XIV. Reheat (unedited)
The sun rose and Concerto was still sleeping. I didn't have the heart to wake her. I pondered if the black box counted as my heart though I couldn't really figure out whether or not that was the case. It was weird to still be thinking about this so much.
I kept an eye out for those mismatched eyes but none were these. I even managed to get Nana to subtly send out small thaumic sound waves to see if he was just hiding. He wasn't. Already I was feeling that growing worry come out.
As I stepped outside to allow the sun to recharge my internal batteries I watched my armor slowly being restored. It started repairing as a faster rate closing up the gashes and tears created during the fight against Geode. The crazy pony had taken a deal with the devil… and paid for it. Then I left him behind…
I'll admit that it wasn't my best moment. I couldn't think up any excuses to not take him and tie him up. I ran my hand over my face groaning as I did so. I didn't know whether or not morality should be the right course of action for Geode.
In truth, I was also worried about what Concerto would do. I wouldn't stop her if she wanted to hurt him… regardless of how I felt on the matter and how much I wanted to seem noble, I guess. She needed closure and I didn't assume forgiving him was going to make her feel better with everything that happened but that brought up a bigger question. Who was to assume that I knew better?
As much as I'm loathe to admit it, the world is not black and white. I had the feeling that the ponies of this world and their fellow denizens believed in good and evil but, truthfully, they didn't exist. Each were created in mortal minds to try to make society follow that moral code.
As X I would follow the ‘I'll do what I must’ line of though. As me though, well, I would follow the ‘I'll do what I can’ line of thought. There were several things out there besides Discord. From my talks with the Pillars I'd learned about every race and their problems.
No side of this world had clean hands. Every being had done something in the name of survival. I also wasn't morally superior. I was no god from upon high come to smite the blasphemers and heretics. I was just some guy who got sent into a situation far beyond what I was capable of handling. Even with being a super fighting robot like Megaman X. Discord had proven to be able to hurt me.
Though he really went roundabout to do so. He needed agents of his own to work for him against me but his attitude and demeanor probably didn't make it easy. Desperation and revenge were the only way for ponies to agree to his deal. Who could say what motivated the other races of the world.
I looked over my armor and ran a finger across it finding no cracks or blemishes left after the self repair system took care of it. Nana had explained that it was an energy/matter converter placed near my black box that allowed me to regenerate. It was standard issue for all hunters to allow long term missions especially for any space or deep sea missions. The lack of energy capsules I noticed meant I was reliant on the sun for all heavy repairs and the moon for weapon energy refilling. It wasn’t bad… just inconvenient.
Two blips appeared on my sensors.
I looked back towards one corner of the checkpoint guard house noting two soldiers running off. I felt this pang of worry and switched back to Rolling Shield dashing back into the building. I didn’t know why I felt that way but I raced for Concerto.
“X I don’t know what they have set up but get to her now!” Nana screamed out in my head as I made it into the room with a fully charged Rolling Shield.
I gripped onto her and the bed pulling up the shield as the entire building shook. I looked back as a billowing cloud of flames came up behind me I turned back to Concerto and wrapped my arms around her keeping her close to me as she woke up startled. The sound of the explosion rang out as the shield kept hold. She looked me in the eye and with a few tears in her eye she closed them as the bright light enveloped the two of us.
Flint looked on as the checkpoint went down. He smiled over the destruction of a small nuisance in his flank. Geode was useless but did enough to deal with X before he could get any closer to the Crystal Empire.
“Good work you two. You placed the dragonfire charges in the right spot, right?” Flint grinned as the two guard, breathing hard, stood before him saluting slightly.
“Yes sir. Placed specified to your orders.” Both guards answered with a nod before joining the remnants of their forces… a paltry nine Crystal Guards.
“Finally… too long have we been under Geode’s incompetent command. Let’s go handle what we truly need to do.” Flint commanded as he point off for the Crystal Empire.
“Sir! Should we not check to make sure that they are taken care of?” One of the guards spoke up.
“We are on a timetable here son. We don’t have that much time before Corundum finds out. If we don’t make it on time we’ll lose our window of opportunity. Hurry up already we don’t have much time.” Flint ordered leaving behind the remains of their last checkpoint in Equestrian territory.
“So what do we have here? Seems we’ve found a good prize, haven’t we?” Hurricane drawled out as he and the contingent of their guards slowly surrounded the downed stallion that was sprawled out on the ground.
“Is that who I think it is?” Platinum spat out, disgust evident in her tone as she stared down at the broken pony. He was unconscious at the moment grimacing through what was most likely pain seeing that his limbs were bent in strange directions.
