“No, try connecting the blue line to the end of that frayed blue line. I think whomever assembled this color coded the wires. Blue wires are eyes, red wires are bodily functions, orange are brain functions, and black ones are thoughts. If we buck this up we may lose our only chance to save our colony.” Dr. Venom explained. Talon connected the ends of the wires as instructed, putting the finishing touches on the once again dead yet revivable machine. The wire gave a pop and sparked upon reconnection, the exposed wire was then coated in a magically heated and melted elastic plastic substance. The pair of blue eyes flashed on like a light bulb, dimming to adjust to the light-level, the eyes lazily rolled over to make contact with the changeling smirking through the cigar in his teeth. Talon placed the steel Parietal plate back to its rightful place on the top of the head once again covering the sensitive and fragile matting of wires, circuits, magnetos, and a pair of glass vacuum tubes.
“Vat happened, vat did I miss?” The mouth began to move and speak. Dr. Venom extinguished the cigar and looked over to Talon.
“So, the tin-can lives again. Go get the queen; she’ll want to see this.” Talon nodded and started for the door.
Queen Chrysalis paced the floor of her study, occasionally stopping in front of her oak desk, to write down a new part of her grand scheme to exact revenge and ensure the survival of her subjects. The plan was a bit vague and was at the same time extremely straight forward with no fall back protocols. She walked back over to the desk once again and reviewed the ideas written out on the page. Levitating the paper at eye level she scoffed her own ideas crumpled up the page tossing it back in the direction of a waste bin, surrounded with multiple scraped ideas, littering the hardwood floor. Frustrated she walked over to her balcony and looked up at the discolored sky hoping for a miracle. The silent frustration was interrupted by a knocking at the door to the study.
“Come in.” The queen vocally answered the knock. Talon entered the room with a joyful and hopeful expression on his face.
“My queen.” He said with a bow. “He is ready.” Talon fixed his posture to once again standing at attention.
“Well, by all means bring him here.” Chrysalis was for the first time in a long time exited to see what had become of what could very well be her last hope of saving the hive. Talon once again left the door way leaving the oak doors open for the presentation of their new hope. Chrysalis straightened up the room starting with the desk, moving the scattered papers back into a neat pile, placing all of the crumpled up pages into the trash can, lastly she closed and stacked the books back in the bookshelves. She then looked at the mirror in a cavity of the bookshelf to the right of the desk. She realized just how high the stress toll of ruling a dying empire really was. Her main and tail where matted, the burn mark on the left side of her face had healed into a scar, but the clear membrane of her wing had not fully regenerated. She had become accustomed to wearing armor, the helmet of which was resting on the book case in front of the mirror. Chrysalis took a moment to remove some of the matting from her mane and tail while she waited. Her right ear twitched as she caught the quiet sound of thumping, her damaged left ear was not as possible as the right one but still attempted to turn in the direction of the sound. Moments passed as the thumping became clearer confident and purposed footsteps, the strange pattern of the boots hitting the floor made it clear that the approaching character was in fact bipedal. The boot steps began to be accompanied by a clicking, after the thump of each footstep was a subtle click. Finally after much anticipation the approacher was in full view of the door way.
The machine had the physique of a soldier, confident, strong, and fearless. He was very shiny; the rust had been sand-blasted until every rust stain had vanished. The metal plates that could not be repaired where replaced, his eyes where a stark blue that dimly glowed to cancel out the darkness of his surroundings. His face was very slim, a pair of downward curving pieces of metal ran the length of the place where his cheekbone would have been from the place for his ears to the top of his lip disappearing under the corners of the lip piece, just before the mouth. His eye sockets had once been covered in leather which had long since decomposed into the mud of his recent resting place had been replaced with a neat clean black rubber; giving a more natural look to the air of synthetic eyes. His eyebrows where very rectangular and when they moved they glided smoothly along the forehead the rubber making up for the gap between the eye and the eyebrow stretched to cover the distance when the eyebrows moved. There was no covering over the cheeks, leaving exposed vents on either side, peeking out from under the curved cheekbone. The nose was proportionally correct and was slightly pointy looking, though it fit the appearance of the face perfectly. The jaw wasn’t much to behold, simply a metal version of the mandible bone with a small reinforced steel plate bolted to the center of the chin. The metal man’s neck flowed down to his collar; the look of the body was designed to resemble a trench coat. The new dark stone grey paint made the metal man look like he had been fresh out of the factory. He wore a pair of black gloves over his hands, one of the hands still looked disfigured but was useable, and a pair of black boots on his metal feet. His forearms where composed of a rich brown wood, freshly polished. Atop his head rested a new hat with a shiny black rim it resembled an officer’s cap though it was the same color of his metal recreation of a trench coat. Pinned to the front of the cap was a shiny silver bird, wings outstretched. Around his left arm the red band had been replaced, the crimson red band was interrupted by a bone white circle a jet black crooked cross with extra black lines sat within the white of the circle. The soldier held the metal pipe on his back with a strap and on his hip rested another smaller looking version of the black pipe, though this one was grey.
