[ Trigger warning: stalking ]

As the sun was slowly setting down, the girls finally managed to reach their destination. When they ordered and paid for whatever appeared to their tastes, all of them sat together at one of the free tables inside the café.

During their regular friendly conversations, Twilight's phone unexpectedly buzzed inside her bag. She picked it up and saw a message notification on her lock screen.

"Everythin' alright?" wondered Applejack.

"It's from my mom." Twilight told as she read the rest of the text messages, "My parents went on a trip, but it appears it has a lot of traffic due to a highway clearance, there are fallen rocks and trees all over the place."

"This reminds me... have you seen the news recently?" questioned Sunset and directed her attention to all of her friends.

"Nah, I was too busy with my soccer training for the final match." said Rainbow before drinking out of her soda.

"I'm afraid I didn't have time for watching any news these days either, I had to finish the designs of my new dresses for the summer fashion show." involved Rarity, "Why? Did something happen?"

Fluttershy gasped with a hand over her mouth and stared at Sunset, "Are you talking about the hiking accident? Oh, those poor people, they must have been so scared. I can't possibly imagine what they went through..."

Rainbow became curious, "Come again?"

"One of the hikers mentioned that they saw and heard something... unusual. Tall shadowy figures, loud metallic sounds, but before discovering the source, there was a sudden earthquake. And just like that, all of them got trapped by several mountain boulders, with no way of getting out." Sunset explained as she tried to repeat the same descriptions she had heard on the television. Terror could be seen on the others' faces.

"Is everyone okay?!" Twilight asked with a concerned tone in her voice.

"Only minor injuries, thankfully the rescue team came right on time. They sure had big luck out there." answered Sunset.

"Am I the only one who got goosebumps from this? Sounds spooky." Spike slightly shivered from the news. For the last few weeks, there have been plenty of unusual mishaps. As they began to arise more with each passing day, the group became increasingly doubtful about those unforeseen events.

"Wha do ah feel that it wasn't just an accident? " suspected Applejack.

"You mean that someone may have caused it? On purpose?!" followed Fluttershy as she turned to the cowgirl.

"Hmm, hmphm mumph phum mmpf!" muffled Pinkie with puffed cheeks, filled with ice cream.

Rarity coughed, "Don't talk with your mouth full." she quickly said and coughed again.

After the pink girl gulped, she apologized, "Hehe, sorry." then repeated, "AJ might be right! It definitely smells fishy to me too!"

"But what could possibly be the reason for someone to do such things in the first place??" Twilight wondered.

Sunset held the empty cup that was once filled with her favorite milkshake and stared down at it while listening to her friends' discussion. She didn't want to believe it was another issue related to magic, it couldn't be possible to cause so many troubles for such a short amount of time. Or could it? Was the magic really becoming more harmful than before?

"What do you think Sunset?" Twilight asked her but she didn't answer back, her mind was somewhere else.

"Sunset?"

No reply.

As she was becoming more frustrated and lost in her thoughts, Twilight soon noticed the strange behavior of hers and put a hand on her shoulder out of concern, "Hey, are you alright? Do you think it has something to do with the-"

"No!" Sunset loudly denied before her friend could even finish her assumption, Twilight got startled and moved her hand away. All of her friends looked at her and became worried regarding her unexpected outburst. She stared back at the group and jolted back to reality when she realized what she had done, "Sorry, I just-- I'm not sure... it seems off but nobody knows what or who exactly is causing all of this mess. It will be better if we don't jump to conclusions right away..." she tried to suggest.

Rarity peeked through the window. The night sky could be already seen and the street lights were shining brightly on the almost empty roads, "Darlings, I think it's getting quite late."

Twilight followed her gaze, "You are right. We've lost track of time, let's continue this outside."

Shortly after her offer, they started getting up and ready to go. Everyone wished a nice evening to the owners of the café and walked out, Pinkie Pie was the last one who happily waved goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and went straight to her friends who were waiting for her. At that point in time, all of them decided to take an easy shortcut to their homes.

"I say we go and investigate!" offered excitedly Rainbow as she walked along with her friends.

"You think other people haven't already considered this? Rainbow, no one has found anything!" Sunset clarified.

"But if it's related to magic, we should be able to find the source and stop it with our powers! It can't be that hard, right?"

"Hey, what do you know? Maybe the answer could appear right in front of us when we least expect it!" involved Pinkie.

"I don't believe it would be so easy, Pinkie." Sunset assumed.

Throughout their walk, Fluttershy felt sudden chills running down her spine and stopped.

Was she cold?

No.

Was she afraid of the dark?

Again, no.

Well, maybe she was but something else didn't feel right.

She was feeling...

...like she was being watched.

When she turned to look around the wide alley, to ensure her senses were not lying, she saw nothing else except a car parked right behind her, very close. The fact it wasn't there a second ago made her even more anxious. While she was staring at it, it didn't take her long to remember.

She has seen it before.

"Wasn't that car-- parked in front of school while we were leaving...?"

The shy girl only gave it a glance and didn't even bother to get a good look at it then, but now it could be seen more clearly, considering the short distance between them.

"Have y'all noticed the strange things that have been happenin' lately? Ah mean, how come so many locations can get destroyed like that for less than a month?" Applejack reminded the group while they kept on going forward.

