Black and Mechanical

by Ashley Hale

Chapter 6

Twilight has already mastered walking like a human. Now away from Vender, she resumes her search for the mysterious man. She searches street by street throughout the foreign town, but to no avail. "Where did he go? That kid said he was here!" She begins to become hopeless, but she presses on because of her duty to Celestia. Again, she searched street by street, building by building, still with no desired results. Now, she finds herself at the town plaza, sitting on a bench by the Stoneville Mall. Stumped, she ponders if she'll ever catch the mysterious man.

"Maybe I shouldn't have ran from that kid. Maybe Vender knows something about that figure," she thought. The more she thought, the more stressed out she became. By this time, she was already thinking about the consequences for nor finding and subduing the figure. Her head droops down from all the stress. Just as she was about to lose hope again, the hooded figure emerged from the other side of the street from an alley. The figure notices Twilight, and begins to walk away quickly. She picks her head up and the first thing she sees is the figure. "Huh? You!" shouted Twilight as she jumped from her bench and ran across the street without looking both ways. Onlookers were startled by the tone in Twilight's voice.

"That girl's crazy to just run like that," one pedestrian said as she quickly walked away. Drivers alike were swerving left and right to avoid the dynamic Twilight. Cars bumped into each other along the road, but there was still a clear path between Twilight and the mystery figure. Each crash evolved into a commotion as drivers from each car stepped out to yell at Twilight.

Purple aura eminated from Twilight's hands. By this time, the figure has already ran to the nearest corner and turned. Trying to subdue the figure, Twilight fires her magic at the fleeing person; however, the magic instead catches the pedestrians, snaring them in a tight grasp and suspeding them in midair. People began to run away, fearing the girl.

"Sorry!" Twilight shouted briefly as she chased the figure to the next street and the street after. "Wait! Come back here!" yelled Twilight. They both ran to another street in the residential districts. "That does it!" screamed Twilight impatiently. The purple aura surrounded her and enveloped her completely. The aura vanished in a white flash, leaving a black soot with smoke rising. The hooded figure looked back at the flash to find her gone. Thinking that the man is victorious in the chase, he turns his head back to find another white flash. The flash returned to the purple aura and then to a reappearing Twilight.

"A teleport spell..." spoke the man.

"Stop!" Twilight armed herself with magic. But the man knocked her aside and ran some more. The blow bumped her down to the sidewalk, and her magic dissipated. "Come back here!" she pounded her fist. She struggled to her feet as the figure ran farther and farther until he dissappeared. "Get back here!" she shouted at the fled figure. Back on her feet, she runs some more, in the same direction as the figure. When Twilight turned to another street, she lost sight of the figure. In frustration, she let out a yell and pants in exhaustion. At the same sidewalk, three children walked towards Twilight, unaware of her presence.

The left kid was a female. She is white skinned like Twilight with brown hair and green pupils to accomodate. There were two braids that extended from the sides of her hair, one braid on each side. Each braid appeared delicate and fine. Each braid was bound by white bands at the bases and towards the edges where the braids dissolve into strains of hair. The girl wore a light pink sweatshirt of wool, completely unbottoned with a white t-shirt beneath, all of them tidy. Her dark purple skirt completed her clothing set; the skirt extended to her knee. Her shoe was black just like everyone else.

The middle kid was also female. Like the other girl, she also has the same skin color. This girl is decorated in blue: the clothing, the pupil of her eyes, and even her hair was blue. The only thing that was not a shade of blue is her skin and her shoes, which were black. The girl's hair was long enough to weave and flow with the movements of her head. Its coloring is a lighter blue. Her clothing was also blue. Her sleeveless shirt is an aquatic blue that extends loosely to her waist yet covers all of her torso in one article of clothing. Like the other girl, she wears a skirt, but this one appears rigid and goes all the way to her ankles, almost making contact with the top half of her shoes. This skirt is dark blue. Additionally, they are also tidy just like the other girl.

To the right of the blue hair girl was a male. Everything about this kid's looks contrasts the looks of the blue hair girl. First, he has the Negro skin color. Second, he is covered in shades of red; the only things that was not red was his skin, his glasses, and his shoes which was black like all the others, although they were sneakers. His pupils glowed a bright and clear red. Furthermore, his hair was also a shade of red that is uncommon for people with normal red hair; It exuded a dark fiery color. The boy's shirt was a typical informal t-shirt with a red coloring of course. The boy wore deep red cargo pants that went just above his shoes. His glasses was a destinct black, and the perimeters of the glasses lined perfectly with the boy's eyes. Covering the boy's hands were fingerless gloves, one on each hand and each of the black in color. Unlike the two girls, the boy's clothing appeared a little dirty and wrinkled. All three of them have similar heights, but the blue girl was the tallest, and the braided girl was the shortest.

The three children were arguing as they approached Twilight. "Ugh! Erika, what's the point of showing you our little trick if you keep sleeping all the damn time?!" the red boy said to the braided girl in a fit of irritation.

"I can't help it! I just feel so tired today!" Erika responded with a despondent voice. She showed bags under her eyes at the boy.

"Great! Now Ashley and I can't do that goddamn trick anymore because I forgot what we had to do! When did you go to sleep?!" shouted the boy as he prepared to lash out on Erika. Out of fear, Erika let out a short shreik and raised her arms in defence. Ashley did a quick slap at Earl's raised hand. The boy begrudgingly lowerd his hand

"Stop it Earl! We'll simply find someone else to show our trick," she spoke in a stern voice. "Besides our trick is easy to do, and I can't believe you've already forgotten it! We just did it earlier this morning!" Promptly and impatiently, Earl looked around for the next person to showcase their trick, and he didn't care if the person was a friend or a stranger.

