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

Twilight Sparkle and company were once again in a bad situation. They just witnessed their friend, Rainbow Dash, scowl at them for some inexplicable reason, and now, they were tumbling toward their potential doom. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were flailing their hooves around while they screamed, and Applejack was quickly turning her head in random directions to view the walls around them. Twilight noticed the ground hurling towards them and covered the entire quartet in an aura of purple. She then used all of her might to slow down the group and eventually place them on the ground. After she and her friends got back up from their unexpected descent, Twilight looked around the new room.

Pinkie was still on the floor, screaming as if she was still falling. Applejack walked over to her and nudged a hoof at her shoulder. "We're not falling anymore, Pinkie. We're on solid ground."

"Oh, that must've slipped my mind!" Pinkie hopped back to a standing stance and recalled what happened earlier. "Oh yeah, Dashie is now with those meanies for some reason! How could she backstab us like that after all the time we spent together?"

"I think there's something wrong with her," Twilight concluded. "She didn't react to those other ponies, nor did she remember us. I think these creatures did something to her."

"Are you saying that they warped her mind?" Rarity asked with slight speculation.

"Whatever it is, you four better leave soon," Travis warned. "I'm picking up activity from above you four now."

Twilight realized the communication chips on her friends' ears. "Oh, Travis, can you see through Fluttershy's communication chip?"

"Yes, I can. I can even play the audio from her chip if you want."

Twilight nodded a yes, and that was soon followed by various voices. The first one was similar to a Psycho Trooper's gentle yet assertive tone. "Take her to the Device. She's not useful to us in terms of infantry."

Shuffling around the communications chip occurred until the gentle yet frightened voice of Fluttershy emanated from the speakers. "No, where are you taking me? Where are my friends?"

"Stop her talking before she disturbs the workers," a lower and more mechanical voice ordered. The sound of a swift punch into the chip ended the audio.

"Well, I saw something," Travis disturbingly announced to the ponies.

"Then what did you see?" eagerly asked Applejack.

"I saw two soldiers, one that looked like a sergeant class soldier and another that resembled a cybernetic being. She was in a hallway with red light coming from the other end. That's all that I could really see."

"At least we have a general idea of what happened." Twilight wasn't too happy with the soldiers punching Fluttershy, but she needed to save her energy for running and gunning, not for anger. She redirected herself to the one hallway in the room. "Girls, we need to find her before anything else happens to her. Let's go!"

The quartet galloped out of the room and into a slightly taller hallway than the original ones they traversed. They met a few more Pyscho Sentries and Psycho Grunts here and there, but these soldiers were easily dispatched due to the absence of any higher leveled soldiers. The ponies then reached a door after exploring the hallways a little more.

Three ponies stood at the doorway. Two of them were Psycho Storms without their cloud mounts, and one was strangely a white unicorn. It still had the same suit as the Psycho Storms, but a hole in its helmet allowed its horn to be visible. The unicorn glared at the ponies viciously and spoke with a soft but obviously serious masculine voice. "We figured you'd come around eventually. Don't worry, I can entertain all of you with my magic."

The unicorn's horn glowed a silvery grey and conjured two familiars. They were two glowing white wolves with completely black eyes. Even though they were completely solid, they looked like transparent spirits from another realm. The familiars immediately pounced to Twilight's location and attacked with their claws. Twilight blasted them to shards of white light with her magic, dispelling the weak minions the unicorn created.

The rest of the ponies spread around the hall, preparing for the pegasi's potential attacks. Both of them created their clouds and hopped onto them. Pinkie threw a present upwards. The present broke apart and launched a bomb next to one of the Psycho Storms, knocking them off of their cloud. Applejack then bucked the downed pegasus and tied his wings with a lasso. Rarity fired a few gems at the unicorn, but a barrier spell shattered them to pieces. The other pegasus flew over Rarity and struck her with his lightning. She panicked and strafed away from the electricity while she fired more gems into the unicorn. All of her attempts to hurt him failed.

"Have you never fought a unicorn before?" the Psycho Mage asked rhetorically. "You should know better than to use that on me."

Rarity changed her tactics and aimed for the pegasus chasing her. Pinkie activated her cloak from the side to avoid any suspicion. Applejack kicked the downed Psycho Storm in the head to ensure his descent to slumber. The pegasus still in the air was shot down when three gems slammed into his eyes from breaking the lenses apart. He lost course of his cloud and accidentally struck himself with lightning twice, paralyzing half of his body. He soon fell to the floor with blood dripping from his cracked lenses. The Psycho Mage was busy firing magic blasts and wolf familiars at Twilight until Pinkie surprise attacked him. He immediately fell to the ground from the signature head slam Pinkie performed. This head slam involved placing her hooves on the temples of his head and smashing them together with the head in between them. His body twitched for a second before he slowly died from the crushed brain matter sloshing inside his fractured skull.

Twilight couldn't help but feel bad for the ponies. She didn't know who these stallions were, nor if they were really evil in the first place. All that she knew was that they served these creatures and attempted to kill her and her friends. She expressed guilt and sorrow through her words. "Is it really necessary to hurt these ponies like this? They are ponies after all."

"I don't think they are completely ponies," Travis argued after he scanned the unicorn's DNA. "Their DNA is mostly Equestrian, but the rest is from their original species. It states that they are a form of human hybrids."

"Are you saying that ponies and humans started loving each other or something?" Applejack asked without wanting a yes.

"No, I'm not." Applejack gave a sigh of relief from his answer. "I mean that they are genetically modified to be a combination of both ponies and humans. That must be why they work with these creatures. It's because they are these creatures."

"Is Dashie the same way?" Pinkie asked in slight fear.

"I doubt it. She looked the exact same from the inside out. I don't think she would be modified like that to serve these creatures."

A distant, feminine shout from behind the ponies quickly alarmed them. "Where are you four, you useless piles of manure? I can't wait to show all of you who runs the show here!"

Even though Pinkie knew who that was and wanted to hug them extremely tightly, Twilight stopped her to avoid a serious problem. she kept her voice quiet to not alarm Rainbow Dash. "We need to leave, now."

"Hey uh, Twi, I think we can handle a rogue Rainbow," suggested Applejack. "We already outnumber her by three."

Twilight hustled to the door the three ponies guarded and opened it with haste. "We have no time to stay here and find out. We need to go."

The quartet entered through the door rather quickly, but they were still too slow. "Aha, there you are, you failures!" Rainbow Dash was right behind them, hovering in the air with two laser machine guns and two flaming thrusters propped onto her sides. Her hooves were covered in spiked plates of metal, and her body was covered in a black suit. A strange device that resembled a metal box was strapped around her back. Even though all of these additions were terrifying, all of the ponies could agree that the icon of a screaming, maniacal human face with a sword stabbed in its bleeding head replacing her cutie mark was by far the most blood-curdling out of all of the details.

A challenger approaches: Psychotic Rainbow Dash, the vicious general of the Psychopaths

Twilight shut the door and barricaded it with some nearby scrap metal from a recall pile. She bent the pieces intricately to lock the door as many times as she could. When she was finished, a giant bundle of twisted pieces of metal blocked the door. Banging, screaming and gunshots emanated from the other side of the door, warning the quartet to run as fast as possible.

The room that these ponies entered was extremely large. A large sea of molten metal gently flowed at the bottom of the room, and multiple catwalks, staircases, conveyors, funnels, walkways, assembly lines, and balconies covered the entire room. multiple soldiers patrolled along these structures while pegasi in white uniforms worked on the assembly lines or carried materials from place to place. Multiple pieces of metal were being molded, forged, and bound in this room, most likely to create more Psycho Sentries and Psycho Enforcers.

Some of the Psycho Grunts patrolling the structures detected the quartet and opened fire. Twilight quickly raised a barrier spell around the group, and Rarity fired multiple gemstones at the soldiers. Some of the impaled soldiers fell into the molten metal, burning to bones and glop as the thick metal goo penetrated their suits. The blocked off door was banging even more violently too, adding more urgency to the situation. Twilight lowered her barrier when most of the Psycho Grunts died, but there were still more soldiers further ahead. Pinkie and Applejack raced ahead to take down the other soldiers in the distance. They kicked and bucked a few Psycho Flames and Psycho Troopers into the metal below, killing them extremely easily.

Then in the corner of Twilight's eye, another soldier ripped a piece of her ear off from afar. Apparently, a Psycho Snipe was sitting patiently on a balcony high up. He wore a helmet with a red visor and the basic armor for a Psycho Trooper. His laser sniper rifle was a long, double-bayonet semi-automatic with laser sights , and it was capable of firing six shots before a reload was needed. His task in this situation was to kill the ponies as quickly as possible. He needed to be efficient, quick, and unnoticed with his shots, or else a gemstone or magic blast might hurl towards him.

