> Mattronus Adventures > by Mattronus87 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Mattronus Adventures EP01: Intro Corruption > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After being launched from his home planet so he isn’t scrapped, Mattronus is in a stasis pod, which is set for a crash course to a planet that is known as earth. He enters atmosphere, still not able to awaken. A few minutes pass, and he crashes in a grasslands. He remains in stasis still. After a few more minutes passed, the crash site is surrounded with ponies. Princess Celestia is on her way to investigate this surprising turn of events. She sends a letter to Twilight Sparkle to meet her at the crash site. Royal Guards are moving ponies back to make room for the Princess. Her carriage lands, and the guards make way for her. She walks elegantly over to the pod. Twilight is already there waiting for her. “I’ve never seen anything like this before"! Twilight exclaimed, “This is the most exciting thing I’ve done in a long time!" “Patience, Twilight.” Celestia says, “We don’t know what this does, so be cautious.” As soon as they were about to lift the pod with their magic, steam bursts from the pod. The two are startled at first, then await for what is about to happen next. A probe separates from the pod, and scans everypony that is currently at the crater. Everypony was about to freak out, but the probe returns to the pod, indicating it is finished scanning. The pod starts glowing a bright shade of indigo, and stops. Twilight starts to lift the pod with her magic again, this time the pod opens. This let out a gasp from Twilight. “Whew” She said, “Good thing nothing’s happened-” A great force pushes Celestia and Twilight back, the pod falls to the ground, and something escapes from the pod at a high speed. The guards rush to the princesses, helping them up. They were both ok, but shaken. “What was that?" Twilight asked. Celestia replied, “It’s up there!" In the sky, a cybernetic pony is floating in midair. It’s wing’s were extended, indicating they were completely made out of metal. It opens its eyes, revealing indigo optics. It stares at Celestia and Twilight, motionless. Everypony flees from the crater to safety, as this cybernetic pony floats back down to earth. It lands on all fours, not saying a thing. “Does it speak our language?" Twilight asked curiously. Celestia walks elegantly towards the pony, it gets ready for any incoming attacks. She stands over it, as though she is testing for any hostility. It just stares right back up at her, it still says nothing. It floats back into the air, waits a few seconds, and turns around to punch something fast that was heading it’s way. Rainbow Dash falls to the ground, unconscious. “Rainbow Dash!" Twilight shouts, galloping towards her. The cybernetic pony flies away with great speed, as Celestia breaks her stare to Rainbow Dash’s injury. She had a massive bruise on her forehead. “We gotta get her to a hospital!" Twilight shouts, “She might have a concussion!" Twilight lifts Rainbow Dash with her magic, and flies towards the hospital. Celestia gets back on her carriage, and she is escorted back to canterlot.            Fluttershy is outside her cottage, she is tending to her flower garden. The birds chirp peaceful songs and the other animals are grazing the grasslands a few feet from her home. All of a sudden, the birds fly away and the animals flee to the forest. She is confused as to why the animals are acting this way. Then she notices why, a few feet away in the grasslands, a cybernetic pony is observing her. It walks toward her with heavy hoofsteps. The ground beneath Fluttershy shakes, but she just stands there, legs shaking. Her eyes widen as it crosses the bridge that goes over the river that is outside her home. It stops in front of her, Fluttershy is extremely scared now. “Oh… my.” She whispers, nervously. He stares into her eyes for a few seconds. It’s optics light up, and scanning lasers cover Fluttershy. She closes her eyes, whimpering when the lasers make contact. She opens her eyes and realizes that she wasn’t being affected at all. The lasers stop, and the cybernetic pony sits down. “Hello” he says. Fluttershy doesn’t respond, then after a few seconds pass, she works up the courage to greet him. “H-Hi.” She whispers. The cybernetic pony adjusts its ears. “There is no need to fear, I’m not hostile.” She sits down, legs still shaking. “W-who are you?" “I’m unit 6-23-1987, or, well, Mattronus, to be precise. You can just call me Mattronus, apologies for the scare back there.” Her legs no longer shake, but she is still frightened at the sight of a pony made completely out of metal. “I-I’m Fluttershy.” She whispers. Mattronus’s back opens up, and a fan comes out, suspended by a cybernetic wire. The fan turns on, and he positions it to Fluttershy’s left. “There’s no need to be shy, I’m friendly.” He says calmly. Fluttershy calms down a bit, and works up the urge to talk. “Ok, but can you be more friendlier around my animals? You see, all the animals here are my friends.” Mattronus looks up at the trees to the eyes of many birds and squirrels. He looks down through the forest to see the eyes of a bear, rabbits, and many other critters. “Oh, my apologies.” He says. He contracts the wire with the fan into his back, and lifts out some bird feed. He extends the feed towards the birds in the tree, they flinch for a second. A squirrel slowly walks up to the plate, sniffs the food, and takes a quick nibble. A bird lands on the plate, pecks at a seed, and chirps happily. This