Chapter 7
Everypony could only watch in horror as EPMB’s army of combat model Spritebots filled the air, hundreds of them continued to pour out of the missile silo where Sugarcube Corner had once stood. Pinkie Pie looked uncharacteristically distraught as she had watched her home fall to pieces.
Eventually, the swarm of Spritebots ended, the massive metal cloud hung in front of the sun, blotting out the sky like some twisted version of a solar eclipse. However, the spritebots were not interested in Ponyville; rather, they ignored the town all together, and turned eastward, towards Canterlot.
‘Believe it or not? We’re Lucky’, Monty Ulan said. ‘If she’d been able to get access to the Fillydelphia Ironworks like she’d wanted, her army would have been twice... maybe three times the size of what it is now’.
The ground began to rumble again, and they all turned to face the north, to their horror, EPMB’s combat robots rolled along on their single tracked wheel. Legion marched in front of them as they rolled along towards the town.
The few town ponies that were still out that had the sense that this was not the place to be ran and hid, soon enough, the town was deserted. With only Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Big McIntosh, Trixie, Ditzy Doo, Braeburn, Vinyl Scratch, Montana Ulan and Octavia Auditore remaining.
‘Would you like to say anything more about our chances, Ulan?’ Octavia asked sarcastically. Monty said nothing.
The EPMB combots all halted their advance, and Legion stepped forward, trotting over to them menacingly. He stopped some six metres from where they stood. ‘We demand your surrender’, he said plainly.
Twilight glanced to all her friends as they looked to her and gave her a smile and a nod. ‘We all have come to an agreement on your demands... Vinyl Scratch? Would you like to deliver our rebuttal?’
‘I most certainly would’, Vinyl said with a bright grin. She looked directly at Legion and stuck her tongue out at him a raspberry; accompanied by a number of other rude gestures, suffice it to say, Legion got the picture.
He said nothing, he leapt back into the air and the EPMB Combots rolled forward with the intention of steamrolling over the town. Obviously, they weren’t about to let that happen.
Twilight and her friends all rushed forward. They had not started this fight, but damn well they would finish it.
...
Bon Bon ran in panic at the combot’s approach, she couldn’t fight them, she didn’t have the strength, or the courage. She rounded the corner; only find herself directly in the path of an advancing combot. The combot raised its 6mm submachine gun and pointed it at her.
‘I surrender!’ Bon Bon cried out.
‘Look out! Here comes Tom!’ cried a voice behind her. The combot shifted its focus towards the voice, Bon Bon instinctively ducked her head down as a huge boulder in the rough shape of a diamond came flying through the air, smashing into the combot and crushing it under its weight. Bon Bon turned and looked at the Pony that had saved her. It was Lyra.
‘Lyra!’ Bon Bon cried out to her.
‘Hey Bon Bon’, Lyra said with a smile. ‘Come on, you didn’t think I’d really abandon you, did you?’
Bon Bon leapt up and gave Lyra a tight hug. ‘Lyra... I was so scared! I’m so sorry, I know I did wrong... I know you can’t forgive me for it...’
‘Shh...’ Lyra said, gently running a hoof through Bon Bon’s mane. ‘That doesn’t matter anymore; you did what you had to, not just for your sake, but for the sake of the world. The world needs us Bon Bon, and we’re going to be there for it’.
Bon Bon smiled brightly at Lyra and gave her a quick kiss. ‘Let’s kick some metal butt!’ She cried out in a voice of newfound determination.
‘Right behind you!’ Lyra said as the two of them released, she enveloped her magic around the boulder and began to push it down the street, clearing the way out and steamrolling over any combots that were unlucky enough to get in the way.
‘By the way... “Tom?”’ Bon Bon asked.
‘It was etched into the underside of the rock, so I ran with it!’ Lyra explained.
...
Twilight and Co. met the combot advance head on. The unicorns had taken to pelting the robots with rocks and all manner of debris. Big McIntosh, Applejack, and Braeburn, were putting their applebucking skills to good use. Applejack reared up and gave a powerful kick right to a combot’s centre of mass, sending the robot flying and smashing into another one.
