Ch. 7: "Evasion"
Chapter 7: “Evasion”
The Everfree Forest was a plentiful place, full of all sorts of ingredients Zecora could use for making useful things like potions, as well as medicine to give to her equine friends in Ponyville. Residing deep within its depths, she knew every last inch of this place like the back of her hoof. Truthfully she preferred living in the Everfree Forest to life in a town or city. It was much quieter, serine, and had a perfect environment, one that reminded her of her home in the Zebralands.
She picked up a Heart’s Desire plant and placed it in her saddle bag. She checked over her list—ingredients for a type of medicine Fluttershy could use to help recuperate any sick animal—and crossed it off. It was the last thing that she needed, so she began the trek back to her hut. She never had any trouble finding her way back, always using an important route that would help her avoid running into the dangerous creatures that inhabited the forest.
Along the way, she noticed some tracks embedded in the dirt. They didn’t look like normal animal tracks. Looked more disfigured than that. Curious as to what they might have belonged to, she followed them, and what she soon came upon was complete devastation. Trees surrounding the area were broken in two. The ground was scorched earth, smoldering dirt with no signs of grass anywhere; and standing in the middle of it all was a tall, lumbering creature made of metal, with blue linings running and glowing across its skull and body.
“Oh my, oh my; what is this horrid creature before my eyes?”
The creature—the T-X—turned at the sound of her voice, staring at the zebra, almost as if it was examining her. Zecora could not move, frozen with fear as this . . . whatever this thing was continued to stare.
>>Analysing… Subject threat level: Zero… Evaluate objective…
It turned away, not finding any danger from the zebra.
>>Searching… Target: “Parker”… Target found… Pinpointing…
Its target finally located, the T-X continued on through the forest. After what like hours to the zebra, Zecora brought herself back to reality. She watched this new, strange monster walk away from her on its two metallic legs. Only then did she see that it was headed. She gasped. “Oh no… I must head for Ponyville, and warn them of this new evil!”
There was no time to lose. Taking a route around the monstrosity, she galloped as quickly as her hooves could take her on her way to Ponyville.
Apple Bloom’s stomach growled audibly. She couldn’t wait for dinner. She would be sure to sneak some out to Parker once everypony was out of the away. After seeing his reaction to the apple juice and other stuff she had brought him, she was sure he’d love whatever Granny Smith was cooking up.
Opening the front door, she cantered inside, trotted into the kitchen. On the table were four plates set with applesauce, mashed apples, hay fries, and hot dandelion sandwiches. Placed in the middle were a bowl of macaroni and cheese and a plate with a stack of more dandelion sandwiches.
She down at the table alongside with Granny Smith and Big Macintosh; though she realised they were the only ponies here. “Hey, where’d Applejack go?”
“She went out look’n for you,” said Granny Smith. Big Macintosh nodded in confirmation. “Said she was gonna search the orchard first.”
Apple Bloom’s heart skipped a beat. “She’s… in the orchard?”
“Last place you were at with those two other nice fillies you’re always spend’n time with, though we better go find her since you’re already here.”
“I’ll go!” Apple Bloom said instantly, hopping out of her seat. She calmly trotted towards the door, trying to seem as unsuspicious as possible. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back before you two know it.”
The moment she stepped outside again, she galloped for the orchard. She quickly passed by the apple trees and jumped over overgrown roots until she reached the CMC clubhouse. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were there as well; they were surrounded by their stuff and some wood that lay scattered across the grass, and were staring up in disbelief at the clubhouse. “What’re ya’ll look’n at?”
The earth pony trotted over to see the entire side of their clubhouse had been demolished. “What happened?” she asked, “What’re ya’ll do’n here?”
“It’s Parker,” said Sweetie Belle. “He’s being chased through Ponyville by Royal Guards!” Apple Bloom was setback at the news.
“We have no idea how they found him. I saw him running through the street from my house,” said Scootaloo.
“Applejack came out here look’n for me and must’a checked the tree house. And Ah guess that’s when . . .” She looked back up at the damage that had been done.
Scootaloo sighed. “I guess we couldn’t keep him hidden forever. He was gonna get found out eventually.”
“Well we gotta help him. He’s our friend,” Sweetie Belle proclaimed, “and no matter what, we don’t leave friends behind, right?”
