Chapter 2: Elements of Discord
Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or any of the characters, nor do I own Team Fortress 2 or any of its characters. I do, however, own Copper Head.
Lyra awoke to a stream of light piercing through her curtains, and no amount of soft, warm covers was going to change the fact that she needed to arise and start her day. After nearly failing her first attempt to escape the seductive clutches of her bed, Lyra went about her morning routine before finally heading out the door of her little home on the edge of Ponyville. Lyra breathed deeply as the crisp, clean air filled her lungs along her journey into the center of town.
"Good-"
"Morning-"
"Lyra!" came three, chipper young voices from underneath the bridge she was crossing. Lyra peered down to see three little fillies covered head to hoof with various pieces of gear and gadgets that gave Lyra pause for thought as to what in Equestria they could possibly be up to.
"Oh hi, girls. What, uh, what are you up to?" Lyra asked, her concern raising as she drank in more of what she was seeing.
"We're looking for monsters!" Sweetie Belle said as she lifted her helmet to better sit on her puffy, pink and purple mane as to not put pressure on her little unicorn horn that was poking through.
"Yeah! Like right now, we're trying to find a troll to capture," Scotaloo said as she adjusted a pulley on her vest that kept suspended under the bridge by a series of ropes that looked hastily assembled. Lyra was about to ask the young orange and purple pegasus the taboo question of why she didn't just use her tiny wings to keep her suspended when she stopped herself.
"Really?" Lyra asked cocking her head. "I know you girls try all sorts of different things for your Cutie Marks, but doesn't this seem a little, I dunno…"
"Dangerous? Aww, c'mon. You sound jus' like mah sister." The third member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders emerged from further under the stone bridge wearing what appeared to be wadders that covered her custard fur. "Ah mean, we got the idea from watching Pyro and all that he did fer us," Applebloom said with a heavy accent much like older sister's. She shook her head from side to side, the cobwebs that had attached to either her red mane or pink bow swayed as she did so. "A'course, all we managed ta' do was find some webs and a few frogs. Maybe we should'a kept tryin' ta' build that robot we-"
"NO! NO ROBOTS!" Lyra suddenly blurted out. The CMC shared a silent look as Lyra's mint green fur was slowly overcome with a deep blush as she hastily attempted to conjure up a reason for her outburst. "Uhh…looks like you girls have everything covered here so I'll be heading out. Bye!" Lyra broke into a gallop as she disappeared out of sight towards town.
"That was weird," said Sweetie Belle emerging from underneath the bridge behind her two blank-flank friends. "I wonder why she doesn't like robots."
"Why does she sit the way she does? HEY! We haven't checked the edge of Everfree yet!" Scootaloo said excitedly as she dropped her gear into the wagon attached to her little blue scooter.
"Yeah; Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters GO!" exclaimed an excited Applebloom as she, and Sweetie Belle, hopped into the wagon as Scoots pumped her little orange wings and motored them down towards the forest.
-x-x-X-x-x-
The streets of Ponyville bustled just like they always had in the late morning. The various different vendors were peddling their goods for both regular customers and passersby alike, trying to draw attention with either callers, flashy banners, or just random facts about the product that may or may not have been exaggerated.
'I seriously doubt that minced cucumbers can cure chipped hooves in less than a day,' Lyra thought as she trotted past the colt behind the cucumber stand. That did get Lyra thinking about her hooves and the chips they had from everyday wear and tear. "Although, maybe a trip to the spa wouldn't hurt."
"Hurt? Darling, a trip to the spa does everything but, and I insist that you come with me for my weekly visit!" Before Lyra had a chance to open her mouth, she felt herself being spun on her back legs by some invisible force until she came face to face with the Element of Generosity herself; Rarity. As her name would suggest and her three diamond Cutie Mark would confirm, the white unicorn was a rare beauty, and she certainly earned it. Rarity, when not making clothes for royal nobles and town ponies alike, could usually be found at the local spa or doing something else to help maintain her stunning appearance, especially her curly, purple mane and tail.
"That's very kind of you, Rarity, but I couldn't impose."
"Impose!? Never would I consider it an imposition! Now, step lightly, darling. We don't want to keep Fluttershy waiting," Rarity said trotting past her and looking over Lyra with her large blue eyes that were half hidden behind her blue eyelids with a skeptical expression. "And by the look of things, the sooner we do something about these split-ends on your tail the better."