Sadly, he wasn't very subtle with his chipping of Twilight's left ear. Twilight fired a precision shot at the sniper and headshot it through his mouth. The sniper flew back into a wall with his brain matter and blood splattering it and his back. The Psycho Snipe had died a painful death.

When Pinkie and Applejack threw the last Psycho Trooper off of the catwalk, the blocked door blasted to bits. Metal flew everywhere as Rainbow Dash flew through the opening and scanned her surroundings. She noticed the melting corpses of the soldiers and the splattered brains of a sniper. This little assault pissed her off even more than needed.

"Where are these flocking rejects?" Her voice boomed through the entire room with an insanely loud scream. She noticed Twilight and Rarity walking along a catwalk and screamed again. "I'm coming for you two!"

The ponies looked back to see Rainbow Dash diving straight for Twilight Sparkle. Twilight activated a magical barrier around herself, bouncing Rainbow Dash off of the barrier and into a wall. The two unicorns dashed as fast as they could to the other door. They eventually reached Pinkie and Applejack to find another Psycho Wicked in their way once again.

The Psycho Wicked took a cup of the molten metal and poured it on his face. Sure, it would be extremely painful and unpleasant, but this guy couldn't feel pain. He believed that his exposed face would frighten the ponies off of the walkway, and it almost did. Molten metal and bloody chunks dripped from his face as he cackled a maniacal laugh. He held up his claw hand and clinked the blades together. "For this special occasion, I'll take the sirloin cut!"

Pinkie immediately screamed for her life and bucked the Psycho Wicked into the metal. She continued running and screaming until she reached the door. The other three ponies followed her, leaving the Psychopath to melt in the metal sea.

Rainbow Dash regained her balance and glared at Twilight and company. "I'm definitely not done with you four! Come back so I can drain the life out of you!"

The ponies opened and entered the door. Since there was a lock on the other side, they activated it and galloped further into the oddly comforting darkness of the halls. Rainbow bashed and slammed the door as much as she could, but it wouldn't budge open. The quartet had no time to look back and possibly face death again. They were on a time limit, and this limit was the time before Fluttershy potentially dies.

They galloped through the halls and encountered some Psycho Sentries, Psycho Grunts, Psycho Troopers, and Psycho Mages along their way to Fluttershy. Twilight was getting sick of the Psychopaths' method of converting themselves to ponies. This conversion only made the battles with those ponified variants more awkward and disturbing, not hard or tense.

The ponies eventually reached another hallway the turned to the left. After that small discovery, the locked door from earlier exploded out of the wall, releasing an unrealistically enraged Rainbow Dash. The group moved faster to avoid her, but they didn't try to hide. They were already deep in a maze of hallways, so there was no need to panic and reveal their position.

A scream echoed through the halls as a blur of wildly flapping wings and a furious face of evil peered down every hall. Yes, Rainbow Dash was considered a Psychopath now, but being insane is not the same as stupidity. She knew that these were earth ponies and unicorns she was chasing, so she had to be extra careful for magic and any dead bodies along the ground. She did notice a few downed Psycho Sentries and Psycho Grunts down one hall, so she flew into that hall and searched even more closely. The only thing she wanted was to annihilate these four ponies, no matter how dastardly the cost must be. She was the Element of Loyalty after all, and she showed this through her loyalty to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory.

Twilight and company soon found a door with a red glow on the other side, but it was locked. They heard another ear-piercing scream down the halls, much louder this time than originally. Rainbow Dash was close, oh so close to the quartet. Their demise was waiting right behind the wall that severed the mad mare's view.

Then, as if it happened in a flash of light, which it definitely did, Rainbow Dash shot across the hall and right behind the ponies. She hovered in the air, donning a wicked grin in success. Her voice was the shrill and shakiness of falling and breaking twigs. "Now, I have finally caught you! There is no escape, wimps, just your ends on both sides of this hall!"

Twilight, not saying a word, glanced at Rainbow's face. She definitely saw anger, rage, and furiously awful fury, but she saw even more than just the skin itself. Inside those magenta eyes, she saw sadness, hopelessness, regret, longing, and the most dire and chilling of all, death. Is the true Rainbow Dash dead? No, no she isn't. Twilight shrugged that thought with a couple tears. She couldn't hurt her friend, no matter how deep in hell she was. She could never hurt who she loved dearly.

The ponies dodged to the left and right as a barrage of lasers smashed into the walls. Rainbow kept her aim on Pinkie Pie at the current time. Something about her attack pattern begged for her to die first. Pinkie zipped and hopped around the lasers, avoiding them rather easily. Unlike Twilight's ruined idea from attacking Rainbow Dash, Pinkie knew exactly what needed to be done. She primed a pink bomb and hurled it at Rainbow.

The bomb exploded on one of her thrusters, offsetting her flying for a second. She aimed for Pinkie again, destroying the next bomb that flew up to her face with a barrage of lasers. Applejack kicked a couple metal balls at Rainbow, but she easily dodged them and switched targets. The metal device on her back opened up, revealing a rocket launcher with four chambers and four already primed rockets. She fired the rockets towards Applejack, almost hitting her. She still threw Applejack's across the hall, but that dealt very little damage to her body. Rainbow Dash wanted a gash, not a bruise.

Twilight then noticed the rockets' destruction. They dented the thick metal on the walls, so will they destroy the locked door? She tested this by baiting Rianbow Dash with a fairly weak magic blast. Rainbow turned to Twilight and scowled at her viciously. Twilight galloped to the door while Rainbow fired a few rockets at her. Twilight leaped the right at the last second, exposing the door to its inevitable doom.

The rockets destroyed the door quite easily. Twilight got back up and examined the damaged done. The door wasn't there now, allowing access to the next room. She turned her head to the other three ponies and shouted at them. "Come one, girls! Over here!"

Pinkie immediately hopped to the door, and Rarity and Applejack raced to it as fast as they could. The quartet entered the next room and noticed its heavy resemblance to the last room. It was large as well with the same flowing, molten metal below and the walkways and other structures dotting the room. This time, however, the ponies could immediately see a brawny figure in the back carry Fluttershy on his shoulder. He was walking towards the ponies, but he did not know that they were standing there.

Rainbow Dash flew out of the doorway and hovered almost to the ceiling of the large room. "Attention soldiers, we have four failures in here that have been destroying our forces! Deal with them before they deal with us!"

Some of the Psycho Grunts and Psycho Troopers from afar aimed their weaponry to Twilight and company. Before they could fire their weapons, Twilight conjured a different setup for a deflect spell. She created a panel of deflecting magic in front of the soldiers, causing them to shoot themselves constantly. Most of the soldiers died swiftly, but the more observant and faster thinking Psycho Troopers stopped after one blast. They put away their guns and unsheathed their swords, rushing to the ponies while they sliced at Twilight's magic.

Twilight had to redirect her magic when Rainbow Dash began her flurry of lasers. She repositioned her barrier spell behind the ponies, protecting them from the lasers. Pinkie hopped towards the Psycho Troopers and pulled out her party cannon. She immediately sprayed the soldiers with razor confetti in their faces, blinding them and ruining their faces. Some of them fell off the platform from the blast while others swung randomly to strike her. They missed her, but they did hit each other, only worsening their luck even more than needed. Pinkie then prodded a hoof at one of the soldiers with a sword in their side, offsetting their balance and throwing them off the platform. The other Psycho Trooper holding onto the sword fell with him, both plummeting to their blazing demise.

Rarity dealt with the remaining soldiers with her gems, stabbing and killing them very quickly. After that little battle, the defended ponies hastened themselves to reach Fluttershy.

The soldier that dropped Fluttershy was extremely intimidating to the quartet compared to the other soldiers they faced. He was at least half a human taller than the Psycho Troopers, and his muscles were bulky and slightly metallic. His right arm was completely made out of metal, and the arm ended in a metal claw with a missile launcher sticking out of it. His left arm was organic and carried a modified scattergun with four barrels. The left side of his face was replaced with a glowing red eye and straps of metal replacing its face and jaw. The usual slicked back rainbow hair protruded out of its head. He wore a bigger variant of the Psycho Trooper's suit, but it was coated in more metal than usual. Big shoulder pads and boots were well matched with the metal suit and body, shimmering with an orange shine from the molten metal.

The Psycho Borg's voice was deep and mechanical, but its tone was not sadistic or destructive, it was rather blank. "Miss Dash seems displeased with the existence of you four. That means it is time to eliminate all of you."

