Death-rads, shield beating xenos, and multiheaded fucking dragons. This world is 100%, bona fide NOPE. A few minutes into stumbling through the forest, I'd realized I had no idea where I was going; the gaps in the trees were enough that any path could have led back to the castle. Removing my hands from the console, I'd set Borak to AI mode.

"Yeah, okay, I've no clue where we're going. Borak, take us 'home'."

"Of course. Notice: I encountered six unknown hostiles while you were gone. I engaged but was unable to eliminate them before coming for you. Sensors indicate they followed me, and have remained at the clearing with the unknown hostile Titan."

"When were you gonna tell me this, eh? Wait, though....six hostiles? You mean that those six crayon colored bastards were too fast for you? Poor show, Borak, very poor show." I couldn't help but be snarky; those little creatures didn't particularly seem like the kind to be able to evade a giant fist in closed quarters. "You're getting sloppy, mate, I think we need to-"

I was cut off as Borak dashed backwards, throwing me forwards in my seat and crashing into the viewscreen before me.

"Warning, unstable ground detected, evasive maneuvers engaged." The forest was clear, and the ground was stable, there was no reason for the Titan to have....Did....did Borak just fucking one-up me? For a 'simple' AI he proved quite capable of picking up on my bad influences; I'd have him drawing dicks on walls in no time.

Despite the fun, the impact still really hurt. Reaching under the seat for the trauma kit, I popped two naproxen tablets to try and relieve my headache, all the while trying to remember symptoms of rad poisoning. I was pretty sure headaches could also be caused from all the head trauma associated with dropping from atmosphere twice in one day, but the invisible death of radiation was a legitimate cause for concern (though I was almost certain symptoms don't manifest this early unless you're standing in the glowing core of a fusion chamber). I still got a chuckle at the thought of rushing at these xenos, skin sloughing off in great chunks, screaming death and firing wildly. Wouldn't that be something....

We'd eventually made it back to the castle, and I could see it was in an even greater state of disrepair than before. Taking control of the Titan once again, I'd set about demolishing unstable patches of ceiling, as to not have it crash down unexpectedly, as well as moving rubble to block the doorway as best I could; Deterrence and safety, all at once. Finishing that, I'd removed my rifle from its rack, and exited to the cool, if not dusty, air of the castle interior.

"Borak, shut down all unnecessary functions and boost power to the transmitter for....lets say six hours, or whenever dawn is." I wanted to get off this rock, but having an 80-ton paperweight during the light of day is a guaranteed deathwish.

"Understood, entering low power mode. Goodbye, Lieutenant." Borak lowered himself to the ground, planting his fists on the ground like a giant metal gorilla, and powered down most of his processes; I could manually open the hatch if I'd needed to, but the best thing he offered right now was minor ballistic protection now that his shields were off.

Local recon was the name of the game for the next few hours; I should have honestly checked the castle out beforehand, but my curiosity demanded otherwise earlier. With the threat of hostile incursion at hand, however, a suitable holdout position was a necessity, and that meant sealing back entrances, establishing fallback routes, and maybe rigging up a few traps. Also, looking through old-ass castles in general was cool as shit, alien or otherwise.

It was very strange, though, as most everything inside could have been mistaken for human engineering; there were torn rugs on the wall, rotting tapestries hanging from walls, and even sets of armor lining the hallway. It was only minor things that gave it away, such as the illegible glyphs lining the walls, and the fact that full suits of armor were very obviously intended for the equine xenos. The hallway decorated with horse hooves sticking from the walls was extremely unsettling, but I'd expect nothing less from sun and moon worshipers (if the tapestries scattered all over the place were anything to go by, the objects in the sky gave these horses a major hard-on). I don't want to know what the low holes in the wall were for, or why entire stretches of floor had seams running down the length of them; these xenos are a strange bunch.

