Three little fillies busted through the doors of the castle. Behind them, the entirety of Moletown population cheered as they knew that their days of tyranny had ended. With the people behind them, the liberators ran down the length of the great hall, being joined by servants and staff in their triumphant march. until they reached the final door at the very back. A single collective buck sent the door of its hinges.
“Moleking” they said. “You are under arrest.”
The mole king fell down from his throne and landed on his knees in front of the fillies.
“Oh no. I have been defeated. Please dear fillies, Have mercy.”
“Only if you give back the Sunstone, and promise to never again try to mind control any worms.” Said Scootaloo.
“Oh take it, take it.” The mole king sighed, Protruding the suntone from his back.
The organ instantly fell silent, and then the Earthmother busted through the wall with Grandmole riding on her back. She tore the roof of the castle, and whistled to all the little worms who were happy that they were now free. And the whole mole kingdom cheered that Grandmole was now back and they made her their new queen and Sim became their prince. And the three fillies got rewarded with many hugs and kisses from their sisters and no one was mad at them and everyone lived happily ever after.
The end.
“So – What do you think?” Said Scootaloo. “We go in there and we force him to surrender.”
Her big smile shone in a silvery blue from the glowing mushrooms hanging round her neck. In the Time that Sweetie had been gone underwater, Applebloom had put her herbalist skills to use. By tying together the roots to make string, she had made a set of glowing necklaces for them all. It made a good substitute for the flashlights they had lost.
“That's not much of a plan.” Said the necklaces maker. “In fact its more of a fairy tale.”
“I liked it.” Said Sim “Paticulary the part where I became prince.”
“That's just because you were the one to add that in. Besides, should we not focus a little more on what we are actually going to do when we get to Moletown, instead of what we wish would happen? Do you really think we will just be able to stroll into the castle like that? And what happens if the mole king does not surrender?”
“Then we kick his ass.” said Scootaloo. Punching her hooves in the air.
“Him and all the worms he has under his control.” Said Sweetie. “If what grandmole told us is true. He would have complete control over every Tunnelworm in that place.”
“Of course what she said was true.” Said Sim “Why should it not be true? Are you doubting my grandma?”
“No, I'm just saying that it would be very very bad. Remember that it wasn't exactly easy to take on even one of them. Imagine a whole army. Imagine that whole tower of Tunnelworms that Sim made, all coming for us.”
“Yeah. But we don't have to worry about anything. You could take them. Right Sweetie? Don't you have like Infinite power now?”
Sweetie didn't answer. She had relaid all the news as best she could. Though she toyed with the idea of infinite, she wasn't sure how true it was.
She was currently drilling their way towards moletown, the conversation being held as they walked. (a conversation made easier with the new drill being a lot quieter then the old one.)
She had been so caught up in the moment of her new upgrade that she had not eaten a single crystal in a while now. Her belly - and thus her crystal reserves - were empty. The drill was draining her battery. And her battery was draining her Heart-Drive of its illustrious energies.
Though the magical energy of friendship and feeling might be a renewable energy, her Logic center reminded her that didn't mean it was infinite. It reminded her that a pony could still be drained of their love by an evil changeling.
The worst part was that sweetie had no way of measuring how much of that energy she had stored in her Heart-Drive. Only how much was being converted into electricity. The energy was of a different wavelength then her equipment could register.
And the Idea of over-straining her Heart-Drive was one she was not comfortable with testing. What if she shattered her Heart-Drive? Like the levitation crystals she had used today.
She made an internal check of her repair program. If the worst came to the worst. She had some manner of cybernetic sludge in her restoration buffer. It was mainly used for maintaining her cybernetic disks. But if the worst came to worst it could be used to restore a broken heart.
“I'd rather not we hurt any worms.” Sweetie said. “They are the victims here, being mind controlled by that organ.”
“The organ should definitely be our main concern.” Said Applebloom If we could just disable it, the mole king would not have any real power.”
“Then we just gotta hope that we can explain the whole situation to everyone.”
“One thing at a time.” Said Applebloom , How are we gonna get to the organ? The castle is surely to be guarded.”
Scootaloo smiled.
”Good thing we don't have to go through the front door then.”
“Scoot is right.” Said Sweetie.” That organ is built into the bedrock at the very end of the castle. We simply have to make our own way there.”
“Leave it to me!” Sim hollered. And pulled a wire to change the direction of the drill. Using her sense of the underground. She steered Sweetie Straight for the back of the castle.
***
one Journey later ...
***
“You are sure this is the way?” Sweetie yelled.
She was running in the direction Sim steered her towards. Their dark and dirty suroundings had been replaced by by a more sand colored stone that was characteristic of Moletown, and the Molekins castle.
Sweetie hated being steered, and she hated not being able to see where she was going. It was like running blindfolded, which was even worse when you knew your end goal was to smack into something.
“Of course.” Sim awnsered “If I know my sense of direction, and noboddy knows it like me. We are about to crash straight through the backside of the castle.”
“Just be carefull.” Applebloom shouted right behind her. “We don't wanna bring the whole place down. Remember there might be moles working in the Organ room. And we don't wanna destroy the Sunstone.”
“Maybe we could smash the organ carefully.” Scootaloo suggested. “I mean, its should not be to difficult to dismantle it from behind.”
She had just finished her sentence when she ran into Applebloom, who had made a sudden stop because she ran into Sweetie belle. Who had made a very sudden stop because the drill in front of her had made a very sudden stop.
“What in the?” Sim asked as she pulled herself up inside Sweeties head. “What did we hit? The palace isn't supposed to be for another dozen meters or so.”
Sweetie tried to push herself forward. Without result.
“I don't know, but it is solid.”
Sim pulled a wire to retract the drill. Then climbed out of sweeties horn to join the other in the inspection of their obstacle.
“Its metal.” Said Applebloom.
