//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Jerryrigging // Story: My Little Annihilation // by Word Wizard //------------------------------// Crystal Empire Laboratories. Founded just half a year before King Sombra overtook the Crystal Empire, plunging it into darkness until it ultimately disappeared. CEL was created to find non-magical counters to the evil king Sombre's impending invasion. The rulers knew that not only magic but science would need to come into play in order to win. Unfortunately, neither prevented the attack, but merely delayed the inevetable. CEL's new purpose after Sombre had been defeated, thrown into shreads by Cadence's magic, was to explore general science and continue to research, but not specialize in, military sciences. Project Red Bird had become a major priority ever since it was hauled in three years ago. But no amount of prodding or zapping would awaken the dormant machine. The scientists continued to work, undiscouraged by the irresponsiveness of the machine, designing plans of battle mecha among other things to be uploaded when the machine did come round. As soon as the commanders touched down, that it did. Cancelling out remote order issuing with a jammer, CEL was able to attach a cable that would allow them to send direct orders right into the hardwiring of the machine. As you saw last chapter, however, none of this is fire proof. ------ "Wha-" Twilight muttered, her eyes fluttering open. She had been out for about six hours. Twilight awoke to find herself in a hospital room. The white walls surrounding her were bare, save for a few cabanets to the side of the door. A small machine next to her displayed a number of figures, all the numbers were remaining steady: a sign she hoped ment she wasn't going to drop dead anytime soon. Two lamps suspended from the ceiling gave the room an eerie half lit glow about it. Twilight noticed a sliding switch by the door which was almost at the bottom. That, she figured, must control the lights. Wanting to see better, but not feeling like moving, she lit her horn and levitated the slider into position. As the magic flowed through her horn, however, it didn't feel right. As though her veins were rusty and un-lubricated, the magic flowed slowly, making a long and painful journey up to her horn. She stopped trying to perform magic off internal energy, but instead tried to twirl some of the natural magic in the room around her horn. This worked. The mystical energies gathered around her horn, powering it to keep going. Her horn itself felt somewhat stiff, but this worked off quickly after she got some magic flowing through it. Dispatching the energy toward the light switch, Twilight levitated the switch upwards, increasing the lights in the room. Relieved, she fell back in bed and sighed. Why had her internal magic failed her? Why was she in this room in the first place? Is this the afterlife? A knock on the door brought her out of the thoughtful daze into which she had shifted, jolting the unicorn back to reality. "He-Hello?" Twilight stammered, suddenly realizing how dehydrated she was. "Ah, hello!" A mare dressed in a pure white nurses’ outfit pushed open the door, her horn buzzing with energy as she held a clipboard floating in front of her, "It's nice to see that you're awake!" "Yeah," Twilight said, sitting up in bed, "Could I have some water?" "Of course," the nurse levitated a cup over to the sink where it was promptly filled with water and then set next to Twilight. "Thanks," Twilight picked up the blue plastic cup in her hoof and began to sip it. The cool liquid poured down her throat, alivating her of the scratchiness of not drinking in hours. "I will let the princess and your friends know that you are awake," The nurse began to move out the door, "Would you like visitors?" "Yes," Twilight said, nodding her head, "I would like that very much." The nurse nodded and moved out of the room, leaving Twilight in the suddenly silent bare room. Using this moment to reflect, Twilight thought back to the last thing she remembered: Doing a joint manipulation teleportation. It was a little surprising about getting put in a coma for such a long time, but it made sense. She was manipulating, extremely fast, a twenty foot long cable through the vortex, only concioussly moving the tip but having to compensate for the rest. That little trick was something she had learned from a book but had never gotten a chance to try. It was supposed to be used as extremely fast levitation, and that's how Twilight used it back there. Before she could continue her train of thought, however, familiar voices came from down the hallway. "Oh!" Pinkie Pie's voice shouted, "Fluttershy, DO you want to be a tree?" "Well I-" Fluttershy's voice started. "Come now, Pinkie," Rarity said, "Of course Fluttershy doesn't want to be a tree, I mean, you can't put a dress on a TREE, can you?" "Sure, why not?" Pinkie's ever optimistic voice tittered, "I mean, it would have to be large and everything, but I'm SURE you could do it, Rarity!" "Hold