Chapter 1, The Reactivation And The First Battle
[Prologue]
While many would argue that there isn't life among the stars, there is always the possibility that there is life out there. The best example being the recent coming of the aforementioned life, but not of the kind anyone would have thought of. They were extremely alien, but they came openly, with a gift for the leader of a planet thriving with life. They were friendly for outsiders, their gifts were incredibly large, in number. They had given several hundred thousand of their own robotic soldiers to the leader for a better relationship, but they mysteriously had disappeared shortly after, saying they had matters to attend to. They haven't returned for over a decade, the generation that had seen them saying nothing about those days that they had come. The day that they had given their droids to them. Now, Equestria is threatened by a force unlike any seen before, and now the leader of them all must now release all that they had gained to remove this threat.
[Present day, Canterlot Castle]
To say that she was stressed would most likely be the understatement of the century not only was all of Equestria shaking in their boots, both figuratively and literally, but her forces were falling under the might of her recently made enemies, known only as the Caribou. They had extremely violent sexual tendencies, sometimes literally having sex with the females they either captured or took for their own to literal death. There was also their own magic, which was primarily used to turn Equestria's own male soldiers against their female counterpart, turning them into the same kind of sex-crazed beings that the Caribou were. Celestia wished she could change this all on her own, but alas, there were far too many Caribou already over her boarders, something had to be done. Then it hit her. Like a ton of bricks, she recalled something that had been given to her long ago, something that she had buried long before she had ever met Twilight, something she had hidden for over a decade! "The Droids!" She said out loud, her eyes widened slightly. She then walked back to her throne and used something that she hadn't used in a long time; a secret passageway that had been made into the throne itself about the same time she had placed the army in hiding so long ago. The construction workers who made and enchanted the passageway were sworn to secrecy the instant they were finished, as far as Celestia knew, no pony had ever spoken of it out loud ever since. She was about to place her hand upon the armrest of the throne, but at the last second she hesitated. 'Should I really do this? Are the droids really as wanting to do good as their owners said they were?' She thought, wondering if her own subjects would call her out on not using them earlier, but then she recalled the Caribou completely overpowering them, not like any force ever seen.
So she could guess that her subjects would think that she didn't realize that the Caribou would be as powerful as they were. She then pressed her hand on the armrest, closed her eyes and focused her magic into that spot, her horn giving off a great golden glow. After a few seconds, she heard a faint rumble and opened her eyes, seeing the passageway open up from behind the throne, the wall basically slid downwards, revealing a staircase made for something much larger than herself. She then walked to the opening and walked down into it, stale air flowing into her nostrils and blowing her hair back a bit before it settled down back into its usual state. As she traveled down the old steps, she could practically feel the old memories that this place held within its walls, as well as its own energy. She continued down for what seemed like hours, continuously wondering if whatever decision she made was right. After reaching the bottom of the steps, she came across an extremely darkened room, she lit the room up with her horn and looked around, looking for one of the gifts she had received so long ago. She eventually found it lying in the corner, slumped over and lifeless, as though it had died a long time ago. She shook her head as she walked over to it and placed her hand upon it.
"I'm sorry... I had to keep you all safe until the time was right." She muttered to it solemnly and reached for one place in particular; the On switch. She grabbed it and forced it into the 'On' position and stepped back a few steps, waiting. The machine twitched a few times, but it then seemed to turn on fully, its three red eyes glowing with an emotionless kind of analysis. The machine was, as far as she had been told, an early prototype of a new droid that had been put as the final model instead, because of its extremely well performance in all tests. The droid was extremely humanoid in shape, with the only kind of anomaly being its head, which had a flat top and no kind of mouth to speak of, the three eyes were positioned in various spots, one eye was in the direct center of the head with the other two being in more reasonable places. The body of the machine was decorated with golden lines, a kind of paintwork that was 'standard on all models' as she heard from its giver. The machine also only had 3 'fingers' as they were called, with one finger being on one side of the hand acting as the thumb and the other two were on the other side. The arms were extremely thin and frail looking, the body was almost like a barrel, the legs looking at least a little sturdier than the arms, it was a 'Super Tactical droid' as was called by his former owners. Celestia waited for several seconds as the machine looked upon its activator. "Princess Celestia, it has been an extremely long time." The mechanical being's voice was deep, mechanical and emotionless, nothing like a living beings' (A.N. Clone Wars era General Kalani voice, not Rebels era voice). Celestia, for the first time since the war against the Caribou began, smiled with genuine warmth. "It has... old friend." She walked up to the droid and hugged it, it returned the notion with some uncertainty. "What... was that?" The Super Tactical droid asked as Celestia turned slightly red.
