Caught in War

It hovered over a planet. A giant metal box with three cones at each side, a giant red ‘M‘ at the front and four gun turrets on the surface. It hovered there, alone. But suddendly, two giant spaceships looking like a half of a horizontally oval four times the size of the box appered out of nowhere and opened fire on the box. It was damaged a lot before falling down onto the planet. Afterwards the two giant spaceships disappered as quickly as they arrived.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?“, Rarity asked.

She and her friends set on a hill watching the rain of shooting stars accuring every ten years. The others agreed with her. Many other ponys watched this event, too. Even the princesses and some of the royal guards. Suddendly Applejack pinched her eyes together and asked:

“Wait a second. What’s that?“

She pointed at an object falling down from the sky towards them with high speed.

“Everypony run!“, Twilight shouted out.

Not only the Mane Six and Spike but every other pony ran away, too. While running, Twilight turned her head around to see how close the object was. She was shocked to see that it was very close.

“Jump!“, she called out jumping aside.

And no second too late. The object hit the top of the hill and crashed into the ground skidding down the hill for some second until stopping.

“Everypony okay?“, Twilight asked.

Then she took a closer look: The object looked like a giant damaged metal box. It was at least two floors high. There were big and small holes all over the place with wires hanging out of some of the small holes. At the front there were the remains of a letter. But it was hard to determine which one.

“Everypnoy stand back! We will take a look inside!“, Twilight called out to the citizens.

“D-do we have to?“, Fluttershy asked.

“Yes. Maybe someone was in this thing. It’s defenetly not made naturally.“, Twilight responded while walking into the box through a giant hole, followed by her friend.

Inside everything was dark. There was some light now and then when some sparks came out of a wire. But it wasn‘t much. Twilight and Rarity had to use their light spells to see. There were metal bars laying around blocking doors or just laying on the floor with other smaller pieces of metal. Here and there they could see big coloured armors laying around, too. At the walls there were empty metal capsules with glass windows, some of them opened, some of them with holes, too. The Mane Six and Spike went down the floor looking around.

“Who ever build that had no sense of creativity-iiiiiiih!“, Rarity cried out.

Everypony looked at her. She look at her right back hoove. In the light of her horn a hand holding the hoove was visible. It was a massive grey hand. They followed the hand to a massive red-blue arm with holes in it. Further down there was half of a body. Only the upper half was there, the other half wasn’t around. Big wires hang out of the hind end of the half-body. It was also red-blue coloured. Like the down half the other arm was gone, too. At the top of this body there was a tiny red head with a grey face and a pair of red eyes starring at the ponys. Without moving its lips, the thing whispered weakened:

“Help…me.“

The light inside the eyes stopped glowing. The grasp became waekend until it let go of Rarity’s hoove and fell down.

“What was that thing?“, Rainbow Dash asked.

“Doesn’t matter. It can talk. So it must be alive. Or at least it was. Let us look for more of them. Maybe we can find someone still alive.“, Twilight said.

As they continuned their walk through the floor they saw more dead bodys laying around. Some of them looked like the last one just with a down half, red-blue legs and blue shoes. The rest looked like tall, thinn monkey-like creatures in green full body armor, helmets, a gas mask and round goggles. After some time they saw a round hole in the ceiling and a platform laying benath it. There was a console with a red button on the platform. The Mane Six and Spike stepped on it and pressed the button. The platform went up until it passed the hole in the ceiling. A voice said:

“Second floor.“

The Mane Six continued going down the floor until they reach a room at the end. The room wasn’t too big. Some steps and they crossed the entire room. There was a giant pane as well as consoles standing in front of them. Some bodys laid around, some of them on others.

“Doesn’t look like-“

Twilight stopped speaken when she saw something moving. Two bodys were still shaking.

“Quick! We’ll take them to Canterlot!“, Twilight called out for her friends who helped her grabbing the bodys, a full body armor and a red-blue one, and taking them outside where Royal Guards took them to Canterlot.

