Legend of Silva's Gate

Leo suddenly found himself standing on his feet. As he looked across the sandy and rocky ground before him, he noticed it was dotted with the occasional dried up shrub. Far away, about a day's trek, a mountain chain, which seemed to trail on forever in either direction...

"Oh, not again..." Leo groaned as he found himself placed in the familiar wasteland. "What now? What is so absolutely VITAL to show me while I'm trying to get over this stupid PonyFlu in the waking world?" Leo said aloud in a harsh tone.

"Do not worry about your sickness, it has already been healed." The feminine voice echoed out across the wasteland, seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at once. Leo felt eyes on him from behind, and when he turned, he saw the shining shape behind him, tending to what was now a healthy and large sapling, with bright green grass growing around it.

"Don't worry..? Are you serious? As if I wasn't suspicious enough to the girls already as it is, now I'm instantly over my flu? Rainbow Dash is going to have a field day..." Leo complained as he placed his fingers to his temples and rubbed them, feeling a headache coming on.

"I'm aware, but unfortunately our time is short, and reality had to be bent slightly in this case." The shining feminine figure explained as it seemed to have brushed dirt off it's knees. Wasting no time, it continued talking. "Things have rolled out slightly sooner than we expected. We expected you to have time to immerse yourself in Equestria's knowledge and lore, but the Hive has pushed the Universe too far to risk giving you more time."

"Huh? What? Bending reality? The Universe pushed to far?" Leo probed, completely confused at this point. The figure only waved it's hands to silence him.

"I'm sorry, Leo, but we don't have the luxury of time here for an in-depth analysis of the situation. When you get the chance, and you will, ask those questions of the Princesses." The figure suggested, giving Leo a moment to file the information away in his mind. "Now, the reason we're so short on time is, as I explained, The Hive. They've sent advance recon teams already, to attempt to gauge the combat readiness and capability of this planet."

"Okay, that's not exactly good...but recon teams are made up of just their crappy drones. Even Equestria's military should be able to destroy them with minimal losses." Leo replied, hoping the figure would explain why it was so critical for him intervene.

"True, yes, Equestria could easily defeat the drones. But you see, that's the problem. The first interaction the drones are going to have isn't with the military, or you, but with a local, and that local is a mare that you know. Her name is Applejack."

"I'm supposed to care? Seriously, that's not all that bad, the drones are slow suckers, I bet even I could outrun them in my current form." Leo replied with a laugh. "Besides, shes a farmer. Sounds like she's been working hard all her life. Surely she'll be able to look after herself with a few well-placed bucks."

"Normally, yes. But she isn't going to be alone. She'll have three fillies with her, and the way things are now, she'd fail in protecting them." The female figure explained with a grim tone. Leo was silent for a moment as the short memory of his interaction with the filly Pegasus he had met earlier flashed into his mind. Leo quickly made his mind up.

"If The Hive is threatening children of ANY race, each and every single one of them will be getting my fist shoved through their central processor's housing. No child deserves to be harmed or taken before their time to shine." Leo said quietly as his fists began to shake in anger, his entire body tensing. Just as the figure was about to reply, there was a strange horn that bellowed out from the burned sky, catching it's attention.

"We're out of time to talk, you must wake up now. When you get up, do so quietly; do not wake any of the occupants of the house. Exit the building and head towards the local farm!"

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Leo awoke with a start. With a quick glance to his hands, he confirmed that they were hooves again. Glancing around the room, he noticed it was illuminated only by the moonlight. Once his eyes landed on his cloak, which he found himself surprised that it was still there considering the thing's ownership was up in the air, he began to fight to stand up, only to find himself suddenly feeling like he was going to vomit from the strain.

"What the hell, I thought she said I wasn't sick anymore..." Leo whispered to himself. As he clenched his teeth and began to force himself up, he heard the female voice in his head.

'I wasn't lying when I said your flu was removed. However, your body still thinks it's sick, so you'll be getting little bouts of discomfort for the next few hours.' the figure explained. In no mood to argue the point, Leo got up and steadied himself. Once her became comfortable with his hooves on the ground again, he noticed the nausea had disappeared suddenly. With a frown, he nodded and then donned his cloak. He approached his door slowly, as to avoid detection, when one of the floorboards creaked loudly. As Leo cringed, he heard movement from a room which sounded like it was down the hall. Scrambling, Leo tip-hooved quickly towards the window and opened it up wide, before ducking into the darkest corner of the room. When he noticed that there was candlelight worming it's way under the door, Leo gasped as he realized his hiding place wasn't going to help him at all.