"How 'bout that person right there?" Earl pointed his finger to Twilight. Ashley and Erika also notice Twilight. Recovering from her little break, Twilight, about to resume her pursiut, notices the three kids. "You there!" Earl shouted crudely as he approached Twilight.

"Me?" Twilight answered in a bit of confusion.

"You're the next person I saw, and now you will see our little trick whether you want to or not! And you better not sleep like that girl over there!" Earl demanded. Twilight was quick to come up with excuses.

"Oh no," she said in a polite fashion. "You have the wrong pony... I mean person. Yeah," she continued with a hesitant smile.

"Pony?" asked Earl. "What are you on? Never mind. You're going to watch this, and there's no way out of it!" he asserted himself as he approached Twilight. He had to look up to see her face, as he only measured up to her chest.

"But I have something really important to do," Twilight tried to reason with Earl.

"No excuses!" he responded as he continued to assert himself more. Ashley tugged Earl back roughly.

"Please excuse Earl, he tends to be like this. Say, what's your name?" Ashley asked.

"Her name is Twilight Sparkle," a voice interrupted. Everyone looked for whoever spoke the line. Twilight was the first to spot the person. It was Vender Kiddman. Soon after, the other kids spot him.

"You again?!" Twilight asked dumbfounded as how he could of found her.

"Wait! You're the Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?!" Inquired a suddenly tense Erika. She took a moment to look at the human Twilight and compare her to the pony version. Finally seeing the resemblance, Erika gasps as she relizes that the purple haired girl is Twilight. "But how are you here? With us. As a human?"

"It's a long story that I don't have the time to tell," Twilight kept thinking of excuses towards Erika. She then turned her attention to Vender. "How did you find me?" she demanded answers.

"I store the images of everyone I meet to memory, and I use these images to create a database of everyone in Stoneville. Using my internal map, I can pinpoint the exact location of everyone in the town at any time during the day including you," he replied. His tone changed to a slightly intrigued one. "I remember what you said earlier, and I cannot simply accept the fact that you walk among the real. Tell me... Did everything from the show really happen in Equestria?"

Twilight wasn't paying attention to Vender's question. Instead, she eyed the apparently silent pink girl next to him. Everything about this girl was pink. Her skin was more bizarre than all the other kids; her skin is covered with pink fur, finely short and trimmed. The one thing that wasn't pink was her shoes; it was like everyone else, black. Her hair was a light shade of pink, and it was wavy and ruffled. Standing out from the hair were her pink ears. Unlike the other kids, hers stuck out from her head while the others were on the sides like normal humans. Furthermore, they are pink and cat-shaped. On the left side of her head laid a reddish-pink 8-petalled flower. Her clothes consist of a darker pink short sleeved shirt and a skirt; they are the same color, and none of them have anything decorative. In Twilight's view, the two articles of her clothing appear fused to make one bigger piece of clothing. Perhaps the one thing that really caught Twilight's attention from Vender was the girl's cat tail and extended claws. The tail swirled and swayed from side to side effortlessly by the cat girl. Like everything else, it was pink that matched her fur. Each claw appeared clean, trimmed, and sharp. It was gray which stood out from the rest of the pink. The girl continues to stand next to Vender, examining Twilight, bending and looking up and down.

"Well, are you goin' to answer?" the cat girl spoke fast and jubilant.

"Um?" Twilight became desperate.

"Is everything true?" Vender reasserted his question. By this time, every kid, fascinated to a degree by Twilight's presence, began to inch closer and closer to her. Still keeping to her priorities: mission first, sightseeing and kid meeting second, she turned frantic, and she needed to act fast. Going to her last resort, the magic aura seethed from her hands.

"Hey, what are you doing?" inquired Ashley.

"If she's Twilight Sparkle, she knows magic! Duh!" Earl answered rudely.

"That magic glow... I will know more about you," Vender said as he raised his eyepatch. Orange light rayed from his left eye and proceeded to scan her hands again. Twilight raises her arms then brings them down with might; her magic left a trail with her movements. The result was a white flash that temporarily blinded all the kids.

"Ah!" cried Erika ash she put her arms up to protect her eyes.

"What the hell did she do?!" demanded Earl. As the flash cleared up, only black soot remained where Twilight once stood. Immidiately after, every kid regained sight.

"She teleported. I didn't get to finish scanning her," Vender finally concluded. He now focuses on the cat girl. "Relia, did you get her scent?"

"That would be a big negatory!" she hapilly responded.

"Figures... Oh," something excited the cyberchild. "She simply teleported to another part of town, a part within my reach," Vender reassured himself. "Erika, Ashley, Earl. Would you like to come with us to see Twilight Sparkle?" Vender asked the other children. "It's a once in a lifetime chance to meet a fictional pony character humanized and walking in the real world."

"Sure!" Erika blindly agreed.

"I still want her to watch me do my trick!" Earl joined.

"You mean our trick..." Ashley continued.

"Then it's settled. Follow me," Vender led the group.

"Yay! An adventure!" Relia squealed.

The group of kids, with Vender leading, now left towards the section of town where Twilight has teleported to, according to Vender. They continued to walk casually towards a corner and dissappeared into another street.