The Psycho Borg stepped back and aimed its missile launcher. At around that time, Rainbow Dash was sick of firing at a magical barrier, so she flew over to the front of the group. She fired wildly, severing the group into two halves. The flying missiles that slightly leaned to the ponies' new positions were not helping either. Twilight and Rarity pelted gems and magic at the mechanical soldier. Surprisingly, Twilight's magic dealt multiple critical hits on the soldier, almost killing him from his failing and breaking machinery.

To retaliate against this attack, the Psycho Borg activated a shield around his body, protecting him from most projectiles. Pinkie strafed around the soldier and threw three pink bombs after this happened. The soldier fired a few missiles at her, but they missed and hit a few other soldiers on the other side of the room. The bombs around the soldier exploded, fragmenting the shield into pieces of lone electricity. Twilight then fired a few more magic blasts and destroyed the Psycho Borg. Pieces of his metal body fell apart as power cells and life support systems in his body broke apart. He fell to the ground and ignited into a small fireball.

Rainbow Dash was still hovering in the air, firing more laser blasts at the entire group. Twilight knew that they had to fight her, but she didn't want to. Pinkie hopped closer to Rainbow Dash and pulled out her party cannon. She fired the usual razor-sharp confetti out of the cannon, but it did not slice Rainbow into bits or even slice her body at all. She was perfectly unharmed from the attack, but she acted as if it dug into her flesh. Rainbow retaliated with a strong gust of wind towards Pinkie, almost throwing her into the molten metal. Rarity fired a few gemstones at her, hitting her about fifty percent of the time. The gems definitely hurt, but Rainbow Dash was still unharmed.

"What is wrong with my gems?" Rarity was completely baffled on what just happened. "Does she have an invisible barrier around her?"

Twilight knew that there couldn't be a barrier because Rainbow Dash was rubbing her somehow hurting side with a hoof. There had to be something else at work, but she didn't know what it could be. Twilight thought about this situation, no, opportunity, for a moment. If Pinkie and Rarity's attacks are not breaking her skin, then what will my magic do?

Twilight decided to test this with a magical blast. She fired it towards the slightly off guard Rainbow Dash with her magic, definitely hurting her. However, her body was still unharmed.

Instead of weakening Rainbow Dash, this sudden surge of pain fueled her inner, primal rage. This pain was what he needed to spark her inner flame, a flame that would ignite the rage bomb.

And so it did. Rainbow Dash's animalistic scream permeated the room with a force loud enough to shake the entire facility. She then dived straight into Twilight and pinned her down. She repeatedly punched her over and over like a defenseless rag doll, definitely breaking skin and breaking teeth. Soon, Rainbow's primal rage got the best of her and dictated all of her actions. She bit into Twilight's mane and threw her around the platform. Twilight was in the air now, circling around the unspeakably violent mare while blood flew from her open wounds and mouth. Pinkie put an end to the madness after she got back up and glanced at Applejack.

"Give me a boost up!" Pinkie demanded to Applejack. Urgency shook her words, cracking them into pure seriosity and delicious determination.

Applejack obeyed the need and galloped near Rainbow Dash. Pinkie galloped over there too, but she bounced over Applejack. She gave a quick nod before Applejack hoisted Pinkie up with her hind legs. Pinkie then hopped onto Rainbow and pulled her down to the ground, stopping her madness. Twilight, who was now about to fly into the molten metal, was saved by Rarity. She used her magic to quickly catch and levitate Twilight over the platform. Sure, it heavily drained her stamina, but it was worth it to save a friend.

Rainbow Dash kicked and squirmed under Pinkie's ground pound, but it was all to no avail. She then remembered the thrusters on her back and sneered a little. She activated the thrusters again, rocketing her out of Pinkie's hold and bringing her back into the air. She fired another line of lasers, but she had to dodge multiple attacks now from the ponies' discovery. She dodged most of the gems, bombs, metal balls, and magic hurling towards her, but some of them were able to easily strike her. Every time another projectile struck her body, she felt a tad bit weaker, but her primal rage did not allow her attacks to end.

She then changed her tactics again and flew around the platform at high speeds, forming a small tornado. This tornado quickly grew to a horrifying vortex of gale after only seven seconds. All five ponies were sucked into it, including the still asleep Fluttershy. Luckily, she quickly woke up after she noticed the sudden movement around her body. When she saw the tornado around her, she rubbed her eyes to check if she was dreaming.

She wasn't.

Fluttershy panicked, flung her wings open, and flew around the area wildly. When she noticed that Rianbow Dash was the one who was creating the storm, she confronted her with a slightly irritated attitude.

"Rainbow Dash, is there a reason why you are angry with them?" Her words were quite small and frail from her slightly croaking voice, but Rainbow heard every bit of them.

Rainbow Dash stopped the tornado, flinging the ponies in random areas around the platform. She then turned to Fluttershy and scanned her before scowling at her presence. Fluttershy only gasped at what she saw what Rainbow was wearing. Rainbow Dash was not herself by a long shot.

"Hey, I guess these other failures have a pegasus with them," Rainbow Dash declared in hindsight. Her quick interest faltered to disappointment. "That only makes your little group even more pathetic."

Rainbow Dash kicked Fluttershy with a rotating hindleg, spilling blood from her now bleeding mouth. Fluttershy cried a little, but she soaked up those tears and faced Rainbow with determination. She couldn't settle this dispute peacefully, and she knew that very well. So, to combat Rainbow Dash's kick in the face, Fluttershy was going to teach her a little lesson.

Fluttershy flew into Rainbow Dash and pinned her to the ground. Fluttershy lightly swung a hoof across Rainbow's face, not hurting her body one bit. She did it again, harder this time, but she obtained the same result. She did it again, even harder this time, but nothing changed. Rainbow quickly kicked Fluttershy off of her body and targeted her laser machine guns on her, ready to fire at any second. Twilight and Rarity attacked her from behind with magic and gems, damaging but not hurting her even more. She quickly turned backwards and fired four rockets, all of them not hitting anything from Pinkie's rocket guiding and catching skills. Just like what she did to Captian Akorazo, she steered the rockets into Rainbow Dash, dealing massive amounts of damage to her body.

Rainbow Dash flung backwards to a wall and recollected herself. She attempted to fire a few more rockets at the ponies, but it didn't work. She then looked over to where her rocket launcher was. The entire machine was destroyed, leaving nothing but a mechanical pad and a bundle of circuitry and metal extending out of a hole on the pad's top. She then glared back at Pinkie Pie with no mercy on her mind.

Pinkie immediately hopped out of the line of laser blasts, and Rarity and Twilight fried more gemstones and magic at Rainbow Dash, weakening her even more. Fluttershy, who was weakly flying above the battlefield, readied herself to dive into Rainbow. As more gems and magic flew at her, Pinkie inched closer and closer to her to deliver a fatal blow. Fluttershy, however, was the one to deliver this mighty attack when she pounced onto Rainbow Dash again and slammed both of her hooves on the mad mare's body. She first pummeled the chest, then she bashed the face.

After that critical hit, Rainbow Dash blacked out. She was still completely unharmed, but her body fell into a comatose state. Fluttershy gasped and backed away from her body, almost horrified to believe what she just did. Did, did I kill her? she panicked inside her mind while tears ran down her face. The other four ponies rushed over to Rainbow and examined her carefully.

Psychotic Rainbow Dash has been defeated!

"Is she dead?" Applejack regretfully questioned.

"I don't think so," Twilight answered while she examined Rainbow Dash's chest. "She's still breathing fine."

"Then what's the matter?" Pinkie shouted in terror. She rushed to Rainbow's body and shook her furiously. "Dashie, wake up! Please, wake up now!"

"Pinkie, stop your nonsense!" Rarity was not fond of seeing a friend not responding, but she didn't like Pinkie's shaking even more. "Let her wake up on her own pace. She needs time."

"Time for what? She's not dead, she doesn't need time!"

"It takes time for somepony to wake from something like that," Twilight added to Rarity's statement. Tears also ran down her cheek, but she kept herself strong. Her voice slightly broke though. "Just let her sit there for a while."

The ponies surrounded Rainbow Dash's still body, staying quiet as they waited patiently for their friend to wake. The first sign of her escape from unconsciousness was not a quiver in her face, but a glowing crack along her head. The ponies gasped as more cracks formed along the rest of her body, connecting to each other like a wicked jigsaw puzzle on a blue coat. The eyelids opened up once again, but they glowed with pure white. More cracks moved down her body and suit as she woke up. Pieces of her body fell from the cracks, opening herself to the ponies. More light escaped from these holes, almost blinding the quintet from their existence.

As more cracks opened and more pieces fell off of Rainbow Dash, the light grew whiter than white itself. Then, as if a bomb exploded inside her body, the rest of the pieces still on her body cracked and fell apart into nothingness. In fact, all of the pieces fell apart into nothingness. White light clouded all of the ponies' views, rendering their sight useless.