"Gee, thanks. I'd hate to skip out on you, but I really need to, uh, go do the-"
"ROBOTS! THE ROBOTS ARE COMING! Everypony! Batten down your doors and windows and prepare for the coming invasion!" Lyra had to consciously stop herself from spinning her big head around and giving herself whiplash at the sudden exclamation. Tearing down the streets with the orderly in hot pursuit was a white unicorn with a sort, copper mane and tail by the name of Copper Head. Lyra, if her brain wasn't still trying to keep pace with what she was seeing, would have found this situation rather amusing: a stallion that was roughly the size of Big Macintosh, the largest pony in all of Ponyville, was being chased around the otherwise quiet town by three average-sized mares wearing nurse's caps.
Fortunately for the nurses, Copper Head found this situation funny and didn't pay attention to the vegetable stand being pushed along as he chuckled. Lyra, and just about everypony else who was watching the spectacle, winced as the Copper Express drove headlong into the wooden cart, sending produce every which way.
"MY CABBAGES!" the older, tan stallion cried as he threw his hooves to the sky in anguish.
"Ohhh…wait! No, leggo of my leg! Hey! HEY!" Copper Head yelled as a straight jacket and various methods of restraint magically wrapped around him from the three untidy orderlies and began to drag him back to the hospital on the other side of Ponyville. "Heed my words, Ponyville; the robots are already among us and it's only a matter of time before they rise up!"
"Wow! That game sounds super fun! Where can I get a hold of it?"
"IT'S NOT A GAME, BUTTON! NOW LEMME GO!" With that final outburst, Copper Head and the annoyed nurses disappeared down the road as things began to return to normal in the once again busy streets, buzzing with gossip of what had just occurred.
"Ya know what, Rarity?" Lyra said turning to her. "I think a trip to the spa is JUST what I need right now."
-x-x-X-x-x-
*FWOOSH* "GAHHHH!"
Seventy-three…
*FOOM* "OHHHHHH NO!"
Seventy-four…
*WOOSH* "FIRE FIRE FIRE!"
Seventy-
"AHHH!"
-six. Pyro panted from within his black gas mask, his smoke-glass goggles had even started to fog over from the sweat that poured down his covered features. Funny, he couldn't remember the last time his few unburned pores were actually able to produce enough sweat for him to notice, these robots really want this stupid bomb. Pyro slumped back onto the wooden structure as a glaring, crit-boosted rocket screeched overhead and engulfed the last of the Scout-Bots in an explosion that shook the ground and kicked dust in the air, further covering the scraped Robo-Scout.
"Dominated, short pants! And THAT is how you do it, men!" Soldier shouted proudly as he stood his trusty launcher beside him and saluted the fallen robots with the universal sign for "loser."
Pyro looked back towards the Respawn Room and saw Sniper waving and pointing inside, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted something that Pyro couldn't quite make out. Something about apples? He decided to just wave back like he knew what Sniper had said and turned his attention towards the flashing light still spinning on the bomb by his rubber boots.
In the first few days after their sudden career change, the nine members of RED had looked to Tavish DeGroot to disarming the leftover bombs once he sobered up enough to remember how to operate pliers without seriously injuring himself. Now, with the team regularly being split up to combat the bots on multiple Mann Co. front lawns, all of the mercenaries were required to take a two hour course where Demoman (for lack of a better word) "taught" the rest of the team to disarm the bombs.
For Pyro, disarming something that could potentially cause a lot of fiery explosions made the already mundane task of messing around with a thermal nuclear device that had been shot at, juggled with rockets, and set on fire multiple times even more boring. As the light flickered and died from having the wires in its detonator forcefully tied into a pretzel, Pyro scratched his side and stretched before heading back.
Upon entering the rusty, metallic door of the dusty Upgrade Station, Pyro was greeted with a clipboard slapping his flash-bang grenades that hung on a bandoleer across his chest.
