CHAPTER FOUR
Discovery
Version 1.0
We spent hours trying to decipher Discord's riddle. Many caffeine-enriched beverages were consumed, much time was spent rubbing our respective temples, many ideas were exchanged and many voices were raised as it became apparent to all of us that we weren't going to work it out without the help of a miracle.
"If you want to save your Royal Guard..." I contemplated.
"Well the 'Royal Guard' part is obviously a reference to Ace himself," Twilight mused.
"But, umm, why would Ace be in trouble?" Fluttershy asked. "Isn't he the one trying to take over Equestria?"
"Well he's in trouble with me!" Rainbow scowled. "When I get my hooves on him, I'm gonna make him sorry for betraying us!"
"Rainbow!" Applejack chided as she nodded towards Pinkie, who was sulking in the corner. She had heard Rainbow, and started to tear up. Rainbow grimaced and quieted down.
I quickly tried to make the focus of the conversation go back to the riddle, so I stated the second line of it. "Find the dog that belongs to high card."
"High card?" John asked. "Is there a dog that belongs to a king?"
"The gryphons have a king, but we have no idea whether or not he has a dog," Luna interjected, attempting to assist as best she could. "We could ask him, but it would take some time for the messenger to get there."
"I don't believe that's what the riddle means," Celestia said, her attention divided between a proposed law and the current situation.
"Speaking of dogs, we should check on Winona when we get back," I heard John tell Applejack. "The poor lab is probably worried about everything that's going on."
Something ticked in my mind, as AJ responded. "Ah've told ya before that she's a collie, not a labrador," she said. "An' don't you worry none 'bout her. Big Mac agreed to keep 'er settled."
"Wait a minute..." I moved over to John. "Hey, John, give me your cards." I said, holding out my hand.
"What cards?" John asked, looking at me questioningly.
"The deck of playing cards you keep on you at all times whenever you go out," I insisted. "Now shut up and let me see 'em."
John sighed, taking out a deck of cards from the chest pocket of his jacket. "How did you know these were there?"
"Oh, please," I replied. "You always have a deck of these in case you get bored of having to wait a long time. I remember you telling me that when we first met."
"Huh, I didn't think you'd remember that," John replied, scratching his head. "So... why do you need them anyway?"
"Because 'high card' doesn't refer to a king," I said as I looked through the deck. "There's one card in a suite that has a higher value than any of the face cards." I took out an ace of spades, and held it up. "It refers to an Ace."
"But Ace doesn't have a dog," Pinkie said, confused.
"Not unless he recreated K-9 from Doctor Who," John added.
"He doesn't have a dog, but he does have a lab," I said.
It hit everyone else instantly, but John still didn't get it. "How does Ace have a labrador, but not a dog?" I heard the sounds of multiple hooves colliding with faces.
I rolled my eyes. "He has a laboratory, not a labrador," I told him. "We need to find the lab that belongs to Ace, which means we need to go back to... you guessed it, Ponyville."
***
Fiddlesticks smiled brightly as he brought his bucket out of his house. Snow was plentiful in the village that formed around the train station near the Crystal Empire. The town council had yet to decide on a name for the village, but that didn't subtract from it's charm, nor did it keep both Crystal ponies and Equestrian ponies from taking up residence there.
The young Earth pony intended to make a snow fort, playing with his friends. The bucket would make it easier for him to pack down the snow. Maybe this time he would gain the upper hoof in the snowball fight, and then he'd impress that filly he had his eyes on, Snow Flurry. Fiddlesticks trotted happily towards the playground, eager to play.
The sight of a shadow descending on the village caused him, and other ponies who were going about their business, to stop. Curious as to what was suddenly blocking out the sun, every pony in the village looked up at the sky — all of them gasping at the massive ship that was there.
And then all Tartarus broke loose.
***
Princess Cadence was writing a letter at her desk when shrieks of terror echoed up into her window. Her attention drawn from her task, Cadence moved over to the window to discover the cause of the uproar. Her eyes widened in shock, as she immediately spotted the source of the terror.
