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

It was five days after the so called Great Invasion of Canterlot. Ever since that terrifying day, Princess Celestia ordered improvements on security and the royal guards. Originally, there were no GEST Corp. soldiers protecting the city at all times. After that invasion, several soldiers were hired to protect it at all costs. For the Mane Six residing in Ponyville, today was just like any other. To GEST Corp., today was just another battle waiting to grow into a bloodbath.

•—————•

While most ponies were resuming to their usual daily activities and trying to forget the war right on top of them, Twilight was not like most ponies. Throughout her travels, she discovered several artifacts and items that intrigued her. When she first met Dr. Scraps's robots, she wondered if she could ever build robots similar to them. So, she took the scrap metal and wires sitting around her treehouse and gathered them around the library section of her house. With the help of a few tools made by the humans, she welded, hammered, sawed, and programmed her way to victory.

To not run into any disastrous results, Twilight refrained from creating a war machine and focused on building a robot that could be used as a servant or butler. For her first test, she decided to program it to sort books in alphabetical order by the author's name.

For the robot, she used an R-Bot's wheel leg for mobility and support, a C-Bot's body for primary functions and coding, a lightning craw's modified arms and claws for easy gripping and excellent precision, and a modified craw head with one optical sensor and an R-Bot's voice box. She disabled or removed all potential weapons in the robot and left only the functions needed. The entire robot stood at about the same height as Twilight, making it rather small compared to an average adult human.

When Twilight turned on the robot, she stood back and smiled in excitement, eager to see what she created out of salvaged technology and enemy parts.

The robot lifted its head upwards and swiveled it around. "Where am I?" it asked in a slightly high-pitched and male voice not very different from Claptrap. "Actually, who am I?"

Twilight was more than surprised when the robot talked.

She was shocked.

She backed away slowly from the robot as she eyed it for any faults. "Did I mess up the programming somewhere?"

The robot turned its head to Twilight and tilted its head. "Who are you?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn and student of Princess Celestia. Your job is to sort these books in alphabetical order by the author's name."

The robot rolled to the books and picked one up. It quickly dropped it as it noticed its metallic hand. "Ahh! What's with my, my, my..."

"Hand?" Twilight suggested.

"My hand! It's all shiny and hard like metal. Wait, I am metal! What am I?" The robot was slightly panicking as its voice shook in terror.

"Calm down! You're just a robot. I created you to see if you can sort these books." The robot glanced down at the books then back to Twilight. "Well, can you?"

"Wait, if I'm supposed to be a robot, and you made me, then by common sense and prior knowledge–" the robot gasped and placed its hands on its supposed cheeks "–then you're my mother! Hi mom!"

Twilight backed away a little more and raised one foreleg a little bit. "Okay, this got weird very quickly. Anyway, can you sort the books please?"

The robot glanced at the books again and lowered itself at a reasonable level with them. It picked one up and inspected it. "By author's name, right?"

"Ye–"

Before Twilight could finish a single word, the robot sorted all twenty books in front of it in alphabetical order by the author's name. Twilight inspected the books and found every single one of them in the right place. "Wow, I'm impressed. You sort faster than I ever can in just, two seconds." Twilight walked over to the robot and faced the off switch she implemented. "Well, it's time to disassemble you."

The robot quickly learned the meaning of that word and jumped away from her. "Disassemble? No, I don't wanna die yet! Can I please live longer? I don't even know where I am!"

Twilight sighed. "Fine. I'm only doing this because you're somehow sentient."

"Yay!" The robot rolled around the floor and headed for the door. It slammed into it and fell down with a thud. "Ow."

Twilight held the door handle with her magic and pulled it open. "You open the door like this. See? Try it out."

As Twilight closed the door again, the robot got back up and placed a claw on the handle. It at first pushed, but it failed. When it pulled, the door opened, allowing it to see all of Ponyville and its residents. The robot rolled through the streets and examined the entire town. He saw mainly other ponies, but he also noticed that there were a few humans, skeletons, and demons walking around as well.

The robot rolled up to one of the ponies on the street. "Hello, uh, umm, what are you called?"

"I'm guessing you're new around here," assumed the pegasus mare. "I'm called a pegasus. Have you ever seen one before?"

"Actually, no. I was just made today by my mom Twilight Sparkle."

The mare eyed the robot for a second before realizing what he kind of meant. "Oh, she built you. For a second I was wondering how that'd work."

"Alright, it was nice talking to you," abruptly blurted the robot as it rolled off. "Have a nice day! Is it day?" The robot looked up. "I think it is."

The robot continued rolling along the street until it was suddenly confronted by Pinkie. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! I'm guessing you're not part of GEST Corp., right?"

