Eviction Notice

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Alex scrambled for as many items as he possibly could. He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d need, but he grabbed whatever he felt he might need, as well as some other, more pointless doo-dads. The ground vibrated as the sound of an explosion entered his ears.

“Rose, what the hell is going on out there?” Alex said into his ear piece while absent-mindedly grabbing his phone off his old personal desk, which he used surprisingly rarely.

“The intruders have breached the elevator shaft and the security bots are engaging them. They have sustained heavy casualties but more keep coming and more bots are requesting repair,” the synthetic, yet clearly feminine voice of his AI chimed into his ear.

“How many more…?” he asked non-specifically as the reality of the situation started to dawn on him.

“Either way, too many.”

Alex took a fruitless moment to try to calm himself down. This is bad, he thought. This is very, VERY bad. He pressed the button on his ear piece once more. “What are our options looking like?”

“Honestly, we don’t have very many. If this keeps up, escape doesn’t look possible.”

Well gee, that sure as hell helps…

Alex’s mind raced through all possible manners of getting himself out. Fact of the matter is, he had worked tirelessly to put together a secret underground research facility for him to work on whatever he wanted undisturbed. Or rather, he built a few mining and construction bots to work tirelessly for him. The entire laboratory was a simple design: A single elevator shaft led from the surface to the main entrance hall which connected to the large central chamber that housed countless terminals, holographic projectors, and manufacturing stations. Hanging from center of the room was the large chassis that was his super computer and AI, Rose.

Alex continued to weigh his options, realizing that simply walking out of the one and only entrance wasn’t one of them. Double checking to make sure he didn’t forget any knickknacks, he grabbed his Go-Bag next to the door of his private quarters and ran up the stairs to the central chamber above.

His Go-Bag contained what he thought were the most important things he would need if he had to bug out, such as well-preserved food and water, a few crucial electronics such as a solar-powered laptop of his own design, and more importantly: a Link Gun with plenty of spare ammo, the same kind his security bots used. The gun was, for all intents and purposes, a rapid-fire plasma rifle. Almost a meter in length, the barrel of the gun was composed of four white plates that protected the mechanism inside and automatically parted just enough to allow it to fire properly when needed. He never thought he would actually have to use the weapon, but he was glad he prepared one anyway.

Alex entered the central chamber, where the vague sound of plasma gunfire was coming from behind a blast door on the other side of the room. What in the hell are these things, anyway?

Rose's titanic chassis pivoted from looking at the blast door to looking at him. Her body was composed of three different segments which could largely be considered a head, torso, and abdomen. Her "abdomen" was connected to a large mechanism in the ceiling and her head hung the lowest, possessing a single glowing blue eye with a large metal iris. Each part was connected by a series of wiring and hydraulics, giving the AI a much more animated presence. Although Rose didn’t actually display emotion, Alex could tell that she was just as worried as he was.

“Do you have a plan?” she said using her own voice instead of speaking through the ear-piece.

Alex let out a breath and rubbed his chin in thought. There’s only one way out…

“Yeah… Rose…” he started saying, walking over to a nearby terminal. “I want you to power up the teleporter, and… and…” He was caught on his own words. He breathed deeply to try to calm himself. “…and… initiate the Omega protocol.”

Rose’s iris shrunk. “Alex, you know the teleporter is only a prototype! We still haven’t had a chance to test it! And the Omega protocol…” Rose, to Alex’s surprise, was unable to finish her sentence. An explosion from behind the blast door caught their attention.

“Rose, we don’t exactly have a choice here! Also…” he paused, making sure he had her attention. “I want to make a change to the protocol. Once you’re done everything, I want you to transfer all our data, and then yourself onto this drive,” he finished as he began plugging in a specialized hard drive he had snagged from downstairs.

Alex was proud of his inventions and his ability with technology. He designed virtually everything in his lab which was quite possibly a century before its time. It was one of the reasons he kept it underground and hidden. At least, it used to be hidden.

“A hard drive?!” Rose exclaimed. “Alex, you know how much I hate tho-”

“Now REALLY isn’t the time to complain, Rose!” he barked. “We need to get the hell out of here, and honestly, I don’t want to leave you. I don’t even want to think about it!” A mixture of fear and sadness shook his voice, almost to cracking.

Neither said a word for a moment until Rose finally spoke. “Beginning transfer.”

“Thank you.” Alex was relieved, but sentimental relief only went so far when death was practically beating down your door. “I’m gonna go check on the teleporter, see if I can get it to put us somewhere that won’t kill us.”

“I’m still skeptical of that thing. For all I know we’re jumping out of the pan and into the fire.”

“Tell me, Rose, would you rather stay in the pan and burn or take a chance and live to continue our work?” Technically, it was his work, but he always saw Rose as his assistant, or even his equal.

She briefly turned to face the blast door, the fight on the other side still raging on. She knew the numbers, and she knew they were losing. “I see your point.”

“Good. Glad we see eye to eye on this. Anyway, fire it up, I’ll see what I can manage with it. In the meantime, you know what to do.”

“Of course.”

Alex left the console and turned to enter a nearby door. The teleporter room was sizable, but not overly large and complicated. The control console was close to the door with the teleporter itself some distance on the other side of the room. An assortment of pointed devices composed the entirety of the wall on the opposite side.

The way it worked was that they were all pointed at a single point in space: the focus. Once powered and tuned, it would create a portal that the user simply had to jump through. At least, that was the idea. Alex didn’t know if it would actually work, but it was the only chance he had. He also had no idea of where to go.

This “invasion” had come out of nowhere. Humanity didn’t see it coming and he had no idea if anywhere was safe. Here clearly wasn’t, so anywhere was better in his mind. Alex programmed it to teleport him to the other side of the country in a more or less remote location. At least, that’s what he thought he did. For the first time in a long time, he admittedly knew that he didn’t know what he was doing. Just as Rose promised, the device began to activate as the wormhole slowly began to open. What he did know, however, was that it would be a while until it was actually safe to enter.

Alex returned to the central chamber. “How’s the transfer coming along?”

“Almost done. I’m surprised that it’s going so quickly despite the amount of information I need to transfer.”

“Made it myself a while back. You’re welcome.”

“And you didn’t hurt yourself doing it? I’m even more surprised now!” Rose mused, seemingly forgetting the looming threat.

“Actually, I did, but that’s not the point!”

“Of course it’s not…” Rose poked. “But on a more serious note, are you sure you want to initiate the Omega protocol and abandon everything? We could be losing everything for nothing!”

Alex hung his head. “Rose, this isn't a fight that we're winning. You know the protocol; it has to be done.”

“You’re absolutely positive?” she asked again, obviously hesitant.

Alex slammed his fist against the terminal. “Dammit, Rose, you’re not some copy of Windows 98! Yes I’m sure!”

“Alright, alright. No need to get angry.”

“Sorry, but I’m really stressed right now!”

“And I completely understand that, but I think self-control is important at a time like this. Oh! The transfer’s done.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He sped to the entrance of the teleporter room and looked inside. Still not ready…

“You’ve automated the teleporter, right?”

“Everything is in place.”

“Good. Initiate the protocol, transfer yourself and let’s get the hell out of here.”

Almost instantly, the lights dimmed and a deep red light filled the room. An alarm began to ring and an automated voice, distinctly different from that of Rose, boomed throughout the entire room: WARNING: POWER-CORE OVERLOAD IN TEN MINUTES. EVACUATE THE PREMISIS AND ATTAIN A MINIMUM DISTANCE OF SEVENTY KILOMETERS.

Alex walked back to the hard drive and started to wait until the data transfer light on it stopped blinking.

*BANG*

He immediately turned towards the source of the noise: The blast door. Oh shit, they’re starting to beat down the door! Meanwhile, Rose’s chassis hung limply from the ceiling. Without her voice or the security bots, Alex started to notice just how alone he really was.

*BANG*

Shit, shit, SHIT! He hopped from one foot to the other impatiently. Come on you stupid light, hurry up!

*BANG*

The light continued blinking. Oh no, it’s ok, just keep taking your SWEET. FUCKING. TIME.

*BAANG*

The last bang was even louder than the others. Something big must have been pounding on the blast door now and it was starting to show large dents.

*BAANG*

Alex unslung his Go-Bag from his back and removed his Link Gun, making sure it was loaded.

*BAANG*

He quickly re-strapped his Go-Bag onto his back.

*BAANG*

The dents in the door became more prominent with each strike. Staying behind the terminal, he pointed his gun at it, anticipating whatever monstrosity was coming after him.

*BAANG*

A section of the door ruptured, a monstrous roar snaking its way through it. Alex glanced at the hard drive again. It had stopped blinking. Well about fucking time!

*BAANG*

Alex pocketed the hard drive and ran towards the teleporter room, taking a brief glance at the blast door. A large, bony horn had pierced through brutally dented blast door. Alex was able to hear the grunts of whatever creature it belonged to as it tried to pry its horn free. He rushed into the room and locked the bulkhead behind him. It isn’t a blast door, but at least it’ll buy me a bit of time.

He ran to the middle of the room between the opening portal and the door. The portal, looking like a glowing orange ball of light and electricity, still didn’t look safe to go through. Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework-

“WARNING: CORE OVERLOAD IN NINE MINUTES.” Alex never imagined that a single minute could feel like forever.

He heard a final bang and crash from the main chamber as whatever it was that was in there finally broke down the blast door and started stampeding through all his hardware. He cringed at the mental image of all of his stuff getting destroyed by that… thing.

He held the gun up at shoulder height and aimed at the door. Maybe it didn’t see me come in? Maybe it doesn’t know I’m in here?

The thought was ripped from his mind as a large dent was produced in the door in front of him. Oh come the fuck on! He glanced back at the portal. Still orange, though slightly greenish. HURRY THE FUCK UP!

The sound of bending and creaking metal drew his attention back to the door. Some sort of large and brutish humanoid was trying to pry the door open, although the dent that was already in it made the endeavor difficult. Without a second thought, Alex began shooting at it. Bolts of bright green plasma began shooting out the end of the Link Gun. He wasn’t sure if he was hurting the intruder, but he definitely wasn’t going to make its job any easier.

He stopped shooting, seeing that the creature had backed off. At least I bought myself some time. Looking back at the portal, he saw that it had become slightly greener.

Bringing his attention back to the door, he realized he didn’t hear a single thing coming from the other side. The silence was brutally unnerving. At least until the floor suddenly began to tremble. What the hell…?

Before he was able to comprehend what he was experiencing, a large horned creature, whose head more closely resembled a giant shield made of bone, crashed through the teleporter room door, demolishing it with a deafening roar.

“OH FUCK!” Alex yelled involuntarily before turning and running towards the now pure green portal. I don’t know if green means go, but I sure hope it does!

