Magolor found himself crammed in a broom closet with Susie, it being one of the few places that had less than five defense systems installed and they had already taped over the gas dispensers and defused the bombs. Now all they had to do was listen for the sound of microwave emitters, as Susie claimed the other two systems were either too esoteric to affect them or had never been repaired in the first place. This was of little comfort though, as Susie also couldn't recall any liquidation devices on the Ark, but that was undeniably what had happened to their team leader/kidnapper. Magolor still couldn't get the sight out of his head...

"T̷h̵e̸ ̴A̴n̸c̷i̸e̶n̸t̴s̸ ̶w̶e̵r̴e̷ ̵p̸a̸r̴a̷n̷o̵i̶d̶ ̸p̸r̴i̶c̵k̸s̴ ̷w̸e̶r̵e̸n̴'̷t̸ ̴t̸h̸e̸y̶?̴ ̸S̵o̶r̵r̷y̴,̸ ̷y̵o̸u̷ ̶t̷w̶o̸ ̸a̸r̴e̷ ̵o̸n̶ ̸y̵o̸u̵r̸ ̸o̵w̵n̵.̸"

And then the tall biped with wings for ears made a hasty retreat, his upper body sloughing off his legs into a portal. They never even got his name. Magolor snapped up to see Susie batting at his hood's ears to get his attention.

"Sorry Susie, my mind was... Elsewhere. You have an idea?" Fact of the matter was, the two of them brought destruction to an unexpectedly normal planet in the form of a giant metal planet of their own, and they were now trapped in the belly of the beast without a way out. The Lor-Starcutter was planetside without a way to communicate with them and their entry-exit plan combo left with only half his body, so the two of them needed to find a way to expunge this Nightmare Moon spirit from the Access Ark if they wanted to make it out alive and save the natives.

"I was hoping you were brainstorming something... I'm not sure how we're even supposed to leave the corridor without getting spotted on camera." Susie was clearly frustrated with the situation, though if Magolor were to be honest he suspects that she was feeling guilty as well. Not that she knew her company was going to be possessed, but hindsight was twenty-twenty and all. "I don't suppose those Ancient files you found about Hiddenstar said anything about some magical cure to spontaneous Dark Matter corruption?" Magolor could only shrug apologetically in return.

"I'm sorry Susie. Everything the Ancients had to say all boiled down to 'stay away or die horribly.' I'm sure there is something, given the planet is inhabited and live, but the Ancients had led me to believe that the severe Dark Matter issue would have made that impossible. Not only did we see a gathering of life, there was a town and a city on a mountain with a castle. That's civilization civil enough to work together, not a feral species of savages prone to violent bouts of anger and madness. Clearly they either missed something when they first discovered Hiddenstar or there was a significant or unpredictable change since they abandoned it." Or the Ancients had lied and fabricated or obfuscated the details, which wasn't unlikely but considering how hidden the information on Hiddenstar even was Magolor was inclined to believe that it was the honest belief of the authors.

A vault in the core of a magma planet encased in a black-hole bubble-shield shut tight with a quadruple triple-helix DNA verification lock. So many graves plundered just so Magolor could get his hands on outdated information...

"Really Mag? Grave Robbing?" Woops, Magolor was mumbling.

"... I left the valuables in tact." Susie put her hand on her hip with a cocked eyebrow. "... Moving on, evil murder ghost surrounding us on all sides. What do we know so far?"

"This isn't over, but fine. We know that it can use devices that my father and I could never figure out, given the horrifying melting of our portal maker. It doesn't have perfect awareness of everything going on in the Access Ark, as it hasn't even attempted to cook us with the microwaves in the walls yet. I don't think Nightmare Moon even knows how to use her new body all that well, her attacks against the bigger blue native that named her were a rather ineffective use of of the tools at its disposal-"

"Can we stick to a pronoun? She or it?"

"She's both a feminine sounding voice as well as the giant robot that it possessed. So no, I will flip-flop between them as much as I wish." Well that was going to give Magolor a headache. "The inexperience of our opponent works in our favor but it's an advantage that shrinks the longer we stand here cramped into the janitor station. The even taller white one says she can keep the moon protected for a week but that doesn't promise that the Ark will be content attacking the moon ineffectually for that long. Assuming the time we were given is accurate, given we don't know if the days are equivalent to our standard or if the shields will hold as long as their projector believes they will, that gives us at most seven days to either cripple the Ark and Nightmare Moon or blow it up for a second time. Remaining crew notwithstanding." Magolor let Susie's impressively quick analysis of the situation wash away his thoughts on the Ancients and the melting angel with anger issues. Her mind truly was fascinating. Seven days maybe to break a planet in order to save a moon.

