War, Friendship, and Crisis: The Tale of a Torn World

After battling multiple macho bots, turret bots, orbs, and two mega bots, the four ponies rested next to a big, metal door leading to the main power rooms. Multiple pieces of broken metal and wires littered the floor. Sparks jumped around the area harmlessly, liquids poured out of the robots gently and calmly, and smoke rose from the broken machinery in small bunches. The four ponies were healing from the recent battle. Twilight Sparkle and Applejack were bleeding from a few puncture wounds, and Rarity was rubbing her swollen right cheek and fixing her frizzy mane. She collected that injury from an unusually sneaky macho bot, and she had no time to react from the attack. Fluttershy was the only one who did not gain any wounds, but she was still crying a little from watching the eagle lose one of its wings from a barrage of lasers.

Twilight realized how strong Dr. Scraps' forces were at this point. "I, I don't think they are running low on soldiers. I'm expecting at least another army behind this door."

"Hopefully, the next set of those brutes have some manners," Rarity scornfully mumbled. "Who punches a mare in the face and laughs from it?"

Applejack related to Rarity's woes. "Yeah, I get what mean there. These hunks of metal will shoot anything they don't care about without any regret. They're not alive, but they can sure hate."

"They're like metal corpses then." Twilight matched different characteristics from the undead soldiers and the robots. "They don't feel any pain, but they can feel hate and anger. Is that what drives these creatures to their goal?"

Travis decided to answer her question. "Our world's monsters do rely on those emotions. The trending philosophy is that hate, anger, and the lack of love to the enemy creates powerful soldiers. If you had soldiers who felt bad for fighting the enemy, then they cannot be trusted to serve your forces. That's why groups like the kavarians and demons kill anyone who defies their leader or ethics. Even though the kavarian rebels hate us, they are also hated by the main kavarian force due to their unneeded harshness and torment towards their soldiers and prisoners. If turning a human inside out and draining its brain of all sanity left is not morally wrong, then I have no idea what the rebels could be doing that's crazier."

Rarity heard the last words about the kavarians too clearly. She recoiled in pure disgust and terror. "Eww, you mean they force your insides out of your body?"

"Yes."

She immediately fainted after hearing the answer. Fluttershy caught her at the last second and pushed Rarity back on her hooves again. Rarity regained her senses and turned her head towards Fluttershy. "Thank you, dear. I don't even want to think about what has been crawling on that floor."

Twilight examined the giant door after she acquired her stamina again. The only thing she could see was the same eyestalk scanner from the last door. "If I try to open this, we might have to fight those robots all over again. Does anypony have an idea?"

The other three ponies looked around the room for any possible solutions. Fluttershy nudged a broken macho bot to Twilight with her front hooves. "Maybe it will accept these robots. If it doesn't, then I have no other solution."

Twilight had a few doubts in using a deactivated and mangled robot, but she accepted the idea. "Well, let's see if it works."

She used her magic to levitate the macho bot up to the eyestalk scanner. The eyestalk popped out of place as it stared at the robot. A beam of blue light encased the various metal pieces and edges, checking for any requirements for entry. The eyeball froze in midair for a moment. It then emitted a small and pleasant beep before retreating into the door and unlocking it. As the metal door slowly opened, Twilight could see multiple robots on the other side. All of them looked like hammer bots, but their bodies were different. A glass dome surrounded the top of their bodies, and spikes protruded out of the cylindrical metal pieces. The metal shined differently from the light, yet it still looked like the same silver from the other robots.

When the doors completely opened, five slammer bots rolled up to the quartet. One of them spun around the area with their arms stretched out. Two more approached Applejack, keeping their hammer arms high in the air for two fatal blows. She bucked both of the robots in the wall to the left of the door, slightly damaging them. The last two kept their distance and waited for the other three to finish their assault. Twilight fired a wave of magic at the spinning and idle robots. They fell to the ground, disgruntled and vengeful as they regained their balance and footing. The two robots near the wall soon found themselves in a field of piercing gemstones. Rarity precisely aimed for the glass domes, breaking them apart bit by bit. One of the gems completely broke through a dome and destroyed a robot's optical sensor. The slammer bot panicked and swung his hammer arms outward, smacking the other robot right next to them.

