A group of ponies walked through the ruined streets of Canterlot, at the head Princess Celestia and Luna walked using there magic to clear the streets. The group wore heavy armor and gas masks covered there faces. The princesses sighed as they thought back to there lost friend and student and what had lead to what wold be eventually called the Canterlot catastrophe.
It had started seven years ago, Canterlot had been the industrial capital of Equestria, ponies had discovered how to use a combination of steam, metal and gears to create what was called Magitech and at the center of this great technological revolution had been Twilight Sparkle. She had discovered and created the first pieces of Magitech and had been the brains behind not only its creation and implementation but also the development of new Magitech.
While Twilight had chosen to base her workshop as well as the development laboratories in Ponyville, she had also set up factories in Canterlot though it was more to satisfy the Nobles than any other reason. Twilight would often inspect the factories to make sure that they were properly staffed as well as to monitor there work quality. It had been during one of these inspections that the main C.O.R.E.S. for Canterlot had started to meltdown.
C.O.R.E.S. stood for Central Operations Reactor Energy Systems, and had been created by Twilight herself. There propose was to control the flow of the steam and power that the city both received and generated. The moment Twilight had revived the warning she had called for a full scale evacuation of the city as she went and tried to repair the damage before it was too late. She had failed.
No one knew what happened exactly but what as known was disturbing and had not been shared with the public for fear of what would happen. Celestia and Luna had been overseeing the evacuation when a priority transmission had come through from the C.O.R.E.S. Control room. Twilight said there had been sabotage and that it was too late. After that the sound of an explosion was heard and then nothing. Celestia and Luna awoke weeks later on Ponyville General Hospital. There guards had recovered there near dead bodies almost eighty miles from where Canterlot had been.
The remaining ponies that had been caught in the blast had either died or were mutated in to monstrous creations. It was unknown what had exactly been done but it was theorized that the blast had transformed those caught in the blasts direct range into a combination of flesh and Magitech. These creatures would attack anything that wasn't created from Magitech and had been named the Reanimated. They were mindless and operated solely on instinct. The odd thing about them was that they never left Canterlot. Twilight had been stated as dead thought the princesses knew that finding a body was not likely, she had been in the Ground Zero of the explosion after all.
"Princess, we found something." One of the ponies yelled knocking the two out of there thoughts.
"What is it Over Drive?" Celestia asked as she approached the stallion who had called out.
"A Reanimated but it's dead. There are small holes all over the corpse. and it looks like something blasted off its front arms." Over Drive said as he examined the corpse.
"That's impossible." One of the guards said as he walked over. "No one survived the blast."
"Well something did this Longshot." Over Drive shot back. "and we all know that Reanimated don't attack each other."
"Search for anything out of the ordinary, tracks leading away from the body, signs of a conflict, weapons, anything!" Celestia called out as the group began to look around.
"Sister, there is blood here!" Luna called out. "Follow me!" She yelled as she walked deeper into the destroyed city following the trail. The group walked in silence till they reached a large workshop.
The workshop was surrounded by several Clockwork Golems patrolling the area. Each golem held a strange looking object. They were as long as a sword but were round and slender like a pipe. They had several valves and they were connected to the Golems arm through some form of tubing that glowed a faint purple. They were heavily armored as well and also caried an odd looking sword. It had the same mechanisms as the odd weapon but it was on a much smaller scale and had no tubing, at the end of the pipe was a blade about two feet long.
"This is odd." Celestia said quietly as she examined the situation.
"Princess, what do we do?" One of the ponies asked.
Celestia turned to her sister and they had what appeared to be a silent conversation. Luna sighed and looked away. "You all return to the base there is nothing you can do here, we will handle the situation from here." She said.
The group froze. "Princess you can't be serous." One of the guards said.
"We aren't equipped for an attack, we came here to salvage what we could and investigate the situation. Both of these objectives have already been accomplished. You have no reason to get involved any further my little ponies." Celestia replied.
"My sister is right in some aspects, you have already completed your mission now we wish to investigate further." Luna said. "If it makes you feel safer then you may return here with a larger force if we do not return by tomorrow evening."
The group hesitated for a moment before turning and walking back the way they had come. Luna sighed as she turned to her sister. "So what's your plan."
"We talk. Someone must control those golems we need to find out who." Celestia said calmly.
