Make My Day
There was a fire in the heart of Aurum. Tweak and his companions saw the ashen fringes of it as they galloped around the final bend leading into the centermost town. When they came upon the straightaway leading down the line of buildings and vendors, a cluster of wooden shards flew their way. One crystal pony gasped, his skull reflecting the splintery material.
"Get down!" Tweak shouted, shoving his neighbor down before his polished head could get decapitated. The three of them rolled in the dust, gasping as another explosion lit up the air before them. They glanced ahead in time to see the general store bursting in flames. A mare and her three children cowered on a street corner as the owner of the establishment was tossed like a ragdoll across the street.
Marching out from the flames, looming above the family and its weakened stallion, was an equine decked out in dark emerald armor. The helmet flared back in twin spokes that danced with electricity like tesla coils. A triply segmented tail comprised of spiked metal twitched left and right, brimming with energy. Hissing misty breath, the metal mare spoke menacingly from within the suit.
"You dare incur the wrath of Aeterna?!" The bounty hunter's right forelimb extended several rows of metal teeth brimming with electricity. "Your time has come, crystal lamb. Searo's spirit needs you to thrive."
"Please..." The stallion hissed, struggling to sit up. "Whatever you do, just leave my family alone..."
"I didn't fly all this way north for work alone." Aeterna's voice rang with a sickly chuckle. She pivoted towards the mare and gasping children. "I got a bunch of new upgrades, and I'm dying to know if they can shatter rock."
"Don't!" The stallion growled. "I'll murder you!"
"Fat chance..." The Searonese attacker then raised her forelimb over the sobbing family.
The other two ponies gazed at Tweak. Tweak was already gazing up above the bounty hunter for options. He saw that the chainlinked sign to the burning general store was still intact. With expert precision, he stood up, aimed his rifle, glowed a bright gold deeply from within, and fired. Energy shot through his body and into the weapon, exploding out the end in a righteous burst. The blast was so hard that it blew him back onto his haunches.
Nevertheless, the shot flew true. Aeterna barely had a chance to turn and see where the blast had come from. The energy discharge flew into one chain of the sign. The heavy oaken emblem flew down and smashed into her metal body, flinging her through a crashing window and directly into the flames of the smouldering store.
Tweak exhaled with relief, then motioned at his two companions. "Go! Now!"
The other two galloped ahead, grabbing the family and pulling them away to safety. Tweak ran to the store owner who was just then getting the strength to stand upright.
"Tweak! You are a m-miracle worker!" the stallion wheezed.
"No, my gun is," Tweak replied, helping the stallion to stand upright. "You had best gallop away before—"
"Raaaaugh!" With a reverberating shout, Aeterna burst out from the burning shop, slamming down between the stallions.
They fell down on the ground, wincing from the burning splinters splashing all around them. The grass steamed from where the metal mare's red hot horseshoes made contact. She shook the smouldering embers off her and turned towards Tweak with a menacing glint of her helmet.
"Searo be praised. I was looking for an excuse to crack more than one skull today..."
Tweak gritted his teeth and summoned another charge of energy through his fallen body. But before he could channel the blast into his rifle, the metal mare had spun and smashed the rifle to bits with her spiked tail. She then lunged forward with a blast of her rocket thrusters, shoving Tweak's body across the street and into the base of a flagpole, denting it.
"Aaaugh!" Tweak hissed in pain, but nevertheless swung a hoof across Aeterna's skull.
Her head turned from the blow, but pivoted slowly back. "Mmmm... delicious." She raised a hoof, protruded a blade form it, and stabbed it into his shoulder. A chip of crystal flesh flew off.
"Nnnngh!" Tweak grunted, his body fluctuating all over in prismatic energy. Before he could summon a pained grasp, he was body-slammed to the ground. He hissed for breath as Aeterna stood atop of him, planting her sharp horseshoes into the back of his skull.
Blasts of energy flew across the street as Tweak's two companions and a belated millitia of ponies finally came to his aid. Before their volley could knock her off the stallion, Aeterna simply turned towards the advancing crowd and shouted, "One more attack, and I snap him in two!" She converted her right limb into a buzz saw for emphasis.
Reluctantly, the furious crowd froze in their place, clutching their ineffectual weapons and waiting the metal mare's next move.
