Prologue

Written by

Anthony (Glaber)

Chapter 0

Prologue

One stormy night in Ponyville, a lightning bolt struck down in one of the many fields. Where it struck, a robotic figure had suddenly appeared. He was bipedal, colored red, and was an echidna shaped robot. In place of his eyes was a black visor, and on his forehead was a white arrow that went along his brow. He also wore a pair of shoes, colored red with a yellow stripe across its width, that looked like they had an interlocking toy brick embedded in them.

Following close behind him was another robot in the shape of a crab. The crab robot was also red in color.

“Master, where are we?” asked the crab.

“It appears, that we are in some sort of peaceful town. One that has never known the conflict of an evil super villain nor that of any other evil force.” The robot echidna told the crab bot, “Come, Crabmeat, we must set up base in this new world. For soon enough, the Cycle will begin anew.”

“As you wish, Master PseudoKnuckles,” Crabmeat responded, the two of them leaving the spot to head in the direction of the Ever-Free Forest.

Now as anypony would tell you, things just happened in the Ever-Free forest. Animals took care of themselves, the weather just happened at random, the plants grew on their own. The only pony known to live there was the zebra named Zecora, and for a time, ponies thought she was an evil enchantress that did evil dances, and that when you looked in her eyes it would put you in a trance. That was proven to be quite silly and wrong in retrospect. Having just arrived in Ponyeille, Pseudoknuckles knew not of this information, nor did he know about Nightmare Moon.

The two robots traversed the forest, looking for the perfect place to set up a base. They traveled down a crumbled cliff, across a river where what looked like a piece of violet tail lay on one of the shores. It was after a rickety bridge that they found it. The perfect place for Pseudoknuckles’ base. It was the former site of the Castle of the Moon. The entire place still lay in ruin from when its inhabitant was banished to the moon.

“This is perfect,” Pseudoknuckles finally spoke, “upon these ruins will rise my metallic base, LITERALY!” the recolored echidna gave a showy wave of his hand that would make even the Great and Powerful Trixie jealous.

For a while, nothing happened. Crabmeat was just about to speak up when the walls of the ruins started to crumble and the ground began to quake. Metal walls began to jut out, dirt moved as if washed away to reveal clean metallic floors. Rooms of the old castle that were still intact transformed them selves from stone to metal, the artifacts inside being unaffected.

When the quaking ended, the once ruined castle was now rebuilt, completely in metal, all under 10 minuets.

“Well now, shall we have a look around our new home for the cycle?” Pseudoknuckles rhetorically asked, not really caring one way or the other what Crabmeat did.

Crabmeat was surprisingly calm for one who just witnessed a total reconstruction and transformation of a building. Having been around his master for as long as he has, he's actually come to expect this kind of stuff. It still caught him off guard from time to time.

The two of them walked in, the main chamber had what looked like some sort of display pedestal unaffected by the powers that brought forth the metal. There were five arms stretched out, each looking like they were to to hold something of great importance. As they walked through the castle, they came across various other rooms. Robot manufacturing plants, a kitchen (for biological prisoners), and the throne room.

In this room was the remains of Nightmare Moon's armor. Pseudoknuckles stepped towards the armor, finding it very interesting. Almost as interesting as a sword he had lost his only chance to obtain. He reached out for the armor, and within the moment he touched it, the armor began working it's powers on him.

“System Update, Version NMM. Download beginning” In that moment, memories of Nightmare Moon flooded into his system. His red paint began to change to a dark Midnight blue to match the night sky.

“Master, Pseudoknuckles?” Crabmeat was getting worried. He'd seen many things happen to his master, but none that affected him like this.

Soon, the transformation was complete. Pseudoknuckles rebooted to allow the up grades the armor provided to install. As the upgrades finished, Pseudoknuckles used his powers to modify the shape of the armor to fit him.

“Master Pseudoknuckles, say something!”

“Pseudoknuckles is no more. From this point on, I'll shall be known simply as Nightmare!”

Early the following morning, with nearly everypony asleep, Robot production was in full swing. The newly conjured factories were producing Nightmare's favorite robots from when he was Pseudoknuckles. Some of them were shaped like ladybugs on a motorcycle wheel, another could only be described as a Dangerous Ball Tower. There were robot fish that jumped out of the water just to get a bite of whatever happens to be near, Exploding Starfish robots, and even 2 types of flying robots based on bees.

Nightmare decided to send a scout party to the town he arrived in. The party consisted of a robot caterpillar called Caterkiller, a ladybug motorcycle wheel bot called Motobug, and a blue bee robot called Buzz Bomber.

“Go forth and bring back as much information about this world as you can! Keep in mind that all reports will need to be brought back manually and in person as this planet has no satellites!” With that the scout team was dispatched each heading towards Ponyville.

