Chapters General Twilight Sparkle stood above the crowd with John Connor. She had hardened over her time in service. There was a long scar stretching across her right cheek. Her mane was frayed and some of her tail was singed. She wore black body armor that covered her barrel. Specially-molded protective plating covered her wings, and strips of yellowed gauze covered at least half of her left leg.
Above all, she was exhausted. She mentally reminded herself that it was probably not good for morale to see one of the resistance's leaders looking near-dead, both from literal exhaustion and being tired from the war.
She had to do this, though. To raise troop morale. For both this world, and Equis itself.
John spoke to the crowd first.
"When we look at each of you, we see the marks of a long and terrible war."
Twilight stepped forward. She steeled herself with a deep breath.
"If we die tonight," she said. "Both ponykind and mankind die with us. As some of you may know, we are going to launch not one, but two massive offensives in-" she glanced at the communicator on her right leg- "roughly eleven hours."
The crowd began to grow louder.
"Quiet! " John yelled. The crowd fell silent once again so Twilight could speak again. She cleared her throat.
"We have two targets. Skynet's TDD and their ETDD. TDD, for those who do not know, is an abbreviation for "Time Displacement Device" and in twelve hours, one minute, and thirty-seven seconds, Skynet is going to send a terminator through the TDD to kill John Connor's mother. Furthermore, Skynet is going to send a terminator through the ETDD to kill me . We are going to stop this. Tonight."
John pressed a button on his communicator. "Here's a general map of the base based on one of the satellites our tech team was able to hack. We get through this gate-" he gestured to a break in the giant wall around the giant base "-by driving a supply truck with a dead terminator in the front to confuse the guards."
"It's essentially the same in the work camp with the ETDD," Twilight added.
"We have two teams. The ETDD team will be lead by Twilight Sparkle. Kyle Reese and I will lead the TDD team. The team members will be listed on the door to this room. Report to the garages at twenty-two hundred hours. Dismissed." John finished.
He walked off stage. Twilight followed him backstage, walked up a staircase, jogged down the following hall, and entered the barracks.
Passing through those, she finally reached the private suits for high-ranking members of the resistance. She passed by a few rooms before she found hers: room 148. There, she entered a code with her magic to open the door.
She stripped off her armor, throwing it on the floor, and fell on the bed. She lay there for a few minutes.
When she regained some strength, she stood and walked over to a steel case next to her dresser. She lowered her eye to a rental scanner and pressed a button, then focused her magic on a knob on the device. Once the box confirmed that the retina and magical signature were both hers, it popped open, revealing a glass case. Beneath the glass lay six pieces of jewelry- five golden chokers and one golden tiara.
A tear fell on the glass. Then two more.
Not soon after she had opened, she was crying on the floor over the magical artifacts. She was wrapped in her own grief so much that she didn't hear the door open. She only knew there was someone else in. the roof when she felt the hand on her shoulder.
"Twilight."
"What now, John?" she asked, her voice obviously bitter.
His voice was filled with sorrow. "I know how it feels."
"No, you don't!"
"Twi, I lost my mother to leukemia. The two terminators who were sent back to protect me both died. One was like a father to me, the other was the closest thing I had to a best friend."
She fell silent after that. "It's too much for me"
"Just another ten hours. You can make it."
"I suppose," she replied. She looked back to her wing and realized she had not taken off the plating. She reached back, but John loosened the clamps himself.
"You do realize I can do it yourself, right?" she snapped at him.
"Chillax. I get enough shit from Cat as it is," he said. He paused for a moment. "You remind me of my mother."
Twilight snorted. "As if I could ever measure up to the great and powerful Sarah Connor, the woman who worked out whenever she wasn't destroying Cyberdine or fulfilling her body's basic needs."
"Give her some slack. She knew Judgement Day was coming and wanted to be prepared or delay it. She knew I could take care of myself."
Twilight fell silent as John removed the last bolt. He removed the plating on her right wing very carefully and then hung it up on her armor stand.
"Sorry, John" she murmured.