“Somepony certainly did a number on him. This is Ruby Geode, is it not? General of the Crystal Guard?” Puddinghead spoke up as she sent several guards to check on the severity of his wounds.
“One of them at least. The other we know of is in the Crystal Empire acting as a logistic interpreter. Any medics in the group!?” Hurricane roared out looking a the entire platoon.
“Here sir!” A unicorn lifted her hoof and medical pack stepping up to the three commanders.
“Check on Geode and see if we can transport him by the end of the day.” Hurricane ordered shuffling to the side while the medic and three other guards to make sure he didn’t do anything too dangerous.
As the three started to come together a large explosion got all their attention sending a shockwave which nearly caused the pegasi of the unit to falter off course while they kept up their aerial reconnaissance. The large plume of fire and the resulting smoke caused all eyes to trail over to the site of destruction.
“I need a small squad to come with the three of us now! Second Stand transport this scum back to base to await his judgement now! The ones I point to now on us three!” Hurricane yelled out as Platinum, Puddinghead and a small squad of nine ponies - three of each race - followed after them.
The trio took the lead with everypony remaining on their hooves. As much as each one wanted to get there fast there was no telling if there were any traps left in wait that would take advantage of flyers. While Flint Shard had been running raids they would effectively use nets alongside their golem soldiers effectively crippling the aerial support whenever it was used against them.
It took almost an hour to traverse through the snow on foot but caution was favored over expediency. As the sight came closer everypony noted that the smoke was unnaturally still going as the remnants of flames kept burning the rubble.
“Dragonfire?” Platinum brought up as she used her magic to smother some of the more troublesome flames.
“There were some reports that Dragonfire bombs were being made in the empire but there haven't been any confirmations of the creation of said bombs.” Puddinghead explained as she surveyed over the entire scene.
“Whomever did this really wanted to get rid of somepony, didn't they?” Hurricane looked to Puddinghead.
“Yes. Though it seems like these aren't actual dragon fire.” Platinum examined one of the smoldering embers.
“Most likely a fake. Magically created alchemist fire to resemble dragon flames. It's a clever idea but the name leaves much to be desired. Whatever they were trying to get rid of probably burned from the first shockwave.” Puddinghead dourly stated, her eyes splayed and a crown crossing her face.
“Soldiers! Find any rain clouds and smother the smoldering embers. Let's find what was left behind.” Hurricane ordered his pegasi squad before turning towards the others. “When they do so please dig out what you can.”
The were several nods of ascent to his orders as everypony got to work. Platinum and Puddinghead coordinated the soldiers making certain to not cause any more destruction.
It was tight. I could sense that the heat rose to nearly unbearable temperatures forcing my hand and bringing out Shotgun Ice. It was not the best freezing weapon but it allowed me some control over the heated elements of the small place we were stuck in. The shield managed to hold against the shockwave and flames well enough. Then the constant weight shattered it.
I bent down over the still blanketed Concerto who was amazed to still be alive. By sheer luck all that was wrong with her was the constant stream of soot all over her. My problem was much worse.
Due to the constant falling debris I got dinged and scratched more than once as I kept shifting to keep the more dangerous elements off of her. Rocks had melted into my armor from the sheer weight and the only reason I had managed to tank it was more than likely because of the armor upgrade and absorbing as much sun as I was able to.
There were several gashes on my back which I only knew because I had had to pick up Concerto to move to a safer area. The smoke was doing much worse things to her than me and I was running out of options. I could blast a hole out with the X buster but the shrapnel from the blast could hurt Concerto with how close we were. I fired Shotgun Ice into different angles using the ice to douse the flames. It wasn't very good at it but until I got Frost Tower or Bubble Splash it was the only water based weapon I had on me. Ironically the X7 series water based weapon would have been invaluable in this situation.
The ice kept compacting in small areas and all around us. It kept the smoke out but left us with less room and the still billowing flames were getting closer.
I sense twelve different targets slowly closing in. I was uncertain of who it was but I wasn't in the best position to fight back.
“X, I don't think we're gonna make it…” Concerto blubbered out managing to keep the tears quiet. Her face was covered in soot and she was coughing badly.
“Yes we will. I want you to stay calm. There are ponies on the other side looking at the mess.” I mentioned showing her the best fake smile I could muster. I didn't tell her I was thinking they could have been the Crystal Guard.
“There is?” Concerto managed to quiet her crying to the barest of sniffling.
“Yeah. I'm certain that they are the friendly ones. Absolutely certain, in fact.” I lied as best as I could with the gentlest smile on my face.
She grew determined at this point wiping her nose and eyes as best she could with her soot covered hoof. Using her horn and magic, she smothered the flames as best she could. It was slow going for her and barely made a difference but she was able to do something other than sit and watch.
