The first lesson was a simple thought experiment combined with some visual aids that taught everypony (except Pinkie Pie) how to turn their heads up displays on and off, thus gaining access to their more robotic functions.
After that the six friends found themselves at a shooting range. Gears paced the line behind the six robot ponies, in front of them an army of cutout targets were brought into the shooting gallery. “Most of you are equipped with standard issue beam cannons in your front hooves. Pegasus models use ion cannons instead, both of these weapons systems run off of your primary power generators. Your generators can produce enough power to fire these weapons up to five times per second. Additionally you can charge the energy into the weapon’s capacitors and release it all at once for a more powerful blast.”
A purple hoof shot up like a school filly in a classroom. “What’s the difference between a beam cannon and an ion cannon?”
Gears rolled his eyes and answered, “The blast from a beam cannon looks like a ball of light. The blast from an ion cannon looks like a ball of lightning. Aesthetics aside, the only meaning full difference is that when charged the beam cannon shoots a larger blast, but when charged the blast from the ion cannon becomes a narrow beam that flashes more like lightning than a projectile sailing through the air.”
Motioning downrange to the targets Gears said, “All right, feel free to select your primary cannon in your weapons system, and take a few shots to get use to operating it.”
Six ponies lined up and pointed a hoof downrange. Six metallic hooves opened up, presenting lens arrays. A volley of energy weapons fire was unleashed, and five targets exploded.
As the others turned to Fluttershy, to help her figure out why her cannon didn’t fire, Rainbow Dash turned her hoof just enough to look at the lens array inside it. The resulting observation made her ask, “Hey, isn’t this the same thruster that helps me fly?”
With a nod Gears answered, “Yes, with a slight tweak to the energy flow an ion cannon can be used as an ionic thruster. That’s why the pegasus model uses those.”
“Cool,” Dash muttered. Then turning her attention to the yellow pegasus-bot, she whispered something into Fluttershy’s ear.
Closing her eyes, Fluttershy waited a moment. When she opened them again she swung her hoof over the shooting range counter, unleashing a volley of five shots. A fraction of a second later five of the targets downrange exploded.
As the others congratulated Fluttershy on figuring out how to use her weapon, Twilight pulled Rainbow aside and asked, “What did you tell her to help her figure out why her cannon wouldn’t fire? And how did you know what was wrong?”
“Easy, the problem wasn’t that she couldn’t fire it, it was that she wouldn’t fire it. So I told her to pretend the target dummies were poachers that she’d caught skinning puppies and kitties.”
Twilight blinked, then smiled and gave a soft giggle.
Content with the display, Gears spoke up. “Very good, now the last thing you need to know about your main cannons is that in addition to being weapons they can also be used to drain magic power cells in order to recharge your own. That will be useful if you need to recharge your weapons or shield energy out in the field. It’s not too uncommon for our guardians to defeat an enemy robot while it still has a charge in its weapons power cells. However the real prize is the recharge stations that the enemy forces bring with them so their units can have a nearby recharge station, if you come across any you should take a second to top off your magic power cells as well.”
Tapping on the glass behind them, Gears added, “Back here at base however, we have more then enough unicorns ready and willing to recharge you.”
Beyond the glass was what looked like a brake room with about a dozen unicorns. Some lounging of large pillows, some sharing a conversation over refreshments at the tables. At the sound of Gears tapping, several got up and trotted over to the window, where their horns started to glow. Matching glows shimmered around the six robot ponies. The glows around Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flickered out almost instantly. For Twilight Sparkle and Rarity magic was channeled into them for less then a second before fading. The unicorn recharging Pinkie Pie maintained the flow of magic for several seconds before finally letting the glow fade.
“Now that you’re all topped off, it’s time we move on to your specialty weapons. These weapons were designed specifically for each of you, based on the records we had for each of you. Feel free to practice with them until you have a good feel for how to use them. When you’re done here report back to the command center for your first mission.”
* * * * * * *
As the six friends returned to the command center they found that Gears paid them no mind, instead a unicorn mare with a white coat and blue mane called them over. She wore scared golden armor that marked her as a member of the royal guard.
“Hello Ladies! I’m Captain Light, captain of the royal guard robotic warfare division, and second in command of this base.”
“Third!” a familiar voice interrupted.
“Can it Gears! Your boss got captured, so there’s nopony between me and Luna in the chain of command, remember?”
Tilting her head to the side slightly, Twilight asked, “What’s that about?”
