//------------------------------// // Monster hunters // Story: Steamlord // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// After a heated night, Steamlord slept for quite a long time with Sunrise on his stomach like a purring cat. However, after waking up, Sunrise was taken outside for a little stroll by Hospitaller while Steamlord worked on the plans for the future versions of his Crusader Knights. They were currently at version seven point three, and the creator planned on skipping at least seventeen generations of updates and have the bots go directly to version nine. Naturally, SS helped him along the way with his planning. Although, now that he was a "father", he needed to think about Sunrise's proper education. SS, although a very intelligent and competent A.I., she would over-explain things in terms not understandable by those not versed in engineering and sciences. Perhaps Twilight could help, what with Spike living with her. Although he didn't exactly seem to be the brightest of children. Then perhaps that school would be more appropriate? After all, Apple Bloom studied there, and the two bullies were warned enough, so it might be a proper place to go. Hopefully, they were used to dragons, what with Spike being Twilight's assistant and frequently walking around. "Hmm. What if I replace this flux capacitor with a uni-cell? Perhaps even create triple segmented ball-joints for super movement. The double-joints seem to work... but then that would require a greater energy charge that their Loptimum batteries don't have." Steamlord mumbled to himself as he continued with his sketching in his work-room. He was sitting in the planning entrance. This is where all his blue-prints were stocked, each sorted out depending on what they were directed towards, such as energy production or hull upgrades. While the creator sat on a simple metal stool and was hitting a pencil on his chin, the shelves full of blueprints ornated the walls around the room. Two doors were available to him. One was the exit, while the other lead to the experimentation room, where new models were made and tested. The sounds of claws ticking on the floor lead to Sunrise entering the room and startling Steamlord. "So? What are we going to do today dad?" "Well...first we need to find you a place to learn the basics." "What? Why can't I learn from you?" "Because I'm as adept as this chair in teaching you. What I know is far too advanced, so until you have the basics noted down, I won't be teaching you anything about my robots." Sunrise started to pout. "There's no point in doing that. Nothing'll change. Welp, I guess it's about time we consult Twilight for this. CRUSADER KNIGHTS!" The robots appeared directly in front of the exit with Steamlord's gear. After putting them on, the group exited the ship. Security System was going to look over the initial blue-prints of the Nine-point-oh versions of the Knights and make her own modifications while she continued to analyze data on the unicorn magic. She had gotten fifty-three percent analyzed already and both she and the creator had been hard at work trying to find an isolation method. So far, nothing worked, but the vessel's hull was fully repaired, although the camoflauge was still semi-operational. Even so, the group's trip to Twilight's house was still greeted by everyone's shock and dismay at these towering beasts walking around with a little dragon in tow. A quick hello and everyone, except for the bodyguards of course, were seated within Twilight's library. "So Twilight, how's it going?" "Okay...what do you need?" "Directly to the point? Well then, I need to know what your money looks like and I need a single coin to reproduce them, but that's the least important thing." "Then what's more important than forging money?" "Sunrise's education." Twilight leaned to the side to see Sunrise and Spike talking about what those who looked over them did with the majority of their time. Twilight looked skeptical at this sudden mood change. She also wanted to ask him about what the "Ash Fall" was, but she could see that he had just gone through something bad, so it would be best if she didn't ask yet. "So you want me to teach her?" "Uhhh...no offense, but I don't think you are the most qualified in educational purposes." "What do you mean?" Steamlord started tapping his fingers against each other as his eyes were unviewable behind the goggles. "Fine. So, you're thinking about putting her in the school that Apple Bloom goes to?" "That would be a good idea. What do you think?" "I'm not sure, although, seeing as she already knows Apple Bloom a bit, she could talk with somepony after getting there and not feel left out." "That's good! I suggest we go tomorrow then." "You go. I have things to look over for the princess." "You work for royalty?" the man said in a seeming of disgust. "Well, I am the personal student of princess Celestia." "Mhmm..." "What?" "Nothing. Sunrise!" "Yes, dad?" said the little dragon quickly running back to her new 'faja'. Spike and Twilight's jaw dropped after she said "dad". "Did she say 'dad'?" "Aye. I'm her adoptive father now." "...I...I don't know how to react..." "Then do you know anything we