Equestria: The Fallen Utopia

I woke up around dawn and felt like taking a walk. I tried not to wake anypony up as I left the apartment. I walked throughout the darkness of Canterlot, stretching out my broken leg. It felt much better. As I neared a lookout area, I noticed some punk stallions over by the telescope. I ignored them and walked on. I leaned on a lamppost to rest. All of a sudden, the lamppost flickered and buzzed out. I looked up at it and pounded a hoof on the pole. The light didn't come back on.

“Blasted piece of shit,” I mumbled. I looked over at the punks. Their light was still on. In fact, my lamppost was the only one knocked out. I was confused.

“Must be a frayed wire or something,” I said to myself. Just then, electricity started to surge through the air. I looked around in confusion. Remembering basic safety on electricity, I ran to a nearby car. I dove inside and watched the light show unfold. The electricity got stronger and stronger, then a large ball of energy formed at the heart of it. A brief flash temporarily blinded me. When I recovered, the lighting was starting to subside. I looked where the energy ball was and found that the heat from the energy had melted away some of the concrete, leaving a rounded indention. I saw a pony crouched in the indention through the smoke. The smoke started to dissipate as the lightning stopped. The pony stood upright and looked around. I hid myself in the vehicle. The pony was a Unicorn mare that looked exactly like Twilight, only it had a white fur color and a bright pink mane. In fact, I nearly mistook the mare for Twilight's mother, because the mare looked exactly like her. The mare walked over to the punks and started to talk to them. I quietly teleported closer, but not too close, so I could hear the conversation.

“Your clothes,” I heard the mare say. “Give them to me. Now.” The punk leader pulled out a knife.

“Fuck you, asshole!” he said. The other two punks pulled out knives as well. The mare used her magic to shove the leader and one of the punks over. The punk standing tried to stab the unknown pony, but it did not penetrate, or seem to hurt at all for that matter. The pony drove her hoof into the punk’s chest, lifting him up. She forcefully removed her hoof, with the punk’s still beating heart in it. I started to feel sick. I walked back to my apartment. I walked back into my room and fell back asleep.

I woke up the next morning to the smell of breakfast. I got up and went to the kitchen. Twilight was making breakfast, and my friends were at the table.

“Mornin’ Braveheart,” Applejack said. “Want somethin’ to eat?” I groggily sat down. I accidentally opened my wings, startling myself and the group.

“I’m up!” I yelled. I looked at my friends and sheepishly closed my wings. “Sorry.” Fluttershy had hidden underneath the table. I pulled her out and put her back in her seat. After breakfast, I left the apartment and went back to the telescope where the punks had been. A large puddle of blood surrounded the dead punk. His heart was next to his head, and it had stopped beating. I nearly threw up. I used my magic to clean up the mess and dispose of the body.

After a long day of exploring Canterlot, I felt like going out for a late night drink, so I went to a dance club. There were so many ponies there, I almost walked away to find another place. I paid the fee to get in and ordered my drink. As I sat down and took a sip of my cider, I noticed a mare a short distance away from me. She was sitting at the bar counter and staring at me. For the sake of me I didn’t know why she was staring. I was nothing to look at. The mare was a unicorn with light grey fur and a dark orange mane. Her mane was a bit of a mess, and she had a green hue to her magic. I looked away. I heard faint hoofsteps coming towards me. I looked up. It was the strange mare from last night. She pulled out a handgun with a laser pointer on it and pointed it to my head. I was frozen with fear. A shotgun blast suddenly rang out, striking the mare and throwing her back. Startled, I fell out of my chair. Five more shots were fired at the mare, knocking her over. I got up and started to run. The mare got up as if nothing had happened, pulled out an Uzi, and started to shoot at the mob, trying to find me. A stray bullet killed the pony behind me and pinned me down under her body. The mare reloaded and pointed the gun at me. The pony that was staring at me ran up and shot the unicorn with six more shotgun blasts, knocking her out of a large floor to ceiling window nearby. I looked at the body as the shotgun-wielding mare grabbed my hoof. I looked at her.

“Come with me if you want to live,” she said. I looked back at the rouge mare. She got right back up. I was shocked.

“Come on!” the other mare yelled. I ran with her out the back door to a nearby car. The unequine mare was in hot pursuit. The mare I was with shot the exhaust pipe of another car, blowing it up in the other mare’s path. I got into an intact car and my companion got in the driver’s seat. She started the engine and got out of the alley. I panicked a little. As we got onto the streets, the mare talked to me.

