40 Years

by bookhorse125

Chapter 4 - The Blue EM2

As the bright light that had consumed their vision faded, Sunny blinked as she looked down. "Well, that was weird."

There was a momentary silence before Pipp broke it. "What's wrong with this thing?"

Izzy looked over. "What's wrong, Pipp?"

"I have no reception whatsoever!" Pipp replied. "No bars, no Wi-Fi, nothing. How am I supposed to stream in places with no coverage?"

"I think we have bigger problems to deal with than whether you can get a phone signal," Zipp said firmly. "Any idea where we are, Sunny?"

Sunny glanced back. "I think it's less a case of where we are and more a case of when we are."

"Sorry?" Hitch asked. "You're not seriously thinking that-"

"I am," Sunny replied, and pointed her hoof downwards towards the ground. "This hill is overlooking a field. And I know this place from dad's research. This is where the Battle of the Bell happened."

"The what now?" Izzy asked.

"Right at the end of Imperial Equestria, and in the final days of Celestia's reign, three villains siezed Grogar's bell and and tried to use its power to take over Equestria. They would have succeeded were it not for the other races coming to Twilight's aid." Sunny sighed. "Sadly, it also showed how easy we are to manipulate. A few rumours was all it took for the pony tribes to go their separate ways."

"Sounds like the last few thousand years," Hitch quipped. "But we shouldn't just stand about gossiping. I have absolutely no clues or ideas about this era of history, and I think we need to find a way out of here."

"Agreed," Zipp said, and popped a compass out of her bag. "Broken. It can't make its mind up where north is. You may have to guide us, Sunny."

"I'll try," Sunny replied. "Unfortunately I don't have my maps or books with me, so I'm not sure which way to go. Zipp, could you take a look from the air?"

"Sure," Zipp replied, and leaped into the air with her wings. After a few seconds in the air, she descended with the grace of a gliding machine. "There's a town that way. Though I did notice some hippos standing around it for some reason."

"Hippos?" Izzy said. "Those are jinxy! I've heard they can be really hungry!"

"Hungry?" Pipp asked.

"Hippos?" Zipp added, with a somewhat quizzical and skeptical look in her eye. "I don't think we have those where- sorry, when we are from."

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by Pipp. "Err, guys, I don't know if this important or not, but there's somecreature down there, with an old friend of ours."

Hitch looked down. "Sprout? How did he get here?"

"Presumably the same way the rest of us did," Zipp noted.

"And who is the big creature with him?" Izzy asked. "He looks familiar. I think I saw something about a ram in one of my collections of folk tales."

Sunny nudged Pipp. "Can you record this?"

"Filming things is my specialty!" Pipp smiled, and set her phone to record- in the wrong aspect ratio. "Sorry! Still not used to the exterior camera on this thing."

---

Down below, blissfully unaware of the conversation going on up above, were Grogar and Sprout, currently discussing their game plan. "So," Grogar said, "you attempted to take control of Equestria with your machines, right? And you failed?"

"Yeah," Sprout nodded. "They got lucky. But they won't be so lucky this time!" He grinned. "I'm back, and better than ever!"

"You lost because you lost the support of the people in your army," Grogar said bluntly, cutting straight through all of Sprout's delusions of grandeur. "Luckily, what I have, my ace in the hole so to speak, will ensure no such problem occurs."

He waved his hoof. There was a fizzing sound followed by a pop, and suddenly about thirty things appeared. They were tall and gaunt, and moved about on two legs rather like dragons. In their long, spindly arms were held strange devices, and their thin heads looked ahead, uncaring and unthinking. Two green eyes glowed beneath the sockets.

"Err, what's this?" Sprout asked.

"My solution to the oldest problem all would-be rulers of Equestria have faced, and failed to account for," Grogar replied, mild mirth in his voice. "Equestria has always relied on magic to see it through, and time and again those who would overturn Celestia's order have been beaten by it. Tirek, Sombra (twice), Chrysalis, Stygian, Cozy Glow. All of them defeated by the Magic of Friendship. Not even an attempt to overcome this by allying several of them together worked. It turns out putting such varying personalities into the same room leads to bickering and hostility, severely impairing their skill as a fighting unit. Not to mention their habit of standing there like idiots whilst their enemy delivers a big speech."

