//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Live Wires 
// Story: A Bronzed Moon 
// by Eric Longtooth 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4: Live wires


By Eric Longtooth.


“The sad part about being a lone wolf is, you don't die around your friends, you die around your enemies.”


Unknown



|\>o0{ Spark }0o</|


His skittering legs danced across the labyrinth of machines and robots. His original, inefficient hooved limbs having been long since replaced with the shiny metal of ten insectoid legs.

Although he was loath to use the design of the insects that had once plagued the glorious Factory, they were without a doubt, effective at movement in this terrain.

Each leg fitting smoothly into the grooves of each building, each placed as if they were built just so he could traverse them, this unit was able to continue his duties as caretaker with ease. 

He was thankful for his position, other units had been taken to the front lines, but he was allowed to stay here. A great distance underground, surrounded only by the awe-inspiring creations of the factory, instead of the filth of this world’s primitives.

Regardless, he was filled with a sense of pride as he gazed around at his surroundings. Where stone and clay had once littered the walls, now was only the open steel and concrete of the factory floor. Even though a large portion of the production has been moved to The Spire after the resources dried up, most of the complex components still were manufactured here. 

Gone were the days of mines and refining, now, all the resources were brought in by the vast networks of trains. Even some of the common products required for advanced production had to be imported, gears, circuits, even bodies.

After he had removed the few remaining insects that had most likely followed them from the last planet, the need for bio-matter had skyrocketed. Whilst he wasn’t entirely sure why the Factory needed it, he had to admit, the wild cattle were a good source for it.

From what he could tell, soon a group of special bodies would arrive, and would be uplifted. It pleased him to know that he wasn’t the only one to receive such a blessing, but at the same time, he worried that he would be replaced in the eyes of the Factory.

But these thoughts distracted him from the task at hand, for the first time, the Factory would allow him to uplift one of his old kind! The Factory had whispered it in the harsh binary tones that it always did, saying that now that he had been stripped of the last of his bio-matter, he would be granted the knowledge to give the same gifts he had received to others!

He couldn’t wait to find these new siblings!


*0o()o0*{Princess Luna}*0o()o0*


Long ago, when she was still a little filly, Luna had be warned of the dangers of blind teleports. 

Death, dismemberment, paralyzation, and, more often the not, magical exhaustion.

Sure, there was ways to make sure these things didn’t happen. Be it a quick scanning spell to make sure the destination was clear, or even some sort of mana limitation so that the spells didn’t take too much energy. 

But, when one started to do that, the process started to take up more valuable time. 

Time that, in combat, cannot be spared.

So, it was hardly a surprise when her spell spat the pair out in mid air. Once again, the bonuses of being an alicorn showed as the Princess rolled her body to take the brunt of the fall away from her faithful guard. 

It took only a moment of free fall before the pair made contact with the hard metallic ground, causing a great screech of metal as the flooring fought with the Princess’s armour to claim this unwanted assailant as its own.

Thankfully, it wasn’t enough of a fall to break the enchanted plate mail, even in its damaged state. Before she could move to check on her companion, she was greeted with a loud groan as the armoured batpony rolled off of her. 

“Eeeegh… I think I lost a few brain cells in that one…” Millthorn complained as he slowly picked himself off of the ground. “How are you fairing, Princess?”

“We art fine. A few bruises and nothing more.” Luna replied as she joined Millthorn in readying themselves. “Dost thou know where we are located?”

“I think I should be asking you, I’m no unicorn, and even then, I don’t think I’d be able to teleport in the middle of battle like that.” 

“Fair.”

“Well, if you ponies opened your eyes for once, I could tell you.” A female double toned voice dryly chuckled from above them. 

At the sound, the pair quickly adopted battle stances as they scanned the darkness for a foe. But, in reality, there wasn’t much to see at all, with the room they found themselves in being nothing more than a large metal box.

Beyond a single door on the far end of the room, and a mess of cables and wires covering up large portions of the walls. The only abnormal thing being a great big stain of green fluid that they found themselves standing in. 

“Up here, princess.” The voice called mockingly before she descended into a fit of coughs.

The Princess and her faithful guard snapped their eyes to the voice, before flinching at what they found.

Everypony knows who Queen Chrysalis is, be it that they saw her at some point, or simply had heard tales of her exploits. Be it the original invasion of Canterlot, or the grand scale schemes that seemed to flock to her like vultures to carrion. 

But this… this was something else. 

Where there was once shiny black carapace and grand teal hair, they could see only a flaking and sickly layer of tender muscle. Meat hooks straight out of the butcheries of the Gryphons had plunged through the fallen Queen’s limbs, each attached by thick chains to multiple anchor points in the roof. 

Sections of her body had been torn away, leaving gaping holes that leaked neon green blood and acted like windows to alien-like organs. Hundreds of struggling worm-like creatures swarmed around the damaged area, each clad in thin chitinous carapaces and dozens of tiny legs that oozed a sort of deep teal acid that burned away infected-looking flesh.

Although it was a slow process, the Princess noticed that wherever the acid burned, tiny tendrils of muscle reached out and slowly regrew the grievous wounds. A sort of symbiotic relationship perhaps? Or just a more advanced version of normal healing?

Whilst Luna watched with curiosity, Milthorn found himself looking away with a grimace. 

“Take a good look, ponies. For this is evolutionary perfection…” Chrysalis laughed darkly, shaking a few of the worms off of her body and into the floor far below. Surprisingly enough, the worms seemed to take it in stride and began climbing the walls to get back to their host. “I should be glad, perhaps I’ll get killed in the crossfire when they finally come for you.”

“We shouldn’t be surprised, that an insect as… annoying as you,” Luna began with a sneer, “Would be this disgusting, but it seems even We have yet to see everything.”

“Ha! So it would seem!” The changeling Queen laughed, her double toned voice turning a, usually, pleasant sound into a chorus of haunting sounds.

‘Well… this couldn’t get any worse…’