The Scrapyard

As the hill came closer and closer Rainbow Dash began questioning the wisdom of her impulsive action-as it certainly looked quite solid.

The muscles in Dash’s wings tightened in fear as her ears flattened against her head and she squeezed he eyes shut before throwing her forelegs in front of her face defensively for the impending impact.

Instead of becoming a horrific mass of broken bones and gore however, she was instead greeted with what appeared to be the interior of some type of factory.

The walls and the floor were a sickly grey color and the floor beneath her hooves felt as if it were made from some kind of metal and the lighting was seemingly nonexistent save for dull fluorescents and tiny red lights spaced apart on the walls that seemed like they were meant to be some form of alarm.

The building also seemed to be pretty poorly constructed, as if they weren’t many people who had worked on it when it.

“Wow, what a crap-shack…” Dash muttered, turning around to look at the entrance and see The Doctor, Twilight, and the TARDIS standing a hoofball field away from her.

“Pretty creepy…” she added under her breath as her ears perked up at the heavy clunking sounds behind her with before she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck.

Turning around, she saw a giant metallic creature with a large piece of armor missing from its chest.

It was holding a fist out towards her with what appeared to be some type of miniature canon outfitted onto its wrist.

Rainbow Dash’s body felt like it was slowing down as her muscles began to feel heavy and her vision became blurry.

Feeling around the area on the back of her neck the pain was stemming from, her hoof connected with what felt like a dart of some kind.

It wasn’t long before she collapsed onto her side as her eyes became heavy.

“Stand by for upgrade.” The metallic creature instructed in its monotone voice.

When Rainbow Dash awoke, she was strapped to a metallic table with sinister looking machinery on the ceiling directly above her-there was a buzz saw, a pair gardening sheer-sized scissors, a long drill, and a metallic mask similar to the one the creature that attacked her wore-only it appeared to be specifically designed for ponies.

Directly across from her were a series of monitors that showcased the areas within and around the building with a control panel directly beneath them.

The layout was like the control room of one of those Sci-fi books that Twilight was always trying to get her to read-only it was far more nightmarish-the only lighting available aside from the monitors was red and the area around her appeared to be covered in either grime or dried blood.

Hoping it was the former; Dash looked down at her neck and was relieved to see that her mother’s pendant hadn’t been taken from her while she was out.

Having her hooves bound with metallic constraints, she was in quite a bit of discomfort as her folded wings felt like they were being crushed between her back in the slab and quickly became irritated at the fact that not only was she trapped-but, she didn’t have the ability to reposition herself more comfortably, either.

With great effort, she was able to lift her head just enough to look around the room a bit, but was disappointed with how empty it appeared to be save for a line of pony versions of that thing that had attacked her.

At this point, she began struggling against the restraints-as hopeless as it seemed-she would rather be known as someone who went down fighting rather than be the pony that just gave up and waited to be tortured to death.

To her surprise, there was painful squeak as the restraint for her left hoof appeared to be coming loose.

Upon further inspection, it appeared to be quite rusty and if that was the case with the other three, then perhaps all she needed to do was struggle a bit more before they came loose as well.

After that, she could give whoever put her here a piece of her mind (and a hoof through their teeth).

That was when a metallic pony entered the room from the doorway next to the control panel.

It was roughly the size of a full grown stallion and had both the horn of a Unicorn and the wings of a Pegasus.

“You do know what I’m going to do to you when I get out of here, right?” Rainbow Dash challenged defiantly, her confident tone betraying the fear swelling up inside of her.

She was surprised to see the bizarre Alicorn-inspired creature to laugh at her threat, which sounded quite odd with the same monotone the creature before had.

It took a few clunky steps towards the slab.

“I recognize you.” It replied. “You are Rainbow Dash; the bearer of the Element of Loyalty.”

“Yeah,” she scoffed, still fiddling with the loosened restraint. “If you know who I am then you should realize what a mistake you’ve made keeping me alive down here.”

The mechanical creature merely chuckled at her cockiness.

“So tell me, how do you feel knowing that ‘Princess’ Twilight is reaping all the benefits from the hard work of you and your friends?” It asked.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at this.

“Discord had to resort to magic to make me turn my back on my friends and he’s a god.” She sighed. “Do you really think I’m gonna betray my friends just because you’ll torture me if I don’t?”

“You misunderstand.” It replied. “This isn’t a torture chamber; it is a Cyber-Conversion Unit.”

“Meaning?” Dash pressed, feeling the restraint beginning to loosen a bit more.

“A few months ago I discovered a creature from another universe, it was badly damaged but with the aid of a cylinder still intact within its chest I learned a great deal and repaired the machine with my newfound knowledge.” It explained.

“If you’re not with it, then where did you come from?”

“I was formerly a researcher for Canterlot University before I was kicked out by my superiors as they were under the false belief that my theories and research methods were too unsavory for the citizens of Equestria to tolerate.” It explained.

“The data I discovered showed me how much more I could become if I upgraded myself.”

It then leaned over Rainbow Dash.

“All that is required for the upgrade is the subject’s brain; once the conversion process is complete they will be strengthened with the removal of emotional weaknesses such as sorrow, pain, and fear.”

“What about other stuff like love and happiness?” Dash challenged, trying to keep it talking.

“Those are emotional weaknesses.” It responded.

“Then why do you have them?” Dash challenged. “You were laughing at me earlier.”

“That is because understanding the way ones enemy thinks is usually one of the quickest routes to defeating them.” It replied. “You will have the honor of being converted into the very first Cyberpony in history.”

Rainbow Dash’s ears flattened as she clenched her teeth together, growling at him like a dog.

She then slipped her hoof free from the restraint, as the machine-like creature looked down at her pendant and recoiled a bit before she was able to lift a portion of her body off the table to strike the creature across the face with her hoof.

Wincing in pain, Dash then felt the other restraints begin to lose their integrity as her struggling seemed to finally be paying off.

Curious as to why it withdrew earlier and wanting something harder to hit it with, Dash took off her mother’s pendant before wrapping it around her hoof a striking the creature with it, denting a part of its head and causing it to spark as it stumbled backwards.

Rainbow Dash smirked to herself, confident that she had won before it lifted its head and began advancing on her once more.