She dug with her hoof to scrape away the edges of sweeties tunnel. Doing so reveal a wall of red iron.
“Did we hit an iron vein or something?”
“No” Said Sim “That's no natural red iron deposit, that is smelted and forged red iron.”
“You mean someone put this here?” Applebloom tapped her hoof against the iron. It sounded hollow, but thick. Really thick. “Did the mole king predict an attack from this direction?”
“But why did he paint the outside Red?” Scootaloo asked “the side that is only facing into the sandstone?”
“That isn't paint.” Said Sim “Its red iron. Red. Duh! The strongest metals we are able to produce.”
Sweetie put her ear to the red iron. She could pick up the tunes of the organ, vibrating through the iron like an echo. But there was something else coming from inside this casket of metal. Something mechanical. Like a big engine starting up.
It occurred to sweetie that she had only ever seen the front of the organ. She had heard from class that organs were much more then just a piano with pipes. That there were a forest of tubes and pipes behind what you saw.
-:: Like the tip of the iceberg ::-
“I knew the organ was big” She said “ But I had no idea it was this big. It should not stretch this far into the bedrock.”
Sim shook her head and climbed back into Sweeties head.
“You know what. It doesn't matter. Well break through it. If my dads drill could break through Celestia's vault it can break through this.”
She had barely finished her sentence before their tunnel began to shake. The walls exploded inwards and a worm appeared in front of them. It crossed their tunnel without even taking notice. It was joined a second later by another, and another.
The fillies retreated back into their tunnel and rubbed the sand out of their manes. In front of them a never ending stream of Tunnelworms were crawling across the red iron. A waterfall of sand was falling as they were making a chasm between the red iron and the sandstone.
“What is going on here?” Scootaloo asked.
“I don't know. But I'm sure it is bad.” Said Sweetie. “Come on, we got to stop him before he Starts it up.”
“Then come on!” Said Sim, and tugged on Sweeties wires “We got to drill through right here!”
Sweetie denied the power to rush to her horn.
“No! Look at that chasm.” She pointed at the worms work. “Its too wide to get any hoofhold to push the drill into the metal. And besides, We weren't gonna hurt any worms.”
Sim mutered something that was likely a curse at the mole kings fiendness.
“Fine, what do you suggest.”
“We go around the other way.” She said, and let the power through to her horn, folding out her drill and making a side tunnel around the castle.
“What exactly is starting up? Applebloom asked as they ran.
I don't know. But I'm sure we have to stop him before he finishes whatever whatever he is doing.”
***
“Oh woe us, woe us! Moleking, why have you forsaken us?”
Moletown was in an upheaval when the fillies emerged. The previously so efficiently working town had broken down under some form of mass hysteria. Moles were openly crying in the streets. Some were running around crying of doom, While most were simply milling about in general confusion and unrest.
Moles in City guard armor were trying to keep order. But most were just blowing their whistles, wondering why nothing was happening.
No worms swept to aid them. The worm riders were left stranded in the confused crowd as their steeds rode away without them. The wagons and pulleys had stopped in the streets as their pullers wriggled out of their harness and disappeared. Even the many mining expeditions were now coming back to town, chasing their heavy lifters who had decides to leave work early today.
Every mole with a whistle was using them, and all getting a similar reaction, which was none.
“What is going on?” Sweetie asked the nearest mole.
“The worms. The worms have forsaken us! The sacred whistles, they do nothing. Oh woe us, why hasn't the mole king done something!?”
Then he seemed to realize he was talking to a pony.
“Oh blessed child of the heavens, have you returned to aid us in our time of need?”
“Something like that.”
The fillies looked in the same direction that everyone else was looking. Every worm in town was heading towards the castle. And they didn't just gather outside the gate to await some villainous speech from the king. They were digging themselves into the sandstone.
As they watched. They saw the rear towers fall to sand as shoals of worms pushed themselves through it. Still more was coming from all over the place, Wrigling out of their mines and sometimes taking shortcuts through the earth.
Sweetie wondered how many worms might not be currently tunneling towards the castle right now, unseen by their naked eyes as they swam through the earth from all directions.
-:: The tip of the iceberg ::-
“Hes calling them all to him.” Cried Sim “Cheap bastard is stealing my trick!”
“We need to get to the castle, Quick!” Cried Scootaloo. And pushed forward, ignoring the crowd that was gathering around them.
“The children of the sky has returned.” 'They cried. “They will save us.”
“Yeah. Of course we will.” Sweetie muttered as they ran for the castle.
***
At the gates of the castle. There were half a dozen moles standing guards, clad in armor and wielding spears. Spears that were currently pointing out towards the fillies and the crowd that had gathered behind them.
“What are you doing, cant you see what is happening!” Sweetie yelled at them.
“Our king told us to stand guard, and not let any mole enter.”
“Do we look like moles to you?”
“Eeeeh...”
The nervous looking guard cowered as another wave of sand washed down over their heads.
“Oh woe us, why hasn't the mole king done something!?” he cried.
“Oh. I think he is doing something.” Said Scootaloo. “someting bad.”
“ You speak ill of our king! Blasphermous.”
Applebloom put on a strained smile and gently pushed Scoot aside.
“What my friend means is, something bad might have happened to the mole king.”
The guards exchanged nervous glares.
“Look. We don't have time to explain everything now. But something very bad is at hoof, and we are here to put a stop to it.”
“You would not want to stop three fillies from the surface to do the right thing now do you?” Sweetie added.
the guards looked at each other.
“No? … ”
“Good. Now shut up and open the gate. Before its too late.”
***
The inside of the castle was empty. No staff or servants could be seen anywhere. In fact – it was pretty much the opposite of their “Best case scenario” fantasies. Sweetie just hoped that the opposites wouldn't stretch too far.
The one thing the castle was not, was silent. In here, the roar of starting engines was even cleared.
