Torchwood: Project Equestria

The time was midnight when the train was prepared for the express back to Ponyville. Twilight and the others gathered on the platform giving their last goodbyes before the journey back. The ponies boarded as Twilight bit her brother farewell for now and followed. The train emitted a large hiss from the steam engine before bellowing a loud blow from the whistle. Just as the train began to pull out of the station a young deep grey pony came running onto the platform screaming, “WAIT, WAIT!” Immediately the train grinded to a halt and the pony boarded.

Twilight got out of her seat when the pony entered the cabin, “you do know we’re – going to Ponyville, I know,” the pony interrupted panting heavily, “but I need to get to Canterlot! I've got important information for Princess Celestia!”

“Like what?” Ranbow Dash asked.

“I have important information for the Princess regarding what fell in Everfree.”

Twilight noticed the ponies cutie mark; an oddly out of shape circle mixed with another with an X through it and knew who this pony was; it was Tahlia whom she’d met back in Ponyville 2 days earlier, “so you know what this thing was?”

Tahlia shook her head, “not a thing, but a vehicle much like this train.”

The girls all gave confused looks and Applejack spoke, “Whacha mean a vehicle?”

“The tripod walking about the outskirts of Ponyville in the hours before the evacuation. What you never saw it?”

Fluttershy raised a hoof, “I saw a tripod.”

Tahlia reached into her rucksack and grabbed out a laptop, and every pony gave a severely confused look showing; what was this device? Tahlia typed in a few digits with surprising precision and turned the screen to face Fluttershy.

“Is this what you saw?” Tahlia asked with a sincere look.

Fluttershy gasped, “That’s it!”

Tahlia nodded, “The proper designation is a ‘Fighting Machine.’ Within the green eyes is a living creature of insane evil!”

The girls all gave concerned looks at each other and Twilight raised a hoof to her muzzle, “I just hope we don’t meet it any time soon.”

<--NEW TAB

Spike slowly opened his eyes. His current condition meant he could only hold them open for second before his reflex snapped them shut again. Eventually though, he came around and regained his senses. As he tried to rub his eyes to clear his vision he found his movements met with an odd feeling. As he rubbed and reopened his eyes he looked on horrified; he was surrounded by piles upon piles, upon piles, of Poison Joke flower. Spike screamed aloud and made for the closest light source he could see, a close-to faint speck of golden illumination. As he crawled as fast as he could out of the flower he was met suddenly by an invisible force, but upon close inspection was a glass window, and a large one compared to his height. He began frantically beating his small fists against the glass screaming but with no consequence, either nobody could hear him or they just didn't care.

After a couple of pounds Spike gave up, but took the time to see the small world outside his glass prison; a small round room with a deep golden hue given by the small anchored lights embedded in the walls. About the room where large capsules similar to the one he was imprisoned within. Above each where a pair of grey diodes which appeared to be light sources also. Adjacent to each capsule where grey glass tubing, which twisted towards the ceiling and met with a large spherical object. The object in general was a silver grey and beared many ports for the glass tubing which appeared to either receive, or inject contents into the capsules.

After a second attempt pounding against the glass Spike was met with a faint sound of a low sounding alarm. After a few seconds waiting a large cable slithered out of the ceiling. When it was a full meter away from the floor it rose suddenly and opened. Spike shrank back in fear as he saw what the cable ended with; a claw like the ones on the outside of the, “oh no” Spike whispered to himself realizing that he was inside the machine he saw harvesting the Poison Joke.

As he crept towards the window again he observed the claw as it approached the capsule on the far side of the room. Out of the gold a bright white light appeared that engulfed the contents of the first capsule. After a few seconds of this the light vanished and one of the lights above the capsule illuminated green. As the claw moved on to the second capsule it left a fully clear view of the first capsule for Spike to observe to his horror; in an instant ever Poison Joke flower inside the capsule was liquefied into a thick slurry which began being extracted through the tubing into the sphere in the centre of the room.

Spikes jaw dropped as he realized the true danger he was in. he began frantically smashing his hands against the glass yelling as hard as he could. The claw now moved to the third capsule as the second liquefied its contents. At this point Spike began throwing himself against the glass in an attempt to break it but to no avail.