‘Eyep, jus’ like ah tree! Kick ‘em hard ‘nuff and they’ll spill their contents fer ya!’ Applejack remarked.
Vinyl Scratch and Ditzy Doo, being the only two of them actually armed with weapons were doing their best to make their shots count. Vinyl Scratch walked through the battlefield rather nonchalantly, firing her revolver into the robot’s telescreens, as she went around, unfortunately for Doctor Emerald Sparkle, her combots were notoriously bad shots, perhaps they had not been expecting a fight, after all, and most ponies had turn tail and run.
Ditzy Doo had taken to providing covering fire for Applejack and her family as they engaged the robots head on. The important thing was to keep most of the combots focused on targets other than them, though unlike Vinyl Scratch, who nicked plenty of ammunition from HMSIS Dash on their trip to Trotterdam, Ditzy Doo had left New Maneaan with only five clips for her 12.7mm pistol. She was going to run out soon.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had taken to the air, flying circles around the Combots, despite the fact that they couldn’t hit the ponies that were confined to the ground, most of the Combots had taken to shooting at them.
Octavia too had joined the hoof to manipulator arm mêlée, she planted her hooves and with a quick turn, smashed a combot in the side, sending it crashing to the ground in a pile of scrap.
‘Damn Tavi! You’re really kicking arse!’ Vinyl Scratch called out to her with a grin.
‘I’m just pretending that all of them are you and it comes naturally!’ Octavia quipped as she jumped up and smashed another combot in its telescreen.
Monty Ulan was oddly absent from the fight, he had positioned himself behind a pile of smashed up combots, and had opened one up and was digging around on the inside, pulling at wires and screwing in thermionic valves here and there.
‘Aannndddd... Got it!’ Monty cried up.
The combot that he’d been working on got back up. The face on the telescreen had changed from its default one of Emerald Sparkle, and changed to that of an earth pony wearing a brodie helmet. The combot brought it’s submachine gun and Grenade Launcher to bear, ‘ALL HAIL THE MACHINE!’ it cried out as it rolled along, unloading it’s ammo into the other combots.
Pinkie Pie had returned with a crate of dynamite and a book of matches, she lit a stick and tossed it out into the combots, watching it explode several of them. ‘YEAH!’ she cried out in excitement.
Out of the town, Lyra and Bon Bon came charging through the streets rolling Tom through and crushing a number of Combots that weren’t able to wheel out of the way.
Suffice it to say, they were doing well, but more and more Combots just kept rolling on them, it was like Emerald Sparkle had an endless horde of them. What was worse, the more they fought the Combots the more they seemed to adapt to their opponents skills. A few close calls with grenades and they had pushed Applejack, Big McIntosh, Braeburn and Octavia back behind the makeshift fortifications that the group had pulled together. Vinyl Scratch had fallen back behind the barriers and continued to shoot at them from cover. Ditzy Doo had run out of 12.7mm ammunition long ago and had taken to running interference over.
Worse still, the unicorns were running out of large enough rubble from the shakes to throw. They wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer and they knew it.
‘Well, w’all put upa good fight’, Applejack said. ‘If this is it, than at leas’ we did that’.
That was something they could all agree upon.
‘Trixie has never known a finer set of ponies, Trixie is glad to have stood beside you’, Trixie added.
It was not, the end, however, as the combots continue to move close, a loud gunshot rang out and a large calibre bullet whizzed through the air, impacting a combot thought it’s telescreen and continuing on its way. It hit another one, ripping it to pieces and sending it flying. The same bullet passed through two other combots before it finally stopped. The shot had come from the east, everypony turned to look. M3 Light Tank 105 the Lord Stuart, came crashing through the trees, machine guns blaring as it stormed towards the combots. Beside it was none other than Fusilier Willoughby peering through the scope of a 13.5mm Jacks anti-armour rifle, along with the rest of his infantry section, they all came hopping towards the ponies, breaking through the combot lines.
