One hour earlier

"RUN!"

"Halt, mutant."

"Stop calling us that!"

Two ponies ran for their lives through White Tail Woods, both unicorns, two Sentinels in lumbering pursuit. The two companions that came with them were already captured by one of the metal giants they'd discovered.

In desperation, they both turned their heads around as they ran to shoot off beams of magic at the Sentinels. Unfortunately, neither of them were highly skilled in attack magic, so their blasts barely scuffed them.

"Attempted attack perceived. Non-lethal retaliation in progress." The two Sentinels raised a hand each and shot beams of energy meant to knock their prey unconscious, so as not to damage them. Their blasts just reached the ends of the pony's tails, but also caused the ground to shake.

"Crap!" one of the ponies exclaimed as more shots followed. "They can't catch up to us, but those blasts are sure to knock us off our hooves! We need to get farther away!"

"Agreed!" the other pony said with a nod. They both charged their horns and soon teleported away right before another two blasts hit the ground. The Sentinels stopped in their tracks and began to scan the surrounding area.

"Teleportation detected. Scanning........Targets found half a mile away."

"Observation" the second Sentinel said. "The targets could not run too far away from us, but their teleportation will allow them to escape."

"Agreed."

"Suggestion: Deployment of the smaller, faster units provided by Master Mold for incapacitation and retrieval."

"The calculated success of your suggestion is 99.8%. We should do it." The two Sentinels stood rigid still before panels opened on their backs, and the smaller units they spoke of were launched out. They soon took off at great speed into the forest to acquire their prey.

The waiting Sentinels picked up screams and the sound of conflict in the distance, thanks to their sensors. Some of the foliage was damaged, there was failed attempts at fighting back. The calculation had been correct.

A mere five minutes after deployment, the smaller units carried the now unconscious unicorns back to their larger brethren.

"Excellent. The new units have proven successful" one of the Sentinel's said as they both deployed metal tentacles from their wrists to ensnare their captives. "Trask will be pleased to learn of this when we return to him."

"Let us return to Master Mold so that it may begin the modifications. Once we have increased in number, we shall pursue more mutants for modification." The Sentinel indicated to the two smaller units. "You two, keep watch over this perimeter. If any more mutants arrive in search of their captured, attempt to capture them as well. If attempts to capture fail, prevent them from finding our location by termination."

"Looks like a manticore and a centaur got in a fight" Rainbow said, looking over the damaged area of the woods the mare had brought them to.

Twilight was surveying the area while Laura made closer inspections. Vinyl, Octavia, Lyra, and Twilight's friends all stayed behind, looking on in surprise. Though Fluttershy also looked around to make sure no critters had been harmed, or lost their homes. Thankfully, none did.

"Laura" Octavia said as she and Vinyl approached her "You said you believed something called...Sentinels did this. "What are Sentinels?"

"Giant robots" Laura replied as she looked at a small crater, it's ring showing a telltale scorch mark of a laser blast.

"You have robots in your world?!" Twilight asked excitedly.

"Giant ones?!" Vinyl exclaimed in equal excitement.

The two mares received looks from the others. "Sorry," they said simultaneously.

"Mutant hunters," Laura continued. "And killers."

"That's horrible!" Octavia exclaimed. "Why would anyone make such horrid machines?"

"A lot of humans don't like or trust mutants. Think we're a menace. One man, Bolivar Trask, made them to hunt us down, capture us, and do whatever he wanted with us."

"Why would they take ponies?" Applejack wondered aloud.

"They're dangerous, but kind of stupid. Scanners probably registered mutants since they haven't been here before."

"And your sure this was them?" Twilight asked.

"Yes" With her memories restored, Laura had explained how she arrived in Equestria on the way. "I saw them go through a portal to here. And I can smell the metal. But...something's off."

"What do you mean?"

"I've fought them before. There would be a lot more damage, more spread out. Even the laser craters are smaller."

"Uh, guys?" Rainbow called out. "I found something. Something I think Laura will want a look at."

Everyone ran to where Rainbow was, and were surprised at what they saw, but none more so than Luara. Triple claw marks. Carved into a tree.

But Laura knew it wasn't what it appeared to be.

"I found some cut down trees too. Looks like they were cut all the way through. Didn't you say your dad, or whatever had...?"

"Not him" Laura said, cutting off Rainbow's question.

"How do you know?" Vinyl asked.

"Can't smell him" she replied as she approached the tree and traced a hand over the marks. "And there's something different about these." She popped the claws from one of her hands and slashed below the triple marks. "Look."

Everyone took a closer look and saw she was right. The previous marks had a slight burn around them, as if the claws that made the marks had been very hot, or on fire.

"What could've made marks like that?" Twilight wondered aloud.

"Could it be...?" Laura began to wonder, until her ears caught something that made her head shoot up. A whirring sound in the distance. And heavy running, uncharacteristic of Sentinels.

