//------------------------------// // The Tale of the Twilight // Story: Equestria Academy: Maximus Bellum // by Tristen Izo //------------------------------// "Now let's see...." Celestia mused as she looked at the clipboard. "Twilight Sparkle...." ------ A figure in a purple cloak stood at the cliff, overlooking the ruins of the destructive battle that took place. The first shot fired that started the war. The war that divided the Equestrian continent into two opposing forces... Beside her, a smaller figure wearing a darker purple cloak with a green strip going down the center, about half the size of the first or a little over that, stood silently, neither saying a word. They only looked at the skeletons, armor, and weapons scattered across the barren land below them. The figure in the lighter garb clenched a fist, looking skyward and away from the land. The carnage that took place here was so incredibly dreadful that it made one shutter to think of. What's more, the ammount of skeletons and other corpses and remains that were on the battlefield were just what couldn't be recovered by the Celestian army. They had tried desperately to recover all of them, but each time they set upon the land again, the Discordian Army, that had managed to take the area, attacked them on sight. All these souls that remained here would never be known by name or face, not at this point. The shorter figure looked at the taller one, before gently nudging their arm. They looked down at their companion before giving a nod, both of them walking back. Their footsteps made light crunching noises in the snow as they walked back through the snow, walking on the invisible path through the forest of dead, withered trees around them. The one in the lighter cloak took out a book, reading it as they walked along, while the shorter one only sauntered along. There were no words shared, as they had no need. They exited the withered forest.... Only to be met by a small army. In front of them were at least two dozen robots, of varying shapes and sizes(though a majority of them did have human shape, and some resembeled beasts). The lead one seemed to be a spidertank of sorts, They were silver with some parts of them being red, such as the spidertank's eyes or the joints of the humanoids. All of them had their weapons revealed, be it the humanoid robots' machine guns in their fingers, the beastial ones(which bared a striking resemblence to lions or wolves) had blades pertruding from their paws in place of claws. The spider tank had an array of guns coming from each of its legs, and then it also had its main gun aimed right for them.It took a step forward. :"You are being placed under arrest for tresspassing on Discordian ground," it said, its voice deep and metallic, echoing through the area. "You are to come quietly, citizen, or your actions, including speech, will be seen as hostile and we will be forced to attack. You have ten seconds to comply, or die where you stand." The two figures looked at each other, before facing the tank again. It began counting down. "10..." Neither figure so much as moved, the taller one still reading their book, the shorter one leaning against one of the dead trees. "9... 8... 7..." The tall figure glanced up past their book and shook their head, pulling out a bookmark with the Celestian Emblem (a sun symbol, with what looked like a winged unicorn in the middle of it), placing it into the book. "6.... 5.... 4..." The robots on either side of the spidertank all took a step forward, weapons aimed at the two, the bladed ones ready to charge at the drop of a hat. "3....2..." The taller figure handed the book to the smaller one, who took it and set it inside their cloak, before taking a few steps back. "1. Time up, Open fire." the spidertank ordered, and suddenly all armed units began firing their machine guns, the spidertank's guns set in its legs doing the same. The taller figure dashed forward, before seemingly vanishing into thin air, then reappearing right in front of one of the humanoid robots, one with a blade. It swiped at them, but they ducked backward, though the blade managed to catch their hood, removing it from their head. A full head of purple hair was released, gently brushing against the snow due to how low the girl bent back. Once the blade passed fully overhead, she stood straight upward again, then grabbed, the robot's arm, using it as leverage to swing around to the top of its head, landing upon its shoulders gracefully. The other bots didn't seem to recognize that she was upon their ally, and all opened fire, only for her to jump a good ten feet in the air in a flash of purple light, making all bullets fill their own companion full of lead, causing him to explode. The girl flipped in mid-air, so her feet were skyward while her head was turned to the ground. As she ascended, a light purple platform appeared, letting her touch her feet to it before springing off and landing on the ground, in the middle of remains of the robot she'd used as a spring. She moved her cloak aside, showing that beneath it, she wore a tan, short-sleeved shirt underneath a pink vest, with a violet skirt that went down to just a bit above her knees. She wore brown shoes, and white socks. Her eyes were a light purple shade, and her skin was a bit tan, but not very. She also wore gloves on her hands, both black and fingerless, and on her right wrist were a collection of three bracelets. One of the bangs of her hair that hung in her face was colored, instead of purple like most of her hair, a slightly dark shade of pink. The small force all aimed for her, and the blade users ran at her, one swinging right away. She ducked back to avoid the swipe, before lunging