Anya stood shaking slightly in the centre of the vast arena. In front of her stood the tall, domineering figure of a "Dummy" Nova-Droid, code named the Novad. It stood about seventy feet tall, and fifty feet wide at the top, about fourteen times the size of the small, silver furred Pegasus at its base. Anya gulped in fear as the Novad turned its huge armoured head to stare down at her. The Novad had no arms or legs, and looked more like an upside down triangle with the exception of its circular, turret like head on the top, with two yellow beacon-like eyes. Although the machine looked as though it couldn't do much in the way of harm, Anya knew by now not to underestimate the Novad species, as the segments on its armoured chest could open to reveal all sorts of weaponry, and those beacon like eyes could shoot beams of high intensity energy when the Novad was of one of the newer models. All models could rotate their heads a full 360 degrees to maintain a constant vigil against attack. The difficulty was determining which model Novad was which, as other than abilities, the Novad all looked the same, from colour to shape. Even the sound of each model was the same, a low, almost guttural whir that had come to strike fear into the hearts and souls of the Equestrian ponies.
The Novad seemed to be emitting a kind of cold that chilled Anya to her bones. The only sound it made was a soft whir, which made the young Pegasus uneasy, so when Anyas' wings unfolded outwards, she did so quietly, and she flexed them softly, so that not even the light scattering of sand on the arena floor noticed the sudden breeze. Her wings flapped a little, and the sand began to skim along the floor. As soon as her stream-lined body was off the ground, her silver body began to glow gently, and she began to climb higher into the air. The eyes of the creature followed her up, and Anya took a deep breath.
"Activate Aura weapon" she whispered. Her wings began to darken to a deep grey, the colour beginning from two small dark grey circles beneath the skin of her shoulders. She spread her feathers out, splaying each wing to its full length on either side of her, maintaining a little flapping to keep herself balanced, hovering in the otherwise still air. Shadows began to form a collective dark ball under each wing, floating slowly from the darker parts of the arena. Shadows from every shaded point in the arena, from the Novad and even Anyas own shadow on the wall behind her danced through the air and joined the collecting masses beneath her wings. They shifted and writhed together to form small, sharp, dagger shaped points. Anya waited a few seconds, and as if on cue, the Novad began to open the top right segment of its chest, revealing part of its molten golden core.
The core was the secret to destroying the Novad creatures. It was a kind of self charging battery for them, providing the energy for it to destroy and wreak havoc with an all manner of deadly long distance weapons, without having to move from its landing point. Unfortunately for the Novad, although the core was protected by the outer armour of the creature, the Novad had to open the armour to attack. Newer models had received a new defence mechanism to defend the core, but thankfully this one seemed to not have been fitted with the new defence.
Anya took another deep breath and manoeuvred herself slightly so that she was now directly facing the open cavity, and the small cylindrical weapon that was pointed directly at her. She narrowed her eyes in concentration and once she was sure of her target, flapped her wings forwards forcefully, aiming as carefully as she could at the core. She was propelled backwards and the shadows that had collected beneath her wings shot forward, a small number bouncing off the main armour of the Novad as though they were mere feathers, instead of the piercingly sharp shadow daggers that they were. Most of the shadow blades made it into the core through the segment gap and pierced into it, causing sparks as some of the golden fluid encased within it leaked out, immediately damaging the weapons in the revealed segment. Anya grinned and began to float gently to the ground as she watched the lights within the Novads' eyes flicker, and then go out completely. She sighed with relief at the relative ease of this test, especially since she had expected something far tougher for a pony of her age. She smiled up at the scientist ponies who were watching from a protected observation chamber high above her. Anya began trotting happily towards the small metal door she had come in through, embedded deeply into the immensely high, and extremely reinforced walls of the arena. She would have flown out if it wasn't for the extra reinforced glass ceiling, which was the only source of light the arena offered.
A familiar whirring sound sliced through the peaceful air and fear took a hold of Anya as she stopped her in her tracks, and slowly turned her head to gaze back at the Novad, who's eyes had begun to glow once again. The lower left segment of the chest of the Novad began to creep open slowly.
Up in the observation chamber, Pegasus trainer Rainbow Dash grinned at the stunned faces of the scientist ponies around her, and then turned away from the control panel and back to the arena. She walked slowly, ignoring the stunned silence around her, right up to the thick window, and looked down at one of her most promising students.
"Now we'll see what she's really made of." she grinned with a determined glint in her eye.
