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The following is a work of fiction copyright Radical Gopher. This story contains adult themes and situations and should not be read by anyone under the age of 18.

______________________________ THYME AFTER TIME - part 17

As the dragon closed on them the Professor and the girls dove for cover. Cymbalaria dropped her damaged arm on the ground and charged her shield generator, but held back enabling it when she analyzed the creature's trajectory. It passed about a dozen feet above the trees and continued its dive towards the war machines in the valley. The small, terrified, yellow and pink figure of a pegasus pony could be seen clinging desperately to its back with the even smaller form of a baby dragon holding onto the pony's tail, whooping and cheering excitedly.

The dragon leveled out and roared through the formation of machines, blasting at two of them with its flaming breath. The fire seemed to cling to the robots like napalm, melting the external metal until it flowed like soft butter, splattering in molten puddles along the ground. Several weapons came to bear on the dragon, but a quick wingover sent him back straight through the formation of war machines. Unable to fire least they wind up hitting each other, the robots thrashed around. The dragon unleashed another gout of flame melting the heart of one metal monster. Moments later, the Professor's spell wore off, sending the war machines crashing noisily to the ground in a single, tangled heap.

Nearly a dozen articulated beam weapons rose from the confused pile of machines, aiming at the dragon. They never had a chance to fire. Taking advantage of the confusion, the four remaining ponies, including a one-armed Cymbalaria, dropped or ported onto the pile of machines, kicking, punching, bouncing and stomping their foes with their incredible strength. All of the weapons were severed from their machine masters by a combination of Cyanide's lightining blasts and Cassia's eye beams.

The ponies scattered as the dragon made another pass at the mechanical behemoths. Shell plating cracked under the tremendous heat of the monster's breath. Despite the aggressive attack, a single beam stabbed upward, burning a hole in the membrane of one of the dragon's wings, throwing it off course. It quickly recovered, thanks in part to both Spike's and Fluttershy, and at their anxious urging it veered away, heading for Ponyville to join the defenders there.

Cassia and the others regrouped again atop the hill with the professor. They watched the mechanical monsters slowly sort themselves out, staggering around as they tried to redevelop some kind of attack formation. Cymbalaria used this short respite to quickly reattach her arm, with some help from Cyanide. Five more machines were down for the count. The survivors however managed to form themselves into four groups, each arranged in a circle so that the machines could advance linked back to back with all but the center machine aiming their weapons outward, giving them a 360 degree firing arc. The war-bot in the center aimed its weapons upward to cover against any airborne attack.

"Well, that's going to complicate things," muttered Clover.

"Maybe," said Cymbalaria as she finished the final adjustments to her reattached arm. "But whatever tactic they come up with, there's always a way to counter it."

"I don't know about you guys, but this seems awfully familiar somehow," muttered Cyanide. "I'm getting a sort of deja-vu feeling here."

"If you're thinking about Panzer Beorn, then you're on the wrong track entirely," Cassia replied. "This doesn't match his normal M.O... If it did, one of those machines would be a control hub and he'd be in it. Besides, he never attacks with more than half-a-dozen machines at any one time."

"They don't appear to be under unified control," observed Cymbalaria. "It looks more like some kind of random, autonomous cooperation program. The problem is, that would require some kind of sophisticated A.I. uplink."

"Or those things could have some kind of pilot onboard," Cassia offered.

"You mean there are people in those machines?" asked Clover, a fearful look crossing her face. "That would mean we... we've been hurting people?"

"We don't know for certain that there are people on board," the Professor cautioned. "They could be some kind of alien creatures."

"Skrulls, or Thanagarians, or Kree?" asked Cyanide

"Maybe they're Klingons," Clover offered.

"Maybe," the Professor replied. "They might even be..." He suddenly stopped and stared at the behemoths then slapped one hoof against the side of his head. "Herbert's going to kill me when he finds out how dense I've been. What we need here to finish the job is a virus."

Cymbalaria shook her head. "It wouldn't work. In order to implant a virus we'd have to know something about the operating systems in those machines. Even then, the coding would take hours, even for me!"

