//------------------------------// // Chapter 27. Climax // Story: Sweetie Bot - A Heart's Warming Tale // by Grimweird //------------------------------// Rarity's horn shone the way through the snow. After they reached the bridge, she no longer needed her horn, as Screwloose picked up the scent again, and the two of them had a contest of who could get there first. And Rarity knew where she was going As they came closer, she had simply stopped relying on her horn and started running on memory. Everything was coming back to her as she ran down the cold road. The same road she had came down in a private carriage with her parents, and her newborn sister in a incubator, with all the life support systems. The same road she had run down in a desperate look for a heart for her sister. The road her family and her rebuilt sister had eventually fled down. She recognized the courtyard she had played in, alone during many months of waiting, the lonely swing where Sweetie's piston muscles had sent her higher than any foal before. The iron fence, with spiked tips that had held them in with a matching gate that was now gone and destroyed. Beyond them was the longhouse, housing the toy factory that sat above the secret chambers and laboratories. And from them, rose the orange flames that painted the whole area in a bright orange light. Rarity thought she had ran back through time as she stared at the burning barn. It was as if the flames of yesterday had never gone out. Only this time she was running towards them. "Now this takes me back" Said Dr Morbious as he moved up beside Rarity. He held up his mangled, metal infused leg, and let the metal gleam in the orange glow. "We had such big trouble putting out the fire, that by the time we were done, you were long gone." He licked the scar tissue between two plates. "Amazing that some dusty air vents can lead fire so well. it must have been a costly mistake for Neurosa to hook up the underground ventilation system to the upper factories airpumps." "Do you feel guilt Rarity? Not only did she lose her pet project, but she lost her main source of income when that factory burned. She had a fully automated toy assembly line I heard - quite the Santa Hooves little clockworkshop. Shame I never got to see it myself." "I don't care!" "Yes! Burn! Burn the industrial heathens!" Necro shouted from inside the mattress'ed hospital wagon. Twilight cast a spell to remove the windows she had conjured up, which muffed the sound from the raving stallion inside somewhat. Rarity stared at the burning barn. The sound of battle could be heard from inside. But she was unable to find any sort of door or other way inside. Regardless. She walked closer and closer to the flames. Until Twilight magically pulled her away. “Sweetie is somewhere in there!” she protested. “We can't go in, its to dangerous.” “Hard to believe we are all risking our lives for a mechanical puppet.” Snarked Sully. Rarity gave her an icy glare that would have frozen the heart of a dragon. Before anyone could say or do anything else, Screwloose was running ahead. Not towards the barn, but to the mansion adjacent to it. “Screwloose NO!” Shouted Cardiac. But the mare was already way past the threshold and heading inside. With the choice already made for them. The rest of the group followed. Leaving the wagon, and its passenger, alone. *** Necro heard his captors gallop away outside his prison on wheels. It had become awfully dark inside that wagon after that purple one had magicked away the windows. Necro would have liked to magic his way out of this prison, but he could not even lit his horn to light up the place. Not with that troublesome moonstone on his horn. All of his hooves were bound by a magical rope, preventing him from reaching up and pulling the magic nullifying ring off. Not that removing it would allow him to do anything. Not since that mare had stolen his magic enhancer. He did not care what they had tried to convince him off back in his shed. that crystal disk was the source of his magic. Without it, his horn would be as useless as a pegasus without wings. He had to get it back. He had to make them pay. But first. He had to get out of this wagon. Try as me might, he could not chew off the ropes. But Luckily for him, the idiots had left him with his hat. Necro wriggled around until the hat fell of from his head. It was still hanging from his horn by the hole in the rim. But by tossing his head around he made it fall down in front of his face. Then he used his tongue to search for a small compartment on the inside of the of the old top hat. An audience always loved when a magician pulls tricks out of his hat. And this old stage magician never forgot his tricks. He pulled the lock on the maple tray, and a old withered flower bouquet folded out into his face. Necro spat out the withered leaves and wriggled around until the bouquet fell out of the hat. Wrong folder. He tried the next one, just barely able to reach the button with the tip of his tongue. This time a rod shot out of the hidden compartment, and struck him square in the eye. It was a long rod, held in place by a spring-lock mechanism that that would make it quickly skoot out into its full length. But since his eye were in the way, the the rod instead pushed his hat backwards, off his head, as it erected into its full length. The back eye he received did not bother Necro. Now he could easily reach the folder he needed. "Abracadabra." From his hat he pulled his magical wand. In reality nothing more than a lightstick he used to ignite things on stage. With it in mouth, he bent down to bring the burning end to the ropes around his fetlocks. *** -:: Memory leakage detected // Heart drive integrity: 2.1 percent remaining ::- The flames rose high. Both in the past and in the percent. Sweetie struggled to keep her mind together as she tried to avoid her captors. -:: Warning // right hoof damaged // connection problems with left joint // Airpump damaged // leakage in central lubrication line detected // ERROR // inner circuit board damaged – Rewriting power // rear motor piston unresponsive // Repair systems offline // Buffer depleted // Energy levels: 5.4 percent and dropping ::- Her mind was not the only thing that was failing apart. Her tiny body had taken a beating, the already scarred armor had been punctured with several new holes, some deep enough that the damage had reached her inner parts. Pistons and