The light slowly faded as a new Rainbow Dash lay on the ground before the quintet. All of her suit was gone, and she looked so peaceful, like a corpse waking up after meeting its friend, death. She slowly opened her magenta eyes and blinked them twice. A smile crept across her face, but it was not of sadism or evil, it was of happiness and relief. Tears flowed down her blue cheeks as she got up and faced Pinkie Pie' gasping face once again.

Rainbow Dash hugged her tightly, almost like a powerful bear hug, but much more pleasant. Pinkie hugged back, almost crying into Rainbow's shoulder. Both of the ponies missed each other so much. Both of them traveled from hell to back to finally meet each other and unite once again.

What was this hell?

It was the death of their innocence.

Their escape from hell was the resurrection of their innocence.

When all of the other ponies were speechless, Travis broke the silence with wonderment. "What was that? I've never seen anything that powerful before."

"I, I don't know." Twilight was crying now, but it was not tears of sadness, it was pure joy. "But, it doesn't matter right now."

"Rainbow, it's nice to have you back," Applejack greeted as she pulled off her hat to respect Rainbow Dash's return.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Applejack and smirked. "Yeah, it's nice to have all of you back too."

"What happened to you?" Fluttershy asked in concern and interest. "You were so mean. You even tried to hurt us very badly!"

"That? These punks did something to my head. They put something on my head, and then I blacked out. Next thing I know it, I'm in this crummy cage with another me. She was such a jerk to me! She kept talking about how I was a failure and that all my friends were gonna die. I tried beating her up, but she didn't feel anything. I then noticed the weird vision or something that allowed me to see what was happening outside of my body. I saw marching ponies, a giant machine, and you five after some time."

She turned her head to Fluttershy with a playful shove to her shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Fluttershy. You proved to me that you can really show these dudes who's boss."

"Thank you," Fluttershy replied quietly. "I thought I was a little too far that time."

"Well, you might want to tone it down a little, but it was still awesome how you did that."

has rejoined your party.

Travis was thinking about Rainbow Dash's little story for a second until something popped in his head. He realized that she couldn't hear him, so he had to alter his question a little bit. "Twilight, can you tell Rainbow Dash about this 'giant machine'?"

Twilight nodded as she looked over to Rainbow. "Hey, what exactly was that giant machine that you were talking about again?"

"It was some sort of thing these punks were calling the Device," Rainbow answered as she hovered over the ground now. "From what I know, that's where they take all of the ponies that are not in suits."

The entire group had different thoughts about this machine. Pinkie was frightened by the thought of a giant machine, but she felt determined with all of her friends by her side. Applejack and Rarity knew that this thing was probably the reason these creatures are here, and Fluttershy merely kept as little bad thoughts from penetrating her as possible. Twilight was completely worried on what this machine might be. If she had to guess from all of the other things she faced before, it must be a huge, self-aware robot of some sort. It would be way too easy to shut off a hulking machine with the flick of a lever.

"Well, we better make that hunk of metal our target, then," Applejack suggested. "Where do we go to reach it?"

"You six might have to backtrack a little bit," Travis answered. "The creature that was hauling Fluttershy was going the opposite direction as you six, meaning that the machine is probably back there." Travis couldn't point to the door the ponies entered from, but they knew what he meant.

"Then off we go to stop these meanies!" Pinkie declared as she hopped towards the door. The other five ponies followed her as they prepared for more fights and possible mishaps.

•—————•

As the sight of a familiar and still dark room unfurled into view, the demon lord still examined a table full of various holograms. He scratched his nonexistent beard pensively while he examined the columns of information around a unicorn.

This unicorn was Twilight Sparkle.

The main gate flung open once again. "Sir-"

The demon's voice cut off as Lord Zedin swiped his hand all the way to the novice demon. A large claw of darkness wrapped around his head and pulled him towards his lord. Zedin glared at him in an infuriated mood. "I know, bastard. Your annoying shrill is not needed today. Stick to simple talking, not screaming from miles away."

The novice demon was greatly horrified by this. "Yes, sire." His voice was merely a simple croak.

"Now, tell me your news like a good messenger."

"Captain Akorazo and his fleet were destroyed, sire. Those dreaded ponies did it again."

Zedin glared back at the Twilight hologram. "She is such a mischievous purple unicorn, but she is also rather powerful. I would applaud her, but that was not everything that we can muster. If only I could pick her out of her little group."

"Would you like to start another battle?" The novice demon was still shaking, but his voice calmed to a passive and submissive state.

"No, that would be foolish. GEST Corp. and Equestria have grown too powerful for us to attack again. We need to wait until they are weakened."

"Then when will we attack again?"

"Once that wretched pony is out of our way, we will strike. We need a plan, first."

"Do you have a plan, sire?"

Zedin looked down at his right hand while he answered that question. "I do, but it is in development. I need some more research before we delve into anymore fighting." Zedin made a shooing motion with his left hand toward the novice demon. "Now, begone. I need to study."

"Yes, sire." The novice demon rushed back to the door and left the throne room quickly and silently. Lord Zedin, the demon who was about to know too much, looked back at the Twilight hologram. He then placed an old compact disc from the twenty-first century onto the table. The disc showed the very same ponies, the Mane Six, that were already causing havoc for the Psychopaths. Happy smiles and those big, mischievous eyes dotted the disc like freckles on a young boy's face.

Zedin glared at the disc again and stroked his nonexistent beard again. "This, is interesting. Apparently, these creatures are too good to be true."

•—————•

After about an hour of running and gunning around the maze of halls and huge metal rooms, the ponies found a stairwell to the first floor. Above the stairwell was a sign indicating the direction of the Device. At the top of the stairwell was a set of double doors.

"This must be where we need to go," Twilight concluded from the sign. "Get ready, girls. I don't think these creatures will like us going through that place."

The rest of the group agreed on her statement and marched up the stairs in disorder. They entered the next room on the first floor to discover what awaited them ahead.

They were greeted by a circular walkway around a giant vat of hot rainbows. A giant machine similar to a taffy machine pulled the rainbows into long strands and shoved them down a ramp. Multiple pony soldiers marched along the walkway. Some were Psycho Storms without their cloud mounts, and a couple were a new variant of the basic pony soldier. They were earth ponies with laser machine guns strapped onto their sides, and their hooves contained cleats for pummeling anything in their way.

One of the soldiers noticed the Mane Six and shouted in urgency. "Hostiles inbound, men! Fire at will!"

The six ponies scattered around the walkway and prepared their own attacks. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew into the air, baiting some of the Psycho Storms to follow them. While some of the pegasus soldiers increased their altitude to fight the two mares, two Psycho Tramples on the ground confronted Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Pinkie hopped over the two soldiers and slammed her hooves on their backs. Applejack dodged the incoming lasers and also hopped over the soldiers, this time bucking their heads to deal even more damage. The soldiers staggered forward and turned around to face the two mares again. Pinkie threw a pink bomb between them. Once the bomb exploded, one of the soldiers was shoved off of the walkway and into the pit below. The other one lost two legs and his consciousness from the blast.

The Psycho Storms swooped around Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash at considerable speeds, but Rainbow was faster. She caught some of the soldiers in quick kicks and punches, spiraling them into the hot rainbows below. Some of the smarter soldiers kept their distance and fired multiple storm clouds at the mares. Rainbow intercepted them and kicked then back at the soldiers, paralyzing and frying them from the electricity. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity pelted magic blasts and gemstones at the still airborne soldiers. The gems stabbed into their bodies, and the magic severely damaged their wings. All of the soldiers were eventually destroyed as they fell into either the pit or the hot rainbows.

When the battlefield calmed down, the ponies regrouped at the other side of the circular room. Rainbow Dash took some time to regroup due to the remaining Psycho Trample body. She pulled off the machine guns and strapped them to her body, recreating the weaponry she always wanted to use. After she finished looting the body, the ponies walked into the hallway and examined the area around them. Multiple conveyor belts were moving various objects into funnels. Upon close inspection, the ponies gasped in shock when they discovered what the objects really were.

Multiple severed pony legs and heads rolled along the conveyor belts lifelessly. The strange thing about these body parts was the absence of any blood. The limbs and heads didn't bleed, and they were almost drained of any color. Every single one of them was some shade of grey. Even the irises of the dead ponies' eyes were grey.

Then, a humanly figure walked into view. He wore an outfit that almost matched the Psycho Wicked's discordant setup, but he wore something else on his head. He wore the same helmet that the pony soldiers wore, but it was modified to fit on a human. The lenses were colored to look like two bleeding eyes, and a long assortment of real, sharpened human teeth covered its face, creating a never-ending grin from one invisible ear to the other. In its right hand, it held a syringe with a green liquid inside of it. Its dominant hand was a chainsaw. It was already revving, ready to rip apart the ponies in one bloody swipe.