"It's all right. By the way, I got this awesome new .50 caliber that I want to try out tonight. You need to see this!"
Twilight allowed herself to smirk a bit. "Count me in. Is it in your room or in the armory?"
John smiled. "My room. High Command's probably going to give me shit, but I don't give a fuck."
Twilight chortled. "Of course. The general of the army leaves his gun in his room and High Command gives him crap about it. You need to stop leaving your high-caliber rifles in your room."
"This thing isn't a rifle. It's a death laser. Like the BFG or something"
"Doomguy? " Twilight asked.
"Making good use of the arcade machines we salvaged?"
Twilight blushed. "Maybe."
John guffawed. "So that's what that giant research period was for!"
Twilight swatted him with a hoof. "Shut up!"
"Fine! Just follow me. You seriously need to see this thing."
Twilight rolled her eyes and followed John out the door.
Author's Note
I used this site for my rankings. It may not be canon, but all they call John Connor is the leader of the resistance, and I know his call sign is "bear" so he must have an official rank.
Twilight swung onto the back of the pickup truck, lugging her phased plasma rifle with her. She mounted it on the rail in the bed and then leapt back off, waiting for the truck to drive onto the small ferry.
When Sergeant Raymond, the driver of the pickup truck, finally drove onto the converted barge , Twilight was able to get back into the truck and man the machine gun.
Though she knew she had a lot of firepower, she felt as though something was missing.
"Aha!" she cried, leaping off the barge and running to the portable armory. Climbing inside, she grabbed a large rocket launcher and her MK11 rifle with a plasma modification. She flew back up to the bed of the armored pickup.
"Are we ready?" she called out to the small army.
"Yes ma'am!" various technicians called.
"Open the doors!" she yelled.
The giant steel doors began to slide open as the boats began to fly forward in the murky water. Even twenty-five years after Judgment Day the waters were still murky with toxins.
Five minutes off from shore the first AA gun fired. A HK-VTOL came crashing down to the water, shooting sparks and leaking oil. The plasma gun fired randomly, hitting nothing. Twilight grabbed her modified Glock 18 that hung at her hip and fired a plasma round at the powerful variant of the CSM-3000 "Dragon" HK.
A thick fog began to obstruct the view of the party. Twilight looked over the side of the boat.
Something was climbing the side of the hull. It was a terminator, undoubtedly, with it's single red eye where a mouth should be and metal, claw-like pincers. A hydrobot, Twilight realized.
She shot it where a mouth would be and it easily was destroyed, but Twilight remained cautious; where there was one, there would be more.
A few abnormally large waves hit the boat. Everyone was tense for a few minutes, the only sound being the waves across the boat and the motors of the boats.
Suddenly, a giant terminator leapt from the water, showering everyone with droplets. Everyone with a weapon began firing.
Twilight was running out of ammunition quickly. The rounds seemed to only be preventing the massive robotic eel from hitting the boats and little else. She dropped the machine gun and grabbed the rocket launcher.
She frantically pulled the trigger, but the rocket didn't seem to do much damage. "We won't have enough rockets to defeat this thing!" she thought.
"Maybe its weak spot is its mouth?" she determined. She leaped up in the air, spreading her wings. Below her she could see people frantically reloading. Meanwhile, she could also see that the hydrobot was about to crash down and she wouldn't be able to get to its mouth quickly enough. It would crash down and rip the boats apart with its pincers.
On a split second decision, she ripped open a door on her right shoulder-pad and pressed a large yellow button on it.
In less than a second, she accelerated beyond the speed of sound as plasma engines on the back of her suit fired and magical enchantments activated to allow her her to slip past a sonic barrier. She shot forward in a blur of shades of purple. She reached the apex of her flight in another second and hit the button again to disengage the thrusters.
She groped the rocket launcher on her back, swung it over her shoulder, sighted, and fired. The rocked plowed through the terminator's eye, ripping through the head of the monstrosity and causing an explosion of sparks. What was left of the top of the hydrobot plummeted backwards into the water harmlessly.