I'd eventually stumbled my way into a library of sorts, musty old books rotting on equally crusty wooden shelves. I'd reached for a book, only to have it crumble into dust at my touch. Like, the entire book was just gone. Now, I'm no archeologist, I'm barely even a soldier, but I know that stuff generally doesn't do that....this place was weird. It didn't matter much, anyway, as what few books and scrolls were open on the ground proved unreadable; they were either written with a cutesy, exaggerated scribble, or a series of fantasy related glyphs that bore little meaning. Either way, it must have been hilariously difficult to write without fingers; I'd have paid good money to see an alien horse try to turn a page with their hooves.

After much fannying about, and climbing a ludicrously tall spiral staircase, I'd eventually reached the top of one castle's two decaying towers, finding a rather spacious (but rather downtrodden) room. Unlike most of the castle interior, most everything in this room was done up only in a lunar motif; from the dusty drapes to the time-worn blankets atop a rather large bed dominating the room. A rotting wooden desk sat beside a window, ancient scrolls and stumpy candles littering its cluttered surface; a cursory search yielded nothing of interest (or particular value) within. As such, it was carelessly dragged aside so I could completely search the room. Though I'd found a barracks-like room full of bunks, this was the only legitimate bedroom I'd encountered, and that signified it was important (nevermind the fact that it was also in one of the towers, further cementing that idea). Unfortunately, there was nothing of significance to be found anywhere in the room. Stifling a heavy yawn, I looked down at the dark forest from the open window, noting just how quiet and still the world was below.

Eh, screw it. Figuring that it was safe enough (one accessible entrance and an escape route via the window), and that I wouldn't be fit for combat in my state after climbing back down, I set about preparing for sleep; most of the aging furnishings were pushed against the door, and the window's blinds were drawn tightly shut as to deny a view inward. As much as I'd wanted to remove my helmet, it was relatively rad resistant, and its integrated respirator filtered out the dusty air, so sleeping with an uncomfortable metal brain-bucket was an unfortunate necessity. The armor I wore over my coat, however, was just bulky and awkward, so it went in a careless pile along with my rifle and sidearm. Flopping onto the ancient bed may have destroyed its decayed frame, and the mattress may have been disgustingly squishy, but I was much too tired to care.

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I gazed down a seemingly endless hallway; flickering blue torches every dozen feet or so give off a minor—if not eerie—glow. Taking a step forward, the crimson carpet running along the hall suddenly shifts into a pool stretching the length of the impossible hallway, water churning and roiling in protest to my movement. Another step sucks me under, trapped and floating in the cool depths. The water's surface becomes still and impenetrable, despite my best efforts to surface. As my metal legs drag me down, I can make out a pilot bearing IMC colors make its way towards me. Kneeling over me, it removes its helmet, revealing one of the strange gray xenos I'd encountered earlier. It opens its mouth and, strangely enough, utters the familiar two-tone standard IMC alert warning. Stranger still, was the very familiar synthetic voice of Borak, saying simply "Countermeasures Deployed."

"What." Naturally, I was confused.

"ALERT! Broadcast Interrupted. WARNING! Local Threats Detected. Critical Systems Sabotaged, Shutting do-"

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Combating the fires proved rather tricky, even with the aid of Rainbow Dash, who flew a stray cloud over in an attempt to drown the conflagration. While the lingering firesmoke had burned itself out rather quickly, it seemed that anything it cursed with its touch would alight once more after despite the drenching. As such, Twilight had most of the girls simply stay back, content to let this dangerous blaze run its course. That's not to say she was content to simply do nothing, however, as any larger flames devouring trees and threatening to spread were encased in an airtight magical shield, completely starving the flames of oxygen. It was difficult and dangerous, but after some length of time they were able to control the spread and isolate the few lingering trees.

What remained was a desolate, charred clearing in the formerly lush quagmire; strange to think that such devastation could come from such an innocuous looking cloud of smoke. But why didn't the other smoke-site go up in flames? Twilight thought to herself. She could recall the same, at least visually similar, smoke being deployed by the massive machine when she'd first encountered it hours prior, but there was a distinct lack of destruction there. And, despite the flames it left in its wake, it took care to maneuver around the group rather than continue its hostility. There was a mystery in play and she simply didn't have enough pieces to solve the puzzle of just what was going on. She was broken out of her stupor by the (admittedly all too familiar) sounds of a certain pegasus impacting the ground. As the others rushed to her aid, Rainbow Dash was quick to stop them, coughing out that 'she was fine, just had something in her eye'.