"Oh! It's just a way of showing my happiness to see you again." She explained quickly while the Super Tactical droid just remained silent. "But there is another reason I have for reactivating you ST-001-A." This caught the droid's attention. "I'm listening..." It stated, letting Celestia continue. "We are currently being invaded." she said bluntly, if the droid could raise an eyebrow, it would. "What exactly happened Celestia? I don't recall you being this blunt." The droid stated as Celestia shook her head. "A lot has happened during your slumber ST-001-A. Getting up to date with the times was one of them." The droid just nodded, not wanting a full explanation. "Now, what was that threat that was invading Equestria that you spoke of?" It asked, wanting to know more about the situation at hoof. Celestia cleared her throat before she began to explain. "They are known as the Caribou, extremely disgusting, vile beings, they have invaded Equestria for, as far as I know, only one purpose. That is to literally quell their own sexual desires by, and excuse my language here, fucking us to the point of death!" The Super Tactical Droid looked as though it openly winced in some form of shock. "Is that normal for them?!" It demanded as Celestia shook her head, a look of uncertainty on her face, clear as day. "To be honest, I'm not sure... but right now, we've managed to hold them at an area known as Trottingmare Pass, but we're quickly being overrun there. I need your help, I... all of Equestria needs you now!"
Celestia eventually broke down into tears as she fell to her knees in front of the Super Tactical Droid, grasping its hand in desperation. "I don't know where else to turn, if we lose at Trottingmare Pass, we'll lose everything! I can't think of anything else. Please, I beg of you, I may not be your master, but I need you now more than ever!" Celestia's vocal cords eventually turned any sound that left her mouth into unintelligible sounds of sobbing as she shut her eyes tightly and cried on her knees. The droid stayed silent as it stared at Celestia, it eventually began feeling something in its chest cavity that it had never felt before; Remorse. It took its free hand and slowly moved it towards Celestia's face, being careful as to not notify her of his movements. Eventually it made it to her cheek, which had one of her tear tracks running down her face. The finger made contact and wiped away a currently flowing tear, Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at the droid, seeing something within its optical sensors that she had never seen before; Kindness. It then let go of her hand and moved towards the wall it had been sitting down next to for over a decade. Celestia could make out a lever on the wall and saw the droid pull on it, almost immediately it triggered a series of lights that ran down the length of the room they were in one by one, revealing several thousand battle droids, vehicles and droid fighters of various kinds. The droids themselves stayed still in their space saving configurations for a few seconds then sprang to life as they slowly opened up their hands, rose up to a standing position, lifted their heads up, grabbed their weapons from their backs and turned to face the exact same direction to the pair. The Super Tactical Droid turned around and walked back to Celestia and stood in front of her, staying silent for several seconds. "We will fight!" It stated directly as Celestia smiled and got back on her feet. "I thought I could count on you..." She said as she got back on her feet and smiled.
