//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30: Moss Agate 
// Story: Anemoia 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

Bit watched as the guard poured in. After just a few seconds there were already more than she usually saw in one place. Only when they were guarding the Secretary of Labor did so many of these black-armored soldiers appear.

Comet Hum retreated as they walked inside, backing up until she was against the far wall, near a resin printer. Pathfinder was too confused to move, and remained on the floor, stupefied. That alone could at least serve as proof of the success of Bit's healing—he didn't rise to join the formation. He wasn't one of them anymore.

Unfortunately it wasn't just the Revolutionary Guard. Before Bit could formulate anything approaching a plan, another pony strode inside. Like the guard marching in their formation, Sombra wore full uniform, right down to black boots that Bit could almost guarantee had to be made of real leather.

He scanned the room in an eyeblink, eyes settling on Pathfinder. Bit caught a faint glow from his horn, far too brief to be anything approaching a complex spell. Her defenses would go untested, at least for a little while longer.

The soldiers didn't grab her, or start breaking any of her equipment. They just spread out around the room, mostly flanking the Secretary of Labor. "Evening, Wizard," he said, striding up through the laboratory. He watched Alpha emerge briefly from the dark storage area, lifting another crystal limb out from the tank before carrying it off again. The automatons did not stop to give "proper respect" to the secretary or his office. They didn't so much as look at him. "How goes your work in service of Zircon?"

Bit didn't retreat from him, or cast a spell. Not that she had anything she could possibly use to defend against a creature like this. His soldiers all carried spears, but not simple ceremonial weapons. These were made of crystal as black as their armor, and seemed to darken the space around them. Not firearms in the traditional sense, but they could probably still kill a pony at range. "Well enough, Secretary. A surprising honor to see you here at this hour."

He didn't smile back, instead circling around Pathfinder. The pony managed to shuffle into a crude bowing position—even in his addled state, he recognized the danger here. 

"I was surprised myself," Sombra finally said. "When I felt the monitoring spell I placed upon this pony shatter. I find myself struggling to imagine what anypony might possibly say to justify such disloyalty to Zircon and her ponies. Some pony actually thought she stood above the Secretary of Labor?"

Wasn't the whole point of the revolution to make no pony stand above others? Somehow Bit didn't think she would get very far arguing his hypocrisy with him. A pony who casually murdered to perform faster medical experiments probably wasn't going to feel guilty about the ideological inconsistencies of their own positions. Sombra didn't care.

Maybe she didn't either. "Secretary, you knew what I was when you appointed me. I serve to advance scientific understanding, as my predecessor did. You gave me a pony with a shattered psyche and no ability to work in my laboratory. I have restored him."

She put special emphasis on I in that phrase, moving slightly to put herself between Sombra and the cowering unicorn against the far wall. This was her spell, even if she hadn't been the one to cast it. 

Bit was still no expert in reading pony emotions. But the pony in front of her made no attempt to conceal his frustration. Sombra seethed, his horn glowing faintly as one leg scratched at the ground before him. His glare passed right through Bit, to the pony behind her. "You," he barked, gesturing forward. "Come here."

She did so, hooves shaking as she made her way forward. She glanced once at Bit, as though begging for relief. But what was Bit supposed to do, with all these soldiers ready? At least they hadn't drawn their weapons. Maybe this wouldn't go so far—maybe Bit still had more time.

"I see from your uniform you're a second class technician. You serve here in the laboratory... What is your name, pony?"

"Comet Hum," she squeaked, unable to meet Sombra's eyes. But she wasn't the only one who avoided getting anywhere near him. 

More often than not, the secretary seemed pleased by the fear he instilled in ponies. But now, he only frothed more energetically. "Yes, I do recall that name. Comet Hum was a barely adequate biologist, unwilling to obey basic instructions while employed in... I think one of our farms. Your supervisor recommended you for reassignment to hard labor, but the wizard demanded an unusual number of specialists."

Sombra circled around her like a vulture, eyes intent. Like he could see the disloyalty right through her skin, somehow. "Answer me something, Comet Hum. Give me a report on the progress you've made towards a bioweapon for deployment against our Equestrian enemies. Explain how far your lab has come in the last weeks, in your own words."

"I..." she stammered, glancing desperately towards Bit again. "We're, uh... building a..."

"Model to ensure no crystal pony is vulnerable to the process," Bit supplied. "Otherwise it might endanger our own army, or even the city's physical structure."

Sombra stomped a single hoof. Wearing rubber boots the sound wasn't as sharp as it might've been otherwise, but his meaning remained clear. Bit fell instantly silent.

"I did not... ask... you." He searched for a few seconds, then gestured again. Bit didn't recognize it this time, but the Revolutionary Guard did. Two separated from the back of the room, advancing until they flanked him on either side. "This pony has been subverted and betrayed the revolution. What do we do with counter-revolutionaries?"

What happened next passed in a blur so quick Bit barely even saw it. One of the guard drew their spear—but not to strike Comet. Before Comet could even scream, he pressed it up against her head, then fired. 

Bit looked away, stiffening as red smeared across her laboratory floor. Comet Hum dropped to the ground at their hooves, and Sombra turned away, contemptuous. "You see what your actions cause, Wizard. This death is yours, just like all the others you have failed."

Alpha and Beta reappeared from the back of the room. Their expressions remained as blank as ever, and they didn't even seem to see the dead pony on the floor. Yet Bit saw the difference in their movement—instead of heading straight for the now-empty tank to begin draining it, they circled from the walls on both sides, keeping close to the machinery there.

Bit backed away, horrified. "She didn't... Comet was one of the finest biologists I had. You can't just... waste lives!"

