“So, can anypony tell me what the hell is going on?” Dash asked as she hopped out of the hovercraft.

The trip back to… wherever this was hadn’t been too long. Just an hour of flying while evading what seemed to be patrols and navigating through mountains and forests. In the end, they were located somewhere near the mountains separating the Crystal Kingdom from Equestria, but she couldn’t pinpoint the location exactly.

Spitfire turned off the hovercraft and hopped out. “I guess you deserve an explanation. Dash, you were gone for a long time. Five years have passed since you were captured.”

The orange pegasus motioned for Dash to follow. As they walked, Dash could finally take in the place. Screeching could be heard, engines flaring, ponies walking and talking or working on hovercrafts. But all of this was new to Dash. She had never seen that flying thing before. She had never seen those robots before.

Indeed, among the ponies walked robots. Grey, shiny, holding trays filled with items or wielding tools while assisting the mechanics with their jobs. This entire place looked just like it had been ripped from that recent Daring Do book she had read, where Daring investigated a futuristic base.

The rise of Samaritan, the book was called. Daring had been lead to the base due to recent disappearances in a nearby town. Of course, she wasn’t a vigilante but she also couldn’t stand knowing that there was a creep running around, abducting ponies, and she just turned and looked the other way. So, deep in the Eastern Woods, the base had been located and what followed was a story filled with sneaking, close encounters and over the top suspense. All the while, Dash had thought that Daring might have exaggerated her story a little… until now.

“Captured how?” Dash cocked her head to the side, turning her attention back to her savior.

“Well, I don’t know how it happened. I just know that it did, Dash. Five years ago, on a summer afternoon, word came to Cloudsdale that Canterlot had fallen to some kind of virus. Ponies infected by said virus lost all emotion. They would stiffen up, march like these robots you see here now. Their eyes were white as well. It was all very, very strange.” Spitfire started to explain, leaving the hangar and heading into a hallway.

“At first, other cities and towns sent help, mostly medical ponies like doctors and nurses. When they didn’t return and outgoing information was hard to come by, they stopped sending ponies and put up a quarantine. Thing is, that gave our enemy the time to develop…”

Five years ago, 23 of August, year 1003 post Nightmare Moon

Spitfire hid inside one of the many houses of Canterlot, looking through a window to see if the streets were clear. She had been sent here to help the doctors cure the victims of this disease, but after a few hours, it became clear that this disease couldn’t be cured with the help of medicine, and right now she was being hunted.

At first, these ponies had been docile. Sure, she had been a bit creeped out by their mindless gaze, emotionless look, and white eyes, but they didn’t really do anything to spread the infection. When asked to follow, they did. When asked to lie down on a bed for examination, they did. It was only a few hours later that things turned south.

She was inside the hospital when it had happened. It had been filled to the brim with infected ponies because the majority of Canterlot had been infected by the virus. She didn’t see it herself but it was rumored that the Princesses were infected as well. Either way, she was standing guard at one of the doors when she heard a piercing scream and rumbling behind her. Turning her head to look inside the room, she gasped at what she saw.

All of those infected ponies had either pounced or grabbed the nurses and doctors inside the room. They tried to resist, naturally, but in some weird way the infected ponies were a lot stronger. Her eyes darted over the entire room before landing on a nurse, pink maned with a light milky white coat. She was screaming loudly; her scream was so piercing that Spitfire could have sworn the glass beside her was going to break. Spitfire moved to rescue her, but she was too late. The pony lying on top of her, a red stallion with an orange mane, kissed her.

At the time, Spitfire didn’t know what that meant, so she had flown over and pulled the stallion off of the mare, slamming him against the wall with a loud thud. It had disorientated him a little it seemed, because he shook his head and fell to the floor. That had given her enough time to turn around and help the mare.

She couldn’t. She was too late. Spitfire noticed the mare’s breathing, deep and fast but slowly calming down. But what shocked Spitfire the most were her eyes. Filled with fear at first, they began to dim before her pupils and irises faded, leaving only a white orb behind.

