Steamlord: The Ink Mechanic

by The Psychopath

Gun training and algae growing

Steamlord and Celestia were just about to get out of their seats to see what was going on, but not before an explosion rocked the castle, and a guard who, luckily, had a blue, magic shield in front of him blasted through the wall above the doors and smashed into the decorative vases standing on the opposite of the room. The guard was about to say something, but he passed out before he could utter anything but smoke. The doors were pushed open to reveal Centurion carrying what looked like a rocket launcher with many silvery tubings running to and fro through it. Ink and Sunrise followed, although the dragoness was the one with the most panic on her face. Centurion didn't have the necessary facial features to show anything regarding that, and Ink didn't care.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Luna roared. "What is this abomination who dares to hurt our guards and destroy our home?!"

The mare began to radiate fiercely.

"Luna. It's okay. We can--"

Before Celestia could finish, her sister had blasted a cone of energy at the robot, casting it out of the castle and into the gardens far behind it. Luna followed.

"Shit!" Steamlord shouted as he threw his chair onto the ground when he got up.

The others followed lead.

"Dad, I don't--" Sunrise stuttered.

"It's not your fault. Now hurry up. We have to control Luna before they end up destroying the whole mountainside."

"-Yes! Get all the guards around. We have to protect the surrounding areas with a shield barrier. What do you mean by 'destroying the whole mountainside'?" Celestia asked as she diverted from giving her guards orders.

The council and guards in the room all left to handle the situation. Explosions and sounds unknown to the ponies were echoing in the background. Luna was never too good with handling her anger.

"The three Knights are my bodyguards. They were designed to be centered around defensive capabilities more than offensive."

"Am I to understand that this new creation that you explained to us...Centurion was it? Am I to understand that it is centered around offensive capabilities?"

"And it possesses weapons that you won't know about until far in the future."

Celestia felt her heart race. It nearly stopped when a bright flash caused one of the towers to break off and begin to rain bricks and broken glass down below. It took the strength of many pegasi guards to keep it from crashing down onto the ground and the added strength of the earth pony guards to hold the tower down furthermore.

"I can see now why you didn't want to give us your technology."

"We can talk about that later. Sunrise, come with me, and you." Steamlord pointed at Ink."You stay here and don't do anything. I know I'm going to have to deal with whatever you did in the city."

Ink didn't move but just followed the human with his glowing eyes.

"Twilight, I need you to get your brother and Cadence."

"But they're days away from here!"

"Not if I help you get there. Cadence should know how to perform long-range teleportations to get back. They're the most skilled at creating magic shields, so they should be able to protect the citizens around here."

The princess concentrated and created a white portal right in front of Twilight. The mare nodded and galopped into it, only to have it fade into nothing. Soon after, Celestia rushed after Steamlord and his knights. The carnage happening was still unviewable, but the tremors being created were more than enough to explain what was going on.

"Just how powerful did you make it?" Celestia asked in gasps.

"I made it purely long-range to medium-range offensive, which means that I gave it weaponry capable of sustaining both types of combat. It has many things that you wouldn't understand unless I showed them to you."

"DAD! Over here!"

Sunrise was looking through an opening in the castle walls to show blue beams of light coming from random areas of the maze. It constantly caught Luna off guard despite her being high above the ground and more than capable of seeing Centurion.

"I didn't give it camoflaughing techniques and neither did SS. Knights, subdue the moon princess without harming her. I'll go talk to your comrade."

The knights expelled steam in acknowledgement and took off. Steamlord rushed down the stairs and through the grounds. The whole place reminded him of the war he was stuck in, but he tried not to remember. It was a traumatic event that would still come back occasionally. Craters lay strewn about the grounds and rubble was everywhere as well. The man walked about and dived into one of the smoldering craters when one of Luna's bolts deviated from its initial trajectory and crashed near him. Mustering up his anger, the human ran into the labyrinth and searched thoroughly for Centurion. Instead, he found that what was firing those beams was a tiny mobile automaton rolling along the floor.

"If that's here...then..."

"AH! Luna!" Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs.

Steamlord rushed through the bushes to see that his three knights had impaled the night princess with their claymores. She had flown too close to the roof. Celestia was trembling and crying, but she soon rushed after the robots who blocked her blasts and magic spells using their claymores. The night princess fell limply to the ground, creating a loud thudding noise.

"I didn't tell them to kill her...Why?"

Sunrise and several of the guards walked towards the mare who was breathing heavily. When Steamlord arrived they all glared at him. The human pushed some of the ponies away and looked closely at the alicorn. There was something strange about this. Centurion was given the objective of non-lethality unless ordered otherwise, and the three knights had achieved enough self-awareness to know right from wrong, so why would they kill her? Were they protecting their "brother"? Centurion landed right behind the whole crowd and pushed through them and their violent yells. It took out a pistol from its leg sheath and aimed at the alicorns head.

"Centurion. why are you doing this? I did not give you the order to use lethal force. Self-defence does not require you to kill."

The robot ignored its creator and pulled the trigger. The ponies who had jumped on it did not hinder the creation in the slightest. At the same time, an enormous barrier formed around the castle, and Twilight, along with Cadence and Shining, arrived on the scene. The lavender unicorn looked at the human with a smile which soon faded away when she saw the fury he had when looking at Centurion.

"Steamlord?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, is that a changeling?"

"Huh?" the crowd wondered in confusion.

Everypony jumped back when they saw that Luna was actually a changeling that had taken the original's place. Centurion placed something in Steamlord's hand, then walked behind him to stand near his creator, as per priority orders. The human looked to see that it was a type of mucky, algae. There was no real reason to give it to him. So why?

"Twilight, could you get Celestia? She's attacking...My knights. I'll also need to know quite a few many things..."

Author's Note:

It's a bit short, but that's because I wanted to cliffhanger you all.

Comments

[Dubious]

Totes not cool dude, a cliffhanger on my birthday?

[TheHoleyCheese]

3730595 happy birthday!

[Dubious]

3734953 Bit late for that, it's been over for seventeen hours and five minutes.

[TheHoleyCheese]

3736335 oh...