The construct was forcefully shoved through the wide doors to the solar tyrant's throne room. With her ankles shackled together to limit her strides, and her arms similarly bound behind her back, she clumsily fell on her face, cracks forming and teeth breaking loose.
Landshark couldn't quite remember how things had gotten this bad, but the situation still felt like a logical result of some chain of events she just couldn't quite recall. As she mused, one of the guards roughly picked her up with magic and returned her to a standing position.
"Ah, the iconoclast. So good of you to join us." Celestia stood in front of her throne, wings flared dramatically. Just being looked at by the alicorn made the construct feel as if she were being fired in a kiln. She wondered how all these guards stayed properly hydrated.
"Yeah. I managed to pencil in a short meeting. Schedule's packed, you know?" Landshark shifted her weight slightly. Even now she did little things like that by rote to seem more alive. She tilted her head. "Finally getting rid of me?"
Celestia laughed. "Oh no, nothing so crass. I'm just imposing on you for a few minutes of your time. You'll be free to go afterwards."
A central section of the ceiling slid open, a great cage being lowered down. It was swaying slightly from the movements of the four mares it held. All four of them had thrown themselves onto the floor of the cage in supplication on seeing Celestia.
Unease gripped the construct. She hated seeing her friends like this, although she hated the way the tyrant's presence made them act more than the hated she current situation they were in. That was to Landshark's discredit, she was sure.
Celestia smirked smugly, perhaps sensing the construct's unease, although it quickly transformed into a mask of disdain."You really know how to pick them, don't you? Did you think just because you chose failures and cast-offs, I wouldn't care? All ponies are MY little ponies, however worthless." She shook her head before using her magic to give the dangling cage a good shove, making the prisoners yell in alarm.
"Berry Punch, multiple counts of public intoxication, consorting with a known agitator. You failed to be a useful member of society even before meeting the machine. No big loss here. Ditzy Do ... despite being an imbecile, you did make yourself useful! Not without frequently damaging public property, of course. I don't know why we've been so lenient. Mail carriers are so easily replaced. Lyra Heartstrings, you threw away a promising future in the capital for this? For these ponies? You're a failure by choice, not out of weakness. Inexcusable. Bon Bon. You failed me before. I don't know what possessed me to let you get away with it last time." She cocked her head and adopted a musing tone. "Sunspot activity, maybe?"
"Now, your many and varied failures could normally be ignored, you are your own worst enemies, after all. But since the machine is watching, I'm banishing you all to the sun."
There were audible gasps. A shaky voice, Ditzy's perhaps, made itself heard. "For a thousand years?"
Celestia scowled. "It's the SUN. That's execution, not exile, you idiot!"
Frightened yelling broke out as each of the four caged ponies tried to drown out the others with professions of loyalty and sobbing apologies.
A great armored shutter set into the floor slowly began to slide open, terrible radiance lighting up the room. All that stood between the burning heart of the sun and every mortal in the room was Celestia's will and magic. She laughed. "Remember this, Landshark. You can't wait out the sun. I know you crave companionship. I won't warn my little ponies away from you." She grinned with glee. "But maybe I'll snatch up your next set of friends? Or maybe the ones after that, a hundred years down the line? Who knows! You'll always remember that these four died just for knowing you. Are you going to risk others just to ward off loneliness?"
Landshark didn't respond. She just stared, ineffectually. Her hands twitched with the urge to grab the enemy by the horn and to jab her ceramic fingers into those giant pony eyes until she got through to the brain. It seemed the most logical course of action considering how physically inferior the construct was in many respects. It allowed for a little more distance than attempting to tear out her throat, after all. But the eyes were weak spots. She wanted so badly to kill the alicorn, the urge caused her physical discomfort.
She couldn't, of course. Even if there hadn't been guards in place, the solar tyrant could unmake her as easily as chaff vanishes in a furnace. Landshark was completely powerless. Alicorns were ancient, unfathomable, and had power beyond measure, each in their own ways. The construct had never even been taught basic magic.
On top of her certainty that if only she could destroy the princess, everything would be better, her sadness was growing as well. The friends she had made in this alien world where going to die because they had given her the time of day instead of dismissing her. It stung, worse than her anger, because it was a real, visceral emotion and not something dictated by her nature.
She understood that they were trying to deny her, to assure the tyrant that they would never speak to the construct again. Mortals had so much more to lose than machines, after all. It was understandable. It did add to the hurt she felt, though. She was a social creature, and rejection was unfortunate. She wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of openly displaying her despair, but Celestia seemed to be able to tell regardless.
