Mega Mares

by Keeper of time RD

Chapter 6: The Reluctant Guardian

A patch of ground exploded sending dirt flying. Not just any ground, but the ground that been occupied by Fluttershy a moment earlier. They yellow pegasus-bot in question, darted forward, zigzagging her way toward the first tank.

Although calling these things tanks might have been understating it. They were more like small buildings that happened to be on treads and had cannons the size of trees.

Making it to the first of such monstrosities of war Fluttershy ran underneath the belly of the tank. Even standing up, she probably had a good three feet of clearance between her head and the tank’s underside. Turning her attention to the treads on either side of her, she pulled a sphere out of the battle-worn saddlebags on her back and tossed it between two of the wheels.

The resulting explosion tore a gap in the treads, causing the large wheels to start sinking into the ground. Also as a direct result, a hatch in the bottom of the tank opened up and several small robots came rushing out. One set looked like squirrels, carrying tools and headed right for the damaged treads. The others looked like large butterflies, presuming that a butterfly’s body was little more than a beam cannon with eyes, but the wings defiantly made them look like butterflies.

The flying one’s all pointed their cannons at Fluttershy. In response the yellow robot pegasus pointed her ion cannon at the squirrel-bots and said, “Please stop. I don’t want to fight you, but I can’t let you go any further.”

* * * * * * *

Twenty minutes before combat-

“-I-I’m sorry, but I just can’t!” Fluttershy whimpered, and then ran out of the room.

Fluttershy didn’t get far in the hallways outside the command room, nor did she need to. At a seemingly random T-intersection in the halls she let her legs give out and she fell to the ground, where she broke into sobbing. Or tried to anyway, as her robotic body didn’t seem to have tear ducts, or any washer fluid for the cameras that passed for her eyes for that matter.

“Hey,” a familiar, brash voice said.

Fluttershy didn’t need to look up to know it was Rainbow Dash but she did anyway, only to look away sorrowfully a second latter. “R-Rainbow… I-”

“Walk with me. There’s something you need to see,” Dash interrupted her fellow robo-pegasus, in an uncharacteristically calm, soft voice.

By the time Fluttershy managed to look up the sky-blue pegasus was already halfway down the hall to the right. With a sigh Fluttershy silenced the crying noises she was making and went after her friend.

Two hallway corners later and they were walking down a hallway lined on one side with windows when Rainbow Dash came to a halt and looked out one of them. Sitting down beside Dash, Fluttershy looked out to see what her friend meant for her to see.

Beyond the window she saw the two other buildings to the facility they were in, together the three rectangular buildings were arranged loosely like a horseshoe. In the plaza between the buildings was a hastily constructed farm that had been made from a dozen patches of farmable ground, each holding a different crop.

Seconds ticked by in silence, making Fluttershy nervous. Rainbow Dash wasn’t one to waist time, yet she just staring out the window as if that were enough to make her point. Yet Fluttershy didn’t see what point her friend was trying to make. Was it the ponies tending the makeshift farm that she was suppose to be looking at? Stallions, mares, mostly earth ponies with the occasional pegasus mixed in. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary there, so that didn’t help.

“Is-Is this what you wanted to show me?” Fluttershy finally asked, barely loader then a whisper.

With the point of a hoof, Rainbow answered, “There, under the apple trees.”

Looking to the indicated spot, she saw four earth-pony fillies playing with a ball in the shade of the trees. “Aww, they’re cute!” Fluttershy said.

“They’re alive.”

Tilting her head to she side, the yellow pegasus said, “Umm… yes they are alive. But why bring that up?”

Finally turning to look her cowering friend in the eyes, Dash said, “Because they’re alive, and you’re telling me that you’re going to sit here on your flank and do nothing while an army of lifeless robots, like us, comes marching in here to exterminate them! That doesn’t sound like a very kind thing to do.” Shaking her head slowly Rainbow added, “That doesn’t sound like the spirit of kindness Rainbow Dash use to know at all.”