The robot looked around and shrugged. "What's, GEST Corp.?"

"It's just a group of humans, skeletons, demons, and ponies like me! Do you want me to show you around? I bet you'll love it here!"

"Sure! I am here to see what this world is anyway."

Pinkie grabbed the robot and strolled it along the street. She pointed out several buildings and told who lived in them. She also pointed out a few ponies' names and what they like. She kept doing this for about a few minutes until they reached her home, Sugarcube Corner. "And that's Sugarcube Corner, where you can get the most delicious sweets and treats in Equestria!" Pinkie thought about the robot for a second. "Oh, where are you from? I almost forgot to ask!"

"I was built by my mom Twilight Sparkle. I think she's still in that tree thingy back there."

"Twilight built you? She built a friend? Aw, that's sweet of her!"

"I'm guessing you would call attempting to disassemble me sweet too, right?"

Pinkie shook her head. "No, not at all. Why do you ask?"

"Because she almost did that to me."

Pinkie gasped, grabbed ahold of the robot, and zoomed down the streets to the treehouse. She then banged on the door thrice and waited for a response.

Twilight opened the door and noticed the robot. "Oh, are you done looking around?"

The robot raised one hand with only one finger extended. "Actually, I was dragged over he–"

"You tried to disassemble this little robot?" Pinkie growled at Twilight. "Why would you do that? He's such a nice guy! I don't understand at all why you'd do such a thing!"

"I was trying to see how good I was at building robots," Twilight reasoned. "I expected him to just act like a machine and do what I programmed him to do, but he's sentient. He even thinks that I'm his mother."

"That's because you are!" Pinkie held up the robot to Twilight's face. "Look at him, he's so young! You know how much I love children, Twily! Why would you get rid of one?"

"At first, I thought this was nice, now I'm wondering about what's happening," the robot openly stated as he glanced between Pinkie and Twilight. "Should I go now and let you two sort this out?"

Pinkie took back the robot and hugged it tightly. "You don't have to go, um, I need a name for you." She turned her head to Twilight. "Did you give him a name?"

"No, I didn't think he needed one," Twilight answered.

Pinkie faced the robot again. "I'll call you, Servo! Do you like that?"

"It sounds nice," the robot agreed as he turned his head to Twilight. "Is that alright, mom?"

Twilight was never going to get used to being called that. "Yeah, that can be your name."

Servo escaped Pinkie's hold and rolled around in a circle for a bit. "So, I'm a robot named Servo in a world called Equestria. I'm surrounded by a bunch of ponies and random creatures from another world, and one of these ponies, named Twilight Sparkle, is my mom. I was also originally programmed to sort books for some reason, which is why I'm so good at it." Servo faced the two ponies. "Does that sound about right?"

Twilight nodded, and Pinkie smiled.

Servo thought about his purpose. "Okay, so what do I do now?"

"You can stay with me until I have to go on another mission," Twilight proposed.

"Well, I found out that today is the next mission!" Pinkie informed as her head twirled over to Twilight.

"Today? Hold up, I need to get my battle suit!"

Twilight galloped up the stairs as Pinkie took out a pocket chest from her tail. She opened it and took out her entire suit. She quickly squirmed into it and put on her helmet, which was almost covered up by her mane. She then hooked the pocket chest onto her right side, the side that didn't have a pocket chest.

Servo scanned Pinkie's metal armor and gave an invisible smile. He had no idea what was happening, but he knew it would be very interesting or fun if Pinkie was wearing that. "I'm liking where this is going."

Pinkie faced Servo and patted his head. "You stay here while I tell the rest of my bestest friends about today, okay?"

"Okay!" Servo shouted with enthusiasm.

Pinkie dashed away from the treehouse to her friends. Only about thirty seconds later, Twilight walked down the stairs with her battle suit on. If Servo did not have an organic life scanner in his head, he would have mistaken her for another robot.

Twilight walked up to Servo as she skimmed through a few spell books "Servo, since I'm not really sure about what you can do, you have a choice. You can go with us or stay here."

"If you're wearing pieces of metal like that, then I'm definitely going!" Servo replied.

"Alright. Just stay safe, okay? Celestia knows who we'll face on this mission."

Pinkie zipped back to Twilight as she pointed down to the town hall. "Hurry up, Twily! We're about to go!"

Pinkie, Twilight, and Servo rushed over to the town hall. They found the rest of the Mane Six and a drop ship there. The other four ponies were armored up and ready to go.

When Rainbow Dash noticed Servo, she hovered over to him with uncertainty. "Woah woah woah, what's this thing, and what's it doing here?"

"That thing, Dashie, is called Servo, and he's Twilight's son!" Pinkie snapped as she protected Servo like he was a foal.

