Armored Core: A Nine Breaker's Poniesby XymeiuChapters[P] As Fast As It Came...[CH 1] Investigation of a Hard Landing[CH 2] Odd Circumstances[CH 3] Work of Odd Creativity[CH 4] One Long Questioning Period[CH 5] That Day[CH 6] Hot Pink[CH 7] Distant Thunder[P] As Fast As It Came...Leos Klein slowly lumbered his black fighting machine into the massive section of his home he refers to as his 'garage', his beat and battered armored core barely operational due to its last conflict with the Nine-Ball Seraph, or so he dubbed the monstrosity. Sparks lit up the dark paint of the walking giant from the various slash marks and bullet holes sustained in the fierce battle. A loud and high pitched beep rang out from within. "Alright, Raven, you're in position," a voice called out. "Please exit the AC so we can get it back into stable condition." The back of the massive core hissed as the large amounts of air joined the rest from four vents around the center. A section of the centerpiece emerged from the back, and Leos stood up from his pseudo habitat and vaulted over the railing of the catwalk behind him. He looked around the very spacious hangar-type enclosure littered with vertical supporting girders to which the elusive man still questioned, as it limited available space to only one armored core. He had enough parts by now to create more than five of those mechanized fighting machines of varying types if given the space to hold them all. The garage was more than bland and undeniably monotone, its gray-green walls and surfaces giving it an atmosphere of mixed results. A sound of an opening door caught Leos' attention, curiosity overtaking him as he looked toward the source of the noise. An engineer draped in a blue uniform approached quickly towards Klein with a slightly bewildered expression on his face after taking a glance at the once perfect machine, now nearly in a state of standing wires and bevels. He averted his gaze away from the unit and towards Klein with a slightly more dignified look adorning his surprised expression. "What did you do to that thing?" he questioned, gesturing at the damages as if Klein never noticed. His tone swapped from confusion to flat, turning to face the object of question. He paused for just a mere moment before he spoke again, "Judging from the looks, I'd say that'd run you up about ten or fifteen thousand. Who'd you fight?" "Nine-Ball," Leos replied in his usual tone of uncaring disregard. He neglected to tell the truth to him about the Nest, the AI of the establishment, and the secret of elusive red and black fighter . "Send me the bill when you finish," Klein started for the doorway behind him, taking off his combat helmet and holding it at his waist. "Hey! One thing before you go," called the worker from his position behind the armored core, "you got a mission request an hour before you came back. You might want to look into it soon." "Noted," Leos replied before closing the door behind him. The whirring of various machines and tools followed soon after his departure. Silence filled the hallways of white and gray with only the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the bland tunnel of his home, or what the Ravens' Nest offered him as a home of sorts. Leos simply walked straight. Any turns that could have been made, he passed by without a second thought. He finally reached a single door at the end of the bland environment. He sighed as he opened the door and flicked on the lights. Leos ignored the decorative features of his office, focusing on the computer to his immediate right. The screen was black except for a bright yellow notice in the center reading 'New Mission'. ▬♦▬♦▬ The blanket of night's shadow lay dormant over the near desolate-looking town of Ponyville. All of the small community's inhabitants had closed up every shop and retreated to their quaint homes to rest and recharge for the dawn of a new day ahead. No light ever dared to threaten the ponies' quest for sleep by nightfall. All but one particular place of residence. A very peculiar tree stood near the end of the small town outfitted with various balconies and signs shown brightly in the dark like a haven for moths. A window opened up, and a lavender unicorn with a dark purple mane adorned with pink highlights appeared with a telescope the size of two other ponies stacked upright on their two legs. She sighed happily as she mounted the massive scope onto its tripod and angled it toward the night sky, now at this point dotted and littered with multiple white blips that sparkled in the dark. The magical pony could hardly contain herself due to the excitement of the task on hoof. She had only one objective on her mind, which her fellow baby dragon companion questioned the importance of. Earlier that day, she had received a letter, sent through a less-than-formal belch from the purple-scaled being, that the princess of the night had formed a new nebula in the vast expanse of space. The night princess also issued a challenge for the purple pony stating that if she were to find the newly created cosmic dust cloud, she could name it herself. This alone compelled her to gather an insane amount of quills, scrolls, ink containers, and the silver and black object that stuck out two meters from the library she used as her home since her coming the past year. "Twilight, is all this really necessary for looking for just one ball of dust in the middle of nowhere?" complained a small figure coming up the staircase with an oversized mound of scrolls and writing utensils that somehow managed to stay in their place despite the laws of physics at play. "I know Princess Luna challenged you to find a nebula, but this is ridiculous," he nagged as he finally reached the makeshift station that the unicorn had constructed before collapsing over himself, throwing about various materials in every direction. "Spike, be careful!" started Twilight as she stopped the fall of office materials with a simple mass levitation spell and righted their direction onto a desk next to her. "And it is important," she said, dragging the sentence to show emphasis, "Do you know the reward for finding a new discovery like this?" She reverted back to her excited self as she began to imagine the awards ceremony and prize money to buy even more books. Before the smaller being could respond, a near transparent blue ripple passed through the walls and shook the foundations of the structure. Both the pony and dragon rushed to the window in an attempt to seek out the cause of the anomaly. Spike just barely managed to reach the window before he was stopped by a feeling in his stomach, stumbling for a moment before belching loudly. The loud belch released a green flame that became a rolled up piece of parchment. Twilight was already at the window hastily searching for the source of the magic wave. "Read it to me, Spike," Twilight said without giving a glance behind her. The dragon had recovered from the sudden message and had already opened up the scroll to reveal its contents. Spike cleared his throat before finally speaking the message aloud. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I assume you felt the wave of energy that passed over to us in Canterlot, correct? It was enough to wake my sister up, so I am certain that it must be serious. Judging from the direction of the wave, I would say it originated from the Whitetail Woods. Princess Celestia and I will be arriving to accompany you to the source of energy. I am sure that wave awoke your friends as well. Gather your friends and we will meet at the entrance to the woods. Signed, Princess Luna Twilight just caught a glimpse of a white-blue disk in the sky over the nearby forestry as it closed up in itself. A miniscule red dot cast a streak of neon in the air above it, heading toward the ground. Something had been dropped, but nothing else could be seen. The young mare had trouble deciding whether or not she should be amazed or fearful in circumstances like this. The red streak stopped abruptly just above the tree line, dipping slightly before righting itself. Only a red dot remained. A thump soon reached the ears of the purple unicorn and dragon, who was moving to pick up a scroll and quill, but had stopped in his tracks when the sound was heard. The stunned pony was the first to break out of the fear's trance and issued a command to the young dragon. "Spike, send a status report to the princesses. I'll go get the others to see what this thing is." the horned pony said as quickly as she made her way for the curved stairs and door of the tree. [CH 1] Investigation of a Hard Landing[CH 1] Investigation of a Hard Landing The Raven groaned as he let the feeling of the sudden drop and instant stop of descent pass over. This was the second time this had happened, the first being the fall before the battle against the Seraph. The portal had disabled his system's drop supporters and had only rebooted just before he made contact against the oddly soft ground. I'm surprised this thing is still standing, he thought, because they offered me a vacation. I don't plan on dying now. Lights flickered on quickly, followed by the speakers in the cockpit ringing out "Main system, engaging normal mode.". The display flickered on last and the Heads-Up Display shined a brilliant green. The environment was both familiar and odd. Lush green trees and plant life in the surrounding area revealed that the area was a forest, paired with the veil of all too familiar darkness that Leos usually staged his arena battles in. The head was just high enough to see over the tree line and into the distance. Lights harbored in two very notable areas: One nearby and one in the air, which the pilot presumed was a city, judging by the size of the lights. Where am I? Leos thought. Before he could continue his train of thought, small shrubbery shook in front of the viewport. Leos turned his head for a better view, and in turn, moving the AC's head with him. ▬♦▬♦▬ Twilight Sparkle followed her bright mentor as the group of equines wandered around in the woods. Ever since the celestial princesses arrived with unit of guards minutes before, nothing was quite silent. Twilight told everypony the situation at hoof, enticing the minds of a very overactive pink pony and a bright rainbow-maned blue pegasus into an argument on the object that fell from the sky. "What about an alien? What if it's an alien from another planet?" piped the cyan-coated pegasus. "I'd say it's an alien! but what would it look like?" she continued as she circled around the pink party pony before stopping in thought, all the while never touching the ground. Aliens. If the purple mare was not nervous enough now, she nearly stopped in her tracks. She started to wonder and question what to do when meeting the possible alien, ranging from spying to outright greeting. From the shape and appearance of the being to its items that it could carry. "Ooh, aliens! I wonder if its one of those scary-looking aliens that shoot lasers from their eyes and have giant ships and-" Twilight droned out the ramblings of the obviously too hyped pony. She had enough to deal with, and she needed to concentrate. A near invisibly dark alicorn landed next to her sibling and began whispering something Twilight strained to hear, much to no avail. She felt a hoof rest on her side. "Now, Twilight, there's no need ta' work yourself too hard. It's gonna be alright, trust me on this," a very familiar southern accented orange Earth pony said. The unicorn felt another hoof on the other side. "Applejack's right, dear. We wouldn't want let anything, not even yourself, get in your way, darling," a white unicorn with a curled purple mane reassured. "Thanks girls," Twilight responded, "it means a lot to me that you care." She gave a meek smile to both. Both ponies lifted their hooves off the compass-marked unicorn. She felt something wrong. Everything had gone silent, and she had just realized that the convoy had stopped moving. "Wha-" the pony attempted to start but was cut off when the night princess shoved a hoof into her mouth and shushed her. Twilight made an obvious gesture of confusion, much to the dark blue alicorn's dismay. Princess Luna pointed toward the clearing everypony else was staring into. It took the confused Twilight a few seconds before she figured out she was supposed to see something. She looked closer. Nothing but black. Or at least she thought until Luna scooted her up to the alicorn's side that she finally saw it. Everything became more clear at that moment. The red dot above her was exactly like the one she saw before she left her library, but it was so high in the sky that it hurt her neck to stare. It was moving as if anchored to something that rotated. This confused Twilight even more until she took notice of the near-perfect black figure that it was stationed on. It was massive and stood on two appendages she assumed were legs. The rest of the body stood upright, two other limbs hanging straight down with one holding a bright blue object she never noticed. It looked like a rectangle that had been split at one end and had on piece stretched. A rod extended from the middle of the top piece which the being held the object with the end of its limb. The opposing appendage held nothing, confusing the mare. All of these were connected to a single centerpiece. It was nearly a block shape in form with the exception of the middle front which came together to create a curved crease that ran backwards towards the red dot in the mid-section of the centerpiece. The top piece looked like a deformed head that sported two antennae in the back. Twilight, struck with fear of what this thing may be capable of, stepped back. And tripped over a root, causing the bush to shake. She looked up at the anomaly, its attention now directed at the pony group. The being's menacing red eye beaming on them like a manticore's stinger ready to attack. ▬♦▬♦▬ Is that a... purple horse? That lone thought was the only thing running through the Raven's mind. Elan said something about a peaceful life, but already Klein was having second thoughts about agreeing. Does that horse have a horn and tattoo on its butt? he added. This was all so confusing to him. Too many variables as to why these things are the way they are swarmed the pilot's mind. Are they sentient? Are there others? If so, can they speak English? What if they're hostile? The last probability stopped Klein. How could horses be hostile? They have always been peaceful creatures. He gave himself a mental slap upside the head for such a stupid idea. Well, might as well give it a shot if- Wait, is that an alicorn? Klein interrupted himself. He must be going crazy. First an odd equine with a horn and now a unicorn with wings and snow white coat seemed to be... talking? to the unnaturally purple horse. Might as well. Now or never, or they'll forever be scared of the giant walking hunk of metal. He flicked the eject cockpit button cover and pressed the green circle with his thumb. ▬♦▬♦▬ Princess Celestia walked over to the clumsy purple mare that was her pupil, scolding her to not be so careless in times like these and proceeded to help her student up. She returned her attention to the machine she had never encountered before while the unicorn dusted herself off. What could this possibly be? Celestia questioned herself for the umpteenth time. This was not like anything she had ever seen before. It was a tall as a dragon on four legs, but lacked flesh. Only metal plating. The general shape resembled a monkey, but no recognizable features unlike the draconequus Discord. "Sister, instead of wondering, why not find out what it is?" a voice of majestic tone spoke out. "I can read your thoughts, you know. You kept thinking that question for..." she paused while the white princess's train of thought derailed, "Thirty-three times," Luna finished. Celestia looked at her sibling in amazement and bewilderment. She was keeping count? A hissing sound reminiscent of a loose air pipe emanated suddenly, and all who gathered to investigate the anomaly affixed their gazes upon the metallic beast as if it was natural to do so. Shortly after, four great and linear streams of air and steam ejected in a four-corner pattern behind the center of the anomaly, dragging on for five seconds that felt like a minute before stopping. All in attendance froze and merely stared in anticipation of what could possibly happen. A normally talkative party pony hushed as well, a rare occurrence for most. A yellow pegasus adorning a long cotton candy pink mane and tail backed slowly into the bushes behind the group, her eyes only visible to watch the scene unfold. The guard unit moved to battle-ready positions around the anomaly, surrounding it effectively. All others just stood frozen and watched. A section of the centerpiece extended, exposing an odd figure in an equally odd-looking seat in a box. Celestia and Luna moved from their trances and flew up to the head of the giant metal figure to catch a glimpse of the operator who had so foolishly shown themselves in foreign land. Both the princess' shiny hoof boots clacked on the metal surface as the anomaly's