"Mr. Leo, are you awake? Did you want a snack or something?" Pinkie Pie's voice whispered out from the hallway. Not hearing anything except a slight bumping sound from outside the building, the pink party pony cautiously opened the bedroom door and peeked inside. As she stepped inside, the breeze from the open window blew across her face. Pinkie Pie whipped her head towards Leo's bed only to find it empty. Seeing nowhere else in the room he could be hiding, Pinkie Pie went over to the window and looked outside to see a familiar silhouette galloping down the road before it turned the corner, just a a set of hurried hooves trotted down the hallway.

"Pinkie Pie, what would posses you to barge in on Leo so rudely like this?" Rarity asked from the doorway, confused once she noticed that Leo's bed was empty and Pinkie was leaning halfway out of the window. Putting two and two together, Rarity sighed. "He...took off again, didn't he?"

"Yuppers. Looks like he took off in the general direction of Applejack's farm. Ya know, for a pony being sick with PonyFlu, he sure has a lot of energy." Pinkie Pie observed. Not hearing anything, save for some rustling. Pulling herself out from the window, Pinkie Pie turned towards Rarity, and noticed she was wearing what looked to be a very trendy windbreaker.

"What, you actually think I'm not going to follow him after the amount of effort I put into ensuring his health stayed strong? I'm going out there to give that...that...ruffian a piece of my mind!" Rarity exclaimed, and with a huff she turned tail and ran down the stairs. Dumbfounded for a moment, Pinkie Pie stood still for a moment until she heard the store's door swing open and shut, before she bolted similarly into the hallway and down the stairs.

"Rarity, wait! I wanna come too!"

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"Oof, ahh! Oh, that stung...Grr- WOAH!" a male voice escaped from a shadowed stallion as he fell down off a short plateau, and face planted into the ground. Groaning as he gingerly lifted himself off the ground, he felt some scratches on his snout stinging slightly as he brushed the pebbles from them. Grumbling, Leo stepped out into the light emanating from a nearby lantern that rested by the edge of the path that an earlier sign had indicated to him that it led to Applejack's farm.

'Can't be too much further, I hope. I mean they bring their haul into town, right...? Not to mention, these trees have apples, so...' Leo thought to himself, glancing around the dark path in search of threats. Seeing none, he continued down the path. As he continued down at a quick pace, he began to notice how nice the area actually was. However, before he could stop to admire the beauty, his brain reminded him that he was thirsty, and just how BADLY he wanted a cream soda. Grunting, Leo pushed the thoughts from his mind as he turned the corner and the farmhouse suddenly came into view. He skidded to a halt, and surveyed the scene before him. Four shadowed figures, three of them half the height of the fourth seemed to sneak out of the house. Laying low and crawling into the bushes that lay in the ditch between the fence of the orchard and the path, Leo watched as a Lantern exploded into life, reveling Applejack as the one handling it. As the wandered down the path, he could see she was flanked by three young fillies, one of them being the one he had met a few hours earlier.

'Midnight stroll with the girls, hmm?' Leo wondered to himself. As Applejack and the girls came down to the path, Leo ducked down deeper into the grass. He couldn't see them any longer, but he could hear the girls 'Oooh!' and giggle in delight, along with Applejack's slightly muffled voice nagging them to stay close.

"...strange creatures runnin' around. Ah don' want ta be the one ta explain to your folks how ya'll got whisked away into those woods." Leo had heard Applejack finish without her being muffled by the grass. When he noticed the light from the lantern getting much closer to his location, he cursed the situation for a moment, and prayed that they didn't look into the ditch where he hid himself. In the dark, Leo had a moderate chance for his haircoat and mane's colors being mistaken for grass, as it intermingled with actual grass. If Applejack lit up the area with her lantern, Leo was toast even before he could raise a hoof to protect the group from The Hive. As Leo began to sweat bullets, he quickly found his worry trivial, as the light died away. Risking a sneak peek, Leo watched as the light of the lantern, and the voices of the girls faded into the woods. Not wanting to lose them, Leo quickly picked himself up off the ground and trotted up into what now appeared to be a hidden path. He peeked into the path only to see that what remained of the lantern's light had just faded of a small hill. Pushing through the low-hanging branches, Leo zipped up the hill and peered down the path to see the girls still happily enjoying the scenery. Just as he relaxed slightly as the night was thus-far uneventful, he managed to knock a pile of small rocks that rested at the top of the steep path, only to watch them tumble down the path. When one of the stones tapped against Applejack's rear right hoof, Leo felt his heart skip a beat, and Applejack and he both froze to a complete standstill. The girls stopped their giggling for a moment when they noticed Applejack freezing suddenly and looked at her with concern.

