The Guardian

by InsaneBatPony


Cognitive Reset

The sun had risen over the horizon and the windows inside of Luna’s private abode darkened further, keeping the room dark for the daylight hours. Volos’ internal clock activated and began to wake the sleeping machine. His eyes flickered to life and he stood slowly. The servos in his neck scraped and popped into place he moved his head. The sun’s glare pushed its way into his vision and his optics adjusted all the same. His scanners searched the room and the immediate outside. Two figures illuminated outside the main door to the room and none on the room’s private balcony.

He moved to the balcony door and pulled it open. The sun’s light blinded him temporarily, as his optics adjusted once more from the heavily tinted windows to Luna’s room. He stood out by the balcony rail and looked down to the land below. He saw a small garden filled with plants and several statues. He hummed at the sight, slightly impressed at the artisanship. He looked into the sky and saw several Pegasi flying above him, all of them in Solar Guard armaments. Volos stood silent as he watched them move out of sight. He looked back into the room, where two guards waited outside and then back to the small garden, filled with flowers and statues.

He placed a hand on the rail and pushed himself over it. He flung himself under the balcony close to the wall and dug his claws into it, leaving deep drag marks in the stone. He let go and slammed into another balcony, leaving deep foot prints and nearly breaking it from its supports. He vaulted off of the loosened balcony and flipped down onto the waiting grass below, leaving more foot holes in the dirt. He straightened and looked around the garden, now that he had a ground level view. The gardens wrapped around the corner farther back behind the castle and out to the front.

He took in the sights of the numerous varieties of flowers and even saw some animals in the trees. He heard the sound of running water and walked in its general direction. He found a pond with a running waterfall in the corner of the garden not far from where he had landed. He looked into the pond and saw a several types of fish swimming, from the common trout to quoi fish from the Far East. As he looked down into the waters the fish swam away quickly and the water settled. His reflection stared back at him.

His eyes still shown the crimson color but his white faceplate was covered in dried blood, tinting it red in some area and turning it red in others. He bent down and scooped water into his palm and poured it over his face. The water ran down the flat surface as if it wasn’t there, and the coldness of the pond water went unfelt. He bent down again and repeated the process. The water ran off, taking some of the dried blood with it. He stared down again and one side of his face was white again, the other still covered in the lives he had taken the night before. He continued to stare.

2

Luna shook awake as the rays of the sun poked at her eyes. She lifted her head and looked around her small room, an angry Celestia and distraught Dark Heart staring her down. Luna shrunk back into her bed as Celestia’s gaze bored into her.
“Luna,” she said seriously, “We need to talk.” Luna only nodded. “Last night, there was an explosion in the ruins of our old castle and a good portion of my guards were crushed under the debris.” Luna’s face contorted into one of horror and placed her left hoof to her mouth. She opened her mouth to speak but Celestia put up a hoof to stop her. “One of the bodies discovered is believed to have been dead before the collapse.” She stared at Dark Heart for a moment and then back to Luna. “Now, since I have no witnesses left from before the scene, I will leave you and Dark Heart alone to discuss this situation seeing as it happened during the time that you’re usually in charge of.” She disappeared in a flash of white light. Luna looked over to Dark Heart who had a distraught look on her face and fear in her dark blue eyes.

“Say your piece captain,” Luna said, after getting over her initial shock. Dark Heart nodded slowly.

“I…I snuck through the camp without resorting to any violent procedures as per your command and made it to the shaft leading down under the castle.” Luna motioned her to continue. “Then, I hid behind some bushes and saw that the Solar Guard had become agitated and began to arm themselves. They all jumped down into the shaft and I followed after seeing flashes of magic and hearing screams coming from inside,” she stopped and began to quiver.

“Continue if you can.”

“I found Volos…”

“Yes?”

“He…He was killing every guard that entered wearing the armor of the Solar Guard!” she screamed, tears rolling from her eyes.

“He was doing what?” Luna asked, unbelieving.

“He slaughtered them all, Princess. One of them even begged for his life and he crushed his head with his claw. I hid in a corner, afraid for my own life and he found me.” Luna’s face was unreadable. She held a stoic gaze akin to Big Mac of Ponyville and didn’t respond. “He only spared me because you had sent me!” Dark Heart was sobbing now, releasing all of her pent up terror. “I…I…I” She broke down and slumped to the floor, crying into her hooves and laying on the ground.

“Dark Heart?” Luna asked. Dark Heart looked up to see Luna getting out of her bed.

“Princess, you need to stay in bed! Please you’re not recovered!”