Gripping his weapon as tight as he could, he sprinted towards his only hope. With a final leap of faith, the supposed portal consumed him before disappearing without a trace.

The trotting sound of a concerned and confused Twilight Sparkle could be heard throughout the Ponyville library as she paced back and forth. It wasn’t long before the front door swung open.

“Twilight?” called Spike. “I got Fluttershy for you.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Spike. Could you, uhh… occupy yourself for a little bit? I kinda need to talk to Fluttershy alone. I don’t wanna include you in this until we know what’s going on. Maybe you can visit Rarity, see if she needs help with anything?” She smiled hopefully.

“Huh? Are you sure?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, Spike. I just want to get things sorted out, and I promise, you’ll know as soon as they are.”

“Alright, if you say so,” he finished as he hopped out the door.

Once the door was closed, the Fluttershy turned towards Twilight. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?” The concern of her friend was clearly rubbing off on her.

Twilight shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I think it’ll be easier if I just show you,” she said as she led Fluttershy up the stairs to her bedroom. When they entered her room, she simply pointed at something sleeping in her bed. “That.”

Fluttershy carefully walked up to the sleeping mass to get a closer look. “Huh… I’ve never seen anything like it…” It was an animal alright, but she couldn’t identify it for the life of her.

“Really?” asked Twilight. “But I thought you knew all sorts of different kinds of animals.”

“Well… um… I do. It’s just… I’ve never seen something like this,” she whispered carefully. “How did you find him?”

“I heard something in the basement this morning. When I went to go see what it was, I found this. From the looks of things, it looked like it fell down the stairs.”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy’s maternal instincts suddenly kicked into overdrive. “Was he hurt? Bruises? Sprains? Broken bones?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. I didn’t know what to do since I’ve never seen anything like this before, myself, so I just asked Spike to go get you right away. I was hoping you’d know something.”

“Oh… I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful, Twilight…”

“It’s ok, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, waving a hoof to dispel any potential disappointment her friend may have felt from her. “But since you’re here, maybe you might want to see if it is injured?”

“Oh, of course!” Fluttershy exclaimed, picking up her original train of thought.

Fluttershy tip-hoofed to the dormant visitor to get a better look at him. Ever so gently, she removed the bed sheet but stopped once she saw that the unknown creature was clothed. However it didn’t look like it was wearing any dress Twilight owned. It immediately puzzled her.

“He has clothes…” she whispered.

“Yeah…” Twilight responded, keeping her own voice low for fear of waking up her 'house guest.' “It also had a big bag on its back and some sort of weird object next to it.” She pointed towards said objects leaning against a nearby wall.

“That’s strange… Twilight, I think this might be a civilized creature. Oh! Not that I think that critters can’t be civilized, but… um… you know…”

The unicorn nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. If it came from some kind of civilization, it would explain why it has all this stuff with it. But I wanted you here since I couldn’t discount it being dressed up by somepony else. I also have no idea if it’s dangerous or not.”

Fluttershy flinched at the word. “D-d-dangerous? D-do you think we should get Rainbow Dash?”

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” Twilight comforted her friend. “It’s asleep. And hey, I’m here in case things get out of hoof.”

“O-okay…”

Fluttershy moved the bed sheet further back to get a better view. She had to remove his clothing to check for any injuries, but there was only one problem: she didn’t know how. She leaned over him to get a better look at the cloth that covered his chest. Making sure he was still asleep, she nudged him a little bit with her hoof. Her eyes grew wide and she froze when he inhaled sharply through his nose and mumbled incoherently to himself. She glanced at her friend, eyes pleading for help. Twilight only indicated with her hoof to keep going. Holding her breath, Fluttershy decided to go for broke. She grabbed his clothing in her mouth and tugged.

Originally feeling warm, Alex suddenly started to feel a draft. He didn’t care, though. He was still sleeping comfortably. He felt a slight nudge to his shoulder. Dammit, Rose, not yet… I’m still asleep…

He woke with a start when he suddenly felt a sharp tug on his shirt and his eyes automatically sprung open, only to be met with an equally startled azure gaze.

“AAHHH!” He threw himself back and off the bed, landing flat on his back. “Uuurrrgghhh… dammit…” he wheezed.

“Eeep!” squeaked Fluttershy as she bolted behind Twilight with lightning speed.

Alex groaned in pain as he held his now very sore back. Painful bruises introduced themselves and made his rude awakening even more unpleasant. Fighting through the pain, he grabbed the edge of the small bed to lift himself, hoping to see whatever it was that woke him up.

Twilight placed herself between her friend and the unknown animal. Hearing his groans and pained effort to lift himself up, she started to dismiss the “dangerous” theory.

When he finally managed to lift the upper half of his body above the bed, Alex only stared at the two colorfully odd looking individuals across from him. He had never seen anything quite like them and wasn’t quite sure how to react. He quickly eyed his surroundings and, based on the decorum, concluded that he wasn’t under any immediate threat.

After several uncomfortable seconds of awkward silence, Twilight cleared her throat. “Um… hello there?”

Alex blinked at her for several seconds. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the purple alien-horse-looking-thing speaking pure and plain English to him, but the pain wracking his body refused to let his brain think further on it. Eventually, he groaned out a response. “Well hello to you too…”

Twilight’s interest suddenly grew. “Wait, you can speak Equestrian?”

“If by Equestrian, you mean English, then yeah, it seems we speak the same language,” he replied, hoisting himself back onto the bed with a great deal of effort. “Which is actually pretty convenient, all things considered…”

This was so exciting! Twilight had absolutely no idea where to start! So many questions to ask, so many potentially mind blowing answers, so many-

“How did I get here?” Alex beat her to it.

“Oh! I, uh... found you in my basement,” she said, thrown a little off guard by the sudden question.

“In your basement?” he asked with genuine confusion in his voice.

“Yeah, it looked like you fell down the stairs.”

“Fell down the stairs? But how would I… wait…” Alex trailed off as he tried to remember what happened right after he went through the portal. The only memories he could draw up involved darkness, falling, lots of sharp edges, and pain. “Huh… that actually explains a lot…”

“Ok, but that’s where I found you. How did you get in my basement in the first place?

Memories of the destruction of his laboratory suddenly began to fill his mind. He clenched his eyes, trying to will the images and sound away. The ponies, seeing his distress, preserved the silence. He took his time, but he finally responded.

“There was… some kind of attack on my home… I tried to fight them back, but it was a losing fight… I realized that the only way out was with a… a teleporter I had recently built, but… I had no idea if it would work or not. Seems like it did…” He paused and let out a light chuckle. “I’m actually surprised I’m still alive.”

“An attack? What do you mean? Who attacked you?” She rattled out, temporarily overlooking the mention of a teleporter.

“Aliens, monsters, I have no idea. All I know is… they destroyed everything…”

“I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy finally said, coming out from behind Twilight.

Alex looked up to see the same azure eyes that stared straight at him the moment he woke up. His ears welcomed the kind and gentle voice.

“Did they hurt you?” She continued.

“They didn’t hurt me, no,” he said, his mood audibly picking up. “But my back hurts like hell, I have a monster head-ache, and I feel bruised nine ways to Sunday. Nothing feels broken, though, so I guess I have that…”

“I can take a look at your injuries if you want…”

Something about the yellow horse-thing’s voice calmed him. He could even swear he felt the pain numb a little. “Um… sure… I guess I wouldn’t mind that…”

Fluttershy walked nervously over to the bed. “Could you… um… remove your clothing? If you want to, that is…”

“Yeah, sure… here…” After unbuttoning and opening his shirt, everyone finally got a good look at what was causing most of his pain: a massive bruise on his left side that spread halfway across his chest.

Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my! You stay right here, I’m going to be right back with something to help!” The kind natured pony bolted out of Twilight’s room with a surprising sense of urgency.

Alex looked after her in slight confusion before turning to Twilight. “She is gonna come back with something to help, right?”

“Knowing her, yeah. I wouldn’t worry about it. By the way…” Twilight walked up to the bed, feeling much more at ease with her visitor. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you? Do you have a name? I’ve never seen anything like you before.”

He chuckled, but instantly regretted the decision when his bruise reminded him of its presence. “My name’s Alexander Laythem, though most people just call me Alex. I’m a human. What about you?”

Twilight’s face lit up with the opportunity to fully introduce herself to a complete stranger, an opportunity which didn’t present itself often. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, faithful student of Princess Celestia and resident librarian here at Ponyville’s library! I’m a pony, but more specifically, a unicorn!” She ended with a smile.

Alex squinted as he tried to wrap his head around this information. He knew what ponies and unicorns were, but to his knowledge, ponies certainly didn’t talk and unicorns definitely didn’t exist. To find himself in a conversation with a talking unicorn pony was… unorthodox, to say the least, but her appearance seemed to back up her claim if nothing else. She looked something like a pony and the horn on her head pointed towards “unicorn,” but the fact that she was purple was a little more than confusing. And her name… Twilight Sparkle? He wanted to ask her a few questions about that, but figured that now probably wasn't the best time.

“And what about her?” He pointed towards the door.

“Oh! Her name is Fluttershy. She’s a pegasus who takes care of wild animals, and a very good friend of mine.”

Fluttershy? Alex’s confusion only grew. First Twilight Sparkle, now Fluttershy? What the hell kind of names are these? And she’s a pegasus? The more he thought about it, the more this new place seemed like very a twisted version of Earth. At this point, he had already thrown out the idea that he was still on his original planet, or maybe even dimension. “I see…”

He paused his original thoughts. Wait a second… Ponies…? Unicorns…? Pegasi…? Princesses…? Ponyville…? Alex tried to remember something from own world, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Something about all this seems vaguely familiar…

“So, umm…” Twilight started, snapping Alex back to reality. “Could I get you something to eat? You must be starving after everything that’s happened to you.”

“Oh, uhh… yeah, please, thank you…” he sputtered after she derailed his train of thought.

“Ok, I’ll be back in a few minutes. Just relax for a bit,” Twilight reassured Alex as she left the room.

Alex took a moment to take in his surroundings. He peered outside the window as the light shone beautifully onto the floor. Well this is a much needed change in scenery. Can’t say I don’t appreciate it. He sighed. At least I’m in a position where I can probably continue my work. Wait a minute...

His heart skipped a beat as a sudden sense of panic overcame him. He quickly reached for his pocket, and, feeling a rectangular lump, breathed an immense sigh of relief. Good, I still have the hard drive. Now where is my bag…? He briefly looked around and found it, and his Link Gun, propped up against the wall some distance from the bed. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself from the bed and wobbled over to his bag.

He fished out his laptop and slowly made his way back to his spot on the bed. Flipping the computer over, Alex quickly installed the hard drive and fired up the laptop. Rose wasted no time. Her computerized, colorless, yet distinctly female face quickly appeared on the screen.

