Techorse

by Spirals95

Part 9 (chapters 37-41)

Techorse

By Spirals95

Chapter 37

The passenger car had stopped at the mountain pass where the friends were supposed to attack the factory from. They looked on at the remains of the castle they had raided last night, it was but a pile of rubble now. The dark, smooth stone was piled up over the pass, blocking entry.

“Oh no.” said Fluttershy in sadness, “the castle collapsed. There’s too much rubble blocking the pass to get by now.”

“We’ll have to find another route.” said Twilight, “Rainbow Dash, fly around and look for a way around the mountains.”

Rainbow Dash saluted to tease Twilight, and then took off over the mountains in search of a way to get around the rubble.

Jops asked Twilight, “Can we be of any help?”

“No.” she answered, “if anything, the princesses need you to help defend Canterlot. You might only have a few hours before the robots arrive.”

Jops nodded, and he and Jools took off with the others to take the passenger car back to Canterlot.

Applejack said to Rarity, “Boy, am I glad we’re not walkin’ over that rock pile. It’d take all week.”

Rarity agreed, “Yes. It would mess up my hooves for sure going over that debris.”

“Oh would you forget your vanity and think about the mission?” said Applejack with frustration.

“I am thinking of the mission!” argued Rarity, “I had my combat dress washed this morning. It’s still in Techorse’s saddle.”

Applejack just shook her head and walked forward to avoid having to talk with Rarity anymore.

Rainbow Dash returned to the team, pointed in a direction with her right wing and said, “There’s a huge cave over there on the side of the mountain, I saw light on the other side, so there must be a way through.”

“Excellent scouting work!” said Techorse.

Pinkie Pie, getting impatient yet again, shouted, “Let’s go then! There’s a cave to get through and a factory to turn off!” She hopped forward for where Rainbow Dash had pointed.

The team followed Pinkie Pie up the side of the mountain and came to the opening of the cave. The blue-tinted stone of the mountain was offset by the gray stone lining the cavern.

“Before we go in.” said Twilight as she grabbed Pinkie Pie, “we’d better make sure we’re prepared to deal with anything we might encounter in there.”

Fluttershy said, “Well, I can talk to any creature that won’t let us through.”

“Good, but I meant to be ready in case all diplomatic efforts fail. That means you in particular, Techorse.” said Twilight.

Techorse said, “What am I, your bodyguard? You don’t need me to fight well.”

Applejack answered his rhetorical question, “No, but you really help out in battle, we’ve seen ya in action enough times to know that. Now check up on your weapons, ok?”

Techorse nodded and began diagnostic checks of the battle saddle. Meanwhile, Rarity had gotten distracted by a very large sapphire gem embedded in the very entrance of the cave.

“Oh, I must have this sapphire.” She said, “it’s so lovely.”

“Rarity!” complained Rainbow Dash, “You have no way of getting that home right now.”

“Yes, but I could pick it up later if I just got it out of this stone wall.” she said. Techorse walked up and looked at the gemstone.

“If I could use my laser cannon’s solid beam mode, I could drill out this gem.”

He then drew his cannons and took aim. Despite his best thoughts to shoot, it seemed the laser cannons wouldn’t fire.

“What’s wrong? Go ahead dear.” said Rarity.

Techorse answered with a groan, “I can’t, the focusing crystals are worn out. Without those special gemstones, I can’t fire lasers beam.”

“What kind of gemstone?” asked Rarity.

“Topaz.” replied Techorse, “It gives the best power to range ratio of all the gemstones.”

Rarity said cheerfully, “Wait one minute. I’ll have a look around.” Rarity moved her head closer to the ground, and her horn began to glow. She walked around the entrance to the cavern a bit, and eventually stopped at one spot. Rarity carefully marked the spot with an x, careful not to trap a lot of dirt underneath her hooves.

“Dig here.” She instructed. Techorse got out his robotic hands and dug at the location. Underneath the dirt were multiple topazes, a ruby, and an emerald.

“Wow.” said Techorse with an impressed tone.

“My magic specialty.” said Rarity, “I use this magic all the time to find gems to sew into my dresses.” Techorse picked out two suitable topaz gems, then detached his saddle. Taking out the laser cannons, he ejected the old, burnt out topaz gems and inserted the new ones. He then put the device back on his back and strapped it tightly.

“Alright” he said, “time to mine.” He fired two solid yellow laser beams from his cannons, cutting around the sapphire Rarity wanted quickly and accurately. The gemstone fell out of the wall, and Rarity caught it with magic.

“It’s so beautiful.” Said Rarity gratefully, “Oh thank you so much Techorse.”

He nodded and replied, “Thank you for helping me find new gems for my laser cannons. I’d be without my guns if it wasn’t for that special talent of yours.”

Rarity blushed, “It’s really nothing. Twilight can copy it.”

Twilight admitted humbly, “Actually, there’s no way I could have found the exact shape of topaz Techorse needed. You really do have a thing for gemstones, Rarity.”

Applejack said impatiently, “When y’all are done talkin’ about gems, can we get back to stoppin’ the factory before robots overrun Equestria?”

“Applejack’s got it right.” said Techorse, “we’re getting off topic. Let’s get in that cave and find the factory on the other side.” A round of nods from the friends was followed by them running into the cavern. They entered a very large chamber in the cave filled with gold, gemstones, and ingots of silver.

“This looks like a burial spot for a king of some kind.” marveled Fluttershy.

“There’s so many shiny things to look at!” said Pinkie Pie, “it’s so neat in here.”

“Wait a minute.” cautioned Rainbow Dash, “There’s only one reason for so much treasure in one spot.”

Twilight asked with surprise, “You’re not afraid still, are you Rainbow?”

“Afraid of what?” asked Techorse.

“Dragons.” said Rainbow as she let her tail sink to the ground.

Techorse said, “Sure this one’s going to be larger than Spike based on the horde here, but it’s probably just as friendly, right? As long as we don’t steal anything, I don’t see what problem it would have in letting us leave its cave on the other side.”

Twilight said, “That’s probably true. I know from books and experience those dragons really only get mad if you try to steal their treasure. They don’t mind ponies like us just passing through.”

Fluttershy said softly, “We still need to be careful though.” The ponies agreed and continued walking past the pile of treasure. Eventually, they found the dragon who owned it, using the valuables as a mattress for his nap.

“Boy” whispered Applejack as they tried to sneak by, “this fellow produces a lot less smoke then the last one we saw.”

“Yeah.” replied Twilight, “he’s a pretty clean one, isn’t he?”

The dragon was very large, as tall as Schadenfreude’s mech, and was a yellow color. He had at least a 50 foot wingspan, and very well kept claws. The beast was asleep, producing a very fine mist of smoke from his nose, which gently floated to the ceiling.

Pinkie Pie was giggling as she looked through the oversized gemstones in the horde. Some of them distorted the image of her face from the other side, or messed with her reflection. However, she accidentally got a little too close to one, and knocked into it. The pile of gold coins it was attached to crashed down with a mighty thud. The others immediately froze in place and looked at the dragon. His eyes opened, and the beast lazily stretched and looked at the ponies. Twilight thought about screaming, but that might aggravate him further, so she tried her good old option of diplomacy.

“Oh, hello mister dragon.” She said, “we’re just passing through, don’t mind us.” The dragon looked at the seven ponies before him, then laughed a bit.

He boomed, “This is pretty cool! I sent out for lunch 30 minutes ago, but I didn’t know the food delivered itself!”