wires had been pierced and ruptured, and her repair and restoration system had neither energy not material left to keep her together. "How did it come to this?" She wondered, as she limped past the burning remains of a fuel tank. Everything had happened so fast, it seemed unrealistic. One second she had been the happiest she had been in far too long. The next, a band of rotten ponies had shown up to rain on her parade. Ponies that wanted to destroy her, capture her, use and abuse her. The exact nature of their desire was debatable, as not two ponies seemed to be able to agree what they wanted to do with her. Molten Metalhoof and Neurosa wanted her brain, albeit for different purposes. Whereas Mad marrow and the pegasus Shockwave wanted to destroy her. ( To his eternal credit: the blue unicorn Prism had tried to use the control code on Sweetie. But this time he got only a confused look from the filly sized bot. Followed by her sticking what was left of her tongue out at him. ) This disagreement led to a fierce and violent debate amongst the members of he rogue science team. A debate during which Sweetie might have tried to sneak away. Unless Hobo Bronco had felt the need to add his voice to the discussion. This turned all attention to the hobo. For the one thing, they had more in common than their desire to catch Sweetie, was their disgust for the brown stallion. No matter how you sliced it, he was the one who had once stolen Sweetie away from all of them. Preventing them all from fulfilling their individual cravings. Molten ordered his Steel Stallions to take aim at the 'Traitor' But Sweetie had stepped in between. Readying her own weapons. The stalemate was dire. With threats on hers and Bronco's life being made. That was when the pegasus with a broken wing pulled out an orb from under his coat. And threw it. As the ball sailed through the air. Sweeties battle scanners recognized the object that had once sapped her energy's at the bridge. If it was allowed to touch her, It would do so again. -::Target acquired::- -:: Fire ::- She might have overdone it. In a panic. She released all of the energy that had been building up in her blasters during the stalemate. The ball was utterly obliterated - as was the roof above them. Concrete and steel plates rained down from the sealing and dust filled the entire hallway. For a second, everypony disappeared behind a cloud of dust. It was a second to not be wasted. Both she and Bronco ran. And just in time too. For whether by Metalhooves orders or by some automated function, the row of steel stallions returned fire. A flurry of lightning bolts discharging in all directions, as well as rockets and grenades. Everypony ducked for cover except Sweetie and her only friend. The shots had passed right over her smaller frame. But Bronco had been grazed in the shoulder and rear. The destructive energy tore up his coat and burned his flesh, yet he kept running out of sheer fear for his life as explosives rained in around them. But the Lightning bolts that missed them struck the fuel tanks and generators that powered the automated construction line. The explosive energy contained in a gas powered hydraulics press was far bigger than any of Metalhoove's home made explosives. Seeing the fireball come towards them was like staring into the maw of a fire puking dragon. Conveyor belts were uprooted, catwalks collapsed as their support beams got struck. Sweetie dolls that has not yet been destroyed in Sweeties own rampage were splintered. And Bronco was thrown off his hooves. Sweetie might have been able to resist the fire - but he could not. His cape and coat caught fire. And yet he just laid there. Without attempting to put himself out. Sweetie had been forced to tear the clothes apart to get the fire away from him. But her attempts to shake life into him was fruitless. That's when she noted the big swollen lump on his head. After making sure he was still breathing. Sweetie dragged him further back into the factory, as the only way out of here was blocked by the maniacs that had caused this. Sweetie wanted to call for help, but she knew none would come. The marching of metal hooves echoed closer as Molten got his Steel Stallions under control, and everypony began to search the area. They would not take care of the unconscious stallion. With no where left to turn, Sweetie turned towards her adversaries. Her eyes turning infrared, and her blasters charging up. That's when all manner of hell broke loose. *** Black smoke filled the hall as the fires raged on and spread. It was so thick that her infrared eyes could not penetrate it. She had taken out about half of Metalhooves Steel Stallions. But every fight had costed her as those got in shots on her. Her voicebox had been destroyed by a lucky shot at her unprotected throat. What's more, her jaw was hanging loose. Flapping around like a worthless piece of metal. She tired not to think about that she might never speak again. She kept focused on the matter of her dropping energy reserves, which was by far the worst matter. Every time she took a shot, it dropped by at least another whole percent. So she had taken to hiding. Trying to run around those mechanized warriors and shoot them in the flank. And she had to be extra careful of her unarmored head, for she no longer had a helmet. She kept her eyes open for the flesh and blood ponies too, but they seemed equally busy fighting each other as looking for her. A figure appeared up ahead. Not a gleaming armor of a Steel Stallion. But a ragged flesh and blood pony. It inspected the rows of Sweetie's, as if she would ever have been able to hide among them. “You have been a very bad girl.” The stallion said out loud. “Destroying my wife's work like this!” The smile and the dark eyes revealed the blue from of Prism Prestige. "All I had to do was bring you home where you belong, and we could have been one big happy family. We could have had as many of you as we liked” He said as he stroked the cheek on one of the dolls. Then he leaned in and kissed it. "My perfect little daughter." Sweeties stomach would have turned if it was still functional. She would have screamed, had her voicebox still been operational. -:: You are not my family! ::- She rushed forward. Fully intending to punch the stallion out. The stallion turned towards her. But made no effort to run away. As Sweetie ran towards him, she crossed an intersection. That's when she realized