When Twilight finally stopped worrying about blinking away the sunspots, she began to hear clapping and cheering. She turned to find the entire strike team applauding her. She bowed and flew back to the her ship.
"Some show up there!" Raymond commented when she returned. She blushed a bit and began to fiddle with the controller for the thrusters.
"Well, don't expect an encore, because the hydrogen cell is shot," Twilight groaned, pulling out a slightly heated chunk of metal from a slot in the shoulder-pad. As it began to heat up and turn a shade of orange, she chucked it far away from the boats, into the water. A few seconds later, there was a massive eruption of polluted brownish water. Twilight created a massive shield with her magic, stopping the water from hitting anybody.
"Don't waste your magic on us," Raymond reminded her from the driver's seat. Twilight looked at him in annoyance.
"That was an extremely weak shield, that used so little power that if it was condensed so that it could stop a bullet, then it would be the size of a dinner plate," she responded. Raymond scratched his head.
Twilight realized that he wouldn't have a reason to know magical theorem. She blushed.
"Sorry," she said.
Raymond stuck his head out the window and rolled his eyes. "Keep on being smart and we'll win the war. I just won't be the cause. The great and powerful Twilight Sparkle will."
She stuck out her tongue. "I'm not that powerful, you know."
He snorted and stuck his head back in the vehicle.
A few minutes later, Raymond was able to confirm that they were only a few minutes off shore. At that, she flew over to one of the mock supply vans that were going to be used for infiltration. As resistance soldiers piled in the door, she grabbed to controller for the van and gripped it in her hooves tightly.
Finally, it was time. The door was closed and it she began to drive the vehicle forward as if it was a RC toy. She passed by the gate, waiting for approval.
She waited tensely. Then, the guard terminator raised his gun, opening the driver door. The dead terminator skeleton tumbled out.
The guard peeked in and was met with a plasma shot to the face. Twilight had drawn her MK11 and fired directly into the terminator's head. It was dead, now.
She snatched the controller back up, spinning the van around and kicking open the doors with a strong buck. She dropped her MK11 and ripped her Glock 18s from her belt, firing countless rounds into the terminators at the door.
"Go! " she yelled to the resistance soldiers. "Now , soldiers!"
The soldiers jumped out of the van. Once everyone was out, she spun it horizontally to prevent the large gates from closing and pressed a button on the controller.
The van shot upwards on two accordion lifts, opening up a pathway for the remaining resistance members.
She glanced over at the door to see how it was holding up against the closing gates. There was a red-hot line where the laser-powered gates were trying to close.
"Shoot," she said, cursing Skynet. She leaped out the passenger door and flew up onto the wall surrounding the compound. She drew her Glocks and bucked open the door to the gatehouse. Inside, a T-800 was tapping a holographic screen, frantically attempting to close the gates.
She shot it in the head, shoving the body aside and trying to enter in the code to stop the gates from closing.
A large blast hit the ceiling above her head. She turned and ducked, dodging the fire from the plasma machine gun.
It was a T-600. She pulled out her MK11, but the rifle didn't seem to do much damage to the heavily armed terminator.
She ran out of ammunition. It was inevitable, really. She was backed into the corner by the large machine. It dropped the machine gun in held as it had run out of ammunition, too. It wound up a fist, prepared to strike...
They were standing on the mangled head of the T-600. They wore a metal exoskeleton around a dark, sooty flame retardant suit. The mysterious pony wore goggles to cover up their eyes.
The pony slid her goggles up with an armor-clad hoof, revealing emerald-green eyes. She drew down the bottom of the mask to reveal orange fur.
"Hey, Twi," the pony said.
"Applejack?" Twilight gasped.
"Yep. It's me," Applejack responded.
"Why are you here? Where did you get that armor?"
"Apple Bloom made it fer me. I came 'cause Ah heard y'all needed help."
"Thanks for coming."
"No problem."
Applejack slid up her goggles and slid the mask back over her nose and mouth. She held out a hoof to Twilight. The lavender mare took it.