An eerie chuckle escaped from her mask in a vent of steam. She kept the blade trained on Tweak's neck as she lowered her metal muzzle and murmured, "You've got a lot of energy pent up in that crystal shell. I think you'll do fine this month." Panels opened in the side of her armor as metal coils extended to bind his legs up. "Maybe I can test a myth or two before I turn you into Lady Pestiferous. I always wondered how... mmmm... solid crystal stallions can be..."
"I have a family," Tweak grunted, wincing against her weight on his neck and skull. "We all have families!"
"Indeed..." She began coiling the metal around his front limbs. "And that is your weakness, breeder..."
"When I heard explosions, I didn't think they'd be coming from a coward!" shouted a voice from far behind.
Aeterna's whole body twitched. She uncoiled the metal rope in a snap, stood up off of Tweak and pivoted all the way around. "Excuse me?!" her voice rang with vehement fury.
A three-legged unicorn stood at a distant street corner, breathing heavily beneath the billowing fumes.
Aeterna's helmet pivoted to the side, as if the metal mare was squinting incredulously from beneath.
"Hey! You can hear me! Good!" Crimson shouted above the smouldering chaos. His hooves were propped on a fallen metal shingle that had been blown from the nearby building face. "Nice to know that there's more between those ears than manure and pretense!"
"Well, look what testicles dragged in!" Aeterna's voice cackled. "Real meat! This is crystal pony country, breeder. You've come an awful long way south just to explode."
"Shhhh!" Crimson hissed into his bandaged stub and motioned towards the air. "You hear that?"
Aeterna craned her helmeted head to the air. Several seconds of absolute silence followed. She pivoted back towards Crimson. "No."
Crimson frowned. "That's the sound of me giving a flaming crap about your Spark-forsaken whining." His horn glowed as he grinded his one good forelimb into the ground. "Now how do you want to do this, rust bucket? With me kicking your flank? Or me kicking your flank harder?!"
"What are you doing here?!" Tweak sputtered. "I told you to stay with my family—Ooof!"
Tweak had been kicked hard to the side. Aeterna extended a pair of emerald wings from her armor and angled herself to meet Crimson head on. "Ohhhhh, you are really asking to become pulp. I have a spot on my wall back in Searo's Hold that would be perfect for your head."
"The only tropies you're ever going to earn from now on are the notches on your gravestone," Crimson said coolly. "I swear on my life."
Aeterna growled, "Have it your way." With a burst of rocket power, she flew straight forward.
Tweak shouted, "No! He's and outsider! Don't—"
"Raaaaaaaugh!" Aeterna howled, her metallic voice thundering through the burning street. Her forelimbs produced sparkling tasers aimed straight at Crimson's skull.
Crimson held his breath as she charged him. At her angle of approach, she couldn't see the sparkling, dislodged energy core of a Ledomaritan managlider that he was levitating behind his back. With a concentrated burst of mana, he fired his horn at the ground. The soil split in two and launched a fountain of dust towards her incoming figure.
She easily burst through the obscuring veil of dirt. As soon as she emerged, however, she found a glowing orb flying straight at her. Aeterna gasped and skidded to a stop on sparkling hooves. Sitting upright, she flung her forelimbs up—awkwardly catching the bright orb. She gazed at it for the next few milliseconds, dumbfounded.
Already, Crimson was reaching for the family pitchfork he had dragged all the way there with him. Twirling his whole body, he launched the thing like a missile straight at his frozen opponent. "Nnnngh!"
The three-pronged bludgeon flew murderously fast. Its centermost barb viciously impaled the heart of the orb. The managlider's energy, no longer pent-up, exploded instantly, bursting out of the shell and directly into Aeterna's helmet. The resulting plume of heated plasma engulfed her from skull to flank. Two seconds later, she was a stumbling, screaming mess, desperately attempting to peel out of her armor as flames consumed her inside and out.
Tweak's eyes twitched. The other stallions watching gasped.
Crimson wasn't finished. Frowning, he kicked the metal shingle in front of him and performed a running leap. Landing on the rusted platform, he combined his momentum with a burst of mana and slid forward as if riding a sled. When he reached Aeterna's floundering body, he had snapped a burning panel off a nearby building and was presently pummeling across her red-hot armor like a club.
"Raaaaugh!" He smashed across her helmet, shattering it to bits and exposing the second degree burns beneath. He followed this with an uppercut to the chin, a jab to the chest, and a vicious downswing to her back.