Spitfire might not have been a doctor or nurse, but she definitely knew what that meant. She had been infected. A kiss, a few seconds contact, was enough to infect another pony. So shocked at what she saw, Spitfire didn’t notice the stallion behind her getting up before grabbing her wrists tightly.

“Ah! Let go of me!” She shouted, pulling against his grip, trying to free herself. The stallion’s grip was quite strong, though. It almost felt like rope, never budging, knowing just how he had to grab her in order to prevent her escape.

Suddenly, a small shuffling could be heard in front of her and she turned her head. Her worst fears had come true. The mare who had just been lying there was standing up, looking directly at her. “Target located. Activating conversion protocols.” She stated in a monotone and robotic voice.

The mare moved in for the kill. Moved in for the kiss. But Spitfire had been trained in martial arts and she was determined to get out of this situation somehow.

“Like hell you will!” she shouted, raising one of her legs and kicking the drone behind her, right against his shin. The drone didn’t seem to be affected by the pain she had just caused him but there was still the slightest reaction to her kick… his grip.

As the drone lost his grip on her arms, Spitfire spread her wings and kicked the drone once again the process. She flew up, just in time to evade the grasp and kiss of the mare drone in front of her. A quick look around the room gave her an indication on just how grave the situation was. All the nurses and all the doctors had been infected, looking just like those who were first infected. She was, right now, the only pony in the room who was still herself.

She couldn’t waste any time. She had to get out of here and find her fellow guards. At the moment, regrouping and coming up with a plan was the priority here. Spitfire turned and flew to the door, racing through the open doorway before quickly slamming it shut behind her, locking it with the key, and trapping the drones inside.

“I’m sorry, but this is for your own well being,” she said, looking through the glass of the door. Against her expectations, they hadn’t pursued her at all. They just seemed to stare forward into nothingness, just mindlessly gazing ahead. After a few second, though, they spoke up, all at once.

“Applying Drone Suit.” they all stated in sync before a shiny, fluid-like fabric began to wash over their bodies, eating away clothing and replacing it with a shiny suit. It kind of looked like the fabric that she wore when she trained with the Wonderbolts, but her suit wasn’t as tight as the one that was on them.

Still, she had other concerns right now. She had locked them inside so they couldn’t escape via the door, which should give her enough time to flee the building. Which she did. Immediately.

“So, I left the building and flew to the nearest command center of the local guard. They were holding out, it seemed. They set up an evacuation while some stayed behind to buy us time to escape. I managed to flee with them, but it was only later that I heard that you were in Canterlot as well that day. You were captured and droned, Dash.” Spitfire explained, having finally finished her story.

To Dash, it took some time to wrap her head around it. She couldn’t remember that day at all! As if it had been wiped from her memory somehow. Still, she trusted Spitfire, so what the mare told her must have been true. “Five years… wow…” It felt like she had been napping the entire time actually, not able to remember much at all.

“Yes, five years Dash. You won’t remember much first, but in time your memories shall come back to you. And trust me, I’ve seen it before, those we save eventually get confronted by their memories of being a drone… and well, it will take some willpower to get over it. I have complete faith in you, of course.” That smile from Spitfire meant a lot to Dash; her idol believed in her!

Dash chuckled, though it was a really uncomfortable chuckle. “Yeah… memories… fun. Anyway, how did you free me? I mean, I remember waking up in a room and broken pipes all around me. Is that enough to free me?”

“Not at all, but it did help. You can see that we are quite advanced when it comes to technology, yes? Mainly by taking weapons and items left behind by the Robotic Empire after battles. But it did help with creating a weapon, a very powerful one. You were our first test subject, Dash. You… helped us test what might be the only way of freeing ponies from the Empire’s control.” She walked with Dash through the hallways, bringing her to the preparation room before bringing her to the main control room.

“Really? How?”

“Nanites.” Came Spitfire’s simple answer. “Just as the Empire uses nanites to take control of ponies, we’ll use them to make everypony free again. The pipe that blew up in the room you were in? Not a coincidence. That was our doing.”

“But… how did you do it?” Dash demanded.

“That’s classified, I’m afraid.” Came the short response and the look on Spitfire’s face clearly showed that she didn’t want to discuss that matter right now.