"Now, why don't we kick some cybernetic ass?" Twilight suggested to her friend with a grin. "I just have to stop this gate from closing."
She tapped the screen a few times and inserted a device into one of the ports. A few rings on it began to spin, eventually stopping.
"Got the password. It's G3N1$Y$. Huh." Twilight said, punching in the correct letters, numbers, and symbols. An alarm began to blare as the gates opened, stopping pressure from being put on the van bellow. Twilight peeked over the edge of the wall where the near-crushed van still stood.
"Now let's go!" she called to Applejack.
They both jumped off the wall. Twilight turned to Applejack.
"Wait, you only have normally weaponry, right?"
Applejack held up a shotgun.
Twilight shook her head. "That will do nothing to most terminators. We better get you some plasma weaponry."
She ran over to some cover, beckoning for Applejack. The orange mare ran over.
"Follow me," Twilight said. She ran over to a nearby van and asked for a shotgun and shells. One of the recruits controlling the portable armory handed her a KSG 12 and a few plasma shells.
"It's pretty simple to load," Twilight called over the sounds of gunfire, handing her companion the shells and weapon.last
Applejack nodded.
They ran forth, spewing waves of gunfire from their weapons. Terminators fell in their wake.
Twilight checked the timer on her right hoof. They had another fifteen minutes. The strike team would disarm the ETDD in time.
Hopefully.
The tech team of eight broke through the heavy blast door with nearly a minute to spare, according to the clock.
According to life, they made it just on time to witness the glowing ball of blue plasma close, sending a terminator back to 1005 ANMM.
"Shit," Twilight Sparkle said.
She grabbed her communicator. "I need our ETDD backup team over here, now!"
Five minutes later, the van had arrived, carrying necessary equipment to re-activate the ETDD. The large room was now set up with lights, computers, and other technology. Wires trailed everywhere and a portable staircase led up to the platform.
Twilight was frantic, a manic look on her face as she buzzed from station to station helping technicians.
Finally, it was time.
"So, who's goin'?" Applejack asked.
"A terminator," Twilight responded.
One of the technicians cracked his knuckles. "Do you have a chip?"
Twilight smirked slightly. "Programmed it myself as a fallback plan," she said, holding up a bronze computer chip.
The technician nodded. He typed in a few command on his terminal. "Prepare to catch it," he said.
Another pneumatic blast door opened, this time on the opposite side of the chamber. Applejack pulled a lasso from one of the pockets on her suit and prepared to catch a terminator.
A large earth pony stallion walked out. He had a gunmetal coat and a spiky crimson mane that reached his lower neck.
He turned and noticed them.
He ran forward, attempting to attack them, but Applejack lassoed him and pinned him to the group on his stomach.
Twilight pulled out a switchblade, flicking it open. With her magic, she used it to make an incision in his skin. She lifted it like a flap to reveal a circular section of the endoskeleton.
She used a drill to loosen the screws holding the center of the part together, and popped it out with some pliers. From there, she pulled out a barrel-like section and then pulled out the chip. She handed it to one of the technicians and drew her own chip, sticking it in the slot.
She replaced the other parts and then sealed the cut with a quick repair spell. She cut open the leg and strapped on a few devices, and then closed that up and repaired it, too.
She then looked him in the eyes. "Protect me in the past. Give her the parts I put underneath your flesh. Okay?" she told him.
"Affirmative," he responded.
"Good," she said. "Go into the TDD, now. Good luck."
He stood, walked up the stairs, and stood on the platform.
"Activate it," she said to the technicians. One nodded and pressed a button.
The rings around the platform began to spin as the terminator was lifted into the air. The magnetic field began to generate and lightning-like plasma began to flicker around him. Eventually, there was a flash, and he was gone.
Twilight saluted. "Good luck."
Author's Note
Why am I getting such a bad like/dislike ratio? If you are going to down vote me, at least tell me what's wrong!here. this while set up with resistance gear.
A massive ball of blue plasma crackled, stirring up leaves and litter.
