Bold: The Ranger and The Robot

The beige pony led them into a large building, the town hall, Strongbolt presumed. The entire room was full of different ponies in western attire, huddled in the center; some were comforting others, some were just shuddering. All eyes turned to them when they entered the room.

"Dale!" A pony, who appeared to be the Sheriff, called. "Glad to see ya made it back in one piece sonny. Who are these folk?" He gestured at Strongbolt and Shiera who stood their awkwardly, coated in soot and dirt. "And fer that matter, what the heck happened to 'em?"

"They took on MERDA." Dale said. Everyone gasped and began muttering to themselves.

"Well, technically, it took us on." Shiera corrected.

The Sheriff's eyes narrowed. "You sure about that? Miss...?"

"Shiera, and this is Strongbolt. Yeah, MERDA attacked us." Shiera said.

"That thing's been coming into town so much we can't get out to repair or gather more resources. It breaks our walls and steals our supplies. But in all honesty, I ain't never seen it attack a pony fer no good reason."

"It called us 'hostile targets' and ran at us. Wait, no good reason?" Strongbolt explained.

"Yeah, it ain't a huge fan of ponies who get in its way, that's why most of us stay in here. But, anyway, since y'all are one a the few ponies who actually came face to face with this devil, you could be quite useful to us. Follow me." The Sheriff said pulling back a curtain leading into a small room with a desk in the middle, a bookshelf up against one wall and a window that had been boarded up. Inside the room were two other ponies discussing something over a book.

"Braeburn, Specs." The Sheriff said. The two ponies stopped and looked up at the Sheriff then at Dale and finally at Strongbolt and Shiera. "We got anything?" The Sheriff asked.

"Nothing, sir." The pony with glasses, Specs, replied apologetically. The other pony, Braeburn, nodded to confirm this. The Sheriff put his head in his hooves, then he turned back to Shiera and Strongbolt.

"Listen." He said. "I wouldn't be asking this is I weren't desperate, but our town is under attack. We can't do so much as leave our homes any more out of fear of that thing returning. We need somepony, or some ponies to help us put an end to MERDA's terrorizing. And as difficult as it is to admit it, you guys know far more valuable information about it than any of us do."

"Valuable information? We just got attacked by it." Strongbolt questioned.

"No." The Sheriff said. "You got attacked by it and won. That things nine times the strength a all of us put together. And yet you two took it out single hoofed."

"I wouldn't say we took it out, just got it to back off for a bit." Strongbolt confessed.

"That's a fine place to start." The Sheriff replied. "How did you do it?"

"Fire." Shiera stated simply. "It got covered in rum and we lit it up."

"How'd ya start the fire?" Specs asked.

"Matches. I found a couple in a department store outside."

"How did you have time to find them?" Braeburn implored. Shiera looked guiltily at Strongbolt.

"Strongbolt got its... attention." Shiera admitted. "I couldn't have done it if Strongbolt didn't absorb a few of its hits and kept it distracted."

"Don't it seem odd though?" Dale asked.

"What?" The Sheriff questioned.

"That thing ain't never just gone after anypony before without it being provoked- I mean with out somepony getting in its way."

"Lucky us." Shiera said sarcastically. "When did you first see it?"

"First time I ever saw it I was out in the dark, about a week ago. I was looking for... something I had left behind." He said, and for a moment he sounded less western. He corrected himself, "I mean I was out lookin' fer something. When I saw its red eyes, it approa-" he coughed. "It, er, came over to me, I guess I was a little scared and I stepped in front of it, the thing called me a 'hostile target' and jumped at me, so I ran. Back then it was still... pretty broken and it struggled to- I mean it had a hard time keeping up. It musta had a bad memory back then too 'cos it lost interest pretty quick. Raided our blacksmiths it did! Took our damn hard-earned resources! I guess that's what it's been using to fix itself."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Strongbolt said suddenly. "Are y'all, I mean, are you telling me this thing can actually repair itself?"

"You bet." Said Braeburn. "Every time we do a slight bit a damage to it it shouts about 'MERDA 3 returning to repair station' and digs itself a tunnel straight down."

"A tunnel down? So this 'repair station' could be underground?"

"We don't know, nobody ever followed it." The Sheriff said. "Besides, we're farmers, not miners, we wouldn't have a damn clue about where to dig." Shiera considered this for a moment.

"I think I have an idea." She said. "Have you got any shovels around here?"

"Shovels?" The Sheriff inquired. "You ain't honestly suggesting we just dig about aimlessly trying to find this 'repair station' that we don't even know exists."

"No, I think we already know where to dig. MERDA digs a tunnel straight through the earth whenever it gets damaged, right? Why don't we just follow one of the tunnels it's already made?"

"Worth a try." Braeburn admitted. The Sheriff thought about the idea for a moment.

"Alright then. We got a couple shovels in a storage cupboard somewhere around here. Be right back." The Sheriff left the room. Specs stared at the two ponies, he noticed Strongbolt's wing was injured.

"Bring me your wing." He said. Strongbolt obliged and lay out his wing on the desk. "Now, this may sting a little." He snapped Strongbolt's wing back.

"Ack!" Strongbolt yelled.

"There ya go. Just don't fly on it fer a while." Specs smiled whilst Strongbolt rubbed his wing.

"Uh, thanks, I guess." He spoke through gritted teeth. The Sheriff returned with a shovel in his mouth and another under his leg.

"Well, we got two shovels. Braeburn, if you and I get digging, Specs you stay here and do a little more research, and Dale, find these two somewhere to rest up a little." Specs nodded, Braeburn picked up the other shovel and Dale saluted.

"See ya an about an hour." The Sheriff called as he walked out, Braeburn followed him and Specs returned to his book.

"Alright." Said Dale. "You two follow me."