Trekking across the dirt road surrounded by the vast plains, the clouds in the air blanketing the sky above like it was to rain. Though by how dark the clouds were it seemed that way, especially since it took them literally two hours to walk this long. Through most of the trip Kurai had been grinding his teeth as Solaire and Applebloom acting like children on a field trip, with Ratchet following close by sharing his sentiments as Solaire tried balancing his sword over his helmet while Applebloom pretended his shield was a turtle shell. What pierced the stone and iron clad knights ears was how they constantly laughed at each others jokes, causing him to look over to Sprocket and silently beg her to shut them up. The final straw was Ratchet soon laughing loudly at Solaire doing an impression of a certain unicorn who if he heard correctly was named Trixie. Upon seeing the welcome sign to Alloy it was more than enough to make Kurai sigh with relief that the three would shut up, unfortunately lady luck instead was beating his head with a soup ladle. Closing his eyes to block out the howling laughter it suddenly stopped to be replaced with dead silence almost immediately, the calm wind replacing noise that could have disturbed the dead. Opening his eyes he was met with the most unsavoury sight of destroyed buildings, the few that stood boarded up with frightened eyes peering out the cracks. Upon being noticed disappearing into the darkness. Walking through an empty street that lead to the main plaza where a steel fountain depicting the towns founder was faintly visible in the distance a door creaked open. Solaire turned his head to the noise to be greeted with a filly and her mother, both looking like they had nothing to eat in days staring at the group.
“Mommy,” The filly spoke up with a weak voice, probably from thirst. “Is that Mr Sunny Man?” She asked her mother, having a positive reputation in town Solaire had been lovingly dubbed the Sunny Man by the children.
Breaking off from the group the sun warrior approached the two and knelt before them, holding one shoulder each with his hands. “Whoever has done this to your town, I will make them pay. I promise.” Solaire spoke softly to the parent and her child, clearly heartbroken to know that others are sharing their fate and probably dead. In response to his promise the filly hugged his shin as if it were a teddy bear. It was times like this Solaire was glad to have his helmet on, tears of sorrow and rage streaming down his cheeks and dripping out the bottom like raindrops from a cloud. “Where are the others?” He asked with a concerned tone to the mother, who weakly pointed someplace behind her home. Getting up he ran as fast as he could behind the home, the group running after him with concern.
“Honey! We don’t have time-…for…” Ratchet called out to her husband, trailing off near the end of her sentence with what she saw. Solaire was on his knees, wailing in despair at what lay ahead. Graves. A whole hill of graves made from two sticks each, it seemed to span on for a considerable length. Following close by was Applebloom and Kurai, the red maned hybrid placing both hands on her muzzle once seeing the graves.
“I’ll kill him…” Solaire murmured. “I’ll kill that bastard!!!!!” He shouted at the top of his lungs while punching the ground until his knuckles were scraped by the dirt and pebbles.
Though it took a while, Solaire had calmed enough to continue walking down road to the plaza. This time leading the group with his sword and shield at the ready, walking past the fountain a trumpet was heard getting the group on edge. “Don’t move and we won’t shoot!” A soldier roared from the rooftop, multiple others with drawn out crossbows aimed directly at them. Kurai and Solaire reacted appropriately with their shields raised to protect Ratchet and Applebloom.
The main door opened to Cash Bags walking out with an arrogant grin on his face, followed by a shackled Sprocket on a chain leash. “Well well well, if it isn’t the first and last rebels I have.” He seemed to say through his teeth as the broken pegasus hung his head in shame with his coat covered in oil splatters.
Solaire pointed his sword at Cash Bags defiantly in the face of the many archers poised and ready to shoot at any given moment. “Come out form behind your wall of weaklings and face me, coward!”
Raising a hoof Cash Bags walked forward, taking his time as he walked down the steps onto a metal platform. “Put your bows away, I will handle this.” The porky stallion called out to his soldiers, though he seemed like a lazy coward he was not afraid to get his hooves dirty. “And take the old coot inside.”
It took her a while but noticing the cutie mark on Sprocket caused Ratchet to pull away from the defensive manoeuvre. “Dad! Dad!” She called out, but to no avail as he was lead inside with shame still on his face by Spotlight.
