Techorse

by Spirals95

Part 1 (chapters 1-4)

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: A large amount of the information in the prologue is already known by viewers of the show. Skip it if you wish.

Techorse

By Spirals95

Prologue

Planet Equestria. It’s nearly 400 light years away from Earth. The planet itself is earth-like, featuring one sun and one moon as well. The main difference between the two planets was its evolutionary (or to make this story more popular in some regions) / creation line. Earth was inhabited by highly-intelligent ape-like beings called humans, who used their brains to build great and powerful machines out of the metals of the Earth. If you are reading this, you are probably viewing it on one of those machines now. Humans found very little need or use for magic, many doubted its existence or even called it heresy. Great wars were fought between countries to simply determine who was right and who was wrong from a moral standpoint. Interestingly, the side that chooses to value the lives of the individuals won nearly every war. Despite the war and the hatred of the supernatural, a few humans learned magic, manipulating energy with their minds to control matter and the non chemical elements. The most powerful magic users could open portals to other areas in the universe, and travel between entire planets. It might seem grand to have this power, but humans are at a large disadvantage when using magic. For you see, in order to focus their minds in order to use magic, they must sacrifice the power of other parts of their mind. And morality is usually the first to go….

In contrast, the dominant species of Equestria were a large variety of ponies and horses. From our viewpoint, some of them looked like normal ponies; others were like Pegasus, having large wings. Some were unicorns, animals believed to be only a myth on Earth. In early Equestrian society, trouble brewed when the ponies began subjecting themselves into castes. Earth ponies, with no wings or horns, were believed to be stupid and only good for hard labor. The pegasi, with their flight and ability to move cloud formations, became a middle class. But the unicorns, whose horns served as a focal point for their minds, were powerful magic users. They were so talented at manipulating energy and matter with their minds that they saw no use for great technology (At this time, humans had built the steam engine already). They used their magic poorly instead, using it to threaten and enslave the other ponies. Then, the planet’s society began to fall apart when the lowest caste finally snapped. The entire planet was on the brink of engaging in a war that would quite easily have wiped out the intelligent ungulates. However, two sisters decided to stop the war before it even began.

Princess Celestia and Luna were both very unique in that they possessed both wings and a unicorn’s horn. Rather than see themselves as better than others, they vowed to act as ambassadors between the classes of ponies. Eventually though, when the entire planet was on the brink of war, they decided to use their incredible magic power to curse the sun and moon of the planet. For as long as the ponies did not consider themselves equal and treat each other with kindness, the sun would not rise or set and the moon would not appear in the sky for light. From a distant perspective, the planet essentially stopped turning when the three types of ponies could not treat each other as equals on a planet wide scale. Before even a single attack could be made, the planet was plunged into darkness without any hope for light. The three classes of ponies disbanded, and began forming townships and cities together. Although a few cities in the air remained accessible only to the pegasi, the planet was finally at peace. As a reward for saving their species, the citizens of Equestria crowned the sisters as the leaders of the planet. Celestia was responsible for the day and Luna for the night. But a new problem returned very quickly when the biological function of sleep made Luna very angry.

Like humans, ponies are diurnal, and sleep at night to repair their bodies and rest their minds. While they were playful and happy during the day when Celestia ruled, at night when Luna ruled the ponies slept. Angry, Luna attempted to use her magic to break the curse on the planet’s rotation, to keep the planet in night forever. In order to prevent the destruction of the planet’s plant life (and eventually all life), princess Celestia was forced to teleport her sister into a prison inside the moon. To do so, she carved out of stone 6 containers for magical energy called Elements. The first five acted as focusing crystals for the sixth, which served as the weapon itself. These Elements, when worn by ponies displaying the Element’s primary characteristic, would create a teleporter beam capable of banishing evil magic. With this, Luna was trapped inside the moon for 1000 years. But she vowed to come back then and plunge the planet into night once more.

She tried too. 1000 years passed, princess Celestia had survived via the magical energy of happiness from her loyal, but not mindless subjects. The princess had taught ponies of all three types how to use their abilities to work together and live in harmony. However, one of her student was showing signs of anti-social behavior. In response, the princess sent her out into the country to make friends. However, she did not make any until the night of a celebration occurring at the time. During the party, princess Luna returned possessed by a daemon created out of her own loathing. The student and her 5 friends found the Elements inside Luna’s castle and managed to use the teleporter once again. Luckily, only the daemon was banished, leaving a small and defenseless Luna behind. Celestia had mercy on her sibling, and peace was again restored to the planet. The Elements were put into storage, as it was believed they would never see use again.

But evil never sleeps.

Chapter 1

Above Equestria, a strange glowing was occurring. Ponies observing the event saw a large fuchsia colored funnel forming above the planet. None of them panicked, as the funnel was so high in orbit it was not perceived as a threat, for it looked tiny against the sky. In reality, a magical gateway was being opened up to allow faster than light travel. Within a minute, the portal had closed, and the ponies went back to their work, interested in but unaffected by the mystical event.

The space station that had traveled through the funnel was now in orbit around the planet. It was a very large space station shaped like a cake display stand, with several other structures attached to it in special metal orbs. In one of the orbs was a gigantic factory, designed to mass produce machines. In addition, the station was equipped with many shuttles designed to ferry people down to the planet and back up again to the station. However, despite its massive scale, only 8 humans were aboard. Inside the station’s main meeting hall 7 of them were gathered around a round table. The first was a balding businessman, clad in a black tuxedo with silver lining. He wore fancy dark pants and clean white dress shoes, but this really didn’t make up for the fact that he was short, and in his forties. The next man to his right was a dastardly whiplash, like a villain out of a silent movie. He wore a top hat with a belt buckle, a black dress vest, and just as black pants. To top it all off, he wore an oddly contrasting white cape and shirt. The man had a prominent mustache, too, but he never twirled it for fear of being cliché.

The third man seated at the table wore a pith helmet. He looked like he was ready for a safari. Featuring explorer’s clothes, he was dressed like a villain from a Harrison Ford movie. He was clean shaven, and had 8 inch long blond hair. The fourth man sitting to the right to him was a gigantic chef in uniform. Despite his weight, he had quite a bit of muscle in his arms and legs, and was not to be messed with. Being over 6 feet tall balanced out the copious amounts of adipose tissue around his waist. Completing the gourmet’s form was his brown hair and shaved face, which contrasted his green eyes. To the right of him sat a thin German of average height with black hair and a five o'clock shadow, suggesting he had forgotten his shave that morning. This man looked absolutely ridiculous in the grey military uniform he wore, along with his small peaked hat of a similar color.

