//------------------------------// // Chapter X - Broken Pinkie Promise // Story: Archimedes // by Mr101 //------------------------------// Archimedes Chapter X - Broken Pinkie Promise. Archimedes was, to say the least, enjoying himself rather well. He was currently standing at where he had launched a cannon ball into the wall where he had first seen Discord ‘attacking’ Celestia and was assisting the work ponies around him. “Pass us a few bricks, eh?” one called to him from a makeshift scaffolding. “Sure thing!” Archimedes happily replied. He bent down carefully and picked up with ease a stack of bricks and brought them to the ponies height. “Ta,” the pony said as he and a couple others began to continue their work on the wall. The robot would be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed. When he, Disord and Moon Dancer had arrived, the earth pony construction team they were to assist had not only already gotten a secure scaffolding up and ready. But they had already fixed nearly half of the wall damage. “I still think we don’t need to help…” Discord grumbled glumly. He was wearing a high visibility vest and and two hard hats as he spread a dollop of cement down ontop of some of the bricks  before plonking a brick on top and tapping it with the handle of what he refused to call anything but a trowel. “Oh, lighten up, Discord.” Archimedes laughed, “nothing wrong with a bit of physical labor here and there.” “Exactly!” Moon agreed as she sat watching them, her spear idly resting against her body. “If you think it’s so easy, why don't you help us!?” Discord glared at her. “Because, I’m not the one who caused the damage. Nor am I in trouble with the Princess,” Moon replied as she stuck her tongue out at the draconequus. “Princess’ pet…” Discord grumbled again. He let out a loud sigh as he continued the monotonous cycle of placing cement followed by a brick, sighing every five seconds much to the annoyance of the worker ponies. “Discord, try and show some enthusiasm,” Archimedes said as he lifted up another batch of bricks, “after all, you are doing something with friends.” “Don’t you mean friend?” he replied with a huff. “Hey!” Moon shouted with a glare, “I’m your friend!” “Since when?” Discord challenged. “Since you been Archy’s friend. Any friend of his is a friend of mine,” Moon replied. “I knew that was a real phrase!” Discord growled, “That lying pegasus Rainbow owes me fifty bits…” “What?” Moon asked. Discord waved his paw at her, “Not important… say… you know what could make this whole thing easier? If you let me use—” “No!” everyone replied in unison, making the draconequus jump in surprise. “Oh come on,” Discord pouted, “If I use my magic, this gets done in a pinch, you guys get paid and then we can play Dungeons and Dragons!” They stared at him as he beamed at them with a large toothy grin, batting his eyes at the group. “You know…” Archimedes began, “I have to admit that he does have a point…” “You’re not serious, are you?” Moon replied. “Well, think about it. It is a sort of… win-win for everyone, right? The wall gets fixed, these marvelous gents get paid and have their work done for them, we can play Discords little game—” “Little?!” Discord spluttered, “I’ll have you know, this game requires the greatest of intellect to solve cunning and devilishly hard quests in order to save the day! Why, I’m a level twenty paladin with a plus seven mace of purging!” “A paladin… really?” Moon deadpanned. “... Okay I’m a level twenty chaos wizard with a triple magic damage dealing stave. But who's paying attention?” Archimedes’ eyes sparkled a little as he turned to look at Moon, seemingly giving her a look reminiscent of a look a puppy gives when it wants something. Moon Dancer quickly realised why he was looking at her like that and gave him a stern look. “No, the Princess said no chaos magic,” Moon said. Discord slinked over to join Archimedes, the pair giving the bat pony a pleading look. “I said, no,” Moon said firmly. “Actually…” one of the workers said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear, “I wouldn’t mind doing that.” “Can I be a bard?” one asked. “Oh! I wanna be a shaman!” another added. “No!” Moon shouted, stomping her hoof, “No chaos magic! No dungeons and dragons! We are going to do this bloody job properly, is that clear?!” The bat pony huffed and turned her head away, closing her eyes. Only when there was no reply and no sound of work going on did she open them again and look at the group. Who were now all giving her the same pleading look, their lower lips wobbling slightly. Moon Dancer glared at them for what seemed like an eternity before she let out a low sigh. “Fine... but I’m the dungeon master.” Celestia and Luna waited patiently in the throne room for the arrival of Cadance and Twilight. They had sent out the respective scrolls to the princess’ and were anxiously expecting their arrival, knowing that Twilight would most likely arrive first due to the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot against the distance between Canterlot and the Empire. “So, how are we going to play this out, Tia?” Luna asked. “We be honest with them, seeing as how Twilight will be at the meeting. I might as well make a point of keeping Cadence up to speed on things as well,” Celestia replied. Luna nodded as a guard opened the door and saluted, “Your highness, Princess Twilight has arrived.” “Thank you, Sergeant. show her in,” Celestia replied. The sergeant