Gears almost felt fear when he began to think of the fate he had just been condemned to. What had happened? Did these creatures bring a shaman? No, he was certain that there was only four of them, but then again, there was no other explanation for the ice. Would this last forever? What would happen to him? Occasionally, he could hear the faintest voices, too muffled for him to ever be able to know what was being said, or even what emotion was being expressed. And this went on for days. Quite some time passed until he could feel something moving him. These creatures were monsters, they were taking him somewhere, removing him from his home. And why? Why did they do this to him? They must be a militant race. They had to be. Breaking into his home, trapping him in what he was beginning to think would be his icy coffin, with this psychological torture of uncertainty and anxiety.
Twilight could only use one word to describe her time in the caverns, and that word was amazing. All the rare metals and gems in those pits were impressive enough, and could put the royal treasury to shame, but the next chambers, they were the cream of the crop. There were pillars of gold, statues of gems and crystals. Splendid marble palaces, stone tablets on the walls depicting stories of ancient goblins slaying dragons and gathering impossibly large hordes of incredible riches. And everything looked new, save for one artifact in a tunnel behind the more stunning chambers, a tunnel filled with pickaxes and forges and metal scales. The artifact was a massive painting on the walls in some sort of green juice, and crudely resembled the palaces and pillars in the more decorated spaces. It was true that she almost wished she could stay, but the construct needed to be analyzed, and she could not waste the opportunity to document such a mechanical marvel. The transport crew was loading up the construct and soon they would all be on their way. At Twilight's request, an archaeological crew had been sent to the site to take over and examine everything. The materials would be gathered up and sent back to Canterlot, where the royal sisters would find a use for the bounty and improve the lives of their subjects. Once they had dealt with the construct, of course.
The movement, he was afraid it would never end. Just a short time ago, he had been on some sort of roaring, vibrating monster. Perhaps he was on the back of a dragon? Not likely, but possible. Some sort of earthquake? No, it had gone on for hours... or did it? He was losing track of time, not to say he had a good sense of it in the caves. He didn't move through the routine based on time, no, he did it based on how much he had done. It was a good system, too, not a single minute was wasted. His thoughts were interrupted by a strange tingling feeling deep within his core, a feeling he used to get whenever a shaman was casting a spell. The ice that had been holding him captive for far too long disappeared, all at once. The tendrils of energy began to expand, grabbing at all the little pieces of metal that made up the other layers of his body. Was he free? Did his captors decide to give him mercy? Everything was becoming so confusing.
"Are you sure it won't harm it?" Twilight asked princess Luna, not at all doubting her capabilities, but concerned for the well-being of the construct. If something were to happen to it, it could 'die', and they would never be able to watch it while it still functioned.
"We are certain the construct will remain intact. Our spell will only get rid of the ice." The princess responded, and was backed up with a nod from Celestia. Deep in the Canterlot dungeons stood the three mares, as well as a small troop of guards. The mechanical beast stood frozen in her magical ice inside a cell used for holding rowdy minotaurs, bars of steel six inches thick separating them from the construct. Luna's horn began to glow dark blue, and she fired a spell that caused the ice to melt and evaporate all at once.The biped instantly collapsed, falling to pieces. Twilight was at a loss for words. It was broken. This feat of ancient engineering was broken. They could never observe it when it was 'alive' now. She almost became angry at Luna, who was looking confused at the heap of metal, same as Celestia, but that near-anger faded when she could see little orange, glowing vines creep out from under the pile, latching on to every single chunk of metal and gem. There were hundreds of the vines, no, thousands, all reaching out to rebuild the construct. She tuned out the discussion of the perplexed royal duo, fixated on the scene before her.