RS-344 aka Zylus could hear voices. But he couldn’t see anything. Then he suddendly found himself back in the boarding ship. The captain, another Robo-Soldier, asked him:

“Something found yet?“

He responded with:

“No, Sir. Nothing.“

His neighbour, a Manhunter with the ID MH-443 and the name Kong, said:

“Maybe we got the wrong coordinates. A highly damaged AMA-cruiser can’t just disappear.“

Before he could respond two AMA-cruiser came out of hyperspace right and left of them. They opened fire immediatly. The boarding ship had no time to raise the shields and fire back. It was already damaged too much. The last thing the captain said before they crashed on the planet beneath them was:

“It’s a trap! Everybody prepare yourself for impact!“

Then there was just darkness. Until now. His vision came back. He looked at a stone ceiling. He turned his head to the left. He saw his blaster rifle laying on a table. Then he turned his head to the left. If his eyes could, they would have wided themselfs now: There were two unicorns in clothes with tools to dismantle him! He jumped up and used the grabling hook in his arm to grab his rifle. With the rifle pointing at the unicorns he asked them:

“Where am I?!“

Shocked, one of the unicorns responded with:

“You are in Canterlot.“

“Is this an imperial planet?“

“N-no.“

“Crap! Then I’m on an AMA-planet! I’ve enough to take down 53 soldiers! That means I better change to ‘narcotizing‘. Then I can take out 106!“, Zylus thought.

He fired a shot at one of the unicorns which fell to the ground unconcious. The other one managed to escape.

“Damm it! My speed-chip seems to be a bit damanged. Normally, I should have been able to get both.“

He ran out of the room and took the hallway to the left. While running he activated his CommLink.

“This is RS-344 Zylus to every imperial Mecha-Unit on the planet! Can anyone read me?! We are on an AMA-world! I repeat: This is an AMA-world! All Mecha-Units immediatly to the Boarding Ship! We need to contact the Empire! Zylus over and out!“

“You there! Stop immediatly!“, someone called out for him.

Zylus turned around. Dozens of unicorn guards ran towards him. He fired some shots knocking the first and second row of guards unconcious. The other guards started firing at him with magical blasts. Since the corridor wasn’t big enough for him to dodge every blast, Zylus jumped into a room to his right. He closed the door and looked around. This room had some tables with tools on them as well as a big table in the middle. On the table there was something. A Manhunter! And not just any Manhunter: Zylus‘ automatic scanning-protokoll told him that it was his friend MH-443 Kong! For the first time since he reawoke Zylus felt relieved. He walk over to Kong and reactiveted him.

“We are the Manhunter and-“

“Glad to see you, too buddy. But we have no time for your usual intoduction. We’re in enemy‘s terretory! We need to get to the Boarding Ship! Immediatly! The Empire has to know about this planet!“, Zylus interrupted him.

Kong looked around. Then he stood up. A light-grey stick, the waepon of a Manhunter, came out of his right hand. He pointed it towards a wall and shot. There was an explosion and some smoke. Kong flew through the wall into the outside. Then he changed his position from vertical to horizontal. Zylus knew what he wanted: It’s a special attack and escape formation only Mecha-Units with magnetic sole and a Manhunter could do. Zylus stepped on Kong’s back with activated magnetic soles giving him stability. Kong flew away from the castle down to the streets fast. The civiliance were astonished seeing those two strange beings flying threw their town.
After some time the two Mecha-Units reached the border. Kong shot three times out of his stick and made a big whole in the wall. Suddendly, after they passed the wall, three pegaside in blue uniforms began following them.

“Oh great! Air units!“, Zylus grumbled and turned around completly.

“Fight them off. I need to concentrate. We’ll go faster now.“, Kong responded.

Zylus looked at him confused. Granted they flew just two meters over the ground but he was still a robot. And not just any robot. An imperial. Only AMA-Bot’s, the forces of the AMA, could compare to imperial robots in reagards of mental capability. Kong should be able to fly with high speed, to fight, to avoid obstacles and to increase his speed simultaneously without any problem. Did those damm ponys do something to him?

“Are you alright?“, he asked.

“Yes. Everything is fine.“ , Kong responded.