The Professor nickered lightly. "No, not a virus... a VIRUS!"

Everyone save Cyanide stared uncomprehendingly at the blue-gray unicorn. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and a wide smile crossed his face. "Of course... it's so obvious. No wonder those things seemed familiar." He looked intently at the Professor. "Whatever you do, you're going to have to accelerate the effect. They're getting close to town, and it'll have to be really, really small, less than a hundredth of a micron to get through their air filters."

The Professor returned Cyanide's smile. "I think I know just the thing, and if I enhance it with magic..." Using his horn, he scooped up a handful of dirt and transformed it into a dry powder. Closing his eyes his horn glowed with a strange ethereal light. " Malagolitomontorosis!" The powder became extremely fine, almost invisible to the eye, though the magical field that had surrounded it did not dissipate,

The unicorn looked over at Cymbalaria. "Think you can double as a crop-duster?"

Instead of responding verbally, the android pony opened a small hatch in her shoulder. The Professor carefully deposited the glowing dust within the hatch which Cymbalaria immediately closed.

"Whatever you do, don't get any of this on our friends or allies. It's extremely potent and fast acting, though not fatal."

"How do we keep it from spreading into town?" Cyanide asked.

"The particles only have a half-life of about thirty minutes. Since there's no wind, anything that hasn't found a host in that time will die off. Once incapacitated, the 'pilots' of those machines can be quarantined and with Rekooh's help sent back to where they came from."

The cybernetic pony nodded with a quirky smile. "After this is over I will have to add crop-dusting to my resume." With a muffled roar she rocketed skyward.

"Did she just make a joke?" asked Cyanide.

The professor looked at him and shrugged. "She told me were becoming a bad influence on her."

"Sounds more like a good influence if you ask me," Cassia replied.

They all watched as Cymbalaria rocked upwards until she was nearly out of sight. There was a distant glint of sunlight against metal and then she came down in a nearly vertical dive. She leveled out mere feet above the machines and her white contrail suddenly took on a purplish tint. The machine pony zoomed past the mechanical monsters and banked right, intending to head back towards her friends. In that moment, two heat beams lanced outward and converged on Cymbalaria. There was the sound of a muffled boom and the metallic pony staggered in the air and crashed into a small corps of trees, vanishing from sight.

Everyone watching gasped, even as both Cyanide and Clover dashed off in a parallel streak of black and blue. They reached Cymbalaria's crash site within moments. The cybernetic pony had smashed through several trees, shattering them before digging a long groove in the earth. As the chimera and mare knelt next to her she slowly sat up and looked around. All four of her limbs had separated from her torso. Her platinum hair was torn and ragged, looking for all intents and purposes as if someone had given her a trim with a rusty lawnmower. One eye dangled loosely from its socket, the wires sparking brightly against her dirt encrusted face. Fluid leaked from several fissures in her torso as well as the now empty shoulder and hip joints.

She looked at herself, then up at her two horrified friends. "Not to worry," Cymbalaria said calmly. "It's only a flesh wound."

* * * *

Cinnamon groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. The unmistakable sanitary smell of a hospital assailed her muzzle and she sneezed. The resulting shock of pain brought her to full consciousness. She couldn't remember a time when she felt as horrible as she did now. Her head pounded so badly she actually felt sick to her stomach.

The unicorn girl tried to sit up. That was a mistake. She immediately began throwing-up. Fortunately, someone was there with a bed pan at the ready. The spasm lasted only a short time before Cinnamon was able to lay back, panting and sweating. A glass of water floated gently in front of her and she sipped on it, clearing the taste of bile from her mouth.

"Feeling better?" asked a soft voice.

Cinnamon thought about it for a moment. She did, amazingly enough, though not by much. Carefully opening her eyes she looked over towards the source of the voice. She found herself staring at a white-furred unicorn filly with a beautifully quaffed indigo mane. "What happened? How'd I get here, and where is here?"

