Predator 3

The visual disturbance peeled away revealing four creatures similar to the other all standing in a group. Two of them seemed female in their demeanor and features. Applejack assumed an attack posture as the creatures began making guttural sounds at them.

"Wait. I think these ones are trying to talk to us!" Sunburst called out.

The taller of the two female creatures pressed a control on the side of its helmet and stepped forward. "Is this better?" It began speaking in a clear female voice. Sunburst and Applejack nodded in reply. "You are the one called Applejack?" The creature stepped closer to Applejack.

"Y-yes" Applejack stuttered nervously.

"We are the t!cz'kor. In our tongue it means 'storied hunters'". The t!cz'kor explained.

"Well miss t-" Applejack was interrupted

"You lack the biology to pronounce it properly so it's futile to even try." the t!cz'kor explained. "I am !c'kt!a'l and this is my husband, and my eldest son and daughter" The other t!cz'kors waved as she pointed to them during the introduction.

"Why are you slaugtherin' us like this?!" Applejack demanded.

"Our people are a race of hunters. We travel the stars, hunting the most dangerous creatures in the universe." !c'kt!a'l explained.

"Ponies, dangerous?" Applejack sneared.

"You underestimate yourself." !c'kt!a'l replied.

"We have feelings and families this is just awful." Sunburst chimed in.

"It is the belief of the t!cz'kor that the souls of all creatures, t!cz'kor and otherwise, who die in the endless hunt are returned to the great lifestream where they will be reborn after a time of blissful rest." !c'kt!a'l explained.

"And just what do ya'll want from us?" Applejack huffed skeptically.

"The t!cz'kor you were battling is our youngest son. He is currently taking his coming of age trial where he must select a primary target and then either kill or be killed by that target. You are his chosen target. He has until the end of this day to complete his trial." !c'kt!a'l pointed out the throne room window at the sun as it plummeted toward the bottom of the horizon. "Those others of your kind have taken him prisoner and we are not allowed to interfere with his hunt otherwise his trial is considered abandoned." !c'kt!a'l explained grimly.

"Well what if he fails?" Applejack asked.

"The soul of a t!cz'kor who abandons a hunt is doomed to eternal suffering and torment." !c'kt!a'l cringed as she explained, her family shuddered along with her. "We need you to free our son and then fight him to the death so that his soul may find the lifestream either this day or another.

"I somehow don't think we have much of a choice." Sunburst sighed as he eyed the heavily armed t!cz'kors over.

"If you defeat him you will be duly rewarded." !c'kt!a'l offered. "He has already been weakened by his injuries so you stand a chance."

"Very well. Don't think I'm not still mad about our friends though." Applejack sighed.

"You know for a moment I was worried that there would be a gigantic one of them when they were cloaked." Sunburst sighed.

"That would be jumping the shark" !c'kt!a'l snickered. "The only way that could be any stupider would be if we were sent here to steal the genetic code for some developmental disability."

"Imagine if you got a one-two punch of amazing Sci-fi movies and then waited 28 years for a canonical follow-up and that's whatcha got!" Applejack snickered.

"I'd be awful angry!" Sunburst piped in.

"Please make haste. The day is nearly over." !c'kt!a'l pleaded as the family of t!cz'kors cloaked and wandered out of sight.

"Injured or not we're going to need a plan to fight him!" Applejack complained.

"Well you're at least as strong as he is now that he's wounded." Sunburst said.

"Yeah but I don't got none of them there fancy gizmos like he does. If only we had magic." Applejack sighed.

"I have magic!" Sunburst objected.

"No offense sugar cube but it's going to take more than stacking books to take care of our friend down there." Applejack chided.

"Just trust me!" Sunburst walked over to the Crystal Heart and pulled it off its pedestal. "There's a geographical leyline that runs through King Sombra's lower chamber. We could use it to overload the Crystal Heart and I can use my magic to direct the resulting energy discharge at him."

"I don't know what that means but we better get hurryin'!" Applejack huffed as the two proceeded down the spiral stairs with the Crystal Heart in tow. They crept down a hall at the end of the stairs and slowed their approach as they listened in on an open door at the end.

"I've disabled the self-destruct device." Stygian said. He and Starswirl lurked over the young t!cz'kor which was asleep on a gurney in the middle of the room.

"Who's out there!?" Starswirl shouted angrily as he heard the duo approach the door.