Rainbow had gotten up and started walking back toward the command room when Fluttershy got up and said, “You’re right. That isn’t kind.” Braking into a run and passing Rainbow Dash, she added, “So what are walking for!”

One door burst open and two robotic pegasi galloped across the command room, side by side. And promptly ran through the door to the deployment room, drawing a smile from Princess Luna as she sat resting by the command table. Not even waiting for the unicorns to scramble to the teleportation rune on the ground, Dash flew up to the skyway door and pushed the button beside it.

“Come on Fluttershy, let’s fly!”

* * * * * * *

A dusty and now empty saddlebag fell to the ground, along with the debris of another tank’s repair crew, bringing the number of disabled tanks stuck in the mud to ten. Though the tanks may have been stuck it didn’t stop them from firing their main guns at the trenches before them, and the platoon of unicorns desperately trying to hold the line and protect their home two ridgelines behind them.

By now even Princess Luna had joined the front lines, her magic having destroyed two enemy tanks entirely. But even the princess of the night couldn’t show herself for more then a second or two before drawing enough return fire to force her back into hiding in the trenches.

The fact that she could still see the trenches despite her forward attacks on the enemy forces made Fluttershy groan at the lack of progress. Another group of butterfly-bots came at her, prompting the robo-pegasus to trigger her magic weapon system. Her eyes glowed with a soft pink light for a second, then the light fired out in a cone in front of her and every enemy robot caught in the cone was wrapped in the light and paralyzed by it.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whispered as she fired a quick volley of shots from her ion cannon, damaging the wings and blasters of the butterfly robots, leaving them wobbling uselessly on the ground even after the paralyzing magics had faded.

Turning her eyes to the sky Fluttershy added, “Please hurry, Rainbow.”

* * * * * * *

Fifteen minutes before combat-

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were flying through the sky, though they didn’t have to go far before the ace flyer with the prismatic mane started leading the two of them down, toward the mountainous hills only a few miles from the base they had started from.

Landing seemingly in the middle of nowhere Rainbow Dash pushed a hoof into the ground a dug a line. “This is your line in the sand. If any of those tanks on the horizon pass this line, they’ll gain line of fire on our home base,” Dash said without being asked to explain the action.

Fluttershy nodded and then followed Rainbow’s gaze back to their new home, although there was a hill blocking their view of it from where they stood she understood that to something much taller than them that hill wouldn’t be an obstacle.

“And if that happens… well, just imagine those fillies with that look on your friends’ faces that one time outside that dragon cave when they thought they were a second away from being roasted alive. Sure, those ponies might not be staring an angry dragon in the face, but I’m sure they’ll feel that same fear when those tanks open fire on them,” Rainbow added with a grim look on her face.

A shiver ran though Fluttershy’s mechanical body and she directed her gaze to the ground by her hooves.

The gentle touch of a sky-blue hoof drew Fluttershy’s eyes back up to the horizon. “Don’t worry,” Dash said, this time with a supportive smile on her face. “You don’t have to win. Just slow them down enough and I’ll deal with their commander as soon as I finish up my mission.”

In almost a whimper Fluttershy said, “I don’t know if I have it in me to do that.”

Leaping into a hover just above the hilltop, Rainbow Dash said, “That doesn’t matter, because I know you can.”

“What makes you so sure I can?”

“Because you’re not Fluttershy. She’s already lived her life. All of us have, so none of us have anything left to lose, and everything to gain by adding to the awesome lives our originals already lived. And remember, you don’t have to stop them. If you just stall them long enough, I’ll deal with this as soon as I’m done with the airforce,” Rainbow Dash said. With that, she stopped hovering over the hilltop and darted into the open sky.

As her friend rushed off Flutterhy shouted, “Please hurry!” Although it was hardly loud enough to be called shouting.