"You're in the Ponyville clinic," the unicorn replied. "As to how you got here, well, you plowed up half of the Ponyville commons with your face after a crash landing spectacular enough to rival one of Rainbow Dash's. It was all the more amazing because you're a unicorn, not a pegasus."

"Yeah..." muttered Cinnamon. "I think I remember flying through the air after getting blasted by one of those *#)@**$) machines."

"Would you please refrain from using such course language," the unicorn chided. "A lady should not go around cursing like a stable hand."

"Alright, yeah, whatever," grumbled the green-furred unicorn. "WAIT! WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS?"

"They're still off fighting those horrid mechanical beasts, and doing a rather wonderful job of it from what I understand."

"NO! I'VE GOTTA *#^%&&# HELP THEEEMMMM!" There was an awkward thump as Cinnamon tried rolling out of bed, but instead of landing on her hooves, she became entangled in both her IV line and blankets and landed rump first on the cold floor. She lay there for a moment fighting back the nausea even as the white-furred unicorn magically lifted her back onto the bed, then held her down until she stopped thrashing.

"That will be quite enough out of you!" the filly ordered sternly. "Your friends are alright and the last thing they need is to worry about an injured team mate running around on a battlefield."

"Injured?" Cinnamon asked nervously.

The unicorn took a small breath and nodded. "Yes. The bad news is that when you landed, your horn was shattered rather badly. Our doctor was able to get a magical dressing wrapped around it so it wouldn't leak energy."

"What's the good news...uh..."

"Rarity," the filly said smiling. "The good news is we were able to find all the pieces and when Princess Celestia arrives she should be able to use her magic to fuse your horn back together, as good as new."

"Uh... thanks, uh Rarity," Cinnamon muttered leaning back and allowing the white-furred unicorn to straighten the covers. Truth be told, she really didn't feel much like running off and taking on the monstrous machines again, though she was worried about her family.

Rarity smiled and magically reached for a brush, carefully running it through Cinnamon's mane, avoiding the region around her horn. "You and your friends are certainly brave. Imagine taking on all those monsters. Even if I had your kind of abilities, I'd be quaking in my shoes just thinking about it."

Cinnamon didn't respond. Exhaustion, a gentle voice and the soft strokes of a brush against her fur all combined to lull the green unicorn into a placid, healing slumber.

A whisper of hoof-steps came up behind Rarity. She turned, looking into the face of Twilight Sparkle and the clinic's nurse, Redheart.

"How's she doing?" the lavender-furred unicorn asked.

"She's calm now," Rarity said, her voice low and quiet. "I had to magically hold her down for a bit. She wanted to go help her friends."

"The Professor said that might happen. She's definitely got a lot of spunk."

"...And a mouth to match. You wouldn't believe the language she used." Rarity looked at the nurse. "For a pony who suffered what should have been a fatal injury, she seems to be on the mend.

"She's healing, a lot faster than the doctor thought possible," Redheart muttered. "Even her deepest lacerations look to be no more than small cuts. As for her concussion, well, any other pony would still be in a coma."

"Magic?" asked Rarity

Twilight shook her head. "If it is, it a type we've never seen before. It almost seems to be some form of alchemy, or maybe even...Physics. I noticed earlier that when she teleports, there isn't a normal spell-aura around her horn. She just does it, almost as if its second nature to her, like walking is to us."

"Well, no matter what the source of her abilities might be, I still need to change the wrappings on her horn." With that, the nurse took out a fresh magic strip. She leaned forward and carefully began to unwind the bandage surrounding Cinnamon's horn. She gasped after the first few turns, and then quickly undid the entire bandage. Rarity and Twilight both looked on in amazement. Cinnamon's horn was completely intact.

Nurse Redheart immediately went to fetch the doctor. The two ponies simply looked at each other. "I definitely want to know what kind of vitamins she takes," said Rarity.

* * * *

One of the machines had broken away from the pack and was slowly advancing on Cymbalaria's position. The chimera hit the monster with a very powerful bolt of lightning even as his team mate lifted the android pony's torso. The alien war-bot staggered, then collapsed. It flailed around for a bit then slowly rose on a new set of legs.