The first to arrive in Ponyville was Buzz Bomber. It arrived at a cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Looking around it saw a chicken coop with chickens pecking around outside, birds flying and singing, and the occasional fish jump out of a river in the front. Aside from that, there was no one there that the sensors could pick up. Recording its findings, Buzz Bomber moved on to find the highest location it could so as to record the most land.

The next to arrive was the Motobug. It too recorded the cottage and its surrounding area. It was about to move on when it noticed something, no, someone on an open half door. It was a white ill tempered rabbit. Motobug decided to investigate and possibly capture the bunny. As Motobug approached, the white bunny lept inside.

“You can't hide from me.” thought the motobug as it crashed through the door leaving behind a motobug shaped hole. “Come out, come out wherever you are little bunny. I just want to use you as a battery.”

*SPLAT*

An apple just hit motobug square in the face, but it didn't matter to the robot as it just kept right at the bunny. Noticing this, the rabbit launched three more apples and a tomato, just for comedic effect. Three more splats as the apples hit, then came a sensor blocking SPLUT as the tomato hit. If there's one thing tomatoes are known for, it's that their messes are harder to see through than apples, and unfortunately for Motobug, it had no way to wipe that mess off as its arms were unable to swing that way.

Motobug Crashed out through the front wall and kept going until it had no more ground under it. Giving itself a shake to try to get some sort of visual reason for its lack of movement, Motobug then looked down only to see a stream underneath it.

*FWOOSH!*

Motobug splashed down into the stream, angry at itself for falling for such a cartoonish gag in such a cartoonish fashion . Pulling itself out, it thought the best thing to do would be to head into town, away from that fruit throwing rabbit. It was on a scouting mission after all.

The last robot was still wriggling it's way through the Everfree Forest. It was Caterkiller, the slowest member of the team. In the time it took for Motobug to reach the edge of the forest, Cataerkiller had just stumbled upon a hut in the forest. The robot decided to check it out figuring that the faster members of the scout party would have missed it.

Inside the hut, a zebra was balancing on a stick, meditating. A light gnawing sound at her west wall awoke her, causing her to crash to the ground. “Nibble Nibble like a mouse. What's that gnawing at my house?”

It didn't take long for her to find out as within a few seconds, the robot had broke through. The Zebra was quite infuriated, “Back destructive creature. Leave this place though the hole it features!” But the Caterkiller didn't listen, instead it crawled about the hut looking at everything and recording it in its memory to report back later. The zebra had had enough of the strange caterpillar.

Grabbing some ingredients and pouring them into her cauldron, the zebra began to mix a potion to get rid of the intruder. being a zebra and not a unicorn meant that she had to rely on otehr methods to do magic.

Caterkiller was watching the entire time, curious as to what the zebra was doing, when all of a sudden the zebra splashed some of the potion on it. Caterkiller found itself surrounded by a sparkly aura and a puddle of purple stuff.

“Foalish creature that came through my wall, see how you like it when you are small.” as she spoke, Caterkiller found itself shrinking to the size of a real caterpillar.

Panicking, it tried to crawl back to the hole, but with each wriggle its destination became harder and harder to get to. Then all of a sudden, the robot found itself starting to go up. The zebra had picked it up with her teeth. Opening the door to her hut, the zebra started swinging the little robot back and forth. After a few swings, she let go. “Leave this place, little one. You destroyed enough under this sun.”

The tiny Caterkiller flew through the air for was seemed to it like a few hours. A quick check with its internal clock told it that it had only been a few seconds. Caterkiller was beginning to wonder if it would ever touch the ground again, then it started to wonder if it really wanted to at its current velocity.

Regardless of what the answer could have been, Caterkiller soon landed on an outstretched leaf. Relieved that it wasn't shattered into a million pieces, it tried to figure out where to go next. Just then, it spotted a bird pecking at the ground. Perfect. Now all it had to do was get on the bird. Fortunately, a light breeze came along and blew Caterkiller off the leaf and right on to the bird as it was taking off. Catakiller had no idea where it was headed, but anyplace that was away from the rhyming enchantress had to be better.

Meanwhile, Nightmare was in the main hall looking over the unchanged pedestal. “Crabmeat, I have a distinct feeling that something is missing.” he said, looking over each of the five arms. “Can you tell me what it is?”

“Chaos emeralds?” Crabmeat guessed.

“In any other dimension that uses them you would be right, but no. According to the data the armor provided me, these arms once held five of six Elements of Harmony. These elements represented Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Kindness. The sixth element, Magic, can only be revealed by a spark of unknown origin.” A thought crossed Nightmare’s mind as he spoke, “If I were to obtain these elements, no one would be able to stop me! MWAHAHAHAHAHAaaaa!” *PLOP*

“Master?! What's going on!”

“My new power, I feel it exerting itself without my input.”

“W-wh-what should I do?”