The flames were too close and Shotgun Ice was almost empty. I was running out of options and room to maneuver. I decided that the risk was worth it. I started to charge up my buster changing back to my X buster. Concerto noticed and got underneath me covering her eyes and keeping her ears down as I pointed the buster up at the best angle I had.
Digging had been slow. With only three unicorns there were few places they could uncover without toppling any supporting structures. The fires had almost been abated with only the fires that had seeped into the small cracks remaining stubborn enough to cling to life.
“We've gone nowhere in all this time. Have we found any signs of survivors or what?” Platinum asked as she looked over the smoldering wreck.
“Nothing. We've searched every likely place so far but with the constant shifting wreckage and the spread out fires there is likely nothing that survived this.” Puddinghead answered sighing in exasperation. It hadn't made any sense to destroy this checkpoint since it weakened the Crystal Empire’s hoofhold in the region.
“Maybe Star Swirl was right about the golem? There certainly has been a load of defeated guards along our trek into the frozen wastes, hasn't there?” Hurricane posited to his fellow leaders.
An explosion rocked the area as a burst a pink energy blew through a large slab of stone and several chunks of ice. Everypony immediately rushed out of the way as the falling debris of stone and ice fell upon the wreckage snuffing out the flames that weren't fully smothered. The three leaders were quickly surrounded by their guards who each had nearly had a heart attack from the sudden explosion. Everypony was on edge.
“Help!” A young voice called out from the hole before breaking into a coughing fit.
Princess Platinum immediately smacked her unicorn guards into following her as she looked into the crater. Inside was a small filly barely on the cusp of adulthood and a strange golem in blue and white armor. Shaking her head at the triviality of an active golem the four unicorns pooled their magic together grabbing the mare and pulling her out of the hole.
I didn't know who had come but since Concerto wasn't freaking out that probably meant good things. The forced firing of my buster left me to handle the brunt of the blast. Several small rocks had gouged their way into my chest. Even after Concerto was taken out of the hole I was still removing the small stones. They hadn't torn through but they did leave dents in the armor. My energy bar was also back to a very low level.
I felt hot… way too hot. I ignored it the best I could and slowly gripped my way out of the hole making handholds out of the melted rock. The sensors in my fingers were slowly going numb for some reason. Each step up made things worse.
“X! Quickly get into the snow!” Nana cried out as I reached the edge of the hole.
Hurricane was amazed as a golem crawled out of the hole. It was completely red… as steam flew off of its body. It look him right in the eye before stumbling over to the snow. Its gait was clumsy and nearly faltering at certain steps. He raised a hoof stopping his guards.
It certainly looked similar to the golem that they had met earlier. It fell into a particularly large snow drift. The large cloud of steam that came off the moment that it touched everything was almost impossibly thick.
“That should be impossible…” Puddinghead mumbled looking off mutedly at the golem.
“What?” Platinum cautiously asked as the now fresh water flowed through structures and near the guards as they looked over the mare. She was covered in soot but thankfully she wasn’t burned.
“Dragonfire, even alchemically created, melts all known metal. The only shield that survived dragon fire was Netitus.” Puddinghead hissed out.
“I guess this golem is stronger than that then.” Platinum muttered realizing the implications of a golem that could survive dragon flames, theoretically.
“I think this is the golem Star Swirl mentioned. You two wanted to meet him, well… here’s your chance.” Hurricane called out taking point as Puddinghead and Platinum traipsed through the snow
=Core Temperature : Stabilized=
That was the last message I nearly saw come up within my mind. I had nearly overheated from the constant heat. For some reason the flames looked purple to me but I may have been losing focus while the warning was blaring in my head.
“Sir! Sir! Are you okay? Temperatures are finally stabilizing. We barely managed to survive that. Though that was surprising. You never were able to handle that before hand. Maybe it has to do with the thaumic energy in the background.” Nana started to trail off and whisper theories over how I survived.
Honestly, I had the small inkling that since I’ve worked in front of a forge before I’ve always been around high levels of heat for a very long time. I know how to function even through near collapse from heat exhaustion. I couldn’t get heat exhaustion with a robotic body but I could overheat and overclock my systems to my eventual detriment. Luckily I was only at the threshold of how much I could handle.
As I got out of what was left of the snow which was a muddy slush at this point I noticed the three ponies coming up to me. I didn’t recognize the one with the crown and robe or the one with the armor and bowl of pudding on her head. The central figure though… that was someone I remembered clearly enough.
