Mechanist's Flutter

by ZekeDraco

Final Section: To Bring the End

[Final Section]

An hour had passed since the arcs of energy hit every pony in Ponyville, and the eight ponies had gathered at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Pinkie had dried some tears, and her mane was flat and frayed, matching her determined look. Poor little Pumpkin Cake got drained, too. Rarity was actually considering whether or not to just charge into the Forest, nopony hurts Sweetie Belle! Applejack was fed up with Arcana Stream. All the nearby hospitals were overflowing with injured unicorns and any spare hospital tents were filled with unicorns tended by doctors too. The hospital was short staffed for something this big, even more so with unicorn doctors among the injured. Gear even felt hostile towards the summoner, Ditzy was crying so hard about Dinky that her eyes straightened. Twilight was able to keep the others from just charging in by repeating, "I've seen this before, a Unicorn drained of its magic reserves will need a few days to recover from the shock of the drain."

She had reminded them of this for the fourteenth time when they finally started to pay attention, "Now. I discussed the tactic we need to use with Spitfire and Soarin. They'll fly around above the forest and will warn us if any of the dark patches are moving towards us, and vice-versa. We can't risk the chance that being exposed to the darkness will either corrupt us or... kill us. Alright... Are we all ready?"

Pinkie shouted, "LET'S GO GET HER!"

Twilight nodded at the Wonderbolts and they took to the air.

The rest entered the forest and began to try and follow the path they knew would take them to the old castle once more. The forest was dark and musty as it always was, but the addition of the decayed plantlife made the mares a little nervous. They were walking on the tainted soil and amongst the remains of lost wildlife, caused by the roaming darkness. Twilight looked at Gear and nodded, "Go ahead Fluttergear."

Gear adjusted her senses, and heard the all clear from Soarin, "We're good, I'll say something if we're in danger."

"Alright, make sure you say it loud enough."

Gear nodded, "I will!"

They had made their way a fair distance into forest when they came across a familiar tree. It was hollow and void of life, Twilight gasped, "Zecora's home! It's been ruined."

Applejack looked, "Ah guess it was a good thing Apple Bloom invited her ta stay with us."

"I just hope she takes this well."

Gear nodded, "As long as we can offer her help, she will."

The mares proceeded deeper into the forest. Eventually the frustration they felt began to be replaced with the fear of what she could be possibly be doing. Twilight even began to wonder what had happened to some of the larger creatures, what kind of twisted forms they may have been given by the darkness. Her heart was racing as they approached the pass where the Manticore was living.

Gear paused and shouted, "Stop!"

The others stopped and they could see that they were nearly in the path of some roaming darkness. It went by slowly lifting the dissolving plants out of the ground. Even some little insects disappeared into little drifting particles, with her senses heightened Gear could have sworn that one little butterfly was screaming in anguish as it dissolved. Twilight saw Gear shudder, "Fluttergear? Are you alright?"

Gear nodded, "W-we need to keep moving when this moves past us..."

-----

The flames on the torches were lashing out at the insects in the area, Rainbow Blade had actually kept count of how many times those deep red flames consumed something. This marked that the summoning was nearly a quarter done, behind her calm facade was starting to become worried about what would come and wreak havoc.

"Hey, I'm going to see what's going on up there, I'll be back."

Up the stairs and to the old royal hall, she had to evade almost everything. Fire tried to consume her, electricity futilely hit her grounded body, and the stone walls seemed to want to make her a Blade-sandwhich. Looking up she noticed that a rift was beginning to form in the sky, the distorted roars and snarls of the beast waiting to cross over echoed above the castle ruin. She kept her thoughts inside her mind, If you wanna get to her, you gotta get through me!.

-----

The dark patch had moved out of the way of the determined ponies. They began to move forward when Twilight paused and noticed something familiar, she couldn't quite place a hoof on what exactly it was until Gear looked at it.

Gear turned her head away, "The poor thing..."

Twilight realized that a part of it looked like a large scorpion tail, and it was attached to some familiar body. She couldn't look at it too long either, the horrified look on the Manticore's face told her everything that happened to it.

