//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Wily 
// by JeckParadox 
//------------------------------//

	Iceman and Fireman listened intently as Celestia spoke about Canterlot. She spoke of it's culture and it's history, of her little ponies, of the many shops, of the huge airships, of the Magic schools. 
"What about the plumbing?" Iceman asked. 
"..what?"
"The plumbing! I operated the city's water supply back in Monsteropolis."
"The original, not 'New'... if it's still called that."
Iceman laughed again. "I wonder if it'll go back to 'Whinnyeapolis'?"
Celestia nodded. "Of course it will. It was never up to your Father to change after all."
"But please, tell me about the plumbing system!"
Celestia frowned. "I.. don't really know. I mean, I know some things, after all Canterlot's an old city, the plumbing had to be put in very carefully and I had to pay for all of it. But I don't know many of the specifics... maybe that'll be something for you to figure out while you're there."
Iceman smiled. "I suppose you're right. I'm not sure I can be in charge yet though..."
Celestia rose an eyebrow. "I never said you'd ever be in charge."
Iceman waved his hand dismissively. "I could handle it better than a pony of course, or almost any organic living thing. But in order to have complete control I'd have to have my robots." He sighed. "It's kind of lonely without them all here."
Fireman nodded. "As much as I hated my job, my robots were always very loyal. I liked them... I could hear them..." Iceman gripped his younger brother's arm before he continued.
"We could all hear them..."
"..yes."
Celestia didn't understand what they were talking about, but she didn't press them, seeing the pain on their faces. The machines in Monsteropolis were certainly something... 
"When we get to Canterlot, I don't want to work at a furnace."
"You don't have to." Celestia assured. "Actually, you don't have to do anything. My contract was with your father, if you wanted you could just relax all the time."
Fireman blinked in surprise. "...but then, wouldn't I get bored?"
Celestia shook her head. "I mean you have the freedom to do what you want... as long as it doesn't harm my ponies."
The three continued several miles in silence. She found that the androids spent most of their time just thinking. Wily as well, despite how boisterous he was around others. The... well, as it turned out there was only one human, but the group was difficult to understand. The robots were familiar with each other, and spoke with Wily often, but they didn't say anything to either the Dogs or the Ponies unless the ponies and Dogs initiated the conversation themselves. On their long trek she noticed that when night came Wily would curl up with the Diamond Dogs, resting his head on one of their backs. Using their body heat to keep himself warm. The Dogs welcomed him into their huddles, and she saw Puppies curl into balls on top of a sleeping Doctor Wily's stomach. 
But the androids never slept. Never. They never even sat down, unless they were invited. They just walked around the camp at night, making the guards nervous. By now, a week into their walk, Canterlot Mountain was visible, and in just two more days walk they would be there. The Dogs pulled their food in giant rounded steel carriages, marked with the same 'DrW' mark that she found was hidden on the Diamond Dog's collars and on the Android's belt buckles. She spied inside of them and found that there weren't boxes and barrels of goods like she had originally thought, but what appeared to be an alchemist's lab, Where several large containers of mush were slowly being turned into a different kind of mush, that Doctor Wily and the Diamond Dogs ate. She once asked to try some, but the Doctor merely chuckled and went on a tangent of the benefits of being omnivorous. 
She noted the Androids never ate with them either. 



"Tia you are finally here! We have been utterly swamped with thy work!" She noticed the large crowd and cleared her throat. "..I apologise, I was caught in the moment, so, is this the Doctor Wily I've heard so much of?"
"Why yes, and you must be Celestia's actual sister, Princess Luna." Wily extended his hand, Luna smiled and met it with her hoof. That was a courtesy he hadn't given Celestia. 
"Actual sister?" Luna asked curiously. 
"He assumed Twilight was our sister as well."
"I can understand the assumption... Twilight is an unusual case." She explained to the Doctor. She spied the six other humanoids among the crowd. "And these must by your sons?"
Wily looked proudly over them. "Yes. Celestia's offered us a place to stay in the caves under Canterlot. It'll be the first time they'll have a real home."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "The caves?"
Celestia frowned. "I know, it seems rude, but it would be best for the Diamond Dogs they brought with them."
Luna nodded. "Alright, well Celestia, lead the way."