she'd been tricked. She did not notice the Steel Stallions standing on opposite sides of the crossing with their energy lances ready. Not until shots were already passing overhead. She turned to return fire. But one of the destructive lightning bolts had struck one of her blasters. And the thing exploded. Throwing her off to the side and down another walkway. She did not even have time to asses the damage before another Steel Stallion appeared in front of her. Armed with a rocket launcher that it immediately used. In the split second that the rocket sailed through the air, Sweetie fired the backblast on her remaining master blaster. The force threw her off the floor and away from the rocket, which instead sailed past her position and struck the Steel Stallion who was coming around the corner after her. from the opposite end of the walkway. The stallion went up in a ball of fire, and its head sailed through the air. Gears and oil rained from it like blood and entrails. From somewhere up ahead, she heard Metalhoof cursing. She got up on her hooves, and ran in that direction. Ducking behind another row of Sweetie's as the rocket bearing Steel Stallion marched past her. -:: Warning // Catastrophic damage caused by hardware malfunction // Left Master Blaster destroyed ::- Catastrophic indeed. Only the mechanic arm that had once held her energy cannon remained. Sticking out of her left cannon port like a broken wing. The thing refused to properly respond to her commands. And she could not fold it back into her. -:: Panic levels rising ::- This was another piece of her that was now lost. She tried to tell herself that it was a piece she should never been hers. That it had only been connected to her by a mad stallion. But it had still been a piece of her. Regardless if it drained her energy in its design flaws. It had been her one means of defending herself. She had extended herself into it. Made it a part of her. With it gone, she felt smaller. Another piece that was now gone forever. Like so many other things. She was losing pieces one by one. Breaking apart at the seams – Just how much could she lose before there was nothing left of her. As her Heart-Drive was starting to curl up and cry, her logic center took over. She had to get out of here – She had to find Rarity and pray she would forgive her. She had to find Metalhoof and and destroy his control-panel. To stop the Steel Stallions. All she needed to do was follow the cursing. White flakes danced before her eyes. Small particles of snow had started to mix into the dust. Looking up, Sweetie was that she had opened up a big hole in the roof - allowing her to see in to the toy-factory that was seated like a second floor above this factory. And above that, She could see the snow clouds in the skies above the second hole that had appeared in the roof above that. -:: Memory leakage // Heart drive integrity 1.1 percent remaining ::- -:: Translating rogue signals // Corrupted memory file detected ::- The yard, the swing, the ground covered in white stuff of which the like she had never seen. In the middle of it stood Rarity. Dressed in a purple vest with matching earmuffs. A puff of white smoke appeared in front of her muzzle as she breathed. Not for Sweetie, even though her airpump was breathing. “Its snow, Sweetie.” She said as she scooped up the white stuff from the lone swing. Sweetie copied the movements. Her sensors registered the cold coming from the snow. Her body functions processor figured it was fitting to initiate a shivering sequence. Even though she was clad in a pink scarf and vest her sister had made for her. Snow – She learned, could be used to make snowmares, and snow candles, and snowballs. And snowballs was okay to thrown at other ponies. That's why she did not duck for the blue and sparkly crystal ball that headed towards her ... -:: Sphere shaped object on impact course // WARNING // Crystal ball – Labeled Dangerous! ::- The 'snowball' struck Sweetie on the muzzle. But instead of the soft and cold snow splashing over her face, it flashed. And she instantly felt all her remaining energies being sucked out of her nostrils. The next second, a pegasus with a broken wing descended upon her from a catwalk above. He landed on top of her remaining Master blaster, his hooves crackled with electricity as he grabbed onto her cannon. Energy shot out from his hooves and into the cannon's circuitry. Within a moment, her cannon overloaded and exploded! Sweetie was thrown to the floor, and the pegasus was thrown off. She could not see where he whent to. But in the next moment, the rocket bearing Steel Stallion appeared in front of her. And this time she had no blasters which to defend herself with. As the stallion fired off its deadly payload in her direction, Sweetie discharged all the energy she could into her little legs. Kicking off from the ground like an overcharged jack-screw she flipped over the rocket - which instead struck another generator behind her. At this point, she had lost count of how many times she had been blown up. The explosion threw Sweetie off the ground. Back into the the center of the factory floor. Lying on her back, she could see the tree of wires extended its crown up into the sealing from the mainframe. Down on the ground, she saw Metalhoof with that weird control panel strapped to his torso. Mad Marrow was lying beaten at his hooves. Several bruises covered her face, yet she still clung to the green stallion even as he kicked her. Both of them turned their eyes towards Sweetie, as she came flying in over the conveyor belts. Sweetie tried to get up again, But she fell as she tried to take a step forward. Her leg wouldn't work. -:: ERROR Critical damage sustained // initiate emergenzy repair protocols // ERROR // buffer depleated ::- -:: Warning // Connection problems // Warning // Connection lost with right hoof // Warning // Connection lost with right knee // Warning // Right axis unresponsive // Warning // Heavy damage sustained in abacus // Warning // No longer receiving data from right leg ::- Sweetie stared in horror at the empty socked there her right foreleg should be. It had fallen off. IT HAD FALLEN RIGHT OFF! “Very well...” The mechanic muttered. “Now cease her!” Behind Sweetie, the rocket armed Steel stallion started marching towards her. When from up above, another catwalk, the crippled pegasus descended. Shockwave landed on the back of the mechanical