Zylus was no expert in the mechanics of the Manhunter. If Kong wouldn‘t want to say anything he couldn‘t do anything either. And since Kong wanted to concentrate Zylus let him do it. He shot at the three pegaside. One got hit and felt to the ground unconcious. Zylus continued shooting but the other two managed to dodge every shot. They flew into a forest. Zylus looked around. He changed from ‘narcotizing‘ to ‘laser‘ and fired some shots at a tree until it fell down onto the two pegaside. For a moment it looked like they got rid of their followers. But then a pegaside flew out of the top of the tree continuing to chase them. Zylus shot down more trees but non showed any effect. They flew out of the forest into a small city. Zylus looked around. Suddendly he saw a big sign which was hold by three metal bars. While passing he shot at all three. It began falling down and when the pegaside passed it, it was buried beneath the sign.

“Finally! Now we can fly-“, Zylus started.

But suddendly six ponies, two earth ponies, two pegaside, a unicorn and an alicorn, began chasing them.

“Oh for the Emperors sake!“, Zylus shouted out, changed his rifle to ‘narcotizing‘ again and fired at the ponies.

But they managed to dodge every shot. This went on until they left the city and reached the hills where their ship crashed.

“That’s far enough.“, Zylus said.

He pointed his left arm towards the six ponies. A small and flat mini gun came out of his arm. In the middle of the mini gun there was a hole. Out of this hole he fired a small rocket. But instead of hitting the ponies, it hit the ground before them making them fall down. The two manged to reach the hill standing in front of the ship. Suddendly, Kong crashed on the ground. Zylus fell down but stood up quickly.

“Kong? What’s wrong, mate? And don’t you dare telling me, it’s nothing!“

“My life wires. They were cracked. Now they start breaking. Which means I’m gonna shut down soon if I continue moving.“

“You can’t be seroius! We survived a crash, broke out of the enemies base, defeated those flying unites, got rid of those six ponies and nearly reached the ship and you’re telling me, you can’t move?! How are we supposed to contact the Empire and escape this planet?!“

“Not WE. YOU will do it.“

Zylus was shocked to here this.

“And leaving you behind? Not if I have a word to say!“

“No discussions! I sense an entire army approaching our position. I’ll hold them off as long as I can. You’ll contact the Empire. They have to know what happened here. This could change EVERYTHING.“

“But-“, Zylus started but didn’t continue.

Although he was able to act and think like biological beings he was still a machine, too. It was hard for him to argue against undoubtable logic. And Kong’s logic was punch and stitch-resistant. If he had teeth he would have gnashed with them. Except his emotional programm, everything in his head told him to follow Kong’s plan. In the end he had to give in.

“Alright. But don’t you dare being captured or die by any enemy.“

“Don’t worry.“

“You know, some biological beings think there is a new world after death. Do you think there is something like this for us robots, too?“

“If there is, we will meet again.“

“And if there is not, I want to let you know that it was a true honor to serve with you, my friend.“

“Same with me. Now go! I can see them already!“

Zylus noddged and ran across the hill. On the top he briefly stopped and looked at his friend one more time before running to the ship and entering it.

Kong looked directly to the thousands of soldiers coming towards him. He stamped on the ground so hard, that both of his feet became stucked in it. He pulled a second stick out of his left hand. Now he helt one stick in each hand. When the enemy troops reached his fire range he said:

“I am the Manhunter. And you won’t pass!“

He fired out of both sticks bombarding and stopping the ground forces. But it didn’t took long for air units to come into his fire range, too. With half the fire power concentrated on the air, some ponies managed to come near enough to shoot him. The blasts hit his armor and shot holes in it. Some blasts managed to brake through the armor and destroy the part of his exo-sceleton tiding his arm to his body. With just one stick he didn’t stood much of a chance. Soon afterwards some blasts destroyed it. Disarmed he closed his eyes and said:

“Imperial overwrite 000. Initiate self-destruct sequenze.“

His chest opened up revealing a clock going back from 00:05. He looked over his shoulder at the ship. Then he shouted:

“EMPIRE FOREVER!“

The clock hit 0. His core exploded in a massive explosion, shaking the trees and causing the ponies to fall to the ground. When the smoke cleared itself there was just a crater left where he stood.

