//------------------------------// // True Directives // Story: To Protect And Serve // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// The fillies were lined up perfectly with his weapon as Robocop looked down the sight towards the three fillies that stood before him, easily able to read the fear in their eyes as they shook slightly in place. But Robocop could also read a number of other emotions in their eyes as well besides the fear. There was sadness, horror and in the deepest depths of their eyes...hope. "Stand aside you three. I do now wish to kill you, but if you oppose me then you oppose King Sombra and for that...you will be terminated," he said in a deadly voice, the blood on his armor telling them that his threat was indeed serious. But despite the overwhelming fear that the fillies felt at that moment, they refuse to budge, refuse to let him go without a fight. "Murphy...it's us. Yer friends. Don't ya remember?" Applebloom asked him with tears in her eyes. "I am designated Robocop. I do not know who this Murphy is. I ask one last time. Stand aside or I will terminate all three of you," Robocop said in a dark tone as he pointed the gun right between Scootaloo's eyes. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both looked towards Scootaloo with the desire to run written on their faces. "Scootaloo, maybe we should go. He looks serious," Sweetie Belle asked in a petrified voice, but Scootaloo refused to budge once again. "Murphy never gave up on us even against unbeatable odds, so I'm not giving up on him," Scootaloo said as she planted her hooves very deliberately in front of the robotic officer. "I don't know what Sombra did to you, but I know that you can fight it! You're not this...terminator that he wants you to be! You're a good guy, someone who arrests the bad guys and helps those who need it! Don't let his evil kill the last bit of humanity in you!" "Your words mean nothing to me. If you continue to stand against me, then you shall die," Robocop replied emotionlessly, Scootaloo looking into his robotic face in hopes to see any sign that her friend was still alive. She then closed her eyes as a single tear streaked down her face, before she opened her eyes again and stared up at him. "I am your friend Murphy and I won't let Sombra kill the good that you cherished so much. And if to stop you means that I have to stand against you then...do it. Kill me. Prove to me once and for all that Sombra killed one of the greatest heroes I knew," she said with absolute conviction, her friends looking at her in disbelief before shaking their heads and standing with her. "Prove to me that you're nothing more than a machine." 'Directive: Terminate all who stand in Sombra's way.' "So be it," Robocop replied as the directive flashed before his eyes, giving him the incentive to raise his gun and point it right at Scootaloo's head. There was fear in her eyes as he took aim, but there was also the faintest hints of hope as his finger squeezed the trigger. 'Protect the innocent.' Robocop's finger stopped cold as the words echoed throughout his mind. Robocop himself froze as he tried to figure out what had just happened. The words had sounded like a directive, but there was still his single directive on the screen before his eyes. But he had without question heard a voice, a voice that he did not know yet sounded far too familiar. He took aim at Scootaloo again and went to pull the trigger, but again the words echoed in his mind. But this time when the words entered his mind he felt a small burning sensation in his chest, a sensation that increased when he tried to fire at the girls again. 'Directive: Terminate all who stand in Sombra's way.' Static began to appear on Robocop's screen as the shutdown system kicked in at his refusal to carry out his directives. Robocop took aim at the fillies once again, but Robocop and the fillies realized that his hand was shaking slightly as he took aim at them. This time he had only just thought of pulling the trigger when the words roared in his mind, far louder this time than they had before. "W-what's going on?" Sweetie Belle asked her friends, Scootaloo's eyes going wide as she put two and two together. "He's fighting it," she whispered as Robocop kept his gun aimed at their heads. "Murphy! You have to remember who you were before Sombra influenced you! Before you became Robocop! Remember the man who almost gave his life for justice! Don't let Sombra kill him! Break the chains!" Robocop could barely register anything that was being said around him as the directives on the screen before him clashed with the words that seemed to come from the fire that was burning in his chest. His scanners informed him that at least ten of the Sentinels were approaching the fillies, who spun around with fear to face the advancing monsters that slowly marched towards them. 'Error. Error. Conflicting directives,' Robocop's screen said as the Sentinel's got closer and close to the group. Robocop could barely see through the static that covered his screen, struggling to remain standing as his systems began to shut down on him. His pistol shook in his hands as he fought to hold onto his control, but the shutdown program was winning the battle and as long as he fought against the directive he couldn't move. The Sentinel's that advanced towards them let out a roar as they leapt into the air at the three fillies, who screamed as they huddled together in fear. And in that moment time slowed almost to a crawl for Robocop as he tried with all his might to figure out what to do. He knew that he had to obey his directives, but something within his chest plate burned with resistance every time he tried, screaming at him that he shouldn't. 'Directive: Terminate all who stand in Sombra's way.' 'Protect the innocent.' He wracked his brain as he tried to figure out a way to obey both directives, a way that he could both protect the fillies before him and terminate them at the same time. Yet as he looked down at the fillies, he felt words enter his mind from the burning sensation that seemed oddly familiar to him. When he looked at Sweetie the word innocent appeared before his eyes. When he looked at Applebloom the words uphold and law appeared. And when he looked at Scootaloo the full phrase serve their trust appeared before him. 'Directive: Terminate all who stand in Sombra's way.' 'Protect the innocent.' His body was nearly in full shut down and he could barely see through the static in his eyes, but he was still able to hear the cries, the cries of the fillies before him. Then the pain from the directives burned into his body and began to attack his brain, barely leaving him able to think clearly, with the last image of the fillies and the Sentinel's before him. 'Directive: Terminate all who stand in Sombra's way.' 'Protect the innocent.' 'Directive: Terminate all who stand in Sombra's way!' 