Bugs and Steel

by Beta-17

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Crossover, Dark, Human, Princess Luna, Changelings, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Queen Chrysalis, Other
Length: 28420

Can a cast out from a hive that has been dead longer then Equestria's very existence of be the only salvation of another hive close to death?

Chrysalis' changelings are low in numbers, low on moral, and without food. However everything changes upon the discovery of an ancient artifact that promises that the changelings can reign supreme again, though the hive may be leaving behind the queen they love and have followed for so long, for a bucket of bolts who's condition strongly resembles that of the hive its self. Is this outsider's Steel hands crafting truth or lies to undermine the queen of the changeling hoard for his own attempt to follow in his predecessor's footsteps?

Published 2014-08-25 00:40:08 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-02 06:00:16 UTC

Unknown Machine (Chapter-1)

Author's Note

If you're trying to find a voice to read the machine's dialogue in, just think of Dr. Richtofen from Call of Duty 5 Zombies.

Unknown Machine (Chapter-1)

In a barren dying valley sat a peculiar structure therein survived a race of insect-like creatures, capable of shifting their appearance into anyone they so desired. However such an action took a lot of energy. This was one thing this hive did not have much of, and what energy and resources they did find was immediately given to the queen. The hive looked up to her and trusted with all that they were that she could not steer them wrong. A pair of these hive workers were digging tunnels under the stronghold to further fortify their home. Not that it mattered much, for the changeling race had fallen so far from what they were before the failed attack, more than seventy percent of what remained would be dead before the next spring. The two diggers knew this, though they hoped that perhaps gathering whatever recourse they could unearth while digging could give them that much more of a chance.

“Hey Fangs, check this out.” the green backed changeling called for his dig partner.

“What’d you find Talon?” the dirty purple eyed insect wondered quickly over to look at what his hive comrade had found.

“It looks like an iron deposit but I think it’s covered in, paint?” the green changeling began to second-guess what he had just got done saying.

“Paint, what like rust stained?” Talon questioned.

“No like it’s got some kind of grey paint, iron doesn’t peal like this, and this is paint…”
Talon inspected the find.

“Well let’s pull it out and see what it is for queen sake.” Talon adjusted his helmet and levitated over a heavily worn down pickaxe. The pair of bugs dug carefully around the buried object, unearthing what looked like some kind of limb. The pair jumped back when gravity caused the limb to swing out revealing that it was in fact an arm, and attached to it was what looked like a claw from a dragon or griffin only it had five fingers and no talons. The two changelings continued to dig unveiling more and more, out of fear curiosity or some other third reason their digging speed increased until the object slumped out of the hole in the wall and hit the floor.

“Uh, Fangs, do you have any idea what this is?” Fangs’ purple eyes where wide with bewilderment. He stood there silent and dumbfounded staring at this foreign object which resembled the top half of a Minotaur. It had petrified and partially decayed wood on several parts of its body, its paint was indeed rusty and pealing, and it sported a strange looking helmet. But what intrigued Fangs the most was the severely faded red band around its left bicep, the symbol within it was scratched off but still legible it appeared to be a black X in a white circle but between the rust and scratch marks it was hard to tell.

“We have got to show this to the queen…” Fangs spoke to himself, but out loud unmoving.

“You stay here, I’ll go get Chrysalis!” the purple eyed changeling called back to Talon from back in the direction of the tunnel entrance he had suddenly taken off running toward.

The hive miner burst out of the mines, and dashed across the courtyard of the stronghold rushing past his fellow changelings clearly in a hurry he captured the attention of several others. Fangs came to a stop at the door to the queen’s quarters, taking a few seconds to catch his breath; he straightened up to look proper and respectful of his queen. He knocked on the door; promptly the queen’s voice commanded the guest to enter.

“What do you want?” the queen commanded obviously disheartened by the condition of the hive and the grim future that lie ahead.

“My queen, we have uncovered something in the tunnels. We can’t identify it but we think it may be of some significance” Fangs began. Chrysalis mentally face-hoofed remembering how ignorant some of the swarm members could be, and then reconsidered upon inspecting this worker. He was respectful, he was purple showing his purpose in the hive and he spoke intelligently. She immediately retracted all former assumption of what she believed to simply be drone stupidity.

“Well take me to it.” The queen ordered with an air of curiosity in her voice.

“Yes ma’am!” Fangs yelped with a salute. The two descended to the courtyard gaining more attention than before. The queen followed the miner into the caverns until Talon was in view once again. When Talon caught sight of the queen he jumped, dropped his pick, and saluted.

“Talon here found this part of it sticking out of the tunnel wall”

“This is indeed an intriguing find. I need you two to bring this to my chambers” Chrysalis looked into the hole in the tunnel wall and found two more objects. She surrounded the artifacts with the green aura and pulled them free of the wall, one was clearly a knife, the other was longer then the knife, but short. It appeared to be some kind of oblong pipe with a stick and handle protruding from what was assumed to be the bottom. The two miners lifted the metallic figure and carried it out of the caves.

In the queen’s chambers the figure lay sprawled out on the floor. A few of the hive’s more intelligent minds gathered around this strange feat of engineering in an attempt to find out what it did. Chrysalis was slightly worried that this thing was found with a blade. If it carried a blade like the one it had it meant it was armed and prepared to use the knife to kill someone making this thing unsafe. On the other side of the equation it could have been the victim, which too has at least two sides, if it had been taken down with the blade then that ether means it was dangerous enough to be ended or it was strictly a victim and was slain in cold blood and not because it needed to be. This raised too many questions and didn’t answer what the strange pipe was.

“Look here, I think this thing runs on electricity” One of the white backed changelings offered.

“Doc, go flag down one a member of the weather team, maybe we can get this thing working with a lightning strike” The doctor started towards the door.

“Wait; let’s do this in the prison’s courtyard. We don’t know if this thing is dangerous” Chrysalis pleaded. On the concrete court the figure was resting in an upright sitting position leaning against a metal post.

“Three, two, one, hit it!” Doc shouted from behind the cover of a concrete barrier. Chrysalis was watching from one of the guard towers. The lightning struck right on the pole, the figure convulsed and twitched. Its head lifted and its eyes shot open as it stared up at the smoggy brown sky, just when the power from the lightning strike dissipated the convulsing figure fell limp once again. Chrysalis flew down to the machine insect like wings beating like those of a dragonfly; she landed in front of the figure and looked into its lifeless eyes which had remained open from the initial jolt of raw electricity. The queen took a few steps back

“Hit it again!” she shouted to the weather bug, and just as soon as she shouted the order another lightning bolt crashed into the metal body. Its head once again shot skyward, and its body shook like before, only this time a scream that rivaled the tone of the queen herself burst from its steel maw. The scream carried on for several seconds after the second lightning bolt dissipated, only ending with the body slumping down once again. This time it was making barely audible noises, and its eyes where moving rapidly though they remained dark. Chrysalis stepped forward followed by Fangs, Talon, and two hive scientists. The mechanical figure’s eyes flickered blue like a burning out light bulb, its voice rose in volume

“Wo bin ich, was ist los? Wer bist du?” the voice was raspy likely from its age but was decidedly male. His eyes stayed light long enough to focus on the monstrous silhouette standing over him. “Was, was bist du?!” If he could move he would have backed away turned and tried to run. However he was bound to the spot he sat, bound with no chains.

“Does anyone know what its saying?” Fangs asked. Chrysalis charged up a spell and cast it upon the metallic figure on the ground before her.

“Vat are you?! Vhy can’t I move? Vat have you done?!” The eyes of the machine went dark again.

“I knew it was speaking, just another language is all it was” the queen applauded her own intuition.

“Who are you? Vat have you done to me?” the machine demanded.

“I am Queen Chrysalis of the changeling empire, and you should be grateful, we saved you. When we found you, you where nothing but a pile of metal left to rot in the ground. Now you tell me who and more importantly what are you?” Chrysalis spoke with the commanding tone of a military leader.

“I need fluids, my hydraulics must’ve drained. I can’t move”

“What kind of fluids do you require?” one of the scientists spoke up?

“Anything, water if you have to” the scientist flew off toward a water station and filled a pail with the liquid requested. He ran back over toward the figure on the ground

“Where do I put it?” the doctor questioned

“Zere is a disk on my back, turn ze face of it to ze left und pull. Zen pour ze water down ze hole.” Just as the machine had said the little plate snapped loose and upon removal of the cover the water was poured into the opening. The figure then began to make a deep gurgling whining sound. The noise subsided and with a twitch of the neck and arm, the figure began to rise.

Upon attempting to stand the figure’s left leg refused to respond and stayed limp. Using the metal post to support his weight the machine used its claw like appendage to remove its helmet then hit the side of its head until its eyes stayed light up. Even then the left eye still struggled to maintain functionality.

“Ugh vell zat isht no good, I vill have to fix zat leg und my eye.” The machine complained.

“We found these where you were buried, I’m curious, what is it exactly?” Chrysalis was levitating the strange pipe.

“Oh, so zat is vere zat vent… Zat is my Machinenpistole, isht, German automatic rifle.” The metal figure explained.

“What exactly is its purpose?” The queen paraded.

“Zat rifle und I have ze same purpose, to ensure the conquest of ze world und the unrivaled rule of ze furor.” The mechanical soldier ceremoniously described.

“How does it work?” the changeling queen was growing impatient with the lack of answers she was getting from the bucket of bolts before her.

“Zat I cannot tell you, but I can show you.” With all the flare of a magician the metal figure kicked its lame leg out, stabilizing its self then reached for the black pipe. Chrysalis met the machine half way and released custody of the object losing here caution in her curiosity. The metal figure grabbed the pipe with its right hand by its handle and with the left held the stick. It leaned to one side as it tried to showboat as much as possible demonstrating its unknown gadget, however due to the massive length of time spent underground the charging handle refused to budge. The metal soldier was reminded of his own condition once again by the broken rifle and lost his footing. He dropped the weapon and fell to its left side; he turned breaking the fall with his hands.

Upon hitting the ground the aged wood that bound the machine’s hands to its arms shattered on impact, the glass covering his bad eye cracked, the strap of the helmet disintegrated at the abrasive surface of the concrete ground. The armor plate on his left shoulder popped off and the shoulder joint failed letting the arm disconnect from the socket; the red band split in two and skittered across the ground. A distinct snapping noise emanated from each of the broken limbs as the ancient hydraulic tubing and wires snapped under the strain. With that, the water that had given movement back to the prehistoric machine began to bleed onto the ground, soaking the concrete around it.

“Nien, wie konnte das passieren!” the metal soldier cried out upon colliding with the ground his good eye had dimmed dramatically. Though he could see his world was dim and blurry.

“Doc, Venom, you two get this to a lab, I want it to be fully functional the next time I see it, we may have hope of surviving another winter after all. Fangs, Talon, you two help the scientists bring it to the lab.” The queen ordered. The four hive comrades responded with a salute and an obedient yes ma’am before getting to work. Chrysalis watched as the four carried the machine off toward the laboratory to do what they could to repair the broken and mangled mess that was the metal soldier.

Déjà vu (Chapter-2)

Déjà vu (Chapter-2)

The sky was littered with dark clouds; the breath of soldiers was clearly visible in the cold winter air. Soldiers had to wear wool stuffed leather gloves to keep their fingers from getting frostbitten or worse, their hands freeze to their guns. One soldier in particular stood out among the rest, be it from his stance, or simply because he was the only soldier not shaking in his boots from the cold. Not reacting to cold as intense as this would be an inhuman feat, and that is exactly what this case was. The soldier was a metal monster built to combat those built by the Allied powers of the United States, Great Britten, and the Soviet Union.

“Officer Panzer, ze scouts have informed us zat ze Soviets are rallying with ze Americans and pushing up from ze south.” One of the human soldiers spoke shakily from the cold, each word echoed by a distinct vapor that trailed his words as they were lost to the winter air.

“Any word on vat zey have brought, do we know vat ve are up against?” the shiny metal officer asked with genuine curiosity.

“Ze snipers have counted at least six tanks, four Sherman, two Soviet T-34s. Und ve have several reports zat ze American Mechanical Squvad Beta is traveling vith zem.” The man stated concern cutting through the shivering in his voice.

“Ah, so I vill once again meet my Mechanical brozers, Ha, zey vill not be so lucky to escape me zis time. Just remember Lieutenant vat ever happens zey do not reach ze compound. Ze teleporters must stay safe at all costs.” He laughed at the human’s shivering “Don’t worry Lieutenant, once you see ze enemy your blood vill run hot vith rage, the rage of a souzend men. Let ze anger flow through you, youre hatred vill give you strength to serve your fatherland.”

The lieutenant shuddered at the tone of voice the steel soldier had just employed. The voice was borderline insane almost splitting into multiple voices and sounding overall evil, yet at the same time both admirable and brainwashing. Panzer’s head perked up more than it had been previously and the MP40 resting at his side was violently whipped up, barrel trained on the tree line. The lieutenant’s heart skipped a beat and just as the metal man had said he forgot all the minor inconveniences in the world all ailments vanished from his existence. The soldier was plunged back into reality when the first tank shell slammed into one of the Tiger tanks waiting for the predicted assault. The Tiger stood strong capable of withstanding frontal assaults. Panzer looked ahead undistracted as he issued his orders.

“Hold zis line, nothing gets through. If you see anything zat is not in zis uniform, paint ze snow vith its blood.” Panzer commanded with an air in his voice that disregarded any potential future for himself. The kind of tone a father certain of his demise would take while giving his wife and son his final words before facing his death.

With that the steel humanoid lurched forward like a leopard chasing its prey. Absorbing the impact of numerous forty-five caliber rounds being fired at him as he charged forward undaunted. Sparks flew off his chest and shoulders as he laughed hysterically, like a mad man in a restraint jacket his laugh mocked the deaths brought about by the German sub machinegun. His rubber bottomed feet landed hard on the top of one of the Sherman tanks, he tossed a stick grenade into the slit in the front. Taking a moment to listen to the panicked shouts from within the belly of the rolling fortress before the explosion silenced the desperate cries. He chuckled to himself once more as he opened fire on the little rectangular opening of the second tank stopping it dead in its tracks. From behind that tank a pair of steel soldiers leaped down from a half track, one of them sporting an American flag the other bearing the red star of Soviet Russia. The American raised his Thompson and had just barely let off five rounds when he was struck by a panzer shriek rocket. The robotic marine stumbled around lamely one arm and half of his head missing the electricity sprang free as the condemned soldier tried to utter some form of final words. The Russian robot watched in horror as his last squad mate fell to the ground his remaining green eye flickering until finally going out with a pop. Though the Mechanical’s faces where not very good at articulating emotion the Russian had a profound facial change from that of shock and horror to pure un adulterated rage.

“You are going to pay dearly for that. If I did not have reason to kill you before, I can now rip every part of you away with bear hands and know it is to avenge my fallen comrades!” the Russian was yelling so loud with rage it scared even the soldiers in his own platoon.

Panzer raised his rifle but was cut off by one quick and very powerful right blow to the side of his face. The Russian didn’t even bother with his guns and quickly showed he was going to deal with this menace personally and by inflicting as much physical damage as possible. The German soldier stumbled back to regroup, he tossed the rifle to the ground, bumped his helmet forward, and raised his fists. Panzer leaned right to avoid another heavy blow from the enraged Russian built brawler only to have his helmet smashed onto the top of his head by the red warrior. Panzer launched his fist at the metal communist only to have it grabbed mid swing. The enormous metal paw of the Russian began to crush the comparatively miniscule had of the German opponent.

“I will destroy you for what you have done; you and your kind will all be slaughtered just as you have done to countless others.” The soviet mechanical spat his words in the face of the German built officer.

With a quick uppercut from Panzer’s free hand followed by the slip of the boot and an elbow to the neck the steel bear was placed on the short end of the brawl.

“I must say Red, I remember each of your friends dying at my hands, and oh how much fan it vas! Vhen I crushed zat British scout of yours vith zat train, or vhen your sniper stepped on zose landmines. Oh and just now ven your captain vas blown to bits by a rocket zat I didn’t even have to fire.” He let out a maniacal laugh as he remembered what had just transpired.

“No, you will be destroyed.” Red slipped from the Nazi’s hold and pinned him to the ground with his knee. “Now you pay the price.” He shouted in the face of his opponent as he rammed his monstrous fist through the space between Panzer’s chest plates, grabbing hold of and ripping out the battery that kept the fascist machine activated his face went more serious than it had ever been before.

