The Metal Complexity

Equestria has seen wars, tyrannical leaders and old legends come true, but nothing can compare to the sheer power of the ecosystem that the ponies make. The sun rose over the green hills of Ponyville and pierced through the clouds. The residents of ponyville were dragging themselves across the cracked dirt town centre, trying to get through another day without passing.

“Phew wee” Applejack cheered, “The Pegasus ponies sure are embracing summer!”

“Well we got clear skies for the entire week!” Rainbow Dash shouted to Applejack.

“Like the week before,” Applejack complained.

“Well it’s not me who makes the decisions,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Well you just tell your boss that if we don’t get any rain soon, I'll be out of a job and Ponyville will have to get their apples from somewhere else!” Applejack ordered.

“Well apparently all of the rain cloud machines have broken, I don’t know, I’m not an egghead,” Rainbow Dash argued back.

Rainbow Dash flew off in the distance, going onto a small cloud and then began to fall asleep.

“Applejack, there you are,” Twilight called.

“Howdy Twilight, what brings you here”? Applejack inquired.

“It’s to do with this odd weather; I came to you as your profession would mean you could find the source of this problem with me much more effectively,” Twilight lectured.

“Yup, Sweet Apple Acres is drying up and I aint had one drop of rain for 2 weeks!” Applejack recalled.

“Twilight,” Spike shouted.

“What is it Spike”? Twilight replied.

“A letter from Princess Celestia,” Spike said, handing Twilight the scroll.

Twilight opened it up and began muttering the words on the letter; she closed the scroll and then declared.

“Princess Celestia needs us in Canterlot for an urgent meeting” Twilight cried.

“Well, let’s move our caboose and get moving” Applejack said.

“Rainbow Dash, rise and shine, Princess Celestia needs us in Canterlot”

Rainbow Dash yawned

“I’ll round up the rest, get to the train station and I’ll meet you there,” Rainbow Dash moaned

Rainbow Dash flew into the distance, Applejack and Twilight arrived at the train station. This train was different than the others; it had metallic train carts and several royal guards on small watchtowers which stuck out of the train. 2 Royal guards emerged out of a cabin and bowed; they then invited them inside the cart. The other 4 then followed behind who arrived just in time.

“May I ask why the added security on the train,” Twilight curiously questioned.

“Of course, your highness, strange things are happening all over Equestria. Scorching weather, the weather factory being taken out of service frequently and the most recent, the attack on The Crystal Empire,” The royal guard explained.

“The Crystal Empire was attacked, is my brother ok,” Twilight anxiously asked.

“Yes, your highness, Prince Shining Armour is ok. The attack was on a small district in the suburbs of the empire. However, we managed to capture 3 spies when they tried to escape from the empire, but they escaped and left a letter to the Princess,” The royal guard continued.

“What did it say”? Twilight asked curiously.

“We do not know, it was for the Princess’ eyes only,” The royal guard informed.

The train set off to Canterlot, the entire train system was shut off to make way for the giant metal armoured train. The royal guards kept their eyes open the entire trip, looking for suspicious activity on the horizon. Twilight looked out of the window; she then saw a shadowy figure. A shadow, in pure daylight, he squinted to see more, but the shadow then burst into a vapour and flew away.

The train rolled up into the Canterlot train station, the place was crawling with royal guards.

Twilight got up and went out of the train. She was met 5 elite guards who paid their respects and escorted her and her 5 friends to the castle. The mane 6 proceeded into the castle hall.

“Ah good, you are here,” Celestia said. “As you were probably told, I have a letter from the spies that were found in the Crystal Empire,” Celestia sighed and looked out of the window to the city.

“Princess, what’s the matter”? Twilight asked

Princess Celestia handed Twilight the letter, she opened it and her eyes quickly skimmed across the scroll. She looked at it, confused and asked, “What does this mean? Isn’t the return of an empire a good thing?”

“Yes, but it isn’t the empire I’m worried about, it’s an order that go under the leaders of the empire that went corrupt soon as the empire disappeared,” Celestia said

“So why are they doing this, the attacks, and the sabotage of the weather system?” Twilight inquired.

