X led the six ponies down the tunnel. Not far ahead was the opening to another cavern, a chance at escape. He had no idea if the exit was down the other tunnel they had taken the cook down, but he didn't feel like risking it, really. Applejack came up to him.
"You okay? You look a little cold."
"That was terrible, AJ."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"Of course not. I'm fine, its...I think I speak for everyone when I say its been a long day."
"Too long." She sighed. Ponies and their lungs. They came out into the cavern. This opened to a bridge leading across a large, chasm-like cavern. Peering over the edge, they saw below was hundreds and hundreds of burrows and Changelings.
"They have an army down here." Fluttershy observed the mass of chitinous creature.
"How do they keep themselves fed?" Pinkie asked.
"From the looks of it, they don't." X answered.
"That makes sense, looking at how savage and seemingly uncoordinated this lot are." Twilight sighed.
"I'm not sure what anyone could do to stop this, even if we did escape." Rarity added.
"Lock them in here?" Rainbow suggested.
"How?" The other six asked.
"I dunno."
"We could collapse this cavern. Kill the lot down there and trap the rest." Applejack shrugged.
"Perhaps. Provided this is the exit." X stroked his chin, observing the chamber. Indeed, there was a tunnel above the suspended path leading straight upwards. Looking down, he saw the same broken floorboards he had smashed some time ago.
X had found a small, empty cavern at the far side of the path, and the six were hiding there. There had to be a way to collapse this cavern. He flew up the wall, feeling it for weaknesses. Nothing. Solid rock. Nothing he had could cause a cave in. He flew up higher and felt the cavern ceiling. It didn't feel so solid, but was still one giant hunk of rock. Flying back down to the path, he thought. What did this remind him of? Ponyville? No, not at all. Canterlot? No. Magnafell? Not exactl-Wait. Maybe. The mines. The mines, of course! The tunnels used poles at the sides to suspend the ceiling. This was like a giant mine tunnel. Backing up near the far end of the path, he looked around. Indeed, some parts of the walls, hard to distinguish from the rest, stuck out. He flew over to the nearest one, doing his best to avoid being noticed by the Changeling army beneath him. He could hear a ruckus from the cavern they left earlier. It wouldn't be long before they found him, and then the army would be on their hind parts. He felt it. It felt weighed down, and when he tried to pull some rock out, it came with ease. The ceiling made a faint crumbling noise and a little dust came off. He had a plan.
Using some wires in his abdomen, originally for use for things like grappling hooks or pulling yourself through low mine tunnels, X had connected the pillars to him, and the six mares surrounded him. He was going to pull the cavern down while getting his friends out.
"Hold on tight." Was all he said.
"You're nuts." Twilight grunted.
"You wanna get eaten by Changelings?"
"Okay, okay." She said, holding on tight.
"Fluttershy, Rainbow, I'd appreciate if you gave me a bit of a boost with this." He asked. They nodded and opened their wings too. Some Changelings entered through the tunnel. Out of time. They screeched, and the army beneath them went into an uproar. He took off, and the power of a mechanical Pegasus and two normal Pegasi sent the seven ponies roaring upwards in their bid to escape. The wires tightened and strained as they hit full length, and X strained to pull harder, devoting more and more energy to his wing power. The pillars began to crumble as the seven slowly rose, and it seemed futile, as the army was climbing up at a terrifying speed, before the pillars gave way, X's wires flung back to him at high speed, and the seven were flung out. The speed was a little too high, and the mass of pony flew out the front window, landing on the street outside, sparks flying from X as he came to a halt. The guards had moved on, possibly to get help. There was a moment where all the city folk could hear was a loud crumbling roar, before the confectioner's building, and the ones either side of it, fell down, the road breaking as they sunk. They stopped, the roof just above the street line. The loud sound of rock breaking and falling stopped, and the ponies could breathe again. The Changelings had been crushed,and the threat thwarted. For now, at least.
