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The term M.A.T., or simply “MAT”, was used during the Human Augmentation Crisis to refer to the infamous “MechCore Android Trooper Mark One”, a type of android used during that decade to pacify large crowds of protesters and perform surgical strikes in areas of suspected extremist activity. The model is also suspected to be based on Serven technology.

Their efficiency was unmatched when it came to actual combat, and they were often used in massive numbers with the purpose of making the enemy surrender or forcibly capture them.

The MAT Mk I models were decommissioned soon after the Human Augmentation Crisis. A faulty MAC model (MechCore Android Commander) in charge of the troops assaulting the headquarters of the “Pure Hearts” with the objective of stopping the rampage of the overaugmentees, refused to accept its orders and turned against the USC. It was ultimately defeated and the model was decommissioned.

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Humans: the strongest warriors to ever grace the world, and they were right at the tip of her hoof, at her very disposal. Luna could not help but think in such a way. Ages had passed ever since she had felt such power, such might, enough to control the world. Even then, she shrugged off most of those thoughts; there was no good in repeating the past. What mattered was that Silverback was mobilizing towards Trottingham, the broken city, and that she had to prepare.

She watched in silence from the balcony of Apex tower, down into the streets of the city of metal, where beings of all races marched together, led by the bipeds that started it all. What reached her ears was a mix of the thundering steps of the humans and the resounding marching chorus they chanted as they prepared themselves for war: a truly bewildering display that managed to unveil their true nature as born warriors.

Luna listened closely to their singing, and even if it was nothing more than a chant, it filled her with a sense of power, causing her stoic expression to twist into a grin.

“Are you enjoying this?” came the deep voice of Arcturus as he walked over to her. Luna’s grin faded, replaced once more with stoicness. The large, ascended changeling looked at her with a curious stare. His green, lizard-like eyes bore into hers, making her look at his body instead. He reminded her of Chrysalis, but much stronger-looking and with thicker chitinous plating. After a few moments of silence, he continued speaking, “I too can feel the power, but I will not embrace it, not completely.”

“How so?” Luna asked.

“Power corrupts,” Arcturus said. “Such was the case of... Chrysalis,” he hissed out the name. “I am not going to be like this forever. Once the war is over, my people will return me to my original form.”

Luna puffed some air out her snout. “Then why take the form in the first place?”

Arcturus sighed, “I am their avatar... Think of it as a gift from them. I will represent and fight for my people, and they shall give me the means to do so.”

The Princess craned her neck to look at the changeling. “You are going to fight?”

“Of course,” he said. “We want to demonstrate our willingness to cooperate by showing you that we are willing to do the ultimate sacrifice, specifically me, a leader figure.”

They both looked down from the balcony, the silence broken by Luna a few moments later, “It will never be the same, will it?”

Arcturus shook his head. “No, it will not. If it means something, we are willing to offer our experience when it comes to dealing with change. You must embrace change, more so now that there is no going back.”

Luna took a deep breath and sighed it out, “I am, and will embrace it... I cannot say the same about my sister.”

“She will have to, one way or another.”

“So what’cha do to get into the science team, Twi’?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack and their four other friends all sat by a round table inside one of Apex’ bars, dubbed “The Drunken Laku.” The drinks were large and strong, suitable for humans, and all around the establishment were assortments of humans talking to each other, and even some Lakuran and Gektar. She had seen a man fight a Raider, seemingly for no reason at all, but Twilight had mentioned a human saying that went “If you wanna date a Raider, you have to match her in a fist fight.” It did seem so, judging by how they engaged in a rather long kiss after the fight, all while being cheered on by the crowd.

“Oh, well,” Twilight said, adjusting her newly acquired, and rather large, lab coat. “We have exchanged a lot of knowledge, and I helped sort out their supply shortage by gathering a team of unicorns dedicated to enlarging things like apples into the size of a small room, as well as helping in the development of the first powered armor suit meant for ponies!”

“You mean the suit Big Macintosh was wearing?” Rarity inquired. “I think it could use some polishing.”

Twilight smiled and sighed, “It was kind of a recreational project. We’re working on a leg for him now.”

Applejack took a sip from the mug of hard cider in front of her, grimacing as it burned down her throat. Human drinks were certainly strong. “It’ll sure be nice to see him working on the farm again. Hay, he seemed happy just walking along with that suit of yours.”

Rainbow Dash smiled as she adjusted her bronze suit of armor, glancing at the helmet on the table. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget when he had to impersonate AJ in the magic duel with Trixie.” She chuckled, along with her friends.

