//------------------------------// // And so the fun continues // Story: Up and Automaton // by Zap Apple Smash //------------------------------// "So just explain this to me." Cheerilee said. "You've been married for as long as I've known you?" "Yes," Gears replied, head first in the crate the Automaton had been in. "It wasn't long after our six month anniversary that you were in Detrot for that teachers conference." Cheerilee, Gears, Lumos, Trixie and Snails were back in the rock field where the whole mess with the Automaton had begun. Gears was looking through the crate the Automaton had been brought in for something he said would help beat it. While Cheerilee was well aware of there being more pressing issues she still felt the need to get some closure. "You never told me you were married." "It never came up." "I asked you if you were dating anypony and you told me no." Gears stuck his head back out of the crate and looked at Cheerilee, appearing to be genuinely confused. "Why would I be dating anypony if I'm already married?" Gears returned to the crate while Cheerilee just stood there, clearly flabbergasted. Lumos then approached, hoping to offer the teacher some comfort. "Sorry about him. He's not a bad pony." The unicorn insisted. "He's just a bit out of touch with how the world works." "Then why do you work for him?" Trixie asked. "I married his sister." Lumos replied. "That's... unfortunate." Trixie admitted. Lumo shrugged. "She's worth it." "Here we are." Gears pulled out a strange claw like device and what appeared to be a crowbar. "This is the tool I use to remove the arms if I need to make adjustments." Gears explained, indicating the crowbar. "We just jam this in the underside of where the arm meets the torso then all I need is a big enough opening to pull out the crystal." He then looked at Lumos smugly. "And you thought packing the tools was a bad idea." "As I recall, I also thought building the Automaton to begin with was a bad idea." Lumos replied. The inventor went from looking smug to looking sheepish. "Fair enough." "Great, so we have a chance at stopping it." Raindrops said. "Now any ideas on where to find the darn thing?" "Hostile." Everypony turned to Snails "He said his name was Hostile." The colt clarified. The adults look at each other for a moment. "I actually think it’s appropriate." Trixie admitted. "So do we know where 'Hostile' is?" Raindrops asked. "I've got Pinkie in charge of locating it." The representative replied. A can attached to a long piece of string a landed nearby. "Speaking of which." Trixie picked up the can and pull the string tight. "This is Cobalt Diva, what's your status?" "Cobalt Diva, this is Party Popper. Have located target." "Good work, Party Popper. Return to rendezvous for debriefing and to prepare Bug Master for extraction." "Roger that Cobalt Diva, over and out." Trixie then noticed Raindrops looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Really?" The weather pony asked. "This is Pinkie we're talking about." Trixie shot back. "You either spend an hour trying to tell her to take this seriously or accept that she'll make anything into a game and just go with it." "Uh-huh." "You're just jealous that we have cool codenames." Raindrops rolled her eyes. "Right, because it’s hard to top names like Cobalt Diva and Party Popper." "You want a code name too?" Pinkie's voice came out from Trixie's cape. The representative lifted the cape and almost jumped back in fright when she saw Pinkie hiding between her legs, deep in thought. "I've got it! Your codename shall be 'Storm Warning'." "Pinkie." Trixie said, trying hard to maintain her cool. "Do you know what 'boundaries' are?" "Sure I do," Pinkie said proudly. "They're those lines you see on maps that show where one pony's property ends and another’s begins..." Pinkie pulled a map out of her mane and handed it to Trixie. "Speaking of maps, that's where the target is." Trixie unrolled the map and saw a location marked with a red x. "Good work. Now it's time to take Snails home." Snails was actually pouting at this. "I wanted to watch you save the day." Raindrops focused her attention to her little brother. "Come on Snails, you know we don't want to risk you getting hurt." The colt sighed. "I know." "Tell you what." Trixie chimed in. "If it’s still light out when this is all over, the three of us can go see if we can find those blizzard crickets Carrot Top thought she heard by Ferret Creek." That seemed to lighten Snails' mood and made him more willing to go with Pinkie while Trixie and Raindrops waved them off. "Is sending Snails away a sign we expect this plan to fail?" Trixie asked Raindrops. The weather pony shrugged. "I'd like to think of it as hedging our bets. Kinda like how you sent Luna a message requesting military aid be sent to Ponyville if she doesn't hear from you in the next hour." Trixie paused. "How did you know that?" "Because if you hadn't, you'd be an idiot." Raindrops replied frankly before asking. "So ready to save the day, Cobalt Diva?" Trixie smirked. "Only if you are, Storm Warning." "So I'm clear on most of the plan." Lumos said. "But how exactly are we going to get the Automaton where we want?" Cheerilee gave a meaningful glance to the place where Big Mac had crash landed. "By using the one thing we know will get its attention." The Automaton, having stopped burning, was now idly wandering through the forest. That was until a rock collided with its head with a dull thunk. It turned and saw Cheerilee, now red thanks to one of Trixie's spells, standing nearby. "Hey, scrap metal." The teacher said as she tauntingly waved her flank at it. "Hostile this!" Satisfied she had its attention, Cheerilee promptly ran, with the Automaton giving chase. As the two raced through the forest, Cheerilee had to make sure the Automaton didn't lose sight of her but also avoid being caught. Nearing the destination, the teacher did a jump off a nearby tree in order to do a sharp right turn. The Automaton, lacking a pony's manoeuvrability, crashed headlong into said tree. Cheerilee stopped when she heard the crash and dared a look back just in time to see the tree topple. She then started running again when the Automaton righted itself and gave chase. Upon seeing the frozen lake up ahead, she started running at full speed. When she neared the edge of the lake she leapt and then used her momentum to skid across the ice. When she went as far she could, she grabbed hold of the rope Trixie magicked out to her and held on as she was pulled the rest of the way across. The Automaton, still in pursuit, started