Sweetie Bot - A Heart's Warming Tale

by Grimweird

Chapter 23. Burning Bridges

It was over. She would never be a real filly.

If anything. She was more of a machine now than she had ever been.
Her armor now shone without the faintest crack or scratch. As the energy of Madame Macadame's transmutation circle ripped through her systems again and again - It had supercharged her crystals. Her Repair system had used all that energy to restore her body to a perfect condition. Despite her armor not being connected to her electronic systems. The particles had simply rode on the waves of transmutative magic and restored her armored frame. Built it up from scratch. But it had also drained her. Her buffer - And her regeneratory system - And her repair system were depleted. The crystals had gone dark. her energy readings no longer able to detect the slightest trace of magic left inside them.

The skin she once had - was now completely gone.

Like her Repair system - Her regeneration crystals had used all the energy to restore her biological skin to its former glory. The magic had even attached the flesh to her cybernetic nerve endings. making her able to move her face mask like she had always done. But it had not been able to activate her sensors, and that's how she knew her new face was nothing but a mask. It had not been able to make the voices in her head go away, and that's how she knew she was still a machine, with a computer for a brain.

It had not been what she wanted - So she had torn it off. The last skin she would ever have.

Sweeties right leg jerked under her. A signal that was suppose to make her leg move forward got distorted as the electricity jumped from one wire to another. The plastic isolation that was to prevent this from happening was gone. And her repair system had no material nor magical energy to restore it with.

It was the only part of her that had been successfully transmuted into flesh. Flesh that had been melted into blood and leaked out of her as the further transmutation attempts failed.

Failure...

It was a word that haunted her. A word that seemed to describe her very existence.

What had she not failed at?

She had fail to be everything her makers thought she should be.

She had failed to be Filly.

She had failed to be a toy.

She had failed to be a murdermachine.

She had failed as an experiment.

She had even failed to turn herself into a real filly using magic.

...

“My primary function is failure.” Sweetie said to herself.

Her back leg twitched, and she nearly lost balance. Moisture was beginning to form on her insides. And were now distorting the energy traveling through her unprotected wires.

She corrected the helmet to try and cover up the missing plate in her neck. Even being a few sizes too big - It was still not big enough to prevent raindrops from leaking in through the plates in her armor.

The weather seemed to be getting worse. The sound of rushing water was becoming louder. So loud in fact that the roar was drowning out the drumming that the heavy cold drops played on her metallic frame. The rain washed the blood away but now threatened to make her short circuit. And she was not getting any dryer by continuing her endless march towards a dream she knew would never come true.

But if she was not walking towards a future, then where was she even going?

Sweetie stopped.

The roar of running water was now the loudest it had been. But the drumming on her helmet seemed to have faded. Sweetie raised her eyes up from the soaked asphalt below her and saw that the raindrops were falling more sparsely than before. The world was still dark and cloudy - But it still seemed to be clearing up.

She also noticed the wooden railing surrounding this part of the road - and that the forest had fanned out to her right and left. The roar remained. But it was not coming from above or around her. It was coming from below.

She was standing on a bridge, she had not noticed walking out on in, since her nose had been pointing to the ground the entire time.
The route she had downloaded from the taco doll was fresh in her mind, and this bridge was on course. Unknowingly she must have followed its directions without thinking.

But why did she even want to get to the place where she was made anyway? What could wait there but more pain? What was the point? The probably did not have any touch sensitive alloys. For if they had invented them – then why had they not attached them to her? They probably did not have anything. The place was gonna be abandoned. It was worthless to go there anyway. For they were not gonna be able to make her into a real pony anyway.

A real pony...

She was forever gonna remain this cheap imitation of a real pony. A copy Of life. A fake.

A failure...

She walked up to the edge of the bridge. The old railing separating her from the running river below down looked old and moldy. Placing two hooves on the old wood caused it to give way. Sweeties iron hooves were planted firmly on the edge. But the planks fell...
They fell and fell and then they hit the water, and was swept up by the strengths of the river before they could even make a splash.

Sweetie looked down into the river running down there far below. It was quite the canyon this bridge was suspended over. A real pony might not survive this drop.

A real pony...

What had ever happened to the real pony she had been based on? Had she gone into the everafter? What happened next? What happened when a pony was done with the everafter – Did they go to a place after the everafter? Or did they come back?

Reincarnate...

The water seemed to be coming closer the longer she looked. Its endless masses forever flowing out into the ocean. Then it would get lifted up into the cloud cities by the pegasi, and turned into clouds in their weather factories. And then made to rain over the hills and valleys, refilling the rivers so that the water could once again run down out towards the ocean.

An endless cycle of life.

Reincarnate...

Does toys come back as other toys when they reincarnate? When had she last had that thought?
Her memory bank told her that the last time was in the mental hospital with the mad mare known as Screwloose.
The thought of the mare did not help. It only made her sadder. Never again would she be able to feel the embrace of another mare. She would be cursed into eternity in this soulless body.

The Logic center said that was a good thing. That she would never be able to hurt again.
The Emotional Processor did not say anything. The hate she had felt for that ugly changeling had disappeared like a rock sinking into the dark waters below. Sweetie had wanted to kill her. To hurt her! Destroy this evil changeling that had robbed her of the last traces of her pony-ism.

But what was the point? Blasting her would not make her skin come back. It was gone forever. And with it, the last chance that she would ever become a real filly.

Gone forever. Like the murky planks that had been swept away by the cold dark waters below.

She had retracted her blasters, and walked out into the rain. She had not even bothered checking her heart drive status. What would be the point of breaking her elusive component anyway. It would not make her a real pony. The only thing accessing her Heart might provide would be a chance to finally turn off these pesky emotions. and why not? the only thing she would be able to feel anymore would be the cold fact that she was not a pony. Despair over all that she had lost and would never regain.

If she turned it all off ... She would be even more of a machine.

What was the point? ... Nothing mattered anymore.

Down below. The water continued to roar. Once this river might have been calm. But the massive amounts of rain had made the river grow wild and deep. The water-masses was pushed together in this canyon and sent the waves smashing into both sides of the canyon. hard enough to break rock and bone. - Maybe even steel?

Can robots come back as something else when they reincarnate?
But if she had no soul. How then was she supposed to reincarnate? How was she suppose to pass on the files and data that was her soulless mind?

The memory of the arcade machine played in her mind. It had been way to small to host even a fracture of her mind. The dolls from Taco Teddy's had barely hosted a percent more. Were there even a computer thing that could host something like her?

She was not sure she wanted to know.

Suddenly she heard some dog barking, or some pony.

Sweetie turned back to where she had been coming from. There on the bridge stood the drenched Rarity replicate. Sweetie had not even noticed it following her from Madame Macadame's hoofball field. Nor had she cared about the few lines of dialog it occasionally poke.
But the one thing Sweetie had not programmed that Replicate to bark like a dog.

