Gears of Life

by GalacticJam

Investigation

As night fell on the quiet town of ponyville, the flames of watchponies' torches lit up the darkness. The wall shielded the tranquil town from the terrors of the night. In the darkness clad town, one light was still seeping through a small cottage window.

A cyan coloured stallion was looked out of his window, scribbling down on a piece of paper quickly before looking out of the window once more. He walked up to a wall where there were several photos pinned to it. He took one photo off the wall, showing a pair of glowing orange eyes shrouded by shadows.

"What on Equus are these things?" The stallion thought to himself out loud. "The murders aren't linked in any way, they're just attacks on random ponies!"

Suddenly, a figure landed on a roof of a cottage. The stallion blinked in shock as he witnessed the tall figure scan the area. He stumbled towards a small table where he grabbed a camera, he shakily pointed it towards the figure and pressed the small button, causing a blinding flash which illuminated the roof and getting the figure's attention. The figure sharply turned towards the stallion, raising it's right appendage and dashing towards him. The figure smashed through the window and clawed through the stallion with ease, tearing him apart and leaving a fountain of blood.

As the sun began to peek over the hills, the figure retired from the window and into the shadows once more.

---

The entire royal guard was on high alert, several soldiers rushing from one place to another. One rookie guard was running towards a small office, with only one old guard hunched over paperwork inside.

"Sir! News from Ponyville!" The young guard declared.

"Let's see, hand it over!" The officer ordered. "Hmm, this is strange".

"Sir?"

"It appears the criminal or criminals responsible for the murders across Equestria have changed tactics," the officer pulled a whiteboard from the corner of the room. "The murderers usually took the bodies with them, this time they cut up the entire corpse and left it there".

"Dear Celestia, that's horrible!"

"Indeed. This means however that they are becoming more aggressive, which is a grave concern".

"What are your orders then Sir?"

"Double the shifts for all the guards and assign every current reserve guard. Now is not the time to slack!"

"I will relay this to the quartermaster sir!"

"Very good, now run along. Evil doesn't wait for you to catch up".

---

As the sun rose over the hills, a large crowd accumulated in front of a single cottage. The guards stood resiliently in front of the building, blocking anyone attempting to enter. Two stallions slipped past the crowd and shown a badge at the guards, they stood aside and let the duo enter the house. As the door opened, camera flashes went wild the crowd began to become even louder.

The lower floor of the house was like any other house: a cozy living room and a small kitchen. This was not the case for the second floor, as the pair entered a bedroom they observed chunks of flesh on the ground lying on a pool of blood. An old stallion looked up and acknowledged their arrival.

"You the two I've been waiting for then?" The old stallion asked confidently.

"Yes. I'm detective Looking Glass and this is detective Scroll Searcher we've been ordered to investigate this site," the taller stallion answered.

"Finally, I'm going sick just even being in this room. What could even do this to a pony?"

"That's what we're here to find out sir. If you could leave the room for a moment so we can investigate fully".

"Of course, nothing has been removed as ordered," the stallion walked out of the room and turned facing the two. "I hope you find whoever did this, for all our sakes".

The detectives observed the corpse first, looking at the claw marks given by the figure. They looked over different areas of the room next, looking at the broken window, the blood on the wall and on the floor. and the several pictures on the wall showing the same cottage several times but with different dates scribbled on them. Suddenly, Looking Glass found a camera with a picture still hanging from it.

"Look at this," the he called. He picked up the camera and removed the picture from it.

"What is it?" the Scroll asked as he walked behind. "What in the name of Equestria is that?"

The picture shown a bronze, bipedal machine smashing through the window. The machine had two large limbs that were attached to its torso, both with large claws, similar to that of a dragons claw. Its head had two small eyes with a large, square jaw hanging from its head.

"I think we found our murderer Scroll, what do you make of it?"

"Not sure, definitely a construct of some sort. that's for sure," Scroll rubbed his chin as he inspected the picture further. Looking walked towards the wall and then looked out of the window.

"This cottage, it must be connected to this somehow. I wouldn't bet on this guy being some crazy stalker".

"So we got what we came for?"

"Yes, tell the chief what we saw here. I'm going to investigate this cottage".

"Ok, meet you back at the office. I'll get you a coffee on the way back".

The two detectives walked out and split paths as they exited the building. The crowd attempting to question the two detectives but was ultimately held back by the guards posted there.

---

Detective Looking Glass looked over his shoulder as he walked up to the door of what appeared to be a simple Ponyville cottage. He knocked on the heavy wooden door, a voice called out.

"Who is it?"

"I'm detective Looking Glass, I'm here to ask you a couple of questions regarding the recent disturbance around this neighborhood".

A loud sigh came from the door as it opened with a creak, as the light entered the room, Bolted's face was lit up. Looking shown a piece of card that was held in a leather case. Bolted studied it and looked up at him with a frown.

"Make it quick detective, I'm a busy mare," Bolted snapped as she wiped a black liquid off her hoof with a stained rag.

