//------------------------------// // Party Crasher // Story: To Protect And Serve // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// With hooves crossed and brow furrowed Sombra rewatched the battle between his mind controlled manticore and the metal man that had appeared out of nowhere to rescue the fillies. The orb before he replayed the events and he recorded each bow each movement, everything the metal man did in his mind for future reference. 'Such power. Add that to his incredible armor and its little wonder that my manticore lost,' Sombra mused as he rewatched the part of the battle where he tried to use the manticore's poison to subdue his foe, but again he watched as the stinger failed despite it clearly striking flesh. 'Could his skin be armored as well? No, if that was the case what would be the need for armor? There's something that I'm missing here, something vital.' The match continued in the orb, yet Sombra could not deduce what made this human so special compared to the ones he had read about. Then he narrowed his eyes as he bit into the man’s arm, which should have done little to his armor yet as he remembered the man seemed unable to use his arm after such a blow even though it didn't draw blood. 'But this is what truly interests me,' Sombra thought as he watched the manticore bite down on the man’s arms once again, then the man drew the black item and pointed it at the manticore's head, ending the battle with a one liner and a loud crack before the orb went black. 'What manner of weapon was that, that could kill a manticore filled with my dark energy so easily?' He stood up from the rickety old table that he sat at and swiftly glided across the floor to his table in the corner of the room, where a number of strange items were lined up upon the table. He tinkered with a few mechanical parts and tampered them with his dark magic, yet after an hour of trying he found that he could not even come close to the results of the man he had fought. "It does not make sense. If he is a human in armor, then for him to move so swiftly would mean that the armor would not weigh much, yet the manticore's strongest blow never even scratched the surface of his armor," Sombra argued with himself as he looked down at the small robotic arm. "But if he was all machine then he would have to be controlled from somewhere, yet he seemed to act independently. What is his secret?" Sombra tinkered with his own materials and magic for a while longer, but each failure informed him that he was lacking far too much data to understand how his foe operated. Deciding that he needed air Sombra escaped his lair with the bowels of the Everfree Forest and slithered to the surface, where he rested in the shadows beneath the trees as he contemplated his next move. "It is clear that I need more data if I am to even hope to understand this "Robocop's" full abilities," Sombra mused as he played around with his magic. "But how to gather more data? To do so I would need another..." He ceased speaking when he felt the ground vibrate beneath his hooves. The dark king turned his head to see a Lumber wolf marching towards him, snarling menacingly as its eyes rested on its next meal, whereas Sombra found the solution to his problem. "Yes, you will do nicely," Sombra cackled as he let forth his magic, the dark tendrils snaking themselves up the legs of the monstrous beat and piercing it's skull, forcing his will upon it's brainless form. It took only a moment for his puppet to be under his strings, the dark king taking just a few seconds to observe his work before he ordered, "To Ponyville with you." The monster lumbered away while Sombra returned to his orb, make sure to write down everything that happened. DPD Robocop tried to distract himself by rereading the reports he had written in his databanks about the manticore and the information that Twilight had given him about Sombra, but the music that assaulted his auditory sensors was far too annoying and loud to block out, snapping him back to reality. He was sitting in the corner of a large building that the CMC had informed him was called Sugarcube Corners, where the pink pony classified as Pinkie worked and apparently threw parties. She had cornered him around noon and had informed him that she had thrown a party for him. Robocop had tried to politely decline, yet somehow she had managed to trick both him and his sensors into getting him to come to the Corner, where every pony in the town had been waiting for him. And now he found himself sitting in a corner as other ponies partied around him. "Yeah, a pinkie party can be overwhelming at first, can't it?" Robocop turned his attention away from what looked like dancing to see Flash Sentry walking over to him, offering him a cup which his sensors revealed contained fruit punch. "No thank you, I do not need to drink," Robocop responded as he turned his eyes away, Flash shrugging as