• Published 31st Dec 2013
  • 2,381 Views, 102 Comments

Mega Mare - DrakeyC



Twilight Sparkle is Mega Mare, and with her trusty AI assistant Spike, she's tasked by Celestia to stop an uprising of berserk cyber-ponies.

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Epilogue - Friendship is Magic

Mega Mare

Epilogue - Friendship is Magic

"Spike, we can't do this. We have to leave before it gets worse."

"Twilight, you're overreacting."

"Overreacting? Spike, this is the greatest challenge we've faced together! I'd rather fight Princess Luna again without my armor and weapons than do this!"

"… Twilight, it's just a parade."

Twilight stopped pacing around the ground floor of her home and took a breath. "No, it is not 'just' a parade! It's a parade recognizing me as some sort of… hero-messiah! I'm just me, Spike!" Twilight looked over herself. She had considered putting her armor back on for this event but decided against it. Now she couldn't remember why and was wishing she had it with her. She could go to Celestia's lab and retrieve it from storage, but that would mean going outside. And the crowds of ponies in the streets that would surely recognize her made that impossible in her current state.

It was a week since that fateful day she had defeated Discord. Twilight could still barely believe her adventure took all of a single day. When she had returned to Canterlot with Celestia's aides, Luna, and the freed guard ponies – who it turned out mostly consisted of Ponyville citizens given armor – Celestia told them the Harmony Program had worked just as she intended. The Program beamed itself across the world using Discord's own signal, freeing everyone he had corrupted. Ponyville and Cloudsdale, and some other cities Twilight discovered Discord had tried to infect, were reporting record numbers of ponies being admitted to clinics for cybernetic malfunctions and memory loss. Otherwise the damage was limited, all things considered.

What Twilight had expected least of all from the fallout was for news of her exploits to get around so fast. Rumor had spread like wildfire, the press got her name, and now her humble home was mobbed by ponies waiting to snap pictures and ask questions. Celestia had decided that since the secret was out, it would be best to make a public statement about matters and present Luna and Twilight to the city as part of it. That in turn had blossomed into a parade in Twilight's honor to hail her as the savior of Equestria.

"Twilight, you saved all of Equestria and the lands beyond from the digitized mind of a mad scientist. You don't think that makes you a hero?" Twilight turned and glared at Spike's hologram.

"Don't start getting rational on me!"

"Uh… sorry?"

Twilight groaned. She slowly approached her window and peaked out the curtain. She quickly dropped it. The mob was definitely bigger.

"I really should have kept the armor…"


Twilight's original saddle lowered on her back, the connecting wires slotting into place. The construct hummed as it came on-line, Twilight's mental interfaces triggering in her head. The claw holding the saddle moved it to the steel mannequin the rest of Twilight's armor was resting on and let it drop into place.

"What's are you going to do with it?" Twilight looked towards Celestia as the alicorn pressed a button on her console. The ceiling tiles slid back and the mannequin floated up in an aura of golden magic.

"I'm placing it in storage. We may need it again someday." Celestia turned back to Twilight. "And your programming?"

"Spike's working on formatting my databanks now. All weapon schematics deleted." Twilight looked at her Multitool. Her memories of using the weapons would remain, but any information on how to reform them would be lost to her. The armor's saddle still had them, being a separate system, but not her personal saddle.

"There we go!" Her saddle beeped and Spike's hologram nodded. "All done."

"Then there is one final matter to resolve." Celestia floated a data disk off her console and moved it towards Twilight. She took it in her magic and looked it over.

"What's this?"

"The finalized version of the Harmony Program you created. The unicorn you took the gemstone from was adamant about getting it back before she left. I transferred it onto this."

Twilight looked at the disk with new understanding. "I'll take care of it if you need me to, but I don't want to install another weapon program on my saddle after getting rid of the original eight."

"Then do not fear, for the Harmony Program is nothing of the sort." Celestia smiled softly. "The Elements of Harmony are power, Twilight. They are magic, the most powerful kind of magic we know. Like all power its user may use it as they wish. I give it to you now to study, so we may one day understand its full capabilities."

"In that case it is an honor, Princess." Twilight slotted the disk into her saddle and downloaded the data. She waited to feel some sort of power surge, but none came. It seemed the Program truly was benign now. "I'm not sure what I can do, though. I don't even understand how I activated the Harmony Program or what it really did."

"Precisely." Celestia looked up at her monitors, which were displaying schematics of Twilight's armor and lines of programming code. "The Elements of Harmony always were a relic whose mysteries we never truly understood. Even when I used the original Elements many centuries ago I could not wield their full power. The Elements take their power from the magic of friendship and the five virtues that bind friends together. Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, and Loyalty, are the five I know." Celestia nodded at Twilight's flank. She turned to look at her cutie mark. "And the sixth and most powerful element. Magic."