"It's about time you got here, Pyro." The soft, feminine voice that held more authority than whatever army Soldier thought he was in came as a surprise. Pyro looked up to see the one and only Miss Pauling, wearing her modest, purple dress and giving Pyro the same stern look from behind her glasses she always gave people when they did something they weren't supposed to…like performing a live fire drill. With actual fire. In a nursing home. She produced a pen from the bun her jet black hair had been pulled into for the past couple of years and scribbled something down after looking around the semi-crowded Upgrade Station. "Pyro?"
"Hmm?"
"Where's Soldier?"
"Huddah-hu…huh?" Pyro looked through the murky glass of the door and realized that they were one patriotic crackpot short of a full herd. That was odd, Pyro could have sworn that Soldier was right behind him when he-
"I AM HIDING IN THE BOX!"
Everyone in the room looked around for the source of Soldier's voice, focusing namely on the various boxes stacked up against the back wall. Suddenly, the box closest to Sniper burst open to reveal Soldier, standing heroically as red, white, and blue confetti erupted from within.
"Gah! Bloody HELL, how'd you set that up so fast?" Sniper asked clutching his heart and giving the jackass-in-a-box a dirty look.
"Life, liberty, and the American way!"
"…really?"
"No! Lt. Bites was tasked with its construction." Soldier said with a big grin on his face. The box Jane Doe was standing in shuffled around before a bushy-tailed raccoon popped its head out, looked back at the various expressions it was met with and scampered off to parts and ventilation shafts unknown. "Fuzzy Judas! How dare you abandon your post!?"
Miss Pauling remained unfazed. "You're going to have to leave him here for now. We need to get on the train to regroup with the rest of the team."
"Affirmative! I left plenty of mayonnaise that I dug up from Merasmus' fridge in Sniper's van just in case!"
"OI!"
-x-x-X-x-x-
"I'm surrounded by idiots…idiots made by MY hand no less. So by extension I must be the king of idiots."
Gray Mann was not having a good month.
Firstly, his original master plan of creating an army of robot mercenaries hadn't gone as well as planed, i.e., not at all. Apparently nine, mentally unstable murderers-for-hire are more than a match for thousands upon thousands of money-powered robots that were built to look and act like nine, mentally unstable murderers-for-hire. That thought brought the aged Gray to his second migraine: why on God's fuel-rich earth did he decide to power his expansive army with his OWN MONEY? The irony of having taunted his brothers shortly before stabbing them to death for using gravel as a fuel source instead of gasoline was palpable enough to cut with the glare Gray was giving his monitors.
"SIR, YOU REALLY SHOULD BE CAREFUL IN YOUR CONDITION. STRESS HAS BEEN DIRECTLY LINKED TO UNNECESSARY AUSTRALIUM LOSS," the metallic Medic-Bot buzzed.
Finally; Gray was on the verge of dying, thus completing his trifecta of woes that had befallen him. Not recent woes, though. No, Gray had been "on the verge of death" for almost a hundred and some odd years now thanks to his Australium-fueled Life Extension Machine, which was now in need of being recharged.
"Australium, my own money…at least I'm not reduced to using damn GRAVEL to power anything. Yet." Gray stood from his chair, his ancient joints popping loudly as he composed himself and brushed off his grey suit with a wrinkled yet skilled hand before wandering closer to the wall of monitors to watch as the last of his robots fell. "Damn. I really thought that last batch of Super Scouts were going to make it. *Sigh* I suppose it's for the best, they burnt through far too much money, now I can focus on the Worl-"
"*ZZZZZT* HEL- *POP* THIS IS *KRRRRGHT* -GEANT CRITS, REPOR- *ZZRRRR*"
"Now the comm system is fluctuating again. Why did I ever program robots physically attracted to my microwave?" Gray walked over to the static-filled monitor and fiddled with the knobs until a familiar bot's profile slowly became visible. "Sergeant Crits? What are you DOING!? You're supposed to be here guarding the hats, and more importantly ME!" There was a pregnant pause as the mechanical copy of Soldier appeared to just stare blankly at Gray's increasingly annoyed expression that swept over his wrinkled, skeletal features before suddenly nodding.
"SORRY, MAKER. ENGINEER-BOT NUMBER FOR- *ZZZZRT* -WO WAS RECENTLY RECOVERED AFTER ITS TELEPORTER MALFUNC- *GSHXXT* UPON MY ARRIVAL IN THIS…NEW LOCATION, WE HAVE UNCOVERED SOMETHING OF INTEREST: A NEW TYPE OF CRYSTAL THAT, FRANKLY, MAKES THE DIAMOND MODELS LOOK LIKE TINFOIL BY COMPAR- *ZRRRRT* -N."
