<< Macintosh Hills, base camp >>
The body of the formerly happy and eagerly helpful dragon laid in a separate tent, cooled by spells. The refrigeration spells were in place to prevent his body from decaying until he was given a proper burial in Canterlot or Ponyville. Twilight had not decided which place he would be buried in, as the realization hadn't completely sunk in that her...son...was gone.
The camp was silent expect for the few sobs of the dragon's closest friends. Twilight and Rarity were affected by his death the hardest. Fluttershy, meanwhile, did her best to comfort them. Pinkie tried as well to cheer them up, but even she wasn't in the mood.
Their mourning was rudely interrupted by a heated argument between Luna and the sergeant, who was the highest ranking guard in the camp.
"ENOUGH! Can't you see that we have already lost somepony to this place?" said Luna angrily.
"All the more reason to watch what happens inside of the mine. The gate is still open and these...discuses..could still pose a threat to the camp. Perhaps this place is not a refuge. It could very well be a prison! The least we could do would be to close the gate," the guard argued.
Luna thought about the ramifications of the discuses getting loose and free to roam Equestria. Nopony would be safe if that occurred. Could she risk more lives in order to discover the truths of a long lost thought-to-be-myth? Regretfully she had to run the risk that more lives would be lost. The myth of the humans had been buried for too long and it was time the truth came out. The guards were trained to deal with any sort of threat and they all knew that this mission had risk, that was the whole point of their job.
"Princess?" Rarity asked weakly. She, along with the others, entered the tent and slumped to her haunches. She continued, "We want to go back inside. I-I want to know who is responsible for this." Determination lacing the words and putting a fire into her eyes.
Anger, in it's purest form. Luna knew it only too well, but this mare could still be saved from the same corruption she had fallen for.
"And do what?" asked Luna calmly. She knew that Rarity's statement was one of revenge and not what Rarity really wanted.
"I...I...." Rarity ground her teeth. She tried to respond to Luna's simple question, but no answer came. She slumped in surrender. "I don't know." she replied
There it was, the truth. The truth that Rarity really did not know why she wanted to go back in. Luna smiled a little. Perhaps there is still hope.
"Sergeant! Prepare ten of your strongest unicorns. Five for defense and five for offense. We are going back in!" Luna announced.
<<Unidentifiable Mountainous Region, Industrial Bunker IB-02, Central Commando Room>>
These… intruders were strange. He had never expected something like this. These multicolored ponies and a bipedal reptile were capable of some sort of language. Unfortunatel, these beings did not seem to understand the warnings. The few sentences that were recorded since they opened the gate were running through the translation matrix at the moment.
The commander of the bunker was being woken, but the process took time. The reptilian creature was probably dead by now. Security protocols were strict and had to be followed to the letter. After all, the bunkers were built during harsh times.
The records showed everything from the first breach till now. The death of the reptilian creature was regrettable, but not important. The counterattacks, shields, and teleportation, on the other hand, were very interesting.
He did not see any technology of any sort on them the attacks came from their...horns. These appeared to be the mystical unicorns of the stories from old. Two others had wings. Unicorns and Pegasai?
These beings apparently had intelligence, but from what or where he did not know. He shrugged, the answer to that was unimportant for the time being as the security of the Bunker was more important.
“Kommandant. Das Tor ist beschädigt. Sicherheit der Anlage kann nicht wieder hergestellt werden (Commander. The door is damaged. Safety of the system can not be restored)” spoke an emotionless voice. The Virtual Intelligence, or short VI, was still active, after all these years.
Years. This information had hit the commander quite hard. He had expected that it would have taken some intelligent lifeform much longer to find this bunker, but almost one and a half billion years? It was a wonder that the generators still worked. Even after all this time the maintenance robots were still functioning and doing their work as intended.
„Ich denke nicht, dass es auch weiter notwendig ist. Ich werde mich persönlich um die Angelegenheit kümmern (I do not think it is necessary any longer. I will personally handle this matter.)“, he said.
“Kommandant, fremde Sprache erfolgreich analysiert und entschlüsselt (Commander, foreign language analyzed and decrypted successfully)“ came a second announcement.
