The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 14: Others

The spell came from the left: a long whip of red magic, twisting and distorting as it whistled through the air. Penumbra cast a shield spell, but did not have the time to adjust the angle properly. She took the blow head-on and her spell shattered. The magic struck her in the side of the face, sending her sprawling to her right. She twisted in the air and landed on her feet, sliding across the floor. She turned her head and spit several teeth onto the floor. It was not the first time. They always grew back.

“You’re getting distracted,” spat Scarlet Mist, raising another surge of magic, this one in the form of several simultaneous cutting beams.

“And you’re getting slow!”

The beams converged and Penumbra leapt, spreading her wings and twisting between the lines of magic. They twisted, coming toward her from their ends, but Penumbra had seen this before. She tilted over them, flipping, and fell against the floor in a split, flattening herself as the beams passed close enough to singe several hairs off the end of her mane.

“My body is depleting,” said Scarlet Mist, marching forward through the red fog that seemed to surround everything. It was true; her motions had grown slow and arthritic, and her normally crimson mane had developed graying streaks. “It is not compatible. I am rejecting it. They only ever last a few months. What is your excuse?”

Another bolt of magic, this time in the form of long, lethal needles. This time Penumbra succeeded; she formed an oblique shield, and while it shattered, it changed the course of the projectiles such that she was able to roll to one side and fire a counterattack that consisted of little more than a plume of sparkles.

“WEAK.” Scarlet Mist raised one of her hooves, and thralls burst from the fog. One charged Penumbra with a spear, and she immediately jumped into the air, landing gracefully on the edge of its blade. Her armored hooves clicked along the length of the spear before she wrapped her legs around the neck of the thrall and twisted him sideways, using his armored body to deflect an incoming magical barrage. She then stood, pirouetting on one of her front hooves, and flipped onto the head of another thrall. As she did, she grinned and kicked off the thrall’s mask.

The thrall immediately stopped and looked around, confused and terrified. “What who when how WHERE AM I?!”

“Sorry, miss.” Penumbra sprung off her back, causing them both to be shoved out of the way of an incoming plume of magic. As Penumbra landed she slid, dodging a blow from the third thrall’s sword before knocking him off balance and stealing his weapon. She promptly threw it toward Scarlet Mist’s heart.

The blade stopped instantly, surrounded by red magic mere inches from her chest.

“I almost had you!”

“Almost, yes. But note that this sword does not have a hoof-ring.”

Penumbra swore loudly as the unicorn thrall grabbed her tail with his magic and pulled hard. Penumbra cried out in pain as her rear was pulled to the side, but even as she fell she cast a full-body shield spell. Every time she had tried before, she had passed out- -but in this case, she knew it was her only option.

The surge of magic that struck her from the side was enormous, and it washed over her like a wave, not bothering to shatter her shield but simply penetrating its primitive assembly design. The spell blocked some of it, but Penumbra was still pulled to one side and slammed into the still-confused freed thrall. She flipped- -unintentionally this time- -and bounced several times before landing on the ground.

Scarlet Mist approached. “That blow would have put a normal pony in the hospital for two months at least. Despite the fact that your ridiculous princess body can’t seem to put on weight, you appear durable.”

Penumbra sat up and coughed.

“I wonder just how durable you are?”

Scarlet Mist formed a blade from her magic and raised it. Penumbra smiled.

“You lose,” she said, hooking her hoof into the fallen thrall-mask beside her. She kicked it hard, landing a direct hit against Scarlet Mist’s horn. Scarlet Mist cried out in rage and took a step back, her spell failing.

Penumbra stood, wobbling heavily. “I finally got you.”

“Did you?”

Scarlet Mist extended her hoof. In it was a sphere of red glass- -containing a single enchanted flash-bee.

Penumbra gasped, realizing too late that, like always, she had failed. She covered her mouth, but it was already too late. The mist was collapsing around her, drawing closer, rising into hideous columns and shapes that twisted and condensed into severe and terrible blades.

She tried to hold her breath, but could not. When she inhaled, the gas entered her nose. It smelled like iron and rot.

Then it was drawn out. The fog around her separated and cleared. Not completely, but so that it was reduced only down to her ankles.

“Sloppy. Incredibly sloppy. Not even worthy of my time. You failed to take environmental consideration into account. If I had my way, you would be screaming on the floor as I tear your mind apart right now.”