Fluttershy kept herself in the back of the entire group and cheered for the three ponies while they fired various projectiles at the robots. Twilight destroyed two of the slammer bots in one blast by using a precision shot, Rarity finished off the eyeless robot with her gems, and Applejack pounded a spinning slammer bot from the air. The last slammer bot backed away in pure fear, randomly throwing around its hammer arms in different directions. Applejack activated her lasso machine and twirled a lasso. She swung it towards the bot and wrapped the rope around it. She pulled the robot forward and bucked into its metal body. The slammer bot crashed into a wall before it bounced back towards Applejack again. She repeated this three more times until the robot broke apart into multiple pieces.

Rarity donned a face of impatient uneasiness and quickly trotted toward the open door. "Alright, we fought some more robots. Can we move along before anything else attacks us?"

"I believe that's the best thing to do," Twilight replied while nodding in agreement. "We better find their power supply before they reach the Mirror Pool." Twilight rememebred the chaos from all of those Pinkie Pies. If these machines took control of that relic, not only could they exponentially increase in number, but they would destroy all of Equestria afterwards. Once again, the world was in dire peril, and she had to act fast before all hell breaks loose.

The quartet recollected their sense of direction and traveled through the door. On the other side was a long hallway filled with corridors. One hall led to an armory, another led to a packing station, and another led to a barracks. The ponies continued down the hall to find another door that was already open. They examined the entire room from top to bottom, and what they found was exactly what they wanted.

Just like the first room, conveyors and funnels dotted the entire room. Even more robots were patrolling the area like miniature armies, restraining the ponies in a very complicated and dangerous position. Turret bots swiveled on catwalks suspended from the ceiling, mega bots and an upgrade of the R-Bots rolled around the floor, and a special robot sat on the floor in front of the ponies. Two long arms with sharp claws lifelessly sat not the floor. The common singular eyestalk protruded from the flat top of its body, and a large, metal cone piece kept the robot on the floor.

That robot glared at the group sinisterly while it collected wind around its metal body. A tornado hoisted the robot in the air. The robot raised its claw arms and hovered towards the ponies while it spoke it a menacing and serious tone. "You four, you're all intruders. Our leader hates intruders, especially if they have four legs."

Twilight backed away and charged her magic, but she and the rest of the ponies had to dive for cover when the tornado bot slashed its claws in her direction. The tornado grew in power and threatened to suck the quartet into itself. Fluttershy was holding onto a metal pipe while flapping her wings as fast as she could. Applejack kept her distance and ducked behind a few crates to escape the gale. Rarity was throwing gemstones at the tornado bot, sometimes hitting and sometimes missing. The gems that missed the bot swirled around the tornado at extreme speeds. When Twilight finally charged her magic blast, she met multiple gems that stabbed into her suit and flesh. She collapsed on the floor with multiple puncture wounds around her body and legs, yet she was still attempting to get back up.

Fluttershy glared at Twilight's bleeding wounds and drowned in her own anger. She let go of the pipe, turned her body to face the robot, and rammed her front hooves into its body. The robot tumbled off the dissipating tornado and desperately swung its claws in the air. It crashed into the same boxes that Applejack was hiding behind, allowing her to strike the robot. Rarity shook her head towards Applejack, telling her to not approach the robot. Rarity then conjured a few more gemstones that ripped the robot apart. It soon broke down into crackling circuitry and broken metal. The ponies regrouped, but Twilight was struggling to stand up. She cast a mending spell on her open wounds, healing them as well as one of Pinkie's special cupcakes.

Travis felt worry plow into his body. "I think you should be a little more careful where you step. If that's going to happen to you from a simple confrontation, then you might want to stay clear of most of those robots."

Twilight missed Rainbow Dash's lightning speed and powerful attacks. If Rainbow Dash was here, she would have destroyed that robot right when we saw it, twilight thought woefully to herself. Oh, Rainbow, where are you right now?