Gray's aged eyes widened as he stroked the white hairs on his head in thought. A material that surpassed diamond in durability? This might be just what he had been missing in his endeavors.
"YES! This is just what I've been waiting for! Now…
-x-x-X-x-x-
…I can fi- *NNNNRZT* -ly get my plan back on *ZZZRR* -ack and get rid of all those damnable hats clogging up my *ZZZZZRRRRMT* -room! I'll gather the remaining forces here and then m- *ZZZZT* -et you there ASAP!"
"THE MAKER'S COMIN' HERE?" Engie-Bot buzzed as it poked its head up from behind the ever expanding Teleporter, still slowing spinning just enough to maintain its energy disk.
"AFFIRMATIVE! WHICH MEANS THAT WE NEED TO GET THIS SORRY EXCUSE FOR A HOVEL INTO A REAL HOVEL FIT FOR HIS ARRIVAL!" Sergeant Crits barked, the two Scout-Bots looking around the dank cave as a few water drips echoed in the distance. "DAMMIT, BOTS…" The colossal robot rotated the servos in its neck from side to side to simulate expressing disappointment. Just like the vast majority of Gray's army, Sergeant Crits mirrored the merc it was inspired by, in both actions and appearance. Its glowing eye, covered by a bolted helmet, shown brightly in the darkness of the cave and illuminated the rest of the cold, metal features on its relatively small head in comparison to the rest of its massive frame. The launcher for which it got its name was slung over to the right of the seven inch-thick steel jacket, and while its color usually made it stand apart from the rest of the blue-gray giant, the surging energy that surrounded it as long as it stayed in direct contact with its owner made it work as an ensemble for the twenty-foot machine.
"CAN'T YA JUST TELL 'IM THAT WE AIN'T FOR VISITORS YET?" the first Scout-Bot asked.
"COURSE WE CAN'T, CRASH-TEST DUMMY. THE MAKER AIN'T THE KINDA GUY WHO LIKES TO BE KEPT WAITING, SECONDLY, DAT FEED HAS LIKE, AN HOUR WAIT FROM WHAT GETS SAID TO WHAT GETS HEARD. SO BY THE TIME WE TELL HIM NOT TA' COME HE'LL BE HERE IN PERSON TO- ANYONE ELSE HEAR THAT?"
The other three bots all turned their attention (and audio receptors) towards the back of the cave where the Scout-Bot was pointing. The faint yet ever-present dripping that would have driven any human into a frenzy trying to find the source had suddenly ceased. The two Scout-Bots looked over to their commanding officer for orders, and the sight of Crits loading its glowing launcher told them what they need to know, and readied their scatterguns before rushing off as the melodic clanging of the Engie-Bot working on a Sentry replaced the drips that had fallen silent.
"DANGNABBIT, IF ONLY THE TELEPORTER DIDN'T TAKE UP ALL OF MY METAL…"
All was quiet for a time, save for the sound of metallic boots running along a stone cavern that kept getting fainter and fainter, until frantic shots from a couple of scatterguns rang out in rapid succession, the light from the muzzle flashes momentarily illuminating the crippling darkness before all was as silent save the sonar pings from the lvl.1 Sentry and the crackle of energy from Crits' launcher.
"SCOUT-BOTS, REPORT! WHAT HAPPENED!?" Again, silence. "I DON'T LIKE THIS, ENGIE-BOT. WE MIGHT HAVE T-"
*Clang*
"WHAT THE DEVIL?"
*Clang*
"SCOUT-BOTS, IF THAT'S YOU THEN YOU'RE TWO SECONDS AWAY FROM GETTING A CRIT-BOOSTED EXHAUST PORT CLEANING!"
*CLANG*
The little Sentry gun suddenly whipped around to the right of the dark cave, beeping frantically as it fired a volley of bullets at seemingly nothing before switching back to standby. This was more than enough to provoke Crits who began to launch rocket after rocket, the fire trails and thunderous explosions lighting up the dark passage.
All except for one, large shadow sitting near the middle of the floor.