The next guy was a man dressed like a western outlaw. Wearing jeans, a white buttoned shirt, a light brown coat, and a cowboy hat, he looked like he meant business. He even wore spurless boots, continuing along with the western theme. In terms of facial features, the man was redheaded, but had an odd brown mustache. The human was playing with an odd looking pistol with a red capacitor on the top. Finally, the last one sitting at the table was a young adult. This Caucasian young man had blue eyes, a brown short haircut, and was of average height for his age. He wore kaki tan pants, a white t-shirt, and a green jacket around it. He looked rather sad and worried.

The six were talking together when a bell rang to call their attention. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, and the seventh occupant appeared. He was a man with black hair shaved down to one inch in length. He also had a black goatee, and was wearing a flowing blue cloak. You could not see his feet underneath the cloak, but the human was not short by any definition. The guy was a slightly tanned white man with grey eyes, and although he had normal body proportions, he looked like a scholar of some sort. This older man got the attention of the people at the table and began to speak.

“Gentlemen”, he said in a dark tone, “I have successfully teleported us into orbit around the planet. Before we descend to the surface, I can’t help but quiz you on the book I gave each of you about the natives before we got here. So get out your number 2 pencils.” The humans at the table laughed a bit at their employer’s joke, except for the teenager, who kept frowning and looking around the room. The man in the blue cloak continued, “Thanks for appreciating my joke, but in all seriousness, I do have a few questions. First off, has everyone decided on their callsign to use instead of their real name?”

“Yes” answered the chef, “although I’m not sure why we needed to pick new names to use.”

The cloaked one looked at the chef and answered, “There are a couple of “activist groups” who are a little more than against what we’re about to do. I’ve ordered you to pick new names so that if someone finds out about your escapades here, you won’t get arrested.”

“Right.” said the chef, understanding his boss’s point. What the men seated at the table were about to do to the planet below would land them in federal prison if they were found out by government agencies. “I picked Chef Roy as my nickname.” continued the cook.

“Creative.” said the cloaked man, shaking his head.

“Hey, you’ve called yourself “Wizard” ever since you hired us.” complained Chef Roy.

“True” said Wizard, “but remember that I don’t consider myself a plain man, Roy. I’m unique in bringing this space station here with my powers, so I deserve that unique title.”

“Makes sense.” said the chef, crossing his arms and reclining in his black leather chair.

Wizard looked down the table generally and asked, “the rest of you? What callsigns have you chosen?”

Wizard’s minions gave their aliases:

The top hatted man: “Espion”

The executive in the suit: “Bossman”

The cowboy: “Gunslinger”

The general: “Schadenfreude”

The blond-haired explorer: “Hunter”

The Wizard approached the teenager and said, “You can keep your name, private Techman. According to mankind, you don’t exist.” The teenager said nothing in response, literally gazing off into space through a window in the room. Wizard shook his head at the disrespect he was receiving from the boy and sighed. “Now that you have chosen new names, we can descend to the surface and begin collecting the natives. Are there any more questions about them in particular before we begin?”

“I have a question.” said Hunter as he raised his hand.

Wizard acknowledged him, “Go ahead, Hunter.”

“We’ve had one year to read the book you gave us, and in it you keep calling these natives “ponies.” Aren’t they actually aliens that simply resemble ponies?”

Wizard responded, “That’s what’s so scary, Hunter, I didn’t simply call them ponies, it’s what they call themselves.”

“You also imply in your book, sir, that they speak English!” added Bossman to Hunter’s question, “how is that even possible?”

Wizard put a hand on his face, groaned and said, “Techman, if you please, explain this science filth to these buffoons.”

Techman uncrossed his arms and talked to Bossman, “Based on what Wizard and I have studied about the natives, it looks like their vocal cords evolved almost identically to ours back on Earth. That being said, English is one of the easier languages for our vocal cords to use, so they developed a form of it very quickly. The only difference between Equine English and human English are a couple of missing words named after Earth events and some figures of speech. For example, using the name “Einstein” to describe a smart guy will confuse them, as Einstein never lived on their planet. Furthermore…”

“That’s not true, private.” interrupted Wizard. Techman crossed his arms again and stopped his talk. He then finished, “The ponies use the terms “Pegasus” and “unicorn” to describe the two primary variants of their species. That means there are winged and horned ponies on this planet, gentlemen. How they figured out those English words without access to Greek mythology astonishes me.”

“Maybe if you let me finish, you’d understand.” said Techman.

“Shut up!” snapped Wizard. Calming down, the man asked of his group, “any other questions?”

Espion asked, “I understand the natives are quite peaceful. They won’t put up much of a fight?”

Wizard said to him, “Correct. They’ve been at peace for a very long time, beating our species record of longest peacetime by nine hundred years. Because of this, they have very few weapons, only a couple primitive swords and the like.”

“Zis will be easy then.” scoffed general Schadenfreude, “my machines will make quick work of zem.”

Wizard said, “Don’t be so sure, my studies of the natives suggest that their unicorn subspecies can use limited amounts of magic. That might be a threat to your devices.”

“Not tryin’ to kiss up here, Wizard, but I’m sure their magic’s nothin’ compared to you.” said Gunslinger.

“True enough.” agreed Wizard, “all that means is that we will be met with some resistance. We need to go over the plan one more time to make sure we can crush that resistance. Bossman, please give your demonstration.”

“Gladly.” said the man in the business suit. He got up from the table and walked over to a plain-looking projector, and turned it on with a button push. Wizard turned down the lights in the meeting room as the slideshow began. Bossman picked up a laser pointer and talked about the first picture, a map Wizard made of the planet’s surface. “This is a map of the continent we plan to attack first.” Explained Bossman, “notice the large range of mountains here.” He said as he used the laser pointer to circle the mountains with a red dot of light. “These mountains provide a physical border between an empty grassy plains area and the cities on the continent. This prevents two thirds of the natives from assaulting my factory as only the winged ones will be able to get over them quickly by flying.” Pointing to an open spot in the mountain range, Bossman coughed and continued, “Here, we see a pass in the mountains. In case you do not set up portals to deliver the robots produced by my factory magically, I can have them roll out through here. This section will therefore be the most heavily guarded to prevent ground attack through there. Once I have the factory up and going, you’ll basically be free to do whatever you wish while the robots do our work for us. Each robot is capable of teleporting natives into the cages inside my factory.”

Schadenfreude interrupted the presentation, “Bossman, these robots you are building, they are all my designs, right?“

“Correct. Your robots will be the only devices produced.” replied Bossman.

Gunslinger spat out a toothpick he was chewing on and grumbled to the general, “If your robots aren’t teleporting ‘nuff animals into the cages, I got a train to take ‘em back to the factory manually. These varmints are smart enough that they got a railroad system. I reckon it shouldn’t be too hard to clear the tracks.”

The man in the pith helmet said to the cowboy, “I really appreciate you going to the trouble of shipping around our quarry Gunslinger. But thanks to Wizard here, we all have teleporter rifles so we can go hunting for the natives ourselves.”

