you for trying to catch up. I can get some of my inventions from the castle to help you pick the apples faster if you’re really worried about falling behind. But right now, the team needs your help. This invasion’s far from over.”

Applejack tried to be nice, “I really appreciate you offerin’ to send me a machine. But here at Sweet Apple Acres, we don’t use much technology. It seems so cold, y’know.”

He looked over to the side and said in agreement, “Impersonal agriculture is a bad idea. But at least you’re being honest that you don’t like my inventions.”

Applejack said, “Aw, Techorse, I don’t hate all your tools. That saddle’s really come in handy lately. I just like doin’ things by hoof myself.” Techorse extended the robotic arms from his saddle and picked an apple missed on the tree to the side of them and placed it in a bucket.

“I understand”, he said.

As the mechanical arms retracted, he asked the important question, “Look, the real reason I came here is because we’re trying to figure out where Wizard’s next henchman is. I know one of them has a train, and is trying to use it to ship ponies back to the factory by hand. It turns out he doesn’t like using lots of technology either. “

Applejack looked over at the remains of the robot she and Big Macintosh had destroyed. She then returned to make eye contact with Techorse and said, “If he has a train, he could be attackin’ any town near the tracks. So why did you want to ask me where he might be headin’?”

Techorse replied, “I know this particular guy said he wanted to sell a top breed of workhorse. He’s probably going to be going after a town full of earth ponies like you and me. Do you know any towns inhabited by earth ponies that are connected to the railways?”

She thought about it, and then grew frightened.

“I’ll take that as a yes?” he said with worry.

Applejack nodded and said, “Just one. Appleloosa. Another apple farmin’ town out in the desert. I have a relative who lives out there, Braeburn. Oh gosh, Techorse, what if that human goes after him and the Appleloosians?”

He answered, “We’ll find that human and bring him down like we brought down Hunter. I won’t let him hurt your relative.” Techorse then chuckled and said, “Here I am trying to be the tough manly man. Who am I kidding? I’ll try my best, but we need you and the others to make this work.”

Applejack said, “Oh, ok. I’ll come with you.” She looked back at the trees still bearing fruit, “But I still wonder how we’re going to get the harvest in.”

Techorse said, “I’m sure PAL won’t mind helping your brother harvest the apples. He thinks we’re all infinitely cute, so he'd be happy to help you out. Just make sure he doesn’t end up like that scrap pile over there.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he and Big Macintosh will get along just fine.” replied Applejack with a smile.

It really wasn’t a long walk back to the library, but Techorse had to make a detour to the castle to get PAL to go help Applejack’s family. After stopping in, Techorse and Applejack continued back to the library on foot. Techorse almost always refused to fly when others had to walk. Eventually, they got back to the library, and the team had assembled. It seemed that Pinkie Pie had finally gotten up and found her way to the tree building. Her excuse for being so late was typical of her, she had gotten a jar of molasses stuck on her leg during breakfast and had spent an hour trying to get it off.

Twilight saw the two approaching and asked, “So, did you get any clues as to where the human might be?”

Applejack answered, “I have a feelin’ he’s going to attack Appleloosa next. It’s right by the railroad, and it’s filled with earth ponies.”

Twilight replied, “We’ll head for the train station then and board the next one to Appleloosa. Hopefully we’ll get there before anything really bad happens.”

“And then we’ll kick that human’s sorry butt!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she kicked the air.

Pinkie Pie finished licking the rest of the molasses off her front leg and then tried to say something, but the sugary syrup was making it hard for her to communicate.

“What is it, Pinkie Pie?” asked Fluttershy gently. Pinkie Pie swallowed hard to try and force the molasses down her throat, but started coughing from the heavy syrup.

Techorse panicked, “She’s choking!” Extending his robot arms, Techorse worked quickly to wrap them around her waist. He then squeezed hard, Pinkie Pie coughed, and the glob of molasses trying to drown her flew out of her mouth and away from the group.

“Ewww!” exclaimed Rarity in disgust as she recoiled.

Letting go of Pinkie Pie, Techorse looked with surprise and said, “Hmm, that maneuver actually worked. Usually it’s to stop a human from choking.”

Pinkie Pie turned to Techorse and said, “You saved my life, Techie!”

“Techie?” asked Techorse with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah, that's my new nickname for you!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “I'm getting tired of saying Techorse over and over again!”

Rainbow Dash said impatiently, “We don’t have time for this!”

Twilight told her, “Be patient. Now Pinkie Pie, calm down and tell us what you were going to say before you nearly suffocated.”