The sound was not electronic. It was pony made. Though it sounded just like a dog. There was only one pony who could make that sound.

"Screwloose?"

Looking behind the replicate, Sweetie saw a figure emerging from the rain, running at full speed.

The madmare quickly closed the distance between them. She skittered to a stop right before Sweetie and immediately proceeded to lick her in the face. The mares tongue repeatedly swiped over Sweeties lidless lenses, polishing them clean with her saliva.

"You're ... alive" Sweetie said, dumbfounded. "You ... Recognize me?"

It seemed like an impossibility, given how much Sweetie had changed since they last saw each other. Yet, here she was. Barking happily and loudly and waging her drenched tail. She lowered her head, waiting for Sweetie to scratch it.

The mare looked absolutely dreadful. Soaked head to hoof in rainwater. Her unshaven fetlocks were full of dirt, as was her unholy mess of a gray mane and tail. She was still wearing that torn up restraining jacket - Now torn, tattered and stained to the point it almost mashed her mane. And in that mane she still wore the knot, remaining of that ribbon Sweetie had tied for her.

She truly looked like an escaped mental patient. Sweetie could not help but to wonder if that was just what she was. Had she too been roaming around the forest, lost and alone since the fire? just how had she survived?

Before she could ask, Screwloose reared up on her hind legs and howled like a wolf. Then, she bolted away from the filly. Back up the hill to where she had come from.

Sweetie just stood there. Her Heart-Drive was overjoyed to see that the crazy mare was alive. But her Logic Center did not share in the enthusiasm.

Before Sweetie could continue her destructive thoughts, more figures appeared over the hill. At least half a dozen ponies and a large wagon, heading straight for her.

Once again her Stranger Danger subroutine was overridden.

She recognized all of them.

Why? … why had they come? And why was they traveling in such shady company? And who were the two mares in heavy raincoats traveling with them? Raincoats with big hoods pulled far down over the wearers heads. Preventing Sweetie from seeing their faces.
And why was Screwloose so happy to see them?

At the sound of all those hooves approaching. The Rarity Replicate turned around, and walked to greet the 'customers.' Sweetie herself ducked down behind the railing, on the very edge of the bridge. Despite wearing armor, she felt as exposed as ever. Two of the ponies in that group might have never see her with skin. The others had never seen her without. And one part of Sweetie prefered it stayed that way. Would they even recognize her if they saw her now? what would they say?

"Hello, and welcome to Taco Teddy's ..."

The group slowed down to stop at the edge of the bridge. Brick halted as to not run into the Replicate, and the wagon he was pulling slid to stop on its side. Allowing Sweetie to see the clear labels of a hospital wagon. Of the kind they drive insane patients in.

Was this why they had come? Were they rallying up all the mad ponies she had left in her trail? Had they come for her? This little deluded machine who thought she was a filly? Had the others guided her towards her? Where they gonna round them all up and ship them back to loony town? Dr Pain looked like ha had not gone down without one heck of a fight. And still he carried that smile, frozen on his face as he stared at the replicate.

"Interesting... Is this your doing, Madame Heartache?"

"N...no. This ... Isn't me ... Ive never seen this 'thing' before." mumbled the gypsy mare. Did the others know she was a changeling?

The two mares in Raincoats Pulled down their hoods.

"Why does this one look like Rarity?" The purple one asked. Sweetie immediately recognized Twilight Sparkle.

Why? Why was she here too? She wasn't crazy the last time Sweetie had checked (with a few exceptions.)

"ME!?" Shrieked a mare in a raspy, high pitched voice, like somepony on the verge of catching a cold. "How can you even suggest this looks like me!"

From behind the replicate emerged a white mare with purple hair that Sweetie at first did not recognize. Circles and bags black as the night framed in eyes red and swollen. She looked more pale than white, like a ghost. Except for her muzzle, which was red and irritated. Her purple mane was hanging in shreds. Completely devoid of any curls of volume.

The Replicate looked more like like Sweetie's sister than this wreck of a mare before her. Her emotional processor told her that her heart drive wanted to relocate to her throat. But still Sweetie did not move. Had they all truly not seen her? Was her colors so dull she blended in with the gray and rainy world?

"It's the wrong mare!" The sickly, pail figure shrieked. "You were suppose to track down my sister! You stupid mare!"

Screwloose sniffed questioningly at the replication - who promptly began to ask them to take their seats. Then the mad mare snorted and kicked some dirt at the replicate before running further out onto the bridge.

"Allow me to guide you to your seat." Said the replication, and followed Screwloose. "May I take your order?"

The mad mare pulled Sweetie out from behind the broken railing. She barked ever so happily and danced around the filly, waiting for conformation.

Sweetie too - waited. The expressions of the group seemed to change in slow motion. Like they did not understand what they were looking at. Could they all simply not recognize the little filly standing before them?

Judging by their eyes - one could draw a mixture of conclusions. Pain of course smiled even wider. Madame Heartache covered her mouth with a hoof not to throw up. The others, who had not seen Sweetie since her 'transformation' simply stared with eyes grew as wide as teapots.

Silence hung over the group, apart from the roar of the river, and the chants of the replicate. Yet their eyes seemed to speak for them.

It was there in their eyes. – Those eyes. Filled with shock and doubt and terror.
The only thing that Sweetie could not see in their eyes – Was recognition.
The machine standing before them – could not be Sweetie Belle.

The very idea stung, Hard. It was like being back in class. Only this time there was no X-ray spell washing over her. Only the rain dripping over her cold metal frame. She felt even more exposed now than she had done before, now that the shock of seeing her true self was no longer with her.

They seemed to be deconstructing her with their eyes. Arriving at individual conclusions. Some shook their heads. Others covered their mouths with their hooves. Some seemed to get teary in their eyes.

Rarity was in the last category.

"Sweetie ... Oh my little Sweetie." She stammered. Breaking the painful silence.

Twilight and the hospital staff looked back and forth between Rarity and the other nuttheads for conformation.

"Oh my ... Its really? .... Its really ... !"

"Fascinating. Isn't it?" Dr Pain asked.

Twilight diverted her eyes in shame. Brick stared in disbelief, Sully's maw was hanging ajar (the needle she was chewing on having dropped from her mouth) And Dr Cardiac just looked extremely troubled. The only one who looked at Sweetie with undivided recognition was Screwloose ... and Rarity.

'Why' Sweetie thought. Why do you recognize me now? Where was that recognition back then? Of course, that was part of the problem, was it not? That Rarity knew all along?

Sweeties jaw shivered. She was having difficulties putting forth the words. Afraid that her broken voice would only make her more uncanny.