Twilight slowly hauled herself upright. It had been a hard fall. Looking around, she saw her friends slowly getting up, recovering from the ordeal. Except for X. Getting up she hurried over to her metal friend, who lay motionless on the ground, his bright, yellow eyes a dud grey.
"X, what's wrong? X?" She asked, her voice full of panic, tapping on his head. No response. Around her her friends started to get up and came over to see what was wrong, and a number of city folk had begun to form a crowd. She tapped on his head again, harder.
"Come on, I haven't had the chance to yell at you yet! Come on!" She cried in desperation, trying to wake him up. He made no response.
"Twi, I think..."
"No, he can't be dead, why would he be dead? Don't you remember what he said, he needed to get out alive, and I'm gonna make sure he is getting out of this alive!"
"Twilight, he's a robot, he was never alive in the first place." Rainbow came over, lying next to the motionless machine.
"He was more alive than some." She muttered, lowering her head,
"Come on X, don't be dead, you don't want us to die too, do you? What's wrong? Say something!" She banged her hoof on his chest, and came the familiar echoing clang. Nothing happened. Stricken, she lay her head on his shoulder.
"Don't go, X..."she muttered quietly, barely audible. Applejack lay a hoof on her shoulder. The street went silent. There was a long silence. She faintly heard something clinking in his chest, but she dismissed it as nothing. After a pause, she heard movement from right next to her. Looking, he had raised his head, if just.
"X?"
"When did you plan on yelling at me?" He groaned quietly. The red lights in his ears were blinking faintly, and his eyes were just flickering. She grinned, but the tears that had welled in her eyes didn't stop.
"You're not dead, you pile of rusty gears!" She laughed, throwing her arms around him, now crying with joy. Her friends joined in, and there was little he could really do about it.
"I need to lie down. My battery is at 10."
"Ten?"
"Ten percent. Low." He groaned, lying his head down.
"Did we do it?" He asked.
"Collapse the cavern? Yeah, we did! We did it, X." They responded. He smiled.
"At least we got that going for us." X sighed. The three guards came running over.
"Excuse me, what happened? Where did you go, what happened to the building?"
"Changeling caverns. Our metal friend here just saved the entire city, and if you'll excuse us, we need to make sure he's okay." Rainbow answered.
"I...see. We will leave you to it, for now." The apparent head responded, before leaving.
They had gone back to the same hotel, and within half an hour X was now lying in a bed, chowing down a sandwich, Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow next to him. The others had left to sort out business they needed to take care of, mostly with the guards.
"Thanks, guys." He smiled.
"We should be thanking you. You got us out of there."
"I'm not a hero, I was just trying to make sure those things didn't hurt anyone else."
"And you're a hero in the process."
"Please, stop."he sighed. They backed off slightly. There was a moment where all that was heard was X eating his sandwich.
"When's the next train?" He asked, breaking the silence.
"Tomorrow. We'll sleep here tonight, then head home. The Princess will want to hear what happened."
"Right. You three can go, take care of yourselves, I'm okay." He assured.
"We're fine."
"You haven't eaten since we came here." He pointed out. There was a pause as the three mares looked at each other.
"True enough. Okay, we'll be back soon. Cya X!" They waved. After about 20 minutes, Pinkie came in, strangely not being very bouncy.
"Hiya X! Thanks for gettin' us out of that doozy."
"I'm not sure 'doozy' works, but you're welcome."
"Its a friendlier word."
"True."
"When we get back to Ponyville-"
"You wanna throw me a party?"
"When don't I want to throw a party? But yeah! A super-duper-fantastic one! For saving us and Manehattan!" She grinned, throwing her arms in the air.
"Thanks Pinkie. Weren't you and the others sorting out the business with the guards?"
"Were, Rarity's cleaning the last little bits up and Fluttershy's coming now."
"Yeah. If you'll excuse me, I wanna go to sleep for a while." X sunk into his sheets. Pinkie smiled and nodded.