As the cage was ever so slowly being lowered towards the portal in the floor, Celestia continued to gloat. "I don't know why Discord was so upset about the fact that you're so static! It just means the same thing will hurt you just as much again and again! You'll never just break so thoroughly as to become useless for our entertainment!"
That did seem like a fairly pragmatic view to the construct, but she wasn't sure she felt things quite as strongly as ponies did. Surely eventually she would just bore the alicorns.
"This is highly unrealistic. You know that, right? The Elements of Harmony would not let this come to pass."
Landshark turned her head to face the new voice. As had happened in previous dreams, the presence of Princess Luna brought with it quick lucidity. Nonetheless, it was for the best that the construct remained shackled. In her current state of mind, violence against any alicorn would be as satisfying as it would be counterproductive. Ineffectual as well, of course.
To distract herself briefly from thinking about princesses, she looked about the room again. Her eyes audibly scraped in their sockets. She couldn't recall taking a hard enough hit to the head to explain that, but then, this was a nightmare, so perhaps faceplanting had been enough to cause it.
Everything seemed oddly monochromatic. That hadn't occurred to her before. "Have my dreams always been this drab? I suppose I wouldn't realize it. I'm not much better at remembering dreams than other people."
"No." Luna shook her head. "But your other dreams were set in locations from your memory. This ... is really quite unlike my sister's actual throne room."
Landshark shook her head. "Maybe I'm not much of an aesthetic soul. Didn't remember all the decor details, I guess."
"I was talking about what ponies today would call, I believe, a cheap super-villain deathtrap. A portal into the sun's heart?" Luna sounded half amused, half exasperated.
"Just messing with you." Landshark strained and broke the chains connecting her shackled wrists. "Huh, where there's a will, there's a way, right? At least in here." She focused and some semblance of normal color returned to the location. "I'm getting the hang of this!" The distraction had allowed the realization that she was dreaming to sink in, and she no longer felt the urge to assault Luna just for being an alicorn within arm's reach.
"Now let's see what we can do with this dream."
Luna heard a new voice. She recognized that it was something Landshark was drawing from memory. The voice didn't originate from any specific location in the dream, it seemed to echo from everywhere at once. It wasn't obvious whether this was an intended effect or simply Landshark's lack of practice in shaping her own dream.
"You see, what the First does to those who dare to question, who dare to think? The moment I start believing what I preach, he locks me away. There are many secrets in here, but we will lay them bare. We will strip the stones from this pyramid if need be. Come now, friends. Our rage will be the weapon we use to break down the walls and find the truth. Tell me when you are ready to go."
Landshark smiled. She seemed almost wistful to Luna. The construct nodded to no one in particular. "I'm ready, Delth." She turned to Luna. "I'm weak and powerless, but I'm young. Many of my older sisters had decades, even centuries, of training. They served the First for far longer than I, and most chose freedom nonetheless."
Luna felt the change before it visible occurred, and she was not surprised when chaos suddenly erupted. Great golems of dark metal, many times taller than a pony, began breaking through the very walls of the room. This didn't make a whole lot of sense to anyone who knew the real architecture of the real throne room, but it was a dream, after all.
Scores of constructs, identical to Landshark, stormed the room through the breaches. Most carried weapons, all wore robes and dresses, and all seemed brutally powerful. Strong kicks did not faze them, magic barely harmed them, and they fell upon the guards with terrific screeching and merciless bites, seemingly favoring their teeth over their weapons. It was a gruesome scene.
"I doubt I'll ever be this strong again. Not outside the Underfoot, and I'm certainly never going back, even if I could. But see here, my sister bellikos at the height of our strength. Although I'm afraid I'm not confident that the royal guard would test the height of their skill at arms."
"Evidently not." Luna dead-panned. "Do you remember them fondly?"
Celestia, the Tyrant Sun, was being held at bay by a great many magically trained constructs, although it was evident that the alicorn was only being stalled temporarily. Every one of her searing assaults thinned the numbers of her enemies, while her own defenses held firm.
The great war golems meanwhile secured the cage and began carrying it away. This, too, wasn't particularly realistic. There wasn't really anywhere to flee towards on foot from Canterlot once one had given an alicorn cause to pursue. Still, Luna was well used to dream logic. The innocent mares were away, that was good enough.
Landshark shook her head after a long while. "I barely knew them, as persons. We were all just zealots, cogs in the machine, whatever. I am grateful to Delth for revealing the truth of things, but I was not friends with my sisters. And knowing what I do now, well, I can see that when we rebelled, we were a mob, a horde. My sisters were individually skilled. Great warriors, or assassins, or enchanters."
