Spiral Knights: Equestrian Front

by Chazonic

More than one function

"Is this what you called us here for?" Flame-Lance and his squad held what appeared to be a bag based off of an arsenal station.

Morlin, the biotech who called them to the lab, nods. "They are Arsenal Bags, which will essentially allow you to switch between ALL of your weapons while in the middle of an operation without the need for an arsenal station."

Dusk looked at his bag curiously while Blast asks, "Are they only synched to each of us individually? I wouldn't want to pull out one of Dusky's guns when I'm looking for one of my bombs."

Morlin sighs. "They act the same as arsenal stations. Only the knight who uses it will have access to their equipment. Sadly, we were unable to make it support armor swapping as of right now."

Flame shakes his head. "None of us have any additional armors anyways." Looking back at his bag he adds, "Still, this will be immensely helpful to us in our raid of the gremlin cloning facility."

"All we ask for is for you to come back alive. Zeta Squad mentioned that they were working on something else in that facility, but were unable to procure any more information on it."

Flame nods as he puts on his bag with the rest of his squad. "You can count on it."

---

The run down to the actual facility was standard for most missions. It started out with a wolver den level that, oddly, contained slime monsters as well, something not normal for wolver dens. Same with the next level which was a deconstruction zone, only instead of constructs, fiends were found with gremlins, making for awkward combinations.

It was when Delta Squad reached the actual facility did they fully comprehend just how horrifying the whole situation was.

In front of them, spanning a few rooms, were tanks filled with various monsters found in the clockworks.

"W-what is this?" Even Blast couldn't keep up his cheery demeanor when he saw what laid before him.

Flame sighed before motioning everyone to follow him. "We can't stay in one spot forever. We need to get a move on."

All of the knights constantly felt the oppressive environment as they searched for intelligence they can take back to HQ. They saw a few monsters who were writhing in their tank, presumably in pain.

Dusk also felt unease from a different source. "I don't like this. We've gone this far without running into any active gremlins or constructs."

Volt was pretty close to a nervous breakdown. "W-w-when a-are we d-done? I want t-to l-leave."

Flame sighed again. "We need to scour this facility before we can initiate a self-destruct sequence." noticing a door leading to a large, dark room, he motioned his squad to follow him. "Keep your weapons ready, your eyes peeled, and your asses covered. We don't know what to expect."

"Of course you don't"

Delta Squad finds the door they went through suddenly sealed and the lights turned on. Surrounding them on higher scaffoldings were many gremlin scorchers and demos with a few menders in the mix. In front of them, on a large yet strange machine, was a gremlin who looked similar to Warmaster Seerus.

Flame was the first to speak. "Who are you?"

The gremlin simply chuckles. "While I normally don't give my name to lesser beings, I'll make an exception for you. I am Alcrose, successor to the late Warmaster Seerus. A pleasure to be your... temporary acquaintance, Delta Squad."

Dusk pointed his Obsidian Carbine at him. "How do you know about us?"

"Did you really think us gremlins are stupid enough to not gather intelligence on their sworn enemies?" Alcrose shakes his head in disappointment. "That's besides the point. Your presence here proves how gullible your kind is. Seriously, drop a glimpse of one of our facilities and you come running to check it out."

"And we intend on destroying it and getting out, you big, bad meanie!" Blast shouts at the gremlin.

"Oh we know this facility will be destroyed." This was met with confusion from Delta Squad. "But we also know... that you're going with it! Initiate the self-destruction sequence!" Alcrose laughs maniacally as the platform he was on flies up into a hole in the ceiling, Dusk shooting at him with no hope of his shots reaching. All of the gremlin demos throw a cluster of bombs at the knights to distract them as the others file away.

"We have to--" Flame was interrupted as the facility was rocked by an explosion not only from all of the demo bombs, but from outside of the room as well. Red lights and sirens started blaring as more explosions rocked the room.

Dusk quickly looked to Blast. "Try and bomb the door leading out of here!"

"Already on it." Blast runs past a terrified Volt as he primes a Nitronome. The door was unaffected by the explosion, however.

"Oh great, now what do we do?"

Flame's Mission Pad suddenly activates. "Delta Squ.. come i... there was... ... what's your..." The signal was choppy at best and only part of the transmission got through the static.

"Kora! The facility is coming down around us! We..." He looks back over at Blast, who kept trying to bomb the door for a way out before the ground shifted into a slant. Flame was overcome by one, simple reality.

They weren't getting out. They will be destroyed by the now self-destructing facility, now revealed to have been an elaborate trap.

The only thing they could do was prevent any other knights from trying to sacrifice themselves to extract them.

"Kora, if you can hear me, don't send an extraction team! There is no hope for us left. The gremlins have created an elaborate trap with the intention of taking us with their facility. I don't want any knights to try and sacrifice themselves just to get us out! We'll find out own way out of here."

"This is Delta Squad leader Flame-Lance signing off."

