//------------------------------//
// XVI. Reseal (unedited) 
// Story: Replicated Wanderer 
// by QuartzScale 
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I was a bit flabbergasted that I would run into something that was supposed to be extinct but I needed to remain on point. The windigo stared down at me though it seemed uncertain about me. Staring down at my figure it looked deeply into me and confusion spread through its visage.

From what I remember Star Swirl told me, they hunt through emotions searching for sparks of hate they could cause to fester and grow into unspeakable monuments of hatred. Then they would freeze their prey in a pseudo-cryonic state of suspended animation. Oh… that explained the statues and the looks of horror frozen on their faces.

Ignoring the horrible puns at their expense because of the windigo I turned to face him and switched to Fire Wave.

*click* *click* *click*

“Right… used that up already… Nana are the weapons from section five loaded?” I growled out as I took a few steps back.

There was a flash of recognition on the windigo’s face. It had recognized hesitation, fear. It immediately charged down as I switched to Storm Tornado and fired up.

The sudden blast of wind knocked the beast off course sending it against the wall leaving a deep imprint. I looked at the windigo a little closer. Even though I had been told that it was made of the spirits of winter and hatred all rolled into one package. That meant that while large they didn't have physical form… this one did.

‘Ready X. All weapons have been loaded up and ready for use.”  Fefnir answered instead of Nana. ‘I'll handle all weapon segments from now on. We seem to be drawing energy to power them from a new unit that was built into your body. All attempts to analyze it have caused Nana to climb up the walls, figuratively speaking of course. Now let's blast this ice creature apart! Hehehehaha!”

Fefnir’s laughing made me cringe a bit. I knew before that he was a battle maniac built from X’s reploid DNA. I just didn't realize how deep that went.

The windigo recovered the high ground and fired off several ice spikes. It was careful where it struck though. I had passed several of the bodies weaving between them and it would hesitate whenever I was behind one of them.

That clinched it for me. All these bodies were still alive and being fed on by this gluttonous monster. That left me with little choice. Without knowing how long these beings had been frozen for I couldn't free them. They would likely die the moment that I did so.

Freezing things even in the X series had never gone well. Every maverick weak to ice could break out of their icy prison within seconds because they were mostly metal. There was still no reliable way to freeze living flesh and thaw it out without killing the host in the process.

‘Sir, this is Harpuia. I know it seems wrong but we are behind you. Those moments can be used to fight back against the creature. As Nana informed us, we must think of the mission we are on and the sake of those we have sworn to protect. We shall bear this burden with you.’ Harpuia coolly stated and I could feel the nod from every other cyber elf, most likely his influence.

Switching back to my X buster I fired on the closest statue cracking and shattering it on impact. The windigo shrieked in fury as it charged me. Noticing it's charge I fired a fully charged shot knocking it back.

Engorged on hatred it had taken on a physical form to better take advantage of its victims. I took advantage of that and took out the food source.

A frightened mare who looked up mouth agape. Shattered in an instance. A stallion gritting his teeth trying desperately to fight against the cold. Crumbled to slivers in a single shot. The yak warrior fighting back only to be stuck mid swing. Exploded to shards.

Each time a statue fell to my assault the creature roared in defiance and bum rushed into me attempting to smother me in the cold. I ignored it switching over to Ground Fire. With a single shot the windigo screamed in pain as the fire rippled around it. It was enough to melt the nearby statues… who slowly fell to pieces due to the cold destroying the body's stability.

I didn't need to see a dragon fall to pieces like that. It didn't help that I had to keep using Ground Fire just to keep the windigo off of me. I actually had to start dodging when it fired off icicles the size of my leg in my direction. The first couple of shots were negligible enough to ignore when they hit against my armor. It decided to fire sharper icicles which were scratching against my armor leaving small gouges in it.

