The Steampunk Revolution

Chapters

Prologue-Edited
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Prologue-Edited

50 years ago; there was an advancement in technology called the Steampunk Age. Forests were cleared; replaced by steam-powered factories that would create steam-powered vehicles and objects. The one responsible for such a revolution was Steampunk Pie who had gotten sick of his Rock Farm life. He would instead focus on creating things like manual machines which he would sell the famous Apple Family. A few years later, he would tinker around with the machinations and thought of ways of how transporting materials could become. He felt like coal could easily be used and by using magic would make it more accessible and more powerful source of energy than on its own.

He would spend most of his life perfecting that source of energy where he even hired a female unicorn assistant to help with this project. With the unicorn’s magic and his intellect by his side; he managed to make a steam-powered train which was proven to be more faster and reliable than horse-drawn carriages. He quickly sent his idea to Queen Celestia; ruler of the Celestial Republic and she had approved of this idea, believing this could change the republic as everyone knows it. With this idea approved and quickly enacted; soon a new age was born.

10 years later; he would have a daughter with his unicorn assistance who was now his wife and would teach her everything he knew. He was hoping she would continue his legacy, but the pink girl preferred to bake, to bring joy, and to plan and host parties. He was a little saddened at his daughter’s decision, but would never interfere in what she loved doing.

It wouldn’t last long though; because soon Steampunk Pie had died of a heart attack. Out of all the devastated people who were sad for his untimely demise, no one was as hit hard as his daughter. She believed her father had died thinking she was a failure for not continuing his work. She put all the things she loved doing aside and would instead focus all her time on enhancing her father’s work and continuing his legacy. And enhance it she definitely did. With her creative intellect; she would create steam-powered automatons. They were giant metal monstrosities that would help with transportation, construction and other big endeavors. It did have problems like it had to repeatedly maintained by hundreds of maintenance ponies to keep it functional. She would enhance this by greatly reducing the amount of maintenance workers by 90%. She would also enhance her father’s creations; making them faster, durable, and more powerful with less steam/coal consumption.

She had exceeded her father’s legacy and became hugely famous; even winning the heart of one of the Queen Celestia’s daughters. But soon; such new technology would come at a cost. The Crystal Empire, a neighboring kingdom soon invaded the Celestial Republic, stealing and weaponizing automatons. The invasion lasted for two days before the republic was quickly defeated by the powerful military kingdom and Queen Celestia and her daughters were executed publicly. The Queen of the Crystal Empire, Queen Crystalline was a smokey black alicorn with a crystal like coat and had red eyes. She would then capture the famous pink pony and force her to make even more automatons, plus make schematics for smaller versions which would use as her personal guardians and for her future conquests.

Soon, a rebellion was secretly created to try to push out the Crystal Empire and reclaim the Celestial Republic. After 14 years of trying to rescue the Steampunk that was trapped within the Queen’s castle; they managed to come up with a plan. It was a dangerous operation, it cost the lives of many but it was successful. With the creator of the automatons on their side, she would then create ways to destroy her creations. A year had passed, with little to no success. The Steampunk then went out to the world to search for something she told no one else about, but she had disappeared. Now, with the hope of winning the war temporarily missing, the rebellion must recover her at all cost or the war would be considered lost.

Author's Note

I changed a few things as well as changing the name of the Queen of the Crystal Empire

Chapter 1

NAME: Vinyl Scratch
CODENAME: DJ-PON3
SPECIES: Human/Pony; Unicorn
GENDER: Female
AGE: 30
RANK: Paid Mercenary
MISSION OBJECTIVES: Locate and rescue the STEAMPUNK. Use any means necessary.

MISSION LOG AUDIO RECORDING #1

(Movement of chairs)

DJ-PON3: Hello general, I see you have need of me?

GENERAL: Yes I do; it seems as though the STEAMPUNK has vanished. We have no idea where she is and she is the deciding factor of this war. Without her; we might as well just give up and let the queen execute us on her guillotine.

DJ-PON3: Wait! The STEAMPUNK? You don’t mean-?

GENERAL: Yes I do. And we’ll pay handsomely for your services and her safe return.

DJ-PON3: The money doesn’t matter. It’d be an honor to rescue the legendary STEAMPUNK from whatever predicament she is in.

GENERAL: Good. You can go out ASAP. I can give you a list of all her secret contacts. One of them must know where she was going. It would’ve been easier if she had just told us though, but there could be spies so we must keep this hush-hush.

DJ-PON3: Thanks. Send me her file and that contact sheet and I’ll bring her back safely. Even if it costs my own life.

GENERAL: Can do! This mission won’t be easy; but best of luck nonetheless.

END MISSION LOG AUDIO RECORDING #1

NAME: Pinkamena Diane Pie
CODENAME: THE STEAMPUNK
SPECIES: Human/Pony, Earth
GENDER: Female
AGE: 40
RANK: 2nd in command; most important asset.

Vinyl looked over the file repeatedly in her dark small living quarters that were littered with several weapons and armors with a small cot in the middle; getting more excited as she did. This might be her hardest yet most important mission to date that she would undertake herself. The STEAMPUNK was perhaps the most famous person of all time; even more than her father. She was also the only non-noble person to win the hand of a princess. She was also the key to winning this stupid war against that tyrant queen of theirs and Vinyl would be happy and go down in history for a person who had greatly contributed.

She looked over the list of contacts and come across someone she knew for a very long time. Octavia; the queen’s personal musician right next to the famous Lyra Heartstrings. The queen, of course, didn’t know that her own musician was a rebellion informant; telling them of all the queen’s hidden plans and some of her closest allies and key target locations. Vinyl decided to start there because Octavia was a childhood friend and knew where she would be because soon it would be the Grand Galloping Gala. Vinyl smiled; she had a plan to get into the 2nd heaviest security city of the entire empire and get into the big event.

She took her bronze armor, a bunch of daggers, a crossbow, and a bunch of smoke pellets from her weapon wall and put them on. She would then hide these by putting a fading cloak over it to give her an appearance of a commoner. She left the secret base and walked over to her stealth airship than had the name Base Cannon painted on the side. It was big and black and used invisibility spells to hide itself from the naked eye. It also had magic jammers that only alicorn themselves could break. Steam jetted out from it; showing that Vinyl’s crew was doing preparations for takeoff. She walked over to it and stepped inside. She was greeted by Wadworth; her personal butler and the airships first mate.

“Where to, Miss Scratch?” he asked in a thick Manehatten accent.

“To the Canterlot Gardens; we’ve got a party to crash?”

Rarity finally got out of the bright showroom filled with many outfits and lanterns. She was dressed in a beautiful red silk gown with the colors of the Crystal Empire on it. She had put on lots of makeup to make herself look half as young as she was. She was a famous dancer/singer and fashionista and was also ranked #2 in the top 10 Sexiest Women Alive; number one of course being the queen herself. She was very well known among the Canterlot Elite and made quite a name for herself. She even had the rare honor to make a few ensembles for Queen Crystalline herself. Though the queen couldn’t be here herself; Rarity was still very nervous. She always when she was the main attraction at the gala, stated as the best night of the year. She secretly hated the queen because she was the very reason her young sister, Sweetie Belle, was killed. She hoped the rebellion would be able to crush that nasty queen though she wouldn’t try it herself because she didn’t want to join those battle-crazed ruffians.

She was also trying to get over another guy who had been only in a relationship with her because he just wanted sexual intercourse. She wished she could find someone who loved her for not just her body; but for everything else she is too. Hell, she’d be willing to even take a girl if they would do just that.

“Rarity!” a british-accented voice declared. The noblewoman fashionista looked over and saw her best friend; Octavia Melody, bolt over to her. She predictably wasn’t wearing a dress, but a rather elegant bowtie. The musician always said she didn’t like wearing dresses because they somehow affect her performance but Rarity knew that it was because Octavia wasn’t into such things. Maybe her dream guy can be a creator himself; just like her. The two embraced each other and Rarity smiled; happy for the earthling’s company. Octavia broke the hug and looked at Rarity with a smile on her face. “I’ve missed you.”

Smoothing out her wrinkled dress, Rarity replied, “So have I darling. It’s been quite a few months since we last met. It’s so wonderful to see you again. I take it that you’re going to be the musician playing for my little performance?”