“Excuse me mister, but we are not your lunch!” shouted Applejack, a little angry she had been viewed as a meal and not as a being.

The yellow dragon grabbed her and Rainbow Dash in his claws and held them up. “I was just joking.” he said, “don’t you herbivores have any sense of humor?”

“Besides” he continued, “I wouldn’t eat another pony after that last one. She kept me up all night with her terrible screaming from inside me. It was impossible to sleep with those cries of mortal terror.”

Rainbow Dash began struggling furiously to get out of the dragon’s grip. “Please don’t eat me!” she wailed, trying to get free.

“Again, another joke.” said the dragon, trying to relax Rainbow. The dragon dropped the ponies and said, “I’m not going to eat you.”

“Promise?” asked Fluttershy.

“I promise.” said the dragon, “I just thought I’d scare you for intruding in my cave.”

“We’re very sorry about that.” said Twilight, “We just wanted to pass through your cave to the other side.”

“That’s what the last pony here said.” warned the dragon, “and she tried to steal my treasure. Why should I trust you?”

“Pardon me for asking, but is this the same pony you swallowed earlier?” asked Rarity nervously, for she had already tried to take some of the gems in the cave.

The dragon said to her, “If you paid attention, curlyhair, I said that was a cruel joke for intruding. And no, I scared her away with my fire breath. You ponies really aren’t as good eating for dragons as you think you are.”

Techorse deployed his turbofans and flew up to look at the dragon at eye level. “I’m glad you’re a little friendlier of a dragon than I expected. I’m Techorse, nice to meet you.”

The dragon replied, “I am Yorgle Jr, welcome to my cave, pony.” Techorse landed back on the ground and said, “That name’s awfully familiar.” Yorgle said with sadness, “My father was not a very kind or noble dragon. He attacked dozens of ponies just to take their money and add it to his horde. Because he was so mean, I vowed to collect my treasure fairly and protect it from theft.”

Fluttershy brushed her head against the dragon’s scaly body and said softly, “We’re very glad you’ve decided to be a nice dragon. Now can we please use your cave?”

Yorgle blocked the exit with his tail and said, “Never. I have sworn not to let anyone through for fear of having my treasure taken.”

Rarity said, “Wait right here girls, I have a plan.” She left, running for the entrance of the cave.

Rainbow Dash flew around the cave, trying to straighten up the treasure Pinkie Pie had messed up. Yorgle watched with curiosity as the nimble pony managed to arrange the treasure in a perfect rectangle.

“Here” she said, “should be better for you to sleep on this way.”

Yorgle laid down on the treasure again and said, “Very comfortable. Thank you, rainbow-haired pony. I’m sorry I gave you a scare with my joke.”

Rainbow Dash said, “Aw, it’s ok. I just got a bit upset because of the last dragon that tried to smash me.”

“What does he look like?” asked the dragon.

“Well, he’s sort of red and big like you, and he’s scary like you.”

Yorgle laughed and said, “That’s pretty much every dragon I know. Any chance of you being more specific, rainbow one?”

“Well, he tried to sleep right next to Ponyville and nearly covered us in smoke! Fluttershy yelled at him though and he left.”

Yorgle shot up from his treasure and shouted, “No way!”

The sound caused the others to vibrate, Yorgle was simply that large. The dragon laughed mightily, “That was my friend Rhindle. I remember him telling me he was going to try to sleep near a pony settlement, and he ended up running away from a pink-haired pony that yelled at him! Bwahahaha! He never lived it down.”

Fluttershy hovered in front of Yorgle and said, “I’m the pink haired pony. That was your friend?”

Yorgle said while snickering, “Nice to meet the fearsome pink-haired monster Rhindle bawled about. Anyways, yeah he was my friend. Not a very nice dragon at first though, a bit of a bully to us other dragons. But after that chewing out you gave him, he treated us with respect.”

Fluttershy said, “Yorgle, you’re the nicest big dragon we’ve ever seen.”

Twilight added, “That’s the truth. We’ve only seen two other dragons your size, and one tried to do in my dragon Spike.”

Yorgle said, “Maybe I know him as well. Describe him.”

Twilight said, “Well, I remember him being green, and having a spiked tail.”

Yorgle’s eyes narrowed. “Grindle” he said as he shot a puff of smoke from his nostrils.

“Oh, you know him too?” asked Twilight meekly, knowing some dragon rage was coming. Yorgle said loudly, “That beast is pure evil. So vile a dragon, if he could even call himself that. A dragon’s honor is to always share his gems with another dragon when food is scarce. But Grindle was so greedy and loathsome that we would have nothing to do with him. Rather would hang out with Rhindle any day.”

Twilight said with surprise, “Wow, it looks like you know every single dragon we’ve ever met besides Spike.”

Yorgle said in response, “If you want, bring Spike over here. He can have some gems if he wants.”

Twilight smiled and said, “I’m sure he’d like that, but he’s just a baby wingless dragon. He’s quite small compared to you.”

The beast replied, “Every dragon needs another to look up to. Bring him by sometime. I’ll recognize you by your beautiful three-colored hair.”

Twilight said, “So you have our names, I’m Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Techorse, Pinkie Pie, and… where’s Rarity?”

Techorse answered, “She said she would be right back. The cave didn’t branch off, so I’m sure she couldn’t have gotten lost.” Rarity returned with the giant sapphire and placed it in front of Yorgle.

“Mr. Dragon.” she said, “If you let us through, I will offer you this very large and beautiful sapphire as payment.”

He looked right at the gemstone and said with excitement, “That’s the sapphire at my front door! I couldn’t get that thing out of the wall, and I tried for months.”

Rarity asked, “Do we have a deal? Can we get through please?”

Yorgle said happily, “Certainly. Just leave the gem over there on that pile, I’ll organize them later. Good luck on the other side of the mountain, ponies.”

“Thank you.” said Rarity, “alright girls, and Techorse, it’s time to go.” In awe at Rarity’s giving up of her gemstone, the friends followed her out of Yorgle’s cave.

Once they were out at the other side, Techorse said, “Rarity, you gave up the gemstone you wanted so badly. I’m really impressed with you.”

Rarity looked at him and said, “Well, I do represent the element of generosity. But even so, I really wasn’t expecting that to work. I was just hoping it would distract him long enough to let you run away.”

Pinkie Pie got in front of them and said, “and leave you all alone to deal with an angry dragon? No way! We’d find a way to make things work, no pony gets left behind!”

Rainbow Dash looked over the ledge of the mountain cliff and her mouth dropped open in awe.

“Oh wow.” She said.

Below in the valley sat the dreaded robot factory. The massive building complex had to be on at least 25 square miles of land. Large smokestacks rose from the buildings, spewing awful black clouds into the normally clean air. There were massive moving parts jutting out from the various red brick structures on the disturbingly jagged skyline of the factory. Most notably, at each end of the factory were garages where robots simply poured out to go attack the various cities of Equestria.

“There it is.” said Techorse, “Wizard’s factory.”

Twilight said in awe at the factory’s size, “It’s huge! I mean, I’ve read about them before, but I can’t believe how large this one actually is.”

Applejack snickered a bit at Twilight’s word choices, but then added, “It looks heavily guarded, are you sure we’re gonna shut it down in time?”

Twilight answered, “Of course, we just have to evade the robot patrols, get inside the factory, find the power source, and pull the plug on it. Simple, right?”

