After the defeat of Discord, we had to do some serious damage control over Equestria. The blast from the Elements of Harmony had caused a few odd occurrences where his magic was most concentrated. One of them had apparently piqued Celestia's interest as she had sent a letter to Twilight detailing what her scouts had found. What they described was beyond belief: a monolith of massive size had been uncovered in the desert south of Appleloosa. The guards that had been assigned to explore it returned with stories of shifting hallways, disembodied voices, and most chillingly; a sentient shadow that followed them. Celestia was asking that Twilight and I go and examine the structure, determine its origin, and if possible; find a use for it. We were going over what we knew on the Albatross ride there.
"So basically, she needs us to go check out some creepy cave that freaked out her scouts?"
"More or less." Twilight confirmed for me.
"Ok, so this just sounds like dungeoneering to me ." I said from the workbench as I disassembled my rifle. I hadn't had much time to optimize it for indoor combat.
"What?" Twilight asked.
"You know; go in, explore, loot. Explorer stuff." I replied.
She just rolled her eyes and mumbled something about being in a Daring Do book, I slid the 508 barrel out of my weapon and reached for the 350. That's when the transport lurched to the side and nearly threw me off my feet, but did send the parts of my weapon flying. Luckily, Twilight had caught the parts and levitated them over to me.
"What difference does it make if the front part is shorter?" Twilight asked as I began reassembling the bullpup rifle. Twilight had shown a little bit of interest in the technology behind my weapons, and I was always happy to educate when it came to firearms.
"Same reason they make abridged books: sacrifice a little quality to be easier to handle." I replied. That is officially my favorite analogy.
"Do you really expect there to be some kind of danger?"
I put the now assembled rifle down and faced her.
"Seriously? Twilight, whenever one of us is involved, crazy stuff happens." I pointed out, "With both of us here, I wouldn't be surprised if an entire army dropped in on us."
"Point taken." she replied, "but what can we really expect? I mean, all the guards came back shaken but unharmed. If there was something dangerous, wouldn't it have tried to hurt them."
I checked on the Albatross' progress; seeing we were almost there, I grabbed my rifle and attached it to the magnetic holster on my back.
"We're about to find out."
Then I heard a beeping sound.
Incoming fire the Albatross computer said, Evading
"That's not good, is it?" Twilight asked. The transport banked to the left as a flak shell burst off the right.
"So much for harmless." I said as I held on to the handle on the roof. Since when do ancient monoliths have anti-aircraft guns? The transport weaved around the explosive shells but as we reached about a thousand feet out, the craft shuddered violently. An alarm in the ship went off indicating the problem
Warning, Engine 2 disabled. Attempting to compensate
The Albatross began losing altitude, but the Triple A was still trying to kill us.
"Hold on, Twilight!" I shouted over the bombardment. Eventually, the transport dropped below the area of influence and the shells stopped flying.
Brace for impact
The ship attempted to rotate it's engines into landing mode, but it wouldn't be a soft landing. As the single engine struggled to power both turbines, it quickly gave out dropping the craft into the sand and throwing both Twilight and I into the forward bulkhead.
"Ugh...ow," I groaned before looking for Twilight, "You ok, Twilight?"
The unicorn slid down from the top of the wall and was now leaning upside down against it. She righted herself and answered that she was fine. I wordlessly stood and dropped the ramp, which crashed to the ground. I was blindsided by the searing wind and I had to shield my eyes against the punishing sun while my Aug-eye polarized, but eventually, I could see the target. The guards had been right: it was huge. From where I stood, it look to be the length of a naval cruiser, but about the height of an aircraft carrier and was a pristine sliver in color. What I was worried about right now was the Albatross, our only way home. I walked around the side and saw the engine, or what was left of it. Those cannons had chewed a ragged chunk out of the nacelle, as well as peppering the wing with shrapnel.
"Ok, so we aren't going back the way we came." I concluded as I shook my head at the damage.
"Maybe we can find a way back inside." Twilight said as she pointed at the...whatever it is.
"I just want to know why it has automated air defenses."
I switched to thermal vision mode and scanned the outside of the...temple, for lack of a better word. The outside was orange hot, but I found a spot that was radiating cooler blue air. I drew attention to it and approached.
