Bold: The Ranger and The Robot

Dale led them out of the room and back into the main hall, he led them up a set of stairs onto the second floor and into a room with a bed and another bookshelf. Another door led into the bathroom.

"See you- er, y'all in a hour." Dale began walking away.

"Wait a minute." Strongbolt called after him, he turned back, he looked puzzled. "I need to ask you something. Back there, you kept changing what you were saying, why?"

"Well, I, I don't know what you..." Dale stuttered.

"Dale." Strongbolt said firmly. "Is there something wrong?"

Dale sighed. "Well, I suppose I might as well tell you." He checked the corridor outside. "Are you familiar with the term 'ranger' by any chance?" Strongbolt nodded. "Well, my father used to be in charge of a group of rangers who made it their duty to protect the town. They were brilliant, or so I here, I was just a foal back then. Regardless, one day the rangers started disappearing, for what reason we do not know. But, anyway, my father was the last ranger, until he disappeared too, and tradition says that when the last ranger can no longer take care of the town the duty falls to his offspring, that being me."

"But I don't see where the problem is." Strongbolt said.

"Well, I do not want to be a ranger, I have spent most of my life studying to be a scientist, I just put on the whole western accent and because I want everyone else to feel like there is still someone looking out for them. If they found out this is what I wanted to be..." He brought out a small metal rectangle from his pocket, when he touched the center it opened up and revealed a screen and multiple buttons. "Well, who knows what would happen."

"What about the Sheriff?" Shiera implored. "Doesn't he look after the town?"

"Well," Dale explained, "after the Rangers disappeared the Sheriff knew the citizens might panic, we received quite a but of trouble from... neighboring tribes back then. He gave them a promise that he would protect them, but they still wanted their rangers, and so the Sheriff made a deal with me: I pretend to be a ranger and he and his deputies would look after the town. I rarely had to do anything, more often than not the Sheriff would take care of everything." Strongbolt stared at Dale, then at the strange device he held.

"Wow." He said. "Dale, that is... extraordinary. You made that?"

"Yeah, I had a bit of spare time."

"What, exactly does it do?"

"It locates frequencies of magical activity, absorbs power to keep itself going. I use it to monitor levels of magic in and around Appleloosa."

"A scientist ranger." Strongbolt said in awe. "Never thought I'd see the day." Strongbolt thought for a moment. "Why don't we use your skills to help us find MERDA?"

"Skills?" Dale retorted. "Any old fool could do something like this."

Strongbolt smiled. "Dale, my friend, something tells me you don't meet a lot of 'old fools' because I have never seen anything like this."

Dale smiled. "Well, thank you but I don't think I will be of much-" There was a sudden crash and a scream came from the main hall. Dale turned towards the noise, then back to Strongbolt. "Quickly, wipe that soot of your face and get down to the main hall!" Shiera threw Strongbolt a sponge from the sink, he wiped his face as instructed and ran back down into the hall. He gazed down from a balcony that overlooked the first floor, in the center of the room, where the group of ponies had previously been huddled together, there was now a huge crack in the floor, big enough for a pony to fit through, with unearthed dirt surrounding it.The ponies who had originally been in the center were now backed up against the walls, shivering and shuddering. On the floor in front of the crack MERDA stood, its metal coat was now far shinier than previously and it appeared to have recovered from the burns, it scanned the groups of ponies. It finished examining an area and stated: "No hostile targets found. Proceeding to investigate further." It turned and looked directly at Strongbolt. Strongbolt attempted to duck behind the balcony.

"Hostile targets located. Proceeding with disposal." MERDA yelled.

"Damn!" Strongbolt cried. He turned to Shiera, who had not turned the corner. "Go! He hasn't seen you yet, find the Sheriff!" Shiera disappeared just as the robot arrived at the top of the stairs, like before, it began charging an orb in its horn. It was interrupted by Dale who pelted into its side and dragged it over the side of the balcony. Dale rolled over and got to his hooves. MERDA shook its head.

"New hostile target found. Proceeding with disposal." It said. Dale gulped and ran for the stairs, MERDA ran after it, however, the fall seemed to have damaged its left legs, making it steer to the side. Dale ran towards Strongbolt.

"Follow me!" He called as he shot past him. Strongbolt did as he was asked and chased Dale into another room. Dale jumped into a window and broke through it, he landed outside on a bale of hay, Strongbolt landed next to him.

"We have to keep moving!" Dale shouted. Strongbolt looked up and saw MERDA arrive at the opening they had launched out of, it scanned the floor below, by which time Strongbolt and Dale were already halfway across the road. Strongbolt heard a sickening thud, but he did not turn around. They ran for a moment more before realizing they had cornered themselves once again.

MERDA approached them. "Hostile targets located. Proceeding to..." It stopped moving. Strongbolt looked at Dale, Dale watched the robot. It spun back into life and said: "Malumium levels at minimum. Switching to back-up power supply." Dale's eyes narrowed on the word Malumium. "Proceeding to dispo-" A sudden shovel smacked MERDA in the cheek leaving a large dent.

"You ain't so hard to find when when yer yellin'!" The Sheriff shouted, shovel in hoof. MERDA twitched, "Error. Error. Returning to repair station." It jumped into the air.

"Oh no you don't!" Strongbolt said, grabbing MERDA's tail. MERDA continued to plummet into the ground, dragging Strongbolt with him and then Strongbolt felt something a lot like gravel hit his forehead.