Equestrian Robot Combat

by QuilliamPenn

Vinyl VS The Farmers (Part 1)

Author's Note:

I'm having so much fun with these, you all have no idea.

Vinyl VS The Farmers (Part 1)

“Two minutes to LZ. All players please prepare for drop.”

Vinyl grinned and readied herself, tightening her grip on the metal hand-hold hanging from the ceiling above her. The thumping of massive helicopter blades echoed throughout the cavernous inside of the drop ship, and all around Vinyl stood her fellow teammates.

There were ten of them, in all; counting Vinyl, Each one piloting their own, massive, personalized robot. Complex marvels of machinery built for the sole purpose of utterly destroying the enemy.

The thick, almost beetle-like Heavy Classes. They stood at thirty-five feet tall, with their tree-trunk legs and arms three times as thick. They were the biggest of the three mech-classes; Built for taking large amounts of damage and dealing out just as much.

Though slow, they were extremely hard to fell, if the pilot knew what they were doing.

Then there were the Racer-Class mechs. Though they only stood at fifteen feet, they were extremely dangerous if they were used properly. These robots were sleek and edged, built for speed and quick, precise strikes. Their startling speed made up for their scarcity of armor, and instead of feet they had stub-like legs with powerful propulsion systems built into the ends; allowing the pilot to move around much like one would if rollerblading.

Finally, there were the Warrior-class mechs; they were the average, well rounded class, a good balance between speed, strength and armor. These were the most common class, and also the easiest to pilot. However, if utilized properly, they were just as deadly as any of the other classes.

Vinyl turned and looked back through the hold, getting a quick look at her teammates; but not really bothering to take note of their names and ranks; there were too many to do that. With a sigh, she turned back to look at the racer-class mech in front of her; or below her rather. It was a sky-blue color. On its head was what appeared to be a Mohawk made out of steel wiring painted in a wide variety of colors. The name “10secondsflat” hovered above her fellow teammate in flaming letters, accompanied by the number “14” next to it.

“One Minute to LZ.”

On cue, weapons materialized in the robotic hands of each player. Assault rifles, energy weapons, shotguns, rockets. Whatever each individual player had chosen for their weapon, sidearm and assorted equipment. It all materialized on its proper place on their individual robots.

Vinyl gripped at the handle of her rifle as she felt it materialize, finding it familiar and more like an extension of her own body. She had been through quite a few battles since her first one. Her robot was comfortable and she could move around in it as easily as she could her own body; climbing was still giving her some trouble though, she had trouble balancing herself while doing so.

Throughout her various games, Vinyl had managed to bring herself up to level 4. This game was an exciting one for her too, because she was very close to leveling up. Level 5 meant that she would be able to customize the look of her robot and begin unlocking new weapons to use!

She was playing a game type known as “Hardcore Big Brawl”, a game mode in which two groups of ten struggled to eliminate one another, plain and simple, the winner being the team that successfully destroyed every player on the opposing team.

The reason for it being hardcore was because Vinyl had found it to be more ‘Intense’.

In reality she just liked how it felt more dangerous.

“Alright, Team!”

Vinyl jumped a bit at the sudden, loud, somewhat rough sounding voice that echoed throughout the drop ship. It didn’t take her long to realize it had come from the small racer-class mech in front of her.

She watched as it turned around and seemed to inspect her for a moment; also allowing Vinyl to catch sight of the image of a cloud and rainbow lightning bolt painted onto the front.

“10Secondsflat’s” Singular eye locked on to Vinyl’s visor, staring at the DJ and seeming to look her up and down as she began to speak in a manner rather militaristic.

“Just like we practiced, stick with me and follow orders and we will crush our enemy!” She cried; it was then Vinyl assumed this small robot was a ‘She’.

A resounding “Yes ma’am!” Sounded throughout the drop ship interior, all in unison as they listened intently to the tiny blue robot barking at them.

Vinyl couldn’t help but wonder if this was one of those near-fanatical online gaming clans or something, one of the rare but really hardcore ones.

“You!”

“Hey, you!”

Vinyl shook her head from inside her mech, turning her gaze down to find she was being called at by the small blue racer-class named “10secondsflat”

“Uh…hi?” Vinyl said uncertainly.

“From the looks of you, it doesn’t look like our tenth clan-member made it in here. So you’ll be riding with us for today.” She said authoritatively, putting a metal hand on her hip and propping what appeared to be some sort of energy weapon against her shoulder.
“Uh…” Vinyl rubbed the top of her head, the metal of her robotic hand sliding against the top of her visor as she did. “Who is ‘Us’ exactly?”

“Pfft, really?” The blue robot scoffed.

“Yeah, really.”

“Wow, ok then…”

“10secondsflat” ‘skated’ over to the side and pointed a spindly mechanical finger down the hold. “Crusaders, tell ‘em who we are!”
There was a trio of happy, computerized squees.

About two seconds later, three more racer-class mechs zipped out from behind Vinyl and spun around on a dime in front of her, each one coming to a halt beside its comrade and standing at attention, then promptly giving a mechanical salute.