Aeterna rolled across the center of Aurum's mainstreet. The flames had ended, but not her torment. Hissing and sputtering for breath, she stumbled to her hooves and extended her thruster wings to fly away.
Just then, Crimson came down at her with the metal shingle like a guillotine, snapping one wing down the center. He tripped briefly, as if forgetting that one of his limbs was freshly missing, but then he jabbed down with the sharp corner of the rusted plate, prying a panel of her armor open. "Nnnnngh-Ghh!" The plate snapped free, and the metal mare's red-hot armor fell apart like an eggshell. Hobbling away, Crimson shouted sweatily into the air. "Now! Now! She's exposed!"
Aeterna merely sputtered in dismay.
Tweak was already standing up. A fellow stallion tossed him a shotgun. He pumped it... smiled, then aimed. So did every other pony in the area. Soon, a solid wall of golden energy was flying down mainstreet, lighting Aeterna's body up like a Hearth's Warming tree. She took the torturous volley with a warrior's scream. When the energy blasts were finally ceased, she lay beside the dented flagpole, crumpled up in a steaming heap, her naked skin singed and bruised all over.
"Unnnngh..." She curled up in a pained fetal position, her exposed teeth gritting.
Cheers lit up the air. The store owner had dashed over to his family and was sharing a hug full of smiles and tears. Several stallions leered over Aeterna, using her own metal coils to bind her twitching body to the flagpole.
Crimson, in the meantime, had found a non-burning building to lean against and rest his hyperventilation. Struggling to catch his breath, he wiped a fountain of sweat off his brow and glanced over to see Tweak hobbling up to him.
Tweak rubbed the fresh wound on his crystal shoulder and glanced at the daredevilish unicorn. "Well," he muttered. His lips curved ever so slightly. "You owe me a new pitchfork."
Crimson looked at him. He smiled.
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And that, my friends, is how we apply a Class IV ass beating to an overrated hunk of metal.
Well, after seeing what Roarke can do, this was a real dissapointment.
...This is why I was so frustrated Crimson was being so whiny and self-depreciating.
Hot damn...nice moves there, Crimson. I knew you could do it.
2324295
well, Roarke Is a good bit smarter.
well... shit! Honeytiger was wrong!
I can't help but wonder why don't the crystal ponies just hire the Searonese to kill the Diamond dogs. Don't think they'd give a damn about working for both sides.
DI-ZAM! Now that right there is how you give an ass-whuppin'! Show that upgraded bitch how we do things downtown!
No push-ups this round, ):(. An asskicking like that deserves a break.
Holy fuck, Crimson is pretty badass in this chapter. I knew Rainbow Dash could take out a metal mare, but him? And with the whole missing a leg thing too. He's definitely jumped up a few spots on my awesomeness list.
Pure awesome.
That is why Crimson is leader of the group. Also, now we shall have Searo angered at the loss of a metal mare and send in RD and Roarke. Then they meet Crimson again.
2324381 I believe it's because the Diamond dogs can pay more. A bounty hunter is loyal to the one who pays the most money. Unless they took lessons from RD like Roarke is.
So...is this what happens when you try to kiss a rainbow pegasus?
No enemy is quite so easy or satisfying to defeat as the one who believes themselves to be invincible.
Holy shit, that was a brutal asskicking.
Niiiiice, Crimson. Too bad you can't do that too often. I mean, managlider power cores can't be that easy to come by. I do wonder what they're going to do to Aeterna, though.
Oooooh, Imre is not going to be happy.
2324632Who said that?
2324784
Me, just a little while ago.
a three-legged unicorn practically whooped an augmented metal mare. this is proof that anyone can dominate a situation.
Well Roarke did have more cover and the element of surprise and also...
FINISH HER!
Crimson's so
. I wonder if those that were captured are still alive.
coolawesome2324295
I think Roarke is supposed to be one of the best. if she were the minimum, or even just the standard, they would be ridiculously OP...
2325243
Yeah. Imre's conversation with her suggests that she is one of the best.
Thank god they're not all as OP as her. I mean, she went, what, six rounds with Dashie?! That's incredible.
This is Australia...
2324381 As far as I'm concerned, this chapter just confirmed that the Searonese do indeed use Crystal Ponies as their energy source. They need them as slaves; they can hardly collaborate.
I thank our great authorious overlord for this rare and immensily satisfying piece of justice. May Aeterna find her rightful punishment. The only good Metal Mare is a dead Metal Mare.