rockateer. And gave its head a shock with his sparkling hooves. Its eyes cracked and smoke started pouring out from its ears as he overloaded its circuitry. And he jumped off as the thing fell lifeless to the ground. Shockwave looked eyes with Sweetie as she tried to crawl away. His coat was shredded, and the bandage on his damaged wing had loosened up. Cuts and bruises covered his dirty body. Yet his eyes were filled with fierce determination. Still, he smiled as he held up a sparkling blue orb in his hoof. He threw it. Not at Sweetie. But at another Steel stallion that had emerged down the hall. The thing collapsed as the ball made impact. Then - he jumped at her. Pinning her on her back to the floor. “By Celestias will. I release you from this torment!” He brought his hooves down on her like, with the sound of a defibrillator. An overload of unregistered proportions ruched through her. Every system was frenzied as it was flooded with more energy than it was ever designed to hold. All Sweetie could do was wail in silence as he threatened to burn her out. It was like the storm caching tower. Only somehow worse! Getting hit by lightning had only lasted a second. This lasted forever... She could not even think straight as every part of her brain became a hazy static from overload. She could not even shut down as the shock forced her systems into hyper activity. She tried to redirect the energy. But there was no where to redirect it to. And it just constantly built and built until her circuits would burst or overheat. All the time the pegasus was sitting on top of her Screaming “Release. Release. BE RELEASED!” and he pushed more and more of his energy through Sweetie at a velocity that would have burned out all household appliances. Her eye threatened to burst. They would roll into her scull if they could. Finally he stopped. Sweetie did not so much see him as mush as her visual lenses just registered him, unmoving. He was sweating, panting and looked completely worn out, like he had spent every last ounce of his energy. She gave him a kick whit all the power her little hydraulic legs could muster. A kick that hit right between the hind legs with enough force to send him flying of her. She tried to get up. But found herself sitting down on the floor. Her body was shutting down. The shocking experience had not recharged her. Instead, her battery was depleting faster than ever. The overload had ripped her already unstable power core in half, and she was leaking battery fluid. The only thing still keeping her going was the energy still coursing through her systems. And that would not last long. And neither would the rest of her. Her body had had enough. Every part of her insides had reached melting temperatures and all her greasing fluids were either on the point of boiling or already vaporized. She was smoldering from where the fumes where escaping through leaks in the piping. She finally understood how Screwloose must have felt. Her thoughts went to her. The only pony on this entire journey that hadn't abused her, hurt her or disappointed her in any way. She wished to have seen her again. She would have loved to be her little Sweetie for Hearth's Warming Eve. Shockwave was shaking as he pulled himself from the ground. Gritting his teeth and having trouble to stand straight as his hind legs cramped from a pain in his nether regions. “Why!? Why are you still alive. Why do you still cling to this torment? Why do you resist Celestias Peace!?” “What are you doing!” Roared Metalhoof. “Don't destroy her!” “Yes! Do!” Shouted Mad Marrow. “Free my husband from this curse!” “Shut up mare!” she shouted, and punched her in the face. Shockwave was about to jump at her again. When through the flames, a mare came flying with her yaw hanging open. A yaw that slammed down on Shockwave's healthy wing, and bit through straight to the bone. The Pegasus screamed and began to kick and thrash, but could not shake hit attacker of. The mare that had sunken her teeth deep into his wing muscles, and where pulling and shaking as hard as any hound. She pulled him to the ground and the two begun to roll around as blood soaked feathers flew everywhere. In an instant Sweetie recognized Screwloose. Suddenly the whole factory became a brawl as more ponies appeared out of the flames. Dr Cardiac ran straight into Molten Metalhoof and tackled him to the ground. A steel stallion turned to face him. But was caught in a purple glow of magic, and deconstructed piece for piece. A Second later, Twilight Sparkle appeared with a glowing horn. Behind her came Mr Tree Trunks, rushing in and tackling another Steel Stallion. The brown pony's big frame was enough to drop the mechanical warrior to its side, where it started flailing wit its legs - as helpless as a turtle on its back. A turtle with dual shoulder mounded lightning lancers that were spewing out destructive energy like a dragon spews fire. Everypony ducked for cover - Or behind magical shields as low flying lightning shot past them. One of the lightning bolts struck Dr Pain in the hindleg, scorching a hole through his limb all the way to the bone. He collapsed with a strange grin on his face. Mr Trunks tried to push the deadly robot out of the way as more of the lightning struck the machinery and conveyor belts, Sending parts and pieces flying through the air. And some of it struck a supportive pillar, causing it to fall - and the hole in the roof to whined even more. Debris and gravel rained down, as well as some some really big looking rocks. Through the dust, a sapphire blue magical beam soared forth and blasted the falling derbies, vaporizing the smaller rocks and pushing the bigger away from falling on the squishy ponies below. When the smoke cleared, Sweetie Sweetie saw that Brick had gotten into a hoof fight with Prism prestige. Nurse Sully ran into the field with two needles in her magic and begun to chase Mad Marrow around. And in the middle of it stood Rarity, Her mane was ruined, her coat was pale and dirty, but her eyes were filled with determination as she shot rock after rock out of the air. Sweetie could do nothing but sit and stare. They had come for her. Every one of them. Even after all the horrible things she said at the bridge. In the chaos, Neurosa sneaked up behind Sweetie and tried to grab her - But was hit by a to the face with a piece of Rock. Thrown like a hoofball by a stallion in a straw hat. Behind him came a mare, wielding