The Pink Pony bounced up once and said, “If we’re going to Appleloosa, I’m going to bring my western dress!” The other ponies except for Techorse groaned at this.

Techorse asked, “Ok, what’s wrong now ladies?”

Rarity whispered to him, “Pinkie Pie started singing last time we went, and it was simply terrible. Don’t encourage her at all please.” Twilight tried to convince Pinkie Pie not to bring her dress. Eventually she agreed, but wasn’t too happy about it.

Techorse then asked, “Shouldn’t we get going to catch the next train out of here?”

Applejack responded, “That’s right. We’re gettin’ off track. Let’s go now before we’re too late.”

The team made their way to the train station, and then sat down on benches to wait for the train. It was at that time about 10:30 in the morning, and the train was supposed to arrive at 11:00. So they waited. Unfortunately, 11 came and went, and the ponies grew board as the late train failed to show up for another 2 hours.

Rainbow Dash whined, “Ugh, Twilight, it’s 1 in the afternoon and the train still isn’t here. We could have flown there by now.”

“This sun is making me sweat. I hate getting all sweaty!” complained Rarity as she tried to dab her forehead with a towel.

Techorse said, “2 hours late means something happened. I’m just surprised the station attendants haven’t done anything to try and find out what happened to that train.” Fluttershy took a glance down the railroad tracks in front of them, and saw a small figure crawling around in the dust.

“Guys”, she said quietly. The others were still arguing about whether to simply walk or call off the trip.

“HEY!” shouted Fluttershy, finally getting up enough energy to speak. Everypony stared at her, and she dropped her ears. “I’m sorry, that was way too loud, but I see something down the tracks over there.” she said gently. Techorse extended his turbofans and looked out at the shadow.

“It’s a pony! He’s limping!” he said while squinting his eyes to get a better look.

Twilight said, “Then let’s go help him out.” They all galloped over to meet the limping figure in the dirt. When they caught up to it, they found Braeburn’s engineer crawling on the ground. Steamer was absolutely caked with filth, and had obvious injuries to his left back leg and torso. He collapsed on the ground into the dirt near the railroad tracks.

Fluttershy held the injured pony in her front legs and asked, “Oh dear, are you ok?”

He looked up at the ponies looking over him and said, “It was absolutely terrifying. Every last one of us, gone. I’m the only one to survive. The others, vanished in light.”

Twilight ordered, “He’s delirious. We should give him something to drink.” Pinkie Pie produced a flask of water out of her saddlebags and gave it to the parched engineer.

After the pony drained the water, he was able to talk more clearly. “Do not head down these tracks.” He warned.

Applejack said, “Take it easy, and just tell us what happened, mister.”

Steamer recognized Applejack and said weakly, “Oh, it’s you miss Applejack. Good to see you.”

Applejack gave him a confused look and asked, “How did you know my name?”

He replied with a cough, “My best friend is your cousin Braeburn. He sent me and the other engineers on a mission. I done failed it.”

Rarity asked out of curiosity, “What mission?”

The engineer nodded slowly and continued, “Appleloosa’s bein’ raided by this scoundrel goin’ by the name of Gunslinger. He’s tryin’ to capture all the ponyfolk. We had heard about Ponyville’s attack, but we thought for sure we’d be safe.”

Techorse finished his sentence, “But you got attacked anyway, and tried to escape.”

“Yeah”, said Steamer, “thanks for finishing that for me. I’m really too weak to talk much.”

Pinkie Pie said, “That’s what Techorse is really good at, getting the last word!”

Techorse glared at Pinkie Pie as Applejack asked, “What exactly happened when you tried to escape?”

The engineer answered after clearing his throat again, “We loaded up a train with ponyfolk, then tried to escape back here. That weird man sent these metal monsters after us but soon came after us with his own train.”

Twilight asked, “and then what happened?”

Steamer looked around a bit and said, “The train grew this giant cannon, and it hit the train with a gigantic stick of red light. Every last pony in the train was gone in an instant.”

Techorse said in awe, “That’s the largest teleporter beam yet. It got an entire train at once.”

The injured pony continued his story, “Then the robots caught up to us. I managed to escape, but my 3 best engineers sacrificed themselves to make sure I got the message here. Please, help us.”

“Don’t worry. We’re going to get you some medical care, and then we’ll help Appleloosa. I promise.” said Twilight. So, they brought Steamer back to Ponyville’s nurse, where she agreed to watch the stallion as he recovered from his injuries.