was the other bird’s cue to dig in. The creatures wipe the plate clean in a minute, and he contracts the plate, putting it away back into his back. He closes his back, saying, “Some creatures, never seen anything like them before.” “You’ve never seen birds?" She asks curiously, “Where have you been this whole time?” “Oh, I forgot to mention.” Mattronus says, “I’m not from this planet.” This sends a chill down Fluttershy’s spine, she’s never met a pony that was from outer space. “You mean that you came from up there?" She points up to the sky, and Mattronus looks to where she is pointing. “Yep, actually…” Mattronus opens his back, and brings out a telescope. He adjusts it to see his home planet, he extends the telescope, it is pointing towards a certain part of the sky. “I came from right there.” She looks through the telescope, and she sees a planet that is completely made out of metal. It has lights shining from different parts of the planet. “Oh my! So you’re from there!" She exclaims quietly. “That’s amazing!" She hears her name coming from across the river, and Mattronus puts away his telescope, closes his back, and turns invisible. Twilight flies toward her, shouting, “Fluttershy, come quick! Something awful has happened to Rainbow Dash!" “Oh my!" They both fly as fast as they can to the hospital. Mattronus follows them, quickly and quietly.          Twilight and Fluttershy enter the hospital, galloping towards Rainbow Dash’s room. When they entered, Fluttershy saw that Rainbow Dash had a massive bandage covering her forehead. “Oh my! What happened?" “Some metal pony went and slugged her in the forehead while she was flying at high speeds!" Twilight exclaimed. “Why would it do this?" “You mean Mattronus?" Fluttershy replies. “He was talking to me back at my cottage.” “Wait…” Twilight says, eyes widened. “YOU actually talked with it?" “Him” Fluttershy corrects. “And yes, I have.” Twilight is frozen with fear and anger. She wanted revenge for what he did to Rainbow Dash. “Why didn’t you tell him off for what he did?!?!" Spike exclaimed, sitting in a chair next to Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy replied, “I didn’t know he did this to her at the time, I’m sorry.” Spike looks over to the window, and he sees Mattronus staring through it. “There he is!" He shouts. Twilight quickly takes action. She grabs him with his magic, and teleports him into the room. He tries cloaking, but the magic outline from Twilight prevented him from doing so. “Aw scrap.” He says. Twilight looks at him with anger, saying, “You’ve got some explaining to do”! Mattronus’s eyes turn red, “BACK OFF” He shouts angrily. “I didn’t know this pony was your friend.” “You shouldn’t have slugged her in the first place!" Twilight says with rage in her voice. Fluttershy taps her, whispering, “Take it easy, he didn’t know that she was our friend.” She turns toward Mattronus. “And you're sorry for it, right”? He nods, optics turning back to indigo. Twilight let’s go of him, and he falls to the ground face first. He gets up, shaking his head, and sees that Twilight and Spike were very angry at him. “Hey, I’m sorry for what happened to your friend, you’re still gonna be frowning at me for forgiving? Tch, ponies…” Spike gets up off his chair, and he and Twilight walk out of the door, heading to the waiting room. Mattronus sits in the chair where spike sat. “You think it’s best that I sit here and wait for her to wake up?" Fluttershy sits in the chair across from him. “We’ll both wait, so she doesn’t try to attack you, anyway.” Rainbow Dash starts to wake up, groaning when she opens her eyes. Her vision is a little blurry, but soon clears up. “What… happened?" She looks to her right to see a cybernetic pony looking right back at her. “Woah, never seen you around here...” “Take it easy, you have a pretty bad concussion.” Mattronus says, “It’s best that you stay here and rest for a bit until your doctor arrives.” “He knocked you out and he’s very sorry for it.” Fluttershy whispers. Rainbow Dash tries to remember back before she falls unconscious. She also got the word that a crash landing occurred outside of Ponyville. She was very excited to see what Twilight and Celestia were about to uncover. When she was flying at Mk. 1 speed, all she could remember was a crater, and then something bright, and that’s all. She went back to sleep, and Mattronus sighed. “Mind if I follow you for a bit?" He says, activating his cloak. Fluttershy looks weirded out at how he managed to cloak, then she says, "Ok, but don't scare any pony, please?" She sees the door open and close on its own, and she follows.         Fluttershy was walking towards Twilight’s castle. She opens the door and enters, the door was still open for a few seconds, and then closes. Mattronus decloaks next to her. “So this is her home?" “Yep, this is the place.” Fluttershy says. They both walk down the hallway towards the mane six’s meeting place. Starlight Glimmer was checking a bookshelf for something to keep her occupied. She looked toward Fluttershy and Mattronus, and has a shocked expression on her face. “Woah!" She trots over towards Mattronus, inspecting every inch of his body. “Fluttershy, where’d you find this thing”? Starlight asks her, excitedly. Mattronus rolls his eyes, sighing. “I can talk as well, you know.” “You can!?!?" She exclaims. “What’s your name? Where’d you come from? Who made you?" “Ok take it easy.” Mattronus says. “I swear, this is why I’m only visible to Fluttershy’s eyes.” Twilight walks into the room from down the hallway. “What the?" She