“Ooooohhhhh, you have no idea how good it feels to finally be out of that box,” Rose’s synthesized voice emitted in a rather pleased tone.

Alex smirked. “Probably feels like a genie getting out of a lamp if I had to hazard a guess.”

“Mmmmmm, better! So, it seems the teleporter worked. Where are we?”

“I don’t exactly know yet, but I do know this: We sure as hell aren’t in Kansas anymore.”

“We weren't in Kansas to begin with.”

“I mean that we don’t seem to be on Earth right now. I don’t know if it’s another planet or different dimension or whatever. I just know it isn’t Earth. The natives seem friendly, though.”

“Judging by the fact that you’re on a bed, I would assume so. For your sake, I just hope they aren’t too friendly.”

Alex squinted at her. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh nothing.” Rose suddenly noticed a portion of his bruised chest poking from around his shirt. “Alex, are you injured?”

“Yeah…” he said, removing the bit of shirt that was obstructing the view of the rest of his bruise. “Turns out I fell down some stairs after I came through the portal.”

“So that makes how many days without a workplace accident…?” Rose poked.

Alex frowned. “Don’t.”

“Okay, fine, I won’t." Rose gave him a malicious grin nonetheless.

“Good.”

“So, how long do you think it’ll take before we can establish another research facility?”

“One step at a time, Rose. For now, I think we should work on familiarizing ourselves with this place.”

She scoffed. “Easy for you to say. You’re not stuck in a sub-par computing device with no means of transporting itself while having to feed off a solar charger.”

“Alex?” Twilight suddenly walked in, levitating a generic looking salad encased in a purple aura next to her. The levitating act caught Alex’s attention more than her voice did. “Who are you talking to? Is somepony else in here?”

“What? Oh! Uh…” Alex didn’t want to let Twilight know about his AI just yet. Unfortunately, coming up with excuses on the spot was never his strong suit. He sighed. “Alright… Twilight, come over here.”

“Okay then…” She trotted over to the bed, placing the salad bowl next to him before eyeing his computer. Oooooo! What’s that? Darn, focus, Twilight! One question at a time! “So who were you just talking to?”

Alex glanced at the bowl of leafy greens she had gotten for him. He was a meat lover, with bacon being one of his absolute favorites, and while he wasn’t very picky when it came to what he ate, there was a fact that was always true: he hated salads. At least, not unless they were drenched in dressing. At the risk of sounding rude, however, he let it slide. He also figured that since they were ponies, they were probably herbivores just like on Earth, so meat stuffs were probably going to be off the menu for a long time.

Alex turned the computer towards Twilight. “Rose, this is Twilight Sparkle. She's the one whose bed I'm sitting in. Twilight, this is Rose, my AI, assistant, and, for all intents and purposes, my best friend.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “A-An AI? Does that mean what I think it means?” she said with growing wonder.

“If you’re thinking ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ then you’d be right,” Rose droned.

Twilight gasped. “Oh my gosh! A real live Artificial Intelligence!?” she squealed, pressing her face uncomfortably close to the screen. Even though Rose couldn’t physically move, her virtual face seemed to back off.

“If I had a soul, you’d probably be staring right through to it,” Rose said, hoping Twilight would take the hint. She did, and backed away, blushing.

“Sorry, I’ve just never met a real AI before! I mean, there have been theories about AIs and a few ponies have tried making artificial life before – though it never really worked – and most ponies didn’t even have the slightest idea of how to even start thinking about making an artificial intelligence, and here you are, talking to me about–”

“Yes! I get it!” Rose cut her off, irritation seeping into her words.

Alex, more amused by the discussion than anything else, snickered as silently as possible. He grabbed a few pieces of salad and nibbled on them. To him, they were bland and stuck in his mouth, but he couldn’t deny how hungry he was.

Twilight giggled embarrassingly. “Sorry, I just never thought I’d ever have an opportunity like this!”

“Rose is the only genuine AI I know of,” Alex interjected. “Some humans like myself have made programs that respond to voice commands and certain inputs and called them AIs, but they’re really just cop-outs. Of all the things I made, Rose is easily my pride and joy.”

“Why thank you, Alex,” Rose chimed, appreciating his words.

“Hold on a minute…” Twilight said pensively. “You made this AI yourself? Rose, I believe you called it?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And if I recall, I think you said earlier that you made a... teleporter? Did you do that with, or without magic?”

Alex cocked an eyebrow. “I guess some would consider it magic, but it’s hardly that at all. Why?”

Twilights eyes grew wide. “And I’m assuming you've made other things like Rose or this teleporter? Without magic?”

“Yes…” He spoke in a low voice, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable in the hot seat. Plus, what was all this talk about magic? “Science and technology is my expertise, actually. I'm an engineer...”

As if they weren’t already big enough, Twilight's already wide eyes widened even more. In a fit of excitement, she raised her front hooves on the bed and got uncomfortably close to Alex, a giant grin plastered across her face. “I have SO many questions!”

Oh dear…

After playing 20 questions with Twilight, which was mostly related to humans and their relationship with technology, Alex felt immensely relieved when Fluttershy finally came back with what looked like an overly-stocked first aid kit.

“Ok, I’m back,” she began. “And I have everything I need to help make you feel better.”

Fluttershy walked up to the bed confidently and lay her first aid kit on the ground next to it. She popped it open and began sorting through what she needed.

Damn... Alex thought. This pony’s on a mission.

Fluttershy started taking out assorted bottles of pills and bandages. “Here’s something for the pain… Here’s something for the healing… Oh! Twilight, could you go get him a glass of water, please?”

Twilight stared at her blankly. “Oh! Yeah, sure!” she said, walking back to the kitchen, still trying to figure out the surge of confidence that had overtaken her friend.

“Now, could you sit up straight so I can wrap these bandages around you?”

Alex complied, deciding to give the surrogate doctor the benefit of the doubt. “Sure. Oh, by the way, my name’s Alex.”

“Alex? Oh, what a nice name! My name’s Fluttershy. Nice to meet you!” She smiled warmly.

“Likewise. You know, based on your name and your behavior earlier, I thought you’d be a bit more… uh… shy, than this.”

Fluttershy began wrapping the bandages around his chest to apply slight pressure to the bruise. It made Alex sore to no end, but he tried to ignore it.

“Oh, I am, but when somepony needs me, I have to do everything I can to help,” she said matter-of-factly.

Alex winced in pain as she applied a bit too much pressure. “Ah!”

“Oh no! I’m sorry! Here, I won’t make them as tight…”

“No no, it’s fine.”

Twilight walked back in levitating a glass of water. “Everything okay in here?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine. She’s just doing her thing, I guess.” Alex answered, eyeing the floating glass of water curiously.

“You know, Fluttershy, you seem much more comfortable around him now,” Twilight pointed out, placing the glass next to the bed.

“Didn’t you see how hurt he was? I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing…”

“You know, you really remind me of his mother,” Rose said suddenly.

With a yelp, Fluttershy dropped the roll of bandages, shot straight up into the air, and somehow latched onto the ceiling. Everyone stared at her incredulously. Alex didn't really know how to react to that.

Fluttershy looked around frantically. “W-who said that? Where a-are you?”

“Fluttershy, it’s ok! It’s just…” Twilight began. She wasn’t exactly sure how to tell her about Rose since Fluttershy probably didn’t know what an AI even was. “…his computer… thingy.”

“Well thanks, I’m flattered…” Rose deadpanned.

“It’s alright, it’s just a friend of mine!" Alex tried to reassure her. "Don’t worry, she’s not gonna hurt you,”

“W-where is she?”

Alex pointed to the computer next to him on the bed. Fluttershy realized that she didn’t even notice that was there until now. “She’s right here. It’s ok, you can come down.”

Reluctantly, she slowly hovered back to the ground and eyed the computer cautiously. “H-h-hello?”

“Hello there, Fluttershy. My name is Rose. Well met,” the AI stated, calmly and evenly.

“Wh-wh-what are you…?”

“Rose is an Artificial Intelligence!” Twilight piped up, eagerly snatching away the opportunity to explain it. “She’s a form of artificial life that is so complex that she can think just like we can entirely on her own!”

“Yes, I suppose that is me in a nut-shell,” Rose said flatly. It was obvious to her that Twilight was going to hound her as long as she was around, and she sure wasn’t going to make it easy on the purple fan-girl if that was going to be the case.

“Oh… I… think I understand…?” Fluttershy responded.

“It’s okay if you don’t,” Rose reassured her. “Alex is the only one that truly understands how I think. Most people couldn’t even begin to comprehend it.” Alex smirked at this. “Now, weren’t you in the middle of doing something before I interrupted you?”

“Oh, umm… yes…” the pegasus answered, slowly picking up her roll of bandages to resume her work. No one said anything for a solid 30 seconds before Fluttershy finally broke the silence. “What did you mean when you said I remind you of his mother…? If you don’t mind me asking, that is…”

“It’s because you seem like such a kind individual, and clearly concerned with his physical well-being,” Rose started. “Alex’s mother was always so concerned about him. If she completely had her way, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t let him leave the house unless he were completely covered in bubble wrap.”

Alex blushed ever so slightly and turned his head away. Rose continued anyway. “She was a doctor and always took injuries and illness very seriously. His safety was always her number one priority. Eventually, Alex grew too old for his mother’s concerns and had to make it clear to her that she couldn’t keep lording over him like she was. After we established our own home, it became my job to be his safety monitor.”

“Lies!” Alex protested. “If that’s so true, then why is it I get hurt so often?”

“Come now, Alex. You and I both know that if we did things your mother’s way, we’d never get anything done. Besides, you’re not dead yet, are you?”

Alex hung his head. If there was anything he was able to recognize in rational discourse, it was a good point. Good science isn’t safe science, that much he knew, and he also couldn’t deny that her safety protocols were helpful. There was always an element of risk, but never unnecessary risk. “Fine, I’ll give that one to you.”

“There, all done!” Fluttershy concluded as she finished the bandage which wrapped around his midsection and over his right shoulder. “Now, if you take these, you should start to feel better.”

She handed him the pills and water, which he gladly took. It didn’t take long for him to start feeling the effects as the pain numbed considerably. “Whoa… That’s some strong stuff…”

Fluttershy started to look worried. “Wait, it already started working?”

“Yes, he’s strange like that,” Rose answered. “For most humans, it takes a while before any drugs actually take effect. For Alex, though, they’re almost instantaneous. We’re still not quite sure why…”

“Reeeeaaaaly?” Twilight chimed in, clearly interested. “Say, you wouldn’t mind if I ran a few tests of my own on that, would you?”

Alex gave her a slightly nervous look. “Uhh… yeah, actually, I kinda do.”

“Well it doesn’t have to be now!”