"Wh... Why...?" She stammered. Her head twitched as the moisture in her neck started playing tricks with her energy distribution.

"P... Pardon?"

"Why? Why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious? We came looking for you."

"With ... Them?!" Sweetie raised a hoof and pointed accusingly at the suspect company Rarity traveled with.

"I'm not going back there with them. Why are you traveling with them! Do you know what they have done to me! Is this all some sick joke!"

"Interessssting" Dr Pain hissed.

Twilight's horn lit up, and the lips of Dr Pain was transformed into a pair of zippers. Who swiftly zipped shut.

"We were worried about you." Cardiac began "We had to find you."

"We have come to take you home." Rarity continued.

"HOME?" Sweetie eyed the hospital wagon "Where? You think I'm going back there?"

"Sweetie. I know you must be angry right now but ..." Cardiac tried.

"NO! Shut up all of you! I'm tired of listening to your lies!"

"Sweetie. Please ... Listen to me."

"NO!"

The ports at Sweeties sides flew open, and the dual master blasters unfurled into their full size.

The ponies jumped back. Screwloose's ears flattened to her head and she whimpered loudly as she slowly backed away from Sweetie.

"SHUT UP! All of you. Just shut up! All of you just want to control me"

She swung her blasters from side to side. Causing each individual to duck or lean out of the way, trying to get away from her targeting zone. (except Dr Pain, who just smiled) Every time somepony tried to open their mouth she shut them up by shifting her aim to them. Twilight's horn lit up, But Dr Cardiac put a hoof on her shoulder and shook his head.

"Sweetie! Nopony is trying to control you!"

"Yes you are! You all want me to be something I'm not! Even you, Rarity!"

She shifted her aim to her own sister. Rarity froze in fear. But made no attempts to get out of the way.

"Sweetie ... What makes you say that?" She stammered. Tears streaming down her face.

"Don't call me that!" Sweetie stammered back, internal fighting against a thousand voices screaming at her about the atrocities she was committing by aiming a lethal weapon straight at the mare she loved most in the world next no her mother. But her logic center told her she could not think of Rarity as her sister.

Not after all she had been through. Not after all the secrets and lies. Not after learning that Rarity had been involved with the same maniacs she now stood beside. Who's to say she was not as crazy as them?

What did she really know about Rarity? Other than that she had to be her sister. She had to look away from all the obvious answers her emotions were trying to give her. She could not listen to them any more. Who or what was Rarity?

Rarity was somepony who always strived for perfection in all things. If she could not have perfection she would make it perfect herself. She had not made her though. WRONG! She had made her! Dr Pain had told her as much. And if she had made her. Would she then not have made her perfect?

What was perfection?

That word scared her more than anything. Because it was something she was not.

She was not perfect.

She was...

Rarity's question hanged unanswered in the air.

”I am ....

... and you don't want me because I'm wrong! You just want perfection, Miss Rarity, and I’m not perfect any more am I?!”

Rarity tried to say something. But Sweetie re-aimed bout canon barrels at her. Targeting circles appeared around her sisters head and the blasters started to charge up.

“SHUT UP!”

She did not dare let Rarity speak. Any and every word could be the code phase that activated the control program she had in her head and made her into an obedient slave.

”You just want to control me.” She continued “You just want me to be the way you want me to be!”

"Sweetie..." Rarity stammered "Nopony is forcing you to..."

"SHUT UP!" Sweetie cried, making her infrared vision activate. Knowing full well that it made her eyes visible red.

"Everypony just wants to control me! Everypony wants me to be something else! You are no different Rarity! You want me to be Sweetie Belle. Your perfect little sister... But I'm not!”

Rarity's mouth was hanging ajar. She did not understand. Did not want to understand.

”I am ..." Sweetie began.

... I am not Sweetie ... I am ...

... I'm just a replica made to replace the real sister … who died!”

”No Sweetie Bell. You are my sister!” Rarity screamed over the roar of the river.

”I am...

“You are not an error!”

Sweetie realized that she had been saying 'error' out loud.
The question of what she really was hanged in the air. She looked around. She found the eyes of Dr Cardiac. He looked at her with fear. He had already understood what she was trying to say. He shook his head, pleading for her to don't say it.

'But I have to.' Sweetie thought 'I have to, because you told me that the first step is to accept what you are'.

”I am... I am... I am a BOT!!!”

Sweetie cried out the last word at the top of her voicebox.

”And... and... I don't love you! I'm just programmed to love you!”

Rarity was visibly heartbroken.

”What makes you say that?”

”I have a control program inside me! I am controlled to love you! But its not real!”

”Sweetie there is no such thing!”

”DON'T LIE TO ME!"

"If you don't know, then mum and dad must know!”

She pointed an accusing hoof at Dr Pain.

"He showed me! I saw it through a recording of one of his little Spiderbots! He was spying on you all without you realizing it!"

"Don't the person realizing it kind of defy the point of spying?" Brick whispered to Sully, Who punched him in the shoulder.

Sweetie tried to play a voiceklipp of the recording from the disc. She realized that with her broken voicebox it would not sound to convincing. But she did not care.

As the message ended. The crowd went silent. Even Screwloose had stopped whining. somehow the silence seemed more hurtful than relieving. Had they nothing else to say for themselves? Had Sweetie won the argument? Somehow, that did not feel like a victory. Her heart drive told her she did not want to win this argument. Her logic center did not care either way. It was just proving a point.

Then, Rarity took a step froward.

Sweeties targeting systems locked on to the mare. The blasters hummed warningly on her back, but Rarity took another step.

"Don't... Say it ... Just ... Don't..." Sweetie stammered, sounding like a broken record.

Rarity slowly shook her head, and took another step. She was visible biting her lower lip, and ears streamed from her swollen eyes.

"Don't ... come any closer ..."

Rarity's horn lit up, and her raincoat was unbuttoned and levitated off her back. The coat slowly hovered towards Sweetie. Open and ready to be wrapped around her. Inside Sweetie. The Emotional Processor and the Logic Center looked at each other.

A blast of energy struck the coat out of midair, reducing it to ash.

"NOT ANOTHER STEP!"

Sweetie and Rarity stared at each other as the ash of the raincoat was blown away by the wind. Both their faces would have been equally frozen in horror if both had a face.

Sweetie had not been the one to fire that shot.

Neither was she the one to shout. That command belonged to a much more deep-throated stallion.

Sweetie turned her eyes to the other end of the bridge. Where another group had shown up.

A dozen or so Steel Stallions had lined up to cover the bridge head. Their weapons now pointing square across the bridge.
On the other side. Twilight's horn lit up, ready and loaded with combat magic, while everypony else ducked for cover

Everypony except Pain (of course) ... and Rarity.