“He’ll make it.”, said nurse Redheart, “but he must have been in some harness of an accident.”

Twilight said to her, “We’ll be back to check up on him.” The nurse nodded and went back to taking care of the sick and injured of Ponyville. Twilight turned around and left the small hospital building, and went back to the team.

“Alright”, said Twilight, “now we have to make the trip to Appleloosa. Pack plenty of supplies in your saddlebags, and meet back at the train station. We have to leave as soon as possible, so don’t dawdle.” Within the hour, they had met at the station. Applejack had suggested they borrow a couple of pump-cars to try and cut down on travel time. The team split up into pairs to push three separate cars along. This left Rarity tagging along on Techorse and Applejack’s car. She would rotate out with the others, if they could convince her to damage her hoof polish to do so. Although the handcars were well oiled, it was usually an overnight trip to the town, and they wouldn’t make it there until after the night. Twilight Sparkle noticed the track split up ahead and wondered which way she should throw the switch.

She said to the others, “Let’s just leave the switch as it is. I’m sure if the engineer got back this way, the switches are in the right place to take us to Appleloosa.”

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad decision. The pump-cars turned away from the straight track and deviated in a parallel line. Eventually, they went downhill, which gave the ponies a break from pumping.

“Well that’s a relief.” said Rarity, “I get a little ease from my turn.” But the hill turned out to be much steeper than the ponies could have expected, and the cars began wildly going out of control.

“We’re gonna crash!” wailed Pinkie Pie, as she was flung up and down by the rapidly moving handlebar she was gripping.

“Hold on!” said Techorse loudly, gripping onto the car with two hooves and two robot hands. The cars zipped around the downhill slope, and then went through a canyon. They passed over a very deep ravine with just a narrow rail bridge over it.

“Don’t look down”, mumbled Fluttershy as she covered her eyes. Rainbow Dash was still trying to control her car, and accidentally let go of the handle. She screamed and fell backwards into the pit.

“Rainbow!” screamed Twilight after her rapidly falling friend. The cyan pony flew back up onto her car and said, “Forgot I could fly didn’t you?”

Twilight laughed and said, “Yeah. Sorry.” The cars were still moving at a very fast pace, and they shot across the rest of the bridge at breakneck speed. Eventually, something caught Applejack’s attention. She saw a sign warning that the track ahead had been cut.

“Aw shoot, the line’s out up ahead!” she warned. The switch to change track was approaching fast, and one of the ponies would have to throw it. Techorse drew his laser cannons and took aim. He fired a single laser bolt at the lever and managed to knock it into place. The track changed rapidly, and the cars veered away from the broken section.

“Alright Techorse, good shot!” called Rainbow Dash. Techorse gave her a smile as the laser cannons retracted back into his saddle. Twilight Sparkle then looked ahead and saw that the track turned into a ramp.

“Did we switch it the wrong way?” she asked in terror.

Techorse looked at the ramp and said, “Oh come on! They’re both out, aren’t they?”

The cars went off the track and went flying in the air. The ponies who could fly grabbed those who couldn’t and waited for the cars to lose to gravity. The forward momentum was great, and they were flung a very long way by the jump. Eventually they touched down safely and watched with annoyance as the carts smashed to pieces on the ground.

“Everypony ok?” asked Twilight as her hooves touched the soft desert sand.

Techorse retracted his turbofans and said with regret, “I should have listened to Fluttershy. These tracks are in such poor shape, blowing them up would have improved them.”

Rarity started complaining again about her vanity, “Now I’m all dusty.”

Rainbow Dash got fed up with Rarity’s constant whining and said to her, “Well at least you’re not all bloody! We barely made it out of that one.”

Fluttershy drooped her head and asked, “Are we walking the rest of the way?”

Twilight answered her, “I guess so. We just lost our transportation.”

Applejack found another sign and said, “It ain’t so bad. This sign says Appleloosa’s just 30 miles away. It’ll take us the rest of the day, but we’ll get there.”

Pinkie Pie said cheerfully, “We’re going to make it! I’m so excited to catch up with the settlers!”

Twilight shook her head, “I’m sure they’ll remember you, Pinkie Pie.” It didn’t take them very long to find where the tracks left off and start walking towards the town. However, problems arose very quickly. For one, the sun was very hot, and there wasn’t enough cloud cover to provide even a hint of shade. The ponies were sweating buckets, which of course caused Rarity to beef about her hair getting damp and weighed down.