“Then why aren’t I?”

“Because I’m curious. This isn’t simply you being a failure, as per usual, because I’ve seen you succeed at this exercise many times.”

“I’ve never won.”

“Nor could you expect to. Your performance is never ‘good’, but it has been MARKEDLY better than...well, whatever half-baked aborted attempt you just gave me. You are not focused.”

“Am I not allowed to think about things?”

“No. You are quite literally only allowed to think what I tell you.”

“I took down the thralls, at least!”

“Yes. Three mindless, barely competent slaves.” Scarlet Mist levitated the removed thrall-mask and slammed it on its rightful owner as she tried to walk past. The pony twitched and then stood at attention. “We trade skill for obedience. Had these been Celestia’s soldiers, you would be in chains by now. Perhaps even strung up in the dungeon. And beaten like a pinata.”

“I am doing my best!”

“No. You are quite clearly not.” Scarlet Mist began to circle. “I wonder...I could enter your mind myself, but at this stage only one of us would make it back out in one piece. So, an alternative. Eternity? Are you watching?”

“I am always watching,” replied the disembodied voice. “Right now? There’s an ant in the eastern quadrant trying to carry away a piece of corn- -an ant committing HERESY! A crystal pony will be beaten twice for wasting precious food! Also, telling you what Penumbra is thinking would be a breach of privacy.”

“So?”

“It’s stallions. Obviously. It makes her wings flutter at night, when she’s asleep.”

Penumbra blushed severely. “You have no right- -”

“We have every right,” retorted Scarlet Mist. “You are interfering with my task.” She stopped walking. “And don’t think I am unaware of WHICH stallion you are thinking about. I saw your dirty little wings when the procession arrived.”

“And so what!” cried Penumbra, turning sharply. “Have you SEEN Lord Heartstrings? Or are you really that old that you don’t notice?”

“Notice what, pray tell?”

“The booty,” whispered Eternity.

Penumbra attempted to compose herself, but did not bother to adjust her expression. If she had power, she might have struck out at Scarlet Mist then and there. “He’s a handsome knight, and I’m an adorable filly. What else is there to know?”

“And what? What do you think he is? Some fairytale character, a knight in shining armor? It’s an act! His order collapsed a thousand years before he was born- -and he is no chivalrous hero. His soul is as black as mine.”

“You have no soul! Lord Twilight told me that nobles- -”

“Zither Heartstrings is NOT a noble. You have no concept of what that term even means, what it costs. And NEVER believe what Luciferian tells you. He lies. Constantly.” Scarlet Mist approached, and Penumbra puffed herself up to be almost as tall as her teacher. “Listen to me, and listen well. You are a princess, and he is a knight. The relationship is meant to be one-sided. Where you to actually reciprocate, you would put him in an unbelievably awkward position.”

“I’d like to put him in an awkward position,” added Eternity.

“Or are you both just jealous that I am so much cuter than you both?”

Scarlet Mist stared down at the defiant princess. “What is wrong with you? You have never been like this before?”

“Maybe I’ve grown a spine.”

Scarlet Mist stared for a moment longer. Then Penumbra felt her head thrown back as her horn was grabbed hard by crimson magic. Before she could cast a shield spell, she was punched in the side of the face so hard that she was sure her jaw had been broken. It clicked loudly, and she spit out several more teeth, as well as a thick black fluid- -and then turned back to Scarlet Mist. She glared directly into the eye-slits of her mask.

“Are you going to give me another, or are you going to get out of my way?”

Scarlet Mist held a moment longer, then threw Penumbra’s horn to the side. Penumbra slid past her toward where a door appeared, removing her extraneous armor and clipping her long skirt around the base of what was left. She paused at a mirror, adjusting her tiara, mane, and replying her makeup.

“Where are you going? We’re not finished.”

“I will be covering the theoretical portion of my training in the library today,” growled Penumbra. “Away from you!”

“And you stopped to fix your makeup?”

“A princess must look presentable at ALL TIMES!”

She left in a huff, attempting to slam the door behind her. Unfortunately, the door was only a metaphor, and therefore not truly capable of being slammed. Still, in a few moments she was gone.

“You didn’t have to hit her.”