“Oh, I am getting sleepy, is zis vat zat feels like, huh, I almost feel ba.” Panzer’s voice faded as he looked at the Russian holding the equivalent of the insane robot’s heart over his face, wires dangling from between his steel fingers. Red brought his face half a foot away from the decommissioned German officer and gave a victorious roar. He stood up and threw the battery down at the dead robot’s face; he took a second before retrieving his DP28 and bellowing a battle cry telling the remaining soldiers to continue the attack.

Luna’s eyes shot open, she had been watching and seen the horrors of the artificial nightmare. She had watched this dream once before, though the first time she was witness to Red’s side of the story. The Soviet robot had told of how he proceeded through to the facility and discovered a prototype teleporter. Upon activating the machine he found rather than the teleporter sending him somewhere else. He found himself some when else, in a forest. Luna had come to know Red through Twilight’s friend Fluttershy. At first Celestia and Luna had their reservations about him then when Luna saw his dream for the first time she demanded a one on one meeting. The difference between Red’s dream and the one she had just witnessed was shocking. In Red’s dream she felt the deep sorrow and pain of a pony or, man who had lost everything his friends or more accurately his family.

This one, this one was far different. This dream had a psychopathic feel to it, almost an overbearing, unreasonable hysterical happiness. The feeling of devastating evil was so deep she wasted little to no time rushing to her solar sister, in fear that her own dark side which made its self known as the infamous Nightmare Moon had returned. She rushed into the large study of the sun goddess and began to dispense with the details of the night’s findings. Celestia knew her sister could not be falling prey to the demon which haunted Luna once before, the description simply didn’t match the mood or actions of the Nightmare Moon alter-ego. However if one thing was clear whoever was in this synthesized dream Red had something to do with it.

“I shall get a letter to summon him here as quickly as I can.” Celestia levitated over a scroll and quill and began to write.

My dearest student,
It has been brought to my attention that Fluttershy’s new friend may be linked to a more imposing threat then we first thought. Princess Luna has just informed me of a duplicate dream she spotted while patrolling the night realm, though this dream did not come from the same place we believe Red can help us gather information on what may lay ahead.
Your proud mentor;
Princess Celestia

With an intense flash of yellow magic the scroll vanished into thin air and began its journey to the recipient.

Author's Note

Not a long chapter, but I figured a short one would be good to space out the scenes and perspectives...

Preparing for a Trip (Chapter-3)

“Nice shot tin man!” Rainbowdash admitted to the skilled toss, making the metal horseshoe ring as it spun around the little metal stake in the ground. “Now watch the master!” the cyan mare boasted. The shoe flew through the air and landed with a dull thud, landing on the pike but not ringing aloud. Applejack looked smugly at Red as he casually slipped her a pair of shiny gold bits.

“Good toss, but isn’t goal to actually hit pike?” the Russian metal man complained doing his best to maintain a sportsman like tone.

“Yeh, that’s how it’s supposed to be played but if it lands round’ the pike it counts as one point rather than two.

“This game is very different than the one Zero-Seven explained.” Red paused almost suspiciously internally debating which side was lying to him, the pony or the sniper. The frustration finally got to him and he whined sarcastically “I have idea, let’s play Russian roulette, that way even if I lose I still win.”

“What’s Russian,” Rainbowdash tried to ask but was cut off mid question.

“Never mind it is bad idea. Besides I only have one revolver and it is gift, I would not soil it with pointless immature game.” Red withdrew the idea he came up with. The game was interrupted when Winona began barking and running as if someone or rather somepony just walked up to the front gate of Sweet Apple Acers. Fluttershy who had been watching the game, Rainbow, Applejack, and Red turned their heads to see who the visitor was. Red had pulled out a deck of cards trying to start new game when he recognized who had stopped by. Over by the gate Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie had come by to tell the rest of the group about the letter Twilight had received earlier that day. Rarity and Pinkie where already with Twilight on account that they were already in town, while Dash, Shy, AJ and Red where all over at the farm and recently finished helping with cleanup of a sector of the orchard. Red raised his bronze hands in the air, waving at the three friends. Twilight, and the other two had just made it to the large tree where Dash and AJ where still taking shots at horseshoe as Red sat at the table doing card tricks.

“Hello Twilight, how is things?” Red opened the conversation as he made a card levitate in the palm of his hand.

“Not good I’m afraid; the Princesses have just summoned me to Canterlot to discuss a matter of some significance. Apparently Luna found something that needs all of us to attend to right away.” Twilight said matter of fact-ly, all the while Pinkie was mesmerized by the playing cards dancing around and through Red’s metal hands. The deck shot card by card from his left hand to his right then beck to his left, leaping at least two feet through the air between hands. Red’s focus on the cards intensified as an ace of spades began to spin mid-air between two halves of the deck. As the card began to spin faster, Fluttershy and Applejack turned their attention to the playing card. Rainbowdash landed also mezmorized by the trick, Twilight and Rarity found themselves distracted from what they originally came to the farm to do in favor of the strange card trick. The ace became unstable in its spinning Red bit his lip trying to contain the irregular spinning, if he could sweat he would have several beads forming on his forehead. Then the deck of cards popped flinging the small rectangular game pieces all over the table. Five out of six of the ponies there were still astonished with the trick though it failed. Twilight blinked shaking her head brushing off the simple and stupid antics.

“It’s not that impressive, I could do that too.” She scoffed the card trick.

“Yes but you are unicorn, you have magic. I do not have any actual magic influence. Everything you just saw was illusion, trick of eyes.” Red smirked reaching for his bucket helmet, still scratched with a few dents from bullets. “I can also pull rabbit from hat.” The metal man confidently reached his arm elbow deep into the shallow helmet, poking around for a few seconds before smiling having found something fuzzy. He went to pull it up, taken back at the weight of the animal he had grabbed. When the grasped animal was finally visible Red was dumbfounded when he saw Pinkie giggling and smiling, half sticking out of the headgear. Red let go of the party pony’s mane and she climbed the rest of the way out of the helmet, then too her place back next to Twilight with a big toothy smile.

“Ok, I’m not sure which one of you did that one but, I’m not even going to try to question it.” Rainbowdash tried to explain what just happened to her-self. Her wings drooped halfway to the ground, one ear flopped over as the strained her thoughts trying to come to terms with the shenanigan.

“Don’t look at me I was going for rabbit.” Red raised his hands as if surrendering any involvement with the strange feat.

“Ooh, let me try!” Pinkie took the helmet, sat down, and rested the hat in the crook of her foreleg plunging her free hoof into the green headgear she found nothing, then placed the hat on the ground and literally began to crawl into it like a tunnel. Eventually the only evidence of Pinkie actually being present was her frilly pink tail jutting out of the opening. She began tossing things out of the seemingly bottomless pit of a helmet. From the hat sprung a harmonica, trumpet, guitar, film spinning video camera, a bowler hat, TT-33 handgun, and a pair of binoculars. Red snapped his attention to the pistol, reaching around his holster to find the pistol had indeed been removed, confused he reclaimed it and slid it back in its place. Eventually the pink mare emerged with a toothless baby alligator biting her ear. “Oh there you are gummy!” the pink mare laughed out loud as the pet the reptile dully nibbled on her ear.

“Let me see that.” Red took back his helmet, reached in and on his second attempt he actually pulled out a rabbit, Angel to be exact. Who proceeded to take the helmet from Red’s hand and hit him with it, and then hopped over to Fluttershy. Twilight face-hoofed feeling her IQ dropping by the second, Rainbowdash was lying down on the ground rubbing her temples trying to relive the headache she had gotten from trying to make sense of what was going on. Applejack’s hat was slid halfway down her face trying not to think about the confusing scene before her. The rest of the group just stared blankly before Twilight broke the silence.

“Please, just, no. Look long story short I got a letter from the princess, I need you guys to come with me.” Twilight rushed the words before any more laws of physics could be assaulted.

“Sounds fun, don’t worry about anything here, I can pitch in to keep things running smooth.” Red reassured his friends.

“Actually, Princess Luna asked for you to come with us.” Twilight clarified. The little metal parts of Red’s face contorted into a look of suspicion. However trying not to make his conspiring mind publicly known he disguised his expression as one of surprise.

“Alright, so everyone meet at the train station in approximately one hour, and I’ll tell the Princesses we are on our way.” Twilight set the time knowing some of her friends would have a few things to pack.

Everypony went their separate ways; Applejack towards her house, Rainbowdash flew in the direction of her cloud house. Red followed Fluttershy having not established a determined living space for him yet he remained with the first pony to accept the strange mechanical man as a person before an object. When the two made it back to the cottage Fluttershy went to her room to collect the few things she would need for the trip. Red had gone to his temporary room, grabbing his back pack he knocked over his mosin nagant, he stopped gathering his things for a moment and picked up the rifle. Taking care to keep the barrel pointed up and not in the direction of anybody he opened the bolt to check that the weapon was as he left it, empty. He placed the rifle back in the closet out of reach, not that anyone else could operate it; he just felt safer knowing it was out of reach of everypony who couldn’t fly. Red turned back to his bag, that suspicious look returning to his eye, he grabbed a key unlocked a drawer on a desk and slid it open. Inside where several magazines and loose rounds for his handgun, he grabbed a few mags and placed them into his bag. He looked up on the closet shelf tempted to take with him the PPSh-41 he had been given when he was first built. Red quickly rejected the idea of bringing along the automatic, he figured it would be too big for the bag and would raise too many questions if he carried it out of the bag. He double checked the bag making sure he had his tool kit and at least one canister of joint oil, a roll of duct tape and his cloth hat. He also packed a few snacks and books knowing somepony would get hungry and at least one would get bored.

Red and Fluttershy where the last two to reach the train station, to their surprise the load of luggage was a lot smaller than they expected, they had thought for sure Rarity would have at least twice the bags she had actually brought. Each of the group of seven boarded the train, taking their seats they each got comfortable. Red had always carried his pistol with him regardless of where he went, and in this world it mattered even less due to the fact that nopony even knew what a handgun was; so nopony questioned him when he started taking apart the TT-33 and began cleaning it. He didn’t strip the pistol down to its frame, only enough to get the barrel and mag well cleared of any foreign substance. The train had started moving when Rainbow had gotten into another Dareing Do book, she sneezed. Red looked up and addressed the sneeze.

“Bless you.” He commented then had a double take at the book in Dash’s hooves. He turned his head sideways to get a better viewing angle. “What book is that?”

“Dareing Do and the sapphire stone.” Dash answered excitedly.

“That character looks familiar. Could you describe her?” Red questioned.

“Well, she’s an adventurer, an archeologist, she looks for treasures that have been lost many years ago then she brings them back to a museum, or puts them in her personal collection. She charges into trouble head first and comes out swinging.” Dash almost sounded as if she practiced this speech beforehand.

“I mean like the personality.” Red clarified.

“Oh, well she’s brave, she has no quit and escapes from countless traps. Sometimes she can be a bit thoughtless and has a habit of going it alone, but for the most part she knows what to do.” Rainbow continued.

“Funny, she reminds me of an American I had to escort out of Germany. His name was Dr. Jones.” Red trailed off, Dash listening with her full attention. The uncanny similarities even captured the attention of Twilight. The three continued to compare and contrast as the train bound for Canterlot sped into the night.

Author's Note

Perhaps I'm cutting these off too short, I promise the next chapter will be longer.

All According to Plan (Chapter-4)

“No, try connecting the blue line to the end of that frayed blue line. I think whomever assembled this color coded the wires. Blue wires are eyes, red wires are bodily functions, orange are brain functions, and black ones are thoughts. If we buck this up we may lose our only chance to save our colony.” Dr. Venom explained. Talon connected the ends of the wires as instructed, putting the finishing touches on the once again dead yet revivable machine. The wire gave a pop and sparked upon reconnection, the exposed wire was then coated in a magically heated and melted elastic plastic substance. The pair of blue eyes flashed on like a light bulb, dimming to adjust to the light-level, the eyes lazily rolled over to make contact with the changeling smirking through the cigar in his teeth. Talon placed the steel Parietal plate back to its rightful place on the top of the head once again covering the sensitive and fragile matting of wires, circuits, magnetos, and a pair of glass vacuum tubes.

“Vat happened, vat did I miss?” The mouth began to move and speak. Dr. Venom extinguished the cigar and looked over to Talon.

“So, the tin-can lives again. Go get the queen; she’ll want to see this.” Talon nodded and started for the door.

Queen Chrysalis paced the floor of her study, occasionally stopping in front of her oak desk, to write down a new part of her grand scheme to exact revenge and ensure the survival of her subjects. The plan was a bit vague and was at the same time extremely straight forward with no fall back protocols. She walked back over to the desk once again and reviewed the ideas written out on the page. Levitating the paper at eye level she scoffed her own ideas crumpled up the page tossing it back in the direction of a waste bin, surrounded with multiple scraped ideas, littering the hardwood floor. Frustrated she walked over to her balcony and looked up at the discolored sky hoping for a miracle. The silent frustration was interrupted by a knocking at the door to the study.

“Come in.” The queen vocally answered the knock. Talon entered the room with a joyful and hopeful expression on his face.

“My queen.” He said with a bow. “He is ready.” Talon fixed his posture to once again standing at attention.

“Well, by all means bring him here.” Chrysalis was for the first time in a long time exited to see what had become of what could very well be her last hope of saving the hive. Talon once again left the door way leaving the oak doors open for the presentation of their new hope. Chrysalis straightened up the room starting with the desk, moving the scattered papers back into a neat pile, placing all of the crumpled up pages into the trash can, lastly she closed and stacked the books back in the bookshelves. She then looked at the mirror in a cavity of the bookshelf to the right of the desk. She realized just how high the stress toll of ruling a dying empire really was. Her main and tail where matted, the burn mark on the left side of her face had healed into a scar, but the clear membrane of her wing had not fully regenerated. She had become accustomed to wearing armor, the helmet of which was resting on the book case in front of the mirror. Chrysalis took a moment to remove some of the matting from her mane and tail while she waited. Her right ear twitched as she caught the quiet sound of thumping, her damaged left ear was not as possible as the right one but still attempted to turn in the direction of the sound. Moments passed as the thumping became clearer confident and purposed footsteps, the strange pattern of the boots hitting the floor made it clear that the approaching character was in fact bipedal. The boot steps began to be accompanied by a clicking, after the thump of each footstep was a subtle click. Finally after much anticipation the approacher was in full view of the door way.

The machine had the physique of a soldier, confident, strong, and fearless. He was very shiny; the rust had been sand-blasted until every rust stain had vanished. The metal plates that could not be repaired where replaced, his eyes where a stark blue that dimly glowed to cancel out the darkness of his surroundings. His face was very slim, a pair of downward curving pieces of metal ran the length of the place where his cheekbone would have been from the place for his ears to the top of his lip disappearing under the corners of the lip piece, just before the mouth. His eye sockets had once been covered in leather which had long since decomposed into the mud of his recent resting place had been replaced with a neat clean black rubber; giving a more natural look to the air of synthetic eyes. His eyebrows where very rectangular and when they moved they glided smoothly along the forehead the rubber making up for the gap between the eye and the eyebrow stretched to cover the distance when the eyebrows moved. There was no covering over the cheeks, leaving exposed vents on either side, peeking out from under the curved cheekbone. The nose was proportionally correct and was slightly pointy looking, though it fit the appearance of the face perfectly. The jaw wasn’t much to behold, simply a metal version of the mandible bone with a small reinforced steel plate bolted to the center of the chin. The metal man’s neck flowed down to his collar; the look of the body was designed to resemble a trench coat. The new dark stone grey paint made the metal man look like he had been fresh out of the factory. He wore a pair of black gloves over his hands, one of the hands still looked disfigured but was useable, and a pair of black boots on his metal feet. His forearms where composed of a rich brown wood, freshly polished. Atop his head rested a new hat with a shiny black rim it resembled an officer’s cap though it was the same color of his metal recreation of a trench coat. Pinned to the front of the cap was a shiny silver bird, wings outstretched. Around his left arm the red band had been replaced, the crimson red band was interrupted by a bone white circle a jet black crooked cross with extra black lines sat within the white of the circle. The soldier held the metal pipe on his back with a strap and on his hip rested another smaller looking version of the black pipe, though this one was grey.