Ugh, military ponies and their classified orders. Dash decided to drop the subject for now. “So, you actually targeted me specifically?” It was quite confusing to Dash, that out of all ponies who could be freed, like the powerful Princesses, or the easy targets in the town, they decided to free her. “Why me?”

“Because you possess something that no other drone has, Dash. Loyalty. We didn’t know if the nanites would work on a normal drone because it didn’t have such powerful loyalty inside of them. You do. We knew that, if you were to get weaker programming, your loyalty would resist it and most likely break free. That was what happened.” She walked with Dash into the preparation room, pointing at a single chair in the middle of the room.

“Alright… so I understand that somehow you blew up the pipes, had nanites stored in them, infected me, and then my mind broke free thanks to my loyalty. What is that, exactly? The loyalty aspect, I mean? I thought it was just one of my personality traits?” She followed Spitfire’s instructions in the meantime, walking to the chair and sitting down.

“Yes and no. True, it’s a part of your personality, but it is something more as well. It’s magical and powerful. Your loyalty is magic, Dash! A very ancient one. One you and your five friends have been gifted with. Yes, I’m talking about the Elements of Harmony. Each aspect such a loyalty, honesty, kindness, and the others can all help in our fight against the drones. They are pure, only restricted by the drone programming but not corrupted. By freeing you… we can save ponies again, we can cure them. We can restore them to their former selves.” The way Spitfire spoke about that made it seem clear that she vastly believed in it and in these troubled times believing in something was something admirable. By believing, one had hope, one had the power to continue fighting. Dash could only respect that.

What I don’t understand is how that will affect the other drones? They don’t have loyalty.” Dash asked, cocking her head to the side.

“We have thought about that, no worries. All we have to do is infuse a bit of your essence of loyalty into the nanites and that shall help with breaking the drones free. But don’t worry, it won’t happen until later. For now, sit back and relax.” Spitfire softly instructed as she walked to a table which stood against the wall to the right. To the left of them stood a vat of highly, powerful acid, its use soon becoming clear to Dash.

The table held many different tools and items for Spitfire to use. To her right were all kinds of vials, small, large, thick, and all were filled with an eerie grey liquid. There were also a few empty vials, most of them placed against the wall. She didn’t need them right now though. No, the tools she needed had been placed to her left. Scissors, knives, sharp points, and a handheld laser device.

Grabbing the device, Spitfire turned and walked back to Dash. “So, there is just one thing we need to do before you can meet our leader. I need to take that suit off of you, as it still has some remnant nanites inside of it which might corrupt you again.”

Dash began to blush, knowing that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath the suit. Sure, the suit revealed her form a bit too well. After all, if one looked carefully, they could see the outline of her nipples or the spot between her legs but it still felt a bit better than being completely naked. “Do I have to?”

“Do you want to turn into a drone again?”

Dash shook her head.

“Thought so. Don’t worry, it’ll be like when we used to shower together when we both were still part of the Wonderbolts. You’ve seen my body, I’ve seen yours. Just think about that and everything shall be alright.” The voice was comforting to Dash and she visibly relaxed, starting to loosen her muscles a little.

“Sooo… why are the nanites dangerous again? I mean, I saw the headphones on the drones’ heads. Those control them, no?”

Dash flinched when she saw the laser turn on and for a moment she had thought it would burn her skin, but Spitfire was pretty careful not to do that. Instead, the orange pegasus started to laser Dash’s neck, cutting the latex over her throat in two and starting to go down.

“No, they don’t… well, not exactly. It has taken a while, but we have recently uncovered how the drones work. When they first get converted, they receive nanites in their body. I told you that in my story, right? However, while these nanites turn them into drones, it’s the headphones that gives them orders. They can still act without the headphones, just less efficiently.” Spitfire explained, now cutting down Dash’s shoulders and sides.

That was, at first, a bit hard to understand. It seemed that somehow the drones were controlled twofold. First, the nanites would convert them and keep them into a drone-like state while the headphones would give them orders to obey and follow. Only now it dawned on Dash how fundamentally controlled she had been.