"Ladies, I believe it is time for a proper dissection." The Psycho Worker's words were distorted and broken to hell. "But first, I need every single one of you to stop moving and drink my solution."

Rainbow Dash fired a flurry of bullets at the worker, but all of the laser blasts deflected back at the ponies. Twilight raised a barrier spell at the last second to absorb all of the lasers. The worker sighed in disappointment and slowly walked towards the group. His chainsaw scratched the ground as he dragged its active end on the harsh metal. Twilight fired a few magic blasts, but they didn't do anything to him. Rarity hurled a few gems into the worker, but they bounced back from the suit's durability. The worker was now only three yards from the ponies now, and he slowly lifted his chainsaw to begin the surgery.

The ponies backed away from the Psycho Worker. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew over the worker to avoid his approaching chainsaw. The other four ponies kept backing away, attempting to fend off the worker as he took step after step. His armor was absurdly powerful compared to the other soldiers, and he was perfectly calm throughout the fight. He did not flinch, twitch, or cackle like a madman, but people without sanity don't have to act insane. Even the most sane people can be insane.

Rainbow Dash created a storm cloud and kicked it towards the Psycho Worker. When the cloud smashed into his armor, it electrified the entire suit, slightly damaging him. This electricity caught his attention, so he turned around and examined the two pegasi with death in his eyes. He walked towards the airborne ponies with a slightly faster pace. He then stopped walking once he was only a feet away from them, not counting the altitude of the ponies. He then kicked his feet on the ground. A blue glow wrapped itself around his boots as he bent down to a jumping position.

The Psycho Worker then jumped up to the ponies and blasted blue fire out of his feet. He hovered towards Rainbow first, slashing his chainsaw close to her neck. She backed away and hurled a bundle of electric clouds towards him again. He sliced at the cloud to destroy it, but the electricity traveled through his metal chainsaw, rendering his move useless. He brandished his syringe for a second before he evaded over to Fluttershy. He then stabbed the syringe on her neck and pushed down on the pump, releasing the green liquid into her body.

Fluttershy first felt a quick stab and an uncomfortable surge from the liquid, but what followed soon after was far worse. Pain seared around the penetrated area, and it quickly spread throughout her body. The pain at first was blunt like a bruise, but it soon converted to fire and needles all around her body. She screamed in pain as the control of her own body vanished. Muscles convulsed, and wings froze as she plummeted back to the ground.

The Psycho Worker simply crushed the syringe and pulled out a new one with the same liquid. The ponies on the ground quickly surrounded Fluttershy and checked her body. Her entire body was blackening, and her eyes slowly slipped into a complete white. Pinkie quickly pulled out a spirally green and yellow cupcake and handed it to Fluttershy. Since she couldn't chew the treat, Twilight moved Fluttershy's jaw with her magic. This definitely hurt her frail body, but it was needed for her to survive. Pinkie slowly shoved the treat into Fluttershy's mouth until it was all gone. Twilight then made her swallow with her magic.

Fluttershy's body sluggishly regained its original colors, and her eyes returned to normal. The feeling all around her body returned as well, and her wings loosened. She got back up after all of the pain washed out of her body.

The Psycho Worker above was busy hacking and slashing at Rainbow Dash, but he was missing every slice. While he slashed at the pegasus, Rainbow fired more clouds at him. After one last cloud from a flurry of his slashes, the worker convulsed one more time and fell to the ground. His neck snapped once he landed headfirst onto the metal. The Psycho Worker was dead.

The Mane Six regrouped back to a party of six. Rarity was the first to respond from the creature's attacks. "What did that wretch do to Fluttershy? Is there anything we have in Equestria that can do that?"

"No, not at all," Twilight grimly answered. "Whatever it was, that almost looked like the process of decomposition."

"You're saying that she died from that thing?" Applejack questioned with a contorted frown.

"That can't be possible! My treats don't work on things that died!" Pinkie pulled out another cupcake of the same style to emphasize her point.

"It looked more like rapid necrosis than rotting of the body," Travis informed. "There have been certain chemicals that can do that to the body. Maybe that was exactly what that thing put into Fluttershy."

"Whatever it was, we can't stay here for long," Rainbow Dash gruffly stated. "We need to leave this hall before anything else attacks us."

The group of ponies agreed and moved along the halls. They encountered a few more groups of Psycho Grunts, Psycho Troopers, Psycho Storms, Psycho Tramples with rocket launchers on their backs, and a couple Psycho Workers here and there. They traversed along more conveyor belt hallways, rainbow mixing stations, walkways with pitfalls, and a few piping areas. After another thirty minutes of running and gunning, the group reached a dark door. The sign above the door read 'Main Production Room'. Whatever was on the other side must be the ponies' destination.

"All right, girls, this is where that machine is located," hoped Twilight. "We better be prepared for anything now, okay?"

"I think we can handle this hunk of metal," Rainbow Dash cockily proposed.

"I think we need to be careful, especially after Fluttershy's incident with that syringe thing."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and waited for the doors to open. Twilight entered the same code from earlier into the keypad next to the door. A green light flashed above the keypad and opened the door, allowing the ponies to enter. They walked into the large room on the other side. For some reason, there was a thick fog of black in the room, cutting the ponies' vision to about only ten yards. The area was rather stuffy and made some of the ponies cough from the air. Screams of terror echoed around the group, horrifying them a little more than needed. Eventually, the ponies reached a large machine that was much bigger than them.

The machine was the shape of a gargantuan trapezoidal prism with half of a stretched pyramid in its front. The machine was attached to a hemisphere base that rested on six small supports attached to the ground. Two giant tanks, one cylindrical and one rectangular, were placed on the machine's back. Two pipes stretched from the tops of these tanks and attached themselves to the machine's sides. Six panels on both sides of the machine carried one color each. Two panels were red; another pair, orange; another, yellow; another, green; another, blue; and the last pair, purple. These panels were arranged in two two by three patterns, and their specified colors glowed brightly in front of the ponies. A small, circular nozzle stretched out of the machine's front, depositing a stream of rainbows into a funnel on the ground.

How did the ponies see all of this? The fog around them thinned to a moderate amount once the machine entered their view.

High above the machine was a catwalk with three ponies on it. Two were Psycho Storms, and one was the same silvery stallion from earlier. The stallion opened his mouth and spoke to the ponies below. He would slow clap them right now, but his anatomy and position didn't allow it. "Well done, ladies. Apparently, you four recovered your yellow pegasus, and–" he gasped a fake gasp "–you converted Miss Dash to your side. Bravo, bravo to all of you!" He chuckled to himself and peered down at the ponies again. "Now, I must ask, what makes you six desire the destruction of our grasp on this city?"

"Like I already said," Twilight angrily spat at the stallion, "your terror is not welcome here! We'll not stand to your evil acts!"

"It's just a way of life, dear. There is no need to hold so much hatred like that." He nodded his head quickly to signal one of the Psycho Storms to press the red button next to him. "Besides, we have other plans for you six. Just because you kill my troops does not mean you are inefficient. In fact, it means quite the opposite."

"You know, something has been bugging me," Applejack recalled as she remembered the conveyor belts. "How do you have so many dead ponies here?"

"Oh, that. Maybe this will tell you!"

The Psycho Storms quickly shot up to the air and flapped a huge gale into the room. The fog cleared as multiple metal tables entered the group's view. Several ponies were strapped onto the tables, and they were kept shut by a piece of metal that wrapped around their mouths. A giant, opaque pipe with a cylindrical mechanism at its end lowered to a green and orange mare. At the end of this mechanism was a long needle similar to the syringes from the Psycho Workers. The needle stabbed into her chest and sucked all of the fluids out of her body. The pigment faded away and turned gray. The mare's eyes turned a glossy black, white, and gray mixture. A set of claws then lifted the table and positioned it over the machine. The sound of multiple chainsaws revving permeated the room as the mare fell into the machine. Shrieks and shredding flesh exploded from the machine's top. After only two seconds, the screams were muffled by the gurgling of blood and metal. Shortly after this small event, the flowing rainbows brightened a little from the death.

"You're turning ponies into rainbows?" screamed Pinkie Pie in shock.

"No no no no, not at all." The stallion was infuriated by this heavy misunderstanding. "That's the byproduct. The real solution is life force from the ponies. That is what we need. The rainbows then go through the usual process so that they are exactly like the ones created from the old Cloudsdale Weather Factory."

"What do you do with this, life force?" Rarity asked with just a hint of curiosity.