"This doesn't look like a door." Twilight said as she ran a hoof along the wall. I had to agree, there were no seams in the wall, yet I had just seen cool air seeping from the wall. I placed a hand on the 'door' and was shocked by what happened. Once I made contact, the door made a sharp hiss, shuddered and separated into interlocking strips.
"Access granted." A deep reverberating voice said as the door slid open, "Welcome, Operator Archangel."
"How did you do that?" Twilight asked, "and how did that voice know your name?" I brought out my rifle and flipped off the safety.
"I don't know, and I don't like it" I said as I entered the passage. I looked around hoping to find something that could clue me in on what this thing was. I found it instantly: the interior was made of metal and the walls were lined with small lights. It looked like...
"Everything here looks like stuff from your house, Archangel." Twilight said. I found it funny that the ponies saw my base as just a fancy house. After all, how many houses have a rocket launcher battery and a howitzer mounted on the roof?
"I noticed, but where did it come from?" I asked, "I've never seen this thing before."
The corridor we were standing in was suddenly darkened as the door behind us closed. I scanned the area, searching for any danger when Twilight's ears suddenly snapped up.
"What is it?" I asked. She pointed down the hallway.
"Something just ran down that way." I raised my weapon and the two of us proceeded. I was worried what this thing Twilight had heard could be.
"What did you hear exactly?" I asked as I checked a hallway we walked past.
"It sounded like hooves." she said, looking down a hallway on the opposite side, "It must have been a shifting hallways, or maybe the shadow."
"Halt!" A ringing voice demanded. I turned slightly to see a pair of tall skinny creature standing behind us. It was humanoid in construction, but looked like it was just the skeleton with a grossly deformed skull. I could tell they were holding something, but from where I was, I couldn't tell what it was. I assumed they were weapons of some kind.
"Drop your weapons!" the other ordered, gesturing toward the floor with its weapon. I complied, not wanting to get shot.
"Stand down, I'm allowed to be here." I said as I turned around, "I'm Operator Archangel"
The creatures looked at each other, but there unchanging faces kept me from telling what they were thinking.
"Impossible. Operator Archangel registered KIA." It said in its high pitched voice.
I looked to Twilight who was worried what would happen. I winked at her, showing I had a plan.
"That's too bad," I said, "I heard he was a blast to hang out with."
Twilight got the hint and charged up a spell. Before either creature had any clue what was happening, a purple beam tore through the chest of one of them. It stood for a second, then collapsed backwards with a clatter as it hit the floor. Its comrade now distracted by Twilight, my hand shot to my holster, drew the heavy revolver and fired twice into it's chest and once into the head.
"Nice shot," I said as I picked up my rifle.
"What in Equestria were those things?"
I knelt down and rolled the creature Twilight had shot onto it's back. I looked through the hole and noticed small blue sparks of light. Electricity?
"Well, I'll be damned," I said in amazement, "This isn't a golem, it's a robot."
Twilight saw what I was talking about. These were security drones: weak and incompetent, but cheap and easy to use.
"So this place must be from your world." Twilight deduced, "You're the only one who has access to these things."
"This is getting weirder and weirder," I added, "How could something this big just...appear?"
"I could ask you the same question."
I quickly drew my pistol again and turned around to find the new voice. All I found was a Pegasus.
"Who are you?" I asked, sighting down on the Khaki colored pony.
"Wait. I've seen you before." Twilight said as she gently pushed my gun away, "You wouldn't happen to be..."
"Daring Do, world renowned explorer and archeologist," the Pegasus replied confidently, "At your service." This mare was definitely dressed for the part. She wore, as best I can describe it, a safari vest and hat. Her cutie mark was a compass rose, and her mane and tail were both a greyed out rainbow.
"And I should be impressed, why?" I said as I replaced my pistol and stood.
"He's not from here." Twilight said, "What are you doing here Ms. Do?"
"I followed Ahuizotl here" she explained, "He's trying to steal the power housed in this metal mountain."
I was about to make some Indiana Jones joke, or maybe even an Uncharted reference, but when she mentioned something was looking for power, I became a bit worried.
"If it's power Ah-we-whatever is looking for, he came to the right place." I said, "This place is filled with technology he could use."
"Then we have to stop him!" Daring exclaimed, "He can't be allowed to get whatever that power is."
"How do we find him though?" Twilight asked, "This place is huge."
"I have an idea, but we'd need to find a console."