“So in order to free a pony, taking the headphones off isn’t enough, is it? We also have to somehow destroy the nanites that have converted them?” She looked down, seeing her friend now working on her flank, her cutie mark appearing for the first time in five years.

“You catch on, good. But yes, simply taking the headphones on isn’t enough because then the drone goes into an automated cycle where it shall seek out the nearest control post to get another pair of headphones. And since the suit is the main producer of the nanites, we have to get it off of you before it starts to affect you again.”

At the moment, Spitfire was now working on Dash’s hips and upper legs. She was aware that she would see Dash naked but since they had seen each other naked in the Wonderbolts shower, she kept her composure and so did Dash. Still, Spitfire did have to admit that she had seen worse bodies. She had never seen the drones train like the Wonderbolts used to do but their bodies were quite fit. Somehow, the Empire must have found a way to keep the muscle mass on a drone’s body perfect.

“So, what exactly happens after this? After meeting your leader, I mean?” Dash asked, looking down as she held one arm over her breasts to cover herself a little. Dash liked to show off, but she wasn't that immodest

“Hmmm, the fight continues.” She simply replied, the laser cutting more and more downward, loosening the entire latex suit until it reached Dash’s latex boots. There, Spitfire had to turn up the power of the laser a bit since the boots were made out of a much stronger type of latex.

“We’ve been fighting for years and we shall keep fighting until we have freed all the ponies. And we do need you, Dash. Our numbers have been dwindling through the years but with you at our side, we know that we can be victorious in this fight. Foreign nations might even decide to intervene now.” She finally reached the end of the suit and turned off the laser. “There we go, you can step out completely now.”

Dash nodded and began to step out of the remaining suit which was hugging her body, feeling it fall away from her body like some kind of soft fabric. But she knew better. She knew what this suit was capable of. What it did to ponies. Stepping down on the cold, hard floor, she sighed deeply, a feeling of relief coming over her. She was truly free now.

“What do you mean, other nations? There are still unconverted nations in the world?”

“Oh, indeed. In fact, this Robotic Empire thing… it’s more of an Equestrian crisis than a global crisis, but it shall become global if Equestria falls completely. These drones don’t show any signs of stopping, after all.” Spitfire walked back to the table where she had taken the laser, putting it back down. “However, the other nations didn’t want to interfere, not even our so called allies of Zebrica.” Spitfire spat at the mere mention of Zebrica, a hatred for that country had formed deep inside of her.

“So… we’re alone in this thing, then?” Dash inquired before she saw Spitfire handing her a bra, underwear, a shirt, some pants, as well as a pair of comfortable shoes. All in all, with the black shirt and the jeans, she would look quite casual, as if nothing had happened in the world.

“Indeed. The other nations fear the Robotic Empire and don’t want to help us because they don’t want to see a robotic invasion into their lands. However, if we fall, an invasion shall happen either way, so they’re pretty much shooting themselves in the foot. Oh, by the way, we normally wear uniforms, but we don’t have your size yet. We’re working on it though, so you should have your uniform in a day or two.”

Spitfire grabbed the destroyed latex suit with her hands which were covered by a pair of protective rubber gloves. She walked over to a vat of highly concentrated hydrofluoric acid. Letting go, she dropped the suit into the acid, the substance immediately working on eating up the entire suit and thus, in turn, destroying the nanites.

Dash slipped on the bra and panties. They were perhaps a bit too big for her, especially since she wasn’t really known for having large breasts, but they would do for now. “Hmmm, that means I’ll have to fight in these clothes for now.”

However, a chuckle from Spitfire made her turn towards the mare with a frown on her face. “Oh Dash, I know you’re eager but we simply can’t allow you to fight immediately. You have been mentally enslaved for over five years, who knows what kind of effects might still linger in your mind. And besides, you must be exhausted as well. No, you’ll stay here until we deem that you are up for the fight.”

“What?!” Came the immediate outburst. “But the ponies! My friends! I need to save them. I can’t let them stay like… well, how I was.”

“And you shall, in time. Not right now. Remember, Dash, we are outnumbered here. Perhaps a hundred to one. In just one battle they can defeat us all. This isn’t a total war, this is guerrilla warfare. We need to pick our battles carefully, work from the shadows, and thus patience is key here. Without proper planning, we are doomed. That’s why you’re not in charge, after all.” Spitfire motioned with her finger for Dash to follow her back out of the room.

