Ave Deus Mechanicus: On Equestria

by PleaseDoNotDeleteMe

Uplink Twelve: Escape I

•+•

Like most of the time, Sugar Dancer was alone in the dark with the buzzing. He tried several times to block it out. Covering his ears, screaming at the top of his lungs, hitting his head against the wall. It was all pointless, the tone was inside his mind already. Worming around his thoughts like a parasite. A part of him, inside his very soul. Currently he sat in a corner matching the pitch with his own voice, as he has done many times.

He could have been asleep, he slept with one eye open now, not by choice, his right eye was now permanent held open with a simple drip providing moisture.

There was no way of telling how long it had been since he was taken. Could have been years for all he knew. It wouldn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was the banging coming from the door.

For a few heart beats he thought it was imaginary, then the door began to bow inward. Of course this could have also been a hallucination as well. But after that the door came crashing down kicking up a cloud of dust. Standing their was none other than the element of loyalty her self, Rainbow Dash. Badly bruised and with bandages rapped around her abdomen.

“Oi, you.” She said pointing a hoof in his direction. I took his wet ware a few more heart beats to recognize he was the one being selected.

“Yes you, you see anyone else in here?”

Sugar Dancer shook his head from side to side.

Rainbow Dash cursed then looked around.

“Alright, you’re coming with me that a problem?”

“No.” Said the stallion in a slightly scratchy voice, it had been ninety thousand, three hundred and fifty seven, point eight eight repeating seconds since he last had water.

As they turned a corner, a lightly augmented robed figure blocked their path holding an iron tray on top of which lay a single apple and a steel bowl of copper tasting water, Rainbow Dash tackled the adept, knocking them out and spilling the water on the floor.

“Let’s go, hurry.” The mare ordered.

The two equines galloped further down the hall.

~~~

After they left, the low ranking adept reached into their robes and pulled out a palm sized device. Mumbling a quick hymn they held down the activation stud at the top till their thumb was red, only releasing when a single high pitched chime resounded from the device. Lastly they prostrated them self and began reciting the three prayers of forgiveness back to back until a higher ranking adept would show up and ask them to explain why they activated their device.

~~~

To put it simply, Rainbow Dash was not having a good day. Not that the past few months have been particularly pleasant. Originally she was sent by the soon to be ruler of Equestria, her long time friend Twilight Sparkle to investigate the recent disappearances near the Everfree Forest. Given she lost a wing and had to be nursed back to health by the very alien robot creatures doing the fillynapping, that obviously didn’t go as she planed. Once she was able to walk again, the cyan athlete hatched a plan to escape her cell. One even she was surprised worked. But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. All that mattered was getting out of here. And of course, keeping the heavily tortured stallion she found alive as long as possible. Given the state of his body, she could only imagine whatever he had gone through was far worse than anything she experienced. They where just beginning to stick bits of metal into her wing stump, but him on the other hoof, the pony's body was covered in plugs, his mane was shaved and one of his eyelids was removed completely. On top of that he appeared malnourished, how he was keeping pace with her, if slightly behind was a miracle, but none of mattered. They needed to find a way out.

Continuing down the corridor Rainbow Dash found that she could run for far longer than she could normally, which was still a substantial amount. Along with that, whenever she jumped it was always much higher than she suspected. The mare had no clue where they were now, but for whatever reason her body felt incredible light. Their were still no windows, but they must be incredibly high up she suspected.

Her current plan was to take the stallion she rescued, find the nearest ledge to the outside and jump hopefully landing on some soft clouds.

However even finding a window in this place was proving to be as easy as telling Pinkiepie she couldn't have any sugar.

Every corridor they turned just lead to another, with no map it was impossible to tell if they were headed to the edge or deeper into the boules of this metal labyrinth.

Occasionally they came across another red hooded construct. However they always seamed busy with something else, making them very easy to sneak past or in some cases knock out.

After entering yet another metal door in the hopes it was an exit, they instead found themselves on a grated bridge stretching across a vast iron chamber filled with various glowing shelves. Rainbow Dash guessed this was some kind of library for them. They made their way over the grated floor trying to make as little sound as possible to not alert the red hooded creatures below. Most didn’t have as much metal as the beings they saw before. Indeed a great number were even rather plane looking compared to the wild tentacle and spider monsters that patrolled the area they left. Though some still did have the occasional extra claw arm or three.