Dehydration began to grip them as they walked in the desert sun. They had already finished off all the water supplies they brought with them, and the heat was really starting to take its toll.

Twilight panted a bit, “If we don’t want to collapse, we have to find water soon. Techorse, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, since you can fly, go find some water and bring it back.” After loading up on the canteens, the three ponies took off in search of water. Of course, Techorse and Rainbow Dash took the lead, with Fluttershy barely able to keep up.

Rainbow Dash said in a dry voice, “Man, I’m so thirsty. If there was even one cloud in the sky, I could get us a glass of rainwater.”

Techorse said nothing and adjusted his turbofans forward to increase his flight speed. Down on the ground, Gunslinger was busy taking his train back to the location outside of town he had originally parked in. However, he noticed the three flying in the sky above him.

Using a pair of binoculars, he got a closer look at Rainbow Dash, “Hmm, it’s those ponies Wizard warned me about. Well, I’ve got a little surprise for them.” Gunslinger pressed a large button on his control panel and threw a large yellow lever. A green box car on the train opened up, and the large teleporter cannon emerged from it.

Techorse, looking down, noticed the train, “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, that’s Gunslinger’s train! He’s taking out that cannon the engineer talked about!” Fluttershy started whimpering and her wings seized up. She started falling down towards the ground.

“Not again!” complained Rainbow Dash as she dove down to save her friend. Gunslinger picked up a joystick with a television monitor on it and could use it to see what the cannon was pointed at by looking at the monitor.

He tried to line up Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in his crosshairs. “They’re makin’ this too easy.” he said with a laugh.

Techorse thought, “I’ve got to do something, or Rainbow and Fluttershy are doomed!” He started to circle around the pair in the sky, attempting to throw off Gunslinger’s aim.

Eventually, the cannon began to charge up. The particles were accumulating, and the gun was glowing. “He’s going to fire!” screamed Rainbow Dash, “you have to try to fly for yourself or we won’t be able to dodge it!” Fluttershy opened her eyes, and then attempted to spread her wings again. She couldn’t make herself fly, but it worked enough to let her glide away. The cannon then fired its beam at the three ponies. A huge bolt of teleportation energy was ejected from the gun, and the huge ray made a streak through the air as it approached its targets.

“Gotcha!” shouted Gunslinger. Techorse took action, and directed as much power as possible to the turbofans. He managed to grab Fluttershy and pushed her forward, out of the way of the gigantic beam.

“How did that miss?!?” questioned Gunslinger furiously as the huge energy bolt dissipated in the air without claiming a single pony. He then looked forward and saw an approaching tunnel. “Aw, shoot.”

Rainbow Dash gave a whoop as she watched the train’s cannon get torn off by the low clearance of the tunnel. The metal tube detached from the train with a sickening crunch and bounced around in the dirt for a bit before losing containment and going up in a large fireball.

Techorse laughed, “Ha! The cannon’s history!”

Rainbow Dash pointed downwards, “There’s water too! I see an oasis over there.”

Fluttershy simply sighed and watched as her two friends descended to gather the water supplies. “I wish I hadn’t been such a coward.” she thought as she followed them.

The three friends brought the water back to the others, where everybody had a good and long drink.

“Phew”, Applejack finished the last swig of her water in her bottle, “we really rode hard and put away wet that time.”

Techorse said, “Besides getting the water, Rainbow Dash here tore that gigantic cannon right off of Gunslinger’s train. Way to go!”

Rainbow Dash admitted, “Well, the cannon sort of got ripped off by a tunnel. You’re the one who distracted him and managed to save Fluttershy.” Fluttershy lowered her head and tried to look as small as possible to avoid being berated for yet another act of cowardice.

“Either way”, said Twilight, “That gun is out of commission. We’re one step closer to beating this guy and saving Appleloosa.”

Pinkie Pie cheered, “So what are we waiting for? Let’s gear up and head into the town.” The cool drinks had refreshed the ponies enough that they were able to make good time into town, and arrived just as the sun began to set. Arriving in town though, they were immediately struck with worry as they didn’t notice too many ponies out in the streets. It was not a ghost town in any way, but the locals were indoors, locked up and trying to stay out of sight.

“Where is everypony?”, asked Twilight, “or any other resident for that matter?”

Techorse took interest in the abandoned state of the town, “This is more than a pony settlement?”

Applejack answered, “You bet. Besides us apple farmers, there’s a native herd of buffalo livin’ around here. We had our problems, but we get along now. No thanks to Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie Pie looked angrily at Applejack and protested “It’s not my fault they hated my song. You try preventing a war sometime.”

