5 - Reclaim(ed)
20 years earlier.
An eight year-old Azure Field stuck her head outside of her dormitory door into the poorly-lit hallway outside. The only sound that could be heard were the fillies sleeping peacefully in the dorm and the soft whirring sound of air filters in the hallway. With one look back into the only home that she had ever known, Azure Field stepped out into the hall.
She shivered. There was frost on the windows lining the hall. They were too high for her too look out of, but let in bright light that chased away the gloom. “Left, right, left, left, straight, right, down,” Azure whispered to herself. The directions she had memorized from the blueprints danced in her mind. She set off to the left, down the curving and empty hall.
Her hoofsteps echoed in the dimness. She came to a door at the end of the hallway that was twice as large as she was and immeasurably thick to a little filly. Like all filly dormitory doors, it had no lever, or wheel, or other means of opening it; only a small keycard slot.
The hall around Azure glowed silver. A keycard levitated out of her messy mane in a field of magic, and slid through the slot. The door whined for a moment, then clicked open. Azure slunk through, closing it behind her with a soft click.
Inside, Azure trotted down one of the inner levels of the Moon colony, away from the windows and the universe outside. All light was artificial, coming from buzzing fixtures hanging above her head. No adults were in sight, but Azure kept herself pressed to the walls. Her coat blended into the bluish-gray metal. The halls themselves were cramped and claustrophobic, but to a pony who had been born and raised on the moon they felt like home.
She didn’t meet any more keycard slots in her path, as she turned right, left, left, went straight until her legs felt like they’d collapse, right again, and then reached a single elevator. It was a freight elevator—long and bulky, with no required passes to get into. She’d seen earth ponies from below and pegasi from above using them to haul food from the protein farms, so she wasn’t surprised when the doors slid open at the touch of a button. Most pegasi and earth ponies didn’t rate keycard access anyway. She hopped inside, and gazed at a panel built into the elevator’s side.
Rows of buttons covered in chrome lined the panel, each with a number assigned to them. Azure had to try to think back to the blueprints she had found. The number for the floor she wanted, so desperately desired to see. After a moment, her face lit up and she mashed the one marked “44”.
The elevator groaned and began to slide downward into the bowels of the moon. The freight elevator was massive, as it was made to haul equally-large cargo, so Azure took to standing in the corner, away from so much open space. She shut her eyes and waited for the elevator to come to a rattling stop at its destination.
When it did, the doors slid open and let a burst of heat flood the elevator. Azure gasped and coughed before she was able to breathe in the sticky, muggy air. She stepped out of the elevator, and realized the reason for the heat.
Azure stood at one end of a massive chamber that stretched up toward a domed ceiling high above her head, coated in carefully-chiseled rock. In fact, the entire chamber was rock instead of the usual bland metal, complete with indentations and deformities a ponymade structure wouldn’t have. The chamber was bathed in orange light from bulbous fixtures built into the domed ceiling that illuminated the masses of Golems that covered the ground below.
Just as the blueprints said, Azure had found the Golem storage facility. Heat wafted from all of them as the metal bodies struggled to keep themselves running and cooled at the same time. Azure walked between them and, in spite of the heat, felt a shiver run down her spine. All fillies were forced to learn about the Golems, but they didn’t look nearly so large or imposing in picture books. The machines towered above her, their faces snarled like a timberwolf’s and metal covered in pockmarks and burns; signs of previous battles.
Almost all of the Golems surrounding her were Mark IIIs, ones that had been put in storage during the lull in fighting. Further toward the center of the chamber were the Mark IIs, what was left of them, and the few scraps of Mark Is that had been recovered after their first disastrous mission, before ponies realized putting ponies actually inside of them made them more vulnerable to attack. Each successive generation was larger and more imposing, less and less like a large pony and more like a nightmare vision of one, covered in deadly weapons. However, at the very center of the chamber was . . . something that Azure had never seen before.
It was like a Golem, but even more gargantuan, towering above all the rest. In appearance it was less like a timberwolf and more like a pony crossed with an ursa minor. Stranger, there were no visible weapons hanging off of it like the other Golems, just odd lines etched into its metallic skin.
Before Azure knew it, she had approached the massive Golem, and reached out with one hoof to touch it, if almost by instinct. Her whole body felt cold, and her horn glowed dimly. Before she could press her hoof to it, an action she didn’t even fully realize she was taking, she heard a crack coming from the roof of the dome.
She looked up to see bits of rock falling from the uneven ceiling, hurtling straight toward her. The magical feeling died, and Azure broke out of her trance with a cry of fear. She raised her hooves to cover her face and looked away.
Azure waited, and waited, and waited for the stones to hit her, but none ever did. When she chanced a peek, a single, gargantuan hoof was raised above her. It was as if the mighty Golem beside her had activated itself to protect her. It made no other movement, but Azure could swear it was staring right at her.
At the far end of the cavern, the elevator doors slid open again, and Azure looked over to see Princess Twilight step out. She gasped and got to her hooves, just in time to notice the behemoth Golem’s hoof was back in place. Had it ever moved in the first place? Maybe one of the rocks had hit her head.