“No. I did. If she had cowered in fear or run crying, then all hope would surely be lost and my project a failure. But she stood and faced me. So it is still her in there. Something is bothering her I suppose.” Scarlet Mist turned back to her red fog. “Likely a hormonal imbalance. Whatever it is, let Crozea deal with it. It’s not my problem.”

And with that, she disappeared into the fog.

Penumbra stamped down the hallway- -or, rather, attempted to. In actuality, every step she made was too perfectly graceful to make any more noise than a quiet click, despite her wearing heavy armored boots.

“Lady Eternity,” she called “Lady Eternity!”

“You don’t have to yell,” replied the voice in her head. “In fact, you don’t even need to speak. You are close enough that I can hear your thoughts.”

“I am presently VERY well aware of that. Lady Eternity, it is beyond me to doubt your decisions, but what you did- -it was- -it was UNCOUTH!” That was literally the strongest insult that Penumbra knew.

“I never claimed to be couth. Which is not a word. Or a pony. For all you know, I’m a yak. Or a head floating in a glass jar. Or a small pile of jelly. Not that it matters. I thought it was fun, so I did it.” Eternity paused. “And this is not the way to the library.”

“No. As I am not going to the library.”

“Because you can’t read?”

“I can read quite well!” lied Penumbra. “No, because I have become agitated. I need a walk.”

“Not a good idea. You’re not supposed to walk in the Citadel alone.”

“As you have so clearly informed me, Lady Eternity, I am apparently never alone.”

“I don’t count. Your safety does not take precedence over my entertainment.”

“Then you can at least help me.”

“I think the fact that I’m a disembodied mental voice makes it implicit that I can’t. Or explicit, if you’re into that. And I am...”

“Where is Lord Heartstrings staying?”

Eternity paused. The air actually felt icy for a moment. “That’s not a question I should answer.”

“You mean you do not know.”

“Now, now, don’t try to bait me. You can’t. I’m a master at it myself, so I know a thing or two.”

“You owe me.”

“I owe you? For what?”

“For making me yell at Lady Mist!” Penumbra paused and put her hoof to her head. “I can’t believe I did that! After everything she’s done to help me, even when noponoy else believed I could do anything at all...and I yelled at her! She must be so disappointed in me!” She took a breath, trying to calm down. It did not work. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t...ohhh, it doesn’t feel good.” She took another breath and steeled herself.

“But you’re still going to act like a princess.”

“I need to regain composure so that I can apologize later. A walk. But I would very much like to see Lord Heartstrings. What he said to me, I can’t get it out of my head, and I think it’s connected to why I was so mean to Lady Mist.”

“That seems logical. Logic is stupid. So painful, so terrible. Regardless. I don’t think I should help you find him.”

“Why?”

“Because Misty was right. I heard what he said. I was there. Sort of. The thing with Zither is, he likes to pretend to be a knight.”

“He is not one already?”

“No...he is...but not that kind of knight. It’s complicated. But that’s not the point. Now, I have to admit, he is exceedingly attractive. Even with the...well...I guess you’ll find out eventually. But beggars can’t be choosers; my body is far worse than his at this point.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning don’t become a seer. It has costs. Never mind. The point is, he’s a KNIGHT. That whole promise? It was meant to be courtly love. As in, one-sided.”

“I don’t understand. What is love? And why is it courtly?”

“It’s a ceremonial thing. He performs deeds in your honor to glorify you, you wave to him when he goes off questing- -but you’re at different stations. You can never be together, and you both have to know it...annnnnd your heart is beating faster. Great. I’m turning you on.”

“Please stop.”

“Sorry.”

“Then I’ll go to him and- -and clarify it or something. This is all so confusing.”

“And if your soft, force-grown filly body ends up being snuggled in his strong, knightly arms…?”

Penumbra’s wings extended involuntarily. She squeaked and tried to push them back into place. “I said stop, please!”

“I can’t help myself. It’s just so adorable.”

“There will be no snuggling! I simply want to talk!”

“And how do you think Twilight would feel about this?”

Penumbra’s breath caught, and her wings immediately went limp. She had forgotten about him, and how she felt about him. The feeling was similar, but very different. It was not as strong and visceral, but still just as powerful. He had been so kind and helped her when she needed it, and while he was not nearly as physically impressive he had an air of charm and wisdom- -and an aura that reminded her of her father.

“Oh my,” she whispered. “I have stallions competing over me!”

