The Pixelated Pony

Mist really didn't like the sewers, hell he didn't like small enclosed, creepy places in general. But he had to get over this fact to help Sparkle. After some walking they found the astronomer. Mist told them their problem and he told them to look through the telescope.

as they looked through the telescope the moon got even closer and the sun began to rise, it was raining but the object falling from the moon's eye was shaped so much like a rain drop it was missed for nearly an hour as Sparkle looked around for it outside

Normally Mist would've have run after the thief but that would take time and tonight that was the one thing they didn't have. He turned to Sparkle, "the quicker we get to the Bomber hideout the quicker we can find that astronomer," said Mist as he headed back into town

Sparkle looked up at Mist, an astronomer great this was turning into one massive goose chase all for one mask so that she could become pony again, Sparkle ducked into the hideout after 'telling' the small child the code, she continued to walk entering the sewers

Mist quickly found a sharp stick and flew up to the balloon. He poped it with the stick and flew back down to the ground. "Wow how did you do that?" asked the leader, "you should be in our gang, the Bombers, since you're so tough." he then gave Mist a code to get into the clubhouse

Sparkle heard an old lady walk past, partly because she would not stop talking about 'back in her day' a Thief came around the corner and attacked her stealing the old woman's luggage and running out the north gate in the direction of the mountains   

That gave Mist an idea, he had seen what looked like gang leader trying to pop a big balloon near the cave of the Great fairy. Maybe if he could pop that balloon the kid would let him and Sparkle in. He leaned in and told her the plan. Then he ran off to find that kid.

Sparkle nodded she liked the sound of that plan, she followed after Mist into the most northerly point if clock town fittingly called, North Clock town it was like a giant park here only with a massive cave and a boy firing spit wads at the same balloon over and over  

Mist smiled he was glad to see Sparkle again. He looked at her and blushed slightly, even in this deku form, she looked lovely in the moon light. But Mist couldn't worry about that now, "Sparkle the Best Fairy said the astronomer might help us find the imp who did this,"

Sparkle looked up at Mist and jumped in joy, a wolf howled in the distance the moon was still watching them with it's big, red, rocky eyes, Sparkle took Mist by the hoof and ran, ran until she got back to the boy who wouldn't let Sparkle through, apparently they had to speak with the gang leader to get inside

Mis wandered around for ages looking for Sparkle. He was surprised at how hard it was to find her considereing how small this town was. Just as he was about to start his search again he heard what sounded like a Deku Scrub calling out his name. He ran towards the noise whille he called out Sparkle's name.

Sparkle kept looking for Mist and night began to fall, the moon had worked it's way closer to the clock tower but they still had no way of getting up to it, Sparkle ran Into Mist under the moon's un-blinking, un-moving eye that just a slight look caused shiver's through your spine

Mist was both surprised and relieved to see the great fairy. "Great Fairy can you help me?" he begged, "my friend was turned into a deku scrub."

"Sadly i can not change your friend back," said the great fairy, "but if you fin the astronomer he might be able to help you find the imp who did this to your friend."

Mist quickly thanked the great fairy and ran to find Saprkle

Sparkle was 'talking' with a boy blocking the way to the observatory he nodded having no idea what the young girl was even attempting to say, Sparkle walked off looking for Mist calling his name like he was a little lost puppy in lost property business 

Mist looked around the shrine for Sparkle but he couln't see her even though he could swear this is where she was heading. He was about to head out when the fairy who was following him flew towards the other fairies in the room. They quickly combined together and the Great Fairy appeared

Sparkle wasn't noticed by the mayor or committee member's even when she said the moon was falling they just kicked her out and said "No Deku Scrubs allowed!"before beginning another heated argument, she kept looking not finding her friend anywhere 

Mist had a bit of trouble keeping up with Sprakle, who seemed to be a lot faster in her Deku form, so he took a short breather. As he did a small pink fairy flew up to him. The fairy said that she had been seperated and needed to be made whole. Mist nodded and took the fairy where she needed to go, which happened to be the shrine of the Great Fairy

Sparkle had gotten lost and walked in on a heated debate about the Moon in the skies above clock town, the guards could see it falling but the Carnival member's couldn't instead they just got on with their lives like normal ignoring the rock about to crush them all

Again Mist had almost no idea what Sparkle was trying to say and frankly it was starting to get on his nerves. But if he had to guess he would say it had something to do with the Mask of Time. But if anyone knew what was happening it was probably the Great Fairy, So MIst ran after Sparkle.