Twilight laughed a bit nervously and looked back and forth at her friends. It was definitely not going to be that simple.

Fluttershy looked at the smokestacks and asked, “Oh dear, what is that smoke coming from the factory? It’s worse than the smoke from Rhindle that nearly wiped out Ponyville.”

Techorse answered, “It’s called pollution Fluttershy.”

“Pollution?” asked Rarity, “what is that?”

Techorse continued in dictionary form, “Pollution, it’s any toxic chemical or gas that’s released into the environment and causes damage to it and is a by-product of industry. In laypony’s terms, it’s smog that’s being put into the air after making the robots!”

“How awful, the creatures will suffer if they don’t have clean air.” said Fluttershy woefully.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’re about to stop that thing.” comforted Applejack as she ran a hoof through Fluttershy’s pink hair.

“If we use the smog as cover, we can descend through the valley over there and avoid the robot patrols.” said Twilight.

“Alright then,” said Techorse, “we’ll go with that plan. But remember, be careful. There are still two more humans besides Wizard, and chances are they’re gunning for us.” The team began their journey down the mountain and into the valley in an effort to reach the factory.

Chapter 38

The valley was eerily quiet as the ponies marched through it. The grass was a much sicklier color from the air pollution, and the wind made it crinkle as if it were dried out. Only the occasional dead tree was in this valley, it was not lush or beautiful like the one around the restaurant. Behind them, the large mountains blocked their view of anything else but the large and forbidding factory ahead.

“It’s really creepy around here!” whined Rainbow Dash as she for once started to fall behind the others.

“This smog’s making it darker, there’s really nothing to be scared of.” said Fluttershy gently.

“You should talk about being scared!”

Twilight’s ear perked up as she thought she heard a rustle from behind one of the dead trees. “Quiet, do you hear that?” She asked.

“No, you’re always hearin’ something.” replied Applejack, “now let’s pick it up and reach this place.”

Because she wasn’t looking at her feet, Fluttershy stepped on a twig, and the snap caused her to shriek and jump on Rarity like Scooby-Doo leaping into Shaggy’s arms.

Rarity pried her friend off of her head and said, “Fluttershy, really? Is that necessary?”

“Sorry” moped Fluttershy, “maybe Rainbow’s right about it being creepy here.”

Techorse said, “Ladies, there’s nothing to be scared of but the robot patrols, and we’re avoiding those.”

Twilight agreed, “He’s got a point, girls. We’re getting scared over nothing.”

The team made good time making their way through the valley, and about 1 mile from the factory they found a rather large stand of sickly-looking trees. They walked through them, and at their sides the dead wooded plants provided a very upsetting effect.

“All right.” said Twilight, “the trees do make it look a little scary, I’ll admit it.”

“Forget the trees!” said Applejack, “keep yer eyes on the prize, girls!”

“Boy, when it comes to finishing a mission, Applejack’s got a one track mind!” complained Techorse.

Twilight said to him, “Yeah, but sometimes that really comes in handy, especially when everypony else gets off track.” The team reached a point where the two rows of trees were separated by a single large tree in the middle. In front of the tree stood a man wearing a buckled top hat, a dark vest, and a pure black cape.

Twilight stopped the team and said, “Look, there’s a human over there resting on that tree!” The human lifted his hat a bit to show his face, then jumped high in the air, did a flip, and landed right in front of the ponies.

“Well hello, friends.” He said with a nasty grin, “What are you doing out here where you could get hurt?”

Techorse recognized the human and said, “We could ask the same, Espion.”

Espion laughed and said, “It’s Techman. I finally get to see the young man who became a pony.”

Twilight said angrily to the man, “Stop making fun of him!”

Espion ignored her and continued, “Well, it was nice meeting your friends, pony-boy, but I’m afraid your adventure stops here. I can’t let you reach that factory.”

Applejack got in the human’s face and said, “Are you tellin’ me you’re gonna stop us? What’s a weirdly dressed man gonna do?” Espion grew serious and shoved the orange pony backwards.

He then addressed the entire team, “You should just go away now, before I make you do so.” Espion reached into his left vest pocket and brought out a teleporter rifle.

“Move!” shouted Techorse, and the team ran around to avoid the human’s shots. The beams missed them, as Espion was not well trained with firearms. It wasn’t long before they realized just how bad of a shot their opponent was, and they began to play a bit more offensively. Rainbow Dash went up into the air and then dived down for the human. She knocked him in the back, pushing him over onto the ground and knocking his hat off. Twilight saw this opportunity and used magic to pick up the human’s gun. She then dashed the device against the tree, and it broke into many pieces. Espion stood back up and put his hat back on his head.

Rainbow Dash said with pride, “Ha! You have no gun now, human. Watcha gonna do to stop us now?” Espion smiled and began to laugh heavily.

“Great, he has something else, doesn’t he?” complained Twilight.

The human moved his cape out of the way of his waist, revealing a belt with a sheath. Espion drew a very impressive sword from this, its blade was 3 feet long, and 2 inches thick. The golden cross-bar hilt fit the human’s hands perfectly, and the hilt was encrusted with two large rubies.

Espion said, “Wizard said I had to stop you ponies from reaching the factory. He never said I had to bring you in one piece! In fact, once I’m done with you, I’m going to make designer coats like mine out of your hides. They’ll make me tons of money back on Earth, and it will all be mine!” The red crystal around Espion’s neck started glowing. He then swirled his cape around him, and completely disappeared into thin air. The human’s laughter could be heard throughout the grove of dead trees, but the man had turned invisible.

“Where did he go?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Anywhere he wants to.” answered Techorse, “Stay on your guard and watch your back.” The ponies began to grow afraid of the invisible human, and began to get separated. Espion materialized out of invisibility behind Fluttershy and raised his sword to strike.

“Watch out Fluttershy!” screamed Applejack.

Fluttershy shrieked and jumped forward, just as Espion brought his sword down into the soil. The human withdrew his blade from the ground, and swirled his cape again to vanish once more into thin air. Techorse drew his laser cannons and started shooting wildly around the area, hoping some of the shots would hit Espion and give away his location. But many of his friends were having to duck the laser bolts.

“Knock it off!” said Rainbow Dash, “you’re going to hit us!”

Techorse ceased fire and said, “What? If I hit him, we’ll know where he is!” Espion uncloaked behind Techorse and took a swing at the pony. Techorse could sense the man behind him, and ducked to avoid the horizontal swing of the blade. Espion then kicked Techorse in the behind, sending him forward. Laughing, the human turned invisible again.

“Are you ok?” asked Twilight as she ran over to Techorse.

“I’m fine.” He replied as he got up.

“Twilight!” suggested Pinkie Pie, “Cast a spell or something and make it so I can see him again! This is getting annoying!” Twilight’s horn glowed, but nothing happened.

“That crystal’s messing with my ability to use magic again!” replied Twilight.

Espion became visible again by the center tree and asked, “Had enough yet?”

“We’re not finished mister.” replied Applejack, “you haven’t beaten us yet.”

“Very well then. Your skins are proving hard to get so far, but it matters little. I won’t have to share a dime of the money when this is all over!”

“You’re so selfish Espion, wanting to skin us and keep all the money for yourself.” snarled Techorse. It was then Rarity noticed the rubies encrusted into Espion’s sword. With another swirl of his cape, he and the sword vanished into thin air once more.