“Technically this place isn’t a military base. Before we set up shop here it was a privately owned robotics research and development facility. When Celestia saw that this place was easily defendable, she had the remnants of the royal guard set up here, and she ordered that the owner be giving command authority over her facility. So technically speaking, there is one pony other than Luna who can overrule me. But like I said, she became one of the wielders of the elements and has been captured, so realistically I’m second in command here.”
“Sounds like you don’t like this pony,” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but observe. “Care to tell us why?”
Light sighed, then answered, “Mortal pride I guess. It just rubs me the wrong way to think a civilian did a better job preparing a defensible base of operations than the guard did.” Shaking her head slightly the captain continued, “Regardless, you six have completed your basic robot training, so it’s time for your first real mission. You may have the memories of experienced adventurers, but as you no doubt noticed in weapons training, fighting as a robot can be rather different than the way you may have been use to fighting. And so, your first mission will be an easy target to help you work out the kinks in your fighting habits.”
Motioning for the six robots to gather around the table she was by, Captain Light tapped her hoof on the table and the top of it lit up, revealing that the tabletop was a screen. The war table currently showed a map of Equestria, mostly shaded red, with a triangle shape along the western coast shaded bluish. Pointing to a dot near the eastern most tip of the blue triangle Light said, “We’re in the Unicorn Range, here.” Sliding her hoof over a dot noticeably northeast she added, “You’re target is a supply depot, here. It’s far enough behind the lines that its not of any real tactical value anymore, so it will be lightly guarded. Yet it’s close enough to friendly territory that you should be able to do a hit and run, and get back here before any kind of response shows up. Any questions?”
“Yeah, I got one. What’s the target look like?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It’s going to look like an armored truck with a dozen or so robots guarding it. The truck itself won’t be armed as it’s nothing more then a recharge station for the hunter/killer teams that venture into our territory.” Light paused for a second then added, “If there are no more questions, follow me to the deployment area.”
Captain Light led the way to a door, off to one side of the command room. Beyond that door Twilight and her friends found a room with arcane runes carved into the floor, forming a circle. The clatter of hooves alerted the six newcomers to the ten unicorns that had been in the room, now scrambling to stand at attention and salute the captain.
The captain returned the salute and then motioned upward, drawing attention to the armored door ten feet off the ground, in the wall opposite the one that they had entered from. “While pegasus models are fast enough to be deployed the old fashion way, once we added unicorn and earth pony models we decided that we needed a better way to deploy our guardian robots to wherever they are needed,” Captain Light said. Motioning to the floor she added, “Teleportation was the obvious answer. The only downside of this method is that it’s too dangerous for the teleportation team to go with you, so it’s going to be a one-way ride. Once your mission is complete you’ll have to return to base on your own. Also, to avoid dropping you in the middle of an ambush we’ll only be teleporting you near the target area. You’ll probably have a fight your way to the actual target.”
Rarity’s eyes opened wide for a moment and she asked, “Excuse me darling, but are you saying that you expect us to walk back here?”
“I would hope you’d gallop back rather then walk. But for those of you that have to hoof it, don’t worry too much, I’m told one of the perks of being a robot is that as long as you don’t get your main power core damaged you’ll be able to run at a full gallop without ever getting tired.” Looking to the other unicorns in the room Light added, “Fire it up!”
“Yes ma’am!” one of them answered.
Another pressed a button on a small podium near the runic circle and the two walls on the left and right sides of the room flashed to life, revealing that they were monitors. The two screens showed the image that the captain had left on the war-table screen, highlighting the target area.
The team of unicorns gathered on either side of the ring carved into the floor, horns alight, causing the runic pattern to glow with lights matching the glows around the horns of the ten ponies fueling the magic.
Captain Light motioned for the six robots to enter the glowing ring and they did so. Offering the robot ponies a salute Light said, “Good luck out there.”
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash managed to return the salute before disappearing in a flash of magic.
* * * * * * *
A sea of lights swirled around the six friends and when the flash of light passed they found themselves standing in the middle of a hillside field. It didn’t even take a second before they all noticed the marker in their heads up displays, directing their attention to the south.
“Looks like the target’s just over that ridge,” Applejack said, pointing to a hill.
One by one six heads poked over the ridge, peering out through the tall grass.
“Oh my stars, darling! This is lightly guarded? There must be at least a hundred and twenty six of them!” Rarity whispered, while looking down at the field of robots surrounding a set of trucks that matched the description they’d been given for the depot. After a second she muttered, adding, “That was an oddly specific guess.”
“Naw I’m counting a hundred and twenty six too,” Rainbow Dash said.
With a nod Applejack added, “Me too.”
“Me three!” Pinkie said, a little too loudly for it to be called a whisper.
“Is it just me or do all of those robots look like mechanical wolves or parasprites?” Twilight asked.