He stood at attention addressing the changeling queen with respect and gratitude for her assistance. He began to speak. “You vanted to see me ma’am.”

“Yes, and might I say you look immensely better then when we found you.” The queen was impressed with the work of her scientists. “I would like to ask of you a few questions, feel free to have a seat.” The machine strode across the room to a sofa where he removed his hat and sat down.

“I never quite got your name.” Chrysalis wanted to finally have a name which to address her ally.

“Vell, my full name isht Panzer Shriek, vat most call me Panzer for short.” The metal man answered.

“Where are you from, or rather, who built you?”

“I vas built in a tank factory in Germany by ze scientist of ze third Reich. I vas designed to fight other mechanical men like myself, built by my enemies. Our information lead us to believe zat zey only had four soldiers like myself. I had successfully decommissioned three of zem vat vas defeated by ze Russian one.” Panzer explained.

“So this explains the hole in your chest we found you with.” Chrysalis reminded herself of the gaping hole that seemed to once hold something important. On the biological body this was the place for the heart. She turned her attention to Talon, Fangs, and Dr. Venom.

“So, how did you figure out how to fix him?” Chrysalis posed the question.

“Well, luckily whoever made him designed him to be modular, so if something broke he could get that part easily replaced. It was also convenient that he was mostly built in a symmetrical manner; if we were unsure of how something went together we just looked at the other side. Then we mirrored the other side on the broken side and polished up what we fixed. The brain however, that was a nightmare, so many things that could have gone wrong. I’m relived most of it remained intact aside from a few wires that looked like they had been cut by one of the two glass tubes that had shattered from some kind of blunt trauma.” Dr. Venom explained the issues faced while working on Panzer as if he was writing a personal log.

“Vait, my vacuum tubes ver shattered? I am surprised I vasn’t seriously damaged let alone actually able to function on only one tube. Ha, it seems zat I am tougher zen I thought.” Panzer was looking kind of surprised as if he had had a close brush with death or permanent memory corruption.

“Panzer, I’m not going to sugarcoat this, and its time I came to terms with it myself. My hive is dying I’ll be astonished if we make it through the winter alive. I don’t quite know why but I get the feeling you can help save the colony. Can I trust you to help me save the changeling race?” Chrysalis didn’t even try to mask the issue. Her words sat like a boulder in everyone’s hearts except for Panzer. He snapped out of his self-astonishment and into a sense of importance.

“I have been in zis situation before, and yes, I do have methods to fix zis kind of problem.” Panzer leaned over placing his hat on the arm of the sofa, then leaned forward placing his glove clad steel fingers into a pyramid then once again began to speak. “Now, for starters, I vill need an office, a living quarters, und lastly a place for repairs. Just because I am shiny doesn’t mean I am fully functional.”

“If you can promise me the survival of the Hive I will get you whatever you need.” Chrysalis assured the renovated soldier.

“Vunderbar! zen it is official, ve shall begin immediately. So here is ze plan, first ve need to boost morale. Ven spirits rise productivity soars. Second once ve have ze optimism at an all-time high, ve can begin vith food und reconstruction. Zen ze sneaky stuff can begin.” Panzer added an eerie emphasis on the last part of what he said. Standing up he walked over to the balcony of the study and began analyzing the layout of where the critical facilities would be located. He placed the hat back on his head and took the metal pipe strapped to his back and swung in into his hands.

“So, did I ever show you vat zis vas?” Panzer pulled back the little peg on the right side of the pipe, pointed the pipe at a flock of migrating birds with a twitch of the finger and a quiet click, the slim end of the pipe spat forth a foot of flame sending small brass cylinders falling to the floor. Something about the pipe was both terrifying and hypnotic at the same time. The flock of birds dropped out of the sky and disappeared into a canyon.

“What, what is that?” Chrysalis stared wide eyed at the metal man.

“Zis is a German MP40 sub machine gun, I think if ve can modify zem so your soldiers can use zem zen ve can vin battles before zey even begin.” Panzer grabbed the magazine and pulled it out, placing a full mag back in he outstretched his arm offering the SMG to the changeling queen. “Vould you like to give it a try? Just don’t point it at anyone.” The German built soldier raised his eyebrow left hand behind his back. His posture was reminiscent of a gentleman asking for a dance. Chrysalis walked over and collected up the rifle in her magic aura.

“Now be careful, zat thing has some kick, und if you are not careful you can end up vith a hole in your head rather zen in ze leg.” Panzer warned. She mimed the movements of Panzer’s hands unleashing two bullets before she panicked and let the SMG fall to the floor. It clattered and sent a few casings rolling off the ledge. Panzer bent down and casually scooped up the MP40 checking the action to make sure it was feeding properly.

“Oh, I’m sorry did I break it?” Chrysalis gasped.

“Nien, nien, It vould take a lot more to break something like zis, I mean just look at me. Zis thing und I have been buried for centuries and both me und it still vork.” Panzer gloated.

“Can, can I have another try?” Chrysalis almost begged Panzer to give her another chance. He grinned and handed the SMG over to the changeling queen once again. Chrysalis took the gun and pointed it out the window once again. She pulled the trigger sheepishly, squeezing off three rounds before letting go of the trigger. She changed her stance, smiled, began to giggle and practically crushed the trigger loosing round after round filling the sky with lead as she laughed manically. The gun spat one last time before the mag was empty and bolt stuck shut smoke rolling out from the muzzle. Chrysalis pulled the trigger several more times as her laughter subsided. The air in the room smelled of freshly burned gunpowder.

“Calm down, it’s empty. Vell vell, it looks like all ve really need is more bullets.” Panzer produced a 9mm bullet from a leather pocket on his belt. “Can ve get ahold of some sulphur and coal? Ve are going to need it to make more bullets for ze MP40s if ve are to give zeese to ze soldiers.” Panzer smirked poking fun at Chrysalis’s indulgent behavior in the few moments the SMG had ammo.

“Panzer.” Talon spoke up.

“Ja?” Panzer responded.

“Why did you look so shocked when Venom said one of the vacuum tubes in your head was shattered?” Talon asked with genuine intrigue.

“Vell ze vacuum tube is like an over flow. My battery gets charged by a small generator; ze thing is the generator makes too much power. If ze vacuum tubes ver to fail, my brain vould over heat and my brain could over load vith electricity and catch on fire. Killing me slowly, painfully, and perminantly.” Panzer explained.

Panzer had taken to liking his new position and the alliance he made with the queen. He got to rule over a population, anything he asked for he got, and in a few short hours he would begin a campaign that would surly open a floodgate of new land and power for him and his ally. In the few short weeks since the deal had been made more drones where put to work doing simple tasks like digging ditches, gathering seeds for crops, mining for ores to be smelted and forged into new armor and weapons, the lucky drones got to build new homes for the rest of the population. In a courtyard in front of the town hall stood a line of orange colored Changelings, each one stood at attention as Panzer paced infront of them relaying their mission.

“Listen up, because I am only going to say zis once. Ze ten of you vill go to ze capitol, Canterlot in disguise. Here you vill find one of ze princess’ royal guards. Each of you are to select one of zese guards, vatch his every move, find out ven he leaves for vork, vere he keeps his keys, who his friends are, how he talks, how he valks, ven he goes to bed. Once you have gathered every piece of information about zis guard you must take his place. Take his body and hide it vell, if any of your covers is blown it could ruin ze whole operation. Each of you vill have until ze last day of vinter to complete your mission, by zen our forces vill have grown in both power und size. You vill be our eyes and ears behind enemy lines, if one of zese royal sisters so much as sneezes, I vant to know about it. Ven ze assault begins you must remain hidden, most of ze guards vill most likely run outside to ze fight. I vant you to run to zese princesses and keep zem from interfering vith ze shock und awe campaign outside. Ze queen und I vill handle zem personally.” Panzer looked each one of them in the eye confirming that they heard and headed ever word spoken to them. Each one of the special operations changelings burst into an orange flame taking the form of standard riffraff ponyfolk, to blend in when they arrive.

“Dismissed!” Panzer shouted at the line, the ten changelings saluted and marched for the railway. There they boarded a patched up train as the steam rolled out from the pistons the future of the hive began to look promising for the first time in decades. From her private chambers Chrysalis looked out on her colony. Canals where dug out to irrigate the new crop fields, bread-lines where already quickly feeding the masses, as river water was being distilled to purify it of any bacteria. The civilians of the colony would now begin a healthy streak of prosperity. To the south Dr. Venom was instructing a group of commando changelings the proper way to handle an MP40. Though the SMGs had no ammo yet the sight was still one of triumph for those wielding the power, and a sight of pure terror for those opposed. Panzer himself had been changed as time progressed, the band around his left arm was removed seeing the swastika as something of a dead cult that was far beneath his capabilities, and he exchanged it for a new symbol. It was a hybrid of Chrysalis’ Swarm emblem and a gear cog. The bird on his hat was replaced with this same symbol, though his coat remained the same he was in fact no longer of that dead culture. Panzer Shriek, though composed of steel and void of blood, felt alive, genuinely alive. Chrysalis’ joy for her changelings was without words, the sense of nationalism and their spiritual integrity was even enough to begin restoring their magical potential.

Panzer strode through the town hall to inform the queen of the recognizance team he had sent ahead of the rest of the swarm. A unique knocking emanated from the great wooden doors of Chrysalis’ chambers. She granted the guest entry, Panzer entered.

“Phase one of the plan is completed. Shall we begin phase two?” Panzer asked the queen’s permission to issue the order.

“I suppose we can’t make progress without moving on. What is next on the agenda?” Chrysalis concluded.

“Vell zis is vhen things start to get, aggressive.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have been doing some research on ze culture and unique abilities of ze three races of pony. From vat I found, ze unicorns have ze ability to use physic connect energy to manipulate matter around zem. Zey call it magic, all of ze abilities are classic hallmarks of a new tool ze scientist ver working on before zey captured ze science labs. Zese Pegasus types show ze ability to control ze weather, vere zis ability comes from, I don’t know. Lastly ze Earth kind who have no physic or flight abilities are rumored to be in tune to ze earth allowing zem to accelerate plant growth. If ve can find one of each kind vith a large amount of zis power, or gathering enough ordinary ones, ve can transfer ze power in zem to ze changeling masses, further growing our power.” Panzer spoke assuredly in a flat tone, one that seemed to cast out any unethicality for harvesting ponies for their power.

“You make it sound so simple.” Chrysalis retorted, having both tried and failed in this endeavor at least once before.

“Vell vhy vouldn’t it be? Just take ze sources und hook zem up to a harvester, if zey are kept sedated zey vouldn’t be much of a problem. As long as zey are vell nourished zey should provide all ze powers of zere respective tribes.” Panzer reasoned, one eyebrow raised wondering why she the queen hadn’t thought of it before.

“Right, now how do you propose we get ahold of these sources?” Chrysalis looked at him stone-faced trying to find a loophole or imperfection in Panzer’s plan.

“Simple, in fact I am expecting zem vithin ze next few days. Remember zat recon team I sent out? Vell zey vere instructed to send one of each race back here sedated. Ze best part is zat zey vill come to us, ve don’t even have to leave zis spot. Oh yes, my plan vill vork perfectly.” Panzer grinned to himself. Chrysalis was growing suspicious of the actions of the mechanical soldier. It was true, his plan was solid and had very few if any flaws what-so-ever. But she couldn’t help but feel as if there was something else, deeper that was going on. Before Chrysalis could question Panzer further, a train pulled into the colony’s station just a few blocks north of the town hall window where they were standing.

“Ah yes, here are our guests now!” Panzer chirped excitedly. He then excused himself and headed down to the train station to receive the arrivals.

Panzer strode through the doors leading out to the landing platform of the train station. Dr. Venom had finished the training exercises with the soldiers and had moved on to his next orders of escorting the captives to their holding cells.

“Good morning General, wasn’t expecting to run into you here.” Venom greeted the humanoid machine through a cigar as he approached.

“A good morning indeed Doctor, I vas just coming to make sure our new friends vere comfortable.” Panzer’s voice took over a sarcastic tone. He looked down at the thick brown cigar in Venom’s mouth. “You know zose things accelerate your death. I’ve run tests, zey can literally rot your lungs, teeth, und even damage your heart.” Panzer spoke this time with genuine concern for a friend who had saved his life. He thought it was only proper to return the favor through informing Venom of the dangers of smoke inhalation.

“Under normal circumstances, you’d be right, but there is one thing that makes this different. I’m not your average pony General; I’m a changeling, a freak of nature like you. We had to evolve to survive attacks using smoke. I was the only successful test subject, but I can actually use the carbon in the smoke and apply it to the natural armor plating of my skin to reinforce it.” Venom came up with a completely bogus excuse, using an unmasked sarcastic tone to play up the joke. Panzer chuckled at the humor. Before either one could make another comment the old train’s doors popped open and with a squeak came to a rest in the open position. A pair of uncloaked changelings sporting the spears they left with before the new weapons where introduced. The two red backed changelings saluted their commanding officers and took up a supporting position on either side of the opening to the train.

From the dark of the rusty passenger car emerged three pairs of changelings, each pair escorting a normal pony. The unicorn was attempting to use his magic to escape the chains that kept him under his captor’s control, however his magic was being muffled by a spell typically used by security officers to prevent stealing, or cheating during sporting events.

“Oh relax, it’s not like you’re going to die. That would be the last thing we need, a useless dead unicorn.” Venom spoke toward the struggling stallion.

“You know vere to take him.” Panzer addressed the prisoner’s escort; the first pair took the brown unicorn and carried him off toward one of the science laboratories.

The next pony to approach Venom and Panzer was a Pegasus; she had a pink coat and blue hair. She put up little to no fight; she was in shock frozen in fear. Her eyes broke from their thousand yard stare and looked over at the former Nazi robot and the Changeling scientist, unlinking she began to hyperventilate. Her heart was pounding, she could hear it in her ears, feel it in her chest.

“Take her to her respective holding place, und make sure she has vater. Ze last thing ve need is her keeling over in ze cell.” Panzer once again instructed the escort.

“Ya’ll get yer, dirty paws offa’ me!” An orange earth pony was shouting, trying to fight back against her captors. She sported a brown hat on her head that while it was in good condition had some apparent age to it.

“Oh, zis one has some fight!” Panzer cheered enthusiastically. The orange mare shot a glance at the metal soldier, the look of distain in her eyes.

“What in tarnation are you supposed to be?” The orange earth pony once again showed disrespect toward the tin man.

“I am ze reason ze queen has yet to kill you. If I vere you I vould show a little respect, before I change my mind. And find another more respectful applicant und have you executed by firing squad!” Panzer began to shout like many a German officer before him.

“Take her and put her vith ze others.” Panzer returned his attention to the escorts and spoke very coolly.

From the caboose of the train three young fillies watched in horror as one of their friends was pilled deeper into the changeling colony.

“Ah, gotta’ go save er’!” Applebloom squeaked trying not to draw the attention of any changelings in the area.

“No!” Sweetybelle grabbed her friend’s tail and pulled her back to the hiding spot. “If they find us they’ll take us too! How are you going to save her when they chain you up too?”

“Sweetie’s right we need to stay hidden if we can wait them out we should be able to get back without being seen. Then we can tell everypony about what’s going on here.” Scootaloo added.

Panzer and Venom began their walk back to the town hall, exchanging jokes as they walked. When they arrived at Panzer’s study they once again began discussing repair work to what was still broken in Panzer’s still old system. Panzer sat down in his chair and removed his hat, giving Venom a clear view of his head. The doctor began to work at the bolts securing the metal skull-cap to the rest of the head.

“So, what did you say was giving you issues?” Venom questioned.

“It’s my eye again, I think zere is a bad connection or something, it doesn’t adjust to ze light level correctly.” Panzer explained. From his door a knock was heard, it was promptly answered by Panzer telling them to enter. Chrysalis had mixed feelings about what she saw upon entering the room. The fact that Panzer was a machine made her think of fixing a wagon wheel or changing a gauge on a train engine. But the way he seemed alive made her forget that he was not an actual living thing.

“So, your hostage transfer went over smoothly I take it?” She opened the conversation. Panzer opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a violent shudder that ran down his spine.

“GAH! Be careful, zat hurt!” The metal man shouted.