yer horses, Pinkie," Applejack's cheerful yet stern voice came in, "Fluttershy doesn't have to be a tree if she doesn't want to." "But woulden't you want to?" Pinkie Pie's voice said. The voices were getting closer now, almost to the doorway. "Hush everypony!" Rarity shushed everyone, "Twilight's in that room down the hall and she probably doesn't want to be disturbed." "Ok," Pinkie said, "I can go in quietly!" "Ya can?" Applejack's confused voice came, "Why didn't you say you could be quiet in the first place?!" "Of course I can be quiet, silly!" Pinkie giggled, "How do you think I throw surprise parties?" By this time the party was standing outside Twilight's bedroom. "Be quiet," Rarity said, pushing the door open, "She's probably aslee-" "Hey everypony!" Twilight said, sitting up in bed. "Hey Twilight!" Pinkie Pie bounced in, making circles around the hospital bed. The others followed behind her. "Howdy Twilight!" Applejack settled in to a chair on one side of the bed, sucking on a piece of hay, "Mighty nice to see yer alright!" "Twilight DARLING, how have you been getting on in this place?" Rarity said, looking around at the slightly dusty tabletops. "Hey Twi," Rainbow Dash flew in over top of Rarity, evoking a few cries from the white pony in protection of her hairdo. "I'm just glad that you all are here," Twilight said, smiling. Before anyone could answer, princess Cadence stepped into the room. "Hello Twilight," Cadence said, her ever glowing horn shining, "And hello to you all too." She looked at the warm scene unfolding in front of her and smiled. "Hello, princess," Twilight said, "How are things going?" "Just fine," Cadence said, walking over to Twilight's bedside, "How are you feeling?" "Pretty good thanks," Twilight said, stretching a little, "But princess? Why can't I use my internal magic?" "Well," Cadence said, looking for a good explination, "You used so much, expending it on that last spell you performed that it got depleted, I'm sorry Twilight but I don't think you should use it for a few days, let it rest." Twilight's face fell a little at the last remark. Using magic was going to be more of a hassle than usual now. "But don't worry," Cadence continued, a little more cheerfully, "We have something ready that will take your mind off it!" ----- "What do you mean, you know what went wrong?" Twilight asked Cadence as they walked towards the project Red Bird safe room. "Well," Cadence explained, putting her hoof in the scanner, "It almost exploded because the nanolaything mchanisem couldn't handle that much mech to create... So we've rigged up two nanolaything turrets, a duplicate copy made from the one inside the construction bot." The two walked onto the observation deck. Next to the original construction bot, a second nanolaything turret was attached to a harness that jutted out of the original nanolaything machine. Cadence and Twilight stood, watching as numerous scientists dressed in white lab coats walked from place to place, performing scores of last minute checks as a clock in the corner counted down. Two minutes until activation remained. Minute and a half later, all the scientists were out of the room, settling in to remote instruments and computer controls. "Activation in T - 20 seconds!" A voice boomed over the loud speaker. Sparks began to appear on the two nanolaything turret as they powered up, preparing to work in tandem to create an extremely large object. "Will this work?" Twilight asked Cadence as the two watched, eyes rivited on the machine. "I hope so," Cadence said with a sigh. "T-4 seconds and counting!" The voice of Chem Tech announced. "3, 2, 1, ENGAGE!" Sparks erupted around the two turrets as a current of energy arced between them. A green outline of the mecha slated to be built appeared in front of it, and green particles flew from the turrets to the construction site. "It's working!" Cadence shouted, excited. The constant buzz of the electrical current filled the room, giving Twilight the unshakable impression that all the scientists must be wearing earplugs. "Wow!" Twilight said, staring at the robot starting to take shape in the room. "ETA is T-one hour!" Chem Tech's voice rang through the room, "All systems green!" "Twilight, you know what this means?" Cadence said, putting her hooves on Twilight's head, "This means that we can rid Equestria of these menaces!" A bomb blast shook the shield above, Cadence closed her eyes and gritted her teeth to deflect the oncoming shells. "And not a moment too soon." Meanwhile, in Canterlot: "My sister," Luna called to Celestia, "Shining Armor is awake." Celestia glided down from the perch on which she rested, folding her wings as she landed next to her sister. "Keep watch in my absence," Celestia said, trotting toward the door, "I will go check on Shining." "Yes, sister," Luna said, a little dejectedly. Celestia trotted up stairs, around bends and along hallways through the sprawling old castle. Arriving in the medical wing, she found Shining Armor starting to walk out, looking fully recovered... but