Princesses Luna and Celestia walked with me, along with the Elements of Harmony, as we carefully re-explored the castle. The guards had opted to stay behind to guard D and recover from their injuries. Thankfully none of the guards had been badly wounded. When I left, I told them that D would remain contained as long as they did not destroy the circles.
“But how can you know she is in the castle?” Twilight asked as we walked back towards the Night Court. She wobbled slightly as she walked. The Princesses had done something to help restore some of her energy, but she was still a little woozy from having most of the energy drained out of her.
“And who is Machina?” Pinkie bounced along eager to meet someone new.
“Machina is the AI, an artificial mind, that inhabited my mechanical arm.” I held up my right arm and pulled back my jacket sleeve to show it off. “She was supposed to be a lightning fast calculator and master strategist, along with having special powers different from D’s.”
“Sounds a little like an artificial Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said. Fluttershy giggled.
"What kind of powers?" Princess Celestia asked. "Do we need to worry about another giant monster?"
"Machina had a built in device that could rearrange the makeup of materials. She could build swords, walls, even advanced weapons, all from stone and scrap." I slowed down and wished for some sort of armor.
"Advanced like a crossbow?" Princess Luna asked.
"Advanced like a weapon to match Twilight's most powerful magical blasts, in a rapid fire form."
Twilight stumbled at that. "You had the those kinds of abilities? You never demonstrated anything like that before!"
“Machina needs power, electrical power, just to function. She was drawing on it in the hospital before I.... misunderstood your actions Twilight.” I still grimaced over that little slip. “That is why the lights flickered. Weapons on the level of magical blasts need massive amounts of power."
"How much power?" Celestia asked.
"Rainbow Dash hit her with a lightning bolt once. That gave her enough power for a few impressive tricks and a single powerful shot." I grinned "I used it to fell the giant timber wolf. She was almost out of power after that, so I had to use D and Nightmare for most of the abilities you saw me use. We shouldn't have any trouble with Machina."
Rarity paused for a moment. "Was that monster, D?" I nodded, "And did he have the power to become a giant monster and punch through walls?"
I stopped in my tracks. "No, no he did not. But there is no power out here. Machina should still be relatively harmless." I glanced down at the still drowsy Twilight. "You, um, you can make shields, right?"
Luna rolled her eyes and a deep blue shield shimmered into existence in front of us.
I grinned and opened the library doors, just off the main hall from the Night Court.
“ohmygoshOhMyGoshOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH THAT IS A LOT OF BOOKS!” Twilight was having a little joy-gasm at the sight of the ancient tomes.
“Careful Twilight," I called out, "almost all of these are already over a thousand years old.”
She wasn’t paying attention, already looking through the shelves, pulling off books and tomes and scrolls and sorting them into a pile to read on a nearby table. Applejack stopped her.
“That’ll have to wait sugar cube. We’re here looking fer somethin a mite odder than millennium old books and scrolls.”
She sighed and followed along, Princess Celestia smiling at her thirst for knowledge.
A soft click caused everyone's attention to snap around. With a nod, Luna's shield sprang up and we all moved slowly towards the sound.
Near the back, lying under the window, was a scene from a horror movie. A gleaming skull, rib cage and left arm lay propped against the far wall, cables and gears draped between it's ribs. pale synthetic skin covered patches of metalic bone and innards, the largest part being the right half of her face. Ant and spider sized repair bots crawled over her, making the skin even more macabre. She moved, pushing herself upright when she saw me. What skin there was showed expressions of panic and fear.
“Dear God, Machina.” I whispered.
There was a bang, and a small bullet bounced off Luna's shield. Everyone had jumped back except the princesses. The tiny gun fell away from where it had been hidden in the rib cage, clattering uselessly against the tile floor.
“Re-sources expended." Machina said. Her voice was distorted, electronic, but still held a note of sadness. "Cur-rent charge at oh point oh oh one three percent.” Her limbs shifted, and she tried to drag herself away from me.
“Its horrible.” Fluttershy said, “Why is this creature in such a state? What ripped her apart?”
“Ah think she’s less ripped apart and more half put t’gether. Reminds me of the barn when Ah just got the frame up an half the siding.”
“Machina, what happened? Did the Elements do this to you? The circle? What went wrong?”
“In-suf-fic-ent power. Disconnected. Do not delete.” She continued to try and move, having only shifted an inch or two with her efforts.
“Machina, status report.” I hated using command codes, but something was obviously wrong.
“Limiters not responding. Power levels at oh point oh oh oh seven percent. Do not delete.” She continued to try and push herself away from me with her arm. It looked like she was trying to cry with her one fleshy eye. "Do not delete." It sounded more and more like a plea.