Rarity wondered if her magic would be blocked by the human’s crystal. Concentrating hard, she attempted to focus on the rubies Espion’s sword held. She could sense them, the crystal was only blocking out magic that would mess with the human’s invisibility.

Rarity said, “I’ve found him! Watch out Pinkie!” Pinkie Pie turned around as Espion became visible. Espion got a look of terror as his sneak attack had failed miserably. The pink pony bounded onto Espion and knocked him down like a dog tackling his owner.

“Gotcha!” said Pinkie happily. Espion laughed and rolled his white cape around him. Pinkie Pie spun in the air for a moment and then landed with a plop on the ground.

“Aw, he got away!” she said unhappily.

“It doesn’t matter!” said Techorse, “if Rarity can tell where he is, we can’t be attacked by surprise anymore.”

The human, while invisible, decided to make a strike at Applejack. He appeared behind her and raised his sword to cleave her in half.

“Applejack!” shouted Rarity.

Applejack gave her buck backwards, hoping to strike Espion. It didn’t hit him, but it did throw him off guard, sending the man stumbling backwards. The human, quite clearly annoyed, vanished yet again.

“This is just stupid!” whined Rainbow Dash.

Rarity knew they had to knock out the man somehow, and decided that because she was the only one who could see him, she had to do it. Using her magic, she detected Espion trying to sneak up behind Rainbow Dash, who was hovering too low to avoid his sword. Rarity began charging for the location behind Rainbow Dash. Seconds later, Espion uncloaked behind Rainbow and raised his sword to cut her. But he failed to see Rarity charging until the last second. Once he did, the human turned to attack Rarity and swung his sword horizontally. Originally, Rarity had intended to bash him with her front hooves, but the swing of the sword made her instinctively duck under it, bringing her horn down. When she hit Espion, there was a sickening squish of flesh as Rarity’s horn pierced his abdomen. A unicorn’s horn was normally too blunt to inflict such a wound, but Rarity had been going too fast, and no bone was immediately present under the skin to blunt the effect.

The human gasped as Rarity withdrew her horn, and he grabbed the point of impact on his lower chest. He stumbled backwards and sat down at the base of the tree in the center of the grove.

“Oh no!” said Rarity with shame, “what have I done?”

The human refused to remove his hand, knowing what the ponies would have to see if he did. It was hard to tell with his dark vest, but he was bleeding. Oddly, Rarity’s horn had no mess on it despite how serious the wound was. Techorse walked up to Espion, and using his robotic hands, removed the red crystal from the man and crushed it.

Fluttershy approached the human and said, “Let me see it.”

But Espion refused to remove his hand.

“I say we just leave the selfish guy here. He can just use that blue potion if he wants to go back to Earth.” said Rainbow Dash.

Twilight said sadly, “He might not make it with that injury.”

Rarity thought about Espion’s fate if something wasn’t done, and knew in her heart this was all her fault. Amends had to be made.

“Techorse.” she asked, “do you still have that red dress?”

Techorse opened the battle saddle and answered, “Of course.” Rarity removed the dress from the saddle, and then started ripping it into strips of cloth. Working quickly, she made tight bandages around the wound she had inflicted on the human. The pressure and the tourniquet effect of the strips of cloth helped to stop the bleeding.

Espion removed the blue potion and said, “Thank you. That should hold it off until I get to a hospital on Earth. I’ll never forget the day my enemy showed mercy after hurting me like that.” The human poured the potion over his head, and faded away with smoke.

Twilight turned to her friend, “Wow Rarity, two acts of selflessness in one day. We’re all really proud of you.”

Rarity said humbly, “I wasn’t going to let the fellow bleed to death. Life is more important than dresses, darling.” Techorse closed his eyes and nodded in complete agreement.

Applejack apologized to Rarity, “I’m sorry I got a little too caught up in the mission. Seeing that man get hurt made me think I should be a little more careful, and kind to you, Rarity. Sorry for all the comments about your vanity.”

“Oh it’s quite alright Applejack. I forgive you.” replied her friend. They hugged to make up for teasing each other, and then got back on track.

Techorse said, “I’m glad we could get over our differences yet again, I really do. However, I’m still concerned about stopping the factory. Any minute now the cities of this world will come under attack by robots, which will be in infinite supply unless we take action.”

Twilight said, “Well, with the human gone, it should be easy to get in.”

Rainbow Dash shouted, “All right! We finally get to see the inside of this thing!” She took off in a blur of rainbow colored jet stream to get to the building first.

“Looks like we have to catch up!” sang Pinkie Pie as she started skipping after her friend.

Chapter 39

Twilight used a special mapping spell to locate a good entry point into the factory. The team climbed up a staircase on the side of the factory’s main building and found a large ventilation fan near the roof of the factory.

“This is where we’ll go in.” said Twilight, “we’ll just break the fan here and get straight inside.”

Techorse drew his laser cannons and said, “I can’t see anything to jam into the fan, so it looks like I’m going to have to shoot it at its motor axis. I’d stand back.”

The others stepped backwards. Techorse switched to solid beam mode and fired upwards at the center of the fan. The motor snapped and melted, causing the fan blade to stop turning and fall backwards into the factory with a great crash.

“Now they know we’re here!” said Applejack, “there goes any surprise we had.”

“Just get in there.” commanded Twilight.

The team went through the fan shaft and entered the inner mechanics of the factory. Once inside, they found Rainbow Dash reclining against a pipe.

“How did you beat us in here?” asked Fluttershy.

“I timed the flight through the fan. Just another thing I do well.” replied Rainbow as she looked at one of her hooves.

“Ok, now that we’re all inside, what do we do?” asked Twilight. Silence fell over the group for a minute, until Techorse realized Twilight was addressing him.

“Oh, sorry.” He said as he focused, “Now that we’re in, we must find the teleporter beam server. When a pony is hit by one of those red beams, they are broken down into particles and are collected by the server. Then, the server re-assembles the pony bit by bit until they are locked up inside the cage. If we destroy the server, the teleporter beams safety feature will turn on. Any ponies in teleportation will be returned to a solid form, and the beams will become useless.”

Techorse looked at the confused look his friends gave him.

Rainbow said with a tilt of her head, “All I heard was blah blah blah science.”

Techorse sighed and said, “Simply put, there’s this thing called a server in here somewhere. We make it go boom, and the robots have no way of capturing ponies.”

Twilight asked, “What about freeing all the trapped ponies?”

He answered, “Without the server, the robots can’t capture any more ponies, so all we’ll have to do is unlock the prisons.”

Applejack straightened her Stetson hat and said, “Well then, let’s go find that server and free our captured friends!” She started galloping down the metal catwalk above the factory machinery.

“Of course, Applejack has no idea where she’s going.” said Rarity.

“Yeah, but closer inward is probably a safe bet to finding this server.” said Fluttershy.

The friends followed Applejack down the metal catwalk. Above them on the brick wall of the factory, a surveillance camera watched them. Bossman was spying on the ponies from the comfort of his command office. His giant television screen displayed the friends as they were seen from security cameras in the factory. Underneath the television was a massive set of buttons, switches, and levers, to control the various functions of the factory. “They’re here.” Muttered the human to himself. He pressed a disk on his control panel to place a call to Wizard. Wizard’s hologram appeared in front of Bossman.

“What?” he asked gruffly.

Bossman said, “The ponies are inside the factory, Wizard. I shall proceed to dispose of the little furballs.”