“Of course; I’m wondering right now about how it went with Sir Trottingham?”

“We broke up. He’s yet another who only uses me for my looks instead of my creativity and my love. What I want is-well, you know what I want,” she spoke as she hung her head, her curly hair uncurling a bit.

Octavia giggled, “Don’t worry. I’m sure the right one will come your way. Hell, some can come out of where you least expect it!”

Rarity reciprocated Octavia’s giggling, adding, “Well, we better hurry up. We have a bunch of snotty nobles to entertain!’

“You’re a snotty noble yourself!” Octavia teased. Rarity walked a little bit ahead of Octavia before turning around and giving the musician her best glare.

“You know what, forget I said anything, now let’s go!”

On the airship, Vinyl was getting dressed for the gala, dressing up as a noble to not attract any attention to herself. She was in her cabin, which was very similar to her room on the secret base except that there was a window showing the outside. It was dark out; with barely a cloud in the sky. The pegasi must’ve done their best to keep the gloomy weather from spoiling the Canterlot nobles. The dress she wore was white and blue; with the Crystal Empire flag showing on her hip. It was bulky to hide her armor and weaponry. She magically procured a golden gala ticket out of nowhere and looked herself over in the mirror. With a smirk, she whispered to herself, “This should fool those snotty annoying Canterlot Elites!”

Stepping out of her room; she ordered Wadsworth to take care of the Base Cannon and went down the stairs towards the exit. Vinyl was very excited at meeting her friend that she hadn’t come into contact to for 6 months. She moved passed the guards and nobles that didn’t want to participate in the Gala and looked at Canterlot. The city itself hadn’t changed, most of the factories were where the Everfree Forest and Whitetail Woods were. She also heard that Dodge Junction and Appleloosa had been turned into Commercial Districts. These changes had caused the buffalo to leave for a new home.

Vinyl spotted the Canterlot Gardens and sped up, hoping to get this over with as soon as it was possible. The Gardens itself barely changed as well, looking like it usually did except for the Celestia Republic flags were replaced by Crystal Empire flags and was filled with anti-rebellion propaganda. She made her way over to the ticket taker who was guarded by four very bulky soldiers with a mixture of spears, swords and crossbows along with golden plated armor and helmets. She presented her ticket to the ticket taker and he looked over it. After a bit, he approved of the ticket and nodded his head towards the inside.

Vinyl smugly smiled at how easy it was to pass the stupid gatekeeper. She entered the place where the Gala was being held and it looked as sparkly as ever. Decorated with Crystal Empire crystals with a mixture of the crystals found in the caves beneath Canterlot. In the back sat the hors d’oeuvre table with a bowl full of some rich wine that Vinyl couldn’t tell what it was. The Elite of Canterlot were dressed in fancy attire; either from her or the local fashion over at the Crystal Empire.

The unicorn growled at the presence of the nobles. They were spared the horrors of the war and the new Queen’s tyranny. The Queen had believed that only nobles should have the power, though she gave them little of it. Their lives had barely changed while the common folk were pushed around, forced into slave labor to create those twisted machines without any pay whatsoever. She, in her own mind, thought that the nobles were just as bad and responsible as the queen was in everyone’s misery.

Shaking her head of these thoughts; she set out to find her long time friend and ally. Surely she was around here somewhere showing her full musicality.

Octavia was playing her cello along with four other ponies whom had various instruments of their own. She looked around at the stage and saw so many flowers laying around it and how the sparkling from the crystals would act kinda like stage lights. They were playing music along with Rarity’s enchanting dancing. The gentlemen of the Grand Galloping Gala, married or not, were simply entranced by her graceful, beautiful dancing. Once she had started singing with her alluring and attractive voice; not even the women couldn’t resist turning their heads and stare at her.

Octavia smiled; knowing her friend was loving the attention, maybe even thriving in it. She looked into the eyes of the people watching and noticed the lust in some of their eyes. She recognized Sir Trottingham; Rarity’s newest ex-boyfriend, even drooling over the display. She kept scanning the crowds until she met with the magenta eyes of someone very familiar. These eyes weren’t on Rarity at all, they didn’t even seem interested in the beautiful music at all. It was focused solely on her and Octavia knew who those eyes belonged to, because she would never forget eyes like those. It was her old friend Vinyl Scratch, paid mercenary of the rebellion that Octavia also worked for. The look on the unicorn’s face was one that was reserved for ‘I need to talk to you about a mission I am currently on’. Octavia sighed; knowing that the night was going to be a little more interesting.

Octavia waited in her showroom for Vinyl to finally enter it. It was a beautiful room; filled with many instrument that Octavia knew to play and many crystals. A mirror was placed on one of the walls, but Octavia was one to not use that much make-up, preferring to be much more natural. The golden door finally bursted open as her old friend passed through it and enveloped the musician in a big hug, a hug that said ‘I missed you.’

When the unicorn pulled away from the embrace, she said the exact words that Octavia expected to come falling out of that mouth of hers, “I need to talk to you about a mission I am currently on.”

Octavia grinned, wondering why her friend had become so much more predictable over these last few years. She then asked the unicorn who was very excited for some reason; which was a rare occurrence, “Well, what is it?” Her face was full of concern. What was so urgent that Vinyl Scratch had to sneak into Canterlot; one of the most heavily guarded places for. Whatever it was; it was excruciatingly important.

Before Vinyl could answer the question; Rarity burst into the room declaring, “Oh, Octavia! It was so wonderful! The attention got to me, made me even better that I had hoped to have been! It was-”

She would have said more, but Vinyl; who was trained for an unexpected attacker or an ambush, rushed at Rarity and pinned her to the wall. She used her magic to slowly close the door and levitate a knife from under her dress. Rarity saw the glint of the knife and her eyes widened in terror; fearing that this unknown person was about to end her life. Octavia saw this and was extremely quick to act. She rushed over and tackled Vinyl before she could gut the fashionista. “Stop! She’s a friend!’

Vinyl lightly pushed Octavia off of her and glared at Rarity who was trying to calm herself down from the seemingly random attack. She turned to Octavia and asked, “Is she rebellion?”

Rarity’s eyes widened once she heard the question which Octavia answered with a simple, “No.”

Vinyl returned her glare on the alabaster unicorn and commanded to her, “Then you better leave; this is restricted rebellion information!”

“Wait! You’re rebellion?” Rarity gasped which Vinyl answered with a nod, her glare never leaving. Rarity’s eyes widened even farther as it dawned upon her as she realized. She turned to Octavia, a person she thought she had known for so long and shakingly asked, “O-Octavia! Y-you’re rebellion?!”

Octavia sighed and nodded her head to confirm Rarity’s suspicions.

“When were you going to tell me this?!”

“Uh… never!” she answered, sweating a little bit that her friend found out something that Octavia did so well at hiding from her. Rarity’s looked of horror quickly turned into one of anger, something unheard of from the usually calm and collected unicorn with the exception of fashion and show nights.

Vinyl blocked Rarity’s view of Octavia and her glare intensified as she growled at Rarity and commanded once again, “I said LEAVE!”

Rarity returned the glare with one of her own, but when it failed to produce results, simply said, “A lady leaves when she wants, not when some unknown ruffian commands her to do so!”

“Does that ‘Lady’ want to die?” she countered. That threat had made Rarity walk over towards Vinyl and slapped her. Vinyl would’ve blocked the blow if she expected it, but since she didn’t, she got the full wind of it. Rarity quickly exited the room with a ‘hmph’ and the other unicorn quickly got angry. Vinyl would’ve normally went after the insulting noble, but since she had a mission she had to force herself to calm down. Octavia raised an eyebrow at Vinyl ignoring the insulting slap and disrespect and knew that whatever Vinyl came for was extremely serious, maybe even more so that Octavia thought it was.

Vinyl looked at Octavia and began: “We’ve not gotten any contact with the STEAMPUNK for months and I’ve been assigned to track her down and return her to base. We do not know where her last location was so I’m going down her personal private contact list to see if they know of her whereabouts. I saw your name and decided to visit you first since I haven’t seen you in a while and I thought you might have any information I could use to my advantage. So, do you?”

“WHAT!? I didn’t know she was gonna… damn!” Octavia yelled out. “We need to find her immediately; she’s the key to ending this damn war that’s gone on for far too long! I’m coming with you. I’m not gonna sit idly by for this one. I may know someone who’ll know where she might’ve gone! I’m gonna get packed up right away!’