The old castle came into sight on the other side of the passage, all eight of the travelers saw the rift opening wider slowly with every passing minute. They had a clear path to the castle no roaming patches to avoid, Applejack stood firmly, "Alright! This is gonna end with my hooves in her face!"

Twilight and Dash looked over the desolate wasteland that was once a creepy yet beautiful forest. Rarity even gasped in horror when she noticed something in the dried riverbed, a long body that once had a fabulous mustache orange on one side, purple on the other. Dash looked up at Spitfire and Soarin, and they landed close by.

Spitfire was astonished at the sight, "I knew magic could be destructive, but I didn't think it could be this devastating."

Soarin looked at them, "This could be too dangerous for all of you."

Dash tried to grin smuggly but had to stifle a shudder, "We've fought worse."

Rainbow Blade landed near Dash saying, "It's going to get worse..."

"Huh? Hey!"

"Hey, I'm giving you a heads up."

Applejack glared at Rainbow Blade, "An' why should we listen to you..."

"Not you, the two Wonderbolts, the skies aren't going to be friendly, just remember a bit of light can go a long way."

Rainbow Blade took off leaving Spitfire and Soarin to think over her hint. Twilight figured it out as she saw large black creatures flying their way, "Incoming!"

A wave of corrupted creatures swarmed over them and flew by, Twilight recognized the corrupted form of the bird she saw escape from that vine earlier. Soarin took to the air, Spitfire turned to the rest, "We'll take care of them."

Dash spread her wings, "Lemme help!"

Spitfire shook her head, "No... You need to stay with your friends, we'll try to keep them off of you!"

"But!"

"GO! That's an order!", Spitfire took off to join Soarin.

Dash swallowed her pride, "You got it!"

The six ponies started running for the castle.

[Login succeeded...]

At the royal castle in Canterlot, both Luna and Celestia were watching the rift, Luna's concern was far more visible than her sister's. All she could do was look back and forth between the rift and her sister. Finally she couldn't contain her worry, "Sister! Dous't thou intend to allow the calling of this beast?!"

Celestia remained silent, she would be absolutely motionless if it weren't for her flowing mane.

"We cannot sit idly by and let this happen!"

"Luna..."

She looked at Celestia intently.

"If we leave she will gain what magic she needs to complete the summon."

"You lie! She hath drawn the majicka from unicorns all over Equestria!"

"I know. They will not be enough."

"And thou wouldst let them suffer?! I've enough of this! The powers at work here art more vile than my other!", Luna stormed to the Balcony and spread her wings.

"Wait!"

Luna turned her head, "For what sister? For her to overdraw from the unprotected unicorns?"

"You don't need to do this... not again..."

"I must... Screams in the night from all over our dominion shall not be silenced by death, the silence must come from their recovery..."

Luna took to the air flying for the rift before speeding up with teleports. All Celestia could do was watch, she intended to let Arcana Stream overdraw her own magic, but Luna was right. This unicorn had proven that she had no care for the well-being of other ponies, simply by casting that spell to begin with. In desperation for the extra magic she would need to summon this entity, she would overdraw from the unprotected unicorns causing immense harm to them. Soon, her prized student would be in the summoners reach. As this thought went through her mind, her mane and tail changed from their usual flowing pastels of color, and took a fiery color.

[Hm?]

Spitfire and Soarin had their fair share of troubles, they managed to distract the corrupted creatures enough that the six mares on the ground were running clear for the castle ruins. Spitfire lured a creature into a smoke trail as Soarin brought another into it. Acrobatics and trick flying was working well to begin with, but the creatures seemed to be adjusting their tactics. The creatures were actually imitating them, and the two Wonderbolts found themselves doing some of their tricks with these creatures, leading into variations that would break the trick and send a creature crashing into the ground where it would screech and dissolve. Dash actually wished she stayed behind to watch them kick some flank but she was needed with her friends.

Gear was keeping a good pace, she was as determined to put an end to this as Applejack. This actually impressed the farmpony, "Gear can really keep up ta speed!"

Twilight kept her sight forward, "If what I read was right. She should have nearly unlimited stamina, though I don't know if it really applies to her."

Gear looked at her, "What book would say that?"