“Stand back, the three of you.” Solaire spoke out before turning to Cash Bags, still smirking arrogantly. “This is my fight. Where is your weapon, knave?”
“Oh I have something much more better than a weapon to fight you with, I am aware of your strength.” He snickered, stepping precisely onto the hoof imprints on the metal platform. “So I had my new weapon smith finish a little something he started while under imprisonment, I couldn’t kill him so I had to bluff killing him until I threatened to kill his only daughter. What a weak hearted buffoon!” Cash Bags cackled. “So now I will enjoy crushing you with this!” He finished, stomping on the final imprint with a left hoof.
The platform raised slowly, opening up to a series of gears whirring and clanking. A casing closed around Cash Bags, made of a clear synthetic and enchanted plastic with a few holes in it. Before long the platform opened into a trapdoor and dropped him downward into the pit, the ground cracking and bursting open into a larger trap door to which Solaire jumped onto one side to avoid falling into it. A larger platform raised to expose something closely resembling a giant diamond dog with the casing held snugly in the agape mouth, the primary controls in the form of pedals fitting into the holes of the casing. Spinning the pedals with his hind hooves and using two hoof grips on his front hooves Cash Bags caused the giant to rumble to life. Raising a giant metal arm ending with a spike rimmed shovel on the end of its seemingly endless limb it and brought it down, aiming towards Solaire who rolled to one side as the shovel shaped paw tore into the ground, gears audibly clanking vigorously, leaving a shallow but large hole once it was raised again. Shaking, the frame of the metal monster raised to its full height, the lower half made from three tractor wheels beginning to spin. With considerable speed it lunged forth like a locomotive towards Solaire. Just before reaching him it raised another shovel shaped paw to slam down, stopping just before it did for extra momentum. Like before Solaire rolled out the way, only to notice his shield has been crushed, the remains poking out from the rim. Growling banefully he gripped the sword with two hands and aimed directly for the joint between the arm and shovel, slashing at the joint with all his might he cut a copper wire tendon. “Hah! Weak!” Solaire proclaimed at the wire being broken with ease. “I think I wasted my strength on that one.” He mocked.
Gritting his teeth Cash Bags brought up the limb to inspect it and attempted to function the wrist, all it did was swing uselessly. “Damn you,” Was all he could shout out after his breath had run out from spinning the pedals to charge. “I might not be able to move the wrist but I can still smash you with it!” Keeping true to that the limb swung to the side and knocked his opponent into a broken down building nearby. Charging at the home where the sun warrior lay in the heap of rubble the limb of the metal monster raised again to crush him, instead the wrist flew off from the force of how quickly the limb was raised.
Time slowed down for the sun warrior as he saw the shovel fly through the air, slowly spinning and falling steadily. “No…” He whispered, hoping it did not land where he thought it was headed. A plume of smoke flew into the air, his worst fear confirmed. Visions of the dead family inside plagued his mind slowly, each one reflecting what was actually there. The mother feebly attempting to protect her daughter as they both lay under rubble, suffocating.
“Whatever, probably more useless peasants.”
A regrettable phrase, if there was one thing every person or pony knew. It was to not enrage Solaire. “You…”
“Hm?”
“I’ll tear out your very soul and crush it before your pathetic corpse!” Solaire roared at Cash Bags while roughly dusting off debris and glass, who was now visibly shaken at that threat. Placing away his sword he brought out a piece of decorated cloth, raising it over his head. Gripping it the warrior of the sun caused what looked like a spear of light to appear in his hand, growing larger and more intimidating in appearance. “Fear the power of the sun!”
“No no no no no!!!” Cash Bags screamed as he attempted to reverse the mechanical diamond dog but to no avail. In his foolish attempts he finally realised why, Sprocket had sabotaged it by removing a reverse function. “I don’t want to die!” He pathetically cried out, attempting to break out the casing in order to escape. It was too late as Solaire had tossed the sunlight spear directly at him, the spear breaking through the casing as if it were nothing. Upon impact with Cash Bags it electrocuted and impaled him at the same time, falling to the ground as the mechanical diamond dog shuddered from the electric current. Unfortunately he was durable enough to survive the initial strike and fall. “I-I will not die! I don’t wanna die!” He wheezed while bringing out a hoof controlled flintlock. “You will-“ His little speech was cut short by the mech suit shuddering and breaking apart, falling and crushing him.