"Sixth?" Twilight looked forward again. "But I thought you said you gave the fragments of the Program to your aides? There were only five of them."

Celestia chuckled and knelt. "Is that so? Yes, I did indeed give the fragments to my aides. And in what capacity have you and I been working together these last few years, Twilight?" She winked. Twilight's jaw dropped. "You saved five of my aides and recovered their fragments. But you did not count yourself among their number, did you?"

"Then…" Twilight looked at Spike, who shrugged. "The sixth fragment…"

"It was a year ago I had the breakthrough of how to complete the Program. I no longer carried the magic of friendship in my heart, so of course I could not wield it at its full potential. But I knew of six ponies that could. They had scarcely ever met, yet their cutie marks displayed the ancient symbols of the Elements on their flank. Yours, Twilight, is the Element of Magic. When I realized all six of you had come into my service, I knew it was no coincidence."

Celestia stood up. "I embedded the fragments of the Program in my other five aides that you rescued, and a sixth within you. And over the last year it has grown and matured as all ponies do. When you resolved to defeat Discord and save Equestria, carrying all six fragments within you, the true light of Harmony was born again. Born of the bonds you formed with my other aides and focused with the power of alicorn magic, you completed the Harmony Program. All of you together created it."

Twilight's eyes were wide as she listened. "You knew… you knew all along. That's why you sent me to Ponyville, and encouraged me to keep going even when I had doubts. You knew I'd end up facing Luna so you set me to meet your other aides. I felt a connection to them every time I met them. You made sure I felt it, so I could use the Program when you compiled the fragments as one."

Celestia nodded. "You were always meant to complete my greatest work, Twilight. And you have done it admirably. I could not be prouder of you."

Twilight blushed furiously and looked away. "I just… did what I could."

"Which is more than I could ever have asked. With the Program completed, a new era of magical-technological innovation is on the horizon. There is no telling what we could discover now. But first…" Celestia walked to the door out of the lab. "There is a celebration to plan."


"You're really taking this the wrong way, Twi."

Twilight groaned at Spike's words. "The ruler of all Equestria has spent the last year grooming me to wield the most powerful magic in history! How am I supposed to take it!?"

"Be honored?"

Before Twilight could respond, there was a knock at her door. She tensed and slowly turned her head towards it. "Hello?"

"Twilight Sparkle? It's Rarity. I've brought some friends."

Twilight crept up to the security console set into the wall and called up the camera feed. Five familiar mares stood outside her door. She relaxed and pushed a few buttons to unlock the door. It swung back and the group came inside, Applejack at the front. She stopped and gestured a hoof towards the door as it shut. "Twilight, ah don't know if you've noticed, but there's some sorta crowd outside yer house."

Twilight slumped. "No, really?"

Rarity stepped forward. Twilight noticed a small metal rod held beside her in a telekinetic aura. A holo-text generator. "There's also this." She floated the generator over to Twilight, pressing a button on the end to extend the document. Twilight walked over and gawked at what she saw. It was a newspaper, the top displaying a video of her in her armor walking down the hallways of the Republic Headquarters. Twilight read the text scrolling up from the bottom.

"I…this… 'The Hero of Equestria! Mega Mare Saves Canterlot!'..." Twilight looked up, confused. "Mega Mare?"

"It's the name the media has coined for you," Rainbow Dash explained, waving a hoof in the air. "I would have gone with 'Iron Mare', or 'Power Pony'. 'Mega Mare' doesn't make any sense."

Twilight shook her head and closed the hologram, setting the projector on a table nearby and resuming her earlier pacing. "This is ridiculous. I can't be in the news! A week ago I was a lab aide who spent most of her time studying magical theory and tinkering with cybernetic scrap in her basement! This is just…" Twilight looked at the group. "Has anypony swamped you girls like this?" They shook their heads. "Please go tell them who you are, take the heat off me!"

Rarity rolled her eyes and nudged Rainbow. She laughed slightly. "Yeah, funny story there…"

"RD already tried that. They don't care who we are," Applejack said, giving the pony in question a sideways glance. Rainbow laughed nervously and looked away.

Twilight snorted. "That sounds fair."

"But you're the one who destroyed Discord, Twilight," Fluttershy said, coming closer.

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, our biggest role in things was to fight ya and get our flanks kicked."

"That's not true!" Twilight shook her head and looked between the five as she spoke. "I only fought you to restore you to your true selves. And I never could have gotten as far as I did with the weapons and skills Spike copied from you, not to mention your work on the Harmony Program. I may have defeated Discord, but I did it with the help of you five."

"And don't forget me!" Spike waved from Twilight's back. "Who do you think it was that was doing all that program copying and scanning enemies?"

