A Shimmering Intellect

by DungeonMiner

Chapter 24

Tinker Trot stared at his work. In the last few...hours? Days?

It has not been a long time.

Regardless, he decided to build stronger golems with fewer weaknesses that magic could exploit.

He wasn’t sure why, though. He needed to make sure they could be stopped if something went wrong, but—

A stronger golem proves your superiority.

Tinker couldn’t let someone show him up. What would happen if somepony dismantled a golem during a presentation? The humiliation would push back his work by decades, if not centuries.

He reached for his plate of food and found it empty.

“Prototype,” he called and was surprised by the sound of his own voice. It sounded dry, and his throat hurt as he used it. That couldn’t be right, though. Sunset and her guard had only been gone a week or so. His voice shouldn’t sound like that, especially since he’d been talking to Prototype the entire time.

There is no Prototype. Your genius did not require one.

He had probably just gotten lost in his work again and had not eaten or drunk anything lately. That wasn’t too strange. It was a nice throwback to his university days. He needed to get something to eat. He should make a smaller golem that could serve him meals while he worked. “It could even make sure I get to bed on time,” he thought, suppressing a yawn.

You are not tired. You are not hungry. You are not thirsty. You have to work.

Enough distractions. Tinker Trot couldn’t waste any more time. He had to work.

He finished his latest creation, and it stood, moving robotically toward the main room and out the door.

The fact that he didn’t give it any orders only seemed odd in his subconscious.

He took a second to feel proud of his accomplishment and was about to take a well-earned break.

There is no time. You need to present the best so that your work can be recognized.

There was no time like the present, though. The doctor really needed to push his work forward. Once he had enough stable golems, he could present them to the Princess and have an actual workshop.

He took a step back toward his workbench and stumbled.

We need to keep—

The sooner he was done, the sooner he could rub it in Professor Thesis’s face.

The Crystal pulled back, pleased that the doctor knew his place.

---♢---

“More golems are standing on the other side of the Thronestone, Princess,” a guard reported.

Twilight nodded, keeping an exterior of calm and control so complete that Night couldn’t help but be a little impressed. He wasn’t sure he could do the same, even when the guards needed it. “Keep a guard posted there. We must strike quickly if they figure out a way around the anti-magical field.”

“Yes, Princess.”

As the guard returned to the cave mouth with a fellow guard in tow, Night returned his attention to Twilight’s plan.

Twilight summoned parchment and drew out the rough layout of the cave. Sunset and Flash both offered everything they could remember about the cave and the tiny home the doctor built in its depths. The Princess stared at the diagram for another few moments before nodding. “Alright, here’s the plan,” she said.

Night looked up and put on his best “all business” look.

“We’re going to have to come in from two directions. Night and I will drill through the mountain to get to the Doctor and secure the gem. This whole thing stops once the gem is in a lead chest with some Thronestone. We’ll be the strike force there. That means the rest of you have to distract the golems.”

Night knew she’d do that. It was the best move.

“Now, with the Thronestone auras, you have places to retreat to for safety. Use these to your advantage, but be warned that unicorn magic cannot function in those same areas.”

Night nodded as he stood next to her. “Make sure to keep the cave mouth open. Don’t let the golems block your way out. We can’t help you if you’re stuck in there.”

“Also, be on the lookout for weaponry,” Twilight said. “From what I understand, these golems learn quickly. They might use any advantage they can earn to reach you in the antimagic fields. Use your own weapons to reach back.”

The guards nodded.

“Think you can manage that, Flash?” Night asked.

The pegasus gave him a weary but still somehow cocky smile. “I’ll make it work.”

Night grinned. “Glad to hear it. I’m trusting you, alright?”

“I heard you,” Flash said.

“Best of luck, my little ponies,” Twilight said. “Give us four minutes to start digging our way in, and bring everything you can.”

The guards and the two civilians nodded and gathered themselves for one more attack. And that left Night and Twilight not entirely alone, but they might as well have been. She looked at him, and he could see the hurt still in her eyes, hidden by the stoicism of her rulership. “Princess,” he said. “I’m ready when you are.”

She nodded. “Then let’s go. We only have a few minutes.”

With the pop of teleportation, they appeared over the cave, and Twilight got to work digging into the snow and rock beneath them. As Twilight moved the material behind them, a tunnel formed quickly, and within moments, they were inside the mountain.

“Twilight,” he said.

Twilight continued to dig.

“I need to talk to you,” he said.

“I’m listening,” she said, not looking at him and continuing to dig.

“It’s about when you called to speak with me,” Night said, “before I came out here.”

She kept digging.

“When you asked when something was wrong, I told you there wasn’t anything wrong,” he said. “And that was a lie.”

Twilight paused for a second.

“There is a problem, and I messed up by not telling you. I made you worry, and that’s my fault.”

“You made me worry?” she asked.

“And it led to more problems,” Night admitted, “and that was my fault.”

“Is…” Twilight began. “Is now the best time for this conversation?”

“No, but it needs to happen, and better sooner than later.”