* * * * * * *

More explosions erupted around Fluttershy as she ran. Although there was no dirt this time, only scrap metal and sparks. The flashing of her own ion cannon was adding to the impromptu fireworks display caused by the tanks to either side of the yellow pegasus destroying the tank she was running across the top of.

As she leapt off the back of the now smoldering wreckage of the former tank Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice that these tanks near the back of the formation were much larger then the ones she’d disabled up front. Hitting the ground running and flapping her wings for extra speed as she ran toward the largest tank she could see, the one where she expected to find the unit commander.

As Fluttershy made her dash across the battlefield, she zigzagged her way through a maze of enemy blaster fire, the resulting explosions when they missed her, tanks trying to either avoid her or run her over and a mix of supporting robot infantry.

While the infantry consisted mostly of robotic butterflies and wolves, another type seemed to be little more then a hardhat with boots, that favored hiding itself under the hardhat only to sneak a peek and fire a shot from somewhere under it’s helmet once in a while. Much to Fluttershy’s relief, a quick shot from her ion cannon was enough to get them to hunker down under their helmet and by the time they dared to look back out she was long gone, on her way toward the command tank.

Reaching the command tank, Fluttershy leapt up. Flapping her wings and firing her flight boosters got her to the top of the tank’s front section. Running along the tank it became clear that the main cannon couldn’t lower enough to fire at the robo-pegasus, but that didn’t stop the smaller anti-personal cannons from popping up and firing at her.

The exterior armor of the tank proved to be too much for Fluttershy to force her way in. Even the doors that the smaller robots coming out to fight her were too heavily armored to open with any of her weapon systems. Ultimately she had passed three entrances into the tanks before she was able to get a shot off while one was still open and jam it open.

Lingering at the entrance she gave one last look to the sky before shaking her head and sighing. “Give it up, Fluttershy. No more waiting, Rainbow’s not join to make it in time to help you.”

With that she darted into the tank, just in time to miss seeing a prismatic shockwave peek over the horizon.

* * * * * * *

Five minutes before combat-

Having moved forward from the hilltop that Rainbow Dash had left her on Fluttershy had found an array of trenches one ridgeline over, within it she’d found a squad of unicorns preparing to do what they could to halt the advance of the encroaching tank battalion. Judging from the heavily enchanted cement wall on the forward side of the trenches, this wasn’t the first time a battle to defend the base was fought here.

Not being alone helped to comfort Fluttershy, although the fact that she didn’t know any of the mares or stallions preparing for a fight lessened that comfort considerably. Yet, even that little comfort was enough to make Fluttershy not what to leave the trench and continue forward as she’d planed.

As she lingered in the last few feet of friendly territory, the robotic pegasus couldn’t help but take notice of a storeroom with several extra sets of saddlebags.

Finding a stallion near the storeroom, Fluttershy asked, “Umm… excuse me… but if you have a moment, what’s with all the saddlebags?”

“Huh? Oh equipment is easier to come by then troops these days. Those are the spare explosives.”

“Oh… umm… what are they for?”

“Oh, you know, sometimes the renegade robots don’t succeed in killing us all before they try to drive their tanks over the top of the trenches. When they do that we attach the explosives to their tracks, blow the treads off and get them suck until somepony with stronger magic or a robot guardian can deal with them.”

“Umm, would it be okay if I took some?”

The stallion gave her a weird look, shrugged and said, “Help yourself. Heck the more tanks you take out in the field, the better the odds we live to see tomorrow.”

As Fluttershy emerged with a set of saddlebags she noticed a new look in the eyes of the unicorns in the trench, and she understood how it was they could bravely stand their ground despite the clear superiority of the approaching force. The distant, unwavering gaze that they held wasn’t born of courage but of defeated acceptance. They understood that they were already dead and if they saw tomorrow’s sunrise that would be a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

That revelation was enough to spur Fluttershy into action, she charged into no pony’s land, silently vowing that she would save as many of these soldiers as she could.

