It had only been an hour since Steamlord and Twilight..."left", and Sunrise was already feeling under pressure. She was having trouble with writing, and the fact that the others used their mouths for writing didn't exactly allow Cheerilee to teach the young dragon how to write with her hands seeing as the teacher had hooves. However, using an old teaching book, Sunrise had taken the pencil within her claws and painstakingly wrote to imitate the letters within the pages. Every now and then, though, Cheerilee would say something about the history of Equestria. Knowing that her "father" was also interested in that, she would frequently ask questions about these things, much to the dismay of the class.
After awhile, it was time for recess. Letting the children out, Miss Cheerilee sighed as she tried to relax in her now empty class. Sunrise stepped hesitantly outside as some of the other ponies gave her a glance that indicating their unhappiness at her needs to ask boring questions and lengthen their annoyance. Thankfully, Apple Bloom arrived to bring Sunrise to her friends:
"Hey Sunrise. You okay?"
"Hi Apple Bloom. No...I...I don't think the others like me."
"That's nonsense. 'course they like you. They just don't like being in class 'cause it's boring."
"True."
"Say, why d'ya keep askin' 'bout Equestria's history?"
"Because my dad wanted me to teach him about its history after coming back from school."
"Really? Ah thought he would've gone ta the library since ya both know Twilight so well."
"I...didn't think about that."
"Well, do ya want ta come with me and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders?"
"Cutie what?"
"Follow me!"
Hesitantly, Sunrise followed Apple Bloom to see a little orange pegasus filly as well as a white unicorn.
"Hey Apple Bloom. Hey Sunrise." said Scootaloo.
"Um...hello? Who are you?"
"I'm Scootaloo."
"And I'm Sweetie Belle."
"You look a lot like Rarity."
"That's because she's my sister."
"Really? That's kinda cool."
"Hold on, the real question we need to ask you is who your "dad" is." said Scootaloo.
"Yeah. That's true. He don't look nothin' like a dragon."
Sunrise never thought of this. She never even bothered to ask what species her dad was. He wasn't a dragon, obviously. He wasn't a pony, also just as obvious. He was a strange being at best.
"I don't know. I never really asked him."
"Oh, well, that's okay. We just wanted ta know what he was."
There was a short moment of silence, but the little dragon broke through it with a question:
"Apple Bloom, what did you say earlier?"
"About what?"
"Something about "Cutie"?"
"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We try everything together to get our cutie marks." shouted Scootaloo.
"Crusaders? How come you have the same name as my uncles?"
"Huh?" the three crusaders said.
"Well, yeah. Those giant shiny guys are called the "Crusader Knights", and they're also three."
The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at each other in awe.
"And what do they do?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"They protect my father and have these cool over-sized swords."
"Maybe they figured out what their special talent is?" said Scootaloo.
"But-"
"Could we go see them after school?"
"S-sure. Why not?"
"Cool! We can ask them what they do an' we'll try 'n do the same."
Sunrise's muscles grew tense.
"Uhhh...you don't want to do what they do."
"Why not?" asked Apple Bloom.
"They've managed to beat those weird scorpion things that look like the stars as well as...what did dad call them? A Hydra?"
Everypony in the yard stopped all activities after overhearing the exploits of Sunrise's "uncles". Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were stunned, but they had massive smiles on their faces rather than abhorrent shock.
"That's AWESOME! Can we see them after? Can we? I really want to see how cool they are." Scootaloo shouted while bouncing around.
"I already said yes."
"Great! Then we'll have to get ready for later then." said Sweetie Belle.
"One more thing, what are cutie marks?" Sunrise asked with confusion on her face.
It had barely been an hour that Sunrise was at school and she already made friends. The little dragon was sure that she would enjoy school for a long time to come. However, it was going to be math time after recess. The worst enemy of students was readying to seep its venom-dripping fangs into their brains and turn them into confused and mindless zombies.