"Just because I'm always reading doesn't mean I'm always studying, Spike found a fun little Science Fiction book called 'Roboticist's Butterscotch', it's not bad."

Gear grinned, "Sounds like fun."

They arrived at the bridge just outside the castle, once again it was out. Dash looked at it, "I'll be right back."

She found the rope of the bridge and tied it to that rock again. She turned around expecting the others to cross, when she looked up and saw that Gear had gotten Applejack to tie a rope to her, allowing her to carry the others over the ravine, "I figured this would be quicker."

Dash snapped out of her surprise, Gear was a machine after all, "eeeeYeah, forgot about that."

As the ponies let go and landed on the ground the rift in the sky opened wider and once more the arcs of dark power spread out, only to be blocked by the brilliant gold glow of a barrier.

They turned around and both Celestia and Luna stood there. Celestia still had her fiery color, and the small bits of singed ground suggested that the Solar Princess had used an old ability to catch up with her sister. Twilight was actually scared, the last time she saw Celestia looking like that is in an old drawing from a history book where she fought against a monster of legend. As her colors returned Celestia cleared her throat, "Go. There isn't much time!"

[...]

The ponies ran inside the castle and worked their way to the throne room. There they found Arcana Stream lifted in the air focusing on the summoning as the number of pages around her slowly vanished once read. Rainbow Blade stood between them and the summoner looking up at the towering mana stream, she was honestly worried, but hid it as she turned to look at the six mares.

She grinned, "Well, looks like you all made it here pretty quick. The summoning's about half done, so I just hafta to keep you guys busy a bit longer than I thought."

Twilight looked at Applejack, "Applejack, Pinkie, FlutterGear and Rainbow Dash keep her busy. Rarity come with me!"

The different ponies nodded in agreement, Applejack reared up, "Alrighty! Time ta wrangle!"

Rainbow Dash flew forward with all her might, ramming her weight into Rainbow Blade who didn't budge an inch and simply laughed, "Really...You think that that would work?"

Dash flew to the side in time for Applejack to buck a couple of bits of stone at Rainbow Blade.

As she dodged the incoming stone Twilight and Rarity both ran to stop the summoning.

Thinking quickly back to a spell that backfired due to a missing page Twilight formulated the best action, "Rarity, we need to try and pull some of those pages free from her magic."

Both the Unicorns began to try and pull a page free each, Arcana Stream doesn't seem to take notice. Instead she seemed fine with it as her shadow magic reached out and repulsed the two clear across the room.

Pinkie noticed the two incoming unicorns and pulled a large pillow out of nowhere for them to land on.

Twilight got on her hooves, "Great... She can multitask a summon and two repel spells."

Rarity dusted herself off, "If you're impressed, I'm absolutely terrified!"

Applejack dodged a flying slash attack from Rainbow Blade, "Gonna hafta do better than that!"

Rainbow Blade dodged an attack from Dash, "Check again, 'Sugarcube'!"

Applejack's mane poofed to pieces resembling Dash's, "That does it!"

Gear flew up, "Stop bullying them!"

Gear planted her hooves into Blade's side, the sound of metal meeting metal filled the room for a moment and Rainbow Blade was sent into a momentary spin, "Whoa! That's what I'm talkin' about!"

"Stop being so mean!"

Rainbow Blade laughed, "Look at you, you've got a mean look when you say that, that's completely not like her."

"What?"

Rainbow Blade quickly rammed Gear from a standstill, "Think fast! Too Slow!"

Dash planted her front hooves into Rainbow Blade's back, "That's. MY. LINE!"

Twilight tried drawing some more pages away from Arcana Stream, "Rarity, a little help."

Rarity realized she had no tools at her discretion, "Oh, of course... Whatever would you have me do?"

Twilight ducked under a stream of shadow magic, "Just grab a page!"

Applejack kicked up a medium sized rock, "Why not just do THIS!"

As the rock came down she bucked it clear for the summoner.

This action caught her attention as she halted the rock mid-air while muttering, "You do not!"

The rock went through the wall leaving a large hole one would expect from an explosive catapult round, "Consider that a warning..."

Gear went after Rainbow Blade again, "We've got to stop her!"

