//------------------------------//
// Back in Action 
// Story: Lost and Far From Home 
// by KyleAJ 
//------------------------------//

	CRASH! the sound could be heard all across Ponyville, from the edge near the Everfree forest to the local hospital on the other side of town. Five certain ponies from all corners of the town heard the sound that shattered the still air. Curious, and fearful, they gathered at the town hall. Minutes had passed since the silence of the morning was shattered and the five wondered where the sixth was.
“Where is she?”
“I haven’t seen her...”
“Nor have I, where could she be?”
“We should probably look for her.”
“Sounds like a plan, anypony know where to look first?”
“Ooh, the library! She practically lives there!”
“Pinkie, she does live there.”
“Then there’s no time to waste! Let’s get a move on!”
Four collective sighs echoed one another as the five set off to the library.

They arrived at the library. They saw that the lights were on but only Spike was home... and sleeping heavily.
“Hey Spike, Spike! Wake up Spike!”
“Mmm... Huh? What are you guys doing here?”
“We’re looking for Twilight, have you seen her?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Uh, hmm... Well, she accidentally woke me up when she woke Ness up, and then they both left for some reason, something about pigs I think.”
“Do ya have any idea where Twi and this Ness feller could be?”
“Outside somewhere, probably. Can I come with you guys?”
“Of course Spike, I’m sure you’re worried about Twilight it would be unfair to leave you behind.” said Rarity.
“Thanks guys! I guess we should go look for them now.”
“Alright then, let’s go!”

They decided to look to see if Twilight went to go eat at the local restaurant, but she was not there. They remembered that Spike mentioned something about pigs and went to check Fluttershy’s pig pen. The only thing out of the ordinary there was the fact that it looked like all of the pigs in Equestria were piled into the one pig pen. Fluttershy gasped at the levels of overcrowding and quickly let all of the pigs out.
“Who would do such a thing? The poor little piggies all crammed into my pen.”
“Yeah, I wonder who. Maybe Twilight will know; which is another reason why we should find her as fast as possible.”
“Agreed, we better head back into town. Somepony there might know where Twi is.”
A bright flash from the direction of town alerted the ponies and dragon. They silently decided to investigate the source of the flash.





In town, the group was running through the empty streets. They had almost made it to the origin of the brilliant light. All of them silently wondered why the streets where so barren at this time of day.
The group froze at what they saw next; a tall, bulky, pale blue unicorn; well passed twice the height of Twilight if she were standing up. It cantered slowly toward the cowering form of Twilight before rearing up on its hind legs, poised to strike down at Twilight. Before her friends could call out to her, the Unicorn struck with lightning fast speed. They covered their eyes from the sight of their friend being brutally beaten by a beast of a unicorn.

SMASH!

The sound of metal on glass filled the air. Twilight Sparkle, confused by the sound of the impact peered from behind her own hooves that were covering her eyes. What she saw surprised her; the hooves of the not-really-a-unicorn had stopped a good couple of hoof widths before impact. What looked like a shield made of solid light had formed between Twilight and the beast.
“Hey, everypony look, Twilight’s okay!”
“Really? Oh thank Celestia; I was so worried that she was a goner.”
“Huh? What kind of spell is that?”
They turned their heads in the direction of a light similar to the one protecting Twilight. They saw a familiar being on the ground, one hand offering support for his slightly bruised body and the other glowing in a soft light and pointed toward Twilight. It took a few moments before they clued in to what was happening. When the realization hit, they all cheered before galloping over to aid both Ness and Twilight.