can do before we get her to her school tomorrow?" "Well...maybe we can go to Sugar Cube Corner?" "What's that?" "It's a bakery where my friend Pinkie lives and works." "What's a bakery?" asked Sunrise. Steamlord interrupted Twilight before she could answer: "It's a place where you make lot of tasty things like cakes and cupcakes. Those two being the most atypical things that many thing of first when they're told about a bakery." "Cake?" "You'll see if we go there. Shall we go there?" "Well, I suppose I can leave for a few moments. Come on Spike." "Cool! Can we get-" "Yes. We can get your gem cupcake." Both Spike and Sunrise started watering at the thought of such a things. Steamlord rolled his eyes at seeing her stare at him. "Yes. We're going to the bakery for you to try out new things anyways, but don't think this'll always be like this." Sunrise nodded her head in joy as both she and Spike left the tree, accompanied by the Crusader Knights. Walking side by side, the creator and the librarian seemed to be causing quite a ruckus with the ponies in town. The inhabitants of Ponyville seemed less impressed by the four beings and the new dragon with Twilight Sparkle around., although they were still quite impressive. Walking through the town, the group spotted a building that Steamlord had seen before. It looked like it was made of gingerbread, chocolate, cream, and a few candy canes. This was definitely the bakery. However, as Twilight, Sunrise, and Spike walked through the door, the human found himself stopping to a massive spark illuminating the ground near him and throwing far away from the bakery and onto his side. Steamlord's Knights helped him up and unsheathed their claymores, scaring the residents. "Who did that? Show yourselves!" screamed Steamlord. "We did, heathen! We cleave thee in tway for your villainous ways." Further away stood two ponies who were quite weird. The first was a rather atypical deep-orange stallion with a yellow mane, not too dissimilar to Applejack, although he wore a grey armor over his body and held a sword aloft by magic, while a deep-blue mare also with a yellow mane and a greenish armor and wielding daggers attached to her hooves stood before the human, who immediately lost all interest in the situation and started heading back into the bakery. These two smelled of cliché and over-dramatic music themes. However, the sword held by the orange one smashed right in front of Steamlord as he nearly reached the steps. "Hey! You dare ignore Flameblade-" "-and Icey Storm?!" Even their names were lame. With a face palm, the human turned around to ask them: "*sigh*. What do you want?" "We are monster hunters! Employed by Celestia herself!" The ponies around started mumbling, while Twilight tried to peek her head out, Steamlord motioned his hand for her to go back inside. The man's grin reassured her in knowing he had full control of the situation. "Oh really? And what makes you two old-timers think I'm a monster?" "OLD?!" yelled Icey. "Calm down. We heard that a giant golden machine fell from the sky, tearing away a portion of Cloudsdale. coincidentally, your appearances happened right after the thing crashed deep within the nearby forest. We were tasked by the sun princess herself to investigate and kill the one responsible." "Cloudsdale? 'the hell is that?" "It's a town. Surely you are the creator of that contraption?" "Even if I was, I don't recall plowing through an entire city. You don't just ignore that sort of thing." "Fine. You are still, however, a beast terrorizing this town and you must be stopped. We shall take you to the princess seeing as you are of limited intelligence." "LIMITED?! THE CREATOR OF A NEW ELEMENT AND ENERGY?! THE CREATOR OF DESIGNS YOUR TINY LITTLE MINDS CANNOT HOPE TO EVEN THINK ABOUT?!Crusader Knights, subdue them...in a fun manner for yourselves." Hospitaller charged directly at Flame while Templar charged at Icey. However, as the clanking and slamming commenced, only two beings did nothing to intervene. Teutonic was simply standing and watching while Steamlord entered the bakery. The man dodged a flying cupcake in time, only to see a pink pony holding some type of giant cannon. Twilight and the two dragons were sitting at a rather small table as the two Cakes were both holding candy canes shakily. "Pinkie, that's him!" "Oh! Sorry about that! I just needed to test my cupcake cannon and I thought a scary monster coming into the bakery would be the best target." "Monster? I am offended." Steamlord said in a mocking tone as he went towards Sunrise. "You should be." Steamlord turned around with a smug look as Pinkie did the same. "Are you...mocking me?" "I believe I am sir. You wanna fight about it?" "I agree to your challenge *slap*" the human slapped the pink pony on the face with a spare leather glove he kept in his jacket. "Challenge accepted!" "Right. Now please excuse me while I talk to Sunrise." "Fine..." Pinkie pouted for about a second until she returned to her shenanigans with the cannon. "So, how's the cupcake?" "It's delicious! Here, try a piece." Sunrise handed out a piece that shone with green jewel pieces. Steamlord stood back in horror at seeing the dangerous shards