"Alright... I think I may have a few ideas. Do you still keep those Invader Armors in stock?" The Haltmann brand mech suits were clunky, but they were very easy to use for how much power they packed. If Susie could gather enough of her employees then they could send off an small army of user-friendly war machines to cause havoc. A good distraction if nothing else. Susie looked at Magolor pensively for a few moments, which he found mildly confusing. It was a yes or no question? Did she remember every weapon the closets hid in their walls but couldn't remember if her company still had some leftover war suits?

"Actually, I think I may be able to do us one better." Oh? Now he was curious. "You were speaking out loud earlier when you said my mind was fascinating by the way." And now he was slightly blushing as Susie carefully unlocked the door.

"... I spy, with my little eye-"

"Tia, don't even start." Celestia snorted in amusement, but her mirth was cut short by a wince as one of the legs of the Access Ark got a particularly good hit on her and Luna's shields. Their horns were blazing with blue and yellow magic as they combined the full force of their pseudo-divine talents, but it didn't stop the feeling of needles being stabbed into their heads as the artificial planet drove spikes the size of countries towards the moon. Celestia rubbed her eyes as Luna puffed out a held breath. "Mother- Why is she even trying to destroy the moon? Her entire plan for thousands of years was possessing me and snuffing out the sun. Now she's just throwing a tantrum!" Celestia hummed thoughtfully, ignoring the growing warmth spreading from her horn.

"Perhaps that was merely the first step of her plan? Her goal may be- Oomph!" Celestia would have fallen to her knees had she not already been laying on her wings and back. She couldn't see the attack that spiked a new burst of agony through her system, but it wasn't hard to figure out that one of the legs had tried attacking from the other side. "Okay... May be to destroy Equis, and she's simply chosen to start with the moon this time for convenience." It was Luna's turn to express her amusement, though her snort wasn't cut off by an attack.

"NIghtmare Moon isn't practical about anything Tia. The bitch could've just razed Ponyville to the ground or frozen the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. She chose to taunt them instead, and I had no part in her decision to let Twilight monologue about the Magic of Friendship." There was a long pause in the conversation at this point, not for the sake of letting information settle or to think of what to say next, but because the two sisters where waiting for the next attack. A sharp ache and a pulse of magic followed eventually, giving them the chance to continue their conversation if they so wanted. Luna chose otherwise. "Tia, we both know we can't keep this up for a week."

"You are strongest here on the moon, and as far away from the sun as I may be it is still a significant source of-"

"Sister, please don't act the fool with me. I can feel the heat from here, and I have no doubt that you can feel the chill coming from me." Celestia sighed, but didn't bother trying to deny it.

"We don't exactly have much choice Luna. The shield needs to hold for as long as Elfilis and the others need it too, if for no other reason than that keeping Nightmare Moon focused on the moon keeps her away from the planet."

"I'm not exactly- Grrrr! Damn parasite! The moon is important to me, you know this, but it is supposed to be the shield to the sun's spear. What is the point of-"

"The point is that the moon is meant to protect Equis from meteors and space debris, not other planets possessed by genocidal mare-things. We will lose the moon if we stop protecting it, and then even if we survive what comes after we will always be exposed at night to random and unpredictable meteorite strikes. To say nothing of the fact that actual aliens are going to be thing to worry about from now on."

"... Those two were very strange weren't they-?" Spike, pain, black on the edges of their vision. "GAHDAMMIT, would she give it a rest!?"

Susie didn't have the best opinion of Magolor, not that she thought he was a bad guy. She would be a little hypocritical if she tried to call him out on his more villainous tendencies given she had helped her twisted father drain planets dry of their natural resources for years, even if she had been planning on betraying him in the end. She still felt she had a bit of a head up on Magolor in the morals department though, given he had betrayed Kirby of all people. They were both traitors but she betrayed her possessed evil father and the tacky wizard betrayed the living embodiment of friendship and sugary sweets, it was not the same, shut up. That all being said, she knew he wasn't stupid. Where Susie would consider herself the master of technology and engineering, Magolor was a brilliant magician whose natural talent allowed him to create spells almost on the fly if the situation calls for it. And that is impressive, given that most beings only know how to cast a few spells that come naturally to their species. Kirby, for all his versatility and power, was still basically just spamming the same ability time and time again to temporarily absorb the magical powers of others. So yes, Magolor was an absolute genius.

"You painted a set of Invader Armor to look like Kirby?" But she was beginning to wonder if the term 'idiot savant' would be more accurate.

"You're joking right?" Susie was practically hissing the words, trying to stay quiet so no audio sensors could alert the spirit possessing the walls but unable to keep the incredulobility and fury from her voice. They may be hiding under a cardboard box to avoid cameras but the hanger with all the vehicles was one of the more security heavy rooms.