A second later, it faded to reveal a pony. Curled up in a small crater was a large stallion. The strange thing about him was that he appeared to have his fur shaved off.
When he looked up, one could have seen that his eyes were silver.
He heard a voice call out and snapped his head in the direction of the noise.
"Who's there? Some nasty varmint messin' with one of the rodeo stadium walls again?"
He peeked around the corner. The stallion leapt out from his hiding spot, swiftly snapping the other pony's neck. He shoved him inside a large wood barrel that rested along the side of a wooden picket fence.
The strange stallion slowly began to change. His pink skin began to gain the texture and color of brown fur. His eyes turned a sky blue, and a part of his muzzle drooped down into a mustache. Long brown hair tumbled down his neck, and a five-pointed silver star appeared on his flanks. The stallion's flanks began to take on the texture of denim.
The terminator reached into the barrel, and pulled the hat off Sheriff Silverstar's head, placing it on his own. He also grabbed his sheriff badge and pinned it on his shirt. Finally, he pulled the twin revolvers from the sheriff's belt and placed them in his own.
He walked up to a tattered map fluttering in the breeze. Holding it up, he could see the train station and the police station.
He walked in the direction of the police station and opened the door, peeking his head in.
"Howdy, colts," he said. Everyone looked at him.
"Ah got a family emergency, an' I gotta go ta Sweet Apple Acres. Can Ah go on leave?"
One of the stallions nodded. "Sure, Sheriff. We can handle the station. Got any train fare?"
"Nope."
The stallion threw him a few bits.
"Thanks," the terminator said.
"Mah pleasure, partner."
The terminator walked out the door. A few minutes later, he was at the train station. He glanced at the train schedule and selected a train the would pass by Manehattan and Canterlot before going to Ponyville. He paid the fine and got into a compartment.
A blue ball of plasma appeared in a Manehattan allyway. It crackled and faded, dropping a T-800 onto the pavement. The Model P terminator landed in with a textbook crouch.
A homeless mare in the allyway looked at him and pointed a hoof at him accusingly. "How did you get here?"
He ignored her and asked passed her. Noticing a bar with a few motorcycles in park, he walked over and opened the door.
He walked up to a punk in a leather jacket. "Give me your clothes, your gun, and your motorcycle," he said.
The stallion laughed. "Buddy, we're not at that stage of our relationship yet."
The rest of the bar chuckled.
The terminator grabbed him by the front of his shirt and threw him into a wall. When the plaster dust settled, the punk could be seen slumped over.
Every pony in there began to rapidly talk with their neighbor.
The terminator, meanwhile, grabbed the stallion's shirt, pulling it over his head. He ripped off the jacket and put it on, too. He noticed with an artificial satisfaction that it also covered his blank flank.
He walked out the door. Noticing that there was a pair of sunglasses in the breast pocket, he slipped them over his eyes.
Walking up to the parking spots, he grabbed the stallion's keys from an interior pocket. A click of one of the buttons declared that a large black motorcycle would be the terminator's ride.
He swung a leg over the side, grabbing the handlebars and speeding around. Once he was out of the ghetto, he stopped to ask directions. Jumping off the bike, he walked up to a mare. She tried to avoid him, but he called out to her.
"Wait. I need to see a florist. Can you tell me where one is?" he asked.
The mare stopped. "Yeah. Sun Bloom is on Fifth Street. Take the second left. You can't miss it."
He nodded and sped off.
Thirty minutes later, he had procured his flowers. He walked out to his bike and reached back to the shotgun holster. He hid the large Reminghoof 1887 in the flower box.
He sped away on the bike. The train station was easy to find. There, he found a train that was heading for Canterlot, and then Ponyville.
He leapt onto an opened boxcar and tucked the motorcycle beneath a sheet without anypony seeing him. In mere seconds he broke into a compartment.
There were a few passengers.
He sat down and prepared for a long ride.
Twilight Sparkle was having a good day. After a week-long vacation in Canterlot to see her parents and mentor, she was going home. She had enjoyed the visit, but her parents could be quite overbearing.