Harpuia immediately tapped into my motor functions as soon as they got that dangerous and I was forced to Dash and jump around faster and faster than I thought possible. As a cyber elf he was speeding my movements up allowing me to predict the best course of action which constantly on the move. Fenrir followed suit taking hold of the weapons system and powering up my firepower every time a new weapon was used. He couldn't power up my buster but it was more useful to use fire.

Strangely I hadn't even thought that they, as cyber elves, were capable of moving me. At first I thought that it would just be paranoia but it turned out to be true. They could act on me but not in the most extreme way I thought at first. At most they could power me up not control me. This alleviated some of the fears that had tried to cloud my mind.

I was kicked into the far wall as the windigo bared down upon me. It's visage was actually melted from the constant barrage of fire hitting it. While it didn't have any actual organs the melted face it wore was actually terrifying to some extent. Misshapen mouth worn down to a rictus and eyes sunken into its face as wisps of steam being frozen were stuck in place.

At that point I kept firing at random trying my best to destroy as many of the statues possible. Regardless of whatever I did I wouldn't let it feed anymore. And as much as I justified it… I didn't see this as something heroic. It was something necessary.

The windigo turned its arm into a large lance made of ice and rammed it into my stomach lifting me off the ground and pinning me into the wall. I responded by charging my buster up and releasing Ground Fire.

The inferno that resulted from the weapon led to multiple volcano strength fireballs being flung from my body melting the body of the windigo and releasing me from the lance with a large gaping hole in my stomach. Several warning lights went off as Fenrir took charge overcharging my weapons to allow Ground Fire to grow. I charged up another shot and released it just as the windigo tried to use what was left of its fangs to crush me in its jaw.





It had been less than an hour since X had disappeared into the ice tunnel. There were mutterings of how they were left to fend in a war. Those mutterings were destroyed by the smarter soldiers who reminded those ponies that they were going to fight anyways.

The majority of the ponies had made it through the melted out path and were on the cusp of the Crystal Empire. Night had fallen since their march and there had been no sign of X returning.

“I don't like this.” Hurricane growled out clearly agitated by the flickering of his wings.

“You heard him. We don't have the pony power to chase down hunches. He's a big reploid, was it? He can take care of himself.” Platinum stopped him from doing anything rash.

“Be that as it may, we need him to act as the spearhead of our assault. We can't take on golems even with this many ponies. Doing so is tantamount to suicide. We need to send somepony to get him.” Puddinghead brought up crushing through both the bullheadedness of the Commander and the glibness of the Princess.

“He'll be back soon.” Concerto broke through them all watching out into the tundra for any sign of him.

“Sweetie… it's been a while and there may be windigos out and about. As much as we boast about destroying them all we were never certain that we managed to wipe out that threat so fully.” Platinum admitted drawing ire from the other two leaders.

“Platinum…” Both leaders growled out until Concerto stopped the. With a raised hoof.

“He'll be okay. He'll be right back soon.” Concerto calmly stated. She kept her eyes closed to the tundra making certain to not show how tightly she was biting her lip. She couldn't show anypony how much she worried now that she was in the presence of other leaders.

Hurricane merely huffed but his gaze was left towards the soldiers who were all expounding how useless the golem had been. That needed to be beaten out of all of them one at a time.

Platinum joined Concerto placing her hoof around her shoulder to comfort her. It was met with a small acknowledgement of a nod as she never broke eye contact with the scenery.

Puddinghead started pouring over her scrolls, calculating how many soldier possibly could die from assaulting the Empire and all their golems. She grimaced at every single calculation and furiously scratched them out when they left less than optimal results.

Second Stand was busy amongst the troops trying to keep the morale of the younger soldiers up. While X’s show of power had given them a path forward faster, it left them feeling more powerless than ever due in no small part how easy he made it look tearing through the very earth before them. Groaning at another panic attack, he slapped whomever had one until they regained their senses. Tolerance could only go so far and a jolt seemed to be getting them back up to fighting sense at the very least.