Not one to take any chances, Twilight took action. "Pinkie, go with Rainbow back to Ponyville. Get Dash to the hospital. We don't know what we're dealing with, and this could be the start of something bad."

"Twilight, I said I was fine," Rainbow Dash argued, her scratchy voice strained and dry. "I don't know if you noticed, but the whole clearing caught fire. I just brought my cloud in a little too close, and breathed in a little too much smoke, that's all. We all faced dragonsmoke before, remember? This is nothing...."

"Rainbow, this isn't up for debate. Besides, we need to warn the town guard not to enter the forest until we deal with....that thing."

"That won't be necessary."

The low, authoritative voice of the lunar princess filled the clearing, much to the surprise of the Elements. At once they bowed before her, missing her eye roll that accompanied the action. She continued, "There has been a....development. Whilst thou were investigating the mysterious 'golem', a strange creature visited us in Ponyville. It was....very curious, to say the least. There was a misunderstanding; We are afraid it may have the wrong impression, and while amends must be made, the safety of our Ponies is paramount. As such, the Guard have been instructed to stay clear of the forest until the situation has been dealt with."

Twilight gasped. Some strange creature visiting Ponyville following the arrival of the mysterious metal being. "A 'strange creature'? Could you tell us about it?"

"Of course. It was very bizarre, to say the least. A tall creature of metal and cloth, walking upright, not unlike a minotaur or diamond-dog, but its movements were much too graceful." At this, she grinned. "Well, graceful to a point, as after a brief altercation with an overzealous guard, it was completely inept, stumbling and rolling about on the ground. It seemed to display a destructive device in warning, though it seemed as perplexed as we were, but further action by the Guard put it on a defensive footing. It took flight immediately afterwards, headed deep into the forest. I had lost track of it, but needed only to follow the roars and explosions."

Raising a brow, the Princess inspected the group. "What exactly was that about?"

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but was beaten by an excited Pinkie. "Oh, man it was AWESOME! We were following the big metal meanie-pants and there was this Hydra, and it was all 'STOMP STOMP STOMP' and 'GRAAAAAAAAAAAH IM A BIG MEANIE'! Really making a show and the golem ran up and punched it! It was super cool, and then it was all 'ES-TOOOOD BLAH BLAH BLOO' and said some other weird stuff that I couldn't understand and grabbed one of its heads, and I think it was hurting him 'cause then he pushed him down and was standing on him, but he was like really strong so it was okay. Then there was this smoke and everything caught fire, and the Hyrdra was all 'OH NOOOOoooOOOO I'M ON FIRE!' and the big metal guy was all 'BLEEP BLOOP' and there was this really loud sound like firecrackers, but way louder than any firecracker I've ever heard, and then the Hyrda ran off in one way and the other guy went back that way, but the white smokey stuff was still setting everything on fire so we had to put it out and then you showed up, and here we are! Hi!"

"You seem rather nonplussed about the ordeal."

"Well, yeah. I mean, we've seen weird stuff like this for the past, like, four years. Its no biggie really."

The Princess didn't dare hold back her laugh.

The six Elements and the Lunar diarch made their way back to the ancient castle in silence. Twilight was quick to fill in the princess on the night's happenings, and it instantly soured the jovial mood. Such violence in the name of self defense was justified when one factored in the aggressive nature of a Hydra, but wanton violence against (relatively) unarmed ponies is unforgivable; true the victims wielded ancient tools of great power, but the Elements were more akin to a shield than a sword in terms of use. Given that the golem had released Twilight and not done any lasting damage, the hammer would not come down as hard, but come down it would.