Dark energy burst forth from the dark patch and entangled the now alert Sentry, knocking both the Engie-Bot and massive Sergeant aside as the Sentry was violently crushed and hauled back into the darkness. The sharp sound of metal clashing against itself and wind whipping about coupled with a throbbing, purple glow with green flashes dancing about.
Crits was back on its feet as quickly as it could but was immediately slammed back down by undetectable sources, even by its advanced sensors. The Engie-Bot, with more self-preserving programming, rolled back behind the Teleporter and tried to stay out of sight from whatever was overpowering its commanding officer.
"GAHH!" Sergeant Crits exclaimed as the darkness began to physically crush parts of its thick armor as sparks jumped about. It was in one of these few, brief flashes of light that Engie-Bot's optical sensors managed to detect something in the depths of the cave.
As the sparks danced more and more frequently, the object itself also drew closer to the subdued titan, a metallic clang punctuating each step as features became distinguishable.
A simmering platinum crown, a black mane, two green and red eyes with a purple essence swirling around them, an Equestrian muzzle curled into a snarl that showcased unusually sharp teeth, a red horn enveloped with some sort of unknown energy signature, and a metallic body akin to parts often found on Scout-Bots and busted Sentries.
-x-x-X-x-x-
"Ohhh~ Why have I never tried this before?" Lyra moaned as a pare of pink hooves gave her the best back massage she'd ever had.
"Higher or lower, Ms. Heartstrings?" Aloe asked in a soothing voice.
"Just a little higher- AH! Riiiiiiight therrrrrre…"
Lyra melted in her comfy recliner. Never before had it occurred to her just how much tension could build in her shoulders and the removal of said tension had catapulted her right to the Cloud Nine district of Cloudsdale with the aid of aroma candles and sweet-smelling bath salts.
"Good thing you decided to take my advice about coming with us, dear. It sounds as if though you were in need of more than just a touch up on your coiffure," Rarity said from within her mud bath, wrapped horn to hoof in seaweed. "Celestia knows that stallion from earlier is going to need more than a trip to the spa to fix his problems…"
"Did something happen this morning?" Fluttershy meeped, her creamy-yellow wings shuffling across her fluffy, white bathrobe as she removed the towel around her head to allow her long, pink mane to drape down past her cyan eyes. Lotus and Aloe were also keeping an ear swiveled in Rarity's direction as local gossip was an oddity that the spa ponies liked to be kept up to date on (and thanks to Rarity that was never an issue).
"Hmm? Oh my, did I forget to mention? Lyra, would you like to tell-"
"Uuuuuuurrrrgrhhhhh~" Lyra moaned again as the last of the vertebrae in her spine popped.
Rarity stifled a laugh. "Well, since she's preoccupied I'll just go ahead and fill you in, darling. Right after I bumped into Lyra in the market, this tall stallion came running through town, screaming some such nonsense while being chased by some of those nurses from the hospital just down the way! Anyway, he ran headlong into a cabbage stand and that's when they threw a straight jacket on him! Have you ever heard of anything so brutish?"
Fluttershy, who at this point had been attempting to recede into her robes at the mental image of some giant pony rampaging around and destroying cabbage stands, peeked out from behind her hooves that had been blocked her eyes. "Y-Yes. I mean, no. That does sound awfully mean. Do you know what he was saying?"
Again, Aloe and Lotus leaned in closer as Rarity tapped her hoof against her chin. "Hmmm, he said something about everypony having to batten down their doors and windows…but I can't remember from what exactly."
"He was warning everypony about the robot invasion…"
All eyes swiveled over to Lyra, who was now sitting up in her "unusual" way. "Was it robots? Yes, I believe it was! Well done, Lyra, your memory is certainly better than mine today." Rarity, with the help of Lotus, got out of the mud bath and headed off towards the manicure area, followed by Fluttershy.
"Are you alright, Ms. Heartstings? Was the massage not to your liking?"
"Wha- no, no. It was amazing, Aloe, thank you so much. And call me Lyra, Ms. Heartstrings makes me sound too much like my mother." The pink spa pony nodded and trotted off to join the others, leaving Lyra alone in the wonderful-smelling room. 'Copper Head HAS to be crazy, there's no way robots could be here. Even if they were, Pyro would never let anything happen to me or any of the ponies here…' Lyra looked up and caught her reflection in the mirror starring back at her. 'And neither will Pyra.'