He sighed. “Ok, fine, but later…”

“Thank you!” Twilight beamed.

“In any event,” Rose interrupted loudly, “Alex, how are you feeling?”

“Fine. Better than fine, actually.”

“Don’t tell me you’re high on that stuff,” Rose deadpanned.

“No, Rose, I’m not. At least, I don’t think I am… It just doesn’t hurt anymore, and I don’t actually feel inhibited... I think.” Alex performed a few light stretches to try to prove his point.

“Perhaps. I’ll have to analyze that compound at one point. You wouldn’t mind that, would you, Fluttershy?”

“Oh, of course not…”

“Thank you very kindly. So, now that you’re up and about, what’s the first order of business?”

“Whoa, slow down, Rose. I know you want to get back to work as soon as possible, but that's gonna have to wait. As for what I should do now… I don’t know." He looked at Twilight and Fluttershy. "Do either of you have an idea?”

The ponies silently looked at each other. Nothing like this ever happened before, and they had no idea how to proceed. They seemed to be thinking the same thing, though, which was if Alex could get home. Of course, Twilight didn’t want him to leave immediately since the learning opportunity was just perfect for her.

Fluttershy asked it instead. “Do you think you have a way of getting back home?”

Alex's initial thought was that they didn’t want him around, but the sincerity in her voice convinced him that she was just concerned about him. He shook his head. “Two problems with that. One, the portal I came through was only one way, so I’m pretty much stuck here, at least as far as I know. Not to mention the fact that me ending up here was a complete accident in the first place. And two, even if I could go back, there's still those… well, you know.”

Fluttershy nodded in understanding. Alex couldn’t go home even if it were possible because of the monsters that were still there.

Of course, Alex also failed to mention the Omega Protocol. There wouldn’t even be a home left for him to go back to, anyway.

Twilight’s face lit up, realizing that her new object of interest wouldn’t be going anywhere. Recalling the grim subject of the conversation, though, she reorganized her expression and cleared her throat. As she did so, an idea spawned. “So... it looks like you’re going to be staying here for a while, huh?”

Alex shrugged. “It seems to be that way, yeah.”

“Weeeellllllll…” Twilight fluttered her eyes, relishing the idea. “I do have a guest bedroom you can use. You can stay here until you get on your hooves! Er... feet!”

The situation suddenly hit Alex. He was in a new civilization and he’d have to integrate himself. That idea never really worked for him on Earth. Paranoid fear kept him and everything he worked on isolated, just because he was afraid that governments and corporations would try their hardest to get a hold of his technology. Relationships with people outside of his family were always sketchy at best, since he constantly felt they were trying to take advantage of him.

Now he was here.

And he needed their help.

Alex sighed. “Alright… I guess I don’t have much of a choice. Thank you.”

“But, on one condition!” Twilight added, grinning.

Oh geez, something tells me I’m not gonna like this… “Alright, what’s your condition?” he asked, dreading the response.

“Since you’re going to be staying here for a while, I figure you could do me a little favor…”

“And that is…?”

“Answering questions!” Twilight perked up, a massive smile plastered across her face.

Alex breathed. Oh good, I thought it would be something bad. “Sure, what kind of questions?”

“Nothing hard, just more questions about your world and species. I hope you understand; this is such a massive learning opportunity!” Twilight practically glowed with excitement.

“You know what?” he said, putting on a smile. “I can do that. I honestly don’t mind answering any questions you may have.”

Twilight squealed in excitement, clapping her hooves together. “Eeeee! This is going to be so great! I’m going to go get my notebook!”

Before Twilight could run out of the room, Fluttershy stopped her. “Umm… Twilight, I don’t think now is the best time to start doing that.”

Twilight stared back at her friend. “What do you mean, Fluttershy?”

“He was just forced out of his home, with everything he knew and loved destroyed. His whole life was taken away from him. I think… maybe… you should give him some time to settle in first.”

“Actually,” Alex interrupted, casually sitting against the head of the bed, “I’m angrier at the fact that I have to start over from scratch. I was never really fond of my home world. Humans were always trying to get an edge over one another, competing, fighting… Governments do everything to stop what they don’t like, and take whatever it is that they do like... People constantly making mistakes by always choosing short-term gains over long-term investments... I kept myself pretty much isolated from the rest of the world, and… Well, let’s just say I’m not going to miss the rest of humanity very much.”

Fluttershy looked at him incredulously. She was surprised he would even think such a thing. “You’re not?”

“Nope. The contact I had with other humans was limited enough as it is, so I can’t exactly say I’m going to miss them. Plus, I brought everything I needed with me right here.” Alex pointed at his laptop. “I’ve got Rose, all my research, data, and schematics: both tested and prototypes.”

Twilight broke into a smile; for obvious reasons.

“I’m going to have to rebuild my workshop,” he continued, “but once that’s done, I’ll be perfectly satisfied.”

Twilight's smile faded as she started to connect the dots. “Wait a second… You’re just going to set up a workshop somewhere and become a recluse like you did before?”

Alex blinked. “Well… when you put it like that, it sounds kinda bad…”

“It sounds bad because it is bad!” Twilight's concern for him grew. Not just because he wanted to isolate himself, barring him off from her curiosity, but because he was going to become a self-induced social outcast as well! Again! Twilight's mind couldn’t bear the thought, especially since she was Princess Celestia’s student who came to Ponyville to study the magic of friendship.

Wait… that’s it!

“Alex!” Twilight put her hoof down, confidence glowing in her eyes. “I have a plan to make sure you don’t end up a social outcast like you were before! And just to be sure, I'm also going to make it my second condition for you to stay here with me!”

Alex looked over at Rose, who only returned a look that said “something tells me I won’t like where this is going.” He mimicked her expression and looked back at gleaming purple pony. “Okay… And that is…?”

“You are going to make some friends!”

Alex’s expression blanked.

Awww shit.

Friends?

View Online

Friends.

To Alex, Twilight might as well have said that he had to stop a freight train with his face.

“…and I know just how you can start!” Twilight continued. “Come on, Fluttershy, let’s go find everypony else!”

“But–” Before Fluttershy could get another word out, Twilight snatched her friend up with her magic and pulled her out the door, leaving the human and AI on their own.

“Should we be worried?” asked Rose.

Alex only stared at the door. “They mean well enough… I think… I mean, Twilight did offer to house us until we get things going, and Fluttershy did help with my bruises, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t trust them.”

“Perhaps, but getting others involved? This is just a security breach waiting to happen.”

Alex looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”

“Do I really need to explain myself to you? We can’t risk any of our research being exposed, and bringing more individuals into the mix just increases that risk.”

“So what do you want me to do about it?” Alex said with a frown. “Just pack up and leave? After everything they did for us already? Do you have any idea how much of an asshole I’ll look like? Not only that, but we need their help if we want to re-establish ourselves. OH! Not to mention the fact that we don’t even know if their society is like ours! We may not even have to do the whole song and dance!”

To his surprise, Rose didn’t respond. Alex sighed, realizing he may have come on a bit too hard. “Look… All I’m saying is that, all things considered, we should at least give them the benefit of the doubt.”

Finally – and reluctantly – Rose answered. “Fine. If you’re willing to trust them, then I am too. For now, at any rate.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Now I guess we just have to wait until they come back and see where we go from there…” With everything said and done, Alex walked over to his Go-Bag and pulled out a stick of beef-jerky, which he eagerly unwrapped and started eating.

“Getting started on the rations a bit early, aren’t you?” Rose pointed out.

Alex took another bite of jerky. “You know how I am with leafy greens.”

“Yes, I do, but this does seem to be a society of herbivores. I suggest you start getting used to it.”

“And at that, you’re right!” he said, finishing his snack. “But not yet.”

After enjoying the meaty goodness of his rations, Alex walked over to the sunlit window to see just what was going on outside. He was greeted with the view of a quaint little town. Dozens of ponies of various colors littered the area, some with horns, some with wings, the rest with neither. The occasional clashing mane colors only served to accentuate the scene.

“Holy shit…” Alex muttered.

“What? What can you see?”

“I’ve never seen ethnic diversity like this before…” he said as he picked up the computer and brought it to the window so Rose could see exactly what he was talking about.

The two stared in silence for a moment before Rose finally broke it. “Well aren't they a colorful bunch.”

“Yup…” Alex caught a quick glimpse of a familiar shade of purple galloping some fair distance away towards what looked like a giant gingerbread house. “What in the hell…? Rose, can you see that over there?”

He pointed towards the sugary building in the distance, unsure if Rose could actually see it. She could. “Is that a giant gingerbread house? Seems rather out of place, considering the architecture of the other buildings around here.”

“Yeah…” Alex agreed, slowly retreating from the window. He wasn’t sure what to make of all this. Everything was in such stark contrast to human civilization, but somehow, it all seemed so eerily familiar. The only problem was he couldn’t put his finger on it for the life of him.

Rose picked up on his pensive state. “Something on your mind?”

“There’s something about all this that just… I don’t know…” Alex paused, picking his words carefully. “It just seems so… vaguely familiar… But I have no idea why.”

“Really? That’s odd…”

“Yeah, tell me about it." he rubbed the back of his neck. "I swear, this is gonna bug me for a while… Ah well.”

He walked back over to the window to get another eye-full of chromatic scenery.

“On an unrelated note,” Rose said, “what else did you manage to bring with you?”

Without looking away from the view, Alex idly padded his pockets and felt a small lump. He pulled the object out. “Oh shit, will ya look at that?”

It was his old Samsung Galaxy Note 2, a phone he never had a chance to use much in the past few years but loved when it was new. Although it has long since become obsolete. Even if he never used it, he still kept it charged and available since he hated throwing out electronics.

He pressed the phone’s power button and its touch screen came to life, its ancient facial recognition software asking to look at him.

“Ahhh, I remember this…” he reminisced.

“Isn’t that your old phone?”

“Yeah, it is!”

Sorry, don’t recognize you. The phone rejected his face as it brought up a screen for a pin code.

Alex frowned. “Well fuck you too…”

“Excuse me?” Rose said.

“Huh? Oh! Shit, sorry, it’s the phone. It uses this really old facial recognition software to unlock it. Doesn’t seem to recognize me, though. I'm not exactly surprised, considering how long it’s been since I used it…”

Alex tried the facial recognition again only to achieve the same result. “Dammit…”

“Having trouble?” Rose poked.

He tried a third time, the outcome no more different.

“Well shit… guess I gotta use the pin code… which I don’t remember…”

“You know, I could just hack it for you. It wouldn’t be difficult at–”

“No no no,” Alex protested as he paced around the bed, “I wanna remember it for myself! Let’s see… It was a combination of two numbers, I remember that much… They were binary related… uhhh…”

“Well, whenever you decide to let me–”

“WAITWAITWAIT!” Alex punched in a code. It failed. “Fuck…”

Rose's image rolled her eyes. “Fine, do whatever you want with that thing. I doubt it’ll have anything useful on it anyway.”