“Yeah!” They all nodded simultaneously, clapping their hooves together in a form of a high-five, before heading for town.
Two weeks ago, Parker was hanging out with the CMC as they helped him retrieve his Hacker from Twilight; and now he was running through Ponyville, being chased across the streets by a squad of Royal Guards. Ponies moved out of the way to avoid being trampled in the pursuit. In all of his time staying hidden from ponies other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Fluttershy, he had never formulated a plan in case he was compromised. The I-950 realized before that he would be located eventually, whether he liked it or not, and personally, it was embarrassing to him that he forgot one of the most important rules of being a soldier—always have a backup plan in case things didn’t go the way you wanted it.
He turned left and cut through a narrow alley, knowing it’d be difficult for the ponies chasing him to follow, though he couldn’t say the same thing for the pegasus guards. They were flying overhead, watching his position from the sky and informing the others where he was. That effectively ruined any chance of finding a decent hiding spot to hunker down in.
There was no doubt about it: all of Ponyville was alerted, which meant he would have every Royal Guard in town moving towards him, possibly armed to the teeth with spears and crossbows. It was no longer safe to stay; he would have to escape town and seek another place to hide, somewhere the ponies wouldn’t dare follow. The Everfree Forest. Guess I have no other choice.
His mind wandered to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The human owed them a life debt for agreeing to keep him hidden, even though it meant risking lots of trouble in the process. And he decided this would be it. He was sure they would benefit from him leaving rather than of staying, not having to worry about being caught sheltering a wanted criminal in their tiny tree house.
A large group of ponies stared in shock at the human’s sudden emergence from the alley. The entire scene eerily reminded him of Canterlot—
“It’s him!” a pony yelled suddenly. Fear crept upon the others’ faces as they looked on. “He’s the one who nearly destroyed Ponyville!”
“Hey, wait!” Parker tried to reason with them, though he doubted it would do any good. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to—!”
“There he is!” another voice yelled out. “After him!”
Parker turned his head and spotted a squad of earth pony Lunar Guards charging for him. Dammit to hell! The last thing he wanted to do in this situation was kill a pony. Knock some unconscious, sure; killing just one of them would make the scene much worse than it already was.
His scan vision made a few of the pegasi in the clouds known with outlines from their heat signatures appearing. He knew he would have to take them out, or at the very least distract him to buy him some time.
Unholstering his plasma pistol, he aimed up and fired. Some of the pegasi moved out of the way—the human had no intention of trying to hit them—while others fell out of the clouds when the plasma sailed close to their heads.
“That should do it; at least for the time being.” The situation, however, wasn’t getting better. He took out the threat in the air, albeit temporarily, but he still had a whole squad of earth ponies chasing him.
He turned a corner and was immediately greeted with spears aimed at him by several unicorn guards. They threw the spears; Parker dodged, and continued left, and the spears nearly struck the guards behind him. He hurried behind a building to hide from the Royal Guards while he thought of an escape plan to get out of Ponyville undetected.
Suddenly he heard his name called, and saw as the Cutie Mark Crusaders galloped towards him. “What happened?” asked Apple Bloom. She was eager to know what really happened.
“Your sister saw me sleeping in your tree house. I got out—or… smashed my way out, because she was blocking the doorway—but that didn’t stop her from going and telling some Royal Guards that were on patrol.” Parker slid down to sit against the wall, taking a breath. “Been trying to avoid them ever since, but they are everywhere. Pegasus guards in the sky have been watching me move through town and keep giving my position away. Nowhere is safe.”
“Well we can get out of this one, right?” asked Apple Bloom. “I mean, we got outta trouble lots’a times when we were try’n ta steal your Hacker back from Twilight. Remember—”
“That was different: No one knew I was in town. But this…” Parker took a sigh in frustration at what was happening. If only we had more time. “I’m gonna have to leave Ponyville… for good, this time.”
Scootaloo stared at the ground. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Come on, Scoots, we knew I couldn’t stay hidden forever, no matter how hard we tried. Introducing me to your friends was just a way to avoid something like this from happening. But things happen unexpectedly sometimes, and that is something we don’t have control over, even with magic.”