"Hey girls, look over there!" Applejack pointed a hoof while expressing astonishment. The rest of the ponies saw a huge machine with pipes and wires sticking out of its body. Eight glowing rods around the base spilled blue light into the zone, and a huge maw allowed robots to place scrap metal into the hungry machine. Smoke trickled out of three smokestacks located behind the machine. Several robots paced around it with different materials in their claws to be placed into the opening. One of the mega bots that was carrying a bundle of destroyed R-Bots pointed towards the quartet.

"Boss, we got hostiles at nine o'clock!" the mega bot shouted while dropping the metal.

A C-Bot with a glass dome, dual laser blasters, and a polished finish ordered the other robots. "This is what we've been waiting for, soldiers! Now, kill those four menaces or else you'll all be scrap for the core!"

Six super R-Bots rushed in front of the super C-Bot and rolled towards the ponies. Applejack bucked one of them into another one behind them, denting a few pieces of metal. They fell to the ground while the other four surrounded Rarity and Fluttershy. Rarity conjured and released a ring of gemstones that destroyed all four of the robots quite easily. Twilight fired multiple magic blasts at the mega bot and super C-Bot while Applejack pummeled the two other robots on the ground. Rarity and Fluttershy soon dove for cover to avoid the incoming array of lasers. Twilight deflected them with her deflection spell back at the two robots, shredding their circuitry to some extent. However, the super C-Bot remained unharmed when its body also deflected the lasers. After being deflected multiple times, the last lasers destroyed the mega bot's body and brain.

"All soldiers, aim for the purple one!" The super C-Bot's voice quivered with hopelessness and fright, but it still kept its orders straight. Multiple turret bots faced Twilight and fired from above. Dozens of orbs surrounded her and blasted clusters of lasers. During this hailstorm of burning light, Twilight kept a barrier spell over her ducking body. She was closing into the breaking point. If these lasers continued to strike her barrier, all of her magic would be drained. As her power weakened and weakened, the super C-Bot mentally smiled at the barrage. Nothing would stop this victory. Nothing would stop the slaughter.

Even though the commander believed that idea over and over again, Applejack crippled it by kicking metal balls into the unexpecting orbs. The gunfire lessened even more when Rarity impaled the turret bots with her gemstones. When the firing stopped and the entire floor was riddled with broken orbs, the commander thought of a last-ditch attempt to annihilate the ponies. His thinking was cut off when Fluttershy smashed a hoof into its brain from behind. The commander crashed into the ground with a whir and a powering down noise. Twilight deactivated her barrier spell and slowly walked towards the commander.

"I, I think that is all of them," she concluded with a hopeful smile. However, her smile was cut in half from the exhaustion that infested her body. "All that's left is deactivating their power source."

The other three ponies gathered near her and traveled down to the machine. Multiple buttons and levers were scattered along the metal, and almost all of them were unlabeled. One button on the next to a glowing rod read 'shutdown protocol' in bold red. Twilight approached the button and hesitantly pressed the button.

Her ears shot up in surprise when a loud, blaring siren echoed through the room. "Warning, shutdown protocol has been initiated!" a digital and booming voice warned from all sides. "The facility will detonate in about one minute! All surviving soldiers must either use the emergency lifts or the main gate at this time!"

The quartet galloped back to the start in panic. Multiple robots rushed down the halls and attempted to halt their escape, so Twilight used her magic to throw a few of them into the walls. Various macho bots and mega bots threatened to block their path as they dodged laser blasts from turret bots, orbs, and super C-Bots. The ponies nearly reached the second security door when a swarm of drones plagued the exit. They bundled together into a wall, preventing the ponies from leaving the room. Twilight levitated a few of them out of their formation, but more flew into the openings to assure the group's demise.

"Twi, we need to leave now!" Applejack shouted while sporadically glancing around the room. "We have no time for lollygagging like this!"

Applejack rammed through the wall of orbs, completely breaking their formation. The other three followed her lead and also rammed through the rebuilding wall. The quartet galloped out of the facility and onto the walkway. The bright sun greeted them when they exited the main door, but none of the ponies cared at this point. They reached the drop ship that waited for their arrival just before a violent explosion fractured the ground with an earthquake. The ground cracked and split as fire spewed out of the soil and rock gorge wall. Twilight and company hastily galloped into the departing ship.