“We are the Rainbow Dash Attack Force of Awesome Robot Fighters!” they all said in unison, their voices tiny and reminiscent of young fillies rather than highly trained robot pilots.

There were three of them in all. From left to right they were “Crusader1” Crusader2” and “Crusader3”

“Crusader1” was a sort of creamy-yellow looking color, and bore an image of a red bow painted on the top of its head, with a muted red outlining the visor, shoulders, elbows and knees. Otherwise the armor was unmodified. In one hand, it held a large SMG, and the level indicator of 5 hovered beside its name in flaming letters.

“Crusader2” was painted pure white, with a light pink outlining the visor, kneecaps, elbows and shoulders. Unlike the racer-class before it, this one bore no modifications. In its hand it held an SMG identical to the one that “Crusader1” held, only the barrel glowed a soft blue. The level indicator of “8” floated next to the name in flaming letters.

“Crusader3” Was painted fully orange, with purple outlining the visor, elbows knees and shoulders. In its hand it held an SMG identical to that of “Crusader1”. The level indicator of “5” hovered next to its name in flames.

“Uhm, excuse me…” Came a new voice.

All present turned their attention over to the bright yellow Warrior-class, striding over towards Vinyl.

It was all yellow, with a few pink stripes painted on the knees, elbows, and around the visor. A depiction of three butterflies was painted onto the shoulders and chest, and it bore the dark blue stripes that identified its team. This new robot was armed with a strange looking energy weapon, assorted tubes and wires criss-crossed over its surface and a glowing ‘+’ sign shone on each side.

The name “ButterflyButt” floated above it this mech in flaming letters, accompanied by the level indicator of “8”

“Uh, the name is a work in progress…we’re still debating it…” The yellow mech said softly.

The name “ButterflyButt” floated above it this mech in flaming letters, accompanied by the level indicator of “8”

“Uh, the name is a work in progress…we’re still working on it…” The yellow mech said softly, flexing its grip on the weapon it held.
“I think it’s just fine the way it is, Fluttershy.” The blue racer exclaimed.

“I agree with Rainbow Dash!” Crusader3 exclaimed, hovering over next to 10secondsflat and patting her on the shoulder with an orange, metal hand.

Wait, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy? Weren’t they like…protectors of Equestria?

Vinyl found herself not too phased by this development; after all she had met three of the four Alicorn Princesses in her first game, brutally destroyed one of them, fought alongside another, and then got squashed like a bug by another.

So this wasn’t found as very surprising, and Vinyl just gave a mechanical shrug.

“Listen, I don’t know about y’all’s little ‘clan’ but I think I’ll just-“

Before Vinyl could finish, the floor gave out beneath her. Suddenly she was falling through the sky at breakneck speed. Wind rushed by her so fast and hard it was heard even inside the robot, and it didn’t take long for her to realize the game had started and they were being dropped into the battlefield.

They had all been too busy to realize the game had started.

Various whoops and cries of delight were heard from the entire team, and Vinyl could have sworn she could hear a scream of terror coming from the yellow robot; but she didn’t pay that any mind.

Vinyl let out a slight grunt of annoyance as she looked below, finding the map to be unfamiliar and alien. She hadn’t ever played this map before. The entire thing was a rectangular island. Large, towering buildings packed densely together all around it, and what appeared to be a lush park in the center, with a large stream running through it.

At least it wasn’t as complex as some of the other maps she had played. It was pretty simple, which meant easier to plan out maneuvers and routes of escape should they be needed.

The ground grew closer at a startling pace, the buildings and scenery below becoming easier to make out and discern with each passing second. Vinyl peered down directly below, catching sight of the concrete parking garage nestled in its own little section, with a decent amount of space between it and any other buildings.

About ten seconds later, ten massive machines crashed through the top floor of the parking garage and into the level directly below, knees automatically bending to absorb the impact and jar the pilot as little as possible.

Vinyl tightened her grip on her rifle as she felt her knees re-extend, bringing her up to full height with a whirr. Before she could do much else though, half her team had already started to make their way out of the parking garage, being led by the one who had been identified as Rainbow Dash.

“Alright, Fluttershy, Crusaders and the newbie, you guys are sticking with me.” Rainbow barked, zipping out into the front so she could be seen by the whole team as she began pointing her mechanical fingers.

Vinyl still wasn’t sure what was happening.

Fluttershy let out a sort of mewl-whimper thing and clunked over beside her friend, her massive form not at all matching her tiny voice. The Crusaders followed suit, letting out an affirmative “Yes Ma’am!” in unison and zipping over by their ‘Commander’.

“Button Mash!” Rainbow barked authoritatively, jabbing her finger behind Vinyl and to the side.

“Uh, yeah?” Came a voice. Like the Crusaders, it sounded more akin to a young pony rather than somepony Vinyl’s age, and it made her wonder how much of her team was made up of little kids.

Though upon turning to see this ‘Button Mash’ character, she found ‘Little’ probably wasn’t the best word to describe him.