He stood at attention addressing the changeling queen with respect and gratitude for her assistance. He began to speak. “You vanted to see me ma’am.”
“Yes, and might I say you look immensely better then when we found you.” The queen was impressed with the work of her scientists. “I would like to ask of you a few questions, feel free to have a seat.” The machine strode across the room to a sofa where he removed his hat and sat down.
“I never quite got your name.” Chrysalis wanted to finally have a name which to address her ally.
“Vell, my full name isht Panzer Shriek, vat most call me Panzer for short.” The metal man answered.
“Where are you from, or rather, who built you?”
“I vas built in a tank factory in Germany by ze scientist of ze third Reich. I vas designed to fight other mechanical men like myself, built by my enemies. Our information lead us to believe zat zey only had four soldiers like myself. I had successfully decommissioned three of zem vat vas defeated by ze Russian one.” Panzer explained.
“So this explains the hole in your chest we found you with.” Chrysalis reminded herself of the gaping hole that seemed to once hold something important. On the biological body this was the place for the heart. She turned her attention to Talon, Fangs, and Dr. Venom.
“So, how did you figure out how to fix him?” Chrysalis posed the question.
“Well, luckily whoever made him designed him to be modular, so if something broke he could get that part easily replaced. It was also convenient that he was mostly built in a symmetrical manner; if we were unsure of how something went together we just looked at the other side. Then we mirrored the other side on the broken side and polished up what we fixed. The brain however, that was a nightmare, so many things that could have gone wrong. I’m relived most of it remained intact aside from a few wires that looked like they had been cut by one of the two glass tubes that had shattered from some kind of blunt trauma.” Dr. Venom explained the issues faced while working on Panzer as if he was writing a personal log.
“Vait, my vacuum tubes ver shattered? I am surprised I vasn’t seriously damaged let alone actually able to function on only one tube. Ha, it seems zat I am tougher zen I thought.” Panzer was looking kind of surprised as if he had had a close brush with death or permanent memory corruption.
“Panzer, I’m not going to sugarcoat this, and its time I came to terms with it myself. My hive is dying I’ll be astonished if we make it through the winter alive. I don’t quite know why but I get the feeling you can help save the colony. Can I trust you to help me save the changeling race?” Chrysalis didn’t even try to mask the issue. Her words sat like a boulder in everyone’s hearts except for Panzer. He snapped out of his self-astonishment and into a sense of importance.
“I have been in zis situation before, and yes, I do have methods to fix zis kind of problem.” Panzer leaned over placing his hat on the arm of the sofa, then leaned forward placing his glove clad steel fingers into a pyramid then once again began to speak. “Now, for starters, I vill need an office, a living quarters, und lastly a place for repairs. Just because I am shiny doesn’t mean I am fully functional.”
“If you can promise me the survival of the Hive I will get you whatever you need.” Chrysalis assured the renovated soldier.
“Vunderbar! zen it is official, ve shall begin immediately. So here is ze plan, first ve need to boost morale. Ven spirits rise productivity soars. Second once ve have ze optimism at an all-time high, ve can begin vith food und reconstruction. Zen ze sneaky stuff can begin.” Panzer added an eerie emphasis on the last part of what he said. Standing up he walked over to the balcony of the study and began analyzing the layout of where the critical facilities would be located. He placed the hat back on his head and took the metal pipe strapped to his back and swung in into his hands.
“So, did I ever show you vat zis vas?” Panzer pulled back the little peg on the right side of the pipe, pointed the pipe at a flock of migrating birds with a twitch of the finger and a quiet click, the slim end of the pipe spat forth a foot of flame sending small brass cylinders falling to the floor. Something about the pipe was both terrifying and hypnotic at the same time. The flock of birds dropped out of the sky and disappeared into a canyon.
“What, what is that?” Chrysalis stared wide eyed at the metal man.
“Zis is a German MP40 sub machine gun, I think if ve can modify zem so your soldiers can use zem zen ve can vin battles before zey even begin.” Panzer grabbed the magazine and pulled it out, placing a full mag back in he outstretched his arm offering the SMG to the changeling queen. “Vould you like to give it a try? Just don’t point it at anyone.” The German built soldier raised his eyebrow left hand behind his back. His posture was reminiscent of a gentleman asking for a dance. Chrysalis walked over and collected up the rifle in her magic aura.