more ammunition for her high school hoofball champion. The two of them got into a throwing match with Taco Teddy. Tools, rocks and various that happened to be within reach toys were thrown across the conveyor belts. -:: Mom? Dad? ::- Sweetie wished she could call out to them, to anyone. But the lack of a voicebox made it impossible. Funny enough. One of her main concerns was with how she looked. If they would even be able to recognize her. Or if she even wanted them to see her like this. A Steel Stallion fired its missiles at Twilight. She managed to raise her shield but some of the rockets steered over her purple sphere and struck down behind her, where Sully was standing. The explosion threw her off her hooves and into a wall. Twilight had to disengage from battle and run over to her. The mare has puking blood and grabbing her throat. Twilight tried to close the wound with magic but something was in the way. She cast the x ray spell and found the nurses needle stuck in her throat. Pulling it out would have been to dangerous. So she focused on it with her magic, and teleported it out of her. Then, a black pony in a top hat broke into the place. He tackled Twilight and ripped her saddlebags off her. From them he pulled out a blue disk and slammed it into the back of his head. Before Sweetie could process why Necro would do such a thing, or why he was missing his red tail - the black stallion cast his magic onto the dirt leaking in from a broken section in the wall. And suddenly, Clay ponies were punching holes in the walls and swarming out through the holes. Twilight found herself dispelling Golems as fast as Necro could summon them. Rarity was using her magic to try and blind the remaining Steel Stallions with cloth she summoned and tied into bags over their heads, unfortunately this did not lower their danger factor as more lightning bolts were sent flying blindly across the factory hall as Molten and Dr Cardiac was pounding each other over the control panel. Brick was pounding Prism relentlessly. And Sweetie's mom and dad were pounding with both Teddy and Mad Marrow. Mr Trunks had tackled another Steel Stallion, and was hugging its torso with both hooves, trying to lift it. But the Steel stallion kept backing away, and Mr Trunks found himself in a deadly dance with energy lances blasting right over his head. Shockwave tried to get away from Screwloose. But both his wings were now shredded, His previously wrapped wing had come loose, and Screwloose had wasted now time plucking even that one for feathers by teeth as she was simultaneously clawing at him with her hooves. Furthermore, there were two Neurosas, both colliding in a fight for the same pair of broken glasses. The battle became a stalemate. Every pony was locked in combat with somepony. And what was worse - It looked like the good side was loosing ground to the bad. Sully was trying to Nurse herself back to health and Dr Pains just kind of laid there - Relishing in his own pain. And Mr Bobo Bronco was just... lying there. Sweetie had to stop sitting around. She had to get to that computer. -:: Energy levels 1.1 percent remaining ::- -:: Warning // Battery canister damaged // Battery fluid leaking // Power fluctuating ... ::- To conserve energy, she crawled on the floor using only her one remaining forehoof. The two Neurosas slammed into her in their wrestling. Sweetie rolled over on her back and was forced to see how her parents retreated up on a walkway as the fat disgusting Teddy and Mad Marrow got past their defense. She was about to unleash her fury onto mother, when a bolt from the Steel Stallions struck the stairway separating the walkway from the floor, and Teddy ended up falling on his fat, chubby face. Now out of reach, the two unicorns started using their magic to grab whatever loose object they could, and bombarding the ponies below. (Particularly her father, who put all his old school hoofball practice to use.) Sweetie continued to crawl towards the Mainframe, feeling her body functions shutting down as she did. She pulled herself up into the empty chair attached to the computer (where her body double had been sitting), and pulled the helmet down over her head. The neurological beams shot into her cranial plate. And through that energy, she was able to extend her own thoughts into the machine, and the tree of wires above it. Out into the branches and twigs. down into the remaining Sweetie bots. She extended her energy into every one of them. Her mind stretched to its breaking point as a part of her consciousness became split across a hundred of the remaining bot that had yet to be destroyed. Her vision became a haze of a hundred different camera angels. How was she gonna be able to handle so many legs at once? She could not possible control them all. Her mind could not handle being in so many places at once. But perhaps she did not have to. She only had to program them - she had once programmed a gaming console to do as she wished, and now, with her thoughts in a hundred different cyber-processors her and now her wishes formed the basic code that she fed into their empty heads. She did not copy herself into them. She simply started them up, then set them on a path that they followed with the simple instructions she gave them. -:: Destroy the Steel Stallions ::- In perfect unison, the eyes on the remaining bots flared up as their heads turned towards their enemy. The Sweetie bot army let out a echoing metallic war-cry as they jumped up the conveyor belts, and turned on their enemy - who in turn turned on them. It was a massacre. The closest mechanized stallions turned and fired its energy lances at the advancing horde, and started blasting them apart one by one. Sweetie noticed that these little bots where not made of the same stuff as she was. They were fragile, and hastily produced of cheap material. Some of them still not even fully assembled. And the vague directions of 'running straight at the Steel Stallions' was not enough programming to make them battle worthy. The one thing they had was numbers. And a direct connection to the mainframe via the wires that still hung from their heads. (The big tree of cords they were all connected to was pulled down drown the roof, its stem shattering into each individual wire that was pulled across the floor like spaghetti as the hoard advances, some of the wires uprooted and disconnected from the mainframe, causing their responding