A green earth pony with a weird control panel strapped to his body emerged from his line of metallic warriors. He posed a wicked smile as he stroke his beard. The yellow mare of Mad Marrow was clinging to him like she was afraid he would disappear. Next to the couple. Shockwave and Prism Prestige also wielded their heads. Even Taco Teddy was present.

"Well, well. Little Miss Rarity." Said Molten Metalhoof "Looks like you did know where our little filly had gone. Now, hoof over my daughter and Nopony gets Hurt!"

"SHE IS NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!" Rarity screamed, and inched herself even closer.

"She's noponys daughter!" Taco teddy yelled.

"She's a demon!" Mad Marrow shouted.

"A tortured soul that needs to be freed!" Shockwave added in!

"She is a replicate who's going to replace all foals!" Teddy continued! "Will somepony please think of the foals!"

"The only replicate here is that atrocity!" Rarity yelled. Pointing at the replicate, who was now the only thing standing with sweetie in the middle of the bridge.

"That's my Rarity!" Teddy yelled back "You stole her!"

"Your what???" Rarity shouted "You mean that atrocity is yours! How dare you use my image like that!"

"I paid money for it!"

"I don't recall giving you premonition to use my likeness!"

"How about this!" yelled Brick, opening his mouth for the first time. "You can take the 'Rarity' - And we take the Sweetie!"

"SHUT UP YOU PRICK!" Was yelled collectively from bouts sides.

A purple light was shining from the other side of the bridge as twilight attempted to cast a spell.

"Hold your horn sorceress! Or somepony is going to get hurt!" Prism Roared!

Twilight smiled, and summoned a purple shield sphere around her. The sphere instantly grew out to cover her side of the bridge and everypony on it, then kept expanding outwards towards Sweetie.

From the other side, Shockwave pulled up a orb from his pocket. Lightning left his hooves and caused the ball to glow. Sweetie had no idea what it was. But twilight visibly recoiled as he threw the blistering ball over the bridge. It impacted with the shield, which instantly shrunk back to its third of the bridge - with twilight falling to the ground, grabbing her head in pain, yet managed to maintain her magic.

The ball landed on the middle of the bridge, were Sweetie was standing. She questioningly eyed the sparkling orb.

"Sweetie!" Rarity shouted, Leaving the comfort zone of twilight's sphere. "Whatever you do! Do not touch that! Just step over here and you'll be safe!"

Bout the Steel Stallions and Sweetie armed their weapons. And aimed them at the exposed mare! Causing Rarity to halt.

"You get over here right now my little mare!" Molten yelled. "Or your sister is going to get hurt."

"Harm not the innocent!" Shockwave yelled. And jumped in front of the firing squad.

Prism shot him a hard cold look.

"Fine! Then you can go out there and get that little mare!"

Shockwave did take a step closer to sweetie. Causing the filly to turn turn around and shift her aim at him.

"Don't you dare come any closer!"

Molten started pushing buttons on his control panel. The steel stallions took aim at Rarity. But Shockwave jumped back and started wrestling with him over the controls to the Steel stallions. On the other side - Screwloose was barking like mad, the hospital staff having to do a collaborate effort to hold her back.

Sweetie was caught in the middle. With Everypony was yelling at the top of their lungs for her to come to them. Yelling to be heard over the roar of the river and each other. Wagons where now blocking bout bridge-ends. Her logic system told her she was gonna have to fight her way out. But her heart drive said she could not shoot another pony. But the others were about to shoot each other.

All of them were about to fight over her. They would get hurt over her.

What was she to do to make them stop?

She was trapped with no way out.

In desperation. Sweetie looked back to the hole in the railing.

There was a third way out.

Sweetie took a step backwards. Closer to the edge.

The whole crowd went silent.

"SWEETIE! STEP AWAY FROM THE EDGE!" Rarity screamed.

Sweetie looked down. A normal pony might not survive this drop Much less the violence of the river down below.
But She was not a normal pony, she though, as she calculated her chases of survival.

With her back towards the edge. She disengaged her eyeball synchronization, so that one eye could keep 'an eye' on one side of the bridge - the other of the opposite. It meant she was technically going wall-eyed, and her mind was starting to spin from broadening her field of vision. But it also meant she did not turn her back towards either side.

Now that she had everypony's attention. She took a metaphorical breath, and screamed!

"YOU ARE ALL HORRIBLE PONIES!"

"Sweetie ... Please ... Get away from that edge." Rarity pleaded. "Get over here!"

"NO! You lied to me Rarity! You hit me!" Sweetie wailed.

"I'M SORRY!" Rarity screamed. But Sweetie continued wailing.

"Why? Why did you hit me!? Why did you lie! Why did you never tell me the truth!"

It was a most awkward conversation. Since sweetie was technically not facing the one she was arguing with.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry a thousand times over!" Rarity wailed "I'm sorry for all that has happened to you! Its all my fault! Do you want to punish me? Go ahead! Do it! DO IT RIGHT NOW!"

"Why did you kill a foal!?"

The question made Rarity cease her own wailing.

"What?"

There it was again. The utter lack of understanding in her sisters eyes. Was her ignorance real of fake?

"The one you based me off! The one you foal-napped and preformed your twisted experiments on! the one who's mind you copied to make me!"

"Sweetie ..." Rarity pleaded. Clearly not wanting to speak.

There it was again. That realization that her little sister had figured out something she was not supposed to know. It was like they were back in Carousel Boutique. Having the discussion they should have been having. Nevermind that the two of them were now out on a rain soaked bridge surrounded by lunatics. The only thing that mattered to Sweetie was what Rarity had to say for herself.

"You ... You killed a foal to make me!” Sweetie screamed.

“It was you Sweetie. You where that foal!” Rarity cried out.

That broke Sweetie's wailing.

“You asked if you where in an accident Sweetie." Rarity continued "An accident so horrible that we had to replace your body. In a way you were. For you see ... there were... complications at your birth.”

Rarity struggled with the words. She really did not want to say this next part.

"TELL ME!"

“YOU WHERE STILLBORN SWEETIE! YOU WHERE BORN DEAD!”

Sweetie all but shut down. This information did not make any sense. How could you be dead when you where born. That went against everything she had been taught. (And she still didn't know how ponies where made.) Who would ever make a dead foal!?

“I didn't say anything because it was to horrible for you to hear. But we didn't kill anyone. We gave you life!”

"No! ... That's not true! ... That's impossible! ... YOU'RE LYING!!!”

“You're right you did not give life." Shockwave shouted. "Only Celestia can grant life. You took the soul of an innocent foal and put it into that!”

“You were the one who told us to pull the plug!” Screamed Rarity so loud that sweeties sound recievers sparked with static.

“She would have been better off dead!” Shockwave shouted back.

The two of them continued to have a shouting match over her, Until Sweetie screamed “STOP!”