"The victim was a Frigid Dew? Did you know him at all?"

"Never heard of him".

"OK then, are you noted for anything that stands out in Ponyville? Are you known by many ponies?"

"I tend to keep to myself and crowds don't stop for my autograph is that's what you're asking".

"Hmm, where were you at around one AM to six PM?"

"Sleeping," Bolted grunted as she narrowed her eyes.

"One last question, are you a magic us-" Looking asked until he looked up at Bolted's head and stopped. Bolted frowned and ground her teeth together.

"A magic user? I am an enchanter, you unicorns think you own all the magic!" Bolted raised her voice.

"Calm down miss, I wasn't aware of enchanting".

"Oh, because it isn't 'real' magic? Well sorry I wasn't born with a fancy bit of bone attached to my head! We're done here," Bolted slammed the heavy door in Looking's face as she cursed under her breath. Looking walked away from the cottage as he scribbled notes down on a notepad.

"Jeez, what a hot head".

---

Bolted breathed in and out as she looked around her room. She inspected the equine shaped machine, the machine stood just over the size of an average stallion, it was armored with metal plates which protected the intricate innards. Bolted eventually made her way to an armchair and sat down on it. She closed her eyes and eventually began to fall asleep.

---

Bolted woke up and looked around her, she was surrounded by buildings with the sun high in the sky. Bolted lifted herself up and walked around the jungle of buildings. She was suddenly stopped by a guard holding a spear.

"Hey, no Earthies allowed here. You go back in the slums!" The guard shouted as he hit bolted with the back of the spear. As the guard dragged her, she looked around to discover that the city was only inhabited with unicorns. Large statues of unicorns towered above a small slum, which had houses made of wood and mud brick inside of them.

Bolted was thrown to the ground and landed face first in a mound of mud. She looked up to find large crowds of Earth ponies cramped in small shacks. Pegasi lived on the clouds above, throwing their waste over the clouds and landing on the slum below. Bolted stood up and observed the engraving on one of the statues.

This statue commemorates Princess Twilight Sparkle, the person who made Equestria great by destroying it's weakness. Earth Ponies

Bolted began to backpedal as she attempted to escape the slum, but was pushed back by a force-field. She attempted to break the force-field with her hooves but was eventually stopped by two guards who began to club her with batons.

"You Earthies are lucky we even keep you around!" One guard mocked.

"Yeah, good thing you make good labor!" the other guard chuckled as he struck Bolted in the stomach. Suddenly more and more guards charged upon the slum, dragging earth ponies from their homes. Bolted was dragged up to be face to face with Twilight Sparkle.

"I did this, you earth ponies are nothing but scum!" Twilight manically laughed. "It was only a matter of time before this happened, we were always stronger than all of you". Twilight picked up a spear and pointed it towards Bolted's chest.

"You're all monsters!" Bolted screamed.

"We're only stronger, smarter and more powerful than you primates. Now shush," Twilight quickly thrust the spear into Bolted's chest. As Bolted began to bleed out, the world began to shake. A loud knocking sound filled the skies as the shaking became more and more intense. The world began to go black until Bolted shut her eyes.

---

Bolted shot up from the armchair and fell onto the ground, she patted down her chest and then let out a sigh of relief. A loud knocking was coming from the door.

"Bolted? Are you OK?" a familiar voice shouted. Bolted slowly limped towards the door and opened it.

"Yes?" She snapped. "What do you want?" Twilight Sparkle stood in the doorway, she looked Bolted up and down for a few seconds before she cleared her throat.

"Well, I came to see how the machine was coming along".

"What? Oh that, yeah it's coming along OK, should be done tomorrow or the day after".

"That's great, thank you for doing this Bolted".

"Yeah yeah, is this all?"

"Well, I wanted to show you something else. Somepony managed to take the picture of the things that have been creating all this chaos," Twilight takes out a small picture from her bag.

"Well, that's good but how does that benefit me?"

"Well, I wanted to update you on how well we are catching this beast".

"Okay then, is that all?"

"Yes," the door suddenly slammed shut as Twilight nodded her head. Bolted sat back on the armchair and looked over towards the equine machine once more.

"Soon," Bolted muttered to herself. She picked up a large, heavy book and opened it.

---

Night descended once more on Canterlot, guards in massive numbers patrolled the city, the lanterns illuminating the networks of streets and alleyways and the hoofsteps of guards echoing in the night. In one alleyway, three large figures stood at the end like statues. A pony in a cloak walked into the alley, the three figures suddenly knelt down.

"At ease," the figure said with a deep and husky voice. "We have been compromised, they know what we look like and are more vigiliant than ever. We will need to change our approach". One of the figures walked forwards.

"Our numbers have increased threefold, we can execute the next phase," the figure reported. It's voice being clear and deep.

"Good, I must leave. Continue with the next phase commander," the cloaked individual ordered as they walked off into the streets.

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