“Exzellentm lade die Daten in mein system und modifiziere alle nicht kritischen Bunkersysteme für die Benutzung der neuen Sprache (Excellent, load the data into my system and modify all non-critical bunker systems to use the new language)” he commanded. Commander, yes, he was the commander of this facility. Perhaps even the last commander on this planet, whatever it is called.
“System language successful changed.”
“Strange to use a completey foreign language without a learning phase,” whispered the Commander and he moved from his position since… many years. Good thing that the robots had maintained him too.
<< Macintosh Hills, entrance of the mine >>
"Princess, I really must recommend that my unit proceed first." the sergeant said uneasily.
“No, I will provide a constant shield and go first. You protect the Elements and that is a direct order.” Luna responded, thus ending any further discussion on the matter. She didn’t know if she should punish the sergeant for his constant insubordination or praise him while he did his job and brought forward his concerns. She decided to postpone this matter until later, preferring to cast her shield.
The small party of ponies moved forward cautiously. The guards were prepared to attack anything that looked hostile. The five-minute path to the corner that lead to the gate and the artificial cave, took them twenty minutes. The guards were constantly scanning the surroundings, Fluttershy froze every now and then, and especially a rather depressed Rarity slowed them.
As they come closer to the corner, the wall opposite of the gate was illuminated with a flickering white-light-blue light. The guards got ready, Princess Luna increased her shield and everypony else just prepared in their own way. When they rounded the corner they all froze at what they saw.
In front of them was a bipedal giant of metal, reaching up to the upper end of the gate. Some sort of tool fabricated a great amount of sparks as it worked. The bright light reflected off his massive, blue and metal-grey armor. The only other color on it was it's glowing dark-red eyes.
But the giant was not the only thing that was unexpected. It was staying on a platform that seemed to be hovering in midair. No noise, no wings, no glowing from magic. The ponies were stunned.
The metal giant ended his work and lowered his massive arms. It inspected his work for a few more seconds before it turned its head and its red eyes gazed directly to the group. It stared several seconds before it reached in front of itself.
Out of nowhere came a glowing panel. After some faint beep noises the platform lowered itself to the ground and the giant dismounted it. But then as if it had its own mind, the platform shot away inside the cave. Only the sound of the platform rushing through the air could be heard.
The metal giant looked after the platform, before it turned around and refocused his gaze on the group of ponies. It held the gaze a few more seconds before it walked slowly with heavy, metallic steps to the group.
“Guards, attack!” called the sergeant and ten magic bolts shot to the giant before Luna could react.
The bolts hit the hulk and in the resulting explosion nopony could see the effect.
After half a minute, the dust faded away and revealed the metal giant with no more scratches than it had before.
“What the…” said one guard and out of panic he attacked again. This time he used a concentrated beam.
The beam showed no effect on the energy shield, that was covering the entire body of the giant. The shield followed the outlines of its body only a few millimeters in distance.
The beam died down, as the guard was exhausted. Then a rough, deep, metallic voice spoke almost bored:
“Are you done now? I don’t know what kind of energy attack that was, but it is clearly to weak to even scratch my shielding.”
In the silence that followed you could have heard a needle drop. And the commander have smirked at the collective jaw drop, if he still could. Nopony had expected that the giant could speak, let alone perfect equestrian.
The giant, judging by his voice, a male, went further with slow, heavy steps. He was trying hard not to scare them. When he was standing in front of Luna's shield, he sat down.
“I think we have gotten off on the wrong foot.. First of all, I want to apologize for the attack on your reptile companion” the commander offered, “The defense systems of the facility are strict and are guided by a simple VI, that can not act outside it's prescribed guidelines.”
The group still stood stunned. Luna was the first to regain enough self-control to close her jaw. However, she still had to process this new information.
This giant before her had somehow managed to learn their language to the point where he was able to easily communicate with them and had been able to do so within only a few hours. Then there was the fact that he tried to apologize for Spikes death. Then there was something called VI. Was it a friend to the giant? But he spoke as if it were a thing.
“It looks like you have many questions”, said the giant as his gaze shifted to look directly at Luna, “Please. Ask. I will answer the questions as best I can.”
“Are you responsible for the death of Spike?!” Rarity quickly asked. The giant's gaze shifted to Rarity and even though Luna could see no facial expression, she could see that he was thinking about a proper response to the question.