A heavy-class mech lumbered over from the corner of the garage. The entire building shook with each mechanical step it took. Its armor was painted a dirty-looking brown and an image of a propeller hat was painted onto the top of the visor. In its hands, the mech held a truly monstrous Minigun, eight barrels in all, each one ready to spit out a deadly projectile when its turn came in the rotation. The ammo clip was almost as massive, easily the size of his shoulder and nearly dragging on the ground as he held it low at his hip.

The words, “TheStache” floated above his head in flaming letters, accompanied by a level indicator of 11.

Vinyl stepped back a bit so she wouldn’t get knocked over as Button Mash lumbered by, paying her no mind as if she were nothing more than an ant on the sidewalk.

“You take Soarin, Flitter and Cloudchaser. You four have been good at defense in the past. Your job is to get to that park in the center of the city and take up a defense, make it look like you’re holing up!” Rainbow barked; turning and pointing out of the garage and motioning for Button to get a move on.

Button Mash did something that Vinyl figured could have been a nod, and then lumbered off towards the edge of the garage and leapt off the side; his teammates following suit without so much as a word.

The sound of four pairs of mechanical feet impacting on the street below was the last Vinyl would hear from them in a while.

“Ok, now.”

Vinyl turned her attention over to Rainbow Dash as she, yet again, began to give orders.

“All of you need to stick with me unless you feel like getting ripped to shreds. You know who we’re up against and what the stakes are!”

“Yes ma’am!” The Crusaders cried out rather shrilly, giving a salute in perfect unison as they did.

Ok, now Vinyl was really confused, but she figured she might as well keep quiet. It was probably better to just stick with this little blue robot, rather than run off on her own and get killed. Though her curiosity had been piqued upon the mention of ‘The Stakes’
“Now, newbie!” Dash barked abruptly, skating over to Vinyl and looking her in the visor.

“I run a tight ship, no messing around, and no fancy stuff. You get the job done, you do as I say, we all live though this and go home in one piece, got it?”

It was almost comical, watching this comparatively tiny robot jab its finger at Vinyl and give orders.

“Right…” She said uncertainly.

“Good, we’re all clear then!” Dash said happily, spinning around and pulling her energy weapon off her hip. “Move out!”

Unfortunately for Vinyl and Fluttershy, they were not racer-class like everypony else, and despite the speeches about sticking together, she and Fluttershy were left in the dust to watch as Rainbow Dash and her Crusaders zipped over the edge of the parking garage and disappeared, the whirring of hydraulics and gears growing fainter and fainter until they were no longer audible.

“Is she…”

“Always like that? Uhm…yes.” Fluttershy finished, clunking over to Vinyl and somehow managing to look small.

An extremely awkward silence followed.

“So…” Vinyl said after a moment, turning over to look at the giant yellow machine rocking on its heels next to her.

Fluttershy said nothing.

“We should probably be going…” Vinyl coaxed, making a ‘hurry up’ type motion with her mechanical hand and pointing her rifle barrel in the direction Rainbow Dash had taken off.

“Uh…but, what about Rainbow Dash?” She replied softly, scratching the top of her mech in a manner that looked rather unsettled; for a robot.

“She’s already out there…”

“Well, you see, usually I follow Rainbow Dash around and heal her when she needs it. I use this!” Her voice gained an octave as she finished; her smile audible in her voice as she raised the energy weapon up to show Vinyl.

“It’s a healing beam! It will rematerialize the metal that was destroyed and replace it exactly where it should go! You see, it does this using an electromagnetic ray in addition to atom-building software inside to ray, and it will stretch and duplicate the already existing metal to create new metal, sort of like a cloning machine!”

Fluttershy gave a gentle bow and pulled her weapon closer to her, making a small mechanical whirr that sounded all-too-much like a squee as she did.

“Oh…I-I…uh…Ok.” Vinyl said, finding herself a bit stunned at this little rant.

“I…like to study the game, I-in my free time I mean!”

“We should get going…” Vinyl said softly, turning to look out towards the edge of the parking garage as she began to make her way over.

“W-wait, I can’t!” Fluttershy called, staying firmly rooted in place.

It was all Vinyl could do, not to groan.

“Why can’t you leave, pray tell?”

“Uh, because Rainbow Dash isn’t here.”

“Why do you need her?”

“Well, she usually keeps me alive…”

Well wasn’t that wonderful. Not only had Vinyl been abandoned by her team, she was stuck with…this pony. She very much wanted to just leave Fluttershy there, but of course, she wouldn’t. No, she would try to bring her along and they would both probably get slaughtered.

“Well…how about I keep you alive?” Vinyl sighed, slumping her shoulders a bit and giving off a mechanical hiss as she did so, her arms hanging limp at her sides.

Fluttershy tensed a bit.

“Oh, I don’t know if I should…”

Vinyl let out a computerized sigh and slid her metal hand down her visor, clunking over to Fluttershy and gently grasping her shoulder as she did.

“Ok, look. One of two things will happen here, either I leave, and you come with me. Or I leave and you stay here until the game boots you for lingering in spawn too long.”

“Oh.”

“So, what’s it gonna be?”

“Uhm…I’ll stay.”

Vinyl just gave her a blank stare.

“I don’t get you.” She sighed, releasing the shoulder of her comrade and turning to look out of the garage.