little sweeties do drop dead. But only a few, the rest of them still had a direct connection to Sweetie. Who played her part by taking direct control over one of the bots. Its limbs became her limbs, Its eyes became her eyes as she ruched her enemy as part of the herd. She started strafing around the battlefield. Drawing the stallions fire away from the crowd and allowing them to reach their goal. Whenever the one Sweetie was controlling got destroyed she jumped into another. The advantage with numbers was that the Steel stallion could not fire at them all at once. And whenever one little Sweetie was destroyed - another that took its place. The hoard eventually reached the stallion and overwhelmed it. They climbed up on it and started clanging and banging and biting at its metal frame. Confused, it spun around to try to shake she vermin of its back. But a few of the bots got caught up in its legs and tripped it. Realizing the strategy, Sweetie ran her bot towards Mr Trunks. who was still dancing his deadly dance with his not-so-friendly steel partner. She ran right into the back leg of the Steel Stallion, causing it to trip over her. They she immediately climbed up it as it tried to rise. This distracted it from Mr Trunks who picked up an iron bar and – swinging it with both hooves - knocked the head off the stallion. Another stallion turned towards the first overwhelmed stallion and fired to get rid of the little bots on it. It managed to destroy both them - and the stallion under it. Sweetie heard Molten Metalhoof cursing as his last warriors started to fall. She turned towards him to see he and Dr Cardiac was stlil in a wrestling mach over the controls. Mr Trunks tried to run over to help the doctor, but had to duck to avoid another stray barrage of energy fire. Sweetie steered her own little borrowed legs towards the mechanic. Molten Metalhoof knocked Cardiac so hard his glasses flew off and managed to get free. He looked around, and saw from where Sweetie was controlling the bots. He turned the last Steel Stallion with rockets to where she was sitting. And fired a barrage. Sweetie only managed to turn the bots head to see the rocket speeding towards the mainframe and her real body before the world became nothing but static as all connection was hastily and violently interrupted. It was not the first time she had been blown up. Sweetie was thrown back into the middle of the floor by the explosion. She might have turned off her eyes, in an imaginary attempt to protect them. But when she tried to reactivate them, she found her field of vision reduced by half. Her left eye was showing static and mixed up colors as what little energy she had left tried to feed the information to her central processor. Her right eye wold not respond at all. -:: Warning // Unable to connect to right visual receiver. // Warning // Visual component missing ::- -:: Warning // Jaw unresponsive // Warning // Jaw missing ::- Not damaged - Missing. There had been no helmet to protect her head, not right hoof to cover her eye with. The force of the blast had taken it. And her already broken yaw had been blown away like a dried leaf on a dead trees twigs. Sweetie could not even reach her hoof up to her eye socket. Her remaining front hoof would not lift from the floor. A few screws were bent and a few were pierced by energy blasts, and the joints were dented. But the real reason the limb would not respond was power. Shat little energy she had been able to pull from the mainframe was already leaking out of her along with a constant stream of battery acid. Without a constant stream of energy from an external source - her body began to shut down one piece at a time. The only thing that allowed her to keep her hazy eye on the battle was the little energy still circulating in her circuits, and that was per automation being pulled towards her head and its central processor. Her ears were giving off a static white noise, Her systems told her that the microphone in her left ear was damaged and her right ear was completely gone. All she heard over the white noise was the high pitched scream of Neurosa. Very slowly, her head turned towards the noise. She wished she could scream as well. The mainframe and the generator behind her were gone. Destroyed. Only the fact that she was not the main target had saved her. Not that it seamed to matter much now. Her energy was depleting faster than ever. She saw her own battery water leaking out of her and knew that what little integrity it held had been completely ripped to pieces by the explosion. Next to the wreckage, the two Neurosa's still wrestled, both covered in cuts and bruises as they clawed at each other. "You gave me brain damage!" One of the cried, trying to strangle the other, as they wrestled close to the smoking wreck of the mainframe. The other grabbed a wire from the wreckage - a wire still sparkling with electricity, and jammed it into her twin self, who fell off her. "Nothing to the damage I will cause now! You LOVE SUCKING LEACH!" She jammed the live wire straight into the other Neurosas neck. Sweetie had never seen a pony take so many shapes at once. pretty much every part of the mare became a different color and shape as the electrizity coursed through her. she even sprouted wings and horns of various shapes - until a hoofball sized wrench came sailing through the air and and struck the real Neurosa straight in the forehead. She flew back and landed somewhere out of sight. (Up on the walkway - Mother gave her hoofball champion a kiss - Before another rocket struck the support of the walkway - causing it to collapse, and the two parents disappeared out of sight. ) The changeling Madame Macadame laid smoldering on the floor - having reverted back to her true insect like form and looking like she had a run in with an over sized bug-lamp. She was barely able to crawl, and could do nothing to stop the yellow figure from storming through the chaos, and pick up one of the lances form the blown apart Steel Stallion. Sweetie looked forward. And saw Mad Marrow had gotten hold of one of the weapons that had fallen of the Steel Stallions. She crawled her way towards Sweetie with the same fire in her eyes she had at the hospital. And this time there was no where for her to get away. Her body would not move, She could not even shake or cry or beg for her life. She was trapped in her own broken body, unable to do anything but await the