Risk Of Epic

Royal and Night Guards stood around the bloodbath that was the Royal Throne room. Several recruits nearly threw up at the smell alone of the still burning dead, not to mention the twisted and contorted bodies of the dozens of dead ponies. One royal Guard strode over to the two Princesses, who lay in a state of coma, their magic mending them as best it could. The external wounds healed quickly, and the corpses were no longer charred, but the internal injuries were far more devastating and complex. The aura that surrounded the two fallen alicorns kept the guards from touching them, allowing them only to look on in desperate hope that their leaders would recover.

A hole had been torn in the ceiling of the throne room, letting sunlight flood onto the rubble filled ground below. Several ponies had begun to drag the bodies of the dead away, trying to resist the temptation to vomit from the disfigured and foul smelling corpses. Some cadavers even had small sparks of fire still ablaze in their coats.

The smokey room was a hard sight to bear, even for some of the more experienced veterans of the Royal Guard. One recruit looked up through the hole in the roof, training his view on a streak of crimson fire that was barreling down through the sky. He turned his head for a moment, observing some pegasi beginning to shout, some taking flight and leaping out of the shattered window.

The pony returned his gaze just in time to be met with a face full of metal, the capsule pulverizing him into the ground. The pod impacted so hard in fact, that the pony smushed underneath was sent careening down to the floor below, the pod partially penetrating through the thick floor of the castle.

The scratched and scarred grey pod glowed an orange that radiated heat so intense, ponies standing mere feet away were forced away in pain, the air around the pod seemingly engulfed in flames. The stunned ponies stood in shocked silence, mouths slightly agape, waiting for something to happen. The pod just sat there, mocking them with it's strange nature, the metal plates interlocking with each other so perfectly that not a single one had been lost during re entry. Slowly, a unicorn with a bubble of energy encasing him approached the pod, prodding at it with a magical tendril.

"INITIALIZING PRIMARY SYSTEMS," a muffled, robotic voice stated from inside the pod. As if on cue, robotic arms jutted from ports in the pod, spraying the whole shell down with liquid nitrogen, encasing it in a sheet of ice. The unicorn retreated fearfully, the rest of the guards raising their spears preemptively.

"PRIMARY SYSTEMS ONLINE. RUN PROGRAM : HAN-D," the monotone voice called, still audible through the walls of the vehicle and the ice. The floor shook for a moment, as the pod began to slip downwards slightly, the unstable floor crumpling under the immense weight of the foreign object.

Just as the pod slipped completely through the gaping hole in the floor, smashing into the floor below, the front of the pod exploded in smoke, shards of metal showering the fearful guards. They all looked around barking orders to one another, requesting visuals on the intruder. At the same time, a few ponies noticed a thin, wispy trail of black smoke. Allowing their vision to follow the path, they found themselves staring at the hole in the ceiling once again, which had been widened further by the pod.

There, silhouetted by the sun's light, was a humanoid mechanical being, made of lime carapace plates accented with grey. Atop its head sat a small brown janitorial cap, it's single orange eye staring down at the paralyzed ponies. It wielded a massive metal mallet, the same color as its armor, and in a synthesized, yet somehow distinctively organic voice, it spoke.

"Let's rock."

With his simple battle cry uttered, the robot leapt from his perch, his body centering over the bright orb of the sun for a few seconds before he crashed down into the room below. The shock wave knocked every single pony off their feet, some dying from the sheer amount of energy transmitted to their bodies, their internal workings exploding in a a self contained splatter of gore.

HAN-D stood proudly where he had landed, his hammer ready for battle. With a cry of desperate anger, several unicorns let loose a wave of magical bolts, the luminescent colors lighting up the smoky room. The robot, sidestepped several feet in a single bound, the energy blasts slamming into the ponies behind him, vaporizing them as the smell of burnt flesh and burning hair returned to the room.

With a creepy robotic chuckle, he ran at terrifying speed towards the unicorns, hammer held ready to strike an overhand blow. Scrambling and screaming in fear, the group of guards attempted to encase themselves in magic while they made a hasty retreat, yet it was all for naught.

The first victim was smashed into the ground, his barrier splintering into shards as the unstoppable force of the hammer cleaved right through it. The armor of the unicorn did nothing to give the hammer any pause, crumpling under the immense force of the blow. Muscle and sinew ripped and was torn asunder as the barely recognizable heap of meat bled profusely.

HAN-D remained still for several seconds, enjoying the kill. Slowly, he rotated his head to face the unicorns who had stopped, frozen in terror.

"Boo."

The unicorns sprinted away like the possessed, cowering behind the remaining pegasi guards. With a bark to reform, the remaining guards encircled HAN-D hesitantly approaching the robot. Slowly, he rose from where he stood hunched over the guard he had obliterated, looking at the encroaching ponies. Standing at his full height, he looked like a giant to the four legged guards, only furthering their fear of him.