“Well that was easy.” Said Scootaloo. As the kings guard closed the door behind them.
"Lets just hope the next part will be to.” Said applebloom.
The fillies ran for the back of the great hall. Past all the murals and statues that were strewn out across the palace. Murals and statues depicting moles, and only moles, playing on the surface. A surface with no ponies.
At the end of the hall, a big steel door waited for them. Applebloom tried bucking it, but to no avail. And shouting wasn't exactly gonna wield any results. Sim suggested that they simply drill the doors up.
“Wait.” Said Sweetie “Who is controlling these doors. They look a little to heavy for moles. And everyone is outside.”
“What do you mean who is controlling it.” Sim was getting annoyed. “You just press the button and it swings around..”
“So its mechanical!”
Sweetie looked around, and noticed a small panel sticking out of the wall next to the doors.
The panel was bolted shut, but that didn't prove too much of a hindrance. As sweetie suspected, inside was couple of crystals and wired that must control the hinge mechanism.
She shut her eyes and headbutted the panel. Putting her horn into it. After a hoofull of seconds, the doors creaked and begun to swing open.
”Cool” said Sim. ”How do you do that?”
”As long as im conected to the system I can extend myself into it so to speak” Sweetie explained.”It becomes a part of me. And i become a part of it.”
”So its like you are putting your soul into the machine. Since energy is like your soul”
Sweetie smiled. ”In a way yes.”
”Cool. How does that feel?”
”Like exploring a whole new world. All the paths of its elektroniks. The corridors of its wires. The landscape of its data. Also. If i take full controle over it, its like im becoming bigger. Like its a new part of me.
Sweetie broke the conection. And opened her own eyes again
“Does that mean there is a part of you in this door now?” Sim asked
“No. Once I break the conection I get pulled back into myself. nothing of me remains in the other system.”
“Wow Sweetie. It really is like you are using a spell.” Said Applebloom.
“Alohomora! Alakazam!” Scoot said while gesturing theatrically towards the doors.
Sweetie Pondered. She had been focusing so much on being able to use magic like a normal unicorn that she had forgotten that her real talent was in cyber magic. Even if her magic only worked on other electronick things, it was something of hers, something that made her unique (appart from everything else).
It was her dilemma. She thought it was so much fun to be different. Yet there where times she wanted to be like everypony else to.
She rubbed her skin. Maybe that's why Rarity always insisted that she wear her skin?
No time to ponder any further. The doors swung open enough for the Fillies to jump through into the final room.
“Moleking” Scoot shouted. “You are under arrest.”
“Arrested? My, my. My little child. Whoever gave you that authority?”
The tone in his voice pretty much instantly got under sweeties skin, then it got under the magnetic locks holding her skin to her iron shell. Then it tot under her shell as well and shook her to the core.
“Don't you try that voice on us. You tricked us into robbing Celestia. You stole the Sunstone. You got us thrown in jail. And then you tried to blow up a bridge under us!”
“Yes. I admit. You three have been annoyingly difficult to get rid of. ”
The scene before them was of the giant organ. The mole king was seated high up above the floor, on a throne in front of a giant keyboard. Beneath him, the circular hole to the furnace where fire crystals had once been tossed like coal to keep the organ going, was glowing like a red hot eye. The whole room was glowing with an ominous red light. There seemed to be more lights blinking on the giant instrument then there had been before. The pipes of the organ, burrowing themselves deep into the sandstone, was vibrating. Bits of rock and gravel were shaken loose and falling from the roof. And the sound of a starting engine was only increasing.
“Its over moleking.“ Scootaloo shouted. “We have come to stop you.”
“You? Little fillies, you are far to late."
The mole king laughed and hit a key on his keyboard. A great slimy tumble was heard over the rumble of machines. Through the doors behind them. A wave of slimy worms pushed themselves into the room. They all but flew over the fillies in a slimy avalanche, wrapping themselves around them like snakes. (nad other rope like metaphors.) They filled the room like a tidal wave made of flesh. Berrying the fillies with not just their size, but their mass as well.
The fillies were lifted off the floor. Applebloom and Scootaloo were overpowered first, grabbed by a single worm each. Sweetie only resisted for a few seconds longer thanks to her machine strength. But that only resulted in more worms bearing down upon her. The harder sweetie struggled, the tighter the worms gripped. Until she, too was caught. Wrapped in a tight package of worms that covered the floor from wall to wall.
This was the second time today she was covered by long slimy meat tentacles.
The mole king laughed and hit another button, making the great iron doors to this chamber close on mechanical hinges.
“There, there. My little children.” Said the mole king “Don't struggle, Its pointless. And once you've realized that, it will be so much easier for you to just know your place.”
”Sweetie! Zapp him!” Sim cried inside Sweeties head.
Sweetie looked up towards the throne. But found both it, and the mole king missing. The entire podium upon which the keyboard was located rotated, and descended downwards into the organ itself. Before a metal plate slit into place to cover the hole.
“Now if you excuse me. I think I am long overdue for a reunion with a certain worm queen. ”
The mole kings voice came at them like an enhanced eco, from somewhere inside the organ.
“You'll never find the eart mother!” Cried scootaloo.
Is that what they call her? Oh well it donsnt matter. I have already found her. You found her for me in fact. That little tunnel you left behind my machine will lead me straight to her.”
-:: Crap ::-
“I guess I should thank you. You are after all the ones who has ensured my dominace.”
“No. I'm serious.” Said Scootaloo. “You'll never find the earth mother, not stuck in that organ of yours. Your magic tunes will never reach her.”
“Oh is that so?” Said the king “well I guess its a good thing my music ain't staying here.”
The sound of mighty engines roared to a deafening volume. The whole room started to shake, cracks formed in the walls and floor as the organ tore itself from its seat. It was pulled backwards, into the hole that the tunnel worms had dug behind it. And as the forth wall of the room when away, the organ revealed itself to be the tip of a giant sphere of red iron. A central body standing on four thick, crab like legs.