Scooping up the severed limbs, Cyanide and Clover zoomed back to the top of the hill where the Professor and Cassia stood. Before they arrived they heard a voice over the comm link.

"NO! NO!" yelled the Professor. Don't bring her up here. Just set her down where you are now and stay there."

"Is something wrong?" asked Cyanide.

"Is the hatch on her torso open?" the blue-gray pony asked.

The chimera looked. "Oh Crud!" he muttered, looking at Clover. "Think we've been exposed?"

"I wouldn't doubt it," the blue mare replied. She looked up at the Professor. "What should we do now?"

"You don't want to take a chance on exposing anyone else, but don't worry. The virus isn't fatal and there's a good chance your immune system will burn through it in a very short time," the Professor said. "What you can do is help put Cymbalaria back together again, and then, since you've already been exposed, take a last run against those machines. You might have just enough time to tangle up their legs before the first symptoms kick in "

"What kind of symptoms?" Cyanide asked.

"Well, first you'll break out into spots, followed by hot and cold flashes, then violent sneezing fits, and finally an exhaustive lethargy."

"Great," muttered Clover, "Just what every girl looks forward to... germ warfare." She held Cymbalaria's arm against the socket until her internal repair mechanism was able to reconnect it. The android pony then reached up to her eye and pushed it back into place before looking at the blue-furred mare.

"Thank you. Now that I have one of my arms, I should be able to manage the rest of my repairs. You should do as the professor recommends."

"They're moving again," Cassia called.

Everyone looked up. Sure enough the giant machines were moving slowly towards Ponyville once more.

"Well, looks like its Henry the Fifth time again," Cyanide quipped looking at Clover.

"I wish you'd use references I understood," the mare complained.

"Don't you read Shakespeare?"

"Not if I can help it."

The Chimera chuckled. "Okay then... how about ALLONS-Y, ALONSO!" With that he dashed off at high speed.

"MY NAME'S NOT ALONSO!" Clover yelled after him, following rapidly in his wake.

The Professor and Cassia stood atop the hill watching the two blurs dashing in and around the monster machines' legs. "I should be with them," she said.

"If you go down there, you'll be exposed to the virus too. It still has about twenty minutes left on its half-life. "You're the only one who's going to be left standing. I need you for back-up."

"But I'm part of the team..."

The Professor put a hoof across her shoulder. "Yes, and as part of the team you need to be ready to pick up the slack. This is less a battle than a relay race, and we need to be able to keep slowing those behemoths down until this Royal Guard or whatever it is arrives."

Cassia watched as several of the machines crashed into each other, thrown off balance by the high speed blows being landed against their legs. At one point, the blue streak marking Clover's movements began to fade. It was abruptly intercepted by Cyanide's black streak merging with it as it broke off and returned to the top of the hill.

The Chimera abruptly slowed as he reached the top of a small knoll a hundred or more feet just below the crest. There he stopped, laying Clover gently down before sitting heavily next to her. Even from a distance Cassia could see several bright red spots covering the two ponies hooves and muzzles.

Cymbalaria who had managed to finally pull herself together went down to her team mates and began tending them. The Professor pulled a pair of blankets and several bottles of lotion from inside his bag and levitated them down to the cybernetic pony.

"Okay," asked Cassia, "Now what do we do?"

"We don't do anything," the Professor replied. "You need to fly over there and intercept that incoming armada and herd them toward Ponyville, at least until the virus has had a chance to burn itself out."

"Armada?" She looked intently using her enhanced vision. Sure enough there appeared to be a formation of about five dozen airborne chariots, each pulled by a pair of armored pegasi. In each Chariot were three armored unicorns, and behind them, kicking up a large dust cloud was a massive column of armored infantry ponies. Flying in front of them were a pair of alicorns, one white and the other a dark blue that bordered on black.

"Looks like the Cavalry has arrived!" quipped the Professor.

"One would hope." Cassia replied, launching herself toward the approaching reinforcements.

To Be Continued