Twilight chuckled and smiled at the hologram. "Of course, Spike. We made a great team out there."

"Hay yeah we did." Spike's projection crossed its claws and nodded smugly.

"Well next time some big bad comes around to try to take over Equestria, we're taking them on together." Rainbow Dash smirked and bumped her hooves together.

"Next time? I don't even want to think about 'next time' until 'this time' is over." Twilight shuddered. Her security console beeped, and Twilight groaned and pressed a button on it. "Hello?"

"Miss Sparkle? Lieutenant Valiant Spirit. Her Grace the Princess asked me to retrieve you for the ceremony preparations."

Twilight gulped at the voice coming from the console. "Well girls, this is it. Any last words for me girls before I get torn apart?"

Rainbow Dash tilted her head. "You're actually worried about every pony in Canterlot cheering for you?"

"Intensely."

The five looked between themselves. Applejack finally spoke up. "Well, if you're not up fer it, we did come here to tell ya somethin'."

Pinkie Pie grinned. "We're having a victory party in Ponyville! Wanna come?"

Twilight smiled. "I'd love to… if only there was a way out of here without being roped into the ceremony." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and flew to the far wall, tapping a hoof on the window there. Twilight blinked. "… That'll work."


"It will take time before you can take an active role in government again. We are a republic now and need to hold a vote on the matter. But between your restoration and my influence I am sure they will pass."

"… Are you sure they should?"

Luna turned her head to look at Celestia. The two sisters were in Luna's room at the top of the east tower of the Republic Headquarters. A cloak of preserving magic had kept the room precisely as Luna left it a millennium ago. Celestia had made sure she had access to the Equestrian Data Network to catch up on the last thousand years and invited Luna to explore the castle and speak with her anytime she wished. But Luna had kept to herself, taking meals in her room and only briefly leaving to visit the castle archives to gather physical records.

"Of course they should." Celestia approached her. "Luna, you're back. We can rule Equestria once again. Rule the way we were meant to: together. Do you not want that?"

"Perhaps, yes. One day. When I am ready." Luna gestured to the piles of old paper books she had retrieved from the archives. "I have much to catch up on, and…" Luna paused, looking at the floor. "I would prefer to be absolutely confident that there is no remnant of Discord's influence in me."

"There isn't. We removed the armor days ago, Luna, all physical and psychological examinations show you are perfectly normal now."

"Can we afford to be certain?" Luna sighed. "Discord was able to modify his own programming so even ponies without cybernetics fell under his influence. How do we know I am truly free of him? Who is to say he will not return someday? Even in the era of a thousand years ago, a program could be copied, backed up, hidden."

"If he is still out there somewhere, then we will defeat him again." Celestia put a hoof on Luna's back.

Luna looked at the ground. "Not we, no. Your student is an extraordinary pony. You should be very proud."

"I am. And I am happy that she has returned my sister to me." Celestia walked in front of Luna. "This is why this ceremony is not just to announce Twilight's heroics to Equestria. I will also be announcing your return."

"What?" Luna gaped and snapped her head up to stare at Celestia. "Sister, what are you thinking?"

"I am thinking the kingdom should see the two royal pony sisters standing together for the first time in a thousand years," Celestia replied.

"And when did you plan to tell me about this?"

"I just did." Celestia smiled. Luna slapped a hoof to her face. "I did not get my sister back after all this time just for her to become a recluse lurking in her bedroom." Celestia walked towards the door, glancing over her shoulder. "On the other hoof I cannot force you, can I? So I ask. Luna, will you join me in meeting our people?"

Luna took several seconds to answer. "I know better than to presume refusal would come at no cost to me."

Celestia raised an eyebrow as Luna walked past her. "Pardon?"

"I remember that little stunt you pulled at my birthday. No cook is so foolish as to confuse sugar with salt."

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Celestia blinked innocently as the two sisters left the room. "Just as I'm sure you would have no idea what I meant if I brought up the time somepony hacked my private console and changed the first slide of the presentation for the yearly ambassador's meeting to the cover of the month's issue of Stallions of Equestria."

"You're right. I have absolutely no idea what you mean." Luna looked at Celestia out of the corner of her eye and gave a sly smile. Celestia laughed and draped a wing over her.

"I have missed you dearly, Luna."

"I should hope so."

As the two reached the end of the hall a guard pony galloped up to them. "Your Grace… er, Your Graces." He bowed deeply. "Valiant Spirit sent me a transmission about the ordered retrieval of your student, Twilight Sparkle." The guard's horn glowed, two buttons beeping on his armor. A hatch opened and he withdraw a holo-text generator. Celestia took it in her magic and pressed the button to play the message. Text and audio began to play as the message scrolled over the display.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

My deepest apologies, but I must decline your invitation to the ceremony today. Something of greater importance concerning your aides has come up that I must see to instead. Please do not send more guards to retrieve me, I'm recording this at the teleport station and will be gone by the time they arrive.

