A Man and his Machine

Dark woke with a start smacking his head into the bunk above him, the start to another normal day in URA Nevada.

"It's good to know I’ll never have to set an alarm clock with you to wake me up." The scientist above him chuckled as he jumped down from his bunk and went to get ready for the day. Since it was too early for Dark, he ignored this, and jumped down as well then walked out the door.

He walked down the  bland hallway exchanging hellos with the scientists and security personnel he passed. Eventually he made his way to the cafeteria where he grabbed a coffee and sat down next to two scientists arguing about the effects of gravity in their experiment.

“Damn it, John, listen to me!” One of them yelled slamming their fist into the table annoyed with his friend's obnoxious behavior.

“No, Mark, gravity won’t matter because the mass of the object is so small.” John retorted putting his feet up on the table and closing his eyes.

“But you’re not factoring in speed.“ Mark screamed throwing his hand in the air out of frustration.

“Both of you shut up! Gravity will take affect because you’re forgetting that wind resistance will slow the object down.” Dark said clearly annoyed.

“Shouldn't you be in the test lab?” John replied with a quizzical look on his face.

Dark looked at the clock 10:36. “Shit.” Dark chugged the coffee spilling a little on his black fur and  then sprinted down the hall. He started moving faster and faster picking up more speed as he went; until he smacked face first into the steel blast doors and fell on his back.

"Dark, your supposed to wait for me to open the door before you go through it." The guard on duty said with a chuckle before he punched in the code that opened the door.

Larsin was calibrating the central portal array when a black blur practically flew into the room. “Damn, Dark that was fast but more importantly, you’re here.“

“Yah well, you humans are too slow for me.” Dark said stretching his back.

"Judging by your stature i'd say your a close relative to humans on the evolutionary chain." Larsin pointed out; still focused on his work.

"Aren't you supposed to be a physicist?" Dark grumbled looking at a read out panel.

“Well- Ah good your partner is here. You should get acquainted before we start.” Larsin announced looking down at dark for a brief moment.

“Partner?” Dark trailed off as he noticed the pounding of heavy metal footsteps behind him. He spun around to come face to knee with a giant robot.

“I am armed!” it exclaimed in its thick Austrian accent as it towered over him.

“Yah, I noticed. Speaking of which please get your minigun out of my face?” Dark said backing up slowly; as not to get crushed if it moved.

“Oh, Ok tiny man. Oh by the way my name is ‘A’ ‘R’ ‘M’ ‘D’ not armed, although I am both.” ARMD exclaimed proudly crossing his arms.

“Yes he has a vast arsenal of guns and other weapons, but he’s not that bright.” Larsin pointing out as he climbed down from the ladder and tossed dark a rolled up piece of paper.

Dark examined the paper before putting it in his small pack.

“Man who built me say I have IQ of 3.” ARMD said proudly not really knowing what it meant.

Only Dark’s good sense, and lack of wanting a missile in his face kept him from laughing. “Yah, well mine is 632.” Dark proudly responded visibly suppressing a laugh.

“Oh tiny man thinks he’s so smart. Well how about you outsmart bullet?” ARMD yelled angrily as his left hand retracted into his arm and was replaced by a minigun.

“Ready!” - Larsin Announced excitedly cutting them off. - “Dimensional portal is a ‘go’ and is ready to be activated."

“So where are we headed doc?” Dark asked turning around to face his co-worker.

“Well in all honesty we have a coordinates for a billion different dimensions but we don’t know where any of them lead, so we picked at random.” Larsin informed them as he was entering some information into a control panel.

“So you have no idea?” Dark asked with the you have got to be kidding me expression on his face.

“Well no but-” Larisn half finished while giving a shrug.

“Smart men talk too much! Doctor Start machine!” ARMD instructed and with that Larsin pressed a button on his console causing the central laser started to rotate faster and faster. Larsin retreated behind a set of closing blast doors as the laser fired and walked up to the main control room.

“Testing. Um, Testing. Okay listen don’t run into the portal until I give the ‘go’ and once I do you have 30 seconds to enter before the room is filled with deadly radiation.” Larsin informed them from a room adjacent from this one separated only by seven feet of bulletproof lead lined glass.

“Larsin you’re sure you calibrated the focusing beams correctly?” Dark asked nervously glancing over his shoulder at the laser as the focusing beams moved into position.

“Yes. Yes.” Larsin said rather annoyed at his co-worker's distrust when the four focusing laser came online. “Go!” he announced.

“Wait what about-“ Dark said in an futile effort to stop them from having to go through the dimensional hole.

“Shut up tiny man. Let’s go!” ARMD grabbed Dark and held him protectively in front of his chest as the rocket motors in his back came to life and propelled them towards the portal.

“I'll have you know my name is Dark!” his voice trailing off as they entered it.

Twilight woke with a start. "Good morning Spike." She said to a rather annoyed dragon. "Don't worry you can sleep in today, me and my friends are going on a picnic." Twilight walked down the stairs and ran through her morning check list before leaving. "Wait that's right, applejack asked me to bring the blanket." Twilight reminded herself as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a checkered blanket out of one of the cabinets.

As she was walking down one of ponyvile's many roads to their favorite hill she met up with a happily bouncing Pinkie Pie carrying a cake.

"Hiiiii Twilight." Pinkie said without breaking stride.

"Hay Pinkie." Twilight responded walking happily along side her.

"Hay is for horses silly." Pinkie said in the same tone as before.

"Pinkie you do realize-" Twilight began raising an eyebrow.

"Yep." Pinkie replied cutting her off.

Twilight and Pinkie arrived at the rather steep hill where they greeted their friends who were peacefully relaxing at the top.

"Hi guys!" Twilight said smiling as she walked up the hill.

"Hello Twilight." Rarity responded as she took a sip of her tea.

Twilight spread out the blanket with her magic and Applejack placed her picnic basket on it squarely along with Pinkie's cake.

"Where are Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash? Twilight asked looking around.

"Fluttershy is over by that there tree with her bird and Rainbow Dash is-" Applejack half finished looking up in surprise.

"IN-COMING!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she crashed into the tree.

"Oh no, I'm sorry little guy Rainbow Dash didn't mean to hit your tree and scare you." Fluttershy reassured the bird who was more upset than scarred.

"Are you okay Dash? Pinkie asked the still dizzy Rainbow Dash.

"Yah I'm fine, I just didn't have enough altitude."  Dash responded shaking her head to clear her mind.

"I'm sure you will do better next time." Rarity chimed-in looking over at them.

They ate freshly some freshly bucked apples and sandwiches as they talked about various things such as how Applejack's farm was going and Twilight's study of magic.

"-as a matter of fact I learned a new spell last night." Twilight announced smiling knowing she would get to show it off.

"What does it do?" Fluttershy asked while feeding an acorn to a near by squirrel. With that Twilight concentrated as she aimed her horn at a rock and with a flash of her horn, the rock changed into a flower.

"It's positively lovely." Rarity exclaimed as she picked the flower admiring it.

"Okay, my turn." Rainbow Dash said as she took flight. She flew higher and higher until she dove straight down into a corkscrew then pulled up into a loop when she and her friends all heard a sonic boom.

Rainbow Dash stopped and followed her friends' gaze to a large metallic object falling at speeds apparently faster than sound. It flew or rather fell past her and crashed into the ground at the base of the hill causing an even bigger 'boom'.

"What in tarnation was that? Applejack asked looking at her friends.

"Let's find out come on everypony." Twilight gestured towards the crater the object had created.