"Life force is found in everything that lives. Basically, it is the soul of a living being. Some creatures that are lower on the evolution scale or are more primitive in nature have fairly little life force. For example, wolves are not very efficient in life force. Originally, we used humans due to their well advancement." The stallion rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, that is probably why GEST Corp. is rather hostile towards us. Anyway, humans were effective, but they were still too inefficient. That is where your species comes in. We discovered that your species holds seven times more life force than a human being, making you six rather efficient."

"So, you're harvesting us like some wicked farm?" Applejack presumed from the small lecture.

"If you want to see it that way. Unfortunately, we hit a few brick walls while we attempted to switch to ponies. The first was the actual switch. We needed to become ponies and study pony architecture, history, and culture before we started all of this processing. The second was that we needed to upgrade our harvesters to also harvest the magic. The magic is where most of the life force is contained. The third is, well, supply shortages. That is why we set up a few breeding lists to increase the amount of ponies that we can use for our fuel supplies. Luckily, our technology can make these ponies age rather quickly to fulfill the demands."

The ponies felt sick from that idea, especially Rarity. She stuck her tongue out in disgust from the very thought of this breeding. "Eww, how horrid! How can you do such a thing to random ponyfolk?"

"Frankly, dear, that is how life works. Once a species advances enough, they can just choose which creatures will breed with each other."

"That's just mean!" Pinkie exclaimed angrily. "You can't just pair ponies together like that! They need to find their special somepony first!"

The stallion shook his head and resumed to his original plans. "Alright, enough stalling! This day will be your last, ladies! Prepare for the duel of a lifetime!" The stallion glared down at the massive machine in front of the ponies. He smiled a little from its whirring. "And right on queue, too!"

Steam flew out of the sides of the machine as two more opaque pipe stretched our of its sides. Their ends were covered with cylindrical pieces of metals that functioned like cannons. The nozzle in the front of the machine extended to about six times its original length. The supports on the hemispherical base broke apart as two opaque pipes shot out of the base and lifted the machine upwards, ripping apart the catwalk above it. Luckily, or unluckily, the stallion already moved away from the machine. As the machine was now standing on two huge legs, another pipe, resembling the same machine that sucked the life out of the mare, shot out of the machine's back. Two glowing eyes opened on the two sides of the machine's front, and a large, sharp grin cracked around the bottom half of its half pyramid front.

In a severely mechanical voice, the Device bellowed its command. "All equines that do not obey will be eviscerated."

A challenger approaches: The Device, a malevolent machine created of humans, by humans, and for humans

The Device spewed a stream of hot rainbows from its nozzle at the ponies. They swiftly dodged the glop before it could catch and burn them to death. The machine raised one of its metallic feet and stomped next to the rainbow puddle, shaking the ground with a shockwave. All of the ponies except Rarity and Pinkie dodged the shockwave. Those two ponies flew back from the wave and slammed onto the metal ground. The machine whirred and fired a laser beam from its left cannon arm. It missed the four ponies over there, but that didn't distract it from its real goal.

Twilight strafed around the machine and fired magical blasts at its body. The metal was so powerful, even magic couldn't penetrate its outer layers. Applejack and Rainbow Dash fired lasers and metal balls at the body to help Twilight. Again, it was no use. Pinkie and Rarity got back up and strafed around the machine with Twilight. Rarity fired her useless gems at the metal body, only making tink sounds from the rebound of her weaponry. The machine whirred again and fired another laser beam. This time, it was dangerously close to Pinkie and Applejack, but the beam didn't hit them. Rainbow Dash flew up to the machine's top to discover a large stream of hot rainbows hurling directly towards her. The stream only stopped when she hovered back to ground level.

"How do you even hurt this thing?" shouted Twilight with panic as a metal foot almost crushed her. "It's immune to my attacks!"

"And we can't fly up to it either!" Rianbow Dash added while she checked her wings.

Rarity realized where all of her friends were attacking and aimed somewhere else. She threw a few gemstones into the Device's right leg. The gems wedged into the opaque pipe, dealing only a minuscule amount of actual damage. Twilight noticed this damage and fired a few magical blasts at the machine's legs. The magic damaged the legs even more, but they were still a long way from destroying this thing. Pinkie added to the damage by hurling a bomb at its left leg. The Device finally noticed the ponies' strategy and kicked the bomb back at her, covering her in a cloud of pink and spilt blood. Rainbow Dash hovered near the legs and blasted them with multiple lasers, poking holes in the circuitry and metal. A right leg rose above her and smashed down, not killing her due to a nimble dodge. The Device blew more steam and swung a cannon arm at her. She was swatted out of the air and onto the ground like an irritating fly.

Applejack trod close to the metal feet and prepared a lasso. She had to use the lasso like a hook to catch both legs, or else it would simply touch the metal and slip away. Obviously, the legs were too big for the lasso, only allowing it to wrap around three-fourths of the legs. The Device moved one leg backwards and swung Applejack towards it. A kick then followed as Applejack felt the blunt pain of a metal plate on her face and chest. The machine roared mightily and spewed more steam out of its metal body.

"Insolent equines, your strategies are laughable." The Device's booming voice was still hollow like a metallic monster.

Pinkie got back up, wiped the blood off of her face, and galloped towards the machine's legs. Fluttershy and Rarity were dodging laser beams while Twilight strafed to various spots to obtain a good firing spot. Pinkie hopped onto the left leg and climbed up to about halfway. She bashed the metal over and over again with her hooves, cracking the plating and denting some of the metal layers. She eventually created a hole in the leg big enough to squeeze into. She climbed into the hole and bashed more metal and circuitry from the inside. The left leg's opaque pipe bulged in some areas and broke in others. Rainbow Dash dodged another stream of hot rainbows and aided Pinkie's slamming by firing more lasers into the leg. She aimed for the top of the leg to prevent any friendly fire.

By the time Pinkie opened up another hole to crawl out, the entire leg was nearly ripped off of the machine. Twilight finished the job with an explosive blast at the top of the leg, ripping the entire metal pipe off of the Device. The machine collapsed to the ground quickly, but it was saved by ten black tendrils that shot out of the newly created opening. The tendrils lowered the machine's height, but they still allowed a fair amount of movement. The machine raised its remaining leg and slammed it on the ground twice, creating two more shockwaves. Twilight created a barrier spell around herself and Rarity, Pinkie spun over the waves and landed perfectly, Rainbow and Fluttershy flew over them harmlessly, and Applejack hopped over them skillfully. The machine whirred and fired two laser beams at the same time, crowding the battlefield with deadly heat. Another splurge of hot rainbows splashed onto the ground and covered more of the area. Thankfully, the other patches of rainbow muck cooled to room temperature, but they were still as spicy as ever.

Twilight and Rainbow fired more lasers and magic at the remaining leg, and Pinkie soon followed with a few pink bombs. The leg blew apart after Rarity stabbed the leg again with dozens of gemstones. Ten more tendrils sprouted out of the new hole, but the Device was now dangerously close to the ground. The ponies could see a metal hemisphere bulge on the machine's top now, and the arms were now swinging around the field freely like oversized jump ropes. The ponies except for the two pegasi hopped over the incoming arms. The Device then repositioned them next to its sides and fired short laser beams. The ponies dodge rolled from left to right, constantly evading the soaring beams. Rainbow Dash fired more lasers at the machine's body, but she got the same result, again.

"Why does this thing have to be so tough?" Rainbow Dash flew next to the Device and punched one of its eyes with a hoof. Nothing happened.

"This thing is made out of some sort of synthetic galactium," Travis informed.

"Galactiwhat now?" Applejack asked in bafflement while more laser beams flew fairly close to her face.

"Galactium. It is a type of organic material that is virtually impossible to forge or cut. Only the mighty Galactian race has it because galactium is part of their bodies."

"So, you are stating that the strongest material that ever existed is from an unsightly creature's body?" Rarity was disgusted by this fact, but she still wondered what it might look like. Perhaps galactium is more beautiful than gems.

"When you say it that way, it seems like it."

The Device roared again as more steam spewed out of its metal body. Another splash of hot rainbows plopped onto the battlefield, halting any access to melee attacks. Twilight noticed the same metal in the machine's arms that was in its legs. "Hey, girls, I think I found something!"

"Then spit it out, Twily! I'm not in a good position right now!" A large machine that resembled the life force harvester that killed the mare was attempting to stab Pinkie's body. She kept dodging from left to right, but the harvester followed her everywhere. One time, it almost stabbed her in her left hind leg, but it hit her frizzy tail instead. That was good enough, as the harvester was able to lift her by the tail and pull her towards the machine's slaughter maw on its top. She saw the multiple rotating blades and slicing saw blades around and inside the hole. They were crimson red from the leftover blood and flesh from the other ponies who gruesomely met their horrible fates. She screamed for dear life as the harvester threatened to let go of her tail.