Her wings immediately pompfed outward again.

Penumbra sighed. “Can you at least tell me, Lady Eternity?”

“Princess. Did you know that I cannot walk? I’d like to. But I can’t. Stuck in one spot. Forever. Consider yourself very lucky. Yes, I know where he is. He’s even conversing with one of those amazingly alluring griffon mutants right now. Ohhhh how I’d like to rub myself in catnip and...” She paused. “What I mean is, here’s a learning experience. Nobody’s going to be holding your hoof forever. I trust you to find your own way.”

Penubra sighed, and bowed. “I thank you greatly for your trust, Lady Eternity. I respect your decision, even if it is ridiculous and stupid.”

“Ha! I like hormonal Penumbra, she’s so much more fun!”

Penumbra looked down the long crystal hallways, and chose one. She had no idea where she was going, but was led on by a feeling she did not at all understand.

There were only a few hallways in the Citadel that Penumbra had ever been allowed to traverse, and she had always been attended by another- -whether it be Crozea, one of her nurses, or even Twilight Luciferian. On her own, though, she quickly realized that the crystal palace was immensely vast- -and she became lost within a matter of minutes.

She paused, staring down several seemingly infinite hallways. All was dark. There were few if any windows, and the few she found were high and small and showed nothing but dark gray sky and snow. The rest was left unlit and unused, save for pipes and conduits humming with strange energy from unseen and terrible machinery.

Scarlet Mist had not given Penumba back her flash-bee, so she was forced to use her horn to generate light. With her magic weak, the best she could accomplish was a dim, flickering blue light that only seemed to make the shadows deeper and more animated.

“I have no idea where I am,” she sighed.

No help came. Only a strange sound from the vents. In the distance, Penumbra watched as a small door was kicked open- -and a crystal pony dropped out.

“Wait,” said Penumbra, recognizing him. “Hey! Wait!”

“MONSTER!” he cried, terrified. “You’ll never take me back! I won’t go! NEVER!”

With that, he scampered into a low vent, momentarily getting his rump stuck- -but sliding in completely before Penumbra could catch him. All that could be heard of him was his mutterings and screams as he descended back into whatever dusty machinery he had come from.

“Well that was unhelpful,” sighed Penumbra. She lifted her head and looked around- -only to see what she thought was a distant light.

She moved toward it, following the glow, fully expecting to find a lamp of some sort- -or at the very least another crystal pony to ask directions from.

It was not a lamp, though. Penumbra was not sure what it was, only that it was a sickening violet color. As she turned a corner, though, she saw its source and understood what was producing it: it was magic.

In the distance, she could see Twilight Luciferian crossing through the moldering, dusty halls. The glow was not coming from his horn, but rather from a crystal levitating at his side.

Penumbra took a deep gasp to call for him, but stopped when a thought occurred to her. She could not help but wonder how he would feel if he knew what she had been feeling about the Blue Knight. He would feel betrayed- -and the idea made Penumbra feel incredibly dirty. For the first time in her life, she felt ashamed.

The distraction of the sudden emotion caused her light to snuff out. In the distance, Twilight Luciferian turned, having seen a dim flicker suddenly go out. Without her own light blinding her, Penumbra was able to see him clearly in his own blue light. She did not understand why his mouth was dripping with some unnamed silver fluid- -or why he was carrying a small circular case packed with high-grade crystal samples.

Something sparked within Penumbra. Something strange, a feeling she did not like- -yet one that encouraged her not to light her horn. Instead, she tucked herself against a wall, moving rapidly and silently in her metal boots.

“Lady Eternity,” she whispered. “Are you seeing this?”

There was no response. Only a sort of throbbing static that seemed to pulsate with Luciferian’s light. He stared into the darkness a moment longer, and then proceeded on his way.

Penumbra followed him. She did not know why. She should have greeted him and bowed, as was her programming, but something told her that it was dangerous right now. Something in his eyes was strange, and the silence with which he moved was somehow disturbing.

When she reached his path, Penumbra saw that the floor was covered in thick dust and a residue of snow from an arcade of arrow-slits. It was unused- -and he had left no hoofprints. She supposed that was not unreasonable; there were spells for it that he was no doubt able to perform. Penumbra did not know them, so was forced to leave her own small trail as she moved silently past the windows. Outside, she could see nothing but snow, and hear nothing but wind- -but at some points, in the distance, she could see lights from what she imagined was the Crystal Empire below, as well as a large, cold light beyond the clouds and in the sky. A light that seemed to stare deeply into her very soul.