Sparkle ran into the shrine and stopped, there was no great fairy just a bunch of little faries all floating around, Sparkle counted them and ran off they were one short of helping the massive fairy and hopefully put Sparkle back in her old body again 

Mist followed Sparkles gaze to the giant moon that seemed to be slowly heading towards the town. "What the literal fuck is that?!" screamed Mist. A few of the townspeople stopped and looked at him before continuing to walk. Mist didn't notice them. He turned to Sparkle, "come on lets go beofre this moon kills us."

Sparkle motioned putting a mask on her face and then the number two, an old lady came up to them, "hello there dears you look lost, perhaps the great fairy can help you find your way... she lives in her fountain to the north of here, " she then continued walking slowly, Sparkle ran off again looking for this fairy 

"Thank you," he said to the salesman, "don't worry we'll get your mask back." Mist smiled, two masks in three days. It seemed simple enough. He turned to Sparkle, "don't worry we'll get you back to normal in no time," he said before he led her through the large double doors.

Sparkle waved she found the mask salesman quite creepy, she looked around they were in a small town and had just come out of a clock tower, the map said this place was, Clock town... fitting name... Sparkle walked forwards and was still in shadow, she did it again, the entire town was shadowed, she looked up to see what was causing the shadow and found it to be a massive, or normal sized but very close moon

Mist caught up to Sparkle just after the mask salesmen had stopped talking. "Don't run off like that," he said catching his breath. He saw she was looking at something and turned to see the salesmen. "Hey have you seen a little imp running around? He turned my friend into a Deku scrub,"

"ah! your the two I ran into in the woods... yes I did see an Imp... he happened to take something from me... something very important to me... one of my masks... If you could get that back and that rare mask of time back I may be able to create something to bring your friend back to her original form... but I am a very... busy fellow I must leave this land in three days... now... you two have some masks to get..." 

Mist had no idea why Sparkle had suddenly run off. But he started to understand when he saw the dead Deku. It looked eerily similar to Sparkle's Deku form. He sighed as he ran after Sparkle, "what is this freaks game?" he said to himself as he tried to catch up to Sparkle.

Sparkle ran until she reached a big waterwheel and heard the slow timely CA-CHUNK! of cogs moving around she walked up a ramp as fast as her wooden legs would carry her, a voice spoke out to her as she went to open the big double door, "you've met with a terrible fate haven't you?" it said, she span around and looked at the mask salesman 

Mist was kind of surprised that the plant thing had worked. After all using a plant the way Sparkle just did seemed like something that happened in videogames. Mist shrugged as he flew over to meet Sparkle. "Let's continue," he said to her, "we gotta hurry and get you back to normal."

Sparkle simply looked up at Mist and squealed and whined a bit before making her way to the end of the room, when she did get there she looked at a small tree, it looked a lot like her and she quickly bolted heading down a long twisting spiralling corridor  

Mist chuckled slightly as Sparkle looked at the weird plant. "You really should be more careful," he said with a smile, glad she was okay. He looked at that weird plant and then at Sparkle, "maybe you can use the plant to get across," suggest Mist, "or else I could fly you across."

Sparkle looked up and raised what should be an eyebrow. nevertheless she tried it and burrowed in, a few seconds later she was helicoptering across the gap on two flowers, she landed on the opposite chunk of land and waited for Mist to follow, they still had a fair bit to go 

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

"Fire, ah ain't tryin' to get this problem solved because it's important to me, ah tryin' to get is solved because it's a threat to th' Gator Teeth. Listen, Riley was tellin' me about some faction called th' Railroad, and they apparently help synths out. Of course, they're also real hard to find, and that's where y'all come in."