Wizard said gruffly, “Leave the green one alive, Bossman. I want to deal with him myself.”

Bossman assured Wizard, “I know well about Techman and how you wish to destroy him by yourself. Rest assured I will deliver him to you in one piece.”

“One piece is not enough. Techman must still have a pulse when he reaches me. I have plans for him.”

Bossman asked another question, “Very well, but what about the others?”

Wizard smiled and replied, “Does your plant double as a glue factory?”

They laughed about the cruel joke, and then Wizard hung up, disappearing. Bossman swiveled in his chair to look back at the screen. Adjusting his tie, he observed the team of ponies carefully. He noticed they were walking on a catwalk south of his position, about 2 miles away from the central components of the prison. The human checked his traps over, and remembered he had explosive charges installed to drop the catwalks if necessary. He waited until the team was over a piece of machinery that looked deadly enough, and then hit one of the buttons.

Twilight and company had caught up with Applejack and urged her to slow down.

“Come on, AJ, you’re leaving us in the dust!” said Pinkie Pie.

Twilight said to Techorse, “You know, I’m surprised we haven’t been met by any resistance yet. You’d think the human in charge of this factory would have sent some robots after us by now.”

Techorse replied, “I know. Something’s not right here.” All of a sudden, the catwalk exploded ahead of Applejack, and the section the team was on slanted downwards. The metal walkway was tipped towards a set of giant gears grinding together, certain doom if the ponies slipped off the catwalk. Applejack held on as best as she could, but the metal didn’t provide good traction on her hooves, and she slid closer and closer to the gears. Acting quickly, Rainbow Dash grabbed her friend by the tail and flapped her wings to pull backwards. But the others were screaming and sliding down too, and they piled up the very edge of the catwalk. They were on the verge of falling right into the gear mesh. Back at the control office, Bossman laughed at his foes’ certain doom, and then decided to go check on the prisoner ponies and gloat of his victory. He left the control office and headed for the cages.

Applejack used her muscular strength to push back against the weight of her friends, desperate to keep them from plummeting into the gears. Techorse decided to offer support by backing up with his turbofans. Slowly they creeped back up the ramp, determined not to go into the machinery head first. As they backed up, the wires supporting the catwalk began to break from the weight. When the cables snapped, the entire section of catwalk fell down amongst the various machines. But, they had worked their way up the walkway enough that it tipped in the other direction, and the entire assembly slipped off the gears and onto the factory floor.

“That was a close one.” said Fluttershy, shivering in stress from the event. Rarity nodded in agreement, trying hard not to think about what might have happened to them if the catwalk had tipped into the giant gears. Twilight flicked her tail gently and turned to Techorse.

“If you and Applejack hadn’t worked together like that, we would have been crushed for sure.” she said. Techorse inhaled and exhaled deeply to encourage his bloodstream to dump the remaining adrenaline in his body. He simply gave Twilight a look of acknowledgment.

Pinkie Pie shouted, “How did that happen, because however it happened, it wasn’t any fun. I don’t want to do that again!”

Techorse said very slowly, “See those boxes on the catwalks? They are charges of plastic explosive. That was a trap, not an accident. Bossman knows we’re here…”

Applejack said, “Bossman, that’s the human in charge of this deathtrap?”

He said to her while panting, “Yeah. That's him.”

They picked themselves up after a minute of rest and ventured deeper into the factory. While they were doing so, Bossman was running a cane along the bars of the pony cages. He looked at the sad and desperate faces of the occupants. The cages in the factory were actually quite large, there were a total of 500 giant cages in a massive warehouse-like area, each cage able to hold 1000 ponies on its own. Bossman had to use an accordion lift to reach the various cages and mess with the minds of the occupants. For now, only the ground level cages were full; in total nearly 1 million ponies were being held in the factory. When the numbers got to maximum capacity, which Bossman knew would be met after the battles today, he could start teleporting ponies back to Earth and collect the massive profits.

“You ponies are going to make me a very wealthy man.” He sang out as he rapped the cane along the bars of the cages. Once Bossman had driven past all the cages, he stopped and looked at the massive server in front of all of them. The machine was a gigantic bulb-like structure with multiple fancy tube-like structures attached to all the cages, making it resemble a squid or octopus. Every second or so, the machine would flash a bit, and a new pony would drop from the tube into one of the cages. Bossman decided to return to his post and went back into the control office. It had walls of glass, but that was so he could observe the pony cages at all times. The human sat down at his swivel chair and looked at the screen. The ponies and the catwalk section were gone.

Bossman said with disappointment, “Well, that does it. I accidentally got Techman too, and I won’t be able to pick him out of the pulpy mess. But at least I won.”

The team was alive and well, however, and still trying to reach Bossman and his server. They went past many pieces of machinery, dodging moving pistons and jets of boiling hot steam. One plume of steam caught Rarity’s hair, and it uncurled for a moment.

Rarity stopped and moaned, “Oh these blasted machines have messed up my hairdo!”

Continuing onward, the machinery got thicker and more complicated, often meaning there were more moving parts that had to be squeezed around to avoid injury.

“Hasn’t Wizard ever heard of a safety inspector?” joked Rainbow Dash as she jumped out of the way of a rack and pinion trying to squish her. They emerged from the jungle of parts and came across a gigantic blast furnace being fed raw iron from the mining probes returning to the factory. A single narrow plank was all that separated them from falling into the molten metal.

“Of course, another drop.” said Twilight in disgust.

Rainbow Dash showed off and simply flew across to the other side of the board. “Waitin’ for you guys!” she said.

Techorse said, “I’d fly across too, but the heat from this blast furnace might shut down my saddle. I really don’t want to fall in that.”

“Then we have no choice but to go one at a time across the board.” said Applejack. She carefully stepped on the wooden plank and carefully made her way across the pit of molten metal. Soon, Applejack made it safely across and sighed in relief. The giant furnace began to tip downwards to dispense an ingot of solid steel. As it did, a metal bridge came down, allowing safe passage for the others.

Applejack’s mouth fell open as the others ran quickly across the metal bridge before the furnace tipped back up and caused it to open again.

“Well, that was easy!” said Pinkie Pie, “what’s next?”

Rainbow Dash laughed at Applejack’s expression, “You did that for nothing, Applejack! You should see your face.”

“Come on Rainbow, be nice.” urged Fluttershy, “Applejack was really brave to cross on that board. She didn’t fly over like a coward.”

“Hey!” said Rainbow, taking offense. Applejack smiled at Rainbow Dash, agreeing one hundred percent with Fluttershy’s statement. “When you’re finished calling each other cowards, Techorse says we’re almost to server.” said Twilight.

Techorse added, “It should be right around the corner here. That sign on the wall indicates that the teleportation server is just 500 feet in this direction.”

Rarity asked as she finished fixing her hair, “Will the human in charge be guarding it?” “Most likely” said Techorse.

“I hope he’s not too mean.” worried Fluttershy.

“Bossman’s not the smartest, he just keeps the factory churning.” said Techorse, “I don’t think he’ll be too hard to beat, Fluttershy.”

