Bold: The Ranger and The Robot

Night fell on Appleloosa. The Sheriff waited, he watched the tunnel, staring at it constantly. Specs stood beside him, watching him watch the tunnel.

"Sir?" Specs asked.

"Sh, I'm watching the tunnel."

"I know sir, it's just they've been-"

"Sh."

"But they-"

"Sh."

"Sir, could we just-"

"How many times do I have to say 'sh' boy?"

"Boy?" Specs remarked after a long pause.

"Sh." The Sheriff whispered. Specs put his head in his hooves. A faint light appeared in the tunnel. "Hey, look." Specs looked up, he saw the faint red glow, it grew brighter.

"Uh, sir?" Specs muttered.

"Oh fer cryin' out loud." He breathed. "What? What is it? What do you so desperately require my attention for? Can you not just stay quiet for five-"

"Hostiles Lo-o-o-o-ocated." Said a voice from the tunnel. The Sheriff froze.

"Oh, you're kidding me." He murmured.

"Well, if it isn't the Sheriff? Finally, come out of hiding I see." Said a different voice that changed in pitch and tone. A dark stallion with red eyes and a body made up of black smoke rose from the tunnel and landed next to a twitching MERDA.

"Now who the heck are you?" The Sheriff asked calmly.

"My name is unimportant. what matter is-"

"Hostile! Hostile! Hostile!" MERDA interrupted.

"Oh, would you shut that infernal voice unit of yours for five seconds?" The Corruption yelled.

"I know how you feel." The Sheriff empathized, glaring at Specs.

"Honestly, its been 'self-destruct' this, and 'hostiles' that, the whole way up the tunnel! And it wasn't over quickly! Took the best part of fifteen minutes to get out of there! Fifteen minutes of your eternal blabbering!" It shouted at MERDA. "I wouldn't be surprised if Strongbolt, Shiera and that other guy were already up here by now, what was his name? Broburt, or something?"

"Braeburn?" The Sheriff guessed.

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Wait, you know Strongbolt and Shiera?" The Sheriff asked.

"Know them? I hate-"

"Self-destruct iminiminiminiminant!" MERDA screamed. "In fifteen mininininutes."

"Just shut up, already! Sometimes I wish I'd never found you."

"Wait, you know this thing?"

"Again, if you had been here, maybe twenty minutes ago. I had literally just explained-"

"Hold it right there!" A young colt's voice came from behind them. They all turned to face Dale, who stood holding a small metal device.

"And you are?" The Corruption asked.

"I am Dale, the last ranger." Dale said proudly. "And I'm here to put a stop to that thing for good!" He pointed at MERDA.

"Oh, of course. I forgot, it's been nice chatting to you, we'll have to do this again sometime, if you survive." The Corruption gave an evil cackle. Nobody reacted. "Really? You're not feeling the evil laugh? Okay, whatever. Regardless, these will be your final hours! MERDA is just about ready to blow, and when he does, all the Malumium in him will light this town up like a fireworks display!" They looked at it, puzzled. The Corruption sighed, "It'll blow this place like a barrel a gunpowder!" They all gasped.

"Not if I can stop it!" Dale said heroically. He tapped a button on the metal device and it grew and surrounded his hoof, forming a small arm cannon.

"Dale, where the hell'd you get that?" The Sheriff inquired.

"I... made it, sir." Dale admitted.

"You made that thing? Son, that's brilliant!" The Sheriff exclaimed.

"Really? I thought that you-"

"Whoa, wait!" The Corruption said. "I'm going to stop you right there. I can tell this is going to turn into some emotional realization moment of some sorts and I really don't have the time for that. MERDA! Attack!" MERDA shuddered and sprung forward, randomly firing lasers. The Sheriff, Dale and Specs ducked behind a barrel.

"Dale, I sure as heck hope that thing of yours works!" The Sheriff yelled.

"It should, but we've only got three charges on it!" He called back.

"Why are you shouting?" Specs asked. "You're right next to each other!"

"Shut up, Specs. Listen, Dale you make those shots count!" Dale rose his head, he fired one shot, it hit MERDA's front leg, taking it out completely. MERDA made a noise like a cat that had been dropped in water and fell on its side. Its eyes flickered and turned off.