With a nod Applejack said, “All expect for that big one that looks like a robot cow. So, what’s the plan?”
Bringing a hoof to her chin Twilight said, “Well we’re going to need to clear out the defenders if we want to get close enough to the supply trucks to destroy them. It would probably be best if Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and I will focus on the flying ones, since we can fight them on equal ground. Applejack Rarity and Pinkie Pie, you three focus your efforts on the ground targets. The cannon coming out of the back of the big one worries me, so try to keep your distance from that one if you can.”
The friends nodded in agreement. A second later Dash leapt into the air, followed closely by Twilight. The three ground-bond robot ponies charged over the ridge of the hill. Fluttershy squeaked softly before reluctantly following after her fellow airborne friends into the sky. With a clean line of sight, every robot (pony or otherwise) opened fire.
Rainbow Dash did her best to dodge incoming shots while, blitzing through the sky and returning fire with her ion cannon. Twilight Sparkle did much less dodging, favoring an extra shield spell to block most of the incoming attacks. Like Dash, Fluttershy dodged the sea of energy blasts filling the sky. Unlike Dash, Fluttershy used all four of her hooves as thrusters and couldn’t seem to find the time to shoot back.
On the ground, three robo-ponies ran tripod style, using the cannon on their fourth limb to fight back. Sprays of dirt shot up from the impacts around them, drawing muttered curses from Rarity.
Despite being badly outnumbered, the moment the first volley of blaster fire was exchanged six friends understood why this target was considered lightly guarded. Doing its best dragon impersonation, a mechanical wolf opened in maw and fired an energy blast from the cannon just behind its jaws. Then the wolf exploded into scrap metal and shattered circuits. On the opposite side of the exchange, Applejack barely even flinched as what looked like lightning flickered over her body, and she saw her shield energy indicator drain ever so slightly.
High overhead a robotic parasprites, though much larger than their biological versions, instead being about the size of a pony’s head, exploded with a single hit. “Hmm, these don’t seem to have shield emitters integrated into their armor,” Twilight voiced her observation, not really talking to anypony.
Several more peresprite-bots exploded in showers of scrap metal and sparks, as Rainbow Dash came out of a loop-d-loop. “Oh yeah! Take that! What’s the matter? Am I too fast for-Ghaa!” Dash cut off her own boast when a beam as big as she was washed over her.
When the beam of red light faded, Rainbow Dash emerged, falling head first, electricity crackling all across her armor. As her friends called out her name Dash opened her wings and the thrusters in her hooves flared back to life and she pulled out of the unintended dive, zooming skyward. Turning her cannon to the source of the blast she returned fire and said, “Yikes! Watch out for that robo-cow! That blast knocked out forty percent of my shields, in one shot!”
Applejack joined Rainbow Dash in shooting at the mechanical bovine, forcing it to take cover.
Coming to a hover beside the robot with the prismatic mane, Twilight said, “I’ll handle the suppression. Why don’t you do your weather-pony thing and clear these skies?”
Glancing back, with a wicked grin Dash answered, “Sure thing, princess!”
With that Rainbow Dash darted off, leaving Twilight Sparkle to ponder if she was still considered ‘Princess’ Twilight anymore. In the three seconds it took Twilight to decide that she’d have to ask what her status was when she got back to base Dash had run out of targets to shoot down.
Below, the battle on the ground was also wrapping up. With the last of the robo-wolves dealt with, the three pony-bots advanced on the lone, remaining enemy. The mechanical bovine fired its cannon at Applejack. The beam tore a small trench in the ground, as Applejack dodged by jumping to the side. As the rest of the beam slammed into the hill behind its intended target it exploded with the force of a bazooka, creating an explosion the size of a large cart.
Rarity and Pinkie Pie released fully charged shots from their own blasters. The blasts looked like sparkling balls of light with comet-like tails, a little larger then a pony’s torso, and were tinted blue and pink respectively. A second later the barrage was joined by golden-orange and purple blasts from Applejack and Twilight respectively. Then a beam of light with twin, light-blue lightning bolts spiraling around it flashed from Rainbow Dash’s cannon.
With each blast the robo-cow’s armor arched with electricity, proving that its armor had integrated shields. The robo-bovine started firing small energy bullets from its horns and even got another shot of its heavy cannon off. However, badly outnumbered, it quickly succumbed to the concentrated fire of its adversaries. A shot from Twilight’s blaster was the first to draw shrapnel, a second after that a chain of explosions removed the last obstacle to the pony-bots’ mission.
Once they’d demolished the supply depot the six turned to the southwest and headed for home base.