Luna sighed. "If this ends up like Dodge Junction I will make the castle staff revoke thy cake privileges for a week!" Luna grumbled as she followed Celestia out from cover.
The moment that they were no longer behind cover the golems froze and turned to them. The two sisters slowly approached the golems watching them till they were speaking distance apart. "You are not Renegades, Identify yourself." One of the golems said in a monotone voice.
"I am Princes Celestia." Celestia said.
"I am Princess Luna, we wish to know who made thee." Luna said.
The golem paused and tilting its head. After a moment paused the golem looked directly at the princesses. "Identity confirmed. This way princesses, MOTHER wishes to speak to you." The golem turned and walked toward the workshop.
The sisters looked at each other before following the golem. As they reached the doors they saw the golem turning several valves on the door before placing its palm on an open steam pipe. A click was heard and the doors opened with the sound of grinding gears. The golem entered and the sisters followed.
The minute they were through the doors slammed shut but the two royals paid no attention to that. Before them walked thousands of golems, some talking, small ones playing, some stood over the work benches crafting something. It was as if they were alive each one doing not what they were programmed to do but what they wanted as if they were live.
"Welcome to Project Clockwork." The golem said calmly. "This way please." The golem walked strait into the to large group of others and the sisters quickly ran after it. They followed the golem till they reached the other side of the room and it pressed a button on the wall opening up an elevator. The golem entered and hit the floor labeled 'C.O.R.E.S. Control Room'. The doors shut and the elevator descended. The group was silent till the doors opened with a ding and they stepped forward onto a cat walk. "While I cannot control you I ask you to be respectful to MOTHER." The golem said as they began to walk down the stairs to the main floor. "I do not care who you are, she is our creator and guardian. When you entered the Ruins you enter her domain so be respectful." The golems voice was still monotone but it was different at the same time. It had an edge that of warning to it.
As they reached the bottom the two sisters gasped. Sitting before them with her eyes closed was a Purple Alicorn. One of her legs had wires visible and her back was covered with flexible plates of metal. Her left wing was artificial and there were several places on her head and face that showed metallic implants. Multiple cords, wires and cables came down from the ceiling and were jacked into her back. With a sigh the they disconnected and the alicorn opened her eyes revealing one of them to be violet while the other was an electric blue. "Hello Celestia, Luna, It's good to see you again. The Alicorn said. Her voice was slightly distorted and held a slight echo but it was kind and motherly. "Thank you for bringing them 43. I would have meet them in the atrium but I felt I should Prioritize repairs to greeting guests."
"It was no trouble MOTHER." The golem know identified as 43 said. "If that is all I feel I must return to my duty."
The Alicorn smiled. "You may go child." She said calmly. 43 nodded and left.
"One of the my first hundred children, I wouldn't change them but they are... less advanced than the rest. It's good to see you, I missed you so much." The Alicorn said with a smile.
Celestia slowly walked forward shakily. "Is that really you, Twilight?"
"Yes, it's me." Twilight said. Celestia ran forward and pulled her into a bone crushing hug as she sobbed into Twilight's shoulder.
There is a lot of this going on.
Their = The possessive
There = Location
and just in case
They're = They are.
There was another story which was never continued with a similar, though different premise.
Twilight was caught in a massive chemical eruption which contaminated all of Canterlot and infected with a nanoswarm. The city as a whole was a toxic apocalypse with roving abominations formed by rogue nanoswarms and Twilight eventually escapes. Though, shortly afterwards she's shot in the heart and is forced to go complete biological replacement to survive, becoming more ponioid than pony I suppose. Completely forgetting the name, pity it didn't continue though.
i like where this is going.
keep it up
9026072
I hate these three words with a passion. I never get them right.
9026173
I know this story, and I love it! But at the same time I actually didn't have a lot of control of this story. I had to write this story because I lost a bet. My friend gave me the layout for the first chapter. He was the one who was in control of almost everything. Had I been in control I would have changed a lot of this. In fact had I followed his story layout to the letter it would have been real crap. What I did was change the story so that I can continue the story. I'll go into detail when I do chapter two but for now know that I will make this story better.
9026211
Over there is a group with a problem. Their problem is that they're trying to figure out which witch is which. They'd hit the witches with wood if it would help.
Few typos, but good nonetheless! This story has received a Stalk!
I really like the steampunk/clockwork genre. It's cool.