No one could've missed it. Off in the distance, a huge ship with the embroidered 'Dr. R' was firing a barrage of different rays down at the village near the train station. Running back towards the main city was a stampede of ponies, all panicked and frightened by the apparent invaders.
It was then that the door to Cadence's room burst open, and Shining Armour entered, panting heavily. "Cadence!" he exclaimed.
Cadence's expression suddenly became more determined. "I'm all right, Shiny," she replied, turning to him. "There are ponies fleeing the battle. Send the Guard out to retrieve them, and then meet me at the Crystal Heart."
***
Dr. Robo descended from his ship amidst the reinforcements of dozens of bots at his beck and call. Around him, the flashes of rays from various space age cannons died down, as the battle quickly faded to conclusion. A Doc-bot approached, and put a fist to his own chest in a Roman salute. "Report: Master, we've secured the town, but an estimated forty eight percent of the populace has fled to the capital."
Dr. Robo began moving towards the Crystal City. "Are there any casualties to report?" he asked.
"Answer: No, master. The rest of the populace surrendered with little resistance," the Doc-bot replied. Robo moved to the edge of the village and observed the fleeing ponies, while a unit of Crystal Guards moved in to rescue them. "Query: Shall I dispatch a unit to retrieve them, master?"
"No," Robo said. "We have what we need. Prepare to defend against a counter-attack, and deploy the AMF generators." With that, he turned and walked back to the command post his bots set up near the beginning of the battle.
***
The Crystal Guard marched out onto the field and met the fleeing civilians, who were grateful to see friendly faces. Some of the soldiers began to escort them back to the Crystal City, while the rest of the detachment went to head off what they thought was going to be a pursuing enemy. They were soon surprised to learn that the enemy was still at the village.
The commander ordered two unicorns up to scout the enemy defences. The two scouts approached the lines, seeing robots digging a trench into the ground. Some were spiderlike, while others were humanoid. Amongst them, the scouts saw three humongous bots with cannons mounted on their left arms, and two slightly smaller bots on treads with a swivelling turret.
Before they could ascertain any more information about the defences a beam of light shot towards them, grazing one of the unicorns. The unicorn fell to the ground, and his friend quickly moved to drag him behind a rock.
The unicorn who wasn't wounded peeked out from behind the rock. He was able to see a squad of eight bots advancing towards them before another ray struck the rock near his head. He quickly ducked back behind cover, before moving toward his partner. Summoning up magical energy, the unicorn enveloped himself and his buddy in a magical aura and teleported them both away to safety.
***
Commander Shimmering Shield listened to the scouts giving their report. Whoever this enemy was, they were set on securing their positions. They probably expected a counter-attack. Using a pair of binoculars, she observed the enemy encampment. The metal soldiers seemed to be setting up spires of some sort. Spires on tracked platforms.
Commander Shield concluded that the best course of action would be to dig in herself, and buckle down. After all, the Princess would be trying to activate the Crystal Heart. Giving the order, the Crystal forces began securing their position just outside the Crystal City.
***
Cadence had gathered all the citizens of the Crystal Empire near the palace, ready to defend their home. "My little ponies!" she declared. "So long as we have the Crystal Heart, we will not let any foe take our homes away from us! Use the light and love within you to drive off this terror, and restore peace to our land!"
All the ponies bowed before the Crystal Heart, contributing their power to it. The streets of the Crystal City glowed a bright blue, and filled out every nook and cranny.
Dr. Robo watched from a great distance, smirking, as if daring the building power to come at him.
The Crystal Heart began spinning rapidly, as the power of the Crystal ponies was absorbed into the heart. A field of mystical energy developed around the heart, and began pulsating.
The spires in Dr. Robo's camp came online, and electricity cackled up the shafts.
A shockwave erupted from the Crystal Heart, causing every pony in the Crystal Empire to begin sparkling with the radiance of jewellery. Princess Cadence and the rest of the Crystal Ponies watched as the shockwave rushed toward the enemy camp, looks of triumph evident on their faces.