“Now be careful, zat thing has some kick, und if you are not careful you can end up vith a hole in your head rather zen in ze leg.” Panzer warned. She mimed the movements of Panzer’s hands unleashing two bullets before she panicked and let the SMG fall to the floor. It clattered and sent a few casings rolling off the ledge. Panzer bent down and casually scooped up the MP40 checking the action to make sure it was feeding properly.
“Oh, I’m sorry did I break it?” Chrysalis gasped.
“Nien, nien, It vould take a lot more to break something like zis, I mean just look at me. Zis thing und I have been buried for centuries and both me und it still vork.” Panzer gloated.
“Can, can I have another try?” Chrysalis almost begged Panzer to give her another chance. He grinned and handed the SMG over to the changeling queen once again. Chrysalis took the gun and pointed it out the window once again. She pulled the trigger sheepishly, squeezing off three rounds before letting go of the trigger. She changed her stance, smiled, began to giggle and practically crushed the trigger loosing round after round filling the sky with lead as she laughed manically. The gun spat one last time before the mag was empty and bolt stuck shut smoke rolling out from the muzzle. Chrysalis pulled the trigger several more times as her laughter subsided. The air in the room smelled of freshly burned gunpowder.
“Calm down, it’s empty. Vell vell, it looks like all ve really need is more bullets.” Panzer produced a 9mm bullet from a leather pocket on his belt. “Can ve get ahold of some sulphur and coal? Ve are going to need it to make more bullets for ze MP40s if ve are to give zeese to ze soldiers.” Panzer smirked poking fun at Chrysalis’s indulgent behavior in the few moments the SMG had ammo.
“Panzer.” Talon spoke up.
“Ja?” Panzer responded.
“Why did you look so shocked when Venom said one of the vacuum tubes in your head was shattered?” Talon asked with genuine intrigue.
“Vell ze vacuum tube is like an over flow. My battery gets charged by a small generator; ze thing is the generator makes too much power. If ze vacuum tubes ver to fail, my brain vould over heat and my brain could over load vith electricity and catch on fire. Killing me slowly, painfully, and perminantly.” Panzer explained.
Panzer had taken to liking his new position and the alliance he made with the queen. He got to rule over a population, anything he asked for he got, and in a few short hours he would begin a campaign that would surly open a floodgate of new land and power for him and his ally. In the few short weeks since the deal had been made more drones where put to work doing simple tasks like digging ditches, gathering seeds for crops, mining for ores to be smelted and forged into new armor and weapons, the lucky drones got to build new homes for the rest of the population. In a courtyard in front of the town hall stood a line of orange colored Changelings, each one stood at attention as Panzer paced infront of them relaying their mission.
“Listen up, because I am only going to say zis once. Ze ten of you vill go to ze capitol, Canterlot in disguise. Here you vill find one of ze princess’ royal guards. Each of you are to select one of zese guards, vatch his every move, find out ven he leaves for vork, vere he keeps his keys, who his friends are, how he talks, how he valks, ven he goes to bed. Once you have gathered every piece of information about zis guard you must take his place. Take his body and hide it vell, if any of your covers is blown it could ruin ze whole operation. Each of you vill have until ze last day of vinter to complete your mission, by zen our forces vill have grown in both power und size. You vill be our eyes and ears behind enemy lines, if one of zese royal sisters so much as sneezes, I vant to know about it. Ven ze assault begins you must remain hidden, most of ze guards vill most likely run outside to ze fight. I vant you to run to zese princesses and keep zem from interfering vith ze shock und awe campaign outside. Ze queen und I vill handle zem personally.” Panzer looked each one of them in the eye confirming that they heard and headed ever word spoken to them. Each one of the special operations changelings burst into an orange flame taking the form of standard riffraff ponyfolk, to blend in when they arrive.
“Dismissed!” Panzer shouted at the line, the ten changelings saluted and marched for the railway. There they boarded a patched up train as the steam rolled out from the pistons the future of the hive began to look promising for the first time in decades. From her private chambers Chrysalis looked out on her colony. Canals where dug out to irrigate the new crop fields, bread-lines where already quickly feeding the masses, as river water was being distilled to purify it of any bacteria. The civilians of the colony would now begin a healthy streak of prosperity. To the south Dr. Venom was instructing a group of commando changelings the proper way to handle an MP40. Though the SMGs had no ammo yet the sight was still one of triumph for those wielding the power, and a sight of pure terror for those opposed. Panzer himself had been changed as time progressed, the band around his left arm was removed seeing the swastika as something of a dead cult that was far beneath his capabilities, and he exchanged it for a new symbol. It was a hybrid of Chrysalis’ Swarm emblem and a gear cog. The bird on his hat was replaced with this same symbol, though his coat remained the same he was in fact no longer of that dead culture. Panzer Shriek, though composed of steel and void of blood, felt alive, genuinely alive. Chrysalis’ joy for her changelings was without words, the sense of nationalism and their spiritual integrity was even enough to begin restoring their magical potential.