They passed the rows upon rows of wooden frontier buildings, but still couldn’t find a single resident to talk to. Eventually, night fell completely and they were stuck in the dark. Twilight used her magic to cast a little light, and they continued looking around for a place to stay. As they walked by the homes and shops, they heard a familiar voice.

“Hey Applejack, over here!” They followed it behind the large wooden inn and found Braeburn looking around nervously.

“Braeburn!” shouted Applejack, “You’re ok!”

Braeburn hushed her, “Quiet! The metal monsters are patrolin’ around makin’ sure we don’t try to leave.” Techorse now knew what that rumbling noise was. It was the tank treads of the robots patrolling the dusty streets. “Here, follow me into the inn. You can spend the night here. The owner tried leavin’ on the train, so he won’t need the place.” The team followed Braeburn around into the inn, where they decided to try and enjoy dinner in peace. The main room of the inn was painted a gray color on the wall, but had a great hardwood floor with a beautiful crimson throw rug. On the walls were paintings of the scenery that could be found around Appleloosa, including fields of flowers and mesas. A large stone fireplace sat in the middle of the room, and Braeburn got a fire going in it after he had shut the door. It was very dark inside the inn, only a couple of candles were available to keep the place lit up besides the fireplace.

After eating a light dinner, Applejack tried to get more information from Braeburn about what had happened in the town. He explained to her what had happened, how Gunslinger came to town simply announcing he was going to take every pony by train to the factory. He also talked about the fateful duel which had apparently killed the sheriff. But Techorse offered some comfort by explaining the concept of the teleporter guns, and assured Braeburn that the sheriff was simply in captivity.

Braeburn finished his story soon after, “So that’s when I decided to provide a small distraction to allow the townsponies to escape. But we only managed to get one train out. He headed for Ponyville in order to get you, Applejack, so you could come and help us out. Did he make it?”

Applejack frowned and said sadly, “He made it. But nopony else did.” Braeburn became depressed and asked, “What happened?”

Twilight answered, “That human chased after the train with his. A gigantic version of the teleporter gun he carried captured every single pony aboard the train in one shot. The engineer’s friends were then captured by Gunslinger’s robots. By the time he got back to us, he was in a critical condition.”

Braeburn sat back and was silent in sadness and shock as to how horribly his plan had failed.

Techorse tried to help cheer up his friends, “But the good news is, Rainbow Dash and I destroyed that cannon. Now all that’s left are those robots. Can you tell me how many of them are left, Braeburn?”

He shook his head and said, “Nope. Can’t say how many he has. But I do know one thing. He just lost a great deal of them.”

“How?” asked Rarity, “did you cowponies fight back?”

Braeburn answered, “The buffalo actually got ‘em. They said about 40 of them came through their camp in the valley. After receiving word that they were after us ponies, they decided to help and attack the robots. They smashed every last one to bits.”

Rainbow Dash asked curiously, “Hey, why didn’t the robots try to stop the buffalo?”

Techorse looked at her and answered, “Robots must be programmed to do exactly what you want them to do. They don’t normally think, Rainbow Dash. Gunslinger must have told the robots to attack ponies specifically. Because that’s all they were told to do, the robots didn’t know if they should defend themselves from the buffalo and were easily destroyed.”

Braeburn asked with surprise, “You know how these metal monsters work?”

Techorse took a sip of milk from his glass and answered, “Yeah. This is a long story I’m going to have to tell you, but it’ll explain everything. My name is Techorse. I used to be one of the humans like Gunslinger. I was turned into a pony by the master of the humans, Wizard. Now I’m on your side. These robots you see were designed by a human, and work with electricity and circuits, which I guess are hard to come by out here. Because they are made from parts, they must be instructed to follow a set of rules called code. They will never break this code unless it is changed, so that can be taken advantage of. It seems your friends the buffalo found this out and scored an easy victory against the machines.”

“Wow”, said Braeburn, “you sure have a smart friend here, Applejack.”

She said to her cousin, “Well Braeburn, he was one of those humans, and they are smart. But this one is a great pony though, isn’t he?”

Braeburn smiled at Techorse and said, “I couldn’t tell you were one of those humans until you told me. Maybe it’s just because you’re a lot nicer than that man.”

Twilight said, “Well, he did prove himself to have a heart for us. I just wish there was any way we could change him back.”

Techorse looked into Twilight’s eyes and said, “I really don’t care anymore. I don’t mind if I stay a pony forever, so long as this planet stays safe from Wizard.”

