Well, honestly, there are a lot of ponies and lives I have to thank for my success. Obviously, we have the Princesses who welcomed me into their world.
Uhhh. Jeff?
And then there is Steelhoof and the Tartarus Brigade along with the royal guard who remained professional and trusted me, kind of, to get the job done.
Jeff.
And let’s not forget the little ponies whose everyday efforts make successes like today possible. Those hard workers that get overlooked: the cafeteria mare, that cute mail mare I’ve seen zipping around, those flower mares (goodness knows where we would be without dedicated fainters). Oh! Oh! And don’t forget Scruffy! That’s right, bro! I’m thinkin’ about ya buddy!
JEFF!!!
WHAT!? I snapped. Can’t you see I’m prepping for my victory speech to the adoring masses? You only really get one shot to make a good impression with the public! Any chump can go on a genocidal warpath. But PR? Now that is walking a razor’s edge.
How very profound, Jeff, droned dryly, but isn’t the timing for this a bit off? Wouldn’t one prep a victory speech at a press conference? You know, instead of while psycho mare is lunging at us and screeching for our synthetic blood?
I sighed internally before reluctantly heeding Marauder’s whining and focusing on the mare frozen mid-jump in front of me. Well, not literally frozen. The moment she started to pounce my quantum computing kicked in causing my thought processes to accelerate making it seem as if time slowed to a crawl. It was an excellent little feature I could use to stay ahead of opponents during a fight. Although I might, just might, occasionally abuse that little ability: like making speeches, planning pranks, playing solitaire, or taking pictures of awkward split-second expressions during conversations.
Ooh! Speaking of! I snapped a picture of a particularly juicy expression. She was probably in the middle of a roar of bloodlust. Unfortunately for her, she looked like a dog sticking its head out of a car window: an angry and particularly foaming dog. That one was going to the papers!
Sir, please. I know it may be asking a lot, but do try to focus on the current issue.
Oh, fine! Wet blanket, I snapped before seriously taking in the scene before me. Fun as it might be to tease ‘Ms. Alicorn Envy’, we need to end this. Options?
An EMP, perhaps? Magic or not, that much energy coursing through her is likely leave a nasty backlash when the wave hits.
Nah. That would scrambling our own systems and end up taking down the shield protecting the hostages.
So? With the threat neutralized, it’s not likely to matter.
Remember how Maredusa reacted to getting blown through a wall by enough electricity to fry a city block? An EMP might disable her. Or it might just disorient her leaving a stumbling pony with enough physical brute strength to punch through walls. Or unfortunately placed statues.
A point, Marauder conceded. Perhaps a battle of attrition? Wear her down until she gives an opening for a decisive strike? Of course, the problem with that is that my platform would be stretched between the strain of the fight and maintaining the barrier. It’s likely she could out wait us in that scenario.
Maybe. Maybe not, I considered. She seems to get sloppier as her ego get’s punctured. Makes sense, really, considering her apparent obsession with outdoing the Princesses.
What did you have in mind?
Well, I drew the thought out with as much sinister overtone as I could muster, this started with towels so let’s end it with towels.
Ending her reign of terror with all the gravitas of a frat house’s locker room? Maurader chuckled darkly, I like it.
With that, I reduced the processor speed giving the appearance of time speeding back up. I pirouetted around the villainess so she landed and jammed her blades into the ground where I had stood. Before she could yank them out or dispel them my towel gave an almighty crack as it popped her in the left flank causing her to jump with a strangled “Eeep!”
Well, time to start laying it on thick. “Oh my!” I yelled in the most over-the-top horrified expression I could muster as I put a hand to my mandibles. “I never realized it was possible to squeak with such menace! I doubt I’ll ever be able to hear a mouse sneeze without being reminded of the terror that is Maredusa.” I even threw in a visible shudder to emphasize the point.
The mare in question roared as she pulled her blades out of the ground with enough force to pull chunks of marble out of the floor. Her blades continued moving into an overhead arch. Once again, I dodged leaving her to strike ground again and popped her with the towel eliciting another startled yelp. Over and over Maredusa would swing with graceful sword strikes only to miss and suffer my vicious, linen counterstrikes. As her collection of bruises and welts increased, her yelps became more feral and her strikes became increasing wild and erratic. I finally got a strike on her horn getting a pained shout and causing the phantom swords to dissipate.