Panzer strode through the town hall to inform the queen of the recognizance team he had sent ahead of the rest of the swarm. A unique knocking emanated from the great wooden doors of Chrysalis’ chambers. She granted the guest entry, Panzer entered.
“Phase one of the plan is completed. Shall we begin phase two?” Panzer asked the queen’s permission to issue the order.
“I suppose we can’t make progress without moving on. What is next on the agenda?” Chrysalis concluded.
“Vell zis is vhen things start to get, aggressive.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have been doing some research on ze culture and unique abilities of ze three races of pony. From vat I found, ze unicorns have ze ability to use physic connect energy to manipulate matter around zem. Zey call it magic, all of ze abilities are classic hallmarks of a new tool ze scientist ver working on before zey captured ze science labs. Zese Pegasus types show ze ability to control ze weather, vere zis ability comes from, I don’t know. Lastly ze Earth kind who have no physic or flight abilities are rumored to be in tune to ze earth allowing zem to accelerate plant growth. If ve can find one of each kind vith a large amount of zis power, or gathering enough ordinary ones, ve can transfer ze power in zem to ze changeling masses, further growing our power.” Panzer spoke assuredly in a flat tone, one that seemed to cast out any unethicality for harvesting ponies for their power.
“You make it sound so simple.” Chrysalis retorted, having both tried and failed in this endeavor at least once before.
“Vell vhy vouldn’t it be? Just take ze sources und hook zem up to a harvester, if zey are kept sedated zey vouldn’t be much of a problem. As long as zey are vell nourished zey should provide all ze powers of zere respective tribes.” Panzer reasoned, one eyebrow raised wondering why she the queen hadn’t thought of it before.
“Right, now how do you propose we get ahold of these sources?” Chrysalis looked at him stone-faced trying to find a loophole or imperfection in Panzer’s plan.
“Simple, in fact I am expecting zem vithin ze next few days. Remember zat recon team I sent out? Vell zey vere instructed to send one of each race back here sedated. Ze best part is zat zey vill come to us, ve don’t even have to leave zis spot. Oh yes, my plan vill vork perfectly.” Panzer grinned to himself. Chrysalis was growing suspicious of the actions of the mechanical soldier. It was true, his plan was solid and had very few if any flaws what-so-ever. But she couldn’t help but feel as if there was something else, deeper that was going on. Before Chrysalis could question Panzer further, a train pulled into the colony’s station just a few blocks north of the town hall window where they were standing.
“Ah yes, here are our guests now!” Panzer chirped excitedly. He then excused himself and headed down to the train station to receive the arrivals.
Panzer strode through the doors leading out to the landing platform of the train station. Dr. Venom had finished the training exercises with the soldiers and had moved on to his next orders of escorting the captives to their holding cells.
“Good morning General, wasn’t expecting to run into you here.” Venom greeted the humanoid machine through a cigar as he approached.
“A good morning indeed Doctor, I vas just coming to make sure our new friends vere comfortable.” Panzer’s voice took over a sarcastic tone. He looked down at the thick brown cigar in Venom’s mouth. “You know zose things accelerate your death. I’ve run tests, zey can literally rot your lungs, teeth, und even damage your heart.” Panzer spoke this time with genuine concern for a friend who had saved his life. He thought it was only proper to return the favor through informing Venom of the dangers of smoke inhalation.
“Under normal circumstances, you’d be right, but there is one thing that makes this different. I’m not your average pony General; I’m a changeling, a freak of nature like you. We had to evolve to survive attacks using smoke. I was the only successful test subject, but I can actually use the carbon in the smoke and apply it to the natural armor plating of my skin to reinforce it.” Venom came up with a completely bogus excuse, using an unmasked sarcastic tone to play up the joke. Panzer chuckled at the humor. Before either one could make another comment the old train’s doors popped open and with a squeak came to a rest in the open position. A pair of uncloaked changelings sporting the spears they left with before the new weapons where introduced. The two red backed changelings saluted their commanding officers and took up a supporting position on either side of the opening to the train.