“Where will you go?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“The Everfree Forest,” replied Parker. “It’s the only place where the Royal Guard won’t actively try to capture me.”
Applebloom gasped. “What? You can’t go in there!”
“Why not? I can handle myself just fine, just like last time.”
“Sure, you dealt with that Timberwolf and a Cockatrice, but those were just two creatures. You ain’t ever faced the likes of a Manticore, or an Ursa monster!”
Parker nodded, though it was out of understanding. “I know it’s not a safe place, but it’s my only option. Listen, you helped me when I needed it. Time has come that I returned the favour. The last thing I want is for you three to get in trouble for hiding me. You’re my friends, and that’s something I can’t allow.”
The fillies stammered, “But—”
“Please, no buts, alright? I’m serious about this. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.” He flashed them a heartfelt smile. “The most you three can do for me is not get into trouble. Promise me that.”
The girls didn’t like this, being forced to say goodbye to a close friend, but reluctantly, they nodded. “We’ll miss you,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Same here,” said Parker. He stood, readjusting his plasma rifle, holstered his plasma pistol. “Spending so much time here in town, I know where I’m going. I should be able to reach the Everfree Forest easily, if there are no Royal Guards standing in my way.”
He stood up and peered from behind the building, finding an entire group of Celestial and Lunar Guards searching the area for him. “I’ll have to sneak out another way.” He looked back at the three disheartened Crusaders. “You three’ll have to stay here and blend in with the crowd. Just . . . act like you don’t know me and you’ll be fine.”
With that he departed away from the area, sneaking around the guards in his search for a second way out of Ponyville. A guard appeared just as he had left and looked down at the fillies. “Have you three seen where the alien went?”
Applebloom brightened up, seeing this as one last bid to help a friend. She pointed in the opposite direction that Parker ran. “Ah think he might have gone that way, sir.”
The guard nodded and went in her direction, followed by several others.
Parker used his implants to full advantage. He looked up at the sky, his scan vision peeking through the clouds. He hadn’t seen any pegasi since he fired the warning shots from his plasma pistol. Perhaps they deemed it too dangerous since he had his weapons with him. The human didn’t know. Maybe they were just changing tactics.
He looked from behind a building to see a large crowd of ponies roaming in the streets. It seemed that they were unaware of his presence in Ponyville, and he figured that would make things much easier. He had no need to be concerned with being chased from out of hiding. He scanned the area for a decent path, and just as he found one, before he stepped out, a voice yelled—
“There you are!” He was suddenly tackled to the ground. It didn’t feel like this pony was wearing armour, and when he looked to see, he found that it was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-coloured mane pinning to the ground. “Did you really think you could get away?”
“I’m guessing you must be Rainbow Dash,” said Parker, “Now if you don’t mind, could you get the hell off me?”
Rainbow scoffed, “Fat chance!” Her voice was rising, which caused some of the ponies to look in their direction.
Parker muttered a curse under his breath. “Listen, lady, if you really think I meant to attack Ponyville, you’re wrong! It was an accident!”
“Tell that to somepony who cares!” was the pegasus’ response. More and more ponies around the area heard her, and they turned in shock to see Parker in plain sight.
“Ya know… Scootaloo was kinda right. You’re—”
Rainbow interrupted, “Don’t you bring Scoots into this.”
“There he is!” Parker turned his head to the source of the voice to see a group of Royal Guards down the street. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will be here any minute. Arrest him before they arrive!”
They charged, galloping through the crowd of ponies. Parker muttered another cursed before looking up at the pony pinning him down. “I’m sorry; I really am,” he said, “I apologize for what I’m about to do.”
Rainbow Dash cocked an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
Without another word, Parker placed both feet on Rainbow’s stomach and kicked her off, the strength caused from years of training enough to launch the pegasus like a speeding rocket through the sky. He stood up and shouted, “Please don’t tell Scootaloo what I just did! She’d kill me!” before resuming his evasion from the guards.
He couldn’t get away. After hours of running, for the first time in his thirteen years since his defection, he was becoming exhausted. His breathing was laboured and could barely draw any more air as he continued. He placed his hand to his chest to find his heart rate increasing. So this is what the others deal with when running from Terminators. They have my sympathies.