trots down to Fluttershy and Starlight. “What are you doing with that thing?" She asked Fluttershy furiously. “This thing is dangerous!" Mattronus facehoofs, sighing. “Is there more I can do for you? Was an apology not enough?" “Wait, YOU were the one who slugged Rainbow Dash in her forehead?" Starlight asked. “That’s pretty cool if you ask me, no pony has the guts to do that to her.” Twilight was dumbfounded. “Are you kidding me? This thing put your friend in the hospital!" “I swear.” Mattronus said, mumbling the rest of what he was gonna say. Twilight walks over to him, squinting. “Excuse me?" “I said, I’m sorry, can you forgive me now?" He said annoyingly. “I already apologized to Rainbow Dash back at the hospital, now what do you want me to do? Do tricks?" Starlight giggles at what Mattronus says. “Actually, I got just the thing.” Twilight looks at the map, she scans for an open area. “We’re going to Unicorn Plains, we’re gonna battle!" Starlight and Fluttershy gasp. “You sure?" Mattronus asks Twilight, “You might wind up like your friend back in the infirmary.” “Oh, we’ll see about that.” Her horn lights up, and everybody in the room was teleported to an open grassland.           Mattronus and Twilight get into position, they are about to have a duke it out. Fluttershy and Starlight sit on the sidelines. Spike holds a megaphone, and he shouts, “3… 2… 1… FIGHT!!!" Mattronus and Twilight dash swiftly at each other. Twilight makes a shield and a sword out of magic, and strikes Mattronus with her sword. He sideswipes to the left, making her miss the attack. He tackles her with great speed, and slugs her neck with the back of his hoof. She goes flying in the direction of the hit, only to teleport behind Mattronus and blast him with a strong beam of energy. Mattronus lands on the ground, hovers in the air, and his front legs transform into giant blades. He flies at Twilight with great speeds, and starts swinging his blades, only his attacks were blocked by Twilight’s shield. He swiped furiously at Twilight’s shield, and it starts to crack. She pushes him back with the shield, and swipes furiously at him with her sword. She lands one final swing with her sword at Mattronus with great force, sending him flying into a boulder. He lands on the ground with a loud metal clang. “Had enough?" Twilight taunts. Mattronus looked up, his optics were completely red, and he was furious. He transforms his blades back into hooves, and brings out two miniguns from his back, which were holstered by cybernetic wires. All of a sudden, he teleports behind Twilight, and starts spinning up his two miniguns. "What the--" A spray of bullets catches Twilight off-guard, and she tosses up a magic wall behind herself, but she doesn't count on Mattronus's tenacity--or his miniguns--and the bullets continue pelting the shield. Despite its caster's efforts, the shield cracks, and Mattronus launches himself at the helpless princess, landing punch after punch on her delicate hide. Then, swinging his metal tail, he strikes Twilight across the ribs and sends her skidding across the ground in a cloud of dust. The alicorn crashes headfirst into a boulder and lies still, and Mattronus roars in anger or triumph--Twilight's horrified friends can't tell--and flies away on wings of steel.           Twilight wakes up in a hospital bed. She starts groaning because the pain from the fight kicked back in. All of her friends, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were sitting in front of her. They all had sad looks on their faces. “I… I lost that fight?" She asks slowly. Applejack replies, “Yup, not only that but he put you in a body cast!" Twilight looks down, she notices that her body has been completely covered in a cast. “Oh that metallic menace!" Rarity shouts, angrily. “This is no way to treat a princess! Not at all!" "Take it easy rarity.” Rainbow Dash says, calming her down, “He’ll get what’s coming to him.” “I’ll also give him what’s coming to him!" Pinkie Pie adds. “I'll give him a lot of it, too!" “Settle down everypony!" Some pony shouts. Everypony looks over to see Princess Luna was standing in the doorway. She walks in, and following her, a very damaged Mattronus. He limps into the room, his body sparking insanely. Everypony looks at him with an angry look as he limps towards Twilight’s bed. “I’m sorry for crippling another pony.” He says. “I’m supposed to be fighting for good, it didn’t have to come to this.” “I hope our little fight taught you a lesson.” Luna says. “You admit that you fight for the right side, right?" “Y-yes." He says, his head twitching. He looks toward the other 5 ponies, they are no longer angry with him, instead they looked terrified. Mattronus was in really bad shape. After his fight with Twilight, Luna caught him trying to escape into outer space. They had an aerial battle, but Luna was too strong for Mattronus to handle, and he’s sustained major damage because of this. “I’m not going to banish him, neither is Celestia, he claims that he wants to learn more about friendship.” Everypony looks at each other, soon they all have grins on their faces and nodding their heads. Mattronus lets off a sigh. “So, where do I start?" “When Twilight has fully recovered.” Luna says. “You did mess her up pretty bad though.” Mattronus stares at Twilight, and she stares right back at him. “I’ll see you in a few months, and don’t worry, I can fix myself up.” Luna teleports herself and Mattronus back to canterlot, so Twilight and the other 5 can catch up with what has happened today. > Mattronus Adventures Ep.2: Surprise