In the distance, she saw the tail of Lord Twilight’s coat swish through a gap. Penumbra rushed toward the door. There were no alternative paths, and no secondary doors; whatever room was at the end was the one he was in.

When she reached it, Penumbra peeked around the door, not knowing exactly what she would see. What she saw, though, was an empty room.

“Huh?” She poked her head in and looked around. There were no other exits or doors, or even closets; only a few piles of long-abandoned crystal furniture and faded, decaying tapestries and rugs.

Penumbra entered the room. “Hello?” she asked. “Is anyone here? Lord Twilight?”

There was no response, although Penumbra felt very cold. There were not even windows, but she felt strange and sick. She smelled something like distant, rotting flowers.

The only other object she saw was a large mirror- -and as her gaze turned toward it, Penumbra noticed the drips of silver on the floor. They looked like the substance that had been on Lord Twilight’s face, and they led toward the mirror.

Penumbra reached down and dabbed her hoof in the substance. She smelled it carefully, and then tasted it. Crozea had taught her some of the most basic aspects of alchemy, including its reagents, and while this substance looked like mercury it was thinner and tasted and smelled far different. Penumbra had no idea what it was, but the dull glimmer it gave off made her shiver.

She slowly approached the mirror. The drops stopped there. They did not go around it or behind it- -they simply stopped. Which made no sense at all.

Penumbra stared into the glass. It was the first full-length mirror she had ever seen, and what she saw gave her pause. It was a pony that she did not recognize, whose appearance made her dizzy and confused. She was willowy and thin, far more so than any normal pony, with enormous, pointed eyes and long-black hair held back by an iron tiara. Her face was covered in makeup, but not in a pattern that made her alluring. It made her seem ghostly white, and the black and violet circles around her eyes made her seem almost demonic.

Yet, though it all, it was not a sickly, force-grown alicorn that she saw. She saw the iron crown, and the dark armor, and the red of her fur-hemmed skirt- -and she saw her father looking back at her.

“Hail the Witchking,” she said, slowly lifting up her own armored hoof and tapping on the glass. It was solid, but felt strangely warm. A slight flicker of magic sparked from it, but Penumbra was too focused on her reflection to notice.

A sudden sound above her made her jump suddenly. She instinctively pirouetted and assumed a battle stance, fully expecting a blow of magic to land on her head and for her to lose more teeth. Instead of a pony, though, she found herself staring into the eyes of a creature perched on a piece of ancient wood on the far side of the room, lit only by the dim moonlight coming through the open door.

Penumbra had never seen a bird of any sort before, although she had sometimes seen pictures in books. This bird had a name, but she did not know it; only that it was large and pure, beautiful black.

The bird released another sound. A loud, crackling caw.

“Hello Mr. Bird.” Penumbra bowed, not sure if this was the proper protocol for a bird but not wanting to take a chance of being rude. “I am Penumbra Heatrbreak. I am pleased to meet you.”

The bird cocked its head and let out a confused sound.

“If you are looking for Lord Luciferian, I do not know where he is ether. I should have spoken to him when I had the chance. He really is a nice pony.” Yet she knew that given the chance, she would not have changed her course of action. Something in the air still felt very wrong.

The bird rushed forward, spreading its large black wings and landing on the ground. Penumbra nearly gasped; she herself had wings, but they were pink with black-dyed tips, and they could not make her fly. At least that she knew of. The thought had never actually occurred to her.

The bird began to peck at the silver droplets on the floor. Something about that action disturbed Penumbra deeply.

“Mr. Bird?” she asked. “I do not mean to be rude, but I am afraid I have gotten lost. Do you know where I can find Lord Heartstrings? Or at least the Central Library?”

The bird looked up at her. Its eyes were pure black, but not empty.

“Yes,” it squeaked, taking flight and jumping to its perch again. It paused to look at Penumbra, and then flew again, inviting her to follow it. Penumbra did, not knowing that the bird was leading her to a place far worse than this empty room with its strange mirror.

The bird led her downward, through places she had never been and areas where few ponies if ever seemed to go. The conduits and pipes grew thicker and more numerous, to the point where there was barely space to walk between them. They were not exactly part of the Citadel; rather, they seemed to be built into it.