coming end. Be it the loss of consciousness when her energy depleted, or a lightning bolt to end her. But then, some pony got in between her and the crazy mare. She looked up and saw a purple tail, heavy with rain and dirt on a body pale and white. "STOP! PLEASE! STOP SHOOTING MY SISTER!!!" Even her broken microphones could not mistake that voice. Rarity. Big sister was standing over her. "Out of my way ... I don't want to shoot you! ... But I must destroy the demon to break the spell it has on my husband!" "FOOL!" screamed Rarity. "There is no spell you deluded madmare ... He simply doesn't love you!" Their voices seemed to drift in and out as Sweetie struggled to keep her remaining eye and ear from shutting down. just so she could maintain focus on her dearest big sister. She wanted to tell her so many things. She wanted her to take her home even if she was just a bot. She wanted... -:: Heart-Drive integrity:: 0.0 percent. ::- -:: Connection fully established to 100 percent ::- -:: Commencing energy translation // Uploading of foreign energy commencing ::- O no! NOT NOW! As if she could sense it. Rarity looked back at her sister with a most horrified expression. Sweetie looked up to face it, before everything went away. *** Sweetie fell. Down a maelstrom om memories and code. She fell backwards through time as her whole life flashed before her. All the data that made up who she was. all the energies that had circulated through her circuitry since the dawn of her creation. She was pulled down into the deepest part of herself. Deeper than she had ever gone before. No walls of ice and all the fire where there to stop her descent. Down at the bottom of that malestorm, in the darkest deepest, narrowest part of that tunnel, there was a light. A little red light. She was drawn to it, first by curiosity, then by a strange longing. A familiarity she knew from somewhere but could not put her hoof on. Not until she put her hoof on that strange light and finally illuminated its secrets. To make them hers. What was this? Her soul? Her core? All around her swam images of the most distant memories. She saw her parents, young and sad, looking at a brown stallion - Bronco without his dusty coat and frizzled beard. "Is she going to be alright?" "I don't know - The data surge had left everything in scrambles. The best I can do is to reboot her systems." "Will she remember anything?" "I don't know. I guess the best thing we can do is to give her new memories. Only time will tell what she will learn from this point onward." "Maybe ... Maybe its for the best ... " -:: REBOOT IN PROGRESS ::- Further down she went. Red waves had started mixing with the coded maelstrom. Pulsating out from that little red glint at the bottom. Pulling her in with its intensity. As she got closer - New things she had no memory of flew up at her. -:: Memory wipe in progress // Deleting all neurological files ::- She saw a stranger with big shiny glasses typing on a computer, the typing echoed straight into her brain as the commands ransacked her memory system. Next to her sat another stranger a small white filly with a curly purple mane. She was holding her hoof. She should remember this strangers name. But the echoes forbade it. She saw a door flying open, and a brown pony with an orange mane busted in with a horrifying look on his face. "NEUROSA! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Further down, further back. The red waves had turned into a mist. and in that mist, echoes and faces appeared. "I know you just want to forget what has happened here" Said the mare in shining glasses to the filly called Rarity " And you don't want your sister to live with all the things she has experienced ... I can make all that go away ... you do not want your sister to suffer, do you? " Rarity shook her head, and turned to Sweetie. "No ... I don't want to remember this place ... And I don't think you want to either, right sister? ... So, If you are going to forget, then I want to forget too ... Let us all forget this ever happened ... Let us forget together, sister." She smiled. Closer and closer the mist imposed on Sweetie, carrying echoes of a long forgotten past. Memories of walking through the metal halls of the factory when they where still bright and clean. Moments of playing with her stuffed Teddy bear. Being nursed by mother and father in a crib of wires a a hundred machines around her hummed in tune with her exposed organs. Her first time puking after eating grass. Times when Dr Pain hurt her. Time when all of them hurt her. Times when a door creaked open and she was whisked away to be poked in. Times of being torn apart and put together again. Times of endless tests and malfunctions and replacements of body parts. All of it would have been overwhelming if not for how distant and irrelevant it all seemed as they mixed together in a hazy recollection of moments. Moments that had all been tagged: -:: Not with her ::- But the further down she went, the more joyfully and Innocent the images became. And Sweetie felt overjoyed by the emotions of that distant past. memories of times together with that white and purple filly. Of learning to move and play, of mimicking her voice and moves. Of learning that her name was Rarity. Of the very first time she was playing hoof slap with the mare that would become known as Rarity (with hooves that did not look so healthy in retrospect.) Of looking down on her sleeping, and cuddling up next to her with a body that dripped and staggered. These were moments that shone brighter than all the others, moments that punched out the the insignificant times when she was "not with her" and mixed together in a warm a cuddly mass simply labeled: -:: Together with her ::- Before all of that. At the very end of the corridor, the bottom of the well, the eye of the maelstrom - was Rarity. Sweetie did not understand how. As she got closer she saw the blood red light form into the silhouette of a pony. A pony with a very curly mane and tale. A figure she recognized all too well. It was Rarity standing before her. A much younger, blood red filly - with her mane flowing weightless around her, but still keeping its beautiful shape even as her body was wobbling like a liquid goo. She smiled and opened her forelegs in a welcoming embrace. Sweetie reached out to towards her, with her own hooves made of blood red goo. From some distant part far away, a voice called Logic Center