"Sis? Whats wrong, Applejack?" Leo saw the yellow filly ask Applejack. Sensing that Applejack was about to turn, Leo zipped back behind a large tree trunk just back over the hump of the hill. The air was only filled with the sounds of a breeze fluttering through the trees, as Leo grimaced and cursed the lantern, who's light was slowly approaching from around the sides of the tree trunk. When the light finally began to recede and Leo heard Applejack laughing off what she was just doing, he silently exhaled the huge breath he had risked once he hid.

'Novice mistake, Silva! I can't believe you just did something as stupid as that! Never relax until you're out of the AO!' Leo chastised himself for alerting Applejack to something being in the area. 'Now she is going to be hyper-aware, if she wasn't before.' Leo said to himself as he zipped back to the top of the hill. When he couldn't see any light whatsoever, he became absolutely livid. Slamming a hoof on the top of his head, Leo trotted stealthily down the overgrown path, trying to catch a glimpse of where the girls went. Just as he began to curse himself for wasting time, Leo heard four bone-chilling shrieks coming from right ahead of him, through some intense bush. Stopping himself short of bursting right out into the scene before him, he managed to catch a glimpse of the three fillies caught up in a metal net being managed by two Hive drones, as another four wrestled a straining and frantic Applejack to the ground.

"Jus' lemme go, an' ah'll buck ya metal freaks back ta wherever ya'll came from! Ya hear! Don't you even lay a HOOF on mah sister and her friends, or you'll regret it!" Applejack shouted at the Beetle-like Drones angrily, attempting to act dangerous as he face betrayed the terror she felt.

"Oh, that's rich, really? Dude, you got tripped up by Tommy. TOMMY. I mean, seriously, I might consider your threats a wee bit more credible if you hadn't managed to get beaten by the world's smallest drone." The drone managed to get out in between fits of laughter.

"Tommy? Which one'a ya'll is Tommy?" Applejack suddenly asked. The drone that spoke to her pointed to a Drone that was about half the size of all the others, and it turned from tending to the fillies to look at her.

"'Sup." Tommy replied in a low pitched and extremely masculine voice, throwing Applejack off for a moment.

"Ah-Ah'm gonna turn YOU inta scrap metal, ya freak!" Applejack screamed at him, as she began to lift herself on the ground, fighting against the added weight of the four drones tending to her. Ultimately, her legs gave out and she fell back to the ground with a grunt. Deciding he had seen enough, Leo suddenly charged at one of the drones holding Applejack down and body-checked him. This caused the other three to lose focus on Applejack as they stared dumbfounded at the intruder, allowing her to buck and shove them off. Without a word to each other, Applejack and Leo fought with the four drones in tandem, covering each other from an approaching drone they hadn't noticed. It was only when the four drones began to have problems with their legs working properly that Leo and Applejack heard some rustling and screaming come from the trees. Turning to look as the drones groaned on the ground, the duo realized their error.

"APPLEBLOOM, AH'M COMMIN'!" Applejack shouted as she galloped towards the sounds of the three fillies' screaming. Not skipping a beat, Leo bolted after her. As they seemed to get closer to the runaway drones, Leo noticed electric lights up ahead. Putting two and two together, Leo quickly made a decision to trip Applejack, and did so. "What tha hay, Leo? What in tha actual hay did'ja do that for?" Applejack shouted at him as she picked herself up off the ground. Leo put himself in front of her so she couldn't go forward.

"Applejack, wait! That's their camp up ahead, we can't just go charging in blindly! What you and the girls stumbled upon was a patrol. They probably have a couple dozen more drones waiting in there. We'd be trussed up like chickens in seconds!" Leo explained, as she pushed against him with grim determination. When she noticed she only managed to make him slide a bit forward, Applejack collapsed to the ground in a heap and began to sob.