“What about your cover, you’ll basically blow it if you come with me!”

“Screw my cover! The STEAMPUNK has the fate of the war in her hands and like I said, I am not going to sit idly by while it draws farther away from us!” argued Octavia.

Vinyl chuckled a little and Octavia little rant and simply said, “I knew you were gonna say that.” And with that, they fistbumped, something Octavia barely did and smiled at each other with extremely determined eyes. They turned, walked over to the door, opened it; and saw Rarity eavesdropping on their conversation. Vinyl again quickly tackled her and held a knife to her throat as she demanded, “HOW MUCH OF THAT DID YOU HEAR!?!”

“E-e-everything,” Rarity stammered out, fear evident in her eyes. Vinyl was about to slit her throat until she heard shouts and the clanging of heavy golden armor. Turning her head; Vinyl grumbled as she saw a squadron of golden-armored soldiers with swords and crossbows.

“Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Melody, and Rarity Belle! You are under arrest for affiliating with the rebellion. Surrender now and your lives will be spared!” commanded the largest one, presumably their commanding officer. Noting that they were in trouble; Vinyl reached into her dress and pulled out a smoke pellet. She smiled as she threw it in the center of the soldiers and it exploded and released smoke everywhere, blinding them. Not wasting any time; Vinyl levitated Octavia and Rarity and bolted down the columned hall.

“Hey! What do you think-,” began Rarity, getting very annoyed and angry she was being kidnapped.

“Saving your life!” Vinyl huffed as she continued running away from the advancing soldiers who were still too far out of range to use their crossbows. She turned a corner and slammed past a noble who was quick to complain. She saw a window and smiled at her luck.

Apparently, so did Rarity as her eyes widened at the implication of what the crazed unicorn was about to do. Rarity was going to yell for her to stop, but it was too late as Vinyl already shattered and dove out the window. The soldier saw this and knew it was suicide to continue their pursuit so they just pushed the noble out of their way in annoyance as they had to go the long way to get out of the Canterlot Gardens.

Rarity screamed in terror as the ground came closer and closer. She closed her eyes; waiting for her to become a pretty white stain on the ground, but it had never came. Rarity opened an eye and saw she was still being levitated by the ruffian mercenary kidnapper. She then looked up and saw that Vinyl was running towards an ugly looking airship.

“Wadsworth!’ Vinyl shouted as she was trying to keep her breath steady, both from the running and the constant use of magic, “Prepare for takeoff immediately!”

Wadsworth, in the middle of reading a book, heard the command and quickly bolted to the maintenance area of the ship and commanded everyone that it was time for takeoff and that everyone should be to their post immediately which they did.

When Vinyl saw smoke coming from the smokestacks of the gigantic airship, she smiled as she used up her remaining magic to charge up for a triple teleportation spell and transported all of them onboard. Once she was on the ship, Vinyl jumped up and commanded, “Activate stealth mode immediately!”

The spell was quickly activated and just in time. Several squads of soldiers had just reached where the airship was located. The Base Cannon easily got up off the ground and flew away without alerting the soldiers. Rarity looked around the large area she was now in and saw so many unfamiliar wheels and cranks and pipes. She wasn’t really into the interior designs of an airship anyway; thinking them as dirty and incredibly uncouth. Vinyl and Octavia sighed in relief that they were successful in getting away from the city without alerting any of the pegasi that were flying around. It wouldn’t last long though as Rarity stomped over to them.

“What in the name of Crystalline did you think kidnapping me was a smart idea?!”

Vinyl quickly got angry at this unicorns ungratefulness and retorted, “They saw you interacting with rebels. They would’ve killed you! I think I deserve a thanks AND now an apology!”

Rarity’s face became red and contorted with rage as she yelled, “I’ll never thank a ruffian like you. If you hadn’t even shown up in the first place, none of this would’ve never happened and I would’ve been bragging to Octavia how glorious our performances were!”

Vinyl smirked and stated, “Too bad; there’s no going back now! Word quickly goes around! Your old life is now officially over. The only thing I care about right now is that I blew Octavia’s cover.”

Octavia shrugged and said, “I was getting bored of it anyway!”

Rarity looked past Vinyl and gave Octavia an evil glare. “We are going to have a little chat later, Octy!”

Octavia sighed and nodded. She glumly turned around and lowered her head in shame as she walked away. She would’ve exited the giant room if it wasn’t for Vinyl picking up the retreating musician with a levitation spell and plopped her back where she was. Octavia raised an eyebrow at Vinyl’s course of action and gave a questioning look at her which Vinyl was happy to answer for her. “You were going to tell me what person knows where the STEAMPUNK is!”

“Oh yeah!” Octavia said as she perked up, knowing she did still carry some importance right now.

Rarity, curious of this mysterious steampunk that was so important it had ruined her life was, asked, “Who’s this STEAMPUNK anyway?”
Vinyl sighed as she answered the alabaster unicorn, “It’s the codename for the famous Pinkamena Diane Pie; daughter to the late Steampunk Pie and Steamy Pie, the one who had revolutionized her father’s work, once-wife to the now dead Princess Twilight Sparkle, and the key to winning this war!”

Rarity’s mouth hung open in a rather unladylike way as she was completely flabbergasted. Of course she knew who Pinkamena is! She may have never met the famous woman in person, but she was a huge topic in gossip, Rarity was once jealous of her when she married a princess and won her heart. She remembered that she was once held captive by Queen Crystalline and was rescued by the rebellion almost a year ago. So that’s who they were looking for, she does sound pretty important if they go to these lengths for her.

Vinyl smirked at Rarity’s shock and turned around to focus on the musician behind her and asked, “Where to? I gotta tell Wadsworth where we’re going after all!”

Octavia smiled at the now happy Vinyl and happily answered, “To Ponyville, we are going to meet with another legend there1”

Vinyl cocked her head at the proclamation and asked, “Who is it?”

Octavia smiled even wider as she answered, “The Great Lt. General Dash of the Wonderbolts!”

In a dark throne room in the middle of the Crystal Empire, a crystal-shaped looking alicorn was sitting on her jagged black crystal throne. The room was covered in black and grey crystals with navy blue flamed torches implanted into the wall. It was dark in here because Queen Crystalline relished in the darkness. She had two huge guards who were actually crystal giving life! They wore black diamond armor and wielded jagged crystal swords that were similarly shaped like a stalagmite that were holstered at their hips. The windows were covered as the Queen waited for someone to enter her room so she could talk to him. A black cloud floated past the entrance to her throne room and made its way over in front of the throne and halted just before Queen Crystalline. Two red eyes with thick navy blue wisps at the end of them peered from the cloud.

“Hello Sombra my dear! I’ve received reports that three rebels are searching for my little steampunk. I want you to tail them to her location. After they find her, I want you to strike those three rebellion scum dead and bring her back home to me!” she commanded in a jagged raspy voice.

“Asssssss you wish!” the cloud creepily growled as it dissipated out of sight before the queen’s eyes.

“My dearest Pinkamena,” she evilly chuckled. “It’s time for you to come back to me!”

Chapter 2

Rarity was forced awake as she heard a bunch of steam whistle out somewhere aboard this messy airship. She grumbled and carefully slipped off the bed, trying to preserve any beauty she had left. She still wore her red dress, the only difference was that it was a bit torn on multiple sides. She was still peeved at Vinyl Scratch for ruining her almost perfect life and dragging her to a dirt town. She rose to her full height and slammed her head against the low ceiling of her living quarters. Her scream of pain was loud enough to wake up her bunkmate, Octavia suddenly enough for her to bang her own head against the ceiling and let out a grunt.

“Would it kill her to find more adequate rooms for us. I am a lady, I’m not used to such barbaric living quarters such as this,” Rarity complaining.

Octavia rolled her eyes and groaned, “Stop whining Rarity, it isn’t going to get you what you want this time around. Plus, whining won’t work on Vinyl, trust me I have tried before.”

Rarity let out a huff and folded her arms while grumbling, “I’m not whining, I’m complaining!”

Octavia facepalmed and groaned out, “Not this argument again!”