worried. "Shining Armor!" Celestia said, maintaining composure, "How do you feel?" "I'm fine princess, just a little tired," Twilight's brother said, walking out of the room past the princess. "You don't look fine," Celestia said, concern growing on her face. "Of COURSE I'm not fine!" Shining Armor shouted, "Here we are, surrounded by bloodthirsty robots, my wife is out there possibly DEAD! Equestria is in shambles and I almost got killed protecting a bunch of snobby society ponies! Do you expect me to be ALRIGHT?" Shining Armor completely broke down, glaring at Celestia like he glared at Twilight for accusing Cadence to be evil. "Shining!" Celestia said in surprise after the outburst had completely gone over her, "I know this is an upsetting time for you; as it is for us all, but could you at least try to keep a handle on your emotions?" "I'm sorry princess," Shining Armor said, his ever glowing horn overcasting his downturned eyes. "It's just that I've had an awful lot of responsiblities over the last few days and the situation's getting to me." "I know Shining," Celestia said, moving a little closer to Shining for comfort, "It is getting to us all." The two stood there, gaining comfort from the others presence, regaining their composure. "Well," Shining Armor turned, "I’d better go get the guard regiment out on duty, they'll be wondering what happened to me." "I appointed one of the veteran soldiers as a temporary leader," Celestia said, trotting along side the stallion as he donned armor, "I hope that will be satisfactory." "Wait a minute," Shining Armor paused, "You didn't happen to appoint one by the name of 'Deluge', did you?" Celestia gulped. "Well," She said, sheepishly, "Yes." "Oh god," Shining Armor put a hoof to his forehead, "That old rag's been mad since he came home from a five year detachment in an Everfree guard post. He's not fit to be a leader, in fact I am curious, in a morbid kind of way, to see what he's done." "Oh dear," Celestia said, mentally spanking herself for the mistake, "I'm terribly sorry, I-" "I know princess, let's just go re-appoint me, shall we?" Shining Armor galloped out of the castle with Celestia close at his wake. They arrived outside the barracks and paused. The noise coming from the inside made it sound more like a tavern than a military institution. "Oh dear god," Shining Armor thought, pausing before swinging open the door. Inside, the barracks had been converted into a full blown tavern, tables, chairs, a bar counter... and worst of all... drinks. Lot's of drinks. "WHY IS MY BARRACKS A BUCKING TAVERN?!?!?!" Shining Armor's voice boomed over the crowd. The unicorn in the doorway was a frightening sight,his horn glowing, the hairs of his mane standing on end, his eyes boring into the souls of all who looked at them. Most of the guards cowered in fear. "I'm sorry sir," the soberest of the bunch stepped forward, "We were just following orders." "Who gave you those orders?" Shining Armor said, his voice lowering, but the sharpness of his anger not. "Uh, him sir," The guard pointed to a couple of hooves poking out from behind one of the erected counters. "You fellows clean this mess up," Shining Armor said, pushing through the rows of soldiers, "I have a bone to pick." "Yes sir!" a familiar chorus reached the ears of the captain of the guard. "YOU!" Shining Armor said, turning on the pair of hooves sticking out from behind the table, "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?" He pulled the pony out, revealing a stallion obviously out of touch with reality. His face was a shade of green, and as for the rest of him, the brown insubordinate didn't look much better, Deluge brought his eyes into a focus after some time and effort, and grinned at his superior. "What do you mean, I have a fay for meself?" he asked, giggling a little, "I have a fez... but not a fay!" Shining Armor snorted. "SAY," he repeated, "What do you have to SAY for yourself?!" "Oh, well," Deluge began, "There was a maid of oaken glory, her dress it was quite a tory..." Deluge began to sing completely out of tune and making up lyrics as he went. "GUARDS!" Shining Armor shouted, "I want him stripped of his badge and thrown out of this barracks immediately... as in... NOW!" "Yes sir!" Two guards carried Deluge out of the barracks and uncerimoniously dumped him on the courtyard grass, still singing. ----- "My sister, what is the matter?" Celestia asked her as she landed next to the princess of the night. "The machines... they're coming... in greater force," Luna said, taking a deep breath between phrases. "Oh no..." Celestia said, peering down the telescope. There in the mid afternoon sun, a huge metallic army drove toward them, flying, hovering, walking and driving... all toward the CORE base, right in front of the castle. "I want all able unicorns giving Shining Armor magic whenever he needs it." "Yes, my sister," Luna said. "I will gather them, you," Celestia turned to her younger sister, "Orginize a large clinic...I have a feeling we'll be needing it."