"Leo...please...ah know you know...more about these things than yer lettin' on. Just....please tell me what we need ta do ta...save mah sister and her friends, or ah'll never be able to look Big Mac or Rare in the face again." Applejack pleaded with Leo, who stood infront of her as she looked up at him, the moonlight filtering through the trees reflecting off her tears. He was silent for a moment, as he was astonished by the depth of Applejack's love for her sister became apparent to him. Resting a hoof on Applejack's shoulder, Leo made her a promise.

"I'm not going to hold anything about these guys back, not when children are in danger. I'm not up to explaining how I know all this, but I'll fill you in when required. Now," Leo said as he turned to face the camp hidden in the trees before him, "Doing recon on the area first is key, to determine where they've placed your sister and her friends, and where their security is weakest. If we wait a little while, we can figure out their patterns and sneak by towards your sister with no problems." Leo laid his plan out to Applejack. After a few more words and a promise from her that she'd lay low and not leave the spot they were in unless a patrol came forward, Leo sneaked towards the edge of the encampment.

As he peered in carefully, it became quickly visible to him that the drones had cut a swath of trees and grass down to make room for their base. As his eyes shifted towards the left, he spied the pile of felled trees, and made the welcome discovery that he would be able to climb the side away from the camp and peer down for a bird's eye view, complete with a low risk factor for getting spotted. Edging his way towards the log pile, he nearly walked in on a pair of drones walking in from a patrol, discussing something. He quickly dropped into the tall forest grass and put one ear to the ground, allowing his other ear to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"...Engineers are taking forever, man. I swear, my bro could build that teleporter gateway faster on his own. He always had a knack for that technology stuff." Leo heard one of the drones complaining to the other. Hearing them stop in their tracks, Leo clung closer to the ground in an effort to further conceal himself.

"So, wait, if your brother is so good at using technology, what're you doing here?" The other drone asked.

"Uhm, duh? I'm not technology smart. Jeeze, you sure are dumb sometimes." The other drone replied, walking into the base.

"...Yet we're both walking calculators with weapons. Totally makes sense." The second drone mumbled to himself sarcastically. Leo shook his head with a smile in response to the conversation he overheard. As much as he hated the drones affiliated with The Hive, he always found their banter amusing.

"Right, now....the mission at hand." Leo mumbled to himself. Picking himself up, he tip-hooved towards the logs. Upon reaching them, he noticed a small gap between the side facing the forest and the trees themselves, giving him slight cause for concern. If a drone on patrol decided to come and take a peek around the logs, he'd be sighted instantly. He decided to bite the bullet, however, when he heard the fillies let loose a short trio of shrieks simultaneously. Peering over the edge of the logs, Leo looked right into the middle of the encampment. Counting the lower number of drones in the camp, he surmised that the vision he had earlier definitely hadn't lied: The Hive had dispatched recon teams. One thing that concerned him, however, was that even though he sighted the fusion power generators needed to run a teleporter near a collapsible building the drones had put up, he couldn't see the machine itself. As his eyes wandered around the camp making sure he didn't just miss it, a distressing thought nestled itself in his mind rather unceremoniously.

'If this is only one of many recon teams, and this one is equipped with teleportation technology, are the others? Dammit, I need more time to fix myself, this is happening too soon!' Leo's mind screamed. Sighing, Leo added another objective to his current night mission. 'Let's see if I can't find any information about any other bases having portals. If they do, I might be able to get some general coordinates of their locations for the country's military to strike.' Leo added to his mental to-do list. Continuing his search for the teleporter, he noticed that the power lines from the generators wound their way through the base. As he followed it, he suddenly became aware of an old stone doorway hidden in overgrowth at the far edge of the camp. Seeing that the cables went into the stone doorway, Leo surmised that the teleporter lay within. Just as he began to monitor the patrol patterns within the camp, he saw and heard a commotion  from the general vicinity of where he left Applejack. A cold chill flowed over him when he noticed an orange light flash from the area, followed by some shouting.

"Git yer filthy claws off'a me! Give me back mah sister and her friends!" Leo heard Applejack shout. The drones were pretty much dragging her into the camp as she struggled, not paying attention to where they were going. When they bumped into the power generators, their concentration lapsed, and Applejack broke free long enough to buck two of the drones into the generators, knocking them over and causing a small fire as power arced around the area. Unable to get away in time, Applejack got struck by one of the arcs and crumpled into a heap, making her more manageable for the drones. Once the generators were finally shut off (after much cursing from the lead engineer who appeared from the depths of carved stone cave), the drones were not happy.