Visit > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Six months have passed since Twilight’s battle with Mattronus. He is currently going through intensive friendships lessons with Twilight. Mattronus practices these skills he has learned, but is still trying to earn the mane six’s forgiveness for what he has done to Twilight. He spent this first three months of his time in Equestria in a dungeon as punishment for what he has done to her. During his time in the dungeon, Mattronus begins to feel utter regret for what he has done to her, and thinks of what he should do once he gets out. After he has gotten out, Luna lets him off with a warning about what would happen if he did this to anypony a second time. After his meeting with Luna, he writes a letter to Twilight to apologize once again for what he has done and that he hopes she will make a good recovery. During the other three months, he helps the mane six with their tasks. He becomes a fashion model for Rarity, an assistant baker for Pinkie, helps Fluttershy with her animals, helps buck apples with Applejack, and clocks Rainbow Dash’s max speed so she can become faster, and helps Spike with chores around the castle while Twilight is in the hospital. After Twilight is let out of her body cast, she heads back to her castle, where Mattronus waits. When she walks through the doors, she sees Mattronus sitting down, looking at the ground with a sad expression on his face. “Oh, hello Mattronus, how come you’re just sitting here?” Twilight asked curiously. “I read Spike’s letter, you’re doing great!” “Look, I feel real bad for what I’ve done to you, and I do regret that I crippled you so badly.” Mattronus explained, looking up from the floor. “I hope that we can still be friends after those six months…” “It’s ok, we both got off on the wrong hoof back then.” Twilight said. “Let’s let bygones be bygones, alright?” Mattronus’s expression changing from sad to happy in an instant. “Alright, now where am I needed your highness?” Mattronus asked gleefully. “I’ll be there!” “I believe Spike needed some help with something.” Twilight replied. “Maybe you can check out what he needs?” Mattronus nods, and walks around the castle, finding spike in his room. Spike notices him, and teaches him the valuability of gems, which is a new concept to Mattronus. In his free time, Mattronus went with Spike to a nearby mountain to dig up piles upon piles of gems. While Spike stuffed his mouth full of those gems, Mattronus reads a spell book he found in one of the bookshelves in the library that unicorns are suppose to read. “I see you’re looking through one of my many spell books?” Twilight asked. “I’m curious, how come you don’t have a horn if you’re able to use magic?” “I have no idea, but check this out!” Mattronus said, his optics brightening up. He teleports behind Twilight, then next to Spike, then back into his chair next to the bookshelf. Twilight’s eyes are widened as he teleported back into his seat "Wha...how? You don't have a horn!" She levitated a piece of parchment and a quill to Spike, who sighed grumpily and put down his last fistful of gems to take the items from Twilight. "I want to take some notes!" “I haven’t been able to teleport back on my home world, either.” Mattronus said. “I really don't know where I got this power.” Spike all of a sudden stops writing in the parchment, and throws up a piece of paper. He picks it up and reads it, and his eyes widen. “Uh, Mattronus, this is for you.” Mattronus gets out of his chair and walks over to him, picking it up and reading it. “Aw scrap, it's another one of these private meetings.” Mattronus said, putting the paper on one of the tables. “This is gonna be good.” “We’ll begin the lesson I had planned another time, for now, the princesses need you!” Twilight exclaims, levitating him to the door. “I’ll see you later!” She slams the door, and Mattronus flies to canterlot at great speeds.               When Mattronus came from the stairs that leads up to the tower, one of the guards motioned for him to go to the court yard. The princesses let the Royal Guards know that Mattronus would be taking a different entrance that nopony else would usually take. Mattronus was thankful he took the time during his forgiveness trip to learn Royal Guard protocols from the new commanding officer of the Canterlot Royal Guard. Mattronus flew towards the courtyard, and sees the two princesses, along with a pink alicorn and a white unicorn in purple armor. He lands, and walks the rest of the distance. When he stops next to Luna, the two ponies he hasn't recognized turn around and have shocked expressions on their faces as soon as they see him. “I've never seen you around before.” The white unicorn says. Mattronus replies. “Name’s Mattronus, nice to meet you, so what's the situation?” Celestia turns her head towards Mattronus. “We’ve been seeing some strange movement in the night sky recently. Now, a few nights ago, in the Dragon Kingdom, the dragon citizens have all disappeared. I have suspicion that the dragons’ absence is linked to the movements in space.” “We want you to head to the Dragon Kingdom.” Luna says right after Celestia finishes her explanation with him, “There have also been sightings of a giant metal dragon around an active volcano in that area.” “Whew, finally some action.” Mattronus said with relief, “I enjoy the company, but it’s also cool to get some alone time as well.” “Good to see my sister’s teaching you some manners.” The white unicorn said jokingly. “I’m Shining Armor, apologies for not introducing myself earlier.” “I’m Princess Cadence,” said the pink alicorn. “I'm the ruler of the Crystal Empire, you should stop by sometime.” “Sounds like an interesting place” Mattronus said, “but I got some dragons to question.” He rocketed into the sky and flies towards the dragon kingdom.              