A huge explosion rocked the entire tundra as a large plume of fire erupted from the direction that X had gone. The swells of ice were pushed around and a figure had tried to escape. There were several screams when they noted what it was.

The wisp of a windigo fell to the ground before them full of icy wrath though horribly damaged to the point where it could barely float. It clawed miserably at the ponies trying to catch one to feed on its fear or hatred.

They were left in awe as X walked up to the creature. There was a gaping hole in his stomach and several scorch marks covering his face. His piercing green eyes were still glaring at the windigo as he turned purple. The familiar look of whirling energy flowing around him clued several ponies about what was going to happen.

“Hit the deck!” Hurricane ordered as several unicorns immediately brought up their shield spell. Platinum strengthened it up with her magic as well.

A large cyclone tore through the windigo’s neck dispersing everything that made it what it was. As it tried to reform because it was a wind spirit, it found it couldn't do so. Slowly it was torn to particles as the energy of the tornado ripped through its atoms.

Unbeknownst to all onlookers, no one saw the small motes of magic that had found their way into the tornado destroying what was left of it.





‘Fenrir this seems like overkill!’ I immediately thought as I released Ground Fire. The subsequent inferno blazed through the tomb incinerating everything it touched. The weapon limiter had been unsealed allowing my weapons to reach their full potential… their full destructive potential. The flames had actually mixed with the extreme cool air and the entire crypt exploded upward sending both me and the windigo flying into the air.

Harpuia took advantage of the fall to relegate my legs back parallel with the ground. I left a small impact crater upon touching down and quickly dashed out to chase the windigo. I could see it falling through the sky towards the entirety of the Equestrian army.

I needed to hurry and deal with it. Nana calculated how long it would take me to reach it and the hole in my stomach was causing me some problem. The constant cold froze a portion of my circuits leaving me incapable of taking advantage of the entirety of my dash systems. Harpuia couldn't control those. He apparently ran the logic centers for movement and not the actual movement.

‘How does that work Harpuia?’ I immediately thought letting my thoughts flow between the three cyber elves.

“I can predict enemy movements allowing you to pick the best course of action on how to dodge and weave through enemy fire. It was dulled due to the lack of telemetry reports and the small arena but I feel my improvisations were satisfactory. Unfortunately you got distracted at the very end while we were… retiring those who were already lost.” Harpuia explained… causing me to slow down slightly. He knew and I knew that I didn't like what I did.

“We're sorry it came to this Master X. If there was another way we would have brought it up. From the reports Nana delivered and your extensive research with these ‘ponies’ we couldn't find anyway to reverse the effect. Even with their extensive search into magic combat is still fatal at these times and the lack of technology makes it hard to treat most wounds. Cinnamon has felt saddened by this turn of events.” Fenrir quickly stated showcasing a lot more understanding than I thought he was possible of.

I came up to the nearly wrecked windigo lying on the ground incapable of moving in any direction. It weakly clawed at the ponies trying desperately to reach them. Then it's eyes locked on me. Fear. That was all the Suffering Circuit could tell me.

‘Fenrir…’ I quietly mused as I stepped over to it switching to Storm Tornado.

“Yes Master X.” Fenrir answered revelry evident in his voice.

‘When we finish this… place the seal back on the weapons limiter. As powerful as I feel… it should only be used in the most dire of circumstances.’ I immediately commanded and to my relief Fenrir nodded and bowed.

“As you wish.” He stated as I jumped into the air with the fully charged weapon. The subsequent tornado ripped the windigo apart.





I was surrounded by the leaders and a few of the soldiers who had the guts to see what I did. Concerto was at the forefront looking at the large hole in my stomach never leaving my side. Until the sun rose I couldn't actually heal the wound.

Nana kept me focused on everyone around me. I was tired strangely enough which was explained to me as the energy of the micro fusion reactor I had mitigating the strain caused by the wound. It would last a very long time but I needed the energy/matter converter to mitigate the strain on my body.