"I don't want to be dead! I don't want to be dead! I don't want to be dead!" She cried. stomping the ground beneath her for emphasis. A small piece of the bridge- edge broke from her mad dance and tumbled down into the roaring stream below.

"You are not dead Sweetie!" Rarity cried "You are alive right now!"

"NO I'M NOT! You replaced me! I don't wanna be replaced! I don't wanna be replaced. I DON'T WANNA BE REPLACED!"

“You are not replaced Sweetie!” Rarity screamed. “We saved you!”

“NO YOU DIDN'T! YOU REPLACED ME WITH ...” she ceased her stomping to gestured at herself “ … with me.”

"Sweetie, you are not making any sense!"

“You are not making any sense! You cant have saved me! Why didn't you just use a resurrection spell or something!”

Twilight wanted to say something. But had other things (and ponies) to keep her mind on.

"You can't have saved me because, I'm not a real pony! I am a robot! And we can't be family if nopony else is a robot!" Sweetie declared out of the blue. "I'm removing you from my heart drive and replacing you with my new sister here!"

Sweetie walked up to the replication, and gave her a big hug.

Rarity was heartbroken.

"You ... You cant do that Sweetie. You ... You cant just replace somepony like that."

"WHY NOT!? You replaced me!"

Rarity tried to say something. But her mouth was left hanging ajar. Her entire cheek quivered as she broke down into sobs. She planted her diamond encrusted rear on the wet and slippery bridge, and let out a scream that could have pierced the heavens. A scream that was accompanied by another - and another. Rarity cried so loud she was actively screaming. Wailing like only a newborn infant could acceptably do without some grownup trying to hush them. A wail that should most certainly not be acceptable for a lady like herself.

Truth was there was a part of Sweetie that wanted to see Rarity suffer. That wanted her to pay tor all that Sweetie had been forced to endure.

But there thirst for revenge dwindled as Rarity cried on and on. She cried so hard that her tears were actually visible in the rain. The combined might of heavens floodgates could not keep up with the running rivers that now spurted from her sisters eyes.

Sweetie tried to keep herself stoic. But seeing Rarity cry like this was making her hurt worse than she had ever been hurt before. It was like Rarity had thrown out an hundred inadvisable fishing hooks. And each and every one of those hooks were now tearing her Heart-Drive apart, pulling her towards Rarity like an invisible force.

It took ever ounce of Sweetie's strength to not run over straight into her sisters embrace. She wanted nothing more than to give her biggest hug ever, to comfort her. (But her Logic Center stubbornly reminded her that the last time she had wanted a hug - Rarity had pushed her aside.) But that was just why she could not allow herself to do so. What was this feeling if not part of the programming, that forced her to obligate to her family? What was to say that that this force that was tearing her Heart-Drive apart was not the mental leech they had installed on her?

But knowing that - did not make it hurt less - It may have made it hurt more. Sweetie could never believe that the shock of loosing her skin and her voice would be preferable to the torture she was enduring now.

"Do you need a hug?" The replication asked.

Yes. She needed a hug so very badly. Her craving only made her hug the Rarity Replicate even harder, and that in turn only made the Real Rarity cry harder.

Sweeties lubrication lines could not take it any more. The piping under her eyes exploded and oil ruched forth in two thick and black fountains.

At the opposing sides of the bridge. The shouting match had temporarily ceased as the two sisters cries seemed to silence out the very roar of the river below them. Yet none dared to make a move on the incapacitated Sweetie. Either to busy covering their ears or keeping an eye on the opposing side. Or crying themselves.

"It... Its more complicated than that." Rarity hissed. Her voice in ruins. She talked so low that Sweetie wondered if it was only her enhanced microphones that could pick up the sound. "We ... we did not just build a new Sweetie. We ... tried to save your body. But you ... evolved into something new. Something that wasn't quite ... organic."

"That ... Doesn't make sense" Sweetie answered, loud enough to be heard. "A robot doesn't evolve."

Still maintaining her purple shield - Twilight very carefully levitated a saddlebag out across the bridge. Dropping it right outside her barrier, next to Rarity.

"Don't let them fool you! It could be a trap!" The other side screamed.

"YOU SHUT UP!" Twilight shouted back!

Sweetie could however not disagree with them. She was to paranoid to let Rarity come any closer.

"You just pull up whatever it is you want to show me and be gone!" Sweetie shouted. Never taking her aim of Rarity.

Rarity carefully withdrew a series of small photographs from the bag, and eyed them over with a look most troubled. Realizing Sweetie could not see from this distance, she carefully put them back on top of the bag, then threw the bag out to Sweetie.

Still standing with her back towards the edge, she caught it in her right hoof.

With one eye still sweeping the perimeter - keeping an eye on Rarity and Shockwave. And with her other eye, she opened the bag, and looked down on the photos. They showed an unmistakably white little foal with her head cut open, and inside her head rested something round and blue, It shimmered like a crystal. But it was round as a pearl.

"Is that ... Me?"

"Yes Sweetie ... your brain would not develop. so we tried to enhance it. But it ... It did a little more than that "

Sweetie took all the photos in, quickly rearranged them in sequence in her head. From a flat lump of fat to a crystal pearl.

This was It. The ultimate evidence for what Sweetie had already feared. She did not have a brain inside that reinforced cranium of hers. It was some sort of magic eight-ball. Either way, it was a brain without wrinkles. Not a speck of organic material in her entire being.
It was one thing to expect it. But another one entirely to see it before herself like this.

Why hadn't they simply used healing magic? Or anything? But Cardiac had explained. Some ponies had inner magic that was sometimes wired wrong, resulting in perhaps a pegasuss with underdeveloped wings, or other handicaps. Nature's errors that could not be fixed - because they were not wounds. They were simply how a pony was.

And in Sweeties case - She was brain dead. Born to die, with a mind that would never develop.

No matter what. She would never have had a real brain.

The only other option had been to turn her into this!

There really had never been any other destiny for her.

"But ... I don't want to be this! I don't want to be a robot! I DO NOT WANT!" She wailed. And cried again.

"Why do you never tell meEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"How could I" Rarity cried "How do you tell somepony something like ... This?"

You couldn't. You simply couldn't. It was more than Sweetie ever wanted to hear.

She locked eyes with Rarity. The infrared faded from her vision. And she saw the mare like she really was. Cold, tired, and scared beyond belief. In a way it was like they were back in the Carousel Boutique. Having the discussion they never finished due to Sweeties short circuit.
She had not wanted to hear any of it. Did not want to believe it was true. But running had not made the truth go away. It had only become more apparent with each new reveal. The truth scared her. But it scared her sister as well. Yet she had crossed hills and valleys to find her again. Because it must have been even scarier to see her little sister run away like that.