he downed both cups of punch as he leaned against the wall. "I still have not grasped why Pinkie felt so inclined to throw me this party. I do not require it, yet her expression seemed to indicate that she would assault me if I said no. Does she have a mental imbalance?" "Nah, Pinkie just really likes to throw parties for all of her friends," Flash said as the words brought back fond memories of the first Pinkie party he had been to. "Trust me, the sooner you let her throw you the party the better off you'll be. I avoided one of her parties once and to get back at me she nearly gave me a heart attack by cramming all of the crystal empire into my living room." "I was not aware that Pinkie and I were...friends." "Everyponies Pinkie's friend, they just don't know it yet," Flash chuckled to himself before his attention was grabbed by Twilight walking over to them. "Hey Princess, seems like Pinkie really knocked this one out of the park. I don't think that I've ever seen our friend here look so happy before." "I did not know that we were friends." "Are you sure he looks happier?" Twilight asked as she got a closer look at Robocop's face. "He looks exactly the same as he always does." "Trust me, he's smiling on the inside," Flash said in reply. Robocop opened his mouth to answer when suddenly all of his scanners and alerts went off at once, informing him that more of the dark energy he had encountered against the manticore. He immediately figured that Sombra was there or behind the energy. He shot to his feet, causing the two ponies next to him to nearly jump out of their coats, and he began to march to the door. Ponies parted as he walked by, all except for one who zipped in-between him and the door. "Where ya going?" Pinkie asked him with a smile. "Official police business. Please step aside," Robocop instructed as he tried to move around her, yet the pink blur zipped between him and the door once again. "Oh no you don't, you're just trying to use that as an excuse to leave my party," Pinkie accused him as she rooted herself into the ground. "I'm not letting you leave until this party is finished." "You are obstructing an officer of the law," Robocop said in a much darker tone as his scanners continued to blare in his helmet. "Remove yourself immediately or there will be consequences." "Ha, nice try but I'm not going to let you go so easily," Pinkie said with a smirk. "We're finishing this party and as a friend I would recommend that you-" Robocop had enough of her talking and tried to push by her, getting the pink pony to yell at him in surprise. He had just reached the door when he felt her grab his arm. With his desire to reach where Sombra might be he attempted to shake her off, but forgot about his strength momentarily and sent Pinkie flying across the room, where she slid to a stop on the floor. "What are you doing?!" Twilight yelled at him as she rushed to Pinkie's side, glaring at Robocop as the party came to a stop. "She wasn't trying to hurt you! How could you do that to your friend?" "She tried to obstruct justice and interfere with police work," Robocop said in a dark tone that caused all of the ponies near him to back away. "And anyone who tries to obstruct justice is close to a criminal in my books. And to correct your statement Twilight, she and I are not friends." He marched off after he said this, heading towards the direction of the energy. With nearly all of the ponies in town at Pinkie's party the last thing Robocop was expecting to hear was the sounds of screaming, but upon hearing three very familiar screams did he pick up the pace as best he could, speed walking through the town. "What is that?" he asked himself as he saw the cause of the cries of distress before he laid eyes on the sources, looking up at a massive wolf that was covered in bark and branches. The creature towered over the buildings and also over three fillies that he knew well, but what confirmed his scanners was the dark energy that was coming from his eyes. "Sombra. Still after the fillies." Surprisingly the wolf seemed to hear Robocop and it turned its head towards the officer, a smile breaking out on its face when it saw the silver armored man. Sweetie, Bloom and Scoots all started to cry out for him, but the wolf roared once and they all went silent. "A Lumberwolf?" Twilight asked as she landed next to Robocop, Flash joining them a moment later as he ran up from behind. Twilight then looked into the monsters eyes and she saw a dark energy that she knew all too well. "Sombra. So he's the reason this monster is attacking the fillies." As if to confirm her words the Lumberwolf let loose a roar before it charged at the three, Flash running for his life before the mass of tree slammed into a barrier created by Twilight, which barely held the wolf back. Robocop reached down and drew his firearm, yet he didn't fire as his scanners couldn't determine a weak point for him to