user stared up at them. Everypony who could see was at a lost for words and thoughts, for this odd creature did what nobody could have expected. "I come in peace," it said, raising its arms slowly in an attempt to gesture an act an of non-hostility. [CH 2] Odd Circumstances[CH 2] Odd Circumstances Leos Klein, legendary Raven and pilot of a metal fighting machine that stands just above the treeline, watched as two alicorns flew up to his armored core, landed on the core, and gave one of the most comedic expressions of bewilderment he has ever seen in his career. He kept a straight face to the best of his ability, succeeding in the process. Long moments pass as the three completely different beings held an unofficial staring contest in the dead silence. He grew tired of this quickly and slowly raised his arms to attempt to show non-hostility. "I come in peace," he said in the calmest tone he could muster, one without timidity or hate. Another long pause of deafening silence. Upon closer observation of the two in front of him, he assumed they were both royalty, judging by the crowns, hoof boots, and necklaces, or so he called them. White and dark blue pegasi hovered around him, which he assumed were the authority of the area. One half were dark blue to black with armor matching the colors of the dark alicorn, flying with bat wings for some reason. The others were a bright white with gold armor plating, to which Klein guessed were for show knowing that gold is not the strongest material for equipment. "I may have dimension jumped," he started again, "and would like information of the surrounding area." He lifted up the visor on his helmet, mentally slapping himself for forgetting and hoping they understand what he is saying. More staring and silence. Finally, one of them broke from their trance, the white alicorn, and the silence was finally filled with a different voice. "What and who are you?" she asked in a majestic authoritative tone matching her crown. This one phrase broke the other equine from her trance as well. Obvious due to the fact that she shook her head to regain her senses. Talking horses with logic defying manes and tails originating from ancient mythology. What more can there be in this world? he thought. "My name is Leos Klein, part of the human race and pilot of an armored core combat unit," he said as he shifted in his seat. His arms were becoming increasingly tired and had started to become numb from lack of blood flow. He gave up trying to keep his arms raised and slowly lowered them onto his lap. He saw the flying pegasi getting antsy, as if he was not already suspicious enough. The white pony motioned for her other behind her to approach and whispered something into her ear before ascending into the air to regroup the others that Leos almost forgot about. The launch blew a gathering of dust in the pilot's direction forcing him to squint in order to avoid having his eyes bombarded by the cloud of dust. All who remained were the Raven, a dark pony, and flying guards, or so he dubbed them for their similarities to the two in front that became one. Leos had to break the silence with one worry he had to have outspoken. "If I may, your Highness," he started, showing respect for royalty to attempt to strengthen his first impression on the others, "I would like to know if your populace has ever encountered something like this. I would much rather not cause an uproar and state of mass panic if I am to stay here. They closed the inter-dimensional portal I arrived in, and I was warned that it was going to be a one-way trip." This caught the royal pony off-guard. She probably never expected this, the Raven assumed. She had her head tilted and was gazing off toward the sky, a common gesture of deep thought. She thought for what seemed like forever until she finally returned her focus towards the foreign being. "We could let you stay at the castle," she started as her white other returned with two more pegasi, one a bright cyan sporting a rainbow mane and tail while the other was an equally bright yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail. The latter took a glance at the Raven and immediately hid her face behind her mane. The bright blue pony, on the other hand, was flying around the black combat unit inspecting every piece of it. She gave bursts of speed, leaving behind a rainbow trail and stopping only to look at the mechanical foreigner. Leos could hear her saying something, but at a pace too fast for him to keep up with, so he simply gave up trying. His attempts to follow the rainbow blur went unsuccessful as the white alicorn walked back onto the core slightly above Leos, her golden hoof boots clacking against metal once again. "I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna," she started in her majestic tone. "Luna told me of your predicament, and I will allow her decision for you to stay at the castle. I will have to take you in for questioning, though. As for this... thing," she tapped the AC's core with her hoof, "I am at a loss for what to do with it." Princess Luna nudged her sister, gaining her attention. "We could put it in the statue section and hope that none find out about it, whatever this is," she offered. Celestia just stared, to which Klein again assumed was her thinking over the idea of the over sized fighting machine being posed as a statue. Leos thought about rejecting the idea, but declined the decision to reject the offer. "Not a bad idea," she said after a short pause, "but how will we move this, unless our newcomer can somehow." She directed her attention to Leos, who was doing busy stretching and yawning to notice the sign for a few moments. He finally caught it soon enough. "Alright, I'll start this thing up. I'm going to have to put this into combat mode before I can start moving quickly, so you'll need to get off," he said as he lifted the cover to the green button he used to eject. The button clicked on contact with his hand, and the princesses lifted off to watch the scene before them. ▬♦▬♦▬ Princess Luna took to the air in front of the large bipedal object as the back piece she had seen the 'human' in disappeared into the rest of the machine. The middle of the head that she was standing next to flashed a bright red briefly before relenting and shrinking into a dot that she saw earlier when she first examined the machine. The head turned to look at the two royal alicorns that hovered in front of it before looking around like it had the first time. She pointed in the direction of her home and capital of the sisters' nation, Canterlot. She watched as the two legs the machine stood upon bent and leaped into the air. Higher than she ever expected it to be able to. From below, she saw two large objects stationed on the back of the centerpiece behind the shoulders. One a long, folded, three-pronged open tube and the other being a white box. Both stood out from the airborne object with their white paint scheme. Two thin jets of white fire erupted from the back accompanied by a high pitched whine. Suddenly, with a loud, explosive boom, the figure launched toward the floating gathering of lights that was the capital. Everyone stood still and flying pegasi just stared mouth agape. A bipedal being taller than trees, as wide as a house, and made completely of metal had just sped past them, blowing their minds one by one. The once visible black machine quickly became one large light that staggered itself, disappearing into the night each time it died out briefly reminiscent of a firefly. [CH 3] Work of Odd Creativity[CH 3] Work of Odd Creativity A castle set on a mountainside appeared after what felt like hours, but in reality was only half of one. Klein kept his craft in the air for as long as he could, surprised that his boosters were using less but giving more boost power. His generator seemed to have better performance, seeing as he had never red-zoned once in his flight for the now visible city. His AP read 9582 instead of its usual 8099, giving him the assumption that something affected the defense of his airborne armored core. Confusing at it was, Leos put off the thoughts until he reached the castle and its gardens. Hovering above a hedge maze that rivaled his garage in size, he scanned the area for anything that looked like a statue section. In front of him were multiple stained glass windows twice the size of Rabbit's Foot, his AC, a large set of elegant double doors which connected with a balcony and two curved staircases opening up towards the labyrinth. To his left was an elegant area with no stone pathways that he saw everywhere, trees imitating a small forest, and passages lined with small blue fencing around the trees. He looked to his right and saw what he was looking for. Large stone walkways and multiple stone statues of various characters he did not recognize, but were mainly ponies. All were lined with small hedges and sat on short pedestals. Talk about royal, he thought. He hovered over to the back section of the area and hastily looked for a similar pedestal that could fit the size of his machine. There was only one empty stone raising that was longer than some and seemed wide enough to contain the AC's figure. Slowly hovering over, he lowered himself onto the smooth stone slab, putting so much focus into the landing that when he touched down, he had already red-lined too much and depleted his energy, switching his unit into charge mode. Only basic movements and the cockpit's various workings were allowed functions, though limited. He stood motionless on the stone platform for a few moments before realizing a problem with his position. He only took up a fraction of the space in the center, leaving a very suspicious absence of used space in front and behind him. One could easily tell this was a fraud. Pose, pose, what can I do to pose? he wondered, putting a hand to his chin. An idea occurred to him. He set up his piloting stance and started work on what he pictured. ▬♦▬♦▬ The princesses and company had finally snapped out of their awe and had already made their way to the castle with everypony in tow. One bright flash of light in various places took away all ponies and moved them into the castle throne room. All that remained were two craters and plenty of very confused animals wandering around the once active site. Inside the throne room were nineteen disoriented ponies and guards, a twentieth one unfazed at all, being the cause of the teleportation. Moments passed as everypony stumbled to recover from the sudden movement and bright lights, some falling like a drunkard. A faint whistling could be heard as a familiar object hovered over the labyrinth outside the window, its red "eye" moving right, then left, and finally moving in that direction. The machine hovered once again above the statue sector before seeking out a lone stone platform that was originally intended for a stone figurine of the Elements of Harmony, unbeknownst to them. It landed softly, darkness befalling the area when the white jets cut off. All in attendance watched the figure just standing there, as if waiting for something. The figure suddenly moved, though in unexpected motions. The left appendage gripped the top of the object the right limb held, turned it clockwise, then let go when the right extension gripped it once again. It stepped forward slightly, then bent one leg and moved the other back, resting the first joint on the pedestal and putting the figure into a crouching position. The right arm propped itself on the handle of the blue object as it moved the other end onto the stone surface. The center leaned forward and bent the left arm slightly. All other motions stopped, finalizing the movements of the machine. Princess Luna watched closely. Not the posing of the friendly invader, but the movements of her night guards that were slowly closing in on the pseudo statue with caution. Without warning, she ran for the door outside, flying to the still-tall object once she left the castle. She landed with a small tap against the stone tiles in front of the new decoration cautiously, still unsure of its potential. A black night pegasus guard approached her, landing with a few quick flaps of their magical bat wings and a louder clank of metal against stone tiling. "Your Highness, this... thing bypassed our watchposts without a second glance," he stated with no emotion save for authority. "We followed instead of attacking, assuming that the objects it carries could be possible weapons, and we have no information on how powerful it could be," he waited for a response, only thoughts of what the princess of the night could have in plan for this intruder. She said nothing as she simply lifted off the ground and slowly orbited the metallic statue. Her guard followed her closely. A red eye followed their movements when they approached the front side, unnerving the guard slightly. "Lieutenant Shadow Wing," she started. The guard hovered next to the princess upon calling of his name. "I want you to protect and watch this until morning break," the dark pegasus nearly dropped to the ground at the mention of this. He could tolerate watching it with suspicion, but protecting an intruder? He was about to respond when he was stopped by the royal pony. "You can trust me on this." The night black pegasus hesitated for a mere moment, saluting when he regained his senses. He flew away to relay the order to his officers, leaving the night princess alone in her revolutions. Princess Celestia joined her sister shortly after, followed by the others. The guards that followed meeting up with the rest to tell the tales of their sighting, six ponies of very different colors stood on the walkway, gazing upon the sight of the new decoration. ▬♦▬♦▬ Inside, Leos felt like a museum artifact. Being watched by so many with even more approaching. Princess Luna was already revolving around him for the eighteenth time- no, nineteen, six others walking up to the pedestal and just staring. Three of the group he recognized from before, the others not. A white unicorn with a very stylish purple mane and tail was just staring at him wide-eyed and mouth agape. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, but Leos waved it off as a normal occurrence. A pink pony was bouncing around very excitedly and seemed to be talking so fast, Leos had trouble reading her lips. Added with her constant bouncing, he gave up on her and observed the orange pony with a stetson hat. To him, it seemed she was feeling unsure of what to think of him, though it was hard to tell due to her near emotionless expression, sans suspicion. The blue one with a rainbow hairstyle was just grinning very excitedly and flying everywhere. Leos could barely notice, but he caught a glimpse of pink behind the purple one he saw earlier. What do I do now? he thought. Bored immensely, he opened a compartment below his seat and pulled out one of a few books he brought with him entitled The Great Destruction: Causes and Effects of Humanity's Retreat. He opened it up and began reading, humming a tune he seemed to never be able to forget. [CH 4] One Long Questioning Period[CH 4] One Long Questioning Period A glare that suddenly appeared in the cockpit slightly roused Leos' attention, becoming ever so bright that he had to switch off the eye to avoid going blind for a few minutes. The small enclosure became dark once again for a brief moment until it was pierced by an outdated, but still useful motor-powered flashlight pointed at the ceiling. He continued back to his book, Justice: The Monster of a Cannon, nearing the end of this long book. He reached for his compartment while still reading, reaching blindly for another book that would be his third. He found a good grip on one somewhere in the middle and pulled it out, finishing the sentence he was on the read the title of this new work of literature. The outer covers were red with a black border lining the edges of the block of paper. A very recognizable emblem adorned most of the front cover, be it a black ball emblazoned with a fire-red "9" and slightly blurred with a white glare on the top left part of the sphere. Above it read "Nine-Ball: The Mystery-Enshrouded Raven". The bottom of the cover read a name of a friend he knew well: Elan Cubis. The scientist of PROGTECH, Leos' Arena sponsor, had somehow written a biography of the Raven, given how busy he was, and published it to the underground colony. He gave Leos a copy free of charge. If only he knew. Klein returned to his previous book about Justice, a massive orbital cannon that threatened humanity into the underground world should it have fired a devastating beam of death from its perch atop the world. It was destroyed by another Raven as elusive as Leos himself and only mentioned by one name, that of which being- A knock behind him interrupted his thoughts, loud clanking echoing slightly around the little space it had to move around. He had expected their arrival, but was still annoyed by the fact that he was denied the option to finish the book that he never bothered to put it down as he pressed on the eject button. The seat's platform lurched backward once the compressed air escaped their confinement, and the Raven stood up, eyes still affixed in the book. A light breeze blew past, flipping the pages that Leos had no grip on whatsoever, his hand positioned below the spine. He groaned in annoyance as he shut the book with a thump and looked up. The perch he had now was astonishing. The sunrise beamed off rays of various oranges and reds that reflected off the snow-coated mountains in the distance with their dull blue surfaces. The view across the landscape was just absolutely stunning. A small town below was alive with activity, as with the city nearby. An odd forest stood on its own, cut off of topside view and harbored clouds unlike the rest around it. A swamp lay nearby, and vast plains rolled on past that. Leos could see a desert in the distance, but it seemed close enough to travel to quickly. Shadows shrank quickly as the fire in the sky raised at an equal. Leos felt a poke at his arm, turning to see the two princesses again flanked by a guard unit consisting of pure white pegasi and gray unicorns, all sporting golden armor. Great, he thought sarcastically, something to either keep me watched or protected. Can't say I trust them completely. "There's no need to worry about us, though we have to say the same about you," Princess Luna stated as if in a reply to nothing. Leos just looked at the dark alicorn, shifting expressions ranging from confused and surprised. She just merely smiled coyly. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself and only mouthed "No". The white princess stepped closer, failing to shake off the smile she had on. "We need to take you in for questioning," she simply stated. "I know you may not trust us, but as Luna said, we don't trust you either." She notioned for Leos to follow with a turn of the head, "Come with us." "Hold on for just one second," Leos interrupted, putting a finger in the air. He sat back down and began pulling out the various books he had on him. All twelve of them, some fictional, but mainly factual. He got back up, load in hand, "Alright, now let's go." Princess Celestia merely raised an eyebrow, if there was one, but just simply hopped off with her sister. The Raven stepped onto the core when the books somehow levitated from his grip and flew away from him, leaving the human with a very bewildered expression. He looked at where the stack was headed towards, the dark princesses direction whose horn was glowing the same color as the aura surrounding the books. "I'm not going to question it until later, but thanks," he said, reinserting the cockpit into the armored core and making his way down. Once he reached the majestic ponies, he made an attempt for the works of literature, met with failure as Luna kept pulling them just out of his reach. She was having fun with him, almost breaking out into a full fit of laughter. ▬♦▬In The Castle Halls▬♦▬ The walk was long, but interesting. The newcomer was gazing around, trying his best not to stop and admire the gold decorations against marble walls. It was very elegant, maybe too elegant as he almost walked into a wall whenever they turned a corner. To his front were the two princesses, one of which having already read the titles and started reading one, obviously very interested in history. Behind him were the guards and their emotionless expressions. Highly disciplined. Must've been tough to do that. "It was actually easier than you might think," Celestia broke the silence that lasted too long since their entry into the castle itself. Leos just wide-eyed her. "Would you please stop doing that? It's disturbing," he joked slightly. The princess just laughed and stopped the convoy at a large gold-bordered double-doorway with what seemed like red velvet covering the middle of each. A yellow aura encased both doors, slowly opening them like a drawbridge from before the "Great Destruction". What it revealed was a very elongated room lined with giant pillars and stained glass windows depicting various scenes. A raising of the floor at the opposite end held two more-than-elegant thrones with seemingly useless arm rests. A long red carpet as wide as the doors that had opened spanned until the thrones themselves, crafted of more velvet. Light poured in from one side of the room through the stained windows, tinting the light on the ground into intricate shapes of different colors. The royal alicorns and human entered while two guards stood watch one both ends of the entrance. The princesses took the place on the thrones that seemed too comfortable for Leos, Luna not taking her eyes off the book she was reading. Leos chuckled, turning both of their attention to him. "What do you find so funny?" Luna asked. "A space cannon capable of wiping an entire race from the face of a planet must be very interesting to you, isn't it?" he replied with a smile. "It is! I never knew something like this could even be created. Ironic that it was destroyed by a mere Raven," Princess Celestia peered over to take a peek. "I'm a Raven, but not the one depicted in the book," Leos added, "Anyways, we had some 'interrogation' to do, remember?" he said, using two fingers to mimic quotations. "Ah, right. Let's get to it shall we," Celestia righted her self, Luna putting down the book and placing it on the stack next to her. "First things first. You said you were a human. What are these 'humans'?" ▬♦▬PROGTECH Labs▬♦▬ "Is this the subject for our latest experiment?" "Yes. Her papers say she was a Raven." "Hmm, so she took the usual routine." "Except she volunteered for this." "Must've heard about this after dashing her dreams. But she asked for this, so let's not disappoint her." "That is, if she lives. Then there won't be anything to be disappointed about." "Hmm, you have a point there." "I have our engineers working on her unit. The usual upgrades for our test subjects." "Like an everyday routine. Let's get started." [CH 5] That Day[CH 5] That Day "And that's how my AC's generator uses heat collectors to gather heat given out from the generator itself, giving it a perpetual energy source," Leos stopped finally. It had been only three hours since his entrance into the throne room for questioning, and the rulers of the nation just simply sat there, surprised to no extent. It started with the subject of humans and their structure, then to humanity, electricity, machines, music, military, crime, authorities, and so on. The princesses were overcome with curiosity the more he explained. About an hour in, the group of six Leos saw frequently entered and just listened. Except for the blue pegasus tackling him to the floor upon the assumption that the alien was attacking the two most important figures in pony society. Leos gave no resistance, and merely commented that he smelled a hint of daisies in her breath, confusing her enough for her to be pried off with a levitation spell. After getting back up and righting himself back where he was, even fixing the carpet that had been shifted slightly, he noticed the purple one with a compass rose cutie mark carrying plenty of writing utensils and scrolls. Upon sight of these, Leos offered to tell the princesses about pencils, pens, and computers. He was like a talking encyclopedia. Everypony was silent upon hearing "perpetual energy source", except for a bouncy pink one who eagerly offered Leos the best cupcake he ever had blurting out "What's a perpetual energy source?" in her usual fast talking pace. He explained the notion of energy generated on its own, with the help of Twilight Sparkle, whom Princess Celestia introduced to Klein along with the rest of the five. An interesting lot. Meanwhile, the new "statue" outside that had "appeared literally overnight" was gathering attention from the local news reporters and cameraponies. All were saying things along the lines of "mysterious addition" and "possible secret weapon". Of course, nopony is allowed to nonchalantly waltz right into the castle garden to take a peek, but it was still large enough to be seen and rouse suspicion. Already a few have been stopped from seeing it, even the most clever of thieves. The room fell silent as everyone tried to think of anything else to learn from this well informed newcomer. Or at least until multiple instances of hungry stomachs' growling filled the room, reminding all in attendance that nobody, not even the guards, had eaten since daybreak. That was when Princess Celestia lead everyone to the royal dining hall, which made Leos question why many things had the "royal" prefix to them in the castle. It was so trivial that even both the royal princesses could not answer that no matter how hard they thought, so Celestia joked about it and moved on. In the dining hall that almost equaled the throne room in size and majesty, everybody was served and everybody ate. Except for Leos, who insisted that he could not eat the food, which was all flower sandwiches and the like, for he lacks the ability to digest flora. He then went on to announce that his natural diet consisted of meat, vegetables and fruits, unfortunately scaring Fluttershy to a considerable degree. Understandable, knowing that the Raven is still an unknown species and eats meat, leading most to believe he eats ponies as well. Oddly enough, the princesses questioned the qualities of meat and its cooking process, though neglected to give any for fear of disorder. "Meat is a delicate food item to cook with," Leos started, "Certain types of meat must be cooked thoroughly to kill off bacteria that can kill us, like fish, others cook very quickly, like certain types and cuts of beef from a cow." This garnered an angry glare from the orange farm pony. Fluttershy was huddling in a corner furthest from the omnivore, which was nearly impossible with him being in the center seat, whilst slowly eating her floral sandwich. Twilight was taking notes on a piece of paper she retrieved from somewhere only she would know, seeing as she never moved from her place at the table. "And before you say anything that pertains to any regret or remorse of killing a sentient being for food," he stated in a slightly quieter tone, not wanting to scar the shy pony any more than he has already, "these animals are not intelligent enough for speech or even screaming. As horrible as this sounds, it's been our natural diet for an immeasurable amount of time. The Great Destruction wiped out many valuable sources of knowledge, so we can't really find out how long we've existed. Pity. We were so great back then." A unicorn waiter, whose coat was nearly impossible to see due to the amount of objects on him, levitated a saucer onto the table in front of Klein and lifted the silver dome top covering a slice of steamy apple pie. How the inside filling refused to fall out at this heat escaped the Raven's mind. He turned to the waiter standing next to him and lowered his head. "Thank you. Much appreciated." The waiter gave a bow and trotted off. The Raven turned back to the table, meeting the gaze of seven surprised eyes. "What?" he lifted his arms in a questioning gesture, "Never seen an alien with a sense of manners?" "We don't meet aliens that often. In fact, you're the first," Celestia subtly joked in a half-serious tone, taking a bite of her salad. "I bet you were surprised when we first met," he took a sip from his half-empty glass of water. "Of course we were," both Luna and Celestia spoke simultaneously. "Our first alien declares non-hostility. We only fantasized ones that arrive and destroy everything, but you, we had no idea what to do with you," Celestia chuckled briefly. Leos laughed, "Well, truth be told, I didn't know what to do either. I'm just here on a trip for I don't know how lon-" A wave of energy interrupted Leos mid-sentence and washed over the attendants from the direction of a nearby large window overlooking the land of Equestria. All averted their full attention to the source of the wave only to see a large, pink object similar to Leos' armored core falling from the sky. It landed in the exact same place the Raven did: In the Whitetail Woods. Leos Klein wasted no time in reacting as he got up from his seat and ran for the nearest exit into the statue garden. All the others followed suit, Celestia ordering the guards to get the carriages ready as fast as possible in the same area. Klein was already out of sight, having turned many corners and outrunning even the seasoned farmpony in his rush to his AC. Streaks of gold flew past the window as they left. Leos had found his way outside with little difficulty followed by the six ponies that he barely knew. Passing by many stone figures and seeking out the only black object in the vicinity, he climbed up swiftly and pressed a hidden release button on the back of the core. He was forced to wait anxiously for the cockpit to show like the ponies and princesses awaiting their carriages in a similar manner. The steam dissipated, and the black cockpit box revealed itself finally. He hastily threw himself into the seat and strapped the safety belts around him. He looked up to the company before pressing the green button, "When we get there, I'll handle the situation. No exceptions." He hit the button before anyone could respond, the black box slowly receding into the mainframe. Everything inside lit up with a plethora of different colors, the center panel lined with four switches on the left showed a blue screen intruded by the words "Standby". He hastily flipped the switches starting from the lowest one, a row of white boxes replaced with red counterparts with each switch activated. The cockpit lit up even more upon the last being activated, finally showing the viewport as the eye came alight. He reversed his movements from overnight and righted is Hi-Laser rifle to its standard position, then used his boosters to lift off the platform rather than jumping in fear of damaging it. Once in the air, he strafed left and gradually turned in the direction of his unofficial mission into the countryside and more importantly, the woods where the unknown person landed. Multiple blips appeared on his radar as red circles, there being too many to count. The two princesses appeared on both the left and right ends of his three-screened view and HUD, looking back and giving a quick wink before returning to their flight. He pushed too far forward on his boost speed handle that it unexpectedly clicked, followed by a loud whine and an unexpected boost of speed that left the others behind a large distance away. Leos appreciated this burst of speed despite the fact that it thrust him into his seat, and was quickly closing in on the site faster than before. Blurs sped past him and his flying armored core as the speedometer quickly yearned for 412km/h and the ever lush greenery he bore down upon grew with closed distance. Soon enough, within a short time, Leos was already almost above the new armored core, dubbed by the 'operator' inside his own. Yanking back on the boost lever, the overboost came to a stop and the large black machine landed in front of the pink AC. All the others followed shortly. Time slowed to a standstill as the two giants stood face to face, glaring daggers at with their red eyes as if silently challenging the other to a duel of the masses. The pink opposite was similar in shape to Leos' but held no similarities past that. The legs were bent slightly backward and lacked pink armor at the joint, showing only gray steel. The legs were slim and angled, unlike Leos' "Rabbit's Foot", which were straight and bulky. The sleek and thin core retained more pink and cradled the head in the crevice of the parting of armor. The arms were also very thin with a bit of an extension at the elbow, the right arm holding a dark gray block and held by an extension similar to Leos' weapon. The head lacked antennae and the whole frame itself did not contain any objects on the back of the core, unlike the latter's laser cannon and "missiles" he called them. A light breeze shook the trees and instilled even more the element of stalemate in slow motion. That image died off swiftly when a blue object was pointed at the pink foreigner's head, held by none other than a black arm property of Klein's own armored core. Inside the black AC, Leos had found the other pilot's transmitter channel with ease, and as he prepared to speak, he raised his KARASAWA Laser rifle at the other's pink head. "Who are you?" [CH 6] Hot Pink[CH 6] Hot Pink No response came from the other end. Just stillness. The tense situation grew even more as the other armored core moved not. The annoyed Raven finally realized that the system was shut down in the dimension jump when he noticed the eye line flash with activity. The head looked up to see the Rabbit's Foot towering not too high above it, though it was met with near-contact closeness of a laser rifle boring down upon it. ▬♦▬Inside Coral Star | Slightly Earlier▬♦▬ Sumika's vision was cut off when the cockpit's workings died out suddenly. Almost immediately, she felt the feeling of being dropped and gaining of speed did not help ease her worries. The velocity increased until she was slowly being lifted off her seat, held down only by her safety belts. An unexpected stop forced her back