saluted and stepped to the side to allow Twilight to enter.Given the severity Twilight had sensed from the scroll, she had brought along the other elements of harmony. “Greetings, my little ponies,” Celestia smiled. “It’s nice to see you, Princess Celestia and Luna,” Twilight replied with her own smile, “sorry about not informing you that I was bringing the girls with me, but I felt your scroll was one that was really urgent and I thought that—” “That if the situation was truly dire, you may need to call upon the rainbow power of harmony. I understand, Twilight, and do not worry for I feel that they should be privy on what is happening.” “Princess? If ya don’t mind me asking, jus’ what in the hay is going on? Twilight was so flustered and worried earlier and it’s kinda made us all a lil nervous…” Applejack asked. Celestia looked over the group as they all nodded in agreement before she spoke, “All will be revealed once Princess Candence has arrived. Come, let us adjourn to the council room and wait for her arrival, then we can begin.” “Where’s Prince Blueblood?” Twilight asked as the gorup began to make their way out of the throne room. “Our nephew is currently away in Manehatten on business for us, overseeing the opening of the new Royal university there,” Luna replied. “I heard about that, the one that teaches advanced magic not just to unicorns, but the magic that the other pony races can use?” Rainbow Dash asked. Everyone looked at her with a stunned expression, making the rainbow mare huff at them. “What? I read the news from time to time, thank you!” The elements snickered at their friend as they all entered a large room with a beautiful ornate wooden, circle shaped table in the center. There were a fair few dozen seats located around all of them with three of them clearly constructed for the three royals who lived in the capital. “Have a seat, and we can  have some tea and sandwiches whilst we wait,” Celestia said as she took her seat. “Tia, what about Twilight and Cadence? There will be only one of the royal chairs left,” Luna replied as she took her seat. “Oh, I don’t mind sitting on one of the other chairs, Princess. I’m still not used to my own throne back in Ponyville,” Twilight tittered. “Very well, and please. Call me Luna, we’ve been over this,” Luna rolled her eyes and playfully nudged the lavender alicorn with her hoof. “Right, right. Sorry, still getting used to it,” Celestia smiled as she beckoned one of the maids over and ordered for a selection of sandwiches and tea to be brought up as the others chatted to one another, all waiting for Cadence to arrive. After an hour, Princess Cadence finally arrived and joined the rest of them in the council room. Celestia lightly tapped her hoof on the table in order to get the attention of the others. “Thank you for coming, now, let us begin…” The alicorn cleared her throat delicately before continuing, “Earlier this morning, I received a scroll from the Griffon Emperor, Emperor Ironclaw III, in which he makes a mention of a fear he has to his Empire as well as the Kingdom of Equestria.” “I see, but what does this have to do with the Crystal Empire if I may ask, aunty?” Candence asked. “Even though this scroll only makes mention of their Empire and out Kingdom, I have no doubt that this situation will probably affect the Crystal Empire as well, due to the fact of how close an ally you are with us as we are to the Griffons.” Cadence nodded as Celestia looked back to the others. “In two days time, the Emperor will be arriving in Canterlot ahead of our scheduled meeting on the discussion of our alliance in order to talk about these fears he has. Which is why I have brought you two, and now the elements, here to inform you ahead of time so you are brought up to speed.” The group nodded in understanding, expect for Twilight who looked a little puzzled. “If that was the case, why didn’t you just mention that in a simple scroll? Spike is the one who delivers your messages to me, to which I could have passed the message on to the other elements. And cadence has the spell you have that allows scrolls to be sent to her directly from you.” “I must admit, aunty… Twilley has a good point,” Cadence admitted. As the others realised what Twilight said had logic behind it, they turned to Celestia as the alicorn sighed deeply. “I know… but I can’t help but think this all related to the arrival of Archimedes,” Celestia admitted. “W-what?!” Luna gasped, “whatever do you mean, Tia?” “Yeah, Archy ain’t causing trouble. Well, aside from the other day… and the other day in Ponyville,” Pinkie added. “I have to say, Princess. That does seem like you’re jumping to conclusions slightly,” Rarity added as well. “Uh.. can I ask who this Archimedes is?” Cadence asked. “Archy is our super duper bestest robot pal!” Pinkie replied. Twilight saw the confusion in her sister-in-law’s eyes and whispered, “You’ll meet him later.” “I know it does sound strange, but please bear with me. I just can’t help but find it odd that a machine that Starswirl supposedly built just happens to appear a few days before the Griffin Emperor contacts me with the concern of our nations,” Celestia replied. “What do you suggest we do then, Tia?” Luna asked. “We need to find out how Archimedes came to be. We need to find Starswirl’s old tower and try to find out what’s going on once and for all,” Celestia replied, giving everyone a glance. “I agree, no harm in a little bit of past history