“And when Pinkie got her mouth taken away...” Fluttershy said, busting out a small smile and prompting even more chuckles from the other mares.

“It sure was funny!” Pinkie exclaimed. “But still, it was kinda hard to laugh and smile with no mouth.”

They all sighed in unison, looking down at the table. Rainbow Dash grabbed her helmet and looked at it, her smile fading away as she did. A few moments were spent in silence, a silence which she broke with another sigh, “I... I guess this is it?” Her friends refrained from looking at her in the eyes.

Pinkie’s mane deflated like a broken balloon. “I guess it is...”

“Do you really have to?” Rarity asked.

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Somepony has to.” She slowly placed her helmet on and made sure her armor was well-placed around her body, then looked back down at the metallic surface of the table. “There isn’t even a good way to say goodbye, is there?”

Sighing, Twilight slid a book out of one of her coat’s saddlebags. She gently placed it on the table and opened it, revealing a set of necklaces and a tiara. “Even if these can’t stop a war...” She levitated each of them towards their respective users, placing them on their necks. “You may as well fight knowing that you’re in each of our hearts.”

The armored pegasus looked down at the amulet, closing her eyes and standing up. “Thank you for everything, girls... Just... If anything happens to me, just know that you’re the best friends anypony could ask for.”

“Warning: incoming attack. Location: Trottingham. CODE: PREPARE, SET, COUNTER.”

Adam Becker sighed, leaning into the glass of the tramcar and tapping his fingers on it. “He’s already there? This quickly?”

Atlas sighed, “Why the ponies, though?”

The Admiral looked down at the floor, then over his shoulder, staring up at the giant. “He knows we will launch an offensive if he threatens them, and we don’t have a choice... But we have an ace up our sleeves.”

“I must ask you again, Admiral,” Mac said, taking a few steps towards the old guardsman. “Are you completely certain that you wish to do this?”

“Yes, I’m more than certain.”

The three fell silent as the tram slowed to a stop, opening its doors to allow them to walk into the vast halls of the Vector. “He won’t be expecting this,” Becker remarked while walking through the halls, following the signs that led to one of the hangars. “They will be deployed before the Raider surgical strike force, who’ll tag along with a few ponies and changelings that will help evacuate the city.”

Atlas grumbled, “And how late will they arrive after Silverback?”

Becker halted for a second, then continued to walk. “Thirty minutes.”

“Casualties are to be expected,” said Mac.

With a solemn nod, Becker walked into one of the ship’s hangars. He was met by the sight of dozens if not hundreds of bipedal, metallic figures standing idly, each with a rifle on their right hand. Similar in every way to Mac, the only thing that made any difference was the coat of green paint and the pair of glowing green eyes, as opposed to silver and blue.

The Admiral looked at the silver android and nodded. “Get them ready.”

“Copying and uploading data...”

Each and every one of the green androids suddenly gripped their weapons tightly with both hands, and their green eyes shone even more brightly. Mac looked at Becker and nodded. “We are waiting for orders.”

With a heaving sigh, Becker spoke up, “Deploy them to Trottingham, now.”

“Remain calm,” the dropship blasted its loudspeakers. “Please, form an orderly line and board the crafts. Remain calm...”

“Lyra!” a voice called out for her. She looked around the massive crowd of ponies making their way through the streets of Trottingham to where the humans directed them. “Lyra, over here!” She spotted the mare in question, and pushed her way through the masses and towards her.

“Bon-Bon!” Lyra exclaimed, her voice barely loud enough to be heard. “What’s going on!?”

“I don’t know!” the other pony yelled as they kept walking together. “But I’m starting to think that helping rebuild Trottingham was a bad idea!”

“Yeah!” Lyra continued to push her way along with Bon-Bon. A spark of light reached the corner of her eye, and prompted her to look up to see the dropship turn on its lights to bright up the night. “Oof!” she exclaimed, shielding her eyes from the light.

"Remain calm-" the dropship broadcasted, but the voice was cut off suddenly, replaced by a distant, shattering roar. Lyra caught a glimpse of a barrage of projectiles hitting it, exploding on impact and sending the dropship towards a building that soon toppled down and crashed into a mass of panicking ponies and humans. She watched as each of them were crushed under its weight, they screams echoing throughout the city before being abruptly cut off. She and Bon-Bon were both brought to the ground by the blast, along with several other ponies.

With her ears ringing, Lyra stood back up. Ponies had begun to run in every direction, desperately trying to hide from the projectiles that soared overhead. She felt somepony grab her by the shoulder and force her to turn, finding herself facing Bon-Bon, who yelled something at her before nudging her.