This, in time, branched off to a second room. Inside it was dark, and the bird flew high up toward the ceiling. Penumbra lit her horn, and high above, she could see a great many of the large black birds staring back at her- -both young and old, roosting high in a circular dome. When she stared at them, they stared back, and soon fell silent.

Penumbra did not know the room, but she knew that it did not belong to Zither Heartstrings. It was not the room of a knight; she did not know what it was meant for. The walls were covered in strange panels and diagrams, all of which were inscribed with strange, indecipherable diagrams and a type of geometric language that she had no hope of being able to read. Many desks held reams of velum, all filled with more notes both in crystallic and in whatever strange language was on the walls.

There were desks that held strange things. Penumbra recognized them as machines, but knew little beyond that. Many of them were linked into things and parts, and some of them had what appeared to be bones built into their components.

She approached one especially innocuous-looking machine on a desk and poked it. It immediately twitched and flickered, and a light appeared over it, a glow of text scrolling through the air in a vast projected diagram. Penumbra ran her hoof through it, finding that it was intangible magic of some sort. Like the rest, she was not able to read it; however, some of the symbols showed heavily stylized armored ponies, as well as a projection of a partial skeleton. Penumbra frowned, because the pony it belonged to must have been unusually short and squat.

As she stared at it, something generated a sound. It was not the voice of a bird but rather a horrid, clicking voice projected from with one of the machines. As it sounded, breakers fired and lights flashed on. The birds cried out in surprise and filled the air, casting deep shadows as they dashed before the bright white lights.

Penumbra blinked and looked around the room. It was enormous and round, and though partially lit, she was now able to see that it contained something enormous in its center.

She approached it, unsure what it was, or even what it was made of. It seemed to be a great disk, although it was incomplete; within it sat tens if not hundreds of thousands of amazingly intricate gears, all made from diverse metals but primarily of a particular unnamable silvery-white one. The machine was impossibly complex, and Penumbra could not guess its function in the slightest- -although as she grew near, she saw that at its very center there was a hole. A hole in the shape of a heart.

Confused, she reached up and touched a plate of the silvery metal. She cried out and pulled her hoof back, tearing off her boot as she did. Despite the iron armor, she had felt extreme heat in her hoof, and it seemed almost to have been burned.

Worse, though, the perfect silver of where she had touched began to darken- -and the darkness began to spread. Penumbra gasped, not knowing what to do- -and that was when she heard the ticking.

“NO!” screamed a voice. Penumbra turned sharply and beheld something truly horrible. It was flat and black, clad in feather-rimmed cloth and black armor. It was flattened and disproportionate, with no face apart from two tiny silver eyes on the edges of a flat, featurless helmet. In its chest sat a small, ticking thing made out of the same metal as the enormous machine; Penumbra supposed they were the same type of device.

The thing scuttled toward Penumbra. It had only four legs, but it seemed like it had more. Penumbra found it deeply repulsive.

“Get back!” she cried. “Stay AWAY!”

“The matrix! You’ve contaminated the matrix! The technetium- -do you have any idea what you have DONE?! You’ve set my work back months, YEARS!!”

“I- -I didn’t know- -”

“Get out get out get out! Filthy alicorn, GET OUT!!”

Penumbra backed away, not knowing what to do or what the sudden emotion running through her was. The thing approached her, and the disk in its chest began to shift and reconfigure. Strange yellow light began to come from it.

“Do not touch ANYTHING! If you will not leave, I WILL MAKE YOU!”

The creature leapt toward her and Penumbra screamed. She dodged and moved to block, but instead of jumping past her it had landed obliquely on the giant metal disk and stood there, horizontal against the vertical surface.

“I WILL EAT YOU!” it screamed, suddenly leaping down and chasing her.

Penumbra screamed and ran. The thing chased her. She could hear its legs drumming against the ground, and the ticking it made as it moved. At this point, her conscious mind had stopped, and for the first time, she was afraid.

Distantly, it occurred to her that Scarlet Mist had been right. Fear was everything: the greatest motivator, and a thing that she would do anything to escape from- -but Scarlet Mist had never told her how terrible it was, how horrible it felt, like a white-hot glow cutting deep inside her. It made her run, and she could not stop it even for a moment.