Rainbow Dash got sick of the emotional mush and said, “Break it up, you’re going way off topic here!”

Twilight replied, “Sorry Rainbow Dash.” She turned to Braeburn and asked him, ”Anyways Braeburn, do you have any idea where we could find Gunslinger?”

He answered, “Sure, but why do you want to know?”

Rainbow Dash interrupted again and said, “We’re gonna take down that slimy human!”

Braeburn said to her, “You’re awfully brave. All I know is, he told every pony in town to be up tomorrow to leave at 11 o’clock in the morning. He’s going to make us all board his train and get shipped back to that factory.”

“Well then”, said Applejack, “I guess we know when we’re gonna make our little attack against this no good man.”

Rarity proposed, “We should lay a trap for him. I’m sure a little distraction of some kind to lure him away from his train would make him an easy target for Techorse’s cannons.”

Techorse popped the weapons out of the saddle and said, “Not sure if these things are powerful enough to bring Gunslinger down. What we need to do is make him use that blue potion so he leaves this place forever.” Retracting the guns, he continued, “But what I do know is that we can’t afford to lose this skirmish. He plans to take every last occupant, and we won’t get another chance to save them until we attack the factory if we fail now.”

Twilight added, “We also need to work as quickly as possible and as close to 11 as possible. Those robots will close in on us the second Gunslinger comes under attack. We need to defeat him quickly so he doesn’t call for backup.”

Fluttershy asked almost instinctively, “Does he plan on capturing any animals?”

Braeburn answered, “As far as I can tell, he just wants us ponies.” The group listened to a crashing noise outside and realized Pinkie Pie was missing.

Rarity asked, “Great, where on Equestria did Pinkie Pie go now?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll go find her.”

“It’s dangerous to go alone, take this.” Said Techorse, as he tossed Twilight a flashlight he was keeping in the cargo hold of his saddle. Twilight picked up the flashlight with a little magic and went outside. She turned on the light, and found that the halogen bulb was far brighter than her light spells she usually casted for the situation. She scanned the dark alleys for Pinkie Pie, hoping she was ok. After being spooked multiple times by the noises of the night, Twilight found Pinkie Pie going through a stockpile of apple pies in a bakery.

“Pinkie Pie!” called Twilight Sparkle, “what are you doing out here? There are robots just waiting to send you to that factory!”

Pinkie Pie looked up and said, “I’m collecting ammo! These pies goo up those robots and slow them down. The only other weapons we have are apples and rocks!” Twilight knew Pinkie Pie was in reality still hungry from dinner and was shoveling down treats again.

She asked, “If you’re collecting pies for the town ponies to throw at the robots, then why is there pie filling all over your face?”

Pinkie Pie said without any delay, “Premature detonation.”

“They’re pies, not bombs.” snapped Twilight, “you need to quit wandering off for snacks before you get yourself hurt.” Pinkie Pie dropped her ears, apologized, and followed Twilight Sparkle back to the inn. A pair of shadows loomed in the dark alley of the bakery. Unit 7 and Unit 8 were there, ready for action.

“Unit 8”, transmitted Unit 7, “Should we engage the ponies?”

Unit 8 replied, “Negative Unit 7. I am taking images of these ponies to transmit to Gunslinger. I believe these are two of the same ponies that destroyed our first units back in their home town. Perhaps the boss can use this data to strengthen his plan.” The two robots waited until Pinkie Pie and Twilight had gotten a good distance away. Then, they turned around and began rolling back to find Gunslinger.

Twilight Sparkle re-entered the inn to find only Applejack left in the room. “Oh, thank heavens you’re both ok.” She said.

Twilight sighed and said, “I found Pinkie Pie stuffing her face again. I’m really surprised you never gain a single ounce from all the sugar you wolf down, Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie replied, “I’m really active!”

“We know”, said Applejack with a gruff undertone.

Twilight asked, “Now where did everypony else go?”

“To bed, we wanted to get up early tomorrow to make our battle plan. Each of us has our own room in the inn. C’mon, I’ll take you two to yours.”

Applejack got them both into their rooms, and then went into her own to retire for the night. She took off her hat and put it on the post of her bed, and then opened the window of the room to let the cool air of the desert night flow in. Applejack looked out at the stars in the cloudless night sky, and wondered how people as evil as Wizard and his minions could have come from a place beyond them. She decided the best action was to simply get some sleep for tomorrow’s ensuing battle, and blew her candle out.