forward and putting her hand against it's chest. A faint glow came from her palm as she shoved it, the machine flying back at an incredible speed. One other robot, this one lion-like, was hit by it and stumbled in it's pursuit of her, but the others managed to get out of the way and attack her. She ducked under the blade of one aiming for her head and jumped over the blade of another that went for her stomach, rolled between the second's legs, then grabbed the robot behind her, which had a gun, just as it began to fight, then ducked underneath it, holding it's arm out toward the first ones, filling them with bullets. While normal bullets they'd be able to take, the bullets they fired were a different story. They were far more powerful than normal bullets, since they were made to penetrate borderline anything. As such, the two fell to the shots. The young girl jumped backward to avoid the robot sweeping it's arm back, but failed to see the beastial lion-bot behind her, and grunted as it swiped at her, knocking her far to the side. She spun around in the air, landing on her feet and skidding across the snow covered ground. She raised her hand, before looking off to her left. She had been knocked in front of the Spidertank! The great machine aimed it's main gun at her, before firing a large shell at her.... Though it stopped in mid air. She was pointing right at the shell, both it and her hand cloaked in a deep pink aura. The robots stared before glancing at each other, the girl smirking as she saw this. She spun around and the tank's shell followed her hands path. She pointed at a large group of robots, and the projectile flew at a such a high speed toward them, one would think it had been fired right from the tank itself. None of them could escape the blast. Effectively, half the army was reduced. One of the beastial bots charged at her, before stopping short and opened it's mouth, a gattling gun's barrel pertruding from it and aiming at her. She dashed forward, before she herself was surrounded by the magic aura, and launched at it. The aura faded and she spun in mid air, landing a kick to the side of it and making it's shots fly harmlessly in the air. It attempted to swipe at her, but she trapped it in her magic, both of her hands glowing before it suddenly faced it's allies, opening fire on them all. The spider tank dashed to the side to evade the bullets, but only some of the humanoids could evade the shots. Several wolf-like bots came at her, and she jumped up into the air. They looked up at her before opening their maws, glowing blue light within. The girl simply created another platform to stand on, looking down at them. They fired grand lasers of plasma, which hit the platform and caused it to explode. The girl only used the blast to propell her into the air, before aiming the captured lion bot down at them, and firing it. The thing moved like a rocket, before crashing into the rest, exploding in a great burst of flame and metal while the young girl landed gently upon the ground. The humanoids came at her again, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw the spidertank aiming for her again, and ran at the two-legged bots. She ducked between them and used her magic to gather them once they'd passed her, and flung them at the spidertank just as it was firing. At such close range, there was nowhere to escape in time, causing the explosion to even devestate the spidertank itself. The girl smiled as she looked at them, before glancing back to where her companion was. She raised a hand, a sign to come, before continuing to walk toward the exit to the area. The shorter hooded figure nodded and ran toward her, but their head tilted slightly, noticing.... something. The girl took no notice of it, simply walking slowly enough for her companion to catch up. She also failed to noticed the mound of snow rising up behind her until a loud metallic roar was heard. She turned around and gasped as she saw a bear-like machine standing over her, one claw raised in the air to strike.... SHING1 Suddenly, her companion was beside her, and the Bear-bot's chest was sliced clean open, the edges of the large hole in its chest having a ring of green on it. The parts inside the robot also had a green, glowing substance on them. The creature gave a weak roar before falling down flat on its face. The air kicked up by the thing's bulk blew off the shorter one's hood, revealing a boy. He had green, draconic eyes, green hair styled into a small mohawk(though he did have more hair that was slightly frayed a bit and closer to his scalp). He had a tattoo on his right arm, deep forest green and in the shape of a dragon groing from his upper shoulder to his wrist. His hand, which was currently clenched into a fist, had a dragon's eye as a tattoo upon the back of it. His other arm was wrapped from shoulder to wrist in bandages, and had two belts going around thoes, one on his upper arm and one directly upon his wrist. He wore a purple, sleeveless karate gi and similar colored shoes, except they had a ring of yellow on the lower half of them. He also had a small fang coming from the left corner of his mouth. "Thanks, Spike," the girl said, gratitude in her tone. "Guess I missed one." "No problem, Twilight," the boy said, smiling up at her, then handing her back her book. "Thanks," she nodded. "Now... How much farther?" Spike took a paper from within his cloak and unfolded it, looking at the map. "Uh... We should be there soon. Tomorrow if anything." "Oh, this is GREAT!" Twilight cheered. "Finally..." she said, looking in the direction of the large building, which could be seen from their location, though significantly in the distance. "Equestria Academy...."