into her chair, an unpleasant feeling reminiscent of multiple instances of this happening. All systems were shut down, and due to the unit not being a full Raven's armored core, she had to restart the inner workings manually. Sumika groaned. This was going to take a short amount of time, but any pilot would agree that this was work of considerable aggravation. The center panel lit with a white glow, casting shadows where the light missed. It finally dimmed down to a tolerable brightness and showed a model of the General Purpose Armored Core, Ariake, with many of its functions devoid of activity. Sumika set to work rebooting the system. The pulse generator needed powering up first of all tasks in order to operate anything else. Without further ado, Sumika began the monotonous task of chronologically activating the various parts one by one. Several minutes clocked by in general silence. The work having been completed, the lesser Raven threw herself into the chair's back rest letting out an exasperated sigh. Before she could have a mini-celebration of sorts, the thud of a large object slamming into the ground originated from the frontward side of the combat frame. Not now, she mentally whined, I'm not ready for an attack yet. The pilot rapidly switched on the multiple mechanisms and anxiously waited for the visor to appear. A flash of light flooded the room revealing the core of a genuine armored core, a unit she regretted not choosing when she first became a Raven mercenary. It was a night black, a color enhanced by the sunlit forest around her. She looked up to see who she was facing, that wish denied as she stared down the end of a high powered laser rifle directed at her AC's head. The transceiver rang, breaking the silence that lasted a few mere moments. "Who are you?" a male voice questioned. Sumika took notice of a group of odd colored horses in the corner of her eye, two whose manes and tails flowed majestically in the breeze. A select few of the grouping had horns on their heads, some sporting wings of a mythical creature, and two simply lacked both. She saw a pattern with all of these "horses", if they were, they all adorned a marking on the exact same spot on their rear end, all differing in design and color. They just watched with looks of extreme interest and concern. "Tell me who you are, or I render you blind," the voice ordered once again, its owner losing patience. The red dot on the head of the black armored core narrowed in her direction. The rifle shifted slightly as the black unit's grip tightened on the handle. The pink mech's pilot was more than scared, she was terrified, but defiant to show it. The gun covered almost all portions of the screen, save for a slim cut-off on the right end. "Alright, I'll tell you," Sumika finally spoke, uneasiness apparent in her voice. "My name is Sumika. I'm a Raven." "You're a Raven. Who sent you?" the other person's suspicions raised. "Nobody. I escaped." Sumika shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "From what?" The intruding weapon backed off slightly away from her "face", giving the new Raven some breathing room. "The constant fighting. I'm sick of it." "Then how did you get here?" "I got a message from this odd man named Elan Cubis." "How do I know you're not lying?" "Why would I lie to a person who has me at gunpoint?" "I'll take your word for it. For now," the black AC stepped back slightly, lowering its weapon slowly. Sumika released a breath she unknowingly held. "I still can't trust you completely," he said, "so be warned that I will keep an eye on you." ▬♦▬♦▬ To the audience, it seemed as if the two colossus objects held a fruitless staring contest, the only prize being life. The ground shook as Leos backed away from the pink invader. An aura of discomfort that radiated from the unnatural-looking reverse jointed bipedal machine dissipated, but did not fade away completely. The guards watched everything and their surroundings intently, stationed around the perimeter so as to deter any curious civilians. The Rabbit's Foot turned its head toward the ponies, its always intimidating red dot eye glaring down at them. Some flinched at the sudden attention, or namely one, while the others stared. Soon, the pink armored core followed suit, turning its own head towards the equines, the pink coloring not helping whatsoever. It seemed as though they were talking, but no words were heard from the machines. Princess Celestia, flanked by some gold-armored guards, flew up to Leos' AC and tapped on the core while still in the range of the head. She pointed at the pink counterpart and then in the direction of Canterlot to follow the same process as they did with Leos, albeit without spending three hours on listening to an encyclopedia. The other seemed to catch the meaning of this gesture and stepped closer to Klein, waiting on the lead to move. Just before anyone could move, an arrow pierced a flying guard in the side, the wound being a clean through-and-through. A second arrow aimed at the black AC hit the right arm and merely bounced off. Everyone on the ground hid in the bushes, out of sight of the squadron of griffons assaulting the gathering behind Coral Star. The attackers let out an ear-piercing screech but were interrupted when a superheated blue blade of plasma cut one out of the side of the unit in half, the heat melting all in between and disallowed blood to be spilled. The body tumbled into the unmerciful ground, stopping at the large feet of the counter-attacker, Rabbit's Foot. A concentrated stream of plasma extended from the left arm at the wrist, previously hidden. It hovered above the ground as the defender paused after swinging and landing a successful hit. Coral Star aimed its weapon at the unit, but never fired and instead lowered it and extended its own laser blade, this one slightly shorter and of a bright golden color. Both fighters readied for a close quarters battle against smaller flying griffons adorned with many silver plates that hid their coats and held crossbows as their weapons. ▬♦▬Attacked▬♦▬ Time halted to a standstill as both parties readied for combat. The griffons ceased all approach and simply hovered where they were as they inspected both the opponents. Huge metal monsters glared at them with what seemed like so much anger, so densely put in one spot, could choke one of them to death. Elongated blades made of extremely heated plasma emanated from their arms, their power apparent when the unit watched their ally get brutally sliced in half trying to ram the body itself. The two armored cores stepped away from each other to separate themselves for the swinging of armor piercing blades. It now became a battle of patience, of who would attack first. There were now nine griffons out of the previous ten versus two deadly machines ten times their size, maybe more. The commanding griffon adorning golden armor rather than silver like the rest screeched loudly, obviously heard from the town nearby. He flew towards the opposition followed by his subordinates. The unit split into two groups of four and surrounded both the attackers while the last quickly approached the bush he saw the rest duck in, but was intercepted by a group of royal guards. The griffons had formed a circle around Leos and Sumika separately. Klein swung his arm around narrowly missing a griffon but cut off his tail, effectively stunning him with pain. He took advantage of this and dove the laser blade into the broadside of the small enemy, ending his life. A griffon had scratched his unit on the other side with a very audible scraping sound. Leos turned and grabbed his offender, slamming him into the ground. He caught sight of another attempting to attack low, and kicked it into a tree, breaking it and the neck of the griffon. The last one he saw out of the corner of his view attempted to flee and failed as a loud bang followed by a high-energy bolt of plasma struck his side, fired by Leos' laser rifle. Sumika was in the air, lunging at the griffons with her blade and bursts of speed with her lightweight frame. She caught a griffon unexpectedly and sliced his head clean off. That was her last enemy of her attacks. She hit the ground as a dead griffon with a burnt circle hit her leg. ▬♦▬♦▬ The guards have already effectively neutralized the lone griffon and watched the two giants as they massacred the remaining opposition. With both displaying destructive power equally brutal and quick, the idle unit stood back and watched as the pink newcomer lung at their opponents in mid-air while the black fighter frame never moved from its spot on the ground. One griffon tried to flee from the fate that his allies faced and received a beam of light to his side, the extreme heat uttering a shrill cry as the bolt killed him almost instantaneously. The lifeless body was sent careening into the pink unit's leg as she landed with a low thud. By the time everything had calmed down, Leos still held his weapon up in the direction of Sumika back at square one with the exception of multiple body parts around their legs. Klein's night black AC stood sideways, facing the ponies, back leg bent slightly and laser blade active and in Sumika's direction. ▬♦▬♦▬ Leos paused his actions as he kept his weapon pointed at the pink AC he fought alongside only seconds ago. "Hey," Sumika called out over the comms system, "You have a feeling of déjà vu?" she joked. Leos chuckled and lowered his stance, "I have to say, you're pretty good for a GP-AC pilot." "It comes with practice." "You say that, but I reached the top Arena position within days of registering as a Raven." "Speaking of which, you remind me of someone." "Who?" "I'll tell you later. My radar's picking up more hostiles coming from the same direction as the last." "Got it. Just use your blade, though. The inhabitants have no ammo." "Heard you the first time." A massive legion off in the distance made its appearance over a mountainside as a cloud of silver and blue flying figures. Leos took notice of this first and looked down at the ponies walking out of the bush, the guards immediately giving full attention at the sight of this. He pointed a metal finger at them, then to the town nearby, and finally the swarm of griffons quickly approaching. They caught the meaning of the gesture when they caught sight of the army rushing towards them and rallied the group in the direction of Ponyville, some staying behind to aid the two giants. Leos switched over to his laser cannon, the open two-piece weapon folding over his shoulder while charging a shot within the deepest part of the barrel. His armored core's left arm lifted up to grab a hold of the bottommost bar. Flying guards backed away from the long tube while the black holder waited for the most opportune moment to fire, the white pegasi wary of this weapon's capability. Sumika backed up to the side of Rabbit's Foot and waited. Come on, Leos silently said aloud. Just a bit closer. The army was almost upon them. Closer. More. Come on, keep going. The unit was nearly above them. The targeting icon beeped rapidly, signifying a lock on his target. White particles gathered around inside the barrel openings, filing into a larger ball of plasma that began to surge with electricity. Fire. The waiting explosive orb launched from the triangular tube, rocking the standing metal biped violently. The airborne ball of light seared through the sky burning the air around it in its path for the first of the pack. The cannon unlocked its connection to the main part of the launcher with a click and folded back over the shoulder of the black machine. Leos switched to the vertical missiles and found targets as quickly as they came, launching four self-propelled rockets into the air. Loud whines and white jets of fire erupted from the backs of the two giants and launched the figures into the distance. A fireball blew away a sizable mass of the fighting force ahead and sent everything in every which way. Leos balled his AC's left hand into a fist and swung at the nearest griffon left. [CH 7] Distant Thunder[CH 7] Distant Thunder The blue armored commanding griffon leading the invasion watched as the white rod of electricity shot out from one of the colossi with a thunderous roar. It neared him and he braced for impact as the obvious imminent death neared. The energy beam slammed into a griffon some few rows behind him and violently burst into a massive explosion that blew off the front tip of the force by a considerable amount. The energy blast inflated with fire and with such force that griffons flew every which way from the outburst of flames except the commander, who flew just out of the range of the cannon fire. He looked again at the destructive monsters right as the same one launched four objects glowing a fire-red into the sky. The projectiles stopped their vertical flight and made way for his army of dispersed soldiers. Sharp contrails followed the unknown objects. The flying fire whined past the commander and exploded against four more units making up the invasion, obliterating them with a smaller ball of fire. A third of his army had just been destroyed without even trying and by an alien of all things! Only two options ran through his mind: Fight or flight. His horrors became worse when he saw both of them move quickly through the sky, never having a chance to choose an option as a steel grey fist the size of his body slam into his beak. The usually sickening crunch of a severely fractured skull was dulled by the repeated jets of white flame propelling the attacker even closer to more targets. Coral Star, being lighter than Rabbit's Foot, was making more progress and was already face to face with the opposition, slicing multiple griffons with each swing of her laser blade. In retaliation, the feathered lions of myth attempted ramming, shooting arrows with crossbows, burning stones launched from catapults, and even scratching the pink menace, all with no significant results other than ruined paint and cracked skulls followed by a gold beam splitting them in two. Those foolish enough to get behind the pink menace were met with the searing heat of white hot thrusters burning off their feathers even through armor. Their now defunct wings held no lift and promptly sent the winged hybrids plummeting to their untimely doom. The black painted Rabbit's Foot, on the other hand, was using less of the laser blade embedded in its arm and opted more more use of blunt force. The griffons met no mercy at the hands of the hovering metal parts continuously breaking bones and sending their owners flying away as quickly as they came. Very unlucky ones were grabbed and thrown at an ally with both meeting death upon contact, all the while being struck with the intimidation and fear that the red eye gave them as it glared down its next rag-doll for its parody of a brawl. Some were faced with splitting by way of a blue-white laser splitting them in half in lieu of physical range. Back at a small town commonly referred to as Ponyville, almost all of the populace watched the battle unfold from the streets of their hometown. Worried parents shooed their children into their homes while all others murmured amongst themselves about the current situation. A few pegasi had taken up residence atop some clouds in an attempt to get a better view while some had binoculars and telescopes, but to the naked eye the scene was a pink blur and a flailing black creature none have ever seen before. Twilight Sparkle burst through the door to the town's tree library and caused it to stop against nothing midway with a slam. The sudden entry startled a small purple-scaled dragon who was eating his lunch of gems for the day. He gave a yell and flailed his arms wildly before he finally caught himself from falling over in the wooden chair. Twilight rapidly climbed the stairs with Spike lagging behind fruitlessly trying to catch Twilight's attention. "Twilight!" he shouted as the unicorn searched frantically through the area, "Twilight, what's with the all rush?" The mare ignored his calls as she kept searching. "What's going on? Is it that thing that fell last night?" Twilight stopped her rummaging in a chest for a moment, "Aha! Found it!" she yelled as she pulled out a telescope and set it up at a window with a clear view of the forestry she left earlier. Large pink and black objects in the air moved at a rapid pace with light blue and gold streaks following their movements in the distance. Spike caught a glimpse of this and rushed to the open window's edge right as a white tube extended next to him. "Twilight, what's going on?" he said not taking his eyes off the scene, trying to grasp the reason behind the sighting. "Well, if you can wait then I'll tell you," snapped the curious mare peering down the telescope at the scene she was forced to miss. ▬▬▬▬ Author's note. Well, this is the end. The last fragment to this slideshow of something mashed together. It was fun, and I enjoyed this. As for the rest of the plot, I leave that up to you, literally. Do what you please. And with that, I bid farewell to this prototype. (To the avid fans of this, I am truly sorry for getting your hopes up.)