The claw was now 2 capsules away from Spikes now and he was on the verge of tears as he smashed his fists against the glass one last time before finally giving up. Accepting his defeat and inevitable death, he knelt down and hung his head. When the capsule beside his liquefied its contents with a deep grind and the claw moved on to his, he raised his head and watched the eye of the claw as it emitted the blinding white light. As Spike took his last breath he held it in, and opened one eye; the light above the capsule was flashing red. Spike exhaled and opened his other eye, only to force them shut when the white light flashed upon the capsule. After it vanished the red light above flashed again. Slowly the claw lowered and seemed to face Spike directly. As the white light flashed and vanished one last time a loud hissing sounded and the capsule door swung open.

Spike was propelled forward when a mass of Poison Joke fell upon him. As he poked his head free h stumbled back when the claw approached him. Spike felt his memories of fear coming upon him again and he began to feel light headed. As he gazed into the claws red eye it changed to a light green and retreated back slightly. Re-controlling himself, Spike got up and approached the claw cautiously. “Uh, hi?” he said reluctantly as the claw rotated slightly, emitting a light click when it did so. As Spike began reaching an arm to touch one of the claws ‘fingers’ it turned to the right slightly to face an aperture like doorway as it slid open.

As Spike turned to face, the claw vanished into the ceiling, leaving Spike to enter the doorway alone.

Spike entered the corridor and proceeded through a second aperture doorway. The room was a deep blue with two large emerald concave hemispheres towards the front. There were three chairs with accompanying podiums at different angles around the room in a circular formation. Spike moved to the left of the podium in front of the door and viewed out the view-port, from what he could make from the mixture of the heavy green and the blur from his still recovering eyes he could make out the faint outline of the rooftops of Ponyville.

From behind Spike came the sound of the door re-opening. A large black figure with glowing eyes walked through and looked directly at Spike. Spike could only stand in fear as the figure knelt down in front of him and extended its hand. With a firm grip it took hold of Spike’s jaw and shifted it left, then right, then left again. Then the figure forced Spike’s jaw open and began poking the flesh of his fingers into Spikes tiny fangs. Spike’s only thoughts at current where that of examination, and the fear of the unknown figure drained with every passing moment.

“You’re unique little guy.” The figure said, rubbing Spikes head with his hand, “let’s have a better look at you.” The figure quickly grabbed under Spike’s arms and lifted him up onto a table adjacent to the podium and released him, “let’s bring up some lights.”

Slowly, thin white lines within the joints between the walls and the floor sprung light into the chamber. Every blank detail within the room became ripe with vibrancy and every fine detail missed became clear. The figure slowly illuminated with the lighting in the room and soon his face began standing out. Spike’s thoughts ran rampant within his mind but slapped back at him with a hard realization; this figure was another dragon!

“You’re a dragon! Hey!” Spike exclaimed before being lifted by the head. The dragon held Spike’s head firm and reached over to the console. He flicked a switch and released Spike simultaneously with only two words, “hold still.”

A halo suspended by two yellow illuminated rods rose up from the table and began rotating. A thin layer of light emitted from the rods and began fluctuating as the ring above began sending down rings of a darker shade of yellow. On a monitor on the podium beside the table an outline of Spike’s figure showed up displaying an x-ray of Spike’s body with a table of data that Spike had yet to understand. As a full frontal mirror of Spike wiped up the outline and began rotating, the halo ceased movements and retracted into the table. Spike clasped his hands together and approached the monitor and examined it; the rotating reflection displayed was exact to Spike’s form and he gave out a, “wow,” in surprise.

“You’re looking good little guy.” The dragon stated.

“Yeah.” Spike replied in a simple fashion, “where am I?”

The dragon moved to the right of the podium and flicked a switch. The view-port at the front of the room altered bringing up a map of the edge of Everfree to the other side of Ponyville. A small blinking dot appeared on-screen and the map centred and zoomed. “On the edge of the forest not far from the town. If you want specifics, this is where you are.” The screen altered bringing up a CGI turnaround of the exterior of the machine Spike was within.