“Sorry, sorry, done got myself too. Wait, you felt that?” Dr. Venom seemed amazed at the prospect of a machine feeling pain.

“Ja, just because I am a machine, doesn’t mean I don’t feel vat happens in zat regard.” Panzer scolded. “Anyway, ze arrivals where received as expected. Ze only one zat took me by surprise vas ze earth one, she wore a large hat like an American cowboy, she vas orange and had quite ze temper.” Panzer reflected on the strange mare.

“Did this pony have an accent?” Chrysalis asked with anticipation.

“Ja, she did, how did you know?” Panzer was confused.

“I can’t believe it. That was the element of honesty. One of the six reasons so many aggressors before I failed. On top of that, she’s one sixth of the reason my face is burned.” Chrysalis sat down bewildered. “For months I planned that attack to have it slip through my hooves, and here you are capturing her on a complete stroke of luck.” She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

“Sweetie, stop pulling my tail!” Scootaloo scolded.

“It’s not me.” Sweetie defended herself.

The eyes of the crusaders grew to the size of dinner plates when they realized that they had been found. They tried to run but where cut off by another changeling. Their only escape cut off they embraced one another trying to comfort each other before they thought they would get eaten. Sweetiebelle franticly searched through her memory trying to pull off a miracle, her horn light up as she remembered a teleportation spell Twilight hat tried to teach her a while back. The spell only got her a few feet away, but that was all she needed. Once her hooves hit the ground she was gone.

Author's Note

Don't you just HATE cliff-hangers? Well too bad because the next chapter is about the other side of the story! Tune in next time to find out how AJ and the CMC got into this mess! Thank you good night!

A New Girl (Chapter-5)

Author's Note

Sorry about recalling this chapter, I just didn't like the way it played out. So I took it back and tweaked it a bit, added some imagery, reactions, and one scene. Not a long scene but a scene none the less. Still not the best chapter but they should get better as time progresses.

A New Girl (Chapter-5)

The train stopped in Canterlot station, sending steam rolling up into the infinite night sky. Twilight’s head perked up the moment the train came to a stop. She got to her hooves and began to wake her friends. Most of the girls got up with minimal protest except for Rainbowdash, who took twice as long to wake as everypony else.

“Red, were here, you gotta’ get up.” Twilight gently rocked the metal man attempting to wake him.

“Hey Miller, I found a flamethrower, Jealous? Heh heh” Red mumbled in his sleep, rolling over to avoid waking up. Gravity however had other plans, hanging over the edge of the bench he fell face first on to the floor of the train. He opened his eyes and complained “Oh, good morning floor!”

Twilight then trotted over to Pinkie’s bunk, she placed her hoof on the body sized lump under the blanket only to watch it collapse. She pulled back the blanket and her face was assaulted with a blast of confetti.

“He he, Good morning Twi, whatcha’ doin’?” The pink party pony popped up from under the pillow, which by the way had zero signs of being moved.

“Well, you’re already up so I guess were all ready to go.” Twilight concluded as she started toward the door.

“Red, could you be a dear and assist me with my bags?” Rarity politely asked the metal man who was still a little groggy.

“Yeh I guess so, but I’m going back to sleep when we get to hotel.” Red complained.

“Ah still don’t understand why a robot needs to sleep.” Applejack questioned, slipping her hat over her bed-mane.

“I explained this; I don’t eat, so I sleep to recharge battery.” Red elaborated tiredly.

“Spose’ we ought’ to get the girls too.” Applejack changed the subject. The orange cowpony gathered up her little sister, still soundly sleeping and carried her on her back. Sweetiebelle was wide awake and walked excitedly next to her sister. Scootaloo was hitching a ride on Red’s back using his backpack as a pillow and his coat as a blanket warming herself with the heat emanating from his battery, and the presently warm air wafting from the vents on the back of his head cooling the vacuum tubes behind the vents them. The doors of the train stayed open until every passenger got exited regardless of how tired they were. Everypony sluggishly walked toward one of the carriages waiting for arriving passengers. Twilight gave the driver a location as the first half of the group got on. Knowing not everyone could get into one carriage the Applejack carrying Applebloom, Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, and Red, also carrying a sleeping filly boarded. Red placed the bags in the trunk, closed it and walked over to the door to get in.

“Hey, heavy luggage rides in the back.” The driver warned.

“It is.” Red responded confused.

“I was referring to you tin-head.” The driver smirked

“Ha ha, you made funny joke. Now is my turn.” Red made a noise as if clearing his throat. “Even if I drink all vodka in Russia, you stay ugly.” Though Red’s grin was obscured by his mustache, it was clear that he was pleased with his remark. The cab driver decided that he was fighting a losing battle and gave up trying to make fun of the Soviet machine. Red got into the cab making it lean to one side under his weight. Applejack and Rainbowdash shifted their gaze over to Red surprised by the shift in weight.

“What? I can’t help it. You try being made out of steel.” He defended himself against their silent criticism.

When the carriage finally came to a stop outside of an elaborate building with large pillars, the two parties once again began to mix. The cab driver shouted in the direction of the group, more accurately at Red.

“Hey, next time try a salad pal!” he shouted. Without turning around Red put his fingers up to his chin in thought.

“Whoa, what’d you do to him?” Rainbow asked.

“He started it. Hey, how do you thanks for the ride in idiot?” Red spoke jokingly about the driver. The group made their way inside the hotel. Luckily they all had rooms close together. Red, Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, and by extension, Scootaloo where all sharing a room; the door opened and they stepped inside, a few seconds later Red spoke up.

“It’s just like my first apartment, only less blood.” The metal man chuckled to himself attempting to lighten the tired mood. With little feedback everypony carelessly tossed their bags off to the side and collapsed onto the beds. Red placed the orange filly on the sofa, putting his coat over her like a blanket, and laid down on the floor. His eyes flicked shut and he once again fell asleep. The floor of the hotel was filled with nothing except for the gentle sound of breathing.

Several hours later the sun began to shine through the windows of the hotel rooms. Everypony and Red had woken up and where on their way down to the lobby so they could meet up for breakfast. Twilight was in such a big hurry to get to the princesses that she barely slept once settled into the hotel and almost skipped through breakfast to get on her way. However with some convincing from her friends and the protest from her stomach she went along with the group. The Crusaders spent most of their breakfast on coming up with ways to get their cutiemarks. Twilight went on and on about what the royal sisters could have summoned her for. Red sat on a wood bench just a few feet away from the outdoor table the rest of the group was eating at. He repetitively popped the magazine out of the handgun he brought with him sliding it back into the grip, getting faster and faster with each attempt. By the end of breakfast the Crusaders where itching to get to their next harebrained scheme that involved train cars, buckets of paint, pipe cleaners, a wood saw, and a pair of binoculars. Applejack set off after the fillies to make sure they didn’t get themselves into trouble, followed by Rainbowdash. Rarity and Fluttershy set their attention for the day to browse the current fashion trends of the Canterlot Upper-class.

“You know darling it would be nice for you to come with us. It’ll be a delightful taste of culture outside what you see every day in Ponyville.” Rarity offered for Red to join them.

“You realize you are asking Robotic Russian man to go cloths shopping right? I don’t even wear cloths outside of coat, boots and hat. Besides, Twilight said the princesses need to see me as well as her.” Red politely declined the offer. Remembering the instructions of the letter they nodded and parted ways. Red stood up sliding the TT-33 back into its holster just under his coat. Twilight, Red and Spike began to make their way toward the castle, Spike and Red where making small talk as they walked.

“So, you say you weren’t a fan of these human creatures. What where they, what was so bad about them?” Spike questioned.

“Well, not exactly it’s not like I hated them, I just didn’t like the way they behaved. They were violent when they didn’t need to be. You know they once sent entire country into war because they thought they could use each other like slaves?” Red complained. From a nearby bench a teal unicorn with a white streak in her mane sat upright watching in amazement at the retired Soviet as he walked down the street talking with a baby dragon. She got up and followed the trio as they headed toward the castle but kept a fair distance to not arouse suspicion. Twilight, Spike, and Red finally came up to the gates of the palace. Red’s hands where buried in his coat pockets as they waited for the gates to open.

“Hey, where is Pinkie?” Red wondered out loud. The helmet on his head lifted and soared upward; from under it Pinkie pie was once again smiling appearing out of nowhere.

“Surprise!” Pinkie cheered wearing the soldier’s helmet that weighed down her poofy mane.

“I will never understand how or why you are able to do that.” Red wrinkled his forehead as she hopped down onto the floor. Twilight followed by Red and Spike with the unexpected addition of Pinkie walked into the main hallway of the castle where Celestia was waiting for them.

“Good morning my student, Pinkie it’s good to see you, and you as well spike. Red, you’re looking well.” The princess greeted

“Hah, I might look like it but I my head hurts like I have magnet stuck to it.” Red laughed like a stereotypical drunk Russian, though he was incapable of actually consuming any kind of beverage. The princess took the joke literally, not seeing the humor. Celestia lead the four into a chamber where princess Luna was asleep, glasses halfway hanging off her face, the books sprawled across the desk, floor, and the one in front of her was a clear indication she had been puling one if not several all-night research binges. On the outside Twilight had the look of genuine concern; however on the inside the sight reminded her of her long nights of hitting the books. Spike had a look of ironic justice plastered on his face. So many times had the princesses left Twilight with so much book work he needed to remind her to blink, and now at least one of the princesses receive a taste of what they put Twilight through. He had never been the vengeful type and even felt a little bad for the night princess for being so distressed. Trying to step into the room Red tripped over one of the books, his foot landed on another and it slipped out from under him. He rammed into the floor with the force of a falling oak tree. The loud clang his body when it collided with the stone floor echoed through the great walls of the library waking Luna from her slumber.

“Heh, good morning once again floor. We must stop running into each other like this.” Red joked. Pinkie laughed at and with Red at the same time.

“Sorry to disturb you Princess. But I got the letter you sent me and came over as soon as I could.” Twilight apologized for interrupting Luna’s slumber.

“No need to apologize, it is true, I requested the presence of you and the machine. I have found a dream of which I have seen before, though this time I fear your mechanical friend there wasn’t the one who recalled the incident.” The night princess began.

“So, what did you need me for?” Red was confused.

“Do you remember the dream you had a while back, the one that lead us to the knowledge of your being in ponyville?” Luna asked.

“Yes, the one with the snow, and the tanks.” Red confirmed.

“Did you happen to have that dream again?” Luna questioned the metal man further.

“I haven’t had any seriously intense war dream in several months. I’ve had dreams of being at base and shenanigans of my old squad. But I haven’t had any violent dreams. The humans in that dream would have died long ago, the Captain was literally destroyed, and I remember killing the German machine personally. I held his battery in hand.” The Soviet Machine responded in his sincerest voice.

“Then this is indeed worrying. Are you sure that nopo… nobody could have stuck around all this time?” Luna spoke with a grave look on her face.

“Are you saying that Panzer could still be alive?” Red was slightly hysterical. The princess did nothing but nod at the presumption.

Applejack and Ranbowdash where talking amongst themselves as the Crusaders ran around from place to place trying in vain to obtain their cutie marks. Dash’s eyes shifted over to an armor-clad guard positioned on the balcony of a large red bricked building overlooking the craft store near the main train station.

“Hey, AJ is it just me or does it seem like that guard is watching us, like, too closely?” Rainbow speculated. Applejack’s eyes shifted over to the guard.

“Ah, suppose he is acting a might strange. But he’s probly’ jus’ doin’ his job.” Applejack turned her attention over towards the children once again. Rainbow looked away, then back once more; but the guard had vanished. She shook her head thinking she was just a bit jumpy and moved on. Rainbow and AJ sat next to each other talking about various things; occasionally a laugh would interrupt the calm conversation. Several hours had passed before Rainbowdash stood up.

“Hey AJ, I’m getting a little hungry, I think I’ll go grab a bite, you want me to get you anything?” The blue Pegasus asked Applejack as she stood up and stretched her wings.

“Yeah, I could eat; should probably get something for the girls too.” Applejack handed Rainbow the bits to pay for both her and the Crusaders to pay for lunch. Dash sped off toward the nearest restaurant leaving the orange cowpony to look after the kids alone. Shortly after Dash left Applejack heard a voice behind her suddenly that frightened her.

“Excuse me miss, might I ask what it is that you’re doing here?” The voice surprisingly belonged to the guard that Applejack an Rainbowdash where looking at earlier.

“I’m mighty sorry, I, I didn’t know this area was restricted.” Applejack defended her presence. Then she took a second look at the guard’s eyes. She noticed that they had a green hue to them, a hue not natural in the eyes of any creature except a changeling. Applejack’s eyes grew wide, the guard jumped on the opportunity. The guard’s mouth began to bleed as two of the flat teeth in his mouth fell out, a pair of fangs lurching out in their place. He bit down on her shoulder injecting a paralyzing toxin that would immobilize her for at least an hour. From behind a bush across the dirt lot Scootaloo, Sweetiebelle, and Applebloom watched in horror as their chaperone was dragged off by an obyously fake guard. His fangs sunk back into his gums and wiped the crimson from his lip, slinging the paralyzed Applejack over his back he made his way toward an old looking train. The Crusaders followed him, jumping into the last car to avoid being seen. The train began to huff and pull away from the end of the line and head toward its new destination.

Rainbowdash stood where she had been sitting earlier holding the food she had just purchased wondering where her friend had wondered off to. She placed the bag down; looking at the ground she noticed something odd. A few small droplets of blood, fresh blood, she was no detective but it couldn’t have been more than only two minutes old.

“Applejcak?! Applejack?!” Her eyes turned to pinpricks when she noticed the quiet. “Girls!?” She began to panic. Dash flew up high into the air thinking she would go chase down the ponies that took her friend but quickly realized she didn’t even know where to start looking. She only had one thought; Find Twilight. Soaring down corridors around buildings and under awnings it was a surprise he didn’t run into anything Rainbow sprinted through the air headed straight for the castle. The doors flew open and Dash flew in almost knocking Red down for a third time in one day. She was hysterical and barely making sense as she rambled on.

“Rainbow, slow down and tell me what happened!” Twilight shouted to get her multicolored friend to speak calmly.

“I think Applejack was taken by sompony wearing royal guard armor, and I think he took the girls too!” Dash spat out trying to keep somewhat calm. Everyone in the room was making a racket except for Red; sitting in contemplation he tried to put together the clues. Pinkie was yelling at Twilight pointing to the top-hat she had on her head which seemingly came from nowhere. Finally Red stood up to silence everyone so he could tell them what he had figured out. Though the room stayed loud; Red grabbed the Handgun from its holster, snapped back the top, chambering a round then fired it keeping the barrel pointed out a window at a dirt pile in the garden. The room fell deeply silent aside from Pinkie Pie.

“THAT’S WHY YOU CAN’T PUT TEDDY BEARS IN CAKES!!” Pinkie shouted to nobody in particular. Red just raised an eyebrow in confusion. He shook his head and began to speak.

“Look, I can’t believe I’m saying this but I can’t shake the feeling that this has Panzer Shriek all over written all over it.” Red began to describe how the actions and events turn by turn showed signs of being straight from Panzer’s playbook. From just outside a pair of guards walked talking quietly to one another, the unicorn guard caught a few sentences of the Red’s explanation. The second Pegasus guard looked over to the unicorn in confusion. The unicorn quickly turned his attention back to the other guard; he awkwardly excused himself and began to run in the direction of the main gates. He rounded several street corners bumping into several ponies during his run until he reached the old train station; it still stood but was never used. In fact its ability to stand at all was a miracle in its self. He ran inside the building shedding his armor he ran up to an old train car. The unicorn’s eyes began to glow green and change from that of a normal pony to something similar to a lizard. His back arched and his coat began to melt away revealing a pair of insect like wings, his horn began to grow dark and sharp. The solid form of the legs began to erode giving way to several holes. The changeling now stood in its true form orange back signifying its rank in the changeling swarm. It climbed aboard the train looking at two other of its orange comrades and a few drones. It then looked over to the three paralyzed prisoners being held on the seats of the train car. Though the outside of the car looked rusty, beaten, and outdated the inside had been well kept and refurbished. The first of the prisoners to attempt to speak was the Applejack, though the toxins wouldn’t allow her to form comprehendible words, weak grunts and huffs was all she could manage.