[P] As Fast As It Came...Leos Klein slowly lumbered his black fighting machine into the massive section of his home he refers to as his 'garage', his beat and battered armored core barely operational due to its last conflict with the Nine-Ball Seraph, or so he dubbed the monstrosity. Sparks lit up the dark paint of the walking giant from the various slash marks and bullet holes sustained in the fierce battle. A loud and high pitched beep rang out from within. "Alright, Raven, you're in position," a voice called out. "Please exit the AC so we can get it back into stable condition." The back of the massive core hissed as the large amounts of air joined the rest from four vents around the center. A section of the centerpiece emerged from the back, and Leos stood up from his pseudo habitat and vaulted over the railing of the catwalk behind him. He looked around the very spacious hangar-type enclosure littered with vertical supporting girders to which the elusive man still questioned, as it limited available space to only one armored core. He had enough parts by now to create more than five of those mechanized fighting machines of varying types if given the space to hold them all. The garage was more than bland and undeniably monotone, its gray-green walls and surfaces giving it an atmosphere of mixed results. A sound of an opening door caught Leos' attention, curiosity overtaking him as he looked toward the source of the noise. An engineer draped in a blue uniform approached quickly towards Klein with a slightly bewildered expression on his face after taking a glance at the once perfect machine, now nearly in a state of standing wires and bevels. He averted his gaze away from the unit and towards Klein with a slightly more dignified look adorning his surprised expression. "What did you do to that thing?" he questioned, gesturing at the damages as if Klein never noticed. His tone swapped from confusion to flat, turning to face the object of question. He paused for just a mere moment before he spoke again, "Judging from the looks, I'd say that'd run you up about ten or fifteen thousand. Who'd you fight?" "Nine-Ball," Leos replied in his usual tone of uncaring disregard. He neglected to tell the truth to him about the Nest, the AI of the establishment, and the secret of elusive red and black fighter . "Send me the bill when you finish," Klein started for the doorway behind him, taking off his combat helmet and holding it at his waist. "Hey! One thing before you go," called the worker from his position behind the armored core, "you got a mission request an hour before you came back. You might want to look into it soon." "Noted," Leos replied before closing the door behind him. The whirring of various machines and tools followed soon after his departure. Silence filled the hallways of white and gray with only the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the bland tunnel of his home, or what the Ravens' Nest offered him as a home of sorts. Leos simply walked straight. Any turns that could have been made, he passed by without a second thought. He finally reached a single door at the end of the bland environment. He sighed as he opened the door and flicked on the lights. Leos ignored the decorative features of his office, focusing on the computer to his immediate right. The screen was black except for a bright yellow notice in the center reading 'New Mission'. ▬♦▬♦▬ The blanket of night's shadow lay dormant over the near desolate-looking town of Ponyville. All of the small community's inhabitants had closed up every shop and retreated to their quaint homes to rest and recharge for the dawn of a new day ahead. No light ever dared to threaten the ponies' quest for sleep by nightfall. All but one particular place of residence. A very peculiar tree stood near the end of the small town outfitted with various balconies and signs shown brightly in the dark like a haven for moths. A window opened up, and a lavender unicorn with a dark purple mane adorned with pink highlights appeared with a telescope the size of two other ponies stacked upright on their two legs. She sighed happily as she mounted the massive scope onto its tripod and angled it toward the night sky, now at this point dotted and littered with multiple white blips that sparkled in the dark. The magical pony could hardly contain herself due to the excitement of the task on hoof. She had only one objective on her mind, which her fellow baby dragon companion questioned the importance of. Earlier that day, she had received a letter, sent through a less-than-formal belch from the purple-scaled being, that the princess of the night had formed a new nebula in the vast expanse of space. The night princess also issued a challenge for the purple pony stating that if she were to find the newly created cosmic dust cloud, she could name it herself. This alone compelled her to gather an insane amount of quills, scrolls, ink containers, and the silver and black object that stuck out two meters from the library she used as her home since her coming the past year. "Twilight, is all this really necessary for looking for just one ball of dust in the middle of nowhere?" complained a small figure coming up the staircase with an oversized mound of scrolls and writing utensils that somehow managed to stay in their place despite the laws of physics at play. "I know Princess Luna challenged you to find a nebula, but this is ridiculous," he nagged as he finally reached the makeshift station that the unicorn had constructed before collapsing over himself, throwing about various materials in every direction. "Spike, be careful!" started Twilight as she stopped the fall of office materials with a simple mass levitation spell and righted their direction onto a desk next to her. "And it is important," she said, dragging the sentence to show emphasis, "Do you know the reward for finding a new discovery like this?" She reverted back to her excited self as she began to imagine the awards ceremony and prize money to buy even more books. Before the smaller being could respond, a near transparent blue ripple passed through the walls and shook the foundations of the structure. Both the pony and dragon rushed to the window in an attempt to seek out the cause of the anomaly. Spike just barely managed to reach the window before he was stopped by a feeling in his stomach, stumbling for a moment before belching loudly. The loud belch released a green flame that became a rolled up piece of parchment. Twilight was already at the window hastily searching for the source of the magic wave. "Read it to me, Spike," Twilight said without giving a glance behind her. The dragon had recovered from the sudden message and had already opened up the scroll to reveal its contents. Spike cleared his throat before finally speaking the message aloud. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I assume you felt the wave of energy that passed over to us in Canterlot, correct? It was enough to wake my sister up, so I am certain that it must be serious. Judging from the direction of the wave, I would say it originated from the Whitetail Woods. Princess Celestia and I will be arriving to accompany you to the source of energy. I am sure that wave awoke your friends as well. Gather your friends and we will meet at the entrance to the woods. Signed, Princess Luna Twilight just caught a glimpse of a white-blue disk in the sky over the nearby forestry as it closed up in itself. A miniscule red dot cast a streak of neon in the air above it, heading toward the ground. Something had been dropped, but nothing else could be seen. The young mare had trouble deciding whether or not she should be amazed or fearful in circumstances like this. The red streak stopped abruptly just above the tree line, dipping slightly before righting itself. Only a red dot remained. A thump soon reached the ears of the purple unicorn and dragon, who was moving to pick up a scroll and quill, but had stopped in his tracks when the sound was heard. The stunned pony was the first to break out of the fear's trance and issued a command to the young dragon. "Spike, send a status report to the princesses. I'll go get the others to see what this thing is." the horned pony said as quickly as she made her way for the curved stairs and door of the tree.
[CH 1] Investigation of a Hard Landing[CH 1] Investigation of a Hard Landing The Raven groaned as he let the feeling of the sudden drop and instant stop of descent pass over. This was the second time this had happened, the first being the fall before the battle against the Seraph. The portal had disabled his system's drop supporters and had only rebooted just before he made contact against the oddly soft ground. I'm surprised this thing is still standing, he thought, because they offered me a vacation. I don't plan on dying now. Lights flickered on quickly, followed by the speakers in the cockpit ringing out "Main system, engaging normal mode.". The display flickered on last and the Heads-Up Display shined a brilliant green. The environment was both familiar and odd. Lush green trees and plant life in the surrounding area revealed that the area was a forest, paired with the veil of all too familiar darkness that Leos usually staged his arena battles in. The head was just high enough to see over the tree line and into the distance. Lights harbored in two very notable areas: One nearby and one in the air, which the pilot presumed was a city, judging by the size of the lights. Where am I? Leos thought. Before he could continue his train of thought, small shrubbery shook in front of the viewport. Leos turned his head for a better view, and in turn, moving the AC's head with him. ▬♦▬♦▬ Twilight Sparkle followed her bright mentor as the group of equines wandered around in the woods. Ever since the celestial princesses arrived with unit of guards minutes before, nothing was quite silent. Twilight told everypony the situation at hoof, enticing the minds of a very overactive pink pony and a bright rainbow-maned blue pegasus into an argument on the object that fell from the sky. "What about an alien? What if it's an alien from another planet?" piped the cyan-coated pegasus. "I'd say it's an alien! but what would it look like?" she continued as she circled around the pink party pony before stopping in thought, all the while never touching the ground. Aliens. If the purple mare was not nervous enough now, she nearly stopped in her tracks. She started to wonder and question what to do when meeting the possible alien, ranging from spying to outright greeting. From the shape and appearance of the being to its items that it could carry. "Ooh, aliens! I wonder if its one of those scary-looking aliens that shoot lasers from their eyes and have giant ships and-" Twilight droned out the ramblings of the obviously too hyped pony. She had enough to deal with, and she needed to concentrate. A near invisibly dark alicorn landed next to her sibling and began whispering something Twilight strained to hear, much to no avail. She felt a hoof rest on her side. "Now, Twilight, there's no need ta' work yourself too hard. It's gonna be alright, trust me on this," a very familiar southern accented orange Earth pony said. The unicorn felt another hoof on the other side. "Applejack's right, dear. We wouldn't want let anything, not even yourself, get in your way, darling," a white unicorn with a curled purple mane reassured. "Thanks girls," Twilight responded, "it means a lot to me that you care." She gave a meek smile to both. Both ponies lifted their hooves off the compass-marked unicorn. She felt something wrong. Everything had gone silent, and she had just realized that the convoy had stopped moving. "Wha-" the pony attempted to start but was cut off when the night princess shoved a hoof into her mouth and shushed her. Twilight made an obvious gesture of confusion, much to the dark blue alicorn's dismay. Princess Luna pointed toward the clearing everypony else was staring into. It took the confused Twilight a few seconds before she figured out she was supposed to see something. She looked closer. Nothing but black. Or at least she thought until Luna scooted her up to the alicorn's side that she finally saw it. Everything became more clear at that moment. The red dot above her was exactly like the one she saw before she left her library, but it was so high in the sky that it hurt her neck to stare. It was moving as if anchored to something that rotated. This confused Twilight even more until she took notice of the near-perfect black figure that it was stationed on. It was massive and stood on two appendages she assumed were legs. The rest of the body stood upright, two other limbs hanging straight down with one holding a bright blue object she never noticed. It looked like a rectangle that had been split at one end and had on piece stretched. A rod extended from the middle of the top piece which the being held the object with the end of its limb. The opposing appendage held nothing, confusing the mare. All of these were connected to a single centerpiece. It was nearly a block shape in form with the exception of the middle front which came together to create a curved crease that ran backwards towards the red dot in the mid-section of the centerpiece. The top piece looked like a deformed head that sported two antennae in the back. Twilight, struck with fear of what this thing may be capable of, stepped back. And tripped over a root, causing the bush to shake. She looked up at the anomaly, its attention now directed at the pony group. The being's menacing red eye beaming on them like a manticore's stinger ready to attack. ▬♦▬♦▬ Is that a... purple horse? That lone thought was the only thing running through the Raven's mind. Elan said something about a peaceful life, but already Klein was having second thoughts about agreeing. Does that horse have a horn and tattoo on its butt? he added. This was all so confusing to him. Too many variables as to why these things are the way they are swarmed the pilot's mind. Are they sentient? Are there others? If so, can they speak English? What if they're hostile? The last probability stopped Klein. How could horses be hostile? They have always been peaceful creatures. He gave himself a mental slap upside the head for such a stupid idea. Well, might as well give it a shot if- Wait, is that an alicorn? Klein interrupted himself. He must be going crazy. First an odd equine with a horn and now a unicorn with wings and snow white coat seemed to be... talking? to the unnaturally purple horse. Might as well. Now or never, or they'll forever be scared of the giant walking hunk of metal. He flicked the eject cockpit button cover and pressed the green circle with his thumb. ▬♦▬♦▬ Princess Celestia walked over to the clumsy purple mare that was her pupil, scolding her to not be so careless in times like these and proceeded to help her student up. She returned her attention to the machine she had never encountered before while the unicorn dusted herself off. What could this possibly be? Celestia questioned herself for the umpteenth time. This was not like anything she had ever seen before. It was a tall as a dragon on four legs, but lacked flesh. Only metal plating. The general shape resembled a monkey, but no recognizable features unlike the draconequus Discord. "Sister, instead of wondering, why not find out what it is?" a voice of majestic tone spoke out. "I can read your thoughts, you know. You kept thinking that question for..." she paused while the white princess's train of thought derailed, "Thirty-three times," Luna finished. Celestia looked at her sibling in amazement and bewilderment. She was keeping count? A hissing sound reminiscent of a loose air pipe emanated suddenly, and all who gathered to investigate the anomaly affixed their gazes upon the metallic beast as if it was natural to do so. Shortly after, four great and linear streams of air and steam ejected in a four-corner pattern behind the center of the anomaly, dragging on for five seconds that felt like a minute before stopping. All in attendance froze and merely stared in anticipation of what could possibly happen. A normally talkative party pony hushed as well, a rare occurrence for most. A yellow pegasus adorning a long cotton candy pink mane and tail backed slowly into the bushes behind the group, her eyes only visible to watch the scene unfold. The guard unit moved to battle-ready positions around the anomaly, surrounding it effectively. All others just stood frozen and watched. A section of the centerpiece extended, exposing an odd figure in an equally odd-looking seat in a box. Celestia and Luna moved from their trances and flew up to the head of the giant metal figure to catch a glimpse of the operator who had so foolishly shown themselves in foreign land. Both the princess' shiny hoof boots clacked on the metal surface as the anomaly's user stared up at them. Everypony who could see was at a lost for words and thoughts, for this odd creature did what nobody could have expected. "I come in peace," it said, raising its arms slowly in an attempt to gesture an act an of non-hostility.