When the vines had finished, the body looked exactly as it did before... and acted just as hostile. For a few seconds, it slammed against the bars, denting both them and his own hands. It was frightening, even to her, but with a few words of reassurance from Celestia, she felt safe. The feeling of safety was short-lived, however. The arm began to come apart, swirling in a tornado of orange energy and metal scales, which quickly made its way through the bars. The princesses realized what it was doing before Twilight did, and grabbed the shards of metal with their telekinesis. She could see that it was a bit of a strain on the two, even with their combined magic, but they managed to push it back into the cell, where they let go, both of them panting. It must be even stronger than she thought. It looked as though it was about to do it again, and Twilight charged up her horn. "I'm gonna freeze it." She told the princesses. The construct seemed to pull away at that, moving to the back of the cell. It must be smarter than she thought, too. Now that it seemed there was no need for freezing, she cancelled the spell and moved closer to the bars. "So, what do you think built it?" Twilight asked her superiors after a few seconds of silence, and Celestia was first to answer.
"Well, from what you said about the statues, I first thought it might have been goblin-built. But the goblins were not nearly intelligent enough to build something like this." She said after a long 'hmm', turning away from the construct and towards Twilight.
"Goblins smarter than you animals." Gears grumbled, and the three creatures behind the bars gasped. Even if their speech was odd, he was still able to tell what they were saying. It was brighter than he was used to down in this dungeon, but his optics adjusted.
"W-what did you say?" The purple animal asked, but he did not repeat himself. The blue one seemed to be irritated by his silence.
"What did thou say, construct?" Again, he refused to speak. She quickly changed from irritated to enraged. "Thou will listen to thy princess, what did thou say?" His princess? This beast dare call itself his princess? He was filled with a fury that could match even Rumbort the Wicked's, a goblin chieftain famed for his short fuse. This animal could never be his princess.
"Dirty animal not Gears' leader!" He yelled. His voice was almost monotonous, and quite deep, with only a hint of emotion. The blue one began to charge up a spell, but the white one said something to her in a hushed tone, which caused her to relax. She still wore an insulted expression, though. The purple one was bouncing up and down, clearly quite excited. These animals were... strange, to say the least.
The construct was... strange, to say the least. It called them animals, as though it had never seen a pony before, and seemed to not recognize the princesses. But also very, very interesting. Twilight had never seen such a marvel, and began yo ask it a series of questions, all too quickly for it to answer. "Who built you? What built you? Why were you in that cave? Did you make those palaces? How-" She stopped when she was hushed by Celestia, and her cheeks turned red with embarrassment. She was Celestia's student, she shouldn't be acting like some giddy schoolfilly.
"Why did you attack my student back in the caverns? And what were you doing to create such powerful bursts of magic?" Celestia asked the construct, who she learned was named Gears, who, in turn, grunted.
"Gears attacked by animal, not other way around. Gears not know what magic you talking about, Gears not shaman." There was still bitterness in his voice, though it was a bit hard to tell. She carefully observed the construct, watching the way it moved, listening to the way it talked, and staring at the cracks the orange glow came from. Celestia turned to Twilight.
"I thought you said it attacked you?" She asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Well, it did, but, I may have run after it when I saw its glow to see what it was, and I may have looked like I was charging at it it." She said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. Celestia turned back to Gears, clearing her throat.
"I apologize on behalf of my student for your imprisonment, and will see to it you are released.." Luna looked at her sister with a worried expression. "Are thou really going to let it out?" She nodded. "Are thou sure, sister? We fear that is not the smartest decision."
"Our friend here was imprisoned for defending himself from what he perceived as a threat. He does not deserve to be locked up any longer." One of the guards pulled a lever and the bars lowered. Even Twilight was doubting Celestia at this point, but she did not speak up, instead only watched as she extended her hoof in greeting. "My name is Celestia, welcome to Equestria."
So that was it, was it? They could just say they're sorry, pull a lever, and everything is okay? Everything he endured in the prison of frost was just water under the bridge? And now, after she dare try to ignore what had happened, she wanted him to shake her hoof? He hunched over, standing on all fours like a gorilla. "Celestia, you know what is like to be trapped in ice for days? You know what is like to have no idea what going on for hours and hours? What is like to fear you will be trapped forever, forced to just barely hear voices of animals that trap you for eternity?" He asked, conveying as much hatred as he could. "You know what is like to be treated like mindless object? Gears not shake Celestia hoof. Gears never shake Celestia hoof."