Reaching the castle, the group took care to enter as quietly as possible. The metal beast had shown its true might, and they certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end. Unlike the girls' last visit, the castle was completely silent, lacking the heavy footfalls of the giant. Climbing over rubble of the recently felled ceiling, the group could make out the huddled monster simply sitting in the open. Unlike every previous engagement, its many eyes were a lifeless black rather than the vibrant, piercing blue. Maybe it's just resting, Twilight thought to herself.

"Interesting...." Luna broke the silence, gliding gracefully down from the scattered debris. Landing softly a short distance away from the dormant beast, her hardened facade fell, a look of amazement and curiosity replacing it.

"Um, Princess? I wouldn't really recommend being that close to it. It can be surprisingly agile." Twilight was quick to warn the princess, the overbearing pressure of cold metal hands squeezing her all to fresh in her memory. "And we just established how dangerous it is...."

"So this is what fell from the sky? The shield it must have had to withstand the harsh forces upon its descent would have to have been conjured by some immensely powerful magic. Yet what you have told me holds true; there's no obvious source of magic to power such a shield, or even the golem itself. Small wonder it's dormant, it must have depleted its residual magic reserves." Taking a confident few steps towards the behemoth, she continued. "I believe we won't have much to fear from this metal husk."

Reaching dangerous levels of overconfidence, Luna pressed ever onward, completely within spitting (or smashing) distance of the behemoth. Everypony present was tense, waiting for it to strike out, rear up, or otherwise act in retaliation to their presence, but nothing came. The Princess lit up her horn, examining the giant magically as well as visually, grin set upon her face and murmuring under her breath. Yet despite her probing, the being refused to respond to any stimuli; Twilight was rather upset at this. Why did she get attacked?

"Twilight Sparkle, would you please come here?" Luna summoned the young mare, who very hesitantly walked over to stand beside the princess. "Tell me, what does that look like?"

Looking towards where Luna gestured, Twilight studied the area. Among the tarnished gray hull was a small block of illegible, blocky symbols, larger ones within a long yellow oval. Beside it was a strange appendage sandwiched awkwardly between two interlocking gears. Beside it, recessed within a small housing was a small handle marked with a red circular arrow.

"Its not unlike a safety warning. Almost as if..." Throwing caution to the wind, the young mare made to magically turn it. Surprisingly enough, it didn't take much to manipulate the handle. Once activated, there was a hiss as air escaped from within the golem, and a large segment of the 'torso' began lifting upward. The compartment's cramped interior was rather spartan, being completely bare save for a worn chair, and some strange green boxes held beneath.

From their scanning, Twilight and Luna knew it was hollow, but seeing that there was an actual seat within, and not just empty space was pretty puzzling. Something intended to sit within the massive contraption, but who and why were unknown.

"Nothing ventured...." Luna stepped forward, making to climb into the heart of the being to further search it, but barely managed to touch it before there was a loud, low thump. All ponies present jumped in alarm, as twin streaks of white flew from tubes mounted above the golem's arms. With a soft crack, whatever had been ejected spewed its own cargo, and the immediate area soon filled with a thick white smoke.

Seeing the devastation of similar smoke first-hoof, and fearing the worst, Twilight instinctively teleported out of harms way. Luna, despite unknown years of dealing with untold terrors, froze in place. In an instant, Rainbow Dash swooped into the cloud in an attempt to get the Princess out of harms way, when there was a sick crackling that filled the air. Bright arcs of electricity flowed through the smoke, roaring and hissing angrily as they zapped everything within. Among the dual cries of pain was a strange, two-tone beep that came from the golem's interior.

For an agonizingly long stretch of time the electricity cackled and cracked in a cruel display, eventually dissipating. With a gut-wrenching thump, the princess fell to the floor; Rainbow followed soon thereafter.

