//------------------------------// // Uplink Six: Contact II // Story: Ave Deus Mechanicus: On Equestria // by PleaseDoNotDeleteMe //------------------------------// --- Twilight left her palace following the guard pony. Upon exiting she saw none other than Pinkie pie barreling from the direction they where heading screaming: ‘Emergency!' and 'Clear the way emergency!' over and over again wearing a helmet complete with blinking light on. Twilight grabbed the mare in her magic. The earth pony didn't stop her stride. "Pinkie! What is th--" "Sorry Twilight I can't talk now, this is a Level One Ice Cream Emergency!" The party mare stated. Rolling her eyes Twilight let her go to whatever game she was playing and returned to following her guard. Leave it to Pinkie Pie to have different levels of an Ice Cream Emer— Wait level one? Before she could finish her thoughts she saw them. Standing upright were six towering figures in total. Four of which were uniform in shape dressed in open red robes various cables wires and plates covering their strange bodies. If they had bodies at all underneath. The line between what was armor and what was them was incredibly blurry. All wore the same domed silver helmet, save for one who’s appeared more ornately designed complete with a one fourth cog acting as a mane along the back of its head. They surround a larger figure, this one towering over them like a father to his foals, his body was even stranger. Hunched with multiple tentacles, claws, legs, and cables dangling out. The stances of the smaller ones seamed hollow and void of thought. As if they were puppets of the larger construct. They might have been, possessing no minds of their own. Mechanical slaves to a mechanical master mind. The little ones all clutched uniform bulbous metal rods. Twilight had never seen anything like it. Or anything like any of them. What she had seen before was the black and yellow tape rapped around all of them curtesy of Pinkie Pie. The hooded figure turned to face her. Underneath it’s hood Twilight could make out several crimson gem eyes. Their was intelligence behind those eyes. But on what she couldn’t determine. He was old. Very old. It stared at her like she might a dog or a cat, tilting its head as if expecting her to say something. Before she could, it let out a high pitched screech, Twilight was forced to cover her ears, her enhanced alicorn hearing picking up every frequency the thing vomited. The noise dug into her brain like rusted claws, then it stopped. “Sorry about that.” She heard a low metallic voice say. Tilting her head up it was the creature. “Umm. No harm done.” She said rubbing her ears. “Mind telling me what you... what you are doing here?” “Gladly” the creature stated with mild enthusiasm. “We are... explores. Seekers of knowledge in all its forms, and when we happened upon this great vibrant land of yours we naturally couldn’t resist.” The voice was... off. Strange and hollow. It didn’t sound entirely like a ponies it was... unnatural. Like someone had recorded many different pony voices and was just playing them back in a new order over and over till you couldn’t tell them apart. In a way it fit the, things odd mechanical mismatched appearance. “Umm.” Twilight started. “Good to know. Would you like to come to m—“ “Your highness!” The guard pony interrupted before bowing his head. “Forgive my outburst, but I strongly advise against such an action.” The armored creature with the gear mohawk turned to face the guard pony. “We don’t know these...” He stopped himself before he said the word ‘creatures’. “The whole point of the School of Friendship is to spread the knowledge of friendship to those outside Equestria.” Twilight stated. “If they wish to learn of the Magic of Friendship it is our duty to teach it to them to the best of our abilities.” The guard pony bowed his head. “Of course your majesty.” With that matter settled Twilight turned around and started back to her home expecting the metal things to follow her. Something she could tell they did from the clicking and hissing behind her. Privately she agreed with the stallion, she had no idea what these things where capable of, for now it was best to do as they said and hope not to anger them. ~~~ Back at her castle the big one left his escorts at the door, while Twilight lead him to her personal study. Starlight had just woken up and was watching their guest wearily, the creature scanned the various tomes in Twilight's study taking in the lore like Pinkiepie would a trey of cupcakes. For all Twilight knew they could literally eat knowledge, defiantly wouldn't be the first time she encountered a creature like that. At least the words where intact. The hunched creature asked for the princesses aid in reading the books however, though their ponish was... passible, they had obviously never read the language before. Twilight gave some basic lessons on reading and soon the metal behemoth was off tearing through the tomes in her library, occasionally halting and coming to Twilight with a whole list of words curious of their definition and pronunciation. With every time it did this however the list got shorter and shorter, it may be that he had deciphered the roots of their language and was using that to figure out a words meaning. The more he read the less threatening he seamed to be. Twilight saw a lot of herself in this stranger, the insatiable apatite to learn and grow, the hunger the hunger for knowledge only a good many books could provide, the collection of lore that grew and grew till only the knowledge was left and your own being slipped away bit by bit brought back to yourself by an outside voice calling you out of the trance of all consu-- "Twilight." Starlight's voice pulled her out of contemplation, "Can I talk to you outside really fast?" Her voice conveyed she was worried about something, it probably was alright to leave the thing alone for just a bit, what harm could happen? Loading.. Loading..... Auto Shunt Found Designation: Dox- 66 Rank: Skitarii Alpha Location: Unknown World assigning designation: VP- 23336789432 Xeno Settlement Delta Uplink successful +We are much wiser now+ Dox Stood at the entrance way to the xeno palace, his squad was surrounded by the xeno matriarchs solders, though they did not do so in a threatening manor, instead they stood idle around them. The rads of their war plates slowly bleeding their strength. Over time their stance became more heavy as the life left their bodies, under his helmet the alpha smirked. Sure they weren't dead, but at this rate permeant damage was being done to the vile creatures, and they had no idea. Soon the xeno mistress approached with one of her maidens, on of the psykers by the look. Dox- 66 sent a message to his master for confirmation on engaging them, and he replied that they should be aloud to leave, as one the rad troops parted and let the hybrid pass. Once the gate was closed the guard closes to Dox fainted curling into a ball on the ground, Dox got on one knee leaned in close to the creature. He opened verbal communication with the inferior flesh thing. "Are you alright creature?" Transmission Interrupted [3/6]