Rarity huffed again and looked around. Bare walls, with lots of pipes on the low ceilings; empty of any artistic value and smelled too much like smoke and burning coal. If you told her that this situation would happen to her a few weeks ago as she was preparing for yet another wondrous performance, she would politely laugh it off and walk away. This, though, was not at all a matter that should be laughed at. Rarity magicked a mirror out of nowhere and looked at it to observe her dirty face and frazzled hair. She then magicked some makeup and a brush and levitated all the items in her possession in front of her. She brushed her hair back to its original perfect form and then applied all her makeup and smiled at herself when it was done and she was re-beautified. She would shriek and drop her mirror, causing it to shatter, as the door to their room was slammed open and a dirty, grimy grey earthling maintenance worker showed up and yelled, “WAKE UP! MISS SCRATCH WANTS YOU TWO TO REPORT TO HER ON THE DECK IMMEDIATELY!” before leaving.

Octavia was quick to comment on the events with, “Talk about a wakeup call!”

“Before we ‘indulge’ Miss Scratch; we are still in need of a conversation and I am in need of some answers right now!” Rarity demanded, closing the door the deckhand rudely left open; giving the two some privacy from any unwanting ears.

“Yes. Yes, of course. I do owe you that much, Rarity. Okay, lay your questions on me” as she dramatically pointed to herself with her eyes closed.

“How long have you been a part of the rebellion?”

“15 years ago. Vinyl told me they make a great difference with their guerrilla tactics of disrupting caravans, destroying automaton/weapon factories and assassinating anyone close to the Queen. Since I was her personal musician, I was immediately let in, with the addition of Vinyl’s word, and have been given them information since that time. I was the one who gave them the information to break Pinkamena from the queens crystal grip. Took us 14 years.”

Rarity soaked in all the information. So, since ever we’ve become friends she sadly realized. She had to continue the questioning though, “How did you meet Miss Vinyl Scratch? You seem rather fond of her friendship and everything.”

“We are childhood friends a little before the war and became famous in our own rights when we were invaded. I don’t remember exactly how we met but we were very quick friends!” Octavia smiled at the fond memories that she had shared with Vinyl, even getting stuck in a daydream because of it. When Rarity broke her from it, Octavia blushed and was quick to apologize. Rarity, loving the art of romance and reading lots of novels on the subject, cocked a knowing eyebrow.

Octavia seized up when she got the implication of said eyebrow and got very flustered. “N-no! I-it’s not like that! N-not like that at at all1 Don’t g-give me that smug look!”

“Ooo, sounds like someone has a little crush! Do you have a thing for Vinyl Scratch my dear?” Rarity got very giddy, she loved gossip like this.

Octavia’s eyes darted around the room and when she felt safe enough, she walked up to Rarity. She leaned over and whispered into her ear, “Yes.”

Speaking of the devil; Vinyl busted open the door and yelled, “Hey! We’re here! Get your sorry butts outta this room and head out.” before leaving.

“Well, time to head out!” Octavia quickly said, taking advantage of the distraction as she darted out the open door full of embarrassment. Rarity looked at where Octavia was and sighed. I guess conversation’s over and followed her friend out the door.

When Rarity stepped out of the ugly airship; she found herself in an uglier town. There were several towering factories that were all decaying and covered with dirt and grime. She looked around more and saw where the people were living. They were disheveled one-story quarter houses with no windows to grant them privacy whatsoever. The people inside them looked absolutely miserable. They wore tattered and ragged clothing and had bad cuts and muck all over their faces that could very easily lead to serious infections without medical attention which seemed to be as there were none. Some of the people were amputees; missing fingers, hands, parts of their wings, even whole wings and entire arms that were probably caused by accidents due to working in the unforgiving factories. Some were eating small scraps of disgusting looking foods that rats would try to repeatedly steal and even worse; the food were not on any cutlery and was eaten with bare hands. She looked up at the sky and instead of the nice clear skies in Canterlot; she was greeted with a sky full of grey clouds and felt a dirty haze had overtaken the town. The clouds were so thick from steam and smoke that barely any sunlight could penetrate them.

And even more worse; in front of the factory entrances were lines of earthlings and pegasi being pushed, shoved and being even stabbed by golden plated soldiers like cattle to a slaughterhouse. Rarity inhaled some air and nearly died of a coughing fit; noticing the air wasn’t fresh at all and could easily damage your lungs if not careful enough or if you’re not used to it at all.

She couldn’t believe this at all. Was she so naive of the suffering of these poor people. Guilt overridden her systems, she should of seen it. She knew that Queen Crystalline was a bitch; but not a cruel tyrant who had no regard for these people’s safety at all. She thought they were treated like the nobles were in Canterlot, but she knew deep in heart that this was never going to be the case. Anger welled up in Rarity; making her horn sparkle with the energy of an oncoming magical surge. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and whipped her head around and faced the sad yet comforting eyes of Octavia. Any anger in her quickly dissipated upon looking at her expression so Rarity instead let out a long and sad sigh. She looked up at her friend’s eyes and whispered, “These poor people.”

Octavia forced a smile on her face as she hugged her sad friend and whispered into her ear, “It’s okay, you didn’t know.”

Rarity quickly pulled back and began; “I was so naive! I was drowning myself in fame, fortune and the attention they gave me while these people are forced into something no short of slavery and having them work on those dreadful factories. Back in Celestia’s rule: they had a choice whether to work in those factories and were being paid for it, but they don’t know. I thought the worse thing in life was not finding someone to appreciate me for who I am and love me like I want them to. But these people’s lives are a millions times worse to what I had thought! How selfish I’ve been! How uncaring…”

After her little speech, she broke down into tears; not caring if it was causing her mascara to run and ruin her beautiful face she put time into perfecting again. Octavia held her closer, trying to comfort her extremely hurt friend. Vinyl had just stepped off the airship and saw the scene of the two girls hugging while one was crying. Vinyl could quickly guess why this scene was unfolding and how it had unfolded. Rarity was a person who whom had just been subjected to the horror of the factory cities. Vinyl felt a pang in her heart as she realized she may have been too harsh towards the fashionista for how she acted. Rarity was not used to things such as this at all. She sadly hung her head and walked over to them and whispered, “I’m sorry” to the weeping girl.

Rarity heard the apology and let go of Octavia to face the remorseful looking Vinyl Scratch and whispered back in a comforting tone, “There’s no reason to be sorry. I should actually thank you for bringing me along and for helping remove my stupid naivete. I’m with you… both of you all the way!” When she finished, she wrapped Vinyl up into a hug; surprising the hardened mercenary until she smiled and hug back. Octavia smiled at the new unfolding scene and walked over to join in on the hug.

Wadsworth had just came out of the Base Cannon and went over to the hugging trio and cleared his throat. When he had grabbed their attention and they had stopped hugging each other, he told Vinyl, “Sorry for interrupting your little hugging session, but we are low on coal reserves and need some more immediately if we are ever going to take off again.”

Vinyl stiffened up and marched over to Wadsworth with a scown on her face and yelled, “WHAT THE HELL! I thought we had enough to travel around Equestria fifteen times!?”

Wadsworth kept his ground like he usually did when Vinyl got this mad at him or anything her crew had done wrong and calmly stated, “Its seems as though it has all vanished without a trace. I am highly suspecting that someone stole them from right underneath our noses.”

Vinyl eyed Wadsworth and asked, “You think we have a spy in our midst?”

“Indeed, thankfully someone told me or we wouldn’t have gotten out of a sticky situation if the guards ever found you out. We should also thank that airships are allowed here unlike Canterlot and the Crystal Empire!”

“Okay. Good job Wadsworth! Keep an eye out and if you see anything suspicious among our crew; notify and alert me to it immediately!” commanded Vinyl. Nodding at the order; Wadsworth bowed and made his merry way back on board Vinyl’s airship. Vinyl turned around to the other two and ordered, “Time to do what we came here to do, ladies!”

Rainbow Dash, ex-Lieutenant-General of the Wonderbolts in the EUP Army, ex-protector of Princess Twilight Sparkle, failure of a leader was now a retired soldier married to a farmer named Applejack who was part of the once-famous Apple Family before the Steampunk Revolution came. Her AJ managed to be rich enough to avoid the hard life of a factory slave as everyone was calling it nowadays. Rainbow Dash was also very lucky that she had married her; saving her from that fate too.