"This ends now, sugar cube!" Applejack burst into the room and charged at Starswirl who quickly knocked Applejack down with a blast of magic.

"Stop!" Sunburst charged in and pointed his horn toward Starswirl and Stygian.

"What are you going to do?" Starswirl chuckled. "You don't know any combat spells."

"I remember a wake up spell I used to use for late night study sessions!" Sunburst boasted smugly as he cast a spell at the t!cz'kor, causing him to burst wakefully to his feet.

"No, what are you doing!?" Starswirl shouted as he turned around just in time for the t!cz'kor to grab him and Stygian by the neck. Its muscular forearms flexed as it closed its fingers down around their necks with a snapping sound and then tossed their lifeless bodies aside like rag-dolls.

The t!cz'kor extended one of its wrist blades and let out a guttural scream as it charged at Applejack. Applejack turned around and met his charge with a hefty buck from her hind legs, knocking him to the ground.

"Now would be a good time sugar cube!" Applejack complained as she jumped on top of the t!cz'kor and struggled to pin him down.

Sunburst concentrated and his magic levitated the Crystal Heart in the middle of the room and it began to crackle with energy. Applejack let out a scream of pain as the t!cz'kor slashed a deep bloody gash into one of her front legs and then threw her across the room. A bolt of energy discharged from the Crystal Heart and struck the t!cz'kor, vaporizing one of his arms and causing him to slump to the floor and scream in agony.

"Not so tough now!" Applejack coughed up a spurt of blood and limped toward the t!cz'kor. She jumped on top and then the floor beneath them began to crack. "What the!" the floor beneath them shattered and collapsed into a chamber below the laboratory.

A loud, metallic, commotion sounded as the debris from the room above and the bodies within rained onto the top of a large space craft which was coincidentally parked below.

"Wow." Sunburst eyed the craft over. "This must be how he travels through the stars."

Applejack strained her eyes at a sunset colored glow down at the end of the chamber. "I reckon this opens up to the street outside."

"Amazing how they managed to park a giant interstellar space ship underneath a building in a secret tunnel that opens up to the street without anypony noticing." Sunburst held his hoof up to his chin in contemplation.

The wounded t!cz'kor struggled to its feet and pulled out its spear with its remaining arm and screamed at Applejack, as though taunting her to finish the fight.

"Ya'll want it ya'll got it sugar cube!" Applejack pounced at the t!cz'kor and parried a spear strike with one of her front hooves as she pinned it to the metallic surface. "This is for ma' friends!" She began furiously stomping her front hooves down against the creature's head as it screamed in agony becoming more blooded and bruised with each blow until its skull caved in and exploded into a spurt of glowing green blood.

"I think he's dead now." Sunburst put a hoof on Applejacks shoulder to calm her down.

"Oh, right." Applejack snickered and stepped down from the creatures broken body.

!c'kt!a'l uncloaked from the shadows and approached the duo.

"We can't thank you enough for this." !c'kt!a'l sighed. "Here." !c'kt!a'l offered a hefty burlap sack toward Applejack. "Here are the skulls of your fallen companions to thank you."

"Uh." Applejack winced. "Hows about ya'll just stop comin' to Equestria and we'll say we're all squared off."

"Very well." !c'kt!a'l melted into the scenery and then disappeared. A short time later the chamber began to rumble.

"I think they are taking off! Let's get out of here!" Sunburst exclaimed. He grabbed a hold of Applejack and the two hobbled toward the light at the outside of the chamber and on to the street. A gout of flames came shooting out right as they exited. The Crystal Palace collapsed as the craft shot up into the sky out of it toward the stars.

Applejack collapsed to the ground with Sunburst on top of her and then rolled off on to his back. The surrounding streets were deserted as the sun made its final descent below the horizon. The duos cutie marks began to flash, indicating that they had completed their friendship quest.

"Who'da thunk a friendship problem could be solved by beatin' some creature's skull in." Applejack huffed.

"So if we're the only two survivors does that make us a 'ship' now?" Sunburst looked over to Applejack and asked.

"You know come to think of it, sugar cube." Applejack climbed onto Sunburst with a devilish grin. "All this skull bashing has gotten me a might' bit horny." Applejack and Sunburst began to kiss passionately.

"I'm still here!" Spike protested with a groan and a roll of his eyes.