Rainbow Dash sprung into action and zipped towards Pinkie Pie. The Device quickly blasted a laser beam at her, singing some of her left wing. Rainbow ignored the injury and pain as she grabbed Pinkie and landed on the metal floor. She then dodged a quick laser blast that almost fried her head into grade A pegasus meat.

"Aim for the arms!" Twilight shouted as another splash of hot rainbows almost hit her right side.

Applejack strafed around the Device, and Rarity fired multiple gemstones into its arms. Applejack hopped onto the machine's right arm and slammed her hooves into the metal repeatedly, mimicking Pinkie's method of attack. Twilight fired multiple magic blasts at the right arm while Rainbow Dash pelted it with several laser blasts. The arm was now filled with several rips and small holes in its metal and circuitry, and Appleajck was about to increase that damage by tenfold. She burrowed a hole into the arm and positioned her legs carefully. When she thought the time was right, she bucked into the metal of the arm, destroying some of the arm's connection to the body. She bucked again into two other areas, almost severing the arm. When she bucked the last sliver of metal connecting the two parts of the arm, the entire arm fell to the ground with a thud. Applejack crawled out as fast as she could before ten sharp tendrils exploded out of the new opening in the Device.

The Device roared mightily and spewed clouds of steam out of its body. Twilight and Rarity were now aiming for the other arm while they dodged and strafed around the machine's hot rainbows. Rainbow Dash was having a little trouble with the abundance of tendrils attempting to stab her out of the air, and Fluttershy was starting to worry about her friends. She tested the machine's attention by flying a little closer to the still attached arm. The machine didn't see her and was completely focused on the two unicorns firing things at its metal. She then lightly punched the metal to deal some damage, but her attack was too weak. She did it again, a littler harder this time, but nothing happened still. She then added much more force to her punch the third time, finally denting the metal. She gasped and held her hooves up to her mouth from the slight damage to the machine.

Pinkie Pie was dodging various laser beams and tendril swipes as she scanned the entire machine. She noticed that dreaded life force harvester hovering over to Twilight and quickly galloped to her position. The harvester inched closer and closer to Twilight, but she didn't notice it from her attention on the hot rainbows and laser beams. Pinkie hopped on the harvester's opaque pipe and slammed her front hooves on the mechanics inside the harvester end. She eventually flattened the metal after about five slams, rendering the harvester useless. She then broke apart a section of the pipe, severing the harvester from the machine altogether. The machine drew back what was left of the harvester limb and aimed specifically for Pinkie now.

Fluttershy was repetitively punching the metal, but her attacks were too weak to deal any serious damage. Rainbow Dash, now firing at the left arm of the machine, was glaring at Fluttershy's work. Rainbow was not very pleased to see this.

"Fluttershy, you have to hit harder!" Rainbow Dash cupped her hooves around her mouth and faced Fluttershy.

"But, I don't want to kill it!" Fluttershy responded in a slight shout.

"It's a robot! Robots can't really feel anything!"

Fluttershy was hesitant to do so, but she did hit harder the next time. The dents were bigger and more detailed now, but she had a new problem now. She couldn't muster enough strength to directly fight the machine. Pinkie and Applejack ran to the arm to help the other two pegasi already there. Pinkie latched onto the part closest to the Device's body, created a small hole in the area, and placed a pink bomb in the hole. She hopped off the arm while she signaled the other three ponies to get away from the arm. The ponies did so, allowing the bomb to cleanly rip off the entire metal arm and smash it to the ground. Ten sharp tendrils shot out from the new hole as a result.

Twilight was testing other areas of the Device's body for any weakness. The tanks were strong, the main body was strong, and the eyes were strong. She fired a single magic blast at the nozzle that spewed the hot rainbow mess, and the blast actually worked. Rarity fired a few gems at the nozzle, cracking and breaking various pieces of it. Hot rainbows leaked out of the nozzle at a slow drizzle. Rainbow Dash joined the two unicorns' onslaught by firing several lasers at the nozzle. This drilled multiple holes into the metal that leaked even more rainbows. Eventually, Twilight used an explosive blast that shot into the nozzle and blew up at the end of the nozzle. The entire piece of metal burst apart and created a continuous drizzle of hot rainbows. The Device was almost powerless.

In the top of the device, the same hemisphere bump that the ponies saw from earlier rose up a little to reveal a black circular mass with two narrow eyes. Its voice was the same tone as the Device, but it was much clearer, slicker, and most of all, much more sinister. "None of you can fathom how much hatred I contain for you ingeniously insolent equines. Prepare to die, intruders."

Twilight knew that that creature must be the weak point of the Device. The entire machine was completely made out of metal but what about the organic creature inside? It didn't represent a humanoid nor a pony, so it must something much more dangerous, right? Whatever it was, Twilight was determined to destroy this metal beast.

"Girls, we need to get on top of the machine!" Twilight ordered to her friends. "Aim for that, whatever it was that just popped out of that hole!"

"On it, Twilight!" Thanks to the destruction of the nozzle, Rainbow Dash flew over the Device safely and landed on it without any further harm. She was now in front of a gaping maw filled with blood and blades. On the other side was the bump and two slender, metallic claw arms that shot out of its sides. Twenty sharp tendrils from the arm holes guarded the bump by slithering close to it. They waved their sharp ends to intimidate Rainbow, but it didn't work. She flew over the maw and gunned down the tendrils. They shook and staggered back, but they kept themselves in the air. Another key feature was that they were completely unharmed. The lasers may have startled them, but they did not damage them.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack joined Rainbow Dash as they climbed up the hunk of metal. Twilight teleported herself up there, and Fluttershy carefully landed next to her.

Rarity was the only one still on the ground. "Excuse me, but I need one of you to help me climb this thing. I'm not as, hoppy, as Pinkie."

Twilight nodded and lifted Rarity upwards with her magic. When Rarity landed on top of the Device, the tendrils sliced at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Pinkie was punching a few away, and Fluttershy already pinned down three of them on the ground. The bump rose a little, revealing the creature again. Twilight immediately fired three blasts of magic into it, dealing astronomical damage to the entire machine. The lights in the Device's eyes flickered from the blasts, and more steam spewed out a little more violently than usual. The creature retreated back into its hole to avoid any further damage.

The top of the hemisphere bump opened two line slits that moved around two buzz saws. One of the claw arms grabbed one of them and tossed it towards Twilight. She intercepted the buzz saw and broke it in half, rendering it somewhat useless. She then tossed it into the maw and fired a few magic blasts at the claws. Rainbow Dash was punching and kicking one of the arms, but it didn't budge nor dent. Pinkie Pie threw a pink bomb at the other claw arm, but when it exploded, nothing happened.

A claw arm took the other buzz saw and swung it near Rainbow Dash. She was grazed on the right foreleg and side, but that was nothing compared what could have happened. Rainbow created and slammed a storm cloud onto the claw arm, short circuiting it from the surge of electricity. The other claw arm swung at her and missed. Pinkie hopped near the arm and grabbed the claw arm. She held onto it as if her life depended on it, and it did. However, two more buzz saws popped out of the line slits, allowzing the arm to slam Pinkie on them. When it tried to do this, Applejack held it back with all of her might. Pinkie let go of the claw and signaled Rainbow Dash to zap it. She created another storm cloud and bashed it on the claw, temporarily stopping the claw's mayhem.

Twilight and Rarity were still fighting off the deadly tendrils as the creature returned back to its scanning state. Pinkie swiftly held the bump open and crammed herself into the creature's space. She then bashed, kicked, bucked, and punched the black mass over and over again, releasing more steam and worsening the Device's condition with every passing millisecond. She eventually punched her hooves into its eyes, blinding the creature and destroying most of its fragile brain. She gave one more quick blow to the head before placing a bomb with it and crawling back out of the space. The bomb exploded, ripping the black mass into various pieces of black blood and flesh. Some of the blood splattered on the ponies' faces, both sickening them and obscuring their vision. For some inexplicable reason, the blood tasted like kiwis.

The Device whirred until the lights in its eyes died. Rainbows calmly dripped out of the broken nozzle, and the tendrils flattened and stopped squirming. It seemed as if the battle was over. The Device was completely dead, and the remaining Psychopaths that were in the room left quite some time ago. Even the silver stallion himself left the amusing yet horrific fight to deal with other matters.

The Device has been defeated!

Fluttershy released the tendrils and regrouped with the other ponies. The Mane Six examined the once again foggy room. Darkness surrounded their view, only allowing some of the room to stay visible. Then, the main door to the room slammed open harshly. Five figures in the shape of humans crouch ran or strafed around the area.