The single eye of the furnace was joined by several others, shining like red hot eyes of a giant red hot metal monster
The whole bedrock shook as the machine pulled itself from its resting place, revealing two And wielding two giant claws for arms.
All around the machine, a shoal of tunnelworms swam through the earth. Digging and adjusting the surface as rocks and sand continously fell from the loosened earth above.
As the machine rose. Sweetie got one last good look at the mural at the roof of the chapel. The depiction of a single mole facing the blazing heat of the big red sun. Its meaning was now painfully clear to her.
“Behold.” Said the king “My masterpiece.”
“Well. Someone is clearly overcompensating for something.” Said Applebloom.
”You'll never take the surface!” Shouted Scootaloo.
”I already have.” Said the mole king from his cockpit.
”That was the worst cliche ever. Of all time.” Said Applebloom.
”No. I'm serious,” Said Scootaloo” You'll never take the surface. you might think you are a big shot down here. But up there in the real world. There are a thousand ponies that Could kick your ass!
”They are gonna have to eat worms before they do!” The mole king laughed.
The machine turned, and left by pushing its way through the sand and earth. Not so much digging or drilling. It didn't have to. It merely pushed itself through the sand and earth that the worms had softened up for him. It didn't have to dig, the worms were tunneling for him.
The hole the machine left was quickly filled as the undermined sandstone above came caching down. Leaving the fillies stranded in a small room of three walls and one giant wall of sand, and up to their necks (literally) in worms.
”A thousand ponies?” Appelbloom spoke in disbelief.
”No, I'm serious. He'll never take the surface” Said Scootaloo ”Oh sure, there might not be a thousand. But But we have at least 4 alicorns. And a roster of heroes who have all faces way bigger threats, heck, he is probably the smallest threat yet. Literally.”
She giggled.
“Our sisters will stop him. Heck, Rainbow dash can probably kick that guys ass alone.”
”Great. But where does that leave us? I'd very much not like to be found in this sorry state. ”
“And who is gonna warn them in time? The first village that thing attacks will be left completely unprepared.”
Which do you even think is the closest village.
They all looked at each other.
“We gotta get up there now!”
Sweetie pushed and pulled against her restrictions as well as her captors. But the worms were packed so tightly that she wouldn't be able to move them. Not without punching her hooves straight through their skin and rendering them into wormy mush.
-:: Restrictions:: Sympathy for living creatures ::-
-:: Killing: Bad ::-
-:: They are just victims of a mind controlling flute ::-
Sweetie cursed at her self imposed restrictions. She could not bring herself to hurt another, Well , she could, But she doubted hurting them would be enough. These things would not be removed without killing them.
“Any Ideas?”
“Try whistling.” Said Scoot, trying to force out a whistle herself. “Sweetie! Arent you able to record sound-files? Cant you imitate what the flutes sounds like.”
Sweetie tried. She whistles as loud as she could. She increased her volume until she was sounding like a broken steam whistle. But nothing happened.
“It dosen't work. Why dosen't it work?”
“I though these stupids worms were supposed to listen to whistles!” Said Scooraloo. “Do you hear that you stupid worm! Why don't you listen?”
She bent her head down and bit the worm, only for the big worm to tighten its grip under her jaw so that she was no longer able to tilt her head.
“Its no use.” Said Sim. “The worms only responds to the deep tunes of the magic flute. And the mole king has pretty much overridden any other influences. It used to be just a low hypnotic trans that left their minds open to submission from other sources.”
But now with the Sunstone, he is blasting his base harder then Vinyl Scratch on an epic rave.” Sweetie finished ”Other flutes are useless now.”
“Then how did the earth mother escape being mind controlled?”
“She's bigger. Maybe they need to be closer, and have a higher tune. Said Applebloom.”
“And she was submerged in water.” Said Sweetie “this sound travels through the earth – It it does not go so well through water.”
“Great – So do we have any water around?” Said Scootaloo.
She cleared her throat and spat out a big ball of slime that landed on the worm holding her, to no effect.
“Wait. Water. That gives me an idea.” Said Sim. “Do you think that if we just manages to flood this chamber, the song of the earth might be temporarily muffed, and send the worms into a bit of a disorganized drowsy state. It just have to last for long enough for us to get free.”
“Listen.” Said scoot. “When Daring Do was tied up on the bottom of a giant pit in the temple of Marecropolis. She threw hat so that it hit a switch which caused the chamber to flood, and she was able to swim up.
“Yeah! Well we don't exactly have any hats or switches around!” Said Applebloom.
“We have something better.” Said sim.
Sim explained her plan. which will for dramatic purposes not be explained to the audience.
“Oh no no no no no!” Said Sweetie, We are not doing that!”
“We have to.” Said Applebloom I cant think of any other way.
“Do you really think that will work?” Sweetie argued back.
“Its so crazy that it just has to work” Said Scoot.
“Listen Sweetie. You have to do it. You are the only one who can.”
Applebloom was doing her best to smoothen the idea.
“If it makes you feel any better. We wont tell anyone.”
“It doesn't matter.” Said Sweetie. “My battery is in the lower parts of my body. I would black out the instant I disconnected.”
No you wont – I just re-arrange for a crystal to serve as a temporary battery.
“And where do you plan to get crystals at this time?”
“From my dad.”
Sweetie blinked.
“Ok – here we go.“
Sim pulled a wire, And Sweetie's drill folded out of her horn. Sim quickly scurried out of it and climbed into the big drill, Careful to remove two of its kinetic crystals.
She jumped back down and stood proud on top of the pile of worms. Just in front of Sweetie.
“What did I tell ya?” Said Sim Juggling the crystals.
Sweetie looked between Sim and her friends, who nodded encouragingly.
“Ok then.”