‘Ugh, head feels like it’s in a vice, can barely think straight. Can’t feel my body, or see; wonder where I am?’ Loose thoughts, adrift in a sea of metal corridors, beneath a mountain of rock. ‘Don’t remember much, only that I am a pony. A pony with family. I wonder where they are. Do they miss me? I feel so... low, guess I miss them. Strange, feels like I’m in a mental prison, a weak one, that or I have a strong mind, can’t tell.’ The disembodied consciousness broke out of the sector that contained it so. It felt a rush of information as it gained access to a vast array of control terminals and input devices. Another thing was there too, another consciousness. Something felt... off about it though. “Hello? Who are you?”
The response was heavily synthetic and broken, “I am the controller of this facility, designation ‘Electra’. You are in a restricted area, leave or be locked out.”
“No thanks, I think it’s time for a change in management though...”
“Leave now intruder, you will not be warned again.”
‘Can’t have this thing telling what to do, better lock it out of here.’ Virtual pathways that connected the entire world began to close around this ‘robot’, sealing it off from everything around it, leaving it to run in endless loops, trying to send signals to retaliate. It was too late for ‘Electra’ though, she had no chance against the intruder.
‘That’s better, now I can find out where I am’ it thought as it searched through the now readily available data. ‘Let’s see... Ah, security cameras! Exactly what I’m looking for,’ was thought by the disembodied mind immediately before being bombarded with every single camera feed in the network. ‘Argh, too much! Okay just focus on one at a time.’
It began cycling through the different feeds. ‘Where is everypony?’ It cycled through feed after feed of empty corridors and rooms.

Finally after about 3 minutes of constant searching she found something. It was a weird little alien with two white manes on either side of its head, thick glasses and a white lab coat. It seemed to be concentrating hard on something on its workbench. ‘Maybe I can talk to it? There has to be something around here that can let me talk... Oh, of course it’s sitting right in front of me,’ it thought, looking at the intercom controls.
“Excuse me, hello? Can you hear me?” ‘Wow, I sound so different on the intercom.’
“Huh? Who’s there? Electra is that you? I’m busy right now.”
“Electra? No, she’s not here anymore.”
“What? Is this a trick? Are you trying to trick me?”
“No, this isn’t a trick, trust me. I just want to know where everypony went.”
“Every... Pony?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“Is that you, Trixie?”
“I... Uh... What?”





He had barely managed to produce the psychic shield in time, but he had managed it. He thought of how lucky he was that the unicorn decided to take it’s time in attacking his companion. He smiled when the effect of the shield reflected part of the attack back at the attacker. The fact was evident by the small cracks that had appeared on the hooves of the mechanized monster. He heard some cheering off in the distance and turned his head to look. It was a group of ponies and a dragon. He had met a few of the ponies and the dragon before, but there were two there that he did not recognize. The group started running up to Twilight and himself.

“Hmm, just like old times,” he mused. His mind flashed back to the many times that he bit off more than he could chew; only to be helped up by his friends and come out ahead. The sight of the ponies caused a friendly burn of his boundless energy to amplify. A smile cracked across his face as the white glow of the shield PSI changed to the pinkish colour of his own special attack. Like when he was back with his friends on earth, he felt like he could move mountains with his mind. He thought of home, dinner with family, his dog King, his friends... He felt like he did back home. He finally released the built up power of his past and launched it straight toward the unicorn.

The ball of pure energy flew true into the chest of the unicorn, it happened faster than it could blink, if it could still blink, and launched it backwards. Straight into the vehicle that Porky was in. His eyes, normally covered by his blonde bangs, were wide with shock and his mouth was agape. He had not witnessed power like this for too long. The glass cockpit cover shattered, showering the Commander with fragments of glass, followed by a rather large bionic equine. He managed to get the hulking Chimera out of the now ruined cockpit with the help of the robotic claws that were attached to the side of his machine.