"Get back! They're here!" Laura shouted as she jumped ahead of them, taking a defensive stance and popping her hand claws.

"What do you mean?!" Octavia exclaimed. But she didn't get the chance to ask anything else. From within the woods emerged a robot. On four legs, it was a head taller than Princess Cadance, had a body resembling a misproportioned wild cat, with a bulky chest and a skinny midsection. It also had a tail and an oddly shaped head, a large glowing red eye in the center, and two smaller glowing eyes on either side. On its shoulders were cylinders that had a similar red glow.

Everyone stared in shock and awe, while Laura simply stared the machine down with a scowl. She gritted her teeth, prepared for a fight.

The robot scanned everyone, and then opened it's mouth, from which came a voice that spoke through intercom. "Mutants identified, including five useful unicorns, an extremely useful alicorn, and the X-Man X-23. Unicorns and alicorn to be captured for modification. X-23 to be eliminated with extreme prejudice."

"Modification?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Eliminated?!" Octavia and Vinyl exclaimed.

"Useful unicorns?!" Rainbow said indignantly. "I can be just as useful! And AJ too!"

"Thanks, but not the time, sugar cube!"

"Engaging."

"AAAAHHHH!" Laura screamed as she charged at the Sentinel variant. It readied both of it's laser cannons and fired, forcing her to get out of the way. A crater similar to the ones found now resided where Laura had been. She continued dodging blasts, using the trees as shields.

"I gotcha!" Rainbow exclaimed as she sped towards the robot. Unfortunately, this model was made with more complex combat in mind. Its sensors detected the incoming pegasus, and it spun around to swat her with its tail.

"Gah!" Rainbow cried as the tail caught her cheek, sending her flying to the ground. Everyone cried her name in distress. She raised herself with a hoof and rubbed her cheek, where a very prominent mark was left. "Ow! That was like a metal whip!"

"Eliminating disposable pegasus."

"Hey!"

"Don't you touch her!" Twilight yelled as she simultaneously put a shield around Rainbow and shot a powerful blast at the Sentinel. Unfortunately, all the blast did was push the robot back. But it hadn't been prepared for the sudden attack, so it had been forced up to its hind legs. It now stood high enough to bite down on Celestia's horn.

It stumbled a bit but soon steadied itself. It prepared a tranquilizing but powerfully concussive blast for Twilight, as an alicorn would be the best pony it could get. But it's brief imbalance gave Laura an opportunity.

"Rraaaah!" Laura screamed as she leapt from a tree. She dug all six of her claws into the back of the Sentinel, making it recoil. She made quick work of cutting off its cannons.

"I'm outta here!" Lyra said as she started to run away. She had been hiding behind a tree the entire time. "I just wanted to meet humans, or mutants, whatever! I did not sign up to get attacked by robots!"

"No, wait!" Laura called to her. "There's another!" But Lyra was too far gone to hear her.

"I'll get her!" Twilight exclaimed flying off to help the frightened unicorn.

The Sentinel reached behind itself to get Laura off. She made it retract one arm by cutting into it, but the other was able to grab her jacket from behind.

"I gotcha, sugar!" Applejack said as she charged forward to help. She gave the robot's legs a hard buck, compromising its stability and making it fall forward. It released its hold on Laura to catch itself. This allowed her to retract her claws, turn around, and cut off it's legs and tail.

Before it could find a way to stand itself up on its stumps, Laura spun around again and made a small leap. She buried one set of claws in its neck, and the other right in its center eye. She removed her claws and lines of electricity raced through it's body before it collapsed limp.

"Sentinel hound offline." Laura stored its designation in her mind before running off to catch up to Lyra.

"Ah!" Lyra screamed as a laser blast knocked her off her hooves. She turned herself belly up and began scooting away from the approaching machine. "Please! Don't kill me!"

"Preparing tranquilizing blast. You will not be permanently damaged. You are to be captured for modification."

"That's really not much of a better outcome!"

A strong magic blast to the back of its head made the Hound stop.

"Hey! You should be wanting to capture the most useful pony, right?! Well here I am!"

The Hound turned around to regard Twilight. "Your assertion is correct." Both began to charge up for another blast, but Twilight didn't fire hers. Instead, she disappeared. "Error. Target has teleported." The Hound suddenly found itself launched forward, tumbling a few times before landing on its stomach.

Twilight had reappeared behind it and blasted it in the back, with a much stronger charge this time. Unfortunately, all it did was make a large dent. Nothing seriously damaging. "Oh come on!"

The Hound began to pick itself up, until it heard a scream of rage from above. It made it's head do a 180 to see Laura falling towards it, claws first. It quickly turned the rest of its body and raised its arms to shield itself, and deploy something from its fists.

Laura was startled when her claws were caught by six, glowing ones, her foot claws having dug into the Hound's arms. She scowled at the machine. "Knockoff."