"Does a 'console' look kind of like a desk with flashing lights on it?" Daring asked. Apparently she'd seen one.
"More or less. Where did you see it?"
"Follow me" the archeologist said as she started off down the corridor she'd come from. We followed for a few minutes until we came to a larger room.
"This must be a control room." I said as I approached one of the many control panels. It looked simple enough: just had to key into the security cameras. I began sifting through the commands until I found the one I needed. On a large screen above us, an array of video feeds came online. Daring flew up and got a closer look at a few, then she pointed a one of them.
"There. I can see him." The Pegasus said, "But how do we get there?"
"I'm working on it." I said as I isolated the camera's position. A few commands later, and I had the location: he was actually close-by in something called the Manu-bay.
"Ok, got it. Follow me" I said as I turned away and started off toward...whatever the hell his name was. I had also spliced my radio connection into the audio system so I could hear what was going on.
"Either you give me what I want, or I'll just take it from you." Ahuizotl demanded. Another voice answered him. It sounded like a young woman, and she sounded pissed.
"I'm not telling you anything," The voice said defiantly, "And there's no way you're gonna make me"
"In case you didn't notice, I'm ten times your size."
"In case you didn't here me earlier, I'm the only way to get what you want." the voice said, "So threatening me won't help you."
"Almost there." I said as we turned a corner. We entered a large room filled with machinery and components but the main attraction was the weird-ass creature that was standing in the middle of it. I had never seen anything so bizarre looking: The rear half looked like a dog with a long tail capped by a hand, but the front was more monkey-esque with pointy ears, and human like hands. It had an upper coat colored a dark blue and a light blue underbelly, along with weird gold armbands.
"Ahuizotl!" Daring shouted, getting the creatures attention. It turned around and...Oh my god, he looks so stupid. How do I explain this...Well, you know how ponies have a muzzle where there mouth and nose are but their eyes are back on there actual head? Well Ahuizotl entire face was like a muzzle and his eyes were where his nostrils should have been.
"Ah, Daring Do, so nice to see you again." the creature sneered, "Your just in time to witness my ascension to greatness."
"That's Ah-risotto?" I asked. Daring said yes, and I proceeded to start pointing and laughing.
"Ok, first of all it's Ah-we-zo-tul." He clarified, "and second, what's so funny?"
"Are you kidding me?" I asked through bouts of laughter. "I've personally met a Draconequus, and you are, by far, the goofier looking of the two."
"I never noticed before, but he does look kind of ridiculous." Daring agreed as she took a fighting stance. I already knew Ahuizotl was too big for the three of us to fight on our own, so we needed that android's help. Then I had an idea: maybe I could use my radio to talk to the robot like I do with Guardian. I gave it a shot.
Hey, can you hear me? I said to the mech. The forest camo plated machine looked around confused for a second, then set her optics on me.
Yes, that was me. Does this room have any kind of automated defenses?
The machine nodded yes.
Good, get them turned on. We'll keep him distracted
She nodded again and I turned my attention back to Ahuizotl.
"Is this the best you could do, Daring? A unicorn and a loudmouthed moron?"
"I wouldn't underestimate us." I said as grabbed at my belt, "We were born to impress."
I pulled a grenade from my belt and tossed it toward him. Like a moron, he just stared at the small canister as it bounced and rolled between his front legs. A few seconds later, it exploded with a deafening bang and a blinding flash that causing him to flinch back and flail around. I followed it up with a burst from my rifle, peppering him center mass. He lifted a hand to his chest and felt the small amount of blood flowing from his new wound. I am amazed just how solid these animals are built, being able to absorb a full magazine of rifle ammo and just look like a scratch. I saw the A.I. was doing something on the computer console behind her.
"See what I mean?" I said as I changed mags. Now we'd pissed him off. His tail reached back and grabbed onto a table, then proceeded to fling the metal rectangle at us. Twilight, thinking quickly, threw up a barrier that the table bounced off of. Ahuizotl growled in frustration.
"Security system online." the deep voice from before said. The whining of servos and the screeching of steel-on-steel confirmed the announcement. Small cannons deployed from the ceiling and a few dozen security mechs swarmed into the room, weapons trained on Ahuizotl. His pupils shrank to pinpricks as he realized he was outnumbered and outgunned.
"You have five seconds to leave or I'll turn you into slag!" the female robot threatened as she drew a pair of katana from over her shoulders.