It was now Alex's turn to sigh as he pocketed the device. “Alright, alright. I’ll figure it out later.”

He couldn't remember exactly what he kept on his phone, but he had a strange, nagging feeling that knowing would help him in some way. Though that may have just been curiosity.

A few seconds later, the human and AI heard the front door to the library opening and numerous hoof-steps in the main area coming closer to the bedroom.

Twilight's voice rang from the other side of the bedroom door. “Alright, girls, he’s right in here. Remember, we’re here to help make him feel more comfortable.”

Awww geez, this is gonna suck.

Alex quickly looked at Rose who gave him a slightly evil smirk.

“You’re in this too, you know!” he quickly, but quietly reminded her.

“Oh, I’m fully aware of that. But at least I can hide.” With that, her virtual face disappeared from the screen.

Dammit, Rose! I am gonna drag you into this whether you like it or not!

“Everypony, meet Alex.”

Alex spun around to see four other colorful ponies and a smaller purple and green reptilian individual accompanying Twilight and Fluttershy. Each of them regarded him with a sense of curiosity. He didn't know any of them, yet somehow their collective group looked disturbingly familiar.

“Whoa, he’s pretty big!” said a cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane.

Color aside, Alex realized she wasn’t kidding. At six and a half feet in height, Alex was already tall by human standards. The small ponies only managed to go up as high as the lower part of his rib cage, so long as you ignored the gravity defying properties of some of their hair styles.

“You said it…” said the small purple reptile in a distinctly male voice. Alex was somewhat relieved that he wasn't the only male there. He had a hard enough time getting along with strangers as it was, let alone a bunch of “people” of the opposite sex.

Brain chemistry. It sucks that way.

“Alex, these are my friends. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. You already know Fluttershy,” Twilight said, pointing to the respective ponies who each gave a nod. Except for the pink one, who sported a massive smile and waved frantically.

“And this is Spike,” she continued, identifying the only visible male among them. “He’s a baby dragon, and my assistant.”

“Hi there!” said Spike with a wave.

A talking purple and green baby dragon is the assistant of a talking purple unicorn pony who has a strange variety of equally colorful friends, each with equally ridiculous names, Alex thought. Because that shit makes sense here.

“Twilight, dear, is he okay?” asked the white-coated, purple-maned unicorn formally designated as Rarity.

“Uhh… Alex?” Twilight asked. “Everything alright?”

Alex suddenly realized that he had been staring at them awkwardly for far longer than was socially acceptable. He clapped his hands together and inhaled deeply, tying to pick his words carefully.

“I’m gonna be completely honest with you all…” he started. “What I’m looking at right now – and I mean no offense to any of you – but what I’m looking at right now… looks incredibly strange to me.”

Twilight tilted her confused expression. “How so?”

“How so? Oh geez, where do I start…” Alex began unconsciously pacing. “Ok, well, to start off, where I’m from, we do have ponies.”

“Okay, then what’s the problem?”

“Well allow me to go down the list. On my world, ponies don’t talk. They don’t have wings, and they don’t have horns, either. The color of their coats are really not as colorful as your own, and they’re dumb as hell in comparison – or rather, they’re not sapient. And as for dragons, while there are myths and legends about them, they never actually existed. So I’m sure you can imagine that this is all just a tad–and you’re taking notes, aren’t you?”

The others turned their collective gaze away from Alex to look at Twilight who had a quill and paper levitating in front of her, surrounded by a purple aura, just like the salad had been earlier. Twilight just grinned sheepishly. “Sorry...”

“Ok, I just want to clear something up right now,” Alex said, pointing at Twilight. “How the hell are you doing that?”

Twilight looked at him quizzically. “Doing what?”

“That! The levitating act with the quill and the paper!”

“She’s using magic, Silly!” quipped Pinkie Pie, her smile never fading.

Alex head slowly rotated to stare dumbly at the puffy mass of pink that answered his question, gauging whether or not to take the answer seriously.

“Magic.”

“Yep!”

“She’s using magic.”

“Indeedee-do!”

“Can I let you all in on a little secret?”

The ponies looked at each other nervously, a little unsure of whether they actually wanted to know what he had to say, mostly because of the gradually destabilizing look he was starting to have.

Pinkie, however, was oblivious.

“Ooo! A secret! We won’t tell anypony! Pinkie promise!”

Alex spoke his words very slowly, savoring each syllable. “Good. You see, where I’m from, I’m a man of science. I look at the universe and try to understand it at the most fundamental levels.

“Now I don’t know if Twilight told you, but I’m what you would call a ‘human.’ Over an extremely long period of time, humans have evolved into the shape you see right here in front of you. We didn't have much going for us except for three things: intelligence, ingenuity, and persistence. With those, we made basic tools. Skip ahead to today and you have humans like me who create technology so advanced it’ll blow your minds. We did it entirely without magic. In-fact, magic doesn't even exist on my world. It’s an excuse used by ‘less intelligent’ humans to explain things they don’t understand, whereas you have people like me who don’t need ‘magic’ to explain anything.”

The tone in his voice seemed almost sinister at this point.

“Now you all seem like relatively intelligent individuals, so when I see something like that and you tell me that it’s nothing but magic, TWO PLUS TWO DOESN’T EXACTLY EQUAL FOUR!”

The group flinched at Alex’s sudden outburst. Even Pinkie’s indestructible smile faded, and Fluttershy ducked behind Rainbow Dash.

Seeing their reactions and immediately regretting his own, Alex slumped down on the bed and cupped a hand over his face. Well this is going well…

After seeing Fluttershy's distress, Rainbow Dash walked up to Alex to give him a piece of her mind. At least, she would have if Twilight didn’t hold up a hoof to stop her and shake her head. Twilight took her place and walked up to the bed to place a hoof on Alex’s shoulder.

“I know this must be difficult for you,” she said in the most comforting voice she could muster. “You were taken from a world that made sense to you and thrown into one that doesn’t. I may not be able to understand it, but I’m here to help you through this, and so are my friends.”

Twilight shot them a glare. “Right?”

She was met with a chorus of nervous agreements and nods.

Alex looked up to see the collection of uneasy smiles, including Pinkie’s which was clearly forced this time.

Great. The one group of “people” that decide to be your friends and help you and you go and pull that stunt. Get it together, man! Now quit being sullen dick and do the right thing.

“Look…” he sighed. “I’m… sorry for that little outburst… I didn’t mean to make any of you feel uncomfortable around me, I just… the more I hear about this place, the more freaked out I get…”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked softly.

“The more I learn about this world, the more it just seems like some kind of weird parody of my own.”

“So what yer sayin’ is that our worlds are the same, but different?” asked Applejack.

Alex almost flinched at the sound of her accent. He hated southerners. This was mostly because they had a tendency to be, in his experience, gun-toting, bible thumping twits who couldn't recognize progress if it walked up and bit them. Or at least, that was the stereotype. Of course, he knew they weren't all like that and decided to give the orange pony the benefit of the doubt.

But perhaps a small cognitive comprehension test is in order...

Alex rubbed his chin in thought. “Umm… Here, think of it this way… Imagine my world has a set of attributes that make it what it is. Let’s say… the entire alphabet in its proper order is used to represent the attributes of my world. This world has those same attributes, or rather the same letters, only they’re arranged differently. So while I recognize them, they’re not at all where they should be, creating an image that’s strange in comparison to the original.”

Hah, let’s see you figure that–

“Oh, Ah get it!”

Alex blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Ah said Ah I get it, sugarcube.” she said with a smirk, as if she knew he was deliberately trying to confuse her. “And since you put it that way, Ah’d probably think the same about yer own world too.”

“Hold on, you actually understood everything I said?”

“O’ course! All ya said was that our worlds are pretty much the same, just that they’re mixed around.”

Alex blinked at her again. “You know, most people I know wouldn't have understood that. They just look at me funny whenever I try to explain ideas like that.”

“I think you did a great job of explaining it!” chirped Pinkie.

“Yeah! I think it’ll actually help me get a better understanding of your own civilization!” announced Twilight.

Alex just stared at them. A smile slowly etched across his face. These ponies actually seemed pretty smart! Maybe this won’t be so bad after all…

“Heeeyyy, cooool! What’s this thing?”

Alex turned in the direction of the voice to see Spike holding up his Link Gun – properly. His mind then quickly recalled the fact that he hadn't remove the clip from the high energy plasma weapon since he arrived.

A quick burst of panic overcame him. “WAITNODONTTOUCHTHAT!”

“Huh?” Spike looked up at Alex dumbly as the gun lurched out of his claws, firing a bolt of bright green plasma that barely grazed Alex, but connected nearby lamp that promptly combusted.

“AAAHHH!” Everyone in the room yelled and panicked, the situation going from “heart-warming” to “FIRE” much too quickly.

Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash quickly ran from the room to get buckets of water. Alex, however, glanced around to see if there was anything he could use to smother the fire. His view quickly zeroed in on Twilight’s bed sheets.

She’s probably gonna hate me for this, but…

He got up from the bed and gathered up the bed sheets as quickly as he could, overturning the bowl of salad and his laptop. Without another thought, he spread the thick comforter out before leaping on the burning furniture with an involuntary yelp. Nopony was sure if it was a yell of bravery, stupidity, or both.

Thankfully the lamp and subsequent fire were relatively small, and Alex succeeded in depriving it of its much needed oxygen, though now Twilight’s comforter was ruined. Well shit... it was really nice, too… he thought.

The three wannabe fire-fighters burst back into the room with buckets full of water, only to stop dead and stare at the human hunched over a lumped bed sheet. Pinkie tried her hardest to suppress a giggle.

Alex smiled weakly. “I, uh… I got it! Sorry about your bed sheet, though…”

Twilight gently lowered the bucket from her magical grip and sighed. “No, it’s ok, you did the right thing. Besides, I could always get a replacement.”

“Don’t worry, dear, I can deal with that for you,” said Rarity, “but I think there’s a more pressing matter that needs to be addressed…”

Alex got up from the subdued lamp to go pick up the device that caused the panic in the first place. “Oh really? And what would that be?”

“What in Equestria is that?” she said, pointing towards the object he was now holding.

Alex glanced down at the Link Gun and let out a tired sigh. “I probably shouldn't tell you this, but considering what just happened, I’m guessing you all deserve to know.” He sat back down on the bed and ejected the glowing green clip with an audible hiss. “This is called a Link Gun.”

They all just stared at him.

“A Link what?” asked Twilight.

“A Link Gun.”

“A Link… Gun?” parroted Fluttershy ever so carefully.