Rounding a corner, he was greeted by an entire legion; literally dozens of Celestial and Lunar Guards were standing in his way, spears and crossbows at the ready. There was nowhere he could run. He stared down the large number of ponies in front of him, keeping him from advancing.
So now what? He asked himself. Do I surrender? Or—
A sudden jolt of electricity ran through his body before he could come up with an answer. His Heads-Up Display was riddled with nothing but static, obscuring everything in his field of vision, and when it stopped, Overload…, continued to flash on his HUD until the I-950 collapsed and slipped out of consciousness.
Shining Armour trotted up to Parker. The human ended up as he did when they first captured him: He looked broken, almost a mess, because of the long chase through Ponyville. Princesses Celestia and Luna approached him, looking down at the unconscious human as they decided what they would do next.
The CMC had no idea how Parker was faring in his escape from town. They hoped he managed to reach the Everfree Forest like he wanted. There, he wouldn’t have to worry about being arrested and taken to a dungeon in Canterlot. On a bright side, there was a chance he would meet Zecora, so he would actually be safe in the forest.
As they trotted through the streets, they noticed a large gathering of ponies in the area. Curious they went to see the commotion.
“Hey, what’s go’n on?” Applebloom asked one of the ponies.
“The Royal Guards finally managed to recapture that alien.”
The fillies froze at the words. They looked at the passing column of Royal Guards, and among them were the Princesses, Shining Armour, and Parker, who was lying unconscious on a wooden plank as they carried them through.
The CMC withdrew from the crowd. “We gotta find some way to help him,” said Sweetie Belle. She and the other two were speaking in low tones to keep from being heard.
“Ah say we follow ‘em,” said Apple Bloom.
“Are you kidding me?” Scootaloo said. “They could be heading back to Canterlot. We can’t follow them there!”
“Ah don’t think they are.” Apple Bloom looked through the crowd to see the Royal Guards making their way down the street. “Looks like they’re head’n further into town. We can tail ‘em as long as we don’t get caught.”
“You really think we can pull that off?” Scootaloo asked.
“Of course! If there’s one thing we learned from Parker when help’n him get his Hacker from Twilight, it was sneak’n around Ponyville without be’n seen. We just gotta see where they’re headed. So, what d’ya two say? Are ya with me?”
Scootaloo smiled, and so did Sweetie Belle. “We’re with ya. Let’s go save Parker!”
The first feeling the I-950 experienced after regaining some consciousness was the uncomfortable feeling of restraint. Literally. It felt like a boa constrictor had firmly wrapped itself around his body, keeping him immobile. He opened his eyes to find that he was in a library, as indicated with all the books stacked upon shelves, though he still felt disoriented from the blast of electricity that was shot through him. It’d nearly fried his CPU to a crisp.
The first thing he saw when looking up was a pair of blue eyes staring at him. It startled him a bit, until he realised they beloned to a pink earth pony with poofy mane and tail standing in front of him. “Everypony, he’s awake!”
The other ponies in the room approached him, albeit cautiously, but Parker saw he had no way to escape. His hands were behind his back from being magically bound to a podium and the ponies were keeping a fair distance to prevent any possible means of attack he might launch against them. This entire scene reminded him of his attempted interrogation in Canterlot.
“How do you feel, Parker?” asked Celestia. She was still trying to make nice.
He looked up at the regal alicorn. “Like I was shocked with over a thousand volts of electricity,” he responded. “But other than that, I feel just peachy, thanks.” He sighed from seeing the ponies in the room. They were same ones he met in Canterlot. “I really hate being recaptured, ya know? It gets annoying after a while.”
“What’s annoying is this headache. I smacked right into a wall after you kicked me,” said Rainbow Dash, running a hoof across her head.
Parker shrugged innocently. “At least I apologized. Not many people would say they’re sorry when they do that. Besides, I’m kind of surprised you decided to bring me here of all places. I would’ve expected you to take me back to Canterlot.”
“Believe us, we do plan on returning you to the dungeons underneath the castle so you won’t do any more harm,” said Luna, “but our situation is urgent.”
“How urgent?”
“That machine that chased you through Canterlot,” said Shining Armour; “we need to find it, fast, before it causes any damage.”