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I jumped up in alarm, awoken from my slumber by the warning flashing across my helmet's HUD; whatever was going on, Borak was in trouble. Re-attaching my armor and jump kit proved to be quite a challenge, as in my drowsy panicking I'd fumbled and dropped pieces; when my chest rig refused to buckle in place I'd decided it was best to leave it in an effort to save time, settling for simply taking what I could carry with me. I'd set up waypoints within the castle's sprawling halls to navigate my way back, but there simply wasn't enough time to climb down and double back. As much as I'd hated it, gravity was the fastest way down. Mumbling a quick prayer to any deity who'd listen, I took a running start and leaped out the window. Subtlety was for men braver than I; I screamed the entire way down, praying that my jump-pack was mounted correctly. With a heavy burst a mere ten feet from the castle roof, I'd killed most of my inertia and was able to make a rolling landing in relative safety. Relative, because the ceiling gave way beneath my feet, dropping me down into some upper hallway, contrary to my plan.

Rising to my feet with no restraint on swears, I set about finding my way downstairs to follow the waypoints. I cursed myself mentally and vocally, wishing I'd brought an explosive charge or two to level the floor and simply drop down closer to the atrium that held my Titan, but what little explosive I did bring was used to level entrances in an effort to control the flow of combatants. Fat lot of good that did, apparently. If anything, having less routes worked against me, given that I'd parked Borak relatively near the entrance, practically asking for the xenos to attack him.

After an agonizingly long run, I'd finally made my way to the atrium housing the Titan, and could see a few of the xenos sprawled on the ground beside it. The hatch was open, and there was a thick smell of ozone; they'd popped the hatch without setting off countermeasures, but managed to fuck up somehow, exposing the relatively fragile interior to massive amounts of electricity. Fucking great.

"Are you lot that fucking thick? First hostilities could be chalked up to misunderstanding, the second one was my bad, but this? Three strikes, you're fucking out!" Maybe I should have said that after batting one away, or rushing with my rifle like a club, but its not like they understood me anyway, so it sounded more cool than stupid.

At my words, most of the xenos rose to their hooves, all showing some wariness at my presence. Not willing to give them the chance to strike first, I ran towards them, shouting all the while. Two of the 'normal' equines lowered down aggressively, betraying their preparedness, so I made sure to avoid them; one of the horned beings looked unsure, but still lit up its horn in a dazzling display of light regardless. Bingo. Kicking off with a burst from my jump kit, I easily closed the distance in a fraction of the time they'd expected, sailing through the air and delivering a heavy kick to the head of the white unicorn. A meaty crack echoed throughout the room, and it fell to the ground. Unfortunately, I'd given that jump my all, and likewise fell on my ass. Before I could rise to my feet, the orange xeno lashed out, angrily snorting and stomping one of my legs.

There was a loud metallic snap as my right knee snapped backwards. Activating my jump kit once again, I slid along the ground out of it's reach. Readings flashed in my HUD, warning me of serious damage to my prosthetic, but it indicated function so I quickly, but very shakily, rose to my feet and shouldered my rifle. Bringing it to bear on the hostiles, I was greeted with one hell of a confusing sight. Sitting in my sights was the manic grinning face of the pink equine, looking at me through its own large circle sight. Taken aback, I couldn't help but bring my rifle down, and thats when I realized the sight was for a cannon. A fucking little blue cannon! What the actual FUCK?!

"Okay, thats not fai-"

I was knocked on my ass again as a loud bang filled the air, and was surprised to find myself staring at what was left of the ceiling. Surprised mostly, because I wasn't dead. Sure, whatever hit me hurt like hell, but it didn't kill me instantly like I thought I would, though if the moist dripping coming from my abdomen was any indication, I soon would be.

Dying sure takes a lot longer than I remembered. Hurts less too. I looked down towards the 'wound' and saw that there was a little ruined cake pressed against my stomach. What the fuck is wrong with this planet. I couldn't help but laugh, despite the pain in my stomach every breath brought. How the hell do you load a cannon with cake? That's not fucking possible! As I got to my feet, it fired again, but with my jump kit I was able to soar over the pastry projectile easily enough. Priming an arc grenade, I lobbed it towards the xenos, the satisfying arcs of electricity stunning the two of them. They collapsed in a twitching heap, and I made my way towards the remaining stragglers, a purple unicorn and a shivering yellow pegasus. I pulled the pin on my final arc grenade, tossing it lazily towards them.