She was walking around with a cart attached to her that was full of different types of apples and were giving them for free to people who were overcome by hunger and couldn’t afford it themselves. The pegasus felt sorry for them, but she couldn’t do anything at the sake of her wife’s wellbeing. Her loyalties had been smashed, only feeling the need to worry about her family and to give information to an old friend she had failed all those years ago. Dash wondered why she went to the place she said she was going to go.

As she continued what she was doing; she slammed into a unicorn with a crazy hairstyle. She was being accompanied by another white unicorn in a messed up dress and way too much makeup on her face for Dash’s tastes and… “Octavia! The hell are you doing here?”

“Hello Rainbow,” Octavia simply greeted.

Rainbow being confused was a huge understatement; wasn’t the earthling supposed to be in Canterlot and spying on that queen who deserved to rot in hell for all eternity for what she has done? And who are these random two people doing with her? She saw a glint of a knife and eyed it and saw it was being wielded by the unicorn with the crazy hair. Dash quickly guessed she was a rebel soldier. She focused on the other unicorn and determined she must be some Canterlot noble… great! She hated nobles, even before the war finding them extremely annoying and more bossy than her own superior. Dash asked again, “What are you here for, Octavia? It must be important if you blew your own cover. Wasn’t it very important to the rebellion?!”

“It is, but we need to talk privately. Too many eyes and ears,” she whispered while eyeing the soldiers and nearby townsfolk.

“Ok,” Dash agreed, “Follow me!”

After wading through the maze of alleyways and people; Dash finally led them to the Apple Ranch; though the acres surrounding it were now devoid of any trees because the air was too polluted for them to grow here. Rarity did her best to resist complaining about everything; knowing it was not at all their faults the town was like this at all. Anyways, it’s not like she’ll even regain her wondrous complexion after being subjugated to this nasty weather. She sighed and began wondering why fate had forced her into this journey to begin with. Was it to break her of her naivete? To make her see more of the sights this disgustingly beautiful world has to offer? Or was it that she would meet her true love on this little mission of theirs. She chuckled at the idea and the thought; finding it absolutely ridiculous. The non-Canterlot people she had seen had not been attractive to her. The only one here would be Octavia, but she had her eyes on a certain mercenary.

When they entered the kitchen; Rarity saw that it had much rustic farm decor. There were a lot of pots and pans, but the red walls were a bit cracked with a bit of the paint peeling off. It seemed rather huge, but seeing the family photo showed that the Apple Family was indeed huge.

Rainbow turned on the stove and put a tea kettle on top of it and asked, “Tea anyone?”

Everyone nodded their heads as Octavia began: “I know you are the last one to come into contact with the STEAMPUNK. She’s gone missing and we need to find her because it is extremely imperative!”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened out in shock and her wings quickly flared as she yelled out in panic, “WHAT! Pinkie is missing?! Of course I knew where she was headed! I’m one of the few people who ever knew her personally! Jeez, I can’t believe I failed her again!”

Rainbow’s panic was so extreme; she began knocking over everything as she distressfully flew around. An orange freckled earthling with a stetson on top of her head rushed in and pulled Dash down into a loving embrace to comfort the panicking pegasus. Dash quickly calmed down into her wife’s embrace; releasing most of her worries as she kissed the one she loved on the mouth.

Rarity couldn’t resist asking out in curiousity, “How did you fail the STEAMPUNK last time?”

Her question caused everyone to glare at her, Applejack giving her the hardest as she remembered what had happened when Dash told her the story, but Rainbow complied.

“Back to when I was Lieutenant-General of the Wonderbolts in the EUP Army; I had a fantastic completion record with very little collateral damage. It was second only to General Spitfire; the now current leader of the rebellion. I was the best friend to the great STEAMPUNK. When she would take breaks from creating and I wasn’t working, we would prank our colleagues. We were very young back then and disrupted all of the staff. Sometimes, the youngest of all the princesses; Princess Twilight Sparkle would join us whenever she wasn’t reading or practicing a spell. For a few months; I thought we were all great friends until I saw how much Pinkie and Twilight would stare at each other with lust in their eyes, blush at each other when they came in close contact, would let each other see the other one work. It wasn’t long before they fell in love and started dating. The media was all over it. The headlines were; The Steampunk and the Youngest Princess Dating? and whatever. They had a cute relationship that I was a bit jealous of. Then, two years later they married and I was the best pegasus. One day, Pinkie made me promise that I would help protect the princesses life with a damn Pinkie Promise and those are not to be broken, trust me but I stupidly said yes to her.” Rainbow started crying to which Applejack hugged her tighter and smothered her lover with kisses. The usually hardened earthling didn’t care if it made her and her wife look weak in front of the guests.

Controlling her raging emotions; she continued: “A year later after that; the damn war happened. Cities were easily captured by the Queen’s forces and I failed in protecting them. I flew to the princess and the steampunk and did my best to protect them. I tried so hard, but I failed yet again. Pinkie was usually a being full of happiness and joy around her many weird machine thingies but the same couldn’t be said then. I saw the happiness, joy, and cheer leave her eyes wh-when she saw the p-princess, h-her w-wife… publicly executed right in front of her as she was carried off by the crystal soldiers to the caravans which would take her to the Crystal Empire.” She tried to keep her composure, but it fell apart. Complete sadness was heavy in the room. Only crying and the whistling of the now-finished kettle was heard.

It was dark outside and the three rebels had to rest at the Apple Ranch. Rarity couldn’t sleep in her nearly bare room, she tossed and turned underneath the cozy bed covers. When Rarity had heard Dash’s sad tale; she couldn’t help but relate. She had lost her young sister right in front of her and had to bare witness to a loved one dying too. She promised to herself, Pinkie Promised, that she would kill that damnable queen, now matter how unladylike that sounded. She pushed the apple-designed covers off herself as she dragged herself off the bed and went downstairs. She then proceeded right outside to stare at the very active town of Ponyville. She sighed at how out of control her life had become. She looked around and saw the Apple Bar and saw a light shining from behind the door.

Curious, she walked over to it and opened up the door to step inside. Once she did, she looked at the interior and gasped as her jaw dropped. The interior of the barn was not one would expect. Instead of wooden floors, there were dirt and grass where they should’ve been. Instead of wooden ceiling, there was a cloudless sky with a sun blazing its heat on her. Instead of the steam-powered farm equipment, there were apple trees. Rarity spotted Applejack on a white ladder picking apples off of a bunch of trees and throwing them into baskets.

AJ turned and saw the unexpected visitor and burst into a smile as she asked in a thick country accent, “I reckon ya couldn’t fall asleep no didn’t ya?”

Rarity could only blink in response as an unladylike squeak squeezed itself from her hanging open mouth. Applejack’s grin grew wider as she asked, “Now I bet yer wonderin’ how such a thing is actually possible? Honestly, I have no clue. That steampunk gal was speakin’ to weirdly for me ta understand what she was sayin’” as she shrugged her shoulders.

Rarity shook her head to regain her senses and walked over to the country girl. “This is crazy! But it's very beautiful too!”

“I know,” AJ simply said, looking at all her trees with her hands at her hips. “That gal did me a big favor! I harvest these here apples so Dash can them take ‘em to Ponyville so she can give them to people in need of food. The steampunk is mighty selfless; though a bit too weird fer ma tastes.”
Rarity smiled a bit; still in awe at whatever magnificent creation had created this unnatural beauty. Then she remembered what her mother told her about what the world was like before the Steampunk Revolution. This was indeed natural in an unnaturalistic wa; if that made any sense at all. She remembered after Dash’s sad story that she told them that the STEAMPUNK was sailing out to Crispin Sea and that she might be stranded on one of the islands.

“Y’know, ya could always sleep out here if ya want. You’ll get no quarrel from me, y’hear!”

“I think I’ll take you upon your offer,” said Rarity as she magicked a picnic cloth and laid on it. AJ smiled at her and resumed her work while the unicorn finally fell asleep; not knowing that a black cloud was peering inside.

Sombra relayed the now known location of the steampunk that he had just probed from the mind of that fussy unicorn for his queen. Queen Crystalline chuckled while she used her magic to search for any lifeforms on those islands in the Crispin Sea and located which one the steampunk was now on.

She smiled as she felt the pure innocent aura the lifeform held as she easily recognized her beloved steampunk. She turned around and saw the stern face of the officer she was talking to and her evil smile even got wider.