“Are you hurt?” She asked. I was silent. “Are you shot?”

“No,” I gasped. “I’m fine.”

“Good,” the mare said. “I’m here to help you. I’m Pip. Sergeant Tech-Com 117, assigned to protect you. You’ve been targeted for termination.” Pip continued to drive away from the killer, who was left behind.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked. “How did that mare just get right back up after you…”

“It’s not a mare,” Pip said. “It’s a machine. A Terminator. Crystal Systems Model One Zero One.”

“A machine?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Pip said. “A cyborg. Cybernetic Organism.” I was in shock. Pip drove into a parking garage to hide. She turned off the engine and told me to lay low.

“The 600 series had rubber skin and artificial fur,” Pip said. “But these are new. They look real. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait until she moved on you before I could zero her.” I had gone from in disbelief to being offended.

“I am not stupid you know,” I said. “The Crystal Empire doesn't make products, let alone machines.”

“Not yet,” Pip said. “Not for about 40 years.”

“Are you saying it’s from the future?” I asked.

“One possible future,” Pip sighed. “From you’re point of view, I don’t know tech stuff.”

“So you’re from the future too, right?” I asked, now willing to believe anything.

“That’s right,” Pip said. I took the thought of the Terminator into consideration.

“Can you stop it?” I asked. Pip sighed.

“I don’t know,” she said. “With these weapons, I don’t know.” At this point, Twilight and the others had noticed that I hadn’t returned, and had gone out to look for me. They had alerted the Princesses as well, and within a few minutes, all of the Royal Guard. The Royal Guard had found the car we were driving and alerted everyone. We had left the car mere minutes ago. As the guards patrolled the parking garage, Pip and I snuck around, trying to find a different car. Pip chose a red convertable. We crawled inside and Pip began to hijack the vehicle. I lay down in the passenger seat. I was confused.

“Pip,” I asked. “Why me? Why is it after me?” Pip started to reload her shotgun as she told me her story.

“There was a nuclear war,” Pip began. “All this. Everything you see. It’s gone. Just gone. There were survivors here, there. Nopony knew who started it. It was the machines, Braveheart. A defense network of supercomputers. New. Powerful. Hooked into everything. Trusted to run it all. A new order of intelligence. They say it got smart, and saw all of us as a threat. Not just the ones on the other side. It decided our fate in a microsecond. Extermination.” I was in shock of this story.

“Did you see this war?” I asked. A guard passed by. We hid lower in the car. The guard didn’t see us and continued his search.

“No,” Pip said. “I grew up after, in the ruins. Starving. Hiding from HKs.”

“HKs?” I asked.

“Hunter Killers,” Pip explained. “Patrol machines built in automated factories. We were rounded up and put in camps for orderly disposal. Branded with laser scan.” Pip showed me the bar code branded on his right hoof. I looked closer at it.

“Some of us were kept alive,” Pip continued. “To work. Loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one mare that taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal mother-fuckers into junk. Her name is Remedy. Velvet Remedy. Your daughter, Braveheart. You’re unadopted daughter.” I couldn’t believe this. Pip struck the car ignition with the backend of her loaded shotgun, breaking the key socket off. I saw this as a dangerous move, but the gun didn’t fire.

The Terminator had stolen a guard’s car and was patrolling with them. As Pip tried to start the car, she sat up to gain more force. The Terminator spotted her and fired her own shotgun. The shot shattered the driver’s side window. The car started up and the tires squealed. We bolted through the parking garage with the Terminator in pursuit. Pip and the Terminator fired at each other, missing.

“Drive!” Pip cried. I took the wheel from the passenger seat and drove while Pip stood out the window and shot at the Terminator.

“Pip!” I cried. The car was headed for a stone wall. “PIP!!” Pip scored two direct hits to the Terminator before she slammed on the brakes. The Terminator didn’t stop in time and ran head on into the concrete wall. Other guard cars drove up. Pip grabbed her shotgun and began to get out to run, but I stopped her.

“They’ll kill you,” I said. The guards ordered Pip to get out of the car and drop to her knees. She did as she was told. Twilight and the others were with the guards. Rainbow Dash pulled me out of the car. I looked at the Terminator’s crashed car. The machine wasn’t in the vehicle.