Fluttershy was looking back at the collapsing surface. Her face was covered in fear and worry. "Will that explosion destroy any wildlife here?"

"If you're talking about the forest, I doubt it," Travis responded while examining the explosion. "That collapse will cause quite an unfortunate alteration in the landscape. If any of you ponies wished for the gorge to increase in size, that will happen."

A huge chunk of the northern side of the gorge tumbled into the opening below. More fire cooked the area and ensured the death of everything inside the facility. Twilight was puzzled on the self-destruct system inside the facility. "Why would Dr. Scraps let an entire factory explode? Isn't that contradictory to what he wants to complete?"

"He has a knack for keeping legal documents and such in check," Travis informed. "He doesn't risk anything. Well, he risks materials, but that was the whole reason why he wanted the Mirror Pool in his possession." Travis opened a digital document talking about the battle near the Mirror Pool's entrance. "Just so you four know, we successfully fought back against Dr. Scraps. The cave is still intact and closed off to prevent anything from entering."

The communications chips on the ponies buzzed and crackled. A familiar voice entered the speakers. "Hello, General Solk here. You four might want to come back to Ponyville real quick."

"Why?" all four of the ponies asked in surprise and interest.

"Some unicorn naming itself 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' is asking for Twilight Sparkle's location. The unicorn's also acting rather hostile too. She just converted two of my soldiers into infants and gave another one a shrunken head. Whatever this girl is doing is definitely beyond our understanding."

"Wait, Trixie wants me?" Twilight was irritated with her return. Whatever she wanted must be serious. Also, did Solk talk about turning soldiers into babies? What is happening over in Ponyville? Twilight had little to no idea, but she was too curious to say no to a situation like this.

"Yeah," Solk responded with a clump of worry in his throat. "My soldiers did try fighting her with our stunning weapons, but it ended very badly. One of the soldiers grew a gun where their nose should be, and three more soldiers were elctrocuted to complete paralysis. I've already notified Princess Celestia about this, visit, but I think we need you four too. Plus, we have another mission that popped up an hour ago.

"Whatever it is, I'm on it!" Twilight collected an enthused and intrigued grin. Even though her rival from months ago is in her town again, she still wanted to explore her world or other worlds even further. The ship accelerated as it set course for Ponyville.

The co-pilot turned his head to the ponies in the back. "You four might wanna hold onto somethin'. We're gonna enter hostile skies pretty soon."

•—————•

A dark and stormy room appears into view. The onyx armored ponies from earlier littered the walkways and assembly lines. Pony soldiers marched in unison as they practiced using their melee and ranged weaponry. A pegasus with a silver coat and rainbow mane watched the soldiers perform their duties from a high catwalk. He then turned to a nearby door that released a breathless soldier.

"Sir, I think you should enter the psyche chamber," the soldier suggested at the speed of sound. "We have the pony you want."

The stallion grinned a little and walked through the door. The entire floor was covered in various machines, conveyor belts, and workers being forced to stay in the facility. More soldiers on the catwalk looked down at the workers, monitoring their every move. The stallion walker passed them without bumping or nudging them, as the catwalk was at least eight feet wide. He and the soldier walked through another door and entered a room without a catwalk. The room was filled with various machinery. Some of the devices were special chairs, some were boxlike in shape, and others were various items that could be found in labs involving chemistry, psychology anatomy and physiology, and pathology.

One of the special chairs kept a light blue pegasus in place. Multiple pieces of metal in the shape of semicircles wrapped around its hooves, wings, chest, and forehead. A rainbow mane and tail wrapped around and concealed some of the machinery. The mare's magenta eyes darted around the room with pure terror. She hyperventilated as she examined everything in the room. Centrifuges, needles, scalpels, various substances in vials, microscopes, pipes, tubes, and bulky machines floated around her eyes and shoved shivers and fears down her spine.

"Who are you?" she screamed while questioning the stallion. "And where are my friends?"