Twilight galloped as fast as she could to the library and slammed the door shut, scaring a few passer-bys by this strange action. What was wrong with that red unicorn? However, on the side of Steamlord, he was busy being dragged away by the Knights, who dropped him in the middle of the town. Their creator just wouldn't break out of his apparent trance. Scratching their heads, they started using a variety of simplistic ways of waking him up. They tried slapping him, but that didn't work. They tried hitting him on the head with their claymores, and that didn't work either. Security System was the expert in medical knowledge, not them. So, as they pondered the current situation, a cyan pegasus flying above at extreme speeds spotted the strange creatures bent over another one.
"Hey! They look like those creatures I chased in the forest. What are they doing here? Let's see what they want."
The pegasus dive bombed after making a sharp turn and stopped just in time to not hit the ground. A little tapping of her hooves on the dirt, and she was walking forward in a very stern manner.
"Who are you guys and what are you doing here?" she said loudly.
The bots barely turned their heads that they were already trying a new way to wake Steamlord back up by picking him up and slamming him on the ground.. Their ignoring of the pegasus annoyed Rainbow Dash.
"HEY! I'm talking to you! Don't just ignore me like that! Hey...helloooo!" she said as she fluttered close to Templar's head.
Rainbow Dash kept trying to move them away and have these "things" answer when the three bots suddenly stood up and jumped in front of the pegasus and the still knocked out creator. Their "segments" started to glow, and whatever the projectiles fying towards them were, they were deflected and thrown into the ground. Hospitaller had tossed the cyan pegasus onto Steamlord, causing her to head butt the unconscious man. He immediately woke up as he rubbed his head in pain and looked to his side to see a pegasus doing the same.
"What the? Who are you?"
"Owwww....I'm Rainbow Dash. Who are they?"
"My Crusader Knights. Why did you head butt me?"
"I didn't head butt you, whoever you are! One of them threw me at you."
"By the way, I'm Steamlord, a friend of Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps you know her?"
"Yeah. I do. What do you know about her?"
"HEY! What art thou speaking of?" yelled a familiar voice.
Steamlord facepalmed as he stood up and pushed through his bots in annoyance.
"You two again?! That was fast. And who are these newbies?"
"These are two of the elite of the princesses royal guards. We have asked them to lend us a hoof in apprehending you." said Flameblade.
"Yeah, and this time, you're going down! We know how your friends there fight! And we're gonna destroy them just for you." mocked Icey Storm.
Rainbow Dash looked perplexed and asked:
"Who are these bozos?"
"I dunno. Something about monster hunters and capturing me. They aren't worth it, just ignore them."
The four ponies looked irritated by his sheer open mockery of their abilities.
"Well then. Since you do not wish to come quietly, we will have to rough you up! Atta-"
At the exact moment that Flameblade pronounced the second "a" in attack, Templar and Hospitaller suddenly appeared on both sides, their claymores sticking out horizontally and with the blunt side being used. As they remained crouched, and everything around seemed to have been barely moving, the two bodyguards swung their claymores with great strength and speed, knocking the "elite" guards several feet away and tossing them through several houses along the way. When they were finished, Icey and Flameblade stayed immobile, but staring at Steamlord who was laughing maniacally with his arms crossed. Teutonic was simply standing a few feet in front of the hunters, but it didn't move.
Even as the two ponies regained their senses and the electrical message from their brains just left "home" and was heading for their muscles, the two ponies found that the white and black creature was bent over them as they were being smashed into the ground by its hands. Rainbow Dash watched in awe as these weird creatures not only looked awesome...in certain aspects...but they were also pro-fighters. A huge upheaval of dirt, and the three knights had their claymores unsheathed and were pointing the tips at the two monster hunters who were still in shock but could barely move simply from the force of impact caused by Teutonic. They were trying to stand up, but their bodies wouldn't respond.
"What...what did you do...to us? How...?" moaned Icey.
Steamlord walked forward in great laughter as he crouched to rub Icey's head, who retracted in irritation.
"We adapt and we evolve. Apparently, your pint-sized brains were incapable of distinguishing any different physical traits on my bodyguards. Just that would have told you that they had changed, but, of course, you decided to use simplistic maneuvers simply because you thought you knew them well." he stood back up." I have upgraded them, with the help of someone of course, and now you won't be able to anticipate their movements nor manage to ambush them."