“The cult thinks Equestria has been occupied, their Queen was the first leader of Equestria and they have a bloodline of their people in the Royal Family, but it ended soon as Discord took over. They will more than likely corrupt the rest of the empire along with them,” Celestia informed.

“I need to show you something”

Princess Celestia took out a metallic chest, covered in symbols of an unknown language. Its craftsmanship was divine, with jewels never seen before by anypony. On the top of the box was an odd combination lock, it looked like keys on a piano.

“Oh my gosh, that looks just fabulous! That gives me some new ideas…” Rarity complimented.

“Excuse me princess, but what empire has exactly returned” Applejack asked.

“This is a lockbox, owned by a travelling Zebra merchant who gave it to me as a gift,” Celestia explained.

“But the craftsmanship is different, not by Zebras or Changelings,”

“I have reason to believe that this belonged to the Shadow Operative himself, Steel Cyberius Wing,”

“Wait, THEY have returned. I thought it was some ancient empire like the Crystal Empire,” Twilight said, shocked.

“Excuse me sugar cube, but what exactly is coming,” Applejack asked again.

“More than likely it’s a species that is more powerful than anything we have ever known. No creature can match the intelligence and strength of this species. Half metal, Half pony, they are what we call the Metaquines,” Celestia answered.

“This is bad, the Metaquines helped found Equestria, heck even our first Queen was a Metaquine. If they are doing this, then I’m guessing a larger invasion is going to follow,” Twilight followed on.

“I need you to find the Shadow Operative and ask him to come here to Canterlot, most of the cult will listen to his orders and we can stop these operations from happening,” Celestia ordered.

“We won’t fail princess, we will be back with him,” Twilight said optimistically.

The mane 6 walked out, the other 5 looking confused. Twilight explained the Metaquines, their empire and the legend of the Shadow Operative. The mane 6 began to search into the Everfree forest.

“Are you sure he is going to be in here,” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, no. But it’s the best chance we got,” Twilight said.

“Ok, I’ll just tur-“Fluttershy said who was then dragged in the forest by Rainbow Dash

The mane 6 trekked lightly in the Everfree forest, making sure not to run into any trouble along the way. They searched for hours, with no sight of any suspicious activity. When they was about to give up, Rainbow Dash noticed a plaque, which had the same runes on as the lockbox that Princess Celestia had.

Twilight examined the plaque further; it seemed to have the same kind of lock as the lockbox too. Twilight cast a spell on it to try and open it but she was met with a counter spell which knocked her back to a nearby tree.

Suddenly 2 hulking metal bipedal robots emerged from the ground. The mane 6 did what they could only do at this point. Run.

They dispersed along the forest; Rainbow Dash flew away then turned back and hit one of the robots with a giant kick, almost turning over the robot. The robot managed to stabilise and then hit Rainbow Dash with one powerful swing. The metal juggernauts deployed something from their shoulders and began to rain bullets from their shoulders. However the robots weren't the most intelligent and soon discovered that the ponies had gone down their transport pipe to the facility.

The architecture wasn't anything like the ponies had seen before in Equestria. The metal pipes ended at a large and dark room. There were metal catwalks and a series of tubes with inactive robots of different varieties. Some small, some extremely large; the only ones active were arms that had different tools to build/repair the inactive bots.

“What is this place?” Applejack asked in awe

“I don’t know, but if this has been in the Everfree forest, it must have been a long time,” Twilight replied, amazed of the sheer number of tubes holding robots.

“Well, enough of sightseeing already and let’s get this loser” Rainbow Dash interrupted.

They looked for some kind of switch which would hopefully turn the lights on, only the tubes were illuminate which made it hard to find any kind of switch. Suddenly Fluttershy bumped into a small control panel, screamed and ran into Rarity.

“What this?” Twilight wondered

It was a small metal panel with several buttons, in the same runes as the plaque and lockbox. A button which had an odd bulb shape with 3 lines looked like the best bet. Twilight pushed it hesitantly and suddenly the room was brilliant with light. But a number of lights turned on systematically to reveal a massive, giant, pony shaped robot.

Shocked, the ponies had to report this back to Princess Celestia. Until they heard something in the shadows, Rainbow dash immediately went to attack it but then looked at who or what it was. It was a pure white Alicorn mare, it was Princess Celestia.