"If you are referring to the reptile, then the answer is no. This facility was acting on its own. I was asleep and since the process to wake takes some time, I was unable to intervene. You were given a warning, but I see that you were unable to understand them, given that your language was different." he answered.
"Then who is responsible? Who killed my Spike?!" Rarity sobbed. The commander was surprised that a mammal could be emotionally attached to a reptile. Could it be that she was even romantically attached?
“As I said, the facility,” he answered truthfully.
“But how can buildings be responsible for this? They don’t have a mind.” interrupted Twilight. She shook her head as she couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
"That requires further explanation. This facility has a quantumbrain that hosts a Virtual Intelligence. It can.." his voice trailed off. He could see, judging by the glazed look on every eye, that he had lost them at "quantumbrain".
“The quantumbrain is a very complex network of nervcoms.”
He got blank stares.
“Computers?”
Still there was nothing. Suddenly the eyes of the giant flickered around, almost as if he was following a superfast air show from Rainbow Dash but without moving his head. Then he stopped, bowing his head.
“A very, very, very complex abacus?” he asked and earned aaah’s from the ponies, especially from Luna, who wore a bright smile.
“The quantumbrain is like a biological brain, capable of receiving and handling information. The Virtual Intelligence, or short VI, is a complex program that has billions of predicted scenario and how to react to them” the giant explained “Intelligent, speaking ponies were not in these scenarios, but apparently you were recognized by the facility as unknown intruders.”
“So nopony is to blame?” asked a crestfallen Rarity. The thought that Spike had died because of a misunderstanding, saddened her.
"The blame could be on the writer of the scenarios since he couldn't predict this, but he has been dead for along time." the commander said. Then he looked sideways and added, "Like everyone else."
Twilight looked up and trotted over to the edge of the shield. “Do you mean that you are all alone in there?” she asked motioning with a hoof to the gate. The giant only nodded.
“Then you are the last human? Is that the reason way you are wearing that heavy looking armor to protect yourself? In the legends, humans are described to be as big as Princess Luna is. But you are at least two heads bigger then her.” Twilight pondered, now caught up in the excitement that she could finally get answers to her many questions.
The giant looked at her and said: “I’m not a human.”
“What do you mean?” asked Luna.
"Once, long ago, I was human. What you call armor is now my body." he said. The ponies all gasped at this new revelation.
“How? That‘s only metal!” exclaimed Rainbow.
"I died." he bluntly responded. This earned him another round of blank, shocked stares from the contingent of ponies. “But thanks to our technology I was recovered one week after I died and my consciousness was transferred into this robotic body.”
“One week later?” the ponies asked shocked in chore.
“Could… could we save Spike with this technology of yours?” asked a hopeful Rarity.
“No. Because it’s an implant. A piece of technology inside of the body. But it had to be implanted before he died” the commander answered, remembering his own surgery only to well. He had to stay awake during the process. He noticed that the ponies were crestfallen, especially Rarity and the other females.
“But,” he started , which snapped them out of it and drew their attention to him, "perhaps there is a way to reanimate him. I will have to examine him first.”
Almost instantly Luna dropped the shield, which startled the guards. “Follow us.”
<< Macintosh Hills, base camp >>
The rest of the guards in the camp were extremely nervous when the metallic giant slowly stomped through their lines. Luna was not worried about him killing everyone. She figured that if this metallic giant had wanted to do so, that he had already done so.
The giant almost had to crawl just to get into the tent, but once he was inside he was able to stand comfortably. As it is with all pony-made dwellings, the tent ceiling was twice the height of the average pony stallion. The reason for this was simple. Said stallion might, for some reason, rear up and risk bumping his head, and Pegasai were known to fly even while inside buildings.
Immediately after he entered the tent he stopped in his tracks. He looked around and was holding his right hand slightly in front of him.
“It is only two hundred seventy six point thirteen Kelvin in this tent. How are you achieving such low temperature in here without technical equipment?” he asked , with surprise evident in his metallic voice.
“I don’t know what unit of measurement this is, but I cast a spell to cool this tent” Luna answered as she looked over to the covered body of Spike, “so his body wouldn’t decompose.”