Thirty miles away on a hill, Gunslinger took a portion of ham out from a spit in his campfire and began cutting himself a piece of it off of it with a knife from his belt. He thought to himself as he took a bite, “This pork chef Roy gave me sure is good.” He rested his head back against the side of his train, and looked down at Appleloosa. He had a great view of the township from the top of the hill. The human took notice at the lack of lights in the buildings and knew he had scared the residents into doing nothing. Every once in a great while there would be a zap to break the silence, evidence a pony had failed an attempt to escape in the cover of night. Gunslinger tipped his ten gallon down over his green eyes and black mustache. “I’m gonna get some rest for tomorrow. Gonna be a hard day haulin’ all those ponies back to Bossman.” After about 30 minutes of sleep though, he was startled by an electronic voice.

“Commander, your attention is required!” Gunslinger shot up and drew his revolvers.

He pointed them at the robot and said angrily, “Aw shoot, you bucket of bolts. You woke me up, so you’d better have a good reason!”

The robot printed out a picture of Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. “I spotted these two ponies in town.” he said. “They match the descriptions of the ones who destroyed units 1 through 6 in Ponyville.”

“Any other bad news?” asked Gunslinger.

“Affirmative”, replied Unit 7, “Units 40 through 80 were completely destroyed by a native tribe of sentient buffalo. Their orders were to only attack ponies.”

Gunslinger shouted furiously, “I said you could use your teleporter beams if you were attacked first! Why didn’t they at least put up a bit of a fight?”

“They did”, answered Unit 7, “Our teleporter cannons are too narrow-gauged to teleport the buffalo. Their team was wiped out without their weapons.”

Gunslinger said angrily, “From now on, use your fist against any of these buffalo. If that don’t work, rip out a board from a building and use it as a club. Do not let them ruin our plan.”

After a slight pause, Unit 7 asked, “Sir, without units 40 through 80, we don’t have anything cutting off pony escape on the other side of the town. What should we do?”

Gunslinger replied, “Pretend. We lie that we still have robots surrounding them. After a couple ‘demonstrations’ of power, those varmints will still board my train. Go regroup and prepare to back me up tomorrow.”

“Yes sir”, replied the machine as it sped away. Gunslinger then sat back down and leaned up against his train again.

“Darned machines”, he thought as he watched the robot move back into the town. “I really didn’t need these contraptions. One man can do what 100 of these morons can.” Gunslinger then tried to go back to sleep. He was being watched, however, by three young ponies hiding behind a cactus.

“Ok”, whispered Scootaloo, “we found the human. Now what do we do?”

Apple Bloom answered, “I brought some rope to tie him up. But we need him completely asleep first.”

Sweetie Belle then said, “I’ll sing a lullaby to make him fall asleep.”

“Ok”, said Apple Bloom, “but make it quiet and wordless er else he’ll find us!”

Sweetie Belle began singing a short and pleasant sounding tune. Gunslinger was groggy from being woken by the robot, and started drifting off. As soon as he was out, the three ponies got close to him and took out Apple Bloom’s rope. They started to tie up the man’s hands and legs while he slept. After they got finished with his hands, however, Scootaloo accidentally got a little too close to the campfire and a stray speck of ember hit her side.

“Ouch!” she screamed in pain as she brushed off the red hot particle with her wing. Apple Bloom covered her friend’s mouth, but Gunslinger had already woken up.

He was initially startled by the three youngsters at his sides and feet. Gunslinger got up, and noticed his hands were tied up in front of him.

“What the?”, he said in a confused manner. He then noticed the small ponies running around with the ropes around his legs, trying to trip him up. Gunslinger jumped out of the ropes around his legs to foil the attempt at tripping him. The three girls screamed and started running away, but Gunslinger reached down with his tied up hands and pulled out one of his revolvers. The Cutie Mark Crusaders found themselves trapped between Gunslinger and a large boulder.

He pointed it at Apple Bloom and asked, “Who are you, and what are you three doin’ out here?”

Apple Bloom answered with anger in her eyes, “We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and we’re here to stop you!”

Scootaloo added in, “Yeah! We’re going to take you down and earn our cutie marks!”

Gunslinger thought about simply pulling the trigger and ending the stupidity, but changed his mind, “There’s no fun in that, and I could use a little entertainment!”

He said, “Well, you got me girls. I don’t shoot little kids, and you have my hands tied up.”

Gunslinger dropped his revolver on the ground. He then knelt down in front of the foals and questioned them, “Now why did you tie me up? Why do you need to capture me?”