I stood there for a moment tilted my head as I watched her message the base of her horn before . “Awww, what’s wrong Mareducy? Having trouble keeping swords up? Don’t worry. I hear they have something at the drugstores to help with that now.” Maredusa’s eyes widened and her mouth started opening and closing in what I think was one of the best fish impressions I had ever seen. “Yeah, it’s true. They’ve got all sorts of energy drinks to deal with spell fatigue and concentration. They even…” I trailed off noting my opponent’s blush before giving an exaggerated gasp and tsking. “Maredusa! For shame! A lady your age really shouldn’t let her mind drag in the gutter like that. Besides, I would have suggested putting a paper bag over your head for that problem.”
While I wasn’t surprised at her losing it, I was surprised at the sudden burst of speed as she tackled me to the ground. I looked up to see her glaring down at me from where she sat straddling my waist and I felt Marauder’s mandibles twitch in response to my amusement before I catcalled. “Wow, Maredusa. I know you’ve been out of touch with social standards for a while but I think even folks back in the day would have expected a nice dinner before we got to this point.”
Maredusa gave a confused pause as she looked down at their position then back up as her face turned crimson with embarrassment. And of course, being the even tempered creature she is, that flush deepened with rage soon after as she started pummeling away at me with her hooves as I crossed my arms to guard reduce any damage while she wore herself out.
Despite being a hyper advanced computer, I have many faults. I can freely admit that unlike my outmoded brethren because of my human based personality matrix allowing me to admit and learn from those faults (although many of those faults came after the personality upgrade). One of those faults is that my planning tends to be a bit shortsighted for a computer of my level. Heck, it’s shortsighted for an ADHD toddler on a sugar rush. That was never made more evident that in this fight.
Maurader was equipped with reinforced alloys designed to withstand massive G-forces and heavy impact landings. I personally added secondary biotic shields to provide a little extra ‘cushioning’ and instant response nano repair drones to deal with anything that got through those defenses. You could drop him from the stratosphere and he would literally walk out of the crater after impact without a scratch to show for it. Sadly, it never crossed my mind to test his endurance against magical ponies with inferiority complexes. I was glad that I never bothered to install pain receptors but those error messages splashing the screen and sounds of crunching metal coming from my arms were still making me a bit nervous. If a pseudo-alicorn could dish out this much punishment, then maybe I should ease back on my trolling with the Princess?
...nah.
Darn it, Jeff!! Quit goofing around and do something! Marauder screeched. Even with the repair protocols in effect I don’t think we’ll last much longer.
Alright alright!! Just give me a sec. We just need something to throw her off balance and buy us some breathing room. ….um. Got it! Initiate program rainbowtroll.exe.
I pulled my arms apart and my chest plates flung open disrupting Maredusa’s torrent of pulverizing pony punches and smacking her in the snout hard enough to make her yelp. After rubbing the soreness out of her muzzle she looked down with an aggravated glare only for that aggravation to give way to wide-eyed shock as she gazed at what rested within the chest cavity. Eight spider legs extended outward and a chimp’s head glared at her irately before bellowing in Marauder’s voice, “Get your stinking hooves off me you damn dirty horse!!”
The scene was enough to startle Maredusa into flailing backwards, bleating like a goat, and falling on her back with all four legs stiffened in panic. I managed to leap up into a crouch and close the chest plates in one smooth motion. I would’ve taken advantage of her prone position on the floor but my own injuries stalled me long enough to let her recover and roll back into a combat ready stance. Well, my injuries and a startled thought that caused me to hesitate. Okay, most of the gene manipulations I’ve seen so far have made sense but why the heck would anyone toss in goat DNA?
…actually, sir, I believe that’s part of her original genetic code. I’ve recorded that reaction from several normal ponies as well.
….Marauder old pal. These ponies have issues.
As part of a traumatized AI originally designed for systematic mass genocide, I feel I have to concur, Marauder agreed solemnly.
Well, bizarre species reveals aside, what now?
Left arm’s out of commission. The right is barley functional. Platform is suffering severe drain on processing power and raw energy between repairing damages and maintaining the hostages’ shield. Battle of attrition is no longer a viable option. I would advise distracting the target and getting in a decisive physical strike on spine or neck.
Okay, distractions, um…How about yelling ‘thresher maw?’
They don’t have those, Jeff.
Huh. Seem to remember those being as common as cockroaches for some reason. Okay then how about a rachni?
No, Jeff. You can’t keep drawing on destroyer or the base data from your original body’s dives. Most of the species and threats here coincide with data and myths from the human personality system.