"Okie-dokie, cya later!" She grinned, bouncing out of the room. X swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and, lying down, fell asleep in a moment.
Waking up tomorrow, he found he was actually on his side of the room, Twilight, asleep in the opposite bed, had not dragged him over. He rose out of bed and checked his power. 100%. Good. He slowly walked over. As he sat next to her she slowly woke up.
"Hmm? Hello." She murmured sleepily.
"Morning, are you okay today?"
"Yeah, I'm good, how about you?"
"All better. In some respects. I'm not about to die anymore."
"That wasn't funny."
"I know..."
"We need to catch the train home."
"Indeed we do. Need any help?"
"No, I'm good."
"Okay, I would've thought you'd have dragged my bed over."
"I decided to let you sleep in peace." To this, he just smiled.
The ponies stepped onboard the train and sat down. Thankfully, they had politely stopped showering him with praise when he said it made him feel uncomfortable, so now things had gone back to relatively normal. He turned to his purple friend.
"Say, Twilight, you write the letters to Princess Celestia, yes?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I was just wondering what you would say."
"That the kidnappers were Changelings, that we almost got eaten and that you got us out and collapsed the caverns they were living in."
"Oh, okay." He shrugged, turning away. Applejack came and sat behind him.
"Dontcha think collapsing their home on them was a bit harsh?"
"How so?" Rainbow asked.
"Well, we, or, X, just killed several hundred Changelings."
"They were eating innocent city folk and were likely raising that army for a reason." X blinked.
"Yeah, do you want Manehattan to be overrun with Changelings?"
"No, 'course not, I just think...crushing all of them was taking it a bit too far."
"What has been done has been done, there is no changing it now." X stared out the window.
"...maybe. Maybe." She looked down.
"Say, X, you said you had to return after a while, yes?" Rarity asked.
"Yes?"
"What would happen once you went home?"
"I don't know, actually. Tell Queen Jagged my findings, and I would guess life would resume as normal from there."
"Could you come back?"
"Afraid not, it is taboo to leave our home, unless our Queen gives her express permission to certain exceptions, such as myself."
"Have there been any others let out?"
"No."
"What if you snuck out?"
"In theory, I could come back for a while, but then the guards would notice I was gone. They could assume almost immediately what happened. It would not end well."
"It seems you don't have a way out of going home, do you?"
"Afraid not."
"Unless someone put a stop to these mecha-ponies." Twilight said.
"What?"
"If someone stopped the mecha-ponies. Got rid of them, sealed their gate, whatever, if they did that they couldn't come to get you." She explained.
"In theory. Sealing their gate would not stop them forever, though." Was all X said.
The rest of the trip had been somewhat dull. The ponies talked little, especially after a stop during which a couple had gotten onto their carriage. When they finally reached Ponyville, they were all relieved. Some of them hurried off to check on their families, Pinkie bouncing off into Sugarcube corner to do...whatever it was she did in there. X followed Twilight back to her house, but this time felt a little uncomfortable following her in. Noticing this, she turned to him.
"X, what's wrong?"
"I'm not sure, just I don't feel right staying here anymore."
"You're always welcome here, I said that."
"I know, just..." He looked to the floor.
"You feel bad about leaving us in those caverns?"
"Something like that..." After a pause, she came over, standing right in front of him.
"Yeah. That was bad. But you did come back, didn't you? And you had your reasons. Not only that but you got us all out of there, and then collapsed the cavern on them. As we said, you single-handedly saved Manehattan. I think that makes up for it."
"I might have saved Manehattan. They may have had more than one exit."
"Yeah, but I doubt they have the numbers to deal any real damage now, even if they do."
"Maybe, maybe."
"Speaking of which, I need to write a letter to the Princess." She looked up, turning and walking up the stairs. He looked around. Maybe he was still welcome, but something still felt off. As he walked over and sat on a chair, he realised it wasn't coming into her home that felt off, he felt watched.