My Little Cyborg

by Ignimbrite

It Has Begun

Shadowpiercer had finished the morning shift and was wandering around the town when he saw some fillies running out of the forest. It looked like that crusader group that had soaked him with soda while trying to set a new land speed record.

Fortunately, Rainbow Dash saw them and swooped down to meet them. It seemed something out there had scared them pretty badly.

He knew he shouldn't let his curiosity get the better of him. After all, their rescuer still considered him suspicious. Besides, they spent about a quarter of the time complaining that they didn't get any "wilderness explorer" cutie marks.

He was about to leave when one of them mentioned how the creatures walked.

"They stood straight upright like a stick," Applebloom balanced on her hind legs to demonstrate, "and they carried these weird black things, and they wanted to know where we came from..."

Shadowpiercer was directly behind Rainbow Dash in a moment. "What?"

Rainbow Dash glared at him, "you just leave them alone..."

Shadowpiercer, meanwhile, ignored her, his attention completely on the three. "Where were they?" All three pointed into the forest.

Immediately, he ran off in that direction. He ran past the nearest tree, bounced off the next one and the one after it, and scrambled up onto the limb of the first. From there, he peered off into the forest.

"What are you doing up there?" Rainbow Dash was getting more than annoyed by now with his erratic behavior. She was about to fly up there herself when she saw his eyes grow wide. He jumped down, bounced off the second tree, and rolled across the ground, getting up as quickly as he could.

"Get those three to safety and grab everyone who can use a weapon, now!"

"What are you talking about now?"

"Combat machines," he yelled, "they discovered combat machines out there, and they're all heading this way."

---

"What did you do?"

"I gave your minions a test assignment." Sierra Springs quietly followed the mechanical soldiers through the forest. "All they have to do is capture that tiny town."

"That 'tiny town' has the element bearers. Not to mention it sits right next to a forest filled with some of the most dangerous creatures in the area. Did you think they wouldn't be prepared for threats?"

Sierra Springs only smiled. "It wouldn't be a proper test if it were against an old folks home now, would it? This is the perfect combination. It's small enough that we can keep news of the strike from spreading too quickly, but it's defended enough to be a decent test for these machines."

Summit Creek hated when his brother started acting like that. First the "weapons test" on an innocent bystander, now invading a town that was simultaneously full of bystanders and guarded by the element bearers.

More flaws came into his mind the more he considered the implications. "Doesn't this town have a direct link to the princesses? Regardless of whether this attack succeeds or fails, they'll find out, and we'll completely lose our element of surprise."

Sierra Springs smiled. "First off, once the army is complete, we won't even need the element of surprise. The number of machines we can pull from the ring is practically limitless anyway.

"Second, I already considered that. That's why I sent three groups. The first will disable the train to ensure that the townsfolk can't send messages by rail, and the second will capture the local librarian to prevent any direct messages to the princesses. The third will simply lock the place down and ensure nopony tries to escape by any other means."

---

As the machines approached the town, they expected a relatively docile population that, with the exception of a few troublemakers, would surrender. Instead, they marched directly into the troublemakers themselves.

"GET 'EM!"

A barrage of rocks flew towards the drones. It didn't damage them, really, although it did slow them down. If the townsfolk's plan worked, that was all that would be needed. The distraction would keep them busy, while some of the ponies better equipped for combat took them out.

Rainbow Dash was already filling this role via her own rather unique method... SMASH... commonly known as ramming.

She wasn't the only one on the offensive, of course. Rarity had dived into the middle of the group, displaying a surprising degree of skill in martial arts.

"And that's for scaring my sister, you ruffians!"

The combat drones suffered at least two decapitations due to her.

Applejack, meanwhile, had lassoed a drone and dragged it unceremoniously to its doom. She was already winding up for another while her brother bucked the body of the first through some of the others.

Pinkie had pulled out her cannon and was covering the drones with cake batter from the roof of a building. It was astonishingly effective.

Fluttershy was staring at a group of drones with a disappointed expression on her face. After a few minutes, the drones inexplicably dropped their weapons and ran off into the forest, screaming the whole way.

As for Shadowpiercer, his strategy consisted of sneaking through the bushes with his multitool bracelets and dismantling anything that got within pouncing range. He tried picking up a gun at one point, only to be reminded that he no longer had fingers.