She walked up to the train station. There was only one train going to Ponyville.
Walking up to the ticket seller, she fumbled with her bits.
The pony bowed to her. "Princess."
She held out a hoof and blushed. "Er- just call me Twilight."
He nodded his head. "Hello, Twilight. Where to?'
"Ponyville," she said, hoofing over the bits.
He nodded her and handed her the ticket. "Have a good day!" he said, waving cheerily.
She boarded the train, handing the conductor her ticket. He ripped off part and gave her the rest. She nodded in thanks and walked to the back-most compartment.
There were only a few residents. One was a gunmetal stallion with a leather jacket. He looked at her in interest.
Author's Note
Sorry this one was so short- I'll get another one out soon!
"Twilight Sparkle?" the stallion asked.
"Yes?" Twilight responded.
"Nice day for a ride," the stallion remarked.
"I guess it is," Twilight responded with a smile.
The stallion turned away then, staring out the window blankly.
The other terminator was up in the front of the train. He gradually began to hear murmurs about something. There was one name that he was able to glean from every conversation: Twilight Sparkle.
He turned to an elderly stallion next to him. "Do you know where Princess Twilight Sparkle is?"
"Of course! She's in the last train compartment," the stallion croaked.
The terminator stood up, walking to the end of the compartment. He shoved open the door and began to walk at a faster clip. Passengers began to turn and look at the strange stallion who was rushing through the compartments and quickly blowing past doors.
He finally reached the door to the final compartment, flinging open the door. His eyes swept over the room, seeing a purple pegasus, green earth pony, and two yellow unicorns.
The princess turned and looked at him. "Well, hello Sheriff Silverstar!"
He drew his twin Governor revolvers.
Twilight's voice became one of alarm. "Sheriff?"
He aimed the revolvers at her.
"Get down!" a large earth pony that Twilight had been talking to cried. He shoved her aside and reached into his jacket, drawing a Reminghoof 1887 shotgun and firing it at Sheriff Silverstar.
Twilight looked up to see him on the floor with seven silver craters where the shots had hit him. She gasped in horror when he stood back up.
Her savior, the gunmetal gray stallion, was already on Sheriff Silverstar. He grabbed him, tossing him around the train compartment. Sheriff Silverstar smashed through a window, but he melted into a silver metallic mass and shifted back through the window. The large stallion shot the creature that was disguised as the sheriff and it fell off, left behind by the train.
Twilight stared, wide-eyed, at the gray stallion. He held out a hoof to her. "Come with me if you want to live."
She took his hoof. "Who... who are you?" she asked.
"We will talk later," the stallion said. He kicked open the door with a mighty buck and went into the next compartment, a boxcar. He ripped away a white tarp to reveal a burnished, jet-black motorcycle .
She turned to him quizzically. "How are we going to both..."
He sat on the bike, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and setting her down in front of him. He revved the engine and shot forward, out of the moving boxcar and onto grass. He began to drive towards the woods that marked the beginning of the Everfree forest.
After a few minutes, when the stallion began to slow down, did Twilight try to get him to stop.
"Hey! Hey! Stop the bike!"
The stallion pulled over at the side of the forest, next to a fallen tree, with a spray of dust and grime. Twilight wiped her eyes with a hoof.
"What are you? What was Sheriff Silverstar?"
The stallion turned to her. "I am a T-800 terminator, Cyberdine Systems model 101."
Twilight stepped back. "Wait..." she said, narrowing her eyes. "Model 101?"
"Yes. I am a cybernetic organism. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton."
Twilight shook her head. "No. No, no no no! Technology isn't advanced like that yet!"
The terminator looked at her grimly. "Not for another forty years or so."
Twilight blanched. "Forty years?"
"I have traveled through time, if that is what you mean to ask."
"Who sent you?"
"You. In 2029 A.D., or 1012 A.N.M.M., the human-equine resistance against the machines launched a massive counter-offensive against Skynet, the machines. Skynet, as a last-ditch attempt to save itself, sent the other terminator back. The resistance sent me."