“Sarah,” Princess Luna whispered, “What is happening?”
“She is essentially bleeding to death. Every question answered drains power, which she cannot restore.” I looked down at her pitiful form. “When it hits zero, she will die.”
“What can we do?” Fluttershy never liked for anything to be in pain.
“There isn’t much we can do. She needs power, and I don’t think she could handle a lightning bolt right now.” None of this made much sense. Why did she try and shoot me? Why had D attacked? We had been traveling for years, but I'd never encountered any animosity from them before.
I stepped forward, reaching out with my right arm, and she shrank away from it. What the actual fuck? The arm still had power. If she reunited with it, she could live. Instead she shied away from it.
Or from me.
I held up my right hand, eying the metal arm. “This thing still moves." I told her, "It must still have some internal power supply."
“Sarah?” Princess Celestia said with a worried tone.
I pulled off my jacket and rolled up the right sleeve, exposing my shoulder. I felt around for the hidden release buttons and pushed them, pulling on my shoulder at the same time. “EERGH!” The damn thing hurt almost as much to take out as to put in.
“SARAH!” The princesses hadn’t been expecting that.
I laid the arm on Machina's chest, enjoying the look of confusion in her eye. “There, power for you. Don’t waste it.” Machina just blinked at me, uncomprehending as I walked away.
I stalked back through the stacks, pulling my jacket on loosely. The trail of ponies following me were silent till we were almost out of the library. Luna, ever cautious, did not drop her shield till we were almost out of the library.
“Ah don’t understand, why was she tryin to run from ya? Why try an hurt ya?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she thinks I blame her for the plan with the elements failing so miserably. Maybe she blames me for her current state.”
“Still, even for such a failing she had an inordinate amount of fear.” Celestia looked at me. “Though you have been violent, you are not the sort of person who resorts to violence needlessly or rashly. Something else is going on here.”
“Right,” I said, “I need to go back outside and- Twilight, are you intending to steal from me?”
Twilight looked up startled. “What?”
“You just put a book into your bag.”
“Well of course.” She smiled, thinking I was just being silly. “I’m a librarian and scholar. I’m going to add these books to my library.”
“But their not your books.” I countered.
“Oh, I’m sure the princesses won’t mind if I take a few-”
“They aren't the princesses books either.”
Twilight blinked at that. “Of course they are. They are in the Ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters.”
“Yes,” I replied, “And if I remember the verdict on my assault on the gryphon, one of the key points was she assaulted me in my home. Right?”
“Yes.”
“And the castle is my home now, right? That's why I'm in charge of renovations and such.”
“That's correct”
“So now the castle is mine, right?”
“Yes.”
“And everything in it.”
“Yes.”
“Including the books.”
“Ye-NO!” Twilight realized that she had argued herself into a corner. The other bearers giggled a bit.
“It would be best to leave them here Twilight.” Celestia said, putting a comforting wing over her student. “I suspect the only reason they have survived so long is a preservation ward over the library.”
I marched out into the inner courtyard, uncertain of my next actions. I got three steps before the guards started yelling at me. Not the usual “halt” either.
“Ahhh! AHHH!”
I looked up, and saw the pegasus guard pointing towards the ground and making noises to get my attention. The earth and unicorn ponies were slowly moving around the courtyard, dragging their spears and swords.
I looked down at the lines in the dirt, and it only took a moment to realize what was going on. “Um, Princess Celestia, can you politely inform your guards that only the first three circles are necessary for containment?” The courtyard now had nearly sixty rings, with more being carved as I spoke.
Celestia laughed softly and nodded to her sister.
“CANTERLOT GUARD! WE APPRECIATE THY FINE EFFORTS IN CONTAINING THIS CREATURE! FURTHER EFFORTS ARE REDUNDANT! CEASE THESE ACTIONS AT ONCE!”
Oh dear god my ears are ringing. How can anything that cute yell that loud? I swear the nearest guard was pushed back a good two feet from the volume. I shook off the after effects and walked up to D’s containment.
“What did you do to Machina?” D had done the decent thing and grown something more like a face. His eyes were still glowing white, but the skull now had a thin layer of flesh, giving him lips to grin and eyebrows to furl. “What happened to your arm?”
"You are trapped in an awful lot of circles D. I think I'm the one who gets to ask questions right now."
"AAAH, WHAT IS THAT?!"
I turned around to see the guards chasing a small metal monstrosity across the courtyard. It got a dozen steps before it was surrounded by earth pony guards.
Machina had grafted my right arm onto her body and had pulled much of her lose components up into the rib cage. In the sun and walking on just her bony hands, she looked more like a technological zombie horror than ever. She shifted back and forth, eying the guards, D and myself.
