Fray was in the simulator, in a dark cave. She felt the ground begin to tremble, and the stalactites came crashing down. Thinking quickly, she took to the air, dodging the fatal rocks. When the ceiling itself began to cave in, she landed, stomped on the ground, and lit up a brilliant display of copper lighting, turning the rocks into dust.
"She's so amazing!!!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
Tripwire didn't reply. A signal was tracking her.
..............................
"Excuse me, sir," Overdrive said to the mastermind, "It appears that a frayed circuit has led to our second prototype malfunctioning and going rogue.
"I should have known," replied the stallion on the line, "considering what happened to our original version."
"What should we do?" Overdrive asked.
"Shut it down and deactivate the systems. Our Canterlot branch is developing one of its own and the calibrations have been promising. But I thought that you had this frayed circuit examined. How did the robot go rogue?"
"Earlier today, I heard strange noises in the lab. When I looked in, there was nothing but a mess of wires. The robot was in cybersleep. An outside force activated it. Tripwire must have found our data and somehow teleported it out while activating it."
Silence.
"Of course," the mastermind said,
"Is his lab still there?"
"As far as I know, yes."
"Then that's where our prototype is. Deactivate it permanently. Don't bother rewiring it. We'll just pull out the stops with prototype number 331987. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir," Overdrive said, ending the call. He had a job to do.
............................
Tripwire slammed his hoof on the "stop" button, ending the cave scene.
"Circuit Fray!" He yelled, just as she slumped over.
"What's going on!?" Twilight asked. Everyone had worried looks on their faces.
Trip didn't bother running. He teleported himself and Fray to the maneframe. He did a quick scan to confirm his suspicions of her being deactivated.
He quickly inserted Fray's horn into the port in the computer. She wasn't gone yet. It takes a robot about the same time to deactivate as it takes a normal pony to die from suffocation or the like.
He pulled up the deactivation code coming in and immediately began writing a code to counter it.
......................
Overdrive saw the code coming in.
'Tripwire?' He thought, 'Of course. He's been a thorn in CREATion's side ever since he killed Blown Fuse. Not to mention the other robots he made.'
He frantically tried to keep the code up and running.
............................
Tripwire was no longer relying on his living mind. His computer mind was easily overpowering the deactivation code.
............................
'I can't keep this up,' Overdrive thought, 'but I can send 331987 his way once it's ready. That son-of-a-madmare will pay.'
.............................
Circuit Fray stirred, and opened her eyes.
Spark ran into the room with Infra at his side.
"Tripwire!" He practically yelled, "I was looking into some codes and I found out the locations of two other alicorn robots!"
"Wait, what?" Axle said, peeking in.
"Trip's not the only one who can hack," Infra said.
"Wha--what happened?" Fray said, dazed.
"CREATion tried to deactivate you," Trip said, "They know that you're here. However, while I countered their code, I shut off the signal being used to track you. You're safe here."
"But what about the two other alicorns?" Infra asked.
"One has been abandoned and one is in progress. The former is in a lab in the Crystal Empire and the latter is in a lab beneath Canterlot."
"Canterlot!?" Luna exclaimed.
"Sadly, yes," Spark said, "We'll send a message, but it would probably be an ideal move if you went to Canterlot yourself to help prepare for anything."
Luna nodded.
.....................
In the sleeping quarters, Rainbow Dash and Axle entered.
"My goodness!" Rarity exclaimed, "You both need a bath! No offense, but you smell like a dead body."
"How would ya know what a dead body smells like?" Applejack asked, waking up.
"Opal sometimes brings a mouse onto the front doorstep. Sometimes they'll sit there for days," she said, shuddering.
"I reckon that you two were keepin' watch over Spring Trap."
"Yeah!" Rainbow said, "It was awesome!"
"Spring got us at 5 am, but Dash kept him on his toes," Axle said, "Then I just unleashed my blades and kept slashing him."
"You should have seen his inside!" Dash said, "It looked like there were intestines inside or something."
Of course, their shouting woke up the others.
"I don't know why they like this," Fluttershy whispered.
"No kidding," Tesla added.