When Mattronus reaches the Dragon Kingdom, he lands by a lava pool that the dragon citizens usually swim in. No one was in the pool around it today. “Strange,” He said aloud. “I thought there would be dragons all around this part of the kingdom.” Suddenly, the lava within the pool shoots up into the air, and falls back down with a massive splash, revealing a massive cybernetic dragon, which lands right in front of Mattronus, staring down at him and right into his optics. “Wait, Steel Wing?” Mattronus asks. Steel Wing looks up into the air and roars. “Good to see you, too!” Mattronus exclaimed. “Can't wait to see the others' reactions!” Mattronus got on Steel Wing’s back, and the formidable dragon lifted off into the air, and flies towards Twilight’s castle.              Twilight was on her way back from canterlot, where she’d gone to check up on her brother and how Flurry Heart was doing. When she was about to open the door, she hears something land behind her. She turns around to see a humongous pair of reptilian optics staring right back at her. She flinches, then backs up to see a giant metal dragon roaring with excitement. Mattronus gets off his back saying, “Meet Steel Wing, my battle partner from my home world!” Spike opens the door, but when he sees the size of Steel Wing, he slowly walks back inside and closes the door. “You’re telling me this big dragon is… your partner?” Twilight asks curiously. “You can understand him? Even when he seemingly isn't able to speak?” Steel Wing nudges his head on Twilight, which lets out a giggle from her. “Will you look at that, he likes you!” Mattronus said. Steel Wing then licks Twilight with his metal tongue. “A bit… too much.” He adds, cringing. Twilight rolls around in the grass, shouting, “Ew ew ew ew ew EW!”. Mattronus begins rolling on the ground, laughing. Steel Wing gets up, and breathes a blue flame on Mattronus. After a few seconds pass, he stops breathing on him, revealing Mattronus covered in ash. “Thanks… for that.” He says, shaking all the ash off. Twilight gets off the ground, and shakes some blades of grass off of her. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna be getting myself cleaned up.” Twilight said, horn glowing. “Just keep him under control, ok? We don’t want him breathing fire on any pony else.” She teleports inside the castle, leaving Steel Wing and Mattronus to themselves. “Wanna visit Fluttershy’s?” Mattronus asks Steel Wing. He pants like a dog, which was Mattronus’s queue to hop on his back, and then proceed to fly towards Fluttershy’s cottage.              Fluttershy feeds her rabbit, Angel, a vegetable salad with extra carrots. She feels the ground shake, goes to her front window to see that a big metal dragon has landed in the middle of her front lawn, crushing a few dandelions. She exits her cottage, walking towards Mattronus, who was instructing Steel Wing why eating the animals on this planet is never a good thing. “Oh my, a metal dragon, too?” She whispers with excitement. “Is this one of yours, Mattronus?” “This, here, is Steel Wing!” He says, patting his head. “My battle partner from back home.” “Your… battle partner?” She asks nervously. Steel Wing nudges his head very lightly against Fluttershy, purring as his armor plating turns warm. “Aw, you’re so cute!” She exclaims quietly. He licks her very slightly, making her giggle. “Wow, he wasn't as rough with you as he was with Twilight.” Mattronus says. “Guess he senses how gentle you are.” Steel Wing then stops and lifts his head in the air, and starts to growl. “There trouble nearby?” Mattronus asks. “Then go get ‘em!” Steel Wing looks next to Fluttershy’s cottage, and finds three wooden creatures walking out from behind the wall, growling at Steel Wing. “Eeep! Timberwolves!” Fluttershy exclaims quietly, hiding behind Mattronus. The three timberwolves and Steel Wing walk in circles around each other, snarling even louder. After a few seconds pass, the wooden creatures lunge at Steel Wing in sync. Steel Wing steps back and breathes a black flame at the wooden creatures. The timberwolves, now on fire, start yelping and rolling on the floor, which Steel Wing then takes the advantage of the fight by clawing them with 3 quick swipes, then smashing them with his tail. When the smoke clears, all that is left was a pile of wood, which Steel Wing ignited with a puff of orange fire. “Good work, Steel Wing!” Mattronus shouted. Fluttershy is still shaking from the whole ordeal that has unfolded in front of her. “So, you got anything to cook?” Mattronus asked Fluttershy jokingly. Out of nowhere, a draconequus appears with a massive, branchy stick with marshmallows impaled on the ends of it. “I believe I can make use of this, I was wondering who was gonna be making the campfire!” “Silly Discord.” Fluttershy and Mattronus said at the same time. During Mattronus’s forgiveness trip, he quickly made friends with Discord. He is highly interested in this cybernetic pony, which he’s never seen before in his life. “Steel Wing’s gonna need somewhere to stay.” Mattronus said. “You’re an expert on animals, and Twilight won't like it if he sticks around her castle, so maybe you can take him in for a bit? He can feed himself just fine.” “What does he eat?” Fluttershy asks. Mattronus replies with, “Just