I wasn't prepared for it to suddenly glow purple and halt midway between us, before flying back directly towards me. With a swear, I dove to one side but it followed my movement before detonating in a brilliant blue display of 'sparks and arcs'. I dropped to the ground yet again, my body locking up against my will as muscle systems clenched in response to such an overwhelming stimulus. My prosthetics shorted out instantly, thrashing wildly before falling completely still. Rolling over, I could make out the purple one making its way towards me, horn shining in a sickly purple glow. I felt sick to my stomach as a cold hand gripped my collar and pulled me upright, but it was over just as suddenly as it started, the unicorn gripping its head in pain. Shitty superpower, I mused, readying my rifle. The glow returned, this time the invisible force batting my rifle away, trying to pry it from my hands, but I maintained a firm grip on it. My nausea returned and I felt a cold, prickly sensation on my hands, the thrashing growing in intensity. With each step the xeno took towards me, the cold spread further and further up my arms, and my vision grew dim. Shadows danced before my eyes, and screams echoed within my skull. I had to stop this fucking monster.

"Thats close enough!"

I fired a shot from the rifle, the loud bang and accompanying muzzle-flash doing little to deter my assailant. A shimmering purple shield appeared around the xeno, and it pressed ever closer. Panic rising, I slowly inched backwards as well as I could, trying to keep my rifle steady.

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The creature before her was very strange. Its metal legs lay broken and battered, but it seemed not to give them any thought beyond a quick glance. Several of its eight shining blue eyes flickered on and off wildly, one remaining black and dull permanently, and yet it easily tracked her movement. Twilight somewhat regretting using its own electric weapons against it, but it was her or it, and it had already hurt her friends. Strange of all, however, was the effect it had on magic. While the golem had a magical null field that activated when it grabbed her, the being before her had a very strong, but passive field. If it behaved like a standard null-field, any magic applied to the enchanted would be dissipated, much to any caster's pain. Still, she had to press on through the pain if she'd wanted to stop this thing.

"Stlat avry! STLAT DE FUSK AVRY!"

Twilight strained against the strong, almost overbearing pull that the creature's magic-cancelling effect had. She knew that if it was affecting magic, it could be affected, and she'd needed to stop it once and for all. Taking slow steps towards the creature, her shield was assaulted by a massive force coming from its long contraption; a deep roar that echoed deep in her head signalling a powerful strike against her shield, but she was confident it would hold. Slowly closing the distance between her and the creature, the roars increased in frequency, impacts responding in kind, each painful lance in her head a nagging worry. It had to hold.

The bangs and hits came in more rapidly the closer she got, no longer centering on her but seeking to strike anywhere on the shield. Drawing in nearer, the long object clicked, refusing to go off any longer, and was discarded before being replaced by a significantly smaller, L shaped object. This one roared similarly to the other, but was much faster, spreading impacts in unpredictable patterns along her shield, but was less of a strain on Twilight. Despite this, getting this near came with its own negatives; Twilight could focus less and less with the magic being sucked from her very being.

A deep pain registered in her head, and the shield shattered to pieces before fading into nonexistence. Something was dripping from an ear, and her vision grew hazy, but still she pressed onward. A massive pressure rang through her ears, and she was unable to hear the creature shouting at her. Straining against the null field, she lit up her horn once more, for one final spell to scan the golem's creator, who fumbled and struggled to unsheathe a peculiar looking knife. Suddenly the being lurched towards her. Without any warning (and, given the circumstances) Twilight was unprepared to react as the creature grabbed her horn, fighting to bring its other arm, and the knife, up against her. She charged her horn, preparing to unleash her magic to dispel its own, when the gold edge of the strange knife made contact at the base of her horn, and Twilight was blinded by a piercing white light.

Twilight was....actually, she wasn't sure where she was. Her body felt....wrong. She could feel her limbs splayed out against something cold, but it was very different. She tried calling out, but couldn't move her jaw from its position. She couldn't move anything. For a brief second, she considered that she was dead. After all she'd been through, after all her studies and trials, she refused. Twilight tried to will her horn to life, and...well, something happened.