And now she was waiting for her with open forelegs.

Sweetie would have gone to Rarity, to finally be allowed into that soft embrace that she had sought all those day ago. but there was one problem left that would not stop bugging her. And it was not the firing squad sharpening their sights at the oposite bridgehead. But a question left unanswered.
She raffled through the bag - and found something else stuffed in there. An old, worn looking teddy bear, having been re-sown so many times that it looked like a frankenpony. She questioningly looked at rarity, not understanding why the fachistona would carry around old garbage like this.

"What is this?"

Rarity smiled.

"I made that for you Sweetie."

Sweetie smile would have faded - had she still any lips. Her eyes shifted from the teddy bear, to the photos, back to rarity, and across both bridge ends and all who where gathered there. Though she knew who they all were by now. She had only learned of their existence - As well as the truth behind her own being as of all to recently. And that produced a paradox she could not overlook.

"Why can't I remember!?"

Rarity's yaw dropped at Sweeties question.

"Why can't I remember anything past my second birthday? If that even was the second year after my "Un-Birth!"

There was a wicked chuckle coming from the others side of the bridge.

"Uuuuuuh! You never told her! Did you? Little miss Rarity!" Prism smiled.

"YOU SHUT UP" Rarity yelled.

"NO YOU SHUT UP!" Sweetie yelled back. "Tell me what?"

"That you were just an experiment." The evil crowd seemed to yell in chorus.

"Just a failure"

"They could not let you know!"

"Could not let you remember."

"So we ... Removed them."

"Removed your memories."

Sweetie shivered. And on rain damped pistons, her twitching became sporadic.

"You mean .... Deleted them?"

Sweetie looked back at Rarity.

"Tell me you didn't! Say it Is not so!" she pleaded.

Rarity did not answer. And her group stood stunned.

"TELL ME IT IS NOT SO!" Sweetie screamed!

Rarity was chewing on her lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. But she refused to speak.

"Oh little miss Rarity ..." The mocking voice of Prism Prestige rolled across the bridge. "So eager you were to forget. So badly you wanted to put everything behind you. To pretend like if it never happened. But the only way you could do that was if your sister did not remember what she was."

"It was the only way the field test could be preformed." Hissed Dr Pain.

"HEY, whose side are you on!?" Twilight yelled at the mad doctor.

Rarity quivered.

"I ... I was just a foal ... I ... I didn't know any better."

Sweetie had heard enough.

"How ... How could you ... Those memories .... THEY are a PART of WHO I AM! You ... You stole my birthright! You stole a part of MY SOUL!"

She stomped the bridge again. Causing more pieces of asphalt to fall into the river.

"Do you see now little bot." They called from the other side of the bridge. "Do you see why you can't trust them!"

"I DON'T TRUST YOU EITHER!" Sweetie screamed back at them.

"I WAS TRICKED!" Rarity screamed "YOU TRICKED ME!"

She raffled through the saddlebags again, looking for explanations.

"I ... " She stammered I didn't mean to..."

“Did not.” Sweetie hissed “Not 'didn't'. Its pronounced 'Did not' ... Sister.”

Rarity stared as Sweetie threw her own word lesson back in her face.

"I ... I would never do anything to hurt you Sweetie! ... There ... There's got to be some way to restore your memories!"

"I can see that you are hurting child! Please come here! Let me end your suffering!" Shockwave called.

Rarity did not even have the strength to shout back any more. Her pupils had shrunken to pinhead size and vision become unstable as she mumbled excuses.

"Um ... Sweetie .. You have walls inside your mind. ... certain memories might be locked off!

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Sweetie screamed.

She had already torn down those frozen fire walls of ice. And there had been nothing to add to her memory bank. No past memories that were her own. the only clues she had gotten came from second hand sources in the form of memory disks from all the other crazy ponies that were currently surrounding her. And that's just what she told Rarity.

The only other place left to look ... was her Heart-Drive.

"I have almost cracked my heart drive! And when I do. I'm gonna uninstall all of you from it!"

Rarity now got a face of utter panic.

"NO SWEETIE! NOT YOUR HEART-DRIVE!!!"

"Why not? Its where all the secrets lay! It might be where my memories are hidden!"

"You don't understand Sweetie!" Rarity shouted in panic. "You can't crack it! You will destroy yourself! We have to replace your Heart-Drive Sweetie! We need to replace it!”

Sweetie protectively raised a hoof over her chest. They wanted to take away her heart. She had almost finished breaking through the ice and getting to whatever they had looked away in there. She had almost made it her own And now they wanted to replace it. Take it away from her. They wanted to take away another part of her. What other reasons where there? They were going to delete all her memories of all this. Of ever finding out the truth. And the lie was gonna start all over again.
If they had deleted her memory once. What would stop them from doing it again?!

“A Second implant!” Shockwave Screamed “Has the foal not suffered enough! Must you make the soul scream twice!”

“No! NO!" Sweetie shouted "You just want me to forget! YOU WANT TO DELETE ME!”

Sweetie Heart drive might still prevent her from shooting anypony. But that did not prevent her from trowing anything at them. and that just what she did. In her panic She picked up the bag, and returned it to it sender. The bag struck rarity with enough force to send her backwards.

“Yes they want to delete you. Now come here!” They said from the other side of the bridge.

“SHUT UP! SO DO YOU!" Sweetie screamed. And kicked the little glowing orb back to its sender.

The kick produced a big flash of lightning. The kick sent the ball flying, but it also made Sweeties leg shut down. Her systems went haywire
as her already unstable, rain soaked circuitry was drained out her leg like something had just ripped the energy out of it. The power fluctuation sent her body into a seizure. And she collapsed, dangerously close to the edge.

Then - Everything happened at once.

"That's it! Grab her now!"

The sound of heavy iron hooves closed in fast. Sweetie's eye regained enough focus to see the the big iron clad machines cross the bridge while she fought to regain control of herself. The closest one was almost upon her when it was blasted back by a big purple energy beam.
The next second. She found herself warped in a purple aura and levitated away.

“NOOOOO!” Sweetie screamed. Insistingly she loaded all her energy into her energy canons, and fired wildly in all directions.

"Take this! Sorceress!"

Somepony screamed. The the air was filled with energy blasts and grenades. Something woshed through the air, Like a big rocket, or several of them.

And once more, Sweetie's world became nothing but a big white blur.

It wasn't the first time she had been blown up. You know something is wrong in your life when you can compare times of being blown up.
The positive thing about this time was that she did not feel it. She did not feel the force of the explosion throwing her off the bridge. She did not feel being showered with debris, or the impact as she splashed into the cold water below.

Only her balance sensors told her she was falling. That she was rocked around, and carried away from everything.

Down and away.

She had dropped her.