"Nah", Rainbow Blade quickly separated her blades to serve as an airbrake, as Gear went by the wingblades caught onto her left wing covering Rarity had made, cutting it loose. Gear stopped, "HEY!", then built up her speed chasing Rainbow Blade again, "That was a gift!"

Gear rammed her and with as much strength as she could. Looping up into the air with a grip on her opponent she rammed those wingblades into the ground followed by their owner, "You said that I have a mean look, not like her. Who are you talking about."

Rainbow blade grinned, "Look in a mirror."

She kicked Gear off of her and lifted into the air before Applejack had a chance to try and pin her down.

Dash tried to get in the way of Rainbow Blade and ended up having to dodge a five bladed stab, "YEEEE!"

Gear launched up and planted her front hooves into Rainbow Blade, then a quick mid-air turn let her plant her back hooves as a follow up attack. As Rainbow Blade adjusted her balance, Gear grabbed her and put the entire force of her flight unit into trying to plant her opponent into the ground again. She realized that the momentum she was trying to build up was being fought against by a flight unit in Rainbow Blade, "I've got her! Stop Arcana Stream!"

She could see the others start moving to stop the summoner, except for Dash who flew up to help.

"Dash, Fluttershy is here!"

Dash's eyes widened, "Really?"

Rainbow Blade sighed, "Yeah, check the dungeon, and make it quick. I've gotta bring the fight back down."

"How do I know this isn't some trap..."

Rainbow Blade sighed, "Because she's afraid."

Rainbow Blade let her flight unit stop, surprising Gear, a spin in the air and Gear found herself on the ground. Dash took the chance to go for any downward staircase she could.

[This entity is not in the original design...]

Dash was quick and glad she was, she evaded the elements that were desperate for something to lash out at, only her tail was a little singed from a close call with a torch. She found her way to the dungeon cells by following the cuts in the stone walls. She called out, "Fluttershy?"

Nothing responded.

"Fluttershy, are you down here?"

A muffled voice sounded, "...That's... not funny, Rainbow Blade..."

"Fluttershy!", Dash ran for where she heard the voice and looked into a dark cell, "Are you in there?!"

"...Rainbow?", Fluttershy walked up to the bars, "...Is that...really you?"

"Yeah! Lemme open this up.", Dash fought with the lockbar for a moment and the rusty old thing snapped to pieces and creaked open.

Fluttershy ran forward and hugged her friend, "I'm so happy to see you!"

Dash was happy to see her friend, and could honestly understand just how hard Luna hugged her that Nightmare Night, "Come on Shy, the others are here, we're trying to stop Arcana Stream."

Fluttershy paused, and squeaked.

"We've gotta go help them, they're in danger."

Fluttershy let go and nodded, "Let's go help them."

[Something is affecting the stability of the simulation]

Pinkie was knocked for a loop, a ball of confetti traveling around mach 3 hurts. Rarity was ducking behind the remains of a pillar, Applejack had even been knocked around by her own hat. Twilight was trying to protect herself and Rarity from a long stream of drain spells, but her own mana reserve had started to fade, taking her strength with it. Gear was fighting to keep Rainbow Blade from breaking Twilight's barrier, by forcing her to keep her distance.

Arcana Stream had slowed her reading rate to the slowest the summoning spell would allow. Her mana reserves were starting to run low, her horn glowing and distributing magic between the summon and sending debris and spells at the mares who were trying to distract her.

Twilight collapsed and Rarity did her best to hold the barrier. Applejack was starting to get tired, she looked up at Celestia's golden barrier certain she heard something. The barrier shattered and Arcana Stream received a large surge of mana, "Yes! I will finish the ritual."

The speed that she read the summoning increased to a faster rate than before. This beast wanted out of its cage, and the princesses acted quickly try to divert the energy from the summoning. Twilight got her second wind as Dash and Fluttershy came out of the dungeon, "Fluttershy!"

The last page drifted away from Arcana Stream, she smiled malevolently as the rift in the sky opened wide enough that an enormous white dragon came through and spread its six wings, the ground shook as it landed. It growled as it glared at the princesses, then roared loudly before attacking them.

Arcana Stream laughed and looked at the mares, "The time has come to purge this world. Osiric end this world, let the machines take over!"