Suddenly, a bright white light filled the void as she felt her eyelids open. But, something was wrong. This wasn't the old castle; this wasn't anywhere Twilight ever remembered having been. As a limb brought a hand up to rub an eye, she realized what was happening. Sort of; this wasn't happening, it was a memory. And it wasn't her memory.

Without warning, a strange, tan-skinned biped not dissimilar to the golem's creator appeared in Twilight's line of sight. It wore what looked like a standard nurse's uniform, but the whole room was dark, metal, and uninviting. Not any hospital room she'd want to stay in. The creature pulled out a silver device which shined a bright light directly into Twilight's face, but what surprised her most was when it spoke.

"Just go ahead and follow the light, sir, I need to make sure there aren't any lingering effects from cryo." Twilight's eyes tracked the moving light, but she was in shock. She understood it! How could she understand it? "Okay, vision looks good, could you go ahead and tell me your name?"

"Im, uh, Elliot Faraday...." Twilight felt odd at that. She could feel 'her' mouth moving, but it certainly wasn't her voice. It was gruff, accented, and definitely male.

"Good, and could you tell me what you do on the ship?"

"I'm a pilot....er, like, a Titan pilot, not a pilot-pilot. I scored well enough to get my own Atlas, I think...." Pilot? So they were on a ship? Twilight was familiar with airship captains and their crew, but she'd never heard of a 'Titan pilot'. Maybe the ship was the Titan? No, that couldn't be right....

"Very good, and we could always use more pilots. Lots of brave men out there depend on people like you to bring them home."

"I'll do my best, ma'am." Lots of brave men....so this creature was a soldier of some kind?

Without warning, the scene shifted, everything blending into itself before reforming completely. Gone was the expansive hospital of before, replaced with a cramped room not dissimilar to a ship's cabin. Twilight could feel 'her' hands twitching. A harsh squeal of static heralded the activation of an intercom, and an unseen speaker started talking.

"Attention all personnel, this is Captain Bracken speaking. Scans indicate a massive number of Jump signatures in this system, all centering around the planet Harvest. The nearest IMC battlegroup is still three jumps away; this can only be the so called 'Militia'. With support from the Endurance, we'll take down this threat in a surprise attack and find out just what the hell is so important about this planet." Militia? IMC? Planet?!

"Oi, Bowsie," a strange sounding voice spoke from the bunk above Twilight. A dark skinned face soon peered over the edge, looking down at her. "Greener 'n grass, eh? First real action outside the training yard? Feel like a right feckin' eejit yet?

"Shut the fuck up, man...."

"Relax, mate, its gonna be fine. Skip requisitions and stay in your Titan, don't do anything bloody stupid. So long as you don't lose your head, you won't lose your head. You got me mate?"

After some pause, 'she' replied. "Yeah, I 'spose...."

The creature on the upper bunk rolled down, spinning and landing on its feet in a display that could impress Rainbow Dash, and it continued, "Lets get a move on, then. We'll be exiting warp soon, may 'swell be sitting cozy in our Titans."

Wordlessly, Twilight felt herself get up and follow this other being. Suddenly, everything lurched to the side, and she hit her head on the wall, clenching eyes shut against the pain. When her eyes opened, she was in a cramped compartment, a curved window before her flickering and showing a metal wall behind it. When the flickering stopped, the window formed an image, showing a boxy metal golem similar to, but significantly smaller than the one she'd encountered in in person.

It reached a massive metal fist back, and punched straight towards Twilight. Said fist actually punched through the metal wall she'd seen past the screen, and held her in its iron grip. It brought her in close, up to a glowing red eye, and squeezed. Deep pain, more than she'd ever experienced in her life, registered before she was flung carelessly away towards the burning husk of the golem she was ripped from. She lay there, broken and cold, passenger without any means of escape, and she couldn't even cry for help.

The process continued endlessly forward. Day after day, hardship after hardship, piecing together this creature's life through conversation fragments and happenings.

"...chance at a new life, just sign on the dotted line and we'll take it from there...."