"You win this one." Ahuizotl growled in defeat, "But I'll be back."
He then charged at the three of us. We all dove to the side letting him run for his life, pursued by half of the security mechs. I also watched Daring take off after him; apparently she wasn't interested in the technology, just the fact that he doesn't get it.
"Well, that was fun." I said sarcastically as I stood up. I turned to see the camouflaged mech approaching us, swords still drawn, with the remaining security.
"Now I need to know who the hell you two are."
"Just take it easy, we're not your enemy." I said
"That remains to be seen. " She retorted, "Who are you?"
"I'm Captain Archangel," I said before pointing out the pony, "And this is Twilight Sparkle."
"Wait, Captain Archangel? The Captain Archangel?" She said surprised. There better not be more than one.
"I'm the only one made by the Archangel Super-Soldier Project."
"That's not possible." she said as she put hr swords away, "You were reported KIA years ago."
"What does 'KIA' mean?" Twilight asked, "One of those other robots said the same thing."
"It's an acronym for 'Killed In Action'." I said, "But yes, I am the Captain Archangel."
The mech folded her thin arms over her chest.
"Prove it."
"How?" I asked. I had no idea how to prove who I was. She reached behind her back and produced a thin square object.
"If you really are Archangel, then you'd know how to access this."
The machine handed me the small, flat device. I pressed a button on the front of the panel.
"Security Question: When do the wicked rest?" a genderless computer voice said.
"When do the wicked rest?" Twilight repeated, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Wait!" I suddenly said, "I know this one. The wicked don't rest until they close there eyes for good."
"Security clearance granted. Relaying message."
Hey Jack. It's me, Cheyenne. I don't care what the reports said; I know you're out there somewhere. Look, I don't know whether you left on your own or if something forced you, and I don't care. I just needed to tell you...I miss you.
I was frozen. This was really her: my partner, the first and only person I had considered a good friend
"Maybe we should leave him alone for a bit." Twilight said. The robot agreed and left with the unicorn.
I just...I don't know what I ever did before I met you. You were always there for me when others just thought I was a freak. I never had a brother or anything, but you were the only family I needed. You did everything for me: helped me adjust to my implants, standing up for me, literally taking a bullet for me; I couldn't ask for a better friend.
I heard a light sniffling sound. Was she...crying?
I know it's not like me to get all sappy like this but...dammit, it kills me not knowing where you are. I may never see you again, but please don't worry about me. I'm a big girl now, Jack; I can handle myself and I'll do my best to make you proud. Good luck Jack; I'll never forget you.
I was speechless. She had gone to all this trouble just to tell me she as OK. I couldn't help but start tearing up: this was both a great relief and a bit heartbreaking. Cheyenne had been more like a sister than my friend, and just to hear that she was ok was an amazing feeling.
"You already have made me proud, Chey." I whispered to myself as I sat down on a table nearby, "You always did."
I had to cut my reminiscence short because that robot from earlier came back.
"I guess you really are Archangel." She said, "I'm Raven."
I hadn't had any time to really examine the robot. Her armor was accented in certain parts and her head looked like she as always wearing a helmet. On her back were a pair of magnetic locks that held her swords and her hips both held a machine pistol. I was also a little confused: her voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't guess who it was.
"I was talking with your little friend here." Raven said, "She said you're in charge of defending her country."
"That's right, I'm tasked with protecting against...unconventional threats." I replied.
"I also understand you were looking for an army." She continued.
"Or a way to get one. Why? Do you have one?"
"I can do you one better." She said gesturing to the machinery in the room, "This is an MRU: a Manufacturing and Repair Unit."
"And? I have one of those back home."
"Yes, but this one is bigger, better and capable of creating anything you can think of."
"Even Titans and ATLAS mechs?"
"Childs play." She said, "I could even make a replacement for that transport you crashed"
My gaze moved to Twilight. She could tell I was excited. This would open up so many doors for me: finally, a way to satisfy my need to tinker and experiment, and a way to field an army the likes of which Equestria had never seen.
"Twilight, how do you think Celestia would react to me having an army of warbots?"
"She trusts you to do the right thing, Archangel." Twilight assured me.
"So Captain," The mech said as she snapped to attention, "What are your orders?"
"Raven, Get me a transport and get your long range Comms online, We have a lot of work to do."
"Yes Sir."