Twilight stared at him. "Sheriff Silverstar is a terminator, like you?"
"Sheriff Silverstar is dead."
"No, I saw him on the bus! He was some sort of alien, or terminator, or..." Twilight trailed off.
"That was a T-1000 terminator, not like me. Made of mimetic-polyalloy."
"Mimetic-poly..."
"Liquid metal," the T-800 interrupted.
Twilight looked at him with scared eyes. "Can you stop it?"
The terminator looked at her. "My mission is to protect you at all costs."
Twilight held up the terminator's leather jacket to the moonlight, noting the bullet holes with worry. "Will you get infected from open wounds?" she asked.
The terminator looked up from the stone it was using to sharpen its knife. "Yes. It would be best if you pulled out the bullets."
Twilight nodded as she lit up her horn. She pulled a large, bulky white package with a red cross emblazoned on the front out of a pocket dimension. "First-aid kit," she explained to the terminator. He nodded and lay on his barrel while she began to use a scalpel to pull bullets from his back.
"You don't have a cutie mark," Twilight noted.
"I'm a machine," the terminator replied.
"You need to fit in. I may be able to cast an long-lasting illusionary spell on your flank to disguise you," Twilight said, removing the last of the bullets.
The terminator sat stock still.
"Huh?" Twilight said, straining harder with her magic. "I can't feel your magical signature.
"I was not created on this world. I do not have a magical signature."
Twilight sighed. "I'll have to enchant you then. This will take a lot out of me," she said, charging up her horn.
After a bright magenta flash, the terminator looked no different, but Twilight was panting, exhausted. She waited a minute to catch her breath, and then charged up her horn for the second time. Violet waves distorted the air around the terminator. When they dissipated, there was a mark on his flank. It was a grayish shield positioned over a six-pointed magenta star. In the center of the shield sat a crimson skull, with crossing black shotguns behind it.
Twilight leaned against the wall, satisfied with her work. "Gonna... take a nap... now..."
She fell asleep quickly and peacefully.
A lone dog howled.
A crunch. A white, equine skull in front of her, resting on a car, was smashed to bits, revealing a metal hoof. She looked up to find a metallic, skeletal stallion standing over her, clutching a futuristic, jet-black minigun. It was aimed between her eyes.
Crunch
The stallion was knocked aside by her savior. They began to wrestle, and then a silver mass jumped onto him. She watched with horror as the T-800 was overwhelmed. The silver T-1000 impaled the T-800 with a blade-shaped leg, and withdrew the blade with a swift motion. It turned on her and leapt.
When Twilight pulled open one of her eyes, she was panting and sweaty. Outside, birds were chirping. She was lying on a ragged blanket, with two sheets of corrugated metal propped up above her.
She stood up, stretched, and yawned.
After about an hour of driving off road, mostly near the railroad tracks, Twilight finally got a glance of Ponyville.
The terminator shrugged and took a sharp turn to the right, earning a squeal from Twilight as he leaned at a nearly forty-five degree angle. He bumped over a set of tracks and nimbly guided his vehicle across a narrow bridge. He found them on a long street flanked by houses.
Applejack stood behind her stall, a slightly distanced look in her eyes. When she saw Twilight, she jumped up and ran over to Twilight.
Rainbow Dash lounged on a cloud, casually watching the market. On her off hours she enjoyed a short list of things, including napping, sitting on a cloud, and watching the busy of the square's resident flea market and farmer's market. Currently, she was doing all of those things- she was half asleep as it was, that counted, the way she saw it.
And that's when the bike drove in to the square.
With a start, she noticed that Twilight was on it with another stallion. The mare had been supposed to return from her short trip to Canterlot a day ago, and everyone was worried about her, as she hadn't sent a message. And there she was, riding casually into the square.
Restraining herself from making a totally uncool entrance, Rainbow prepared to jump off the cloud and glide casually to greet Twilight when she saw the stallion on the motorcycle with Twilight punch Applejack. Twilight reeled back and Applejack hit the ground hard on her back.