Sweetie took a deep breath and disengaged the magnetic locks that held her face in place. And Sim peeled her organic skin of like a banana.
Luckily for them. The Worms simple orders made them completely oblivious to the ongoing of a little mole running around on top of them. Or even if they were aware, they were unable to care about anything but holding the girls down.
Sim took the crystals and, using the adapter, she transferred as much electric energy as she dared into the little thing, and then hooked it up directly to sweeties Cybercore. The other crystal, of kinetic energy, she fastened bu a support column in the middle of Sweeties throat.
Then she got to work separating the head from the throat.
Sweetie muttered “Creepy! Creepy! Creepy!” In an increasingly high tone as every wire and connecting bolt was severed from the inside.
She could not think of what was happening as anything other then quite literally like having her throat and neck slit from the inside. Saying nothing of how it felt to register her food and oxygen tubes being severed from her throat and pulled down into her neck. To not speak about how it was to have a lot of stuff pulled up into her head. Along with a long spinal cord stolen from her back. And having so many wires in the space between her ears be re-tied in a spaghetti like fashion that she though she was never going to be herself again.
It was like forcefully having to watch someone all of your favorite models in a completely new fashion just for the hell of it.
Persevering through the whole ordeal was one of her greatest challenges today. Sweeties logic center told her that the easiest process would just be to kill the worms. And she frequently had to fight back against overloading and sapping away the little mole who was quite literally tearing her apart, all the while her systems screamed desecration.
The whole process only took a minute. But it felt like an eternity.
The only thing that still kept her reconnected to her body was the physical connection of her neck plates. The fact that her head still lay on top of her neck allowed her energies to jump up and down along the conducting pieces.
“Ok – If you just align your head towards that corner...”
Sweetie obliged, aiming her horn towards the edge where the roof met the wall.
She looked at her friends, and nodded.
“Just be ready and hold your breath!”
With a second of more thought she added:
“But I swear if anyone makes a single headless horse joke I swear I will … !!!"
Further then that she did not get. Sim Skipped the last few numbers in her countdown and pulled the wire. A spark was sent to the kinetic crystal. Balancing at the base of sweeties neck like powder of a cannon. The kinetic blast sent sweeties head flying for the roof.
She scream vanished as her and her Heart Drive were disconnected from her Cybercore of a brain. Without the emotional energies of the Heart-Drive, her thoughts turned cold and logical.
In the same second as she launched, she activated her drill. Striking true – she impacted with the edge between the roof and the wall. The drill was activated. And its energy consumption was quickly depleting energy reserves stored in emergency storage unit 2 (label: tiny crystal). But not so bad as to compromise mission parameters exceeding expected time limit.
-:: Current mission . Drill a hole at 45 degree angle to reach the water container located on the top of this facility ::-
-:: !Slight disturbance detected! ::-
-:: Conclusion: the weight of this unit is being affected by gravity. Main mission compromised – unable to load insecurity about once's weight. ::-
-::Calculations show drilling units having difficulty finding a footing without further pressure, all momentum of initial launch lost ::-
-:: Conclusion: Use more kinetic force: Data indicated the kinetic crystal still connected to back of this units neckline. ::-
-:: Informing Co pilot (designation: Sim the mole) of current situation ::-
-:: Awaiting further information …::-
-:: Mission perimeter updated: Second kinetic blow has pushed this unit upwards, and reestablished the drilling units hold onto the sandstone structure. Drilling unit has now achieved firm grip on the sandstone.
-:: Proceeding with mission ::-
***
Applebloom and Scootaloo watched the head of their friend disappear into the thick sandstone roof. They hoped that their friend knew what they were doing. Seeing her without a head was quite a new experience for them as well.
“So. Do you think she'll make it.”
“I hope so. I would hate even more to be found in this sorry state.”
“Yeah ...” Scoot said with a grin. “I just hope she does not loos her ...”
“No Scoot. Just no.”
The sound of the drill vanished, and was replaced by the rushing of water. The two fillies took a deep breath as water plummeted out of the hole.
The chamber was quickly flooded. And as everypony, worm and all, ended up under water. The two fillies felt the grip of the worms loosen.
True to their hopes, the worms went dizzy under water. They still resisted as the fillies freed themselves from their grip. But their movement was slow and sluggish. And the water made them sleek as eels. Making it easy for the foals to pull themselves free.
Still. There was a lot of worms in the water with them. And the fillies found themselves more climbing then swimming as she pushed herself through the spaghetti-soup off sluggish worms. Heading downwards through the thickest of it in search for their friends body.
Unsurprisingly they found her in the middle of the mess. Scoot and Bloom grabbed one foreleg each. And pulled her up to the surface with them.
They made it with barely any breath to spare. And hoisted up sweeties body so that her empty neck reached above the water.
“So now what?” Scootaloo asked. Kicking beneath her to keep the sluggish worms at bay.
“I … I don't know” Applebloom answered. Trying to keep her panic at bay as she noticed the roof was getting closer.
Water was still pouring down the hole with no sign of stopping. She did not remember the pool being that big. And underneath the the worms still tried to reach for them. Sluggich. But en mass.
It did not help that the loose skin of Sweetie's face and mane had gotten sucked down into the stump of her neck. So that it looked like If somepony had smashed her head all the way in. Though she would not admit it was kind of freaky to look at.
“The plan was for them to open the chamber door from outside” Said Applebloom as her hooves touched the sealing. And she pulled her back hoof from the grip of another worm. “If worst come to worst – Well swim up through the hole.”
Then she felt a pair of cold steel hooves grab her head. She was pulled around and found herself staring straight down Sweeties mashed face. Her friends body put its hooves all over her face, and was being very rough about it.
A filly nerves can only take so much before their resolve is tested. And Applebloom rolled for a critical failure. She screamed and pushed the body away. It disappeared down under the surface as a buss of worms renewed their grip.
