Armored Core: A Nine Breaker's Ponies

by Xymeiu

[CH 3] Work of Odd Creativity

A castle set on a mountainside appeared after what felt like hours, but in reality was only half of one. Klein kept his craft in the air for as long as he could, surprised that his boosters were using less but giving more boost power. His generator seemed to have better performance, seeing as he had never red-zoned once in his flight for the now visible city. His AP read 9582 instead of its usual 8099, giving him the assumption that something affected the defense of his airborne armored core. Confusing at it was, Leos put off the thoughts until he reached the castle and its gardens.

Hovering above a hedge maze that rivaled his garage in size, he scanned the area for anything that looked like a statue section. In front of him were multiple stained glass windows twice the size of Rabbit's Foot, his AC, a large set of elegant double doors which connected with a balcony and two curved staircases opening up towards the labyrinth. To his left was an elegant area with no stone pathways that he saw everywhere, trees imitating a small forest, and passages lined with small blue fencing around the trees. He looked to his right and saw what he was looking for. Large stone walkways and multiple stone statues of various characters he did not recognize, but were mainly ponies. All were lined with small hedges and sat on short pedestals.

Talk about royal, he thought. He hovered over to the back section of the area and hastily looked for a similar pedestal that could fit the size of his machine. There was only one empty stone raising that was longer than some and seemed wide enough to contain the AC's figure. Slowly hovering over, he lowered himself onto the smooth stone slab, putting so much focus into the landing that when he touched down, he had already red-lined too much and depleted his energy, switching his unit into charge mode. Only basic movements and the cockpit's various workings were allowed functions, though limited.

He stood motionless on the stone platform for a few moments before realizing a problem with his position. He only took up a fraction of the space in the center, leaving a very suspicious absence of used space in front and behind him. One could easily tell this was a fraud. Pose, pose, what can I do to pose? he wondered, putting a hand to his chin. An idea occurred to him. He set up his piloting stance and started work on what he pictured.

▬♦▬♦▬

The princesses and company had finally snapped out of their awe and had already made their way to the castle with everypony in tow. One bright flash of light in various places took away all ponies and moved them into the castle throne room. All that remained were two craters and plenty of very confused animals wandering around the once active site. Inside the throne room were nineteen disoriented ponies and guards, a twentieth one unfazed at all, being the cause of the teleportation.

Moments passed as everypony stumbled to recover from the sudden movement and bright lights, some falling like a drunkard. A faint whistling could be heard as a familiar object hovered over the labyrinth outside the window, its red "eye" moving right, then left, and finally moving in that direction. The machine hovered once again above the statue sector before seeking out a lone stone platform that was originally intended for a stone figurine of the Elements of Harmony, unbeknownst to them. It landed softly, darkness befalling the area when the white jets cut off. All in attendance watched the figure just standing there, as if waiting for something.

The figure suddenly moved, though in unexpected motions. The left appendage gripped the top of the object the right limb held, turned it clockwise, then let go when the right extension gripped it once again. It stepped forward slightly, then bent one leg and moved the other back, resting the first joint on the pedestal and putting the figure into a crouching position. The right arm propped itself on the handle of the blue object as it moved the other end onto the stone surface. The center leaned forward and bent the left arm slightly. All other motions stopped, finalizing the movements of the machine.

Princess Luna watched closely. Not the posing of the friendly invader, but the movements of her night guards that were slowly closing in on the pseudo statue with caution. Without warning, she ran for the door outside, flying to the still-tall object once she left the castle. She landed with a small tap against the stone tiles in front of the new decoration cautiously, still unsure of its potential. A black night pegasus guard approached her, landing with a few quick flaps of their magical bat wings and a louder clank of metal against stone tiling.

"Your Highness, this... thing bypassed our watchposts without a second glance," he stated with no emotion save for authority. "We followed instead of attacking, assuming that the objects it carries could be possible weapons, and we have no information on how powerful it could be," he waited for a response, only thoughts of what the princess of the night could have in plan for this intruder. She said nothing as she simply lifted off the ground and slowly orbited the metallic statue. Her guard followed her closely. A red eye followed their movements when they approached the front side, unnerving the guard slightly.

"Lieutenant Shadow Wing," she started. The guard hovered next to the princess upon calling of his name. "I want you to protect and watch this until morning break," the dark pegasus nearly dropped to the ground at the mention of this. He could tolerate watching it with suspicion, but protecting an intruder? He was about to respond when he was stopped by the royal pony. "You can trust me on this."

The night black pegasus hesitated for a mere moment, saluting when he regained his senses. He flew away to relay the order to his officers, leaving the night princess alone in her revolutions. Princess Celestia joined her sister shortly after, followed by the others. The guards that followed meeting up with the rest to tell the tales of their sighting, six ponies of very different colors stood on the walkway, gazing upon the sight of the new decoration.

▬♦▬♦▬

Inside, Leos felt like a museum artifact. Being watched by so many with even more approaching. Princess Luna was already revolving around him for the eighteenth time- no, nineteen, six others walking up to the pedestal and just staring. Three of the group he recognized from before, the others not. A white unicorn with a very stylish purple mane and tail was just staring at him wide-eyed and mouth agape. Her eyes seemed to sparkle, but Leos waved it off as a normal occurrence. A pink pony was bouncing around very excitedly and seemed to be talking so fast, Leos had trouble reading her lips. Added with her constant bouncing, he gave up on her and observed the orange pony with a stetson hat. To him, it seemed she was feeling unsure of what to think of him, though it was hard to tell due to her near emotionless expression, sans suspicion. The blue one with a rainbow hairstyle was just grinning very excitedly and flying everywhere. Leos could barely notice, but he caught a glimpse of pink behind the purple one he saw earlier.

What do I do now? he thought. Bored immensely, he opened a compartment below his seat and pulled out one of a few books he brought with him entitled The Great Destruction: Causes and Effects of Humanity's Retreat. He opened it up and began reading, humming a tune he seemed to never be able to forget.

Comments

[Biohazard]

...
Please, continue.

[Xymeiu]

548594
Patience my friend.

[Xymeiu]

Have I mentioned this is my first story to ever see the Internet?

[gforce]

And if that is the case, you're doing very well. So hopefully, some time far off in the future we might see more of your works put out into cyber space.

[Xymeiu]

548727
Find me a muse, and my mind will wander for all your hearts' content

[Kitsuneisuki]

Give... Me. MOOOOOOOOOOSES.

(Misread that didnt you? Assumptions Assumptions. poor you)

[White Glint]

Damn you update this fast. Keep it comingdl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra.png

[Xymeiu]

549849
>Mooses
>Moozes
I never bothered with "Muse" because it wouldn't sound like anything like it. Poor you, making assumptions.

550196
I think fast, I type fast, I have nothing left to do in the afternoon. I try to limit chapters to one any day. Games to %100, you know.

[Tencentfriend]

I have trouble comprehending exactly what an AC's going to fight in this dimension. The biggest (and most dangerous) things around are dragons and hydras, and they're not going to survive a Karasawa or Moonlight. I'm thinking you'll perhaps bring in an Ursa Major. But even that sounds like a very dubious match up against a top level AC (thinks back to the giant MT).

[Kitsuneisuki]

550286 MWAHAHAH! Goal Accomplished! You made assumptions about me making assumptions, equaling that we BOTH made assumptions, equaling out to, we're both kinda stupid :P