That was the one thought that rolled through Twilight's mind as she picked herself up from the ground. She knew it even before opening her eyes.

Her magic had failed her.

She had dropped her.

The crucial seconds replaced themselves on the insides of her eyelids.
Seeing an opportunity as Shockwave's magic-draining orb was removed from the bridge, she had grabbed a hold of both Rarity and Sweetie. Rarity was easy. But her sister - Not so much.

The horrible thing was that when she charged up those cannon like barrels on her back, Twilight had felt a drain on her magic. Her grip significantly weakened, like Sweetie just became a thousand times heavier and slippery. And even scarier was that it had felt just like the anti magic grenade that pegasus Shockwave had thrown.

Twilight could hear the vertebrae in her back creak as she rose. The blast had sent her flying back into their wagon. Her shield had collapsed. The shield she had tried to get Sweetie behind as the insane stallion on the other side of the bridge had his mechanical stallions unleash a barrage.

But the pegasus had tackled him. As he struck the ground. some part of his control panel must have been damaged. For the Steel stallions aim when off. Firing wildly with their energy lances and grenade lancers. Most of the projectiles stuck Twilight's shield, but some hit the bridge.

The bridge...

Twilight opened her eyes. The world was full of smoke and debris.

Was everypony safe? Had Sweetie been inside the shield by the time off the explosion? Were the other maniacs crossing the bridge to get them? Twilight heard grunts and groans as ponies picked themselves up around her. The dust cleared as the light rain cleared the dirt from the air. Despite the pain in her head Twilight forced herself to light up her horn. Nurse Sully and Brick were holding on to each other - Screwloose was licking the dirt of Dr Cardiac's glasses. A changeling was picking a rock out off a hole in her leg, Madame Machadame had reverted back to her true form out of shock. And Dr Morbious - Well, he just stood there. Smiling out over the open chasm.

And it was an open chasm, as nothing connected this side with the far side any more.

The bridge was gone.

"SWEEEEEETIEEEEEE!!!"

Rarity's cry snapped Twilight back to her senses. And she saw the white dot of her friend already running away down stream along the canyon edge.

Within seconds, everypony was back on their hooves and running after her. They Screamed after Rarity to wait for them. But even if she could hear them. She did not listen. She was gonna save her sister from the roaring river below, even if it killed her.

Twilight knew it was futile. The river was much too fast and much too strong. The only hope laid with that they were running downhill. The canyon fanned out the further away they got away from the bridge. Getting closer and closer to the riverbed. With a little bit of luck. Sweetie would have been able to swim ashore further down-streams.

If she now could swim with that heavy armor on her - If the water did not completely short circuit her. The only good thing was that a bot would not be able to drown.

A bot...

If Twilight had not seen the schematics in Dr Morbiou's lab. She would not have even remotely recognized the filly, She still didn't. For the filly neither looked nor sounded nothing like Sweetie belle any more. But she had recognized them. And the thing she had to say hurt Twilight more than any wounds her body had sustained.

If only those maniacs hadn't shown up. Twilight kept a watchful eye on the other side of the river. But the other party did not appear, Perhaps they knew what she would do to them if she even caught a glimpse of them.

So fixated was she on the other side of the river. That she almost did not notice something running beside her own company.
A second later. Equine shapes of clay jumped out of the shadows between the trees. Descending upon her group like wolves. If not for Screwloose alerting them to their presence, they might have been tackled into the river.

Twilight turned her head to see Brick having a tackle mach with one of the clay ponies. Another was chasing Madam Macadam. Dr Cardiac and nurse were trying to fight off third. Dr Morbiou's had been tackled to the ground and was now getting kicked by tree clay ponies simultaneously. Manny more were already on Screwloose's tail as she dodged between them.

Twilight spotted another claypony coming for her. She zapped it with a blast of magic. The rush of adrenaline triumphing over her headache and the pain in her horn. The blast hit the thing in its shoulder, which melted away. The thing didn’t even seem to notice as it kept on charging her even as it legs flew off.

Twilight dodged the three - legged beast. Which fell of the edge of the cliff and down into the river.

It passed by her close enough for her to noticed that it had no eyes nor mouth – nothing resembling a face apart from the general shape of a head. These were no living creatures. These had to be constructs of some kind – Like a clay statue given life.

She grabbed the next claypony in her magic. Making a brief analysis of the magic holding it together.
It was sloppy, almost amateurish work. Apparently these Clay ponies had been made in a haste. They were Meant to to Overwhelm their prey with their size and numbers. And nothing else.

There was not just clay to these constructions. Manny had large amounts of rock in their bodies adding to their weight and stomping power. Some - that had seemingly been made with a little more care had armor made of rocks sticking out of their bodies.
The magic holding them together was self sustained. It was in other words not connected or actively controlled my its creator.

Apparently not to smart either as it kept on running with its legs of the ground as if not even aware it had been caught in her levitation field.
This was not a living creature. This was a pile of dirt given the shape of a pony and sent loose to attack anyone whom crossed its path.

With a thought, Twilight dispelled the magic holding it together. Reducing it to dirt.

With this new information in mind she charged forward To save her fellow ponies.
She reached Madam Macadame just as three clay ponies jumped her (apparently they suffered from target fixation) Twilight fired off three swift magic blasts. The clay ponies evaporated, and Madam Macadam was showered in dirt.

Twilight kept running. Zapping every clay pony that was on her followers and everything in between. Clay ponies fell into piles left and right of her.

When everyone had gained some breathing space she made a quick check to see that everyone was alright. Many that had not been able to outrun the clay ponies had gained bruises and cuts. There clothes were tangled and drenched in clay. Especially Brick, whom had been hoof fighting the attackers, had gotten couple of big bruises on his face and a swollen eye. And Dr pain looked particular bad. Limping om three legs with his body battered and covered in even more bruises. His face now swollen and deformed, and his smile missing even more teeth.

“Any broken bones?” Sully asked everypony.

“You can borrow a few of mine if you don't got your own.” Said Brick

Sully actually coughed up a smile.

“Don't be a .. Ow … prick.” She stammered as she grabbed her own side. “I don't got nothing to mend any limbs by. Only a few shots for the pain”

She levitated out a syringe and jammed it into herself. She then bit of the needle and started shewing on it.

”Do you need a shot miss Sparkle?”

Twilight did not answer. She realized in horror that Rarity and Screwloose was not among them. The two mares had disappeared into these dark and dangerous woods.

A howling, like that of a dog, got them all moving again. They had now gotten close to the riverbed ...

... Still. No sign of Sweetie.

What did appear however. Was several more clay ponies, all converting on a single ashen-maned mare mare. They had surrounded her on the corner of a beach, right next to the roaring river.

