Diamond Journals Issue 1: A Quest for Memory

Accompanied by Starlight Glimmer, Rarity and Applejack arrived at her old village. Robot Masters had already been here, as the inhabitants weren't willing to emerge. Or perhaps it was Starlight's presence. Either way, the trio were confronted by a pair of Robot Masters: Clown Man and Junk Man.

"You, my friends, are under arrest for having a cutie mark." Clown Man said. "I hear everyone here must be equal."

"What have you done to everyone here, you horrid robots?!" Starlight yelled. "These two, plus some others, freed the village from forced equality created by me. I've paid the price for my actions, and you will too!"

"Yeah...what she said." Applejack said.

"Is that so, huh? Well, we could have done this differently, but since you won't come quietly, we must terminate you." Junk Man stated. "Let's get 'em, Clown Man." he told his comrade, who immediately used his Thunder Carnival strike. Junk Man was about to attack too, but Starlight was able to zap him with her magic before he could do anything, popping him in a single hit and leaving Junk Shield's cartridge behind. Rarity grabbed it using her magic and pulled it away from where Junk Man popped, immediately putting it in her saddlebag. Clown Man's attack had clearly missed and he wasn't happy about it.

"Stop moving, you little earth pony with no redeeming qualities!" he shouted, readying his Thunder Claw.

"You said WHAT?!" Rarity yelled, stopping Clown Man's next attack and him with her magic. "Pop him, Starlight!" she commanded in pure anger. Starlight's magic was able to pop him in two strikes, leaving the cartridge for Thunder Claw behind, which Rarity put with the other one. As they progressed over to Starlight's old home, Doc Robot showed up and assaulted them.

"Uh, Mega? We gots a rough-lookin' robot here guarding the orb! We don't know a lot about it, but it looks like it has your schematics." Applejack said into her comm.

"That'd be Doc Robot. It can copy any of the Robot Masters I've fought before, but he prefers the DWN-009 through DWN-016 models." Mega stated. "He's quite dangerous and magic doesn't appear to affect him. You'll need another way to fight him."

"Sounds good." AJ said. She prepared to buck as Doc Robot used Charge Kick to close in, bucking right before the attack hit. Doc Robot flew backwards due to the force of the buck, which also did a decent amount of damage to his system. However, he was able to utilize the moment and toss a few Metal Blades, all of which missed. Rarity tossed him back, letting AJ buck him again. They repeated this process until Doc Robot popped. "Kicking a robot repeatedly would break a normal pony's legs. Good thing I've been practicing." she justified. As Rarity freed the trapped ponies, Applejack and Starlight entered her old home, finding the orb quite quickly.

"We're in place!" Starlight said into the comm.

"You don't sound familiar. Starlight Glimmer, is it? Anyway, we're in place over here as well, so we're just waiting on Twilight and then we're set. Remember, wait on my signal, then buck it, AJ!" Mega told them as AJ prepared to buck.