Flameblade laughed as he coughed up some dust.
"That's what you think."
"Oh yes, that's EXACTLY what I think." he said with a grin.
Apparently, the two guards were back, their armor shattered in several places all at once. They had quietly walked behind the bots who were only looking at the two hunters. Taking the opening as a chance of attack, the two royal guards jumped up, planning on smashing their steel hooves onto the backs of the shining creatures. Unfortunately for them, part of the programming and upgrading that Steamlord had his bodyguards undergo endowed them with a better scanning capability, ignoring just a small portion of interference caused by the energy surges throughout this world. It was enough, as Templar and Hospitaller slammed their claymores into the ground and used them as a point to push against, and jumped up, kicking the Royal guards straight up into the air. The robots weren't done with just a kick, oh no. They literally pushed off the hilts of the claymores again and thrust the massive blades into the air. Using the blunt sides yet again, the robots grabbed their weapons with both hands as they pushed the royal guards down until crushing the stallions underneath the full force of the claymores, creating even more craters.
Simply looking at the two guardsmen laying on their sides, knocked-out, proved just how powerful these robots had become. Resheathing their claymores, the robots returned to the side of their creator as this one was having trouble breathing from laughing so hard. Rainbow Dash was more frightened by how fast the bots had gone as even she had trouble following them. Whatever they were, they performed excellently as bodyguards.
"Next time, try and come back with...oh I don't know...upgrades? Pffpth."
The hunters struggled out of their hole as Flameblade took a stone out of his armor and pushed on it. An aura started to surround the beat up ponies as Flameblade promised:
"We will return, and this time, we will have an army at our disposal. You have been deemed a threat to Equestria, and you must be erased from the surface of our world."
"Sure I will. I definitely haven't been through such petty things as battles with entire armies that were more threatening than you can imagine. Not the slightest. Therefore, I definitely don't know how to fight against all of you combined."
Icey Storm tried to throw a knife at the creature's neck, but the weapon simply flopped onto the ground. Soon afterwards, the four teleported away in whatever display that was. Steamlord picked the knife up to see that the hilt was made to look like a snowflake, while the blade itself looked like wavey and erratic icicle. After a long observation, he gave the knife to Teutonic, who firmly crushed it.
"Woah. I don't know what that was about, but you guys are totally cool! Not as cool as me of course, but you get the picture."
"So you think you're cool? What exists to support this fact?"
"Pff. I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. Is that enough proof?"
"I need to see live performance to be properly "impressed". Allow me to accompany you into the air."
"What? You don't even have wings! How do you expect to...oh."
While Rainbow Dash was questioning what this wingless creature was talking about, Steamlord had reached for the two arms of his mobility pack which were firmly gripping his shoulders. He pressed a few buttons, and with the sound of steam of spinning cogs, the thing on his back seemed to be remodeling itself under the coat. The man took off his jacket and handed it to Hospitaller. Steamlord now had some sort of pack on his back that used the same movement system as his ship. The main engines for movements, and the secondary engines for movement control. It was literally a jet with a brightly glowing blue orb in the middle. After the reforming, he jumped high into the air as his pack allowed him to stay up there. With a smirk on his face, he followed the cyan pegasus with his eyes as she looked at him suspiciously while flying up.
"This will be the perfect moment to have my MPWG scan the capabilities of these 'pegasi'. It will also be the perfect occasion to study the full extent of the Knights' mobility and agility upgrades. So, where shall we race to prove that you ARE indeed what you say you are?"
Rainbow Dash looked around while squinting and spotted the mountains near the swamp of Ponyville a bit further away.
"The mountains. We'll race to there and then back to here." she said.
"Great! Crusader Knights, follow me closely from the ground. This will be a perfect moment to test out your new capabilities."
The bodyguards expelled another dose of what seemed to be intense streams of steam, and their gears starting to "crink" wildly until suddenly stopping as all three readied to run.
"Perfect. Let's go!" yelled Rainbow.
"All right then. I wonder if Sunrise is doing okay for her first day of school." thought Steamlord before taking off at great speeds.
He was also going to take the time to learn more about this world and the characteristics of the pegasi from this pony.