"It's a metal one of those wooden puppets!"
"It was scratching out the circles!!"
"Quick, tear it apart before it finishes!"
The guards raised sword and spear, and even some of the recovering unicorns lent their magic to pin the mechanical thing to the ground.
There was a flash of movement, a dark shadow, and the swords scraped impotently against D's thick hide. The black smoking monster wraped it's long arms delicately around his metal counterpart, draining away the magic that pinned her in place. A moment later and he was moving again, past the guards and through the hole in the great door.
Silence settled over the courtyard.
"What just happened?" one of the guards asked.
Princess Luna walked over to where I stood, glaring at me. My foot was still outstretched, having rubbed it through the last trio of lines holding D in place.
"Princess Luna, I-"
Her hoof slammed me to the ground.
"Do you know what you have done?!" she asked, her voice cold and hard. "Have you any idea what you have done?!"
"Your guards were about to slay Machina!" I countered "I had to stop them!" I held my hand up to my busted lip, already smelling the coppery blood.
"A monster was threatening to unleash the very demon that nearly finished us all, they were just trying to stop it."
"A monster I had just given my right arm to help! A frightened lost soul on her last legs, and they were going to cut her to pieces."
"She didn't even have any legs." Pinkie offered in the background. Her friends shushed her.
"D didn't hurt me. Even though I was only a foot away, all he cared about was saving Machina!"
"ENOUGH!" Celestia yelled, drawing all attention to herself. After a moment to collect herself, she turned to her guards.. "Guards, prepare for our departure. Inform the construction workers that the contract is canceled but they will be paid for their time."
"So that's it? We all just go back and abandon this project?"
"No, Sarah," Celestia said quietly, "Not all of us. You must stay here."
Celestia bowed her head and closed her eyes. There was a flash of light, and when my vision cleared, I could see a ring of faintly glowing runes around my wrist.
"You were banished from Equestira and cannot return until that banishment is lifted. These marks bind you to the castle, and will not release you until such time as the walls and ceiling are intact, the courts restored, and ponies willingly visit."
She looked about. "Any guard who wishes to remain in the castle will be given hazard pay." She announced the the armored ponies. They shuffled back and forth for a short while before three stepped forward. The princess nodded and turned back to me. "I shall send a courier once a month to bring fresh supplies and check on your progress."
With that, she turned, headed back to the outer courtyard and her chariot. Already most of the work ponies had gathered up their stuff. Even Cut and Measure were already out of sight.
"Why?" I asked quietly.
Luna looked at me incredulously. "Thou art a greater fool than I thought possible. Do you know what magic is?"
I nodded.
"I highly doubt that. Magic is energy, and it takes so many forms. Love, hate, fear, hope, order, chaos, magic has more facets to it then there are stars in my sky. Each but a flavor, a nature of true magic. It shapes our world." She paused, looking over the contractors who were packing up, leaving a smattering of tools and huge stacks of supplies. "There are things in this world that eat such power and grow from it. Dragons devour magic whole in gems. Evil sorcerer kings soak up fear for their power. Changelings can eat the love of a pony right out of their heart."
"So what? Why panic over D if you have an entire world of creature like him?"
"Be SILENT you utter fool." She cursed at me. "My sister fought a changeling that supped on the love of a regular unicorn for only two weeks, and was bested by it." My eyes widened at the thought of something so simple defeating one of the Princesses. "Two weeks, do you understand? It took two weeks of near constant exposure for it to build enough power to challenge the throne, and then only drawing from a single source and type. Your beast, your harmless 'D', drew almost ALL of the power from one of the greatest unicorns of this age. And it did it in an instant."
A terrible feeling began sinking in. "I'm not here as punishment am I?"
Luna bowed her head. "Thou art the only thing we KNOW it wants. Mayhap it will come and take you, mayhap it will merely stalk you all your days. Regardless, thou can NEVER return to our lands proper, lest it follow in your wake. Even if by some miracle thou art to lift my sisters binding, for as long as it sees you as a target you shall never set foot in a pony town."
I was trapped. Not just banished but imprisoned in the place I was banished to, bait for what they now saw as the ultimate monster.
And there was nothing I could do.
I just stood in the courtyard and watched.
Watched the trio of guards pick up kits and march off into the castle to find lodgings.
Watched the element bearers glance at me as they trot away, their looks ranging from angry to uncertain to relieved.
Watched the last of the Pegasi drawn chariots and wagons lift into the sky and fly away.
Once again, I was alone.
All alone.
Finally, I thought they'd never leave.