//------------------------------//
// Frost 
// Story: Cogs and Crystals 
// by TomatoFace 
//------------------------------//

	Nobody saw it coming. Whatever it was that Twilight was trying to look at started to move towards her, and the thing was fast, too fast for her to charge up a spell by the time she realized it wasn't standing still. A massive arm appeared in her glow, but she didn't get too good of a look at it before it slammed into her side, throwing her against the cave wall and making her cry out in pain. The create next charged at Applejack, who had been right behind Twilight when they entered the cave. There was not much she could do, she was fighting a creature that for all she knew was a ghost, and she only knew it was there from the tiny amount of light emitting from its body. She felt a cold pressure on her front right leg before being lifted into the air. She would not take this without a fight, so she bit whatever it was that was wrapped around her, having no idea of knowing was a massive metal finger. Hard. She almost yelped in surprise from the  before she was thrown at Rainbow Dash, who screamed. While her friends were being beaten, Pinkie Pie was angrily spouting words at the creature such as 'meanie' and 'party pooper'. That is, until the glowing began to approach her, stomping like the swamp hydra. That shut her right up.

The creatures were surprisingly easy to defeat, none of them resisting, save for the one that tried to bite his finger. He didn't know of their almost blindness, as he could see a hundred feet away with just the glow of his core, and expected everything to share that property. To Gears' surprise, they didn't even seem to be armed. The only thing that could be considered a weapon aside from their teeth was the horn on the first one's head, but even that looked quite dull. Well, not that a sharp one could harm him. Why would creatures intelligent enough to speak not have some form of weaponry with them? They were certainly not as smart as goblins. He couldn't explain the glowing of the horn, perhaps it was made of crystal? No, it didn't have the correct texture to be crystal. He was about to take care of the bouncing pink one, who was spouting strange words, one he could recognize as a twist of the word feces and other her could deduce meant 'mean', when a sudden burst of light blinded him.

A blinding light with a purplish hue filled the caves. Twilight's light. Hopefully, she thought, if she could see the monster attacking her friends, they could defeat it, or at the very least, escape. Her eyes adjusted rather quickly, as did the eyes of her friends, but she still rubbed them when she saw what they had been fighting. There was some sort of metal biped flailing about, one clawed hand over what she assumed was its eyes and another grabbing at the air. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still dazed and laying against the wall, but recovered soon after the flash, and while Applejack was carefully dancing around the anomaly, looking for some way to hurt it, Rainbow Dash was smacking its head, but wasn't doing any damage. Twilight's horn had just gone supernova, and was still illuminating the entire tunnel, a spell that was too taxing for her to just use whenever she went somewhere dark. She quickly fired a bolt of magic at the automaton, but it did little to stop it. This must've been the anomaly. Such powerful energy radiating off the creature, and the glow coming from a cleft in the chest of the abomination, this had to be it, especially since a bolt of magic had no effect on it. The metal on its body was arranged like a dragon's scales, save for the lack of a soft underbelly, instead being armored all over. Stranger yet, the scales seemed to not all be of the same material. She could see steel, adamantite, and even a few diamonds, all in some sort of strange patchwork of metals and minerals. She was brought out of her thoughts when the automaton slammed a fist into the wall while flailing, making a loud bang. She had zoned out again, and had Celestia been present, or any other princess for that matter, she would have surely been chastised. She dug through her mind for something she could do. Maybe melt it? No, that would destroy it, she wanted the thing intact. Maybe constricting it with telekinesis? No, that thing would be too strong for her to hold... Perhaps freezing? Yes, that would do nicely. After recalling every frost spell she knew, she chose something similar to a flamethrower of magical ice, and immobilized the creature.

This light, it was impossibly bright. He didn't even recall the sun being this brilliant. Well, to be fair, he hadn't seen the sun in over a thousand years, but that didn't matter. He placed a hand over his face and quickly moved a few plates of steel over his optics, flailing around, hoping to destroy whatever was creating such terrible radiance. His fist slammed into the wall of stone that was his tunnel, but was unable to do any more when something covered his body. It was hard, and moved fast, seeping through the scales, covering each layer of his body in something hard, something that was forcing the tendrils of magic that operated his body back into the core, his optics being dragged by the tendrils back into their original spot, in the head of his central layer. 

It would be quite the oddity if a creature in the crystal wilds was susceptible to ice magic, and even more perplexing if the creature in question was mechanical. So you can imagine the surprise on princess Cadence's face when the report stating that a hostile mechanical golem was frozen in the midst of battle in some sort of mine in the crystal wilds. But when the element of magic teleports a letter to you after being sent out to find a potentially dangerous source of extreme magic energy, it's best not to accuse her of lying. Even if she requests a large team of miners, movers and soldiers be sent out immediately, while there were still many construction projects to be finished to help repair what was destroyed during Sombra's reign. She trusted Twilight, and if that is what was needed to get rid of something she feared would endanger her people, then so be it. 

The new orders were that, as soon as the labor crew finished extracting the construct, it would be brought to Canterlot post-haste for examination by the royal sisters. Only one of the six ponies originally sent on the expedition remained there, the rest having left so they could return to their duties back in Ponyville as soon as the labor team arrived. Twilight was happy to stay, but still wondered how Spike was doing back home. She hadn't brought him on the expedition, since someone needed to take care of Owlowiscious and the rest of the pets. There was also the fact that being in the crystal wilds to investigate a powerful source of magic wasn't exactly ideal for a baby dragon. And that he would probably just talk about wendigos the whole way there, which wouldn't have done any good for Fluttershy. She shook her head. Now is not the time to be thinking about such petty matters, for there was work to be done, and she was in charge of the operation. The process of making the tunnel large enough to fit the construct through had already begun, and the mining crew was hard at work, the transport crew was assembling the sled that the construct would be pulled on, and the four unicorn soldiers that were sent, who all had cutie marks indicated something to do with ice, were monitoring the construct and ensuring it stayed frozen. Soon, the behemoth would see the light of day, and whatever secrets this marvel held would be uncovered.