The stallion turned his head to the mare and smiled sadistically. "Well, Rainbow Dash, my name is unknown, as we do not prefer to use names. We use our ranks as our names. I am a Psycho Leader, and I am quite skilled at being one." The Psycho Leader raised his front hooves in the air one at a time while examining them. "If I say so myself, your species is rather divine. The magic that courses through your blood, the colorful coat and mane on your body, and those exquisite wings that allow flight are all heavenly wonders to us. If you look into my eyes, you can see that I am one of the many soldiers that were morphed into ponies."

"What the hay are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash's face was still in a horrified frown, but it also released some curiosity and confusion.

"We are not naturally equine, Miss Dash, but we dare to be very soon. Your species is rather, efficient in the field of life forces. Your life force is attached to something that can be quickly and painlessly extracted in no time, and that is your magical essence." He pondered his sentence for a second. "Well, by painlessly, I mean the exact opposite. Nothing ever survives the loss of their soul because something cannot live without a soul."

Rainbow's words gathered a sour coating. "So what, you're going to kill me for my soul?"

The Psycho Leader shook his head in disagreement. "Oh, no no no no, Miss Dash, you are very special and lucky. We have a unique plan for you, but you require, loyalty, towards us. Since you are composed of that element, why don't you express it?"

She spat at the floor furiously. "You think I'm going to help you? Flock no! I want my friends, not an egghead that's also a complete lunatic!"

"There it is." He sniffed the air and licked his lips pleasantly. "I can taste the loyalty dripping from your soul. Why don't we, upgrade it for a second?"

The Psycho Leader gestured his soldier to activate the special chair. A metal dome buzzed to life as it descended onto Rainbow Dash's head. She struggled to escape the metal's clasp on her body, but it was futile. The machine whirred passively and clamped onto her head. Her vision faded as dizziness and fatigue plagued her body. Her eyes sluggishly closed, and her resistance weakened to a corpse's shiver. The dome flashed multiple colors of the entire rainbow as Rainbow's limp body twitched and convulsed sporadically. The Psycho Leader smiled an unhealthy grin once again after examining the results screen to his left.

"Welcome home, Miss Dash. Your subjects missed you so much."

•—————•

After combating a few of Dr. Scraps' air squadrons, the drop ship landed next to the town hall. The ramp door opened and released the four ponies onto their hometown once again. When they walked down the ramp, they noticed the crowd of both human soldiers and ponyfolk glaring at a blue unicorn with a white and light blue mane and tail. It wore a black hood and cape with a strange amulet around the front of its neck. General Solk stood in the back of the group with a primed laser rifle aiming low to the ground. The unicorn mare just finished another 'magic trick' involving turning a GEST Corp. soldier into a cube of metal. She glared at Twilight Sparkle with a smug grin.

"It's about time you show yourself!" the unicorn irritably growled. "I, the great and powerful Trixie, was getting tired of waiting! Now, we can finally duel."

Twilight cocked her head with a baffled expression. "Duel? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about revenge for the pain and humiliation you caused to me months ago!" Trixie manifested a screen that shown some events from her last visit to Ponyville. The events shifted to represent other ponies that laughed at Trixie's magic tricks and vandalized her possessions. "I have been a laughing stock for so, so long, Twilight, and this duel will finally change that!"

"Like hell we're having a duel in this place!" General Solk shouted while pointing towards the carnage above the Everfree Forest. "You really think that something this trivial is so vital that saving Equestria is just nothing too important?"

"Maybe this will change your mind." Trixie levitated an entire GEST Corp. branded assault tank and burned its metal to a molten glop of black. "Still thinking about canceling the duel, or are you too thick to know my greatness?"

"We don't have time for this!" a nearby pegasus in GEST Corp. armor exclaimed. "We need to prepare for a defense operation, not a contest!"

General Solk pointed a finger to the air. Princess Celestia's chariot descended to the ground next to the crowd. Several ponyfolk bowed down as she left the chariot with a stern expression. "Also, we have a little plan for you. If you really think that harming our personnel is not a big deal, you might as well say the same to Celestia herself."

Celestia examined the pulsing red amulet around Trixie's neck. Celestia turned her head to General Solk with a not as angry face. "Solk, I think I have different plans than what you expect."

"What do you mean?"