Red paced around outside the main castle gate trying to find more reasons to prove to everyone else that Panzer was behind everything, or prove to himself that he was being paranoid. Finally he broke his cycle and started down the street, thinking somehow that going for a walk could clear up the fog of the situation. From a short distance away a teal unicorn watched as the tin man made his way down the street. She sped up her pace to catch up with the Mechanical Soviet.

“Hey! Hey! Excuse me!” The unicorn attempted to catch Red’s attention. Red stopped looked over his shoulder, then turned completely to make eye contact with the pony in question.

“Hello, what can I do for you?” Red was never good at greetings.

“Are you, a human?” The unicorn jumped straight to the point. Red was confused; he was under the impression that there were no ponies left that even knew what a human was or could even identify something made by one.

“Niet, I was built by humans but I am not myself one. Who are you? And how do you know what humans are?” Red couldn’t resist the question.

“Sorry, hi I’m Lyra, Heartstrings. I’m a bit of what science calls an Anthropologist. I ask because I think you might have the one thing I need to unlock the secrets of a little something I found. You might actually recognize it or her by the looks of things.” The teal unicorn gestured Red to follow her. The Soviet Mechanical stood there stupidly for a few seconds before following . Lyra lead Red to a storage unit, she clicked the lock open and let the door swing revealing the contents of the locker. Red was speechless, inside the locker sitting on a table was another mechanical being. Its slim figure made it obvious that it was designed to be female, yet at the same time wasn’t vulgar or over exaggerated.

“I found her while exploring a cave just outside of Fillydelphia, she was obviously old but I had her shipped back here. I’ve been working on her for a few years and I think I can get her working but I don’t know anything about the wiring. When I saw you I figured you’d know what to do.” Lyra explained. Red examined the Mechanical on the table. Her face was like his, painted only in places necessary for aesthetics only more feminine. The rest of her was made out of some kind of stainless steel, not one piece of her was made of wood. She had a desert camouflage paint job covering her from her neck to her shins where the tan faded to black of boots. She like him, had pockets built into the armor plating covering the more fragile and vital systems necessary for survival, yet she had a tactical look to her.

“I don’t know her, but I think I can get her working again.” Red walked over to the body inspecting the pieces, checking that everything was in working order. He turned his attention to the head removing the skull cap he found the problem, a pair of wires where plugged into the wrong places, some were missing, and though she didn’t have vacuum tubes in the back of her head like him she did have something similar. She was far more advanced than the likes of the Soviet but he knew the layout well enough to solve a wiring problem. He clicked the last wire into place, her eyes shot open with a light click. She sat up quick, one of the wires in her head was still stuck to Red’s finger disconnecting it from the mainframe again, and she fell back to the table hard. Red froze for a second before a smile exploded across his face. Lyra looked at him a little shocked that he would laugh at the misfortune of his own kind.

“Heh, what that was kind of funny.” Red once again connected the wire making sure his hands where clear. The mechanical woman sat up again. She jumped off the table into a fighting stance, balling her hands into fists, from the knuckles of each fist jutted a blade which she pointed at the two onlookers. Red noticed that she was very quiet, unlike his model she didn’t make any buzzing noises, strange ticking, even his hydraulics where noisier than hers. She didn’t run on a hydraulic system at all she ran on a very quick responding cable system allowing for quick, precise, and quiet movements, shedding a significant amount of weight.

“Who are you? Where am I?” She demanded.

“Relax nobody here is going to hurt you.” Lyra was the first to respond, she had a smile plastered on her face from getting her human analog working. Pixel stared at the teal unicorn in shock.

“Did that horse just talk? Why is it blue?” Her head exploded with questions none of which where getting any answers.

“Actually, pony and I’m a unicorn and I can do much more than just talk. How do you think you’re alive right now? Red here helped a little with the more complicated wiring problems.” Lyra explained still smiling

She looked at Red’s chest plate seeing a stamp in the steel. It was a gear cog with a pair of wings opening behind it.

“You’re built by The Alpha Project? But you’re Russian.” She questioned. Red looked at his stamp and nodded.

“I am Beta 0012 of Beta squad. My name is Red.” The Soviet tried to talk down the metal woman.

“Wait, Beta squad. Did you know a Beta 0007, goes by Snips?” She retracted her blade in favor of the conversation. Red’s eyes light up.

“Yes, he was our squad’s sniper a bit of a cowboy, even tried wearing the hat for a while. He had his life saved by Garand rifle and refused to get rid of it.” Red informed.

“That’s him, he was in my squad. So you’re the Russian badass he was always talking about. I was his new squad leader. I’m Gamma 45 but the guys call me Pixel.” The female machine identified herself. Lyra listened with intrigue as the two machines conversed with one another.

“Wait, Snips died a few weeks before I got here. And I know you didn’t exist before that happened, plus you said you’re from Gamma squad. Last I checked Beta was the latest model. How could you know him?” Red was confused and didn’t hide it.

“Oh he didn’t die, he stepped on a mine it’s not like what happened to, what was that poor fella’s name? Beta 0010 he was your squad leader, Marine, uhg what was his name? Anyway he was hurt, not dead.” She resolved to belay remembering the name.

“Tell you what though, that stubborn bastard wouldn’t give up that piece of crap Garand he had. I told him time and time again he had the collective aim of a storm trooper. Couldn’t hit the brad side of a 747. It took a while before we finally got him to use a new rifle, still kept the M1 but at that point it was more of a trophy, we got him to try an M110 and he fell in love with it after he first pulled the trigger. Damn near shot Rat with that thing.” Pixel recalled the events of her old squad.

“So, what was your relation to him, how did he end up in your squad?” The soviet curiously asked.

“Oh, our original sniper Optic was caught by a junkyard magnet, his memory was fried and then he was melted down while still functional. Snips was the pretty much an outcast, being used for warehouse inventory upkeep. Once he heard there was an opening he jumped on the opportunity. He and kind of had a thing, well he had a crush on me and I guess I kind of fell for him too.” Pixel explained. Red now knew that if these events where in fact brought about by Panzer Shriek he would now have a chance at fighting the Fascist menace and the army he surly had backing him up. Pixel, Red and Lyra casually walked down the path between the storage lockers, Red had spent several months of his service with the Red Army cooking for the soldiers, he himself couldn’t eat but he could smell. Red could have been a famous chef if it hadn’t been for the war, he cooked by smell, his nose had never steered him wrong as far as the soldiers who ate his cooking told him. His metal nostrils where assaulted by a sour stench. He covered his nose with his bronze hands attempting in vain to block the offensive odor. Lyra and Pixel looked at him in confusion for a few seconds before they too were attacked by the stench. Red followed his nose to the source, leading him to one of the lockers, he placed his hand on the door and attempted to open it but the pad-lock held the door firmly in place.

“Let me see that.” Pixel reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of thin metal sticks. She slid both sticks into the lock and fiddled around until the lock clicked open. She opened the door. Inside where the bodies of several ponies, all but one where male all with the physic of royal guards and the cutie marks to match the look. They were all bound in some kind of green pods that slowly rotted around them. An AC unit sat in the corner of the room it seemed to have broken and shut down at least a day ago, leaving the combined body heat of the ponies to rot away at the festering pods. From down the hall hoof steps could be heard, getting closer with every passing second. Red, Pixel, and Lyra knew they couldn’t get caught with this sight. Lyra was thinking on her hooves and jumped into the pile of rotting pods concealing her under them. Pixel was quick enough to dash around a corner out of sight, red quickly closed the door and acted as if he hadn’t seen anything and pretended to be walking the other way. The pony looked up from the ground; it was a Gold clad guard. Seeing Red he jumped threw off his helmet and saluted.

“Sir! I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” The guard stuttered.

“I’m sorry I don’t think we’ve met.” Red responded innocently, he knew something was up once he saw that the guard before him was identical to one that was suspended in one of the pods. Inside the locker Lyra pushed on one of the pods breaking its surface tension. Outside, the guard’s skeleton began to shift under his skin, pieces of it lopped off exposing an insect like exoskeleton. The guard’s look finally gave way to his true form; a commando changeling complete with orange back. Red was mortified by the transformation. The changeling had finally gotten a good look at the mechanical man only to realize that the machine was not General Panzer. The changeling’s eyes shrank to pinheads and attempted to run, red quickly drew his pistol and fired twice at the bug’s legs adding two fresh holes and stopping him dead in his tracks. Pixel burst from around the corner, hand blades drawn and at the ready. She stopped to examine the struggling changeling, Lyra came out of the locker and looked at the scene, Red was standing over a struggling commando changeling his handgun still smoking as blood seeped from the changeling’s wounds.

“What, the hell, is that?” Pixel kept her blades at the ready.

“That’s it! That explains it! It’s a changing, and those pods are incubation chambers they allow them to hold the form of any pony of their choosing for prolonged periods of time.” Lyra explained ignoring the fact that she now smelled like the putrid pods.

“It looks like a god damned Geonosian.” Pixel once again referenced a movie neither of the others had seen.

“I think we have all the answers we need now.” Red holstered the pistol, knocked out the changeling and slung it over his shoulder. Its blood dripped down and stained the brown paint of his back.

Liberating the Hive (Chapter-6)

Panzer Shriek’s door burst with knocking. Panzer verbaly answered the knock ordering the one knocking to come in.

“General! I think our cover is blown. One of the commandos was found out.” Talon stood in front of Panzer’s desk. After the German War Machine had gained the status of General he appointed Fangs and Talon to commanding officers, and overall his right hand men. Venom was his personal mechanic. Each one of them now wore a hat similar to Panzer’s he wore a navy blue trench coat.

“Vell, is zere any good news?” Panzer seemed very nonchalant for somebody who’s plans have just been figured out.

“Well for one the recon units that caught wind of it quickly changed personas so at least three have yet to be found.” Talon informed; Panzer smiled.

“Zey are smarter zen I first thought.” Panzer stood up and began to walk out of the office gesturing for Talon to follow. The changeling officer followed the General of the now Military state. Panzer walked proudly past the propaganda posters many depicting a Changeling wearing a new uniform, a shiny new helmet and an MP40 sheathed on its shoulder. Most of the posters where emblazoned with promises of reclaiming what the hive had lost; others were encouraging joining the ranks of the Grand Army of the Hive. The two walked past construction sites and waved to several hive comrades saluting them on the street, their patriotic spirit was soaring.

“Look around you Talon, everybody is happy, zere spirits have been lifted. For ze first time in years zey have ambition, passion, determination, and loyalty to ze Hive.” The metal man spoke as if he was giving a speech to a crowd of hundreds. Talon was inspired but still felt the burden of knowing their plans were being uncovered.

“But what about the Pony population, surely once the Solar Empire finds out that we have three of its citizens held here they’ll declare war. Do we even have a plan of attack?” Talon questioned.

“Ha, Talon, out plan is attack. If zey decide to strike it makes zem look like ze bad guys. Bad guys who attempted to exterminate an entire race by denying zem ze basics for survival.” Panzer spoke triumphantly. They continued down the street, crossing small businesses, and manufacturing plants.

Chrysalis looked out on her Hive from a cliff side and while she was overjoyed that her subjects were happy and prosperous she knew that it wouldn’t end here. She decided to end her hike early and began to descend the mountain. She looked to the sky; the brown overcast had been purified by the new orchards and with the trees came rain. The newly cleaned skies where now being permeated with the aromas of fresh cooked foods and smoke from coal power plants, and steel mills. On her stroll back down the mountainside she came across a gray brick wall. Her curiosity obligated her to investigate. She flew up and over the wall, from the outside there where two buildings, one appeared to be an infirmary and the other, a coal power plant. She walked into the infirmary and indeed found several changelings recovering from injuries, most of which were drones suffering from work injuries. She looked upon them like a mother looks at her sick child, she had sympathy though was proud of their hard work. She began to notice that all the injured where drones, the doctors where accompanied by an advisor. The advisors carried a piece of chalk, he would go up to one of the injured and either mark the foreleg of the injured drone with an X or a check. Those with a check were then tended to by the doctor; those with an X got wheeled into a back room. Chrysalis then realized that the doorway that the wheel-outs where taken through lead to the coal power plant. She made her way outside and found an entrance for the plant, inside she was mortified. She watched as the rejected drones that were still alive executed and then thrown into the furnaces of the plant.

Chrysalis ran away from the plant, tears in her eyes. She didn’t know where she was running but she refused to stay there. Though she knew all too well that accidents happened she would never have conjured in her worst nightmares that her metaphorical children would be executed and burnt to feed a relentless war machine. She knew that she was the aggressor during the first siege on Canterlot, but she had no choice the Hive’s homeland was, as far as she knew dead. After Panzer helped redeem the land and begin churning out goods like food, she felt it necessary to award him by giving him some relevance in the Hive. She later regretted that action. Once he took the title of General she knew that fixing and satisfied citizens wasn’t enough. Panzer was an Imperialist, and would never rest until he had the world in his control. Such action would require using her to gain a following then stabbing her in the back and taking power for himself. The changeling queen dried the tears flowing from her un-burnt eye. She couldn’t go after Panzer directly because the entire Swarm would back him up and she would be rejected by her own people. She couldn’t turn to the Solar Empire because she had tried to dominate its capitol. Assistance from the Crystal Empire was out of the question; after all she attempted to hijack the royal wedding. She was trapped, she mentally kicked herself, she knew he was dangerous, she told herself not to trust him, but somehow he managed to snake his way past her precautions, and now he was uprooting her, making her redundant, Irrelevant.

The changeling queen somberly dragged her hooves back through town. She didn’t even try to mask her dull mood. She found herself in a café sitting quietly, plotting to overthrow her underminer. Unfortunately her plans now where as bad as they were before, no plan B, mostly improvised. She took a swig of the black coffee, unsweetened, no cream. The bitter taste made her scrunch up her muzzle but the taste of her beverage was miniscule in comparison to her other problems. She finished her cup, and finally had an idea worth attempting. It would take time and would boil down to the last second in the end, but she figured she could pull it off. With a fraction of her confidence regained she stood up from the table, leaving a tip for the waiter.

The bell over the door tinkled when it swung open and Chrysalis walked outside, she had taken a few steps forward and stopped suddenly upon hearing a strange noise. The sun was almost down painting the newly thriving metropolis soothing lavender. The alley way beside the dinner was light by one light over the side door of the eatery; she stared down the dark walkway having heard a strange noise from behind a dumpster. She slowly crept into the alley taking care not to give away her position. She rounded the corner of the dumpster and there, eyes wide, pupils the size of peas, fearing for her life was a little white unicorn filly. Sweetiebelle was too terrified to speak, her mouth opened as a faint noise began to grow louder from the little unicorn. Chrysalis quickly grabbed Sweetie, placing a hoof over her mouth; she kicked and struggled before she slowed down her attempts at escape Sweetie then realized that Chrysalis was talking.

“Sssshhhh, don’t scream, do you really want a mob of vengeful changelings to hear you?” The queen spoke almost sympathetically. She removed her hoof so the filly could speak.

“You, you aren’t going to eat me?” Sweetiebelle choked out in a high pitched squeak. Chrysalis only laughed.

“You really think a pony coming from a dinner has the apatite to eat another pony? Besides I’m pretty sure you’d just taste like marshmallows, and I don’t like junk food.” The changeling queen was starting to enjoy the kid’s company. She looked over to a pile of discarded boxes, grabbed ahold of one, unfolded it and held it in front of Sweetie.

“Both one of us wants you to be seen, get in this and I can bring you to a safer and quite frankly cleaner place.” Chrysalis held the box patiently. Sweetie put her trust in the scared queen and got in the box. Chrysalis closed the top and made her way quickly over to her private quarters in the town hall. The cardboard flaps on the top of the box popped open, Sweetiebelle clambered out and looked around the large room.

“You are Queen Chrysalis right?” Sweetie was now more curious then afraid.

“I am.” The tall slender queen responded.

“If you don’t mind me asking why did you attack Canterlot? This place looks amazing, why would you want to leave and start a war?” Sweetie now asked questions Chrysalis hadn’t expected.

“It wasn’t like this three months ago.” Chrysalis began to come clean, confessing and describing all the events of the past few months to the little unicorn. She felt the weight on her shoulders lighten more and more as she spoke her mind. Sweetie listened intently taking in every word the queen spoke, though upon hearing about the metal man by the name of Panzer she didn’t seem surprised by his description, only by his existence. Chrysalis finished spinning the tale of the months past and sweetie spoke up.