But those gazes suddenly turned to looks of despair, as red pulses of energy shot out from the spires, intercepting and nullifying the shockwave and dissipating it harmlessly. Princess Cadence stood aghast at what she saw. Thinking quickly, she decided to go to a reliable fallback, and immediately threw up a shield around the Crystal City. "Get our forces inside the shield, Shining!" Cadence shouted. "Tell them to fall back!"
***
At the front line of the mechanized army, Robo smirked upon seeing the shockwave dissolve. He brought up the microphone from his PDA, and spoke into it. "Deploy the Mecha-Flyers," he said malevolently. "Give them a reason to run."
The Crystal ponies fled back to the city as Robo's forces began advancing. A group of five large aircraft took off, each armed with several turrets. They quickly overtook the retreating ponies, and several different types of rays shot down, melting snow, scarring the earth, and causing huge explosions as rays of heat, beams from particle cannons, and arcs of lightning from plasma lancers rained down destruction upon them.
The pegasi tried to fight back, letting loose with lightning strikes from nearby clouds, but the ships had shields that deflected the weather strikes away. One unicorn did manage to disable one of the craft with a lucky beam of magic, before the rock he was standing on was destroyed under a barrage of beam fire.
Soon enough, most of the Crystal Army was back behind the shield. Those that were wounded in the strike were overtaken from the land advance, captured by the bots coming up in a slow march.
Several ponies died before making it inside the shield.
***
Outside the shield the robot army waited, standing at attention, staring at those who were brave enough to approach the barrier. They had been like that for hours, completely statuesque, only moving when one pony got too close to the shield. And when that happened, they all raised their weapons and aimed at him.
This had been going on for a while, as their artillery and heavy weapons had failed to make a dent in Cadence's shield. It seemed like the army had been stopped in their tracks.
But then, a red pulse shot at the shield. A section of it started to cave. Then two shots. Then three. Soon, four pulses began barraging a specific section of the shield, weakening it. The civilian ponies on the other side began running, while the Crystal army got ready for a fight. A small hole soon opened in the shield and an even smaller bot flew in, holding a package. And just like that, the bombardment stopped.
Several pegasi flew in to intercept the bot, only to be met with a burst of electrical energy. The BIRD made a beeline to the Crystal Palace, not letting anything stop it.
***
Cadence and Shining Armour stood and watched as the small bot flew in through an open window. The guards kept their eyes and weapons on it, unsure of what the device was capable of. After flying around for a few minutes the bot dropped a small box in front of the two royals, who took a few nervous paces backwards out of worry. Before they could say anything, the top of the box opened up and shot out a faint concentration of light — showing the stunned ponies the coy smile on the face of the human standing before them. Shining Armour growled and stomped a forehoof into the ground. "Is that you, Lieutenant Sorou?" he demanded. "Explain yourself!"
"Oh why hello there, Captain," Doctor Robo replied. "I didn't expect to see you."
Shining Armour raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really?" he asked. "Then what did you expect?"
Dr. Robo laughed dryly. "You ponies really need to learn sarcasm," he groaned. "And for your information, Captain, I've pr-r-r-romoted myself! To Emperor of the Steel Empire!"
"What in the name of Tartarus is wrong with you, Sorou?!" Shining bellowed. "Have you completely lost your fucking mind?"
Dr. Robo scowled at him. "That name no longer has any meaning for me, Captain!" he snapped. "I am now Dr. Robo, and you would do well to remember that!"
Before Shining Armour could reply, Cadence spoke. "What do you want from us, 'Doctor Robo'?" she said sternly.
Dr. Robo smiled evilly. "I'm glad you asked, my dear!" he said malevolently. "My demand, as it happens, is very simple." he paused for a moment. "Give up the Crystal Heart."
Cadence and Shining Armour exchanged a look before glaring at him. "Why should we?" Shining Armour asked.
"And what happens if we don't?" Cadence added.
Dr. Robo chuckled. "Because if you don't..." He stepped to the side, revealing several Crystal Ponies. They were alive and unharmed, but bound and gagged as well. "One of these poor souls will die for every hour that you refuse!"
Cadence gasped and covered her mouth with her forehooves while Shining Armour growled in fury. "Why are you doing this?!" Cadence pleaded.