She didn’t have much time to think it over, as Twilight teleported herself to the center of the domed room and stood in front of Azure. The usual stern look she reserved for most fillies was gone, replaced with tired eyes and an exhaustive sigh.
“If you’re going to keep doing this, Azure, we’re going to send you to isolation,” Princess Twilight said, taking a wing and wrapping Azure in it. She pulled the little filly away, taking her back to the elevator.
“I suppose I should punish you in some way,” Twilight said, “but I have a feeling you’d wriggle your way out of it. Dragging your own Princess down here to look for you, I swear . . .” She chuckled, but it wasn’t aimed at Azure. “Something tells me Pinkie Pie would have gotten a kick out of this.”
“Who?” Azure asked, looking up at the princess.
Twilight smiled slowly, then sighed. “Someone I used to know. Now, let’s get you back to Miss Sitter and back into bed. I understand you’re excited about the Golems, but.if you ever want to join the Golem Academy, you have to start by getting lots of sleep so you can grow up big and strong.”
Azure tilted her head. “But why do I need to be big and strong if the Golems can do it for me?”
“You'll find out soon enough,” Twilight said.
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Damn! Now I have to wait patiently for more chapters to come out.
Hmm, interesting...
First, it seems that yet again fictional top secret facilities have the worst security ever. Come on moon ponies, it apparently takes only a curious filly to get into your most secure facilities.
Also, sounds like pegasi and earth ponies are at the bottom of the totem pole.
Lastly, I'm hoping that the "mystery golem's" reaction to Azure isn't specifically to her, but more to unicorn magic in general. *grumbles about Chosen One narratives*
Minor nitpicks aside, this was a nice dose of worldbuilding. In fact, I may wind up staying for that when I originally just showed up for the giant mecha.
Hmn, could be a chosen one, could just be Golems that are more aware than anyone knows. Anyone other than Twilight, that is, she probably knows.
Really good chapter again. I'm thinking the golems are defiantly aware and want to protect their creators.
Minor mistake I noticed in the second paragraph, though: "They were too high for her too out of". I think you missed a 'look' out.
Looking forwards to the next chapter.
4850523 b-b-b-uuut I like chosen oooones! They're just done poorly all the time! Read 'the well of pirene', best chosen one pony fic in a long time.
4851371 I'll keep the name in mind, thanks.
And I don't hate all chosen one stories, I admit they can be done well. It's more that I don't like the unfortunate implications of a lot of chosen one narratives.
4852459 Same. There are so so sooooo many well written human in equestria fics that ruin themselves by making a horribly planned chosen one gambit. There's the talking weapon that knows all, the mega powerfuk entity that transported them 'just cause' or 'you''ll find out' and the hero reacts in all the wrong ways.... :/
The well of Pirene couldn't possibly be more different. It's amazing. Check it out as soon as you can!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/73404/through-the-well-of-pirene
I was in a hurry last time, so here's a link!
I'm with you kid; I can't stand uggy air,
4852642
Well hey, my editor hasn't been able to edit for a while so I had to take it upon myself to edit...which went about as well as you'd expect.
4852780
If it makes you feel any better, I actually second-guessed myself before posting and googled 'uggy' to make sure it wasn't a real thing,
4852642
Sounds like south Texas...
4852780
Awww, I liked it better when it was "uggy" air. Sounds more like something a kid would say...
Hi, EVA Unit-01!
Evangelion much?
Also, in a previous chapter Twilight was coughing up blood, why is that? It's been like 85 years or something, surely she'd be healed by now? I get that she can't regenerate limbs but alicorns must have a pretty good healing ability to be as long lived as they are.
I was going to ask what happened to Twilights friends, this chapter seems to indicate that Pinkie is gone, I'm guessing the others probably are too. Either that or they are very elderly by now.
4853983
She was coughing up blood and sickly in the current time but walking around just fine 20 years before, seems like there would be, you know, something that happened in between that time...
4854000 Maybe, her having artificial legs wasn't mentioned in the past timeline, she could have still had those. Also she only cooughed up blood once in that scene with Luna, the scene with Azure was short and therefore she may simply not have needed to cough in that ammount of time. Just saying. Although it is entirely possible that Twilight herself was hurt during one of the early Golem tests, still that was more than 20 years before the scene with Luna, again you'd think she'd have healed by then.
4854050
Let's just say I know where the story is going and why Twilight is like that, so let's leave it at that.
4854052 Heh heh, yeah I know, I'm just spouting theories.
After the word but and the period, there should be a space.
Goddamnit, Eva.
4864444
A) This isn't Reach, this is Moonlight.
B) I don't care.
C) See B.
EDIT: To elaborate on this, the story is over, mate, so I don't care. You downvoted it because of your opinion, and I wrote it because I liked the idea. I'm not going to try explaining it away because it isn't worth it. I liked the story, you didn't, that's that. Also, downvoting a story because you didn't like a revelation seems dumb to me, but that, too, is my opinion.
Institutionalized tribalism... Oh Joy!
A super robot in a sea of real ones...
I smell special snowflake..(not that there's anything wrong with that!)
Not to be rude, but let me get this straight; the moon ponies aren't being taught about the Elements of Harmony, heroes of Equestria, one of whom is half of their leadership, when they are also trained go memorize Ponyville?
I have another bad feeling about this...