It didn't take long before it was down to a science. Pop the neck joint and cut a couple wires, and the motor controller becomes worthless.

Unfortunately, there was one flaw in the town's plan, summed up by the drones' first words:

"Open fire!"

Soon, bolts of red plasma were flying through the air. Everypony quickly fell back behind whatever they could use for cover as the red bolts tore through wooden boards and left scorch marks on the stones. The drones, meanwhile, began reforming their group and marching towards the town again.

Some of the more combat-oriented ponies maintained their attacks as best as they could. Rainbow Dash, who had the advantage of height, had no problem doing so. Neither did Pinkie, who had somehow managed to switch rooftops. Shadowpiercer, who had seen enough similar designs to know what parts to strike, kept trying to pick them off. It was a lot harder with them shooting back. He turned on his processor and activated the targeting prediction system.

He unfortunately found out rather quickly that bushes do not work quite as well for concealment as he had hoped.

"There's another one in here!"

Fewmets.

The drone pointing its gun was at too far a range for him to attack directly, but it was too close to dodge even with his predictive algorithm running. There was the sharp crack of a plasma rifle, but he felt no blow on his body.

He looked up.

The drone had collapsed, its head replaced with a trail of smoke. For just a second, he was relieved.

That second was over far too quickly.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders, expert marksponies! YAYYYYY!"

By Grabthar's hammer, where had they come from?!?

The same three fillies that had run out of the forest earlier had now somehow managed to obtain one of the drone's weapons. Applebloom had the handle gripped firmly in her teeth, and she held the weapon at an angle. Sweetie Belle was looking through the weapon's sight and giving instructions to the other two. Scootaloo, meanwhile, sat on Applebloom's back gripping a stick that had been jammed through the weapon's trigger guard.

Shadowpiercer ran towards them. They were already drawing fire.

They're going to get themselves killed!

He began kicking rocks into the paths of the blaster bolts.

Okay. It's just like the demonstration with the dummy... except faster and with kids... and with deadly weapons. Great...

A couple bolts flew over his head.

"Sorry"

Perfect, they'll either get themselves killed, or they'll get everyone else killed. This day had started off so well too...

He began targeting the weapons themselves. If he could just knock them out of their hands...

There was a loud crash from the direction of the library. A second later, he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.

---

Twilight had been enjoying a book on quantum thaumetics, when she heard a knock at her door. She was expecting to see one of her friends. Instead, she opened the door to find several stick creatures holding strange black tubes.

"Don't move," one of them instructed. He then turned to the others. "Search the place."

Twilight did not like the way this was going at all, but the way they carried those tubes, she had to restrain herself. Who knows what those could do. It was then that she heard a commotion coming from the edge of town. She narrowed her eyes and lowered her horn at the nearest creature. "Alright, what's going on?"

None of them responded, but one of them did come in carrying Spike, who was naturally not amused at this. "I found this thing sleeping in the other room. What do I do with it?"

"Hey, who are you calling a thing?"

"Keep it here for now, and don't let either of them try anything." The creature tossed Spike at Twilight, who caught him in her magic.

"Hey," all the creatures pointed their weapons, "Don't do anything like that." She slowly put Spike down on her back.

She watched them carefully, especially as the scouts came back reporting that there was nopony else in the library. It seemed they were satisfied with that, as they completely stopped searching the place and focused instead entirely on their new prisoners. Naturally, they were watching her horn for any indication that she was trying a spell, but if she had something to distract them with...

"I have to use the restroom."

"It's a trick. Don't move."

"May I have a drink of water?"

"No."

There went those ideas.

There was one other possibility. She just had to wait for them to get careless. As soon as they would lower their weapons...

Come on, come on, any second now...

"Oh come on," her patience was wearing thin, "could you look at anything else for a moment?"

"Why would we do that?"

"Because that's a far more interesting thing to guard." She gestured out the window with her hoof.

Luckily, the guards were as stupid as she had hoped, and all looked out to find nothing of interest. Immediately she fired up a shield spell. It was only a small one, but that was the point. She widened it to fill the room within a spilt second, slamming the guards against the walls. She then disappeared in a flash of light.

Comments

[Haver]

More good

[tsaukpaetra]

Would that we had our lovable Bolo Crusader to help...