“I know that I’m not in charge here, but still, it feels wrong abandoning my friends like this.” She sighed before following Spitfire out of the room, having fully dressed herself.

“Oh, trust me, I felt the same way when Cloudsdale fell, when I saw all my cadets being taken by those drones. I wanted to go in there, save them, but I knew that it would only lead to me joining them. No, sometimes retreating and waiting is the better option. But you’re not alone in this, Dash. We are all here to help you.” Spitfire walked past one of the resistance soldiers who handed her a folder.

“Ah, is this the report from our reconnaissance of Silent Creek?” She asked, looking at the soldier. She was a mare, with a white coat and a mint green mane and tail. Her eyes were a soft purple, and constantly looked at Spitfire.

Angel Grace nodded quickly. “Yes, Captain, our observation party has managed to return without getting noticed. You’ll read the full details in the folder but I can tell you that the town of Silent Creek is mostly deserted by now. There are still a few drones who are working on exploiting its natural ore reserves, but they won’t be a real threat if we attack them.”

“Hmmm, I shall take it to the Commander. She’ll decide if we’ll attack the town or not.” Nodding, she allowed Angel Grace to leave again before continuing her walk to the Commander’s office.

“So, the Commander, who is she?” Dash inquired, keeping her eyes peeled for anything abnormal in this base. Applejack would have called it paranoia, but Dash was aware that all of this could be a trap set up by the drones and their Empire somehow, even though it seemed highly unlikely.

“You know what they say about curiosity, Dash… but honestly, have patience. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.” There was a slight tone of glee in Spitfire’s voice, playful even.

After a quick march through the base, the two ponies walked into another office, this one actually larger than all the others in the base. Spitfire took a step to the side and Dash could finally gaze at the back of the Commander, her mouth dropping open.

“No… it can’t be…”

The Commander turned around, her blue eyes looking at Dash, pink mouth smiling. “Rainbow Dash, it’s so good to see you again!” Pinkie’s eyes teared up a bit and she ran over to Dash, hugging her friend tightly, to the point that she didn’t want to let go, even if she suffocated Dash in the process.

The pegasus mare didn’t mind, though. Her friend was here! She had thought all of her friends had been taken by the drones. But no, Pinkie was here, leading the resistance. Just like Pinkie, Dash couldn’t hold back her tears and cried into Pinkie’s neck, the two not wanting to let go.

After a minute of hugging tightly and allow each other to express their emotions in this teary manner, they pulled away again and looked at each other. Only now Dash could see how different Pinkie looked.

The most obvious change was her mane and tail. They were deflated, not their vibrant pink color and fluffy all over but instead a darker shade of pink. Dash could understand that, of course, this world would do a number of things on a pony’s mood. But the most disturbing change was the giant scar across Pinkie’s face, starting at her right eye and going down in a diagonal pattern, going to the left end of her mouth.

“Pinkie, what happened?” Dash examined the scar. It was deep, recently healed as well.

“Oh, that… that’s nothing, Dash. At least nothing you need to worry about.”

Dash wasn’t happy with that answer, but she did realize that she couldn’t push Pinkie for answers. She was just so glad to see her friend again, after such a long time of being a drone. She gave Pinkie one final hug before letting go and taking a step back. “How have you… well, been doing?”

“Honestly, times are hard.” Pinkie replied and walked back to her desk. Her usual upbeat and happy personality was hard to find at the moment but considering the current situation, it was understandable. “We’re getting hit from all sides by the drones. We’re not the only resistance base, you see, but with every passing week, fewer and fewer bases report in. If something doesn’t change soon, we’ll be defeated in less than two months.”

The situation was indeed very, very grave. If one had to put Equestria into statistics, then about 90 percent of the entire country had been taken over. Only a few lingering resistance bases here and there, as well as the only free city, Las Pegasus, still managed to put up some kind of fight. But Las Pegasus was under constant siege, and the drones were actively seeking out and destroying resistance bases, so it was quite clear who was on the losing side.