digging,” Twilight said, “I can look into the archives later to find any map records that lead to his old tower.” “Very well, once the matter with the Emperor has concluded, we shall make our way into the forest and—” A low boom that lightly shook the castle interrupted Celestia, causing everyone to look around in panic. “What on?” Luna said. “Princess!” a guard cried as he burst into the room, “It’s—” “Discord, I should have known,” Celestia let out a frustrated groan as she quickly exited the room, followed quickly by the others. “You won’t win dis!” a tall green bipedal creature shouted. “Yeh, you dum horsie ain’t guna beat us!” Another one added. “Discord, what are you waiting for?! Banish them!” Moon Dancer cried. Discord snarled, “I can’t you stupid bat twit! They stole my rod of magic suppressing!” “Why in the name of all that is holy would you bloody carry that with you?!” Moon shouted back. “Sentimental value?” Discord offered. “You idiot!” Moon snapped back. Moon Dancer ducked as another axe flew past her head and slammed into the wall behind her. She, along with Discord and the builder ponies, were hiding behind a makeshift barrier of bricks, cement bags, two wheelbarrows and some of the scaffolding. Discord had tried to spice up the game of Dungeons and Dragons by making it more realistic, however, he had accidentally summoned some very powerful orcs into the room with them. Somehow, during the scuffle, they managed to steal a red rod from Discord which was preventing him from sending them back into their world. As well as the rod, the orcs had a chest that gave them unlimited weapons dn had decided the logical course of action before they would try leaping out of the window was to throw as many weapons as they could at the makeshift barricade in order to try and get past them. Meanwhile, Archimedes was doing his best to block all incoming attacks as well as keep the orcs at bay. “Archy! use your guns on them and just end this, now!” Moon Dancer shouted. “I can’t! I don’t want to disappoint my love again!” Archimedes refused. “Move eet tin man! We gots stuff to destroy!” One orc shouted. “Yeh!” Another agreed. “Please, Archy! We’re already in enough trouble as it is by letting Discord use his magic!” “But—” “Archimedes! Hostiles are trying to engage and kill Princess Celestia!” Discord suddenly shouted as he let out a yelp, ducking under another axe barely grazed his head. Archimedes eyes suddenly went red as he let out a thunderous roar and turned to face the orcs, the steam coming from his back turning a darker shade of grey. “Engaging enemy hostile.” Archimedes's left and right arm quickly transformed into their respective weapons and without hesitation, he shot a round into the orcs, scattering them and killing two of them in a loud explosion which destroyed more of the wall. He then quickly raised his left which crackled with electricity before an arc of lightning shot out and connected with the bodies of the orcs, electrocuting them as their screams couple with the sounds of the electric ray filled the room. Once they had stopped moving, a plume of smoke rising from their charred, dead bodies. Archimedes eyes returned to normal as Moon Dancer grabbed Discord and shook him violently. “Why did you bloody do that?! We could have handled that better!” “Oh, pish-posh. It got the job done,” Discord replied. He walked over to where the rod lay and hid it before he snapped his fingers, making it, the orcs disappear and the damage repair itself. “See, no problem!” “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Discord…” Discord slowly turned round and gulped, seeing a very eerily calm looking Celestia in the doorway with Luna, Cadence and the elements behind her. But it wasn’t the looks of the elements, Luna and Celestia that got him shaking in fear. It was Pinkie. “So… I see you broke your promise…” Celestia said calmly. “B-but… they said it was fine!” Discord replied, pointing at Moon and Archimedes who were now nervously looking at the group. “I see… maybe they won’t be punished as bad seeing as they didn’t make a certain type of promise,” Celestia replied. “What kind of promise, Princess?” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion. “Tia… please, don’t!” Discord pleaded. Moon Dancer and Archimedes backed up a little, standing beside Discord and both started to shake a little in fear as Celestia gave the draconequus a sweet, but sinister smile. “A pinkie promise…” The room went cold and silent. The three just stared in fear at Pinkie who was shaking a little herself and looking down at the floor. Moon Dancer had heard the tale of the fabled pinkie promise, hearing what had happened to those unfortunate to have broken one. And to those who had helped someone break it. She didn’t know if what she had heard was completely true, but right now. She was bricking it. As for Archimedes, everything in his system was screaming ‘warning!’ at him as he continued to stare at Pinkie. “Oh, we’re so boned…” Moon whispered. “Told you I shouldn’t have used my powers, but oh no you insisted!” Discord snapped at the bat pony. “Not. Now. Discord,” Moon hissed back. “You… broke… a Pinkie… promise…” Pinkie whispered softly before lifting her head up, “Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise!” No matter where you were in the castle that day. You could have easily have heard two things. The sounds of an explosion. And the screams of a mare, a draconequus and a robot.