“Commander Hurricane?” I muttered as I noticed my entire body was covered in scorch marks, dents and scuffs from the explosion. The sun was still up and I could feel my energy meter being recovered. It would take hours for everything to finally be repaired and I could move fluidly once again.
“X? I see you’ve been busy. Give me a second. My compatriots wished to meet with you and I need to give my ponies their orders.” Hurricane curtly nodded leaving to get his soldiers ready.
Concerto had gotten up knocking away the soldiers that were watching over her. She didn’t have that much strength though and nearly didn’t make it through them. A quick stamp of Hurricane’s hoof made them move as she stumbled back over to me. I lifted her up and allowed her to rest on my back once again. She was still covered in her winter clothing with only some slight singeing
“Hi there… sorry… too much damage right now.” I muttered once again kneeling down so I could be level with the two ponies before me.
“Uh… not at all. I see you’ve managed to find Princess Concerto.” The pony with the pudding bowl on her head chuckled almost stiltedly.
“Please start with introductions.” The pony with the crown chided the other pony. “I am Princess Platinum and this is my fellow leader Chancellor Puddinghead.”
“X… I haven’t kept my word yet…” I stiffly replied. Several of my motors were still being repaired from all the damages I acquired.
“Your word? I'm afraid I don't follow.” Platinum questioned me looking into my eyes. She didn't seem to find anything since she was a bit downcast when she did so.
“Capturing Corundum.” I bluntly stated as several motors were finally repaired allowing me full range of movement.
I was surprised that I could be affected so badly by heat. Maybe a part of my mind was treating this like a game… trying to ease that tension of being in another world. More likely, I didn't think I could die so easily. Throughout my trek north nothing has come close to hurting me but things created or modified by Discord.
This. Well, this was the first time I've been hurt by something not created by Discord.
“Sir, we've managed to fix any compromised systems that were affecting by the sudden temperature spike. The energy/matter converter is focusing on changing all the solar energy on hand to fix your body. It should take twenty more minutes.” Nana informed me. That made me stop and think. The other modules could still assist internally but couldn't do more than that until I unlocked them through a capsule. Perhaps there was a backdoor into the system… though knowing my luck right now it would be located in the black box.
“You will be following us from this moment on.” Hurricane stated. This broke my train of thought derailing it into a gully and exploding into pieces.
“Excuse me?” I answered blankly back thinking I misheard him.
“He said he wanted you to follow him.” Concerto helpfully piped up. I couldn't help but groan since it was obvious I heard him. She giggled at this… which lifted my spirits since she was at least still smiling.
“Since you've… ingratiated yourself as her bodyguard and protector you will be traveling with us from now on. Based on what just happened it's clear that they are targeting you two and I will not stand idly by to watch them try more extreme measures once again.” Hurricane growled out making it clear how things were to go.
“Okay.” I muttered through clenched teeth. As much as I didn't like the attitude I knew he was right. Regardless of whom they were after, the explosives nearly did their job and took me out. If I went then Concerto would have either been captured, killed or worse depending on what Corundum or even Flint were after.
“Good. I knew you were smarter than you looked. Our soldiers will keep the five of us in a concentric circle as we make our way north. You've done a good job so far of keep casualties to merely incapacitated rather than terminated. Let's keep that up. Should another golem appear transfer Concerto over to one of us and deal with the threat immediately.” Hurricane instructed going over a few other instances that would require our coordination together.
“We have questions for you should you deign to humor us X. Star Swirl has certainly argued for your case but we would like to speak with you in more detail.” Platinum diplomatically brought up citing Star Swirl most likely to put me at ease or to lower my guard… at least as far as I knew.
“It would help bolster trust in the long run.” Puddinghead added making me internally agree. I needed to actually act more like a maverick hunter. In cases involving tyrants, such as Sigma, a team was always necessary to up survivability.
“Ask away. I need more time to cool down.” I answered back managing to sit down on what was now a very thin layer of ice and frost.
What followed was a little test on Equestria and its figures. I knew enough to satisfy their curiosity which probably stemmed from a certain question. I was certain the question was ‘how sapient are you?’ which I answered to their widening eyes. Hurricane seemed to know intrinsically how intelligent I was.
While the guards were giving me the cold shoulder at the beginning, these nine that followed trusted their leaders enough to engage with me for more than a sneering contest. I think by the end of our talk some of them even respected me… though that was a given when talks of Aegis were involved. These nine in particular held no sympathy for him due in no small part to how he treated his fellow soldiers nowadays.
Concerto made a point of being adorable during all this by wrapping what was left of my singed scarf around her neck too. I think it was doing a good job of making me less threatening. Whether she did that on purpose or not I would never know. She made it difficult to get a straight answer.
