//------------------------------//
// To Fear The End 
// Story: I'm a Lich and I know it! 
// by Dream Seeker 
//------------------------------//

	"It's almost done... It's almost done..." a pony mumbled nervously to himself, eye twitching rapidly. He was a unicorn whose age was approaching a two centuries. His now white mane drooped over his damaged body, one hind leg being entirely missing and many scars covering his body, the skin sewn together with magic and thread.

"My life's work. It has to succeed," the pony's eye twitched again, and a feral grin came across his face. "I cannot allow myself to die. I will MAKE IT SUCCEED!"

With that, the aging unicorn shakily levitated the final piece into his creation, and took a step back. He sat and looked at his own work in wonder. It was a fully functional, mechanical unicorn body, magical ability and all, merely missing that spark of life. His spark of life. With a final sigh, the ancient unicorn closed his eyes and activated the rune he was sitting on. With an intense humming of magic, it began to levitate him, before scanning his body, capturing his essence, mind and memories before destroying him. The body crumbled to ash, vaporized. The rune sent the information it had collected to the rune under the mechanical unicorn, transferring all into the carefully crafted body's 'brain', made from magical materials to be able to replicate a stronger, more resilient pony brain. After a few seconds, the gem placed in the chest of the mechanical pony flickered to life, and it slowly opened his eyes and stood up. A predatory grin flashed back across his face as he flexed the back leg his old body had lacked.

"I knew it would work. Immortality..." a panicked expression grew, however. "No, it's not good enough. What if this body is destroyed? I must be stronger... I need to protect my mind and soul... I need contingency after contingency, and contingencies for my contingencies! It's the only way... to stop the end... I must not end... I must not end..."

Repeating the mantra to himself, the mechanical unicorn was soothed. He would find a way to survive. Or die trying. But for now, he had a meeting to attend to. He hadn't been outside since the last new moon, and was looking forward to showing his fellow Mad Scientists the fruits of his labor.





"Order! Order! We will have order at this meeting!" the unholy abomination made of a unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony all fused together at the chest shouted from all three mouths, pounding his gavel on the table.

"But sir, surely you've heard the news!" a dark unicorn with a skull and crossbones Cutie Mark replied, momentarily breaking his conversation to speak to the gavel-wielding abomination. "The Crystal Empire is gearing up to destroy our northern brethren!"

"Of course it is. That is precisely why WE NEED ORDER!"

The volume of the shout reverberated around the room, silencing it immediately. It was more than just the sound, however: The unicorn horn on the abomination's left head glowed with power, muting all other sounds in the room.

"Now that is more like it. As much as we would like to allow you time to discuss recent events, we have a schedule to meet. You all know that we have only until sunrise to meet, lest Celestia catch us; and we will not be able to meet again in safety until Luna's vision is dampened once again by the new moon. Now, for the first order of business. For all those of you who, for some reason, have not yet heard the developments in the northern lands, I will explain. Our brethren from the north have managed to settle down and create a single city, entirely populated by those like us."

This statement was met by cheers from the ponies, griffons, changelings, dragons, and other creatures in the crowd.

"However, the Crystal Empire soon received word of this development. Now, they are preparing to attack with the power of their army and Equestria's combined. We fully intend on leading an army of our own up there, to support this new village of Calypsion against the might of the Empire and Equestria! WHO WILL FOLLOW ME INTO BATTLE! FOR OUR BRETHREN! FOR OUR PEOPLE! WE MUST FIGHT AGAINST THE OPPRESSION!"

Cheers flooded the room, almost everybody joining in. A single, robotic unicorn sat glumly in a corner, knowing that he would have to come too, despite his want; no, his need to survive. Wars were not good for one's health. Hopefully, he could just play a simple part in the war, maybe manufacture ethically questionable augmentations for other ponies, or prosthetics with hidden lethal weaponry, or something else that would keep him out of the line of fire.

"And the one who brings me Shining Armor's head... To that being, will go the entire Crystal Empire, to be used for whichever purpose they choose," the three-headed abomination shouted.

Silence fell at this announcement. Everybody realized just how important this was. Whoever killed Shining Armor would receive a massive source of potential income, information, spare parts, and almost anything else they could possibly wish for. It was in that moment, Life Seeker, unicorn-turned-robot, knew he had to be the one to kill Shining Armor. Surely with the entire wealth of knowledge and resources that the Empire held, it would be easy to create a body that could withstand even the eventual explosion of the sun.

"When do we leave, Triple Threat?" Life Seeker called out.

"We leave at the next new moon," Triple Threat replied with certainty, all three heads nodding in unison. "I know those of you who have traveled from very far away may not have the time to return home and fully prepare, but rest assured I will make sure we are supplied with enough resources for each and every one of you to build whatever you would have brought when we get there. For those of you who must return home first despite this, remember: We will need each and every one of your unique talents to defeat our enemies. Hurry towards the Empire as soon as you are able to. If you arrive late, we will expect you to make quite an important impact on the battlefield. And if you think you can skip out on this war..." Triple Threat growled menacingly. "Remember that I know each and every one of your names."