hit. The wolf shattered Twilight's barrier by slamming his face into the shield, tossing Twilight back. "Didn't learn your lesson last time Sombra?" Robocop asked as his rambolts drove themselves into the ground, bracing himself as the Lumberwolf took a swing at him with its paw. The paw did nothing against Robocop's armor, but the swipe was still enough to knock Robocop's rambolts out of the ground and to send him skidding backwards. "Apparently you did not, as you have turned yourself into an even weaker creature." "Do not bother trying to intimidate me, man of metal, this time I brought a creature with no vital organs for you to exploit," the deep, dark voice of an evil being came through the Lumberwolf's mouth. "This creature cannot be killed by whatever weapon you wield. Today is your and all of the ponies end." "Not today Sombra!" Twilight yelled as she flew back into the battle, firing off bolts of spells that slammed against the bark of the Lumberwolf, but she growled in frustration when the dark energy sustaining the monster absorbed her spells as well, causing Sombra to laugh with glee. "Oh be gone Twilight, you are no longer a challenge for me," Sombra wolf laughed as blasts of darkest erupted from the maw of the beast, striking Twilight down from the skies. Robocop rose back up to his feet as the wolf turned its attention back to him, but more importantly Robocop saw that the wolf was finally far enough away from the fillies. Directive: Protect the innocent. "Flash. I will distract the creature while you circle around and grab the fillies," Robocop instructed to the guard next to him. Flash nervously nodded as he looked up at the mass of bark and death that let out a howl before lunging towards Robocop. Robocop responded by whipping out the auto 9 and taking aim at the beasts eyes, firing two shots with pinpoint accuracy that blew out the light of the creatures eyes. The Lumberwolf howled as it was blinded, but Robocop's scanner informed him that the dark energy was repairing it's eyesight. "Not a bad trick metal man, but it will take more than that to...wait a moment, where did that guard go?" the wolf asked before it swung it's head around to see Flash trying to help the fear filled fillies away from the battlefield. "Now then, we can't just have our audience up and leave, can we?" The Lumberwolf let out a roar as it hurled itself at the four, who screamed as they threw themselves at the ground as the creature came down on them. "I will be adding animal cruelty to your charges for this Sombra," Robocop said as the auto 9 tore apart the air again as three, 50. caliber shots tore through the Lumberwolf's back leg, causing it to collapse to the ground right in front of the ponies. The four sprinted over to Robocop as quickly as they could, relieved smiles on their faces as they reached him. "You saved us, again," Scootaloo said with admiration in her eyes as she looked up at the robotic officer. "We can't even crusade anymore without being attacked by something," Sweetie grumbled. "But thanks for the save." "Yes Robocop, good job on adding ten extra seconds to their lives!" the wolf roared as it drew it's head back, sucking in the air around it as darkness began to form in its jaws. With only a second to react, Robocop threw the four ponies together before he braced himself in the ground with his back to the wolf. "DIE!" The wolf unleashed a hellish fury of darkness upon the officer and the ponies, who thought for certain that they were dead. But as the torrent of darkness enveloped them, they realized that the brunt of the blast was not striking them, but instead the flames tore at Robocop. But despite the dark magic that battered him with unholy power, his defended the ponies as he used his own body as a shield. And as Flash looked up at Robocop he saw no fear in the officers face, only the desire to protect the ponies before him, despite using his own body as a shield. The torrent of darkness ended a few seconds later, allowing Sombra to see to his shock that despite the armor now being blackened, Robocop still stood unmoved. "My turn." Robocop reached down to his left leg as the paneling drew back, revealing three circular objects that was almost as big as his hand. Robocop turned the charge to seven and hurled the device at the wolf, where the disk stuck to it right in between the eyes. "I'm sending you out with a bang." He turned to use his body as a shield again, detonating the device as he did so. A massive explosion shook the area as the Lumberwolf was blown apart into firewood, the bits and pieces of it bouncing off of Robocop's armor as he shielded the ponies. Only when debris stop raining from the sky did he turned around to look at the charred remains of the massive wolf. The four ponies gawked in awe at the sight as Robocop spun his gun and holstered it, turning away to go aid Princess Twilight. But not before he said, "Bad dog."