“Hello Captain! Send out Automaton 459 in the morning. I want you to destroy all of Ponyville and the pathetic rebels it is now currently harboring.”

She let out an evil laugh that was heard throughout her entire empire and sent chills to the residents that were there, dreading for whatever the evil queen had planned.

Chapter 3

Vinyl woke up to the sounds of explosions and the screaming of the townspeople. She quickly shot out of her comfy bed in her cozy red room and teleported outside to investigate the sounds. What she saw made her jaw drop. The town was burning, people were either panicking or dead and worse was a giant 100ft bronze and copper automaton was seen destroying a factory with its 40ft blade which could be easily seen as enhanced due to magic. It was shaped similar to an earthling, with a head, two arms, a body, and two legs. On the right arm was the number 459 implanted on it. Vinyl squinted and saw the various maintenance workers rushing around and checking on the gears for any problems and unicorns using magic to keep up the automaton’s shields in case of a rebel attack.

Vinyl’s face scrunched up in anger as she yelled towards the barn, “Automaton! Get back to the airship!”

She rushed over to it and teleported inside, instantly waking up Wadsworth who was asleep at the wheel for some inexplicable reason. He fell over in surprise but quickly got back to his feet as Vinyl ordered him to prepare for takeoff.

“Vinyl! We need fuel, remember! We can’t take off without it!” he reminded her. Vinyl’s eyes widened as she realized what she must do if they were to survive this attack.

“Get everyone else on board! I’m going into Ponyville to retrieve some fuel from one of the factories!” she ordered.

“Yes, Miss Scratch! Right away!” he saluted before adding, “Good luck, our lives depend on your success.”

Vinyl groaned and rubbed her temple. “Don’t remind me” she said before running off into the burning streets of a ruined town as Wadsworth started issuing orders to the awakening crew.

Rarity was startled awake as Applejack shook her; utter concern of fear written all over her features. “Wake up, sugarcube! Ponyville is under attack! Ya need to git to yer airship immediately!”

Rarity’s eyes burst open on the word ‘attack’ and jumped quickly onto her feet. She was going to freshen up at first on pure habit but immediately chastised herself because it was not the time to worry about such inconsequential things when your life was at stake. She turned to face Applejack only to see her dart out of the barn. She rushed over to follow her but once she got outside, her eyes widened even further. There was complete carnage and death on an unimaginable scale according to Rarity. It was even worse the day her sister had died and that day was unforgettable.

Octavia spotted her stunned friend and ran over to her. When she saw that Rarity was paralyzed with shock and fear, she shook her in hopes of breaking her from her entranced state. “Rarity! We gotta move the Apple Family into the Base Cannon before it is too late so we can escape.”

Rarity shook her head, looked at her friend and nodded in confirmation. They rushed into the house and found that AJ already retrieved her wife, brother, and sister. They were also carrying a golden apple jar with the words ‘Granny Smith’ written on it, presumably from a family member whom had died long ago. Octavia told them it was time to go and they all ran over to the airship in hopes of escape.

Vinyl had stealthily been wandering the ruins of Ponyville while staying away from the magical menacing mechanical machine. Fortunately, she had been in a similar situation years ago that had two of them instead of one but it seemed this one was much more advanced than that. She knew that the automaton had scouters; people who would look around and try to spot any survivors that would try and hide from the carnage. She knew exactly where they were placed and could easily deduce where there blind spots were. She didn’t really need to pay attention to the automaton anyway since it was on the opposite side of town. While she was dodging debris and climbing over the now burnt and crumbling walls of many destroyed houses and other miscellaneous areas as she ran through the streets; she could still hear the stomping, the screaming, the explosions, the yells for anyone to save them from their untimely demises. Even though she was trained to have nerves of steel and to try to ignore the people’s suffering and instead focus on her objective, she wished she could do something but it was suicidal to try. She promised to herself that the Queen of the Crystal Empire would pay for her crimes and her corruption over Equestria. She hoped she would be there to see the life leave that evil woman’s eyes.

Once she found the factory that had the fuel she needed, she went inside and searched for the supplies. As soon as she would find some; she would use her magic to teleport them to the ship. Better that than try to return them manually. When she was done, she could tell that she didn’t have enough magic to teleport herself so she had to go back on foot.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT VINYL WENT INTO THE TOWN!” Octavia screamed in Wadsworth’s face as her own face was completely red with anger.

“Miss Scratch went to get some fuel. We are all out,” he pointed out, “Besides, she’s done this plenty time before. She is a very stealthy woman and she will not be detected. You don’t have to worry about her!”

“I don’t care what you think I should worry about. She’s my best friend and she shouldn’t of went out alone!” Octavia yelled out defiantly. Her face came closer to his and he could feel the heat radiating from the musician’s cheeks. She glared at him so fiercely that he couldn’t help but shrink away from it.

Once he stepped back and regained his posture, he stated in a firm tone, “Well, you should. We’re all in danger here. If this thing doesn’t get airborne by the time that automaton spots us, we’ll all die. She’s doing this for your benefit Miss. Melody!”

“I’m going after her,” she growled as she turned around to prepare to bolt out of the airship.

Wadsworth’s eyes widened as he tried to quickly reason with the unreasonable Octavia. “I advise you not to do that! You’ll only put yourself and Scratch in danger!”

“Well, you can shove your advice up your hindquarters!” Octavia yelled at him as she rushed out of the door, leaving Wadsworth, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack completely stunned while Rarity and a knowing smirk on her face.

“Is she completely crazy! I’ll tell you that I will never understand you women! So irrational!” exclaimed Wadsworth, annoyance written all over his face.

If only you knew Wadsworth, thought Rarity. Out the corner of her eye, she saw multiple packages and cans appear suddenly out of nowhere. Rarity immediately knew that this was the fuel that Vinyl was searching for. Wadsworth followed her gaze and spotted what she saw. He walked over and smiled when he opened them and saw what was inside. Once satisfied with the contents, he immediately shouted out to the crew to take the fuel and refuel the ship as soon as possible. He looked at the group and politely said, “Now we wait for Miss Scratch and Melody to return!”

Vinyl hopped outside; right into the vision of one of the scouters. She growled at herself for such a stupid rookie mistake and bolted towards her ship as quickly as she could. The scouter teleported into the automatons head to alert the pilots of the location of a survivor. The automaton turned around and as soon as the pilots saw the running unicorn, it charged after her.

Her heart caught in her throat as she heard the automaton getting closer and closer. She knew she couldn’t outrun this metal behemoth and she didn’t have enough magic in her magical tank for a simple teleportation. This couldn’t be how the great mercenary Vinyl Scratch dies and fails her mission? She was Vinyl Scratch, the best mercenary in all of existence. She never failed a mission in her life and she couldn’t fail the most important mission she ever undertook, not to a simple machination.

The bronze beast had finally caught up with her. Vinyl forced herself to stop and stare at her adversary, only to see its foot raise into the air above her head. It planned to crush her like a bug under its shoe. What a disrespectful and laughable way to go for the best mercenary in the business. Vinyl Scratch sighed at her defeat before she closed her eyes; waiting for the inevitable. Maybe the afterlife will be a much better place? She hoped Octavia would escape and complete the mission for her. She hoped that Octavia would live to see this stupid war end. She hoped that Octavia could settle down with a loved one and have a family on her own. She hoped her friend would never forget about poor Vinyl, one of her best friends for life.

Goodbye, old friend. Have a wonderful life… without me!

Octavia panted as she bolted through the ruins of the destroyed buildings. She tried to avoid acknowledging the dead bodies that were littered all around her, hoping that none of them was Vinyl. She knew that they were crushed and they were burning like a strip bacon on a barbeque, though the pony anthro race were completely vegetarian. The rancid smell of cooking dead flesh and blood threatened to invade Octavia’s nostrils and forcing her to stop so she could vomit. Tears streamed down her cheeks while she was cursing that infernal Queen Crystalline for her heartlessness.

Since she was the queen’s personal musician; Octavia was almost constantly under the presence of the Queen and she hated it with all her heart. The queen was menacing, cruel, evil, and careless. She revelled in the pain of the unfortunate and the death of those she considered her enemies. She would gloat about how she tortured and killed Queen Celestia and her three children. Octavia would often find herself wondering why the queen just doesn’t kill everybody by now. The queen was the kind of person to do that and completely love it. She would only show a little mercy for the nobles; but that was about it. Why keep most of Equestria alive?