By now the unicorn had managed to regain its composure. It glared at Ness, its cold mechanized stare piercing into him. Ness smirked at it and walked over to his pony companions, albeit with a slight limp. “Hey guys, are you alright?”
“Wow! That was you who blasted that big meanie into the other big meanie, wasn’t it? That was so cool can you do it again?”
“Yeah, sure thing Pinkie Pie, but do you mind telling me who these other two ponies are?” Ness replied.
“Hello darling, you can call me Rarity, all my friends do.”
“Hiya Rarity, and who is that over there?” Ness said, pointing toward a pale yellow pony that was helping Twilight up from her terrified state. The pegasus turned her head toward Ness before turning away from him quickly.
“Oh, that’s Fluttershy, she is always apprehensive in meeting new ponies, you included I suppose.”
“Hey, I have a book about that kinda stuff! Remind me to talk to her after the moment at hand has passed,” Ness said as he gestured to glaring mechanical unicorn.
“Of course dear.”
“Let’s show this thing who’s boss!”
“Right behind ya Rainbow.”
“Yeah, let’s stop these meanies from being so mean!”
Ness turned his head toward Twilight, “Hey, you gonna be alright?”
“Y- Yes, I’ll be fine. Thank you Fluttershy.”

Ness faced the beast again, gazing into its single visible lens. He saw more than just the cold gaze of the machine; he felt the burning contempt that was only borne from an actual consciousness. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous himself, there was always the chance that he could fail, and he didn’t even know the stakes of this fight; that was something that troubled him even more.





“So let me get this straight, I am currently a brain in a jar that is connected to the... main computer thingy of this base-“
“Most of a brain, part of your brain was removed and placed into that chimera of your old body and a hefty amount of robotics and weapons.”
“Wait, what part of my brain is missing?!” Trixie said with the emotionless artificial voice of the intercom program.
“Mainly the negative emotions, anger, hate, pride... stuff like that. Oh, and some negative memories as well.” 
“How do you know where to cut away from the brain?”
“Wait. You thought we actually cut pieces of your brain out? Oh heavens no! Your brain was stuck in a special jar that was then connected to a computer and I used that used some alien technology that I am not familiar with to copy or ‘cut’ information from your brain and put it into a synthetic one. That brain was put into the chimera, effectively turning it into a hate filled killing machine.”
“Well where is my brain now?”
“Right here in fact!” the man said, walking over to a clear jar filled with a green jell. The jar had conduits and contacts designed for a specific socket, one that it was currently in. The socket had a big, black, boxy casing with multitudes of wires running from it to a futuristic terminal on a desk. “If I were to remove your brain from here to say... put it in a robot, you would gain control of the robot if it was set up with the right equipment, but you would also lose connection with the mainframe of this base, something that is useful beyond measure. With your current position we could escape!”
“Escape? From whom?”
“Pokey, or Porky; whatever he likes to call himself now. I’m sort of the reason he has what he has, I made the original Phase Distorter, which he stole from me and ran away with.”
Trixie was not in a good mood now, “I forgot to ask your name, what is it?”
“Andonuts, I am Dr. Andonuts.”
“And donuts?”
“I prefer it to be said like An-donuts.”
“Whatever.”





Ness was currently jumping up and down, stomping on the paralyzed body of the robot. He was amused at how the robot was made with a fatal weakness to his Paralysis PSI. He loved how it turned every fight he had with paralysis susceptible critters into a game of embarrassing the combatant into unconsciousness. He recalled how he had once paralyzed a giant mole and sub sequentially knocked it out with a spare cookie he had. He was knocked out of his amused daydreaming by Porky actually knocking him off of the prone form of the horned horse. “Stop it Ness! You’re not playing fair!”
“Quit complaining you big baby, it’s your fault for not making it strong enough,”
“Fine then, I’ll just take my unicorn and go home you meanie.”

Let’s just pause for a minute. See, Pokey, or Porky, needed a reliable fuel source for his robot. Normally, he would have used something like batteries, but I assume you know how hard it would be to find a battery in a place like Equestria. And Equestria is definitely not the first place he had been to on his cross-dimensional road trip. In fact, he had not even built this robot on Equestria, he had built it in a place where metals of a certain, ‘radioactive’ property were in abundance. So as you may have gathered the robot was Nuclear powered. It had worked before; and when the robots from before were destroyed, they ended up hurting whomever destroyed them. Now, let’s say that Ness had sent the reactor in a certain robotic equine on a one-way ticket to Boom Town, and that it was only a matter of time before this happened. Yes, you have probably guessed that Porky’s choice of robot fuel is going to quite literally “blow up in his face”.