"Wh... wh... ou do..." Flame ends the transmission. He looks over at Dusk, who had a determined look, trying comforting Volt who was crying out of fright.

"Wait, we may have a chance! Look!" Blast points at the strange machine Alcrose was standing on. In the middle of its circle was a swirling white energy that looked like a wormhole.

Flame knew that if they wanted to live at all, they needed to go through that machine. "Dusk, Volt, Blast, we need to head through that gate!"

It didn't take long for Volt to pick himself up and run for it with Dusk and Blast on his heels. Flame quickly joined them and they jumped into the machine. The last thing they remember was being surrounded by white.

---

Alcrose looks on as the facility he was just in was consumed by a white light before disappearing entirely. "It appears the entire facility decided to... join them."

A young gremlin demo looked at his leader with a puzzled look. "Why did you authorize the portal to be sustained by all of the emergency power?"

Alcrose looks at the demo with a smile. "I'm glad you asked. See, those knights whom we call ' the metal intruders' seem to have a bit of a lucky streak. There have been times where elaborate traps failed because there were no contingency plans in store for them."

"Then... by that logic..."

"Correct. Against all odds, they would most likely of survived the destruction of the building they were in. Yet they didn't know how lucky they can get.

"That's where MY measure comes in. By giving them a sense of hopelessness in their environment, they would likely do anything to get out of the situation entirely and the portal fulfilled that role. It guaranteed their removal from Cradle, as the portal machine is most likely destroyed and it was one-way to begin with."

The demo looked on in awe. "Sir, you are BRILLIANT."

"We can't use the same tactic every time, though. odds are, the metal intruders now know of such traps and will plan accordingly. After all, the loss of one of their best squads will turn many heads."

"Just one question sir. Where did they go?"

Alcrose looks at the demo with a slightly insane smile. "I don't know!"

---

The first thing Delta Squad realized upon awakening was how much pain they were in.

"Did anybody get the license plate number of that tank that just hit us?" Blast was the first to stand up, although he was very uneasy on his feet.

Flame groaned as well. "No, but I'll get back to you on that." He goes to help Volt get back on his feet. "Where are we anyways?"

Dusk is in a sitting position. "No idea, but it looks somewhat similar to the Royal Jelly Palace, but with less slime substance."

"Guys... I don't think we're on Cradle anymore." Blast was looking out of a large window. When the rest of the squad joined him, they were astounded by what they saw.

Being so used to the narrow platforms and limited space, they were not prepared for the view of an endless sea of trees. Even the castle-like structure they were in wasn't situated on any risen or floating platforms. What topped off the view was the sky; it was complete with a real sun, not like the fake sky seen on the aurora isles.

And on a distant mountain, another castle rested on it's slopes.

---

"Spike, hurry up! We need to investigate the flash of light that occurred over the Everfree Forest." Princess Twilight Sparkle waited impatiently for her assistant to finish. When she saw the flash, she managed to flag Rainbow Dash down in order for her to gather the rest of their friends.

Spike came down the stairs with a slightly irritated look. "Twilight, the others have yet to get here. What's the rush?"

"What's the rush?! Based on the positioning of the white flash, it occurred over the Castle of the Royal Sisters. The rush is in finding out if the castle has been damaged at all!"

"Don't worry your head over it, Twi." Applejack walked into the library with her friends in tow.

Rarity looked a bit panicked herself. "Dare I say how disastrous it would be if all of our work on the place was undone."

Rainbow dash looked more primed for action than her friends. "If 'something' caused that flash, they will get the flank-whipping of their lives."

"I-I just hope none of the animals close to there are hurt..." Fluttershy whimpered at the prospect.

"I can't say what it was, bit it was certainly a doozy!" Pinkie Pie hopped happily in place despite her statement.

Twilight nodded to each of them. "If it turns out to be nothing, we can always just come back home. This is more of a precautionary measure for the safety of Ponyville."

"Then lets go!" Rainbow huffed irritably. With that, the six mares and one dragon headed for the Everfree Forest, intent on finding out what that light was.

Comments

[Mkchief34]

Nice. Always love a spiral Knights crossover!

[conigwolf]

Going to have to favorite this my good fellow! Haven't played spiral knights in a while going to have to change that xD

[Chazonic]

5611413

Glad you like it. I'll try and update it as much as I can.

5611592

They recently released a gunner update which added a lot of potential to an arsenal on top of buffing some... less wanted weapons.

On a side note; how do you guys think the Equestrians (or just the Mane 6) will react to shadow damage weapons?

[Mkchief34]

5611592 Same with me!

[conigwolf]

5611977

Well to be honest, shadow damage will probably make them skiddish (think of sombra) and installing it now xD

[Chazonic]

5615723

lots of system requirements for such a simple game eh? Whether you start a new knight or continue from an old one, I highly recommend the Grim Repeater. It's incredibly fun to mow down gremlins and slimes with it, especially bigger lichen colonys.

I digress... like in my previous comment to no-one in particular, sorry for publishing the third chapter unfinished. I never intended that to happen.