* * * * * * *
Six friends walked into the command room and were quickly surrounded by a team of ponies, most of them unicorns. Those that weren’t recharging the guardians’ weapons and shields magic batteries placed strange helmets with cables coming out of them on the pony-bots. Aside from cables the helmets had all kinds of lights and gizmos on them that reminded the six friends of the helmet Twilight used to have in her basement science lab.
Of those recharging the magic batteries the one that had lined up in front of Rainbow Dash started to slump his shoulder and he muttered, “You took a beating out there, didn’t you?”
Rainbow turned her eyes downward, and even though she said nothing the look in her eyes said ‘I’m sorry’ for her.
The stallion’s comment did get a more noticeable response as two of the other unicorns added their magic to his. By the time Rainbow Dash’s magic reserves were toped off all three unicorns had limped off to a corner of the room and collapsed as if they just finished running a marathon.
The earth pony tending to the helmet on Fluttershy looked at the robot and smiled. “You didn’t even fire your weapon did you?”
“Umm… yes… I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”
“What are you talking about?” Dash interrupted. “Did you see how much fire you were drawing? You were a great decoy!”
As the Fluttershy’s friends laughed and agreed, the maintenance pony whispered, “It’s okay, you’re not the first guardian robot that didn’t like violence. Personally I’m glade you don’t, that’s what makes you better than the robots out there trying to kill us.”
“Thank you,” Fluttershy whispered back. “But how did you know I didn’t fire my blaster?”
“These funny hats are updating your memory backups. You know, just in case you get yourself destroyed, we can rebuild you remembering everything up to this maintenance session.”
“Wait, we can’t really die out there? That sounds convent,” Twilight commented.
“One of the many luxuries of being a robot. Though I implore thee not to make use of it, as we don’t really have the resources to build replacements for any of you at the moment,” a commending yet familiar voice said.
Looking to the source of the voice, Twilight called out, “Princess Luna!”
With a small smile, the alicorn princess with the midnight-blue fur and mane that shimmered like a vision of the night’s sky said, “Indeed. It is good to see the six of you up and running, and acting like the ponies I remember. I always get nervous when we bring a new model online, and worry if I did enough looking into their past to recreate all the memories that made the pony who they were.”
“Wait, You looked into our pasts?”
“Indeed, though I am not alone in that field. I am fairly certain that your memories include the fact that alicorn magic can be used to make a potion to view the past. There are two others who view the past with me when we are trying to craft a mind from the heroes of the past. We find it helps if-” Luna’s words were cutoff as red lights in the corners of the room came to life, and the sound of an alarm joined the noises of the command center. “What now?!”
As the princess of the night went over to the command table, the ponies tending to the six robots gave the robo-ponies one last check, and one by one they removed the maintenance equipment and gave each the go ahead to join Luna.
Twilight hurried to Luna’s side. “What do all of these dots on the map mean?” she asked, taking note of the differing colors of the ten or so dots that hadn’t been there before. Luna merely stared wide-eyed at the map displayed on the command table. “Princess?”
Luna shook her head slightly and said, “Sorry, the blue ones are active combat zones where we have a guardian robot deployed. The red ones are imminent threats, and the yellow ones are high-priority targets of opportunity.”
Armed with this information Twilight looked back at the map of Equestria and her eyes slowly widened until they matched Luna’s expression. “Oh my.”
“Do we know anything more about these alerts?” Rarity asked.
Tapping the dots on the map, Luna started making ‘hmm’ noises as she perused the windows that popped up. Even though the information was displayed so that everypony around the command table could read it, Luna summarized the data out loud anyway.
“It seems the red ones are the notices that the enemy has deployed large infantry, armor, artillery, and airforce units, all moving into position to wipeout this base. Even though they are marked as ‘targets of opportunity’ one of the two dots near the ruins of Ponyville actually represents a real threat.”
Pointing to the two yellow dots, one just north of Ponyville, and the other seemingly in the town, Luna said, “One of unicorn prisons is in what’s left of Ponyville. With the bulk of the enemies forces moving on this base, this is the first time we’ve seen a unicorn prison this lightly guarded. Freeing those ponies and reducing the enemy’s ability to make magic power cells would be an extraordinary boon to our efforts.”
“And the other one?” Twilight asked.
“The dot slightly north of town is the only operational space launch facility left in Equestria, and is the more important target. We’ve known for a while that the renegade robots have been building a space-based robot factory. Being beyond our reach, if it ever comes online we’re going to be in big trouble. Now that the enemy forces are away this is probably our only real chance to bust in, borrow one of the spaceships to get up there and take out that space station.”