Twilight stopped tunneling, and the two were stuck in a small pocket of air, surrounded by rock and stone. She stared at him, and Night became aware that he held Twilight’s full attention.

“Twilight, I think we made a mistake. I shouldn’t have been made Spymaster. I thought I could make it work, being in the court, but I’m not made for the court life. I just—”

“Wait…” Twilight began. “Are you worried you don’t fit in? Has that been the problem the whole time?”

Night blinked. “It’s not that I don’t fit in,” he said. “It’s that I’m not made for the court. I’m constantly uncomfortable, and I’m not used to dealing with the politics or how to react the best way, and—”

“Night, you’re learning,” Twilight said, almost with a laugh. “Of course, you’re uncomfortable or don’t always know what to do. That’s okay. Ponies very rarely do, but you can learn. Everypony can, just like everypony can change. It takes time, it takes effort, and it’s hard, but you can change.”

“I thought you’d say that. After hearing what Sunset was going through, I couldn’t help but think…” he trailed off and took a shuddering breath. “I…I don’t think I can change, though..”

“Do you want to change?” Twilight asked. “Do you want to stay with me in Canterlot?”

He did. He really did.

Night nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I just need you to promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“Then, as long as you don’t give up, I won’t either, okay?”

“Okay,” he said before forcing himself to smile. “Good talk, right?”

“Yes,” Twilight said with a laugh. “It’s a very good talk. Now let’s go save Equestria.”

“As the Princess wishes, so it shall be.”

---♢---

Doctor Tinker Trot kept working, making yet another golem.

He felt like he’d been making a lot of them recently.

You need to make as many as you can.

He had so much to do and so many goals to make, and he needed to work hard. He finished forming a club for one of the golems, though he wasn’t sure why.

To show how good they are at using tools.

The utility could prove precisely what his golems need to prove themselves to Princess Twilight. Once the doctor did that and received the recognition he deserved, Tinker Trot could work in a proper laboratory with assistants and tools that he could count on and someone who could get him something to eat.

You are not hungry. You can’t waste time.

There was such a weird feeling in his stomach. He wasn’t hungry, but it felt like he was, and it was so distracting. He couldn’t afford to think about it right now. He needed to finish this work, and whatever was going on in his stomach was a distraction he couldn’t afford.

He finished another golem, which was done in record time, and sent it out before he started working on the next one.
And that’s when the wall exploded open.

---♢---

The Doctor wasn’t really what Night was expecting.

He looked tired, with bags under his eyes, and the ribs visible under his fur spoke of not eating for days, if not weeks.
Night watched Twilight’s carefully planned surgical strike falter and break apart as she stared at a pathetic-looking stallion. Her heart won out over her anger, and Night could see that. “Doctor Tinker Trot?” Twilight called. “Doctor, I need you to stop what you’re doing and come with me.”

The doctor’s eyes were unfocused, and Night could tell he wasn’t seeing anything anymore.

“Who are you?” the doctor demanded, furious. “How did you get in here?”

“Doctor Trot,” Twilight said. It’s me, Princess Twilight.”

“Do you take me for a fool?” the doctor roared. “I know what the Princess looks like, and you’re not her.”

Night slipped backward into the shadow, watching and moving.

“Doctor, the Crystal is changing your perception. It’s manipulating you.”

“That’s ridiculous. The Crystal can’t be manipulating me. I’m the one exerting control.”

“Doctor, you’ve fused it to your own brain. It can alter everything going on in your brain. It’s keeping you from recognizing me. You need to realize that.”

“I am in control!” the Doctor yelled. “You are trespassing.”

The Intellect Crystal began to glow in the back of the doctor’s skull as it filled the doctor with every spell that ever existed.

“Please don’t,” Twilight whispered.

Doctor Trot unleashed on her, throwing a fireball that could have rivaled the Sun.

Twilight answered by Destroying the spell outright before she responded in kind with her own, Controlling the stone around the Doctor to open up and swallow him whole. He picked himself up, hovering over the pit with telekinesis, and floated backward to solid ground. Even as he fell backward, the Doctor cast again, unleashing a lightning bolt that threatened to tear through the Princess.

She answered by forming a lightning rod in the wall beside her that swallowed the lighting whole. “Please, stop. We don’t need to fight.”

“You won’t steal my work!” the Doctor roared. “It’s mine! It’s all mine!” He exploded into brilliant light, lightning, and flames shooting out in a brilliant radiance. Twilight encased herself in a bubble of energy, which morphed into a tendril of energy that tried to wrap around Doctor Trot, but he also Destroyed the spell.

“Please, stop,” she asked, her voice still carrying in the chaos despite the hurt echoing in her voice.

“You won’t stop me! You can’t stop me, I refuse to—”

And that’s when Night decided enough was enough and opened the lead box.

The spells that the doctor was about to unleash stopped. His eyes snapped into focus as they saw the Princess for the first time. The doctor blinked wildly and glanced around, noticing Night standing behind him, ten feet away, with his lead chest of Thronestone.

“Wh-what happened?” he asked.

“You’ve been under the control of the crystal you stuck into your skull,” Night said casually.