Twilight focused on a spell, "Don't count it! All we need to do is knock you out and that dragon will go away!"

Gear landed next to Fluttershy looking up to try and spot Rainbow Blade. Twilight released her spell, summoning the elements onto their respective ponies. They lined up ready to call on the combined spell, as Gear noticed a quickly falling object.

"WATCH OUT!", Gear jumped into the air to intercept it, and ended up redirecting a very hard tackle that was intended for Twilight. Dash got hit hard by Rainbow Blade, the impact knocking her clear into a weak pillar. The pillar collapsed, and the others turned to see what happened to their friend. Dash floated away rather beat up surrounded by a deep purple glow. Twilight and Rarity both tried to break Arcana Stream's grip, but were both greeted by black bolts of energy that only knocked them down and coated their elements with darkness. Gear was horrified, the one true friend who stuck with her throughout her time here was hurt badly.

Arcana Stream smiled, "I think this one should serve as an example."

Dash was placed on the ground in front of her, "You all rely on an emotionally based relationships. Such a weakness."

She raised a hoof and planted it into Dash's side, Dash immediately flinched and gave a scream.

"HEY!", Applejack leaped forward and hit a barrier, her element being coated in darkness, "What the?!"

Arcana Stream planted her hoof into Dash again, another scream. Gear dashed forward intent on stopping the assault, instead she is halted. Dark energy seeped into her and her flight unit fried sending a feedback through her system making her scream.

Pinkie tried to free Gear, "I gotcha Gear!"

Momentarily Pinkie flew into Twilight, and the summoner pried another scream from her example. This scream was louder as a snap came from her wing.

"This is an example of how the machines are better than all of you.", she raised her hoof one last time as an illusion dispersed revealing her mechanical body to the mares, "We are stronger!"

Dash clenched her eyes closed in anticipation of another impact, instead she heard a loud clank.

Rainbow Blade had positioned herself between the hoof and the intended target. The attacker looked at her escort, "What is this?"

Rainbow Blade's voice was filled with the outrage that not even a chided Fluttershy could muster, "What are you doing?!"

"Removing this flaw."

Dash coughed, "i...don't..."

"Like Hay you don't!", Blade snapped, "Nopony is going to pound this pegasus into nothing!"

Gear tried to reach out to her friend, "Dash..."

The last image she saw before everything faded to black was her friend reaching out to her as Rainbow Blade started to fight against Arcana Stream. Memories of her visit flashed through her mind as she found herself falling again. There was no teal fog as her vision was filled with status displays that were all flashing warnings before fading away.

"DAAAAASH!"

[Crashdump analysis]
The simulation encountered a lovely little critical error when the entity God.Dragon.Osiric was improperly summoned through something called "Tome.Summon0912". There was record of three remote entities logging in courtesy of an admin program called 102ra.kuy.e.exe around 0315 hours on September 4th 2030.

First entity: From Network node Lon.eng.res.kyles with alias of "Flutterbot"
Second entity: From Network node Ngski.jpn.Bsns.Ymgchi with alias of "RBlade"
Third entity: From Network node Frelance.59421 with alias of "ArcStr"

Records of withdrawal show that entities "Flutterbot", "RBladeD", "ArcStr" were returned to their original nodes.

Please contact the administrator of the "HC_Deltek" network for details on restarting the simulation. And tell them I took care of my applets work...

- Your friendly badmouthing AI, Embers.exe (Log Entry Registered July 2nd, 2054)

Comments

[Azarias]

I don't... What?

[BaconHazard]

I miss Flutterbot already

[Samusbot]

ZekeDraco, you have a serious italicization problem! You didn't de-italicize properly so now a large chunk of the story is all screwed up.

[Dickwaffle]

Everything just jumps from one thing to another too quickly with very little detail. Meaning the story was too brief. I like the plot, i really do, but i could hardly keep up with what exactly what was going on in the last two pages of the story. I will give 3 stars to be generous.

[WorldWalker128]

This depresses me, actually.

[Nightingalehound]

No fluttergear!!

[you know i really hate 2]

am i stupid or is that ending confusing, i can't tell.