//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Bones to Pick // Story: A Bronzed Moon // by Eric Longtooth //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Bones to pick. By Eric Longtooth. “Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust. Honor to glory, Iron to rust. Hate to bloodshed, from rise to fall. If I never have to die, am I alive at all?” *0o()o0*{Canterlot}*0o()o0* “What?!” Princess Celestia let out a quiet sigh as her personal student once again launched into one of her ‘moments.’ Leaning back into her golden throne, she took a moment to glance over her company. The six elements of harmony, heroines of Equestria, and by far the strangest group she ever had the pleasure of meeting. Each of them strong in soul, but Naïve to a fault. ‘But I guess that one is our own fault, isn’t it?’ “Oh! Oh! OOOH! Does that mean we get to make a ‘Welcome back to Equestria except-you-never-really-left-in-the-first-place-but-welcome-back-anyway’ Party?!” Pinkie Pie cried out in joy, once again completely missing the point. “Ah’ don’t think tha’s what theh Princess is sayin’ Pinkie.” Applejack replied plainly, her tone having just fell into the plain deadpan of a pony who has to deal with this problem oh-too-often. “B-b-but Princess! You can’t have just sent Princess Luna into battle by herself!” Twilight attempted to reason, the numbers running through her mind at a pace known only to the Pink One. “This is correct. My Sister is currently being escorted by Equestria’s finest, she will be fine, of this I am sure.” The Goddess in the room replied softly, a façade built up from milenia of practice. ‘You must listen to yourself sometimes, she’ll be fine. After all, you wouldn’t lie to your faithful student, would you?’ “So, we’re going to go kick some flank then?” The prismatic one rasped, lazaly ‘swimming’ through the air in the pegasus equivalent of pacing. “Throw the Elements of Awesome at the problem, and then get home in ten seconds flat. Seems easy enough, when are we heading out, Princess?” “The Elements of Harmony will not be participating in this particular mission.” Celestia responded smoothly, before raising a hoof to silence the inevitable complaints out of habit. “I have full faith that this threat can be defeated in full by Luna and her assistants. Rather, the reason I brought you here is to ask for assistance in investigating some odd magical emission patterns.” “‘Odd’?” Twilight spoke up, confused. “Yes, odd. Normally this wouldn’t be enough to warrant an investigation, but with current events, I would rather not take any chances when it comes to Tartarus…” *0o()o0*{Factory Outskirts}*0o()o0* Princess Luna had been woken a few hours before she had intended to by the sound of electronic sparking. Her weapons leapt to their mistresses command as the sluggishness of sleep was wiped away by adrenaline, faster than even the well-trained guards that followed her. The others, to their credit, were able to get up with reasonable time, but even from the glare of the setting sun, Luna could see their hesitation and their lethargic movements. Thankfully, there was no real threat. One of the earth ponies on watch jumped as she leaped to action and scanned for threats, before after a moment of surprise, the earth pony withdrew his hooves to reveal the smashed remains of some sort of mechanical spider. “Guard! Report.” Luna ordered with no little amount of ire at being awoken to early in the night. “Apologies for the interruption Princess, I had been attacked by a small automaton and it had died with more noise then expected.” The earth poy snapped to addition, ignoring the oil and miscellaneous grime that dripped from one of his fore-hooves. “Are there any others?” Luna pressed, moving forward to investigate the deceased creature. “There was, Princess.” The guard replied, keeping his rigid stance at attention. “The retreated after the first of their number was slain.” “Good work then. Rouse any that art still within Our realm, we leave at once.” She dismissed, casting a quick levitation spell to bring to body closer to her eyes. From what she could tell, it was some hybrid of the original scorpion walkers that had assaulted Equestria, and the support ‘spiders’ that seemed to be the logistic crews of the factory. It had eight legs, four at each side, along with a scorpion tail that made up more than half of its length. For object manipulation, there appeared to be four small limbs around the jaws of the creature, each about the length of a minotaur’s ‘pinky’ finger. It had ten small red dots for eyes, eight facing forwards, and the remaining four facing to the left and right of it’s ‘frisbee-like’ body. Beyond that, there was no real markings that made it stand out from the legion of silver and grey. ‘Doesn’t look large enough to be a real threat… perhaps a scout? Maybe a scavenger?’ Luna mused, turning it over in her magic as if she was appraising a rare jewel. ‘No. Look at those jaws, it must be a harvesting unit of some kind. But to attack a pony instead of running? Perhaps this foe has some use to biomatter?’ “Any ideas what it is Princess?” One of the guards asked, one of her personal guards even. Millthorn, if she remembered correctly. “Looks like it wouldn’t be much good for anything but picking up bones to me.” “We assume it to be a harvester of some kind. Perhaps a scavenger, but almost definitely not a combat unit.” The Alicorn nodded, turning to her attendant. “Though We agree with thy observations, perhaps ‘tis used for harvesting bones or biomatter?” “How about we call it a ‘Bonepicker’? Would work for a scavenger, or a harvester.” Millthorn shrugged, flicking his bat wings with slight nervousness. ‘An adorable nervous tick, useful too. If there is one thing sister is good at, is training guards to appear to be emotionless.’ Luna mentally chuckled, the irritation at her rude awakening momentarily forgotten. “‘Tis satisfactory. This creature shalt now be known as ‘Bonepicker.’” “So… Princess, can we crack that thing open? I’ve never seen the inside of one, and the curiosity is killing me.” He asked with a slight smile, his wings flicking away an unseen irritation again. ‘At least we are in agreement on that.’ Luna mused, no vocally reply as she increased the pressure her telekinesis was putting out. It took a lot less force than expected, as unlike the large war machines she was used to fighting, this creature barely had an inch of hull. But as it opened with a loud crack, she was greeted with the smell of rotting flesh and blood. From within the disk portion of the creature, a single organic component is connected to a mess  of wires and metal. A single shard of a once living being, barely the size of her hoof. A single part of a pony’s brain. A unicorn to be precise, particularly the part of the brain just before the horn. Part of the horn is still attached, connected to a socket of metal that seemed to be welded to the bone. Over her shoulder, Millthorn retreated from the scene and retched, but Luna remained unfazed. Out of all of the emotions running through her system, panic was the furthest from her mind. Curiosity, anger, even a little bit of wonder, but not fear. No horror. It was an abomination of course, the highest insult to organic life, but part of her wasn’t surprised. If anything, she was glad she knew what this foe was doing with their remains. ‘Perplexing…’ Throwing the carcass to the side, the Princess turned to address her troops. They still had a foe to fight after all. *0o()o0* Hours passed like leaves in the wind, the only guiding beacons being the moon and the tower. The endless expanse of concrete flooring, completely flat for as far as the eye can see, an oddity, but not one without its own beauty. The mastery of nature it displays, perhaps? Or even the sheer ignorance for what was once here? Regardless, Luna could still marvel at the sheer level of change this place has been through. After the rude awakening of this twilight, the troops were in no mood to talk. Leaving the group to march in blissful silence, bereft even of the sounds of nature. No birds, crickets, frogs or leaves. Even the clanking of hooves or armour was absent thanks to a inbuilt enchantment on their equipment. Only the silence of the night could be heard. Almost like the moon. The Princess had to restrain a physical shudder at the thought, before mentally throwing it to the back of her mind. She was in the middle of a mission against the greatest foe Equestria has ever seen! She didn’t have time to think about the past. “Contact!” Millthorn’s scream cut through the night air like a venomous blade, the feeling of cold dread infecting all that heard it. The night was lit up into flashes of pale blue as all of the enchantments on the guards’ armour flashed to life. Shields sprung to life, and blades were drawn as sections of the ground lifted to reveal metal chambers. Luna was only able to see a brief glance as hundreds of ‘Bonepickers’ surged from the multiple pits, the red beady eyes of the automata contracting the light of the blue enchantments. Red versus blue. Ironic. Springing into action, her glaives sung the song of death as they hacked the creatures to bits. The guards formed around her, swords, spears, and wingblades joining her deathly chorus, even the insolent adventurer entered the fray with her personal wingblades. The spiders swarmed across the ground like the tide of the seas, scuttling even across each other in their attempts to slay the intruders. Seconds passed like hours as Luna’s blades flashed in the moonlight, felling the creatures as if they were nothing more than a mild annoyance. She was a goddess, Princess of the Moon, Maiden of the Night, Queen of the Darkness. She was born for battle, she has never been defeated in a fair fight by any mortal. Her guards were not though. A minute or so into the encounter, the dying screams of a mare signaled the loss of one of the guards. She has missed a swing with her shortsword, and the spider had jumped onto her side, slowing the mare just enough for some of the other Bonepickers to take hold. After that, she was dragged into the surging masses screaming, blood and entrails coating the grey concrete floors. Beyond that, it was like a domino effect, guards would hesitate seeing what happened to their comrade, and that hesitation would cost them their lives. Some were stronger than others, able to keep their attention on the battle as their formation become smaller and smaller. Before long, the toll of battle began to show even on the Princess, small nicks here and there slowly became more sizable wounds, thankfully, she was able to keep her guard up enough for the damage to be limited to visual damage. “Ayah!” Luna cried, pulling her glaives back to her before releasing a great wall of force. The Bonepickers went flying as their formation was broken, allowing the Princess to capitalise on their weakness. A few extra blasts granted some breathing room, and the addition of some magical bolts allowed the remains of her party to start to gain some ground. In those few actions, the battle had shifted. What was a fight for their lives became a slaughter against a fleeing foe. The spiders ran back into their holes, dragging as much of their dead as possible down with them. Thousands turned to hundreds, then to a hooffull, and finally to none. “Heh… heh… ha ha ha!” Millthorn choked out a mildly crazed laugh, falling to his knees as he gazed out at the masses of robotic bodies. Blood coated the once-grey concrete a slimy shade of crimson, aided by the oils of the machines, and the sweat of the survivors. Hundreds of the Bonepickers lay dead, even more having been taken back underground by their fellows. ‘And all it had cost was three of our own.’ Out of the five that had entered this damned place, now only the Princess and Millthorn remained. Even the legendary ‘Daring Do,’ having survived countless adventures, had fell to this foe. It brought her no joy. “Eyes up Guardstallion!” Luna snapped, casting a quick healing spell on herself to close the wounds that had made it through the cracks in her armour. “Our mission is far from over.” “W-what?” Millthorn asked, his eyes reduced to pinpricks as any mirth he had drained faster then a popped balloon. “W-we’re not going back?!” “Of course not. We shalt move onward to establish a hoofhold, than call for reinforcements.” Princess Luna explained calmly, trotting past the stunned guard in the direction of the tower. ‘’Tis that, or call in the Elements… this is no place for such young mares.’