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// 26 - Man vs Machine 
// Story: An Undertale of Equestria 
// by David Silver 
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As one of them was hauled off towards the berry processing line, other claws reached for the rest of us, each lined with cloying shadows and dark intentions. I ducked just under a smaller one as it sailed through where I had been standing moments before. "Tell me there's a way to turn them off!"

Sweet suddenly smiled and trotted over to the switch on the wall. With obvious pride, she clicked it. The lights died instantly, then her yelp sounded out from the darkness, moving quickly away. I guessed she was grabbed by a still active claw, lights or not.

I heard the voice of the remaining brother explaining sheepishly, "The switch only controls the lights. We had activated the machinery when they came on before. It seemed like the most dramatic time."

Trixie stepped over me suddenly and grabbed me with her hooves, hurrying through the dark. "Well how do you turn them off, you innovative fool!"

"Well we normally do it together. We're a team."

The captured brother's holler came from up above with the sound of spraying water coming with it.

"Oh my, I shudder to think what could happen if the machines take him to the final step. We must rescue him!"

I waved into the dark. "Easier said than done, get the lights back on!"

With a loud click, the lights fitfully sprang to life just in time for several claws to converge on the salespony. He squealed in horror and jumped over one, crashing to the floor beneath the next and rolling out of the way of the third. "Help!"

An idea came to me. "Trixie, do you still have the hayburger food?"

"This is no time for a snack, familiar." She looked incredulous.

I smiled. "Trust me, please, one bag." I held out a hand and with a pop, a bag appeared in it and I quickly tore into it, pulling out a hayburger. I lined up the shot carefully as the claw flailed at Flim, or was that Flam? Either way, I gave it a mighty hurl. I felt time go hazy. Had I missed a few times? Probably. That was a one in a thousand shot. With a loud splat and a wet crunch, it landed right where its undulating gears turned, gumming it up. The claw began to thrash around wildly before it went limp. One down.

"Excellent idea, familiar." Trixie grabbed a mass of hayfries from the bag and floated it to the claw, shoving it right into its weak point and knocking out the claw in short order. Darn cheating unicorn magic. 

"Our machine!" wailed the salespony. "Oh, I suppose this is the price we pay... Please, save Flam!"

I squirmed out of Trixie's grasp. "This one's up to me, I think." I ran for one of the limp claws and grabbed it with god's gift to mankind, fingers, and began to scale as quickly as I could, getting closer to Flam's cries for help. A smaller claw rushed at me and I began playing chase with it, ducking around the larger pole of the other claw to avoid it. With a sudden fit of sparks, it went limp. A glance revealed Trixie giving me a salute with a cocky grin.

Being closer to the running belt, I gave a big jump, almost missing the smaller claw before I started climbing up its cord. For one instant, I began to slip. The very same greasy snacks that had disabled the thing almost sent me to a long drop! I rubbed one hand, then the other on my jacket before I more carefully scrambled up.

"Is that you, curious biped?" asked Flam. He was a soaking, slightly sudsy, mess. His hat and shirt had been cruelly stripped from him and he was shivering on the belt. "Do be a sport and get me off of this thing, would you? I'll give you a discount on the house cleaner!" He tried to move, but his legs seemed secured by manacles to the belt. "Do hurry, I'm afraid we're reaching our... revolutionary... sorter and dicer mark 2000!"

It took me a moment to realize he was pausing where his brother would normally jump in. Were they that in sync? I wondered if, down below, his brother wasn't saying the words without any context, probably baffling Trixie. Looking back along the line, I could see Sweet was getting a fresh washing. Ugh, she was going to get a phobia of anything mechanical.

I started to swing the cord back and forth, working up momentum to get to the belt. With a sudden twang, a few bolts gave loose. The whole arm was going to get pulled out of its socket! I swung as hard as I could back towards the belt and jumped off just as it began to fall to the ground below. I sailed through the air before crashing against the side of the belt, hanging on by one of Flam's hind legs. With a great heave, I pulled myself up, panting for breath. He looked ready to clap, if he wasn't shackled. "Good show! Now get me out of here! Please."

I reached for his hooves and the manacles on them and tried to figure out how they worked. It wasn't just a keyhole waiting for a key. It looked like a puzzle, with a series of three by three buttons. Pushing one button made the button and those around it change from lit to not lit or vice versa. "Did you seriously put a game into your shackles?"