The chef mumbled with some sadness, “Yeah, hunting.” The men at the table, except for the teenager in the green jacket began chatting about their plans for the planet below.

Then Wizard silenced them and said, “I think you gentlemen have the gist of it. First, we are going to deploy the factory in the place Bossman suggested. Then, while he is there tending the machines and cages, the rest of you will go and place teleport pads I have prepared with my magic. These pads will transfer robots directly from the factory to where you are on the planet’s surface. If we work quickly, our robot’s teleporter beams will harvest the natives on the continent within three months. We do not want to take all of the natives on the planet, because obviously we need some left to breed and produce more for the next harvest. After we’ve collected enough, I will magically transport them across space back to a facility on Earth. There, once I return, I will wipe their memories with my magic so that they will become sentient pets for mankind. Every girl and boy on Earth will want a pony that they can not only ride, but talk to and have a relationship with. They will sell like hotcakes, and then we split the profits evenly 7 ways.” Wizard then picked up a box next to him and opened it. Inside were 6 potions and seven weird stone crystals. Wizard passed out one of each to everybody except the teenager, whom he gave a mistrusting look. Wizard said, “Each of these blue potions is your ticket out of here. If you want to quit for any reason, simply pour the potion over yourself, and you will be transported back to Earth. Wear these red crystals I give you, for it will allow me to make you more powerful by allowing me to channel some of my magic power.” Everyone looked at each other at the table, and then put on the crystals.

“So if these crystals break, you’ll lose some power?” asked Hunter as he held the stone in his right hand.

“No, I merely use these to share my power with you, not store it.” replied Wizard, “what kind of an idiot would store his power in easily broken objects?”

Techman coughed, not on purpose, but enough to draw Wizard’s anger to him. Wizard turned and looked at the teenager at the table. “Is there anything you would like to add, private Techman?” he asked. The young man frowned and shook his head.

“No”, he replied. Wizard frowned and curled his eyebrows angrily.

“No what?” he demanded.

“No, Wizard.” corrected Daniel Techman.

Wizard said to the others, “Leave, I need to talk to my servant alone.” The others filed out and returned to their stations, awaiting their time to go down to Equestria’s surface.

Wizard then held out his hands. A white glow appeared around them, and he used magic to shut the doors and lock them. He then turned and yelled at private Techman, “Listen you little grunt, do you remember why you are here?”

Techman replied, “You wanted me to come with you and help you make money capturing aliens and selling them as pets.”

Wizard then said, “Reality check Techman, you are here because you are afraid of me disposing of you. Now, I don’t want to have to do that to you, after all, you are like a grandson to me. But you have to obey orders, and you must learn respect for my magical power, even if I could not teach any magic to you. I really don’t hate you, even though you studied books and science behind my back instead of magic. I want you to use your knowledge of that science to go on a special mission for me during our stay here. In order to do so, I am going to send down that small castle you designed outside of a little township the natives have built for themselves. Once you are there in the castle, build a robot teleport pad, or wait for me to send you the machines myself. Go and have a look around at the natives themselves, and get familiar with them. But do not befriend them Techman, I have seen movies where humans betray their own species because they take pity on the natives. If you cooperate with these sapient ponies, I will be forced to destroy you. Do not let it get to that point.”

Private Techman said softly, “I will do my best, Sir.”

Wizard replied, “Good, we teleport down in two hours.”

Chapter 2

There really isn’t a more quaint and pretty town as Ponyville. The small town was filled with happy residents who worked hard to keep the town a lovely and thriving place. It was surrounded by farms on one side, and the Everfree forest on the other. Inside the town itself were shops and residences where goods could be bought and sold. Towards the middle of a town, a tree converted into a library stood with its doors open to anybody hungry for knowledge. Inside lived princess Celestia’s best student, Twilight Sparkle. She was a smart unicorn pony with a light purple coat, pink and purple striped hair, and a mark on her flank in the shape of a large star with five smaller white stars surrounding it. Currently, she was reading a book on how to use magic to disable other magic energy shields. Her assistant, a small dragon named Spike, was shelving other books visitors to the library had picked up to read.

All of a sudden, Spike felt a heartburn like sensation in his chest. “Uh-oh”, he said, “Burning feeling in the throat. Incoming message!” The dragon spat out a scroll with a royal seal on it. He then handed it to Twilight Sparkle. Twilight magically opened to scroll and levitated it in front of her face, then began to read out loud.

“Dear miss Sparkle”, she read, “This is Gazer, head of the astronomy lab at princess Celestia’s castle. We have spotted multiple meteors entering the atmosphere and falling at a very slow rate. The Pegasus ponies are too scared to touch the objects in order to stop them from hitting the ground. Although they will not hit any towns or cities directly, one of the meteors is headed for the outskirts of Ponyville. Evacuate immediately.” Twilight exclaimed, “Oh no! If there’s a meteor headed this way, we don’t have much time before it hits!”

Spike asked, “What’s a meteor anyway?”

Twilight replied, “It’s a large piece of rock that falls from space and creates a large fireball when it hits the ground.”

Spike asked, “How do we even know if they’re right? Maybe they are overreacting to a larger dragon spitting a fireball at something.”

Twilight frowned and said, “Hmmm, you’re right. We’d better check the telescope and make sure.”

The two ran up to the second floor of the tree house and looked into a telescope on a tripod. They saw the falling object, definitely a flaming rock, headed straight down.

Twilight said, “See Spike, it’s a burning rock falling from space towards us. I was right.” After about four seconds, it sunk in.

They shouted almost simultaneously, “And it’s headed for US!!!” They ran outside, where Spike then jumped on Twilight’s back. She galloped off for the center of town to warn the populace.

As they ran through town Spike called out over and over, “Get out of town while you can, there is a meteor about to hit the town!” If nobody listened, Spike would point up at the burning object coming down towards the ground. Soon the entire town was in a panic, packing up and trying desperately to get out of the way. However, the object began to increase its speed.

The object reached the edge of town. “We’re too late!”, thought Twilight as she shut her eyes. She waited a moment for the fiery end. The meteor, however, did not hit the ground hard. Instead, it slowed gently to a stop and touched down gently.

Spike said, “You can open your eyes now. We’re all ok! Isn’t this great?” Twilight opened her eyes and looked out towards the edge of town. Where the meteor had landed now stood a small castle of some kind.

Twilight asked, “Did a castle just fall from space and land on the edge of Ponyville? Where did it come from, and why did it come here?” Twilight heard a familiar loud gasp behind her. A pink pony rushed up and stood beside her.

She screamed, “Did anybody see that? Wowie! I’ve never seen anything like that just drop from the sky! This calls for a party! I’ll be right back!” Twilight held out her hoof to stop her friend from running off.