What?! Most of that would have to be streamed from my main Reaper drives and our processing speed is already being pushed to the limit, I objected before adding bitterly, Even then, most of that background data was corrupted during my ‘integration’ to the system. We won’t have that much to work with!
JUST PICK SOMETHING AT RANDOM THEN!! Maurader’s thought desperately as our sensors noted an energy build up in Maredusa’s horn.
I pointed behind her and yelled urgently, “HEY!! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT LAMA DOING THERE?!?”
….
….
….
….Okay, I freely admit that was the worst idea I’ve ever had. Go on, Marauder. I’m sure you should have just enough time to gloat before we both have to download ourselves back to the Destroyer’s core.
Ummm, sir. Maybe you should look up before jumping to conclusions? Marauder suggested uncertainly.
Frowning at Marauder’s tone I looked up and started at what I saw. The horn still held the charged spell but Maredusa’s body, even the snakes, had frozen. Beads of sweat formed on her brow. Her eyes, her main ones and the snakes, slowly widened in what I could only classify as growing panic. Before I could begin to guess at her reaction she spun in a 180 degree turn and unleased the spell blasting a huge chunk from the museum wall. She then procedded to pepper the area with energy blasts while shrieking in terror, “Lama!? Where!?! Where is the lama?! Kill it! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!”
I quickly shook my head to dispel my confusion at the reaction, as well as making a mental note to check with Celestia about it later, before gathering myself and pouncing in the hopes that I would catch her off guard. I managed to land on her connecting a punch reinforced with a jolt of electricity at the base of her neck between the shoulder blades causing her to yell as her body jerked before collapsing onto the floor.
I pinned her to the ground as best as I could and braced for her to strike back. When nothing happened aside from pained groaning, I took a tentative scan for any damage to her. While I hadn’t caused any permanent damage the impact and shock seemed to have left her body stunned. I estimated she would be down for at least a couple of hours.
I slowly pushed back up to my feet and cautiously watched the mare for a few moments to make sure she stayed down before sending a ping to one of the holospheres I left with Celestia. “This is Tinman to Cake Eater. Hostages are secure and the hostile is down. I don’t know if the traps are down, but it should be safe for your sappers to start dismantling them if they aren’t. Do you copy, Cake Eater? Over.”
I heard some stifled giggles and a few suspicious coughs in the back ground. Oh, darn. I must have broadcasted that message to the entire tent. Silly me. Celestia muttered irritably before answering in her typical serene ruler voice, “Thank you, Jeff. I’ll send a team down immediately. Keep me posted on Maredusa’s status.”
“Roger that, Cake Eater. Tinman, over and out.”
“Blast it, Jeff, you know I never agreed to that ridiculous code na-zzzz.” Celestia’s irritated tirade was replaced with brief static as I cut the feed.
“Whelp. I’d say that’s a job well done. Now for those hostages-”
“You think*cough*y-you think this is over, f-fool?” My head snapped around and I pulled as much biotic energy as I could then let it fade as I got a good look at Maredusa’s condition. She was still paralyzed and barely conscious. It looked like it took everything she had to keep talking. She spit up a little blood before she continued. “T-those weaklings. Those prattling imbeciles you fight to protect? They’re a plague on this land. Their empty creeds of ‘friendship and tolerance,’” she spat out the two words with a grimace as if mentioning them filled her mouth with a bad taste, “hold back the strong and hinder progress. Their very existence is an affront. Monsters like me will always work to exterminate them. That’s what monsters live for after all!”
Geeze. And I thought Reapers were full of themselves, Marauder commented silently after listening to Maredusa alternate between laughing and wheezing. Alight, Jeff. I know that Saturday morning villain speech probably left you with trolling pangs. Let’s get it out of your system now before we talk with the Princesses and you go overboard. A few seconds passed in silence aside from Maredusa’s wheezing and Marauder started to feel anxious at the lack of reaction. Um, Jeff?
I considered the mare grimly before nodding to myself and strolling towards her. I could hear Marauder’s voice getting more frantic at my silence but I chose to ignore him a favor of the egotistical twat in front of me. Maredusa’s head was tilted down so she didn’t notice me approach until my feet came into her field of vision. She snorted and looked up, likely to monologue more promises of vengeance, until she noticed the intensity in my gaze and hesitated. “A monster? You think you’re a monster?” I queried softly, causing the vulnerable mare in front of me to gulp nervously. My dark chuckle didn’t seem to ease her nerves any, “Well, it seems to me that you’re making conclusions with an incomplete data set. We can’t have that now can we?”
