Having made her way back to Ponyville, Twilight saw that the royal guard's pegasi had beat her back by some time, and were in the process of herding the crowd back to their homes. Unicorn and Earth pony guards were busy fabricating barriers between the forest and the small town, in preparation of that....thing....following. She knew, however, that wooden barricades likely wouldn't even slow it down, let alone stop it.

She figured that despite lacking magic, the powerful, ancient relics known as the Elements of Harmony would prove a potent weapon against this new breed of terror. As luck would have it, her friends, the living embodiment and bearers of the artifacts, were willingly making their way towards the forest edge in anticipation of yet another potentially world-saving adventure. Upon seeing her, they changed direction to group up, all familiar with the 'stick together to save the world' situation. Had she not been recovering from her fright, Twilight would have had a little laugh at that; since when does saving the world become commonplace in a pony's life?

"So, Twi, whats going on, and how fast can we stop it? I've still got a full night of sleep ahead of me." Rainbow Dash never had a firm grasp on priorities.

"Well..." Twilight began, but paused. What was going on? Something fell from the sky, and she panicked at the noises and actions it made. While incredibly frightening, yes, it wasn't necessarily hostile. It was smoking just before it flew back, maybe it was malfunctioning? Maybe it needed help? "I'm not sure. That's really what we're going to find out." A calm, rational investigation to dispel (or confirm) any fears.

With a certain prismatic pegasus rolling her eyes, the six friends headed into the dark forest.

Just as she'd suspected, when they reached the initial impact crater, the massive golem was nowhere in sight. It did, however, leave a trail of destruction leading deeper into the forest, so the girls knew where it had gone. Twilight briefly explained what little she knew to the group: some massive metal....thing fell from the sky, and reacted to unicorns' magic. After it spoke in some strange language, it rushed out of sight, crashing through the trees. The plan was simple: follow the devastation and find out just what the being was, and what it wanted.

Be it grogginess from the late hour, or just the anticipation of venturing into the unknown, nopony says a word as they press on; Its clear all the girls are feeling more than a bit nervous. As they trekked further into the forest, decaying sickly trees with warning branches became the norm, with the grass below dying out and scarcely showing through a thick layer of mud.

"Um, girls," Fluttershy began, breaking the eerie silence. "D-do any of these trees look sort of...."

"Familiar?" Applejack finished, though it was clear she wasn't the only one thinking so. "Why ancient evil always makes us stumble through these woods, I'll never know..."

With the familiarity established, they more or less retraced their steps to where they first discovered the Elements of Harmony, despite the creature zigzagging through the woods. Eventually, the trees and vines no longer surround the group, the forest thinning out and leading to a rocky cliff; the smoldering remains of a once hanging rope bridge can be seen hanging from each side of the chasm. Just beyond the gap, they could just make out the outline of an ancient, intimidating castle.

Given Twilight's proficiency in magic compared to their last visit, teleporting the group across (those who couldn't simply fly across, of course) was no major challenge. The six friends slowly approached the old castle. Time was not kind to the aged structure, and it appeared to have fallen into an even greater state of disrepair in the years since their last visit during the return of Nightmare Moon. Deep, round depressions in the stone itself signaled the giant's presence within the castle. Stepping cautiously through the open archway, they entered the dark hall of the ancient palace. Occasionally they could hear a deep thump or two coming from the throne room, signalling the heavy hoof-falls of the beast as it....did something.

"Why d'you figure a giant metal monster would come here? What's it want with Celestia's and Luna's old castle?"

"I don't know....maybe its looking for something?" Twilight couldn't feel anything magical controlling the metal monster, but magic had to have been in play here. Whoever created this thing must have been after something in the castle. But to what end?

"Um, girls? Did any of you notice that thing just sort of....stopped? It was moving about in the next room a few seconds ago, and now...."

And eerie silence filled the entranceway as the girls all listened for the beast's movement. Without warning, the wall separating the throne room from the atrium. The metal being ran towards them, raising an arm above its head and bringing it crashing down near where Rainbow Dash had been seconds prior.

Flying in the air, she screamed at the beast. "Hey! Whats the big idea, you tin can?"

Recovering from its miss, it tried reaching for her, but she proved much too fast, zipping past its flailing hands in an aerodynamic, multi-chromatic blur. Not one for sitting idly by, Applejack reared kicked at one of its massive hooves, but before making contact she was zapped by some invisible energy and flung backwards from the beast. Despite the powerful electric shock, Twilight still hadn't registered any magic coming from the golem. Still, a blue field appeared just off the surface of the creature, a honeycomb knitting itself together where Applejack had kicked.

Lighting up her horn, Twilight scanned the being as best she could. Something about it was....off. It completely resisted her magic, but didn't actively struggle against her. She pushed onward mentally. As she scanned it, the metal giant stumbled and crashed into another wall, electricity running down its entire form. With a light ping, the blue shield vanished, being replaced by a bright yellow hex pattern. It rose from the rubble, and seemed to gaze at Twilight, who found herself somehow blocked from scanning it further; despite this she was certain of three things: the being contained strange and potentially vital internal components, operating like a radio but infinitely more complicated, it was operating free of any magical source, despite its massive power draw coming from some strange thing within its back, and it's torso was almost completely hollow compared to the rest of its body's construction. Almost caught completely in thought, Twilight shook herself alert, facing the now towering behemoth before her.

Charging up her horn for a teleport, the being surprised her by dashing forward in a surprising display of speed. It grabbed her in one of its massive hands, to the shock of everypony present. She tried to teleport again, and was rewarded with a sharp pain in her head. Whatever change happened with that sound and lightshow, it was cancelling her magic. It squeezed her in its hand, threatening to crush her. She gasped and struggled, trying to break free, but its solid metal hands wouldn't budge. Without warning, however, it let her fall to the ground, stood stock still for a few seconds, and then bolted for the entrance of the castle. Crashing through the wall, it made its way back into the forest path it came from.

Too shocked and sore to give immediate pursuit, Twilight simply lay there, gasping for breath. Ever eloquent, Rainbow voiced what was surely on all their minds: "What in the hay was that about?!"

Author's Note

Can you tell Im not very comfortable with writing these horse chapters?
Gonna stick to the pilot as much as I can, that shits easy
Shield core OP as shit though
Loves me that charge hum

Also
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS STORY
NOBODY WAS SUPPOSED TO LIKE IT
I WAS JUST SUPER BORED
ATTRITION IS A SUPER DUMB NAME
ITS GONNA BE SHORT AND BAD
AAAAAAAAAAAAA