Chapter 40

The robots had reached their destinations. Every city in Equestria could spot the dark outline of the advancing armies. The ponies had prepared for the attack, every last one got what they could to try to stop the machines. As the machines got closer, the citizens stood unmoving. They would not let their home be taken from them. They would not go as slaves willingly. Canterlot was the first to engage the machines. The catapults, trebuchets, and cannons destroyed scores of the mindless pieces of hardware, but the robots trudged on and engaged the citizens and the royal guard with ruthless efficiency. In the absence of Arbiter, even the princesses were using magic to try and destroy as many robots as possible. Often, one of their guards would willingly throw themselves in front of a beam to save Celestia or Luna. But neither of them loved seeing their guards get blasted, and they fought on to protect their ponies. All across the planet, the battles broke out, pony versus machine, magic and stones versus teleporter beams. It seemed though, that the ponies began to lose their battles. The robots were simply too many, and they were too accurate. Some cities were already beginning to fall to the metal menaces.

In Ponyville, Spike and PAL watched as the robots got closer. “Wait for it” said Spike. PAL nodded and loaded a missile into his bazooka.

PAL advised to the ponies around them, “They’re not in range of our catapults yet. Hold your fire!“

The treaded machines got closer to the residents, about 250 robots total. PAL’s internal instruments calculated the distance to the robots. Despite also being a machine, PAL did not see the machines before him as brothers, or even friends. They were an example to him of bad invention, evil devices bent on destruction and darkness. The numbers flashed before his processors as the enemy got closer and closer. Spike, on the other hand, was simply eyeballing the distance.

“Just a little closer.” He said as he tightened the band around his head. PAL got the firing solution on the enemy and shouted, “Catapults, fire!”

The ponies snapped the cords on the devices, and hails of gemstones, heavy boulders, and discarded kitchen appliances went flying towards the enemy robots. In this initial bombardment, about 70 of the robots were reduced to scrap metal. The remaining machines picked up speed and began charging for the ponies.

“ATTACK!” shouted Spike, running ahead. The ponies gave a whinny for a war cry and followed the young dragon towards the enemy. PAL ran after him as well, slamming a rocket into his bazooka in preparation for his first shot.

They closed the distance, and beams and stones were exchanged. Robots and ponies were going left and right, back and forth between the two armies. PAL jumped into the air and fired his weapon at one robot. The device struck the metal beast directly, and with a great zap it was electrocuted until it exploded spectacularly. Spike ran past PAL, gave him a thumbs up, and then dashed into the confusion of the battle to do some damage. He spat a green flame all over one robot. It began to glow red, and then fell over due to circuitry damage from the heat. By working together, PAL and Spike cut a wedge between the remaining robots, and drove them apart into two groups the ponies could attack easily. But the teleporter beams were simply claiming too many ponies for the cages. They were losing.

Bossman cheered in delight as his computer indicated the sheer number of ponies coming into the cages. Looking through the glass, he saw the server churning out hundreds of new ponies.

“This is great, the battles are going so well!” he said in a high pitch. “Oh I’m going to be so wealthy!” he thought as he counted his cash in his head. His smile faded away when he saw Twilight Sparkle looking down at him from a catwalk to his left.

“That’s impossible!” he said, amazed the team was still alive.

Twilight looked around for something to throw with her magic. She couldn’t find anything loose, so she detached an entire segment of pipe from the wall and threw it through the glass office. Bossman cried out in fear as the pipe smashed the glass all around him. Fortune smiled on the man, and the glass fell in every direction but onto the human, who was shielding himself with his arms.

“Game’s over Bossman” said Techorse, “give up.”

Bossman looked nervously at Techorse and said, “Why, Techman! Um, it’s nice to see you again. Sorry you’re a pony and everything.”

The team jumped down from the platform and started to approach the human slowly. Bossman began sweating visibly around the collar of his suit, unlike the other humans, he didn’t carry any weapons.

“It's very nice to meet you all, but you’ve caught me at a very busy moment.” said the human as he backed up towards his control panel, trying to keep a safe distance from the angry ponies.

Techorse used his robot hands to point at the server and shouted, “That’s the server, ladies. We have to destroy it.” Bossman’s nervous look was replaced by one of anger.

He shouted, “Stay away from that machine!”

“Or what?” asked Applejack, “You gonna dump us in another gearbox?”

Bossman said slyly, “I was just wondering how you survived that trap. No matter, I won’t let you destroy the server.”

Bossman was about to hit a button to summon guard robots, but Techorse blasted it with his laser cannons.

“No fair cheating and calling for backup.” he said.

Bossman shouted, “Fine! I’ll deal with you myself!”

Taking out the crystal necklace from inside his shirt, the human touched the red stone to the control panel of the computer. The small rectangular office glowed red, and began to rise into the air. The entire assembly rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise to face the ponies, and the television monitor collapsed into the controls. Bossman sat in his chair and stared 10 feet down at the friends. He was now elevated above them, and could see the factory floor quite well. Rainbow Dash went to attack Bossman, but she bounced off an energy field from the crystal.

“Nice try” said Bossman. Pulling a switch on the control panel, three large cylinders moved down from the ceiling. Using three joysticks, Bossman began to move the cylinders around above the team. Rarity looked up at the cylinders and realized they were moving overtop of them.

“Get away!” she said. Bossman pulled the trigger of one of the joysticks, and the matching cylinder hissed as steam escaped from the top of it. The cylinder crashed into the ground just as the ponies underneath it got out of the way. The business suit clad human started laughing as he moved the smashing cylinders around and tried to crush the heroes flat. Techorse fired his laser cannons straight up, hoping to damage the devices, but it would not work. Twilight’s horn glowed for a moment, and a tapered bolt of purple energy struck the energy field around Bossman, weakening it a bit.

Techorse cheered, “Alright Twilight, nice magic missile!”

Twilight replied, “Thanks. Usually I’m only able to do that when I get angry, but now I’ve learned how to use it whenever I want.” Techorse switched to his turbofans and pushed Twilight out of the way of the cylinder coming down above her.

“We need to talk less and move more!” he said.

Fluttershy had managed to avoid the cylinders by doing absolutely nothing since the battle began. By holding still, Bossman really hadn’t paid any attention to her. However, he took notice of the light yellow Pegasus pony sitting by herself.

“Oooh” he said darkly, “that one will make a very pretty pancake indeed!”

He moved one of the three massive cylinders over Fluttershy and pulled the trigger. Down came the extremely heavy object, and Fluttershy screamed in terror. Pinkie Pie pulled her bravely out of the way, and both were knocked back the cylinder’s impact with the factory floor.

“You saved me Pinkie.” said Fluttershy, “thank you so much.”

Pinkie Pie looked at Bossman and shouted, “No one flattens my friends, you big meanie human you!”

Bossman laughed and replied, “Foolish pink pony, I flatten anybody in the way of my plans!” He moved the same cylinder over to the side, mumbled a bit as Twilight hit the shield with another blast, and dropped it again. The cylinder missed again. The human in the suit was getting quite annoyed by his lack of aim, and now was wildly attempting to squish any of them, rather than target one at a time. Techorse opened up with his laser cannons, bringing the energy shield even closer to dropping.

“We’ve almost dropped his shield!” he said with confidence. Twilight shot another blast at the force field, and then leapt to the side to avoid being flattened.

Bossman shouted in frustration, “Hold still and let me squash you!” Still, the steam powered cylinders would not hit their marks. Even Rarity was proving impossible to hit, and she was still trying to keep the hair on her mane in order. The human was pretty much furious at how long it was taking to get a hit. He had tried smashing randomly, grouping the three cylinders for maximum coverage, and trying to aim them. The human slammed his fist into a button marked “overdrive.” The three cylinders began to smash repeatedly in rhythm, using up energy and causing them to undergo great stress. Bossman laughed at the ponies’ attempts to dodge the relentless crushers. However, with all the smashing going on, he forgot about Twilight and Techorse. The lasers eventually brought the field down on his station.