"We thought it would add a bit of levity to the machine."

"It may add a bit of pain to your life!" I began hammering buttons, making the lights dance around as I tried for the right combination. "Am I going for all dark or all light?"

"All light, oh, do hurry." He began to dance as little as the manacles allowed. "We haven't time!"

Turn the right side, no, left, middle? Top! Center... There we go! The console of buttons flashed at me as a cheery jingle played and the manacles popped off of Flam. He threw himself at me in a sudden hug. "Thank you! Let's go save your friend, shall we? I would run if I were you." He jumped over me, leaving me dangerously close to where the belt went off into a rather dangerous looking vat of swirling blades. I went chasing after him in an instant, not wanting to see more of that vat any time soon. The belt was running the wrong way and I had to pump my little legs as hard as they went to slowly catch up with him and his long pony legs. 

He reached Sweet Tooth first and began pressing buttons quickly in a series of clicks, freeing her in only a moment. "Uh, I hate to bring this up, but how do we get down from here?"

Sweet turned away from the end of the belt and began trotting at the same speed as it. As if in spite, the belt started speeding up. I was losing ground, being drawn back into the chamber of blades. This body just wasn't made for running fast enough! Suddenly the belt left from under me. I was held in Flam's magic and drawn over to ride on his back as he and Sweet galloped at full speed against the belt.

I clapped my hands. "Flam, is there a center of all these machines, where everything's organized?"

"Besides Flim and myself?" He looked around the room quickly. "Ah, yes, the power supply." He pointed to a box up along the ceiling in a long rectangular box of metal. "I normally need a ladder to reach that, and we're in no condition to do that right now."

Flam suddenly fell beneath me, a hoof landing on a sliding bunch of berries and sending both to the belt in a slam. There was no time left. I pulled my jacket off and hurled it back, then wriggled out of my pony armor and tossed it too, praying it was tough enough to jam something inside the whirling chamber of doom. With a loud bang and rising smoke, the chamber ground to a halt fitfully. The belt we were on slowed dramatically as if struggling against something before it emitted an explosion of its own and new smoke joined the mess. All around the room, machines began to get caught, overheated, and shut down in smoking piles.

With a cry of horror from both of the brothers, one far below, Flam shook me. "What have you done?! We worked so hard to build this! It worked! It really worked..." He sagged against me, going as limp as his machines. "I'm... sorry, I suppose you had to..."

The smoke began to gather quickly into an angry mass of black, purple, and green. The shadow had arrived. I gave Flam a pat on the shoulder before I turned my eyes up to the shadow. "Watch over me. It's time to end this." My voice raised to a shout. "Show me! I'm ready to see it. It's time to put the mistakes to right."

Emerging from the shadow was a smaller orb, split apart with a green grin. "You think you can do something about this? Ha! All you've done is chase away the shadows like bad dreams."

"That isn't true." I glared defiantly at it. "We've met two ponies from the past, shown one a brighter future, and the possibility to the other. This fighting doesn't have to go on."

"Oh, doesn't it? There's one little thing that'll stop that. Something the crystal ponies will never surrender. They'd rather your new friends die, and they won't even feel bad about it. They didn't care when Sombra was sick in bed, suffering and innocent. What had he ever done to them? Oh, he fixed that afterwards. He fixed it real good."

I waved it aside. "Let me see. You can laugh at me if I can't figure it out once I've seen it all."

"Pfft, right." His face became that of skyward cast eyes. "That may work on Aquator, but he's an idiot. The only reason you can move right now is your little 'trick', by the way." I could see Flam and Sweet were frozen in place. "Which means, of course, no one is going to catch you."  He suddenly came at me like a bullet. I tried to duck out of the way, but he was far too fast for that. He rammed into me like a wrecking ball and I went flying off the belt, falling to the ground far too far below. "And don't think you can just skip past this time. I have time on a nice hard grip. It's time for you to die, little pest."

Wind roared in my ears, but I saw movement below. A blue figure got under me, and I felt familiar magic wrap around me, slowing my descent. "What? Who?! How?!" The small cloud of shadow zoomed down below even as I fell, if much more slowly. Trixie was there with a mask of concentration. The shadow roared in fury. "Stupid pony! I'll make your death slow." Its usual grin became that of a grimace before it faded away into nothing, and I landed beside Trixie.

She collapsed beside me, heaving. "Familiar... That took... more out of... Trixie... than she thought. It's up to you now."