The War Machine

by Urimas Ebonheart

Chapter 24: Eve's Upgrade

Chrysalis is still out from feeding on Celestia's magic while I've finished my design for my new railgun.

I exit the Trailer and walk over to Luna's room before knocking on the door "Luna, I've finished my design, how is our guest?" I ask her.

The door opens with Luna standing there. "She is well. Her drones have told me she'll be like that for awhile as she processes the magic in her system," she informs me. I look over to the bed and see Chrysalis giggling with a large smile on her face.

"I see, I will then begin a design for Eve's child based body," I tell her and address Eve. "Eve, would you prefer a humanoid or pony body?"

"I would like a pony body like mother please." Her simple response ends up putting a grin on Luna’s face.

"Very well, I shall begin making the design now." I then turn back to Luna. "Let me know when she awakens and then contact Celestia," I ask her.

"Okay," she agrees and returns to her previous conversation with the changelings.

I return to my trailer and create a new folder on the computer named 'Eve alicorn foal frame V0.1'. Over the course of half an hour, I start by constructing the model of the skeletal structure made from Titanium. Once that is done, I begin putting the nanofiber muscles around them with the wires needed to move the limbs of the skeleton around.

This process takes an hour, I then hear noise coming from Luna's room and make my way over to it. I knock on the door as I can hear Chrysalis giggling and talking.

"Adam?" I hear Luna ask.

"Yes, it is me. From the sound of it, I take it Chrysalis is now awake?" I ask her.

"She is, I have already informed my sister and she is already on her way back down," she replies as Chrysalis looks at me.

"Hello, Adam. Luna here was just talking about Celestia's little secret of her cake stash she keeps preserved with a few spells in her room," she tells me and giggles again.

Personally I don't see how that is funny. "I see. As you are fine, I shall return to my work. It is good to see you in better shape now, Chrysalis," I reply and turn back towards my Trailer, where I hear a faint thank you from the Queen.

I resume my work and get started on the core of the body. After having uploaded and analysed my own core blueprint in the computer, I can have Eve harness magic as well, though I plan to tone down the amount of magic generated until such time that Eve can properly control her abilities. I plan the wires and channels to allow the magic to flow throughout the frame, which reminds me I'll need to do the same for myself later.

Mid way through the process, Celestia arrives and I let her in and guide her to Luna's room where she enters with a smile. I leave the alicorns and Queen to their discussions and continue with the design.

I finish the core and start on the built-in flight module. I'll take the F-28 Valkyrie Jet module's design and start thinking of ways to adapt it into the body. I decide to sacrifice speed for a smaller pair of engines which will come out of the sides of the barrel with a pair of retractable wings that will rest on the back, similar to Chrysalis' wings.

This takes me a good extra two hours and fifteen minutes to get right and after simulated testing, I believe it can reach speeds of at most one-hundred and thirty miles an hour.

The next step of the process involves the head containing the circuits, processors, and A.I core forged with a titansteel frame from one of my remaining spare plates I have left where all of Eve's memories and personality will be housed, just without the meltdown fail-safes like mine has. After forty-two minutes of work, Celestia, Chrysalis, Luna, and the two changeling guards exit Luna's room with smiles on their faces.

"I'm so glad we came to an agreement, Chrysalis. We'll have the crystals ready soon and delivered to your Hive," Celestia says to the Queen.

"Yes, well, we would also like these radios Luna told us of as well. It would help us keep in contact and we wouldn't mind having more music to listen to, we don't exactly have the time and resources for many of our own instruments," she replies.

"Of course. Adam? Would you be able to set up an antenna as well as a small station for the changelings?" Celestia asks me once she’d received most of my attention while I set aside a processor for my current task.

"I can do that. I wish to finish the design for Eve's new body first which shouldn't take me too much longer, then I can head out with Luna to build the antenna and station, but they'll have to trade something for the radios I'm afraid," I reply whilst still working on constructing the frame of Eve's core onto the schematic.

Chrysalis sighs and nodded. "We can do that, while building our tunnels we came across plenty of ores and gems which we had not much use for. I suppose we'll have a use for them now."

"That is agreeable. Celestia, will you be supplying the materials for the antenna and station, as we are running low ourselves?" I ask the white alicorn, only glancing up at her to remain mostly respectful of the conversation.