"What?" The Corruption yelled. "That was it?"

"Nice shooting, Dale. For a moment then I thought you'd waste the first two bullets and end up nailing the last one like some sort of old west story or something-"

"Rebooting. MERDA 3 systems online."

"For the love of- how many times do we have to destroy this same robot?" The Sheriff exclaimed.

"I'll try again." Dale said confidently, he shot another blast that flew straight past MERDA.

"Smooth, Dale. Real smooth." The Sheriff said sarcastically.

"Look, we've got one shot left, if I can get its head I can take it out."

"Dale, I'm pretty sure that first shot was one of the best I've ever seen you land. i am now completely confident that we are all screwed." The Sheriff confessed.

"This battle ain't over yet!" Dale yelled.

"Self destruct sequence activated." MERDA said. "In five, four-"

"I stand corrected."

"Three, two..." There was loud crash and in the place where MERDA had stood, there was now a mine cart and a lot of scrap metal.

Two minutes earlier:

Strongbolt hated fast movement, spinning and total darkness. At that current moment, he was experiencing all three. He curled up in the corner of the mine cart while Shiera and Braeburn looked for any sign of light.

"Shiera, honey, how much longer?" He groaned.

"There!" She said suddenly, in the distance a faint dark blue light could be seen. "We're almost there!" They approached the dark light at an incredible speed.

"Um, how exactly do we slow this thing down?" Braeburn asked.

"Oh," Shiera said, "I hadn't thought of that... I'd get your head down if I were you." Shiera and Braeburn dropped to the floor beside Strongbolt. There was a sudden crash and they were coated in the glow of the moonlight. The three got up, and found themselves high in the sky.

"Um?" Braeburn muttered.

"It appears that the benevolentium I put in was too powerful, the cart is moving without tracks." Shiera murmured.

"Through the sky?" Strongbolt moaned.

"Well, we were going pretty fast."

"I told you, you need to use more calculations before you just... oh..." Strongbolt's voice trailed off, he clutched his stomach.

"No, I remember you saying something about a train and the time it takes to arrive from one place to-"

"Look out!" Braeburn shouted. Shiera turned back to the front, they were plummeting towards Appleloosa.

"Hold on!" Shiera said. After another few seconds of falling, there was a loud crash, and everything stopped moving, except for Strongbolt, whose head was still spinning. Shiera peered out of the mine cart, she saw Specs, The Sheriff and Dale, who had some sort of metal cannon on his hoof. The cart was surrounded by scrap metal and red crystals.

"Now that," The Sheriff said, "is accuracy. Dale, you could use some of that." Dale rolled his eyes. Shiera got out of the mine cart and Braeburn helped Strongbolt out.

"What happened to you guys?" Specs asked.

"We'll explain later. Where's MERDA?" Shiera said. The Sheriff gestured to the scrap metal on the ground.

"You mean we...?"

"You bet. That thing was just about to blow too." Strongbolt regained his senses, he looked around, in front of him was MERDA's dismembered head. He picked it up, on the back there was an inscription: 'MERDA 3. Excavation and Defense Unit. Property of Dr Ratchet Onsano. Manehattan.'

"Manehattan?" Strongbolt whispered.

"Manehattan? Ain't that a city?" The Sheriff scratched his head.

"Yeah, this thing was made in Manehattan. Wait, if this is 'MERDA 3' then do you think there are MERDAs 1 or 2?" Strongbolt said in realization.

"If there's somepony making these then..." Shiera's voice trailed off. "Where's the Corruption?"

"You mean that red-eyed guy? He's right..." The Sheriff pointed to where the Corruption had been. "What the? He's gone."

"Strongbolt looked at Shiera, Shiera looked back at him. "We have to go to Manehattan." They said in unity.

"You're right." Dale said. "If there are more of these things then we gotta stop 'em."

"Dale," Strongbolt said, "I think you can drop the western accent."

"Quite true, my faithful accomplice." Dale admitted.

"Wait, Dale you-" The Sheriff began.

"I will justify later on." Dale promised, he turned back to Strongbolt and Shiera. "You two should rest here first, we will begin to make repairs and return the community to its rightful-"

"That is gonna take a lot of getting used to." The Sheriff said.