"I didn't, you did." Sombra's horn glowed again, and this time it didn't pass in a second. This was something else, a real spell. "I've been exceptionally tolerant of your behavior, Wizard. You came from another era—in some ways, you can't help it. You are a machine yourself, even more than any of these crystal ponies you helped create. But when a machine malfunctions too far, it must be repaired. If it cannot be fixed, it will be decommissioned."

His spell washed over her then, a wave of magic that was entirely invisible to her eyes, but impossible not to feel. Not just her—that magic washed around the room. It was trying to control everyone. 

"You will serve Zircon now, Bit. Obey the voice of your king!"

She dropped to the ground, body shaking from the force of the sudden magic. Images flashed past her faster than an ordinary pony would've been able to process—images of a life of obedience and training. Memories of absolute loyalty to Sombra as the secretary. Nothing else in the world mattered.

She'd been so worried about keeping Pathfinder from infection, she hadn't worried enough about herself. She looked up into his eyes, struggling to stand. Maybe she could cast a spell... stop him somehow?

But why would she want to? This was Sombra. Secretary of Labor... and more. He was the only pony suited to be king, greater than any of the evil ponies he replaced. He would lift them out of cold and darkness, and retake the world, restoring the Crystal Cities to glory long lost.

Across the room, glass shattered, and a pony screamed in agony. The spell ended in a flash, and Bit looked up. One of the Revolutionary Guard was impaled in a fabricator drill, while another's face crunched into the glass of a window.

Alpha and Beta cut through the guard in front of them, fighting with fury Bit hadn't seen during this new life. The other guards weren't standing stupefied—they took aim, firing with blasts from energetic spears. A shot connected, and Alpha's whole body lit up, resonating like a glass tapped with a fork. But nothing happened, and the soldier was crushed under Alpha's hooves.

"Obey me!" Sombra shouted, his voice reverberating with magic. "Your converted minds cannot resist me! You will bow!"

Bit made it one step before the force of his spell crushed her to the ground. She bowed, just as he ordered, unable to move. Pathfinder lowered his head, and revolutionary guards dropped their weapons one by one and knelt before Sombra.

Alpha took a fallen spear in one hoof and rammed it up into the opening between a guard's neck and helmet, spraying more blood onto the laboratory floor. Behind them, Beta struck a converted crystal guard, cracking off a leg in a flash of angry red light.

They don't have minds to control. She wasn't all that different from Alpha and Beta—she had a conventional processor, just like they did. Maybe hers came from recorded memories, but that didn't mean she couldn't use some of the same defenses. 

Bit couldn't fight a spell that strong, not as a pony. But her mechanical mind knew an outside influence. The memories Sombra instilled all had invalid formatting and date logs. She composed a helper program to delete anything with incorrect cryptographic signatures—and just like that, the force holding her down vanished. She stood up, facing Sombra.

"Your secretaries all admire you," she whispered, facing into the swirling green of his magic directly. It whipped and crackled past her now, obscuring the battle taking place around them. "They really believe you're here to free the world. But you don't care about the ponies of Zircon—you're using them."

Now it was his turn to back away. The spell vanished in a blink, and he turned his horn towards Bit again. Darkness coalesced around it, shattering every bulb overhead in a series of painful flashes. Only the steady green heartbeat of the empty crystal tank remained, pulsing every few seconds.

The Revolutionary Guard were fighting again—but Sombra's own attack had sealed their fate. Her automatons fought through them ruthlessly. These ponies had probably never known a real fight in their lives—Zircon wasn't really at war with Equestria. But the automatons were old, and lacked mercy.

"You won't spread this infection to Zircon!" Sombra roared, magic blasting out from his horn in a terrible slow-moving wave.

Alpha leapt into its path, intercepting the blast with the bulk of its body. Their body screamed in protest, a single terrible second of resonance—then it exploded, showering the room with broken crystal.

Bit screamed. She didn't know how to fight and didn't remember a single thing about winning a magical war. But she didn't care. She smashed into Sombra's neck with all the force she could, shoving him across the room. They rolled and tumbled, before crashing up against the door beside the only two still-standing guards.

"You're all dead!" He stood, just as Beta came in from the other side. But the automaton struck against a shimmering black barrier, wrapping around Sombra and the surviving guards. "Everything you ever accomplished will be erased! I'll see you more than forgotten, Wizard!"

Beta, undeterred, picked up a spear, took aim, and fired its blast of energy directly into the shield—over and over again, until the tip melted, and they exchanged it for another, uncaring of the heat as molten glass sloughed around them.

Light flashed from the sphere, along with a thunderclap of imploding air. When it cleared the space was empty, right down to the door and bits of the ceiling.

From where he had knelt frozen the entire battle, Pathfinder finally stood. He looked around the room, shaking his head once. His eyes avoided the place where Comet's body lay, still warm. "What do we do, Wizard?"

A few of the revolutionary guards were still alive—but not for much longer. Beta circled calmly around the outside of the lab, executing each one with cold precision. Strangely, it left the partly-crystal ponies alone, half broken and all. Maybe they didn't count as dangerous?

"We have to go." She searched the room, finally levitating a chunk of melted metal frame up into the air in front of her. Alpha’s core sheared cleanly in half by the force of its destruction. They saved my life. 

But there was no time to mourn them now—just like Comet Hum, and all the others Bit couldn't help. Far in the distance she could hear an alarm, echoing through the square. Sombra wouldn't give her a second chance to remove him, he would send an army. An army of ponies who didn't know any better, that they could never hope to overcome.

"Beta, evacuation protocol. And Pathfinder... it's good you're here. We have a lot to carry."

Bit lowered herself to one knee beside Comet's fallen body, closing her eyes with a flicker of magic. Then she rose and turned to the backrooms.