[Trottingmare Pass, just a few hours later]
They were stuck. That was the best description of the currently dire situation that Star Shield and her squadron now faced. They were the only forces left in the area that hadn't been killed or assimilated into the Caribou armada, which hadn't taken very many losses, due to their own magic shield, which could stop anything that any pony could throw at it, magic beams, spears, lances, swords, nothing could penetrate it at all! They were on their last legs and they all knew it. "Listen up, all of you!" Star Shield yelled out to her soldiers. "We may not survive, but at least die knowing that we have sacrificed ourselves, so that others may live, it's a heroic sacrifice, so what do you say to going out in a blaze of glory?!" She demanded as her soldiers roared with new determination, it was desperate, but they had no other option, if they ran, the caribou armada would have absolute access to any part of Equestria beyond the pass. Star Shield stood tall in this crisis and called out to her soldiers for what seemed to be the final time. "READY?!" The soldiers yelled back with various responses of 'yes' and Star Shield almost burst towards the Caribou on the spot. "SET?!" She demanded once more as she drew her sword and banged it against her shield, the other soldiers cheered and Star Shield raised her sword arm, in preparation for what she thought was her final order. However, she was interrupted by an odd noise that made her ears twitch, it sounded kind of like a warbling... distorted.... actually, she didn't know how to describe it. She turned to the source and found it to be right behind her own forces. The other soldiers heard it too and turned to face the noise themselves, they waited for several seconds and eventually found themselves shaking in their boots. What came over the hill wasn't any sort of reinforcement they originally thought was sent for them, rather, it was a bunch of floating vehicles, several of them were about the size of larger carriage up to train car sized, the ones in the front row had several tubes sticking out of various parts of their frames.
The main body design of one of them entailed an almost disk shape on the very bottom with a thin cabin which led up to a thick turret on the top which had one of the tube sticking out of the turret. The other vehicles were utterly huge! Give or take they were about the size of full on houses! They had two tubes sticking out of two sizes of what seemed to be the front bumper and the vehicles in the back were also rather long, far longer than the ones up front. They all came directly over the hill and came directly towards the squad of ponies and stopped a few meters from the squad. The hatch opened on one of the vehicles up front and up came a machine, it was thin for one thing, as though it were modeled after a skeleton if that made any sense. It was a beige(ish)-white color which the squad of ponies could not identify, with yellow parts painted all over a few parts of the body which was symbolic of something that the ponies did not know about. The machine held up a pair of what looked like futuristic binoculars, where it seemed to hold no particular interest in the ponies, but rather the Caribou armada down below. The machine then turned its attention to the other vehicles aside from its own and raised its arm, closed it in a tight fist and brought it back down, letting out a single command; "Open fire!"
The beings voice was not like anything ever heard before by the ponies, it was mechanical, emotionless and almost synthesized. (A.N. The commander droid on Naboo during the battle with the Gungan army) Before any other words could be explored to describe the voice, the other vehicles let out the loudest bangs ever heard by Equestrian ears, this even dominated the cannons that they used on occasion! They let loose a barrage of red lights that collided with the same red shields that made the Caribou so invincible, they didn't penetrate at all, just as predicted, but Star Shield noticed something she hadn't before; the shields were flickering! She grabbed her binoculars and looked at the shield's source; the mages of the Caribou. They were actually being pushed! They had a sign of severe strain on their faces as they continued pouring on the magic to keep the shield up. 'These machines have such powerful weapons that they're pushing the Caribou mages?' She thought, then looked back at the still firing vehicles and had a bit of hope, but it seemed fate wanted to play with her a bit more.
The Commander droid had all he needed thanks to his soldiers pounding on the shield; he had the correct frequency with which to tune his droids to in order to bypass the shield. Normally droids didn't have to do this, but since he was told that these kinds of shields stopped physical and energy based attacks and objects, he had to resort to a diversion tactic in order to get the frequency. Now that he had it, it was time to let the actual soldiers loose. "Cease fire!" OOM-4 ordered as the AATs followed orders and stopped firing almost instantly. The ponies that were in front of them looked at them with confusion, but their commander told them to remain steadfast. The MTT pilots saw what happened and knew precisely what to do; they unloaded their cargo. They opened the front loading bays and out came a rack filled with 120 B1 Battle Droids in their space saving configurations, with a loud 'wirr', the rack was lowered next to the ground and with loud clacking sounds the rack was spread out over a large area, evenly placed for maximum room for the unfolding.