“Hold on, Pinkie Pie”, Twilight said, “We need to investigate this new castle. We have no idea who it belongs too. The owner might not like us.”

Spike said, “Hey, if you look closely, you can see the front door of the castle opening up! Let’s go check it out!”

“Hang on Spike”, Twilight said, “It could be dangerous. I want you to go back to the library and wait for me.”

Spike said sadly, “But Twilight, I’m not too little to help. I want to see the new castle.”

Twilight said with an annoyed tone, “Now Spike.” Spike got off of Twilight’s back and started walking back home while mumbling to himself. Twilight then turned to her left and said, “Ok Pinkie, let’s go check out that castle…. Pinkie?” Pinkie Pie had already took off and was simply a pink blur against the streets of Ponyville. Twilight moaned and began galloping off after her friend.

Inside the castle, private Daniel Techman was getting ready to step foot on the planet for the first time. He slung his teleporter rifle over his back in case he needed it. The castle door had already been opened at the touch of a lever.

Daniel Techman then turned to his computer and said, “PAL, how are the solar panels doing? Are you getting enough juice?” PAL was Daniel’s invention, a central computer for the castle and also a robot buddy. PAL much preferred the castle’s central core than the robot body himself.

The machine answered, “Your solar panels are operating at 100% capacity. The entire castle has plenty of power, and the underground auto mining probes are producing metal for machinery right away.”

Techman smiled and thought to himself, “I’ll have plenty of metal from those probes to invent new things while I’m here on the planet. But for now, it’s time to get a look at the natives we’re about to enslave.”

The human then said, “PAL, you are in charge of the castle until I return. Don’t hurt any ponies that get in here. Just talk to them until I get back, ok?”

PAL replied, “I’m sorry Daniel, I cannot do that.” Techman turned to look at the computer. “Nah, just kidding. Get out there boss, and have a good time.” continued the machine.

Techman laughed and said, “I’m never going to regret programming you a sense of humor.” And then he walked out the castle door into the town.

The teenager wandered into Ponyville. It was a little bit deserted. Techman thought to himself, “Well, I should have guessed they would all run. Even with their lower technology levels, they probably know burning things falling from the sky are a bad thing.” The young man continued his journey into the town. Finally he came across some of the natives. The small number of different colored ponies looked at the human and dropped their jaws almost immediately. Others ran in panic from the stranger from outer space. Techman said out loud to anypony who could hear, “I know you are probably afraid of me because I’m different. But I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” Techman frowned at the number of ponies running in terror from him and said to himself, “I knew this was going to happen. They already hate humans and we haven’t even started shipping them out yet.” Eventually, Techman reached the center of Ponyville and took a look around. Every last pony in the square was either hiding inside their store or just plain staring at the human. Techman unbelted a megaphone from his pants and turned it on. He then said, “Hello, can you understand me?” The ponies were still looking with huge eyes at Techman. Techman laughed and said, “Sorry to bother you with the whole “burning castle from the sky” problem. I assure you there is nothing to worry about though. I’m just trying to learn more about you. I’m not here to steal your souls or dissect you.”

Of course, Techman shouldn’t have given examples of what he wasn’t going to do. Immediately one of the ponies screamed, “Dissect us? Run for it!” This caused a panic in the town square, and every last pony was screaming and running away from the human being. Techman groaned at the spectacle he didn’t intend to cause. Just then, Pinkie Pie had arrived at the scene in her typical blur of pink light. She stopped and looked at the human in front of her with her mouth wide open.

Techman looked at Pinkie Pie and said, “Hello there miss. Glad to see at least one of you isn’t screaming and running from me in terror.”

Immediately Techman was met with a wall of questions from Pinkie Pie, “Who and what are you? Where did you come from? You’re not a pony are you? What is that thing on your back? Are you here to be our friend? How come you can stand on two legs? Not that standing on two legs is a bad thing, it’s just weeeeird.”

Techman held up a hand and said, “Woah, slow down there. I know I look different to you, but that’s because I’m not from this planet at all.”

Pinkie Pie continued her verbal assault, “So are you a space alien? Don’t steal our brains or make us into zombies! Wait, maybe you’re a friendly alien! Do you like parties? I can throw you a party if you don’t steal our brains!”

Techman sighed and shook his head. “Such a strange creature.” he thought to himself.

Techman realized that he and Pinkie Pie were the only ones left in the town square, the others had all ran away. Techman then said to her, “Look miss, it was nice talking to you, but I’m going to head back to my castle. I’ve had enough problems for today.” Techman turned around and started to walk back to the castle.

Pinkie Pie called out to him, “Wait, don’t you want to stay for a party? We should celebrate your arrival here!”

Techman said back, “Look, just go home. You won’t be celebrating my arrival soon enough.” Then the young man walked away back to his castle, leaving Pinkie Pie there with a confused look on her pony face. By the time Twilight had caught up with Pinkie, Techman had already made it back into his castle and shut the door. Twilight found Pinkie Pie sitting down in the street. Her hair had straightened out and her ears had drooped, indicating a deep time of stress for the pink pony.

Twilight thought to herself as she frowned in pity for her friend, “Oh no, the castle’s inhabitant must have hurt Pinkie Pie’s feelings. I’ve got to handle this carefully.”

“Pinkie Pie,” said Twilight, “did you get to see the castle’s owner?”

“Yeah.”, she responded sadly, “but he didn’t take my offer for a party. He’s just a big meanie who doesn’t like us at all.”

Twilight felt sorry for her and replied, “Aw, just because he didn’t want to go to your party doesn’t mean he doesn’t like us. He’s not from here he might be scared or not used to attention. Don’t judge him just because he didn’t want to celebrate with you.”

Pinkie Pie’s hair curled up again and she said, “You’re right! He’s from another planet and he just wants to be left alone. He probably likes ponies a lot!”

Twilight’s ear flicked as she said, “Wait, did you say he’s from another planet? I thought a pony brought a castle down from orbit.”

Pinkie Pie shook her head, “Nope, he’s a weird looking guy who walks on two legs, has these weird hands on his front two legs, and he’s a weird whitish color. What fun is that? Boooring.”

Twilight thought to herself, “A strange alien has landed on the planet and is now trying to live among us? I sure hope he’s friendly. If Pinkie Pie is right, he just misses his home planet.” “Alright”, Twilight said out loud, “time to head back to the library. Hopefully the alien won’t give us any more trouble and find a way to go home.”

Chapter 3

“Master, how did it go out there? Are the natives friendly?” asked PAL as Techman entered the castle.

Techman answered, “They’re scared of us, PAL. Hopefully Wizard won’t call here and ask me to send in any robots.” Just then, a special musical tone went off in the castle. “Speak of the devil”, Techman said as he reached for a small pad. The small pad was simply a magical object used to allow communication between people instantly. As soon as Techman touched the pad, a magic hologram of Wizard’s head appeared.