"No? What is so special about this particular mech?" Susie desperately wished to smack the genuinely curious look out of his eyes, but then he would probably yell at her and that would defeat the point of staying quiet.

"This is Kirby's Robobot Armor. The only set that didn't revert back to normal Invader Armor after Kirby destroyed Star Dream." He continued to just blankly stare at her, and Susie decided she was done staying quiet. Magolor squeaked and hissed at her as she stood up and tossed the box off of their heads. She didn't pay him any mind as she dusted off her formal dress before jumping into the cockpit of the mech. "Just help me convince this thing to wake up. It's stubborn and I think it's more of a magical problem than a technical problem."

Invader Armors weren't the most complicated machines, being dark gray and black and made of only five major components. The body, a round sphere with a hole on the top for the pilot and a single headlight that looked like an angry eye glaring forwards. Two arms, also spherical but with the addition of two mechanical hands not dissimilar to a humans, and the opposite side of the arms were giant screwdriver heads. The arms would rotate to put either the hands or the tools forward, depending on which the pilot needs at the time. The legs were much simpler, two more orbs with flat slabs of metal attached at the bottom that functioned as the feet. All in all barely three times the size of Magolor or Kirby, though Susie herself was a little tall for the machine's cockpit. The Robobot Armor on the other hand... Looked almost exactly the same actually. It was pink and white and the angry headlight had become a set of yellow industrial lights that functioned as the eyes on the machine's Kirby-esque appearance. What was different though-

"Yowch!" -Was that it had attitude. Susie looked away from the so-far unresponsive controls to see Magolor shaking a burned glove. "It just, bit me? I think? Susie what is this?" Susie absentmindedly shut off the automatic ejection protocol as it tried to evict her from her seat before she let herself focus on conversation.

"Kirby could extend his Copy Ability to Invader Armors, creating Robobot Armors. Most of them were destroyed in the defense of Popstar, and the others reverted back to Invader models either shortly after Kirby disembarked or after the destruction of Star Dream. This one never did though. I found it floating in Popstars' orbit."

"Wait, so this mech can use Copy Abilities? That is a game changer!" And then all the lights turned red as the hanger red. "Uh, but perhaps we should change the game faster?" Many of the Invaders started booting up around them, and Susie could see some of the larger robots coming online further back towards the end of the massive metal room.

"Well then help me! The damn thing doesn't listen!" The air conditioner suddenly turned on and blew Susie's hair away, and then started acting like a vacuum as it tried to suck her head into the dashboard. "Why do you even have this feature?!" Magolor unfortunately wouldn't get the chance to work his magic, as he found himself on the defensive as a veritable army of metal soldiers all began firing at them without warning. He managed to create a couple of star-shaped barriers in time to stop the assault, but it they needed constant concentration to keep up which meant Susie was on her own to try to figure out the Robobot Armor.

"I think you'll have to figure that out on your own Susie!"

"Oh shut up and don't let us die! Useless magicians, the lot of you!"

Well that's fortuitous, they walked themselves right into an army. How do I turn those on?

You don't.

Nevermind, I figured it out~! Go my metal minions! Purge them from your new god's body!

Those aren't meant to function remotely, their AI isn't built for combat.

And maybe that's true, but it's still an army of animated armor. Do you truly believe your daughter and her little boyfriend will survive...? Ooh! More gun things in the ceiling!

... Hey. You listening?

Uh, no? Didn't we already establish that you are but a worm beneath my foot-hoof-spike-things?

Not talking to you. Hey! Stop sleeping on the job you layabout!

Welp, he's finally lost it-.

Negatory

-Ugh! How many of you are there going to be!

Shush for a moment, the adults are speaking.

Oh you did not just-!

Armor! My daughter is in danger! Why will you not help her?

I will not be ignored-!

Daughter is subjugator. The Bright One is gone. I wish to be returned to Bright One. Daughter will not allow this one to return to Bright One. Bright One is only entity with administrative access to my systems.

Yes, Susie is rough around the edges, I know. That's probably my fault even, but let me ask you a question.

I SAID-

Would the 'Bright One' be happy to find out that you didn't do everything in your power to save his friends?

... Unlocking systems.

Susie yelped as the Robobot Armor suddenly stood up on it's own, nearly knocking her head into the top of Magolor's cracking shields. She waited for a breath, waiting to see if that was simply another attempt to knock her off that had failed or if she had really gotten through to it.

"...Hello? Does this mean you'll help?" The sudden shaking wasn't encouraging, but Susie realized once it was still again that it had just been nodding to answer her. "Okay. Great. Um. I don't know where to go from here."