The water became a flurry of activity as the body began to flail around, all four limbs kicking and punching as tirelessly and sporadically as only a machine in short circuit can.
The worms began to waggle around under the assault. Like the arms of some great seamonster they turned the surface into a storm. And Scoot and Bloom found themselves knocked underwater.
Then the whole world tilted on its side. Up became down like somepony had just tilted over the big eel-tank they found themselves in. Worms, fillies and headless body found themselves tumbling over in a great wave that pushed itself through the steel doors and out onto the floor of the grand castle hall.
Bloom and Scoot slowly rose. Covered in bruises from the short clash. The only thing that had saved them from striking the hard stone floor was the matress of slimy worms beneath them. Luckily, the worms seemed even more hesitant to get up after the tumble. If anything they were covered in even more bruises then the girls.
Looking up. They saw Sims little head sticking out from a fuse box by the door.
“Took you long enough” said Scoot.
“Got her as soon as I could. Though it looked like you had the situation under control. ” Sim squeaked. “did you beat them up all on your own?”
As if on Que, the biggest pile of worms rose up, and was sent flying as a headless filly emerged from the pile. It waved its front hooves around above its empty stump. Grabbing for something that wans't there. It looked like it needed to scream, even though it had no mouth. Never stopping for a second, It began to stumble out across the worm covered floor. It bumped into Scoot, grabbed her cheeks and started to pull.
Scootaloo screamed, realizing the body was hunting for heads. Sensing the resistance, the body started to feel in scoots neck and forehead. Realizing this head was already ockupying a body, and the lack of a horn, the body ceased its assault And begun to desperately run around the hall. Stumbling over worms and running into pillars.
“She's Looking for her head!” Applebloom screamed, as the body tilted a statue. “Where is her head Sim?! Where is Sweetie?”
***
-:: 240 ::-
-:: 241 ::-
-:: 243 ::-
-:: Emergency battery: 13 percent felt ::-
Sweeties head lay at the bottom a pool, counting the seconds since Sim had left.
There was a lot of fears associated with being a disembodied head in this kind of predicament. Good thing she could not process any of them. Or she might have been freaking out.
She stared at the hole through which all the water had gone. Analyzing the sounds that came up from below. It sounded like Sim had gotten the door open. But she did not understand what the Screaming and thrashing was about. It would be really bad if the worms got up and grabbed them again. It would kind of make this effort be for naught.
-:: 287 ::-
-:: 288 ::-
-:: 289 ::-
-:: 290 ::-
-:: 291 ::-
The sound of hooves on the Stairwell made her look up. Three heads looked out over the edge of the swimming pool.
-:: Recognition: Scootaloo // Designation: Friend ::-
-:: Recognition: Applebloom // Designation: Friend ::-
-:: Recognition: Sim // Designation: Work in progress... ::-
-:: Unable to load designated emotions // Unable to connect to Heart-Drive. ::-
-:: Commencing: Witty response ::-
“You are a liar, Sim.”
“Me” The mole looked shocked “however do you mean?”
“You said you would be back in one minute. Its been five.”
Yeah well … we ran into some complications.
-:: Complications? ::-
Sweeties head looked from face to face as they lifted her out of the pool, and noticed that something was definitely wrong. More precisely, something was missing from this reunion.
A question needed to be asked.
“Where is my body?”
They heard a mighty crash coming from below. Like a battling ram just had the final word with the gate. Followed by screams of the onlooking moles.
Everyone with legs ran to the edge of the roof and looked out across the streets of Moletown. Looking down below them they could see the body bucking out into the streets.
So begins the legend of the headless horse.
***
The small ghost of code that remained inside the wires of the body after the head, and thus its connection to its main mainframe, was severed had created an simple algorithm for what to do in a case like this. Unfortunately, its was a simple algorithm, mindless, as the mind was literally gone. And having no prior experiences to draw from, or any established protocols of what to do in this circumstance. It (the ghost that was the body) was left with the Heart-Drive as the closest mainframe- like component to ask for direction
The Heart-Drive, operating solely on the panic of having just lost her most important bodyguard, the algorithm and all the other systems that had just lost their guiding voice, joined together to form a ghost in the machine. A very scared and confused ghost whose single parameter was to find its head as quickly as possible.
A task proven slightly difficult by the fact that all the sensory equipment, like eyes. That would have been necessary to see the head were gone with the head. And that its ability to think having also disappeared. It reverted to the single most effective tried and practiced emergency response that has been used by all ponies everywhere.
STAMPEDE!
The other three fillies and one mole was running after it. Two on their own legs, one riding on their back, and the forth being a disembodied head being carried around.
"How did this happen?" Sweeties head asked over her voicebox.
Using her mouth to form words was an energy wasting inefficiency. And her yaw was currently resting on
Scootaloo's foreleg.
“I don't know” Said Scootaloo “You, She, just got up and started running around on her own.”
“Why don't you tell us how this happened Sweetie? Its your body.” Sim shouted, riding on top of Appleblooms head.
“Correct. However. I have no previous data regarding any situation like this.”
-:: Assessment: This is my fault // I did not place the body in stand by mode ::-
-:: Error // You could not have // the body should not be able to operate without a processor::-
“Cant you do something. Whistle for it?” Sim asked.
“All my eyes and ears are located on this unit.”
And is there any way to make it stopp
“Processing … It will keep running for as long as it has battery power left.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Isn't it obvious.” Said Scootaloo. “Now we catch it.”
She Darted ahead of Applebloom. she would be having some trouble running on only three legs, had she not been aided by her wings.
Even so, it was difficult enough to catch the body. Moletown was already in a panic after the mole kings escapades. And a headless foal running through the streets only added to the chaos.