“Oh, I’m sorry…”

Vinyl shook her head inside her mech and clunked over to the edge of the garage, propping her rifle against her shoulder and looking out at the area in front of her.

The buildings were mainly made of glass or brick, arranged in neat rows and varying in their height and width. Street lights flashed between green, yellow and red; As if directing carriages and cars that weren’t actually there, But otherwise all was silent, and akin to every other map in the game. It was like a ghost town; or at least it would stay that way until the combat began.

A familiar feeling of excitement began to well up inside Vinyl’s chest, the anticipation of combat and action bringing a grin to her face as she tightened her grip on the rifle she held. It wasn’t as foreign and awkward to hold as when she had first used it, it was familiar and friendly. Like an extension of her own form rather than a weapon separate from her body.

“Last chance, big yellow, you coming or not?” Vinyl asked, turning to look back at Fluttershy; who was still firmly planted in the exact same spot as before.

“Uh…no, I’ll stay here, thank you.” She replied politely, giving a mechanical wave.

Vinyl just shrugged, waving the big yellow machine off dismissively before turning and leaping off the edge of the garage and into the street below. The air rushed by her for a moment as she fell three stories, and then impacted with the asphalt below with a “Crunch”.
Looking both ways down the street, and then directly ahead, Vinyl found that her teammates were nowhere to be found. They had all taken off and now they were probably spread out all over the city, and the only teammate that had stayed behind was big yellow, and she didn’t appear to want to help much.

“Yeah…I’m probably gonna get killed.” Vinyl muttered, remembering what Rainbow Dash had said about the center of the map, and something about holing up there. She hadn’t really been listening to the tiny blue robot, so she wasn’t sure.

With a mechanical whirr and the hiss of hydraulics, Vinyl began making her way down the street, fully prepared to face whatever she would find in the middle of-

“Wait!”

Apparently big yellow had something to say about that plan.

“What?” Vinyl said, trying to hide her annoyance as she turned around and looked up at the parking garage; finding Fluttershy to be peering over the edge.

“Uhm…Don’t go that way.” She stated flatly.

“Would you care to explain why?” Vinyl sighed, her patience being severely tried.

“Well, that direction leads you straight to what is going to become a kill box. You would die.”

Suddenly, listening to the yellow one began to sound more favorable.

“Care to lead me in the right direction?”

“I…guess I could.” Fluttershy replied, tapping her metal fingers against the edge of the parking garage ledge.

Vinyl was about to ask if Fluttershy planned on coming down, as she realized that the yellow robot still had no intention of doing so, and by “Lead” she had decided to simply point to the left, down the street.

“Right, thanks, big yellow!” Vinyl said, waving half-heartedly and turning to make her way down the street, leaving Fluttershy behind and just barely hearing as the yellow robot whispered.

“My name’s Fluttershy…”

----&----

Ten minutes.

She had been walking ten minutes and still, nopony had been killed. There hadn’t even been a gunshot, or a punch, or a glass window being broken.

Not a sound, but the rhythmic clunking of Vinyl’s metal feet against the hard asphalt as she traveled further and further away from the garage.

Honestly, this was beginning to get dull. Vinyl wanted action, gunfire, she wanted the thrill of bullets the size of soda cans whizzing by her! Where was all of that?

The silence had made her wonder how this game would play out. Would both sides just hide until they got bored enough to go out looking for one another, or until they just left the game? These games had no time limit; battles dragging on for hours at a time were not uncommon.

With a sigh of irritation, Vinyl stopped at an intersection and looked to her left and right; though she already knew which way she would need to go.

To her left, about six or so blocks down, was the edge of the map. It didn’t just cut off however; instead it was a beach that actually looked pretty pleasant. The waves crashed against the distant sand, and the faint smell of saltwater and fish floated in the air.
To the right; further into the city, was a street that went on for about eight blocks before a building obstructed what would have otherwise been a continuous, straight road. Food carts and carriages sat idly; parked on the side of the road and waiting for ponies that weren’t coming.

Silently choosing the path further into the city Vinyl turned and began making her way down the street, constantly scanning the area in front of and above her as she moved, so as not to get ambushed; she had learned that checking above you for an enemy was a good idea, and she had learned it the hard way.

She found herself wondering what Fluttershy was up to, was she still sitting in that parking garage, waiting for the game to kick her from the server, or had she worked up the courage to go out on her own.

Suddenly, a loud, computerized cry of distress filled the air. It was not too loud at first, but it was growing louder and louder by the second. The problem was Vinyl couldn’t tell where it was coming from! It was echoing off the buildings and-

“¬Ka-Chunk!”

As if to answer Vinyl’s unasked question, a yellow mass of machinery appeared from above and smashed into the asphalt. Cracks spider webbed outwards and the sound of metal being dented and damaged was just as loud.

Much to Vinyl’s surprise, it was Fluttershy.

“What are you-“

“Hide!” Fluttershy whimpered, struggling to right herself and failing miserably.

As it turned out, when she had landed on the asphalt, Fluttershy had landed in such a way that her left leg had been hopelessly destroyed. Sparks and smoke spewed from it and a small fire was burning in the badly mangled thigh.