Shaking her head of those unpleasant memories and her thought on that question about the evil queen, she instead focused on looking for Vinyl. She had a crush on her little badass best friend and would not let her die before she could reveal her feelings. She worried about rejection of course, showing how Vinyl never seemed to give love a thought. She didn’t care if her friend reciprocated her feeling or not because she would rather have her friend be alive and reject her than find her dead and later find out that she felt the same.

She rushed out of the factory she currently was in and spotted Vinyl. Octavia gasped as she saw the weaponized automaton about to crush her friend underneath its foot. She bolted as quickly as she could as the machine’s foot began its descent. She tackled Vinyl out of the way as its foot came crashing down at the last second.

Vinyl slowly opened her eyes as she felt the wind rip at her messy hair and saw that the burning building were rushing by in a blur. She looked down and saw that she was draped over Octavia’s shoulder. Octavia felt Vinyl start to move but wouldn’t stop her run in fear of losing her adrenaline rush which was helping propel her forward. Vinyl’s eyes widened because she had never seen her friend run this fast in her life.

The automaton behind them was looking around for more survivors; the pilots and scouters believing that Vinyl and Octavia were dead. Too bad that they were completely wrong.

Octavia could finally spot the Apple Family residence in the distance. She ran past it towards the Base Cannon and saw that there were smoke billowing from the smokestacks and knew that they were ready for take off. Vinyl saw this too and used her magic to teleport the two inside since some of her stamina was restored.

Once inside; she dropped from Octavia shoulders and yelled out to Wadsworth, “Take off immediately and put the magic shields to max. Load all the cannons with magically enhanced cannonballs. We are going to destroy that bastard automaton to send a damn message to Queen Bitchalline!”

As the crew ran to their battle station, Rarity whispered under her breath, “My my, such uncouth language.”

She knew she would be of no use in this fight so she picked up Octavia, who was panting like she ran the marathon and followed Applejack and her family into the safe room that Wadsworth presented them.

Wadsworth took the wheel as Vinyl took her place next to him. The airship had managed to rise from the ashes like a fire phoenix and started circling the oblivious automaton. Vinyl used her magic to activate what she called a ‘PA system’ and yelled out instruction on how to beat and destroy automatons.

“Remember to use magic to enhance the explosiveness of the already magically enhanced cannonball. We have the element of surprise so aim for the head. If we take out the pilots, they’ll have to commandeer it with magic and doing so will decrease the amount of magic users so it will decrease the proficiency of their shields and de-enchant its blade! Good luck and let’s make ‘em pay for all the suffering they have committed. It's time we strike back towards Crystalline and show her that the rebellion will NOT be defeated as easily as she has led herself to believe! Stand together and help me destroy this threat and send it back to Queen Bitch as a can-opener!”

She could hear the cheering coming from every direction of the airship. Smiling to herself for such a great speech; she yelled, “OPEN FIRE!”

All the cannons on the left side of the ship fired simultaneously and it struck their intended target’s head. The explosion was absolutely fantastic as it completely destroyed the head; frying the pilots who were once alive inside it. The automaton had almost fell, but was picked right back up by the magic users, decreasing their defense. Just like Vinyl hoped they would.

Vinyl’s grin grew wider as Wadsworth spun the wheel to turn around the airship so the right side was facing the automaton. Everybody knew that they were to fire at the chest region, where the core was and make it ignite into a glorious explosion. As they fired, a giant shield adorned in the Crystal Empire flag’s colors was levitated into the automaton;s left hand and then used it to defend itself against the oncoming barrage. As the shield was relentlessly hammered by the cannonfire; Vinyl yelled into the PA system for everyone to hold fire to stop them from wasting all their ammunition.

“Flank it; we attack from behind!” she ordered Wadsworth whom immediately complied. The airship went around the behemoth a bit, but Wadsworth had to take immediate defensive maneuvers as he flew it sharply to the left as the automaton swung its sword vertically. He then had to pull up as the automaton swung its blade horizontally. He then turned it around and flew out of it’s range before it could attack again.

Vinyl sighed as she yelled into her PA system, “Activate stealth mode, there’s no other way to attack it without putting ourselves in danger!”

The unicorns aboard the ship were quick to follow their orders as the Base Cannon disappeared from view. The unicorns aboard the automaton got nervous as they prepared to cast a sonar spell but a cannon shot rang out as a wave of disruption magic stopped them from casting the spell leaving the automaton completely vulnerable. Since the disruption magic wasn’t powerful enough to stop the unicorn’s hold on the automaton; they made it cower behind its shield, waiting for an attack. The scouter's tried looking for any sign of the flying ship but they couldn’t at all. The maintenance workers also got nervous as they awaited the inevitable. The back of the automaton was quickly attacked as the explosions caused the machine to stand up but since the explosions were so intense, the arms of the automaton fell off due to not enough stability. The Base Cannon fired more cannonballs into the back as it turned around to allow its left side to attack as well. The explosions caused so much damage to the machine that it was torn in half at the torso. Once the top half of the machine touched the ground, it exploded. Everyone on the airship cheered at their well earned victory and revenge. Wadsworth and Vinyl quickly set course to the Steampunk’s last location and flew off towards it to recover the fate of the rebellion.

The dark smoke cloud of Sombra flew through the wreckage of Automaton 459, looking for any survivors. The twisted green eyes spotted the Captain that was in charge. It was the same captain his queen spoke to and she didn’t tolerate failures of soldiers that she personally gave orders to. The captain was coughing his lungs out, completely surprised that he had managed to survive the fight and the explosions. Once he sat up; you could see all the scrapes, bruises, burn mark and could also see his armor was cracked open like a golden egg. Once he spotted Sombra, his eyes widened in fear as it turned into a tall grey man with black hair and greyish-red armor.

“S-S-Sombra!” stuttered the captain, completely nervous at the darkling’s presence, “I-I didn’t know you’d be h-here!”

As Sombra took a step forward towards the quivering captain, he took a step back from the intimidating shade; visibly shaking. Sombra took another step closer and as did the captain, but unfortunately he tripped over a piece of metal debris from the destroyed automaton. He tried to flap his wings to keep from falling on his back and to regain his balance, but the left wing was grabbed harshly. Sombra used his strength to lift him up and grabbed his throat with his free hand and began to squeeze. The darkling lifted him up even higher as he gazed into the frightened eyes of the so-called fearless soldier and growled, “You failed our queen’sss expectationsss, captain!”

“I-I’m sorry,” he tried to choke out but it was difficult for him because Sombra squeezed even harder; constricting the poor pegasus’ airways. “We-we c-can try again!”

“Queen Cryssstalline doesssn’t tolerate failuresss!” he hissed as his red horn glowed dark purple, his green and red eyes staring into his victim’s very soul; the purple wisps coming from his eyes grew more intense as he cast his dark spell.. The captain’s once blue eyes glowed sickly green as Sombra released his grip and let the inferior captain drop into the metal. The shade started grinning manically as the captain got up and started brushing his arms and legs furiously. He started screaming about spiders and how much he feared them. He brushed them even more intensely as the magic grew stronger as the hallucination spiders bit and crawled even more. He screamed and screamed until his heart couldn’t take it and he fell back down, spazzing out as he had a heart attack until his body seized up and he twitched no more.

Sombra looked down at the dead body and howled into the sky with laughter that could send chills down even a Windigo’s non-existent spine.

Rarity was shaken awake by Octavia, grumbling about how her beauty sleep was rudely interrupted without her consent. Now, not only did she have to share a room with Octavia, but she now had to share it with the annoyingly brash pegasus and her family. It was exhausting! It didn’t also help that Vinyl warned them about the speculations that a spy might be aboard the airship. She really did hate all this tension and stress that came along on this journey. Who knew how it would affect her complexion and beauty. It was even worse still when their roommates were such early birds and had to get up at 4:00, freaking 4:00!

She did still try to primp herself up as usual with the same routine as she always did. Who couldn’t blame her, she had to try and look presentable to such a famous person as Pinkamena.

There was a beep and a voice that came from nowhere and it had broke the fashionista’s concentration. “Get up! We’ve finally arrived to the island in the Crispin Sea!”