"Why? WHY? It's because of him!" Doctor Robo snarled, pointing at Shining Armour. "It's because of them!" He pointed at his hostages. "It's because of all Equestria! You all have doubted my integrity, my competence, and my willingness to do the right thing! And for the longest time, I have lived with that!"
"But no more! Despite the fact that I have proven my trustworthiness time and again, everyone still doubts me! Treats me like I'm the villain! Well, there's only so much a man can take! You all want to make me out to be the bad guy?! Well, fine! Now I'm the bad guy!"
"You didn't trust me after I freed the pony slaves from the Diamond Dogs! Princess Celestia didn't trust me when I said Manglanosa's men were going to betray Equestria! Ponyville didn't trust me after my lab was attacked! And my own wife doesn't trust me when I say Discord is irredeemable! No matter what I do, I can't be trusted!"
"So go on! Treat me like a villain, a criminal, a threat to all Equestria! God knows I've done enough already to deserve it! But know this! Whatever wrath you incur, whatever evil I wrought, you brought it upon yourselves!"
Shining Armour ground his teeth together, a look of pure hatred on his face. "You rotten, despicable, no-good piece of—"
"Don't antagonise him, Shining!" Cadence interrupted. "We have to give in to his demands!"
"B-but—" Shining Armour stammered. "The Heart!"
Cadence glared at him. "I don't know about you, Shiny, but I will not jeopardize the safety of the Crystal Ponies by refusing to cooperate as too many have died already," she said, facing Doctor Robo. "You shall have your wish." she said glumly. "We surrender."
Dr. Robo retook the forefront of the picture, his expression changing from a scowl to a large grin. "Wow, I didn't even have to start the countdown," he laughed. "Very well, Princess. Lower the shield, and allow my forces in. Then, after the Crystal Heart is safely in my hands, you can have your precious ponies back."
Cadence nodded solemnly and charged her horn with magic, lowering the shield, while Shining Armour slumped his shoulders and sighed. "You've doomed us all, Cadence," he mumbled. "Do you really think that Ace... or Doctor Robo, or whatever the hell he's calling himself now... Do you really think he is just going to take the Heart and leave us alone?"
Cadence shrugged. "I did what I had to do to protect everypony," she defended. "I can only hope that some remnant of Ace remains, and he will spare us for co-operating."
"Yeah," Shining Armour scoffed. "You do realise that he's sparing us now just so he can kill us all later, right?"
He felt a sudden stinging sensation on his cheek as Cadence slapped him. "Don't you dare doubt me, Shining Armour!" she hissed. "As a Royal Guard, you know as well as I do how important the safety of others is, so might I suggest that you start acting like a guard so that we can get through this?"
Shining Armour rubbed his cheek. "I'm sorry, Cady," he muttered. "You're right, we need to be strong. I can only hope that Twily and the others will be able to figure something out."
Cadence nuzzled him. "Twilight's a smart mare," she soothed. "I'm sure she, Geo and the others will have a plan figured out in no time. Remember, this isn't the first time the Crystal Empire has been threatened by a crazed tyrant."
"You're right, Cadence," Shining Armour replied. "Twilight and her friends will fix this." He hugged Cadence tightly before adding under his breath, "At least, I hope they will."
***
A large crater in the ground was the most obvious indicator of where Ace's lab was. We approached it slowly, unsure of what we would find, but all we found was rubble and the scattered pieces of various bots. We descended into the lab carefully, light from both Twilight and Rarity's horns providing us with a slim glimpse into the darkened ruins.
"Okay," Spike said. "The first half of Discord's riddle has brought us here, so now we need to decipher the second half of it." He thought of the words for a moment. "Look inside, there's a gift for you. A prism of skies, she mirrors her, too..."
"Yeah," John muttered. "I still don't see what the fuck kinda riddle that is." We all looked at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm an idiot. Well, pardon me for not being a freaking genius like our good friend turned mortal enemy."