about anything, really.” “What in tarnation is going on here?” Somepony shouts. Applejack comes in galloping from the grasslands, only to see a big cybernetic dragon and a draconequus having marshmallows over a campfire made of timberwolf wood. “Oh hey, this is Steel Wing, my battling partner.” Mattronus explains. Steel Wing finishes his marshmallow, and walks toward Applejack. He sniffs her, lets out a “Bleugh” in disgust, and walks back to the campfire. Mattronus tries his best not to laugh. “Guess he’s not a big fan of apples, I guess.” “What in the hay is the matter with apples?” Applejack asked, a little annoyed. “Does this hunk a metal not like fruit or something?” “If he does that to some pony it means that either he doesn’t like you or you smell really bad.” Mattronus explains. Applejack takes a whiff of herself, only to find that she doesn't smell bad at all. “I just got back from the spa with Rarity.” Applejack replies. “Do dragons not like the smell of a relaxing steam room?” “A steam room?” Mattronus asks curiously. “What's a steam room by chance?” “Why, it's where you go to relax!” Applejack explains. “You never been to one before?” “Well, I let off steam so my systems don't overheat.” Mattronus says, opening his wings. A big cloud of steam disperses from both sides of him. Applejack looks at him with utter amazement. “Wow, does that dragon do the same thing?” She asks. Mattronus shakes his head. “I'm the only one out my entire kind to ever do it.” “Jeez, you must be the special one.” She says. Mattronus walks over to the river. “Welp, I gotta get back to Celestia, gotta let her know that the op was a success, later everypony! Behave yourself Steel Wing.” He nods, and goes back to listening to Discord’s conversation. Mattronus launches into the air, and with a burst of a jet-like noise, flies toward Canterlot at Mach speed. > Mattronus Adventures Ep.3: Insecticide > --------------------------------------------------------------------------     A few more months have passed, and during that time, the mane six got to know all about Steel Wing. The big cybernetic dragon likes Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rarity. However, he  was grossed out by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. For some reason, when it was his first time meeting Pinkie Pie, Steel Wing was extremely scared of her. “Why is he only scared of me?” Pinkie asked Mattronus. “Out of all ponies!?!!?!” “That’s odd.” Mattronus said, confused. “Steel Wing is usually never scared of anything smaller than himself.” What Pinkie Pie didn’t know is that if Steel Wing is scared of somepony when he meets them for the first time, it usually meant that they are capable of something very fatal. However, this was Steel Wing’s first time ever being scared of an ordinary pony. While Mattronus and Steel Wing were flying around the badlands, they picked up a very weird signal. They landed next to the origin point of the signal and proceeded to investigate. They searched all around the badlands to find the source of the signal, and when they were just about to wrap up their investigation, Steel Wing senses an unusual, but evil presence near them. He turns around and sees an unusually red changeling. Mattronus did research on all of the evil creatures that currently exist in the world in Twilight’s library, and changelings were suppose to have changed their form ever since their old kingdom collapsed. This changeling in particular had not released its happiness yet, but as a matter of fact, parts of it that were suppose to be green are instead red. Mattronus takes a photo of it just before Steel Wing bites its head off. “Let’s head back to Twilight’s, she’s gotta see this.” Mattronus says, hopping on Steel Wing’s back. The two of them proceeded to head back to Twilight’s castle, where they were going to show her their discovery.       “Yo Twilight!” Mattronus shouts, walking through the hallways of her castle. “I got something surprising I need to show you!” He proceeded to the meeting court, only to see Starlight and Spike having a conversation. “Yo, Starlight, Spike!” Mattronus says, trotting towards them. “Have you seen Twilight around? I need to show her this photo.” “She’s at the crystal empire, visiting Shining Armor.” Spike replied. “What do you need to show her, anyway?” Mattronus lifts the photo of the red changeling out of his back with a cybernetic wire and extends it towards Spike. “I saw this changeling in the badlands, its color palette is different.” Starlight and Spike observe the photo, and Starlight’s eyes widen. “Oh no, oh no this is bad, this is bad!” “What’s bad?” Spike and Mattronus say in sync. Starlight levitates every book off a bookshelf and flips through every page of the books she can. “There is a breed of changeling that was thought to be extinct, and for good reason.” “Let me guess,” Mattronus says. “It’s more evil than the previous kinds of changelings?” “Worse than that.” She said. She finds the book about the red changelings. “Here!” She levitates the book in front of Mattronus for him to read. “These are arcane changelings.” She explains. “It all started back when a group of changelings broke into the forbidden library of The Crystal Empire.” He reads the rest of the page, and his optic pupils shrink. “They learned the forbidden magic and used it against everypony in the empire? This is messed up!” “Definitely, and they were all vanquished so that no other changeling would possess this type of power.” Starlight explains. “Now that you’ve uncovered one, who knows how many of them are out there.” “This was one of their scouts.” Mattronus explained. “I know military tactics, you send the scout before you send the squadron.” “Since you spotted them in the outlands.” Starlight says. “Then that means they must be making a push for Ponyville!” “Is there a way to call the others over?” Mattronus asked. “I might have a plan.”       