The hologram began to talk to Techman, “Well private Techman, I trust that you have met the natives.”

Techman said, “Yes Sir, I made contact with them 15 minutes ago. They really are a cute and friendly race.”

Wizard frowned and replied, “Don’t get too comfortable with them. Remember the film I made us all watch before we got here. We can’t afford to snuggle up to these creatures we plan to capture.”

Techman sighed, rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, I know you made us all watch that movie to show how getting too comfortable with the natives can lead to rebellion against your own species. Keep in mind that I’m not responsible if they come after us for what we are about to do.”

Wizard nodded and said, “Not one of them will even get as far as the factory. General Schadenfreude’s new robot army will see to that. Speaking of the robots, I am going to teleport you a half-dozen of them right now to do a little pre-campaign collecting.”

Techman frowned at the plan, “Wizard, Bossman will not be happy with you for using any robots not produced by his factory.”

Wizard got angry and yelled, “Bossman is a fool! He thinks this plan can be carried out with fancy organization and time tables. We need to test his equipment before he begins to mass produce it in his factories. The six robots are on their way now. You have no control over them, you are only to watch and report what happens to me.”

Techman said unhappily, “Yes sir, standing by for delivery of robots.”

Wizard sighed and continued, “private Techman, do not fail me. If you impede these robots in any way or fail to teleport any natives who attack them, I will be forced to destroy you. It is you or the ponies.” Wizard’s image disappeared. Within a few seconds, a red glow started to form outside. Techman ran over and looked out the main window of his castle to watch the robots teleport it. In a flash, each of the six machines materialized on the ground. They were tube-shaped machines with two cameras on top for collecting visual information. These cameras were stored in a black visor at the top of the metal tube and shielded by red lights, giving the robot the appearance of two glowing red eyes. The machines each had 2 arms, one tipped with a teleporter beam cannon, and the other mounted with a robotic fist. For mobility, the robots were on tank treads.

The 6 machines rolled out to attack Ponyville. Techman then turned to PAL and said, “PAL, this isn’t right. These things are intelligent and have feelings like me. I don’t want to put any of them into captivity.”

“But Sir”, replied the computer, “If you do not comply, Wizard will surely destroy you.”

Techman said, “I know. Even if I do not personally do anything against these ponies, Wizard can enslave them without me. There’s nothing I can do to stop the robots or Wizard. This planet is doomed.”

PAL replied “On the positive side, you and the others will become rich through the sale of the planet’s natives.”

Techman turned and yelled at the computer “You just don’t understand, do you? This planet’s people will be sentenced to be slaves of humans for the rest of eternity. Stop calculating things logically and start having a heart!”

PAL, unhurt, simply replied, “I was programmed by you. Perhaps if you changed my code a bit, I could understand this ‘heart’ you are talking about.”

Techman pulled out a keyboard on the computer and said “You’re right, I’m sorry I snapped. I need something to do while I wait. So let’s see if I can give you a heart, tin man.” Then Techman began to type to modify PAL’s programming.

Meanwhile, the six treaded machines began to enter the heart of Ponyville, moving in a V formation. Although the robots were only 6 feet tall, they were large enough and strange enough to be scary. Most of the residents were still cowering inside their homes, but the robots were equipped with a heat sensor to find where they were hiding. The lead robot started to track a small mare hiding behind a barrel. Using its fist, the robot picked up the barrel and got a look at the pony hiding underneath. She was a cream colored one with a curly pink and blue mane, with a tail styled the same way. Immediately the pony got up and made a run for it down the street. The robot looked back and forth between its wingmen. Then, after giving the mechanical equivalent of a shrug, raised the cannon on its right arm and fired. A red beam shot out from the emitter and struck the pony from behind. There was no scream; she simply disappeared in a flash of light. The entire town was now in full panic again, and ponies were darting left and right out of the buildings to get away. Pegasus ponies tried flying away, escaping to the cities in the clouds where they thought they would be safe. Sadly, the robots were good enough shots that a few of them were hit by the robots’ beams, and they too vanished. Techman could hear the screaming and commotion from his castle, but he continued to type away with tears in his eyes. There was simply nothing he could do.

After about 15 minutes of battle, the entire town had heard about the robots causing ponies to disappear. In the thick of the confusion, one of the robots decided to take a detour and head down to the farms in order to root out what it calculated to be just a bunch of yokels. This particular robot went right through a farm gate and began heading towards the barn of the farm. It passed a sign that read “Sweet Apple Acres Farm”. The robot scanned for life in the farmland, but could only detect row upon row of apple trees. The metallic soldier suddenly picked up moving life in the barn ahead of it. It sped on with its tracks kicking up mud, hoping to catch another pony to teleport to the cages in Bossman’s factory. The machine paused for a moment and scanned the barn one more time to make sure there was actually a pony inside the barn. There was just one in it, a small one. All of a sudden, the robot’s thought process was interrupted by two oak logs which swung in on ropes from its sides. The two logs smashed together on the machine at the same time, and it exploded like a robot smashed between two large logs. The remainder of the machine fell over and lay there, broken and sparking. Two Equestrians approached the destroyed machine. One was orange, had long tied up blond hair, and wore a Stetson hat. Next to her was a much larger red one with orange hair.

“Well, if it isn’t one of the monsters destroyin’ our town.” Applejack said looking angrily at the robot as she tapped the wreckage with a hoof. The orange pony continued, “Well Big Macintosh, It looks like your old log trap crushed this one flat as a flapjack.”

“Eyup”, responded Big Macintosh, chewing a piece of straw and staring at the debris.

Applejack continued, “Now that this one’s been laid out, I need to find my buddies and take down the others.” She reared up and then galloped away towards town.

Big Macintosh shook his head and looked at the remains of the robot. Then he thought, “Might as well turn this metal into some apple barrel rings.”

Rarity woke up inside her store in Ponyville. She took off the black blindfold she was wearing to help her sleep and walked over into her bathroom to freshen up before starting the day. The white pony with purple-blue, well-styled hair appreciated everything about beauty. Not only was her job to produce extremely stylish dresses, she also liked to take care of her body’s appearance so she looked good in them. Rarity washed her beautiful hair and then styled it back into its curling appearance she loved so dearly. She then exited her bathroom and went deep into her store’s workshop to begin making a new dress for a client. Rarity was a unicorn, and so was able to use magic naturally. Rather than go for general abilities like Twilight Sparkle, Rarity specialized in finding items used in the production of fancy clothing, namely gemstones. Beginning her work, she used her magic to bring a bolt of lavender purple cloth out from a drawer in her workshop, and then used a pair of scissors to cut out a section she needed for her client’s outfit. She sewed it onto the dress with a sewing machine sitting in the corner of her workshop. Rarity took the dress off the machine afterwards and put it onto a pony mannequin. Rarity thought, “Something’s still missing from this one.” She then decided it was missing her trademark item, gemstones inlaid on the dress. Rarity spun around and opened up a metal safe she used to store her gemstones in. Although gemstones were disturbingly common in comparison to gems on Earth, they had to kept track of, lest they go missing. The unicorn pony sifted through the pile of gemstones, but couldn’t find a suitable topaz. She wanted the yellow gemstone because it would complement the purple color of the rest of the dress.