“Couldn’t you just teleport somepony up there?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Shaking her head Luna answered, “No the enemy has had too many unicorn captives for too long. They’ve been able to siphon off enough magic from them to build teleportation wards in addition to magic based weapons systems. And I’m afraid that your thrusters only work in the atmosphere so none of our pegasus model guardians can get up there either. We’ve been working on a modification pack to allow one of our pegasus guardians to get up there, but it’s not ready yet.”
Placing a hoof on her chin Dash said, “Well if my wings are useless in space… I call dibs on shooting the enemy airforce out of the sky.”
“Agreed, you would be the best guardian to deal with that, Rainbow Dash.”
“Princess, I’d really like to free the unicorn prisoners,” Twilight volunteered.
“Very well,” Luna answered. After closing her eyes for a second, she added, “Given the nature of the space station, a unicorn model guardian would fair best up there. With Twilight looking to free the unicorn prisoners, would you handle the space station, Rarity?”
“If I must, though I’m guessing you don’t have any more lady-like tasks I could do, do you?” Rarity answered.
With a bit of a laugh Luna answered, “No, I’m afraid not. However I would recommend that you and Twilight move out and strike the space launch facility together. Once you borrow a spaceship Twilight can launch it from the command room and then move out to her target in Ponyville proper.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Twilight said with a nod.
Turning to the orangish-tan robo-pony with the cowboy hat, Luna said, “Given that Twilight and Rainbow Dash are already accounted for I think you would be best suited to intercept the train moving the artillery unit.”
With a slight bow of her head and the tip of her hat, Applejack said, “Sure thing, princess.”
“Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, that leaves the infantry and armor intercepts to you, take your pick.”
“Oh! I call dibs on the infantry!” Pinkie practically cheered, with a slightly devious grin on her face.
“It is settled then,” Luna said. “Before you move out, there is something more you should know, you don’t need to defeat the entire enemy force at any give location. A leader always commands the low-grade robots, so taking out the general in each unit will greatly reduce the fighting efficiency of any remaining forces. More importantly it will also stop any non-AI units dead in their tracks, as they are controlled directly by the leader. Any questions?”
“I got one!” Pinkie Pie said. “Is Fluttershy supposed to be shivering like that? It’s not even cold in here.”
Lowering herself so that her eyes were barely above the command table, Fluttershy whispered, “I-I’m sorry. I-I don’t think I c-can take fighting out there alone.”
“Come on, Fluttershy, you don’t have anything to worry about. I mean you just heard how we don’t even have to fear death. Even if they don’t have the resources to do it now, as long as we win, I’m sure they’d rebuild you as soon as they could. Right princess?” Twilight said, directing the last part to Luna, who nodded a ‘yes’ in response.
“I-I’m sorry, but I just can’t!” Fluttershy whimpered, and then ran out of the room.
Twilight started to go after her, but was blocked by a sky-blue hoof. “You guys get a move on. I’ll talk to Fluttershy and we’ll catch up,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Are you sure you won’t need help, Rainbow? She seemed pretty shaken.”
Dash looked at the main screen, taking note of how fast some of the dots were moving, she said, “We don’t have time for all of us to stay here and talk her into doing her part. Just trust me, I think I know how to get her to pony up.”
Twilight opened her mouth to protest but Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder and said, “Dash has a point. And she has known Fluttershy longer then the rest of us, so if anypony will know what to say it’s her.”
“Fine. Good luck,” Twilight said, bowing her head in defeat.
With that, Luna and four robot ponies headed into the deployment room, while Rainbow Dash left the command room flying after Fluttershy.
Inside the deployment room Luna lit up the target areas and the unicorn stationed began teleporting the guardian robots to the designated areas. When it was Twilight and Rarity’s turn, Twilight looked to the princess of the night and asked, “Couldn’t you handle the last mission?”
“If I were a robot I would gladly handle the matter myself. However, I just returned from the front myself, and flesh and blood takes a little more then a quick recharge and pit-crew tune up before being ready to fight at one’s best again. Know that I am not without a backup plan. Now put your mind at ease and focus on the task at hoof.”
“Alright. I’m ready,” Twilight said, as she stepped into the ring of teleportation runes.
“As am I,” Rarity confirmed, joining Twilight.
With a flash of magic the last two robots in the room vanished. Looking to the map of active missions, one of the unicorns said, “Princess, why is this happening now? If the enemy has had that many forces ready, why haven’t they attacked sooner?”
A slight smile appeared on Luna’s face. “Isn’t it obvious? We spooked them. The enemy has seen six new guardian robots on our side, they must not realize that we don’t have the resources to make any more.”