After the silence persisted for several moments, Rainbow Dash asked the question they were all wondering. “What’s a gun?”

Alex stared at them, unsure of how to respond to this new information. “Hold on a sec… you don’t know what a gun is?”

They all shook their heads.

Well that’s surprising… he thought. Did they not reach that level of technology yet? They seem to have electricity, but humans had fire-arms well before then… unless…

“Hey, just out of curiosity… Do you know what a weapon is?”

Looks of horror crossed their faces as they immediately made the connection.

Ahh shit, wrong choice of words!

“That thing is a weapon?!” Rainbow Dash yelled, moving in front of her friends in an attempt to shield them. “Why do you have a weapon with you?! Were you planning to kill somepony?!”

Oh fuck, they’re getting the wrong impression! Do something!

“Hey hey hey, whoa, calm down,” Alex held his hands out in front of him and tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. “I wasn't planning on killing anyone, and I completely forgot about this thing until now. Besides, I just unloaded it, so now it’s completely safe, and…” his voice trailed off as he suddenly realized something. “Twilight, you didn’t tell them how I got here, did you?”

They turned their attention to Twilight, though still stayed largely focused on him. At those words, though, Twilight relaxed as she remembered why he had the weapon in the first place. Fluttershy relaxed as well, though only a bit.

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “Though while we’re on the subject, maybe you want to fill them in?”

Alex cradled the Link gun, feeling comfort in the smooth, cold metal that composed its outer shell. He figured he might as well answer whatever questions they may have had in one go.

“Alrighty, then. Take a seat, because it's a long story…”

Let me just start off by saying that I’ve lived alone for about a year and a half now. Well… not really, considering I have Rose, but… Oh right, you don’t know her. Oh don’t you worry, I’ll get to her in bit.

Anyway, where was I? Oh right. I've been living on my own for a while. Believe it or not, I actually isolated myself from the rest of my species. Why, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you why.

You see, I’ve always been fascinated with technology. I loved it, though when I was young, I barely understood it. As I grew older, I started to understand how some of the basics of human technology work. I decided that I wanted to become an engineer when I grew up, to play around with technology and invent my own cool things.

But I didn’t want to just play around with electronics, I wanted to make things. Devices that actually did stuff on a physical level. I wanted to make machines, essentially, but that was just the first step.

During high school, I took both a regular and advanced physics class. Wait, you don’t have high school? You know what, never mind, I’ll explain it to you later. Anyway, it was through those classes that I discovered something.

I was really good at physics. I also found out that I was equally good at engineering - every form of it. I had a knack for the stuff. Not only that, but I got better and better during the rest of my schooling career.

Then, many years later, I think when I was around twenty five or so, I got an idea while working on a paper I was writing. It just suddenly came to me. I worked on it for a couple of months, drew a few sketches, did all the math… The paper didn't turn out too well, but I realized that I had found something that could revolutionize the world.

Problem is, though, it was really expensive to make.

I pitched the idea to my Father, but he outright rejected it. He thought it was way too expensive for an idea that supposedly trumped one of the fundamental laws of... Well...

I’d be a little more specific about what I’m talking about, but I’d honestly rather not…

Anyway, he figured that it was impossible, that I had made a mistake in my math somewhere. I quadruple checked everything like you would not believe, and I was completely sure I made no mistakes.

But he didn't buy any of it.

My mom, though, was much more willing. She wasn't as scientifically oriented as my dad or myself, but she didn't care. I’m guessing she figured I really wanted to do this, so she agreed to help fund it. She wasn't rich by any means, so it was a giant financial strain on her… I… I never properly thanked her…

Anyway, with her help, I managed to build my new device. It took me a few tries, but I eventually managed to get it working, exactly as it was intended to work.

Once I got it working, my dad could hardly believe it. But you know what he wanted to do with it? He wanted to sell it. What I made was a device of unimaginable valuable. I made something that my world as a whole desperately needed, but all my dad saw was an opportunity to make a huge profit and secure his retirement. I knew better, though.

You see, human governments are twisted entities, always trying to control as much as they possibly can. I knew that if word got out about this device, absolutely everyone would try to get their hands on it, by any means necessary. Best case scenario, I'm offered more money than I could imagine. Worst case scenario… Well, let’s just say it wouldn't be very pleasant.

So, I made my dad swear to me not to let anyone know about it because of the potential consequences, and he seemed to understand that… Anyway, some time later, I got an idea for another device, and like the first, it was instrumental to everything I did, but it needed the first one to work.

I worked day and night trying to build it, fueled by nothing but determination and caffeine for months. I can't tell you how long it took me just to design it to be a reasonable size, and putting it together wasn't much of a cakewalk either. It was also expensive to make, but my dad was willing to help this time.

Once it was done and fully tested, I used it to build a few humanoid machines that also came equipped with the same technology.

Humanoid means human shaped, like me.

No, they weren't as costly to make.

Umm… Yeah, I’ll explain it later, but just trust me on this.

Anyway, these robots were officially my very first Liandri. They were designed to be mining and construction bots, and they did their jobs well.

I always liked the word “Liandri,” I thought it fit.

Okay, maybe it’s a bit of a funny word.

Look, will you just let me finish? Thank you.

Getting back on topic… I borrowed one of my parents' cars and brought the Liandri to a secluded location really far away from home and–

“What’s a car?” Pinkie asked, hoof raised.

Alex face-palmed and sighed. “Oh come on… Look, Pinkie Pie, wasn’t it? Could you please just stop with the constant questions and let me finish?”

“But I wanna knoooow!” she whined, giving Alex the saddest case of puppy eyes he’d ever seen.

“Pinkie,” Twilight said, “I’m sure he’ll be able to answer all of our questions once he’s done.” She turned to him with an eager smile. “Right?”

“Uhh… yeah, of course.”

“Excellent! Now, you were saying something about your machines?”

Right. Anyway, I took them to a secluded location up north from where I lived that was a long ways away from home. I wanted to make sure that I was the only one who knew where it was. It was there that I had my Liandri begin construction on what later became my personal research facility and workshop.

Every day, I would bring the Liandri there and they would work on it from the time we got there, to the time we left. The technology they were using was only the first version, though. I improved on it, but not until much later, so construction took quite a bit of time. I took the extra time the Liandri were using to build to iron out a few kinks with Rose, and eventually, she was conversing with me and my family so well, you wouldn't even be able to tell she wasn't human just by listening to her. She was invaluable to directing the Liandri, too. She knew exactly what had to be done, how it had to be done, and being an AI, could communicate her instructions to them flawlessly. It was great!

But during construction, something happened. One night, an old coworker of mine came to visit. As it turned out, my dad had taken the opportunity to tell her about all the things I managed to build, about how how they were "proud" of me. Now you’d probably think it was fairly harmless, right? I didn't.

He let my secret out.

And just like that, the very next day, I packed up all my personal belongings and drove right back to the construction site. Didn't even think about looking back. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Alex, why would you just abandon your parents like that?” Well guess what.

I learned just two days later that not one, but both of my parents died in some kind of car accident, and the bodies were never recovered. Never said where, never said exactly how. I didn't buy it, not for a second.

Why? Because despite owning a car, my mom never left the house, especially with her health.

I knew that as soon as word about my inventions got out, some form of government or corporate agent would try to get a hold of it, mostly because of their “uniqueness.” And bingo, that’s exactly what happened. But I wasn't there, and neither were my inventions, so they went and made my parents disappear, probably arresting them and faking their deaths to make sure no one else would ever find out.

Yeah, that’s how valuable my inventions were. And that’s not even the half of it: wars could be fought over them.

That was the first reason why I didn't want anyone to know in the first place. The second, and most important reason, I didn't know about at first. It wasn't until Rose pointed it out after running some simulations that she brought it to my attention.

What I made was also a potential weapon of mass destruction. But not just any weapon of mass destruction, I made what was quite possibly the most dangerous weapon in human history. Ever.

And it was only the size of a basketball.

You know what humans did last time they discovered a revolutionary new energy source? It was about 50 or so years before I was born. Scientists from the land of America figured out the power of the atom: Nuclear energy! And guess what they did with it! At the time, they were at war with two other nations. So what did they do?

They turned it into a weapon and leveled two entire cities, that’s what!

Tens of thousands of innocent people died in just a matter of seconds!

Tens of thousands more died after suffering from radiation poisoning for weeks!

Since the dawn of time, humans have been war like, always trying to beat the guy who doesn't agree with them! And here I was, someone who single-handedly created something more powerful than a nuclear bomb!

So I swore myself and my technology into isolation. I swore that I would never let anyone get access to it.

From that point on, I continued work on my Liandri designs, making them more combat oriented. I also got to work on the Link Gun as well. Rose was the best help I could ever hope to ask for during those projects.

To make a long story short, I created a lethal security force to make sure that any and all unwanted outsiders stayed out. And you wanna know the best part?

They never had to fight anything until today.

The ponies listened intently as Alex recounted the events that brought him to Equestria. He told them about the large ships he saw coming through the clouds on his way back from a grocery run to a nearby township, how they somehow discovered his hideout and broke in, forcing him to escape with a teleporter that could barely even be considered a prototype. He also took the time to explain to them just who and what Rose was.

However, he also made sure to omit the mention of the Omega protocol.

“… and that’s when I apparently fell down Twilight’s stairs,” Alex concluded.

They all silently looked at him, the same worried expression on each of their faces. Twilight, while still looking worried, had also been taking plenty of notes. Alex stopped caring at this point.

He glanced outside to find that it was already dark out. Wow, time flies… He looked back at his audience and suddenly got an evil idea.

“So!” he said with a genuine smile. “You've been hearing me talk about Rose for quite a while. Who wants to actually meet her?”

Pinkie, her mood suddenly resetting back to its default excited state, waved her hoof back and forth. “Ooo! Ooo! I do! I do!”

Fueled by her enthusiasm, Alex leaned over to the laptop and brought it next to him. Rose was still hiding. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck before furiously tapping keys, windows suddenly appearing and disappearing as he tried to coax her out.

“Hey, is she okay?” inquired Twilight, trying to peer over at the screen.

Alex didn't bother to look up. “Yeah, she’s fine. She’s just hiding…”

“Hiding? Why is she hiding?”

“She doesn’t have much experience with others besides me. Social anxiety?”

“Oh, she doesn’t have anything to be nervous about,” said Rarity, “we’re all friends, here! Besides, I’m sure it’ll do her some good.”

Alex continued his tapping, working vigorously to get around her own attempts to stop him. “You know I've got root access... Come on… There we go… Almost… aaaaaand… Done!”

With a final keystroke, a look of pure anger, hatred, and seething fury appeared on the screen. Everything about it said “I hate you and everything about you with every fibre of my being.”

Alex just grinned. “Ah, there you are! Rose, I’d like you to meet the ponies who have generously donated their time to be here with us today.”

