Hunter's Downfall

A green Reploid with gray artificial muscles opened her violet eyes within a field near Canterlot City. She had no idea where she was, any maps that she could try to cross reference from her database were unable to determine where she was. This wasn't anywhere in the known world and her chronometer couldn't even determine when she was. Everything was unfamiliar and the last thing her memory unit could tell her that had happened was that a large force of Mavericks had ambushed their group. These Mavericks were endangering innocent Reploids as well as humans. She had joined X, Axl, and a few other hunters on the front lines to fight to protect the humans. During the climax of the battle, Axl had rushed into the thick of the battle and they hadn't seen him again, she realized that the other hunters aside from X were starting to lose the fight against their overwhelming enemy and were falling. Her superior noticed this and had ordered the survivors to use the Cyber-elves that they had been given in order to teleport back to Neo Arcadia for repairs. However, a Baby Elf, one of the copies of the corrupted Dark Elf had infected hers and the resulting flash of light knocked her out and this is where she ended up.

Two years had passed since the bloody conflict had started, two long years. Her A.I. age was around the mid-30s, but her frame was only twenty years old. Because of her high specs and her bravery, she quickly gained a reputation was a capable Maverick Hunter, being placed initially as a B-Rank hunter and quickly rising to A-Rank where she would remain. However, despite all of her specs and her experience, nothing had prepared her for this. In the distance, she could see colorful humans. Where she came from, they had normal skin tones ranging from dark to light based on the amount of melanin in their skin. She started to walk towards the city, realizing that she looked a bit strange with the armor around her frame. But she hoped that she would pass as human.

Walking down the street however made her realize one important thing. Though she passed as human, she was still armed with a standard issue beam saber with a white blade that was holstered on her right leg. Beneath her long red hair, she had a standard issue shot gun in case her modified buster was damaged or otherwise rendered inoperable. Her strange fashion sense didn't turn heads, but the fact that she was openly carrying weapons did. A grayish woman in police uniform walked towards her. The Reploid's eyes started scanning the woman for any sort of circuitry, but there wasn't any aside from a radio on her person. She was a human and as a Maverick Hunter, Leila had sworn to protect humans and never turn her weapons on one.

"Not many people wear costumes out in the open like that, Nightmare Night isn't for another few months," the police woman said.

This reaction was unexpected, the Maverick Hunter had expected to have to turn over her equipment to the local security forces here, but instead she was given an out. Leila tried to access her database to figure out what Nightmare Night was, but she came up blank. Her AI figured the best way to get out of this situation with minimal resistance would be to bluff her way out. "Ah yeah, sorry. This was something made for me by someone special to me and they liked seeing me wear it so I just do on a regular basis. They're... not really here anymore, so I more wear it in his memory," she stated.

This was a half-lie, her armor and frame were created by the man who had created her. He was like a father to her and had constantly worried about her as she went off on missions. Unfortunately during the opening volley of the Elf Wars, his lab was attacked and the Maverick Hunters were too late to save him. She had found her creator laying slumped against the wall, surrounded by the bodies of several Mavericks and a weapon near him. The security footage proved that he had fought and destroyed over a dozen Mavericks to try to save the lives of the other researchers before one of them were able to fire off the lucky shot that ended his life. From that moment forward, she had sworn never to remove her helmet on her own. Any damage that had been done to her cranial systems had to be done while she was switched off.

The officer nodded, seeming to buy the half-truth. "Well if it's that important to you, I won't tell you to remove it. Just keep in mind that you'll look a bit strange to others," she replied.

Leila didn't mind in the slightest, she continued to mind her business as she scanned for signs of technology. Though seemingly fruitless, her scans eventually pointed her to some sort of lab. She had expected to find a bunch of scientists at the lab, but instead what greeted her at the door was a light purple teenager with blue hair and violet eyes wearing glasses and a lab coat. "Uh, can I help you?" she asked.

This threw the Reploid's AI for a complete loop. She had expected adults, not someone that couldn't be more than sixteen years old. "Um, you're a student to a more experienced scientist, right?" the Maverick Hunter asked, confused at all of this.

The teenager looked up at the Reploid and frowned, "I'm the only scientist in this lab. I run this entire place, it's where I do most of my experiments. When I'm not helping the others of course," she said.

Leila was unable to process this information. Here was someone who was younger than her frame was and they not only owned their own lab, but ran it on their own. The amount of funding this girl would need was incomprehensible to the Maverick Hunter and the fact that her parents would even allow her to have a lab was starting to cause her artificial pain receptors to give her a minor headache. She closed her eyes and used her fingers to rub her forehead. "You're telling me, that you... a teenager who can't be more than sixteen years old, has the funding for an entire laboratory, on top of the funding to engage in whatever scientific experiment without *any* adult supervision!?" she exclaimed, her vocal synthesizer doing its job to convey that she was extremely annoyed at this fact.

