3 The "Magnanimous and Benevolent" Trixie vs. Giant Robots

All attention turned to the doorway. A soft blue unicorn with a flowing silver mane and tail walked into the room. She was flanked by two beefy earth pony stallions. They both had long pole arms with nooses on the end. These ponycatchers were for subduing a struggling victim, rather than killing them outright. That way they could be put on trial, staged though it would be. Their red armor spoke of the blood and fire to come. “Don't worry, The Magnanimous and Benevolent High Inquisitor Trixie is here to help you with your problem.”

Delta looked to Yards.

“Trixie, you are in violation of the Treaty of Verneighs, Article 4, Paragraph 3. You will leave these premises immediately.”

The other unicorn scoffed. “You would claim embassy privilege here? This place is in violation of the Treaty of Trottingham. Article 7.”

Yards snarled in anger. A scroll levitated in front of his face. It was his penmanship.

“Princess Celestia,

Never mind how I found out about the loss of the Smooze bomb data. The simple fact that I found out about it before you did shows the level of breach in your security. I would beg you to share with your sister the knowledge of this weapon. It's only by working together that we will be able to stop this atrocity from destroying Equestria. Without data on the weapon, there's little I can do to create a counter.

P.S. Remind Dullard that he's a Nancy.

Thy faithful vassal,

Yards McCanter.” He looked over at the inquisitor. “So?”

“So, we know you're developing a counter. By your own admission to make a counter you must have some of the weapon involved.”

She trotted over to Delta. “Who do we have here? Surely it's not the changeling test subject you were issued. You know, the one that you reported as lost.”

“Chasme,” she held up her hoof in mock politeness. “Charmed.”

Trixie glared at her. “The Magnanimous and Benevolent Trixie is not amused.”

“I don't know why Celestia gave you access here-”

“You are truly dense, Yards. Haven't you figured it out yet?” She sashayed back to her verbal sparing partner. “Celestia isn't the one that sent me. In the spirit of detente you yourself pleaded for, Princess Luna has betrayed you. She saw the error of your wicked ways and sold you out for the greater good.” She walked back to her bodyguards. “Take her away.”

“Trixie! You have refused to vacate, as such I am authorized to use force. This is your last chance to leave peacefully!”

There was a clatter in the hallway, two more guards walked into the room. These had lethal spears, ready to do harm. Trixie laughed. “The Magnanimous and Benevolent Trixie certainly lives up to her name. She was attempting to give you a chance to surrender without bloodshed, but She sees that you are a stupid, selfish, and petty pony. Truly you bring shame to being a unicorn. To think that one of you can stop Me and all of my guards, of which I have twice as many in the hallway.”

This was it. This was the beginning of a new war. He would be firing first. But he couldn't let her hurt his friends.

“You can't arrest us, we've not done anything, and I need him for the harvest.” Rhubarb burst out.

“The Magnanimous and Benevolent Trixie is aware of the importance of Sweet Apple Acres to feeding Equestria. She has sent for farmers in the area to take over it's running. However, all of it's assets have now been seized. The land, the crops, the out buildings, the homes, and everything in them, are now safely in our custody.”

Rhu's ears laid down as she bared her teeth. “You WILL give me back my daughter.”

“She's safe. Far safer now than what she'd be with you.”

Rhu made to charge the High Inquisitor but was met with spear points. Yard reacted.

Rearing up on his hind legs he sent out a burst of magic, radiating out and down the tunnels. “ARISE!” He held up a forehoof, “ARISE AND AWAKEN MY CREATIONS!” The others stopped and looked at him while he laughed maniacally. Coming to his senses he blushed softly. “I always wanted to do that. Sorry.”

There was a deep rumble. Trixie turned on him, her horn glowing with full menace. “What did you do? What did you just do?”

“I'd run if I were you.” The ground vibrations turned from a rhythmic vibration to a deep WOOB. “Too late.”

A sonic wall shot down the hallway, slamming into the soldiers outside. Their ear drums were immediately shattered; the sound wall shoved the air at them so hard that it broke bone, then shoved it away, creating a vacuum that ruptured lungs. They began to flail as they drowned in their own blood.

All but Yards were aghast. “I see they work as intended.”

A guard lunged at him. He side stepped, lifted him up psychokineticly into the air. Without his footing he was an easy victim to physics as Yards grabbed the spear in his mouth as a fulcrum and flung him against to the wall. The unicorn spit out the spear, grabbed it in a Psychokinetic field, and smacked the other lethally armed soldier across the eyes with the haft of his new weapon. This blinded him temporarily, giving Yardsr time to deal with the other guards. There was a wave of heat behind him, followed by the stench of burnt hair.

“Delta, please, not again!” It wasn't Toffee. It was Starfall. The heat disappeared and the original two guards backed away with burnt poles.

Trixie attempted to rip the spear from Yard's mental grip with her own. The two began to wrest for control of the polearm. “You know how screwed you are, right?” Yards grunted. “You leave this room and the bass cannons will liquify your bones. Stay in here, and we have superior numbers. You're in a killing ground.”