Sweetie Belle walked up to him and explained, “We heard there were these strangers called humans kidnapping ponies! We thought we could earn our cutie marks by stopping one. We found you.”

Gunslinger didn’t know what they were talking about, but said calmly, “Well, maybe you should see if you’ve earned them. After all, you did manage to beat me good.” Apple Bloom stared at her flank and frowned. It still bore no symbol, nor did her friends.

“No, I guess beating a human didn’t earn us our cutie marks. Aw, we’re never gonna get ‘em.”

Now the western man decided to put his plan into action.

“Ok”, said Gunslinger, “Now that you know you didn’t get your marks, would you mind untyin’ me? These here ropes aren’t very nice.”

Scootaloo said, “No way! We still have to take you back to Rainbow Dash so she can bring you to justice.” Gunslinger tried his hardest not to burst out laughing at the youngsters’ ridiculous plot. However, the ropes around his hands really were too strong to break without them being untied, so he needed to continue to bait the youngsters.

Gunslinger laughed, “Well with that name she must look like a painting, bunch of colors and everything.”

“No!” said Scootaloo, angry the man had made fun of her idol, “she’s cyan, has a rainbow mane and tail, and does not mess around!”

Gunslinger immediately went from laughing to angry. He thought, “That’s the one that wrecked my train’s cannon! That stupid light blue rouge cost me my biggest threat against these ponies. Well, maybe if this little one knows her so well, she can make great bait to lure Rainbow Dash out, so I can take some revenge. When I’m done with her, I’ll make myself a cyan vest.”

Gunslinger then looked at the three girls, who were starting to get a little worried over Gunslinger’s new anger. He looked up at Apple Bloom and lied, “Sorry, I just don’t like the sound of this Rainbow Dash. She sounds a little scary.”

“That’s right!” said Scootallo, “she eats bad guys like you for breakfast!”

Gunslinger knew he would be here all night unless he did something, so he said to Apple Bloom, “Well, I suppose you got me. But wouldn’t it make more sense to let Rainbow Dash handle me herself? I’m sure she’d be awful upset if she learned she’d been outdone by a bunch of little girls. No offense.”

Apple Bloom replied, “We’re takin’ you in ourselves, mister. You’re comin’ with us.” Gunslinger thought once again that he should simply get out his other revolver and end this, but was having too much fun to end it now.

Gunslinger said, “Wait! I need to git my surrenderin’ papers.”

“Your what?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“My surrenderin’ papers. I got to sign them to let you ponies know I give up. Without them, you haven’t really won yet.” said Gunslinger as he stood back up.

Apple Bloom bought into the idea and said, “Well, go get ‘em. But don’t try anything funny.”

Gunslinger said, “That reminds me. While you're here, I might as well just let you borrow the train to take us into town. It’d be much faster.”

“Ok”, said Apple Bloom, “but hurry up.” Gunslinger then went behind his train and got into the seat. He pulled an extra knife out of a compartment and cut the ropes around his hands. The man then looked around for what he needed to finish his trick, and then picked it up and went in front of the steam engine, where the light of the campfire did not reach, making it hard to see.

“Alright.”, he called out, “come around to the front of the train, I got my papers.” The three young ponies ran around the front of the steam strain and straight into a gigantic canvas bag Gunslinger was holding.

“Gotcha!” he called out as he closed the bag and tied it off with a section of rope he saved. Immediately he heard shrieking from the ponies trapped inside.

“Let us out!” demanded Sweetie Belle.

“Sorry girls”, said Gunslinger, “I’m ‘fraid you’re stuck in there until we get back to the factory.” Gunslinger picked up the bag and slung it over his shoulder. The ponies were kind of heavy, but Gunslinger was laughing too hard to notice.

“Surrenderin’ papers”, he chuckled to himself as he walked back along the train, “you youngsters are as dumb as dirt.”

Scootaloo said from inside the bag, “I thought you said we beat you!”

Gunslinger replied, “I lied you moron. You really thought you could stop me? I just played the entire thing like a hand of poker, fer my own entertainment.” Gunslinger opened the door on one of the passenger cars and threw the bag in. He then shut the door and said, “Don’t worry, the bag’s not sealed that tight. You won’t suffocate.” The man then laughed evilly as he turned away to go back to sleep. Apple Bloom took a look around inside the dark canvas bag.

She then said sadly to her friends, “Gee girls, I’m awfully sorry I got us into this mess. But I’m sure someone will come lookin’ for us.”