“My recovery be DAMNED!” she bellowed. Dark Heart recoiled from her outburst. “Go home dark Heart,” she commanded wobbling her way over to where her regalia was resting over by the window, her metal hoof clanging on the tile floor.

“But Princess…”

“NOW!” Luna shouted. “And not a word about this to anypony,” she said, putting on three silver shoes on her flesh covered hooves. She magically opened the window and leapt from the top floor of the hospital.

3

Volos’ reflection stared back at him still. His eyes went from the reflection to the open hand he held in front of his chest. He clenched it quickly and put it down to his side. He turned away from the pond and ventured further into the gardens, rounding the corner leading behind the castle. He stopped when he saw the vast arrangements of flowers and statues in the large space. He walked into the statue garden and stood in the middle of the nearest flowerbed, filled with roses of red, white and pink. He stood still, only moving his head to look at the flowers below him. He pulled in the air round him into his large lungs and exhaled quickly.

He could not smell the fragrance of the flowers, but he felt different.

“Is this what peace feels like?” he asked to the open air.

He bent down and plucked a pink rose from its stem and held it in front of his face. His onboard database projected all information relevant to the rose, composition to nomenclature and other common details.

‘Search Query Definition: Peace’

Searching…searching…found…displaying…

…untroubled; tranquil; content…

“What an odd concept,” he mused. He let go of the rose and watched it fall to the ground. He placed his foot on it and pressed down on top of it. “Peace does not exist in any world.”

He walked around the statues and looked at them, taking in their craftsmanship and overall grandeur. Every statue he passed by depicted a pony in a heroic pose, or holding a relic by its side while in a heroic pose. He turned and nearly bumped into another statue, this one showing a terrified looking creature with mismatched body parts. He stared its odd form and face. He reached behind his neck and pressed a small switch. His neck hissed and his face plate split apart. Small red orbs stared into the scarred eyes of the statue while small cogs turned and rotated where his mouth should be and wires ran all throughout his face dodging two larger cogs, moving in short timed intervals on the sides of his face.

“Tell me thing, am I the same as you?” he asked the statue. He reached back again and flicked the switch, returning the faceplate to its original position. “A mismatched monster?” He looked at the statue as if expecting an answer from its stone lips. He laughed dryly and walked around the statue, stopping to look out into the maze entrance by which he now stood by. He stood there for a minute before his sensors picked up a small group of ponies walking around the castle gardens.

4

Luna’s speed was blinding, even in her injured state. Her wings beat the wind behind her and she sped across the day lit sky, leaving a dark blue trail behind her. She could see the castle rapidly approaching and she slowed herself into an easy glide and landed on the balcony leading to her room. She opened the window and hopped inside. She looked around, hoping that Volos had followed her orders to remain there. She growled as she saw nothing inside the room. She went back out through the window and looked down. There was damage on the side of the building and two large foot prints on the ground below in the gardens. She huffed and glided down to the gardens. She followed the foot indentations until she spotted a small group of ponies walking in the gardens, in a direct path to her AWOL companion. She sucked in a breath as the mare and children approached him.

She saw the mare talking to the children making quizzical and questioning looks as she studied Volos, who remained still. She noticed two fillies, one with a silver mane and the other with a light purple and white mane, whispering to each other and the pink maned fill clutching a large pine cone in her hoof. Luna darted from her spot as the pine cone flew over the mare’s head and smacked Volos on the thigh. The cone bounced off and landed harmlessly on the ground. Luna stopped frozen in fear of what would happen to those fillies while Volos was in his currently unstable mindset. Yet, Volos did not move. Luna took a cautious step forward, her mechanical leg clanged and a gas discharge sounded. The group looked back and saw the mangled and scarred princess and looked at her in fear.

“Who… Who are you?” the mare asked shakily.

“My name is Princess Luna.” The mare bowed instantly at hearing this and urged the rest of the fillies and colts to do the same.

“So sorry princess! We did not recognize you!” the mare apologized loudly.

“Tis nothing Ms. Cheerilee of Ponyville,” Luna said nonchalantly. “And rise please, your bowing makes me uncomfortable at the moment.” The group from Ponyville righted themselves and looked on at the approaching Princess.

“Princess what brings you here?” Cheerilee asked cautiously, trying not to sound rude by the upfront question. Her eyes wandered across the princess’ body, studying each scar. Her disgust at her mangled appearance was hidden well, but she almost broke her neutral face when she looked at her leg.