'PROTECT THE INNOCENT!' "BREAK FREE, MURPHY!" BANGBANGBANG! The fillies screams grew even louder as they heard the gunshots, but as they were expecting pain from being shot they instead heard the sounds of heavy objects hitting the ground in front of them. They cracked open their eyes to see the Sentinel's lying dead on the ground in front of their hooves with the black magic leaking out of their heads. The fillies eyes went wide before they turned and looked up at Robocop, who wasn't moving at all as sparks flew from his helmet. "Murphy! Are you...alright?" Scootaloo asked as she poked him with her hoof. The moment she did so, Robocop began to fall on his face. But in a blur of motion his leg shot forward and prevented him from hitting the ground. With gritted teeth and a roar of rage Robocop pushed himself back to a standing position, standing up right before looking at all of the Sentinel's that now surrounded the group. But despite being horribly out number, no static crossed his eyes nor did the shutdown attack his systems. And they never would again. "Designation: Robocop. Name: Alex Murphy. Status," he said to the fillies before him as he took aim with his gun at the Sentinels. "Free." Robocop began to move forward as he said this, firing into the Sentinel's heads with pinpoint accuracy as he advanced. The other Sentinel's let out roars of rage as they lunged at him, but his hydraulic fueled limbs easily allowed him to catch the Sentinel's in the air and slam them into the ground, where he could easily fire more rounds into their skulls, leaving them obsolete. With the immediate threat out of the way Robocop turned around and knelt down, the fillies rushing over to him and all tackling him at once. "You're back," they all said with smiles on their faces and tears streaming down their eyes, Robocop trying to smile in response before remembering that his face was missing, so he nodded instead. "You broke free of what Sombra did to you." "Correct. I am here. And I will help." He stood up again as more of the Sentinel's began to approach, turning to face them with a fire burning in his robotic eyes. "Go and awaken Twilight. I shall deal with these." The Sentinel's screamed as they rushed at him, but the first fell under a hail of gunfire that shattered it's head into pieces. The second to a robopunch to the face that planted back into the earth that it was created from. He then looked up at all of the other Sentinel's as words came back to him, words that came from the heart. "Under what I can recall of my oath I am instructed to inform all of you that you have the right to remain silent," he began as he punched another in the jaw, taking off the lower half of its jaw and ensuring that it remained silent. "You have the right to an attorney!" He spun and fired as the words left his mouth and dropped three more of them to the ground. Another lunged onto his chest and pushed him into the streets, slashing at him with its paw. But just like so many before it, the Sentinel discovered that Robocop could not be harmed so easily. "Anything you say can and will be used against you!" he continued as he reached into the creatures jaw and tore the it’s head clean in half. "If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand the rights that I have just read to you?" Robocop drove his gun into one of the Sentinel's mouths and pulled the trigger, the bullets punching through its skull and flying into the face of another Sentinel behind it, killing it as well. Only when the last one had fallen did he look around at all of the creatures and finish what he was saying. "With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak with me...good." He turned and walked back over to where the CMC had just helped Twilight back to her hooves, the princess looking worse for wear. Fear appeared in her eyes as she saw Robocop approach and she threw herself between the fillies and him, but when he came to a stop and nodded his head at her did her eyes widen with recognition. "Murphy!" she yelled as she raced over and threw her arms around him, Robocop gently patting him on the back before she let go of him. "You're back...you're actually back." "For the most part...yes, I am back," he replied before turning and looking up at the sky, where a yellow and orange Pegasus could be seen flying towards the group. "Don't bother explaining anything to me, I saw it all from above," Flash said with a tired smirk as he walked over to Robo and punched him lightly in the leg. "It's good to have you back man. Maybe with you on our side again we can finally fight back against all of those Sentinel's." "That will...not work." All eyes turned towards the source of the voice, which happened to be the fallen princess of the night. Twilight and the other ponies raced over to her and tried to help her up, but she cried out in pain when they attempted to move her. "You're plan...will not work. Sombra...is continuing to create new Sentinel's with each passing moment. I do not know how he is doing so, but my magic is telling me that he has almost rebuilt his army." "Then how do we stop him?" Sweetie asked. "My sister...built in an emergency fail safe into the chamber just in case it ever fell into the wrong hooves," Luna wheezed through gritted teeth, having lost too much blood to even lift her head. "If you...destroy the chamber...then the Sentinel's will all die...and it will end their menace. The pool...is their source...destroy it...and their magic will die. It is...the only way." Robocop nodded once as he stood up and turned to where the chamber was, beginning to march their before the ponies called out. "Murphy! You can't fight him by yourself," Twilight said as she weakly staggered forward. "He beat you once before, he might be able to do it again! Let us help you." Robocop took in their condition and how tired all of them were, making his decision that much easier. "No. Luna and Celestia will die if you do not stop the loss of blood now," Robocop informed them before turning back to where Sombra was. "Also, I made a promise that I would make Sombra answer for his crimes. I will keep my promise." "Are you sure? I can come with you, offer some support-" "I will not allow any more innocent to die by his hoof...and I must avenge those who died by my hand," he said with full on fury, the ponies shocked at him showing his full emotions. "This is not only the reason I was created...but it was the reason that I nearly died at the hands of a group of criminals. Because justice must be done." "Are ya gonna kill him?" Robocop turned to look down at Applebloom, who had both an unending wrath and the deepest of sorrow in her eyes. Robocop knew how much she had suffered, what she had lost and he knew she would probably like nothing more than for him to kill him. But he knew the oath that was ingrained within his heart. Robocop gently patted her mane, standing up and walking towards the chamber with one last thing to say. "I will bring him to justice."