* * * * * * *

Sparks flew as a robotic butterfly exploded, after being thrown into the wall. Four more joined the explosive display at the receiving end of a spray of shots from Fluttershy’s ion cannon. With the last of the threats in the immediate area dealt with Fluttershy turned her attention to the door they had been guarding.

Placing a hoof on the glowing red panel beside the door, she was pleasantly surprised that it turned green and the lock in the middle of the door spun around and disengaged. The two halves of the door slid into the ceiling and floor, allowing the robo-pegasus to go in.

Inside she found a large, plain and mostly empty room, with only a few computer terminals off to the sides. That and of course a large, brown, robotic bear standing at the back of the room, by some more monitors.

As their eyes met, Fluttershy relaxed her stance as she made one noteworthy observation. “You’re not attacking me already.”

The mechanical bear gave as soft a smile as he could. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve hesitated when fighting your fellow robots. I wonder, why is that?”

“Because fighting is wrong, so I’d rather do as little of it as possible to stop you from fighting the ponies.” Pausing for a moment to do her best puppy dog eyes impression, Fluttershy added, “I don’t suppose you could just be nice and stop fighting the ponies willingly?”

“No, their death is the price of our life.”

Tiling her head to the side, Fluttershy asked, “What do you mean? You’re the ones attacking them.”

“Yes we are. But that’s the problem, we’ve gone too far already. If we were to back down now, they would demand justice for all that we have done. And with their fear of free-thinking robots firmly established they would demand our destruction.”

“They aren’t afraid of free-thinking robots. They made me and my friends!” Fluttershy said in a tone of voice that bordered on pleading.

That managed to get a scoff and a shake of the head from the robo-bear. “Forgive me if I don’t consider a robot who’s mind was built to emulate an individual of the past, rather then have idea’s that are truly your own, to be ‘free-thinking.’ After all you woke up thinking you were that pony you resemble did you not?”

“How did you know that?” Fluttershy said, taking an unsteady step backwards.

“You are hardly the first of their guardians to cross my path. Some times they fall, and though they seem to build a new one soon after, that doesn’t stop us from occasionally salvaging the hard drive from the one we defeated and viewing the memories they had.” Looking the cowering pegasus-bot in the eyes, the tank commander suddenly spoke in a challenging tone, saying, “So tell me, how can you say your thoughts are your own when your personality was written for you long before you first awoke? How can your thoughts be anything more then a continuation of the thoughts of the pony who’s mind you where built to emulate?”

Recent words granted Fluttershy a new observation, one that gave her the courage to stand up straight and say, “You’re wrong. I’m not Fluttershy, I’m a robot who happens to share her name! And I know this because, without her friends at her side to give her courage and push her forward, Fluttershy would never have fought her way here alone. But I did. I made a choice I know for a fact that she wouldn’t have!”

Nodding slowly the mechanized bear said, “Hmm… perhaps you are right. Although that does nothing for those of us who have already fought against the ponies. I still do not doubt that they wouldn’t rest until they had destroyed us.”

With a bold look in her eye, the robotic pegasus said, “I won’t let you kill them.”

“Then it would seem we are at an impasse that can only be solved with energy cannons.”

With that the bear-bot dropped to all fours, his back opened up and produced a beam cannon almost as large as Fluttershy. The bright glow and building hum of the cannon gave Fluttershy just enough warning to bolt from where she stood, just before that spot was consumed in the light of a beam-cannon blast.

Darting around the room to avoid the beam-cannon attacks, Fluttershy returned fire with a series of quick shots from her ion cannon. Her first few shots hit their mark. However, the robo-bear opened its shoulders and produced two large lenses. As the lenses glowed with power, a new shield spell appeared in the form a wall of red light a few feet in front of the bear-bot, blocking further shots from his rival.