"Wait a second–" Rainbow cracked a small giggle "–Twilight's a mother now?"

"It's not my fault that Servo imprinted on me!" Twilight snapped at Rainbow Dash, who was now laughing hysterically.

"My, it must be quite unusual for that to happen," Rairty commented. "Why is, Servo, with us anyway?"

"He wants to go with us on the mission. I don't exactly know why, but he does."

As Applejack walked up the ramp door of the drop ship, she decided to join the conversation too. "Well, there's no reason to not let him go. I think he's a fine feller."

The other ponies and Servo walked up the door as well and took their seats. It was a little difficult for Servo to sit, but with some help from Pinkie, he eventually took his seat.

"For being your son, Pinkie is being rather helpful to him," Fluttershy directed at Twilight.

"As she puts it, she likes children," Twilight explained. "Even if he's as big as a full grown pony."

The ramp door closed as the thrusters turned on. The entire drop ship slowly ascended into the air until it was well above Ponyville. It then suddenly sped up and soared upwards, soon leaving the atmosphere of the planet and nearing the familiar ED Space Station. It traveled through one of its dimensional portals and entered the humans' universe. Once again, the ponies, plus one, were on another quest in this universe.

The ship headed towards the planet of Andromeda. As it made atmospheric contact, several laser blasts flew in the opposite direction. The ship rolled and dived its way through the mess, preventing any damage to the ship.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" Applejack worriedly asked at the ship kept changing its position.

"We're under attack by a fleet of demon ships!" informed the co-pilot. "So far, I'm seeing dozens of them!"

A demon assault ship flew unusually close to the drop ship and slammed right into its left wing and side. Several scraping noises became audible as the drop ship lost altitude and spiraled out of control. It only took a moment for all of the ponies and Servo to start panicking. Pinkie hugged Rainbow Dash and Servo for dear life as Twilight's teeth chattered. Applejack was darting her eyes around the small, blaring red compartment, and Fluttershy screamed at the top of her lungs and covered her ears to drown out the siren. Rarity was also screaming. She held onto Applejack tightly as the chorus of screams became more and more chaotic.

"We're going down!" Alerted the pilot with panic in his voice. Even he was unprepared for this chaos. "Hang on tight, girls! This landing might be rough!"

The entire drop ship spiraled down towards the ground of Andromeda. From its relative location to its direction of movement, it was aiming towards a nearby, and extremely dense, forest. The drop ship scraped through the canopy as it descended into a clearing. The ship slammed through several trees as parts of it fell off and cracked apart. The ship dug into the ground, stopping at a few much stronger trees. The cockpit exploded, throwing the Mane Six, Servo, and several pieces of metal and debris all over the place. Flames cooked a couple tree trunks and the ground as the ponies and robot tumbled onto the earthy ground.

As the ponies coughed and wheezed from the dust and smoke, they got back up on their hooves and examined their surroundings. There were oddly shaped trees as far as the eye could see. Several vines, bushes, and undergrowth plagued the grassy forest floor and understory. Several strange creatures of different shapes and sizes lurked in the shadows of the forest. A bright sun, along with another smaller one, shined over the entire land, providing plenty of light to the ponies.

Servo jumped back up onto his wheel and scanned everything around him. "That, was, amazing! I've never felt more exhilarated in my entire life! Well, this is the only time I feel exhilarated in my life, but who cares! That was so much fun!"

"Hey, Rainbow, he's your type," teased Applejack.

"Hey, I'm not that blind when it comes to thrills!" Rainbow shouted as she took flight to only a few feet above the ground. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought that landing was scary too!"

Twilight tinkered with her helmet until she got a comm link with Travis. "Travis, are you there?"

"I'm here," Travis responded. He then set up the comm link for the other five ponies. "I was about to set up a link to you, but I guess you beat me to it."

"Um, where do we go? We're in the middle of the huge forest in your world, and there's no clear way out."

"Let me find your global location." Travis checked the GPS satellites around Andromeda for the Mane Six. He found their coordinates inside of the Savilia Forest. "You six are inside the west section of the Savilia Forest. If you go southeast, you'll hit Tevira, a local mining town. Just south from the town is your destination, New Sacramino City."

"That sounds like we will be walking for a long time," Rarity predicted from the mess of words.

"Oh, you will if you don't find a drop ship in that town. Also, be careful of the bandits. They're everywhere in that forest. It's pretty much their home."

It was Twilight's turn to summarize the situation. She began her small thinking process with walking in a circle. "So, we're inside a forest full of creatures we have no idea about. We barely have an idea where we are in it, and there is a huge amount of shrubbery in our way. On top of that, we have some humans in this forest that might want to sell us for money." She turned her head to the group of ponies, worry and anxiety nipping at her face like mites. "Does that make us sound hopeless enough?"