From the dark of the rusty passenger car emerged three pairs of changelings, each pair escorting a normal pony. The unicorn was attempting to use his magic to escape the chains that kept him under his captor’s control, however his magic was being muffled by a spell typically used by security officers to prevent stealing, or cheating during sporting events.
“Oh relax, it’s not like you’re going to die. That would be the last thing we need, a useless dead unicorn.” Venom spoke toward the struggling stallion.
“You know vere to take him.” Panzer addressed the prisoner’s escort; the first pair took the brown unicorn and carried him off toward one of the science laboratories.
The next pony to approach Venom and Panzer was a Pegasus; she had a pink coat and blue hair. She put up little to no fight; she was in shock frozen in fear. Her eyes broke from their thousand yard stare and looked over at the former Nazi robot and the Changeling scientist, unlinking she began to hyperventilate. Her heart was pounding, she could hear it in her ears, feel it in her chest.
“Take her to her respective holding place, und make sure she has vater. Ze last thing ve need is her keeling over in ze cell.” Panzer once again instructed the escort.
“Ya’ll get yer, dirty paws offa’ me!” An orange earth pony was shouting, trying to fight back against her captors. She sported a brown hat on her head that while it was in good condition had some apparent age to it.
“Oh, zis one has some fight!” Panzer cheered enthusiastically. The orange mare shot a glance at the metal soldier, the look of distain in her eyes.
“What in tarnation are you supposed to be?” The orange earth pony once again showed disrespect toward the tin man.
“I am ze reason ze queen has yet to kill you. If I vere you I vould show a little respect, before I change my mind. And find another more respectful applicant und have you executed by firing squad!” Panzer began to shout like many a German officer before him.
“Take her and put her vith ze others.” Panzer returned his attention to the escorts and spoke very coolly.
From the caboose of the train three young fillies watched in horror as one of their friends was pilled deeper into the changeling colony.
“Ah, gotta’ go save er’!” Applebloom squeaked trying not to draw the attention of any changelings in the area.
“No!” Sweetybelle grabbed her friend’s tail and pulled her back to the hiding spot. “If they find us they’ll take us too! How are you going to save her when they chain you up too?”
“Sweetie’s right we need to stay hidden if we can wait them out we should be able to get back without being seen. Then we can tell everypony about what’s going on here.” Scootaloo added.
Panzer and Venom began their walk back to the town hall, exchanging jokes as they walked. When they arrived at Panzer’s study they once again began discussing repair work to what was still broken in Panzer’s still old system. Panzer sat down in his chair and removed his hat, giving Venom a clear view of his head. The doctor began to work at the bolts securing the metal skull-cap to the rest of the head.
“So, what did you say was giving you issues?” Venom questioned.
“It’s my eye again, I think zere is a bad connection or something, it doesn’t adjust to ze light level correctly.” Panzer explained. From his door a knock was heard, it was promptly answered by Panzer telling them to enter. Chrysalis had mixed feelings about what she saw upon entering the room. The fact that Panzer was a machine made her think of fixing a wagon wheel or changing a gauge on a train engine. But the way he seemed alive made her forget that he was not an actual living thing.
“So, your hostage transfer went over smoothly I take it?” She opened the conversation. Panzer opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a violent shudder that ran down his spine.
“GAH! Be careful, zat hurt!” The metal man shouted.
“Sorry, sorry, done got myself too. Wait, you felt that?” Dr. Venom seemed amazed at the prospect of a machine feeling pain.
“Ja, just because I am a machine, doesn’t mean I don’t feel vat happens in zat regard.” Panzer scolded. “Anyway, ze arrivals where received as expected. Ze only one zat took me by surprise vas ze earth one, she wore a large hat like an American cowboy, she vas orange and had quite ze temper.” Panzer reflected on the strange mare.
“Did this pony have an accent?” Chrysalis asked with anticipation.
“Ja, she did, how did you know?” Panzer was confused.
“I can’t believe it. That was the element of honesty. One of the six reasons so many aggressors before I failed. On top of that, she’s one sixth of the reason my face is burned.” Chrysalis sat down bewildered. “For months I planned that attack to have it slip through my hooves, and here you are capturing her on a complete stroke of luck.” She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
“Sweetie, stop pulling my tail!” Scootaloo scolded.
“It’s not me.” Sweetie defended herself.
The eyes of the crusaders grew to the size of dinner plates when they realized that they had been found. They tried to run but where cut off by another changeling. Their only escape cut off they embraced one another trying to comfort each other before they thought they would get eaten. Sweetiebelle franticly searched through her memory trying to pull off a miracle, her horn light up as she remembered a teleportation spell Twilight hat tried to teach her a while back. The spell only got her a few feet away, but that was all she needed. Once her hooves hit the ground she was gone.