[CH 2] Odd Circumstances[CH 2] Odd Circumstances Leos Klein, legendary Raven and pilot of a metal fighting machine that stands just above the treeline, watched as two alicorns flew up to his armored core, landed on the core, and gave one of the most comedic expressions of bewilderment he has ever seen in his career. He kept a straight face to the best of his ability, succeeding in the process. Long moments pass as the three completely different beings held an unofficial staring contest in the dead silence. He grew tired of this quickly and slowly raised his arms to attempt to show non-hostility. "I come in peace," he said in the calmest tone he could muster, one without timidity or hate. Another long pause of deafening silence. Upon closer observation of the two in front of him, he assumed they were both royalty, judging by the crowns, hoof boots, and necklaces, or so he called them. White and dark blue pegasi hovered around him, which he assumed were the authority of the area. One half were dark blue to black with armor matching the colors of the dark alicorn, flying with bat wings for some reason. The others were a bright white with gold armor plating, to which Klein guessed were for show knowing that gold is not the strongest material for equipment. "I may have dimension jumped," he started again, "and would like information of the surrounding area." He lifted up the visor on his helmet, mentally slapping himself for forgetting and hoping they understand what he is saying. More staring and silence. Finally, one of them broke from their trance, the white alicorn, and the silence was finally filled with a different voice. "What and who are you?" she asked in a majestic authoritative tone matching her crown. This one phrase broke the other equine from her trance as well. Obvious due to the fact that she shook her head to regain her senses. Talking horses with logic defying manes and tails originating from ancient mythology. What more can there be in this world? he thought. "My name is Leos Klein, part of the human race and pilot of an armored core combat unit," he said as he shifted in his seat. His arms were becoming increasingly tired and had started to become numb from lack of blood flow. He gave up trying to keep his arms raised and slowly lowered them onto his lap. He saw the flying pegasi getting antsy, as if he was not already suspicious enough. The white pony motioned for her other behind her to approach and whispered something into her ear before ascending into the air to regroup the others that Leos almost forgot about. The launch blew a gathering of dust in the pilot's direction forcing him to squint in order to avoid having his eyes bombarded by the cloud of dust. All who remained were the Raven, a dark pony, and flying guards, or so he dubbed them for their similarities to the two in front that became one. Leos had to break the silence with one worry he had to have outspoken. "If I may, your Highness," he started, showing respect for royalty to attempt to strengthen his first impression on the others, "I would like to know if your populace has ever encountered something like this. I would much rather not cause an uproar and state of mass panic if I am to stay here. They closed the inter-dimensional portal I arrived in, and I was warned that it was going to be a one-way trip." This caught the royal pony off-guard. She probably never expected this, the Raven assumed. She had her head tilted and was gazing off toward the sky, a common gesture of deep thought. She thought for what seemed like forever until she finally returned her focus towards the foreign being. "We could let you stay at the castle," she started as her white other returned with two more pegasi, one a bright cyan sporting a rainbow mane and tail while the other was an equally bright yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail. The latter took a glance at the Raven and immediately hid her face behind her mane. The bright blue pony, on the other hand, was flying around the black combat unit inspecting every piece of it. She gave bursts of speed, leaving behind a rainbow trail and stopping only to look at the mechanical foreigner. Leos could hear her saying something, but at a pace too fast for him to keep up with, so he simply gave up trying. His attempts to follow the rainbow blur went unsuccessful as the white alicorn walked back onto the core slightly above Leos, her golden hoof boots clacking against metal once again. "I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna," she started in her majestic tone. "Luna told me of your predicament, and I will allow her decision for you to stay at the castle. I will have to take you in for questioning, though. As for this... thing," she tapped the AC's core with her hoof, "I am at a loss for what to do with it." Princess Luna nudged her sister, gaining her attention. "We could put it in the statue section and hope that none find out about it, whatever this is," she offered. Celestia just stared, to which Klein again assumed was her thinking over the idea of the over sized fighting machine being posed as a statue. Leos thought about rejecting the idea, but declined the decision to reject the offer. "Not a bad idea," she said after a short pause, "but how will we move this, unless our newcomer can somehow." She directed her attention to Leos, who was doing busy stretching and yawning to notice the sign for a few moments. He finally caught it soon enough. "Alright, I'll start this thing up. I'm going to have to put this into combat mode before I can start moving quickly, so you'll need to get off," he said as he lifted the cover to the green button he used to eject. The button clicked on contact with his hand, and the princesses lifted off to watch the scene before them. ▬♦▬♦▬ Princess Luna took to the air in front of the large bipedal object as the back piece she had seen the 'human' in disappeared into the rest of the machine. The middle of the head that she was standing next to flashed a bright red briefly before relenting and shrinking into a dot that she saw earlier when she first examined the machine. The head turned to look at the two royal alicorns that hovered in front of it before looking around like it had the first time. She pointed in the direction of her home and capital of the sisters' nation, Canterlot. She watched as the two legs the machine stood upon bent and leaped into the air. Higher than she ever expected it to be able to. From below, she saw two large objects stationed on the back of the centerpiece behind the shoulders. One a long, folded, three-pronged open tube and the other being a white box. Both stood out from the airborne object with their white paint scheme. Two thin jets of white fire erupted from the back accompanied by a high pitched whine. Suddenly, with a loud, explosive boom, the figure launched toward the floating gathering of lights that was the capital. Everyone stood still and flying pegasi just stared mouth agape. A bipedal being taller than trees, as wide as a house, and made completely of metal had just sped past them, blowing their minds one by one. The once visible black machine quickly became one large light that staggered itself, disappearing into the night each time it died out briefly reminiscent of a firefly.
[CH 3] Work of Odd Creativity[CH 3] Work of Odd Creativity A castle set on a mountainside appeared after what felt like hours, but in reality was only half of one. Klein kept his craft in the air for as long as he could, surprised that his boosters were using less but giving more boost power. His generator seemed to have better performance, seeing as he had never red-zoned once in his flight for the now visible city. His AP read 9582 instead of its usual 8099, giving him the assumption that something affected the defense of his airborne armored core. Confusing at it was, Leos put off the thoughts until he reached the castle and its gardens. Hovering above a hedge maze that rivaled his garage in size, he scanned the area for anything that looked like a statue section. In front of him were multiple stained glass windows twice the size of Rabbit's Foot, his AC, a large set of elegant double doors which connected with a balcony and two curved staircases opening up towards the labyrinth. To his left was an elegant area with no stone pathways that he saw everywhere, trees imitating a small forest, and passages lined with small blue fencing around the trees. He looked to his right and saw what he was looking for. Large stone walkways and multiple stone statues of various characters he did not recognize, but were mainly ponies. All were lined with small hedges and sat on short pedestals. Talk about royal, he thought. He hovered over to the back section of the area and hastily looked for a similar pedestal that could fit the size of his machine. There was only one empty stone raising that was longer than some and seemed wide enough to contain the AC's figure. Slowly hovering over, he lowered himself onto the smooth stone slab, putting so much focus into the landing that when he touched down, he had already red-lined too much and depleted his energy, switching his unit into charge mode. Only basic movements and the cockpit's various workings were allowed functions, though limited. He stood motionless on the stone platform for a few moments before realizing a problem with his position. He only took up a fraction of the space in the center, leaving a very suspicious absence of used space in front and behind him. One could easily tell this was a fraud. Pose, pose, what can I do to pose? he wondered, putting a hand to his chin. An idea occurred to him. He set up his piloting stance and started work on what he pictured. ▬♦▬♦▬ The princesses and company had finally snapped out of their awe and had already made their way to the castle with everypony in tow. One bright flash of light in various places took away all ponies and moved them into the castle throne room. All that remained were two craters and plenty of very confused animals wandering around the once active site. Inside the throne room were nineteen disoriented ponies and guards, a twentieth one unfazed at all, being the cause of the teleportation. Moments passed as everypony stumbled to recover from the sudden movement and bright lights, some falling like a drunkard. A faint whistling could be heard as a familiar object hovered over the labyrinth outside the window, its red "eye" moving right, then left, and finally moving in that direction. The machine hovered once again above the statue sector before seeking out a lone stone platform that was originally intended for a stone figurine of the Elements of Harmony, unbeknownst to them. It landed softly, darkness befalling the area when the white jets cut off. All in attendance watched the figure just standing there, as if waiting for something. The figure suddenly moved, though in unexpected motions. The left appendage gripped the top of the object the right limb held, turned it clockwise, then let go when the right extension gripped it once again. It stepped forward slightly, then bent one leg and moved the other back, resting the first joint on the pedestal and putting the figure into a crouching position. The right arm propped itself on the handle of the blue object as it moved the other end onto the stone surface. The center leaned forward and bent the left arm slightly. All other motions stopped, finalizing the movements of the machine. Princess Luna watched closely. Not the posing of the friendly invader, but the movements of her night guards that were slowly closing in on the pseudo statue with caution. Without warning, she ran for the door outside, flying to the still-tall object once she left the castle. She landed with a small tap against the stone tiles in front of the new decoration cautiously, still unsure of its potential. A black night pegasus guard approached her, landing with a few quick flaps of their magical bat wings and a louder clank of metal against stone tiling. "Your Highness, this... thing bypassed our watchposts without a second glance," he stated with no emotion save for authority. "We followed instead of attacking, assuming that the objects it carries could be possible weapons, and we have no information on how powerful it could be," he waited for a response, only thoughts of what the princess of the night could have in plan for this intruder. She said nothing as she simply lifted off the ground and slowly orbited the metallic statue. Her guard followed her closely. A red eye followed their movements when they approached the front side, unnerving the guard slightly. "Lieutenant Shadow Wing," she started. The guard hovered next to the princess upon calling of his name. "I want you to protect and watch this until morning break," the dark pegasus nearly dropped to the ground at the mention of this. He could tolerate watching it with suspicion, but protecting an intruder? He was about to respond when he was stopped by the royal pony. "You can trust me on this." The night black pegasus hesitated for a mere moment, saluting when he regained his senses. He flew away to relay the order to his officers, leaving the night princess alone in her revolutions. Princess Celestia joined her sister shortly after, followed by the others. The guards that followed meeting up with the rest to tell the tales of their sighting, six ponies of very different colors stood on the walkway, gazing upon the sight of the new decoration. ▬♦▬♦▬ Inside, Leos felt like a museum artifact. Being watched by so many with even more approaching. Princess Luna was already revolving around him for the eighteenth time- no, nineteen, six others walking up to the pedestal and just staring. Three of the group he recognized from before, the others not. A white unicorn with a very stylish purple mane and tail was just staring at him wide-eyed and mouth agape. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, but Leos waved it off as a normal occurrence. A pink pony was bouncing around very excitedly and seemed to be talking so fast, Leos had trouble reading her lips. Added with her constant bouncing, he gave up on her and observed the orange pony with a stetson hat. To him, it seemed she was feeling unsure of what to think of him, though it was hard to tell due to her near emotionless expression, sans suspicion. The blue one with a rainbow hairstyle was just grinning very excitedly and flying everywhere. Leos could barely notice, but he caught a glimpse of pink behind the purple one he saw earlier. What do I do now? he thought. Bored immensely, he opened a compartment below his seat and pulled out one of a few books he brought with him entitled The Great Destruction: Causes and Effects of Humanity's Retreat. He opened it up and began reading, humming a tune he seemed to never be able to forget.