Not even half way across, the door behind them slid open and a group of warriors emerged. Several had those odd stick things, but a few behind were double their height and had their upper limbs pinned behind their backs. The leader one carried a mace in one hand, and brass and steel cylinder made of smaller cylinders in the other. Without a word be pointed the maw at them, and the ninja like tall ones leapt over their brethren. Their tiny hooves landed almost magnetically on the side railing. All four of them removed their upper limbs from their backs, brandishing black humming swords Rainbow Dash recognized all to well.

With reflexes matching her own, the slicing androids dashed forward closing the distance in mere blinks, with little time, and no other options Rainbow Dash grabbed the other pony and pushed both him and her self off the edge under the railing, just in time as the vibrating sword cut off a tuff of her tail.

The two ponies fell to the library below.

••++

Connection reestablished

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Auto shunt found
Designation: Cassius
Rank: Arch Magos
Location: Byzantium Specimen Observation Bridge

Uplink successful

+The Dragon Sleeps+

Biologus Shearia still wore the the dress made for her by the equinus xenos, as she typed on her data pad. She hadn’t spoken a word since Arch Magos Cassius had asked his original question 10.36 minutes ago, so he repeated himself.

“How did the specimen escaped Biologii?”

Shearia let out a long sigh.

“One of my acolytes opened the window to feed Specimen: 12457 when he noticed she was not in her cell." She finally explained sounding annoyed "In panic he forgot himself and opened the door, only for 12457 to then swing down from the door frame where she was hiding and knock out the adept.”

The biologus shifted unfortunately then continued on.

“Once freed Specimen 12457 made their way down the hall looking for others to help, the only one being Specimen: 12445.”

Had Cassius possessed teeth then he likely would have been grinding them in annoyance at that moment.

“What usefully knowledge were you able to gain before they escaped?” Cassius asked looking to take his mind off his subordinates failure at containing the xeno.

“Ohh a great deal!” She said exited. “For one, though their flesh appears soft, it’s actually all muscle thanks to their home worlds heightened gravity their bodies are incredibly durable.” She scrolled down her notes on the data pad.

“Along with that, their dialect is also quite fascinating, they replaced the noun for singular with the noun for their species.” she then scrolled through more of her notes happy to take her mind off the mater of this containment breach “Finally Specimen 12457 was truly fascinating, possessing a unique energy field frequency that, among other things, made her immune mind scarabs—“

“MIND SCARABS!” Cassius interrupted, his rage overtaking his mind.

“Uhhh, did I say ‘Mind Scarabs?’” Shearia’s face was now visibly perspiring. “What I meant was, umm, neural plu— *UUuuuuuuuuuugh* *Gasp* *Hhhugghghggbhg*”

Before she could utter another word, one of Cassius’s many mechadendrites had rapped around her throat and was lifting her up off the ground.

“You dared to bring Necron tech aboard my ship!?” He squeezed even tighter, bringing her mostly organic face so close to his all metal one, he could see it reflected in her eye. “Choose your next words with exceptional care.”

He then looses his grip just enough to allow her a single gulp of O2 before she uttered:

“I’m... not.... the only one...in this chamber... who has sinned.”

Cassius threw her against a wall in disgust, all Shearia could do was laugh as she sat up.

“Yes, I still know the real reason you ran away from Mars.” The white robbed broke out into a giggling fit yet again before it descended into coughing.

“This doesn’t concern that.”

“Even if it didn’t the Mechanicus is full of those who don’t follow the rules.” Shearia finally stood up again. “Fash couldn’t be more obvious in his Xenorites beliefs. The Eldar have had hover tanks for millennia and Cawl just so happens to ‘invent’ some after an alliance is formed? For Omnissiah’s sake; the Lord Commander of the Imperium li—“

A hand smacked across her face and finally the Mechanicus medic shut her heretical lips before she further damned herself.

“Apologies my lord I was... I got carried away there.”

Cassius turned to leave but Shearia called out to him.

“Answer me this.” She began “Apart from me, Catherine was the only other one to have known the truth. Will...” The magos biologus paused fighting back tiny tears “Will I meet her same fate?”

Cassius didn’t respond. Instead he just left her alone.

Uplink Interrupted

Author's Note:

This is the chapter I've wanted to write most since starting this story. And I'm breaking it into pieces.

Once again, like in Contact, this was originally one chapter. However it was taking me longer than expected to write and I figured this was a good stopping place for now rather than making everyone wait another two months for what happens next. See you next time.

Comments

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

Sheesh! That Shearia is gonna get herself killed due to speaking too much.