And now to go imagine what my own OCs would do in this situation because that's a thing I doooooooooo!
You certainly have my attention, sir
Ooh! Steampunk, magitech, oh my! Much me gusta
you have my attention do not disappoint
whoa.... cool.
9026173
9026211
Among the Ruins, you mean? I noticed the similarities right away. 'Tis a pity that it isn't being updated, I haven't found any other good stories like that.
9026653
There was a chapter or three of some anthro obviously-inspired-by-Among the Ruins story a while back, but I can't for the life of me find it again. I can only assume it's been taken down, sadly.
9026211
I came into this expecting a 'my take on Among the Ruins', and was fine with that. Whilst I can't comment on the direction you're taking yet, especially without knowing what the original outline was like, I can say that I was pleased to find that this was interesting on its own merits. I find myself eager to know both where this is going and to learn more about Twilight's little dominion.
9026731
Don't worry, I'll cry with you.
...You're not crying, you say?
Umm... well... ah... Clearly you lie! Don't worry, it's okay to cry. No one will blame you.
9026653
9026731
The original story layout was extremely close to Terminator mixed with Steampunk. The Reanimated were going to be the equivalent of a hunter/killer. Originally Twilight was going to face them on her own as a unicorn while trying to escape a broken city.
I however didn't like the setup and the story had very little potential. As I said in my first comment on this story I'll go into a more detailed explanation later.
All hail the Princess of Super-Science!
9026955
Yeah, something about being forced to write this story?
Anyway, I'd offer to proof-read this story for you, but my real life is being swamped lately. So, yeah... Just beware of those pesky they's, their's, and they're's.
9028419
I explain in the next chapter, thanks for the advice. Those three words always get me.
Very interesting...
I have to say, I've been meaning to read some of your fics for a little bit now (I have all but two of your works on my read-it-later list.) but I never expected such an interesting writing style.
My only complaint is the formatting of the speech, but other than that, this is one of the better (small) fics I've read.
For the formatting though, I find that (I'm not sure if it is a rule, but I find it reads much, much better) putting speech at the start and the end of a paragraph. For example:
vs.
9066886
Thank you, I will take your advice and work to better myself and my stories with it.
Whelp onto the favorite list this goes.
Also there were a couple typos in the beginning, ill add them to this comment later when i have time. But this is definitely an interesting start.
The first paragraph of this story is an unmitigated disaster. Multiple major errors in every sentence. I like the premise of this story, but unfortunately it's been too painful so far to go any farther.
10087354
It gets better later on, this was one of my first stories so it's a giant mess in the grammar department but I plan on redoing it someday.
Creatively this looks good. Technically it's a bit of a mess. It desperately needs several more editing passes. Typos abound and the prose could flow a little better.
10087375
That Looks Cool!
Coming online... ... ...
Runeburst Online...
BLAST IT ALL
...... Calm...Peaceful...Tranquil
System Reboot
10087375
Can't wait for that day to come.
This fic was (and still is) one of my favourite fics in this whole platform (even though I never finished it cause of the frequent reader fazes I went through that turned me into me)
I have COMPLAINTS,
1. You have at least 3 spelling errors in the first paragraph.
2. You seem to mush up gearpunk, steampunk and cyberpunk together. Not only they are redundant, but it just doesn't make sense. Why would you use first two when you have third?
3. Those CORES are described as stream-powered power stations. Why oh why would exploding one cause mutations?
4. Underlining IMPORTANT things as if your are afraid we dumb enough to not notice.
5. If there was explosion, why is that CORES building is still standing? There should be a crater. After all, you said other buildings were damaged at the very least.
6. Two and only rulers of the country are so curious, they don't mind being found as bodies later. Otherwise, how do you interpret "You can go search for us next time if we don't return"? Royal level of reliability, truly.
7. Creating cyborgs is as easy as slapping someone with highly violative magical shockwave. Because technology is magic, and nature has degree in bio-prostetics.
8. I don't comprehend why would Twilight sit in there for 7 years if she survived and completely fixed herself. If it turns out to be something stupid as leaving her robots behind, well...
9. Why do they have hands? Arms? Why oh why?
10. There is something off in a way they speak. Seems pretty dead to me. Actually, entire story seems kinda fake in general, not in story sense (maybe not in story), but in the way you formulate words.
Yeah, i would never guessed that. Who would have known.
10617446
Answering three: Simple, Magic.