The Scrapyard

“Rainbow Dash, we thought you’d been captured by the Cybermen.” The Doctor stated.

“I was.” Dash replied, hitting the side of her head with a hoof as pieces of rubble fell from her ear.

“Then how did you escape?” The Doctor pressed.

“Well, the cuff-things on the table I was strapped to were pretty weak and rusty so it wasn’t too hard to break free.” She explained.

“There was also a guy there that looked like one of those Cyber-things, only he looked like an Alicorn.”

“Surely, he must have tried to stop you…” The Doctor muttered to himself.

“He did-after I got one of my legs free I punched him-only it didn’t do much except make my hoof hurt a lot.” Rainbow Dash recalled.

That was when The Doctor noticed her mother’s pendant hanging around her neck.

“Is that made of gold by any chance?” The Doctor asked, gesturing to it.

“Yeah, I hit him with it before it made a huge dent in his helmet-thing and a bunch of sparks flew out, why?”

“Back in the old days, the Cybermen’s original coding could be scrambled or interrupted briefly through contact with things like gold and cleaning fluid.” The Doctor explained.

“What was all of that commotion upstairs?”

“After I escaped from that control room, these Cyber-things came alive and tried attacking me-which is weird, because the guy in the room said that I was supposed to be the first Cyberpony.” Dash replied, thoughtfully.

“Then they must be prototypes; empty shells that whoever is behind this has been working on and now all he needs are brains to make them complete so he can have subjects to rule over and an army to command without any resistance.” The Doctor elaborated.

“Yeah, but…” she shuddered and felt a lurch at the pit of her stomach.

“I saw bodies…being dropped in some kind of incinerator…”

“Did it look like their heads had been cut open.” The Doctor asked, looking at her, concerned.

“I-It looked like it, why? What does that mean?”

“It means,” he sighed. “That whoever’s behind this has probably murdered others before we came along or tried harvesting brains from fresh corpses to power his Cyberponies…probably both.”

Rainbow Dash tried pushing the grim thought to the back of her mind as she slowly cantered over to him and saw the remains of the Cyberpony that Twilight had destroyed.

Dash let out a low, impressed whistle.

“Good job.” She commented. “You really smashed that one up good.”

“It wasn’t me.” The Doctor replied. “Twilight thought it was you and ripped it apart.”

“SHE WHAT!?” Dash exclaimed, in alarm.

“Based on its design and what it said to us, we believed that you had been captured and converted into one of these ‘Cyperponies’” The Doctor explained calmly.

“When that happens, the person is usually beyond saving-Twilight didn’t want to do it-but, I told her that if she didn’t then I would because it was too big of a threat to let go.”

“Speaking of…” Dash began, looking around. “Where is Twilight, anyway?”

“She ran off.” The Doctor replied, standing up. “She was very emotional after what happened to this decoy-not that I can blame her; she said she was going to find whoever is doing this.”

“What!?” Dash exclaimed, her wings flaring in anger. “You just let her go after that lunatic all by herself?”

“Twilight wouldn’t listen to me.” The Doctor countered, defensively. “She blames me for what we thought happened to you, what she still thinks happened to you.”

At that point a group of Cyberponies seemed to fall through the hole in the ceiling before they began marching towards Rainbow Dash and The Doctor.

The there were four of them in total; they were each the size of a mare with different colored eyes.

One has blue eyes and a horn with a decal of three diamonds on its flank, another had green eyes with three apples, Pegasus with bright blue eyes and butterflies on its flank, and finally there was one with blue eyes and three balloons.

“What’s goin’ on Doc?” Dash asked, as they slowly began backing up from the mechanical monstrosities advancing on them.

“Why do they look like us?”

“They’re containment units.” The Doctor replied. “They’re meant to be a way to control and try to utilize the bearers of The Elements of Harmony or at the very least; detaining them so they can’t be used against the Cyberponies-and don’t call me ‘Doc’.”

“All right!” Dash exclaimed confidently, bumping her fore hooves together. “If these ones aren’t really people, then there’s no need for us to hold back!”

With that, Dash charged towards the metallic doppelgangers before colliding with ‘Applejack’, knocking the machine back into the others.

‘Rarity’ had blue energy charging up from her horn before The Doctor pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver on reflex and was able to make her head involuntarily jerking to the side, as the shot fired into the Pinkie Pie duplicate, destroying it.

Rainbow Dash was on top of the Cyberpony before punching through its glowing chest plate and grabbing its head and twisting it before pulling it off and snapping the wires attaching it to the body.

The Rarity Cyberpony had recovered from the effects of The Doctor’s screwdriver and aimed its horn at him once more as it began charging up energy.

The Doctor aimed his Sonic Screwdriver at it once again before activating it, cutting the power flow from the base of the horn, so it couldn’t reach the tip as it became increasingly bright.

Its body began shaking as its horn began to crack with the increase of built up energy trapped within the base.

The Cyberpony’s head exploded with wires hanging from its neck the body slowly toppled onto its side.

“One left.” Rainbow Dash commented, as they both turned to the Cyberpony copy of Fluttershy.

“Rainbow Dash, throw the head.” The Doctor instructed.

“Huh?” Dash asked confused before looking down at decapitated Cyber head and throwing it at ‘Fluttershy’.

The Cyberpony caught it between its hooves in mid-flight before its head rotated to meet Rainbow Dash.

“Hostile elements will be deleted.”

“Not today.” The Doctor replied as he amplified the residual power within the head to a critical level causing it to explode.

The damaged Cyber unit collapsed to the ground, covered in scratches and burn marks with a gaping hole in its torso.

Rainbow Dash turned back to The Doctor with a wide triumphant grin.

“That was awesome!” She explained, victoriously. “Now, let’s go look for Twilight so we can get some more of these things to blow up!”

“Your enthusiasm is both refreshing and disturbing.” The Doctor replied, dryly before Dash took flight as he galloped down the hall in the direction Twilight ran off in, leaving the destroyed Cyberponies behind.