"Yes, we'll have them delivered to you in a few days," she replies and starts heading towards the exit. "It's good to have you as an ally, Chrysalis. And again, I'm so sorry for pushing you and your changelings away so long ago," Celestia adds somberly towards Chrysalis.

"Hmm, while I can say ‘I'm grateful for your help’, I'm still a little cross with you, but I'm sure that will fade in time. And since we're now allies, if you help us with a problem of ours, we'd gladly lend you a hoof in dealing with the gryphons," the Queen says getting Celestia's attention.

"What problem?" Celestia stops to ask her.

"The Scarlet Hive has been attacking us for many years trying to take our Hive for themselves so they could prey on the ponies here. We know where their Hive is after the sacrifice of one of my children discovered it before being killed, we would like Adam's help in... removing the threat they pose to us as well as to you should they succeed in taking over," the Queen explains cautiously. She didn’t want to seem to be begging for so much, especially after how her old enemies and the biped had helped her and hers so much already. She had to retain some semblance of pride in herself and her Hive.

"I see, is it not possible to speak with them in friendly diplomacy?" Celestia asks unsure about it.

"No. Unlike me, Queen Stragna has always been the ‘take first, never ask’ type, she'll not care what you'll have to say and just take what she wants from you and not hesitate to kill you," Chrysalis replies with a frown. "She was responsible for my mother's death over two-hundred years ago."

"So you want revenge as well?" I ask Chrysalis, not looking away from my monitor as I work and at the same time announcing that I had been listening in.

"Of course, she murdered my mother and many other changelings as well as other races, you don't want to know how she drains lo... magic from ponies," the Queen stamps a hoof on the ground, turning to glare in my general direction.

I finally glance over to her despite that I could still watch her through the room’s cameras. "And you're sure she's a threat to us?" I ask to confirm.

"Very much so, I've heard she's already wiped out the Lotus Hive. If you hadn't aid us a few days ago, we may have lost against them. You killing that behemoth has set them back a lot as they take a lot of lov... magic.” Chrysalis takes a second to catch her breath and try to further wrap her mind around the new term of how they fed. “To birth and grow. I still haven't gotten used to it being magic and not love," she mumbles the last part to herself.

"Very well, I find your explanation as satisfactory. Therefore, as your ally, I shall lend my aid to defend both Equestria and your Hive," I announce as I finish the new A.I core's frame design.

"Thank you, it'll be a few months before they'll attack again hopefully, but I'm sure we'll be ready before then," Chrysalis offers a faint smile in return.

With the final pieces of equipment designed and ready for production, I get up and follow the others outside.

"I'll be by in a few days to set up your radio station, if something should happen before then send one of your drones to inform us," I tell Chrysalis.

"Very well. A note, though. It is possible that I could just leave Sheldon here to communicate with you if needed using the hive mind," she replies making the changeling on the right look at his queen with disbelief.

"Very well, he may stay with the thestrals for now as I'm sure they have more tents with them," I say and turn to Luna. "Luna, I am ready to start constructing Eve's new body and require your assistance," I inform her.

"Eve's new body?" Celestia asks with wide eyes.

"Correct, she has chosen the body of a pony. It shall be the size of a filly at first until such time that she is ready for an adult sized one," I explain while heading back inside.

Luna follows me in and we collect all the materials needed for it, we just have enough for a foal sized body but nowhere near the amount required for anything bigger.

"We'll have to get more titanium, steel, copper, and gold tomorrow," I make the passing note to Luna as she starts melting down the titanium for remoulding.

"I can head to the diamond dog town and collect some ore from them, as well as inquire with my sister whether she could give us some more for your assistance in the outpost assault and getting the changelings on our side," she replies.

“I’ll take the Town myself and you speak with your sister. Lighten the load, as it were.” I bring up the schematic onto her workbench screen in order for her to start reshaping the molten titanium into the skeletal structure of the body. The overall process takes two hours and eighteen minutes as she has to hold it in place while it cools so that each ‘bone’ doesn’t fuse to each other.

Once done, I start the process of weaving the nanofiber muscles over the skeletal frame over night while Eve assaults me with questions about her new body and Luna gets some rest so she can help mould the plates for the chassis in the morning.