“Raugh! Take me to the diagnostics machine!” Nightmare struggled to order, his new Nightmare powers fighting with him.

Elsewhere in Equestria, Princess Celestia had started feeling under the weather. “Achoo!”

“My princess, are you alright?” a nearby pony asked her, surprised that somepony like her could get sick.

“Ohh, it's nothing to worry about.” the princess said. Deep down though, she knew there was something more to that sneeze than she was letting on.

Being attune with the magical forces of Equestria, the princess could tell when there was a magical disturbance. Most of the time these disturbances would just be something like when her prized student caused a just hatched dragon to become fully grown, or an old spell going wrong. Some times even the performance of an ancient spell would catch her attention. This time though, it was more than an ancient spell.

“If you would excuse me, I have to take care of something in my personal chamber.”

“Of course, my princess”

Celestia felt a familiar presence in the spell. One that she thought had disappeared when Luna was returned to her. Along side that presence, she felt a new unknown force. A force that could alter the very fabric of reality. She could tell no pony.

“WHAAA-CHOOO!”

Scratch that, now she had to tell some pony, but who? Luna was staying at a subject’s house in an attempt to learn how other ponies lived and she didn’t want to worry her. She could tell the head master of her School For Gifted Unicorns, but there was that incident involving a bowl, a flame, and a whole lot of magic. No, she had to make sure he could still be trusted first.

Twilight? She would find out sooner or later when she doesn’t respond to one of her letters.

*COUGH* That settled it. Celestia decided to contact her most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. She should at least be informed of what’s going on, just in case anything happened.

“My dearest and most faithful student Twilight, I write to you out of concern something unfortold is about to happen. I can't say for certain what it is. All I know is that there was a great disturbance in the magical force. As if somepony from another world has arrived and started altering the very fabric of reality. As I write this letter I continue to grow sicker and weaker, but please do not worry as Luna should be able to take over should something happen. Sincerely: Princess Celestia”

By the time Celestia finished writing her letter, she was feeling even weaker. Celestia summoned an aid to take her letter to the fire place that was connected to Spike's fire breath. She didn't know exactly why she was being affected like this. The last time anything bad ever happened to her was when Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria.

Just then, an horrible idea just struck her. Who ever this pony was, they must have found the old Nightmare Armor and combined its powers with what ever powers they have. This would explain why the presence felt familiar. If Nightmare moon had returned, Celestia tried not to think about it, and instead, to think of a joke she could play to lift her spirits, but to no avail. Even thinking about her past jokes didn't help.

Just then, the aid who sent off the letter returned, “Is there anything else you need, your highness?” Highness, Celestia was feeling more like her, quote unquote, lowness, but she did need something else.

“Yes, please go and summon Princess Luna. I need to talk with her.”

“Right away.”

By now Celestia knew she couldn’t keep this a secret from Luna even if she tried. A little while later, Luna popped her head in, “You wanted to see... Sis!” Surprised at her sister's condition, Luna ran to her side. “Sis, what's going on? What's happening to you?”

At this point, Celestia was at a quarter of her strength, “I fear somepony with an unknown power may have found your old Nightmare Armor.” This startled Luna as she thought the armor vanished in the rainbow that redeemed her.

“B-but why would it be doing this to you?”

“I don't know. Ugh. Please, summon a nurse.” with that the royal nurse was brought in. She did all kinds of tests, including those that required access to the archives just to find out about them as Alicorns normally don't get sick. At least, not on record. Celestia's strength was down to 20 percent by the time they were through.

Then a thought occurred to Luna. The armor she wore as Nightmare Moon has some magical property that not only enhanced her natural power, but her resentment towards her sister as well. It may be possible that the armor may have also recorded all of her memories as Nightmare Moon, and if that was the case, it might have also conveyed those memories to the new wearer. The thought spooked Luna, but it sounded correct.

“Lu-na” Celestia was feeling even weaker still, her power almost fully drained.

Luna couldn't bear to see her sister like this, but she also couldn't leave her. There was only one thing she thought of that might save her sister. A shield spell to stop whatever it was that was causing her sister great weakness. Luna didn't wait for her sister's approval.

She started casting the spell. As she did, both her horn and sister began to glow. Princess Celestia hovered for a few seconds and was set back down still glowing. The shield spell was in place.

“Thank-you” Celestia whispered before falling asleep from exhaustion.

“Nurse, will she be alright?” asked Luna.

“Just barely. I'm going to want somepony to keep monitoring her for any changes.” The nurse then turned to Luna, “I don't know why you cast that spell on her, but you may have just saved her for now.” For now. Luna didn't like the sound of that last bit. She knew she had to contact somepony to look into the Nightmare Armor situation, but who? Luna didn't know anypony.

To be continued in Chapter 1: Dawning of a Rong Day

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