"If you want it to be hopeless, add the possibility of a storm occurring," added Servo. "Then it'll sound like we're all about to die horrible deaths!"

"Let me scout the area real quick." Rainbow Dash flew up in the air and examined her surroundings. There were trees, trees, more trees, and still more trees. She could barely see an area without any trees and a couple buildings on her left. She hovered back down to the ponies and pointed a hoof to her left. "We need to go that way. There's some sort of town over there."

The Mane Six plus one walked in that direction. They were immediately stopped by the wild undergrowth.

"So, nopony's getting past those weeds until we mow them," Applejack informed as she ripped a blade of the undergrowth out and inspected it.

"Leave that to me." Rarity stood in front of the group and conjured several gemstones. She then slashed the undergrowth with them like miniature knives. Several clumps of the wild plants fell apart with ease. Twilight helped Rarity by collecting those clumps and tossing them into the other wild plants. With this simple technique, a small pathway was soon made.

"Good thinking, Rare," Rainbow praised.

The group kept moving through the forest with this setup. Rarity would cut up the plants, and Twilight would dispose of them by tossing them to the side. It was a simple and efficient process. They kept doing this until they reached a gravelly and excellently cut path. Since one side of it was going where they needed to go, they followed the path down that direction.

As the ponies plus one kept walking down the path, Fluttershy heard an odd buzzing from her right. She then turned her head. "Hello? Is there a bee out there?"

Fluttershy internally dismissed that it was a bee. The buzzing was far too loud to be a creature that small and harmless. Well, harmless for those not allergic to the sting.

The buzzing got louder as the group continued along the path. At this point, the buzzing was annoying half of the group.

"What is that atrocious noise?" Rarity shouted as she looked to her right.

"Yeah, it's getting pretty obnoxious now," Rainbow added.

In less than a second, several dark figures as big as house cats darted out of the bushes and at the ponies. They were too fast to be seen, making the ponies panic from the attack. Several of the creatures swarmed Fluttershy and chomped at her legs, mane, and tail. Two of them took Applejack's hat, and two more kept striking her over and over. Rainbow Dash couldn't fly, as eight of the creatures were biting into her wings. Three of them go stuck in Pinkie's mane and tail, but three more kept biting at her face.

Twilight fired multiple magic blasts in random directions, hitting some of the creatures swarming near her. Rarity conjured a barrier of gems around her that sliced and diced every creature that aimed for her. Pinkie kicked and punched the creatures off her, and Fluttershy was trying to remove them from her tail and wings. Rainbow Dash couldn't get the creatures off her wings, so she galloped over to Twilight for help.

"Can you get thes-ah, creatures off me?" Rainbow asked through the sharp pains from the biting.

Twilight grabbed the creatures with her magic and threw them into a nearby tree. She then blasted them with a magic blast, killing them all. Applejack kicked a few of the creatures and lassoed her hat back. The two creatures that grabbed it let go and aimed for Pinkie instead. After several more kicks, punches, and magic blasts, the creatures were all dead.

Servo, completely unharmed by the creatures, rolled up to one of them and examined them carefully. It had two bug-like wings on a small body, and it had a huge mouth with locked and sharpened fangs in it. He picked it up and showed it to Twilight. "If you were wondering what just attacked you, mom, here it is."

Twilight eyed the small corpse and checked to see if it was dead. When she found out that it was, she put it in her pocket chest to study later.

Travis knew exactly what the creatures were. "They're called cavazeirs. They're pack hunters that swarm up on pray and leave nothing but the bones behind. You can pretty much call them the piranhas of the air."

"Well, that's reassuring," Twilight worriedly stated.

The Mane Six plus one kept walking down the path, attacking and killing any cavazeir swarms that hid in the bushes. The group eventually reached a clearing with a few tents and huts scattered around a campfire. A few humans with tattered and worn-out clothes walked around the area with laser rifles in their hands. They had several pads on their shoulders, elbows, or knees, and some of them had a few armor pieces on some parts of their body. They all had mud paint on their skin and leaves attached to their armor and clothes.

When one of the humans noticed the ponies, he turned around and waved his gun to the other men. "Hey, guys, we got some little horses over here!"

The rest of the patrolling bandits walked up to him and inspected the six ponies.

"Remember that offer the HRM had, boys?" a gruff sounding bandit asked. "They said that they would pay us a billion units for each little horse! Let's round 'em up and get our cash!"

"Why don't we keep one of them?" another bandit asked with a raspy voice. "I've been itchin' for a girl for some time, but I guess these things can work too."

"Sounds like a good idea!" shouted a bandit with huge muscles. "Sell five of 'em and keep one for humpin'!"