approaching his mouth. He had to put his hand up to stop it. "No thanks, sweetie. I don't think I can eat that sort of thing." "Oh...okay then." "So, Steam, why exactly did you become her adoptive father?" Pinkie seemed to have heard this question and was peeking "discreetly" at the giant. "Well, Twilight, I guess I just wanted to and I had to." "Why exactly?" "Yes. I know I shouldn't intervene here, but we have two babies and I'm quite proud of having them. I wanted to become a father." Mr Cake hugged the Mrs while saying this:" But why exactly did you adopt her?" "Yeah? Did you have a kid before?" Steamlord stared at the ceiling for a few moments while thinking. "Nnnnope." *BOOM* "What was that?" asked Spike. "Uhhh, it was nothing. Don't look outside." "What's *BOOM*" Twilight was interrupted. Suddenly, everybody left the bakery to see that Templar and Hospitaller were actually damaged and lying down on the ground, trying to get back up with their claymores. The two "monster hunters" actually proved to quite effective, although Teutonic was standing on them. They looked badly wounded and the weapons the two ponies carried were completely destroyed. "Ugh. I knew this one was the leader." moaned Flameblade "Leader? Pahaha!"laughed Steamlord. "It...it even defeated us with its eyes closed." complained Icey. "Pffahahaha!" "What's so funny?!" yelled Icey. "You two idiots have no idea that these three aren't more powerful one from the other. And Teutonic here HAS eyes, I just didn't make them glow like the other two." "Then...ugh...then how did it defeat us?" "I dunno." shrugged the creator as he smiled. "Teutonic, you can get off them now. I believe we won't be seeing them for awhile." The robot expelled steam and slowly stepped off the two "hunters". The human bent over them with another smile on his face. "How about you both leave now before I get mad. Hm?" "Fine, but we shall return. We know that these things can be defeated, and we will do it as soon as we recover. You WILL be taken to princess Celestia." promised Flameblade. "Yadda yadda yadda. No one cares about your life's ambitions." Icey stood up and helped Flame out of his hole. With a final glare back, they both left while limping. Steamlord immediately dropped his good humor and ran towards his damaged bots. "Shit, they're badly damaged. How the hell did they fail to these idiots? It seems like I need to implement the new upgrades now. Twilight." "Y-yeah?" "Could you watch over Sunrise while I'm gone? You could go see things with her." "So your creations are more important than your 'daughter'?" "Not exactly." "What do you mean 'not exactly'." "She may be my 'daughter', but these three protect us and have their own minds. I need to get these two fixed as quickly as possible for any future excursions into the woods or dealing with idiots like those two again." The man walked forward and talked to Sunrise: "I'm sorry that I'm not being a good father right now, but I must-" Sunrise stopped him. "I know. I don't want them to disappear either. Especially Hospitaller. I mean, they ARE kinda like my uncles." Teutonic, the one who seemed to be the most emotionless of the three Knights twitched at what Sunrise said, but didn't really move from its position. Steamlord noticed quite well but didn't say anything. He picked up a damaged Hospitaller and, with the aid of Teutonic, brought Templar back to the damaged vessel, leaving Sunrise behind with Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike. "...okay then...who wants to play a game?" asked Pinkie. "Ooo, I do I do!" replied the little yellow dragon." "YES! Let's go get some balls!" "Oh no..." moaned both Twilight and Spike. Meanwhile, back at the ship, all three robots were placed within capsules in the experimentation room. It was a giant room where many mechanical arms, tools, and other bizarre contraption hung about. There was even a forge built within the ship. The furnace burned bright and hot out of the three vertical lines that were within the door leading into the jaws of fire. However, Steamlord was working on the plans Security System created. It's amazing how fast "she" could create things and upgrade them. She even went so far as to "9.1" the plans. The new plating and pieces had already been created by taking things from outside and recreating the molecules. Remoleculizing was a dangerous game, but the A.I. had all the necessary tools and steadiness to do it. All experiments done by Steamlord ended in disaster because of micro-shaking. The process is a tedious one involving the literal rearranging of protons, neutrons, and electrons into the specific quantity to produce the new atom. These new atoms were contained for stabilization nd then fused together. The result was turning steel into water and so forth. The same could be done with rocks and wood. This is how so many ressources were still created and being used by the creator. Of course, there were several issues and, like said, this was a tedious thing to do. Either way, the robots were being completely reconfigured from scratch, readying to be implemented their new upgrades and be turned into the symbols of hope and strength as the man saw in his dreams.