The combots turned their attention towards the kangaroo light tank, though their 6mm submachine guns weren’t strong enough to do anything against the tank’s armour. The light tank loaded up a canister shot and unloaded a round of high velocity shrapnel against the combots. The shot ripped through the lot of them and sent them into a tactical withdraw, followed by a quick regroup.
The kangaroo fusiliers hopped over to where the ponies had taken cover and joined in the defence of their town.
‘Twilight! Rainbow Dash! Catch!’ Willoughby called out as he tossed an 11mm magnum revolver and a 10mm auto pistol into the air, with Twilight caught with her magic, she kept the revolver for herself and handed the 10mm auto to Rainbow Dash, who took it in her teeth and began firing at the combots as they had begun their advance again.
Off in the distance, they heard a faint noise, Pof!... Pof!... Pof!...
Explosions erupted on the ground in the middle of the mass of combots.
‘That’s 26 pounder fire!’ Willoughby cried out. ‘That bloody gryphon decanus in Canterlot is shooting at us!’
‘No it’s not!’ Rainbow Dash cried out. ‘Look at where the shells are falling! They’re not coming anywhere close to us, they’re shooting the robots!’
...
In Canterlot, while the royal guard and the assembled nations’ troops fought off the horde of Spritebots. Gilda had taken to the skies; she was holding a pair of binoculars and spotting targets for their decanus self propelled gun battery. She was calling out targets in the big horde of robots down at the end.
‘Don’t say I never did anything for you Rainbow Dash’, Gilda said quietly, as the barrage ended and she called out a new target.
...
In spite of the artillery fire, the combots did not let up; they continued their advance on the town. Even with the gryphons shooting at them, they were all still outnumbered and outgunned, they were making progress, but they weren’t done. Not by a long shot.
It was Fluttershy that noticed what happened next. ‘Look!’ she cried out.
...
Princess Luna rounded with a kick as she smashed a spritebot. She had taken to the streets with her fellow ponies fighting off the endless robot horde. She looked up over the mountains to the west, and her jaw dropped.
Off in the distance she saw a zeppelin rising over the mountains. While it was far away, the night princess’ keen eyes could see that it bore the ancient insignia of the Kingdom of Equestria.
‘The Nimbus?’ Luna asked. It was, the airship that had carried the royal family to the Hoofson Bay Area for the testing of the sunburst project, which Princess Celestia had abandoned at the Divide when Hopeville was destroyed.
It was that ship. Somepony had gotten it running.
Luna watched as surface to air missiles launched from EPMB and streamed towards the airship, but to her pleasure watched as flares began to fall from the Nimbus and the missiles chased after the flares instead.
Luna couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘Looks like the fun has been doubled’.
...
Graham Cracker sat at the helm of the Airship Nimbus as they piloted over the battlefield. The Nephites had discovered the airship at the Divide and Moses Marening has spent years putting it back into working order. After Ashville had been destroyed, the Nephites had moved it to New Maneaan in secret.
‘Graham! We have incoming missiles heading right for us!’ Moses Marening called out.
‘Deploy countermeasures and get us under the missile base’s radar grid, if you can’, the burned pony said as he looked over the flight instruments. ‘We can’t afford to take even a single hit or this whole thing will go up in flames’.
The greying unicorn went to work, flares dropped from the side of the airship and both the missiles chased after them instead.
The airship descended over the mountains as the nephites inside loaded up their weapons, ready for the airship to dump them onto the battlefield.
They quickly touched down Graham Cracker lead the nephites clad in Marening’s automatic rifle on a charge towards the combots, the arrival of the nephites had turned the tide in the battle, and quickly sent the combots into retreat.
Legion watched the battle unfold. Thing were not going well for them, it was time for him to get involved in the fight personally. He landed on the ground and began to walk towards the hunkered down ponies and kangaroos.
Rainbow Dash saw him and pointed her 10mm auto pistol at him and pulled the trigger. The bullets flew towards him, but slowed just before hitting their target.