“So Red isn’t alone. If this Panzer guy is anything like Red maybe Red can help.” Sweetie innocently suggested not knowing the history between the Russian pacifist and the German War machine. Red had never told the Crusaders about his war stories on account that he felt them to be too young to know about the horrors of the kind of war he had seen.

“Wait, Red, is he another machine?” Chrysalis was not hopeful.

“Yeah, he’s a funny looking thing, walks on two legs, no wings and no horn. He talks with a funny accent too.” Sweetie informed the queen about the other Mechanical. At this point in time the little unicorn felt it safe to ask a question that had been burning in the back of her mind and eating away at her heart.

“Uh, Ms. Chrysalis, I got here on a train. I was following my friends but when we got to the train station we got found and were being taken somewhere. I got away but I would like to know where my friends are, and if they are okay.” Sweetie was cautious but honest with her question. Chrysalis’ face turned pail when she realized where the filly’s friends would be.

“Panzer had them taken to a harvesting chamber, they are the reason that the Hive members are controlling weather, using magic, and yielding so much from crop fields. Their magic is being syphoned to fuel the Hive.” The queen felt it best to remain honest with the kid.

“Hold still” Chrysalis casted a short-term spell on the filly, disguising her pony body as a changeling. “There, now we can go look for these friends of yours.”

Chrysalis and the disguised Sweetiebelle made their way through the streets. The queen noticed a severe lack of Hive comrades in the streets. Then she remembered, today was D-day, today was the day Panzer executed his master plan. At this exact moment the Grand Army of the Hive was marching its way toward the capitol of the Solar Empire and would arrive in a matter of hours. The clock was ticking.

The two came up to a menacing looking building, inside they found three rigs each one holding onto a pony, the Unicorn’s rig was drawing some kind of purple aura. The Pegasus’ rig generated a blue aura, and the rig Applejack was latched into was drawing from her a green aura. The longer the machine ran the duller the coats of the captives became. A pair of makeshift harnesses held onto Scootaloo and Applebloom doing the same to them as the older ponies. All of the captives hung limp, they were all still alive but incapacitated. Chrysalis sighed internally as she unhooked Applejack, she knew that by unhooking these ponies the land would begin to decay once more, but perhaps with some upkeep perhaps they could try to maintain the ground’s fertility. The rest of the ponies where then released one by one, being moved aside as the once respected queen moved on to trying to preserve some of the magic the machine had extracted, she wouldn’t be taking more, but she could try to store what they had. The magic was transferred to a big tank like vat and was sealed for later use. Sweetie was confused by Chrysalis’ next actions. She began to smash the controls of the machine decommissioning it, dismantling it past the point of repair.

“Try waking them, we need to stop by the Archives and the armory before I can help you get back to the Solar Empire.” Chrysalis was being thorough in the destruction of the contraption. Applejack was the first to stir; her eye opened and was greeted with Sweetie’s young white face, just as Chrysalis stopped behind her to check on the incapacitated ponies.

“Sweetie, behind you!” The orange cowpony shouted trying to warn the filly. But Sweetie just smiled seeing that her friends where okay. Applejack slowly regained her motor control and attempted to shield Sweetie from the changeling queen.

“Sweetiebelle, when the others get up, I want you to lead them back to my office in the town hall. I have some business to attend to; when I arrive at the office you six need to be ready to go. If the train is still here we may have a chance of beating Panzer to Canterlot.” Chrysalis instructed the filly and turned to leave, taking a small canister of unicorn magic aura from the vat. With every passing second, Applejack was regaining her strength and was not just curious but almost afraid of why Sweetie didn’t flinch at the fact that the Queen of the changeling horde was right behind her. Applejack spontaneously came up with a theory, Sweetie must be a changeling. Most of the cowpony’s strength had come back and she was ready to hold her own.

“Sweetie, if that’s really you.” She didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

“It’s me Applejack, trust me, would a changeling know about the time Applebloom got into the Cellar and got into the hard cider?” Sweetie smiled at the memory of how Applebloom was acting after the cider, unable to speak clearly and barely able to stand. Applejack scowled wishing that any other memory could have been used to convince her that was not a proud moment in her role as legal guardian. The two began waking the other ponies.

Chrysalis marched up to the new archives filled with the writings of Panzer’s political propaganda, and his devices for war. The old archive stood, renovated but not in its prime a few blocks away. At Chrysalis’s side was a bottle of whisky, she pulled a rag from her armor’s pocket and stuffed into the neck, with the streets barren of any life, the Hive jumped town for the final assault on the capitol of Canterlot. With a spark from her horn, the rag began burn. She packed a significant force behind her throw, the bottle smashed the window on its way in the building. The bottle shattered on the floor the flaming rag ignited the combustible liquid setting the weapons guides, manuals, and blueprints aflame, the smell of burning paper and ink stung Chrysalis’s nose, and she loved it. The smoke of the inferno swelled as it climbed skyward behind the queen, she had one more stop before she could stop the mechanical terrorist.

The armory of the Grand Army of the Hive had to be Panzer’s favorite edition to the rebuilt city. It was packed with weapons designed to kill with the most efficiency as possible. She strode into the brick building, the walls where lined with rifles like the MG42, FG42, MP40, MP44, Kar98, and the rocket launcher that Panzer got his name from, the Panzer Shriek anti-tank rocket. Chrysalis walked over to a wall and picked out the heavier caliber MP44. As it hung it had no ammo, she walked behind the glass counter, and gathered several curved magazines, placing them in sleeves on a vest forming the shape of an X across her chest and a bayonet attaching it to the end of the barrel. Chrysalis then walked over to a crate of grenades and proceeded to break them open, dumping the black powder onto the floor. To ensure maximum damage Chrysalis took out another bottle of whisky and primed it just like the last. She ran a distance outside before lighting the rag, it sailed through the air landing with the sound of shattering glass before the black powder ignited. Queen Chrysalis sprinted as fast as she could to prevent being caught in the explosion. What a blast it was, the concussion of the blast shattered windows of buildings at least two blocks away. The air was filled with the sound of bullets popping and flying erratically through the air, Chrysalis thought to herself, it sounds like popcorn.

“What are we waiting for Sweetie; let’s go before everypony comes back!” Applebloom was getting restless and paranoid by the silence. Scootaloo was staring at a smoke cloud to the east and began to get anxious.

“Yeah, we should go before…” Scootaloo was cut off by a loud explosion that made everypony’s heart skip several beats. They all hit the ground covering their heads. From around the street corner Chrysalis was sprinting full speed toward the group.

“Oh my Celestia, It’s the changelings run for it!” Applebloom turned toward the town hall and banged on the door furiously trying to gain entrance. Sweetie rolled her eyes and greeted Chrysalis with a friendly smile.

“You made it! What did you do?” Sweetie asked keeping the explosion in mind.

“I had to make sure that once what needs to be done is done Panzer’s war machines never see the light of day ever again. I blew up the armory.” Chrysalis’ attempt at a philosophical remark was met with blank stares while the short simple answer received nods. Applejack looked at the rifle slung over Chrysalis’ back with concern. She knew what it was, Red had something similar and she was well aware of what it was capable of.

“We don’t have much time, if the train is still here we can beat the Hive Army.” Chrysalis sputtered quickly and turned to lead the way to the railroad station. To the queen’s relief the old train sat quietly at the station waiting to be used. Chrysalis took a place at the engine and began shoveling coal into the maw of the furnace. The train barely had time to heat up its boiler before it sluggishly heaved and began to move. A few miles down the track the train was running faster than it had ever run before, its wheels sparked as they rounded corners a few parts of the train’s engine began to fall off from the enormous strain the engine was under. There was no plan anymore; Chrysalis had carried out the only part of the plan that was pre-written. From here on out it would all be off the top of her head and like the train she refused to be stopped in ending the tyrannical reign of Panzer.

Author's Note

I'm pretty stoked about the next few chapters I got lined up, so I might get them up sooner than the others have gone up.

Canterlot's Last Stand (Chapter-7)

Author's Note

I almost forgot that this part of the story takes place in the winter. The intro was almost an incredibly hot summer day. It's okay I remembered and fixed it before it was a problem, but wait. Doesn't that mean it was never a real problem?

Canterlot's Last Stand (Chapter-7)

The day was in its prime, high noon, it was cold though, a light snow fell from a few clouds overhead. The weather teams where under strict orders not to fly. All Pegasus ponies where grounded until further notice so the flying forces of both the Shadow and the Wonderbolts could keep an eye on things. Red stood looking out over the railing of Luna’s balcony, his scoped mosin nagant held up to his eye. Several warnings from villages far south of the Equestrian border where barely able to reach the Solar Empire before being silenced. Celestia sent her top flight crew from the Wonderbolts to investigate, their reports lead to one disturbing report after another. Nothing but a pile of ashes rubble and smoldering fires was all that was left of the towns that the seemingly unstoppable threat burned through. These reports placed Canterlot on high alert; Red had requested that all of his weapons be mailed to him in the case of an emergency. Pixel’s boots lightly thumped on the smooth stone floor as she walked up next to the ex-Soviet; his eyes which usually glowed a subtle grey where dim, by just looking at his face you couldn’t tell but through the brightness of the eyes it was clear that he hadn’t slept for at least a day, let alone moved from that spot.

“You’ve been staring through that scope for the past two days; if you don’t sleep you’ll shutdown. Hand me the Moscow Nugget, and I’ll keep an eye open for this, whatever it is.” Pixel spoke with concern for Red’s sanity.

“Wait, what did you say? Moscow nugget?” Red was confused.

“Yeah, you know it’s Russian so Moscow and it’s like a nugget, a little bit of chicken, little bit of pork, and a little bit of beef. It does a little of everything sniper, spear, or private’s rifle, it’s like a nugget.” Pixel joked about the rifle. Red just shook his head, handed her the gun

“You do know which end the bullets come out don’t you?” Red spoke condescendingly

“Of course I do, you don’t become a Navy Seal by baking pies… No wait, that’s pretty much exactly what I did. You know because I’m not alive most of the challenges where a breeze, like, making, pies…” Pixel tripped over her own defense.

Red face palmed, and retreated into the shade of the building, he leaned up against a wall, closed his eyes and took a few hours to recharge. Pixel played with the bolt of the Russian sniper rifle. It clicked and squeaked as it spun ninety degrees slid backwards and then reversed the process. There was no ammo in the gun so she had less caution while rapidly sliding the bolt. She made sound effects as if she was firing live rounds through the gun. Pixel then looked down at a box of bullets, she didn’t really know why but she had the creeping suspicion that she should get the rifle ready. She pulled several rounds out of the box and placed them into the clip chamber, and slid the bolt forward chambering the first round with a click. Down on the street several blocks away, Shining Armor was running a scheduled patrol through the restaurant plaza of the town. The Chrystal Empire had been allies with the Solar Empire since King Sombra’s defeat. As good allies do the Chrystal Empire sent military assistance to help secure the capitol city of Canterlot. Shining stopped, letting the squad of gold armored guards move ahead of him. He spoke to Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts, gesturing to the sky; she saluted and took to the skies. He then turned toward a grey Pegasus sporting a hybrid Shadowbolt suit of armor from the Solar, Lunar war complete with wing blades. The Pegasus gave a cryptic nod took a few steps back then took off rapidly, despite the heavy appearance of the armor. The Shadowbolt then fell into formation with a squadron of Shadowbolts in similar armor.

One of the Pegasus guards was sitting on a roof top a few meters above where Shining Armor was standing; once again Shining was assigned the task of shield generator until the threat was identified. The guard on the roof Fluttered down from his post, landing behind Shining. The unidentified guard must have been moving quietly because Shining hadn’t noticed him. The unidentified guard drew his blade ready to strike. The guard pulled his blade back ready to swing with enough strength to decapitate the new Prince of the Chrystal Empire. The Pegasus was stopped just before the fatal swing; his head exploded showering Shining’s back with green blood. Shining turned quickly after hearing the sword hit the ground and feeling the hot blood hit his back. The guard’s form shifted and contorted until he was then revealed as a changeling. The body drooled green blood onto the ground staining the thin white layer of snow with the strange green liquid. Shining looked down at the corpse in shock, he was almost killed, by who he thought was a guard. A crystal guard ran up to Shining, she was a medic, she searched him up and down for injuries.

“Are you alright sir? Are you hit?” The crystal mare asked with concern clear in her voice.

“I’m fine he didn’t get me.” Shining replied trying to get his thoughts straight. A bang then echoed through the air. Shining looked toward the source of the sound, he saw the reflection of the Soviet’s scope, and he waved thanking the sniper. Pixel waved back, not taking her eye away from the scope. Red lurched out of his sleep with a jump, he turned to Pixel as she pulled back on the bolt sending the spent casing flying.

“What are you doing?!” Red shouted.

“Saving Shining’s ass from what I can see, caught a traitor just before he could take our little friend’s head off.” Pixel elaborated. Red retrieved his PPSh-41 and started down the stairs toward the castle gate, he was mentally kicking himself for not keeping the DP28 from the raid on the teleporter compound.

Shining then began to shout orders to the guards he knew to be real, the city was not secured the perimeter had been breached long before he arrived. Shining Armor moved his forces back to the castle gates, if his guards had the potential of being disguised changelings he wanted to keep an eye on as many of them as possible. Red joined the line of guards holding the barricade; he trained his PPSh on the street that lie ahead of them. Shining was doing his best to keep an eye on all the guards watching for strange behavior. Nobody moved, the only signs of life where the clouds of warm breaths of each guard, made viable by the cold winter air. With his attention on the guards infront of him he failed to watch for threats directly behind him. A changeling shifted from his guard form and attacked so quickly it didn’t even remove the armor, he bit down hard on shining’s neck injecting the paralyzing toxins. Shining fought back, standing on his hind legs throwing the changeling over his shoulder. The bug landed flat on its back knocking the wind out of its lungs. Red turned to see shining throw the Changeling off himself it hit the ground and gasped for air, Red opened up on the bug with a shower of bullets; they fired so fast it literally looked as if the gun wasn’t firing any projectiles and instead sucked the blood straight from the changeling’s body. Shining wasn’t bleeding too badly it was only two puncture wounds, nothing lethal but he felt his body beginning to lockup.

“Hold this line, nothing gets through, if it’s a bug, crush it. The castle is our last line of defense, if they get inside and reach the princesses its game over. Take out officers and commanders first if they lose order they’ll…” Shining couldn’t finish his sentence; the toxin was now in full effect, preventing him from speaking. The shield over the city struggled to hold up, but without Shining’s magic they buckled and fell. The city was now open to attack.

The assault didn’t come from the air like it had before, nor was it as random and uncoordinated. The distinct sound of synchronized marching could be heard coming straight up the main street of Canterlot. One figure lead the march on the city, it commanded the army to hold its position, not one of the soldiers moved.

“Zis is Panzer general of Ze Grand Hive Army. If you surrender I promise zere vill be no bloodshed, but I must varn you, ve have ze firepower to destroy zis city several times over.” Panzer stood up on a wooden crate, his MP40 in his hands, safety off. Red got up from his position and climbed on top of the barricades. He held his PPSh with his finger on the trigger, keeping it pointed away from the imposing army he began to shout to Panzer.

“Panzer, you don’t have to do this! These ponies have done nothing to you!” Red shouted down the street to the leader of the changeling army.

“Ah, Red how long has it been since you killed me? You still stand on ze side of the veak do you?” Panzer reopened the wound of red having to kill one of his own.

“You have no business here Panzer!” The soviet stood his ground firmly.

“Zen zis is war!” Panzer gave an unsettling smile and waved his hand issuing the order of attack. From the balcony of the castle, Pixel fired a round at Panzer’s head, denting but not penetrating the metal skull. The impact of the bullet made Panzer stumble backwards and crash into a wooden cart with a pile of neatly stacked cabbages in the tray. The weight of the metal body crushed the cart, and sent the vegetables rolling onto the street and the gutter. Inside the building just in front of the cart a brown earth pony fell into a sitting position reaching one hoof out in despair.

“My Cabbages! Why the cabbages?!”