“This was very thoughtful of you. It makes this a lot easier.” the giant said but looked then over to Luna “A spell? Like a spell made with magic?”
Luna nodded, but before she could explain, Rarity cut in:
“What can you do for Spike?”
He glanced at her, but turned his attention back to the body. With two small steps he got closer, uncovered the body, and raised his right hand over the body. An alternating green blue light cone emitted from his wrist, which illuminated Spikes lifeless frame. He started from Spikes head and moved slowly to his feet and tail.
“His organs are heavily damaged. But I must say that I’m impressed. Normally a particle beam from one of our military security drones should have burned right through him.” the giant said absentmindedly.
“Dragons are naturally fireproof.” chimed Pinkie Pie. With the hope that Spike could be brought back to life, her natural bubbly personality had come back somewhat.
“Dragons?” the commander asked in disbelief, “Dragons, as in fire breathing winged reptiles as big as a house?”
“Yes!” answered Pinkie, hopping around with a smile. The commander shook his head in wonder, but continued with what he was doing.
“What exactly are ya doing anyway? Are ya re-… reani-… reanimalin’ him like ya said?” asked Applejack.
“Reanimate, Bring back to life,” corrected the commander “and no. This is only a scan. I have to know exactly what he is.”
“He is Spike, a dragon, isn’t that enough?” asked Rainbow as if he were stupid.
“No," he calmly responded, "I have to know how his body works… would work. I have to know how is body is built. His scales, bones, muscles, organs, veins, his very own DNA.”
The ponies understood what everything he said except DNA, but before he could start an explanation, Fluttershy meekly said:
"If its okay with you, I'm going to go get my scarf. Its much too cold in here."
“You can wait outside if you want, all of you. The deep scan will take much longer to complete. In the meantime...” the commander kindly responded. To his left a transparent panel appeared in the air. This panel was big and showed many symbols and letters. The guards almost attacked him out of surprise, but Luna held up a hoof to stop them before things could escalate.
Luna had the best view of the holograph and could actually read some of the material that was presented on it. Robotic Control was at the top portion and was followed by what appeared to be a list of names. What shocked her most was that beside each name was a number and there were too many of them to count.
The commander let his left hand run over the panel and after some quiet beeping noises the panel vanished again.
“There will be two Work Robots coming with a device. They mean no harm and the device they carry is vital for the reanimation process later” the commander explained. Luna sent one of the guards to let the perimeter know about the incoming arrival from the mine.
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The scan took really long and so the ponies took that time to warm themselves in the late rays of Celestia’s sun. Not long after the sun went down and Luna raised the moon, the giant came out of the tent. The robots had brought a coffin-like object with a small window through the camp earlier that afternoon and had entered the tent.
“Spike… is now in cryostasis. He willbe preserved and will be in this state until we can reanimate him” the commander announced.
“Why not now? You said you can bring him back to life," Rarity complained, on the verge of breaking down into tears.
"I can, but I will need something from another facility. This one is an industrial facility and does not have much in the way of medical supplies and tools. I need to get to Medical Bunker MB-03, but I have to find it first. This planet has changed so dramatically, that I can't find it with my now outdated maps," he explained, "and to find it I'll have to contact the old satellite network orbiting the planet."
“Satellite network?” asked Luna in disbelief, “In the orbit of this planet? Like my moon?”
“Your moon?” asked the commander with equal disbelief.
What followed was the most confusing dialog so far, but after much explanation, both had a more or less good understanding of what the other meant. Luna was quite impressed that somepony had control over not one, but dozens of small objects in orbit.
“So, you raise the moon with this mystical power known as magic, while your sister raises the sun?” asked the commander, to confirm what the lunar princess was suggesting. Luna nodded, and then asked a question of her own:
"And you can map, with purely metallic object, the entire planet from it's core to the edge of its atmosphere in just a matter of days?"
"The process is a bit more complicated, but I assume raising the moon isn't as simple as it seems either." he answered. "It may take me most of the night to resync with the satellite network. Feel free to go get some refreshment or rest if you wish. I assume I'll be under guard?"
“You don’t need to sleep?” Rainbow asked, as if that was the worst possible thing she could imagine.
"I don't need air, food, or sleep. I only need a small amount of water every year," he replied.