[Back at Canterlot Castle]
The Princess watched the hologram as the droids were unloaded out of their transports and they were spread out. "It is time Celestia, would you like to be the one to unleash the first combat ready droids onto the battlefield?" ST-001-A asked the Princess who smiled and nodded. "To save my little ponies? Do you even have to ask?" She asked with a raised eyebrow as she placed her hand above the touch-pad and tapped on the activation prompt, making the onscreen droid unfold and stand up, meaning that the activation order was sent.
[Back at Trottingham Pass]
The ponies were extremely confused as to what the droids were even doing besides sitting on the grass without moving. The ponies were about to call out the droids for a pointless action, then they saw the droids twitch. That drew their attention away from anything else and they could only watch as the droids unfolded from their space saving configurations, grab their weapons and face the direction of the Caribou, where the Ponies were directly in their path. Star Shield gulped at the sight of an army being deployed so quick, she turned to her nearest soldier and stated; "Whether it's gonna be the Caribou or us, either way, it's ouch time!" She stated as the soldier nodded grimly. The droids began to move, all in sync directly at the Caribou, they got closer to the Pony squad and as it looked as though they were going to trample them, they simply walked straight past the ponies with extra care and Star Shield thought that one of the droids waved at her. She just watched agape as they continued towards the Caribou armada below. It was almost as though they didn't know anything about the shields at all. The Caribou were starting to get unnerved by the droids not even stopping at the safer distances. One of the Caribou soldiers came up to their commander. "Sir, should we attempt to stop them?" He asked as the commander shook his head and laughed. "No my dear friend, as you've seen, nothing can get through our shield!" He said proudly as he then turned back to the incoming droid army.
"You hear that you dumb machines?! You can't get in here!" He yelled out to them, to which he heard a squeaky, robotic voice call back to him, just as smug as his own voice. "Well, just watch this you sex crazed lunatics!" The commander raised an eyebrow and watched as the droids walked ever closer to the shield, then he got the biggest shock of his life; the droids walked straight through the shield as though it weren't even there. Once through, they opened fire with their blasters at any Caribou unlucky enough to be within their sights. The Caribou reacted in a panic, clumsily firing their crossbows and letting off their own spells as fast as they could. They tried to take over their minds, but they didn't count on the droids having no lust within their programming, nor the fact that they didn't have any sort of organic-like mind to take over. Once that was realized, most of the Caribou lines fell to panic as they saw their crossbows had no effect and the lethal spells were too short range and low power to do anything. The droids easily slaughtered the Caribou as they subdued several, before most caribou could get close, they managed to blast them down, but there were a few that managed to cut down a few droids after a few swings. The battle, overall, was extremely short; retribution was swift. The Caribou surrendered as they saw the shield going down once all the mages were dead, all the droids split into two sets of groups, one would round up all the caribou and the other would gather up all the damaged battle droids for immediate repairs.
Once the battle was over, the commander droid walked over to the stunned ponies, each one in a state of absolute shock over what had just transpired. "The Caribou have been defeated, all of those converted have been returned to normal once the mages were killed. Many of the Caribou army surrendered once they realized they had no way of combating us. I trust you are all perfectly fine?" It asked as Captain Star Shield nodded. "Y-yeah... we're all uh... okay." She said as the droid nodded. "Excellent. We can take guard duties for now, you and your soldiers should rest at the moment." It said as it turned and began to walk away. "Wait." Star Shield said as the droid turned around. "Yes?" It asked as Star Shield nodded to it. "Thanks." She said as the Droid nodded back. "It was a pleasure Captain." It replied as it then returned to its vehicle. Star Shield knew that the Princess must have gotten some allies from somewhere, for that, she wasn't sure of what to say. But he was thankful, to whatever gods were above them, that they were saved on that day.