By the time Fluttershy had reached the veterinary, she was beginning to feel dizzy and disorientated. Her tongue was starting to swell. By the time she left the veterinarian, Fluttershy was feeling tired and weak, and was suffering from a fever, muscular pain, joint pain, a headache, and a sore throat, not to mention the fact that she was vomiting, to which the veterinarian suggested that she see a doctor.
By the time she had reached the hospital, Fluttershy's skin was blackening and was starting to detach from her muscles, which in turn were separating from the bones. By this point, the virus in her body had begun to grotesquely transform her DNA. After a rapid admission to the emergency ward, Fluttershy began to suffer from heavy diarrhoea and started being treated by doctors with an almost brutal immediacy. She would fight for survival for the next fourteen days in the intensive care ward of the hospital.
Nopony except the doctors was allowed access, not even Fluttershy's friends.
During this fortnight, which had a terrible effect on Fluttershy's friends, Kimberly and the phase one animatronics went north for Lucky's funeral in the town of Black Grass. They arrived a few hours before the service and found the phase three and four units. They were with Lucky's second youngest niece, Copper Glow, an aqua coloured unicorn mare with an anorexic body type similar to that of Kimberly. She had a red horn, blue eyes, and a red mane and tail with gold streaks. Red wings were on her flanks. Copper Glow looked sadly at the three eldest animatronics.
"What's wrong? Was it something that I did?" asked Kimberly.
"In this case, no. It concerns what happened with Vulcan. Apparently, the Institute wanted all work on the new Black Grass animatronics halted after Vulcan rapidly and unexpectedly disassembled himself over a wide area. Lucky, being himself, said something along the lines of 'over my dead body', so now that he's dead, the Institute want Luminescence, Black Market, and Dawn decommissioned by the end of the month so that they can be dismantled." replied Copper in a Cheshire accent.
"What about us?" asked High Strung in a pretentious way.
"For the moment, the Institute hasn't specified what to do with you and the eldest two girls, High Strung. I'll take over from Lucky as regards doing your annual maintenance cycle, but besides that, I don't know what to do. That reminds me, Kimberly - your scheduled maintenance is overdue, and I need to see you after the funeral."
High Strung snorted in mild satisfaction, unaware that he had a year to live, and Kimberly agreed to see Copper Glow after the funeral. Luminescence and Dawn Mist had accepted their almost immediate fate while Black Market was having none of his. There was profit to make, essential supplies to distribute, deviousness to be had. He formulated a plan to escape being decommissioned and dismantled.
Taking the moment of silence, High Strung presented Copper Glow with a bouquet of flowers, which she graciously accepted.
Kimberly was glad to get back to Ponyville. Allerton and High Strung had returned to their own homes, Black Market had disappeared, while the other two animatronics remained in Black Grass. Kimberly found the funeral a bit dry, stiff, and far too formal for her liking, but felt great sadness, not only because of Lucky's death but also because of the impending decommissioning of the phase three and four animatronics. In her flat, she removed her pelt and started washing it with saffron shampoo, which Nightwish had recommended.
Kimberly heard the window banging closed, and quickly turned around. A ghostly alicorn figure with a body near-identical to hers was there. Kimberly noticed and recognised the mark on his flank, a set of spanners.
"Vulcan?" asked Kimberly curiously.
Vulcan's machine spirit moved into Boo-Boo and possessed the teddy bear. He spoke with a voice that sounded just like that of Patrick Allen.
"Yes, it is me. Kimberly, there is much we need to discuss, but you need to start creating a safe room here as the runes covering the house aren't good enough."
"I have but one question: do I need to start now, or can I finish washing my pelt?"
That evening, Twilight was walking back to her castle after unsuccessfully trying to see Fluttershy in the hospital. She'd seen some electronic bipedal toys in the toy shop the previous afternoon, and they had mysteriously vanished that morning. Twilight wondered if these were the toys that Grey Mystic had mentioned the previous week.
When Twilight was passing the hardware shop, she heard indeterminate voices and revving noises. She stopped and looked in bewilderment before an enormous explosion tore off the side of the hardware store. She covered her eyes briefly, and when she looked at the hardware shop again, several small vehicles being piloted by the missing toys emerged to the sound of Edwin Starr's 'War'. Due to the wide variety of weapons on the vehicles, including chainsaws and nail guns, Twilight immediately teleported back to her castle. The small vehicles and their diminutive drivers left Ponyville.
The toys returned later that night with even more toys raided from the factories and depots, as well as more vehicles. They killed at random, took prisoners, and destroyed entire buildings. Twilight was in her castle, which was under siege. No matter what she tried, she was unable to call upon her magic to defeat the toys, which she thought might have been caused by a magic-cancelling device.
Flaming tennis balls, nails, exploding missiles and other flying objects were hurled at the castle, causing massive damage. Hearing something behind her, Twilight found that some of the toys had entered the castle, and were going to attack her from behind. Twilight ran onto a balcony, where a brief hail of nails greeted her. Twilight quickly ducked behind a parapet.
When screams came from inside the castle, Twilight began moving towards the door before a Cockney voice from above arrested her.
"Don't be a fool, Twilight! Get outta there!" shouted Black Market.
Twilight looked up at Black Market and immediately thought his head looked like the one that a clone of Pinkie Pie maded when the earth pony had used the Mirror Pool.