The bandits cocked their guns and aimed them at the ponies. "Drop yer weapons and gear to us, ladies," one of them ordered. "Then we'll decide who stays and who goes."

"Alright," Rainbow began as she stretched her legs in midair, "I'm all for sparing people, but this is where I draw the line."

Rainbow Dash fired three missiles into the bandit crowd, sending several bandits flying through the air and into huts or trees. Two of them died from the blast, but the rest were still able to fight. Twilight fired several magic blasts at the bandits, killing them quickly and efficiently. Rarity conjured several gems and flung them at the bandits, stabbing them wherever they showed exposed skin. Pinkie hopped over to the bandits and prepared her legs for battle. When the bandits got up close to her, they soon found themselves with no head or with a destroyed rib cage.

Several more bandits emerged from the tents and huts with more guns by their sides. They rushed up to the ponies and fired at them several times. Twilight deflected the lasers back at them, and Fluttershy gave a call into the forest for assistance. Several bushes in the undergrowth rustled as a huge teardrop shaped head with several fangs popped up out of them. It had two huge slits for eyes that had black scleras and white pupils. A long neck extended out of the back of its head and formed the top part of a question mark. Several spines stuck out of the neck and head, and three legs ending in cupped ends for feet extended out of the end of the neck.

The creature roared an ear-piercing shrill at the bandits then waddled towards them. The huge head, bigger than an average adult human's body, snatched up the bandit and chewed it noisily and messily. It spat out several chunks of bone, metal, cloth and leaves as it searched for another bandit to kill. At the same time the creature was biting an arm off a bandit, Applejack lassoed another one and pulled it close. She then bucked its head so hard that it snapped off and flew by another bandit's face.

When there were only three bandits left, a bigger and more muscular one came out with a rocket launcher and chainsaw hybrid gun. He wore a white shirt with ripped off sleeves that read 'mama's boy' with a crudely painted skull and two shotguns next to it. The big bandit chainsawed through the creature's face and down its neck. As the creature's corpse fell to the ground, he fired a rocket at Twilight. She dodged to her right as she fired an explosive magic blast at the big bandit. Rarity stabbed him in the chest with several gems, and Pinkie hit him in the face with razor confetti from her party cannon. After three missiles to the face, the faceless bandit tumbled to the ground with the chainsaw sliced into his left arm.

Twilight walked over to the big bandit's corpse and glared at it. "This is why I don't like coming here. I don't like fighting humans, but I have to anyway, then after the fight, they die in the most brutal ways possible."

"I can understand what you are saying, Twilight," Rarity agreed as she looked at the gem-filled bandits, "but it is our duty to clean up this forest whenever we can. These bandits most likely cause problems for the citizens of this world. Also, they would have done horrible, horrible things to us if we let them live."

Servo intervened in the small conversation. "Well, if you two don't like seeing these bandits with holes in them, then you can move along and keep going where we need to go. It's that simple."

Travis examined Pinkie's emotions for a second. "Hey, Pinkie, you have no rage built up. You don't have to worry about becoming some deranged psychopath that eats everyone in her path."

Servo glanced at Pinkie with surprise. "Wait, she can do that? Man, that's pretty scary to know, but now I'm curious! I wanna see her transform!"

Twilight nervously laughed as she turned her head to Servo. "Trust me, you really don't."

Pinkie hopped over to Servo. She sat down next to him and wrapped her left foreleg around him. "You want to know what it's like to see me transform? Imagine resting skeletons in clothes, everywhere. There's no meat on them because it's all in my belly. Still curious?"

Servo looked over to Pinkie and poked her stomach. "Is it all still in there?"

"Nope, that was five days ago, Servo!" Pinkie giggled to herself a little. "Only thing in there now is a bunch of pies from a contest." Pinkie put her mouth close to one of Servo's supposed ears and whispered to him. "I was one of the judges."

Servo looked over to Pinkie. His voice a little quieter than usual. "Pinkie Pie, can I tell you something?"

"Go ahead. I'm all ears!"

"Well, ever since I met you–" Servo hesitated a little "–you felt like a pony who cared about me very much."

"Of course I do! You're my very first friend that's made out of metal, and Twily made you. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, I actually feel that you were actually more than a friend. Pinkie, are you okay with me calling you, my aunt?"

Pinkie took a couple moments to process what he said. She then held Servo close and hugged him tightly. "I'd love that, Servo."

Servo hugged back and shed a nonexistent tear.

"So," Rainbow started as she thought about what happened, "does that make Twilight Pinkie's sister now?"

"I see it that Servo just sees both of them as loving figures," Rarity added to the mix. "Twilight because she made him, and Pinkie because she treats him like he is the most important thing to her."

"That makes a lot more sense."

As Pinkie and Servo finished their embrace, the group continued down the pathway on the other side of the bandit camp. They traveled through the forest a little more, Rainbow Dash sometimes checking to see how far the group was from the forest's edge.

The group soon hit another bandit camp, except that there were only three bandits total despite the abundance of tents and huts.

One of the bandits noticed the ponies and aimed his gun at them. "Strange creatures, everybody! Round 'em up!"

Twilight fired a magic blast at the bandit, but he rolled to his right, successfully escaping her magic. Rainbow Dash aimed her laser guns at him and began her barrage, shredding the bandit to a corpse filled with holes. The other two bandits hid behind two huts and fired several lasers at them. Rarity stabbed one to death with her gems, and Applejack lassoed the other one and pulled him into the fray. Rainbow fired three missiles at him and sent bloody pieces flying through the air.

The group continued along the pathway, fighting a few bandits here and there that patrolled the path. Sometimes, a cavazeir swarm came out of nowhere and attacked one of the bandits. The ponies would kill both the swarm and the bandit afterwards.

After about ten more minutes of walking and fighting, Rainbow checked their distance again. They were almost at the forest's edge, and she could see an entire town with several mines on its sides. The group hustled a little and finally left the forest. As they examined the familiar rolling hills of Alplandia Plains, they also noticed several sounds of gunfire and shouting from the town. The ponies plus one rushed to the town and confronted whatever was causing the mayhem.

Several bandits were firing upon civilians and robbing them of their money and possessions. Several buildings had cracked open windows and a couple dancing flames. Civilians screamed and tried to find something that could protect themselves. Even though there were a few GEST Corp. soldiers fighting against the bandits, they were also losing men from the sheer firepower pitted against them.

A couple bandits noticed the ponies and redirected their attention to them. "Boys, we got ourselves those wanted fellers from the posters! Get that moolah!"

Some of the bandits turned to the ponies and fired at them. Twilight deflected the lasers back at them, killing one bandit and wounding two more. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air and rained down several lasers at the bandits. Fluttershy called to the forest again for help, calling in two of the large headed creatures from earlier, also known to the locals as zvroinks. They both began their killing upon the bandits as several more bandits turned their attention to the ponies. They already killed all of the GEST Corp. soldiers in the town by the time the zvroinks entered the battle.

Twilight and her friends kept pressing through the battlefield as more bandits caught sight of her. Applejack lassoed and bucked a few from behind, and Pinkie activated her cloaking ability and hopped right into the bandits. She took them down one by one with brute force. Twilight kept her deflection spell active to protect herself, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Servo from the barrage. Only about half a minute later, all of the attacking bandits were slain. However, the fight was far from over.

The ground around the ponies rumbled and shook. Seconds later, an entire tank with several crudely attached spikes and buzz saws on its outer shell smashed right through a building. The tank had two bullet machine guns attached to its sides and a double barrel cannon on its top. Ten more bandits rode on its sides while they shouted and squealed in valor and roughness. Two more bandits that rode on unusually huge scorpions also entered the battlefield. Both of them had crossbows with hand grenades attached to their bolts. The huge scorpions had special muzzles around their mouths and were a deep hue of green.

Several bandits on the tank hopped off and aimed their guns at the group. "Yee-haw!" One bandit shouted with ecstasy. "Ponies worth billions of bucks? This day keeps gettin' better and better!"

"You better give up now, ladies," warned another bandit with a femur filled with saw teeth in one hand and a gun in the other. "You won't be able to handle us."

"Yeah!" shouted one of the scorpion riding bandits. "The Venombacks never lose!"

"Then I guess it's time you finally feel what it's like to be dragged across the floor!" declared Rainbow Dash with determination and a slice of cockiness.

The tank geared to triple its original speed and headed straight for Twilight and company. Pinkie hopped onto the tank and bashed one of its machine guns. Erveyone except for Rainbow Dash dodged to the left or right of the tank. The machine guns swiveled over to Applejack and fired a hailstorm of bullets at her. A few bullets struck her, denting her suit a little with every hit. As the entire tank slammed into another building and collapsed it to rubble, the scorpion riders rode over to Twilight. The scorpions slashed at her with their huge claws. The bandits riding the scorpions aimed their crossbows for Rarity and Fluttershy. One bolt struck Fluttershy and detonated on her, throwing her body into the side of a building. The other one was intercepted by Twilight and stabbed right into one of the scorpions' claws. The scorpion lost its right claw and scuttled back a little.

The two zvroinks from earlier waddled over to the scorpions and slammed their big heads into them. One zvroink then snatched the bandit rider on the injured scorpion, gobbling it up and spitting out the indigestible remains. Rarity stabbed the other rider in their exposed neck with several gems. The dead rider fell off the scorpion and tumbled onto the dusty ground.

Several bandits rushed up to Applejack with their guns in hand. Applejack bucked one of them into another, knocking both of them down. Applejack then lassoed three more together and kicked several metal balls into their heads. After the three constricted bandits died, she then finished off the other two bandits with a few more metal balls.

Pinkie kept bashing her hooves into the machine guns. She eventually smashed one out of its socket, so she hopped to the other one and pounded it into a mess of metal. After both machine guns were destroyed, the tank geared to reverse and rolled out of the crumbled building. It fired several times into the battlefield, causing complete mayhem among the ponies. Pinkie hopped onto the hatch of the tank and bashed it open. She then threw the bandit driver out of the tank and onto the ground. She deactivated her cloak and pummeled the bandit in the chest several times. His sternum and ribs caved in on him, destroying his lungs. Pinkie then hopped into the tank and studied its controls.

The injured scorpion retaliated against the zvroinks and stabbed them with its venomous tail. One of zvroinks was stabbed right in its left eye. It slowed down and became frail. The scorpion then sliced its neck with its remaining claw, spilling blue blood all over the claw. The other scorpion grabbed Fluttershy and readied its tail for stabbing. Twilight fired an explosive magic blast at its tail. The entire tail blasted apart with enough force and pain to release Fluttershy from captivity. Twilight then fired several magic blasts into its head, killing the scorpion.

Pinkie eventually found out how to move and shoot the tank, so she did just that. She fired the cannon at the remaining bandits, giving them all flying lessons as they soared through the dusty sky. Rainbow Dash picked the soaring bandits off with a few missiles and laser blasts. Pinkie then geared to triple speed and rammed the last scorpion in its side. The tank shoved the scorpion along the street until it met a building. That was when the scorpion was crushed between the tank and building, spilling its yellow and orange guts all over the tank and building.

As the battlefield finally calmed, the Mane Six plus one regrouped. Pinkie hopped out of the tank and walked over to Twilight. Rainbow Dash landed back onto the dry soil, and Appejack galloped back to Twilight.

"So, with them taken care of, we need to find a drop ship." Twilight ordered. "Any idea where one might be?"

"How about right there?" Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof to a destroyed building. On the other side of it was a drop ship prepared for takeoff.

"Wait a second!" shouted a voice from afar. A man in a business suit with a red tie and gilded cufflinks ran up to the ponies. His voice was shaky and uncertain, mainly from what just happened minutes earlier. "I need to thank all of you for saving my town. I didn't know those Venombacks would be that aggressive."

"Oh, it's nothing, really," Twilight replied. "We're just trying to find our way to New Sacramino, and this was one of our stops to get there."

"But, you saved my town from destruction. Those Venombacks wanted our town destroyed permanently, but you stopped them and saved our town." The man thought to himself for a second. "You said that you were heading for New Sacramino, right?"

Applejack nodded. "That's our destination. We think that we can use that drop ship over there."

"That drop ship belongs to the town, but you all can use it," the man noted. "It's the least I can do."

"Thanks mister!" Pinkie gleefully thanked. "We need a pilot or two though."

"They're already in the ship. It was going to be our evacuation vehicle just in case things got out of hand, but we won't be needing it anytime soon."

"Thank you for your generosity," Rarity thanked as she headed for the drop ship. "I hope those ruffians stop pestering you."

The man chuckled a little as the ponies started their departure. "They never will. We've always been under attack by them ever since we founded this town. That's why GEST Corp. supplies us a couple dozen troops every now and then."

As the ponies plus one wished the man luck on his town, they walked over to the drop ship and entered it. They sat down on the seats and waited for departure.

The pilot looked back and saw the ponies waiting there. He smiled behind his helmet. "Oh, it's you and your band of friends. Where do you want to go?"

"New Sacramino, please," Twilight answered softly.

"To New Sacramino we go then. Take note that a demon invasion is happening over there, so we can't land in the city."

"That's fine." Twilight kept her small smile and looked around the small room. So that's what we're supposed to do, Twilight thought to herself. If we're fighting off an invasion on Andromeda instead of Equestria, then this must be a serious fight.

It took a little while for Servo to understand what a demon invasion was. "Wait a minute, so this carnage gets even more hectic? Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go to the city!"

As the ship slowly rose into the air, Applejack turned her head to Servo. "For a robot programmed to sort books, you like destruction quite a lot."

"It might be in my hardwired code," Servo explained as he tapped his head. "I may be programmed for that, but I'm not an idiot. I know that this head was built from a factory in the Draav Star System that's also in the Cryvozax Sector and belonged to a chain craw version 1.0 model. The information was literally hardwired into the head with a few functions involving battle strategies, ways to tear apart an enemy, and organic life scanning. That last function is how I'm not having the hots for any of you six."