The guards eventually set up a small campsite to wait for the rest of the contingent to join up with us. Hurricane, Platinum and Puddinghead were lost in a conversation with each other a small distance away leaving me alone with Concerto who made it clear she wasn't leaving my side at all.
“I'm sorry.” Concerto breathed out breaking me out of my thoughts once again.
“For what? There's nothing to apologize for.” I answered back to which she shook her head side to side.
“There is. Your scarf… it's ruined. We looked so long for something for you and now you might get cold out here.” Concerto slightly teared up nearly starting to sniffle.
“It's fine. It adds charm to it and god knows I needed some charisma.” I chuckled causing her to wipe her eyes again. Luckily, Platinum knew a spell to clean oneself up and had used it on her to get rid of the soot. I didn't want to go find another lake or stream anytime soon.
“You sure?” Concerto closed in looking in my eyes to make certain I wasn't lying.
“Yeah. It's great for what it is because it was a gift from you.” I stated as gently as I could. Of course, she cuddled into me… or into where the scarf was covering. I was still metal and cuddling into metal wasn't comfortable.
“X, you may sleep while the guards watch over the campsite.” Puddinghead announced as she came upon us.
“I don't sleep Chancellor. I literally can't before you ask.” I informed the Chancellor.
“Ah… sorry. I forgot about you being a golem. You don't seem like one every time you speak with any of us.” Puddinghead slyly chuckled under her hoof.
“What can I say? I guess I'm just… one of a kind.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.038 seconds
Total duration
1,004 users online
317,515 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
As I stepped outside to allow the sun to recharge my internal batteries I let watch of my armor. No idea what this sentence means.
8737648
I fixed the line. There are probably more errors since these are unedited yet but I did fix the line.
8737910
Yup. Dramatic Irony is a bitch sometimes. This won't affect the X at all. heh heh heh...
Question, how are you going to handle the magic in X? With Discord putting what was left of the spirit of order power into X its going to have to have some effect. Its just in every piece of lore and writing I've read involving magic and technology fusing It tends to take on a nature of it own but still with in the design of the machine. Usually in simple machines it just ups its functionality but in something a complex as X the programing and magic merge becoming inseparable. If the programing is simple the magic will function along very rigid lines with nether the programing or magic being very changeable or altered from outside sources.
But in something like X with a robot with something akin to a soul and a human soul in it, with different parts that do different things like that energy/matter converter, his accumulative energy generator, micro fusion fuel tank well I don't know how it will play out.
Those cyber elves should be able to eventually exist without a cyber world give how they function.
What what is this are these FEELS? WHAT IS TRIGGERING THEM?
8738141
I've been thinking about that for a while now. All I can say is that it will involve both the variable weapons system, the cyber elves, and eventually something that happens if he is ever in a final battle with Discord.
8738289
Did Concerto get to you?
8743089
8743111
8743161
That's the best way to listen to stories.
Second Stand does indeed have the phoenix mark. Whether he'll be important or not will have to wait and see.
The third video was getting you hyped up for the fight wasn't it? XD
8743222
I suppose that makes sense. It's still human-esque in some regards and everything is done through choices that would benefit the human conscious.
I do know of it but I haven't actually done anything like that. Mostly I don't want to unless it is actually something important. This story in particular isn't really a lets have fun with characters and just enjoy life. I'm trying to write it so that there are consequences and such to his actions and things that can kill him. The moment I bring in another character from a different universe with different rules things will go off into directions where I might not have wanted to story to go. With crossovers you gotta make certain not to be passive during it otherwise the other author may unconsciously bias their own vision of how a story goes over yours.
I'm glad you enjoy the story. I have looked through your stuff and it's pretty good. Just need to find some inspiration for your stories that on hiatus I think. Am I right?
Question, you said X repairs using sunlight and replenishes his weapons at night. Using sunlight as an energy source is theoretical for matter/energy conversion repairs, But what he using at night to replenish his weapons at night?
8746186
Moonlight. Yes I know that its the light refracted off of the sun from the other side of the world but Equestria seems different enough that the moon casts it's own light seeing as magic is a thing. I posit that the moon is giving off a different form of light that replenishes his weapon energy. How it's differentiated is something I am going to cover eventually because as far as X knows in character magic is a thing as soon as the fourth chapter comes around and he hadn't used any of the special weapons yet..
He forgot Evil Overlord rule #13,
oh well, his mistake..
9704370
Morality is a difficult question that gets worse and worse over time to answer because eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth get in the way of that a lot. I would say old Equestrian society was built on the classic good versus evil dichotomy. As times passes the concept of grey areas changed that so now what's right and wrong can't be agreed on except when it comes to extremes.