“Wait, so I’m in here,” Spike began recounting, “before that I was watching from a rock when the machine was harvesting Poison Joke, then I was running, and then I woke up within the cell, then. . .” Spike paused and looked up at the dragon, “you nearly killed me!”

The dragon frowned, “little guy if I wanted to kill you I wouldn’t have halted processing wouldn’t I. now say that again, you were there when the Handler was during mid-harvest?”

Spike nodded in confusion.

“And you woke up back there.” He pointed his thumb towards the door to the rear.

Spike nodded with anger, “yeah you abducted me!”

The dragon raised a hand to his muzzle, “yeah. My bad I forgot the HARVEST protocol includes the capture and sedation of any creature it encounters. Should’ve checked on that before sleeping.” He took a pause. “How long where you out?” he finished in a lower tone whilst toggling some controls which brought up and timeline on the view-port. “Right so the Handler picked you up about 1 last night. Well I was fast asleep so I wouldn't have been any help to you.”

“So that’s one problem cleared up. Now about nearly killing me.”

The dragon glared, “you would be dead if there wasn't a dividing scan for each capsule.”

“A whatawa wha?”

“Dividing scan. Put simply each capsule is scanned to be sure the correct contents are within. Meaning that if something was in there that isn’t supposed to, like you were, it would halt the process and alert me to it, which it did.”

“So I should stop worrying then? That’s a relief.” Spike exhaled.

“Well it is 90% efficient.”

“Um. Meaning?”

“Well on rare occasions it won’t pick creatures like you up and they. . . well. . .”

Spike suddenly fell ill and fell to his knees. The dragon rushed to his side and placed a hand on his back. “Right this is important, and I know that you’re feeling this way and I know you want to shut up about it, but did you get a quick and sudden nose bleed?”

Spike looked up and nodded. The dragon stepped away and turned to face the door, crossing his arms. He dipped his head in a partially shameful way. From under his voice Spike could barely make out his voice mumbling something under his breath. Spike peeped past him, “is, that a problem?”

Immediately he sprung into life as if the day’s previous events never happened. Turning and speaking in rapid succession, “no problem, now first things first now all that’s cleared up, my names Edward James Alistair just call me Edd, this is DELTA,” he stated pointing his fingers to the ceiling, “now it’s time to rock!” he quickly shifted into his seat behind the podium and began activating switches. The machine around them groaned and powered up into reality. Spike lost his footing for a second as the floor rocked slightly and the machine shifted into an idle position. Statistics displayed on the viewport displaying DELTA at full 100% operation, “buckle in Spikey-boy, were on the move.”

A buzz of static rang through the rooms PA system proceeded by a voice, “Edd, you all set on your end?”

Edd flicked a switch which caused a quick robotic drone to echo around the room, “We’re heading into Ponyville now. And when I say ‘we’re,’ I picked up a friend by accident.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know a little dragon named Spike?”

“Spike? Yeah that’s Twilight’s assistant.”

Edd faced Spike, “Spike you might be a bit tired. In the back down the stairs is my room, go and take a nap or something.”

Spike looked confused, “but I’m not tired at a – GO, NOW!” Edd raised his voice. Spike dropped from the table and walked through the door. He turned to face Edd and raised his own voice, “you’re not Twilight you know!”

The door closed as the voice came through again, “bit harsh.”

“Necessary though, he might not like the fact that you’re ambushing their train.”

“Yeah. Anyway they’re five minutes out.”

“Hear from you both soon.”

“You too.” And the radio cut.

At approximate, I would have to be just before 1PM local the time the express neared *, everypony excluding Tahlia was nearing sleep but trying to keep themselves awake by any way possible, mainly watching Tahlia at work on her laptop, but Pinkie found good conversation with the train’s driver which has kept her awake for a while. Twilight observed at how swift Tahlia was with using her laptop, considering she had hooves instead of hands she was remarkably swift at what she was doing, which at current was setting up a small dish standing atop a small tripod stand and opening a program which appeared to be linking to it.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked with the tone of exhaustion.

“I’ve set the radar to tone when it picks up the Fighting Machine’s armour type so that we know how near we are to it, if it begins beeping li-

**

Everypony looked up, and Pinkie burst through the door.

“Like that?” Rarity asked.