"Oh, no. It's a very minor procedure. We will start by removing your legs...."

"-n short, get high, shoot straight, and keep those Militia dogs guessing...."

"-onna just sit there feeling sorry for yourself, or are you gonna get up and fight back, eh?"

"I hate urban combat. Too many snipers and blind corners to deal wi- oh shit, TITAAAAAN!"

Eventually, after another gut-wrenching fall from the atmosphere, she was surprised to make out herself from outside the blue dome. She saw as the creature issued its warning, and actually made it out this time. She saw as it, no, He sought to escape into the Everfree, before turning around to investigate Ponyville. He poked and prodded the Princess, and faced the guards as a result. She felt his nulling effect on magic, but also felt the strange effect it had on him, how it disabled his strange metal legs and rendered him sick and powerless.

She saw herself, eyes aglow and horn lowered, being fired upon from in front of the shield, and she leapt forward knife ready to strike at her horn.

She awoke with a wet cough, cold and sore. Blinking away her tiredness, she recognized she was in a recovery room at Ponyville General, and she realized that she wasn't alone.

"Twilight!" Multiple voices exclaimed in varying degrees of delight, relief, and worry. The groggy purple unicorn was soon held in the bonecrushing hug of her friend Pinkie Pie, aching and blind in one eye. As she looked around to her friends, she could see deep bags under their eyes and bandaged all over, testament to the unknown time spent in the spaceman's memories.

"Oh, Twilight, we were all so worried," Fluttershy said, fighting back tears. "The first bang woke up Applejack, and she was already getting ready to help however she could, but you were already so close to it. Wh-when that meanie used his knife, you just went down, and we couldn't wake you up, and....and..."
The dam broke, and she began crying into her purple coated friend's shoulder, terrified of events passed and relieved at her recovery.

Twilight herself, however, simply shook herself from her stupor, no longer dazed but very much confused. The young mare turned her head to the one crying on her shoulder, and spoke.

"Flustlebae, v-varst gongronay? Vae cancurit mei undworst tuu?"

The crying yellow mare stiffened in her friend's grip, and all the girls' ears perked up at once. Twilight continued to break the silence, mumbling and babbling in an incomprehensible tongue. Dread setting in, Applejack addressed the weary group one heck of an understatement.

"Um, girls? I don't think we're out of the woods just yet...."

Author's Note

I am the least proud of this. This would have come out a lot sooner (BUT NOT THAT SOON, FUCK I PRESSED PUBLISH GOD DAMMIT) but Fallout 4 console mods came out, and blasting everything hostile in the wasteland with an M60 is honestly the greatest thing ever; Danse looks fucking fantastic running around with a portable M2, and dogmeat has a sick-ass backpack that looks totes adorable yo. Also, I found a shit ton of RGiE ~~smut~~ stories so I got caught up in reading instead of writing. Plus, you know, Im kinda not good at this.

On Borak, I've rodeo'd hundreds of auto-titans and (if they have it) they deploy smoke pretty much as soon as you clamber on (mortar titans deploy their particle wall when you rodeo, which is hilarious because its useless) , and then take more notice to your presence, crouching down and whatnot. I feel that, in the absence of a friendly IFF tag, countermeasures would deploy automatically to deter any would-be attackers. As such, you touch the robot, you get zapped, regardless of it being in sleep mode.

On ponies getting drop-kicked and zapped and walking away fine, Im just gonna say that they're cartoon horses. Going by the show, Twalp had a piano and shit dropped on her in S1 and then went on to try and debunk Ponka's reality bending ways, and grayhorse was getting zapped by the thundercloud in that one AJ episode. So clearly ponies can take a beating, they just need time to walk it off. This is an edgy dumb fic, but its not gonna be just straight up pony-murdering edge for the sake of edge. That'd be dumb. Also they're too cute to kill, like seriously what the hell, who'd do something like that.

Besides Elliot, that fuck.

Unrelated, for shiggles, here's canon Elliot's voice
Its Benn

Also

Attrition? More like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAttrition

Lastly, and make sure you say it with me, now
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA