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

The drop ship was getting close to the outer rim of New Sacramino City. Before it could get to the city itself, it lowered onto the grassy plains and landed. The city itself was a mess of spurts of fire, hovering ships, and mortars raining down upon its roads and glorious skyscrapers. Demons marched throughout the city in vast numbers, dueling in bigger numbers of GEST Corp. soldiers of various species. Despite the heavy losses of troops on the battlefield, the demons kept coming with more and more troops.

The Mane Six plus one walked out of the ship and examined the carnage. Instead of seeing the entire city falling apart, most of it was still in good shape. The skyscrapers that easily dwarfed Manehattan's buildings were taking several hits and strikes, yet they were still upright and sound. However, the much more scary sight of New Sacramino was the civilians that were caught in the battle before they could escape. Several were on the roaring and cooking streets, and several more were inside the buildings, praying to dear life that they would survive this attack.

Twilight directed her words away from the city. "Travis, we're at New Sacramino. What's our mission?"

"Since the demons don't have a dreadnought in the sky yet, your mission is to save civilians still in the city," Travis informed. "Inside that city is a bunch of evacuation trucks with heavy duty armor. Guide the civilians to the trucks, and you'll be golden."

Twilight smiled a little. "That's a nice change from killing bandits."

Fluttershy winced as a floor in one of the skyscrapers exploded. "Well, I think we should start saving them now."

Servo looked a little more impatient than the ponies. "Well, if we got explosions going on in skyscrapers, ships flying around the city, and an entire battle happening, then I wouldn't want to miss this! Let's go!"

Twilight and company galloped, or rolled, along the stretch of land until they reached one of the city's gates. It was already blasted open, so there was no need to hack their way through it.

The ponies soon confronted a large squadron of demons suppressing a few GEST Corp. soldiers and several civilians. Several buildings surrounded the torn and cluttered streets. The buildings were partially falling apart from the flames dancing either inside or on them. Cars and broken machines of war piled on top of each other on the streets. Both demon and GEST Corp. soldiers used these destroyed locomotives as cover while they fired several lasers into the smoky and ashy air.

One of the demons turned around at the hoofsteps and noticed the ponies. "Twilight Sparkle on our six! Attack at once!"

Twilight blasted a wave of magic at the demons, knocking them all down except for the two elite demons. Rainbow Dash gunned down the novice demons, and Pinkie and Applejack wrestled with the elite demons. Rarity kept her gems as precise as possible to hit only the elite demons and not her friends. The battle soon ended with all of the demons dissipating into nothingness.

"Thank you, ladies," a GEST Corp. soldier stated as he rushed the civilians to the front gate. "You six might want to go to the medical center. A certain demon is asking for your assistance."

Pinkie perked her ears up and hopped all over the place with unhindered ecstasy. "You mean Hannibal? Where is he? Where is he?"

"I'll mark the area on your HUD," Travis informed. Pinkie soon saw a small diamond floating in front of her face.

Before Twilight could even stop her, Pinkie zoomed from the group and out of the small crossroads. Twilight let out a groan. "Ugh, why does she run off like that? What if we need her?"

"I think we can hold up without her," Rainbow assured. "We got two powerful unicorns, an earth pony that can buck off heads, a pegasus that's one with nature, and, best of all, the number one pegasus in Equestria!"

Applejack nodded. "She right, Twi. We're already strong even when we're by ourselves. These demons won't stand a chance."

Twilight sighed. "I guess we could travel up to the medical center without Pinkie. Come on, girls, let's go."

Twilight and company, this time without Pinkie Pie, continued along the ruined streets. They fought several more demon squadrons, each one with more tactics and gear than the first one they fought. The suicide demons from Manehattan were also in the city, blowing up a few skyscrapers here and there. The group fought those demons off much more easily than before. Wow, some of these demons haven't really changed every since Manehattan, Twilight thought to herself. Maybe Pinkie's idea about us gaining levels was kind of correct.

The group eventually fought their way to the medical center, which was now a pile of rubble with an entire squadron fighting from its remains. Pinkie Pie, Hannibal, Solar Flare, the ice mage unicorn, and ten veteran GEST Corp. soldiers were fighting two separate squadrons of demon soldiers. The veterans were gunning them down too easily, Hannibal was stabbing one with a sword similar to a katana, Solar Flare was suppressing two greatsword demons, the unicorn was freezing three elite demons, and Pinkie was hurling several pink bombs at the masses of soldiers climbing up the rubble.

Pinkie glared at another bomb she threw for a second. She withdrawn it back into a pocket chest. "This won't do." Pinkie then reached into her tail and grabbed out a pink and bright red rocket launcher with a canister of pink shells in it. "This will though!"

One of the novice demons looked up at Pinkie's gun. "Oh god, what the hell is that?"

Pinkie fired several shells at the masses of demons, literally killing them all in huge plumes of pink and red flames. The demons soon realized the danger of the situation and retreated down the road the group of ponies did not travel down. They screamed for their lives as more shells rained down on them from Pinkie's rocket launcher. Rainbow Dash simply smiled at the carnage, and Servo was figuratively drooling from the sight of those explosions.

As the battlefield calmed down, Hannibal sliced another demon's head off. He then walked up to the group of ponies with Pinkie hopping along with him on his right side. "Well, I'm glad you five could make it," Hannibal said. He then looked over to Rainbow Dash then back to Pinkie. "And I'm guessing some of you saw Pinkie's new weapon, right?"

"Are you talking about the awesome gun that shoots bombs?" Rainbow squealed with delight.

"I'm most definitely talking about that. Made it myself. Apparently, my talent is not only fighting and commanding, but I can also build a pretty powerful gun."

"And it's compatible with my bombs!" Pinkie shouted as she presented the gun. "It's the best gift Hannibal has ever given me! I bet that I can even put in confetti into it!"

Servo rolled up to Hannibal. "So, you gave aunt Pinkie Pie a rocket launcher? Well, I'm in need of a few upgrades for my build. Apparently, mom decided that I wasn't able to handle weaponry."

Hannibal eyed Servo's build for a few seconds. "You have several bits of machinery that I can upgrade for you. I can reactivate your version one lightning craw arms and add two modified laser rifles onto them, give you a personal shield that generates from your version five C-Bot body, and add a missile pod to the front of it. How does all of that sound?"

"Perfect!" Servo hopped two inches into the air.

"Wait a second, Hannibal," Twilight started with a frustrated frown, "Servo is supposed to have no weapons on him. I specifically made him like that so at he doesn't blow everything up and retaliate against me. I won't let you modify him in any way, shape, or form!"

Hannibal gave Twilight a stupid look. "You made him out of parts from robots built for war. If you're really trying to keep him from fighting, then you're raising him the wrong way. He should have some weapons on him to satisfy his lust for carnage. Plus, he could be a great help to us. Having an enhanced warbot fight on our side could help clean out the city."

Twilight stared at Hannibal then looked over to Servo. His stance looked like he was pleading to her. "Mom, can I please have those weapons? I'm not a crazy psychopath that will destroy everything in sight, but I still want to fight your enemies."

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed a second time. "Fine, you can have the weapons. Be responsible with them, though. I'll have no choice but to take them away if you abuse them."

"Yay! I'm getting my own weapons!" Servo did a little dance and imitated some rave music.

Hannibal walked over to Servo and tinkered with his body. He rewired Servo's claws and reactivated his electricity. He then took two laser rifles and welded them onto Servo's wrists and connected them to the arms' wiring. He cut open a rectangular hole into the front of the body, implanted a shield core into it, and connected the core with even more wiring. Lastly, he placed the mechanisms for a missile pod into the hole and welded the pod to the body. Once he was finished, Servo got himself back on his wheel and scanned his new weaponry.

"Hmm, have any of you ever had an extra limb grow out of your body as you grow up?" Servo asked to everyone else.

All of the ponies and Hannibal shook their heads and answered with a symphony of noes and nopes.

"Well," Servo continued, despite his audience, "these new weapons feel like I just grew three new limbs. I can feel my electricity coursing through them."

"You might want to hold off on testing them out until you find some more demons," Hannibal noted to Servo. "There's nothing hostile to test them out on yet."

"Rargh! There they are!" animalisticly shouted a novice demon. "These ponies are everywhere! Let's kill them all before they multiply!"

Servo activated his weapons and aimed at the five novice demons running up to the Mane Six with several shields, swords, maces, halberds, and many pieces of medieval style armor. He fired his laser guns at two of them, killing them from the several lasers that pierced their heads. He then fired a volley of missiles at two more, shooting them into the sky as the flames burned their bodies to nothing. He then rolled up to the last one. He intercepted its mace and fired several lightning arcs at him from his right hand. The demon fell to the ground and dissipated with the mace on its squished head.

"Well, they work," Rarity bluntly stated.

"Aw, they grow up so fast!" squealed Pinkie in loving delight.

Twilight glanced over to Hannibal with seriousness lingering on her face. "You're responsible for any civilian deaths he causes."

Hannibal chuckled a little at Twilight. "He's in his element, Twilight. Plus, if your his mother and Pinkie is his aunt, then he won't ever hurt you two or your friends."

"I guess that makes sense. Still, you're responsible."

"So," Applejack started as she walked up to Hannibal, "where do we go now? Aren't we evacuating the city?"

Hannibal nodded. "We are. Our next objective is down where the demons retreated. There is a huge war zone full of carnage at the command center. We need to reach it and clear out the entire area before the demons clear out the city themselves."

The entire group of ten humans, a robot, a demon, and eight ponies continued down the road and fought several more groups. There were elite demons, greatsword demons, hellfire demons, healer demons, suicide demons, novice demons, and even thrasher demons. However, no matter what the demons threw at the group, the group won with barely any casualties. Only one veteran soldier died during the travel, and it was due to an entire collapsing building crushing them.

The group eventually made it to the vehicle depot center of New Sacramino. What they found was two trucks full of civilians pinned down by a demon battalion and ten Mk 3.5 tanks. Only about fifty GEST Corp. soldiers were holding them off with a single tank.

Hannibal and Pinkie dashed over to one of the tanks. Pinkie swiftly broke it open and pulled out the demon driver. She then hijacked the tank while Hannibal stabbed the driver thrice. Hannibal rode in the tank with Pinkie, both of them blasting at the other tanks and demon soldiers on the battlefield.

Twilight and Fluttershy galloped over to a band of elite demons and thrasher demons. Twilight fired two explosive magic blasts at them, dealing considerable damage to all of them. Three of the five thrasher demons morphed into their much more feral forms and sprinted towards Twilight. Fluttershy used her power of Mother Nature and called for help from the wildlife. Only a second later, the ground shook and cracked as a huge segmented alplandian worm ripped right through a thrasher demon. Its body was a dark blue, and its mouth had three rows of pincers. It had thousands of little legs and four colossal claws with razor teeth on them. The alplandian worm sliced at two elite demons and picked them up simultaneously. It then sliced them in half with the force from its claws. Twilight then finished off the rest with her magic blasts and waves.

Rainbow Dash, Solar Flare, and Servo flew and rolled over to a band of twenty novice demons, ten hellfire demons, five greatsword demons, two healer demons, and a single tank. Rainbow and Solar gunned down the novice demons with ease, and Servo fired multiple missiles at the greatsword demons. Both demon types were soon destroyed, so Rainbow and Solar switched their aim to the tank. Rainbow fired her missiles at it until the hull broke open from a violent explosion. This explosion killed one of the healer demons. The other one was killed by Servo's lasers. The trio then focused on the hellfire demons and threw as many lasers they could into them. In only a few more seconds, the hellfire demons were all destroyed by the lasers.

Applejack, Rarity, the unicorn, and the nine veterans fought off five suicide demons, ten knightmare demons, and dozens of novice demons. Rarity started her assault with a hailstorm of gems at the suicide demons. They exploded next to some novice demons, killing themselves and the demons next to them. The veterans and unicorn focused their fire on one knightmare demon. When their knightmare demon died, they then moved onto the next one. Applejack kept bucking and smashing the demons in the battlefield with some help from a few gems. She eventually fought her way up to a knightmare demon. It took its scattergun and fired right at her body, corroding through some of her suit and tearing her flesh. Applejack winced as she bucked the gun out of the demon's hands and pressed him on the ground. She smashed her hooves into his face until the demon lost all of his power. The demon then dissipated into nothing, allowing her to focus on the next batch of novice demons.

Pinkie's hijacked tank rammed through several demons and destroyed several small squadrons. She chose to fire at the other tanks the most. This caused eight of the ten demon tanks on the battlefield to explode and destroy their squadrons next to them. After all of the tanks were destroyed, she then rammed right into the knightmare demons and novice soldiers the veterans were fighting. She killed them all with several more blasts and rams, clearing most of the battlefield.

As Twilight blasted another explosive blast into the final squadron of novice soldiers, Hannibal's squadron and the Mane Six plus one regrouped. Pinkie and Hannibal hopped out of their tank, and the two pegasi landed back onto the ground. The alplandian worm burrowed into the ground and left the area.

The commander of the suppressed squadron saluted the group. "Thanks for the help, soldiers. You saved these civilians from certain death. Now, we need to guide these trucks back to the front gate, so continue on without us."

"We will," Hannibal declared. "You all are good men for helping these civilians. May the Ancients give you safety on your departure."

As the trucks and soldiers left the area, the group was left to themselves. Before they could move along, they had to recover and mend their wounds.

Servo rolled around the field with lingering excitement in his voice. "Man! These demons are not really putting up a fight! If they're so weak and wimpy, then how is the city getting so screwed up?"

"Most of GEST Corp.'s soldiers are basic soldiers," Hannibal explained to Servo. "They alone cannot stop Invasions on this scale, so that's why they have higher, more experienced, and much more powerful soldiers like us in the field."

"So, they can't fight off big groups of demons as well?" Applejack asked through bites into one of Pinkie's healing cupcakes.

"Yeah. The squadron of soldiers we saved was not made to fight the demon group we destroyed. If we let them fight off the demons on their own, they and the civilians would have died."

Servo quickly turned his head to Hannibal. "You know, I've been thinking about the fact that mom built me. That's why I call her mom. Now, you enhanced me, added a few parts to me. So, I was thinking that you are kind of like my dad."

"Erm, how did you reach that conclusion?" Hannibal asked with awkward words.

"Father figures usually add their own features to their offspring. Mother figures create their offspring and add their features as well. Since you added features to me, you're my dad. Does that sound like something you want to be?"

Hannibal shrugged. "I'm fine with it as long as you're happy with it."

Rainbow Dash snickered to herself. "I like to imagine this entire family thing Servo made as biological and official. It's just hilarious to see Twilight being married with Hannibal and Pinkie being Twilight's sister! Is nopony finding this ridiculous?"

"I'm finding this strange," Solar Flare answered. "But I do get what that robot means. It's more awkward to me than funny."

Rainbow's laughs died at that last sentence. "Well, that was kind of a buzzkill."

"Hey, what's that in the sky?" A veteran soldier pointed at a distant object falling from high above the surface. The object got closer and closer, presenting itself as a metal cube. When the object got too close, it slammed into a building next to the now gone squadron's small fortification. The entire building cracked and crumbled, uplifting several clouds of dust from the ground and building.

The entire group glared at the cube that partially dug into the ground and rubble. A huge plate of metal shot off the side facing the ground and onto the ground. Then, only two seconds later, whirring and mechanical footsteps became audible. The footsteps, constantly in perfect unison, grew louder and louder with every second. Partway through the footsteps several robotic and digital voice rang from the dust in perfect unison.

"Enemies have been detected in the area. Activating power to weapons."

The voices widened the eyes of everyone in the group. However, it widened the eyes of Twilight Sparkle the most. Why was she the most shocked?

Those robotic voices sounded exactly like her.

Only two more seconds later, the marching figures emerged from the dust. They were all composed of silvers and grays that coated their bodies. Their eyes had irises that glowed with a purple light that pierced through the air. They were exactly the height of Twilight and had the exact bodies. They had the exact manes, tails, and facial features as Twilight. They even had the same eyelashes as Twilight. However, the area where their cutie marks should be had TS in bold black instead.

Several shimmering sounds emanated from the robots as their horns manifested a purple aura around them. Several concentrated balls of pure magic then collected at the ends of their horns. The robots flung these balls straight at the group like magic blasts. Some of the blasts struck the veterans and killed them after three successive blasts. Several more followed, striking both Solar Flare and Pinkie Pie.

The group ran away from the magic blasts to avoid another batch of casualties. The robots kept on marching, though, and more were revealed with every stomp. The group soon discovered that there were forty-eight robots that mimicked Twilight. They were in rows of six that did not break nor divert at any point. They kept moving towards the group with only twice the usual speed.

The robots, now chasing the group, kept throwing several magic blasts at them. Rainbow Dash and Servo struck them with several lasers. Instead of falling apart like novice demons, R-bots or craw, they simply took some of the hits and kept fighting.

"Enemy fire detected," the robots exclaimed together. Their mouths didn't even move at all. "Activating shields." Their words were uncanny from their emotionless, nearly collective nature. They never truly expressed emotion, but their voices sounded exactly like Twilight with her Twilight charm. However, their words lacked one crucial detail to them.

There was no Twilight in them.

The group kept pelting attacks and running from the robots as much as possible, only felling about five and damaging six total. When the group encountered another squadron of demons, two more cubes crashed into the ground and released even more robots.

"Aha!" shouted a novice demon. "We found Twilight Sparkle! Now we can finally end her rei..."

The demon looked over to a unified squadron forty-eight robots. They were all made to represent Applejack, going as far to have metal hats stuck to their heads. They all declared in unison, "Enemies detected. Preparing for battle."

"What is happening?" that same novice demon asked as he tilted his head at the robots. The robots soon spread apart and galloped at the demons. They bucked, punched, and lassoed them with immense force, either destroying their bodies from a buck or trampling them as they beat them to death. Another group of forty-eight robots flew into the battle, each one made to mimic Rainbow Dash. They fired lasers and electricity at the demons and sometimes swooped down at them to smash their faces in.

Twilight and company escaped as fast as possible from the carnage. They could hear the unified shouts from the robots and the cries from the demons. They knew that they couldn't fight back against the robots, no matter how hard they tried. The robots were simply too powerful.

•—————•

Zedin glared at the screens in surprise. He watched as the robotic ponies crushed his forces. He saw robotic variants of all of the Mane Six. Each one of them was somewhat unified in their attack patterns, but they were spot on with their words. Zedin could only infer who the robots belonged to. He quickly assumed GEST Corp. from their mauling of demons, but that assumption quickly shattered after he saw a robotic Fluttershy crush a GEST Corp. soldier's head into bloody pulp. He then checked the build of the robots and their style.

Zedin decided to use elimination to find the culprit. The HRM never knew about the ponies, so these would not be theirs. Sir Mimic Man does not use robots in his invasions or army. The craw wanted to kill ponies, not become them. The sabrevain barely used robots in battle. The kavarians might have created the robots, but the use of magic eliminates them. The Dark Army never used robots as well since they relied on their swift breeding skills. So, who could it be?

Zedin reflected back on who invaded Equestria. There was his army, the kavarians, the Ruptured, the craw, technically GEST Corp., and Dr. Scraps's army.

"Wait a minute," Zedin started with rage boiling under his words, "I remember that metal shine and hull technique. It is awfully similar to Dr. Scraps's robots." Zedin slammed a fist through his table. "That lying bastard! He made a peace treaty with me!"

Zedin opened a chatting link to Dr. Scraps. A screen popped up that presented Dr. Scraps and his metal body. He was sitting in a throne with two mega bots standing next to him. "Well, hello, Zedin! It's been some time since we talked, yes?"

Zedin kept himself from strangling the screen. "Why are your troops attacking my forces? We had a treaty!"

Dr. Scraps looked surprised. "What forces? What're you talking about?"

"Your faux ponies in New Sacramino City! They are killing all of my soldiers!"

"Oh, those forces." Dr. Scraps cackled maniacally. "Those are my recently patented ponybots, Zedin. They're programmed to annihilate everything that is not them, me, or whoever I tell them to spare. I'm letting them kill your forces because I'm sick of your treatment, Zedin."

"What treatment?"

"I'm seen by others as the weakest of the masterminds at war with the humans! The kavarians laugh at me for being a ruler with, 'Weak, imitating creatures that turn at the lightest of a threat.' I'll not be taken as a wimp anymore after my ponybots destroy New Sacramino!"

"You have made a grave mistake, Dr. Scraps." Zedin clenched his teeth. "You have made a powerful adversary from your ignorance. I will not take you lightly for your deeds today."

"Go ahead, try me," Dr. Scraps insisted. "Once I get my hands on that Mirror Pool, you'll become my servant."

Zedin laughed a tiny bit to himself. "The Mirror Pool, you say? That will be destroyed before you can put your metal claws into it. No one shall have the power it holds."

"You'll be begging for mercy soon, Zedin. Oh, so soon..."

"Alright, Dr. Scraps. Your bastardry will not be left unpunished. Prepare for death at your front gate."

"You wish." And with that, Dr. Scraps cut the communications link, leaving Zedin by himself to think about his position in the war.

"Discord," Zedin called out to nothingness. "Give my troops their gift. There is no way in hell that I am losing to Dr. Scraps and his rushed army."

Nothingness obeyed his command—just what Zedin wanted.

•—————•

After battling through a few more demon squadrons and escaping hundreds of ponybots, Twilight and Company could finally take a break. Sadly, there were only four of the veteran soldiers left, and the unicorn soldier was killed from two Pinkie-bots with razor confetti.

"What, what were those things?" Twilight shouted through exhausted breaths.

"I have no idea," Hannibal answered with no answer. "All I know is that they're not on our side or the demons' side."

"Then, who were they, fighting for?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Maybe, somepony that, knows us very, well," Fluttershy guessed. "Those things, that were me, called to, their metal friends."

"They were also brainless hunks of metal too," Servo added. "They didn't have any mechanisms inside of them that allowed any free thinking or personality."

Pinkie looked back to the ruined streets behind them. She watched a few lone ponybots walk through the streets and scan the area for any enemies. "It looks like, they're separating now. We might, be able to, take them on, now."

Four more cubes crashed into the city. They were far away from the group, but the group could still see the cubes crash into and destroy several more buildings. Distant gunfire was constantly audible, and the fire and smoke of the city still choked the streets and air.

"So, we need to find the command center, fast," Hannibal ordered. "Let's hope these robots didn't make it there yet."

The group continued forward through the crowded yet vacant streets. They met a few more demon squadrons. One of the squadrons had a tank, but it was quickly destroyed from Rainbow Dash and Servo's missiles. There were a few stranded ponybots as well. They mainly appeared between singular encounters or up to a quintet of ponybots. However, every encounter ended with wounds, not fatalities.

The group eventually made it to another suppressed group of GEST Corp. soldiers with a truck full of civilians. Several demons, mainly novice demons and elite demons, were keeping the soldiers pinned down with lasers. A few ponybots, two Pinkie-bots, three RDash-bots, and four Rari-bots, entered the war zone and attacked both sides.

Pinkie Pie, Hannibal, Twilight, and Servo rushed over to the ponybots. The two Pinkie-bots turned their heads to the quartet. Two wide and unsettling smiles were welded onto their faces, frightening Pinkie and Twilight a little. "Enemies detected! Activating battle mode!" the Pinkie-bots exclaimed with cheer. Their voices still felt eerily hollow despite their Pinkie charm.

Twilight fired several magic blasts at the Pinkie-bots. Pinkie hopped over to them and smashed her hooves into their faces. The Pinkie-bots did the same, striking Pinkie in her face or her body with their metal hooves. Hannibal and Servo fired their lasers at the partially damaged Pinkie-bots, and Twilight had to deal with two of the Rari-bots targeting her. She activated a barrier spell around herself, Hannibal, and Servo to stop the incoming gemstones. Pinkie kept clobbering one of the Pinkie-bots until sparks flew out of it and the blue lights in its eyes shut down. The other Pinkie-bot opened a circular hole in its neck, revealing a small object similar to a party cannon. It blasted Pinkie with a cloud of razor confetti that sliced into her suit. Servo ended the second Pinkie-bot with a wave of missiles.

Twilight kept the barrier active to stop the incoming gemstones. Hannibal and Servo then changed their attention to the Rari-bots. As several lasers opened up holes in their metal, the Rari-bots conjured barriers of gems around their bodies. Pinkie took out her rocket launcher and blasted them with three pink bombs. The gem barriers shattered, and parts of their bodies fell apart. Servo then destroyed them with a few more missiles.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Solar Flare, Rarity, and Fluttershy fought against the other two Rari-bots and the two RDash-bots. Rainbow kept her distance and pelted the Rari-bots with lasers and missiles. Solar Flare added his lasers to the Rari-bots as well, destroying them and turning them into a heap of scrap. Applejack lassoed one of the preparing RDash-bots to the ground and bucked right into their head. It flung off its metal body and struck the other RDash-bot. Rarity struck its thrusters and wings with a flurry of gems. The RDash-bot tumbled to the ground as a wave of missiles from Rainbow obliterated its machinery.

When the ponybots were destroyed, all that was left was five novice demons and two elite demons. Servo and Rainbow Dash hurled missiles at the novice demons, and Pinkie felled the two elite demons with a few more pink bombs. The battlefield then calmed as the demons dissipated into nothing.

"You're clear now!" Hannibal shouted to the GEST Corp. soldiers. "Go ahead and escort those civilians!"

The soldiers saluted Hannibal. "Yes, sir!" The soldiers and the truck soon left the area and rolled to the closest gate.

Twilight scanned the area and found an area with several gouts of gunfire, a bulky and grand building, and a crossroads consisting of six separate roads. There were several demons and demon aircraft in the area. There were also several GEST Corp. soldiers and vehicles that destroyed some of the aircraft or killed a few squadrons of the ground borne demons.

Twilight and Company rushed to the command center and joined the colossal fight.

Pinkie hopped to the closest demon tank and broke open the top of it unreasonably fast. She then crushed the demon driver inside with her hooves. She took control of the tank and began blasting all of the demon ships out of the sky. Several drop ships crashed to the ground and crushed several squadrons of demons. The flames from the fallen ships burned a few more demons into nothing.

Twilight and Hannibal stuck together with the four remaining veterans. Twilight hurled several explosive blasts at the incoming greatsword demons and shield demons. Hannibal picked off a few of the novice and elite demons with a few well placed shots from his laser rifle. The veterans kept shooting at some of the hellfire and suicide demons that crept closer and closer to them.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash encountered a couple demon tanks. Applejack hopped over and dodged the shells spiraling towards her. Rainbow kept her aim on the barrels of the tanks. One of the tanks' barrels cracked apart, rendering it useless. The driver inside the tank thought that firing the shell at that point was a smart idea. The shell exploded once it struck a piece of metal, destroying the entire top half of the tank and killing the driver. Applejack kept dodging the shells from the tank until she hopped onto it and slammed open the top. Rainbow tossed a few missiles into the compartment and left the driver to taste the hungry flames. Applejack hopped off the tank before it exploded and spread more debris everywhere.

Solar Flare, Servo, Fluttershy, and Rarity sprinted over to the GEST Corp. soldiers. They hunkered down next to them and provided aid. Fluttershy used her call to nature again, summoning two alplandian worms. They both caused mayhem for the swaths of demons in the battlefield. Rarity used her gems to pick off the stronger demons in the field. She killed a few knightmare demons, elite demons, a few newly dropped anti-magic demons, and even two guardian demons that ripped through a building's wall—the same type of gigantic demon from the fortress during Second Battle of Ponyville. Servo and Solar Flare dispatched several small clumps of demons that inched toward the suppressed soldiers. Every second that passed, multiple demons were slain from the ponies. This continued on until the numbers of demons finally dwindled after five more minutes of pure carnage.

Even though the amount of hectic in the war zone decreased by astronomical amounts, this drop only allowed the introduction for a much more powerful entity. One of the unexplored roads of carnage and ruin suddenly burst with a thick, inky black darkness. Twelve more knightmare demons emerged from the darkness with the usual weapons they carried. However, two solid white eyes pierced through the darkness.

A figure of dripping black left the darkness. It forced the darkness to grow from its presence, as it left a trail of the same strange air wherever it walked. It was about as tall as Princess Celestia, but it was far from like her. The creature stood on four blacker than black legs, each one ending with a hoof. The body itself was slender and covered in robes and metal pieces of black. Even though it had an alicorn shaped body, it did not have any wings at all. It did have a long, sharpened horn with even more black dripping from its end. It's mane and tail looked exactly like the darkness, almost blending in with it like a permanent camouflage. Its exposed teeth were incredibly sharp, much sharper than what Nightmare Moon could muster. Its two wide and forever glowing white eyes stared down at Twilight first, the one mare that was across from it.

"You," the mysterious unicorn entity started with a voice of a thousand distant echoes and whispers, "you are not allowed to exist. Your ignorance has plagued us all, humans and demons alike. Once your soul is damned to our realm, you will no longer be able to hinder or retard us. Lord Zedin will give you your long, long desired and earned comeuppance."

Pinkie jumped in front of Twilight with determination leaking from her words. "If you're going to hurt her, you'll have to go through me!"

"Me too!" agreed Rainbow Dash. "Nopony hurts my friends and gets away with it!"

"Same with me!" Fluttershy declared. "I won't let you lay a hoof on her!"

The rest of Twilight's friends walked over to her and stood by her side. Despite the obvious outnumbering against the mysterious figure, Twilight's face was still uneasy and quivering. "Girls, I don't think he will be easy. I can sense the power of dark magic in him, and it's more dark magic than I have ever sensed or seen!"

"I see that you are impossible to separate from your friends," the mysterious unicorn mused. It stomped a hoof and glared up at the open yet still smoky air. "Lord Zedin, I declare my promised strength!"

Nothingness drifted towards the mysterious unicorn and released a cloud of strange, lime green magic. The cloud rushed into the unicorn's horn and pulsed through his body of darkness and black. The green rose up the surface of the unicorn like full veins. The mysterious unicorn, now with glowing green eyes and green veins all over its body, glared down back at Twilight.

The mysterious unicorn smiled a smile of undaunted, unbelievable determination. "It is time that we duel."

A challenger approaches: Major Morgivon, proud lab rat of Lord Zedin

The battlefield blackened in less than a second as the thick black covered all of the field. It then shifted and turned to reveal several floating islands, an eternal sun of orange and rust, and several rusty clouds over the horizon.

"If we are to fight, we do so in my home realm," Morgivon declared.

The Mane Six, Hannibal, Servo, and Solar Flare split up around the floating island to avoid any crowd control attacks. Morgivon summoned several spikes of darkness that rose up from the ground. They rose up one by one from in front of him to the end of the island. Once all of the spikes were revealed, they shot back down into the ground. Morgivon then conjured five hook bats that swooped into the area. They swarmed Fluttershy and struck her several times. Pinkie slapped the hooks back, killing them instantly with every hit.

Applejack galloped up to Morgivon and prepared to buck his face off. Morgivon blasted her backwards with a wave of darkness. The black clung onto her body and slowed her down. Twilight fired a few magic blasts at him, but they did nothing to his form. He simply shrugged them off and manifested several pools of purple muck onto the island. The muck grabbed at the ponies, ensnaring Rairty and Solar Flare successfully. The muck seeped into their suit and poisoned both of them. Once the muck disappeared, Morgivon fired several blackened magic blasts at Pinkie and Twilight. He struck Pinkie twice, hurting her spiritually and somewhat corrupting her soul.

Morgivon then walked back from the center of the island to its edge. He summoned four yellow magiblots that scurried around the ground. Two rose up and attacked Applejack with their orbs. She dodged them successfully. The magiblots scurried over to Pinkie and attempted their attack, but both were destroyed after she cartwheeled right into their faces. The other two magiblots were obliterated from Rarity's gems.

"There's no way we can beat him right now!" Twilight cried out with worry on her shoulders. "Our attacks are doing nothing!"

"Ahem, you do know that we have something to use against dark magic, right?" Pinkie proposed to Twilight as she dodged another darkened magic blast.

Morgivon summoned more spikes from the ground in an X shape around the island. He then fired several massive magic blasts that rained down like mortars. The group of nine dodged them all without any problems. The spikes retracted, allowing Morgivon to fire more darkened magic blasts.

That course of events gave Twilight enough time to think about the situation. An imaginary lightbulb popped above her head. "Aha! The Elements of Harmony! I think I have them with me somewhere in here." Twilight dug through her pocket chest to find the elements. She eventually took all six of them out as a wormhole thresher and four tadpole threshers popped out of the ground.

The tadpole threshers were easily dispatched from the hailstorm of lasers Rianbow Dash, Hannibal, Solar Flare, and Servo provided. The wormhole thresher sucked in Pinkie and Hannibal. It exposed its sharp spikes and stabbed them both repeatedly. When Servo blasted the wormhole thresher in its face, it stopped its act and opened itself for attack. Pinkie beat it down senselessly until the wormhole thresher fell onto the ground as a corpse.

Twilight galloped around the area and distributed the Elements of Harmony to her friends. She kept dodging the darkened magic blasts and new surges of black electricity that struck several parts of the ground. Once all of the Mane Six had their elements, they grouped together on the side of the floating island Morgivon was not currently at.

As Morgivon prepared another mortar storm of magic blasts, Twilight commanded her friends. "Now!"

Twilight and her five friends then released the power of the Elements of Harmony. They floated up into the air as their eyes became a complete white. A huge rainbow of immense power rocketed out of their friendship and rampaged onto Major Morgivon. The raw power sapped his dark magic veil from his body, significantly weakening him. After the blast of rainbows ceased, Morgivon' appearance changed a little. His entire body had several splotches of dynamic green on it. The green veins were still there, but the splotches of light curved and rolled around his being. One can call this light his spirit in its raw form.

"I apparently forgot about your crippling friendship magic," Morgivon noted through a wince. "Luckily for me, that is not enough to drain my powers."

Morgivon unleashed five rows of spikes. They all missed the group of nine. He then summoned ten wretches and released them onto the group. They hopped over to Hannibal and Rarity first. Rarity stabbed them with her gems before they could get too close, resulting in a few bloody wretch corpses. Hannibal shot the wretches after him in their heads, killing them all quickly. As more muck pools developed on the ground, Twilight fired a few magic blasts at Morgivon. They successfully damaged him and caused his green light to flicker for a second. Morgivon then fired a wave of darkened magic at the group. Everyone hopped over it successfully, even Servo.

Rainbow Dash and Solar Flare hovered into the air and rained down lasers on Morgivon. Most of the lasers struck and damaged him, but that did not stop him from firing several darkened magic blasts at them. The two pegasi curved, twisted, and rolled around the air as they avoided as many blasts as possible. He then conjured more lightning that struck the ground several more times. The lightning hit Servo twice, overcharging his lightning craw hands and releasing tons of electricity at Morgivon. He felt the pain of the lightning arcs surging in his demonic unicorn body. By this point in the battle, his green light faded a little.

Fluttershy and Servo kept dodging the incoming magic blasts and lightning. Fluttershy was struck by a couple lightning blasts. She collapsed onto the ground with a painful whimper. Servo picked her up and dragged her over to Pinkie and out of the field of vanishing muck and magic blasts. Pinkie shoved an orange and yellow cupcake in her mouth. Fluttershy chewed it slowly through the painful surges of electricity. Once she swallowed the treat down, she felt her entire body rejuvenate back to a very healthy state.

Eventually, Morgivon decided to summon two Barons of Hell. They both crashed down onto the floating island and charged at Twilight. She got out of the way and hurled two explosive magic blasts at them. They both dealt some damage, but it was not enough. Rainbow Dash and Solar Flare hovered over the Barons of Hell and filled them with laser blasts. Pinkie took out her rocket launcher and fired eight pink bombs at them. One of the bombs blasted one of the Barons' right shoulder and head into a mess of sinew, bone, and blood, killing them swiftly. One of Rainbow's missiles spiraled into the other one's cranium and broke his head open and released brain matter all over Twilight's helmet. She would have vomited, but there was no time to vomit at anything.

Rarity kept firing streams of gems at Morgivon. She kept hitting his head, dimming the green light by a tiny bit with every hit. Morgivon retaliated with five circles of rising spikes. They all missed again, as usual, but also allowed him to fire another round of mortar magic blasts. So, he did so. The blasts rained down once again, only hitting and slightly corrupting Applejack and Twilight. Morgivon then retracted the spikes and charged a new spell that struck Rarity. She screamed as her eyes converted to a glowing green. She then turned against Applejack and threw several gems in her direction. Applejack hopped out of the way and took note of the green tether connecting Rarity's horn to Morgivon's horn. She galloped up to him and bucked him in the face, hard. The tether broke, Rarity snapped out of the mind control, and Morgivon stumbled back a little.

Morgivon teleported to the other side of the island and fired more darkened magic blasts. His green light was critically dim, almost as dark as the black of his body. Despite the dim light, he kept fighting and made sure the area was filled with projectiles. He dodged some of the magic blasts and lasers heading towards him, but some of the lasers and missiles still struck him.

As a last resort attack, Morgivon summoned one last creature. A giant hole opened up in her center of the floating island to release Armogohma. The gigantic spider definitely intimidated the group of nine, but one pony did not feel as threatened. Fluttershy, seeing this summon as an opportunity, flew up to Armogohma.

"Wow, you are a huge spider," Fluttershy complimented. "But you should know that being big does not mean you can bully us like this."

Armogohma rolled its eye and fired a laser at Fluttershy. She dodged it easily, but she felt a surge of anger rise from her chest. She refused to hit Armogohma, but she did stare right into its big eye. The gargantuan spider crawled away from Fluttershy, shaking and quivering from the intimidation from Fluttershy.

Armogohma backed away too much and too fast, ramming right into Morgivon. As the two fell from the floating island, Armogohma panicked and attacked Morgivon countless times with either its pincers or lasers. Morgivon used one final spell and teleported back to the island, leaving Armogohma for dead.

Morgivon could barely stand up from his lack of power. The green light coursing through his body was nearly black, and his constant grin of determination shifted to a frown of defeat.

Major Morgivon coughed before his first word. "I, I cannot believe it. Twilight Sparkle, has bested me?"

"And we put you in your place too, freak!" Rainbow Dash sourly added to his suffering.

Morgivon looked up at Twilight, who was now standing above him. "You, I never knew how resilient you and your friends could be. Lord Zedin was right, we are no match for the humans if they keep you on their side."

"I want a few answers from you," Twilight demanded harshly. "Why is Zedin attacking Equestria? What did we do to him that makes us guilty?"

Morgivon coughed up a storm before he said anything. "You are the victor, so you deserve answers. Lord Zedin is determined to end humanity, and your affiliation with the humans forced him to attack Ponyville long ago." He coughed three more times. "If your species refused to accept the humans' help, we would have aided you instead. Alas, the humans put your species in a terrific dilemma."

"What dilemma?" Rarity asked. "The humans are helping Equestria. They are providing us safety!"

"Yes, they are." Morgivon coughed several more times. "They are providing you protection from us only. Have you not seen the colonization of your planet? They are taking your inferiority for granted for their own benefit. Yes, Lord Zedin wants to kill you, and you will most certainly see that as wrong. However, please consider that GEST Corp. is not what it seems. They care about themselves, not you or your planet. If they did, they would have left your world alone."

"Why are you putting so much blame on GEST Corp.?" Hannibal asked. "You do know that Lord Zedin is wrong too, right?"

Morgivon chuckled a little with a blend of coughs. "I do. I only think about this to keep him calm. In reality, no one is correct in this war. Lord Zedin attacked prematurely, and the humans forced your leader, Princess Celestia, to submission. I will not say that your actions here are wrong, but I will say that you must be informed on what the humans truly want." Morgivon coughed several times once more and rested his head on the ground. "I have no more to say. You may kill me now."

Twilight thought very hard about this decision. It took about thirty seconds for her to reach a conclusion. "No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I'm not going to kill you. I think it's best I spare you."

Morgivon was completely baffled. "Spare me? I have almost killed all of you for Lord Zedin. Why spare me?"

"Even if you are a big bad meanie, I think it's best to spare you when we can," Pinkie admitted. "You're not completely bad. You know that your ruler is wrong and too focused on killing humans to see himself and his actions. So, why don't you just quit?"

"Quit? What do you mean quit?"

"You could become a fighter for GEST Corp., or even better, a commander!"

Morgivon shook his head. "No, I do not desire fighting for the humans. They are as wrong as Lord Zedin."

"Then what will you do?" Servo asked with curiosity biting his words. "If you're against Zedin, but not for the humans, then where are you?"

"If you all do decide that I should be spared, then I will simply leave the fight altogether. I have no need to fight in this war anymore. However, whenever the Demon-Human War ends, I will be more than happy to help you, Twilight. Never before has anyone shown so much devotion to kindness."

"Well," Twilight started sheepishly, "I still had to fight several monsters and creatures to stay alive."

"But that is a different scenario. You killed in fight to the death fights, but I allowed you a choice, and you chose the bloodless path." Morgivon slowly got back up, his green light now only somewhat dim from recovery. "Now, I must go."

"Wait a minute!" Applejack exclaimed. "We'll be stranded here! Can you take us back to New Sacramino?"

Morgivon shook his head. "My ability to walk planes is limited to one-way access. I must use one of the portals here to take you all back. However, I can lead you to somewhere else that will be much more helpful."

"Where else?" Twilight asked.

"There is a nearby demon base that is preparing for a massive invasion on Equestria. If you board one of their ships, you can stop the invasion before it happens."

Solar Flare cocked his head. "And you're okay with this?"

Morgivon nodded. His light was almost as bright as it was before. "Yes. I will only take you there, though. I will not help you stop the ships. That is your task, not mine." Morgivon walked over to the edge of the island. "Whenever all of you are ready, we will depart."

Pinkie gave everypony her healing cupcakes. All of the ponies regained the health, stamina, and mana they lost during the fight.

Twilight walked up to Morgivon and tapped his shoulder. "We're ready to go."

Morgivon nodded back, that being his only response. He grabbed ahold of the entire floating island with his dark magic and teleported it to the base. The Mane Six, plus three, were now about to venture through the Nightmare World and its landscapes—if there were any at all.