'You stupid, stupid mare! Now look at what you've done! I'll be lucky to save any of you NOW! And so much for getting the teleporter info...' Leo groaned, as the drones who accidentally broke the generators took their prisoners into the cavern beyond the doorway, making sure to make no extra effort to prevent further injury to the Applejack. Assuming she was still alive after that electrical shock. Not wanting to get caught himself, Leo quickly snuck back into the woods. Cursing his luck and the entirety of the planet he currently found himself on, Leo stealthily made his way around the edge of the camp, keeping his eyes open for any lingering patrols. Once he arrived near the stone doorway, he quickly noticed that it wasn't a little cave, but an entire ancient building covered in overgrowth. Deciding to investigate, he wandered away from the camp along the edge of the building, continuing to keep an eye out for drones. When something on the building caught his eye, he stopped and smirked.

"Jackpot." Leo mumbled to himself, as he trotted over towards a small hole in the aged wall. Peeking in, he looked for drones keep guard, but found none. In fact, he saw absolutely nothing thanks to the lack of light inside, which irked him to no end, as the lack of light hadn't been a problem for him for a long time.

'So there ARE benefits to being a robot, fancy that? Good-for-nothing witch doctor magic tricks...' Leo grumbled  to himself as he felt his way through the hole and into the building. The seconds that ticked by felt like minutes he didn't have as he groped and prodded his way through with his hooves. After a few moments and a number of doorways later, Leo entered what felt like, to him, a large room within the building. As he crawled along the floor straight from the doorway he entered from, he suddenly noticed a flicker of faint light shine from a doorway to his left.

"Generators are back up and running!" a voice shouted from the source of the light. Leo heard a drone shout something in response, but couldn't make it out what it had said. "Alright, I'm coming back, jeeze!" The voice shouted again, evidently it's owner walking towards the owner of the other. Leo waited a moment before picking himself up and walked over to the doorway that he could see in the faint light. Peering out into the hallway before him, he found it suspiciously empty. He decided to stay in the doorway for a moment and keep glancing up and down the long ancient hallway, and his decision quickly paid off, as a drone descended a staircase at the far end of the hallway, the eerie blue light from the lamps the drones had set up earlier flooding over it.

"Hey, has anyone seen a green pony wandering around? That missing patrol just crawled in, saying a green pony got the orange one we caught free, and both of them kicked their bolts in. I was kind of wondering why Tommy wasn't saying anything." The drone shouted down the hallway, laughter in his voice, which prompted Leo to shy away from the doorway. He could hear a drone shout in reply, but again couldn't make out what it was saying. As the other voice continued, Leo grumbled about ponies having bad hearing and subsequently wished he was back to normal again.

"Hah, alright alright! George is making some Electrichino. If you geeks feel like socializing, leave your cave and come outside." the unseen drone shouted, and audibly climbed back up the steps. Peeking back out, Leo decided it was now of never to make a beeline down the hallway into the depths of the strange and ancient structure, and risk being seen. As he galloped down the narrow hallways, following the fattest of the power cables, he vaguely made out the sounds of surprised engineer drones seeing him bolt past them and raising the alarm. Just as he rounded a corner, Leo felt himself slam into a curious drone, who had left his work station to see what the commotion was. Once Leo had shaken the birds clouding his mind, he picked himself back up only to see the drone now purposely blocking his way. Turning around to seek out another path, Leo found the hallway flooded with soldier drones looking at him eagerly.

"You won't get away this time, little Pony!" The lone engineer shouted at Leo from behind with a menacing tone. Leo simply smirked and turned to look at the drone with a 'Hmph'. "Oh, you have spunk, eh? Well, I have a weapon, and you don't. Let's see how long that spunk will keep you alive, hm?"

"Drone model A15-ENG. Basic drone model designed for engineering tasks, and nothing more. Terrible at combat." Leo recited with a smirk. The drone simply stared at the pony in utter confusion, unable to figure out where it could of gotten the information. Not wasting a moment, Leo turned to the soldiers that were behind him. "Drone models, varying from A16-AX, to A18-POLARM, and even the tiny A10-ANNY-GSHT. Combat capabilities range wildly, however, under normal circumstances only pose a threat to unarmed civilians. Overall combined Combat Rating: Low." Leo again recited, chuckling as he noticed the expressions on the soldier drones flashing between shock and anger. As silence fell upon the scene, save for a cough from a drone, Leo simple sighed, turning back. "Fine, let's just get this over with." Leo replied nonchalantly, as he galloped at the lone engineer drone, causing it to topple over in surprise. Leo landed on the other side, his smirk still visible. He felt a dangerous rise in confidence, but paid it no further heed. He was having too much fun with these drones!