The construct squared her shoulders. "Maybe my skills aren't legendary, but I learned to be a soldier. To rely on others and to support them in turn. I'm immeasurably proud of what I am, of my fellow renegades, but I've said it before, we were never 'a people', for all that we were stamped from the same mold and shared the Cult of Self."
Luna watched the last of the dream figments fall to Celestia, and events ground to a halt. The captives were rescued, but the cost had been steep. "We're old, Landshark. But even so, I'm not sure we ever experienced something quite like what you went through ... although I suppose my sister experienced a shattering loss when she banished me. I wish I had seen clearer then." She fell quiet for a while. "I'd like to apologize for our last encounter."
"Please don't." The construct shook her head. "You had no way to expect that, and I flew off the handle, as they say. It was a bad reaction, even by my standards." That was the honest truth, but even now the memory made lashing out at Princess Luna seem like a completely sensible and logical idea and not at all idiotic.
She looked away, clumsily changing the topic. "This dream had it all, you know. A cruel god. Innocents suffering at her hands. Me being completely powerless. At least when I dream about the deaths of old friends I know they died doing work with worth and purpose."
Landshark's voice suddenly turned bitter. "But this? This isn't even a credible worry or prediction. I'm sure of it! This is just the loathsome part of my machine mind being cruel to me. It's senseless and would only have served to make me wake up enraged." She balled her fists, her voice booming. "Damn the First and his designs! I won't be manipulated by my own mind." She snapped her jaws shut before calming herself. So much for changing the topic. She was blaming the dream on the same thing as her other outbursts. "So thank you for checking on me, Luna. You've done me a service."
Luna shook her head but tried to smile comfortingly. "Don't think yourself too different from our little ponies, Landshark. You and I know that being a moral pony is anything but easy. You're supposed to fight those brutal, cruel urges that squat deep in the mind of everypony. You have to uphold rules written to protect our standards of behavior in the direst and most trying of times."
"It may be that your own troubles are more persistent, that perhaps they won't ever be silenced for good. I'm not convinced that it is so. Perhaps you're simply out of practice from spending so long in a world with silent gods." Her smile brightened. "Not that we are gods, of course. But you should view your struggles as a point of commonality with mortals. They make you more ... human, I suppose. If it's of any comfort, there are still too many ponies who look down on one or both of the other tribes. Your discomfort regarding alicorns affects a very small number of individuals, compared to that."
The construct snorted and crossed her arms. "Well, I appreciate the reminder, but don't I just feel whiny now? I'm pretty sure I know a pony who would pay hard cash for a night with a comparatively goofy nightmare like this. And I'm also sure Berry would trade her troubles for my urge to get mouthy with alicorns in a heartbeat."
Luna permitted herself a chuckle and gave a slight nod. "Well, I was not going to say anything, but ..." She suddenly grinned and winked. "Perhaps you should see Twilight more often. Or assist one of her friends in playing a prank on her. Some harmless indulgence of your antipathy might ward off the nightmares."
Landshark scratched her head. "That seems incredibly self-serving. But hey, if it comes with the recommendation of a princess, who am I to question?" After a moment, she added, "I know! What about tax evasion? I mean, it's your government I'd be cheating, and I'm a small fry."
"Don't push your luck, Landshark. Our personal indulgence only goes so far once you involve the bureaucracy." Luna was scolding, but couldn't hide a grin.
"Yeah yeah, I suppose you're too powerful to break the rules. Nobody cares if nobles or tycoons cheat and embezzle, everyone expects that. But you alicorns have to hold to your standards or folks start thinking about slippery slopes with Nightmare Moon at the bottom, eh?"
"Quite so, I'm afraid." Luna frowned briefly, but attempted a joke. "Besides, we wouldn't want to upset you, now would we?"
The construct rewarded the effort with a chuckle. "Thanks for the consideration. Trust me, I'd be pretty surly around Canterlot nobles too, but at least that's kind of a natural reaction to the sort of person that only sees stepping stones, rivals, or ambulatory slime molds instead of people." She cocked her head. "Honestly though, I'm surprised you bother with me. Don't you have ponies to be helping?"
"You sleep rarely enough that visiting your nightmares shouldn't be a common occurrence. You are not prone to them, it seems. Your novelty has not quite worn off, either." She lowered her head. "I shall take my leave now. But know you have tempted us to invite you to Canterlot post-haste. I am sure introducing you to the court will be enriching to all involved."
With that, she vanished.
Landshark facepalmed.