“X I'm glad you're here. We need to talk strategy. With that hole in your chest we can't pull off our assault so soon. You have plenty of firepower but you need to reel it in.” Puddinghead chided me.

“Yeah… that was extreme. The windigo was something I wasn’t expecting. I did find something that will help us out more.” I replied sitting down against a small snow drift that Concerto had built up the moment I had returned.

I didn't exactly register the pain as most would. It was far enough from my energy core that I would survive well enough. There was no throbbing of the wound or a sting. No liquids flowed out of my body. It was just there. The fact that I had the wound unnerved the ponies who realized that this didn't stop me in the slightest except for making me a bit slower.

“X, you were supposed to be our spearhead. This- “ Hurricane pointed at my wound. “- is causing us problems in the long run and we need you to be at the top of your game.” Hurricane finished as I looked up to see the moon at its apex.

“I know. When the sun rises I will be ready to go full force. I think we should probably figure out where to bunker down since I'm certain that that explosion could be seen for miles.” I pointed out which Hurricane grimly agreed with.

“All soldiers get us a vantage point we can lay low in now!” Hurricane ordered his troops as several began scouting out the area.

“Sir! We found a ridge we can use for cover two clicks west of here.” Second Stand flew down addressing Hurricane with a quick salute.

“No saluting here soldier. We're too far into enemy territory. You want them to snipe us with a crossbow or something.” Hurricane chastised his second in command.

“Sorry sir. Regardless we found a place to hold up for a bit.” Second grimaced as he fought off his habit and returned to the herd.

“All troops move out!” Hurricane commanded before Platinum also issued something.

“All unicorns make sure to hide our hoofprints! Use your magic to churn the snow while we march out leave no evidence where we went!” Platinum ordered receiving a nod from Hurricane who quickly led the rest towards the ridge.

“Seems like we have a plan then. X when your wound heals we'll be discussing what we have planned. Now that we've seen your capabilities we need to figure out how much force will be required for this next part.” Puddinghead commented as she trotted alongside me. Concerto had hopped on my back as I marched alongside the troops making certain no one got tripped up by the snow.

It was touch and go during the trek though not because we were moving slow. Quite a few of the soldiers were now giving me a wide berth and there wasn't any sneering or jeers from anyone. They had seen me do something crazy that shouldn't be possible and I saw how much fear they all had about me.

It wasn't how I wanted things to go but as soon as I got stabbed in the stomach, where a stomach would be, I immediately decided that I needed more firepower. My own thoughts decided that I needed not to hold back. It was also the first time that I had taken the life of anything… that was hard to actually do.

Surprisingly it was the human side of my mind that rationalized it as being a merciful choice. They couldn't be saved in any capacity and they were constantly being fed on. They were less than cattle at that point slowly being slaughtered while still alive. The robotic side had tried to weigh the pros and cons and nearly led to being overwhelmed by ethical restraints. I did know that reploid a could make a choice on what they would do. I made my choice and while I knew the cyber elves agreed with my choice and stood behind me on it… I was still the one who pulled the trigger.

It was merciful and that's all I needed to know. There was nothing I could change about it and hopefully they could finally rest after all that. Concerto was now staring at me.

“Yes Concerto. I can see you.” I peered to my right where she was holding on to my shoulder.

“Even if they're scared… you're still my hero.” She softly stated.

“Right… that actually does feel better.” I answered and with a renewed sense of purpose took another look amongst the troops.

There was still fear but amongst a lot of them I could also see hope. Most likely the hope they could go back to their families. The hope they would live to see another day. Very few ever looked away from my gaze and even fewer nodded back to me acknowledging that I was there.

It was a start at least.





“What do you mean that he doesn't want to see me!?” Flint yelled out as he stood before Diode.

“He's busy prepping himself to get a new golem out. After he heard that Geode lost all his from one of his informants he started to get ready some new troops.” Diode calmly explained as he stood at the door to the workstations.

“Who gives a flying horseapple about that! We need to talk to him.” Flint growled out trying his best to appear intimidating.

“I'm sure you do. But your failures at keeping our hold on Equestria have made him dislike the idea of meeting with you right now. You not only lost your superior but also almost every single pony that was under your command. Only nine of them remain.” Diode sneered out causing Flint to back up.

“I didn't lose them. Geode was in command and the blame lies primarily on him.” Flint blustered out never backing down from his opinion on the matter. The same couldn't be said about his legs.

“Fair enough. Doesn't mean that he wants to speak with you right now.” Diode replied returning back to his fake smile.

“But… I.” Flint started before Diode’s hoof pressed against his muzzle.

“Unless you have anything to actually report you have no good reason to meet with him.” Diode plainly stated cutting off any scathing remark or biting retort.

“I have an idea of what took out our troops and Geode.” Flint stated as soon as the hoof was retracted.

“Do you…? Why wasn't it in the reports?” Diode rounded on Flint.

“Because I knew you'd try this sort of bullshit when I came back. Now let me meet with Corundum.” Flint glared at his compatriot. Neither wanted to back down first but unfortunately Diode relented.

“Wait here.” Diode answered before opening the door behind him.

Flint waited as there was yelling before something was thrown against the wall shattering. It was a stupid gambit but Flint needed to figure out where Corundum hid what he wanted.

“Come in.” A voice called from inside the room. It certainly wasn't Diode. Flint cautiously entered the room making certain to step over the shattered remains of a vase.

The workstation had multiple tables all occupied by unmoving figures covered by white sheets. Several twitched as he passed by and the scent of death permeated the entire room. By the time he reached where Corundum was he noted that his hooves were covered in red…

“What is it Flint? Have I not given you everything you needed to do these simple tasks for me? I gave Geode everything he asked for and more so long as he kept moving my conquest into the future. Now reports come in that almost all my troops were captured and every stronghold we built to keep our foothold in Equestrian territory were demolished within the span of a single day. It's baffling that's what it is.” The voice asked as he stepped out from behind the curtain.

An earth pony with a rust brown coat and burnt orange mane stepped out. He was actually pretty young looking almost to the point of barely even being able to be called a stallion. Around his neck was a necklace of chopped off unicorn horns all affixed with different gemstones. His mark was of a tetrahedral piece of corundum with sharpened screw like points jutting out of the faces of the tetrahedron. The horns were glowing as several scalpels and cutting implements floated about him.

“So tell me Flint… what's so important that you're bothering me during this important time?” Corundum muttered clearly annoyed at the situation.

“The golem we told you about through the reports… the one Geode assured you would be simple to deal with. It was the reason that we lost all those soldiers.” Flint started only to be stopped.

“I thought you said it was worthless. In all the reports I was given it was labeled as a non threat!” Corundum shouted as he stomped through the puddles that were left on the floor splashing Flint with said blood.

“He wanted to save face. He decided that he needed to capture it for you. That's not the point though. The point is that he was capable of reasoning and learning. A golem that identified as both a gender and identity.” Flint answered making certain to keep Corundum in his sight at all times.

“R-reasoning… it could reason. Learn. Think. Identify. Are you certain?” Corundum dropped his entire act of anger at the mention of a sapient golem.

“Yes. He was capable of it.” Flint answered making certain to step away from Corundum.

“Really…? Interesting.” Corundum allowed all the horns around his neck to place the surgical tools down before trotting around muttering to himself.

Flint took the opportunity to look around while Diode was busy trying to get Corundum to focus. Off in the distance was a makeshift cell crafted out of the remnants of the golems that had failed. Inside were several ponies who merely looked around not even noticing that there were ponies in the room. He quietly scanned the cell seeing several mares, a few stallions and some foals. There was one that caught his eye… a small filly with an ivory coat and dirty blonde mane.

“Diamond Shard…” Flint muttered under his breath.