"W-why is your voice so....why does it cause my databanks to attempt to recall old memory?" The engineer asked, suddenly very afraid of the answer the pony before him would have.

"Because...well, because my voice was the one that announced the end of Vexus' tyrannical reign of destruction!" Leo shouted at them. All the drones were silent for a moment, as they were all processing what Leo had just admitted to them.

"KILL OUR LATE QUEEN'S MURDERER!" A higher ranking drone shouted at the others. Once they let out a massive hollar and charged at Leo, his expression switched from confident to one of extreme terror, and he stumbled backwards before turning tail and booking it down the rest of the hallway and down a long and wide staircase. Egged on by the sounds of the drones getting closers, Leo nearly stumbled again once he found himself at the bottom of the staircase and now in a gigantic chamber, of which moonlight flowed in through holes in the ceiling illuminating the entire chamber. Overgrowth seemed to be taking the chamber back akin to the rest of the building, as hanging moss and vines snaked down from the holes in the ceiling, which upon closer inspection seemed intentional from the building's designers. As he began to take in the beauty of the room, his mind was snapped back to his current plight, as he heard a drone not far behind him shout "There he is! Get him!"

"Crap!" Leo shouted as he bolted further into the room. 'I should've just kept my mouth shut back there and bolted down here. Because if I get caught, at least then I'd just be a slave.' Leo thought sourly, as he moved deeper into the chamber. As he went further, he suddenly noticed some shapes up ahead. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was his whole reason for being in this mess of an op. "Applejack! Little girls! ...Are any of you awake?" Leo shouted as he approached them. He slowed slightly, still aware of his numerous tails, when he noticed that all four ponies were unconscious. They were held in oddly formed cages, and it was giving off a weird feeling, with an odd device in the top of the cages spinning and giving off an eerie glow.  The sight of  Applejack and the three fillies, whom had tear stains on their faces, sleeping in what looked like in extreme discomfort, enraged Leo to a new level. Certain that he'd lose if he were to go toe-to-toe with the drones, Leo decided to wake the four ponies and escape somehow with around 20 drones hot on their tails. Just as he was fleshing out his terrible plan, Leo skidded to a halt when something in front of him caught his eye.

"Spread out! Find him! You four, cover the doors! Silva won't be able to escape now!" Leo heard a drone shout out from the dim light the moon offered, reminding him of the precious little time he had remaining. He turned his eyes back towards the sight before him: a strange, shimmering, blue translucent veil that seemed to separate the chamber from a large door in the distance.

"This must be more magic...but what is it?" Leo asked himself in a mumble. He bit his lip, pondering if he should risk walking through a veil of unknown origin, uncertain of what he was getting himself into. What if, to Leo, it was actually some new unknown Hive technology designed to trap unauthorized personnel? His mind was quickly made up for him, however, as when he heard and watched the orange Pegasus filly give out a little squeak and begin to shake from terror or unseen beasts and demons in what Leo figured to be her dreams, he steeled himself and walked through to veil.

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BOOTING...Please Wait...

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"...ttttttttttthhhhhhaaaattt llight! You, that came from the prisoners, go check it out!" Leo heard from the floor. Groaning, he put a hand to his head and rubbed it, in a futile attempt to disperse the electrostatic buildup in his head. As he finally opened his eyes, he became aware of the fact that he was still in the ancient building, but now on the other side of the mysterious veil. Rolling over to take a peek, he put himself on all fours, but quickly found that his forelegs were now much shorter. A quick glance down showed him that this was not the case, as they were now arms, complete with hands. Getting up, he quickly looked himself over to find that he was back to his original shape.

"Hell yeah! Oh, right, diagnostics..." Leo shouted, before calling up the HUD he despised and executing his 'quikdiag' applet.

"Quick Diagnostics complete. Here is your readout:

B.R.A.I.N.'s main processor is operating at half-capacity, seek maintenance.