I will make it up to you soon. Until then if you need to contact me, I will be in Ponyville for the next day or so. Your aides have mentioned the town's library has been in a state of neglect since the last librarian retired a few months ago and I had an idea. I'm going to take a look at the conditions and see how poor they've become. You indicated a desire to see me study the Harmony Program. Presuming it may react with your aides as it did me and that it was our bond that empowered it, I think what I have in mind may be for the best for everypony. I'll explain more when I return. Until then, please give my regards to Luna and the citizens of Canterlot.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Celestia finished reading the text and closed it, the generator floating back to the guard. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention." The guard bowed again and trotted away. Celestia walked down the passage, a door to an outside balcony before her.

"So Twilight Sparkle has left me to fend for myself in this celebration?" Luna sighed and followed. Celestia chuckled, earning a glare from Luna. "I do not find it very funny. The thought of returning to my room and magically barricading the door is very appealing."

"You'll do no such thing." Celestia looked at her as the two stopped at the balcony doors. "You are right where you belong."

"So you claim. And Twilight Sparkle?"

Celestia looked out the glass doors to the outside, sunlight streaming down on the two of them.

"I suspect she is where she belongs as well."

Comments ( 24 )

When does the sequel come out?

4593547 When I have an idea worth doing one for. :twilightsmile:

4593564 Take your time. Although I can see King Sombra as a good replacement for Sigma.

*nudge nudge wink wink*

4593564 Well if you do come up with something, I would like to read it. This one was great!:pinkiehappy::twilightsmile:

Very good finale. Of course, as I've never played any of the Mega Man games at all, the technical details went over my head, but otherwise the story was executed well to me.

This was a really good story. I enjoyed it greatly.
A job swell done.^^b

4598810 Yeah, I've been looking forward to that part for a long time. :rainbowlaugh:

5255747 I thought that if I ever did a sequel to this story, I would bring in Sunset as Zero and Trixie as Axl to Twilight's X. But I haven't had any ideas beyond that so it isn't gonna happy, sadly.

As a fan of the Mega Man games this was very well done. You covered all the basics, gave each of the boss fights their own charm, and~ and created a humble hero to save the day. Congrats! Can't wait for a sequel

5348450 Thanks. I had a lot of fun looking at the Mega Man bosses and finding design and battle concepts that I could fit to each character's personality and appearance on the show. I think this sort of thing would have worked better as a fan game like Mega Pony, but I have no experience making games like that so fanfiction it is. Glad you enjoyed it. :twilightsmile:

6453926 Oh, you should have heard the nonsense I came up with when I was gonna reference PHILOMENA as Celestia's personal computer. I don't even remember it but I'm sure you can imagine.

6454479 Whoops, thanks for that snarl.

7155914 All the boss fights were inspired by Robot Masters (Rainbow Dash is a particularly easy one to figure out), but I haven't played Zero 4. Seeing the fight on YouTube though, yup, that's Pinkie alright. Neat.

7257608 The moral is that Discord is better at level design than Wily. :trollestia:

7258593

Spiked Wall Man, anyone?

Actually, that wasn't even what bugged me about it to begin with. It's still possible to Mega Buster the Robot Masters in the games, even if it's ill-advised. With Rarity and Fluttershy, it was basically impossible for Twilight to land a hit on either of them without their respective weaknesses. Some thing tells me that it'll be the same with Rainbow Dash, given her speed.

Also, turns out there's a glitch with Fimfiction's story comments. If you reply to a comment from the story's main page (as opposed to going into the chapter that the comment was made on), your reply is posted onto the lasted chapter published. And when that happens, the person you're replying to doesn't get the reply notification. I noticed it a few years back, and apparently it still persists because I had to go back into this story to realize I got a reply from you.

7262651 No worries, I always appreciate having typoes pointed out so I can fix them. :twilightsmile:

As for your questions, NO SPOILERS! :raritywink:

Will there be sequels?

How come you rarely respond to comments?

8586526
I respond to comments fairly often if I've something to say to them. Did you have a question?

That was an interesting crossover. Roll credits.

...I know the game does it the same way, but getting rid of those weapons isn't the wisest idea, especially once you find out that you ARE the Big Hero... :facehoof:
Or the second and third times... :moustache:

WOO! This was great!
I don't really know Mega Man, but I enjoyed the twists immensely, especially with Discord.
Speaking of Discord, does he have chaos magic? Was he an immortal Draconequus? I'm a little confused on just what Discord may have been, though what he became makes sense.
Looking forward to a sequel :pinkiehappy:

Soooo if twilight is megamare does that make sunset protomare?

Also sequel idea...sunny starscout is...megamare X

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