//------------------------------// // Battle for Equality // Story: Let's Rock! // by MetalJrock //------------------------------// "Grr... Bass was a failure." Wily grumbled, seeing his trusted robot fly back to the Fortress to be repaired, "He won't be able to face them again in the state he's in until all of this is over." Starlight Glimmer looked at the ground, then back at the scientist, "I'll go... I have a bone to pick with Princess Twilight and her friends from destroying my image." Wily faced the monitor, "Very well. If you wish to do so, you can head into the first major arena room within the fortress. You can divert the ponies away from Mega Man and Proto-Man long enough for me to bring in my last secret weapon with the power of Ra Moon on its side." he chuckled, seeing the orb he held to do everything he had been since the planning phase. The heroes walked into the entrance of the Skull Fortress which proved to be simple what with Bass being the only real security guarding it. Mega Man and Proto-Man remained in the front, making sure that there were no traps that the ponies could fall for, "So, what's the deal with Wily's fortresses?" Rainbow questioned, hovering above the others slowly. Mega Man peeked around a corner, shooting two Sniper Joes behind the back. "There are a whole bunch of traps probably waiting for us further inside. It may looks simple enough, but Dr. Wily's always got something up his sleeve in here." explained Mega Man. Proto-Man used his shield to deflect any shots their way, staying in front of the group. He revealed his Proto-Buster and shot the Sniper Joes back. "This is all too easy. We just have to hope that this is it." "Oh, I hope it's easy..." Rarity sighed. Jumping over a small pit, Mega Man kept an eye on the ponies to make sure that they could traverse it just fine, mainly the three poines and the dragon that had no wings. At this point Rainbow Dash, Twilight and Fluttershy made it to the other side. The Blue Bomber told Rush to use his jet form to glide the others to the opposite side. Once they were all together again, they continued on, facing any opposition that stood in their path. The robots paused upon seeing the door in front of them, telling the ponies to do the same. "Giant door... Wily's got something behind there. I'm sure of it." Mega Man elaborated. "What do you mean?" asked Twilight. Proto-Man stepped forward, "It means that things just got a bit more difficult for us." he explained, watching the door open in front of them. The mares and dragon stepped as well with Mega Man and Proto-Man standing ahead, prepared to tackle whatever lies on the other side. It was an empty room, with only one more door on the other side. Mega Man held down his Mega Buster, but saw that nothing was inside of it, "Huh. I guess Wily forgot to put something in here." he joked, calming down. "Uh oh..." whimpered Pinkie. "What is it?" asked Mega Man. The mares looked at Pinkie's twitching tail, "It's my Pinkie Sense!" "A who what now?" Proto-Man blurted out. "Her Pinkie Sense... It's hard to explain." muttered Twilight. Spike at this point had already dived for cover. "A twitchy tail means that something is going to fall!" the pink pony declared. The others moving away from the spot as did Pinkie, the robots looked at each other before scoffing. "Yeah right, I only know one person who can detect danger with heightened senses and he's not here right now." scoffed the Blue Bomber. Suddenly, a beam hit the floor right where the ponies were once standing. Mega Man and Proto-Man looked up to see Starlight Glimmer standing on a pillar, having teleported inside to get the element of surprise, "...I take back everything I just said." he mumbled quietly. "You!" the unicorn gestured to the ponies, "You'll pay for what you did to me!" "You enslaved an entire town and plotted against Equestria! You have to pay!" Dash shouted back. Starlight Glimmer snarled, "I only wanted what was best for Equestria!" "And this is not the way to go about it!" yelled Rarity. Mega Man whispered to Proto-Man, "Should we leave this battle to them? We cannot harm another living being after all thanks to our programming." The red hero nodded, "You're right... This is up to them." "Are ya two gonna help out!" "Sorry, girls. But our programming forbids us from attacking another organic being like humans and ponies..." Dash smashed her hooves together with a smirk, "Fine! We can take her down alone easily!" Starlight Glimmer frowned, teleporting into the center of the arena, "Very well..." she sighed. The unicorn shot a beam of magic, teleporting behind the group in order to perfect the hit by holding down Twilight, who was her first target. Rainbow Dash and Applejack slammed their hooves on Starlight, making her lose focus. Twilight warped away from the beam and reached the evil unicorn, shooting her with a small blast of magic. "This lady's nuts!" exclaimed Spike, ducking underneath the laser Twilight avoided. Hovering in the air with her magic, Starlight aimed an ice spell at Fluttershy, the pegasus's eyes widening upon finding that she was the target. The yellow mare hurridly hopped out of the way, the spell freezing the ground where she was once standing. "T-Taht was a close one..." she panted. Flying near the unicorn, Rainbow fumed at the sight of her friend nearly get hurt, "You..." she grunted, flying across Starlight's face repeatedly, punching her face each time she crossed. Starlight huffed, using her magic to hold the fast pegasus still in her tracks, You'll never hurt Fluttershy again if I have anything to say about it!" she snarled. The unicorn laughed, angering Rainbow Dash even more, "Now what's so funny, huh?" "The fact that you're all willing to help each other. You're all so different. There is no way all of you can possibly get along perfectly! It makes me sick!" "But we do, Starlight! Wily doesn't care about what happens to us! He only cares about his empire!" Twilight pleaded, "You just to look deeper!" "Ha! As if I'd listen to you, Twilight Sparkle!" Starlight mocked, shooting a fire spell at the alicorn. Pinkie pulled out her cannon and allowed it to fall into the barrel, shooting it back at the unicorn, who created a force field to faze out the flames before they could have a chance to burn her. Twilight wiped the sweat from her forehead, Rarity pulling out a small rag to help her do so, placing it around the lavender mare's face. Starlight Glimmer huffed, "You got lucky!" she shot more pwerful beams of magic from her horn, causing the mares and dragon to run about to avoid them ending with a block of ice heading their way. Spike puffed up his chest and breathed out his green flames, burning out the small glacier. He panted, worn out and sweating from drawing out too much fire, "Blues..." whispered thr Blue Bomber. "I just remembered something that we can do to help them." Looking at his brother, Proto-Man spoke, "What is it?" "The 0th Law of Robotics... Something Dr. Light programmed us to do. How we're able to fight Wily despite him being a normal human." he recalled. Smirking, Proto-Man held out his Proto-Buster, "Nice thinking, Rock." The two robots held their Busters at Starlight Glimmer, who was still in the air, "Stand down, Starlight! Or we'll step in to aid the ponies!" Mega Man ordered. "You're bluffing! Wily told me you are bound to your programming! You can't harm another organic being like me!" Starlight scoffed, crossing her hooves. Mega Man released a charged shot at Starlight Glimmer, causing her to lose focus and fall on the ground. The ponies and dragons stood around her, "H-How...?" she asked, feeling sore from the attack. "The 0th Law of Robotics. We're bound to help humans and other living creatures and we cannot bring them harm through our inaction. You're harming the ponies and we step in, while still following our orders." mocked Mega Man, "With us in the picture, your alliance with Wily is over." "Okay! Fine! I'll surrender!" pleaded Starlight who lied on the ground and begging, as they all reached for her to figure out to do with the mad unicorn, she teleported away with one last spell, leaving the heroes to wonder where she went. "I'll be back!" she said, her voice fading away in the warp light. "Uh... That wasn't supposed to happen." Rainbow muttered. Twilight shook her head, "We'll worry about her later. Right now we have to find Wily." "Okay... We should be in his lair soon."