[CH 4] One Long Questioning Period[CH 4] One Long Questioning Period A glare that suddenly appeared in the cockpit slightly roused Leos' attention, becoming ever so bright that he had to switch off the eye to avoid going blind for a few minutes. The small enclosure became dark once again for a brief moment until it was pierced by an outdated, but still useful motor-powered flashlight pointed at the ceiling. He continued back to his book, Justice: The Monster of a Cannon, nearing the end of this long book. He reached for his compartment while still reading, reaching blindly for another book that would be his third. He found a good grip on one somewhere in the middle and pulled it out, finishing the sentence he was on the read the title of this new work of literature. The outer covers were red with a black border lining the edges of the block of paper. A very recognizable emblem adorned most of the front cover, be it a black ball emblazoned with a fire-red "9" and slightly blurred with a white glare on the top left part of the sphere. Above it read "Nine-Ball: The Mystery-Enshrouded Raven". The bottom of the cover read a name of a friend he knew well: Elan Cubis. The scientist of PROGTECH, Leos' Arena sponsor, had somehow written a biography of the Raven, given how busy he was, and published it to the underground colony. He gave Leos a copy free of charge. If only he knew. Klein returned to his previous book about Justice, a massive orbital cannon that threatened humanity into the underground world should it have fired a devastating beam of death from its perch atop the world. It was destroyed by another Raven as elusive as Leos himself and only mentioned by one name, that of which being- A knock behind him interrupted his thoughts, loud clanking echoing slightly around the little space it had to move around. He had expected their arrival, but was still annoyed by the fact that he was denied the option to finish the book that he never bothered to put it down as he pressed on the eject button. The seat's platform lurched backward once the compressed air escaped their confinement, and the Raven stood up, eyes still affixed in the book. A light breeze blew past, flipping the pages that Leos had no grip on whatsoever, his hand positioned below the spine. He groaned in annoyance as he shut the book with a thump and looked up. The perch he had now was astonishing. The sunrise beamed off rays of various oranges and reds that reflected off the snow-coated mountains in the distance with their dull blue surfaces. The view across the landscape was just absolutely stunning. A small town below was alive with activity, as with the city nearby. An odd forest stood on its own, cut off of topside view and harbored clouds unlike the rest around it. A swamp lay nearby, and vast plains rolled on past that. Leos could see a desert in the distance, but it seemed close enough to travel to quickly. Shadows shrank quickly as the fire in the sky raised at an equal. Leos felt a poke at his arm, turning to see the two princesses again flanked by a guard unit consisting of pure white pegasi and gray unicorns, all sporting golden armor. Great, he thought sarcastically, something to either keep me watched or protected. Can't say I trust them completely. "There's no need to worry about us, though we have to say the same about you," Princess Luna stated as if in a reply to nothing. Leos just looked at the dark alicorn, shifting expressions ranging from confused and surprised. She just merely smiled coyly. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself and only mouthed "No". The white princess stepped closer, failing to shake off the smile she had on. "We need to take you in for questioning," she simply stated. "I know you may not trust us, but as Luna said, we don't trust you either." She notioned for Leos to follow with a turn of the head, "Come with us." "Hold on for just one second," Leos interrupted, putting a finger in the air. He sat back down and began pulling out the various books he had on him. All twelve of them, some fictional, but mainly factual. He got back up, load in hand, "Alright, now let's go." Princess Celestia merely raised an eyebrow, if there was one, but just simply hopped off with her sister. The Raven stepped onto the core when the books somehow levitated from his grip and flew away from him, leaving the human with a very bewildered expression. He looked at where the stack was headed towards, the dark princesses direction whose horn was glowing the same color as the aura surrounding the books. "I'm not going to question it until later, but thanks," he said, reinserting the cockpit into the armored core and making his way down. Once he reached the majestic ponies, he made an attempt for the works of literature, met with failure as Luna kept pulling them just out of his reach. She was having fun with him, almost breaking out into a full fit of laughter. ▬♦▬In The Castle Halls▬♦▬ The walk was long, but interesting. The newcomer was gazing around, trying his best not to stop and admire the gold decorations against marble walls. It was very elegant, maybe too elegant as he almost walked into a wall whenever they turned a corner. To his front were the two princesses, one of which having already read the titles and started reading one, obviously very interested in history. Behind him were the guards and their emotionless expressions. Highly disciplined. Must've been tough to do that. "It was actually easier than you might think," Celestia broke the silence that lasted too long since their entry into the castle itself. Leos just wide-eyed her. "Would you please stop doing that? It's disturbing," he joked slightly. The princess just laughed and stopped the convoy at a large gold-bordered double-doorway with what seemed like red velvet covering the middle of each. A yellow aura encased both doors, slowly opening them like a drawbridge from before the "Great Destruction". What it revealed was a very elongated room lined with giant pillars and stained glass windows depicting various scenes. A raising of the floor at the opposite end held two more-than-elegant thrones with seemingly useless arm rests. A long red carpet as wide as the doors that had opened spanned until the thrones themselves, crafted of more velvet. Light poured in from one side of the room through the stained windows, tinting the light on the ground into intricate shapes of different colors. The royal alicorns and human entered while two guards stood watch one both ends of the entrance. The princesses took the place on the thrones that seemed too comfortable for Leos, Luna not taking her eyes off the book she was reading. Leos chuckled, turning both of their attention to him. "What do you find so funny?" Luna asked. "A space cannon capable of wiping an entire race from the face of a planet must be very interesting to you, isn't it?" he replied with a smile. "It is! I never knew something like this could even be created. Ironic that it was destroyed by a mere Raven," Princess Celestia peered over to take a peek. "I'm a Raven, but not the one depicted in the book," Leos added, "Anyways, we had some 'interrogation' to do, remember?" he said, using two fingers to mimic quotations. "Ah, right. Let's get to it shall we," Celestia righted her self, Luna putting down the book and placing it on the stack next to her. "First things first. You said you were a human. What are these 'humans'?" ▬♦▬PROGTECH Labs▬♦▬ "Is this the subject for our latest experiment?" "Yes. Her papers say she was a Raven." "Hmm, so she took the usual routine." "Except she volunteered for this." "Must've heard about this after dashing her dreams. But she asked for this, so let's not disappoint her." "That is, if she lives. Then there won't be anything to be disappointed about." "Hmm, you have a point there." "I have our engineers working on her unit. The usual upgrades for our test subjects." "Like an everyday routine. Let's get started."
[CH 5] That Day[CH 5] That Day "And that's how my AC's generator uses heat collectors to gather heat given out from the generator itself, giving it a perpetual energy source," Leos stopped finally. It had been only three hours since his entrance into the throne room for questioning, and the rulers of the nation just simply sat there, surprised to no extent. It started with the subject of humans and their structure, then to humanity, electricity, machines, music, military, crime, authorities, and so on. The princesses were overcome with curiosity the more he explained. About an hour in, the group of six Leos saw frequently entered and just listened. Except for the blue pegasus tackling him to the floor upon the assumption that the alien was attacking the two most important figures in pony society. Leos gave no resistance, and merely commented that he smelled a hint of daisies in her breath, confusing her enough for her to be pried off with a levitation spell. After getting back up and righting himself back where he was, even fixing the carpet that had been shifted slightly, he noticed the purple one with a compass rose cutie mark carrying plenty of writing utensils and scrolls. Upon sight of these, Leos offered to tell the princesses about pencils, pens, and computers. He was like a talking encyclopedia. Everypony was silent upon hearing "perpetual energy source", except for a bouncy pink one who eagerly offered Leos the best cupcake he ever had blurting out "What's a perpetual energy source?" in her usual fast talking pace. He explained the notion of energy generated on its own, with the help of Twilight Sparkle, whom Princess Celestia introduced to Klein along with the rest of the five. An interesting lot. Meanwhile, the new "statue" outside that had "appeared literally overnight" was gathering attention from the local news reporters and cameraponies. All were saying things along the lines of "mysterious addition" and "possible secret weapon". Of course, nopony is allowed to nonchalantly waltz right into the castle garden to take a peek, but it was still large enough to be seen and rouse suspicion. Already a few have been stopped from seeing it, even the most clever of thieves. The room fell silent as everyone tried to think of anything else to learn from this well informed newcomer. Or at least until multiple instances of hungry stomachs' growling filled the room, reminding all in attendance that nobody, not even the guards, had eaten since daybreak. That was when Princess Celestia lead everyone to the royal dining hall, which made Leos question why many things had the "royal" prefix to them in the castle. It was so trivial that even both the royal princesses could not answer that no matter how hard they thought, so Celestia joked about it and moved on. In the dining hall that almost equaled the throne room in size and majesty, everybody was served and everybody ate. Except for Leos, who insisted that he could not eat the food, which was all flower sandwiches and the like, for he lacks the ability to digest flora. He then went on to announce that his natural diet consisted of meat, vegetables and fruits, unfortunately scaring Fluttershy to a considerable degree. Understandable, knowing that the Raven is still an unknown species and eats meat, leading most to believe he eats ponies as well. Oddly enough, the princesses questioned the qualities of meat and its cooking process, though neglected to give any for fear of disorder. "Meat is a delicate food item to cook with," Leos started, "Certain types of meat must be cooked thoroughly to kill off bacteria that can kill us, like fish, others cook very quickly, like certain types and cuts of beef from a cow." This garnered an angry glare from the orange farm pony. Fluttershy was huddling in a corner furthest from the omnivore, which was nearly impossible with him being in the center seat, whilst slowly eating her floral sandwich. Twilight was taking notes on a piece of paper she retrieved from somewhere only she would know, seeing as she never moved from her place at the table. "And before you say anything that pertains to any regret or remorse of killing a sentient being for food," he stated in a slightly quieter tone, not wanting to scar the shy pony any more than he has already, "these animals are not intelligent enough for speech or even screaming. As horrible as this sounds, it's been our natural diet for an immeasurable amount of time. The Great Destruction wiped out many valuable sources of knowledge, so we can't really find out how long we've existed. Pity. We were so great back then." A unicorn waiter, whose coat was nearly impossible to see due to the amount of objects on him, levitated a saucer onto the table in front of Klein and lifted the silver dome top covering a slice of steamy apple pie. How the inside filling refused to fall out at this heat escaped the Raven's mind. He turned to the waiter standing next to him and lowered his head. "Thank you. Much appreciated." The waiter gave a bow and trotted off. The Raven turned back to the table, meeting the gaze of seven surprised eyes. "What?" he lifted his arms in a questioning gesture, "Never seen an alien with a sense of manners?" "We don't meet aliens that often. In fact, you're the first," Celestia subtly joked in a half-serious tone, taking a bite of her salad. "I bet you were surprised when we first met," he took a sip from his half-empty glass of water. "Of course we were," both Luna and Celestia spoke simultaneously. "Our first alien declares non-hostility. We only fantasized ones that arrive and destroy everything, but you, we had no idea what to do with you," Celestia chuckled briefly. Leos laughed, "Well, truth be told, I didn't know what to do either. I'm just here on a trip for I don't know how lon-" A wave of energy interrupted Leos mid-sentence and washed over the attendants from the direction of a nearby large window overlooking the land of Equestria. All averted their full attention to the source of the wave only to see a large, pink object similar to Leos' armored core falling from the sky. It landed in the exact same place the Raven did: In the Whitetail Woods. Leos Klein wasted no time in reacting as he got up from his seat and ran for the nearest exit into the statue garden. All the others followed suit, Celestia ordering the guards to get the carriages ready as fast as possible in the same area. Klein was already out of sight, having turned many corners and outrunning even the seasoned farmpony in his rush to his AC. Streaks of gold flew past the window as they left. Leos had found his way outside with little difficulty followed by the six ponies that he barely knew. Passing by many stone figures and seeking out the only black object in the vicinity, he climbed up swiftly and pressed a hidden release button on the back of the core. He was forced to wait anxiously for the cockpit to show like the ponies and princesses awaiting their carriages in a similar manner. The steam dissipated, and the black cockpit box revealed itself finally. He hastily threw himself into the seat and strapped the safety belts around him. He looked up to the company before pressing the green button, "When we get there, I'll handle the situation. No exceptions." He hit the button before anyone could respond, the black box slowly receding into the mainframe. Everything inside lit up with a plethora of different colors, the center panel lined with four switches on the left showed a blue screen intruded by the words "Standby". He hastily flipped the switches starting from the lowest one, a row of white boxes replaced with red counterparts with each switch activated. The cockpit lit up even more upon the last being activated, finally showing the viewport as the eye came alight. He reversed his movements from overnight and righted is Hi-Laser rifle to its standard position, then used his boosters to lift off the platform rather than jumping in fear of damaging it. Once in the air, he strafed left and gradually turned in the direction of his unofficial mission into the countryside and more importantly, the woods where the unknown person landed. Multiple blips appeared on his radar as red circles, there being too many to count. The two princesses appeared on both the left and right ends of his three-screened view and HUD, looking back and giving a quick wink before returning to their flight. He pushed too far forward on his boost speed handle that it unexpectedly clicked, followed by a loud whine and an unexpected boost of speed that left the others behind a large distance away. Leos appreciated this burst of speed despite the fact that it thrust him into his seat, and was quickly closing in on the site faster than before. Blurs sped past him and his flying armored core as the speedometer quickly yearned for 412km/h and the ever lush greenery he bore down upon grew with closed distance. Soon enough, within a short time, Leos was already almost above the new armored core, dubbed by the 'operator' inside his own. Yanking back on the boost lever, the overboost came to a stop and the large black machine landed in front of the pink AC. All the others followed shortly. Time slowed to a standstill as the two giants stood face to face, glaring daggers at with their red eyes as if silently challenging the other to a duel of the masses. The pink opposite was similar in shape to Leos' but held no similarities past that. The legs were bent slightly backward and lacked pink armor at the joint, showing only gray steel. The legs were slim and angled, unlike Leos' "Rabbit's Foot", which were straight and bulky. The sleek and thin core retained more pink and cradled the head in the crevice of the parting of armor. The arms were also very thin with a bit of an extension at the elbow, the right arm holding a dark gray block and held by an extension similar to Leos' weapon. The head lacked antennae and the whole frame itself did not contain any objects on the back of the core, unlike the latter's laser cannon and "missiles" he called them. A light breeze shook the trees and instilled even more the element of stalemate in slow motion. That image died off swiftly when a blue object was pointed at the pink foreigner's head, held by none other than a black arm property of Klein's own armored core. Inside the black AC, Leos had found the other pilot's transmitter channel with ease, and as he prepared to speak, he raised his KARASAWA Laser rifle at the other's pink head. "Who are you?"