"That charm around her neck is emanating with a form of dark magic. Whatever she is doing is not on her own, and she seems a little too mischievous and careless at the moment."

Solk, the quartet, and a few other soldiers glared at the amulet. One of the soldiers spoke up with a slightly masculine voice. "Hey, isn't that the same amulet from one of the library's books?"

Another soldier nodded their head in agreement. "Yeah, I remember that book from our information dump! That thing's called the Alicorn Amulet!"

"Alicorn Amulet?" Twilight, Solk and a few soldiers and ponies asked in murmuring conversation.

Trixie realized what the others were talking about. "Oh, all of you are talking about my charm, right? Well, none of you can have it! Its power is in the great and powerful Trixie's power, not yours."

"I don't have time for this. Here, take this." Solk tossed a cubic machine to Celestia. She grabbed it with her magic and levitated it in front of her face. "It's an anti-magic force field generator. Just put it near her and activate it so that we can continue with our work. I don't care what you do with her, but it better not result in another event like this."

Celestia placed the cube near Trixie and pressed the button on the top of it. A blue bubble materialized around Trixie and drained her magic. She fell to the ground in fatigue as her amulet bounced off her neck and onto the ground. "My, my charm! What did you do to it?"

Four human soldiers approached the disgruntled and infuriated Trixie and hoisted her up to her hooves. They escorted her to a nearby assault truck while gesturing ponyfolk and other soldiers to clear the way. When all five of them entered and closed the double doors on the back of the truck. The silver-coated battle truck drove to the direction of Canterlot. The crowd of ponyfolk and soldiers broke apart as they returned to their normal procedures. Other soldiers rushed to the 'volunteers' to help fix their paralysis or awkward anatomy.

Solk cleared his throat while turning to Celestia again. "It's best you go back to Canterlot now. You have full control on her punishment and the Alicorn Amulet she possessed."

She levitated the amulet with her as she entered the chariot. "I believe this action does not need too much punishment, especially if I know correctly what this charm is." The chariot and the two pegasus guards pulling it flew into the air to Canterlot. Solk walked towards the quartet and handed Twilight a tiny gadget.

"What's this?" Twilight took the device and examined its features.

"It's an Element of Harmony indicator. Whenever you are eligible to own a GEST Corp. branded helmet, you can add this to it to obtain data on your friends are."

"If that's the case, where is my helmet?" Twilight asked as politely as possible.

Solk handed a slightly mechanical visor to her. "This is all you'll need for it. We cannot provide too much due to resource shortages involving interplanetary attacks and terrorist missions. The kavarians are giving one of our bases a real beating."

"So, you don't have enough of your fancy helmets to protect our heads?" Applejack tested with speculation.

"Not at the current moment. Also, I doubt that you need them anytime soon if there are no snipers or sharpshooters here yet. You four are going on a rescue mission."

The fours ponies' faces beamed in excitement from the news. Twilight hopped to the front and looked up at Solk. "You found one of our friends?"

Solk nodded in agreement. "Yes we have, but there are a few, complications with the mission. We already sent out two squadrons in the area to find them, and their signals cut out as they entered the area. We have no idea on what happened to them, so we need you four to check it out for yourselves."

The four ponies started to gallop towards the drop ship, but Solk raised his hand to gesture a halt. "You four cannot take the ship this time. There are too many enemy forces in the air and in space. An aerial trip there is pure suicide."

"Then what are we supposed to take?" questioned Rarity irritably. "I am definitely not walking there on hoof."

Solk pointed to a nearby assault truck. "You four can use one of the trucks instead. They are heavily armored and built for all-terrain missions. You'll all be perfectly safe in that vehicle."

The quartet walked over to the back of the truck. It held a laser machine gun on the top, headlights and a metal windshield in the front, and heavy metal platings on the sides. A set of double doors in the back burst open, allowing the four ponies to climb inside. The driver sat all the way to the front of the truck, and the one passenger was right next to the double doors. The ponies quickly found the spots they desired and sat or lay down on the two rows of seats on the walls. The truck drove out of Ponyville and ventured into the northern plains of Equestria. Whatever awaited the quartet must have been very secluded if it was hiding in the middle of a giant, barren field.