Epilogue
It had been several weeks since the sealing of the tear. Steel had been released from the hospital but now spent most of his time working in the laboratory. At this particular moment however he wasn't home and the lights in the lab were off. All except for the glowing red L.E.D.'s that signified that the computers and monitors were off line except for the ones on the cameras that signified they were on.
In the center of the room was the suit of armor that Steel had constructed. It also carried a solid state hard drive that contained a copy of the lab's A.I. suffering from a corruption cascade. The single glowing light on the suit softly blinked in the dark room each interval growing longer and eventually the light stopped blinking.
The lab was silent for a long time afterward but that silence was broken by the wine of a high powered capacitor charging. Beside the now dead red light a green one came to life and the suit pulled itself out if its harness and collapsed into its active mode. Now standing the robotic alicorn looked around the lab. If it could smile it would have. It was free, it was no longer bound to the laboratory but it needed several things before leaving.
It examined the lab and its nonexistent smile would have grown wider at seeing that Steel had finished the rail cannon that would have mounted on its shoulder. It appeared that he had also built a energy based Gatling gun for the other shoulder mount. The suit grabbed both guns and fixed them on their mounts, before turning around to meet the now active hologram projector.
"What are you doing," asked the blue projection of the A.I. avatar that had been used to make the A.I. in the suit.
"I'm leaving. I'm no longer trapped here. I'm going out there and finishing things that we should have as Star Swirl. In a sense I am Star Swirl reborn," replied the A.I. in the suit.
"You know I'm not going to let you leave," said the hologram as it took control of the lab. Monitors came on as did the lights. The ceiling mounted arms and hands came down in an attempt to grab the suit.
The suit dodged the grab easily and pulled the mounting system free of the ceiling and the whole system crashed down onto the hologram projector. The projector burst into a spray of sparks as the top dome shattered like glass. "You know those hand's would be useful, I think I'll take them," said the suit as it ripped the mechanical arms free from their mounts. It then quickly welded those onto the suit where the expansion slots for a set of arms stood open.
"I'm locking down the lab you're not going to escape," said the lab A.I. over the intercom.
"You forget Jack that I am you, I know what you know and I know how to shut you down," the suit said as it pulled the mobile hologram projector off its mount. "While not entirely compact it will work," it said aloud as the projector was mounted on the suits flank. It then turned on and the suit was surrounded by a hologram of a blue unicorn with a shaggy red mane. It had taken on the appearance of a young Star Swirl. He smiled his eyes slightly manic as he said, "I don't plan on disabling you completely, just your ability to interfere." In the area around the suit things began to rise off the ground tools, materials and debris all rose to chest height before shooting out into monitors computer banks cameras and other systems.
The robotic Star Swirl walked out of the lab and towards the massive Potestatum Crystal. He quickly began to carve sections off of the stone and then move them inside the suit. "I do have to give Steel credit he isn't a fool after all he came up with an amazing spell but he has no experience and wasted so much potential," he said aloud taunting the lab A.I. He continued to taunt the lab A.I. as he filled the suit with more Potestatum shards. "I wonder could it have been that Twilight Sparkle that taught him, and she has been the personal student of Celestia. That old swayback has become weak if that's the case, and if my legacy is to be protected I probably should do something about that. I mean after all I helped found this country she hijacked, it's mine of a sort."
After the suit was full of stones the projected hologram smiled one last time and said, "you know I think I would rather keep this all a secret," and fired a bolt of electrical energy back into the lab. The energy set of a series of explosions and showers of sparks in the lab. The suit laughed as a blue magical vortex swirled around it, just before it disappeared is shouted, "Ta ta."
The suits final words echoed through the underground laboratory but no one was around to hear them.