"And don't forget about those poor injured victims." added Rarity as she put a hand on her chest.

At that moment, Fluttershy hurriedly reached the group and nervously tugged Pinkie Pie by the sleeve of her shirt. The pink girl noticed her shivering and asked out of curiosity, "What's wrong, silly?"

"That car has been following us for a while..." answered Fluttershy quietly and pointed to the direction she was looking at.

"What car?" Rainbow peeked behind them. The rest of the group did the same and saw the mysterious vehicle standing on the empty street, only a couple of meters away from them.

When Rarity observed it from afar, her eyes widened in shock, "Wait a minute-- I recognize that brute!" she exclaimed.

"Y-You do?" Fluttershy asked her, body still trembling.

"They've been roaming around my boutique for the last couple of days. I reported them to the police numerous times already and they still keep coming back!" explained the fashionista.

Sunset examined it as well, "After you mentioned it, I am pretty sure they passed through my home yesterday too. It looks-"

"Odd, doesn't it?" Rarity continued, "Especially that design and paint job. Ugh, such horrible taste."

"I've never seen such model before..." Twilight included.

Applejack promptly spotted her angry friend stomping toward the automobile, "Dash, where do ya think you're goin'?!"

"To teach them some lesson or two! Ain't nobody's gonna creep over us like that!" Rainbow shouted back.

"Get away from there this instant!"

"Dashie, stop!"

"Come back here!"

The rest cried out for her from the already far distance, warning her numerous times to step aside from the four-wheeler, but she didn't listen. She was too stubborn.

"Hey, you! What's your problem?!" yelled Rainbow as she approached, "Stalking around a bunch of teenagers? You got yourself in so much trouble pal! Ya hear me?!"

The mysterious car remained still, no one coming out of it, "Too scared to get out, huh? Get beaten up by a girl?" she hardly punched the front hood of the car with her fist.

"Come on you jerk, show me whactha got!" after her last threatening sentence, every part of the vehicle began to shift and move in a weird and unexpected way.

As the rainbow-haired girl watched in confusion, she started backing away slowly, "What the-"

"Rainbow Dash!" the girls called out when they finally managed to reach her and immediately stopped in their tracks as they watched in dismay how the one's called car was changing into something completely else. The group gathered together close to each other in protective mode. Twilight picked up the growling Spike from the ground and hugged him tightly.

That thing finally formed into a huge frightening figure, only the light of the streets shining well enough for them to see its appearance. A thin robot, at least twenty feet tall with a strange purple symbol on its chest and wheels attached on both sides of its shoulders. While standing still and tall in front of the tiny humans, its head, which had only a bright red visor, instantly turned down at them.

Even without a face, the intimidating stare was pretty obvious for the humans to realize that they were in great danger.

"Everyone stay back!" Sunset ordered remaining before them.

Rarity got a hold of Pinkie's arm and pleaded, "This is not happening- please tell me this is not happening!"

Fluttershy hid behind Applejack straightaway, "W-what is that?!"

"Definitely no good!" Rainbow Dash started activating her blue magical geode while holding it firmly and ponied up. The metal giant noticed the girl's movement right away.

"Oh, I don't think so." he spoke and raised his arm at them, quickly transforming into a triangular laser cannon and charging it up. They gasped in horror and froze in place.

"Well, at least it can't get any worse!" Pinkie Pie pointed out, then out of the blue, two more similar cars appeared from different corners and surrounded them. They transformed and charged the same way the first one did. Now, they surely had no way of escaping.

"Мааaybe I shouldn't have said that."

"YA THINK?!" Rainbow angrily yelped.

"Keep quiet, pests. Surrender at once or else." one of them threatened.

"Excuse me?! Who do you think you are ya big piece of ju-"

"Ah think we got ourselves into too much trouble now, Dash." Applejack reminded her. The cowgirl was able to shut her mouth right in time before the incoming insult.

"Forget it, even though we don't know what you are or where you come from, it's clear enough for us that you are not here with good intentions." stated Sunset while glaring at the tall robots. Despite the tense situation, she tried her best to remain calm and not show any fear toward the insidious metal creatures, "We will never surrender to you!"

"I suggest you do not resist, organic. You don't want anyone injured around here, do you?" the same robot added. The girls' eyes widened in fear, exchanging glances wondering what they should do.

"What do you want from us?" Twilight got enough courage to speak up.

"Even stupid little life forms like you could simply guess what we are looking for." the other comrade got involved, pointing at the rainbow-haired girl's now clearly noticeable pony ears and wings, "If I remember correctly, humans do not possess such abilities like yours."

"We don't know what you are talking about." pretended Sunset as best as she could. It was a senseless decision, yet she gave it a shot. No way she would let those robots get near their magic, who knows what they wanted to achieve with it if they desired to take it so much.

"Evil deeds is the only rational answer." she considered without a doubt.

"Playing dumb, I see." the front robot did not buy it at all, "Let me quickly remind you then." he gestured to his companions to charge at the group and open fire.

The girls watched in terror as the blasters began powering up. Their lives were at risk and none of them could do anything. Even if they tried to fight back, the chances of winning were to a bare minimum. There was no escape nor help.

No hope of salvation.

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[Author's note]

Ah, yes. I forgot to upload these:

Enjoy!