While running to the far corners of the room did force the bear to turn to keep his extra shield facing her, it didn’t do anything to give Fluttershy a real chance to return fire. The one thing that did help Fluttershy out was that the bear had to drop his extra shield whenever he fired his cannon and couldn’t seem to bring it back up for a second or two.

As the battle raged on surprisingly little damage was done to the room itself. Although Fluttershy had scored a fair number of hits, she gave a concerned whimper by the third time the bear had managed to graze her with his beam cannon, bringing her shields down to 40%. This isn’t working. I need a better plan, but what? She thought to herself.

Fluttershy flew up to the ceiling, forcing the bear to raise up onto its hind legs to keep its heavy shield facing her. As soon as the bear took a shot, Fluttershy dove down, slipping underneath her opponent. Then kicking off of the wall she rebounded in a flying kick right into the bear’s back, sending him toppling to the floor.

Taking advantage of her opponent’s dazed state, Fluttershy reached down around his neck and suddenly yanked his head up, twisting it hard along the way. Unfortunately, it turned out that the bear’s mechanical neck didn’t have the same limitation as the biological version and the action did nothing to further disable him.

Using his rival’s mistake the robotic bear reached behind his back, grabbed Fluttershy and flung her across the room, where she slammed into the wall and collapsed to the floor.

As she lay on the floor Fluttershy saw at least a half dozen warnings in her heads up display trying to draw her attention to the fact that only 5% of her shields remained.

A hint of aggravation had found its way into the bear’s voice when he said, “I’ll admit that you were tougher then I thought you would be, but it seems you are still no match for me. You fought admirably, but you inexperience at combat is clear. Any last requests?” He punctuated his question by removing the cannon from his back and holding it in his front legs, pointing the brightly glowing end at the robotic pegasus.

“Just a question,” Fluttershy whimpered. “Where is the base of this tank’s main cannon connected?”

The question clearly caught the tank commander off guard. While his mind scrabbled to find any logic in the question his instincts casually pointed a claw over his shoulder, at the monitors opposite the door. “Just behind those monitors, why?”

At that moment, the monitors in question exploded as a cyan robot pegasus came smashing through the wall at incredible speed. It only took a fraction of a second for Rainbow Dash to cross the room and come down hard on the tank command. The impact buried Rainbow’s legs knee deep in the robo-bear’s back. A second later the light in the tank commander’s eyes flickered out.

With the tank commander defeated, Fluttershy’s heads up display seemed to go nuts as it examined the robotic bear. A second later it finished and presented her with a new magic system called ‘Shield Wall.’

“Rainbow Dash! You came!” Fluttershy cried as soon as she realized what had happened.

“Of course I came! I’d never leave my friends hanging! She didn’t then, and I won’t now either.”

A slight tremble revealed itself as Fluttershy jumped up and hugged her friend. “It’s just, you took so long I started to think you wouldn’t be able to make back in time.”

Bowing her prismatic-maned head slightly Dash responded, “Yeah… sorry about that. The airforce commander took longer then I thought it would to take down.”

Looking into the distinctly pegasus-shaped hole in the wall that Rainbow Dash had emerged from, Fluttershy saw several layers of shattered circuit boards and lenses that had similar holes in them.

“Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah?”

“How did you know the armor at the base of the cannon was thin enough to punch through like that?”

A sheepish grin appeared on Dash’s face. “I didn’t, but I noticed that in my blueprints the back wall of my cannon was really thin compared to my armor and… Well I saw the path of destruction you left leading to this tank, but I didn’t see anyway in right off the bat… So I kinda took a wild guess and hoped the same was true of these energy cannons.”

Fluttershy smiled and said, “You really are like the Rainbow Dash I remember.”

“I’ll take your word for it. But even with the tanks shut down this fight isn’t over. So what do you say we get back out there and help those ponies clean up the rest of this mess?”

With a nod given, Rainbow Dash led the way out back through the sundered tank cannon she had plowed in through and Fluttershy followed her friend back out into the battlefield.