Celestia's horn glowed as the boulder was lifted, revealing a huge cavern engraved with growing crystals. The Diamond Dogs rushed in excitedly, ripping crystals from the walls and exploring the walls for nooks and crannies. The pony guards who were walking with them up to that point all let out a sigh of relief that the gigantic hounds were gone. Wily and his sons entered the cave afterward. "So... is the entire cave system ours?"
"It belongs to Canterlot... but you're allowed to live here. And as long as you don't interfere with the workings of the city and of the train you can-"
"There's a train?! Then why were we walking this whole way here?!" Wily growled. 
Celestia frowned. "You demanded that we bring the wagons and the Diamond Dogs, neither of which could ride the public train."
Wily grumbled something but he merely followed the Dogs into the cave. The androids pulling the carriages inside. 



Celestia spent the next few days getting back into her normal routine. The week and a half she spent with Wily's caravan wasn't much of a vacation, and Luna was just happy she no longer had to do Celestia's work. She had guards check up on Wily's progress, but after the fourth day back in Canterlot she got one she couldn't believe. She decided to finally see what the Doctor was doing personally. 
"Doctor Wily?" Celestia asked hesitantly, teleporting into the largest cave below Canterlot. The Diamond Dogs would have surely scouted out the entire maze by now, and so she could expect that this is where he made his central base. She had never been so terrifyingly right. Covering every flat stone surface were equations that were written in ink, lead, chalk, and some that appeared to have been written by scraping a gem across it. Hanging from the cavern ceiling, among the many stalactites were huge exposed cables, often sparking in unsafe ways, no rubber protecting them. Attached to many holes and tunnels were ramps and tubes that seemed to pour molten metal and rock, and there were three conveyor belts also coming from holes in the walls, carrying large amounts of the growing crystal that was abundant in the caves. And it was all fed into one gigantic machine. It filled about thirty percent of the huge cavern by itself. Celestia walked around the thing until she came to what appeared to be the front of it. There was a large screen, like that of an arcade machine, where diagrams of strange shapes appeared before changing to a different diagram. She couldn't make any sense of it in the slightest. Under the screen was a large module filled with buttons, only about an eight of them properly marked. A few feet to the side was a huge conveyor belt where steaming hot metal/crystal/stone things were being sent out one by one, landing on another conveyor belt that led back out of the room. "W-what is all this?! What could the possible purpose of a machine like this be?!"	
"It's my 'factory'... that is, until I can find enough resources and pieces to make a full-sized one. As it is now... it'll do."
She spun on her heel to see Doctor Wily sitting in the corner of them room, watching her with amusement. "It's been a few days... decided to check up on me before I blow up Canterlot?"
Celestia flinched as her mind raced, turning back to the metal monstrosity that was roaring with sound and heat. 
"Bwahahahaha!! I was joking of course, you think i'd waste my time doing something so stupid and un-beneficial?"
Celestia sighed and looked at him with her face contorted in irritation. It passed however, replacing her face with a mask of calmness. How did the scientist lower her guard so easily? "No, of course not... but it's still a dark thought, one I'm surprised you were thinking of."
"I think of everything."
Celestia rolled her eyes. "So.. what is this 'factory' for?"
"Right now it's making components for my prototypes. I've already started preparations for my first project on improving Equestria."
Celestia frowned. "I thought you said it would be done under my guidance?"
"It will be, you can't blame me for thinking ahead." He said with a sly smile. He got up and walked over to the 'factory', and began pressing buttons incredibly quickly. Celestia's eyes widened as code scrolled down the screen, seemingly appearing as Wily was writing. Her eyes shifted between his carefree expression, his furiously working fingers, and the speeding text. Then, without warning, he stopped. He twiddled his fingers as if to relax them and gave a smirk in Celestia's direction without looking at her. Then he pressed a final button. 
The factory roared suddenly to life; as if the annoying noise it was making before was merely quiet breathing, and the shaking the smallest of movements. Now she was eighty percent sure it was going to explode. Acting quickly she pulled Wily away from the machine and began putting a force field up around it, but she stopped as she realized everything was interconnected, she would have to cut through the massive cables, the assembly lines, and the pile of parts the machine made so far. But she would have to do it to protect Canterlot. She rose the force field in an instant, having made up her mind. The assembly lines were now pouring pounds and pounds of raw material onto the field, and the cables she cut through began to spark insanely. 
But the most chaotic thing in the room was Doctor Wily. "IDIOT!!! DUMMKOPF!!! YOU BLOODY STUPID HORSE!!! HOW DARE YOU?!! DO YOU KNOW THE EFFORT THAT WENT INTO THAT?!" Celestia's first instinct was to cower, but she had nothing to fear from him. He had no magic, no weapons, and she had even saved his life along with everypony else's. 
"I saved Canterlot. That thing is obviously going to explode-"
"Just look at it!!!" He growled, motioning toward the factory. It slowly stopped moving, the sounds quieting and the redness within it cooling down. "It was never going to explode! it's supposed to do that!! That factory had more moving parts than you do!! It took three days of effort just to make it!!"
Celestia gaped. "Just three days?! I thought you perhaps brought it along in pieces in one of the carriages..."
"No!!! No!!" He stomped his foot, grinding his teeth in anger. He made motions as if he was strangling her before she lowered her field again. 
"I apologize. If you saw what looked like a gigantic unstable bomb under your home, wouldn't you act first and ask questions later?"
Wily stopped with his actions, and with two deep breaths his face was the portrait of calmness once again. "...I suppose. I expect you to help me to make up for it though." He pointed at the conveyor belts. "To start off with, I need you to move this stuff with your powers. I need to go talk to my sons and Benji to get everything turned off..." he sighed. "This will put us hours off schedule..." 