Dash, as soon as she heard the announcement, dashed right out of the room with her wife in tow. Big Mac had to stop Applebloom as she attempted to leave and follow them and said, “Eenope!”

“But I wanna see what’s goin’ on?” Applebloom pouted as she stomped her left foot and folded her ears. Rarity chuckled a bit at the childish display and followed Octavia as the musician left the room.

Passing all the crew members and trying to avoid touching any of the dirty and greasy pipes; she reached where Vinyl, Wadsworth, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Octavia were waiting for her.

When she joined the circle, Wadsworth cleared his throat and informed them, “Okay. I found the wreckage of a boat that I believe the Steampunk must’ve taken. There seem to be some survivors wandering the island, trying to build a boat to escape or something. Hopefully, one of them is the Steampunk we’re looking for.”

“Good job, Wadsworth!” Vinyl complimented her long-time personal assistant before she faced the others and ordered, “We’ll land on this island and help the survivors any way we can. Maybe they will tell us the location of the Steampunk or maybe we’ll even find her ourselves.”

She then turned to face Rainbow Dash and asked, “What does she look like, act like, and talk like? We’ll need some details if we’re gonna find her ASAP!”

Rainbow Dash fluffed her wings a bit and smugly smiled as she answered cryptically, “You’ll tell, I can guarantee that 100%”

When they landed next to the grey, broken in half boat; they split and decided it was best to divide and conquer. Thankfully, Rarity was sent to the western beachside where it appeared like there was another unfinished boat. She was rather glad she was sent this way instead of having to step foot into that dirty grimy ship. There weren’t that much survivors in this area and it appeared to be mostly just earthlings and pegasi.

As she analyzed the area, she noticed immediately a weird looking oven. Curious, she walked over to it and could smell sweets that were being baked in them. The area was also surrounded by flour and other miscellaneous ingredients she didn’t care to list out. The oven itself looked to be steampowered and was twice the size of a normal oven that she would see in the Canterlot Kitchens. She reached over to touch it, but found her hand slapped away. She recoiled from the strike and looked over to her attacker with the most stern and intimidating look she could muster, only to have it melted away as she looked at the expression plastered on her attacker’s face.

It was a big smile, but not like the ones she was used to seeing on the faces of those snotty little nobles back in Canterlot. It was innocent and genuine, unlike the conniving and smug smiles she was used to seeing. The girl was pink and she was covered in muck and grime like she had been literally swimming in filth. Her hair was outrageously poofy and completely full of curls. Her charming blue eyes could be seen as innocent as her smile and was basically shimmering with the joyous arua this girl seemed to carry around her. It was like one of Rarity’s favorite scented candles that she loved to use, especially to make things as romantic as possible. When she spoke, her voice was filled with an unnerving amount of cheer and happiness. “Nu uh! Food isn’t done yet!”

Rarity was quick to regain the posture she had unknowingly lost and said, “Sorry about that. It’s just… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The pink girl rolled her eyes and giggled, “Of course you haven’t seen it before, silly! It’s a prototype that I had built a while ago! I managed to increase its capacity and decreased the amount of time needed to cook things. I’d tell you how it works and how I built it, but you’d look at me all funny and go ‘What did that crazy girl just say, I didn’t understand a word that came out of her mouth!’ and walk off all super duper confused!”

She then gasped as her eyes had widened in realization, “Holy Celestia! I’ve never seen YOU before! Were you hiding from me? You should’ve told me we were going hide n’ seek, I love that game!”

The alabaster fashionista was rendered completely speechless. How could someone be so positive and childish at a time and age like this one? Everyone was usually all very serious, depressed, or exhausted, yet this girl somehow was completely different. It was actually a bit of a breath of fresh air to meet someone so… lively and energetic. She had finally found the words she was scrounging up from her brain and retold what Vinyl had told her to say if she was put into a situation like this. “We came upon your wreckage and we decided to help out.”

The girl’s smile dropped and was replaced by a very confused frown and stated,”What? Nobody ever goes out here, not even Crystalline’s ships since the entire Captain Heartstrings fiasco. I wonder if those pirate tales are true. The only way you would’ve found us is if you’re looking for us or if you’re part of Heartstrings’ crew!”

Rarity was so shocked at the stranger’s guess and her heart started racing. Vinyl didn’t prepare her for this. How was she supposed to answer? How should she answer? What could she do know? Tell the truth and expose them? What-?

“Or we’re just very lucky!” she shouted as she jumped in place, her hair and ears bobbing with her.

“Y-yes! V-very lucky,” she stammered, trying to get over her mini-heart attack and her weird version of twenty questions.

“Yay!” the pink girl shouted with full enthusiasm, pumping a fist into the air with a big beaming smile on her face. She calmed herself down a bit and looked at Rarity with such happy eyes. Eyes that Rarity couldn’t stop staring at until a hand was thrusted in front of her face as the girl introduced herself, “Oh yeah! Introductions are in order! The name is Pinkamena Diane Pie or Pinkie Pie for short!”

Rarity recoiled from the dirty hand, a look of disgust on her face. Gah! I’m not shaking that hand! It’s dirty and… and… wait a minute! Rarity’s eyes widened as she had just caught on to the girl’s name and she gasped.

“What!? Did I-,” Pinkie began, but she was cut off as she was deafened as the fashionista turned around and yelled out: “GUYS! I FOUND HER! SHE’S HERE ON THE WESTERN BEACHSIDE!”

Rarity turned back around to flash the Steampunk with a smile, but somehow the girl had completely disappeared from view and Rarity whispered to herself, “Uh oh!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘YOU LOST HER!?’ HOW COULD SHE DISAPPEAR BEFORE YOUR VERY OWN EYES!?” Vinyl angrily demanded, her white face taken over with the red of rage. She stared down at Rarity who was slightly trembling with fear; her ears flat against her skull.

Before Rarity could answer; Rainbow Dash flew to her defense. “Hey! Pinkie Pie usually vanishes and appears out of nowhere and she is basically the queen at hiding! Thankfully, I’ve played Hide n’ Seek long enough to possibly know where she is hiding. I’ll find her faster than any of you can say ‘Rainbow Dash is awesome’,” she declared as she flew off, only to stop and to turn around to face the unfunctional oven. She rolled her eyes as she zipped over to it and opened it. Pinkie Pie fell out, frowning slightly.

“Aw! You found me! You were always really good at the Seek part, Dashie!” the girl pouted before stepping up and brushing herself off, her outfit surprisingly without at the dirt and grime it had on it later.

“Well, Pinks. I learned to look in places that anybody would’ve least expected you to be in. I knew you were just probably hiding in plain sight and that you love to bake so I put 2 and 2 together and figured out where you were hiding!” Dash stated as she smugly smiled.

“Yep! Just like old times!” she exclaimed as she wrapped her long-time friend into a hug. She looked over Dash’s shoulder and spotted Applejack and Octavia and put on a confused face. “Why is AJ and Octi here? I thought Octi was supposed to be spying on that nasty queen and that you and AJ were helping out with the hunger in Ponyville.”

Dash released her friend from their embrace and adopted a somber face. The steampunk’s smile faltered a bit and Rarity had noticed that her eyes were losing that spark she saw in them earlier as she asked, with less joy evident in her voice, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s better if we tell you on the airship.”

“So they found her!” the crystal queen smiled as she sat on her throne, looking through Sombra’s eyes and conversing with him telepathically.

“Ssso it would ssseem! Do I take her now?” hissed Sombra as he floated inside the Base Cannon, using the shadows to hide from the crew members aboard.

“No!” ordered Crystalline as got up off her throne. “My spy will make sure they stop at Canterlot. Then, when you gather the Canterlot Elite, will you take their ship and drive it back to the Crystal Empire. To me!”

“Asss you wish, Cryssstalline!”

“Yes… as I wish! Now, while you are bringing my steampunk back to me; I’ve got a wedding to plan!” she cackled; the blue flames of the torches in her throne room flickering even more intensely.

Author's Note

Well, we finally introduced Pinks and are about to go back to Headquarters (of course there will be bumps on the road, I just presented two of them for you: one obvious and one being foreshadowed. Cookie for who can figure both out!) To warn you, the story will take a bit longer to upload because I'm going to make sure its a long one with a little more... well, can't spoil it! See ya later.