“We got it!” shouted Techorse.

Twilight took aim and fired a purple magic missile right for Bossman. The human saw the projectile and jumped back to avoid it. The control panel was almost completely destroyed by the hit, but one of the joysticks remained and was jammed backwards by the hit. Bossman tried to run, but fell over, and his ankle was wrenched on his chair. He shouted in pain and was unable to move, lying on his back. Two of the cylinders ceased their pulsing, but one was moving back slowly towards the office, still pounding away. The platform the injured man was on lowered to the ground level, and the cylinder approached the human. Eventually, it rose into the air for another strike, and came to rest right above the human. The cylinder began its decent right over Bossman, and the human screamed in terror as he was about to become a victim of his own device. The ponies shut their eyes and waiting for the crunch. But they opened them when they heard no impact.

The cylinder was glowing a purple color, and had stopped just 3 feet from Bossman’s face. Twilight was sweating, her eyes shut, concentrating hard on the cylinder just as she did in Nightmare Moon’s castle. The heavy smashing device had been brought to a halt.

Techorse said to the others, “Help Twilight out! Concentrate on the smasher!” The others stared hard at the thing, not sure how it was going to help. But Twilight was able to relax a bit, and she detached the entire machine from the ceiling. She moved it away, out from over the top of Bossman, and then, with one final magical effort, threw the 20 ton cylinder. It turned around once in the air before smashing against the server. In one mighty explosion, the server was destroyed; its parts began raining down on everything. Ponies stopped materializing inside the cages.

“No!” shouted Bossman, realizing it was all over for his robots. The human got up on his foot, grunting about the terrible pain in it.

“You think you’ve won this all? I can still send your friends to Earth with what’s left of my controls!” he shouted in pure evil rage.

Twilight’s mouth hang open, and she said, “After I just saved you? You ingrate!”

Bossman answered her, “I’m still living, so I still want my money!”

Techorse said to him, “You’ll get paid back, Bossman. I guarantee it.” The colt deployed his turbofans and flew right up to the human. He quickly switched to his robot hands and pushed the release switches on the panel.

The cages in the factory began to open up, and the ponies ran out, cheering that they were finally free. As they exited, they spotted their captor and made a straight dash for him. Techorse jumped out of the way as Bossman got trampled by a countless number of ponies.

Rarity watched as the human went under all the hooves and said, “You were quite right, Techorse. He did get paid adequately.” From the massive crowd of running ponies came a large puff of blue smoke, evidence Bossman had quit. Techorse walked over to a wall of the factory and opened up two gigantic doors for the crowd to exit. The massive steel garage styled door opened up, letting fresh sunlight enter the red-lit factory. As they left, the friends were re-united with loved ones they had lost to the robots. Pinkie Pie hugged Bon-Bon and Lyra as they left their cages and began to exit the factory to go home. Applejack saw many of her relatives freed from the cages, and the sight brought tears to her eyes. Rainbow Dash managed to find Soarin’ and give him a high hoof for finally escaping his prison, as well as getting a chance to thank that one Pegasus pony who threw himself in front of a beam to save her. Many of the princess’s guards walked out of the cages, although their armor had been left behind in their trip. The only one who didn’t seem to have any pony to talk to was Techorse, who was content to watch his friend’s joy in saving their friends and family.

Around the globe, the tides of battle turned. The robots were left without their teleporter beams, and the ponies began trashing them left and right. Soon, every last machine had been destroyed. Freedom had been won, and the cities began to celebrate their victory against the humans. Back in Ponyville, PAL and the others were beginning to run low on ammo. Spike was getting worn out, and PAL was down to four missiles. But once the teleporter beams turned off, they too were able to crush their enemies and defeat the entire army. The citizens of Ponyville cheered as the last robot cracked and blew up. Finally, the planet was free, no more robots, and no more humans. But from space, one last human watched with rage. He was determined to have their world for his own, and no military defeat would stop him.

The last few ponies walked out of the cages and proceeded out the door. After that, Techorse threw the master power switch on the control panel of the office. An eerie fading hum filled the factory as the machines all came to a quiet standstill. On the ground laid fragments of Bossman’s suit, the broken red crystal, and the used-up blue potion.

“It’s finally over.” said Fluttershy. Suddenly, the disk on the control panel began to glow violently.

“Not yet.” said Twilight sadly. Before the friends emerged a full holographic figure of Wizard.

“PONIES!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Techorse said to him, “Wizard! Come to surrender?”

Wizard shouted at him, “I will never surrender, Techman! You may have defeated all my men, and destroyed every last robot, but while my heart still beats I will have your planet to control! I’m going to cast a spell so powerful that Equestria will be under my rule for all time!”

Twilight said to him, “Leave now Wizard, and we won’t have to take any action against you.”

He said to Twilight, “Or what? Come and get me! If you ponies think you’re so tough, you’ll stop me yourselves. I am not leaving this planet ever. I will rule it for all eternity! Within the hour, my spell will turn you all into my mindless slaves. Equestria shall be mine!”

Wizard then laughed insanely and shut off the hologram.

“He’s gone off the deep end.” commented Rarity, shaking her head slowly.

“Oh this is bad.” said Twilight, visibly upset. “How are we going to stop a spell that powerful when it’s from space?”

Techorse said dramatically, “Here’s what we’ll do. We’re going to go to space, board that space station, and show Wizard that this planet is inhabited not by mere ponies, but by beings with hearts, something he doesn’t have! I say we go up there and prove once and for all that he can’t do whatever he wants because of his magic. I’m not out for revenge anymore because he ruined my life. My life’s better than ever because I have you as friends. But I know I won’t be the last life to be ruined by Wizard if we just let him go. He will keep attacking other planets, trying to conquer them and their people, unless we destroy his evil magic once and for all! Who’s with me?” Techorse’s friends cheered in approval of the decision to face down Wizard.

“Just one problem.” said Rainbow Dash, “I can’t breathe in space and the rest of us can’t get there.”

Techorse answered her question happily, “Bossman has a space shuttle parked outside we can use to reach the space station. It’ll be as easy as the helicopter we used.”

Applejack said, “Then what are we waitin’ for? We’ve got a Wizard to face!”

Chapter 41

The ponies galloped away with victory in mind to locate the space shuttle. They found the machine parked outside on the tarmac that stretched out from the factory. Now this space shuttle was not like the ones used in our past. This shuttle was much different, it lacked extra boosters and was powerful enough to reach space without disposable tanks. It was also far smaller, just large enough to carry a few people to and from the surface of whatever planet it needed to land on. Techorse flew on top of it with his turbofans, and then opened the door towards the nose of the craft with his robot arms. After the door swung open on the spaceship, a ramp descended downwards akin to a ship from Star Trek. Pinkie Pie oohed at the sight of the pretty little craft. She was the first to run in and of course, touch every button, switch, and lever in sight.

“Luckily” said Techorse to comfort the others, “she can’t actually launch the shuttle without one other pony in there to hit the second ignition button.” The others boarded one at a time into the vehicle, and after they had all gotten inside, Techorse pushed a button on the side of the door frame. The ramp slid back into the shuttle, and the door mechanically closed and locked behind them. A small hissing sound was heard as the cabin pressurized for space flight. The inside of the shuttle was a little cramped, featuring a cockpit with two seats and a large number of button, flip switch, and joystick based controls. A single touch screen in the center of the control panel was all that was needed to fly the shuttle automatically, however.