Rarity decided the best course of action would be to bribe a local team of diamond dogs into parting with a few topaz. Earlier that year, she had been kidnapped by some of them when the upright canines found out she could find gemstones with her magic. Rarity, being a very slack worker and not enjoying hard labor, escaped merely by complaining long enough to drive the miners nuts. But if there was anything Rarity hated more than manual labor, it was getting dirty. Having a pure white coat means mud shows the easiest, and Rarity made sure she was always clean. She would not dig for the gemstones she needed for her dresses. This is where the mining hounds came in. They were now more than happy to dig for the gemstones Rarity needed in exchange for her locating more deposits of gems they could keep for themselves. It was a fair trade, and besides, they couldn’t handle her whining otherwise.

Rarity exited her shop, the carousel boutique, and started walking down the street towards the mountains she knew were full of gem deposits. It was then that she noticed how strange the weather was. “It’s still overcast?” she thought as she looked up at the dismal rain clouds, “I thought for sure Rainbow Dash said there would be rain in the morning, and sun for the rest of the afternoon. That’s why I slept in, to miss the icky rain.” Rainbow Dash was the fastest Pegasus pony currently alive. She lived in a cloud house just a bit above Ponyville. Like most Pegasus ponies, Rainbow Dash could move cloud formations around if the weather needed to be controlled. However, she sometimes “forgot” about her duties and the weather remained unchanged. Rarity decided to walk up to Rainbow Dash’s house and ask why the weather was still cloudy. As she made her way to the floating home, a red beam in the distance caught her eyes, followed by terrible screaming. She thought as she heard the distant battle, “Such strange events today.” Soon, she found Rainbow Dash’s cloudhouse. Rarity called out “Rainbow? Rainbow Dash? Are you in there?”

Rainbow Dash opened the door on her floating house and walked casually over to the edge of the cloud.

She looked down and said, “Rarity? What do you want?”

Rarity pointed up and said to her, “Take a look around, darling. It’s still cloudy and you haven’t done anything about it. You overslept.” The cyan pony with rainbow hair stretched her back, cracking her vertebrae into place.

She then took a look and said sleepily, “Yeah, I was on duty to clear the clouds this afternoon. If I out slept you I must really be late. I’ll have these clouds cleared in a jiffy.” She then spread her wings and took off into the sky. The gray clouds began moving away from Ponyville as Rainbow Dash pushed them south. One of the robots in the distance, still on the hunt for more ponies, spotted Rainbow Dash making her rounds in the sky.

Unit 5 thought to himself, “Target acquired, Pegasus pony with rainbow colored mane. High value target for capture.” The robot raised its cannon to shoot, but was stopped by Unit 3.

“Unit 4 has been destroyed.” transmitted the robot to his comrade, “he was smashed to pieces by a trap. He underestimated the strength and brainpower of the farmers.”

Unit 5 looked at Unit 3 and transmitted back, “Unit 4 is an idiot. He should have known these organics have some things in terms of defense. Tell Unit 1 we will continue our hunt, but to remain on guard to avoid more casualties.” Unit 5 then turned to try and shoot down Rainbow Dash, but she had already cleared the clouds and moved on.

The pegasus landed back on the ground next to Rarity.

“Thank you for finally getting rid of those awful rain clouds.” Rarity said. “If it had rained it would have simply ruined my hairdo.” Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash and frowned. She was wide-eyed and shaking at what she had seen. “What’s wrong?” Rarity asked.

Rainbow Dash got out the words, “Robots! Metal monsters! Firing red magic beam thingys! Ponies disappearing on the ground!”

Rarity told her, “Calm down and tell me what you saw from the sky.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head quickly to straighten out her thoughts and said, “The town is under attack by metal things called robots. They’re shooting beams at ponies that make them disappear into thin air! The whole town is in a panic.”

Rarity replied, “Maybe Twilight Sparkle knows something about these so called robots. We need to find her and ask.” The two turned around and walked towards the center of town to find Twilight Sparkle.

Applejack arrived at her friend’s house at the edge of Ponyville. The small cottage was built within a tree on a lush meadow with plenty of wildlife running about it.

“Fluttershy!” called out Applejack, hoping she would get an answer. A yellow Pegasus pony with pink, straight hair opened the door to her house and stepped outside without responding. “There’s been trouble in town.” Applejack continued, “A bunch of metal monsters are tearin’ the place up. We need to ride out and stop ‘em. I reckoned they’d listen to you and knock off what they’re doin.”

Fluttershy said in her typical meek voice, “Well, I don’t know Applejack. I’ve never heard of a creature made of metal before. I don’t know if they will listen to me. But I will go with you and look. Just promise that you will protect me if something goes wrong.”

Applejack said, “Why of course sugarcube. I won’t let them hurt you.”

Fluttershy smiled, said, “ok”, and then the two of them headed into town to stop the robots.

Chapter 4

Twilight Sparkle was still galloping back to the center of town in search of the others. By luck, If not by the fact everyone was headed to the same place, the six friends managed to meet in the center of town. They all started asking questions and talking about their current predicament.

“Alright”, Rainbow Dash said, “What in the derby is going on here? There are metal monsters making ponies disappear!”

Rarity threw the question, “Twilight, what kind of magic is letting these monsters make ponies disappear with one hit?”

Pinkie Pie then said, “Why is that stupid human not coming to my parties? What’s his issue?”

Applejack added, “One of the machines tried to tear up the farm. I think we destroyed it.”

Twilight Sparkle couldn’t take all the information, so she shouted, “Hey! One at a time! I can’t think straight with you all screaming at me at once.” The ponies quieted down. Twilight then exhaled and said, “Ok. Applejack, what are these machines you are talking about?”

Applejack explained, “Well Twilight, one of these large monsters made of metal came over to my farm. Me and Big Macintosh smashed it with our log trap. Ya know, the one we built in case those hungry fuzzy bugs came back? We have no idea where the thing came from or what it does, but it isn’t a friendly thing.”

Rainbow Dash interrupted, “When I was clearing the clouds, I saw 5 of them attacking the town. They have red magic beam things that cause ponies to disappear on touch!”