to cross the lake. It made it about a quarter of the way before it heard the sound of ice cracking. Hearing the unfamiliar sound, it looked down and saw that while the ice was quite thick, it was having trouble supporting the weight of the metallic behemoth. "Hey Hostile." The Automaton looked up and saw Raindrops flying nearby. "This one's for Snails." She then hit the ice as hard as she could. The ice around the Automaton filled with cracks before finally giving way, causing the metal monster to sink to the bottom of the lake. Satisfied, Raindrops flew back to side of the lake where the rest were waiting. "You sure this will work?" She asked Trixie. Trixie shrugged, not taking her eyes off the lake. "Well, trying to get out of the ice water will take a lot out of it. Either it will slow it down enough for us to have a shot at playing doctor or it will run out of power before it manages to get out of the lake." Cheerilee, catching her breath, was also staring anxiously at the lake. "Remind me again which outcome we're hoping for?" All was quiet for a moment as everypony stared at the lake. That quiet was soon shattered by a metallic fist smashing through the ice not too far from the edge. This was followed by another fist, even closer to the shore. This was followed by a pair of horns, then a head. More of the Automaton started to appear as it was breaking through the ice and wading to the shore. As it finally stepped out of the lake Trixie saw that the water had had the intended effect. Water was leaking out of a every crevice; gears and joints creaked and groaned as its movements were now sluggish. Despite this and the fact that it was an expressionless machine, it still managed to appear ticked off as it continued to trudge forward. "Hos.....stile!" It raised its arm, intending to do some damage. "NOW!" Lumos used his magic to restrain the rest of the Automaton as Raindrops grabbed hold of its outstretched arm and started pulling on it. Trixie levitated the crowbar into the 'armpit' of the Automaton and started applying leverage. Nothing seemed to happen until Cheerilee jumped in with a flying kick to the crowbar. The added force was enough to finally dislocate the arm. Raindrops, still pulling with all her might, went flying with said arm and came to a crash landing. Though dazed, she still held on to the arm for dear life as it started trying to fly back to the rest of the Automaton. Despite her strength, the weathermare was starting to lose ground and might have lost the arm completely if Cheerilee hadn't joined her in helping restrain the limb. Lumos was still giving it his all in restraining the monster and Trixie, having dropped the crowbar, was straining as she not only struggled to tear open a big enough hole in the side of the Automaton but also stop it from healing back up. After much effort; the hole was finally big enough to reveal a crystal giving off a green glow. Needing no further cue, Gears raced in with his claw device. Onto the Automaton and clinging to its side, Gears plunged the claw into the hole. He then started trying to pull the crystal out. Trying being the operative world. "What are you waiting for?" Trixie demanded. "It's stuck." Gears replied. "WELL GET IT UNSTUCK!!!" "I'm trying!" Gears stuck his back hooves on either side of the opening and wrenched his head back as he pulled with all his might. Something finally gave way, causing Gears to fall to ground. Having closed his eyes before, he peeked and saw the glowing crystal within the claw's clutches. Meanwhile, Automaton stopped struggling and started to sag. After giving it a moment to be sure, Trixie and Lumos released their hold on it. The arm that Raindrops and Cheerilee had been restraining became lifeless. The arm still attached to the Automaton fell limply to the side as the green glow in its eyes went out. All was quiet for moment. Gears, satisfied that it was finished, carried the crystal over to Trixie and Lumos. "There, that wasn't so..." groan They turned and saw that despite its eyes not glowing anymore and still having a gaping hole in its side, the Automaton was slowly starting to move again and was heading towards them. "Oh come on!" Trixie exclaimed in dismay. "Hey Hostile! HEADS UP!!" Raindrops flew in, wielding the Automaton’s dislocated arm. As the Automaton glanced up, Raindrops swung with all her might. THUNK!! The arm collided with the metal monster’s head, hitting it with enough force to knock it clean off. The head went flying, and there was a brief pop of magic as it left the remaining body of the Automaton. It then started to crumple as it fell to the ground. Satisfied that it was finally over, Raindrops dropped the arm and turned away from the monster, only to see saw everypony else gaping at her. "What? You said to either go for the head or the heart." "So is that it?" Cheerilee asked. "Should be." Gears replied. "Without the word that was on the forehead to give direction, any left over magic in the metal is useless." The ponies stared at awe in the mangled scrap metal formerly known as the Automaton. A moment of silence passed over them until Trixie turned to Raindrops. "'Heads up'?" Before the weather pony could reply Trixie suddenly burst out laughing."Hahahahahaha...heads up....hahahahahaha." the representative soon collapsed onto her back as she continued to laugh. This went on for at least a minute. "You know, it's not that funny." Cheerilee commented. "No, it's not that." Trixie replied between laughing spurts. "It’s that now that the threats gone this whole day has caught up to me. Before Gears came to my office, I was praying for something to help stop my boredom and look where that got me....hahahahahaha." "You seem to be in remarkably good spirits." Gears commented. "Oh no, I'm still unbelievably angry." Trixie replied. "In fact some part of me is still wondering if there's a way to dump you in Tarturus and let Cerebus use you as a chew toy." She returned to uncontrollable laughter. The other ponies just stared as Trixie continued roll on the ground, laughing hysterically. "Is she alright?" Lumos asked. "Not sure," Raindrops replied. "I read in a book once that laughter is a common coping mechanism for ponies that are placed in a situation where they are unsure of the correct emotional response." "Should we be concerned?" Gears asked. "Well if we give her a minute the laughter will probably either calm down or escalate into a violent rage." Raindrops answered. She then draped an arm over Gears, seemingly offering comfort but more likely preventing escape. "Let's see what happens."