screamed at her to not go any further. That If she went into that embrace she would only end up feeling bad again someday. Someday perhaps... But that was a chance she was willing to take. Logic be damned. Sweetie hugged that Rarity, and their gooey body's merged together. Their manes ethernalised, and weaved together into a pillar of energy that shot up through the maelstrom as they became a single being of pure energy, and she once again fell even deeper. Further than she had ever thought possible … into another memory. "Rarity..." Before that. Her own existence had been all she knew. Before that, all she knew of her existence was the machines she was connected to. The machines that she was. She had started as a single spark in a single crystal, a bimp on someponys electronic radar. With time, she had grown as more had been added to her being. More crystals of circuity for her to course through. A shell of limbs and gears that could do stuff was given to her, then even more. And as more was added to her, her consciousness grew, as did her world. A world of several machines of endless tunnels of wires and cords, all for her to explore. Nothing stayed the same. Always something new to explore. To expand into. Every day something new would be added. A new cord, a new code. pixels became dots. Dots became numbers. Ones and zeroes became rows and stream and rivers. All given to her by endless ticking and typing. And she would add this information to all that she was. She expanded. She grew. She was given new objects through which to perceive upon herself. She learned that she was several big computers and monitoring equipment surrounding a little body with a special processor that she came to think of as her core. This she was. And therefore she was.This was her world. She was the world. This was existence. Until that day... a new part was added to her. Before she knew the meaning of the word. She felt something. A connection to that face. It would be much later she learned that there were these things called emotions. And that this emotion was called love. She loved that face. Or at least – she knew it loved her. That day her eyes opened (literally) and beheld that beautiful face. And she knew. That there was something more out there. Something beyond her. Beyond the limit of what she was. A world she was curious to explore. And she was out there. That filly whom she now had a connection to. Somepony she had to see again. For the first time. She had made her parts move, as the typing had taught her to. But without the typing telling her to. Because she wished she could see that beautiful face again ... *** Sweetie returned to the real world. Her mind doing a billion miles per hour over what she had just seen. Her mind crackled like it never had before as things just clicked into place. Sequences was restarted. code was being rebooted. And her body was starting to move again. Sweetie double checked to make sure that her battery had not spontaneously repaired itself. It hadn't. Her energy readings had hit rock bottom, and remained a 0.0 percent. And yet – she could lift her hoof from the floor. She could bend her head, and she could feel her circuits overflowing like a great dam had just been shattered and the river was bursting forth. Where did all this energy come from? She looked up at Rarity. That beautiful, beautiful face who was standing over her. Just like she had been standing over her at the very beginning of everything. Who then, like now, was looking back at her with a most horrified expression on her face. In front of a insane mare with a firearm. WAIT WHAT!? The mare was fiddling with one hoof at the wires of the lance's firing mechanism. While the other hoof kept the lance pointed at Rarity. And the top of the lance started sparkling. Another thing sparkling was that strange blue orb that still laid in the middle of the floor between the two mares. The one Shockwave had thrown. The things that had sucked the energy out of Twilight sparkles shield as well as steel stallions, and Rarity was now struggling under its effect. Without her magic. Rarity was defenseless in her defense of her beloved little sister. And she did love her Sweetie understood that now, She could not explain how she understood. But the new energy that flooded her circuits just came with an understanding of everything. And she understood that Mad Marrow was gonna shot Rarity in the back. Sweetie could not let that happen. She could not let the one mare she loved since the beginning of her existence die like this. -:: RARITY! ::- -:: Warning voice box not found! ::- She wanted to scream her name. Warn her. Tell her to get out of the way. But she had no voice. And the lance was about ready to fire. Sweetie had but one thing left to do. With energy she did not know where it came from, she leaped forward. Right into the embrace of her best big sister in the entire world. She jumped with enough force to knock all the air out of her. And with her left hoof she pushed her in the cribbage, hard enough to knock her away. There was a crack like the noise of thunder as all the energy left in the lance discharged all at once. The spear of deadly energy shoot through the air towards the place where Rarity had been standing just a second ago. The place where Sweetie was now standing. The force did not push her back. It punched straight through her. Piercing through her broken chestplate and exiting through her back, still carrying enough force to strike a hole in another generator. There was the sound of glass being shattered into a thousand pieces. Then there was only silence. Sweetie looked down on her chest. Despite the power behind the blast, the hole was small, like the head of a needle. A hole right over her heart. -:: System failure imminent. ::- -:: Energy levels: 0.0 ::- Sweeties remaining eye found Rarity, having landed a good few feet away from the force of her blow. She was barely breathing, holding her breath as her eyes locked with Sweetie. But at least she was safe. The irony was not lost on the smaller sister. -:: “This time I knocked you back, sister" ::- She reached out with her remaining broken hoof towards that beautiful face. But could not quite reach her. As her vision went black she could only hope that Rarity had understood. She wanted to tell her a million things. She wanted to tell her that she finally understood. But her vision faded. And everything went black.