“Hide!” Fluttershy repeated, looking over at Vinyl and waving her away as she began crawling over to the sidewalk in a manner most pathetic.

Figuring she should probably take the advice of the big yellow machine that had fallen from the sky, Vinyl let out a worried whimper and backpedaled a block away, turning and taking cover behind the corner of a building and keeping an eye on Fluttershy; still unsure what was going on as she watched her teammate struggle, and fight the instinct to go help her.

“Oh, look at you!” Came a new, feminine, voice, this one was more confident than Fluttershy’s and less…sweet.

“No…” Fluttershy breathed, smacking her mechanical hand against the ground as she drug herself across the street, looking like she intended to use a nearby office building to stand up.

The sound of glass being shattered filled the air, it was continuous and unpleasant. Vinyl turned her gaze upward of the building her teammate was intending to use to help right her, and found the entire situation becoming that much clearer.

Fluttershy hadn’t broken her leg, it had been shot.

A sandy-tan Warrior-class was in the process of sliding down the building, it had a hand dug into the glass and was using that leverage to slow its descent. The tan armor plating gleamed in the sun and orange coloration outlined the visor. An image of three carrots was painted on the shoulders, and in the hand not currently dug into the building, was a rifle-like energy cannon; the inside of the barrel glowing a deep blue.

The words “CarrotFarmer” hovered above it in flaming letters, accompanied by the level indicator of 8.

In a shower of glass shards, CarrotFarmer let go of the building and dropped the remaining eight stories, landing on the ground with a “Crunch” and then rising to full height with a whirr; glass plinking off her hull and clinking onto the street.

“I ain’t done with you yet, honey.” CarrotFarmer cooed; resting her energy weapon on her shoulder and sauntering over to Fluttershy and looking her over like one would a crop of food.

“Get up; come on now, you tellin’ me I shredded your leg that bad?” She mocked, bending down, grabbing Fluttershy by her shoulder armor and then slamming her faceplate first into the building; sending glass flying out onto the street, the sound muffling Fluttershy’s cry of displeasure.

Already, Vinyl had seen enough of this. She readied herself for the approaching battle and inhaled deeply, bringing her rifle up in front of her and pulling back the charging rod, sending a round into the chamber and ready to be unleashed upon the enemy.

Silent as the grave, Vinyl stepped out from the corner of the building, bringing her rifle up to her shoulder with practiced fluidity and squeezing the trigger as soon as she had CarrotFarmer in her sights.

As gunfire filled the air for the first time since the game started, CarrotFarmer let out a cry of surprise and released Fluttershy, stumbling back and turning to face Vinyl as bullets ripped through her hull.

“Where the hell did you come from?” She cried out, raising her cannon and aiming it in the direction of her DJ assailant; the hum of energy building up inside it heard even over the gunfire as she backpedaled.

“Aw, hell.” Vinyl breathed, lowering her rifle and leaping to the side as three balls of blue energy whizzed past her, crackling as they flew.
As soon as she had hit the ground, Vinyl rolled and came to a knee, bringing her rifle up again, taking aim, and firing at her enemy. Lead flew across the street and buried itself in CarrotFarmer’s torso, sending sparks flying as each round punched through.

CarrotFarmer let out another growl of annoyance and ceased trying to shield herself with her arm, instead, she simply ignored the damage she was taking and raised her cannon, letting loose a single orb of blue energy straight for Vinyl.

Again, Vinyl dodged; but just barely. The projectile grazed her shoulder and burned the armor horribly as she rolled; her HUD lit up and showed the amount of damage done to her armor. He shoulder had dropped all the way down to 74% just with that hit. Energy weapons made up for their slower projectile speed with the damage they dealt, and that was being demonstrated beautifully right at that moment.

“Stop movin’, honey, just stay still and make this easier on all of us!” CarrotFarmer chimed, already charging her weapon up for another burst of fire as Vinyl came out of her roll.

Unfortunately, this time, Vinyl couldn’t react quickly enough. As soon as she came to a knee, three, molten-hot balls of blue energy impacted on her hull, hitting one after the other right between her shoulder and visor-plate.

She cried out in surprise as the force of the impacts knocked her back onto the street, metal crashed against asphalt and sparks flew as the two grinded against one another for a moment until Vinyl came to a halt, groaning as her HUD flickered briefly from the damage.

“See, now, wasn’t that easy?” CarrotFarmer chimed, her mechanical, clunking steps growing closer by the second.
Vinyl growled, but couldn’t help but smirk. Though it hadn’t been planned, this “CarrotFarmer” was only further ensuring her demise with each step closer she took.

“This turned out pretty well for me, I think. I only expected to turn one pony into scrap, not two. That’s a good day in my book.” She said, closing the distance between herself and Vinyl, placing a mechanical foot on the DJ’s stomach and digging the claws in; puncturing the metal and stabbing at the inner workings.

Vinyl let out a furious roar, balling her mechanical fist and putting all her focus into delivering a brutal punch to the inside of her attacker’s knee. Metal bent and creaked as it was hit and sparks flew out the other side.