Twilight looked at the complicated controls and said, “Ok, first we need to make sure we have enough fuel for this trip. We don’t want a repeat of the helicopter incident.”

Rainbow Dash found the fuel indicator and said, “It’s closer to F. It must mean we need to fuel up.”

Techorse laughed, “F stands for ‘full tank’, so we probably have plenty of fuel in reserve, Rainbow.”

Rainbow said without missing a beat, “I knew that, I just wanted to test you eggheads, that’s all.”

Techorse rolled his eyes and started working the controls with his robot arms. “Strap yourselves in back there.” said Twilight as she turned her head to look at the others. Rarity took a seat belt in her teeth and buckled herself to the shock sofas in the back of the space shuttle.

“I sure hope space flight doesn’t mess up hair.” she worried.

“Depends on how G-resistant your natural beauty is, Rarity.” answered Techorse jokingly from the front.

Fluttershy said to her, “Rarity, space is so beautiful I hear, with all the stars. It’ll be like going outside at night, except there’s no ground. If anything happens to your hair, I’m sure it’ll be worth it.”

Applejack added in agreement, “Back on the farm, when I was a little foal, I’d look up at the stars and wonder what they were really like out there. This is gonna be great.”

Techorse said to Twilight, “I know you’ve done a lot of astronomy work, Twilight. I’ve flown through space countless times with Wizard, so it’s nothing new to me, but I know you’re going to love it out there.”

Twilight said with a smile, “Yeah, I’m excited, there’s a big difference between reading about space and seeing it up close. Are we ready to go yet?”

Techorse answered, “Yes, everything’s ready to go.” He said out loud, “Alright everypony, this is it! I hope you’re all buckled up back there.”

“We’re all ready!” shouted Pinkie Pie. Secretly, she planned to unbuckle during takeoff due to a dare by Rainbow Dash.

“Here we go!” said Techorse. He flicked a couple of switches, and turned an ignition key with his robot hands.

“Twilight, turn your key.” He said, motioning to the other ignition panel. Twilight pushed the key into place gently with her hoof. The shuttle’s engines roared to life, and the machine began moving down the tarmac. Techorse pushed the throttle to maximum, and began typing to program a trip back to the space station. The craft moved faster and faster until its wheels began to lift off of the ground. Techorse retracted the landing gear wheels and waited for the telltale “clunk” of the wheels entering the craft’s hull.

He then said, “Firing turbo drives!” Pushing a button, the shuttle gained a large amount of speed at once to leave the atmosphere. Pinkie Pie went flying from her seat and hit the back of the shuttle, which lucky for her was well padded. Her face was being distorted by the sheer G-force of the shuttle’s takeoff, but she still laughed at the experience. The others simply looked at her and shook their heads. They knew it was far safer to stay buckled. Outside, the craft was getting ready to leave the atmosphere. From the windows, the blues of the sky began to be replaced by the cold dark blackness of space, lit only by the trillions of stars in the galaxy. Finally, the craft left Equestria’s atmosphere and began its flight towards the space station. Techorse shut off the booster engines and put the craft on autopilot.

“Welcome to space.” he said with a smile. Pinkie Pie immediately began to notice her weightlessness and began “swimming” around the open cabin of the shuttle.

“Wheeeee!” she squealed as the pink pony bounced from wall to wall. The others unbuckled themselves and began to adjust to the zero-G environment.

“Oh my.” whispered Fluttershy as she floated around. Rainbow Dash drifted underneath of her and looked up at Fluttershy.

“Psst, down here!” she said, startling her friend. Applejack’s hat drifted off her head, and she started to chase after it in a makeshift space game. But up in the front, Twilight and Techorse were gazing at the stars.

“Behind us,” said Techorse, “is your home planet ladies. Have a look out the back window.” Every pony moved to the back of the shuttle to look out the rear glass. In front of them was Equestria, a very colorful planet, with lush land and flowing water. Although it featured unusual colors in its topography, the planet’s Earth-like atmosphere gave it the environment that made it a hospitable planet.

“Your planet orbits a single sun similar in size and strength to Earth’s” said Techorse, “and you also have a larger, but still important moon to control the tides by gravity.”

Twilight asked, “Can you show me where Earth is out there? I’d like to know.” Techorse answered, “It’s 400 light years away, but you can still see our sun.” Techorse moved to the left side of the spacecraft and pointed carefully out the window.

“That yellow dot.” He said, “Is Earth’s sun. As I said already, it’s nearly an identical star to yours, being medium sized, yellow in color, and moderately temperature. For a star that is, they’re really very hot.”

Twilight said, “Yeah, billions of degrees.”

Fluttershy asked, “Tech, are you ever going to miss Earth?”

Techorse frowned a bit and answered, “My original parents don’t know I exist anymore, Fluttershy. Even if we win, I’d have no friends or family to go home to.”

Applejack put a hoof on him and said gently, “But you do have a home to go to, back on Equestria with us. We’re your friends.”

Techorse looked at her and said, “I know, Applejack. Equestria really is my home now.” He then looked deep into Twilight’s eyes.

She said to him, “We’re really glad for everything you’ve done to help us. I’m thrilled you want to stay here forever.”

“Me too.” answered Techorse. The shuttle continued its trip for the space station, crossing a very large distance to reach the orbiting object. After a half hour flight, the shuttle had crossed the orbit path of the shuttle and began moving around the planet to catch the station in orbit. The large, ominous platform was coming up in the front window.

“There’s the station.” said Twilight. The others looked out the front Plexiglas window to view the massive orbital structure. It was essentially a large dome with several supporting metal bars coming down from the top, each with a bubble at the end for observation. At the base of this half-sphere was a truncated pyramid featuring landing bays. The entire structure looked very similar to a cake stand of some kind, but its true purpose was to be a palace in orbit.

“Wizard is somewhere on that station.” said Techorse, “hoping he’ll rule the planet from it.”

Twilight assured him, “We’re not going to let him do that. Not today.”

He remembered something just then and said, “Once we’re on board, the station is equipped with artificial gravity. That means you’ll have to re-adjust to having to stand upright again.” Rainbow Dash, enjoying her acrobatics in the weightless environment, showed disapproval, but eventually sat down in her seat. The others returned to the shock couches and buckled in too.

“How are we going to dock? I’m pretty sure Wizard is not simply going to let us in.” asked Rarity.

“I’m pretty sure he will.” answered Twilight ominously, “After all we’ve done to foil his invasion he might want to deal with us personally.” Fluttershy began to get nervous again, but Rainbow Dash offered some comfort by brushing her hair gently. The shuttle got closer to the bay doors on the truncated pyramid structure. Several gun turrets on the station began to track the shuttle.

“Those don’t look friendly at all.” said Pinkie Pie with a strange worried tone.

Techorse thought to himself, “I know you want to destroy me yourself, Wizard. Now, turn off those cannons, I know they're just a trick to scare us off.” The gun turrets indeed were a trick; they turned away from the spacecraft after a second and came to a stop. The bay door on the base of the station began to open up. The craft gently drifted inside, and Techorse deployed the landing gear. Because it was in space, the shuttle landed vertically inside the gigantic hangar and stopped.

“We’re in.” said Techorse.