Tahlia failed to answer. Instead though, she stood up, placed the laptop on the chair, and proceeded to the rear of the train. The beeping continued.

As she exited the rear door of the caboose she peered out to the left side of the train and observed the distance. Due to the amount of air forced into her eyes it was moderately difficult to see but she could make out the fabled lights in the distance; two round green illuminated lights accompanied by two smaller red headlights. ‘Here we go,’ she thought to herself.

“TAHLIA!” Twilight shouted.

Tahlia rushed back into the carriage, the beeping from her laptop was now frighteningly fast, and all the girls were now huddling together. “Don’t worry too much; the beeping just indicates that we’re near it, as long as it doesn’t-

**

“What does that mean now!?” Twilight shouted!

“It’s on an intercept, were heading right for each other!” Tahlia replied

Fluttershy screamed, as did Pinkie, “STOP THE TRAIN!” she bellowed as she ran for the front.

“NO WAIT!” Tahlia shouted back as she ran after.

“STOP THE TRAIN!” Pinkie shouted at the driver.

“WHY!” he shouted back.

“WE”RE GONNA’ DIE IF YOU DON’T!”

“WHAT!?”

“UP AHEAD!” Pinkie shouted.

The driver peered out the side of the train and saw it, the Fighting Machine now only half a kilometre away from the train, “oh sweet Celestia” he cursed as he applied the brakes. Sparks began raining from the wheels as the train slowly began grinding to a halt.

“DON’T STOP THE TRAIN!” Tahlia shouted as she bounded over Pinkie and the coal cart. As she landed she immediately disengaged the brakes and set the engines to full. The train jolted as it sped up to its full speed and was now barrelling at full pelt towards the Fighting Machine.

The machine was now looming overhead and was now truly terrifying. A thin white light emitted from a funnel beneath the machine accompanied by the high pitched sound of a charging energy weapon. Then there was silence. . .

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The Heat Ray narrowly missed the carriage with the girls and struck the caboose, incinerating it instantly. The burning wreckage blew off the car-coupling and rolled off the track into the nearby shrub.

The train ploughed forward, passing underneath the bulk of the machine but on a collision course with its hind foot. Instantly the foot was off the track into the air, coming back down with a loud, artificial thud beside the track allowing passage for the train.

“KEEP US GOING!” Tahlia shouted at the driver as she grabbed Pinkie and brought her back inside. The girls were cowering at the front of the carriage. The reason for this was obvious; most of the rear of the car was either melted or partially ablaze.

“It didn't do this back in Ponyville!” Fluttershy squealed.

“Will it catch up!?” Applejack shouted.

“Surely it can’t be that fast!” Rarity followed.

Tahlia poked her head out the window. She began mumbling something incoherently, holding a hoof to her ear.

“Tahlia!” Twilight shouted. Tahlia dashed for her laptop and began typing. The girls darted for the nearest windows. About half a K back was the Fighting Machine at full speed, “it’s following us!” Rainbow shouted.

“Don’t worry, we’re faster than it,” she announced observing stats on the Fighting Machine on her laptop, “it’s too slow it won’t. . .” A speedometer on the screen began increasing; 60, 65, 70, 80, 90km/h. “oh shit!” Tahlia exclaimed under her breath.

Out the windows the girls could see the increase in speed; each leg increased momentum with the hind hitting the ground every 0.8th of a second. Fluttershy wept and darted under the seat. Everyone still out the windows gave grave distorted looks. In little under 30 seconds the Fighting Machine was nearly upon them. A large white searchlight emitting from beneath the bulk shone upon the train. The light nearly blinded the girls forcing them back within the carriage.

“TAHLIA DO SOMETHING!” Pinkie shouted.

“Hold on, I've got this!”

“Got what!?” Twilight demanded.

“Since I've got specs on what the machine is doing at all times I’ll transmit a signal that’ll jam the machines computer!”

Reality froze for a second as silence once again fell, save for the rattling of the train and the heavy thumps of the Fighting Machine.

“WHAT THE HAY HAVEN’T YOU TOLD US YET!?” Applejack demanded.

“Did I mention we’ve been following each other?”