With her confidence having a much needed boost, Lyra happily wondered over to where the the rest of her friends had gathered. "Oh, good you're here," said Rarity with a smile. "I was just showing Fluttershy where all three of us will be staying for the Crystal Faire."
-x-x-X-x-x-
"Luna? Luna, are you in here?" No answer emitted from the darkness of the unlit observatory aside from the door opening to accept the new visitor. Celestia slowly nudged the star-spangled door open further with a gentle push from her magic.
"Zzz…mh…ghm…zzz"
"Oh, Luna…" Celestia looked overhead and thrust open the black curtains that blotted out her sun with her telekinetic grip, bathing the small room with the piercing light of mid afternoon, an action that did not go unnoticed by the younger of the two goddesses.
"WHAT TREACHERY BE THIS!? DOTH THOU SEEK TO BLIND US!?" Luna bellowed as she fell off her perch atop one of the many bookcases that surrounded the circular room. "Oh, sister. It's just you…what was that all about!?"
"Luna, were you up all day doing what I think you were doing?" Celestia questioned, her voice embodying more of a motherly tone. Her eyes scanned over the desk Luna had been using for her research; plenty of parchment, ink and quills, various books, and a familiar journal opened to a page with a doodle of a younger Luna running alongside a tall, dark figure.
"I admit that he was the first instance of these magical anomalies, like you so humbly stated, but he was defeated. Twice. There shouldn't be enough of his magic left to cause this much of an uproar."
"That's what we thought for well over a thousand years, and the events of the past year or so have gone to shown that magic does not like to go down without a fight," Celestia said.
Luna smiled. "Indeed, dear sister. However, I came across a picture earlier this morning that you might have forgotten about." Luna walked over to the cluttered desk and began rummaging around with her magic, pieces of paper and books tossed carelessly aside as she did so.
'Twilight would have a fit if she saw this. Hay, I wouldn't be surprised if she had trained her horn to alert her whenever a book is in danger of being misplaced somewhere.' Celestia laughed softly, amused by the thought of her OCD student snapping into action like something out of a foal's comic book.
"Show yourself, you insipid- ah! Found it! Gaze upon the fruits of my labor!" Luna said confidently as a small picture glowing with a sapphire aura was thrust inches from her big sister's smug face.
The picture was a recent one, one that had been sent in a friendship report…but not one from any of her little ponies. No, she remembered exactly what the singed letter she had received along with what it had said, although the picture that had traveled along with it had escaped her vast memory. There were the six Elements of Harmony, who were usually present in these kind of pictures, a cream-coated mare with a bouncy, blue and pink mane and three candies for a Cutie Mark, a mint green unicorn with a lyre on her flank and the biggest grin Celestia had ever seen in any of these pictures, and finally, the red, rubber-clad human with the black mask holding her in his arms.
"Yes, Pyro could certainly be classified as an anomaly, but he barely had any magic to his name. Luna, are you sure that your weren't just up too late today and-"
"Noooo," Luna whined, deflated that her sister hadn't caught on as fast as she'd hoped. "Look at what the green is wearing on her head."
Celestia scanned over Lyra once again, and sure enough, there were a pair of dark goggles with blue lenses hiding behind her mane. "Oh, the Pyrovison Goggles?"
Luna's expression rapidly changed to one of confusion and inquiry. "If that is what they are called…Celestia, how long have you known about those?"
Celestia stared off into the distance for a moment. "Ever since Pyro gave them Lyra the last time he was here, unless he gave them to her sooner."
"WHAT!? Sister, do you not understand just how DANGEROUS that can be!? If what I think is truth, then those things are responsible for the strange goings-on as of late!" Celestia raised a skeptical brow and was about to respond but Luna had more of her mind to belt at her sibling. "They use that to talk to one another, yes? Because that is what is stated in this letter, addressed to you might I add…if they can actually interact with each other on the level described here, then that means we could have another Silas incident on our hooves!"
"Which is what I've been trying to tell you, Luna. When Silas came to our world for the first time he ruptured the fabric of reality that kept our planes of existence separate, which is why I raised the barrier to help maintain order and stability. I never told you about the tear because I was afraid you were going to go after him when he left. I'm sorry."
