“My hooves hurt…” Sweetie Belle grumbled as she slowly trekked along the high mountain path with her two colleagues. “I’m gonna get dust in my mane, and the light’s hurting my eyes…”

“Oh, why hello, Rarity!” Scootaloo said sarcastically. “I didn’t know you were coming along on this trip too!”

“Har dee har har.” Sweetie Belle said, glaring at the Pegasus. “Why don’t you go back to your coop, you little orange chicken.”

“I’m not a chicken, you’re a turkey!”

“Girls!” Applebloom snapped. “I’m just as crabby and tired as you two are. Let’s all just be quiet and get our bloody hiking cutie marks a’rready.”

“This is so stupid!” Scootaloo whined. “What would a hiking cutie mark even look like?”

“Walking cane?” suggested Sweetie Belle.

“Dirt road?” Applebloom asked.

Scootaloo was about to reply when all 3 of the girls felt a heavy rumbling under their feet.

“Earthquake!!” Sweetie Belle cried, leaping onto Applebloom’s back. “I’m too young and squeaky to die!”

“Get offa me, darnit.” Applebloom grumbled, tilting to have Sweetie Belle fall off her back. “That ain’t no earthquake.”

“How do you know?” Scootaloo questioned.

“Because it’s coming from that!” Applebloom cried, pointing a hoof to her left.

An enormous blue… thing… was slowly trundling across the Everfree forest. It was thrice as tall as even the tallest of trees, and had four enormous tank treads, each the size of semis. Its headlights glowed yellow as the thing slowly moved across the forest, crushing trees underneath it like they were twigs. Even though it was about a quarter mile away, the girls could still feel its tremendous destructive power shaking their hooves.

“What is it?” Scootaloo asked.

“I think it’s a whale!” Sweetie Belle said. “A land whale!”

“You marshmallow!” Applebloom said. “That’s no whale.”

“Well then what is it, Mrs Know-it-all?” Sweetie Belle countered.

“It’s… uh… an alien spaceship!” Applebloom said, pulling the words out of thin air.

“No, it’s Celestia’s new ride!” Scootaloo suggested.

“That’s the stupidest of all!” Sweetie Belle snapped.

“Shhhh!” Applebloom said suddenly. “It stopped! I think it saw us!”

Sure enough, the enormous blue thing had ground to a halt, its tank treads hissing. Small, dark figures rose from the top.

“What the heck are those, now?” Scootaloo whispered.

“Babies?” Sweetie whispered back.

Suddenly, as if by magic, an arrow sprouted from the rock directly in front of the crusaders. The three hid behind a small outcrop, but no further projectiles followed.

Applebloom slowly approached the arrow, which was almost as big as her. She saw a sheet of paper wrapped around it. She untied the paper. Written on it were two words.

RUN HOME.

“What do they want?” Scootaloo asked.

“I’m not sure… I think they want us to… run away?” Applebloom replied.

“Hah! Yeah right! That thing’s such a lousy shot with an arrow, it couldn’t hit the broad side of-“

She was cut off by a faint “bang” from the large machine. At first they didn’t know what it was, but then they saw: a smoking hole had just appeared in the dead center of Applebloom’s red bow.

“On second thought, I vote we start to head back home.” Scootaloo continued.

Then the three saw something large rushing through the air, emitting a smoke trail; it hit the cliff face not ten feet away from them, showering them with debris.

“And fast!” Sweetie said, pointing. More projectiles of many shapes and sizes were already beginning to rain down upon them.

Without further discussion, the CMC’s founding members turned tail and scampered back along the trail to Ponyville. Rather than letting them go, the large blue machine made a low wailing noise as it began to move once again, following them.

XXXXXXXX

Onboard the Robot Mothership, a robot slowly walked down a dark hallway, each footstep making a loud clank. Blue eyes glowed as it walked through a particularly large doorway.

“Yes, what is it, 3714?” Came a low, metallic voice from the other side of the room. The speaker was completely shrouded in darkness, practically invisible.

“Sir? What exactly is the point of terrifying those three organic life forms?” The robot said, scratching the back of its metallic head.

“Did you not listen in the multiple debriefing seminars I held?” The deep, echoing voice groaned. “It’s simple: we find the ponies, follow them to their home, then claim the settlement for our own. Then we turn it into a robot factory, and move on to the next settlement.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry to bother you, sir.” The robot said, beginning to back out of the room.

“3714.”

The robot froze and saluted upon hearing its name.

“Tell the long-range weapons experts not to kill this one if they see her.” From seemingly nowhere, a photograph appeared, fluttering to the ground in front of the robot, who picked it up.

“Why is that, sir?” The robot asked.

It then promptly exploded.

There was a loud bang, and robot parts were scattered through the air. The head of the robot was caught in a telekinetic grip.

“I do not tolerate robots who question my orders.” The voice said coldly. It then crushed the robot’s head with sheer telekinetic force, dropping the parts to the ground.

A second robot walked in. “You called sir?” It said.

“Tell the long-range weapons experts not to kill this one if they see her.” The voice repeated, picking up the photograph with its telekinetic grip and giving it to the robot.

“Yes, sir.” The second robot said, noting the scattered pieces of the last robot on the ground. It then hurried away.

Alone, the malevolent being turned to a small window, and viewed the small town growing closer by the second. It chuckled darkly.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about this being kind of short. Next chaps will be longer.