...hey, I can dream...
Crimson is like a saiyan, almost dies but comes back stronger than before
2325325
Yes, but...
How do Diamond Dogs pay them? Crystals, most likely. Crystals that they cannot even extract themselves, and need mostly innefectual slave labor to acquire And what are crystal ponies? Living crystals, crystal farmers that can grow magic crystals, power conduits that can charge crystal-based weaponry, and possibly charge mana crystals, creating/growing/manufacturing more powerful ones than the ones found in nature. Or just dig crystals, since they're not harmed by them.
If it's just who can pay more quantity/quality crystals, i'd say everything points to crystal ponies being far more capable of doing that than the diamond dogs. More likely, they're either being dramatic instead of practical and refusing to hire the ponies that hunted their friends for sport, or the metal mares are hunting the ponies by themselves now, without even bounties on them, since they figured they can be used as power sources.
However, something tells me some crystal ponies might have been more practical than dramatic and put a bounty on the diamond dogs... remember chapter 15? "I'll give you a hint—it's not the dumbflank meathead who keeps charging muzzle-first into a furious gang of Diamond Dogs with futile desperation to nab their leader!""
I still wonder how do Searonese work. Terra mentioned the concept of honor. That means there's at least some kind of rules about what they do, even if there don't seem to be any. For one, the mares seem to never hunt anyone unless there's a bounty on them, they're interfering with a bounty, or it's a dangerous beast (manticore, etc.).
You know what would have been funny as hell? The Searonese getting wind of one of the most dangerous, powerful and rich beasts in existence (Axan, the dragon matriarch from Austraeoh), and going after it in a freaking armada. Honestly, my money would be on the Searos tearing the lizard to pieces.
2325476 I am absolutely positive that the Crystal Ponies are the resource. Keep in mind their glowing. Keep in mind what Aeterna said to Tweak: "You've got a lot of energy pent up in that crystal shell. I think you'll do fine this month." The Searonese capture one Crystal Stallion every month. Crystal Ponies glow when they eat, emanating a magical aura that is at least powerful enough to disrupt ley lines.
What does not fit into that is the fact that some bounty from Aurum was supposed to grant Searo energy for "several more decades". That would suggest that Crystal Ponies are not their power source, or at least not only. Which brings us to the natural crystals. I wondered if there was a gas involved in their poisonous nature and the possibility still exists - but that Eagle Eye would react to it with so much sensibility makes me wonder. His magical senses are extremely sharp, and that is exactly the kind of thing the Crystal Pony aura would affect. Which would then again lead to my theory that the Crystal Ponies are very closely connected to the land, maybe even spirits of those exact gemstones in a way. We also do not know if the Diamond Dogs' approach of work is ineffective. They might well be providing more, as they have no moral restraints working their slaves to death. But even so: the Crystal Ponies might be refusing to pay with a material they are so closely connected to, they might be less willing to cooperate with a nation as evil as Searo - or they might be a resource themselves, one that they are not willing to give up. In any case, the Diamond Dogs would make for a much more suited business partner for the Searonese, just because they're equally ruthless.
In addition, as far as my understanding about Metal Mares goes, their concept of honour is one of couragely seeking out and besting worthy prey. I do not think they have any sense of loyalty outside their own nation - even inside, it seems questionable - and when a Diamond Dog Alpha is considered worth the effort, why not try to get the kill?
Impressive beating, and even more impressive that she survived it.
now that was epic.
:3
Go Crimson go!
Go find a new pitchfork! :3
That was amazing. I do wonder what they're going to do to Aeterna, though, and how Searo is going to react.
What a hot mare.
A temporary solution, at best. As we've already been told, metal mares are like wasps - take one out, and a dozen more swarm you before you can yell "GET INSIDE DAMMIT THEY'RE COMING OH GOD IT'S THE WHOLE NEST"
Well, maybe not in so many words, but the idea is the same.
Does IC have a thing for murderous cyborg lesbians? Or is just a huge Samus fan? The world may never know.
We also have a wierdo reverse Worf Effect going on here.
Castratikron - Dethklok
Like a boss.
Happy to see Crimson isn't feeling useless now. if he's smart...and if anything's left of it, he'd see about taking one of her armored legs and trying to make a prosthetic out of it. By that I mean just the armor, not her leg too. I figure with some work, and padding he could make a pretty decent new leg out of it. Might even be ableto make use of her weapons built into it too.