Grogar shook his head. "This will not be a problem this time around. These machines have been in development for thousands of years, designed to account for every weakness and problem my predecessors have come up against. These machines have no thoughts of their own, as they solely take orders from their commanders assigned to them. Furthermore, they are completely impervious to magic of any sort. Each carries an incredibly powerful weapon based on my studies of alien technology, that should have absolutely no difficulty carving through magical shielding and spells."

"How do I fit into this, boss?" Sprout asked.

Grogar looked at him. "Any good commander ensures that a distraction is made before a major attack. You will be that distraction. I am putting you in command of a division of the machines. You are to launch an attack on a small town called Ponyville, whilst I lead the core of the army against another, much larger target. You will have vehicle support to take the city, which I am aware you have familiarity with. Do not fail me."

"Yes sir!" Sprout said, and moved forward. "Are these ones mine?"

"A part of your force," Grogar replied. "You and them will be teleported forward to Ponyville to launch the assault." With a sudden blast of energy, Sprout and the other machine disappeared.

---

"Did you get all of that?" Sunny asked Pipp.

"Yeah!" Pipp replied. "I'm so glad I upgraded my phone with the better microphone. That caught most of the conversation."

"But I've never seen those machines before," Sunny said. "Impervious to magic? This is gonna be a problem. I barely have control over my own!"

"There's just five of us," Zipp said. "No way we could fight those things on our own. What should we do, Sunny?"

Sunny looked at her friends. "If I've figured out when we are correctly, there's only one figure we should go and find."

"Who?" Izzy asked. "I'm loving the suspense, by the way!"

Sunny shook her head in bafflement. Izzy sure said some weird things sometimes. "Twilight Sparkle."

The five set off over the hills and in the direction of the town, with Pipp and Zipp hovering in the air to act as early warning spotters.

---

Sunny and company had not been the only observers. Opaline and Misty watched from a nearby hill, interested and intent on finding out more. "Opaline, I noticed something strange."

"Yes, Misty?"

"Some of the ponies we saw earlier have a cutie mark on each side. But the ponies we know only have one! Why is that?"

Opaline smiled. "It's because we've travelled backwards in time, Misty. We are now in Imperial Equestria, although I am not sure of the exact date. But that ram seems to be quite the strategist. What I could have achieved with machines like that of my own when Twilight stole the magic for herself! I must get my hooves on some!"

"I heard the ram say something about them only obeying orders from their commander. Why not offer your services to him and then betray him later?"

Opaline thought for a moment. "Too obvious. It's happened many, many times in Equestrian history, and he'd almost certainly see it coming. No, we need to try a different approach, whilst avoiding a temporal paradox. After all, I was alive during this time."

The two ponies set off in a different direction to the others, wandering further and further north. The stage was set, and now there was no turning back.

The war for Equestria had begun... again.

Author's Note:

This chapter draws on some ideas that myself and friend brainstormed back in 2019 for a rewrite of The Ending of the End, a story that was ultimately cancelled. The addition of G5 characters is, of course, more recent, given that we knew next to nothing about G5 back in 2019.

The machines that Grogar creates are loosely inspired by the Necrons from Warhammer 40,000, a machine race completely impervious to psychic powers (the Warhammer 40,000 universe's equivalent of magic).

The final bit is a slight prod at Equestria's apparent security issues. Given all the disasters that occurred between seasons 1 and 9, and this era apparently being 'Equestria(s)...longest period of harmony in recent years', I can only wonder what the preceding 1,000 years were like.

---

Special thanks to The Blue EM2 for writing this chapter!

As a reminder, if you would be even remotely interested in participating in this fanfic, please let me know - I only have one or two people lined up after this, I think. So we need all the help we can get!

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Comments

[Sunkiller]

11506597
Bacon indeed

[The Blue EM2]

Thanks for having me along for the ride!

[AizakkuHorooee]

Wow. Reading this chapter, I got some really good Grogar practice in. This story is actually improving (not that it didn't start out already good to begin with, which it did).

[Catpaw616]

11508938
George

[Sunkiller]

11509170
of the jungle

[Catpaw616]

11509217
LOL

[The Blue EM2]

11509170

11509217

11509221

This comments section is bizarre.

[Sunkiller]

11509598
i havent even read the book yet

[The Blue EM2]

11509625
I see. Well, I think you'll enjoy it.

[Sunkiller]

11509905
ill wait till its at like 20 chapters

[The Blue EM2]

11509969
That may not be for a while.

[PhoenixFlambe]

Huh, only 3 baddies doesn't sound mighty.