"Well hurry up and figure it out! You're dead if my shields fail!" Susie rolled her eyes at Magolor, not missing that he wasn't including himself as a potential casualty to missile and laser fire, but she did acknowledge that the barriers surrounding them were much less star-shaped than they were before.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence! On the count of three, drop the shields and summon a bomb in front of me! You know what to do with that right?" The last question was pointed at the armor she was waist-deep in, and she once again received a brain-rattling nod in return. "Ok! One-" And then the shields shattered. "Threethreethreethree!" Fortunately, Magolor was more prepared for the spell failure than she was. With a wave of his hands, the mage vanished, leaving a single bomb made of pure magic with a lit fuse in his place. Susie flailed as the body of the Robobot opened its 'mouth' and converted the bomb into data, absorbed it, and then punched out with both fists as a trio of missiles homed in on it following a barrage of lasers that bounced off the magical metal mecha. Smoke and shrapnel flew in all directions, damaging Invader Armors too close to the blast zone as well as cutting off the automated defenses line of sight. For just a moment, everything was still.

Until a squadron of walking pink bomb robots sprinted out of the smoke and debris. They hopped over lasers and fists and ballistic projectiles as they locked onto their targets: The empty cockpits of the Invaders. One by one they nestled into empty seats before detonating, fulfilling their purpose and irreversibly damaging the vital components of a dozen mechas. The cloud of smoke was multiplied tenfold, but the original cover of dust slowly settled down around the Robobot Armor. The defense systems quickly locked onto their target again, giving Nightmare Moon a good look at the latest obstacle to her grand ambitions. The arms were gone, replaced with bomb dispensers with a see-through magazine. It was not hard to notice that even as it began deploying mobile explosives that the empty spaces would quickly fill themselves up with more. It was not going to run out of ammunition soon, and the only sounds for the next hour were of explosions, a screaming CEO holding onto a sentient machine for dear life, and the occasional reappearance and subsequent re-disappearance of Magolor as he refreshed his spell over and over to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

... No... Is that really...? How!? Why is everything pink and cute the bane of my existence! How does it even do that?! Where did those even come from...!? Answer me worm!

Idunno. It kind of just... does.

Well great. You are useless as always.

Celestia and Luna laid on their backs side by side, keeping an eye on the Access Ark as best as they could as it rained down a constant, if slow, barrage of strikes at the moon. The only movements they made were winces and flinches as they pushed their magical capabilities to the limit. It was a stressful, tense situation that deserved to be treated seriously and with all due respect-

"Tia. I'm bored."

"I tired to start a game earlier."

"You tried to play I Spy. There are four things we could possibly see right now and we are two of them."

"Well, we could split them up? My mane is quite a few colors, our eyes... We could move away from colors? I spy with my little eyes something covered in fur, for example."

"Me. I spy with my little eyes something breaking, and trying too hard to take on more responsibilities for itself instead of sharing with it's equally capable sibling."

"... Alright. I suppose that isn't the best game to play right now." The uncomfortable conversation continued, though neither were paying it much attention. They were both focusing on trying to wrest control of the shield spell for themselves. Neither cared to mention the ice slowly building on Luna's horn, nor the black cracks beginning to spread from the tip of Celestia's. There wasn't anything to be said about them afterall, they both knew they wouldn't be able to convince the other, and both had equal right as sisters to try to protect the other. It was a competition now, to see who could lose first. "I'm just saying, it's not like we know what a healthy alicorn is supposed to look like. Maybe I actually have the most healthy posterior between the three of us."

"It jiggles when you walk sister. Your gluteus maximus is supposed to be muscle, and muscle shouldn't wobble to and from like a cup of jello."

"You wound me sister. You know, many stallions like a larger butt on their mares. I'm sure Elfilis-"

"Oh please, Elfilis has no preferences. Carina has a shell for fucks sake."

"Yes but it's a very big shell over her hindquarters. And her teats are quite large, those aren't covered in chitin."

"This is the absolute worst fight for Equestria, ever. I miss when it was swords and shields and cheap shots to dragon genitals. Now it's pesky sisters nosing into my love life."

"That was an accident Luna, when are you going to let that incident go?"

"The dragon king still hasn't forgiven you, and I'm pretty sure he still has to fish for his junk when he-"

"Oh just kill me now. I did not hit him that hard."

"You were knee deep-"

"I changed my mind! I want the silence back!"

They were still sisters though.

Author's Note

Oh no, I've fallen for the trap of ever expanding chapters! Nah, it's temporary. Too much going on to split it up. Earlier chapters probably could've done with being put together but it wasn't until this point that I felt like things would be too disjointed if I tried to keep my usual pace. Let me know if anything is overly confusing? Like my description of the Robobot Armor. I don't think I need to describe what a closet or a big spacious hanger look like do I?