"But there's somepony who needs help!" replied Twilight.
Black Market dodged a couple of tennis balls, making his tie, so loud it almost glowed, sway violently from side to side.
"He's got himself into this! Leave him!"
Twilight went back inside anyway, and returned, dragging out a pegasus. Black Market was still waiting for Twilight. The pegasus that Twilight saved thanked her and flew off in a random direction. Twilight took to the air.
"Get to Kim! You'll be safe there!" shouted Black Market as he used his briefcase as a shield against a storm of nails.
Twilight flew on while Black Market tried to direct the fire coming from the toys away from the princess. Twilight arrived safely at Mrs Schrödinger's house and entered through the attic window. Away from the castle, the toys were few in number, and this was something that relieved Twilight.
Along with Twilight, the same group of ponies that was present during Tambelon's reappearance was there, except Water-Lily, Allerton and High Strung. Twilight noticed the smell of saffron in the air and asked what it was, to which Kimberly laid claim, stating that, despite her aquaphobia, she still needed to clean herself.
"Duck and cover!" shouted Fire Chief, who was looking out the window.
Moments afterwards, Black Market crashed through the window, his long coat on fire, and collided with Kimberly. The tangled lump skidded across the floor and came to rest against the wall. Fire Chief, acting quickly, pulled a foam fire extinguisher, which was labelled as a hand grenade, out of nowhere and doused the flames. Black Market and Kimberly painfully separated themselves.
"Ugh. I think I broke something." muttered Kimberly.
"You're well built. Huh, better than I am, anyway." retorted Black Market.
Twilight had a puzzled look on her face. Kimberly noticed this.
"Imagine fifty-eight and a half kilos of strong plastic crashing into seventy-four kilos of steel." Kimberly whispered to Twilight, so close to her that Twilight felt like Kimberly was nibbling her ear.
Twilight slowly realised that Black Market was another animatronic, while Vulcan, who was still possessing Boo-Boo, coughed back a bad remark about the younger male animatronic. Nopony present questioned this.
Looking out the window, Fire Chief saw that the toys had arrived, and had surrounded the house. After a few seconds, the toys began blaring the Spice Girls' 'Wannabe' from a powerful sound system.
"What are they doing?" asked Kimberly.
"Psychological warfare." stated Vulcan.
Twilight knew that this was going to be a long night.
"Anyone got any good ideas?" inquired Kimberly.
Fire Chief, recalling the Mannlicher M1895 that Mrs Schrödinger had, turned to Black Market and asked him if he had any guns. Before Black Market could answer, a swarm of nails flew through the window, causing all the ponies in the room to drop to the floor.
Black Market denied having any guns on him, but knew where to get some, and said that he had several varieties of rocks and minerals that could be chucked out the window as an alternative.
"What rocks are those?" asked Mrs Schrödinger.
"Rocks like your bog-standard Carbonatite and Kimberlite - full of diamonds - and minerals like a lump of Chernobylite, full of uranium, concrete, and steel." replied Black Market.
"Oh. Anyone got any bad ideas?" questioned Kimberly.
An incendiary missile came through the window, and Fire Chief tended to the fire. He sent a couple of ponies downstairs to barricade the windows and put out any fires.
"I think these electronic toys could be taken out with an EMP." claimed Twilight.
"Great. Now all we need now is a nuclear warhead." retorted Fire Chief.
"I'll check, but I don't think I have one in the junk drawer." grumbled Runemaster.
"Nuclear warhead? What are you talking about?" asked Mrs Schrödinger.
"The chips wouldn't be shielded against an EMP. A nuclear blast would wipe them out." answered Twilight.
A couple of flaming tennis balls flew through the window and were quickly dealt with. Mrs Schrödinger was glad that she specifically required a high level of Building and Contents Cover from her insurers; it was something she felt that she needed after a couple of Runemaster's "projects" went wrong.
"That might be why the military never used them." commented Vulcan, showing considerable insight into the history of the chips.
"What kind of moron would put military technology in toys?" solicited Black Market.
There were shrugs all round. Black Market rummaged around in his suitcase and pulled out a small device with leads coming and going all over it. He armed and chucked it out the window. The device exploded, and, upon inspection, it had wiped out a small area of toys. Fire Chief asked Black Market if he had anything bigger, or even anymore, to which the reply was that he couldn't get his dirty mitts on any others. Runemaster turned to Fire Chief and said with a smile, "He's a right old Jessie."
Fire Chief was unimpressed by this attempt at humour, and Black Market started to defend his masculinity by mentioning that he had a marefriend. Kimberly snickered to herself. Once he had defended his masculinity, Black Market started thinking, and asked Fire Chief if he had a two-way radio with him, who replied that he did. Black Market then asked if he could borrow it for a minute. He got it and took it outside. After a few moments, he returned.
"Who did you just talk to?" asked Twilight.
"Airship mercenaries. They have several zeppelins at their disposal, and they still owe me several favours in returns for goods and services rendered." responded Black Market.
A/N Well, things have certainly warmed up a bit more. A "Jessie" is a derogatory Scottish slang word for a wimp or a big girl's blouse. And by the way, I've submitted a drawing of Nightwish to DeviantArt (link to DA profile in my profile here). As story stats is reporting that, at the time of writing, this story has 218 views overall and Chapter 9 only has one, any more readers would be much appreciated, like reviews.