She snarled at him, pushing back with all her magical might. Yards tried to hold on, but slowly he was being pushed back. There was a white blur that knocked Trixie to the corner.

“YOU!” A hoof crunched into her face. “WILL!” Another hoof. “GIVE” Yards started to hear snapping sounds. “GIVE! ME! BACK! MY! FOAL!” Apple Rhubarb pinned Trixie to the ground with all her earth pony weight on top of the the frail unicorn, and worked her over with her strong forehooves.

There was a small explosion and suddenly Apple was sitting on the floor; the inquisitor and her entourage had disappeared.

Yards walked to the door way. “TURN IT DOWN!” The sonic attack stopped. He floated his helmet over on top of his head to complete his armor suit up, closing his eyes as it settled into position. As he opened his eyes again he found most of the color washed out as the enchantment enhanced his low lite vision.

“What was that?” Toffee asked Yards.

“Something terrible.” He left the room and headed down the hall way. Mercifully the blood stains were minimal. There at the far entrance was a great metal figure. It was twice the size of a large stallion. On it's shoulders were twin bass cannons. There were things that looked almost like saddle bags across it's back. On it's flanks were quad barreled flack cannons who's barrels were almost as long as it's body. It had a horn that looked to be made of green glass with a rotating light inside. It's tail swished back and forth.

“What is it?” Toffee asked again.

“It's the W4R-P0NY. It's designed to be a squad level fire support system.”

“They used these things in the war?” Apple was aghast.

“Eh, this was an old Zero model. It used the original standard eso-engine, so it's use was limited to squads with unicorns that could power it.” He nodded to the tail. “I've retrofitted it to have an early version of one of my attempts at my corps drive. Oh.”

He walked into the small, arena like area. There were small stables much like the ones reserved for livestock all along the round room. Inside the area were presses, tables, tools, cutters, welders, and parts. Yards spun around, ignoring the clutter of creation and instead looking for one stable with a particular number.

“Forty-two. There we are.” He sent an invisible beam of magic into the stable, awakening another of his creations. “Probably gonna need Seven and Twenty-one too.” He activated two more. The three were all roughly stallion sized. Forty-two and Seven had a pair of wings. They were all blued, but not painted. These three also didn't appear to be armed.

Yards sighed as he began to open compartments inside one of the pegabots. Several objects began to float off the tables and nestle inside. While Yards was disassembling a couple of components so they'd fit, Toffee approached.

“What are you doing?”

“I've got to destroy this facility. But several of my experiments are too important. So I'm taking them away.”

Apple almost began to panic. “But this place runs under most of Sweet Apple Acres. If you destroy it, then most of the farm will be lost.”

“I can't let this fall into Solari control.”

“You promised me it would,” said Toffee. Yards turned to her. “My price for helping you find Spike was that you would share the knowledge you gained. You gave me your word.”

Yards hung his head. “Alright.” He pulled parts out of his device and sat them on the table. “Come on, we've got other things to save.”

He took them back down the hallway, walking past the dead guards. There were thin lines of blood from the soft tissues in their ears and eyes, and pink foam dripped from their mouths. Otherwise, they looked like they were sleeping. The girls were repulsed, though Yards just pushed them aside. He led them up the first passage and immediately turned into the first room. Inside were crates and lockers.

“In the lockers are FCL packs. Grab one, put any extra stuff you want into Twenty-one. I'd suggest blankets and food.” He turned and left with the other three contraptions.

“Where are you going now?” nagged Toffee.

“Relax, I said I wasn't going to destroy the place, but there are things here other than my Corps Drive that need to remain secret,” He called over his shoulder. Then he muttered under his breath. “I'm never going to get to use P0NY's flame thrower.”

He went into the library and began to load the two robo-pegasi with paperwork, notes and small devices. Once filled, he gave them coordinates to their new homes and sent them out the secret passage, where they jetted out into the night.

He walked back to the intersection where the girls were waiting. “Didn't that alert the Inquisition where we're coming out at?”

“We're not going out that way. But it does give them another way in. We need to leave now. Is everypony ready?” He swept his eyes around the group, making sure they all nodded in the affirmative.

Slowly he began to pull energy. Carefully he wove the spell around all of his friends and the two contraptions. Then he visualized their target. There was a *bamp* as the air was moved out of the way as five ponies and two equiroids landed outside of a clubhouse.

The clubhouse was old, but in the process of repair. The old picnic table under it, however, showed the years of exposure to the elements. It's worn wood would be unlikely to support anypony's weight.

“Where are we?” asked Apple.

“The back forty.” Yards gasped, exhausted from the spell, “Rhu and I found out about this old clubhouse from Scoots. We've been repairing it so she has some place to go be a foal. You know, out from under hoof. P0NY, guard mode,” he called over his shoulder. “Ladies,” he motioned up the ramp. Inside it was a little cramped, between all the bodies and the pile of construction materials, but it was dry, warm an safe. “Get some shut eye. I'm going to the roof to watch. Somepony come relieve me in two hours, kay?”
The girls began to mill about as he walked up the second ramp. Settling down, he buried his muzzle in his hooves and released all the emotions he'd bottled up for the night and cried silently.