“Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act - if you can't control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

:=:=:>{ Princess Celestia }<:=:=:

The coils of magic whipped and strained against the ivory bounds of Celestia’s horn, contrasting deeply with the burning tendrils of burning sunlight, as, not unlike a troublesome foal, the sun fought her guiding hoof.

With another flex of her arcane will, the burning ball began its trip around the planet once more. And, as it cast its glowing light with the rising dawn, the herald of light turned her gold-sodden hooves to return back into the candlelight of her room.

In haste, the snow-white alicorn turned to gaze upon the horizon, right in time to see the moon embark across the sky. Its silver glow turning to a cold black as it bathed the world is darkness, a halo of angry golden light highlighting it as the sun disappeared.

“Luna…” She whispered, wincing at the baleful telepathic volume of her burden as her mane moved to shroud her face.

~`^v>|<{OOO###]###@$%%

“A mind as one, whole once more, an avatar of harmony.” The words slipped from her lips and froze upon the cold air, a harmonious chorus of a thousand voices speaking as one. A hundred different languages mixing together behind the firm ‘leader’ of the choir, each as slippery as ice as they play with the ears of any listening.

For a moment, it had been day, with the sun glaring a hole into her retinas as it cast the world in ungodly heat. But it was easily fixed, and once more she was shrouded in a veil of darkness, with it, she had transformed into something much more fitting.

Were she once stood in the shadow of her sister, she would now look down upon her, even if only just. Her wings grew to better fit her new size, and gained a white highlight at the tips of her feathers. Her horn, similarly grew whilst gaining a permanent aura of un-light, whilst her mane turned to deep blue fire that was freezing to the touch. Finally, her eyes turned to orbs of black, as they appeared to turn into the cosmos itself. Stars of all colours dances across them as they take the night air that danced across her vision.

The strings of reality swayed in the breeze and wrapped around her as they greeted the her. It was as harmonious as anything, with patterns and symmetry, each playing with the laws of the land and daring not to interrupt the grand design.

“You have done much to break my factory… I would have thought you would have left this place as soon as you could.” A cruel voice called from behind her, its voice sounding like a whisper, but it caught one’s ears more like a yell. She didn’t need to turn to know the despicable sneer on its face. “And yet, here we are. Stood right at the gates, waiting for me. Or perhaps you have just been caught up in your transformation?”

“A transformation suggests a change. This is simply the evolution of this instance of Our existence.” The Goddess of the Moon replied coolly as she spread her wings and straightened out before turning to face her foe. “As a being of chaos, you should know all about evolution, or at the very least, your imperfect variation of such a thing.”

It was tall, looming over her form even after her transformation. Its limbs were of deathly skin and bone, almost as white as the moon itself, and covered in thick, angry veins. It was impossible for it to stand with such little muscle mass, and yet, there it stood. Slouched over as it wore nothing but a smith’s smock and a tattered orange jumpsuit.

Its arms ended in long nailed hands, each strand of hardened keratin being as long as her horn and as black as her night. They had grown so long, that they appeared to have thickened to maintain their strength, as instead of only resting upon the tops of its fingers, they had taken the entire tip of each finger.

Finally, there was the head. She had expected at least this to be replaced with metal, but it seemed not. It stood there, flesh sunk into its skull with barely a hint of hair as the base of its chin. It smiled at her, an ugly, toothy smile. It had appeared to have elongated its teeth, before having filed them to points. Leaving a fang-filled jaw to compliment the beedy, sunken red eyes that glared at her.

One of her past lives had once met such a creature as this, at least, what it once was. A human.

“Your own evolution isn’t very hamonous either, was it?” The beast emitted a sound not unlike the grinding of gears and knives. “I for one, am glad you remained within close proximity. Our sensors had a field day with all the data we collected off of you.”

It began to stalk over to her, each step jerky and unnatural. A split second of hesitation between each movement, joined by a faint, yet noticeable, grinding of bone and metal.

“One would think that what I am doing would be right up your alley. Each cog and peice working together with mathematical precision… each moment optimised to the millisecond… It sounds like harmony to me.”

And then, before the ‘e’ had even left its jaws, the beast lurched forward with an arm outstretched. Claws bared, and glistening in the moonlight as they attempted to split the alicorn’s head from her body.

The look of amazement and anger as the talons met only smoke was… delectable, If she did say so herself.

Her form exploded in a flash of smoke, before consolidating a few meters behind the beast. Shimmering for a moment, before returning her to a solid state.

“A low blow, but not an unexpected one.” She commented, drawing magic into her horn as she prepared a counter-attack. “A lesson in harmony then, as it seems you have a flawed understanding. Harmony can only exist when there is nothing left. Only when the stars themselves die, and existence itself returns to its beginnings, shall there be true harmony.”

She let loose a lance of blueish white energy that quickly cut through the head of the creature. Leaving a smoldering hole the size of a pencil, directly in it’s forehead.

At least, until the flesh around the hole grew back, leaving the bald dome of its head completely unmarred.

“Interesting… that one was nearly at negative two hundred and ten! Very impressive.” It mocked with another ‘chuckle.’ “Though, in relation to the harmony definition, why do you squander such power? If harmony can only be achieved when there is nothing left, why do you defend these ponies?”

The Moon Goddess bit back a growl as she glared at this creatures smug face, instead, she made a point to lower the ambient temperature just a bit more. After all, who says she can’t fight in comfort?