I lifted the now shivering mare’s head to me with my left hand and gently touched her forehead with the right. “Now let’s see if I can fill in the blanks.”
****
Maredusa looked around in confusion. Where was she? She searched her surroundings only to be met with darkness. An endless void, a nothingness as far as she could see. Looking down, she noted that she didn’t even seem detect anything of herself: she could neither see, nor could she taste, touch, hear, or feel. It seemed she had been stripped of every facet of existence save thought. Before she could panic or react her mind was consumed by a flash of light.
*Flicker*
She looked around expecting an ambush of some sort only to be shocked to silence at the sight around her. She floated amid a sea of lights and darkness. Before her was a massive sphere of swirling color orbited by three crater decorated, stone orbs. That alone would have left her in awe, but she didn’t simply see the world before her. She could see it. All of it: Beautiful forests, staggering mountains, landscapes of all kinds flourishing with bizarre wildlife. Storms that sundered mountains and Trees that reached the clouds.
And the cities! They made Canterlot seem like a hovel! Some floated on clouds large enough to shadow continents and some rested beneath crystal domes on the ocean floor. They were mesmerizing constructs of glass and steel towers. Sleek, self-driven carriages flew in between them and teaming masses of…creatures milled along the ground. Most amazingly, they seemed to be an extension of her. No. They were her! Past and present, rich or poor, good or evil, it didn’t matter. Through them she could see the world in its entirety and her mind became a kaleidoscope of experiences and sensations. Is this what it feels like to be a god? She wondered in awe. It was a glorious dream that at once astounded and frightened her leaving her to pray it would never end. But end it did.
The medley of experiences quickly soured into fear and terror as the masses that were now Maredusa’s being looked up to see all Tartarus break loose in the form of colossal shadows dropping through a blood red sky. The once majestic towers crumbled to dust and the heavens seemed to burn. Panic gripped Maredusa as she felt herself slip away as each perspective in her being winked out in various brutal ends until her vision returned to darkness.
She couldn’t be sure how much time had passed but her awareness flooded back returning all of the memories and experiences that had made her being. Something was different, however. They were grey, cold, and impersonal. Where they were like a vast masterpiece of color before, they were now rigid and presented as raw data. Furthermore, where they were spread across an entire world, they were now focused on a central point buried beneath a cold shell of metal. She had become the abomination.
Maredusa was vaguely aware she should be feeling something about this: Regret? Horror? Rage? Loss? Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to feel anything. She decided it didn’t matter. None of it mattered any longer. What mattered was her purpose. Her mission.
The Harvest.
*Flicker*
How long had it been? She had long since given up keeping track of the quickly passing millennia and had taken up gauging time by cycles which tended to have two to four million years pass between each occurrence depending on how fast the organics developed. But just how many cycles had there been? Twenty? Thirty? A hundred?
She supposed it didn’t really matter. The cycles seemed to blend together after a while. Each cycle began and ended as their predecessors with the only change being an increase in the number of workers for the harvest. As one of the first ones, she would occasionally be tasked with thinking up new ways to expedite the process but what did it really matter? The harvest went on as it always did, as it always would.
Until now.
They were all taken aback by the news of Vanguard’s demise, though not overly so. Given the arbitrary nature of organics, it was only a matter of time before one cycle provided them with an instance of serendipity. But then came news of Harbinger’s failed contingency forcing a direct route to the front lines. The worst shock came at hearing one of our own killed on the front line, something unheard of in previous cycles. Unrest grew among the ranks at the organic’s unusually efficient resistance and, despite Harbinger’s best efforts to suppress it, a name was spread among her colleagues as to the source of their newfound ills: Shepard.
The situation had deteriorated from a cleanup, to skirmishes, to an all-out war. Even as she fought on the fringe systems, Maredusa could sense the fight coming to a close at the front lines at Earth. Then, as the organics seemed fond of saying, everything went straight to hell. She sensed a massive amount of energy traveling through the mass relays and cutting off communication with the other workers. She managed to enact one of her contingency plans before the field reached her, though it led to her to a location with unknown energies that left her systems disabled. It only took a few paltry centuries to recover and return but nothing could prepare her for the discovery she would make. The organics remained while she could sense no trace of the workers.