“You’re still…still going on about that?” the Doctor said, hesitating. His confidence had been shattered, but he couldn’t admit to the truth.

“When was the last time you ate?” Night asked.

The silence from the doctor spoke volumes.

“Your golems killed a lot of ponies, Doctor.”

“That’s impossible,” he said.

“It’s not,” Twilight said, slowly approaching the doctor.

The doctor looked between them. “I…I couldn’t have.”

“You did,” Night said.

“But it doesn’t matter now,” Twilight said. “With the golems no longer connected to the Crystal, they should stop, and the guards should be safe.”

The door to the laboratory slammed open, and a golem stood in the passage, a club in one hand raised to smash on anything it could see.

Night reached out and covered the mouths of both Twilight and the Doctor. “Quiet, both of you. They shouldn’t be able to see us in the antimagic.”

“They shouldn’t be working right now,” Twilight whispered. “I don’t understand!”

The golem moved to the center of the room, searching for them.

“They’re autonomous,” the doctor whispered. “They’re made to be.”

Night sighed. “Well, at least they can’t network anymore.”

---♢---

Sunset stood in the gap between two auras of Thronestone, a spell hanging on her horn. She shot it out at the closest golem, taking direct control and slamming it into the golem to the left.

As the hit golem reeled, Sunset had the golem she was controlling drop to the ground just in time for the guards to swarm it. They pried the golem apart as Sunset rewired the golem coming after the attacking ponies, turning it around to run straight into a wall.

“Pull back!” Flash yelled. “Regroup for another attack.”

The guards pulled back to the Thronestone, and the golems tried to push forward, now armed with clubs and throwing boulders. The constructed monsters’ wild aim forced the guards behind a wall Sunset erected just outside the cave. So far, they’d done a great job of distracting them, and it appeared that the golems had somehow lost their ability to aim in the Thronestone, but they couldn’t keep going at this rate.

“Shouldn’t the Princess have gotten the Crystal by now?” one of the guards asked.

“Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t,” Flash said. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that we still have golems in there, and we have to stop them.”

He received a nod in response, and the guards gathered themselves for another assault.

“Keep the golems at a distance. They have weapons now but don’t seem able to aim while we’re next to the Thronestone. As long as we stay close to those, we should be able to work them down. Once they get inside the aura, we tear them apart.”

Sunset smirked. “Flash!”

“Yeah?” he asked, coming over.

“Your plan’s good, but we’re going to change one thing.”

“What’s your idea?”

“I’m going to try and get a hold of a second box, and we’ll use it to go on the offensive. We can have the guards come in and tear them apart once we catch them.”

Flash smiled. “Have we ever been this synced?”

Sunset laughed.

“Get that rock, and we’ll make it work!” Flash said.

Sunset rolled her neck and smiled.

This…this is what she needed.

“Ready!” Flash called, standing in front of the guards.

She smiled and rushed the first Thronestone aura, dodging an incoming stone catapulting her way. On the way, she cast Transform Mind on the nearest golem. She first rewrote the entire sensory structure of the creature, and when she noticed that the Intellect Crystal didn’t stop her, she decided to go a step further. Locating the image processing crystal, she reversed them entirely.

As the golem turned on his allies, Sunset made a break for it, rushing for one of the spring-loaded chests and scooping up the Crystal with her hoofs. Sunset moved her Thronestone shard back toward the cave mouth as the golems tried to stop the confused construct.

“Move up!” Flash yelled. “Don’t give the golems a chance to breathe!”

The guards rushed in, and one of the golems reacted to the sound by throwing a boulder at the incoming ponies, but it soared harmlessly over their heads.

“Alright!” Flash yelled. “Forward on my mark!”

Sunset, holding the stone up, rushed the closest golem.

“Now!”

The guards followed close behind, staying within the Thronestone’s reach until Sunset enveloped one of the golems. It dropped to the ground, lifeless, only to be set upon by the guards. They started tearing it apart, digging spears into the joints, and separating its limbs from its body.

“Is it working?” Flash asked.

“So far! Let’s go for another one! Follow me!”

She approached the next golem, and it, too, fell. The guards worked quickly, tearing it apart, and that was when the cave’s back wall exploded outward.

Twilight stood in the open gap before throwing a golem arm into the others, many of whom were still turning to see what was happening.

“I am tired of all of you,” Twilight growled.

Sunset charged to the next golem, and the guard followed her, disassembling that one.

“Not a bad strategy, kids,” Night said, looking over Twilight’s shoulder.

“Where’s the doctor?” Flash asked.

“Super arrested. It’s just time to clean up these guys.”

“Well, if you want to take over, just let us know!” Sunset said.

“I’ll do it. Give me a second,” Twilight said before her horn began to glow. Magic burst into the cave, and golems dropped as Twilight Destroyed all the magic around her, cutting everything off.

The golems all dropped, hitting the ground together in a synchronized thud.

“Alright,” Twilight said. “Now, I don’t want to hear about anypony’s problems for the next hour,” she said before falling asleep on the spot.

Comments

[Thyrrnatf]

Bad ass powerfull Twilight

great chapter