[CH 6] Hot Pink[CH 6] Hot Pink No response came from the other end. Just stillness. The tense situation grew even more as the other armored core moved not. The annoyed Raven finally realized that the system was shut down in the dimension jump when he noticed the eye line flash with activity. The head looked up to see the Rabbit's Foot towering not too high above it, though it was met with near-contact closeness of a laser rifle boring down upon it. ▬♦▬Inside Coral Star | Slightly Earlier▬♦▬ Sumika's vision was cut off when the cockpit's workings died out suddenly. Almost immediately, she felt the feeling of being dropped and gaining of speed did not help ease her worries. The velocity increased until she was slowly being lifted off her seat, held down only by her safety belts. An unexpected stop forced her back into her chair, an unpleasant feeling reminiscent of multiple instances of this happening. All systems were shut down, and due to the unit not being a full Raven's armored core, she had to restart the inner workings manually. Sumika groaned. This was going to take a short amount of time, but any pilot would agree that this was work of considerable aggravation. The center panel lit with a white glow, casting shadows where the light missed. It finally dimmed down to a tolerable brightness and showed a model of the General Purpose Armored Core, Ariake, with many of its functions devoid of activity. Sumika set to work rebooting the system. The pulse generator needed powering up first of all tasks in order to operate anything else. Without further ado, Sumika began the monotonous task of chronologically activating the various parts one by one. Several minutes clocked by in general silence. The work having been completed, the lesser Raven threw herself into the chair's back rest letting out an exasperated sigh. Before she could have a mini-celebration of sorts, the thud of a large object slamming into the ground originated from the frontward side of the combat frame. Not now, she mentally whined, I'm not ready for an attack yet. The pilot rapidly switched on the multiple mechanisms and anxiously waited for the visor to appear. A flash of light flooded the room revealing the core of a genuine armored core, a unit she regretted not choosing when she first became a Raven mercenary. It was a night black, a color enhanced by the sunlit forest around her. She looked up to see who she was facing, that wish denied as she stared down the end of a high powered laser rifle directed at her AC's head. The transceiver rang, breaking the silence that lasted a few mere moments. "Who are you?" a male voice questioned. Sumika took notice of a group of odd colored horses in the corner of her eye, two whose manes and tails flowed majestically in the breeze. A select few of the grouping had horns on their heads, some sporting wings of a mythical creature, and two simply lacked both. She saw a pattern with all of these "horses", if they were, they all adorned a marking on the exact same spot on their rear end, all differing in design and color. They just watched with looks of extreme interest and concern. "Tell me who you are, or I render you blind," the voice ordered once again, its owner losing patience. The red dot on the head of the black armored core narrowed in her direction. The rifle shifted slightly as the black unit's grip tightened on the handle. The pink mech's pilot was more than scared, she was terrified, but defiant to show it. The gun covered almost all portions of the screen, save for a slim cut-off on the right end. "Alright, I'll tell you," Sumika finally spoke, uneasiness apparent in her voice. "My name is Sumika. I'm a Raven." "You're a Raven. Who sent you?" the other person's suspicions raised. "Nobody. I escaped." Sumika shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "From what?" The intruding weapon backed off slightly away from her "face", giving the new Raven some breathing room. "The constant fighting. I'm sick of it." "Then how did you get here?" "I got a message from this odd man named Elan Cubis." "How do I know you're not lying?" "Why would I lie to a person who has me at gunpoint?" "I'll take your word for it. For now," the black AC stepped back slightly, lowering its weapon slowly. Sumika released a breath she unknowingly held. "I still can't trust you completely," he said, "so be warned that I will keep an eye on you." ▬♦▬♦▬ To the audience, it seemed as if the two colossus objects held a fruitless staring contest, the only prize being life. The ground shook as Leos backed away from the pink invader. An aura of discomfort that radiated from the unnatural-looking reverse jointed bipedal machine dissipated, but did not fade away completely. The guards watched everything and their surroundings intently, stationed around the perimeter so as to deter any curious civilians. The Rabbit's Foot turned its head toward the ponies, its always intimidating red dot eye glaring down at them. Some flinched at the sudden attention, or namely one, while the others stared. Soon, the pink armored core followed suit, turning its own head towards the equines, the pink coloring not helping whatsoever. It seemed as though they were talking, but no words were heard from the machines. Princess Celestia, flanked by some gold-armored guards, flew up to Leos' AC and tapped on the core while still in the range of the head. She pointed at the pink counterpart and then in the direction of Canterlot to follow the same process as they did with Leos, albeit without spending three hours on listening to an encyclopedia. The other seemed to catch the meaning of this gesture and stepped closer to Klein, waiting on the lead to move. Just before anyone could move, an arrow pierced a flying guard in the side, the wound being a clean through-and-through. A second arrow aimed at the black AC hit the right arm and merely bounced off. Everyone on the ground hid in the bushes, out of sight of the squadron of griffons assaulting the gathering behind Coral Star. The attackers let out an ear-piercing screech but were interrupted when a superheated blue blade of plasma cut one out of the side of the unit in half, the heat melting all in between and disallowed blood to be spilled. The body tumbled into the unmerciful ground, stopping at the large feet of the counter-attacker, Rabbit's Foot. A concentrated stream of plasma extended from the left arm at the wrist, previously hidden. It hovered above the ground as the defender paused after swinging and landing a successful hit. Coral Star aimed its weapon at the unit, but never fired and instead lowered it and extended its own laser blade, this one slightly shorter and of a bright golden color. Both fighters readied for a close quarters battle against smaller flying griffons adorned with many silver plates that hid their coats and held crossbows as their weapons. ▬♦▬Attacked▬♦▬ Time halted to a standstill as both parties readied for combat. The griffons ceased all approach and simply hovered where they were as they inspected both the opponents. Huge metal monsters glared at them with what seemed like so much anger, so densely put in one spot, could choke one of them to death. Elongated blades made of extremely heated plasma emanated from their arms, their power apparent when the unit watched their ally get brutally sliced in half trying to ram the body itself. The two armored cores stepped away from each other to separate themselves for the swinging of armor piercing blades. It now became a battle of patience, of who would attack first. There were now nine griffons out of the previous ten versus two deadly machines ten times their size, maybe more. The commanding griffon adorning golden armor rather than silver like the rest screeched loudly, obviously heard from the town nearby. He flew towards the opposition followed by his subordinates. The unit split into two groups of four and surrounded both the attackers while the last quickly approached the bush he saw the rest duck in, but was intercepted by a group of royal guards. The griffons had formed a circle around Leos and Sumika separately. Klein swung his arm around narrowly missing a griffon but cut off his tail, effectively stunning him with pain. He took advantage of this and dove the laser blade into the broadside of the small enemy, ending his life. A griffon had scratched his unit on the other side with a very audible scraping sound. Leos turned and grabbed his offender, slamming him into the ground. He caught sight of another attempting to attack low, and kicked it into a tree, breaking it and the neck of the griffon. The last one he saw out of the corner of his view attempted to flee and failed as a loud bang followed by a high-energy bolt of plasma struck his side, fired by Leos' laser rifle. Sumika was in the air, lunging at the griffons with her blade and bursts of speed with her lightweight frame. She caught a griffon unexpectedly and sliced his head clean off. That was her last enemy of her attacks. She hit the ground as a dead griffon with a burnt circle hit her leg. ▬♦▬♦▬ The guards have already effectively neutralized the lone griffon and watched the two giants as they massacred the remaining opposition. With both displaying destructive power equally brutal and quick, the idle unit stood back and watched as the pink newcomer lung at their opponents in mid-air while the black fighter frame never moved from its spot on the ground. One griffon tried to flee from the fate that his allies faced and received a beam of light to his side, the extreme heat uttering a shrill cry as the bolt killed him almost instantaneously. The lifeless body was sent careening into the pink unit's leg as she landed with a low thud. By the time everything had calmed down, Leos still held his weapon up in the direction of Sumika back at square one with the exception of multiple body parts around their legs. Klein's night black AC stood sideways, facing the ponies, back leg bent slightly and laser blade active and in Sumika's direction. ▬♦▬♦▬ Leos paused his actions as he kept his weapon pointed at the pink AC he fought alongside only seconds ago. "Hey," Sumika called out over the comms system, "You have a feeling of déjà vu?" she joked. Leos chuckled and lowered his stance, "I have to say, you're pretty good for a GP-AC pilot." "It comes with practice." "You say that, but I reached the top Arena position within days of registering as a Raven." "Speaking of which, you remind me of someone." "Who?" "I'll tell you later. My radar's picking up more hostiles coming from the same direction as the last." "Got it. Just use your blade, though. The inhabitants have no ammo." "Heard you the first time." A massive legion off in the distance made its appearance over a mountainside as a cloud of silver and blue flying figures. Leos took notice of this first and looked down at the ponies walking out of the bush, the guards immediately giving full attention at the sight of this. He pointed a metal finger at them, then to the town nearby, and finally the swarm of griffons quickly approaching. They caught the meaning of the gesture when they caught sight of the army rushing towards them and rallied the group in the direction of Ponyville, some staying behind to aid the two giants. Leos switched over to his laser cannon, the open two-piece weapon folding over his shoulder while charging a shot within the deepest part of the barrel. His armored core's left arm lifted up to grab a hold of the bottommost bar. Flying guards backed away from the long tube while the black holder waited for the most opportune moment to fire, the white pegasi wary of this weapon's capability. Sumika backed up to the side of Rabbit's Foot and waited. Come on, Leos silently said aloud. Just a bit closer. The army was almost upon them. Closer. More. Come on, keep going. The unit was nearly above them. The targeting icon beeped rapidly, signifying a lock on his target. White particles gathered around inside the barrel openings, filing into a larger ball of plasma that began to surge with electricity. Fire. The waiting explosive orb launched from the triangular tube, rocking the standing metal biped violently. The airborne ball of light seared through the sky burning the air around it in its path for the first of the pack. The cannon unlocked its connection to the main part of the launcher with a click and folded back over the shoulder of the black machine. Leos switched to the vertical missiles and found targets as quickly as they came, launching four self-propelled rockets into the air. Loud whines and white jets of fire erupted from the backs of the two giants and launched the figures into the distance. A fireball blew away a sizable mass of the fighting force ahead and sent everything in every which way. Leos balled his AC's left hand into a fist and swung at the nearest griffon left.
[CH 7] Distant Thunder[CH 7] Distant Thunder The blue armored commanding griffon leading the invasion watched as the white rod of electricity shot out from one of the colossi with a thunderous roar. It neared him and he braced for impact as the obvious imminent death neared. The energy beam slammed into a griffon some few rows behind him and violently burst into a massive explosion that blew off the front tip of the force by a considerable amount. The energy blast inflated with fire and with such force that griffons flew every which way from the outburst of flames except the commander, who flew just out of the range of the cannon fire. He looked again at the destructive monsters right as the same one launched four objects glowing a fire-red into the sky. The projectiles stopped their vertical flight and made way for his army of dispersed soldiers. Sharp contrails followed the unknown objects. The flying fire whined past the commander and exploded against four more units making up the invasion, obliterating them with a smaller ball of fire. A third of his army had just been destroyed without even trying and by an alien of all things! Only two options ran through his mind: Fight or flight. His horrors became worse when he saw both of them move quickly through the sky, never having a chance to choose an option as a steel grey fist the size of his body slam into his beak. The usually sickening crunch of a severely fractured skull was dulled by the repeated jets of white flame propelling the attacker even closer to more targets. Coral Star, being lighter than Rabbit's Foot, was making more progress and was already face to face with the opposition, slicing multiple griffons with each swing of her laser blade. In retaliation, the feathered lions of myth attempted ramming, shooting arrows with crossbows, burning stones launched from catapults, and even scratching the pink menace, all with no significant results other than ruined paint and cracked skulls followed by a gold beam splitting them in two. Those foolish enough to get behind the pink menace were met with the searing heat of white hot thrusters burning off their feathers even through armor. Their now defunct wings held no lift and promptly sent the winged hybrids plummeting to their untimely doom. The black painted Rabbit's Foot, on the other hand, was using less of the laser blade embedded in its arm and opted more more use of blunt force. The griffons met no mercy at the hands of the hovering metal parts continuously breaking bones and sending their owners flying away as quickly as they came. Very unlucky ones were grabbed and thrown at an ally with both meeting death upon contact, all the while being struck with the intimidation and fear that the red eye gave them as it glared down its next rag-doll for its parody of a brawl. Some were faced with splitting by way of a blue-white laser splitting them in half in lieu of physical range. Back at a small town commonly referred to as Ponyville, almost all of the populace watched the battle unfold from the streets of their hometown. Worried parents shooed their children into their homes while all others murmured amongst themselves about the current situation. A few pegasi had taken up residence atop some clouds in an attempt to get a better view while some had binoculars and telescopes, but to the naked eye the scene was a pink blur and a flailing black creature none have ever seen before. Twilight Sparkle burst through the door to the town's tree library and caused it to stop against nothing midway with a slam. The sudden entry startled a small purple-scaled dragon who was eating his lunch of gems for the day. He gave a yell and flailed his arms wildly before he finally caught himself from falling over in the wooden chair. Twilight rapidly climbed the stairs with Spike lagging behind fruitlessly trying to catch Twilight's attention. "Twilight!" he shouted as the unicorn searched frantically through the area, "Twilight, what's with the all rush?" The mare ignored his calls as she kept searching. "What's going on? Is it that thing that fell last night?" Twilight stopped her rummaging in a chest for a moment, "Aha! Found it!" she yelled as she pulled out a telescope and set it up at a window with a clear view of the forestry she left earlier. Large pink and black objects in the air moved at a rapid pace with light blue and gold streaks following their movements in the distance. Spike caught a glimpse of this and rushed to the open window's edge right as a white tube extended next to him. "Twilight, what's going on?" he said not taking his eyes off the scene, trying to grasp the reason behind the sighting. "Well, if you can wait then I'll tell you," snapped the curious mare peering down the telescope at the scene she was forced to miss. ▬▬▬▬ Author's note. Well, this is the end. The last fragment to this slideshow of something mashed together. It was fun, and I enjoyed this. As for the rest of the plot, I leave that up to you, literally. Do what you please. And with that, I bid farewell to this prototype. (To the avid fans of this, I am truly sorry for getting your hopes up.)