2325325 That is racist and I am offended. You should rethink your words, Breeder.
(Sorry, accidentally deleted this comment the first time)
2327270 Now wouldn't that be a bit... morbid? It feels to me as if someone with so much moral integrity as Crimson wouldn't really do that.
2327516 Never! You can't make me! YOU MAY TAKE MY LIFE, BUT YOU'LL NEVER MAKE ME STOP! MY WORDS WILL LIVE ON! THE TRUTH CANNOT BE SILENCED! AAAAAAAAAARGHLHLALFHAADFLSGUKBLSUBLK-
always leave a survivor to tell your story.
I'm picturing Crimson leaning against a building wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette. Just so you know.
As to the battle - I was not expecting that, after how impossible Roarke was to defeat. Obviously she's at a higher lever than the bulk of the Searonese, or at least I'm assuming she is. Losing a leg has been good for Crimson's fighting abilities, it seems.
Also
Sex change powers activate! I suppose that would be one way for the metal mares to deal with their excess males...
That'll do, Crimson. That'll do.
So, they didn't kill her?
2332823
Well, Crimson did hit her with a fuel core. And the metal mare wasn't really expecting much resistance when she came to town.
I probably shouldn't have really enjoyed that: but I did.
2328352 I don't really see that as morbid. It's not like I am suggesting using her bones to make a leg brace. It's just armor and well, she's not going to be using it anymore, even if she survived. Crimson on the other hand could use it. A couple actuators from her armor here and there and a mana power core and he would be able to, in theory make the leg move as if it were his. Also the power core means he could make use of some weapons built into the armo like the tazer. I don't see it being any worse than Ash making a prosthetic in Army of Darkness out of a gauntlet. You do what you have to do to survive. Morality is all fine and dandy but there's a limit when it comes down to the tools left behind by a dead pony. If you can use them to survive, you do it. If you can use them to protect others, you definitely do it unless it compromises your soul. Using her armor to make a replacement leg, isn't going to damn him to Tartarus.
2348385 She is a Metal Mare. That thing is not so much a piece of armour as a part of her body. We know that they all have several body parts replaced with prosthetics, like their tails and presumable a limb or two. Even if not, they are connected to their armour through neuronal plugs all over their body. In the best case, he'll have a prosthetic that was meant to be linked to the bearer's brain stem. In the worst case, he will actually be using her bones after all - or, more correctly, her entire leg.
2350394 Nothing in the description suggested her legs were prosthetics connected to her and even if they are there's nothing to suggest there isn't an armored shell that is a part of her suit covering that. As for the "meant to be linked the bearers brain stem" well, sure and if it were electronics that were aligned to the wearers brain patterns but this is mana powered. Doesn't seem to be programed so I'd agree but I don't see anything to suggest that the armor moves on it's own aside from what commands the wearer gives it. Nothing suggests it has like, an AI that will reject it's use by another pony. As far as I can tell it's still a shell with weapons, some of which have actuators to make them pop out of storage points like the wings and Tazers and whips coils and some of those controls are activated mentally otherwise it's a shell. Take it off, put some mechanical parts in it and see if weapons can be added. Otherwise I think it's a bit of an assumption to suggest that there is actually a bone in it...not that it couldn't be removed mind you... but THAT would be morbid, lol. What I'm suggesting isn't if it is just an armored shell like the description of the armor seems to imply by my reading. I could be wrong though I mean, I'm theorizing anyway. I don't know what Imploding Colon is doing so I can't say I know how exactly that armor is supposed to function.
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Well, I must say, it's pretty impressive that Crimson could do all of that missing a foreleg...seriously, though, great action sequence. After seeing how much of a fight Roarke put up, this Aeterna is nothing. And she has so much character after just one chapter. Imploding has painted her personality into the picture of a coward that's only strong because of all of the fancy gizmos he's carrying. When faced by someone with true spirit and power, they wouldn't stand a chance. Awesome job, Imploding. Just awesome. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Christ, this is some Kenshiro levels of badass here. I was surprised he didn't beat the shit out of her with his hundred-crack-hoof or something.
Yay Crimson!
We knew you could do it!
Wow, Aeterna. You're terrible compared to Roarke. 
-SPirit
So that was some amazing ass-kickery. Crimson, you and Rainbow have something in common.