“Non-existence must be cultivated, harmony is more then just order, it is the balance of order and chaos. And although all will become perfectly harmonious in the end, the cycle must be preserved.” Another lance, this time a trio of base-ball sized bolts, flashed through the frigid air. Only to be blocked by a previously invisible automata that jumped in the way, its form freezing and shattering against the concrete only a moment later. “You are not part of the cycle, you are in interloper, and thus must be destroyed.”

At her comment, the beast’s face opened. Revealing a bloody metal skull with two, seemingly organic eyes glaring at her. And, in turn, it opened its fanged maw further then should be biologically possible and released a swarm of micro missiles that, after clearing the creature’s body, turned invisible.

A neat parlor trick, in fact, she is certain she hadn’t seen anything like it befor-

Wait no, one of her selves perked up and pointed out an archaic minotaurian invention. Sure, it was arrows instead, but it wasn’t too different after one removed the ‘biological horror’ part of it.

With a quick jab of her hoof into the ground, the Lunar Goddess’s shadow formed a sort of forcefield that, after a few seconds, absorbed the incoming projectiles.

“It seems to be that you have spent your… lives, in servitude to harmony. I have to wonder where that will lead once you are deemed too… chaotic.” It commented as its face clicked back into place with a fleshy squelch, leaving no sign of the attack other then the blood staining its neck. “In the end, cold iron hold more certainty then flesh.”

“Says the one hiding behind the aforementioned flesh.” She shot back, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. After all, she needed to see the attack to stop it… at least, mostly. “Even your creations maintain a level of reliance on flesh, the irony amuses me greatly.”

Whilst the comment didn’t gain as much of a reaction as she hoped, the blazing fury behind its eyes were nearly has entertaining. Perhaps, it was time to up the ante.

###^!>%<[ ALPHA O.S. ]>%<!^###

His servos made minute adjustments within his warframe whilst he maintained his glare, this ‘goddess’ wouldn’t even notice the change.

~`^v>|<{OOO[ Lunar Goddess ]OOO}>|<v^`~

Now that she was whole, and now that each of her past lives had some time to catch up in the background of this fight, the Goddess’s most recent iteration has come to the realisation that, normally, stars only appear small due to them being really far away.

To be completely fair, the change meant very little, considering this particular timeline wouldn’t know any better, and thus would assume that this was the natural order of things. But, the point remains that it is an anomaly.

At the very least, it meant that the effort required to shatter it into non-cataclysmic pieces, was relatively low.

The beast shifts slightly, its eyes unfocusing and focusing upon her in an odd manner whilst it starts to circle.

In response, she circles closer to the factory, making a point of cutting off any route back into its steelled embrace.

“This has drawn on too long, the autopsy room awaits, insect!” It growled, its flesh bulging and rupturing as a multitude of steel spikes grow from bloody holes. Some, the size of daggers, others entire swords.

Blood dripped from its form as it shed its skin like a snake, all whilst plates and armor expanded and connected from under it. Enlarging the beast and turning it all the more monstrous.

Once it was complete, the only remaining bit of flesh was its head. A pale white highlighted even further than before against the blackened steel armor.

With its transformation complete, it lunged forward, bloodied claws outstretched.

The Goddess dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack as she counters with a blast of magic directly into its torso. Without the distance dissipation, the attack was enough to leave a noticeable dent, but accomplished little beyond that.

Right as she landed back on her hooves, and the beast turned, her attack finally come to fruition.

Eight fragments of a star, each only a few centimeters across, impacted into the ground at just below the speed of sound. Dust and concrete turned the air into a thick cloud of grey whilst the resounding booms discrupted any other sound for a few moments.

With a swish of her magic, the Goddess teleported the visual obstruction to some far-off pit, and, with her sight returned, she took stock of the damage.

Unsurprisingly enough, she now stood in a deep hole, and whilst she didn’t care to take a measurement of its depth, it was enough for her to be glad that she could teleport.

One of her iterations urged caution, citing some long-dead demi-god’s advice to never turn one’s back on a body.

Another piped up and commented that technically, they could do no such thing, if there was nothing left.

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The immortal glow of the goddess slowly bled from a crimson hole in her head. With each beat of her heart, she turned back to the princess that she once was.

After a moment, the solitary robot, looking more akin to a humanoid skeleton, extracted the meter long razorblade from its home in the princess’s skull. But not before it took what it needed from her and left a gift in turn.

With a meaty thump, she fell to the dirt, right before a small pack of scarabs appeared to drag her back to Canterlot.

The robotic skeleton turned and began to climb out of the pit, its chest cavity holding something more precious than silver or gold.

It was an ironic end, for the princess of the night, of shadows and trickery, to be slain by an assassin's blade while her back was turned.

But the Factory did not grow with honor. Only the strong will survive, and whilst not orthedox, subtlety had its own strength…

##$##{ After Action Report }##$##

You have been defeated...
Time Played: 2356:12:4:23:55

Target Strength:
Alpha Core: 12% Operational.
Spark-bot: 68% Operational

Units lost:
Explorer x1
Guards x3
Alicorn x1

Expanded:
The Factory prevails over the pathetic ponies this time, having gained an invaluable prize that will allow them to fully unlock the secrets to magic. Though your mind is dead to the world, you in time will return. Only this time, it shall be to the Factory’s call.

A Bronzed Moon

by Eric Longtooth

Chapter 9: Immortality