The punch had carried enough force with it that CarrotFarmer teetered backwards, ripping her clawed foot out of Vinyl’s stomach and taking a good chunk of armor with it. She stumbled and collapsed onto her back; armor plating sparking as it ground against the asphalt.

“How’d that turn out for ya?” Vinyl hissed, pushing herself up off the street and ignoring the fact her stomach armor integrity had dropped to 23% after so much of it had been torn off, and the fact a small plume of smoke was currently trailing out of it.

“Damn it, my knee, you broke my knee!” CarrotFarmer hissed, using her uninjured leg to try and pry the chunk of Vinyl’s armor off her foot; it was actually kind of like watching somepony try to take of socks with just their back hooves.

Vinyl couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight, clunking over to her foe with the intention of introducing her to the bottom of her metal foot.

CarrotFarmer had other plans.

In the little scrimmage that had just occurred, Vinyl had neglected to take into consideration the fact her foe was still holding a large energy weapon capable of blowing her faceplate off.

With a roar of passion, CarrotFarmer raised her weapon and aimed it at Vinyl, the sound of it charging up filled the air as the inside of the barrel began to glow brighter in preparation for unleashing its fury.

“Nope!”

In one fluid motion, Vinyl swung her leg and kicked the weapon out of her enemy’s hand, sending it flying over to the side and then clattering onto the sidewalk, its hum growing fainter, almost like a sad whine at being denied the ability to fire.

“No!” CarrotFarmer cried, grasping the air in the direction of her weapon, as if she would be able to grab it and save herself.

Without missing a beat, Vinyl raised her leg and brought it down on the forearm of her enemy, smashing it into the ground and sending sparks and machine fluids flying out onto the concrete. The cries of the one the arm belonged to, only further fueled her need to destroy as she twisted her foot, grinding it further into the ground.

“Get, off!” CarrotFarmer roared, bringing her fist up and; much like her enemy had though without as much force, introducing it to the DJ’s inner knee, sending sparks flying out the other side as Vinyl cried out and toppled over onto her side.

As she collided with the asphalt, Vinyl found herself wondering if the thought of maybe trying to help, had crossed Fluttershy’s mind, or if she was just sitting down there watching.

“Think you’re gonna beat me, huh, honey?” CarrotFarmer crooned, shakily pushing herself up and leaning against the building for support as she glared down at Vinyl; her knee sparking as it tried to function properly amidst the damage it had received. Despite her words, she didn’t look like she was in very good of a condition to be winning anything.

Of course, as Vinyl pushed herself up off the ground, she realized she herself was in an even worse condition.

Her shoulder was very badly mangled, its armor rating at only 45% from all the energy blasts it had taken. The once white metal was now scarred and burned, smoke coughing from the damaged areas every so often when Vinyl moved the shoulder. Her stomach was almost entirely unarmored, the inner workings of her robot were exposed and while they were for the most part, unharmed, it wouldn’t take much for them to be completely ruined. Then there was her knee. Though it hadn’t been hit as hard as her foes had, Vinyl’s knee was sparking and the sound of grinding metal could be heard whenever she moved it.

This wasn’t looking too good for her, at all, and at that moment, CarrotFarmer realized this fact.

“You aren’t looking too good there, honey, you might wanna get that checked out.” She mocked, pushing herself off the building and limping over in Vinyl’s direction.

With an annoyed growl, Vinyl gritted her teeth and raised her rifle with one hand, intending to unload the clip into the visor-plate of her foe, but as it turned out she wasn’t quick enough on the draw.

In one swift motion, a group of spikes popped out of CarrotFarmers fist, and she swung her arm around and punched the rifle out of Vinyl’s grasp, bending it and assuring it would be useless for the rest of the game.

Vinyl hissed as her weapon was torn from her hand and sent flying over into the building beside her, embedding itself in the side with a “Crash” and sending fragments of glass cascading out onto the street somewhat spectacularly.

Despite this, however, she did not falter in her resolve to destroy her enemy; who was in the process of preparing to deliver a spike-tipped left swing when Vinyl sidestepped and brought her own fist up into the enemy robot’s armpit. Metal crumpled and broke as she grabbed onto CarrotFarmers wrist and used all her strength to swing her around and slam her faceplate first into the glass building.

CarrotFarmer let out a cry of displeasure as she was buried into the building, using her free hand to try and fruitlessly push herself out.

Simultaneously, she tried to pull her upper half out of the building and wrench her arm out of Vinyl’s grasp, sending even more broken glass onto the sidewalk as she did so in a manner that was rather frantic; hydraulics and gears hissing and whirring as she squirmed hopelessly.

Now that she had her foe in a more manageable position, Vinyl removed her hand from CarrotFarmers armpit and grabbed the four-foot knife from her waist, raising it up above her head and bringing it down into the shoulder blade of her foe with a furious growl and startling fluidity.

Metal sliced through metal as CarrotFarmer let out a worried moan, her entire arm twitching as it was cut into with such great ease. Sparks flew and at first, that was all that happened; Until Vinyl decided to pull the knife to the side and begin to separate arm from torso.