Parker shook his head, snickering at the crazy idea that was coming out of the stallion’s mouth. Only from looking at the Princesses did he realize that he was serious about capturing—or, trying to capture—the T-X. “I don’t think that would be the best idea. That machine wouldn’t let you come within five meters of it without launching a plasma bomb at you. You trying to capture it would mean suicide.”
“It can’t be that tough,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, you would think so, but you haven’t been fighting machines for as long as I have. Spears and crossbows won’t even put a dent in its armour.”
“What more can you tell us about it?” asked Celestia.
“What more is there to tell besides the fact that it’s a walking weapon of mass destruction? The T-X has an agenda: to terminate me and others like me. And it won’t hesitate to kill anything—or anyone—that gets in its way.”
“How long have you been fighting it?”
“Well I’ve been hiding from it for the past couple weeks. Trust me, there are plenty more like it where I’m from. And they’re all controlled by Skynet.”
“And who’s Skynet?” asked Twilight.
Parker paused for a moment. Did he really want to tell him about the war against the machines? Or could he just keep it to himself? “Let’s just say Skynet is something that you don’t wanna mess with. As far as I’m concerned, the T-X is my problem and I’m the one who needs to fix it. Just be lucky it doesn’t know I’m here.”
Then a though hit him: Did I remember to re-jam my CPU?
The metal creature Zecora encountered in the Everfree Forest had to be close; she had to find Twilight and her friends before it got here. She galloped down the dirt road as fast as her legs could take her, going over the stone bridge into Ponyville. Twilight’s library was further into town, and it was a good thing she knew where it was.
Along the way, she eventually ran into the interesting unicorn mare—Lyra, as the zebra knew her by. “Is there anything wrong, Zecora?”
“There is a dangerous creature on its way here,” said the zebra, “and this is what Twilight Sparkle needs to hear.” A few ponies in the area, as well as some Royal Guards, who heard turned to listen. They weren’t sure what creature she was talking about, but to them, it must have been urgent for Zecora to come out of the Everfree Forest to warn them about.
“What do you mean?” asked Lyra.
Zecora responded grimly, “A metal creature comes this way, bringing with it fear and decay. The destruction it causes is unheard of and threatens the peace of Ponyville unlike anything above. I have seen it with my own eyes. There is no remorse, no regret from this monster. These are no lies. You must take heed of my warning, and—”
“What is that thing?” one of the ponies in the crowd pointed towards the bridge where a figure stood; metallic with blue lines running throughout its body; the creature thatn Zecora had tried to warn them about.
“That must be the machine Parker was talking about. That T-X,” said a guard who was a unicorn. He lifted a spear with his magic and threw it at the machine, only for it to bounce off its metal structure. Not a dent. Not even a scratch.
>>Scanning… Subject status: hostile…. Engage…
It’s arm transforming into a plasma cannon, the T-X aimed and fired.
Stats
Page generated in 0.016 seconds
Total duration
883 users online
568,735 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
The T-X designated a pony hostile? This is not going to end well.
A Terminator will designate anything hostile if it interferes with the machine's mission...
I will join and also COOL CHAPTER so MOAR
Honestly Parker, just keep your mouth shut; once the T-X is terminating everything in sight with extreme prejudice it'll be much easier to get away. Dumbass ponies are about due for a Darwin Award. Except the CMC, they can live.
Incidentally, am I right in thinking there are now two T-Xs looking for Parker? If so, where did the second come from, since they only got to Equestria in the first place due to a TDE malfunction? And if not, why is the T-X in the Everfree Forest? I thought it was on the opposite side of ponyville from Canterlot.
damn these fucking cliffhangers
1816828 There's one T-X. It woke up and followed Parker's signal to Canterlot. They fought and Parker pushed it off a train back into the Everfree Forest. And now it's back...
1817421
The train between Canterlot and Ponyville goes through the Everfree? Oh well, I guess it's a minor point, but I'm sure the forest is on the other side of Ponyville from Canterlot; in shots where you can see the castle clearly from town there's no trace of it. Besides, the ponies are scared to death of the Everfree, how would they even build the railway?
1819183 I use Microsoft Word 2010, but it only shows obvious grammar mistakes (i.e. sentence fragments, etc)
1819212 The railroad wraps around the mountain but doesn't go through the forest.