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// 3- Animatron #671 
// Story: The Lost City 
// by Arctic Inferno 
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The thing stood up and focused on her. The mare took a step back and looked it over; it was in the exact shape of a pony, even the same height as her. The bronze plating it had instead of skin was thick and in a number of places small cogs and pistons breached its surface, spinning around slowly. As it stood it bounced slightly from the clockwork mechanics operating inside it and two small grates it had behind its fake ears hissed out tiny puffs of steam. On its flank was an engraved cog and the letters 'S' and 'C', identical to the lever's design back outside, and instead of eyes there were two glass orbs that had a lifeless feel to them. 'Animatron #671' was engraved on its forehead.

It took a step forward and she took another step back, feeling uneasy as the glass orbs stared her up and down. The animatronic pony's head tilted to the left slightly to look at her as clockwork mechanisms spurred in its head until finally its mouth hung open and a recorded voice played.
"Welcome to Stalwart City," It hummed, taking her by surprise as it was in English and not the ancient language that had been used so commonly in this place, "where innovation meets the common pony. We detect you as an outsider who speaks the language of another race and have tailored our animatronics to address you alone in this manner." The mare took a deep breath and wondered for a moment if the thing 'speaking' to her knew what it was doing, but one brief glance at those empty glass eyes and she dismissed the thought immediately.

Animatron #671 stared at her in silence for a few more moments before a recording picked up again.
"State your name so that we may address you that way in the near future." She looked at it, still finding it hard to believe that such complex machinery worked after so many generations left unused, before finding the nerve to talk.
"... Shimmering Steam. That's my name." She spoke, smoothing out the front of her black coat. A faint whirring sound was heard from within the animatronic, followed by a brief ding and another recording.
"Your name has been recorded. Enjoy your stay here at Stalwart City." On that final note the metal pony wandered off and started to examine the shut door she had entered through. Shimmering sighed, a little unnerved from seeing something that looked like the line between pony and machine, and started frantically searching the room for a way to open the locked door.

A long time passed before Shimmering Steam gave up and slumped against one of the walls to rest. Breathing heavily from the loss of breath she glanced up to look at the animatronic. It was still on the other side of the room but was now looking in her direction with its emotionless face. After a few long, silent moments it trotted up to her and played a recording.
"Greetings, Shimmering Steam," it began, her name sounding distorted as it was made up from a number of other words. "May we be of assistance?" It wasn't so much of a question, more like a statement.
She exhaled heavily and stood up. "Erm, yes. I need that door open," Shimmering said, motioning a hoof in the direction of the big doors to the room. She still couldn't be sure whether the animatronics really worked anymore, past playing mindless recordings. Its head whirred and clicked a little as it continued.
"Door Xk-34." It chirped with absolutely no change of voice, "Commencing action 7bv." It spoke the last few words already on course with the door and waited for a couple of seconds before they slid open smoothly again, then turned back to face her. "Your request has been fulfilled. Please move along," She stood up and examined it in shock. Okay, so perhaps these things still worked after all.
"Well, thank you," She said as if it were a regular pony, walking past it and through the great doors. Her eyes widened and she immediately backed away straight through the doors again.

The streets had dozens of them, moving around aimlessly and whirring, ticking, spinning. Most were on the roads but she could see more emerging from the hatches on the distant walls; animatronic ponies in a swarm, seething through the streets. One had been unnerving alright, but a swarm was straight-up petrifying.

Backing up into the room behind her she bumped back into the animatronic that she had met before. It turned to face her emotionlessly, staring down at her almost like it was judging her. She jumped a little and spun round, moving away from it immediately. She eventually hit the wall with her flank and sunk down as it approached, never taking those glass orbs away from her face. Silence passed disturbed only by her nervous shivering before it played that same recording again. "Greetings, Shimmering Steam. May we be of assistance."

She sucked up her willpower and managed to bring herself to talk. "G-Get me onto a higher floor! I don't want to stay down here!"
"I'm sorry, but that is a restricted area."
"Please, let me upstairs!"
"I'm sorry, but that is a restricted area."
She stood up a little, both fear and irritation filling her.
"Let me upstairs right now!"
"I'm sorry. But that is a restricted area."
She started and almost shrunk back again. The recording's volume had risen significantly and the tone of voice had sounded equally as irritated as hers. Animatron #671 turned around and was about to walk away when she stood up fully and shouted at it.
"Hey! Get me up there right now!"

It turned around to face her again and she came close to screaming in horror. Its glass orb replacements for eyes were now glowing with a strong red hue. Its recording was no longer the gentle voice from before; its pitch was slightly lower, it was distorted in places and had a faint static sound in the background.
"I'm afraid we can't have that."