‘Aw crap’, Rainbow Dash said.
Legion took the bullets in his telekinetic grasp and turned them around, flinging them back at the Pegasus.
One of them impacted Rainbow Dash in her stomach; she fell back and landed hard on the ground.
‘Rainbow Dash!’ Twilight called out to her, she rushed to her side.
The bullet had gone clean though, and Rainbow Dash was bleeding bad. One of the kangaroos, a medic rushed over to her and started doing everything you could.
‘I’ll be fine egghead... just you... watch’, Rainbow Dash said as she closed her eyes, she quickly lost consciousness.
‘RAINBOW!’ Twilight screamed at her in terror, the thought of loosing Rainbow Dash again tore at Twilight’s heart, she couldn’t lose her again.
Twilight did not notice that Legion had gotten close, she turned around and discovered the Pegasus over her. She let out a gasp in shock. This was the end. Legion remembered Rainbow Dash. He was going to kill her.
Twilight closed her eyes and held onto Rainbow Dash, if this was the end, then they’d go together.
‘SURPRISE!’ cried a new voice.
Twilight’s eyes shot open, she watched as Surprise had appeared from nowhere and had tackled Legion. He was now bucking around trying to get her off him, while she hung on tightly, her chain knife revving in her teeth as she tried to drive the weapon into the back of Legion’s neck. She lost her grip for a second, and Legion was able to bat away the chain knife from her. He kicked her hard in the face and sent her realing.
Surprise recovered and lashed back out at the overmind, grabbing onto him and restraining him and leaving him struggling to get free.
Surprise looked at the group that bore the Bonds of Eternity. ‘Hit him! Hit him now!’
Lyra, Bon Bon, Trixie, Big McIntosh, Braeburn, and Ditzy Doo joined together, hoof in hoof and focused hard.
Lyra and Bon Bon, Fraternity.
Trixie, Compassion.
Big McIntosh, Labour.
Braeburn, Love.
Ditzy Doo, Responsiblity.
The six ponies joined together, focusing their power. Light began to form around them, and shot out of the six of them. The light coarsed through the air, impacting on Legion and Surprise and sending them flying.
They collapsed not far from where he stood.
The grey coated Pegasus pony lay on the ground clutching his head, his ruby red eyes blinked repeatedly. ‘Ow... my head, I feel like somepony just hit me with a sack of bricks’, he said as he rose to his hooves. ‘What? This isn’t the Hoofson bay... there isn’t even any snow? What the hell happened to me?’
Vinyl Scratch poked her head up, she could tell just his body language, that wasn’t Legion. Not anymore. It was Whirlwind, but then, to her horror, she saw where Surprise lay on the ground, she wasn’t moving. ‘Surprise!’ Vinyl Scratch leapt out from behind cover and ran to her friend’s side.
Surprise was conscious, but barely. Vinyl Scratch looked at her in shock, she even pulled her goggles off her eyes to confirm it. ‘Surprise...’ she said. The alabaster Pegasus, her eyes... they weren’t red. They were purple.
‘Vinyl?’ Surprise said weakly. ‘I’m cold’.
Vinyl Scratch took her friend in her forelegs and pulled her close to her. ‘Hey! Surprise... shh, it’s okay. It’s okay. You did good out there, I’m proud to call you my friend today’.
Surprise smiled. ‘You’re my best friend, Vinyl Scratch... I’m scared...’
Vinyl hugged the Pegasus even tighter. ‘Surprise... shh... it’ll be okay, I’ve got you’.
‘Vinyl?’ Surprise said. ‘I don’t want to die’.
Vinyl Scratch did her best to comfort her friend, she hugged her tightly. ‘You’re not going to die’, she said.
‘Vinyl... I...’ Surprise began, but her voice trailed off, she let out her last breath, and then her eyes looked past her. She was gone.
‘Surprise?’ Vinyl asked as she shook her friend. ‘Surprise? Wake up! Surprise! SURPRISE!’
Her friend did not stir. Vinyl Scratch screamed.