The time is now six am where Luna has gotten up and lowered the moon, I've finished both forelegs and have started on the hind legs. Luna, after eating her breakfast and a warm shower, has begun making the core's frame from titanium. This takes a good four hours as we want to get this piece perfect without any flaws.

Twilight has arrived during the core's construction and has resumed work on her next rifle. I've also instructed the thestrals to continue with laps and the obstacle course until I say they're ready for the next step.

We continue throughout the day working on the small core making sure it's perfectly made. We don't want this to detonate on startup.

Thanks to Luna's magic, Eve's new body is now ready and tested. The core is functioning perfectly and the flight systems are working as well. Twilight was fascinated by the little robotic body as I controlled it wirelessly during the tests.

The past three days have been uneventful. Diamond dogs arrived with carts of ore and a few gems to replenish our stock, in return they took back some new tools and armour for new guards they're training, I'll have to ask if some of them would like to train here with the thestrals later.

Twilight has progressed in her rifle design in a similar fashion to mine, the top barrel now uses the gryphons lead ammunition while the bottom barrel uses her magic crystal ammunition. She's also begun work on improving the magic crystal bullets to travel faster and retain their magic as they travel.

The materials for the antenna have arrived along with some extra for my involvement of the gryphon outpost assault. I now have enough to make ten adult sized pony frames if I wanted to. Once Eve is in her new body, Luna and I shall make our way over to the Hive and set up their own radio station.

Right now, I'm connecting Luna's computer to Eve's new body in preparation of transferring her data over to its on-board A.I core.

"There, I shall now begin the transfer," I say and start the process with the push of the enter key.

I watch the monitor as the progress bar slowly increases, I'm not taking any chances with this and shall do it slowly to ensure every byte of data makes it over.

"Oh, I can't wait!" Luna exclaims excitedly while hopping on the spot like an hyperactive child.

"Well you'll have to. It may take an hour for the transfer to finish," I tell her and just keep watching the monitor for any complications.

"I know! But the anticipation is killing me!" she replies and I shake my head as she starts jumping on her bed. And she's supposed to be over a thousand years old?

Luna barely contained herself during the transfer, but the progress bar finally hits one-hundred percent as the little pony frame shudders and the systems come online.

I've altered the visor to show two little light blue oval shapes for eyes that can change to show a few variations of emotion like; happy, sad, angry, or annoyance. I shall also upgrade my visor to do the same later after the Hive antenna is up.

After a few seconds, the ovals appear on the visor as the head starts moving around. "Mother?" Eve asks and looks up at Luna.

Luna's giddiness overwhelms her and she levitates the metallic filly up before hugging her tightly.

"Oh this is wonderful! You have no idea how long I've wanted to hold you in my forelegs!" Luna squeals and nuzzles Eve's head affectionately.

"Are your systems functioning correctly?" I ask Eve who turns her head to look at me. The two blue eyes moving across the visor to show where her optics are looking at.

"As far as I can see, father. All systems are running at one-hundred percent efficiency," she replies and looks back to Luna.

"Good, we'll make sure everything continues to run smoothly before Luna and I head out to the Hive and set up their antenna and station," I say and start moving materials out to the front where I'll then have the Apache airlift the supplies to the Hive.

Once all the steel and components we'll need has been made and prepared, I activate the Apache and make it hover over the crate of materials. I then hook it to the Apache and make it ascend higher until it goes above the treeline.

"Are you ready, Luna?" I ask her.

"Yes, and Eve wishes to come with us," she replies as Eve walks up beside her.

"Do you know how your flight system works?" I ask my daughter.

Her hooves light up as the stabilizers under them come online. She lifts off the ground by two feet and holds herself steady. "Yes, father. While you were gathering the materials, I spent time performing simulations with the flight controls and have gained a fair bit of practice."

"Alright, the materials are ready to go. Shall we depart?" I ask Luna who nodded in return.

"Yes, I am quite eager to see Chrysalis' Hive myself," she replies and levitates my Death Machine Minigun over to me. "You might need this though," she says as I take it from her magical grip.

I dedicate two processors towards the Apache and have it hover over us, hopefully the noise it's making will scare off the predators in the forest. We then begin our trek through the forest and to the changeling Hive.