The birds swarmed down, cawing angrily at their master’s call. Penumbra escaped the room, but had to cover her head as the birds began to peck at her relentless. A few pulled her mane and tail.

“Stop, STOP! I didn’t mean to!”

She summoned a spell to push the birds away. It barely worked; she did not have the concentration necessary. She could not draw on her own fear, nor could she face it. The best she could do was manage to turn around and look.

Relief filled her when she saw that the horrid creature was gone- -but her fear returned with a vengeance when she looked up and saw that it was crawling fast across the ceiling above, keeping pace.

It screamed at her, but not in any pony language. Instead, it was a clicking screech, a horrible machine-like sound that made Penumbra’s spine tingle and her hair stand on end. She spread her wings and instinctively tried to fly, but no one had ever taught her how. All it did was give the birds feathers to pluck at.

“MY WINGS!”

“I will EAT YOUR WINGS! I will BASTE YOU IN YOUR OWN JUICES! How DARE YOU SABOTAGE ME?!”

Suddenly the lights flashed on. The creature dropped directly onto Penumbra; despite how scary it was, it was surprisingly light, and remarkably small compared to even her.

“My EYES! It BURNS!”

It flipped off her and skittered down the hall, bumping into conduits blindly along the way. Penumbra was relieved, and fell to the ground. Her legs felt like jelly. Once again, though, her relief was short, because a moment later the one who had turned on the light turned the nearest corner.

It was the most horrible thing Penumbra had ever seen, making the black insect-pony look sleek and kind in comparison. It was enormous, far bigger than a normal pony, but asymmetrical and strange. One limb was hypertrophy and distorted while the other was withered. There were no rear limbs; behind the thick bands of leather that dug deep into its pale, distorted flesh, it dragged its emaciated hips behind it.

The face, though, was unfathomably terrible. The skin was pulled back taught and held with metal clips. Hooks were placed around the eye and eyelids, forcing them open wider than they should have been able to stretch, even though the eyes were cloudy and blind. The mouth, likewise, was filled with sharp hooks that pulled back the lips into a hideous grin. Pieces of metal emerged from various places on its body, with deep scars forming up as the flesh began to overgrow them.

The insect-thing bumped into the larger creature, and it looked down, almost amused. The black one then slid up a wall and vanished behind the horror- -which only allowed it to turn its attention toward Penumbra.

It only stared at her, smiling its forced smile. It began to open its mouth to speak, but Penumbra did not give it a chance. She could not bear to hear the voice it might have, or to see it take another horrible step toward her on its asymmetrical limbs, to see its strange and unnatural muscles flex beneath leather and hooks. She ran, and ran as fast as she could.

There was no escape. The castle seemed to stretch forever, drawing her deeper and into darker, stranger places. Eternity Gaze had abandoned her. Penumbra knew that she was underground, and deep; parts of the hallways had begun to devolve into caves and abandoned mining tunnels. No one would ever find her, no one would ever come for her. She had to find her way out, but there was no way she could- -and she could not stop the fear.

All she could do was run. She did not cry, because she did not know how to, and she did not scream or lament, because she was not aware that those were options. She only panicked, riding it out until the panic began to fade.

When it did, she was on the verge of collapse. Neither of the horrors had followed her, but she was now impossibly lost. There were no thralls or crystal ponies this deep, and there was no clear way out, or even to get anywhere familiar.

Penumbra felt as though she should just lay down and give up. But, of course, she did not. She was the daughter of Sombra, the greatest unicorn who had ever lived. She knew that if she were to quit now, she would never be worthy to stand beside him. So she continued on, if only for a little longer.

And she came to a door. It was large, and made of metal. Penumbra stopped before it, not knowing what it was or where it went. She did not want to open it. The last time, there had been things on the other side she was not meant to see. There could be more behind this one- -but it was her only option, apart from continuing down and endless cavern to unknown and unseen places. At least a door meant that somepony was home. Hopefully.

She poked the door, but it did nothing.

“Um...open, please?”

The door still did nothing. Penumbra examined it closely, and saw that there was a pad next to it. She put her hoof on that, and although she felt nothing actuate, the door hissed and slid upward.

She stepped through it and shielded her eyes from the light. The room was brightly lit, though not to an extreme, and as Penumbra’s eyes adjusted she saw that it was the largest and tallest room she had ever seen in her entire life.