"Argh, why don't they just give up?" Rainbow Dash sprung into action and slammed into one of the slower figures. She then noticed that the creature was still standing, but it lost its head. Wait a minute, she thought to herself as she examined its body. That's not one of them.

"What the hell, man!" shouted something from behind Rainbow Dash. She looked back and saw a human skull looking up at her with an irritated face.

"Ahh! What the hay are you?" She jumped back in adrenaline-based fear. "Are you one of those dead freaks?"

"Dude, can you stop with the insults?" The head floated back to the body and reconnected itself with its skeletal body. The body was wearing a GEST Corp. brand chest plate and greaves. He carried two glossy black swords, one flaming and one electrified. His eye sockets were filled with small, red pupils, the same ones found on the burning undead from the Universal Graveyard. "We're just here to get you outta here, not fight."

"Wait, what?" Twilight cocked her head in confusion. "Who sent you here?"

"Well, GEST Corp. of course," a gruff and deep voice answered. It came from a slightly bigger skeleton with GEST Corp. visor helmet and a kavarian battle suit. He wielded a laser rifle with two barrels and a laser sight. "We're the new divisions General Solk made for us."

"We heard that you six were having trouble with these humanish things," another voice stated with a British accent. It came from a skeleton cloaked in a black robe. He wielded an experimental plasma sniper rifle with laser sights and a chainsaw bayonet. "Surprisingly, these fleshbags are big pushovers. One of the soldiers with claws for hands and some sort of spike gun died instantly from my chainsaw." The skeleton got a little cocky as he remembered the Psycho Wicked a little more. "He slapped me in the bones five times with his claws, and I didn't even feel a thing!"

"Uh, I think that's because we're dead," the first skeleton concluded.

"Oh, right. That thought slipped my mind."

Twilight tried to recall what the skeletons were here for. "Well, we don't really need an escort. We have a teleporter already." Twilight supported her statement by pulling out the cube from her pocket chest.

"Oh well," said another slightly southern skeleton in the group. He wore a generic GEST Corp. suit and helmet, but his weapon was rather unique. He wielded a sword that was also a shootable gun. The barrel was placed inside the blade, and the sword fired special fragmentation bullets. "More shootin' for us. C'mon, boys, let's go kill a few more of these livings!"

The skeletons shouted in approval as they marched out of the huge room. The same skeleton that Rainbow Dash assaulted lingered for a while longer. "Oh, yeah, I remembered something." He turned to Twilight with serious seriousness in his eyes. "I heard something about your future. It's supposed to involve 'The Overlord' or something like that. I have no idea what it means, but you better be careful. I heard that he's your killer."

Twilight gulped down her fear and widened her eyes from that statement. "Who's The Overlord?" Her words were quiet and shaky like autumn leaves.

Pinkie walked up to Twilight and placed a hoof over her shoulder. "Don't worry, Twily. I bet that's something for the far future. We still have lots of fun activities ahead of us!"

"Well, I suppose I can ignore it for now."

That was a lie.

Twilight placed down the cube and pressed the button on it. The cube blinked green and unfolded into a hexagonal teleporter with six poles that exchanged electricity between each other. Twilight and company walked onto the teleporter and awaited their departure. After only a few seconds, the ponies dissipated into green and blue light, leaving nothing behind but the deactivating teleporter and a broken machine.

•—————•

The Mane Six materialized at the GEST Corp. camp, and what awaited them was only slightly different. The sky was teeming with drop ships and a few assault ships, and the soldiers at the camp were all in one piece. The cool blanket of the nighttime stars covered the world in grace. The moon shined brightly along the inky sky, providing the light that would make the night bearable.

The soldiers greeted the ponies and opened the ramp door for them. Unconsciously, the ponies walked back into the drop ship like good old wartime tradition.

The pilot looked back at the complete set and greeted them happily. "We'll be taking you home. Plus, General Solk has something to say to all of you before you go home."

"What does he want?" asked Applejack.

"You'll know it when he asks it."

The drop ship descended from the high altitudes to about only two hundred feet from the ground. The ship calmly flew back to Ponyville with no rush or careful precision. The night was extremely calm, and so was the rest of the planet.

When the group finally reached Ponyville, they landed in the town square. Once the ramp door lowered, the six ponies were greeted with applause from humans, ponies, and skeletons. General Solk stood in the back of the crowd and signaled it to split for him. The crowd opened a small pathway from the ponies to Solk, allowing the seven to converse.

Solk greeted the ponies with a mighty salute. "Excellent job, girls. You six are truly heroes of your world."

Twilight slightly blushed from the massive crowd. "We did what we had to. Equestria needs us, and we need Equestria."

Solk kept his mighty grin as he released more news to the ponies. "Also, we have discovered that multiple forces that invaded this planet are withdrawing their forces. The demons completely retreated back to our world, and the kavarians completely switched their focus from Equestria to us. Even though we won't be guarding your world with strong forces, we will be out there fighting." He and the ponies looked up at the stars. "If you ever wonder where we are, just look up. We'll be in space, fighting off these creatures before they invade this world."

"Also, we don't have to worry about those creatures anymore," informed the smooth voice of Princess Celestia. She approached the ponies and stood next to General Solk. Several ponies bowed down to her, multiple humans saluted, and the skeletons looked around in bafflement. "The ED Space Station will notify us if anything else invades Equestria. And, with Solk's account on his world, we can expect another invasion in about a month or so."

"Does that mean we can resume our normal lives?" Twilight Sparkle wanted a yes to that answer badly.

"You'll get your old lives back," Solk answered. "We don't want you six to fight in our world unless you really want to."

"I think I'll just tend to the farm instead of fighting more of those, things." Applejack did not want to meet something like Pinkie Pie's sanity break or the Psychopaths ever again.

Rarity looked over to Applejack for a second before turning to Solk again, "Yes, and I would really appreciate it if you tell us ahead of time whenever one of those brutes decides to hurt us."

"That's fine," Solk stated with content. "Just take note that if something does come back, you six might have to go out there and fight again."

Rainbow Dash looked up at the sky again and yawned as she stretched out her legs. "Well, I'm beat. I'm going to go back to my house if that's okay with all of you."

"Go ahead. I won't stop you."

Rainbow flew up to the sky and waved goodbye to her friends. They waved back as she flew back to her cloud home. The other ponies followed her actions and traveled back home as well.

After most of the crowd returned to their homes or bases, Twilight said her goodbyes to Solk and Celestia as she walked back to her treehouse. She opened the door once again, allowing the warmth of her home to comfort her exhausted body. She stood next to a table and put away a few items from her pocket chest. She pulled out the shiny stone first and gently placed it on the table. She then pulled out a few various items collected from her travels.

The first was the random scrap metal from Dr. Scraps's forces in his base in Ghastly Gorge. She admired the tech, but it was severely broken from her friends' attacks. The next was various knives and other cutlery from the catacombs. She would have brought back a few bones, but she thought against the idea of desecrating the giant crypt. She then placed down a few demon weapons and armor. Their tools of destruction were rather perplexing to Twilight, especially the titanium used for their bulky plating. Lastly, she pulled out a Psycho Wicked's charm and the life force harvester head from the Device. Both of these pieces frightened and interested her. Even though they brought back bad memories, it is always best to keep those memories intact.

After she examined her little trinkets one last time, she took off her suit and brought it upstairs. She entered her room and placed the suit next to her bed. She climbed into the bed, pulled the covers over her body, and turned off the lights. What then raced through her head was horrifying yet pleasant.

She saw the gorey bodies of the catacombs. Pinkie was there, mutilating each and every one of them as she slurped up their bodily fluids and chomped on their flesh and organs. However, this monster of betrayal was soon replaced with the bright and bubbly mare that always loved a good party. She then saw Sergeant Deadlocke's bullets fly through the air. They ruined her body with every strike, but one demon rebel, Hannibal, stood up for her and fought back at Deadlocke. Hannibal prevailed and grew with the ponies along their way to Akorazo, but he was soon torn away by the hands of war when he was needed for GEST Corp's demon forces. Lastly, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash, a scarred mare that was twisted to the Psychopaths. Her undying loyalty to serve them died in a not so long ago battle between Twilight and company. She was soon restored back to her former self afterwards. She was brave, loyal, and most of all, pure, after her conversion back to Rainbow Dash. Psychotic Pinkie Pie, Loyal Hannibal, and Miss Dash were gone. What remained were three friends that Twilight never wanted to lose.

"It will be okay," she told herself in her descent to slumber. "You will never lose them, and they will always be there for you."

"Sometimes, the most atrocious monsters come from your greatest friends, and your greatest friends come from the most atrocious monsters."

End of Act III: Betrayal and Corruption