The Hound surged its arms outward, throwing Laura off of it. It quickly got up on its hind legs and rushed at the young mutant. It gave a hard swing of its laser claws. Laura blocked the strike, but the Hound's strength caused her to be pushed back by it.

Twilight wanted to help, but she feared Laura could be caught in one of her blasts, and trying to teleport in the middle of a claw fight could get her accidentally cut in half.

Laura continued getting pushed back by the Hound's strikes until she decided she had enough. With the next strike, she ducked, putting her right claws between the Hound's to pull it forward and use her left ones to cut into its arm. She retracted her right claws to grab its arm and forcefully pull herself up. She cut through its arm completely and used the momentum to reach its head and cut it off.

She pushed off the body to spin herself around and land facing it. But it didn't fall. Instead, it swung it's still intact arm at her. She jumped back out of the way, and saw the head was still active, it's center eye blinking in tandem with a newly appeared light on the Hound's chest.

"Twilight! The head!" Laura exclaimed as she evaded another strike by dodging forward. She leapt up and in a single motion, cut off the Hound's arm with an upward slash of both claws, and then brought them down to embed them in its chest. Better safe than sorry.

"Laura!" Twilight yelled as she used her magic to throw the head. Laura launched herself off the Hound body and sliced through the head in midair. She and the pieces fell to the ground simultaneously, the latter finally shutting off.

"S-s-s-s-sen-tal -ound -ineeeee."

Laura turned her head to look at the second arm she severed, seeing the laser claws flicker before deactivating, which resembled actual mutant claws when they retracted.

"Cheap knockoff."

She turned back to see that everyone else had caught up. They were all staring in awe of her. Her cheeks flushed slightly, hoping they hadn't heard her smug remark. Instead, she found herself tackled in a hug.

"Laura!" Octavia exclaimed as she hugged her friend. "That was incredible! Smashing! Or slashing, I suppose."

"Lame, Octy" Vinyl said as she quickly approached the two, earning her a glare. "But seriously, that was wicked awesome, L!"

"I'll say!" Rainbow said as she joined in the praise. "I know awesome, and that was awesome."

The others soon joined in, causing Laura to blush and fight a big smile trying to adorn her face. She wasn't used to this kind of thing.

"Looks like that takes care of our robot problem," Rainbow said. "Now we just gotta find out where they're keeping those ponies they captured."

"No. We still have a problem."

"But you just tore those Sentinels to shreds!"

"Not the Sentinels we're looking for. These were new models. Haven't seen them before. We're looking for much bigger ones. Humanoid bodies."

"Bigger ones?!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Twilight, I need you to fly me over the forest from where we were. We can track them down faster that way."

"Sure thing. Everyone, get back to Ponyville. Rainbow should get her cheek looked at."

"Oh come on! I wanna fight! Get some payback!"

"Ya got whooped like a misbehaved foal by a smaller one of those things," Applejack pointed out. "Ya really wanna go up against, bigger, tougher ones?"

".......I think I got some teeth knocked out anyway, I probably should get checked out."

"That's what Ah thought. Come on y'all."

"That means you too, Spike."

"Don't have to tell me twice."

"I don't wanna hear it- Wait, really?" Twilight said, quite confused.

"I've always wanted to fight a giant robot with my own giant robot, not just little old me. I'll gladly sit this one out."

Lyra, Octavia, and Vinyl stayed behind. The former approached Laura a tad sheepishly. "Thank you...for saving me. I'm sorry for annoying you before."

"It's okay" Laura assured her as she patted her head. This caused Lyra to scrunch her muzzle while also smiling. Smiling because of the "human" contact, and scrunching because of the somewhat annoying act of being patted like a dog.

Octavia and Vinyl approached Laura after Lyra left. "We don't want to leave you, but-"

"It's too dangerous," Laura finished for her. "I wouldn't let you come anyway. I don't want you getting hurt." Laura gave Octavia a hug before pulling Vinyl in. "I'm gonna make sure they can't hurt you, or any more of your people."

"We wish you the best of luck, Laura."

"Don't need it" she replied with a smile. "I'm the best there is at what I do. After my father."

"Kick their shiny metal asses, L." Laura gave Vinyl a nod while Octavia rolled her eyes.

After the two departed, Laura turned to Twilight and outstretched her arms. "I'm ready." Twilight gave her a questioning look before smirking and charging up her horn. Laura suddenly found herself seated on Twilight's back.

"Yes you are."

Laura held on as Twilight took off into the air towards their original destination, and then to the Sentinels.

Author's Note

Well this took a while to get out. I had kind of lost my drive to keep going with this story, especially with life, classes, and another fic I was focussing on.

I can't say when I'll get the next chapter out, but I swear I won't leave this story unfinished.

BTW, the Sentinal Hounds are pretty much exactly the same as the ones in Wolverine and the X-Men, just with a few differences.