He turned the laptop to face the others and Rose instantly composed herself.

“Hello there…” she said.

“Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie! It’s always so much fun to meet new friends!” said the self-announced pink puff, getting uncomfortably close to the computer and obscuring everyone else’s view.

Alex placed the computer beside him. “Well, I’m just gonna leave her right there so you all can get to know each other better.” He leaned towards Twilight and whispered to her. “Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Huh? Oh, sure!” Twilight felt a pang of disappointment since she wouldn't be able to converse with Rose again quite yet, but she figured she’ll have plenty of opportunities later.

The two distanced themselves from the group before Alex knelt down to be at eye level with his new – dare he admit it – friend.

“Hey,” he said in a hushed toned, making sure the others couldn't hear him, “I just wanted to personally thank you for helping me out here.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Alex,” she said with a smile. “I’m just doing what anypony should.”

Alex held up a head in protest. “No, Twilight, you don’t get it. Of all the things that could've happened when I went through that portal, of all the horrible possibilities that I could've suffered, I ended up here, and you've been nothing but helpful and kind to me, a complete stranger you found in your basement.”

Twilight's face flushed and she averted her gaze elsewhere. “Wow, Alex, I don’t really know what to say. You’re welcome, I guess. And besides, after everything you've been through, I’d say you deserve a break.”

He rubbed back of his head. “Yeah, I guess I do, don’t I?”

“But…” Twilight’s tone suddenly became much more serious. She tilted her head towards the open door, beckoning him to follow, and he did.

Once outside and sure that they were well away from the others, she continued her sentence. “Look, I have to ask you this. This device you were talking about earlier… Are you going to try to make another one?”

The tone of her voice wasn't one of enthusiasm, but one of worry.

“Well, if I’m gonna want to get any work done, yeah,” he answered.

Twilight shifted on her hooves uncomfortably.

Alex knew just what she was thinking and frowned. “You’re afraid I’m gonna try turning it into a weapon, aren't you?”

“No, no!” she defended, holding a hoof up. “It’s not that, it’s just…”

“It’s just what then?" he said sternly. "You're afraid it’ll accidentally blow up and take half the town with it?”

Twilight flattened her ears and stared at the ground. Alex mentally kicked himself for obviously hurting her feelings. He always felt terrible if he ever did that to someone, and Twilight was certainly no exception. He had to make things right or he’d feel guilty about it all night.

“Look, I promise you, in its natural condition, it’s perfectly safe. In order for it to cause any damage whatsoever, you have to force it to do that, it doesn't just happen by accident.”

Twilight looked up at him, slightly alleviated, but still unsure. Alex knelt down once more to be eye to eye with her.

“Lemme ask you a question. Does this world – Equestria, wasn’t it? – does it have an energy crisis?”

She tilted her head, wondering what he meant. “An energy crisis?”

“Yeah. Is Equestria looking for new, renewable sources of energy to fulfill its needs because the old sources are much too temporary?”

She blinked. “Not that I know of… We pretty much have all the energy that we need, I think...”

Maybe… Just maybe… he thought. Would I be running the risk? She seems trustworthy enough, but… Screw it.

He placed his hand on what he best guessed was her shoulder and looked straight at her. “How about this. Tomorrow morning, you and I will talk about it, just us two. I’ll explain to you what it is, what it does, and how I use it. I won’t mention this to Rose because she’ll probably try to talk me out of it. How does that sound?”

Twilight’s face lit up as all sorts of meanings hit her at once. She understood that he ran an incredible risk (or at least, he probably felt he did) by telling her about it. He was putting so much trust in her! She flattery was undeniable, not just because he seemed to trust her, but because he would be sharing what was possibly one of the most ground-breaking scientific advances to ever come to Equestria, and only she would know about it.

Alex smiled at the look of pure elation on her face. He still wasn't quite sure why he said what he did, considering the unbelievable risk he was taking. He wasn't sure if it was because he trusted her or because it seemed that Equestria didn't really have a need for massive amounts energy. Not like Earth at any rate.

Or perhaps it was because he didn't really have any other choice.

“That sounds fantastic!” she said. “Would you mind if I take notes?”

“Actually, I would,” Alex stated matter-of-factly, but smirked nevertheless. “But trust me, this is something you’ll always remember, with or without notes.”

Despite Twilight's disappointment, her happiness remained intact. “Alright, I understand.”

“Good,” Alex patted her on the shoulder before getting up. “Now then, let’s get back to them, shall we?”

Twilight nodded in response as they returned to the bed room to find the others huddled around the computer screen.

“So a car is this machine that humans use to get around on their own, without anypony pulling it?” asked Pinkie with genuine interest.

“Yes, it is,” confirmed Rose. “More primitive models use regular combustible fuels to operate, but more advanced designs don’t have a need for such materials.”

Pinkie gasped up at the ceiling. “Wow! I wish I’d thought of that!”

Alex nudged Twilight to get her attention and jerked his head in their direction. She understood just what he meant. “Alright, everypony, they've had a really long day. We should let them rest now.”

“Awwwww!” whined Pinkie. “Do we have to?”

“She’s right, sugarcube,” agreed Applejack. “As interestin’ as they've been, we've been kinda smotherin’ ‘em. We aughta let ‘em rest.”

“They have a point, dear,” said Rarity. “Besides, it’s starting to get late and I need my beauty sleep.”

The ponies started filing out, each giving Alex and Rose a proper farewell. Rarity and Pinkie, however, hung back just a bit.

“Alex, darling, could you confirm one teeny little thing for me?” Rarity asked.

“Uh, sure. What is it?”

“From what I understand, your species wears clothing all the time, correct?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Rarity smiled. “Well then, if you ever need new clothing, just stop by Carousel Boutique and I’d be more than happy to set you up with a new wardrobe! After all, any friend of Twilight is a friend of mine.”

Alex smiled at her offer, but respectfully declined. “Thanks for the offer, but I have a few changes of clothing in my bag. But if I need any more, I’ll keep you in mind!”

“Please do!” With a curt nod, Rarity trotted out with everyone else.

Pinkie, for her part, simple sat patiently with a folded piece of paper in her mouth.

“Uh, why do you have that in your mouth?” asked Alex, not exactly sure where it even came from.

“Ish for you!” she exclaimed, leaning in so he could take it.

Alex took the paper from her mouth and carefully unfolded it. Two numbers were written on the paper: Ten billion and one million. “Uhh… Thanks, I guess?”

With a cheerful smile, Pinkie bounced after the others. “You’re welcome!”

“Spike,” Twilight called out, “could you go prepare the guest room?”

“Sure thing, Twilight!” the dragon said as he went to go complete the assigned task.

Pocketing the odd note, Alex took this as an indication that he should go prepare his belongings to move them. He placed his Link Gun and its ejected clip in his Go-Bag and slung it all onto his back. He then picked Rose up off the bed as Twilight replaced the comforter that he had ruined earlier.

“Sorry I had to do that to you,” he whispered to his AI companion, “but I had to talk to Twilight alone for a bit. Plus, you did abandon me earlier when they showed up. Fair’s fair.”

Rose sighed. “I suppose I had that coming… What did you need to talk to her about?”

Alex knew he couldn't tell her what he planned quite yet. If he did, she’d probably be angry at him and try to talk him out of it. He couldn't lie either since he was terrible at coming up with lies on the spot. Once he told Twilight, though, Rose would only be angry at him. Asking for forgiveness was always easier than asking for permission, after all.

A half-truth it was, then. “I talked to her about seeing what we could do about getting ourselves established here, and we’ll talk later in the morning. I didn't mention the Power-Core, but I have no doubt in my mind that it’ll probably have to come to that at some point.”

Rose frowned. “I don’t like the idea, but you may just be right. Choose your words carefully, Alex, that’s all I have to say. Also, I’d keep a look out for that pink one. There’s something strange about her…”

Alex nodded and folded the laptop under his arms. He walked over to Twilight who was now busy with the ruined sheet and burnt lamp. When she turned her attention to him, he pointed at the laptop under his arms, then his ear, and then placed his finger over his mouth to indicate a hush. Twilight understood and simply nodded.

“So,” Alex said, trying to think up some small talk, “looks like we’re gonna be here for a while. I wanna thank you again for all the help you've been.”

“It's not a problem, Alex. Just so long as you remember to give me a bit of an insight into your world! It’s not every day you get learn about an alien culture!”

“Completely understandable, and I’ll help as best I can.”

Twilight smiled as she levitated the mass of ruined cloth and lamp in one big ball. “Spike should be done setting up the guest room by now. Here, it’s this way.”

He simply nodded and followed.

Alex took a moment to examine himself before getting into the uncomfortably small bed. The bruise was still there, and while the pain killers had probably worn off, it didn't hurt as badly as before. It also appeared to have healed fairly well, which, to him, meant that Fluttershy had access to some really freaky medicine worth looking into.

As Alex climbed into the bed, he realized just how small it was. The last time he had ever slept in anything this small, was when he was fourteen years old! He could fit alright if he slept in the fetal position, though.

Closing his eyes, his mind unconsciously wandered back to the note Pinkie had given him and the numbers that were written on it. Ten billion and one million. His eyes shot back open as his brain suddenly clicked. With those two numbers in mind, Alex did a quick binary conversion in his head that resulted with two different numbers with six digits total. Scrambling out of bed, Alex grabbed his phone and entered the new numbers as the pin code.

With a simulated click, the device granted him access.

How in the hell…?

Alex was dumbfounded. Pinkie Pie had not only guessed the code to his phone and wrote it down for him, she wrote it in its original binary! He didn't even hint at having his phone, let alone mention he couldn't figure out the code.

Rose was right. He did have to keep an eye on her.

Sorting that mental note away for later, Alex began perusing through his phone, bringing back memories that were long since buried. He decided to open up the music folder on his phone to see what kind of songs he brought with him. "Songs to solder to" was one of his oldest playlists, though definitely one of the best. However, his excitement slowly morphed into confusion as he started going through the extensive list of songs. Certain songs were starting to catch his eye, and not in a good way.

Their titles caused him to become concerned as they seemed to hint at his current situation. One of them, though, stood out from the rest as soon as he saw it.

My Little Pony intro (Alex S. Glitch Remix)

Alex's heart practically stopped as the information hit him like a truck at full speed. His jaw became slack and his eyes widened slowly as memories of his teenage years came rushing back to him.

He quickly scrolled through the list of songs and found numerous other songs related to the cartoon show that was so popular back then. Admittedly, he wasn't so much a fan of the show as he was a fan of the content the fan base generated. The music was always oddly appealing.

Somehow doubting himself, Alex looked around the room to confirm that he was, in fact, in Twilight Sparkle’s guest bed room. His nagging feeling from earlier had finally been explained.