"That's quite a lot of information for a head," Fluttershy mused. "Do you know where the other parts of your body come from?"

"Actually, no. They all don't have hardwired code like that. Only the head does."

"Um, can I ask why exactly you don't have, 'the hots', for us right now?" Rainbow Dash asked with deep interest.

"Oh, right. For some reason, I was coded with a personality of my own. Since I can feel love for family—shown by how I called Twilight Sparkle my mom and Pinkie Pie my aunt—it also makes sense if I can feel love for others as companions as well. To robots, all of youright now would probably be very arousing to say the least. To organisms, not so much."

Rainbow laughed unsteadily. "Heh heh, good to know. Even a robot can somehow find others attractive."

And so the drop ship sailed through the air to New Sacramino. The Mane Six plus one were about to see an entire war, a real war between humans and demons, unfold right in front of them.

•—————•

Inside of a command center in a military base, several soldiers armed to the teeth and glorified with tokens of war were sitting around several holograms. The holograms were mainly GEST Corp. bases with several defenses, power systems, and other essentials highlighted in a glowing yellow. However, these holograms were pushed aside as footage of a recent battle came into view.

The head of the entire group looked rather old, around his late fifties. Despite the wrinkles on his hardened face of war, he had exquisite muscles and was in perfect condition. His skin was coarse and dry, and his lips were cracked and bare. His hair was almost nonexistent, leaving a grand shine on his bald head. His eyes were a glossy shade of hazel, and his eyebrows were thick and black. His nose was prominent and of the Roman variety. His scowl was ever present, and his deep desires were far too obvious and detectable form simply glancing at his face. He was a general of war, and he knew war like he married it in his adolescence.

His clothes were mainly red and brown with hints of shine. The armor that covered his entire body, except for his head, was fine and nearly perfect. He had a badge over his heart with with golden stars around three red and bold capital letters in front of a deep red and brown banner. The letters were H, R, and M, all of them in that specific order. His name, Vance Nemsin, was etched under his badge. Epaulets extended from under his broad and gleaming shoulder pads, and gold lined his metal gloves. He was truly a man to be feared and noticed.

"Now, all of you must have heard of the strange creatures from the Equestrian Dimension, yes?" Vance's voice was deep, rough, and clear as it could be. His voice was even Russian in nature. "Well, it appears that these creatures continue appearing in our world. Not so long ago, the Venombacks were thwarted by six of them. This was an important attack, men. GEST Corp. had less care for the town, yet it was the gateway to seizing land from them. Now, I propose that we do something about these creatures."

"If we are to stop intervening with otherworldly affairs like this, then we must invade the dimension to halt anymore traces of leaking," a hardened major declared. "Ignoring this leak will lead to an overflow of these creatures."

"Yes, I have already thought about attacking the source, but I also have another fact to tell. We are under an unresolved conflict with GEST Corp. Despite the furiosity we used centuries ago, we are still at a stalemate with them. Our little skirmishes and paying of local bandit clans will not help us win this war anymore. That is why I believe we should declare total warfare on GEST Corp."

Murmuring reverberated around the table as the commanders spoke to each other about the proposal. A captain soon questioned the idea. "Are we attempting to cause destruction of the human race? Total war between the two of us would cause severe repercussions afterward. Andromeda might not be useful after the war ends, no matter who stands victorious."

Vance folded his hands. "Yes, I am aware of the risk this will involve, but it is for the betterment of mankind. GEST Corp. is a government willing to lie to the people and promote corruption in their own ranks. Why should we let them contaminate other worlds with the ideas of capitalism and right-wing ideas? We all agree that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people is correct, right?"

Several commanders agreed with his statement with more murmurs.

"Good. In order for the Human Revolutionist Militia to officially give mankind peace and tranquility, we must use different means to combat GEST Corp. Yes, we must use total war, but we cannot fight like we did on Earth. We must use new strategies, new methods of combat to force GEST Corp. into crumbling on itself. So, we must take and discover what makes these creatures, as pictured on the screens right now, so dangerous, so resilient, so able to fight whenever needed. Now, all in favor of declaring total war on GEST Corp., please say aye."

"Aye," declared the commanders in unison.

Vance unfolded his hands and looked around the table. "Anyone who opposes?"

No one opposed the ruling.

"It is set in stone, then. Total war will be declared on GEST Corp. by tomorrow afternoon. Everyone, return to your stations."

The commanders got up from their seats and left the meeting room. Vance Nemsin was the last to leave, shutting off the lights and power to the room.