Tahlia stopped typing and a message appeared on her screen displaying; PROGRAM READY, LAUNCH NOW? Tahlia laid her hoof on the Enter key and inhaled, “please don’t work.” She pressed enter and exhaled.

After a few seconds the effects of the virus took effect; the Fighting Machine’s searchlight vanished and the machine suddenly lurched towards the left as the left knee rained sparks and grinded. The machine began slowing down rapidly. The girls began to cheer. Fluttershy emerged from beneath the seat and AJ peered out the window, “we’re in luck ya’ll, we’ve got a bridge coming up ahead!”

“We’ll lose it there.” Rainbow announced.

“We’re gonna’ make it!” Pinkie squealed.

The train entered the bridge. About a third of the way across the Fighting Machine caught up and pointed the Heat-Ray towards the bridge.

Twilight peered out the window and saw the white light emit from the funnel, “INCOMING!”

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A way past the middle of the bridge burst into splintering shards of blazing wood. The iron of the rail bent upwards and detached in a wrenching screech of twisting metal. The train screamed towards the burning gap, “WERE GONNA CRASH! GET OUT!” Twilight screamed as she grabbed Pinkie and Applejack. Fluttershy grabbed Rarity and Dash ran through and took the driver. Everypony ejected from the train as it careened off the bridge into the ravine below, impacting with a massive grind before being engulfed in an immense fireball which shot up and partially incinerated much of the bridge above.

The ponies landed on the other side of the ravine partially exhausted. Everypony looked down at the wrecked inferno of the train. Twilight looked around and noticed someone missing; Tahlia. “Tahlia?” she asked in concerned, “Tahlia!?” Everypony looked around for Tahlia; she was nowhere to be seen.

Rarity raised her hooves to her muzzle and began to sob. Pinkie and Fluttershy cried out loud and hugged tightly. Applejack dipped her head, “Not like this. Not like this,” she whispered as she peered up. Twilight walked over and slung her arm around Rainbow Dash as they both dipped their heads. The mourning was short lived as the whir of machinery rose over the sound of the burning train. The Fighting Machine stood on the edge of the cliff and entered and idle position. Rainbow Dash immediately lost it and flew full speed towards the machine, “RAINBOW WAIT!” Twilight shouted as she flew after her.

Rainbow approached the glowing hood of the machine and began shouting, “YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE!? LOOK AT WHAT YOU DONE TO ALL OF US! You’ve separated us from our homes, our families, our lives, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!?”

“RAINBOW!” Twilight caught up to her and tugged at her neck with her front hooves.

Slowly the machine whirred and elevated its bulk. The girls moved back slightly as the machine emitted a deafening roar,

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The girls were left slightly dazed and deafened as the machine turned to the left and strolled off with a limp in its left leg, “HEY WE’RE NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!-Rainbow it’s not worth it!” Twilight interrupted tugging at her neck.

The machine was nearly a kilometre away when the girls regrouped. “What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’ve only got one option; continue on to Ponyville.” Twilight announced, “Are we good to go?”

Everypony agreed and placed a hoof in a circle. “You in?” Twilight asked the train’s driver.

“No other options, looks like we’re doin’ this,” he said placing his hoof within the circle.

“Alright girls, and. . . er-Steampunk Bill,” he replied.

“Alright everypony, let’s do this.”

[≈5:10am]

The sun was a thin orange stripe on the horizon when everypony reached the edge of Ponyville. Not a single sound came from the town, only the wind and the callings of distant birds were the ambiance that filled the air. Every street traversed bared no signs of life, only the light flight of leaves and sheets of used paper, shop side shrubs and trees shifted lightly in the breeze and the banners above the Town Hall fluttered ever so slightly. Everything was nearly. . . dead. Ponyville was. . . dead.

Bill broke the stillness, “Ill head to the train station and find us a ride.”

“Will you need help?” Applejack asked.

“I’ll come and find you if I need some.”

“Alright, we’ll be at the Library if you need us.” Twilight said.

“Ok, later.” He said as he walked in the direction of the train station.

“Where to now Twai?” AJ asked.

“The Library, we need the Elements of Harmony. Hopefully they can help us take this thing down.”