Twilight asked curiously, “I’ve never heard of that kind of magic before. What did this beam thing look like?”

Rainbow Dash answered, “I could only get a quick look, or else they would have nabbed me too. But, it sort of comes out of this metal tube on the end of the machine’s arm.”

Twilight said, “Interesting, maybe some sort of a magic wand.”

Pinkie Pie had been hopping around everybody, trying to get attention. “Oooh! I know something!” she said, but none of the ponies were paying attention.

Twilight asked as she looked at all her friends, “Ok, did anypony see where the machines came from or what they were called? How about you, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy said, “Well, I just got into town. Applejack says they call themselves ‘robots’. I don’t think they are cute animals I can reason with.” Twilight nodded her head, but was getting annoyed by Pinkie Pie’s hopping around in a circle.

“What is it Pinkie Pie?” asked Twilight with an annoyed tone.

Pinkie Pie spat out, “Well, about that metal tube thing on the robots. I saw the human carrying one on his back!”

Applejack asked, “Human? What’s that?”

Pinkie Pie said while moving her limbs to describe the proportions of the alien, “The alien that lives in the castle that just came down from the sky! They walk like Spike does, on two legs. They have hands too, some hair on their heads, and they’re a single color. They are so weeeird looking.”

Twilight asked, “Wait a minute, is this the same alien that hurt your feelings when he wouldn’t attend your party?”

Pinkie Pie said in annoyance, “Well duh! There’s only one weird alien living in a brand new castle that came from the sky!”

Twilight went over the facts, “Well, let’s see what we know. A strange alien came here from space and lives in a castle on the edge of town. He’s not very nice, as he didn’t want to attend Pinkie Pie’s party in his honor. But most of all, he carries around a metal tube matching the ones found on the robots.”

Everypony’s eyes got big when they realized the connection.

Applejack got mad and yelled, “That gosh darned alien! He brought those machines here that’s wreckin’ the town!”

Rainbow Dash got angry too and said, “Yeah, I bet he’s doing evil experiments on ponies in his castle right now!”

Fluttershy starting cowering on the ground and whimpered, “He probably wants to destroy all the innocent creatures!”

Rarity then added, “I am not going to let him destroy our beautiful town!”

Twilight said, “All right girls, we know the alien caused this. Now what are we going to do about it?”

Pinkie Pie zipped away for a second and returned holding pitchforks and torches in her mouth. “Angry mob!” she declared as she dropped the tools on the ground.

Rainbow Dash bucked up and said, “Yeah! We’ll drag that alien out of his castle and pound him into plant food!”

Applejack asked her, “Mind if I keep the plant food? It’ll be good for the apples.”

Twilight got upset with their harsh ideas and said, “Girls, I’m ashamed. We’ve solved most problems peacefully, but now you want to solve this problem by getting rid of the alien with violence. We need to try to reason with him and get along.”

“But Twilight”, protested Rainbow Dash, “we don’t have any idea what happens when a pony gets hit by one of those beams. We need to know if we can get them back!”

Fluttershy suggested, “Maybe if we ask really nicely, he’ll stop. I’m sure he’s just confused.”

Pinkie Pie added, “Nobody gets to ruin our fun by sending in big mean machines. I say we go and yell at him until he gives up!”

Twilight gave up on peace and said, “Look, we’ll go to the castle and see if we can find the alien. I’m sure I can convince him to stop what he is doing.” The six friends turned and began making full speed for the castle. After five minutes, they arrived at the large wooden front door. “Rainbow Dash”, Twilight ordered, “fly up and tell me what the castle looks like from above. We need to know how we can get in, this door’s too large to break through, and there’s no way to open it from out here.” Rainbow Dash flew up and looked down on the castle. It was built in a thick rectangular shape, featured no tall spires, but had rounded turrets at each corner. Oddly, on the top of the castle were these weird black panels. We know them to be solar panels, but Rainbow Dash did not know that.

She returned to her friends and said “There’s no way to get in from above that I could see, and nothing to set off to open this huge wooden door we’re looking at.”

Rarity suggested, “Twilight, use your magic and pry open this ugly wood door.”

Twilight thought about it and said, “Ok, I’ll try, but this door is massive!”

Pinkie Pie began to feel a familiar muscle twitch in her body and stated, “Uh-oh. I’m feeling the door is going to open anyway. Better step back!” Twilight quickly hopped backwards, having bad experiences with doors mysteriously opening in her face. The door on the castle began to open downwards, as most castle doors do.

Twilight noted calmly, “It looks like he’s letting us in.” The large drawbridge door landed on the ground, inviting the ponies inside. As soon as Twilight stepped on the door, however, it closed again quicker than it had opened, trapping her inside the castle and leaving her friends outside. “Twilight!” they screamed as the door locked, sealing their leader inside. Twilight Sparkle stood up and took a look around the inside of the castle. It was very well lit for an “evil” castle. The pony began her walk deeper into the alien’s fortress, passing a normal looking room, a fancy living room with couches and a fireplace. As she went deeper into the castle, things became a little stranger. She started to pass laboratories and workshops filled with machinery. Finally, she walked by a massive, but colorful and well crafted pipe organ attached to the walls.

“This alien sure has a lot of weird things in his castle.” Twilight thought.

Techman was working at a table on the second floor, making adjustments to the communications disk Wizard had contacted him on earlier.

PAL then said over the castle computer network, “Sir, one of the natives has entered the castle. I detected her trying to use magic the way Wizard does. She was going to break the front door down, so I let her in and her alone.”

Techman shouted to a nearby monitor displaying PAL’s robotic head, “PAL, I told you to keep every last one of them out of here! They will hurt me if I get blamed for the robots.” Techman ran over to a large vault and fished out a teleporter rifle. He slammed a battery pack into the high tech gun and cocked the nonlethal weapon. Techman commanded, “Keep her busy while I try to slip out the back of the castle.”

Twilight had already reached him upstairs. “Hey you!” she called out to Techman. Techman’s blood ran cold from her voice. He took off running through the castle, attempting to get out before the pony could catch him.

Twilight thought, “He’s afraid of me. Maybe the alien is behind these robots!” Twilight attempted to follow Techman through the door, but was interrupted by a voice.

PAL yelled at her, “Who are you?”

Twilight, never hearing a machine talk before, looked at the monitor and replied, “Oh hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Who are you?”

The machine happily replied, “I am PAL, a computer and robot friend. What are you doing here inside my master and programmer’s castle?”

Twilight continued, “Well, you see, PAL, there have been these machines attacking the town outside. I need to speak with your master, who I am sure is the guy who just ran out the door. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just follow him and...”

PAL shut the door Techman had ran out of and locked it electronically with a loud click.

Twilight said to the computer with a hint of frustration, “Hey! Open the door.”

PAL dimmed the lights in the room and said, “I’m sorry Mrs. Sparkle, but I cannot do that.”