Luna was stricken down to her very core. Hurt that yet another secret about the past had been kept from her by her arrogant sister, she readied her strongest Thu'um…when she stopped: Celestia was right. At the time, her impulsive, younger self would have at the very least attempted to cross over to see Silas. "So," she said quietly, "that would explain how all of those creatures from that world were able to bound back and forth with such ease. Sister, we must seal that-" Luna quickly scanned over the letter sprawled out in front of her, "'Pyroland' as soon as possible."
"Now you're just being silly, Luna. Lyra assured me that only she and Pyro can even perceive its existence, and that's only when she wears those goggles Pyro gave her..."
"Silas, the two of us getting turned into our evil selves, the exploding book and the giant eye that FUSED together, the return of the changelings, the human that could cause castle-crashing explosions, and the other one who could change shape and disappear at will running about," Luna stated flatly.
"…but, I think you might be in the right here, Lulu." Celestia sighed deeply, "Lyra is going to be crushed, you realize."
"I have taken that into account, but for the future safety of all of Equestria this must come to pass."
Celestia nodded as her eyes glowed a fierce white and she took to the air upon her beautiful, ivory wings. Luna followed suit, and as soon as the twin deities broke free of the observatory, they were both enveloped in a ball of swirling magic that burst forth, rocketing around all of Equestria all without so much as disturbing a single blade of grass.
"Thank you for taking my advice, Celly."
"Of course. Now, I think it's high time SOME goddess got herself to bed."
-x-x-X-x-x-
"I TOLD YOU, YA DAMN FOOL, WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ANY CRYSTALS!"
"Lies! I can sense my crystals nearby and seeing as how you metal abominations are the only things in this forsaken cave, you MUST know where the crystals are!"
Engie-Bot, while not actually able to perceive pain, was in fact able to mimic human emotions (again, to better manipulate them) when forced by its programming, and right now, its programming was telling it that getting crushed to "death" by a dark mist being emitted by a metal horse's horn was extremely painful. Engie-Bot frantically checked its files for what to do in this situation, ignoring any suggestions to contact a field commander for aid since the only one in this world was lying twenty feet away in critical condition. It felt a servo in its wrench arm snap and played "painful_scream.mp3" accordingly.
The metal unicorn threw it aside as it crumpled against the wall in a heap. The beast walked slowly towards it, the dark energy still enveloping it like a violent and procreative shadow when the Teleporter flickered to life and began to spin furiously. The metal unicorn was taken aback as a colossal, blue tank quickly filled the immense cave.
The ramp towards the front slowly lowered as the light from within poured into what was left of the hollow mountain. The beast covered its eyes as the sound of hundreds of metal feet rushing towards it roared throughout the cave, and before the unicorn had time to react, it found itself surround by all manner of different bots some of whom were significantly larger than others.
"Well…who do we have here?" the voice that cracked across the tank's intercom sounded aged and arrogant. "My name is Gray Mann, and who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
The metal unicorn was quiet for a moment before turning its green and red eyes towards the observation deck where Gray was standing. "I am King Sombra, the true ruler of the Crystal Empire."
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more please
Ooh. Something tells me they're gonna team up.
I approve of this story. Moar plz :3
Yay Button Mash!
3584473 Don't worry, there shall be.
3584817 Maaaaaaaaaaybe
3585066 I approve the approval of things, more to come.
3585725 Figured I might as well toss him in there, glad to see people are happy to see him.
yay
its back
now then
heavies turn?
or is pyro coming back
3587669 Well, where would the fun be if I just told you?
Alright, what's next?
Wait... Huh?
... MAGIC!!!!
MAKES THE DIAMOND MODLES LOOK LIKE TINFOIL
1. Models.
Well ain't I almost 3 weeks late on this... Why did fimfic fail in reporting this to me in both feed and updates? Hmm... Either way yep... DANGIT LUNA YOU'RE CRUSHING A YOUNG MARES DREAM OF BEING IN LOVE!!
3684608 She's a heartless mare, that's for sure. And don't worry about being late or anything...I was far later posting the actual thing
I would love if the engi heavy or sniper came and/or scout but it's not up to me.
3956268 You're right, it's up to ME! But fear not! Once I finally get my ass in gear and start putting out more chapters, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.