It seemed to extend onward forever, its ceiling supported by webwork columns and metal arches along the stone ceiling. The whole of it was bustling with hundreds upon hundreds of ponies, all of them moving amongst various machines or directing carts of supplies. All stood in the shadows of a line of vast metal things that looked like enormous, armored ponies.

Except that, as her eyes adjusted, Penumbra realized that the creatures bustling about and working were not ponies at all. They were not fearful creatures, though; they superficially resembled ponies of various sizes and shapes, but their bodies were made of metal instead of flesh. They were machines. They were golems.

Penumbra had not realized there were this many golems in the entire kingdom- -or that there were so many types. The enormous armored machines were, of course, a type of golem, but so were various smaller ones being assembled alongside them. Heavyset, squat golems pulled carts and trains full of resources while smaller, thinner ones were hard at work affixing plates and engines into their larger unborn brethren. Tiny, foal-like machines cavorted between the legs of the others, performing some unknown function with great energy.

A skeletal worker-golem nearly ran into Penumbra. It stopped in time, though, turning its head toward her. It had one large eye, and the pupil narrowed. It warbled at her, and then reversed direction.

Penumbra did not know what to do. These things were only mildly disturbing, and that was only because they moved exceedingly quickly and came in so many unfamiliar shapes. They did not seem outright threatening, though, and Penumbra at least had a basic understanding of what they were. So she did not immediately run- -but she did not feel safe, exactly, either.

A large, wide golem suddenly sprinted toward her, its tiny legs whirring at blinding speed. Although like most of them it seemed meant to resemble a pony, it really looked more like a disproportionate turtle. A turtle festooned with heavy weapons.

“Princess Penumba Heartbreak,” said a voice. Not an unpleasant voice, exactly, but one that seemed rather surprised. A small figure jumped from the top of the fast-moving golem as it was snatched up by a crane and brought off to somewhere else, its tiny legs still sprinting even as it was pulled away.

The figure quickly approached Penumbra, and she realized that it was, like the rest of them, a golem. Except, unlike the others, it was considerably more advanced, and so far as she could tell, it was the only one of its kind.

It almost looked like a pony. Its body had the same shape and proportions, and it had a surface that in places approximated skin. Parts of it were hard-shelled, though, and while it had two eyes, its face was quite obviously that of a machine. It was too stark and too angular to be anything else. At least it had two eyes, though, even if the pupils were clearly mechanical in nature. It was not assembled in the form of a unicorn, although some unreadable text had been carved into the plate that made up its forehead.

“I was not expecting you. Is this an inspection? I so rarely get guests. I have planned exactly nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-six possible tour routes, if you would like an annotated list- -”

Suddenly all the golems in proximity to Penumbra stopped moving. The main golem, their leader, focused on her, his mechanical pupils narrowing.

“Your pulse rate is fifty-two beats per minute, and your oxygen saturation is at eighty-five percent. You are respiring at two hundred twelve percent the predicted rate for your tiny size. Your mane is disheveled and you are missing your right front shoe. Also, you appear to have been pecked repeatedly by birds, possibly chickens. Or mauled by some manner of stoat. These parameters are associated with stress in ponies. Are you injured or in danger?”

“I am not injured.”

“I know. I scanned you while you were speaking. But you are currently stressed. The factory floor is not a conducive location for feeling secure for an organic.” The golem looked up. “In fact, considering it, I am not sure how you got in here. You appear to have entered through resource acquisition entry point seven eight four nine B. That route only leads to a depleted mining sector.”

“I came...I came from the castle, and I got lost.”

“Then it is actually connected? That is unexpected. I will dispatch several of myselves to find the hole and assess it for tactical and strategic weakness. Thank you for informing me of this potential breach of Citadel security. I would give you candy as a reward, but I have none. I am informed that organics are food-motivated.”

“What is...food?”

“That is a good question. I can answer it, but my main priority now is reducing your level of stress and restoring you to equilibrium. Also replacing your shoe. Your armor is tailored poorly. I will synthesize you a new set based on your current proportions.”

“You do not need to- -”

“With your permission, we will move to a quiet office space. Would that please you, princess?”

Penumbra had no idea what was going on. So she just nodded.

Comments

[alamais]

smol robutt frend?

[AppleTank]

>short and squat
Hello there, Exmoori