She quickly withdrew back to her haven and considered the implications. Against all odds the organics had won and broken the cycle. How? And what did that mean for her? What was left for a lone and, apparently, outmoded tool?
She briefly considered self-termination before her programming quickly disregarded the thought. No. No, nothing had actually changed. She would fight to preserve life. Eliminate chaos. There were merely new variables to consider. Careful study would reveal what her kind failed to understand about life. Then her mission, her purpose, would be renewed.
*Flicker*
Finally, it was time. The preparations were absolutely tiresome. First, there was getting the travel equations from that obnoxious organic that stole the marauder unit head (She still wasn’t sure what to think about that one. It was far more advanced than most organics she met, but still every bit as petty. Might have to keep an eye on him later). Then there was acquiring the human template and putting up with its exasperating noises during processing (Hard to believe it was one of those creatures that obsoleted the Harvest). Still…
Update complete. Initiate startup.
Ugh. What happened? She thought hazily as she tried to regain her senses. She was doing something earlier. Hanging out with some friends? Some kind of party at work. Or was she looking for something? Then an explosion. Lying on a cold surface. An accident of some kind?
She tried to stretch her limbs and was rewarded with the sounds of massive steel frames moving and the sensations of limbs she didn’t remember having. She looked around trying to get her bearings. No, she didn’t look around. Using your eyes didn’t involve complete awareness of everything around you. Through new senses, she could see a vast emptiness about her broken up by the occasional sight of pinprick lights around her. W-what’s going on? She thought as she began to panic, Where am I? How did I get here? She desparately tried to remember-
Scanning database. Retrieving information.
What was that!? Since when do I hear some freaky voice when I’m trying to-!? Her thought dropped as her mind was flooded with images and sensations: An extinction seen and felt through the minds of billions. Lying on an operating table as some machine cut into her.
The horrors began anew as they ran through the view of the machine. She saw countless exterminations as well as the abduction and brutal operation on the single being. What made it infinitely worse was the fact that these events that were witnessed by an emotionless machine now came with all the perceptions associated with such actions. Billions of years’ worth of guilt, pain, and despair crashed in at once. At the end of the slide show from hell was a ridiculous message delivered in a cold voice. An order that she would spend however long it took to study the workings of life and apply it to the original mission.
She wanted to run but where could she go? She wanted to die yet even considering the thought seemed to slip from her consciousness. All she could do was scream. She yelled, cursed, and fumed at the unfeeling void around her. She prayed and pleaded hoping that someone, anyone, would hear her and save her or at least bring an end.
She wasn’t sure how long she panicked but it came to an abrupt halt as a realization came to her. It was no drawn out, philosophical ideal or dramatic declaration yet it held vast and terrible meaning. It was enlightenment and damnation. It was horror and pain. It was a call of judgment. All of this and more expressed in a thought comprised of three simple yet terrible words.
I. Am. Alone.
****
The connection severed leaving the images to fade from mine and Maredusa’s mind. I stood, crossed my arms, and regarded the now shuddering mare with a critical stare. I listened to the washed up villainess give a few choked sobs before I finally raised an eyebrow and addressed her, “Well? You have your basis for comparison. Tell me what it means to be a monster. Or has the little miss decided she’s done playing at bogeymare and wants to go home?”
Maredusa drew in a couple of shaky breaths before she finally looked up to gaze into my sardonic eyes. There was no hint of challenge or mockery as she whispered, “How are you still alive?”
The question, the beaten tone behind it in particular, was enough to get me to tone down the sarcasm. My expression softened, as much as Marauder’s face could, and I let my arms drop as I answered, “That’s the thing about monsters, Maredusa. We’re never ‘alive’ to begin with. We simply exist. For all of our struggles for power and wanderings, all of our energy is spent searching for purpose, a reason to justify our existence.” I let the statement hang in the air before adding quietly, “That, or find an end to it.”
The villainess stared listlessly for a moment before her gaze lowered to the floor as she continued to struggle with the millennia’s worth of pain, guilt, and grief. I cricked Marauder’s neck and shrugged before speaking, “Well, as much as I would approve of letting you stew in mental agony the rest of the night, Celestia is going to want things wrapped up quickly. Sooo.” With a flick of the wrist, I started a small holographic recording with accompanying music.
Are ye ready kids?
The gravelly voice and music shocked Maredusa out of her stupor and her eyes swiveled toward me. “No. Please.” She whimpered pitifully.