"I'm not a synth Red... we've figured this out from our... *he squeezes her butt* adventure" Fire almost hit himself for doing that he should calm down occasionally and stop being so bold about doing it with Red, he couldn't help himself though, his own drawings didn't help

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

"Keep yer shirt on... fer now, at least..." said Redwood. "Listen, fer all ah know, anypony on Echo Squad could be a synth, except fer y'all, and that makes ya real valuable to me. Yer th' only one besides Riley and Gadget that ah can trust right now, and ah need yer help."

"my help?" Fire said re buttoning his shirt rather disappointedly "what do you need my help for? I'm ex Militia I have just as much a clue about any of this than anypony else... I guess I could give it a try though if it really meant that much to you Red" Fire patted her back 

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

By the time Gadget got to the infirmary, he was huffing and gasping from running all the way there.

 

"That's... great news..." he panted, still out of breath.

 

Back on the other side of the ship, Redwood was in her office, which had been partially destroyed. She called Fire in, as she needed to discuss something.

"Isn't it just!?"Riley said feeling him or her kicking 

Fire came into the office and saluted "Commander Redwood Ma'am! you called Ma'am? Is there something you wish to discuss or...*he unbuttons his top button* something else you needed?" he said smiling at the commander

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

"All clear!" yelled a guard through the hallways.

 

Redwood got back up, although she didn't relax just yet. So far, nobody had tried to make any sort of attack on the ship, and if the Militia or whoever else was getting bolder, that meant the Gator Teeth were a real enough threat to them.

Riley kept moving, she felt weak in the legs as she walked, she eventually collapsed and the Medical bot picked her up and began examining her, she was close to birth around a week away, the Medical bot called for Gadget to tell him the news about the arrival

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

Gadget, having studied Riley's PCB a lot over the last few months in case of a situation like this, was able to reattach it.

 

"What the hell is going on?" he asked, staying away from the window.

 

"Sniper, that's what," answered Redwood. "If it's just one though, it's real stupid of him to attack in entire ship."

Riley burst back into action and used her rifle to fire at the sniper whilst she backed away, she was going for the medbay, she needed the medical bot to test if the PCB being torn out killed the foal that she was pregnant with she kept going and firing until she reached the medbay

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

Redwood swore and took cover. The shot had been clearly heard and the various snipers posted on the ship were firing back. Alarms were going off, and since the ship was already on high alert, it was locked down almost immediately.

 

"Get Gadget in here, now!" ordered Redwood into her radio.

 

Gadget arrived quickly and got right to fixing Riley.

Riley (who was now on the floor) looked to be dead until she started to breathe, she didn't need the PCB to function the various other circuit boards did that, she groaned and opened her eyes, she couldn't remember a thing about what had happened or who she was... the Institutes's way of stopping her revealing the truth about the other synth  

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

"Well, we sure as hell ain't makin' friends with th' Institue, and it looks like th' Railroad ain't either. Now, ah'm sure y'all have heard th' sayin', th' enemy of mah enemy is mah friend, so let's go find us a friend."

 

If the Railroad was a faction around here like Riley said, they could prove to be an ally.

"hah... yeah... problem... no pony know's where they are... at all... heck they got me outta there and even I don't know how to find them... believe me I've tried... but my memories don't go back that far... problems with being a prototype..." Riley looked out the window and then there was a bang and she was shot three times in the head tearing her central PCB out

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

"What's th' Railroad?" asked Redwood. "And that still don't explain how they got that synth to look like Glimmer."

 

This fight just got much more complicated. They weren't just dealing with the Militia anymore, but rather the Institute as well, and they knew next to nothing about the latter.

"they're a faction spread around here... the doctor who told me what I really am is with them, they take synths from Boston and give them a memory wipe, then they are taken down to wherever they are bound for where they are hidden by more members until the institute gives up

@@The Pixelated Pony,

 

"Why would whoever made y'all be interested in killin' me?" thought Redwood out loud. "If ah remember what y'all told me right, they're a good few hundered miles up th' East Coast, and we wouldn't have anythin' to do with 'em. Ah can understand why they'd want y'all, but why try to kill me?"

"unless... The Militia somehow got control of an escaped synth... and then they tried to bring us back after he tried to kill Flame... The Railroad takes their synths pretty far away, and it's not rare to hear stories about these... mechanical men forming groups of raiders, or joining the more armed factions..."