Still -The mare fought like a rabid dog. Manny of the clay ponies she dodged ended up in the water. Their limbs quickly melting and washing away in the stream. She was currently riding on one of the bigger clay-ponies. Her yaws around its neck as she was biting of lump after lump of the squishy dirt while the other assailants where trying to get to her by tackling her victim.

Twilight fired of several beams of magic at the horde. Making them explode into watery clay.

Screwloose barked, happily to see them. Un-bothered by the bruises on her body, or the shreds that her jacket had been torn into.

But there was no time to celebrate. Twilight noticed something behind Screwloose. Something white and purple lying by the riverbed, face down in the water.

"RARITY!"

Twilight pulled the figure up from the river. One leg was missing, as was half of the face, and the side had been torn up, exposing the inner circuitry and gears. Wires hung like guts from its open belly.

It was not Rarity. It was the doll.

Before she had time to breathe a sigh of relief. Brick tapped her shoulder, and pointed into the forest. She turned, only to be faced with another wave of clay ponies heading for them.

At this point they would be overwhelmed.

Twilight was having none of that.
She was cold. She was hungry. She was tired. And she was sick to death of this.

"ENOUGH!" She cried out.

Her horned flared brightly as a shock-wave of purple magic shot out from her I all directions. Every clay pony that was touched by the wall of energy instantly fell into a heap of clay.

She locked back at the other, whom where checking themselves, startled by the magical wall that had ruched past them. Making sure it hadn’t blown them off the cliff and into the water.

“Sorry...” She said.

There had been no time to explain that her massive dispelling wouldn’t even have disrupted the fall of the autumn leaves.
But before she could explain that, she hear a scream coming from further down-streams.

“Rarity!”

A black stallion wearing a worn down tuxedo was standing over triumphantly over his enemy. At his hooves lay a white unicorn mare with a massive lump on her forehead. Her breathing was faint, and she was barely conscious from the right hook he had given her. She hadn't even seen it coming. Being too busy running through his forest to notice him standing behind a tree. His hoof was aching from the blow. It had been so long since he last punched a mare himself. but it had been necessary. Since his warriors had somehow proven ineffective.

Necro snorted and massaged his hoof. There seemed to be a lot of intruders to deal with lately. First that little machine that Molten had sent as a distraction. Then the main force that came blasting through his woods when his back was turned. Legions of his brave warriors had fallen. But he would have overwhelmed them - If not for this pain in his head.

Necro rubbed his horn. That was twice in a row he had to abort his assault because his magic failed him. And his frustration had only grown with each enemy that got away.

Not this time.

He would pursue his enemies to the edges of his forest. And it was not long before his sentinels had picked up intruders moving through his forest again. And this time he would not let them get away! his legions had descended upon the enemies like an avalanche. But then, out of the blue - His sentinels had fallen. His army erased in the blink of an eye. Disappeared as if dispelled.

“Stupid mare. What did you do to my Warriors!” He cursed. Placing a hoof upon her horn. He could not allow her to use whatever magic that could erase legions again. He would break off her horn if he had to.

His own horn was glowing crimson red as he was already in the process of summoning more warriors. They rose from the ground beneath him, defenders of the woods, birthed by his magic. When suddenly, there was a rustle in the woods, and a purple mare in a matching raincoat jumped out of the bushes.

“She didn’t do anything! I did!” The purple intruder yelled.

With a flicker of his horn. Necro sent his army at her, the purple ones horn flared up. And a series of energy blasts started thinning his ranks with never before seen speed. This mare wasn't just blasting his warriors apart. She was dispelling them with but a simple spell.

No matter. The earth was eternal. And Necro would not back down this time. No matter the rising pain in his horn.

More and more ponies rose from the ground, And were dispelled as soon as they emerged. The mare was good. But the was visibly exhausted. And she did not see the warriors that had risen behind her.

"Twilight! Behind you!"

That's when even more enemies emerged. They hit his stealthy warriors in the back and started tearing them apart with their bare hooves. one of them howling like a wolf. Necro grunted, his nostrils flared and his horn felt like it was on fire. His warriors where not even half way out of the ground before they were dispelled. So Necro changed his tactics. He did not need his wariors to emerge fully. He just needed the earth to grab the intruders.

Hooves of dirt sprouted like grass from beneath his enemies. Grabbing them by the legs and holding them down. The purple one turned around to help her allies. Buying Necro just enough time to grab the white mare by the mane and hurl her up on the back of one of his warriors. It was time to make his escape. But he would not leave empty hoofed.

His horn never stopped glowing as he ran through the forest. Even though his horn felt like it was about to split, he kept summoning more and more warriors as he ran. They had to distract his enemies while he made his escape. He could already hear them running after him. Little did they know he was leading them into a trap. A dozen of his finest, hardest warriors were heading this way. His 'Prime Sentinels', constructed not merely out of clay, but out of rock. Hoof-crafted with care and time. They would not be so easily dispelled.

He could already hear the heavy beatings of rock solid hooves heading towards him when, when he suddenly sensed the presence of yet another enemy - Or rather, he sensed that his Sentinels were in trouble. One of them suddenly disappeared from his mental radar, then another - and another.

By the time his Sentinels came into view, eight remained. Necro immediately sent half of them back to deal with whatever had been attacking them. And not a moment too soon, for through the bushes thundered the biggest pony he had ever seen. Broad and brown and built like an oak, with short green hair that sat upon his head like tufts of grass. He slammed into the closest Sentinel lime a battering ram. Howling like a bear as his thick hooves punched the sentinels face with enough force to shatter the rock it was made of. Then turned and bucked it with enough force to break its torso.

Behind this bear of a pony appeared two more intruders. A white stallion with a straw hat, and a fat mare with a hideous bundle of pink mane. Necro barely had time to wonder why they were dressed like they were on the tropical islands before they saw him - Or more specifically, the mare carried by his warrior behind him, and cried out.

They came towards him. Trowing rocks at the Sentinels as they did. Ineffective perhaps, but it took the pressure of the big brown stallion as he bucked apart yet another Sentinel. Meanwhile, The purple mare and her ilk had catched up, and were now engaging the last of his sentinels. There simply were not enough Sentinels to keep all of the enemies busy, and those that weren't busy where closing in on Necro.

With one last burst of magic, he summoned a ring of warriors around him. The effort made him drop to his knees, Grabbing his horn as he could feel it splitting.

He was surrounded. Out of warriors and out of magic.

In desperation, he grabbed his captive by the throat. Pulling her off his warrior and threatened to break her neck if Anypony dared to come any closer.

In the chaos. He did not notice one of the clay ponies approach him until it was already on top of him. Before he could question why one of his warriors were turning their back to the enemy, It punched him square in the head.

As the world faded to black, the last thing Necro saw was his traitorous clay pony becoming enveloped in a changing green light.