Luna pointed to the large black and silver statue behind her. “That, is what brings me here,” she said struggling to hide her anger behind her smile. “It is a unique piece and as such was not supposed to have been in the gardens. I am here to bring it back with me.”

“If I may ask Princess, what does it represent? I’m sure the children would like to know as well.”

Luna paused and took on a thoughtful look. “I am unsure as to what it represents at the moment, it is still to be determined I’m afraid.”

“I see, do you know the title of the piece?” Luna chuckled slightly and looked at the teacher with a benevolent smile.

“It’s called Volos,” she said quickly.

“Volos?” Cheerilee thought about it for a second before mumbling something to herself and bowing farewell to the Princess.

Luna turned to Volos, who remained still, and waited for the group to leave the immediate area of the garden. She watched them go as they rounded a corner and vanished from sight. Luna nodded and turned back to Volos. She raised her metal hoof and smacked his leg with it.

“You idiot!” she scorned. “I told you to wait in my quarters upon your return and you didn’t listen to me. Why? What’s gotten into you?” she asked, desperate to know the answer. Volos slacked and turned his body to face the Princess, who still looked at him scornfully. Volos did not respond. “I also heard about your escapade in the ruins of the old castle! Was it actually necessary for you to end the lives of those ponies so brutally?”

“Yes,” Volos answered. Luna sucked in a breath and backed away from him a little. “It was necessary. They discovered my location and would have given me away to your sister.”

“Volos, I’ll ask you again what’s gotten into you?” she asked desperately. “What happened to the being we found protecting three little fillies on his own in the Everfree, the one who would put his life on the line for others? Where did that Volos go?” Volos again did not answer her. “Fine, then you leave me no choice.” Luna’s horn lit up with a dispersion of thin pencil lines that finished in her eyes. She lunged at Volos and touched him with her horn before he could move.

5

She was in familiar space as she reentered Volos’ mind. She watched as electrical pulses soared through the synapses of the organic tissue brain and walls of numbers floated through his mind in long endless strands of ones and twos. She watched them all converge in an epicenter farther into the brain. Her immaterial-self followed the strings of electrical pulses and numbers into their convergence point. She emerged to find the impulses mixing and breaking apart. The string of green numbers flashed red and changed to other numbers and reappearing as the original in a matter of seconds. The natural brain pulses would vanish or become much more intense as they travelled.

Strings of what looked like lightning bounced between sections of the machine and the tissue brains with equal ferocity, while the numbers entered the machine brain at an excessive rate. Luna tuned herself to the tissue brain’s waves and quickly undid her tie to it. She rubbed her aching cranium as she felt the lightning pulses for only a moment. She felt much more agitated and angry than before and felt as though there should have been a more methodical solution to figuring out Volos’ behavior than this. She looked at the chaos before her and she transferred what little magic she could in her immaterial form directly into Volos’ brain. She felt a magical reverberation and she tried to increase her input ever so slightly to overcome the bounce back. Luna’s immaterial form broke apart as what remained of her weakened magic could no longer support her endeavors.

Luna bolted up right and looked frantically for Volos. She found him squirming on the ground and grasping his head in his claws. She walked up to him and reached out but was thrown back by a sudden roar that shook the ground.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Volos bellowed, writhing on the ground. He jerked up onto his knees and clutched his head harder. Luna watched in horror as his head began to spark and smoke. She watched his faceplate open and release a torrent of smoke into the air. She heard a small boom and a tiny jet of fire spewed from inside his revealed inner working. The cooling panels across his body opened and the same was repeated through those as well. Volos roared in agony as his system finally gave out. Luna rushed to him as he collapsed into the dirt.

6

… …System Booting… …. System Booting… …
… …All Systems Online… …

Volos’ eyes lit and he pushed himself to his feet and looked down and a teary eyed Luna. He could feel his body quietly repairing itself as he looked down at the Night Princess.

“What did you do?” he asked, much calmer than before.

“I found a presence of magic in the organic parts of your brain. It was interfering with your cognitive functions and throwing your systems into chaos. I had to input some of my own to neutralize it. I’m just glad you held it together when those children were here but it was throwing into uncontrollable fits of hate and violence under the smallest of circumstances.” Volos nodded as though he understood.

Volos remained silent for a while. “Do you know who did it?” he finally asked. Luna remained silent as her mouth moved and twitched but would not release any words. Volos knelt and put the blunt side of his second finger under her down turned chin and lifted it so her eyes would meet his. “Tell me,” he said soothingly.

Luna stammered until she managed to squeak out her answer, “It was Celestia’s.”