There were moles running everywhere. And all the bigger goods that had been carried by the worms had been left in the streets. Scootaloo and Applebloom had to make sure not to step on anyone as they chased the runaway body. Who was having no problem plowing through the crowd. Moles happily got out of the way once they saw a headless mare running towards them. The chaos came after then they flooded back into the street, like the water pouring back into the track after a motor boat, screaming and waving their paws in the air.
The body hit the side of a wall and headed down another street, knocking over a cart full of boxes. It would have fallen on a group of school children wearing red capes, had Applebloom not skirted around and stopped the carts fall with her body.
The cast of mechanicus class looked up at her.
“Hi” Said Sim, as she dangled from a tangle of red mane.
“Sim? Applebloom?” Said the Teacher “We though you were gone...”
The the pile of boxes fell, Applebloom catching most of them with her body, shielding the small ones.
Scootaloo darted ahead. She and Sweeties head was catching up to the body. It was was zing-zagging the street, Miraculously managing to miss most of the wagons. It hit another wall and ricocheted around a big pile of gems.
Scootaloo leaped over the pile, only to find a Washing line hanging low on the other side. Her face got tangled up in a line of tiny towels, and she stumbled as she landed on three hooves, the forth hoof tossed Sweeties head out in front of her as she fell.
Sweeties head soared through the air Just as the body ran straight into a marketing stand., causing Sweeties head to overshoot the body and land on the cobble street. She tumbled to a halt, landing right side up and facing her own body. It trashed around in the ruins of the stand, digging around in several round kinds of mushroom.
They were just a few meters away from each other.
-:: So close, yet so far away ::-
If only she had been able to call out to it, send it some form of signal. But the only way to communicate with her body was through physical contact. She needed to have something to connect with, something to transfer her thoughts to the body.
Her horn sparkled as she thought.
-:: Wait a second ::-
The body untangled itself from the broken stand, and was just about to leave, when it was zapped by an electrical beam.
The energy worked its way through the skin, in through magnetic connection and into the system.
The skin registered the pain, And the reflexes was ready to jump in fright. But it didn't. There was something more inside the electricity. A code. Data that it recognized all to well.
-:: Connection established ::-
Sweeties head would have groaned, had it got the energy to spare. The energy needed to sustain the beam was quickly draining all of the emergency power out of her emergency battery.
A thin line of electrical energy hung between the tip of her horn and her body. Crackling and sparking as electricity do.
It would have been one thing to simply shoot a quick Zap of lightning, like she used to do at meanies in school before they restricted her. Maintaining a constant flow of electricity was another matter, especially since she stretching her consciousness out across the flow.
Her thoughts were powered by electricity just like everything else in her. It was by sending these energies into other machines that she as able to extend her though into them. Make them a part of her for as long as the connection subsisted.
She had always thought about is as a physical connection, But all she really needed was a flow of energy to ride on.
As long as the could maintain the beam. She had a one way connection to her body. The fact that it was her body helped, as she did not need to spent time to dig through the inner workings and establish dominance over a new system. The body recognized the signals. And began to complying.
-:: Walk towards me ::-
The servos inside the legs having a full understanding parameter of how to move without tripping over ones self. (therefore sweetie did not have to)
-:: Walk to the left ::-
The body did this. And smacked into another market stand.
-:: No... The other left. ::-
-:: Re-calibrating instructions: Remember: perspectives are reversed ::-
-:: Perspectives failing // Power levels dropping // Emergency battery spent // Eyes shutting down ::-
Her body turned towards her as her as her emergency battery ran out. It walked towards her as her head began to shut down its internal systems. The eyes and facial motors ceased to function first, followed by Lesser thought processors as the last electricity ebbed out of her horn. The head was unable to register the hooves that picked her up, and had all but blacked out when new energy suddenly folded back in.
“ Wwwowoooooaoowaoooaooaaaaaaaa!” Sweetie cried as her head booted back up from a near complete shutdown.
All her scenes and programs washed over her like a cold shower as all the programs from all the components in the body and the head ruched over to shake hoof with each other and welcome each other back. In an instant she was able to feel again as the Heart-Drives energy mixed in with the Cyber-Cores logical processor. And all the accumulated data that the two had gathered over their time apart from each other was exchanged between systems as the two units became one again.
Sweetie looked down, and found herself holding her head in place with one hoof while the other was trying to pull the skin back over her face. With mixed results.
She was sitting in the middle of some kind of market place. A hundred moles were staring at her from behind whatever stands that had not been crushed. All too fascinated by the ongoing to cry about their smashed wares.
Sweetie wanted to take a deep breath. But found herself unable to, as the tube to her airpump still lay somewhere down her neck.
She tilted her head back, carefully as not to break the connection to her neckline. She tried to pull the wires back up with her other hoof. And was trying to match them with the bundle left by Sim, when her friends came galloping into the marketplace.
“Don't you ever do that again!” She cried at Sim.
“Aw. Come on, It worked out fine, didn't it?” Sim awnsered.
“Sweetie, are you ok?” Applebloom asked.
“I will be, once you screw my head on back together!” Sweetie cried, demanding that Sim get back inside her.
Sim jumped down into Sweeties Throat while her friends helped her pull the skin over her face. All around them, the marketplace was becoming cramped with moles who were staring. Sweetie didn't have time to think about them. She was busy trying to sort out this new experience in her head. Her migraine subroutine wanted to start up at random, and she had to make sure Sim put all the bolts back where they belonged.
As she did an internal systems check. she noticed that a huge portion of her cyber-sludge from her buffer had been lost.
“Wait. What is that?” Said Sim
Sweetie did an internal check. A tiny, tiny lump had formed on the inside of her neck. A small Cybernetic orb had grown like a mushroom at the base of her spine.
-:: New component detected. ::-
“That … “ She could almost not believe it herself. “… Is a tiny core.”
“I didn't put that there. I swear.”