In a flash, Rainbow jumped from her cloud and rushed at the stallion, picking him up and dragging him into the sky.
Iron Guardian struggled against the wind as his sensors were forced to rapidly adapt to radically different surroundings. After a struggle, he finally stabilized to his high velocity spiral.
When he had finally adjusted, he found himself hit again. Iron Guardian grabbed onto his assailant and began to hit back. He managed a slap to the pony's face and began pummeling. He struggled with his attacker, who managed to pin his left leg. His right was holding her off and preventing her from hitting him. He threw a punch into the pegasus's neck. A scarlet bruise began to form. The pegasus reeled back and let go for a second.
Iron Guardian reached behind him and grabbed his shotgun. He aimed it at the pegasus's neck, but she grabbed it in her teeth. Iron whipped around the shotgun and hit the attacker across the wing with it.
In a split second, she stopped flying, and both ponies began to plummet to the ground at an alarming rate. Iron, seeing a window of opportunity, grabbed the attacker's wing and began to twist. She cried out in pain and flared out the one good one. The mid-air fight spiraled into an apple tree.
Iron gave himself a quick injury check. Forehead gash, front left leg scrape, and various cuts. No endoskeleton was showing. Indifferent to his injuries, he went to inspect the pegasus.
Rainbow mane. Cyan fur. Powerful wings. Definitely an athlete. Iron held a leg up to her neck. She was still breathing.
Iron Guardian put a hoof on her windpipe and began to crush it. The pony gasped and reached for the hoof, trying to tear it off, to no avail. Iron heard rapid hoof beats and heart yelling, but he phased it out, paying attention to the pony. There was an 81.36 percent chance that the pony was in fact actually the T-1000, and the gasping was a charade in an attempt to get him to get him off his guard. Voices around him began to yell at him again, pleading with him to remove his hoof. The pony beneath him had already passed out. She would be dead soon.
He felt himself rapidly lifted into the air. He tried to strain downwards and kill the pony, but he could not reach. Twisting around, iron found himself looking his protectee in the eyes.
"Iron Guardian, stand down! " she cried to him. He exited his combat mode.
"She's breathing, but she's bleeding a bit and it looks as if she's broken some bones. You both need to go to the hospital. You too, Applejack," Twilight said. Iron noticed Applejack limping over to them. She nodded and began the trip back.
Iron Guardian casually picked up Rainbow Dash by a leg and slung her onto his back.
"Whazzit? Hey! Let me go! Bring it on, buddy!" she said indignantly. Iron Guardian continued the walk silently. "Hey! Danger is my middle name, big guy. Come on, do you even react?"
Nurse Redheart tapped her pen impatiently on her receptionist's desk. Duly Noted was out sick with feather flu- again, and yet again she was running the front desk. Nobody had come in for hours- three foals had missed their biannual check-ups and Redheart only had the crackling of the fireplace to entertain her. A glance at the clock revealed she only had five minutes until freedom, and then Doctor Hooves and Nurse Tenderheart could take over for the night shift.
In a flash, the peace was gone. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Princess Twilight, and an unfamiliar gunmetal stallion came through the door. Applejack had sprained a hoof, Rainbow had all sorts of injuries, and the stallion was covered in cuts and bruises but refused to be treated. When asked, the stallion identified himself as "Iron Guardian" and asked for a pen. Puzzled, Redheart gave him her metal pen, only for him to heat it in the fireplace and begin to cauterize his wounds in what appeared to be a highly painful method. After a lot of screaming and chaos, the poor mare was left with a scorched pen and frazzled mane. Redheart resolved to schedule a trip to the spa as soon as possible.
An hour later, Rainbow Dash was stuck in a bed with stitches and a cast, not to leave for three days, and even then she would need multiple casts and a wheelchair. Applejack had to wear a boot for three weeks with no manual labor. And Iron Guardian...
Author's Note
I'm not dead, guys. Sorry, work emergency.