G.P.S. cannot obtain signal from satellites, please resolve issues.

Flight thrusters are heavily damaged, do not attempt normal flight operations until maintenance is complete. Flight vector thrusters nominal.

Unknown Hardware failure in ALL Gyros and ALL Servos detected. Break off current operation and seek maintenance immediately.

System Rating(Ignores Flight Status): 14.2857%. Total Failure Imminent.

'OverClock' function is available, but it is heavily recommended to avoid it's use in system's current state."

"Great. I might as well be as useful as a fourteen year old human female. Good. To. Know. Thanks, Luck." Leo mumbled to himself. Somewhere, a mare with a Horseshoe cutie mark sneezed in the middle of drinking a late-night smoothie, prompting her friend to laugh as it dripped off the mare's unamused face.

"Hey, I see something, I see- OH MAN!" a drone shouted to the rest of them, stopping suddenly when he caught a glimpse of Leo. "Uhm...did you wanna...put some clothes on before we fight?" The drone asked a now confused Leo. Glancing down, Leo noticed he was completely naked. Sighing, he queried his internal inventory cube ("Thank you, Missus W!"), but quickly found out that it wasn't even installed.

"God dammit. Well, I'll just have to go as is, my little drone." Leo sighed as he recalled how he dropped most of his possessions at that weird altar thing where Angel actually managed to ruin his day. Making a note to find that location again, Leo entered a familiar fighting stance, this time knowing how to position himself. The drone had no idea how to react, seeing as, as far as it was concerned, Leo looked just like a stark naked human being.

"Private, what have you found over there!" The voice of the high ranking drone rang out from the darkness. The drone only got the response of stifled snorting and giggling coming from the drone that Leo was  in stance in front of. Sighing, Leo simply swung his left leg up and out, successfully executing a side kick on the drone, causing it to rocket out into the darkness, eliciting surprised shouts from the rest of the company of drones. Leo fell to his knees, groaning as he felt his entire frame shudder from using his OverClock technique.

"O...kay. Diag...nostics was not...kidding when it suggested to avoid using that. Let's disable that...heh." Leo smirked as he got himself up off the floor. No longer feeling the after effect of his last maneuver, he looked up to see the drones finally approaching.

"Y-you watch yourself, Leo Silva! My men have been heavily trained, and while some of us may crash due to extreme damage, I'm certain we'll do some damage of our own!" The leading drone shouted at Leo.

"Please, as if you boys are a threat. Even if I'm not nearly as powerful as XJ-9, I can still tear you rust buckets to pieces! Leave now, and I'll let you all-" Leo began to suggest to the drones via a bluff, but a robotic voice from Leo's quikdiag applet, which he accidentally left running, interrupted him and rung out aloud.

"System performance has now dropped to: FOUR TEEN PERCENT. Please Seek maintenance immediately." The voice had ratted Leo's state out. The room was silent for a moment, save for a sheepish grin.

"I'll...let you all live?" Leo finished, visibly embarrassed that his own body would betray him like that. The drones burst out laughing, but kept the laughter short lived as they readied their pole-arms, axes, and bare fists at Leo. "Fine, we'll do this the HARD WAY!" Leo shouted, quickly starting with a right hook on the closest drone. Grinning when he felt the drone's face dent upon his fist connecting, Leo quickly had to maneuver out of the path of a swinging axe. Targeting the drone that attack him, he went to disarm it, but was knocked onto his back by a rogue pole-arm. Grunting, Leo grabbed at it and yanked himself back up quickly, using the drone's own weight as an anchor. Dropping close to the floor, Leo tripped up the sorry drone using a low reverse roundhouse, causing it to drop it's weapon in surprise. Before it, or any of it's comrades could act, Leo smashed the back of it's head in by following up with an axe kick.

"Come on now, men! Silva isn't even designed for direct combat, and he is at 14% for crying out loud!" The leader commanded from a slight distance, prompting Leo to laugh.

"Don't worry your pretty little processor over your fate, Mr. Leader! I'm saving you for last!" Leo shouted, just before an overzealous axe drone swung at Leo. Missing the blade by centimeters, Leo countered by wedging the blunt end of his pole-arm in-between a ground of bricks and used it to hold himself up, and then executed a butterfly kick on the axe drone. Before the leading drone had a chance to react, the flying axe drone slammed into him, sending both of them, battered and dented, crashing to the floor. As the leader quickly collected himself, he dodged to the left when he looked up to see the axe drone's own weapon swung at him, only missing it imbedding itself in his head by a hair's width. "Sorry, guess I lied." Leo joked, as he parried another axe attack using the pole-arm he had removed from it's resting position.