Dash looked at the map on Pinkie’s desk, seeing where the bases were located and how the frontlines around Las Pegasus had been developing over the past few weeks. It seemed that the Resistance wasn’t backing down without a fight, making the drones fight for every inch of land around Las Pegasus. “So, we’re losing?”

“Yes, that’s the gist of it.”

“But, what about your recent development? I mean, the nanites you used to save me? Can’t you use that to fight the drones and save Equestria?” Dash sat down in front of the desk. Surely something had to be done.

Pinkie looked at Spitfire who nodded back. “Spitfire told you about your loyalty, correct? And how it was key in freeing you? Well, then she also told you that it won’t work on other ponies like that because they don’t have loyalty.”

“Then just take my loyalty and use it so save the other ponies.”

“It’s not that simple. Dash, what we did with you, how we saved you. It was, perhaps, a whole lot of luck. It was a gamble, an experiment. We didn’t know if it would work or not. Therefore, I asked willing resistance members, members who wouldn’t mind giving their life for this, to try and save you. It worked, but now comes the hard part. Your loyalty needs to be infused with the nanites, but it needs to happen in such a way that we don’t harm you, our only source of loyalty. Basically, we’re still developing the technology needed for the nanites to work.” It was a pretty big explanation but it all came down to the point that they just weren’t ready yet to launch such an offense against the drones.

Dash has always been a brash mare, a mare who wanted things to happen immediately and that flaw in her personality once again showed itself. “Are you serious?” She asked irritated, smashing her hand on the oaken desk. “You saved me but you don’t know what comes after? I know you’re not a planner like Twilight and neither am I, but at least you must have some idea as to what to do next?”

“Dash, you’re not listening! I told you what comes next. We develop the required technology and then use your loyalty.” Pinkie countered, keeping herself calm and composed.

“And how long will that take, huh? Weeks? Months? And what about the ponies during this time? How many get killed? How many become drones? Are you willing to hand over all those ponies to the drones just because the technology isn’t ready yet?”

Pinkie sighed, looking down at the floor. “Trust me, saving ponies is the only thing I want to do right now. I want to help them and how I wished that the technology was ready, but that’s just how it is, Dash, that’s just how it is right now. I promise you that we will save ponies, that we will rescue them, but all in due time. For now, you get some rest, and we’ll develop the technology. Do not worry, we’ll send you on rescue missions soon enough. Dash… I’m glad you’re with us again.”

Another hug was shared between the two elements, and although Dash wasn’t really satisfied with having to wait, the voice in the back of her mind told her that Pinkie was right. It would be foolish to attack immediately, without having the required weapons to fight the drones. For now, biding her time would be better.

“Yeah, I’m glad I’m back as well, Pinkie. Thank you for saving me… thank you all for saving me.” Smiling, she let go of her friend and allowed one of the guards to lead her to her new room. Actually, some rest sounded really good right now.

Back in one of the many bases of the Robotic Empire, the former Twilight Sparkle marched through the silver, shiny hallways, her strides stiff and rigid, only one thought in her mind. At the moment it was quite hard to recognize any aspect of Twilight’s former life, aside from her outward appearance and even then only her head remained visible, the rest of her body covered in a tight, smooth, latex suit.

T-638 eventually marched into the Control Room, the room where she guided the entire base and the surrounding city of Ponyville, though it was now known as City-02. “Status Report!” She ordered, voice devoid of emotion, showing not a single bit of care for her fellow units. Only her tasks were important to her, only obedience, and after the failure of getting Dash back, she knew that she wasn’t allowed to make any more mistakes.

A unit walked over, saluting the Prime Drone. Her white coat, purple-rose mane, and the horn on her head immediately betrayed who this mare was. Sweetie Belle, now an adult, had been droned as well, put into an aging machine, and was then sent off to T-638’s base to help the Prime Drone as one of her personal assistant drones.

“Hail the Controller!” The now S-701 shouted before handing the Prime Drone a tablet. “We have sent out several search parties in order to locate the escaped drone. At the moment, no viable results have been reported but we are in the process of analyzing the remnants of the hovercraft’s exhaust in order to locate its travel pattern.”

