//------------------------------// // Log 24F- Darkest Place // Story: Of Magic and Machines // by FrostTheWolf //------------------------------// Of Magic and Machines- Darkest Place Crystal Empire         After she returned home to Equestria, Faith’s father Anson had decided for them to stay in the Crystal Empire for the time being while he was working some things out with General Noblehorn, Princess Cadence, Molly and Jane. Originally, the young girl thought that going to the empire was a great idea… however, one thing that was everypony’s weakness at one point soon began to set in. That weakness being… Boredom. Yes, boredom. Not like the lazy cat like boredom that was seen from Rarity’s pet at the Carousel Boutique. No, more like endlessly throwing a ball against a wall in order to try and actually do something.         In this case, as she was doing that, the ball happened to hit Moby and Remy on the head as soon as they entered the room. “Oww… Ms. Faith, I did advise that you would use extreme caution while handling an object like that.”         The Code Nemesis herself just sighed. “Moby, it’s a rubber ball, not a weapon.”         “Yes but when applied at enough force-.” The groaning from Faith just caused the drone to stop talking as it looked back at her. “I rest my case.”         “Do you think we’ll get the chance to do anything today besides tour around the empire like the last few days?” Faith asked the drones, straightening up on her new bed. “Because over the past few days, Molly has made being here feel like I’m under house arrest.”         “To be fair, if you were under house arrest, then you wouldn’t be able to leave.” Molly said as she pulled up a digital screen. “I’m pretty much using some of the data I’ve collected over the years to make something for Amy later on in case of emergency.”         “Let me rephrase what I said, empire arrest,” Faith told Molly as she looked back at her. “Besides, why are you even telling me what you are doing after you came into my room unannounced?”         “If you had a sister that causes trouble in less then a second, a mother who pretty much making kissy faces to your now future father-in-law, and a former crazy maid who pretty much has an annoying mare who keeps talking in third person. Wouldn’t you want to find a place that is quiet and away from the madness?”         “Last I heard, Amy is in Cloudsdale and you have a room down the hall. Can’t you set up a security system with your Dynamo’s to vaporize anyone who doesn’t knock first?” Faith questioned, thinking outside the box when it came to Molly’s tech. She had seen the mastermind do several things on her own with her Dynamo’s… so why couldn’t she try that?         “You obviously never met my family to know what things can change in less then a second.” Molly groaned in response to Faith’s question, answering it for her. The Code Queen didn’t really pay attention to what Molly had to say… because it seemed like she forgot that Faith never had siblings. Meaning that she didn’t know what it was like to have a brother or sister.         “Right… I don’t know what that’s like because I never had any siblings. My mom died when I was still little.” The Code Nemesis reminded her. “Still, Pinkie Pie feels like a second mother and that I’m ok with.”         “Hold still for a second please.” Molly said as she had a purple-ish cube float in front of Faith and scanned her head to toe before returning to the Mastermind. “Thank you.”         “Okay… what was that all about?” She asked, confused by what Molly just did.         “I scanned you for your powers, skills, and possibly future power that haven’t been unlocked yet. Granted it's not fully complete, but with what you have currently, it’ll have to do for my project.” Molly told her, but upon pulling up a screen on her Dynamo’s, three bold red words soon emerged on screen.         DATA NOT FOUND.         “Yeah… That’s Nasod based tech isn’t it?” Faith asked, waiting to hear back on Molly’s response to that.         “All the more reason why this will be interesting to look into later. But for now I’ll put it on the side until I’m finish with my other projects.” Molly said as she summoned a digital screen with Amy and Jane’s DNA on it.         “Yeah… Hate to burst your bubble on that one… But technically, I am a Nasod,” She explained, changing her SourceCode to switch to her Battle Seraph form. “So I switch between three different variations. I’m not as easy to keep an eye on unlike your family.”         “You think you’re the first to do something like that.” The Mastermind said as she chuckled a bit from Faith’s statement. “You not the only one that can do something like that. Then again the young are always given the easy way instead of the hard and difficult way of doing things.” However, when Molly looked back in Faith’s direction, all she saw was a plasma dummy with a note that said “See ya!” as Faith was nowhere to be found. Not even in the nearby hallway as Molly frantically tried to find out where she went.         “Apocalypse.” Molly said as she summoned the cube next to her. “Keep an eye on Faith and her surroundings while staying a safe distance. Something tells me I’ll be collecting some more info from her then I thought I would.” That was when a gust of wind turned over the small note as it read a new message.         “This dummy will now self destruct.”         “.......Oh I’m so going to kick her ass for this.” That was when the plasma copy of faith detonated, causing a cloud of smoke to emerge from her room and triggering the castle’s crystalline sprinkler system that would go off in case of a fire. Molly then heard several loud cries of displeasure followed by Anson’s familiar voice.         “MOLLY!!!” Outside…         “Ah man, I can’t believe that worked.” Faith chuckled as she landed outside under the windowsill of the dining room hall. “Now then… what to do today?” The Code Nemesis asked herself, just as she turned around and felt herself bump into someone and falling to the ground from the collision.         “Oww… Watch where you-.” Faith stopped speaking once she opened her eyes and realized that who she ran into was a young filly… A young filly that had a unicorn horn and oversized wings… Wait, that can’t be right. “Oh sorry, did I hurt you?”         “N-no, it’s okay.” The filly replied, tilting her head a little. “Hunh? I’ve never seen anypony like you before… Who are you?”         “Me?” The Seraph asked. “My name is Faith… Sorry for bumping into you miss…” Faith looked from the tip of the filly’s horn to the bottom of her hooves and just looked confused. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met before.”         “Me neither… I’m Flurry Heart, nice to meet you Ms. Faith!” She seemed very eager for being only about seven years old, give or take, and was pretty hyper from the looks of it. “Can we be friends? I-i really don’t have that many and-.”         “Sure.” Flurry Heart herself, looked surprised. She honestly did not expect her to answer so quickly! With a positive answer for that matter!! For as long as she could remember, not many ponies wanted to be friends with her for numerous reasons and she had been bullied many times for it. Now though, words can barely describe how she felt right now. It felt like the greatest thing in the world… multiplied by 10.         “Oh thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!” She squeaked, latching onto Faith in the process before realizing the extent of her actions and let go of the hug. “S-sorry. Sometimes I get overexcited a bit when I’m overjoyed.”         “No worries. Happiness is a good feeling to have.” Faith told her, placing her hand on her shoulder. “Hey, if you aren’t doing anything, you want to go have some fun or something?”         “Do I?! Oh yes I would like to!” The youngling cheered before looking behind Faith and noticing something that seemed out of place. “Say, who’s that angry looking lady?” Faith turned around, only for her smile to drop a little at the sight of an irritated Molly stepping out of the castle. Her hair and clothes dirty and her attitude being flat out pissed off.         “......You have no idea how much trouble you’re in young lady.”         “Uh… Which lady?” Flurry Heart asked the Mastermind. “Please don’t take me back to my room… My mother had me be in there for FOREVER and I barely get to do anything fun! Faith’s my only friend-.”         “Not you.” Molly said as she points at Faith. “Her.” The Code Queen closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh before opening them again, staring down Molly.         “If this was for the dummy, it was suppose to be an EMP burst… whatever happened involving your tech was not my fault.” Faith tried to reason with Molly, but she did not want to hear it shortly after the code queen stopped speaking.         “Oh it’s the combination of yours and mine. Mostly because should’ve made something to counter that, and yours for having knocking out most of the power in the castle along with setting off the sprinklers in there as well. So thanks to you we’re both in trouble.”         “Says the Mastermind who hardwired her tech to the ENTIRE castle in her quest to gain all the information there is. I just wanted you to unplug for a moment… Not disrupt everything in the castle,” Faith told her, remembering Molly making several configurations with her room and various other rooms in the castle such as the kitchen and the library so instead of getting up to go grab a bite to eat, a swipe of a finger was all that was needed to bring up a gourmet meal. “All of the tech that you set up has been helping you, but… and no offense, it’s been making you lazy.”         “Kid, if you seen the stuff that’s been going on in Equestria for the past seven and a half years you would pretty much be the type that prepares for something bad to happen. Especially when dealing with rogue displaced that try to take over your world.” Molly said as she cracked her neck. “And who said I was being lazy kid?”         “I saw you digitize an entire three course meal the other night and not even have to get off your bed in order to make the dishes end up in the sink,” Faith said as she folded her arms. “Need I go on? Moby and Remy have a few more examples.”         “Moby and Remy? You have imaginary friends?” Flurry Heart asked, causing Faith to facepalm herself in the process. “I have one called Angkor! He’s been helping me with my magic!”         “What I do in my spare time is none of business kid. I been at this much longer than you, so I would advise not to cross over a line you don’t want to cross.” Molly said as her eyes glowed for a split second. “Now, back to the matter at hand. Anson wants to see the two of us after what happen. Apparently he’s a bit upset at the fact that he has to redo some of the paper work, and he’ll need your assistance to help him seeing how he’s been at it for past few hours or so.”         “Do those papers involve me or anything regarding me like insurance or anything like that?”         “Half of it is while the others were stuff to lower taxes for the poor. While you’re doing that I have to finish repairing the water system for the sprinklers, a pet project that Artemis asked for me to do for Amy, finish the security system for-.”         “Hey! Leave Faith alone.” Flurry cried out the second she saw Molly trying to tower over Faith like if someone was going to discipline their child.         “Look kid, I’m just following Anson’s orders and listing the ton of stuff I have to do thanks to your friend’s stunt. So if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking Faith with me to own up to her part of the incident.” The moment when Flurry saw Molly grab Faith’s hand though was when the Alicorn snapped and some of her magic began to radiate from her hands. A mixture of light and shadow as it caused some of Molly’s dynamo’s to go haywire from the reaction.         “I said leave her ALONE!!” She retaliated, holding a hand out in front of her as magic began to violently boil around her palms. “Plasma cutter!!”         “Impressive for a beginner.” Molly said as Flurry Heart’s attack hit her at point blank range.         “Heh… I told you I have a good friend that helped me… Now you get to meet him,” Flurry smirked. Faith looked up to see the bat that was in the air and used a small Tesla shock to loosen Molly’s grip as she got out of the way of what came next. “Phantom Breath!!!”         “Not bad.” Molly said as she brushed off her attack like brushing off dirt from her shoes. All that Flurry did though was wave goodbye as she placed a hand on Faith and the two of them disappeared. But where they ended up was not exactly in Molly’s favor as she saw them in front of Cadence and Anson. But the words she heard was something else.         “Mommy, that white haired lady was picking on my friend and I!!” She said, causing the attention to be focused on Molly instead of her.         “Really? As if I didn’t have enough to deal with.” She groaned, watching as Anson had both of them go to Faith’s room as he turned his attention to Cadence and sighed.         “First, it was the copies of all the kingdom’s records getting soaked and now this? You are seriously the reason why I might consider getting a drink with Artemis later, Molly.” The Infinity Sword groaned, looking back at the Mastermind.         “Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t get her yourself. I told you what happen yet I get lectured even after showing two virtual examples of proof. You should’ve gotten her yourself.”         “I’m dealing with it the best I can right now and I’ll talk with them later…” Anson assured her, looking back at Cadence before returning to Molly. “Now, otherwise the minor mishaps, you were talking to us about your progress with the security system? I know Gleaming Shield has the dome spell to protect the empire from above and we have a portal link to both Ponyville and Cloudsdale… But my concern is if everyone would be exactly ready when the demons make their move… We’ve been trying to get a hold of officials in Canterlot, yet the courier we sent has not returned yet.”         “I told you that you should’ve let me do. Beside that, the security system is up and running, but it has some problems. Mostly because I’m using a different source of power.”         “The Crystal Heart?” Anson asked. “You’re working with something magical instead of something scientific… plus, that thing holds the entire city together. Please, for the love of god-.”         “First of all I’m using a dark el shard to do that. It’s to make sure that demons that can get through Gleaming Shield’s barrier don’t get in, and can damage them. The Crystal Heart is good and all, but I can’t use it without having to destroy it in the process.”         “At least I know you’re not trying anything crazy… I’m counting on you to get this done. I’ll be back in an hour or so. Going to check with Gleaming Shield on the empire's troops.” Anson said before running off. Leaving Molly with Cadence.         “Easier said than done. If push come to shove I’ll have to use an alternative if the dark el shard power goes out.” Molly said to herself as she looked at the princess. Who had her arms folded and was tapping her fingers like she was waiting on something from Molly.         “I’m waiting for an apology…” Cadence groaned.         “Not my fault for the way your daughter reacted. If anything, you should’ve let her be out more and about then kept her locked in a cage for half her life.” Molly scolded, only to get an even angrier glare from Cadence.         “My daughter came running to me saying that you attacked her.” She sternly snapped. “And you blame me for it?!” Both of them continued bantering on like this for some time, arguing back and forth with Flurry Heart being nowhere in the vicinity.         Because she was busy showing Faith her greatest secret.         “Wow, I can’t believe that actually worked,” Flurry Heart said as she breathed a sigh of relief. She and her new friend Faith were now really far away from where her parents were along with Faith’s dad and right now felt like the time to get the chance to learn a little bit more about her new friend. “So… you said something about wanting to do something fun?”         “Yeah uh… Not to be rude, but what was that you just did?” Faith asked her, folding her arms a bit. “I mean… I’ve seen Unicorns and Alicorns use magic before, but the one that you used was similar to when my uncle uses magic.”         “Your uncle?” Flurry asked, tilting her head. “Who’s he?” That… was something that Faith honestly did not expect. She had a feeling that Flurry didn’t get out of the castle much, but this just sounded like her parents were a little overprotective. So… she had to take a different approach.         “Tell me something Flurry… Have you ever heard of a Rune Slayer?”         “Uh… I think so once… But maybe Angkor knows!” The filly proclaimed, but hearing that just made Faith even more confused.         “Your imaginary friend?”         “Oh I can assure you that I’m not so imaginary, little code queen…” A voice said as Faith turned around to see a particular creature behind her. For a moment, it sounded like something dark and scary, but that turned out to be quite different once it could be seen in the light.         However, looking back at the creature, all she could do was laugh a little as she tried to control her outburst. “I’m sorry for sounding so bold, but how could this tiny adorable creature be your teacher?”         “I’M NOT ADORABLE!” The bat screamed, staring down at Faith. “I’ve been around in Equestria MUCH longer than you have and Flurry Heart has been the only pony that hasn’t ran away from me or tried to chase me away.”         “Okay, but how exactly are you helping her?” The Seraph questioned. “I mean, standing there and yelling doesn’t help.”         “Like the two drones that you can summon in combat, Flurry can summon me into battle and have me fight alongside her,” The bat explained. “Her magic is both a combination of hers and mine and I have been teaching her how to control it since she… well… had a few problems with it when she was a newborn foal.”         “Oh come on now, Ange. It wasn’t that bad.” Flurry heart giggled.         “You destroyed the Crystal Heart by the amount of magic you released with one sneeze,” The bat deadpanned. “And I thought I asked you to stop calling me that! It’s embarrassing.”         “I actually kind of like it,” Faith smirked. “I think that would be easier to remember that Angkor, that’s for sure.”         “OH COME ON!!” The bat snapped, pouting to himself before drifting off… only to return a few moments later when Flurry mentioned something.         “Sorry… Uh, Angkor, can I ask you something?” The Alicorn then asked. “Are you familiar with what a Rune Slayer is?”         “A Rune Slayer?” He asked for clarification. “I have not heard of such a thing in quite a while, but I do remember one that risked his life to protect his brother… Quite a great story that I believe your mother told you when you were little.”         “But that sounds like a legend… and what does it have to do with Faith’s uncle?” Flurry then asked, causing Angkor to sigh and look at the Code Seraph.         “Believe me when I say this, Flurry.” The young Code Queen told her. “There’s always a little bit of truth to legends. My Uncle is the Rune Slayer that Angkor is talking about… not to mention that he can control a magic that many ponies here may see as long gone.”         “That sounds AMAZING!!” Flurry Heart gleefully cheered. “Hey Angkor, do you think that her uncle could be able to help me with… well… controlling my magic?”         “I thought I was helping you with that?” The bat asked, causing Flurry Heart to pout a little before chuckling a little. “It’s alright Flurry. Maybe we can take it into consideration once your training is complete… Does that sound like a good idea to you, Ms. Faith?” Faith honestly did not expect the question to come back around to her.         “Yeah, I think we could have that arranged,” She said, looking back at her. “I’m going to guess that you want to show to your parents that you can take care of yourself and that they don’t need to worry about you?”         “Y-yeah. How-?”         “I’ve been through that with my father,” Faith explained. “At one point in my childhood, he was in what he would consider the darkest place in his life… It got to the point where he was too worried about letting me be on my own. But I was able to show him that I could be able to not just take care of myself… but also help him too. Maybe I can do the same for you.”         “T-thank you!!” Flurry squealed, leaping over to Faith and pulling her into a hug. “Oh thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!”         “Your welcome Flurry.” Faith smiled. “Now, how about you show me what you are capable of…”         “Sure but… before we begin, can I ask you something?” Flurry asked, only causing Faith to nod her head as the Alicorn soon formed the question in her head. “How strong is your uncle?”         “To be honest…” Flurry replied. “He is quite strong in combat and when it comes to spells, so… I definitely believe there’s nothing he can’t handle.” She, of course, was telling herself this inside her head because she had not seen her uncle in the past couple of days, but it did not mean that he was in trouble… right?