I ignored him and continued looking around — not that I actually knew what I was looking for, of course. Each of us busied ourself within an area of the lab, searching through the pieces of Ace's shattered life for anything that could help us. As I worked I couldn't help but notice that Rainbow Dash was looking a bit distant, so I walked over to her. "Hey, Dash," I mused. "Are you all right? You seem a bit... off."
"Huh, wha'?" she mumbled. "Nah, I'm fine." I raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed. "Okay, I'm totally not fine. It's just... I dunno. The last time I was here I saw something weird, and I'm hoping that it's still here."
"You saw something?" Twilight asked. "Can you remember what it was?" Dash furrowed her brow. "Come on, Rainbow, I know you can remember something. Who knows? It might help!"
"The last time I was here was after Ace and I got into a water balloon fight in town," Dash replied, a faint smile gracing her lips at the memory. "I was looking around his lab when a glint of shiny blue metal caught my eye. So I peered into the room, and saw something pony-shaped, though all I could see was a metallic hind leg, and a group of seven large, rainbow coloured cables. The leg was the same shade of blue as my coat, and engraved near the 'flank' of this metal pony was—" She paused for a moment. "Well... I dunno what, because that's when Ace shut the door and told me that that particular room was 'off limits'."
"And that's when I turned up and got all shouty at you," Pinkie groaned. "Because I thought you were trying to kiss him."
"Yeah," Dash chuckled weakly. There was another uncomfortable silence. "Anyway, I was kinda hoping that whatever that thing was is still here. I'm curious as to what it could have been, since I could have sworn it looked like me."
"Looked like... wait a minute," Twilight said, furrowing her own brow. "Discord's riddle mentioned 'a prism of skies', right?" We nodded. "Well what about a rainbow? Geo was telling me about how rainbows are formed back on Earth - light reflected through rainwater - and also how you can make one by shining light through a prism. So what if 'prism of skies' refers to a rainbow?"
"It's plausible," Rarity said, tapping her chin. "But what of the last few words - 'it mirrors her, too'? If I'm understanding this correctly, then that means we are looking for something which looks like Rainbow Dash."
"We don't have to," Spike called. "Because I think I've just found it. You might want to see this."
Without pause for thought, we all barrelled out one room and rushed through to the other, where Spike stood staring intently at a sheet covering something in the corner. Barely visible underneath were seven rainbow-coloured cables. We shared a nervous look with each other before I finally plucked up the courage to take the sheet off and cast it aside.
There before us stood one of Ace's bots — a perfect copy of Rainbow Dash. It was painted blue, had two magenta headlights for eyes, and even had her cutie mark engraved on the flank. Dash hovered around her robotic doppelgänger curiously.
"Whoa," she breathed. "It... it's perfect. This had to have been what I saw all that time ago — I guess Ace hadn't quite finished it yet. But why did he go to all the effort of building it?"
"Ah don't know," Applejack said hesitantly. "But Ah sure as hay don't wanna find out. Let's just leave it and get outta here."
"But Discord's riddle led us here!" Dash defended. "This has to be what we're looking for, so let's take it and go!"
"Y'all don't know what that thing is capable of!" Applejack snapped. "Fer all we know, it could be evil like Ace is. Discord was probably just sendin' us on a wild goose chase."
"But what if she isn't evil?" Dash growled. "You said it yourself, AJ, we don't know what she's capable of. Remember, we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover."
The two of them continued to argue, not noticing as Spike walked over to the bot and ran a claw along it. He soon withdrew the appendage when a soft click, followed by a beep, resonated throughout the room. Dash and Applejack ceased their debate and stared slack-jawed, as the headlight eyes illuminated and the bot slowly stood up.
The bot shook its blue, metallic body as if it were a pony, and stretched it's metal wings. The soft hum of some sort of propulsion technology was heard as the robotic Dash began hovering in place. Its headlight eyes settled on us while Twilight and Rarity charged their horns, ready for anything. Dash, for her part, landed in between us and the bot and stared it down. The bot mimicked her actions and, were it not for the material it was made from, I could have sworn she was looking into a mirror. The magenta lights flashed as the bot analysed us...
While we all backed away in fear of what was about to happen.