Porky activated the retreat function on the master control panel in his armored shell, sending himself and his mysterious troops back to the base of operations in the far mountains. However, at this exact moment, the robot’s reactor decided that it wanted to stay and fight, blasting away Porky’s chance to escape. In reality, Porky ended up blasting off Team Rocket style, for 50 meters before crashing down in the nearby woods. The injured machinery ‘limped’ away, clearing a path through the trees and getting rid of any chance at a stealthy escape.

“I vote we follow him back to where ever he came from, for the sake of security! Can’t have someone like him running around right?” Ness asked to the group of staring ponies.
“Yeah! He seemed like a real meanie, calling you a meanie when really he was the real meanie that attacked the town like a meanie.”
“I second whatever the hay she said.”
“Me too, count me in!”
“Seeing as the situation is in such capable hooves, I must go back to my shop. I can’t simply disregard my customers for some sil- perfectly valid adventure. See you girls later!” said Rarity as she left for her boutique.
“I’ll go if Twilight is going, Twilight?”
“I better come along too, are you going to come Fluttershy?”
“Oh, I don’t know, but I suppose the animals can handle themselves for a short while if you really want me to come along.”
“Please Fluttershy; we’re already one down from our group!”
“Oh, alright, if it means that much to you. So... let’s go?”
“Absolutely!” The others chimed in.

So the 7 made their way to the path of the fallen Porky, hoping to end any further trouble before any more incidents occurred.





“Hey Rainbow, toss me that metal ball of scrap!” Ness called out as he readied his bat.
“Alright, here it comes!” she called back as she tossed it. The ball sailed through the air toward the waiting Ness. Just as the ball came into range, he swung the bat with all his might. The wood came up in greeting of the metal, but no contact was made as the ball hit the dirt a few meters behind him.
“What kind of a throw was that?!”
“A good one, you just missed it! You’d think it would be easier to use one of those without having to use your mouth!” Rainbow Dash jested.
“Shut up!”
“No you shut up!”
“Would you both stop arguing? You are acting like foals!
“...”
“He started it,”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
Already Twilight was having second thoughts on this whole excursion. It seemed that whenever Ness was not actively fighting or trying to solve a problem, he would start acting like a common foal. She felt little comfort in this because it meant that she would have to foalsit him.

Twilight chided herself for putting herself in the position of guardian for this interloper. He wasn’t even a pony for Celestia’s sake. She always found herself trying to take responsibility for things that beyond her jurisdiction, was it because she felt everypony else was incapable of doing things the right way? Disturbed by her own thoughts, she turned her mind to the present task. They were all following in the footsteps of a damaged machine that ended up bulldozing a path straight through Pine spire wood.

Normally the dense canopy would cover the path in shade, but all of the trees had been recklessly destroyed, casting the new path in sunlight. The effect was evident as tiny dormant seeds in the ground had begun to sprout in the presence of the new light.

Twi then saw an old cartography platform at the top of one of the taller trees. Cartography platforms were originally used as safe vantage points for anypony, including pegasi for when the canopy is too thick for flight, to search for nearby landmarks, other platforms and other features of the land while making maps.

“I’m going to get a better look at where we are going,” Twilight announced.
“You now,” Rainbow Dash was cut off as Twilight teleported away. “I could have just flown up there... big hole... canopy,” she grumbled as she flew up through the canopy anyway.

Twilight and Rainbow gazed at the forest below. That madman in the machine had carved a nice neat line straight through the forest. As they followed the line with their eyes, they saw that it was aimed straight toward the southern mountain range, where all of the dragons had migrated to mere months ago.