“Twilight, do you mind if we go to our homes and get some belongings?” Pinkie asked.

“Sure, we’ll meet at the Library.”

The girls split up with Rainbow Dash and AJ heading to Sweet Apple Aches and Fluttershy running home at full pelt. Pinkie ran after her. Rarity followed Twilight to the Library.

At Fluttershy’s Pinkie asked her what her plan was, “Angel must still be here, I’ve got to find him.”

“What if he ran off with the rest of the animals?”

“If I don’t find him, then, I hope he’s doing alright.”

The girls searched for minutes around the house but with no success.

“He’s not here ‘Shy,” Pinkie concluded.

“Ok well let’s. . .huh?”

Multiple heavy trampling sounds boomed through the house, rattling everything that wasn’t nailed down, including Pinkie and Fluttershy.

“Ah, what is it!?” Fluttershy lightly screamed as they hid under the table in the dining room. From the window the silhouette of a massive dark machine rolled by, the darkness accompanied by constant flashes of green.

As it began to fade into the distance Pinkie spoke up, “oh no, not another one!”

They rushed outside and caught a glimpse of the machine, “it’s heading towards Applejacks.” Fluttershy Squealed, “we gotta’ warn her-

**

From Ponyville the sound echoed through the empty streets. Twilight and Rarity froze, “oh no, what was that?” Rarity asked. Before Twilight could answer a familiar sound blew through the streets.

“It’s back!” Twilight Gasped, “we’ve got to hurry.”

Misfortune struck Twilight and Rarity when they found the Library; a large snake-like apparatus was protruding through the front door of the Library. But the shock was from what it was being deployed from; the Fighting Machine.

“How do we get in?” Rarity asked.

“We need to wait until it leaves.”

“Shall we wait at my place?”

“Probably a better idea than waiting here.”

Over at Sweet Apple Aches Applejack and Rainbow Dash at gathered a few of AJ’s thingsand were prepared to leave before Dash notice a photo frame on a dresser in the living room; it beared a colt and a mare holding a filly Applejack and Dash began to self-ask; were these AJ’s parents?

“I’d rather not talk about it.” Applejack said watching Rainbow hold the photo.

Rainbow said nothing as she place the photo frame back down and walked towards the door. As they were about to leave, a bright emerald light shone through the glass panes in the door. AJ and Dash through themselves back as the door slowly opened. “Upstairs!” AJ whispered as they turned and ran as quickly and quietly as they could, leaving the rucksacks full of items on the stairs.

AJ and Rainbow hid in separate rooms, peeking their heads out watching the emerald light as it lit up the area above the stairs. Slowly a black metallic claw rose up and forward from the staircase and turned to face the hallway. It opened its fingers to allow the green glow to fill the room with a partially blinding green and proceeded forward. As it passed by the rooms Applejack and Dash where hiding it emitted a low pitch mixture of a grind and a whir. The girls watched as the claw bypassed the rooms and proceeded down the hallway. Applejack beaconed to Rainbow to come to the room she was in and she proceeded. She crept under the snaking metallic rope the claw was attached to as hard as she could and narrowly missed touching it, with her body, but she miscalculated on the maltreatment of her tail; one fine hair protruded and lightly, very lightly, brushed the rope. Immediately the claw swung around with an angry robotic growl and emitted a deep red light, and quickly proceeded back down the hallway to the room the girls were hiding.

The door was forced open as the claw came through and proceeded to scan the room. The girls, cowering under the bed where on the verge of tears at this point. The claw was now between them and every possible exit and their only hope was that it didn’t check under the bed.

“Applejack, I’ll lure it away.” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“No you won’t Rainbow!” AJ whispered back.

“Why? No wait!” Rainbow asked as Applejack slid back behind the bed.

She got up and screamed, “hey, lookin’ for me!?”

The claw locked onto Applejack and shifted forward, “Rainbow, RUN!”

Rainbow rushed past the claw and cowered in the doorway as Applejack jumped onto the bed and made an attack attempt at the claw, which met with no success. The claw sung and smashed Applejack face-first to the ground. As she rolled onto her back the claw opened again revealing the green-lit eye, changing to red as it loomed over her.

“APPLEJACK!”