The mane six sit in their seats, wondering why they were all called in. Mattronus walks into the room, carrying a huge item on his back. He carefully drops it on the floor, and flies above everypony’s heads. “Alright everypony, listen up.” Mattronus said. “We’ve spotted some strange activity in the badlands. Steel Wing and I took a photo of this creature and we’ve taken care of it.” Mattronus’s optics shoot up a hologram of the photo from the area. Everypony was amazed by the look of the hologram. In their amazement, they take a look at the photo of the red changeling. “I thought all the changelings were good now?” Applejack asks. “We were all there when it happened.” “These however, are Arcane Changelings.” Mattronus explains. “Long ago, some changelings broke into the forbidden library in The Crystal Empire and learned every forbidden spell to ever exist.” “I thought they were all extinct though?” Twilight asks curiously. “I really need to take some notes!” “No idea, but I believe that we took out a scout.” Mattronus explains. “So the rest of this army must be on standby.” “So the question actually is, where are they all hiding?”  Rainbow Dash asks. “I wanna pound these bugs!” “I’m suspecting them to be in the dead forest west of the badlands.” Mattronus explains, bringing up a hologram of the Equestria map. “Around here.” A marker blinks in a speckled area of the badlands. He deactivates the holograms and explains, “Since these bugs know some forbidden magic, I know just how to counter them.” Starlight levitates the big object that was covered in the sheet, and removes it. The object looks like a compass that is mounted on a telescope stand. “This seeks out any concentrated source of arcane magic.” Mattronus explains. “Which is where this other invention of mine comes in.” Starlight detaches six glass covers from the top of the arcane-seeking compass. “These covers go on your Elements of Harmony.” Mattronus says. “What these do is that they protect you from the effects of this arcane magic, as well as the passive effects of the forest.” “Have you tested these before?” Rarity asked nervously. Starlight answers with, “Yep, we have, and it works 100%!” “Now, since I know nothing of how to navigate this forest.” Mattronus says. “I’ll let Starlight explain how we’re gonna traverse this forest and exterminate these insects.” “Are you going to be alright in there?” Fluttershy asks nervously. “You don’t have an element of your own, you know.” “I have absolutely no idea.” Mattronus exclaims, “but I didn’t feel any different.” “How come we’re going into this certain part of the badlands anyway?” Applejack asks. “Can’t you and Steel Wing take care of em?” “Well, even with Steel Wing’s size and might.” Mattronus said. “It’s not gonna be enough, and besides, you six have taken care of changelings before, haven’t you?” Applejack remembers back when the changelings had almost taken over Canterlot, and nods. “Good point.” She states. “So how are we gonna get em’?” Mattronus lands next to Starlight, who puts the arcane-seeking compass away, and explains what the battle plan was going to be.             When they made it to the forest, Starlight activated the arcane-seeking compass with her magic, and it whirred to life. No red markers appeared on it. “Alright, we’re clear.” Mattronus said. “Let’s move!” As the mane six entered the dead forest with their elements equipped, their coats begin to glow, and then stop. “Good, its still working.” Mattronus said. As they traversed throughout the forest for a few more minutes, the arcane-seeking compass lit up with a marker, indicating something was in front of them. “Hold it, something is in front of us.” Mattronus said, his hoof transforming into a plasma blaster. He hovered slowly above the ground towards the pair of red eyes in front of them, still aiming his blaster at it. The Arcane Changeling lunged at him, and he fired at its head. It dropped dead, landing below him.   “That's one down, how's everypony doi-” When he turns around, he sees that the mane six, along with Starlight, have disappeared without a trace. “ Aw scrap, this ain’t go-” All of a sudden, everything goes black.             Mattronus slowly re-activates in a deep red cave, he was tied to the wall with a binding spell. He tries to move, but isn’t able to. He tries shouting, but was muted by a silencing spell. He looks over to the other side of the room to see that his seven friends have also been knocked out. “Well well” Somepony said. “Look who decided to wake up.” Mattronus looks over to the entrance of the cave and sees a hooded cybernetic pony with shining red optics that resembled a bat’s. His mane seemed to glow the same color as well. All of a sudden, Mattronus could feel his voice chip coming back online. “The scrap?” Mattronus exclaimed. “Blithius?” “Nice to see ya.” Blithius says. “You're working with these chumps?” “They are my friends.” Mattronus said.  “Not my butt buddies.” “Ah, friends, the good ol’ fashioned excuse to backstab someone, ditch them when they need their support the most, and somepony they do nothing but lie to.” Blithius said sardonically. “Honestly, these ponies here? They’re nothin but criminals!” “That’s a big pile of slag and you know it, Blithius.” Mattronus said. “These Arcane Changelings are the criminals here.” “These insects only wanted to spread love.” Blithius said. “Not to be a thorn in anypony’s side.” “They broke into somewhere they shouldn’t have and tried to use forbidden magic for evil purposes.” Mattronus explained. “They are the criminals here, not the ponies.” “If only one of these days you could just cut it with the lies.” Blithius taunted. “Then maybe somepony can take you seriously.” Mattronus’s optics turn red. “You know, back on Cyberchronis, nopony ever took you seriously, so watch who you’re talking to.” "Blithius brought out an ionic assault rifle, holstered by a cybernetic wire, from his back and pointed it towards the unconscious Fluttershy." “You silence your voice chip, or this pony here gets it.” Mattronus’s optics turn purple, and he closes them, sighing. Blithius puts the rifle away. “That’s more like it.” Suddenly, the ground starts shaking, and rocks fall from the ceiling. “What the--” Blithius exclaimed. Mattronus looks back up, his optics turned green. “You shouldn’t have ticked off my friends, bud.” Explosions rocked the cave’s entrance, and a black cybernetic pony with magenta mane, tackled Blithius to the wall and held him against it by an ionic sniper rifle. The black and magenta pony looked towards Mattronus and said. “Good to see you, love!” Mattronus’s shackles disappeared, and he lands face first into the ground. He gets up and frees his seven friends from their rope ties. “You can still levitate them, right?” The black and magenta pony asks Mattronus. He replies with, “I think so, Piperina.” His optics glow brighter, and the seven unconscious ponies levitate into the air. He gallops out of the cave, and the seven hovering ponies trailing him. Piperina looks towards Blithius and says, “You’re being lied too!” “Over my dead body.” Blithius exclaims. She lets go of him, and he falls to the floor. When he gets up, Piperina is aiming her sniper rifle at his head. “Fight for the good side, ok? Shouldn’t be that hard.” “These bugs ain’t evil!” Blithius exclaims. “YOU’RE the evil one here!” Her optics flash, and Blithius begins to see visions of the past. He sees what the changelings were actually doing to the ponies of The Crystal Empire. It was one of the most unforgivable things he had ever seen in his lifetime. He snaps out of the trance, and he says, “I… I need time to think about this...” “Yep.” Piperina replies, retracting her sniper rifle into her back. Her optics still glowing, she quickly reprograms Blithius into thinking that what the arcane changelings did was much worse than what he actually seen. “They were tricking you this whole time, love.” Blithius turns toward the wall, and punches it angrily. “Those good for nothing INSECTS!!!” “Now you know who to fight for.” Piperina said. “Let’s get out of here, shall we?” The two gallop out of the cave, and follow Steel Wing as he carries the seven unconscious ponies and a tired Mattronus back to Fluttershy’s cottage.       “You sure they’re gonna wake up?” Blithius asks Mattronus. “It’s been over three Equestria hours!” “Blithius.” Mattronus replied. “These are ponies, not tronians.” “Yep, even Steel Wing was a bit worried.” Piperina stated. “Good thing he didn’t go into that forest with you.” “I’m glad that I’m no longer under the influence of that forbidden scrap.” Blithius said. “They do freaky stuff in their spare time.” No longer under the influence of arcane magic, Blithius's optics glowed blue, and his purple-and-blue mane rested lightly on his black armor plating. Steel Wing, along with some other animals,  look through the front window towards Fluttershy, they were really worried about her. “Ay, Piperina?” Blithius asks. “Ya think you got something that can speed up this sleeping process? ” “Well, I do have my-” A soft and quiet coughing from the couch cut off Piperina's reply. They look over and see that Fluttershy is starting to wake up. “Where… what happened?” She asks. “How did I get back home?” “I sorta… knocked you out.” Blithius confessed. “And it’ll take time til I actually mean to apologize” “M-Mattronus?” Fluttershy asks nervously. “W-Who are these two?” “Meet Blithius and Piperina.” Mattronus says. “More of my partners from back home.” “Nice to meet ya.” Blithius says, walking into the kitchen. Piperina walks over from the window and says, “How’s it goin’ love?” “W-why do you look a lot like me?” Fluttershy asks woozily. Piperina had long and flowing magenta mane, similar to Fluttershy’s, except Piperina was a robot and had an indigo feather sticking out of the top of her ear, which seemed to glow brightly as well. “Well, I wanted to go for the more good looking one, why do you ask?” Fluttershy blushes as her eyes widen. “Oh, o-ok.” “Oh, no need to be embarassed, love!” Piperina exclaims. “There’s no shame in looking good!” “Ok, let’s not push it.” Mattronus says in Fluttershy’s defense. “I mean, she woke up from an arcane knockout spell.” The animals outside rejoice as they see that Fluttershy is ok, and Steel Wing looks relieved. “If you can, you should head outside, the others should wake up momentarily.” Mattronus explains. “Steel Wing looks very relieved to see that you recovered.” She slowly gets up, and walks out the door. “How’re the others doing in the other rooms?” Piperina asks. Blithius comes out from the kitchen carrying peaches and saying, “Peachy Keen!” Mattronus and Piperina facehoof, and they look outside to see Fluttershy, as well as Steel Wing and all the other animals, are playing peacefully.