“Okay, okay. I’m better now. Flint thanks for telling me the truth. I’m glad Geode was taken care of. Now General Flint… what do you need for the battle against this… supposed golem.” Corundum chuckled as he held Flint’s face in his two bloody hooves. The creepy smile on his face was nearly lit up almost sparkling because of how happy he was.

Flint gulped slightly before he did anything. “Right. A few more golems to deal with him and maybe a filly slave to act as my servant.” Flint grinned forcing himself to act happy about what he wanted.

“Fine, fine. Just pick one of those ponies in the cell. Most of them are broken anyways. Their crystal resonators are inactive so they should last a while longer.” Corundum grinned as he let Flint go. Had he held a few moments longer he would have felt him tense up and struggle not to act.

“I think you should wait to reward him until he deals with the problem at hand.” Diode brought up his same smile plastered on his face, fake and sadistic as always.

“Really? I don’t really care about those ponies in there though. Most of them are failures anyways. Just let him pick one and keep that pony somewhere else so I don’t confuse them for the test subjects.” Corundum dismissed waving his hoof off as he walked off. On the back of his neck was a red crystal embedded in it that Flint noticed.

“Tch… just pick one of them Flint and we’ll keep them elsewhere.” Diode growled out allowing Flint to choose.

Flint hesitated for a moment… making certain to take his time as he looked over all the ponies inside. None of them were responsive showcasing something he truly feared. Then he chose the filly Diamond Shard. Before he could enjoy his choice a golem grabbed the filly out of his hooves.

“We’ll keep her safe until you capture that rogue golem. If you don’t… well I don’t need to tell you the price for failure.” Diode snickered as the golem carried Diamond Shard out of the room.

“Yeah… understood.” Flint grimaced as he walked out of the room.

“Sir!” A soldier ran down the hall towards Flint.

“What is it?” Flint growled out clearly in a foul mood.

“There’s been a large explosion out in the wastes. We haven’t found any sign of what caused it but several crystal ponies have been rioting.” The soldier replied giving a faint salute. On closer inspection it was clear that the soldier had several welts and bruises that covered his face and a few scorch marks on his armor.

“Why didn’t you use the golems?” Flint retorted stating the obvious.

“They took care of the rioting, sir but the remnants of the explosion are still visible and a pyre has been burning out there. Nopony knows what caused it.” The soldier grimaced clearly out of his depth.

Flint thought deeply about it… the explosion from nowhere in the middle of a frozen wasteland. It couldn’t be a coincidence but it should have been impossible. X was dead… right? The more he thought about it the less confident of that thought he was. That dread… turned to opportunity as he realized that he now had a chance. For his sister’s sake… he would do so.





Discord looked around his surroundings deep within the Sea of Clouds past the desert. He needed that item. There were several spikes of chaos coming from outside the Crystal Empire but he didn’t have the time to deal with it. He needed the object now, now that his chaos magic had been expanded.

He flipped the clouds up like a blanket and looked around for his item. In the center of the mountain range that was hidden by the clouds was a large fissure shaped like the most beautiful creature ever… him. Reaching into said fissure he fished out a large collection of seeds.

“Ah Plunderseeds, did you miss me?” Discord smiled as he kissed the bag giving it more than a little sugar. “Quite fresh aren’t we. Well it won’t go down like that, I’m not that kind of draconequus.”

There was no response and Discord pocketed the seeds. He reached in again pulling out a large sphere the size of his paw. In it he began pouring some remnants of chaos magic. Then it filled instantly as a bright light shined off in the distance far to the north. Something happened. Somethin chaotically delicious was going on somewhere.

Order based magic had been used… it had been used haphazardly but it did the trick. In that instance he felt more of his powers return as he spread a healthy coat of chaos over the clouds turning them pink.

“Oh X… I knew you cared.” Discord sneered before breaking into a giggling fit as his chaos spread over the clouds changing them to whatever whim he was thinking of at the time.