Twilight was shocked by his response. True, she and everypony else had never taken into consideration what Gears felt, and, in fact, nopony even thought he felt anything, but she still consider it impossible to decline shaking hooves with the princess. Luna was the first to respond, angry once again at Gears' disrespect. "It matters not what thou hath experienced, thou shalt never speak to thy princess like that!" Her voice was loud enough to fill the castle.
"Dear sister, after what it has experienced, I think it deserves to act in such a way. It does not have to apologize for its reaction, it is understandable." After clearing her throat, she looked at Gears. "Very well. I apologize once more, but I must, for the safety of my people, I must keep you here until I can deem that you are no threat to my people. If you do not accept these terms, I am afraid you will have to be frozen indefinitely." Gears grumbled a few swears, but reluctantly nodded.
The rest of the castle was much, much brighter than the dungeon, and a thousand times brighter than the caves. But his optics were able to adjust after a few minutes. To his surprise, it wasn't much brighter outside. It had been so long since he had last seen sunlight. Or clouds. or the sky. He was built in the mines, and he had been in mines all his 'life', only seeing the outside whenever he was still the size of a goblin and something needed to be transported from the mine to the village above, or vice versa. Four guards accompanied him at all times, and answered his questions whenever he asked about a plant. He had never seen any form of vegetation that wasn't fungus, so almost everything was new to him. Learning of so many new things even made him forget about his choler towards the 'ponies', as he learned they were called, and so, for the time being, he was largely docile. After all, he wasn't built for grudges, he was built to serve. And in order to serve, one must be submissive.
The girls would never believe this. She held the parchment that her letter to her friends back in Ponyville in her purple glow, that described in great detail, her stay at the tunnels and the happenings in the dungeon. Her old room in the castle looked exactly the same as she remembered, right down the trash bin filled with crumpled up first drafts of research papers, and it was where she drew up her letter. She had already received a letter from them, and from what it said, things were going well back home, even though they still missed her. They were planning to visit Twilight as soon as possible, which they said would be two days from now, and she was happy to hear it. Even with everything that was going on, she was still a bit homesick, and seeing her friends would be just what she needed.
Viscount Undying Loyalty had quite the ironic name, as he was anything but loyal. For years he had been looking for a way to remove the princesses from the political scene, as well as every other noble, so that he could take the position of ruler. He was far more deserving of ruling Equestria. The princesses were too soft, and were over a thousand years old. There comes a time when everyone must step down and let the younger generation take over, he thought, and every other noble was a boot-licking zombie, having no real opinions and just going with what the public said. It was time for Equestria to have his genius mind at the top of its political ladder, and he was constantly looking for ways to make this happen. The green coated, light blue maned pegasus considered himself perfect for the position, and would go to any length to get there. So, when his servant came into his study, telling him about the arrival of a giant metal monster, he couldn't help but smile. This monster could prove to be of use to him, even if it was frozen from what he was hearing. A genius such as himself could easily find a way.
When he was finished examining all the new flora and fauna that were all over the castle grounds, which had taken a few hours, he got to looking at the castle. Many doorways were too small for him to fit through in the form he was in, so he had to change his body shape several times just to see the rooms. It wasn't not a major annoyance, though. Overall, he found the castle to be lacking. It was nothing like the wonders he had created. It was definitely larger than anything he had ever built, and was indeed a sight to behold, but it still lacked his touch. The symmetry was imperfect, and the statues had plenty of faults, but it was alright. He would've offered his services to perfect the palace if he didn't resent the ponies so much. He was bothered by the fact that the routine was still being broken, but since he had dealt with that for days, it was almost nothing to him now. Still, he hoped to be back in the Leviathan caverns soon.