Celestia frowned as the Doctor walked off and went to work putting the different substances into piles. She had some trouble with the stream of liquid metal, but she managed to create a bowl of magic for it to pour into. Her telekinesis was being strained with so many objects at once, and she waited impatiently for the Doctor to shut everything down. About three minutes later the wave of objects stopped and Celestia could relax slightly, only having to make the bowl. She cringed as Doctor Wily and his six sons walked into the room, a black poodle Diamond Dog following them covered in tool belts. She watched as the six Androids took to the air, moving incredibly quickly and with amazing accuracy. Cutman leapt from the ground to Gutsman's shoulder, then from there to one of the assembly lines. He pulled out a swiss army knife with one hand, Gutsman handing him the piece of the line that had been sawed off by Celestia's shield. She watched with wonder as the robot's hand moved in a practiced flurry of movements, disassembling the piece that had been sawed off and reattaching it bit by bit. He gestured to the Dog for a blowtorch, and the Dog tossed one up. The Android caught it without looking and fixed the parts that had been sheared in half. She watched with surprise as his hand unfolded and reformed silently, appearing as a canon. A similar giant pair of shears to the pair on his head formed, and he used it to polish the pieces he had just welded. In less than two minutes the line was complete. 
Celestia's mind gave a warning as Fireman stepped below her magic bowl. "You can release it if you want." Doctor Wily said without emotion. 
"He'll be boiled alive!!!" She hissed. 
"Do it. He'll surprise you."
Celestia looked at the expectant android and then back to his father. Then to her bowl. She had seen Fireman chuckle and comfort his older brother, shudder at the memory of soulless appliances being melted down. He was alive, if she dropped it, it would kill him. But then again, she didn't understand what was happening. Her decision to shield the factory was wrong. Perhaps Wily was right about this. "Y-you ready Fireman?"
"Yep!" She closed her eyes and released the spell. She waited for the sounds of splashing, hissing, or screaming. But there was only a quiet 'fwoof'. 
"Look." Wily said quietly. "It's beautiful... isn't it?"
She opened her eyes hesitantly and looked at Fireman. Both of his arms were stretched above him, but his hands weren't there. They were replaced by strange objects that ended in nozzles. But that wasn't important. It was what was coming from it that was. The fire spun around in arcs above him, the sheer force of the flames racing upwards enough to keep the molten metal suspended. It bubbled and splashed, but the fire rose in a wall around it as well, making a tall bowl, almost a vase, of pure flame and force. 
"Isn't it beautiful? And all without magic." he smirked at the princess's expression. 
"Without magic?"
"Not a speck."
"Impossible. Fire can't forcefully push something-"
"It's a reaction of heat and light, what you should be wondering about is what he's lighting on fire." He didn't say anything more as he began work on the closes of the assembly lines.
With Gutsman's immense strength, Elecman's reconnecting the cables, Cutman's accuracy with tools, and Iceman's seeming ability to do surgery-level alterations on the machines, and Doctor Wily's nimble fingers and unbridled intelligence the factory was repaired in less than a half hour. 
Celestia stood in the back of the room during this, watching the efficiency with wide eyes. As soon as they were done Doctor Wily came forward once again. "Now then, we're going to try this again, it's not going to explode, and even if it did, it wouldn't be enough to even make a tremor in Canterlot. So don't panic and set us back even more."
"...I understand. I apologise for earlier..."
Wily smiled a wide smile. "Everyone, stations please!"
Then Fireman loaded the last of the molten metal into the tube before running from the room. Elecman hurried after him, Gutsman and Bombman hurried off soon after. Leaving only Cutman, Wily, Iceman, and Celestia in the room. Wily frowned at the screen before he began inputting the data once again. He pressed the final button without waiting this time, and Celestia flinched as the factory came back to life, roaring almost angrily and shaking violently. The conveyor belts started feeding gems into it and the tubes fed molten metal. 
After two minutes exactly, (Dr. Wily procured a pocket watch to keep track) the doors of the factory opened and a strange mess of metal came out. She couldn't recognize it. It was just a rectangular steel frame filled with wires and strange metal shapes dotting the front. Extending from the top was a crystal slab that was covered on the back with a variety of wires and small crystal spheres. Coming out of the front were two levers with pads attached. 
"What is it?"
He smiled. "Back in my world we called it a 'computer', but it's an archaic term, no longer having any correlation with this. After all, without the internet or a mouse it's at it's earliest form... and I haven't added a calculator simply so as to not make it confusing for your ponies..."
"So what is it?" She asked somewhat annoyed. 
Wily grinned, pointing to her forehead. "Not everyone has a horn you know, we can't all send those teleporting scrolls. This is a substitute." he bent down by the machine and extended an antenna. Cutman smiled and motioned for Celestia to look at him. 
"Watch closely." Cutman said with some pride. He pressed a space on his chest and a portion folded open, Celestia winced, but inside was a simple black shiny screen and several holes of different shapes. Wily then extended a cable to a port on the factory, then he pressed a button on his steelframe machine, and the gem screen lit up. A black blinking line on it. 
"And this is one of the better parts, it can be operated with hooves, terribly inconvenient, but I like challenges." he then began pressing the two pads quickly in turn, sometimes pushing them inward into the computer, sometimes pulling them out farther. She watched the screen as words appeared from the actions. The different letters being chosen rapidly from the combination of movements. 
Wily noticed her watching and grinned. "Go look at Cutman." He assured. He continued his message and Celestia walked back to the android. 
Suddenly the shiny black pad in his chest lit up with white words.