Zylus didn’t need to look outside. He immediatly knew that Kong had destroyed himself. Now only he was left. He took the lift to the second floor. While running towards the bridge he looked out of a window. The ponies were in fire range. But he hadn’t enough shots left to win this battle. There was just two things he could do now. He reached the bridge, made his way to the console and pressed a red button on the left side of the keybord. A sentence reading “Message recording“ appeared. Zylus began speaking:

“This is RS-344 Zylus with an emergency message, Code “Blood-Red“! General Khan! I have top priority news for you! Our boarding ship has been shot down by the AMA! We crashed on a planet inhabited by those ponies we discovered months ago! But those ponies: They are allies of the AMA! That means the AMA can disguise their ships and beaming ability from our sensors! You need to invade this world as soon as possible! Who knows how much technology those ponies have recieved from the AMA already! I propably won’t make it out of here alive. But I promise you: Those damm ponies won’t get any imperial technology. Empire forever.“

He pressed another button. Another sentence reading “Message send“ appeared. Then he grabbed his gun and turned around. But a magical blast destroyed it.

“Damm it! They are here already?!“

The unicorns were closing in. Zylus made his way to the middle of the half circle where the main consol stood. On the way one shot blasted his left leg off but he manged to reach the consol. He typed around on the keyboard quickly. Another blast ripped his right arm off. With just one arm he managed to end his typing. A tiny hatch opened itself. Another big red button came out of the gap. He raised his arm ready to press the button but another blast hit his arm and ripped it off, too. Seeing no other option he made a short jump and pressed the button with his head. Suddendly a siren started. A voice said:

“Aleart. Aleart. Self destruct sequence initiated. Overloading of the Red Matter Core has begun. Total destruction ready in 20 seconds. Have a nice death. Empire forever.“

The ponies were shocked hearing that. If he would have a mouth Zylus, who laid in front of the consol facing the ponys, would have smirged seeing this. He said:

“Muhahahaha! Yes. Be afraid. You should be. The Spidermonkeys, the Pirates, the Universal Councile, the Rebellion, the Ultimate Team Aqua, the Star Warriors, the Underworld Syndicate, the Chaos Lords and Necros! Everyone who ever tried to harm the Empire has been crushed! And soon, both you and your AMA friends will be crushed as well! Run! Run from the Empire! Your fate has been sealed! EMPIRE FOREVER!“

For a brief moment the ponies looked at him in shock. Then they run. As Zylus laid there his powers began vanishing. Suddendly he saw something: All the corpses of his fallen comrads stood up from the ground! They stood around him. Then suddendly Kong stepped towards him. He gave him his hand. With a smile he said:

“Come, old friend. We have been waiting for you.“

Zylus looked down at his arm. It was their again. With an inner-smile he grapped Kongs hand.

“I’m sorry for letting you wait. I just had a small thing to do. But now I’m ready.“

He closed his eyes and said with an inner-smile:

“Let us discover the new world behind the horizon.“

Then the ship exploded in a huge explosion.

General Khan said behind his desk and looked at the newest movements of the AMA. Like every human-sized Mecha-General he was the biggest among his troops, standing at 2 meters in height, with a long cape on his back. Suddendly his right hand man Commander Rogen entered the room. He had a holo-communicator in his left hand.

“We just received a message. From Zylus.“, he said.

Khan took it, listened and sighed. He stood up, took the communitcator and said to Rogen:

“Ready the portal. I’m going to the HQ. The emperor needs to see this.“

Rogen gulpped.

“The…the emperor? With all due respect, Sir, but don’t you overreact a bit?“

“No. The emperor needs to see this. It has top priority! Now get this portal on already!“

Rogen exid the room quickly. Khan looked up. Over his desk there was a giant flag with a big red “M“ on it. Then he looked on the communicator again and said:

“Those ponys have no idea what they got themselfs into. The emperor will be very angry after hearing this. Huh. I almost feel sorry for them. But if you mess with us you mess with death. That’s the rule.“

“General! The portal is ready!“, Rogen reported through Khan’s communicator.

Khan looked at the flag one more time before leaving the room. While leaving he said:

“All hail the Magmaempire.“