“Come on!” Bon-Bon yelled as Lyra’s senses came back to her, turning around and running into an alleyway. Lyra soon followed her, cringing as she heard distant explosions and the guttural cries of both ponies and humans. She could not think, for the desperation in her heart was overwhelming. She simply ran after her friend, who led her through the alleys of Trottingham, and soon reached the main plaza. There, she could see a few dropships being protected by humans, who fired their weapons at the unseen enemy while ponies rushed into the flying machines.

“You!” a Raider yelled, catching both Lyra’s and Bon-Bon’s attention. “Get in here!” She ran to the mares and began firing her pistols, covering the ponies’ advance towards the transport vessel. As soon as they were in, Lyra turned around to see the woman dead on the pavement, a pool of blood forming around her body. Her eyes widened as the dropship’s engines fired up, and the hatch began to close, blocking several projectiles from hitting the ponies within.

Lyra dropped to the metallic floor, her eyes wide with fear. She craned her neck to see a stallion frantically banging his hoof against the door to the cockpit, yelling, “You left my daughter! Go back!” only to be grabbed by a nearby human and pushed into the other side of the vessel.

Bon-Bon sat down next to Lyra, shivering. “Are you okay?”

Lyra's heart skipped a beat as the compartment’s lights began flashing red, a blaring alarm sounding off repetitively as the pilot spoke over the intercom. “We’ve got multiple lock-ons! Brace for evasive maneuvers!” She was thrown to the wall along with Bon-Bon as the ship took a sharp turn, and then another, and another. An explosion blasted from the outside, and the dropship began to spin out of control.

“May-day! May-day! This is Hellfire-Seven, we’ve been hit-!” the pilots voice was replaced by static. Lyra closed her eyes, hearing as they crashed down onto Trottingham. Blood-curdling screams from all around barely reached her ears, as the crashing overwhelmed them. She was thrown from side to side, until everything finally came to a halt.

Slowly, Lyra opened her eyes. She could see fire and the twisted remains of the dropship. She saw the stallion from before, only the upper half of him, crawled at a painful pace away from the fire. He only managed to move a few meters, then stopped moving, staring directly at her, cold and lifeless. She watched in shock as a human, who was missing an arm, made his way out of the fire, but yet covered in it. He dropped to his knees as it consumed him, at which point Lyra closed her eyes once more.

She began to move, pulling herself up shakily, and opened her eyes to see Trottingham being turned into ashes. Lyra could hear screams, explosions, and whatever transmissions emanated from the broken dropship.

“...Lyra... Lyra!”

The unicorn turned around, hearing the voice of her friend. She looked down, amidst the burning remains of the vessel, to see Bon-Bon, impaled onto the broken dropship by a large piece of metal. “Bon-Bon!” She rushed over to her and dropped to her knees, focusing as much as she could to try and bring the stake of metal out of her friend with her magic, to no avail.

“Help me... please...”

“H-Hold on!” Lyra exclaimed, focusing her magic once again. A loud thump, and a metallic roar, forced her eyes open. Carefully, she turned to see the legs of a monstrous combat walker standing near the downed dropship. Lyra remained still as a gridwork of eerie, blue light swept throughout the wreckage, outlining herself, Bon-Bon and the remains of everypony else who had occupied the ship. Lyra slapped her hooves over her ears as a loud, thunderous voice shouted,

“LETHAL FORCE ENGAGED!”

Lyra slowly looked up at it, long enough to see a barrage of missiles hit it, but only managing to get its attention to somewhere else. She blinked, and when her eyes opened once more, she found herself standing in front of a metallic man with bright green eyes, who effortlessly picked her up and cradled her in his cold arms while several others formed a wall between her and the walker, only to be obliterated by gunfire.

“We die, so that you may live.”

“B-Bon-Bon!” Lyra yelled. “Save her! Just let me go and save her!”

“Your probability of survival is ninety-four point seventy-eight percent higher,” the man said, his voice distorted and cybernetic. “We are sorry for your loss, but I must deliver you to safety immediately.” He held her close and began running away at an incredible speed, going past several similar men who seemed to be providing cover fire for some ponies. Lyra struggled and looked over the metallic man’s shoulder to see herself being taken away from the wreckage and Bon-Bon. The walker stood closer to her, and aimed its massive cannon directly at the wreckage.

She would never forget the last thing she heard and saw of that dreadful night: a guttural scream coming from Bon-Bon as she was consumed in fire.