Without warning, a vent in the back of the mechanical menace opened, dozens of floating drones barreling out of HAN-D. Without any look of hesitation in his eye, he charged at the closest pony, hammer gripped in one hand. The pegasi steeled himself, raising his spear, trying to ignore the laser beams that the swarm of freshly deployed drones were spewing.

The shaft of the raised spear broke against the metal form of the berserker as he smacked the pony square in the jaw, sending him flying into the air, his neck torn open from the concussive force of the blow. Whipping back around, servos pulsing with life, HAN-D caught the group of guards that was trying to attack him from behind, off guard.

With a mighty slam of his hammer, the floor shook violently, the elegant tiling of the floor exploding in a cloud of porcelain and smoke. The ponies caught in the blast flew upwards, their mangled limbs twisted into awkward positions, the strike having completely blown apart their bones.

A lance of spiraling energy slammed into the back of HAN-D, leaving a nasty scorch mark where it had hit, and stumbling the robot slightly. The rest of the battered group of unicorns unleashed hell, putting all of their magical essence into the ensuing torrent of blasts. The room resembled a club rave, the widely varying colors of magic smashing into HAN-D. Smoke from the explosive impact of the bolts began to obscure the robot, as the first unicorn fell to the ground, utterly drained of his strength.

More and more guards collapsed to the floor, exhausted, until the assault had ceased. Several other unicorn ponies had, in the meantime, been encasing the drones in a bubble of combined magical energy, struggling to resist the sheer power of the laser weapons the drones attempted to crack the shield with. At last, having gathered up all of the drones, the unicorns condensed the bubble, smashing the attackers into electronic scrap.

The smoke had begun to clear away from where HAN-D was standing before the assault, revealing the robot clutching his chest. He stumbled forward uneasily, dropping to his knees and speaking in his synthesized voice .

" I have been, terminated ... Just ... remember ... " his eye went dark, the squat machine falling forward onto it's face, its grip on the hammer loosening. Several pegasi moved in slowly, while the exhausted unicorns scuttled over to the protected bodies of their leaders.

" Remember ... I'm a really good actor ..." , the robot said in the same defeated tone he had spoke in moments earlier. The scorched robot practically leapt to its feet, its eye glowing with excitement. The horrified pegasi began to turn to run, but HAN-D stopped them in their tracks, as his upper half spun around in a frenzy, his hammer clutched tightly. The guards were sent flying from the force of the impact, blood spewing from the ones that had their heads completely torn off by the strike. The last of the pegasi guard's were defeated by the spinning maelstrom of death, HAN-D refocusing his sights on the unicorns crowding around the recuperating gods of day and night.

HAN-D settled back into his normal stance, slowly walking towards the last dozen  or so guards. Sapped of all their strength from unleashing such devastating, but ultimately ineffective magic, they lethargically piled on top of the force field in a last ditch effort to save their rulers. Amused by the display, HAN-D decided to be a good sport, plucking each unicorn off individually, grasping them by the horn, and forcefully tossing them out the shattered window to his left.

When only two guards remained, HAN-D dropped his hammer, firmly grasping the skull of one of the guards. He held the skull in place with one hand, while he yanked on the horn with the other. After several attempts to yank the horn out, the disinterested robot pitched the unicorn out the window, his screams like the crescendo to a good music piece.

The last guard stumbled to his feet clumsily, speaking in a harsh, defiant voice.

"You ... You'll never break the spirit of Equestria ..."

"No, but I am going to break" the robot coiled his arm back "you." HAN-D released the devastating punch, sending the valiant guard smashing through a wall, the structure collapsing and burying the guard. He began to dust his knuckles off, retrieving his hammer, when all of a sudden a sheath of energy surrounded him. Immobilized, HAN-D eyed the large white alicorn previously contained inside the bubble shakily getting to her feet, her horn aglow.

Celestia jerked her head slightly, sending HAN-D flying backwards into a wall, slamming into it, and bouncing off, landing on his face. The machine quickly regained its poise, grasping its mallet in both hands, eyeing the Princess with malicious intent. The two stared each other down, the bloody heaps of bodies strewn around the room only fueling Celestia's rage. Tears streamed from Celestia's fiery expression. HAN-D could sense her anger, and her lust for revenge. He quickly snuck a glance at the other form still resting inside the bubble of magic, before returning his attention to Celestia.

Celestia made the first move, beginning to channel a spell, her horn gathering power.

"If it's a fight you want, you've come to the wrong robot . This isn't a fight ... " HAN-D said in his creepy voice, clutching his hammer in both hands by his side, planting his feet squarely on the ground. The bolt of magic began to swirl around her horn, the princess' eyes turning white from the overload of magic. With a shockwave, the lance of energy came barreling towards HAN-D, who charged right into it, but not before finishing his remark.

" ... It's a slaughter . "