Armor tore, hydraulics snapped and wires broke as the knife tore through, and a moment later a massive mechanical arm was separated from the body it belonged to and fell to the ground with a metallic “Clang”, now limp and lifeless.

“No, no, stop!” CarrotFarmer protested, unable to do much but take what she was being dealt as the DJ pulled her out of the building and tossed her down onto the street, armor grinding unpleasantly against the asphalt as she slid across it.

“Oh, look at that, you don’t look too good, ‘honey’.” Vinyl mocked, gripping her knife and kicking the dismembered arm aside as she limped over to the badly wounded form of her enemy, only to stop halfway and turn back to go and grab the energy weapon that was still sitting on the sidewalk.

“Shut up!” CarrotFarmer hissed, futilely trying to drag herself away from the scene.

With an almost evil chuckle, Vinyl bent down and picked up the energy weapon, it was unfamiliar and definitely much heavier than her assault rifle, but it would have to do, considering her other weapon had been sufficiently destroyed.

“Time to die…” She sang, spinning around and half-limping over to CarrotFarmer’s mangled body; watching as she drug herself on her stomach, trying to get away.

“No, No, wait!”

Vinyl paid the protests no mind, pressing her clawed foot on the back of her enemy and digging the claws in deep, holding her in place as she brought the cannon down and charged it up.

The hum of the energy building up and the crackling of that same energy filled the air, small jolts of electricity snapping and popping around the barrel as it glowed brighter and brighter. Five seconds later, three, unimaginably hot orbs of energy were unleashed directly into CarrotFarmer’s back, each one burning further through the armor than the last until the third and final orb flew out and impacted.

Yet still, CarrotFarmer struggled; and Vinyl didn’t mind that.

“Ooooh, let’s see what happens if I do…this!” Vinyl promptly stooped over and reached inside of the hole that had been burned into CarrotFarmer’s back, gripping a cluster of wires and electronics and crushing them in her hand; causing the owner of said wires to shudder helplessly, before ripping them out and tossing them to the side.

“N-no!” CarrotFarmer groaned, slamming her remaining fist on the concrete.

Again, Vinyl charged up the energy weapon. She pressed it into the hole she had made in her enemy and aimed it upwards, towards the visor area. It hummed and crackled for a moment as it charged and glowed, then discharged with staggering force. The energy was enough so that it exploded out of CarrotFarmer’s top half, sending glass, bits of metal and machine fluid flying out onto the street, and then CarrotFarmer was no more.

The words “CarrotFarmer was eradicated by VinylScratch” appeared in Vinyl’s HUD, Followed by a skull and crossbones floating up from CarrotFarmer’s corpse, burning bright red in flaming letters before disappearing in a plume of smoke.

With a satisfied grunt, Vinyl pulled the cannon out, ripped her clawed foot from the mangled corpse of her foe and turning to where Fluttershy was last seen, leaving the smoking mechanical corpse in the street and making a mental note to return and loot it after she paid big yellow a visit.

As expected, Fluttershy was sitting up against the building she had gotten her face slammed into. Only instead of sitting and just smoking and sparking, she was in the process of using her repair-ray on her own leg.

As Vinyl limped closer, she watched as Fluttershy’s leg seemingly rematerialized its metal and machinery out of thin air, rebuilding upon itself like some sort of magic trick. Metal clanked and slid into place, Wires came alive and writhed like snakes before reconnection with one another and a red aura floated around the entirety of the leg, and then, just like that, it was repaired.
Vinyl stopped a ways away from Fluttershy, crossing her arms and tapping her mechanical fingers as she glared at the big yellow robot currently righting herself and testing out the newly repaired leg.

It didn’t take Fluttershy long to realize she was being glared at.

“Uh…Hi.” She stated; waving as meekly as a twenty foot robot could manage.

“You were following me.” Vinyl deadpanned, limping closer and dinging her finger against Fluttershy’s visor.

“Well, I kind of felt bad… you were going out alone and you could have died…”

“I almost did…” Vinyl replied, finding it hard to really be mad at the yellow robot standing in front of her and managing to somehow look timid

“Oh, I can fix that! I-if it’s ok with you, I mean.”

“Be my guest…” Vinyl sighed, holding her arms out to the side and wincing as her shoulder mechanics ground against one another.
Silently, Fluttershy raised her strange weapon and pulled the trigger, shooting a continuous, red beam straight at Vinyl’s stomach.
The DJ watched as her stomach armor integrity rose to 30%, 40%, 50% and so on. Each passing second raising it up higher as new armor was materialized and cloned from the already existing plating, re-armoring the damaged segment and returning it to 100% integrity.

“So you followed me…because you were worried I would get killed?” Vinyl inquired, watching her armor integrity rise for her shoulder as Fluttershy repaired it without any trouble.

“Well, yes…plus, you were really nice to me. Nopony ever really tries to get me to come with them when I get left behind by the others. So I spend a lot of time in that garage, not really doing much…” Fluttershy paused for a moment, redirecting her repair-beam down to Vinyl’s knee. “…And after you left, you didn’t really know Rainbow Dash’s plan…so, I didn’t want you to get killed.”