The teenager shrugged at this outburst, she had heard this question many times before. Her unusually high intellect got her awarded grants to perform scientific experiments and some of what she did was freelance to begin with. "I know that you're confused, ma'am. But why are you trying to find a scientist?" she asked.

The Reploid lowered her voice and leaned in so no one could hear her but the purple scientist, "I don't know where I am or what year it is. I need to have a scan of my systems, both external and internal to make sure that I wasn't damaged during the incident."

Suddenly the teenager's eyes lit up, she started to realize what was going on and she opened the door to her lab, "Please come in!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Lelia had a bad feeling about this, but she decided to walk into the lab anyhow, she didn't know what to expect, but she found a whole slew of machines that were more advanced than what she was expecting from what seemed like a primitive culture. She remembered her creator showing her history documents that had pictures of the cars she had seen on her way here and the cell phones that people carried, but she didn't see anything like this show up until later in the 20XX era.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way. I assume that judging from what you said to me that you're some kind of robot!" the excited scientist said to her.

The Reploid nodded, but she felt Twilight try to remove her helmet. The Maverick Hunter whipped around and grabbed the young scientist's arms, glaring at her, "The helmet stays on," she warned.

Twilight pouted, "How will I be able to check your internal systems if you don't let me remove your helmet?"

Leila let go of the purple teenager's arms and the scientist removed her hands from the helmet. "It's... important to me, I wouldn't even allow X or Axl remove my helmet while I was still online. Even if I desperately needed repairs," she stated as she looked away, her expression turning sorrowful.

The Maverick Hunter didn't expect this teenager to understand, but Twilight nodded with a frown, "I understand how something can be important to you. Whoever gave you that helmet must have been someone very special to you," she observed.

"Yeah..."

The two of them stood silently, just waiting for the other to say anything, but nothing came. The scientist then thought about what the Reploid had said. She had mentioned two others by name. They weren't names that she recognized, but they were names nonetheless, "Who are X and Axl? Are they robots like you?" she asked.

Leila's eyes lit up at this, "X is the origin of all of us Reploids! He was the one who the late Doctor Cain based the designs of the original generation of us off of! There are currently three generations of Reploids. First Generation Reploids were created shortly after Megaman X was found and analyzed. Former Maverick Hunter Commander and Menace to where I come from, Sigma was an example of a First Generation Reploid. Second Generation Reploids were created beginning with the original Prototype, Axl. They're able to copy what we call a DNA Soul of a Reploid to become that Reploid temporarily. Both First Generation and Second Generation Reploids were upgraded to be more in line with my generation, the Third Generation of Reploids. Instead of being built with servos and motors, we're constructed with synthetic muscles. If I ever wanted to, I could discard this armor for a set of clothing and look indistinguishable from a normal human," she explained, excitedly after getting to talk about her heroes and their origins while completely missing the first point of Twilight's question.

Twilight however started to hook Leila up, she had a crazed grin on her face at the idea of being able to work with a machine that was so advanced that not even she was able to produce something like this. "What are X and Axl like?" she asked.

The Maverick Hunter started to access her recorded memories of X and Axl, "Commander X is a very kind soul. He doesn't like fighting, but he's always the first one out the gate to ensure that anyone that brings harm to humans or Reploids is brought to justice. Over the last eighteen years I've got to know him, he's never once ran from a fight or just sat there and cried about anything. I noticed that to him, anyone that fights alongside him is his friend, and I consider it a great honor. He's always been there for me and helped me figure out my purpose in the Maverick Hunters. If it weren't for him, I'm sure that the conflict that erupted in my world would've engulfed the entire planet, killing us all. As for Axl, he's a bit hotblooded, a tad arrogant and cocky. He's got a love for battle, which sometimes puts him at odds with X, but he's a good Reploid at heart. He ultimately wants to fight for justice and protect people and Reploids, just like our commander," she recounted.

The young scientist nodded as she started to run a diagnostic on the Reploid, "With heroes like them, I'm sure your world will be saved in no time," she stated.

Leila let out a sigh, she had hoped that would be true, but the casualties of the war were staggering and they were only in the second year. "An estimated forty percent of all Reploids have been destroyed. One-fourth of the human population has been lost so far. We've been fighting some mysterious enemy for a couple of years now, it's not Sigma anymore, it's something different and they're using Cyber-Elves just like us. We're currently calling the conflict 'the Elf Wars' because of this," she stated sorrowfully.

Twilight nodded solemnly. This was a lot to take in, "I believe you should go into sleep mode if you have one. It'll make running the diagnostic easier. Though with how advanced your systems are, it'll take a day or two for even my computers. I can't wait to see what kind of data that I find out!" she stated excitedly.

The Reploid nodded, closed her eyes and switched herself into sleep mode with a timer for forty-eight hours. If she was moved, she'd wake up before then like any other machine. But as she stood there silently in the lab, the only reason why Twilight Sparkle didn't once think her guest had died was the information that she was still receiving through her computer. It was going to be a long wait to see what secrets this robot held, but she could hardly wait and part of her wanted to show her friends.