“Understood. These results are not acceptable, S-701. The Controller does not approve of drones breaking their programming or escaping, and because this unit is responsible for this situation, we must do everything in our power to find R-547.” T-638 replied, showing her disappointment in the results, but of course without any kind of true emotion.

Even though T-638 was completely at fault here and had no right to give critique to her drones about this, S-701 didn’t voice her opinion about it, mainly because she didn’t have one. She had been programmed to obey and if her Prime Drone was disappointed in her, then so be it, then she just had to work harder.

“Understood, Prime Drone. We do have another path we could look into.”

“State your idea.” The purple Prime Drone commanded as she marched to the center of the room and sat down on her command chair where she had a clear look over all of the working drones in the room.

“We have picked up a few audio files in a nearby, abandoned hut in Forest-01, the former Everfree Forest. After analyzing the audio on the files, we have calculated the location of a possible resistance base. The coordinates of the possible base are being uploaded to your tablet as we speak.” S-701 stated before looking down at the tablet with her Prime Drone as the map appeared on it.

“Understood.” T-638 began, and observed the map, the possible resistance base located deep inside the Everfree. “This unit has noticed that your calculations point this base near the center of the forest. It is remarkable that you have positioned the possible location there because there is nothing there aside from the Tree of Harmony. Do you believe they are located there?”

“Affirmative, Prime Drone. Even though there are no caves at that location which can house a possible resistance base, the Tree of Harmony is a power source which they might be able to utilize for their own uses, provided they have the technology.” S-701 wasn’t as smart as her Prime Drone, which was also why T-638 was the Prime Drone and not her, but when it came to maps and intelligence gathering, there was no better drone than S-701.

“If you were any other drone, this unit would have disregarded your calculations, S-701. However, you have proven your worth in the past so this unit shall investigate this lead. We shall inform the Zebra Drone Z-103 to take 9 other units and head to the Tree of Harmony. If there truly is a resistance base there, the unit shall inform us and we shall send reinforcements.” With a nod, T-638 handed the tablet back and used her mental connection to the Zebra Drone in Forest-01.

“They shall not escape this time…” T-638 said to herself before looking at the screen in front of her, ready to control her part of the Empire today.

About a day later, Dash woke up from her sleep. It was quite clear to her that she had really, really needed that sleep. Her body had been exhausted and her mind hadn’t been thinking all that well yesterday. She had to apologize to Pinkie for her outburst from yesterday. It wouldn’t feel right to just start her day as if nothing had happened.

After putting on her dark green shirt and pants, as well as a pair of black combat boots, she walked out of her room. She looked like the other resistance members now, part of some kind of army, the desire to save the drones from their fate and destroy whatever caused this mess.

However, as she walked through the hallways, she could see and hear some kind of commotion happening. Ponies were walking around in quite the hurry, talking to each other about an attack. Something had happened while she had been sleeping, Dash was sure of that, but what exactly had happened she didn’t know.

Still, it seemed important and she hurried to Pinkie’s office. Walking inside the office, she noticed Pinkie and Spitfire pointing at a map, their backs turned to Dash.

“What happened?” Dash inquired, walking over to the two.

Pinkie was the first to turn around and sighed. “Something bad. It appears that the drones somehow located one of our refugee camps inside the Everfree. We thought that it was safe. Even the drones do not enter the Everfree most of time, and since it’s so large we believed that it would be very hard for them to find the refugees. They are just kids and elderly…”

“What… so what happened?” It was a stupid question, Dash knew exactly what had happened, what would always happen.

“They got attacked. We don’t know if some managed to hide and save themselves from a drone fate, but it would be wrong to leave any survivors there. I know you won't accept staying behind for something like this. You're too valuable to lose. But I know that won't stop you. So, you'll be going with Spitfire and Soarin, like before. Head to the Everfree and locate any survivors. Please... save them.

“I will. Don’t worry, I will.” And with that, Dash sped out, immediately flying to the hangar bay.

Author's Note

After a long wait, it's finally here! Sorry it took so long. I hired more editors and they each took a look at it! Hope you had fun reading.