“Oh…well, thanks.” Vinyl replied sheepishly, testing her freshly repaired knee and rolling her shoulder; finding everything to be working perfectly and as it should be. The grinding in the shoulder as gone and her stomach had stopped coughing smoke; in addition to this her knee was no longer sparking and functioned in full.

“I’m always happy to help!” Fluttershy said with a smile, giving a ‘small’ mechanical bow.

Vinyl gave a computerized grunt of affirmation and raised the energy cannon she was holding up in front of her, there was a glowing blue bar on the battery pack that held the charges, and it was almost completely empty.

She turned and looked back over at the smoking metal corpse still lying motionless in the middle of the street; charred and torn by the recent combat it had endured.

“Is that CarrotFarmer’s cannon?” Fluttershy inquired, clunking up next to Vinyl and giving the glowing blue weapon in her comrade’s hand.”

“Huh? Oh yeah, she smashed my rifle up pretty damn good, so I’m stuck with this…” Vinyl said, somewhat disappointed she would be without a weapon she was familiar with for the rest of the game.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much. That’s a T-1 LEC, not a T-2. The T-1 has a 12 round clip, is easier to use and from the looks of it, you have a Particle Accelerator attached to it, so that means if you hold down the trigger for five seconds, the cannon will charge up and then fire a three round burst!”

“Oh.” Vinyl gave her comrade a surprised look from behind her visor, and then brought her gaze down to the cannon in her hand; inspecting the different glowing bits and assorted gadgets scatters across the large rifle.

With a sigh, she clunked over to CarrotFarmer’s smoking corpse and took a knee, bending over and picking at the waist of her fallen enemy, searching for something she could make use of; primarily more ammo for the damn cannon.

“Oh, my. She really did mess up your gun, didn’t she?” Fluttershy called from behind.

Vinyl turned her gaze just in time to see the big yellow machine yank the bent rifle out of the side of the building, and begin inspecting it curiously.

“Messed me up pretty bad too…” Vinyl muttered, pulling an energy pack off of the mechanical corpse and stashing it in her waist.
“What did you find?” Fluttershy chimed, gently setting the bent rifle on the sidewalk and clunking over to her teammate, inspecting the loot in her mechanical hands.

“Let’s see…” Vinyl said thoughtfully, feeling along the waist of the metal corpse and wrapping her mechanical hand around some sort of pistol that could only be described as ‘Fat’.

As she brought it up in front of her visor, Vinyl found it was some sort of large revolver. Everything about it was thick, the barrel, the cylinder; even the handle looked abnormally large. She wondered what strange kind of-

“That’s called a Lockbuster.” Fluttershy chimed in, unintentionally interrupting Vinyl’s train of thought. “It’s a sort of shotgun-pistol. It has a six-round cylinder and shoots 40 gauge shot-shells, although it’s not very useful unless you’re really close…”

“So are you like a freaking encyclopedia on these types of things, or…?” Vinyl asked, smirking as she turned the revolver over and inspected it more thoroughly.

“Well, uhm, kinda. I like to do my research on these kinds of things, it’s very helpful!”

“Yet you never put it into use, and just sit in the parking garage all the time.” She deadpanned, handing the Lockbuster over to Fluttershy.

“Yes, I- Oh, wait, no thank you.” Fluttershy replied, gently pushing Vinyl’s hand away.

Vinyl stood slowly, turning and looking her comrade up and down for a moment then shook her head from inside the mech and sighed.

“Do you actually have a weapon that…you know, does damage?”

“Uh, W-well, no, but-“

“Big yellow, how do you expect to survive and level up without killing the enemy team?”

“I…haven’t ever killed another player.”

This came as a rather large surprise to Vinyl.

“Wait, how did you get to level eight if you haven’t ever-“

“Rainbow Dash played as me and she leveled me up so I could use the healing ray…” Fluttershy said with a mechanical shrug.

Vinyl wasn’t sure if she should be surprised or not.

“You…can’t be serious.”

“Uh…yes, I’m serious.” Fluttershy replied with a small smile, rocking on her mechanical heels as she spoke.

“Wonderful…”

Vinyl couldn’t help but feel this was going to end up being another one of ‘Those games’.

Comments

[corvusbray]

Big Yellow, love that. RD leveling her up to use the ray, so totally within possibility. And was Cadence that one racer from upperclass?

[DaScottishBrony]

You know, i thought of a possible thing in your Fic. In the later Chapters, Vinyl unlocks a modification for her mech that allows her to tear of pieces off of her fallen foes, giving her an "Upgrade". It'd be helpful if there aren't any medics in her team. Just an idea.

[QuilliamPenn]

4527412 actually that wasn't Cadance, though she and the other Princesses will appear in other chapters!

[predatornc]

An image of three carrots was painted on the shoulders

Carrottop go beyond us your a late star time to show us, keep your friends close, their what drive you, to the cosmos, that define you

[Writing Pony]

I need either

1. This game to be real
or
2. Another chapter of this

Now shuddup and take all my bits

[Dustchu]

This is so awesome, this needs to be an actual game...
EVERY INDIE GAME DEVELOPER! GATHER ROUND... we must make this game.

Nice job!