“Weak.” Was all Solaire could say before walking over to the main building, the soldiers fearfully allowing him to pass as Kurai, Applebloom and Ratchet looked on in awe. Moments later he was followed out by an unchained Sprocket and a filly, Sprockets head still hung in shame. The filly had an orange filthy mane with silver toned coat, her eyes a contrasting blue.
Hugging her dad tightly Sprocket received a hug in return from her surprised father. “Wh-why? After I built that monster…”
“I forgive you, dad.” She calmly replied.
“I bear no ill will to you either. Your will was not your own in this situation” Solaire added.
Idly staring at the building Kurai noticed the filly hiding behind his friends legs. “Hey,” He asked. “Who’s the filly?”
Turning his waist to get a better look he turned his body fully to face the filly and knelt down. “What is your name?” He softly asked.
“Sw-sweet Talk, my special talent is my voice.” She managed to stutter out, her cutie mark being of a microphone.
“Where are your parents?” Kurai asked, his harsh voice breaking a line of calm talking which alarmed Sweet Talk slightly but calmed down knowing that he was with Solaire.
She thought for a second, but after a minute of thinking she crept down and hid her face in her hoofs. “I don’t know…” Sweet Talk sobbed as Applebloom gave her a comforting hug, slightly glaring at Kurai for asking such a question.
“What? The truth was going to come sooner or later.” He spoke in his own defence, though it was harsh he was right.
Crouching down to Sweet Talks level Ratchet patted her orange mane, hoping that she would stop sobbing so that she could hear Ratchet. “If you want, I can be your mother.” Though it should be the filly who must be most surprised, out of all who hung their jaws open at her sudden determination to be a mother to an orphan Solaire stood like a statue. Possibly frozen on the spot out of shock.
“You sure we are ready for such a responsibility?!” Solaire finally enquired.
“Of course, I had enough practice for a child when I first started dating you.” A small snicker was heard from the filly before all but Kurai started laughing loudly.
While all laughed at the joke, Kurai simply stared at the sky, an unfamiliar beast seemingly hovering above and flying off in Ponyvilles direction at being noticed. Sighing he knew of what was to come later on in the future, beginning to walk ahead of the group back to the metal tree home.
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“Princesses!” A palace guard ran into the dinner hall after slamming the doors open against two door guards, flattening them against the wall. This sudden entrance and the urgency in his voice caused the room to fall silent, the chattering now a brief memory. “We received a message from our gryphon watch squad, they have found the one you were looking for along with two others in the town of Alloy.”
“Anything else?” The element of magic asked the guard, who was franticly looking through the notes of the report.
Opening another folded scroll the guard read it out loud, “Alloy has been destroyed! Possibly been destroyed for a long time, the last known leader goes by the name of Cash Bags. His current status is deceased, cause of death was being crushed by a giant suit of armour after being struck by a lightning bolt.” He read out, the reason for his urgency out to the whole room. The sound of a teacup breaking on the pristine floors was heard in the dead silence of the news, eyes turning toward Celestia who for the first time since Kurai frightened her was now sitting there frozen, eyes wide and pupils dilated in distress.
“Were there any messages from Alloy?!” Demanded Luna after noticing her older sister was not responding. “Surely there must have been multiple messages from there!”
“There hasn’t been a message from Alloy since Cash Bags took over after Titanium Smith mysteriously passed away in his sleep from lead poisoning,” The guard answered solemnly, Luna slouched back in her seat helplessly while Twilight and her friends sat there, in awe of knowing a town called Alloy existed. “Though there have been reports of the message handlers leaving with extra large tips.” He added with a suspicious tone.
Floating above the table Discord took a gulp of his tea. “I think I might be able to help with that,” His disembodied face bouncing on the table towards Luna. “If Lu-Lu would be kind enough to give me permission.” His face melding with the table drape. “Yours truly could simply spy on the message handlers for any information, and report back with the delicious findings. After fall, I could use the practise on my selective omnipresence.” Nodding in agreement to his idea Discords face flew up with his eyes turning into two balls of thread as his eyebrows knitted his body back together. “Splendid!” He cheered as he was gone with an imploding pop.