>Hey there Princess, how do you like it? Once someone's gotten the hang of it they can write and send off messages quicker than teleporting scrolls. And no magic is required. It'll increase the ability for ponies to speak with one another over long distances. 
>Uniting Equestria, allowing emergency messages to be sent moments after the emergency, alloqing friends to keep in touch across the globe.
>*allowing
>What do you think?


Celestia chuckled at the small error and turned back to the Doctor, who was grinning smugly at her from the small box. "This... this is a wonderful invention Doctor..."
"I know."
"...I can't believe it... what are the limits? Can pictures be sent with it? How can the... whatever they are, find each other?"
Wily patted it proudly. "The antenna receives and sends radio signals, they're like waves that pass through anything, they're invisible, almost like light... as for how they recognize each other, all the radio signals are slightly different, every one individual, you just have to figure out what setting the other one is and you're connected! As for pictures... who knows, this one can't, but there's nothing I can't do with enough time!"
Celestia merely smiled at the invention. "Could I try to send a message?"
Wily grinned. "Of course, but be gentle, I don't have any reinforcements."
She put her hooves on the pads and moved them slowly, she watched as the different movements would offer different symbols, when the one she wanted was highlighted she pressed the pad down. It took a while, a lot longer than Wily's message, but he didn't seem to mind, his eyes lit up as he saw someone appreciating his machine. 
He walked over to Cutman and peered at the small screen. 


>preHaps this will all work out fter all.

 Wily chuckled at the message and peered back at the Princess. "You need a little more practice Princess."