The first shot had been fired and now the flood gates where open, all hell broke loose. The streets erupted in a loud clatter of gunfire, the changelings where the first of the ground soldiers to open fire; Red jumped down behind the barricades blind firing the Russian SMG in the general direction of the approaching army. Several guard from both the Crystal and Solar Empire charged forward with their swords drawn. Each one was promptly mowed down by the Hive’s guns, the guards in gold from the Solar Empire fell to the ground in a heap, bleeding into the street, staining the thin blanket of snow a crimson red. The crystal guards caught in the flurry of bullets shattered upon being hit by a round, the shards crystal littered the ground leaving only the armor they wore in their place. The changelings where coming up fast and seemed unstoppable. Pixel was taking out as many as she could from her position but soon found herself out of ammo. She left the bolt action on the balcony, turned to find Luna’s sword from her days leading the Lunar Republic. Pixel smiled and wrapped her hands around the hilt; it had good balance and was surprisingly light weight. Pixel took the stairs to join the fight raging just outside the castle gate.

The Wonderbolts tried all they could to distract the invading changeling army drawing their fire away from the royal guard. When the distracted platoons found themselves out of ammo, they took to the skies to fight the Wonderbolts on their own turf. Before the changeling soldiers could make it to Spitfire’s squad Warhawk’s Shadowbolts came down hard on them. The blades that ran the length of the outer feathers sliced quickly and cleanly through the necks, and wing joints of the attacking changelings; leaving the decapitated and dewinged bugs to fall to their deaths. Red managed to get ahold of some of the weapons dropped by the defeated changelings, and gave the weapons to the guards capable of using them. The guards would score a kill, take the weapons of the dead and use them against the rest of the army. From somewhere behind the front line of the changelings a group of grenades sailed through the air landing directly in front of the barricade.

“Get down!” Red jumped back grabbing as many guards as he could pulling them into the confines of the castle walls. The explosives ripped through the makeshift barricade clearing a path for the assault team. A few unicorn guards stationed on the castle walls where firing arrows, pouring oil and throwing stones at the attacking horde; trying to buy a little more time for a miracle. The soldiers along the wall began to fall as they were picked off. The fallback perimeter had been breached. Pixel burst out from the great wooden doors of the castle shouting something in Japanese as she charged forward, full sprint sword at the ready. She looked like a gladiator in ancient Rome as she sliced through changeling after changeling hacking away at the frontal assault. She was getting hit, a lot and her armor was beginning to fail. Pixel’s self-diagnostic systems where screaming at her that if she didn’t take cover she would fall to pieces. She had no choice but to fall back. The guards ran back inside the castle doors slammed them shut, and placed the large wooden plank in place, locking the door. Red pulled the mag from the PPSh, it was empty. He threw it aside and switched to his handgun, snapping the slide back making sure a round was chambered. The flight squads outside continued the best they could, picking off a few groups of straying changelings.

“What I wouldn’t give to have an Apache right now.” Pixel complained.

“I don’t see how Indian would help right now.” Red misunderstood what Pixel had said.

“Indi, no, no a gunship.” Pixel couldn’t get over how little Red understood about warfare of her time.

“How would boat.” Red still didn’t understand.

“Just shut up and take this.” Pixel had managed to get ahold of an MG42 with a belt of ammunition, she handed it over to the Soviet. She had an MP40 with two mags, it wasn’t much but to be fair it was being used before its owner was cut to pieces by the sword Pixel carried. Twilight and her friends where held up in the throne room, several of Celestia and Cadences royal guards stood ready to give their lives to defend the Princesses and the five elements of harmony that remained. The sound of gun fire, and explosions was resounding through the air; Rainbowdash was getting restless.

“Why are we just sitting here? Are we just going to wait until they come in here and kill us?” Dash was itching to get up close and personal with the invading changeling army. Rarity stopped Rainbow before she could get in the air.

“Rainbow! You have never been in a war before how would you know what to do?!” Rarity was shouting with tears in her eyes.

“So what? We can take em’ we have the Elements for buck sake!” Rainbow drew attention to the pendant hanging around her neck.

“Rarity’s right Rainbow, the only ones of us here or in Equestria for that matter who actually have experience in war are Red, Pixel, Warhawk, Celestia and Luna. There hasn’t been a war in a thousand years. And the Elements don’t work unless there all here and they have Applejack!” Twilight jumped in.

“Big deal we’ve beaten them before!” Dash was getting angry.

“Rainbow, they didn’t have guns before, they would shoot you before you could even reach the castle wall!” Twilight finally put an end to Dash’s persistence. Defeated, Rainbow turned to Celestia hoping that she would be on board with fighting back. Celestia spoke with a tone almost as cold as the air outside.

“They’re right Rainbowdash, without Applejack the elements won’t work. Though it is true I have fought in wars before I have never seen weapons like these before. The most important thing we can do now is stay safe and let Shining Armor and the guards do what they can to fight off the attack.” The solar Princess gave the final word.

“It’s okay Dashie, if even one of those ugly bug things comes in here I’ll get em’ with this!” Pinkie pulled her party cannon out from seemingly nowhere. But instead of it being loaded with confetti, Pinkie took out a large cannon ball and rolled it down the barrel of the cannon. Rainbow smirked, seeing that at least one of her friends was willing to fight. Twilight was glad that they weren’t defenseless but was taken aback that Pinkie Pie had no problem turning an instrument of recreation made for fun into a weapon.

Red looked over to Pixel who was rattled with bullet holes, smoke was beginning to slip through the armor plates rolling up into the air. He knew that he could keep fighting but she obviously wasn’t designed to take a hit like he was. From the corner of his eye he caught sight of several moving figures. He turned his head to see Princess Cadence, Applejack and the Cutie-mark Crusaders making a B-line for the throne room.

“Pixel, fallback to the throne room, make sure Cadence and the others get there safely. Then see what Twilight can do about that smoke.” Pixel said nothing, she grabbed ahold of a few spare guns lying around, then she began to run over to the stray ponies escorting them to the room where the Princesses and the other Elements where held up. Red sat with the MG42 trained on the door, each pound sent splinters of wood skittering along the floor, adding another crack to the already weak door. The hinges on the door would not withstand another heavy pound like the ones before.

Pixel knocked at the throne room door and shouted to let the occupants know who was trying to get inside. The door opened, the guards inside had their spears pointed at the ponies on the other side. Once they saw Pixel’s face they lowered their weapons knowing that changelings can’t take the form of something that isn’t alive. Applejack ran inside and embraced her friends in a hug; the crusaders ran to their respective siblings. Never had Rainbowdash been so happy to see Scootaloo, her number one fan. Twilight held up the necklace that represented the Element of loyalty. Applejack looked at it for a moment then put it around her neck. Twilight turned her attention over to Pixel, the smoke rising from somewhere inside the metal chest cavity was thickening. Yet she stood strong, rocking as if taking heavy breaths, her hands still firmly plastered to the rifle in her hands. She was full of bullet holes and scratches from blades. Her paint was buried under splatters of green blood, the tan camouflage only showing in a few places. She looked like a survivor in a zombie apocalypse.

“Pixel, come here let me see what I can do about that smoke.” Twilight offered. She had helped Red when he could not fix problems on his own and she figured Pixel couldn’t be that much different. Pixel limped over to the lavender unicorn, and leaned against a pillar so Twilight could find the problem. Twilight fumbled around for a few seconds trying to find the release levers for Pixel’s chest-plate, when the latches where located they gave a gratifying click and the plate easily lifted off. Twilight’s assumptions where grossly ill-conceived, Pixel was far more advanced than the likes of Red. She had holes in circuit boards, sheared wires, and the source of the smoke was identified, an exposed wire was burning the Kevlar that protected her battery. Twilight furiously re attached wires and wrapped the exposed wire in an electrical tape Red had brought in his backpack when they first arrived in Canterlot. While Twilight toiled trying to fix Pixel the distinct sound of shouts and loud banging could be heard on the castle’s main doors. Fluttershy was frozen in fear behind Celestia’s throne, Rainbowdash and Pinkie Pie where sat next to the cannon trained on the door. A slilence gripped the air and raised tension in the room to the point of snapping. From the other side of the door a loud crash was heard, the castle door had fallen, a large machinegun just outside the throne room door screamed to life. Red held the trigger of the machinegun down against the handle, not letting go for a second.

“URA!!” Red’s vengeful side was emerging. The barrel of the German LMG began to glow a brilliant orange, it was overheating, the heat shield failed to prevent the leather of Red’s palms from being burnt. Finally the gun’s barrel began to warp as it spat the last few rounds of the belt in the direction of the attacking swarm. Red threw the warped and empty gun into the crowd; it failed to slow down the swarm. He reached for his pistol and found it to be missing; he lost it after he took cover to get away from the grenades. He quickly drew his large army knife and charged forward. The knife sank into the chest of one of the changeling soldiers piercing his heart and covered Red’s hand in vitreous fluid. The blade came down on several more bugs before Red had no choice but to fall back. He turned to run but was jumped on by another changeling soldier. It placed a knife on Red’s neck, over a hydraulic artery, the Soviet machine picked up a pair of Lugers sitting forgotten in a pool of blood. He seized them and fired both, sending two bullets into the head of the aggressor. He got back to his feet, dueling handguns and retreated once more to the temporary safety of the throne room. The door slammed shut, Red then scanned the room trying to asses who was left in the defending army. Shining Armor was lying on the floor; a pair of Crystal guards had pulled him into the throne room to shield him from the hail marry of bullets. Twilight reattached Pixel’s chest-plate and ran over to her brother to see if he was okay. To her relief, he was still breathing.

On the other side of the door, there was no sound to indicate that the Hive Army was even trying to break it down. In fact there wasn’t any noise at all, for the second time in less the five minutes of battle the world fell silent. A silence that was shattered with the last door between the Throne room and the attacking Hive, the door had been rigged with explosives and was torn to pieces. The splinters littered the polished floor. Though the silence remained, not a single shot came from the outside. Pinkie and Dash where too shocked to fire the cannon. Through the doorway another metal man confidently marched in the room. Panzer stood before the last survivors of the royal guard, he still gripped his MP40; a smile crept across his face.

Last Line of Defense (Chapter-8)

Author's Note

Short chapter, well shorter than others, and yes a shameless plug to a game I don't even play...

Last Line of Defense (Chapter-8)

The gray machine strode into the room in a very calm manner, one black boot in front of the other, carrying the blood-lusting Panzer Shriek. The black boot trekked across the marble floor crushing the splinters of wood, pebbles tracked in from outside and small shards of glass from shattered windows. Cadence stood beside Twilight and her friends keeping the crusaders behind her to keep them safe. Rainbowdash and Pinkie now lay on their backs looking up at the rebuilt, blood stained mechanical Nazi. He looked down with a smile, placing his right foot on the barrel of the cannon, with a swift motion he sent the artillery flying into a window, shattering the stained glass window. Dash and Pinkie got to their hooves and scrambled to the relative safety of the rest of their friends. Panzer laughs as they run. Celestia begins to stand to confront the intruder.

“Nien! Don’t get up.” Panzer quickly raised his hand to signal the princess to stop. Celestia stood straight and began to speak.

“You invaded my kingdom, I have the right” The solar princess began but was cut off sharply.

“You have ze right to be shut up!” Panzer barked coldly.

“How dare you!” Celestia began to shout, but was once again promptly silenced, though this time it wasn’t a voice that silenced her voice. The echo of a single gunshot rang out through the throne room; a 9mm casing hit the floor with a ping. The luger’s barrel whispered fresh smoke into the air. Panzer held the pistol firm in his right hand, barrel still pointed at the princess. Celestia looked down and was horrified. Panzer had put a hole in her chest. She could do nothing, nothing but watch as the white coat around the wound became tainted with red blood. She became lightly ill and lost her balance. Luna stared wide-eyed for a second before she ran over to her sister, catching her before she hit the ground. Twilight was infuriated.

“Vell, I told you not to stand…” Panzer said in a voice that made it sound as if he was talking to himself, then lowered the luger.

“SNAP OUT OF IT GIRLS! GET HIM!” Twilight shouted through tear filled eyes in a rage. The pendants began to glow brightly. Twilight began to levitate and her eyes shone like a pair of headlights, just as before the elements began to split color from the light around the users and charged up the magical energy. Panzer simply looked at them with a stern, impatient look on his face. A beam of light split into several colors and sailed through the air hitting Panzer hard where he stood; the force of the beam brought him to a knee. The intensity of the light in the room began to exponentially grow making visual contact with anything impossible. Those who weren’t using the elements covered their eyes to avoid being blinded by the light.

The light dimmed, Twilight and her friends stood expecting to see the mechanical Plague encased in stone, rehabilitated, or what they all hoped blown apart into hundreds of pieces. Every heart in the room sank to the floor when they saw Panzer standing, unaffected by the direct hit from the elements of harmony. Twilight and her friends where speechless, Panzer began to laugh his insane lark.

“I know all about zese little elements of yours, and you vill be quite disappointed to know zat zey vill have no effect on me. I am ze exact opposite of chaotic. Precision German engineering, clockwork working in perfect harmony keeping me running, unlike ze foes zose elements have defeated before, I am ze first who is not actually alive.” Panzer was growing tired of these attempts to stop him in his goal. From the other end of the room Cadence had disappeared leaving the Crusaders under the protection of the now enraged Twilight.

Twilight’s world grinded to a halt on finally comprehending what was going on. Her brother lay in a heap on the floor paralyzed from some unknown toxin, her friends stand afraid, their only means of defense deemed useless. The two humanoid machines trying to help her where obviously outmatched and overclocked; Pixel was battered and busted, and Red was rattled with countless bullet holes, both trying to save a world they didn’t know. And the princess, her mentor, no, her friend now lay in the forelegs of her sister with a bullet lodged in her chest. A seed of hate had germinated deep within Twilight, she hated this Mechanical bastard. Twilight’s eyes had abandoned the bright glow of the elements of harmony and began to give off a bubbling green light. Her eyes turned green with hatred. Twilight placed the element of magic on the ground and cracked her neck, preparing for a fight.

Panzer once again raised his Luger, this time the barrel was trained on the purple unicorn’s head. Before the trigger could be pulled Twilight enveloped the hand with the gun with the green hate magic. The sound was gratifying and sickening at the same time. The clasp binding the hydraulic tubing to the hand busted sending the metal halves flying into the air, the bolt in the wrist hinge broke into three parts, not entirely leaving the parts it held in place. The little actuators that extended from the wrist to the base of the hand where torn out of their fasteners, sending little flecks of metal soaring into the air. The hydraulic tubing that allowed Panzer to manipulate his hand began to stretch. The little rubber tubes increased in tension until they were as tight as guitar strings, finally the hydraulic tubes couldn’t handle the strain. Each one snapped individually with the sound of breaking bones. Hydraulic fluid splattered and gushed from the wrist coating the floor with the slippery substance, and staining the wood of Panzer’s wrist.

Panzer stumbled backwards holding his wrist; his hand had just been forcibly ripped from his wrist. The forged, tank grade steel pin that held his hand to his arm was just torn off by the enraged Twilight Sparkle. The Hive soldiers stood in awe as they watched the showdown unfold before their eyes. The gushing od hydraulic fluid from the missing appendage was cut down to a trickle once the computer onboard Panzer’s hydraulic system discovered a leak and shut the valve at the pump, cutting off circulation to the missing hand. Thinking on his feet Panzer grabbed his knife from his belt and hurled it at Twilight. Twilight was too exhausted from the unpracticed and highly taxing hate magic, she backed out and was unable to see the knife. Pixel bolted in front of the knife catching it by the blade just inches away from Twilight’s face. With a quick flip Pixel threw the knife back at Panzer imbedding the blade deep into the wood of his good arm. Red had taken the opportunity to come around to the side of Panzer ready to strike hard with a mighty right hook, but Panzer had seen Red coming and countered by clotheslining the soviet forcing him to stumble backwards.

Pixel hurried over to Celestia to see what she could do to keep Equestria’s ruler from bleeding out in her own throne room. She pulled the scarf from around her neck, exposing six hydraulic actuators, her metal neck vertebra, and her air intake windpipe. Pixel wadded up the checkered scarf into a makeshift bandage and placed it over the hole in Celestia’s chest.

“Keep pressure on it or she’ll bleed out.” Pixel instructed Luna, in an attempt to save the solar princess’ life. Pixel then reached into a pocket around her abdomen and produced a syringe filled with a foreign liquid, she removed the needle cover and pushed the plunger out a little to evacuate the air from the shot.

“What is that?” Luna asked through teary eyes.