Techman had managed to exit the castle through the back door. Although his castle lacked a moat, he had hoped any other of the ponies in the group PAL had mentioned were too stupid to try walking around the castle. Techman said aloud, “Ok, now I just have to call for my shuttle back to the space station.” The young man felt his pockets and realized in horror that he had left the communications disk inside. Looking out into the distance, Techman found two options for escape, the mountain range, and the forest. The clouds that Rainbow Dash had cleared earlier had drifted back over Ponyville, and it was overcast again. The human said, “Ok, I’ll just hide in the mountains until this whole thing boils over. Then, I’ll go back to the castle for the communication disk and call for the shuttle. I can’t believe I’m being blamed by the natives for this attack. It’s all Wizard’s fault I’m in this mess.”

“You better believe you’re in a mess.” replied a voice from behind. Techman spun around to find Twilight Sparkle standing behind him.

Techman asked nervously, “How did you get by PAL?”

Twilight replied, “I talked to him about how we’re being attacked by robots. He said he had a heart for problems like that and let me through the back door.”

Techman felt sweat accumulating on his head and thought, “My own programming has doomed me.”

Twilight said sternly, “Now look, I know you’re from a different planet with different customs. But that’s no reason to send out these so called robots that are kidnapping every pony in Ponyville.”

Techman thought as he gripped his gun tightly, “Do I try to explain that they are not my robots? Or do I use this teleporter rifle and avoid being captured?” Techman made up his mind and said, “Well, the robots aren’t exactly mine.”

Twilight asked, “Whose are they then? Are there other aliens?” Techman said worriedly, “I’m not supposed to tell you anything! Go away. I’m upset enough you’re being hunted by the robots and...” Techman realized he had let loose the information he was trying to hide anyway. Twilight understood the human wasn’t responsible for the machines.

She said to him, “These aren’t your robots at all. There’s something you are not telling me that you need to.”

Techman thought, “If I don’t capture this pony, Wizard will destroy me for sure. But she's only my age! Well, in her people's years, anyways.” Techman raised his teleporter rifle and said, “I’m sorry you have to go through this, but I have something to prove by capturing you.” Techman turned towards her and let a beam fly from his rifle, but Twilight dodged to the left, avoiding the ray. Techman aimed to fire a second shot.

Twilight thought, “Maybe I can throw off his aim with my magic.” The human noticed the unicorn’s horn was glowing the same color as her body, a light purple.

Techman asked in fear, “Magic? I didn’t know you could use that!”

Twilight said, “It’s my special power. I try not to use it to hurt others, alien, but you can’t be reasoned with.” To her horror, however, her magic wouldn’t let her pick up either Techman or move his gun, despite her magic normally being able to lift multi ton creatures. A second beam from Techman’s gun missed narrowly to Twilight’s left, and it struck a sapling behind her, causing it to disappear in a flash of light. Twilight saw that there was no choice but to disable the human, so she used her magic to pick up a sizeable rock from the garden and throw it at him. The heavy football sized stone impacted Techman’s shoulder hard and he screamed in pain as the blow knocked him to the ground.

Twilight immediately felt guilty about injuring the young man. She had meant to break his gun with the rock, but now she had probably broken his shoulder. Twilight would not get any closer, but called out, “Oh no, I didn’t mean to do that! Are you badly hurt?” Techman got up, and held his injured shoulder with his right hand, and his gun in his left.

He then gave Twilight a nasty look and shouted, “Look, I didn’t send the robots here. I was threatened with destruction if I didn’t let them attack your town. I have to teleport you out now because I am being observed. If I don’t win this, I go down.” Techman raised the rifle and said, “That’s not going to happen.” He fired again and again with one hand, trying desperately to hit Twilight, but she was too quick, and his injury made it hard to shoot accurately. Eventually, though, she ran out of hiding places as the gun hit the rocks, statues, and saplings she tried to hide behind. The unicorn pony started backing up and felt cold stone against her flanks. She had backed up into a corner of Techman’s castle, and she was trapped. Techman walked closer and raised his gun again. He lined up Twilight in his teleporter rifle’s iron sights and said, “Well, you tried your best. I promise this won’t hurt.” Twilight tried one last time to take Techman’s gun away from him, but her magic still wouldn’t move it. Techman wrapped two of his fingers around the trigger. He then took a last look at Twilight Sparkle. She was about to burst into tears she was so scared of him. Techman thought to himself that every last pony shot by the robots would also have to feel this saddening distress. Twilight gave Techman one last look of mortal terror and fear, the utter misery that comes after running out of adrenaline had gripped the pony as she awaited her fate.

Techman relaxed his arms, took his fingers off the trigger and then hung his head. He said slowly, “No. This isn’t right. No matter what happens to me, I won’t let you or your people be enslaved by my actions.” Techman threw away the rifle as he looked up at Twilight and said, “I’m sorry. Just go before it’s too late.”

“Too late!”, yelled an angry voice behind Techman. Techman turned and saw Wizard floating above him. Wizard said with a sneer, “Well private Techman, you’ve failed to capture the pony. Sure, you didn’t stop my robots from ransacking the town, but you obviously have sympathy for an inferior form of life.” Wizard’s hands began to glow an orange color. Wizard shouted at him, “You will now pay for this mistake with your life!” Wizard shot a large ball of orange energy from his hands at Techman. Twilight Sparkle then made a decision to help the teenager and shot a small bolt of energy from her horn to try to stop the blast. Instead, the blast was merely changed, and it struck Techman anyway. The young man screamed in pain as he disappeared in a fireball. As the explosion dissipated, so did the human’s cry. Wizard then pointed at Twilight Sparkle and said with scorn, “Mark my words, pony. By the end of the month, your entire race will be mine!” Then, with laughter, Wizard teleported back to the space station in a burst of red smoke.

Comments

[Somebodymcthatguy]

Well, just finished part 1, and I must say, this is quite the story. But, I must be somewhat professional, so have a bulleted(moustache) list!

Things I liked:
The Mane Six act like they would within the show, at least from what I've read so far.
Unique and interesting characters, such as Techorse and Wizard
Overall great storytelling from multiple points of view.

Things I disliked:
(example: "insert sentence here," he thought to himself) This and similar sentences were used every other paragraph, plus It's incorrect to put "s around thoughts, those are for when you say things silly!
Slight lack of detail and descriptions, however this is a minor gripe.

Overall:4/5 moustaches
And yes, this is Fluttershy from dota 2, I shall message you ingame mister author!
I look forward to reading more of this, it's better than many books I've read!

[cosmic flash]

The best part was the 2001: a Space Odyssey reference with PAL. He even has the right letters to be a 9000 series computer just have to add the number and we get PAL-9000 good friend to HAL-9000