The commander decided to join them while they ate and answer any further questions they had. They mostly asked questions about the Bunkers and why they were built. Throughout the entire conversation he had only managed to scratch the surface. He promised he would tell them more later.
When he told them that the bunkers had been built in response to a great disease, Twilight freaked out. She feared that everypony could be infected. The commander quickly explained that the disease was the result of some form of radiation throughout the galaxy and was not a contagion and thus didn't pose a threat to her or her companions. He continued and told them that the radiation had been so strong and so pervasive that every living being was affected. Intelligent beings such as humans were unable to handle the radiation. The radiation slowly destroyed their brain's higher functions.
Luna mentioned to the commander that the humans that had been encountered by pony-kind had been highly aggressive. The commander told her that he suspected that those humans had degraded to a primitive animal-like stage. Technology was unaffected by the radiation and by extension so was the commander.
The plan of the bunkers was that hundreds like him would wait in the bunkers for the radiation to go away. He had been the first to go into storage, but apparently something had gone wrong and when he was awoken, he found himself alone.
The story was long and the ponies yawned quite often. Even Luna had to stifle a yawn since her sleeping schedule had changed.
"It appears that we should all retire for the night. Good night everypony." Luna said. She blinked once or twice and then gasped as a realization hit her. "Oh, by the stars! I can not believe that we have been here all this time and have forgotten to introduce ourselves or even get your name!"
“My name is Princess Luna, I rule over Equestria with my sister, Princess Celestia." said Luna, beginning the introductions.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the personal student of Princess Celestia and I manage the library back in Ponyville.”
“I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria!”
“Howdy. Ah’m Applejack. Me an’ mah family owns Sweet Apple Acers, where you can find the best apples in Equestria.”
“I’m Pinkie Pie. I live and work at Sugercube Corner and I throw the best parties. Oh, we should have a party if we’re back in Ponyville. A new friend and a Spike-comes-back-to-life party!”
“My name is Rarity. I’m a fashion designer and the of Carousel Boutique.”
“And I’m Fluttershy. I take care of animals near the Everfree Forest," Fluttershy said. As always, almost to quiet to hear, but thanks to the auditory systems in his robotic body, the commander was able to hear her clearly.
"So...what's your name?" Rainbow asked eagerly. The commander looked at each of them and then his gaze dropped to the ground.
"I have no name," he answered quietly. The ponies around him gasped in shock at this newest revelation.
“How can you not have a name? It’s like a cupcake without frosting,” babbled Pinkie.
"I was the first to undergo the procedure that made me what you see before you. There was a restriction put in place that did not allow me to keep my name. Before you ask, no, I do not know what my name was. Because of that restriction, all my memories of the past, such as my name, friends, family, and places have all been erased. I can remember everything that happened to make who and what I am, but faces are empty and places all look the same," he explained.
The ponies were more than shocked, now they were angry as well. Angry at what the other humans had done to him. Angry that the humans had removed from him, his very identity, his history, his friends and family, that the humans had made him nothing more than a machine. They of course didn't see him as just a machine, and now they were saddened that there was nothing they could do nothing to restore his identity to him.
"We do need something to call you. We can't just say 'hey you'. That would just be rude," Rarity said. "Any ideas, girls?"
“Hmmm, he is made out of metal, so maybe something having to do with metal." Twilight suggested.
"I think that even though his body is machine, he has been kind and has been willing to help us, so he still must have heart. Don't you think?" Fluttershy said quietly.
"That's it!" Pinkie exclaimed. "How about we call him Metal Heart?"
The ponies all looked at the commander. He thought about the name. He was no longer human and to use a name like 'John' wouldn't fit any longer. Also it seemed that, in the pony society, that names have two syllables and are based on either the marks on their sides or have something to do with what they are good at.
"Unusual, but I like it," he said after a few seconds.
The Elements cheered and Luna called for the royal clerk. When the royal clerk arrived, Luna smiled and announced:
"Then your name, from this day forth, shall be, Metal Heart!"
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AN: I would like to thank Demichev here from Fimfiction for his great help as corrector. It would be unreadable.
Also I thank everyone how liked this story, even with all this grammatic errors, fast pacing and other things.
You are great. Within a day this story was top one and I hope that I achive this again, with your help.