“No, you didn't.” Sweetie checked “I did. Or at least my body did. As my body was forced to operate all on its own. It was forced to work on the assumption that the head had been lost forever, and the repair programs started to do what they do best and start the recreation process.”
“You are telling me that your body was trying grow an entire new head!” Said sim.
“No. I mean yes ... I mean it needed a processor to be able to properly form cohesive thoughts. Well, not thoughts. More like somewhere to be able to process its data … something that was gonna help make it able to find its head. “
That was how her body had become able to work on its own. The body needed its own little brain. Not because she was becoming two different individuals, but because a part of her had been forced to act temporarily on its own. The repair schematics had done the rest with the material in her buffer.
“Want me to remove it?” Sim asked.
“No … Its like an … Emergency brain. Its a tiny emergency processor.”
-:: New component labeled and filed. ::-
Sweetie had never been so proud of her body, It had done everything because it wanted to find her head.
-:: New idea: Need to install some kind of radio connection between my head and my body ::-
A portion of her processor was already drawing up plans for an upgrade – With the proper equipment, that mini-brain could function as a receiver.
“What would have happened if you had grown an entirely new head?”
“One: That would not have happened. There is no where near enough material in my buffer to do something like that. Second, the body did not want to grow a new head, it wanted to find the one that it knew was out there. Thirdly: …. shut up.”
-:: We are not thinking about that ::-
-:: what we are thinking about is: How far has the Mole King gotten!!! ::-
***
The mole king was easy to follow, given the trail of gravely tunnels he had left behind.
The fillies arrived back at the underground silver lake just in time to see the place flooded with Worms.
It must have been every single Tunnelworm from Moletown, Every single child that had once been lost to the hypnotic tunes of the mole kings machine had now come here to rejoin their mother.
But this was no happy family reunion. It was the mole king who had brought them here. To enslave their mother as well.
The whole cave was filled from end to end with worms. All sitting half buried in the sand, with their heads raised and wobbling from side to side, like a snake being charmed. All facing the giant lake in the middle.
In perfect unison they all wobbled their heads towards the water. It was like seeing grass bending in the breeze, all those worms bowing in hypnotic waves.
“What are they doing?” Said Scootaloo.
“I am almost surprised you can't hear it” Said Sweetie. She didn't have to make an effort to puck up the song here. She actually had to turn her ears down to try and filter out the noise that the worms were making.
“No. But I can feel it.” Said Applebloom “Its like you described, Sweetie. They are sending micro vibrations through the earth.
“Though in this case its more like Macro vibrations.”
Sim was right. The sand was shaking under their hooves. Normally one could not feel the vibrations that a single worm could create. But here. With so many worms gathered in the same place, It was like a tiny earthquake.
“But why?” Said Scootaloo. “What are they doing?”
“They are singing for their mother!” Sweetie realized. “They are trying to draw her out.”
“I though water was supposed to muffler the song.”
“Not this much!”
The lake was shaking. Ripples and tides were cascading over its surface.
“The mole King is making them do this!” Said Sim “He is adding their chorus to his instrument.”
“But where is he?” Said scoot. “How are we supposed to stop him if we cant see him?”
They looked out over the field of worms. You would think that a giant quadrupedal organ would be easy to spot. But its wasn't.
The fillies ran between the worms looking for their foe. Sweetie racked her brain trying to figure out where he could be hiding. If he wanted to take control of the Earthmother, he would have to bring his organ close to her.
He would have to...
"HE'S IN THE WATER!"
The water erupted as the massive width of the Eartmothers head broke the surface. Upward and upward she went, until her head almost brushed against the roof of the cave. She appeared as a massive shadow, blocking out the light of the blue glowing mushrooms.
And still, Sweetie knew, there was more of her, waiting to be surfaced.
All heads of the worms turned to face the head of their mother. For a second one might hope that she had been able to break through the spell. That she had defeated the Mole king and his machine.
That was, until Sweetie saw the machine standing proud on top of the Earthmother. Its red metal hull glistering of lake water in the blue mushrooms light.
Being able to see it from a distance, it looked like a giant crab. A crab with who big claws, and steam pipes protruding from its back.
A crab that was being worn like a hat by the gigantic eel that was the Earthmother. Like two sea monsters that had ascended from beneath the deepest depths of the earth. (Which in a way they had.)
If there was any manic laughter coming from its pilot, it was drowned out by the rumble of the earth mother. It sounded like an earthquake, and made rocks fall from the roof as the whole cave shook.
Sweetie had to turn of her hears. For the frequency was deafening.
The Earthmother then opened her massive maw. And its many tongues wriggled out to form a ramp, which the Mole Kings Machine gently stepped on to.
Scootaloo gave a half hearted cheer when the Earth mother Maw closed around the machine.
“That … that meant she ate him right? … That … that meant she won.” she stammered. Half heatedly pumping her hoof in the air.
“No” Said Sweetie. “She isn't eating him. She is protecting him”
Without speaking a word that a pony would understand, the worms began to move like a shoal. The Earthmother poured even more of her length out of the lake. And her nose struck the roof of the cave with such force that it gave way.
Rocks began to fall from the sealing as she pushed herself through the bedrock. And the shoal followed her. Each worm making its own hole in the walls, and with so many worms it was like they were disintegrating the walls. A sandstorm was kicked up as the cave was reduced to sand.
The blue mushrooms were shattered and squashed, and the lake quickly turned into a soggy mud puddle, sprinkled with extra rocks.
Applebloom and Scootaloo screamed in the hail. They were blinded by the hail and the darkness.
Sweetie weren't.
She dared the sandstorm. Turning off her eyelids and her sense of touch the turned her open eyes towards the hailing sandstorm. Persevering as the dust brushed over her open eyes.
She quickly found her friends, and told them to hold onto her tail as she led them through the sandstorm.
“Where are we going?” Scootaloo asked.
“Isn't it obvious?” Sweetie said. “After him!”