"You wait, Silva! I'l have your oil pump in my claws!" the leader screamed in anger, as he ran back to grab the axe Leo had thrown at him. After a few more parries and drones falling at Leo's hands, Leo definitely noticed that he was feeling a little taxed. A quick query returned what he had expected: His system endurance was plummeting, and currently sat around 54%.

'This needs to end soon, I need a chance to cool down and repair damage.' Leo thought to himself as he dodged yet another attack. Counting his foes remaining, Leo attempted another bluff to gauge his opponents' resolve.

"Eleven down...nine to go. I could keep doing this all day, you boys sure you want to continue?" Leo asked, finishing with a smirk. Watching the drones, he was happy to see a couple of them glance around, and some even looked back to their leader.

"Of course we'll continue! You'll wear out eventually!" The leader shouted at him. As Leo looked towards the leader, who's eyes were silently wishing for an amazingly awful death for him, he noticed the Hive's teleporter in the background, complete with an operational mainframe. Before he had a chance to think his next moves through, he suddenly gasped as he found the speared end of a pole-arm stabbed into his stomach. When the drone withdrew the pole-arm, Leo gasped in pain, the sensation clouding his mind slightly. Extremely enraged at this action, Leo shut down his pain receptors, and grabbed a hold of the pole-arm before him, dripping with his synthetic blood and a small amount of oil.

"Dumbest. Move. EVER! DRONE!" Leo shouted at the now cowering form. Giving it no mercy, Leo reactivated his OverClock function, rammed the spear into the drone, as he ran right at the nearest wall with it at high speed. When the drone hit the wall, it stopped completely, but the pole-arm Leo was holding kept going right through it and the wall, up until the drone's now lifeless frame was hit by Leo's fists. Calmed slightly, Leo fought to remain upright as another shudder shook his body, and he quickly deactivated OverClock again. He gasped when he noticed that his system capacity dropped the 8%.

'Silva, you moron! You just sacrificed 6% on one measly drone!' Leo groaned as he berated himself. Turning, he noticed that his foes numbers had not just dropped by one, but by four. Glancing at his legs, he noticed metal shrapnel had stabbed it's way into his legs causing them to bleed, and that his path was littered with the wreckage of what consisted of approximately three drones. Surprised that he had bulldozed through them without knowing it and literally blew them to pieces, Leo had no idea how to react to the drones that were staring at their comrades on the floor, then at the one in the wall, and back to Leo in shock. Leo quickly shook off his own surprise, however, and finished off the remaining five drones with some quick and powerful fist jabs and kicks. Once all the drones had fallen, Leo glanced around for the one that remained: the leader. The only thing that greeted him was silence, and after a quick scan of the room, Leo resorted to checking each robotic corpse for the leader's insignia.

"Dammit! He got away!" Leo suddenly shouted, after having discovered that not a single one of the drones wore his insignia. Partially satisfied that every other drone in the encampment had been dispatched after searching with a long-range scan, Leo looked back towards the hostages of the situation. They were all still locked inside the cages, of which Leo was now able to tell were designed to cause it's captives to fall into a deep slumber filled with nightmares. Angry, Leo wandered over, through the odd magical veil that returned him to normal, and tore the cages apart, laying the slumbering ponies next to each other on the floor. He turned towards the teleporter that lay before him, unfinished, and wandered over to the terminal. Once he figured out how to use the mainframe workstation, Leo was able to pull up an engineering checklist containing various information about the teleporter. On the 57th file, titled 'Recon Base Zeta teleporter location codes', Leo suddenly smiled widely.

"Jackpot..." Leo spoke quietly as he opened it up, and recorded it's contents to his own memory. Thankfully, there were no other teleporters on planet. At least, not yet. Just as he stood up with a triumphant smile over having completed his operation that the strange figure gave him, a sudden and strong wave of nausea and dizziness overcame him, causing him to fall to his hands and knees.

'Wait a sec, what the hell? I'm not....ugh...supposed to be feeling...these as...a robot....why am I so tired now...?' Leo thought to himself as his mind filled with a fog, before he watched the ground rush up at him, followed by a blissful blackness.