“It’s Morphine, a pain killer and antibiotic. This stuff can be the difference between her living and her dyeing…” Pixel plunged the needle into Celestia’s foreleg injecting the liquid. Across the room Red and Panzer traded blows showering the ground with sparks. Red drove his left hand into Panzer’s side in an old-school boxing match style of fighting.

“Tear him apart Red!” Scootaloo shouted leaping into the air and fluttering her wings in excitement.

“Yeah, bust that tin can into a scrap pile!” Applebloom chimed in sitting on her haunches and swinging her forelegs in a punching motion.

“Tear off his other hand!” Sweetiebelle shouted in her squeaky voice. Eventually the entire room was filled with the cries of ponies cheering on the Soviet as the two stood toe to toe trading paint with every crippling punch.

Red delivered a three punch combo of one right hook mashing Panzer’s left eye, a devastating left hook leaving an imprint of his fist on the right side of Panzer’s chest-plate, and a Powerful uppercut knocking Panzer’s jaw free from its hinge. Panzer stumbled backwards placing his jaw back in place, and hitting the right side of his jaw with the handless wrist, locking the jaw back into place. Red advanced quickly not letting up on the mechanical Nazi. Red’s right arm extended to deliver another blow to Panzer’s face, but he was stopped. Panzer grabbed Red’s hand and pulled hard. Red lost his footing and stumbled forward. Panzer’s right elbow came down hard on the back of Red’s head, the heat vent caved in under the force of the steel arm. Red’s pupils expanded until they filled both his eyes entirely. He heard the metallic clash as expected when metal struck metal but one sound suck out to him, a shallow crunch. Red landed on his hands to break his fall, but did not get up. He stayed on the ground with his hand on the back of his head.

The room fell silent; the cheering from the ponies in the room had come to a screeching halt when Red had not gotten up.

“Red get up! You gotta stop em’!” Applebloom tried to give Red the courage and confidence to finnish the fight. Panzer now directed his attention to the Princesses. He slowly walked over the broken glass and wooden splinters, making his way up to the large chairs of the throne room. Pixel slowly turned and rose to her feet, adjusting her American flag embroidered baseball cap so the bill pointed backwards.

“This ain’t a fight you want to pick scrub, trust me.” Pixel motioned rolling up sleeves, balling her hands into fists.

“Now, honestly, vat do you take me for? I vouldn’t hit a lady.” Panzer mocked, as he leveled with the American. He promptly found himself reeling back from a swift punch he never saw coming.

“That’s too bad, because I have no problem hitting you. Ah, well, I was hoping you’d make this a little interesting.” Pixel stood her ground prepared to fight to the end if the situation called for it.

“I can see zat, it looks like I vill have to make an exception to my rule.” Panzer challenged her.

“Get ready for the biggest smack down of your life, you’re dealing with a U.S. Navy seal, Nazi boy.” Panzer went in for a swing directed at Pixel’s face, but quickly found himself on the ground from a kick to the legs. Panzer stood up, Pixel had still not moved from her initial spot. He went in for another swing but was once again assaulted by two punches to each side of his face and a kick to the chest. The kick left a dust print of the bottom of Pixel’s boot across Panzer’s chest-plate. Panzer’s frustration was now clear on his face.

“What’s wrong? You mad bro? Come at me scrub! Here let’s make this more interesting.” Pixel flipped open a hatch on her forearm and pressed a button. From a sound system invisible from the outside began playing the main sound track to her favorite 2d street fighter game, Mortal Combat. Panzer faked right and finally landed a left hook without being knocked down again. Pixel righted herself and nailed the mechanical Nazi in the side of the head with a roundhouse kick. Panzer had strength on his side but Pixel was much lighter and faster. He stepped back down from the steps to the thrones and assessed his situation, he quickly shot his eyes up and noticed a few heavy objects hanging from the ceiling, all he had to do was lure Pixel under one then cut the rope, trapping her or killing her. In an attempt to entice the Seal to abandon her position in front of the princesses he wrapped his teeth around the handle of the knife embedded in his arm and yanked it free. Taking the knife in his hand and threatening the Seal. Pixel smirked at him, and produced blade of her own. From the knuckles of her hands sprang a pair of blades, one on each hand and she advanced on the mechanical man. Pixel was about ready to swing her first fist blade when suddenly she was hurled out the window with a loud bang.

Applebloom, Sweetiebelle, and Scootaloo looked on in horror ad what they had just done. In an attempt to shoot Panzer with Pinkie’s cannon, they had hit Pixel, sending her flying out of a window. Panzer turned his head to face the Crusaders and smiled at them.

“I, I think I’m going to be sick…” Sweetiebelle put a hoof over her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Panzer began to make his way to the Princesses once again, now with a blade in his remaining hand, with intent to kill.

“Now zen, vhere vere we?” He raised the knife, ready to finish off the princesses but once again he was stopped dead in his tracks. A metallic scraping sound was the only noise in the room. Panzer looked down to his chest to see a blade jutting out. Cadence stood behind him, an STG-44 wrapped in glow of magic that didn’t match her usual aura, the bayonet on the end of the barrel now penetrated Panzer’s chest from back to front. Cadence wore a vest that formed an X out of the ammo belts.

“Nobody abused my Hive for personal gain and gets away with it.” Chrysalis’ voice emanated from Cadences’ mouth. With a tornado of fire the disguise was gone and the changeling queen now stood holding the blade in panzer’s back.

“Ah, Chrysalis, I see you have betrayed me and the Hive. And your aim with a sword hasn’t improved. You missed, my battery is higher up.” Panzer mocked

“No, I came to save my subjects from your Tyrannical ways. And this isn’t a sword.” Chrysalis returned the mocking tone. The Stg’s trigger was pulled tight against the handle. The firing pin slid forward striking the primer. A small spark ignited the gunpowder inside the brass casing sending the bullet spiraling down the threading of the barrel, tripping off the gas recoil system on its way out of the barrel repeating the process. The gas behind the first bullet tripped off the gas system, causing several more bullets to follow the first one. The lead bullet caps tore through the metal plating, severing wires and hydraulic tubes on their way to Panzer’s battery. The bullets impacted and punched several holes in the mechanical man’s heart, spraying battery acid all over the front of his chest. However Panzer did not fall, he stood for a few moments before attempting to turn around. This too was a faulty action. Chrysalis had pulled the rifle’s bayonet out from the mechanical Nazi’s back, and Panzer moved to face his attacker. Another loud bang ripped through the devastated throne room.

Panzer’s head was gone. His decapitated body stood for a moment awaiting a command from the computer in the head which had issued its last. The steel corps then slumped to the floor, landing on its side then rolling onto its back, bleeding every fluid ounce of hydraulic fluid and battery acid onto the marble floor. Applebloom was stood next to Pinkie’s cannon, the barrel still pointed at the spot where it had removed the head of General Panzer of the Grand Hive Army.

“Headshot!” Scootaloo shouted with delight. The changeling army dropped their weapons and bowed to their queen. Chrysalis was once again the undisputed ruler of the Changeling Empire; it was once again her hive. Twilight was slowly getting up from her backing out, the hate magic was powerful stuff that she was not use to. The rest of her friends where cheering. Panzer is dead! Panzer is dead! But this happiness would be short lived.

“Hey, does anypony else smell something burning?” Rainbowdash raised the question.

The Fall of a Titan (Chapter-9)

Author's Note

REALLY short one today, but I figured I'd bring the story to end on an even ten chapters, and besides I don't think a long chapter makes a good chapter (No Innuendo intended) Again, sorry for the short chapter but eh, the next one should be at least twice as long.

The Fall of a Titan (Chapter-9)

Noses poked around through the air to find the source of the smell. On the other side of Panzer Shriek’s decapitated body, Red was on his knees attempting to get up. He managed to turn his body so he was facing the ponies he was defending. Fluttershy trotted up close to him as he found his feet, he stumbled for a moment making the rubber soles of his feet squeak on the littered marble floor. Fluttershy could see water building up in his eyes, he looked like he was about to cry. Only the look on his face was one of pain and despair. His knees buckled and failed to support his weight, making a loud clang upon colliding with the floor. The marble beneath his steel kneecaps cracked upon impact. The loud crash placed all eyes on Red as he lifted his head to face them, he said nothing. Fluttershy then heard a light tinkling from behind the Soviet. She searched his back and found that the back plate of his head to be smashed in, small shards of glass fell from what was left of the vents. Finally the thought crashed into her mind and sank her heart like a boulder in a lake. The burning smell was that of an electrical fire.

Red turned his head to look Fluttershy dead in the eyes, the water built up in his eyes weren’t tears. He was overheating; the vacuum tubes in his head had been crushed, leaving the sensitive components inside the steel Soviet’s metal skull to over load with power. The water dripped from Reds eyes like tears, Fluttershy began to tear up in panic.

“Fluttershy? Fluttershy what’s wrong?!” Twilight and the rest of the elements had run over now knowing the source of the smell.

“Red, Red no! You can’t die on me! Not like this!” Fluttershy had gone in to hug him, careful not to touch his head, which by now was steaming the condensation at a blazing two hundred and fifteen degrees. The fan in his chest cavity was struggling to keep the components within his torso as a safe temperature. The sporadic fan made it sound like Red was sobbing. Visible smoke was no pouring out of Red’s nose and slipping through the corners of his eyes.

“He’s burning up! Quick somepony get a bucket of water! Hurry!” Twilight shouted urgently. Red’s mangled and beaten face looked deep into Fluttershy’s blue eyes, trying to see through the water buildup in his eyes.

“Fluuuuuuuuuttersssssshy, Th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thank y, y, y, you. Aaaaaaall of you. Iiiiiiiiiit’s too la-late for me. I’ve dooooooooone aaaaaaall, I could. I’m soooooory I le, le, let you down.” Red’s vocal processer was being melted by the intense heat making his voice scrambled and laggy.

“You could never let me down.” Fluttershy’s words barely squeaked past the ball in her throat.

“No, no no no no no no no no no! Red you can’t die on us!” Rainbowdash began to panic at the tone of his voice. It was now clear that he was not faking. Red’s eye lids began to drift shut. From somewhere in his head a long squeal sounded and ended with a pop. The Soviet’s eyes shot open, and the leather that made up his eyelids began to blacken and burn. The heat from the overclocked electronics had now started a fire.

“WHERE’S THAT WATER!?” Twilight shouted desperately fearing it may be too late. To everypony’s surprise Chrysalis was the one with the water bucket. The water sloshed and spilled a few drops on the floor as it was hastily carried over to the burning body of the Ex-Soviet. The water was dumped over the scalding hot metal, making the glass of his eyes crack under the sudden cold shock. Another louder snap was heard, and Red’s body went limp. The clockwork stopped, his battery stopped buzzing, the little generator connected to Red’s battery stopped turning. Red, the Soviet soldier, who despised fighting, had given his life to save those closest to him. The metal body slumped over in a heap on the ground, fire cutting the air from the head; Red now lay on the ground, dead. Fluttershy quickly turned her head and ran toward an open window, unfurled her wings and flew off, leaving a trail of tears in her wake. Rainbow gave chase to comfort her friend.

From across the room, in the door way stood Pixel, under her arm held like a prized soccer ball rested Panzer’s head. She straightened her hat and used her free hand to brace her side; the cannon ball had put a major dent in her side but had not critically injured her. Upon seeing Red’s body on the ground burning, she dropped Panzer’s head with a dull clang and she sprinted over to the metal corps. She forgot the dent in her side as she slid like a baseball player across the littered floor franticly searching for signs of life from the Soviet. She knew there would be no response, the analytical computer side of her knew this, but the emotional more human, more alive side of her hoped she was wrong. Red didn’t move, he was gone.

End Scene (Chapter-10)

Cold where the days that followed the sudden attack on the Capitol city of Canterlot, but they were anything but quiet. Chrysalis had agreed to a temporary truce between the Solar Empire and her Changeling Swarm to help repair the damage done by Panzer’s shock and awe campaign. Pegasi where lifting large pieces of buildings back into place with the help of several Changelings. The helmets and weapons issued by Panzer where being collected for disposal. The metal would be melted down and used for rebar to support the buildings; the wood would be liquefied to make paper for treaties between the Changeling Hive and the land of Equestria. On the day of Red’s funeral Pixel stood next to the body and on her analytical side she was confused, Red like herself and others of her species had never received a funeral. It had been thought of as strange that a machine would receive a burial or anything other than a moment of silence. Celestia had recovered from the gunshot to her chest and now stood in the museum where Red’s body was to be restored and displayed to remember the heroic deeds and tragic passing of the Metal Man. The humanoid figure was positioned on a stand, his feet apart one hand wrapped around the PPSh-41 he was issued with, it had been gutted of all its firing components leaving nothing but a hollow shell of an SMG. And his other hand was positioned in a salute.

“I like it, it’s a bit cryptic, but I like it.” Pixel tilted her head, arms folded. “But what’s being done with Panzer’s remains?”

“They are to be locked away along with other dangerous artifacts, so he will never again threaten another life.” Celestia replied.

“Heh, so what is he like the Ark of the Coven? I didn’t realize I was in an Indiana Jones movie.” Pixel chuckled to herself. She received a few curious looks from Twilight and her friends because of the similar reference Red had made just a few weeks before. Queen Chrysalis entered the room and began to speak to the group observing Red’s exhibit.

“Princess, I do not know how to communicate this in any other way. I am sorry, for what my Changelings did.” Chrysalis apologized.

“Well, I hope this means our nations can now have a brighter future, I suppose our foreign relations have been lacking for the past few years.” Celestia was unsure whether or not to take the Queen’s apology as genuine or another attempt at a stab in the back.

“Well, if anything good came from this it would be the reformation of the Changeling homeland.” Chrysalis tried to reassure Celestia that because her land was no longer a wasteland she would have no reason to try to take another. The land was once again fertile, and the buildings that weren’t being used to manufacture weapons still stood offering room for business and housing. The solar princess was still not one hundred percent convinced but she figured that if Chrysalis really wanted her dead she would have waited until after Panzer had finished her off before putting an end to him. Twilight and her friends had decided that it would be an appropriate time to head back to Ponyville; they had been gone for only two weeks, but it felt like months.

Twilight and her friends, now with the company of Pixel and their new acquaintance Lyra headed back to the train station for the long and somber ride back to Ponyville. Down at the train station construction crews of both Changelings and Ponies worked to remove a train that had plowed into the station. It had been driven there at a high speed unable to stop before impacting with the brick building. Pixel examined the sword Luna had given to her as a thank you for helping save Equestria. It was actually Luna’s from back during the Solar Lunar war but was now given to Pixel to both thank her and to bury hatchet with her sister. The blade whistled as it sliced through the air, it was beaten up now more than before the siege a few days ago but it was still a good blade. The Train’s whistle blew Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie pie, a disheartened Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, Applebloom, Sweetiebelle, Scootaloo, Pixel and Lyra all boarded the train on their way home. As it turned out Pixel and Rainbow happened to have a lot in common. They spent a few hours of the trip telling stories of great feats they accomplished. Rainbow told about the time she performed a sonic rainboom and Pixel shared about the time she shot a jet out of the sky with a stray shot from an anti-vehicle rifle. Lyra too had a few things to talk about. She was still fascinated by the concept of their world once being ruled by a race of living beings like Pixel and the late Red.

Deep in a dark warehouse that seemed to go on for miles in all directions sat one wooden crate among many, the word Classified was painted onto the box with the royal stamp of the Solar Empire. The buzzing of an electric lamp was the only indication that time was passing. There were no guards on site due to the vastness of the building. A Mare pushing a cart with another wooden crate passed the spot with the box of interest. When she passed a shadow enveloped the buzzing lamp, the entire area around the crate went dark. The mare froze at the sound of a clang, and a creaking noise. Somepony was opening a crate. She turned around and saw a pair of floating red eyes watching her intently, only to see them vanish as quickly as they appeared.

When the lights came back on the mare found the top of a wooden crate lying on the ground next to a crowbar. She found two trails; the liquid trail seemed to vanish in the maze of crates, instead she followed the trail of packing straw over to the opened crate that measured about six feet long. Inside rested only two signs of anything ever being in the crate; black, oil stained straw, and a severed metal hand, still holding tight to a Luger.

Author's Note

Longer than the last one but still kind of short, but this now marks the end of Bugs and Steel. Thank you for reading!