“Oh fuck…” he mumbled. “O-oh fuck…”

He turned the phone off and gently placed it on the night stand next to the laptop as he stared into the darkness.

“Oooooooohhhhh fuuuuuuck…” his voice cracked. “How… in the fuck…”

Alex slowly curled up under the covers, facing away from the phone, his eyes still open and staring into the void.

It was going to be a long night.

Shedding some light

View Online

Twilight Sparkle poked her empty breakfast plate idly with a fork. She had been waiting for Alex to wake up for several hours now and the clock was bordering on 11:30. Sure, others considered her to be up and about earlier than usual, but 6:00 sharp was a more than an acceptable time to start each day!

Alex didn’t seem too tired last night, did he? she thought. Unless humans have a longer sleep cycle… Drat! There’s still so much I don’t know!

“You know, you could just go check up on him.”

Twilight turned to Spike who had been busying himself shelving some of the more recent additions to the library.

“I don’t want to be rude to him, Spike,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t think about it until now, but maybe humans have to sleep longer than we do.”

“You’ll never know until you look…”

Twilight toyed with the idea, though the more she did, the less pleasant it seemed. For all she knew, he might feel too pressured to talk about his device and decide to change his mind about the whole thing. But what if something bad happened…? Maybe he tripped while getting out of bed and hit his head? He's tall so he has a much higher center of gravity, and the fact that he's bipedal means he isn't as stable as a pony...

Twilight got up from the table and made her way to the guest room. She carefully placed her ear against the door to try and listen for any sound. She heard something, but couldn’t quite tell what it was.

Maybe a little peek wouldn’t hurt…

Using her magic, she ever so carefully turned the door handle. Once she was confident the handle was as far as it could turn, she carefully nudged it open to peek inside. Before she could react, the door flung open and a pair of wide, bloodshot eyes bared down on her.

“AAAHHH!” Twilight instantly yelped and backed up in a panic.

The human averted his gaze from Twilight and looked around, breathing heavily, and eyed the breakfast table with the convenient chair places across from the empty but recently used plate and utentils. Ignoring the bedroom intruder, he shambled from the confines of the guest room towards the chair, assuming it was meant for him. He pulled the pony-sized chair out and squated down uncomfortably on it before his head suddenly impacted the table with a dull thud.

Spike, who had observed the scene from a distance, didn’t quite share Twilight’s reaction. “Well good morning to you too.”

Alex’s back expanded as it sounded like he took his first breath in years. He flopped an arm on the table and pushed himself upright, though still slouched in the small chair. His red eyes just stared at the floor.

Twilight, coming out of her stupor, finally managed a coherent sentence. “Alex, are you okay?”

He swung his head over his shoulder to look at her, his mouth slightly open. After taking a raggedy breath, he managed to grumble out: “I didn’t sleep very well…”

“Oh… Was something wrong? Was it the bed? Nightmares?”

Nightmares weren't too far off. In reality, Alex had been thinking about the fact that he now found himself in an incredibly popular cartoon he remembered from when he was a teenager. Despite the fact that the cartoon in question looked much more realistic now that he was here, it still retained some of the elements he remembered - like the ponies' large eyes. He spent an inordinate amount of time trying to remember details about what was in the show, but he couldn’t remember very much for the life of him. All he remembered was that he enjoyed the odd episode and the fan-made contributions like the music he had apparently brought with him.

His head was swarming with thoughts of the previous night. Mostly questions that he couldn’t possibly figure out the answer to, like how he ended up in what he thought was a cartoon show in the first place, or what this meant for him and Rose. He eventually dismissed the idea by coming to the conclusion that no matter what the answer was, it wouldn’t change his current situation. Cartoon or not, right now, it was very real, and had to be treated as such.

Still didn’t help him sleep, though.

As he briefly thought about his revelation, his mind gradually wandered to the conversation he shared with Twilight the night before, about how he said he would tell her about the Power Core. If there was anything he remembered from the show, it was that the likelihood of something bad coming out of making a Power Core in Equestria was slim. Life was already dandy for them, after all, and the presence of him and anything he builds would likely just be a curiosity.

Either that or the possibilities would be catastrophic, but he wasn’t quite sure. He was willing to bet on the former, though. In the end, Alex ended up forgetting what Twilight had just asked him and figured it was probably best to ignore it.

“Do you have any coffee…?” he mumbled.

“Um… I didn’t make any, no, but Spike can prepare a pot if you want. Do you want anything to eat? We have some oats, some spare eggs... we have some hay bacon if you'd like.”

Oats and hay bacon? Fuck me, please no. Alex gently rested his head against the table. “Eggs sound great…”

Twilight looked at Spike and tilted her head towards the kitchen. He rolled his eyes as he descended from the ladder to complete his new task. Twilight walked back to her chair, opposite Alex, and sat down. He still had his head on the table.

“So,” she said, trying to find some way to engage in small talk, “what kinds of food do humans eat? I don’t think I’ve gotten around to asking you yet…”

Alex pushed himself back up and rested his head in his hand, forearm braced against the table. He gave Twilight the thousand yard stare devoid of any emotion.

“Humans are omnivores…” he mumbled. “We eat fruit… veggies… meat… anything, really… Hay and oats aren't on the list, though.”

Twilight was slightly taken aback by the fact that he ate meat, but quickly regained herself. It wasn’t uncommon for some more civilized creatures like griffons to eat meat. While she personally wasn’t for the practice, she couldn’t fault him for being an omnivore if that’s the way humans were. There was one question, however, that did make its way to the forefront of her mind. “Alex, just out of curiosity, where do humans get the meat they eat?”

Alex’s only response was a low groan as his head slammed back onto the table.

"Right, sorry," Twilight sighed, mentally kicking herself. Asking him a morally stained question like that wasn't exactly the kind of thing that would get him to open up. Figuring Alex wasn't quite in a state to talk much, she walked over to the kitchen to go help Spike. Upon arriving in the kitchen, she found her assistant near the stove making a batch of scrambled eggs, a pot of coffee preparing nearby.

“Hey, Spike. Need any help?” she asked.

Spike shifted the eggs around in the pan, the pleasant smell wafting in the air. “Nah, it’s okay, I got it. How’s Alex doing? He looked more dead than alive.”

“He couldn’t sleep for some reason… I guess it’s understandable if you consider the situation he’s in right now,” she said, clearly concerned.

“Right… nearly getting killed by monsters and going through some portal that could’ve also killed him and instead ending up in another world he thinks is weird… Come on, Equestria isn’t weird...”

Twilight shook her head and spoke to him firmly, imparting a lesson to the young dragon. “It is for him, Spike. To us, it’s completely normal since it’s all we know. It’s just a matter of perspective.”

“Yeah, I guess… Anyway, coffee should be done.”

Twilight looked over the pot and found that it had, in-fact, been properly brewed. “Thanks, Spike!” The grabbed the pot and a couple of cups with her magic and levitated them into the main room, placing them on the table.

Alex, who was still resting his head on the table caught the scent of the freshly brewed coffee. His eyes shot open and he caught the sight of Twilight magically pouring him a cup.

“Do you want anything with it?” she asked. “Milk? Sugar?”

“Black’s fine,” he said curtly, eyes fixated on the drink as if it contained everything he ever wanted.

As soon as she placed the cup on the table, Alex’s hand shot towards it and brought up to his face. Despite his surprising speed, he didn’t spill any of it. He smelt it once more to confirm its caffeinated goodness. Satisfied with his appraisal, he quickly downed the piping hot cup in a few gulps and was quickly pouring himself another.

Twilight looked at him in awe as he consumed the second cup like water.

He slammed the cup down in front of him and grit his teeth, the heat of the coffee seemingly catching up with him. "Aaarrgghhh..." he groaned, seemingly communicating "I regret the choice I just made," before steeling himself for another moment and looking at Twilight. “Would you mind if I had another?”

After stuttering incoherently for a few seconds, Twilight finally managed a sentence. “Uh… no, go right ahead.”

Without another word, he poured himself a third cup and, like the previous cups, downed it like nothing. He slowly placed the cup on the table, took several deep breaths and, without warning, raised his hand and slapped himself as hard as he could.

“WHOA!” Alex suddenly yelled. “Now that is the good stuff!”

Twilight stood in shock, still trying to process the scene she had just witnessed. Any semblance of a walking corpse he had less than a minute ago was completely gone as he appeared more awake and alert than even she was. He stood up from the table and began walking around the room, doing small stretches and swinging his arms as he went.

“Ooohhh yeah… Thanks, I needed that,” he said.

Twilight continued to stare at him in disbelief.

Alex looked back at her. “Hey, you alright? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“Duhbedabuh…” she stuttered.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, leaning an ear in?

Twilight shut her eyes briefly to regain her composure. “What was that?”

“What was what?” He leaned in slightly more.

“That!” Twilight pointed at the coffee pot and cup. “One minute you’re practically a zombie and now… This!”

Alex stifled a laugh. “Twilight, you’re talking to someone who has more than enough experience going at least forty eight hours without sleep using nothing but caffeine and stubbornness. That stuff’s like a miracle drug for me.”

“Do you do this kind of thing often?” she asked, concern etched in her voice. She was familiar with long caffeinated study sessions, but the longest Twilight had ever gone was thirty six hours before her body shut down and forced her to sleep. Even then, that was exceptional. Going double that on a regular basis just seemed really unhealthy.

“Only when I need to,” he said, talking exceptionally quickly. “Mind you, I’ve got a feeling this won’t last terribly long since it usually only works if I drink it over a longer period of time while trying to stay awake. So, fair warning, I’m probably gonna crash pretty hard in a little bit.”

Twilight had seen plenty of ridiculous behavior from Pinkie Pie before, but seeing something similar coming from Alex just seemed… wrong. In fact, everything about him seemed wrong!

He wasn’t like this before. What happened last night?

Spike poked his head out of the kitchen. “Hey, everything okay in here?”

“Everything’s GREAT!” Alex responded promptly, swinging his arms back and forth with a massive grin.

Spike raised a scaly eyebrow. He looked at Twilight, hoping her expression would tell him how to react to the now very animated human. Sadly, she looked just as confused. “Riiiiight… Anyway, eggs are almost done. You like scrambled, right?”

Alex raised two outstretched thumbs up, keeping his smile. “Scrambled’s awesome!”

Still unsure how to react, Spike just retreated behind the door.

Alex spun to look at Twilight and clapped his hands together, still holding his unnerving smile. “So, I do believe we had something to discuss!”

Now reminded of the conversation they shared the previous night, Twilight nodded slowly and took her seat at the table. “Yes, that’s right. You wanted to explain to me what it was that you wanted to build.”

Alex took his own seat while his leg started involuntarily twitching. “That’s it! So, what do you want to know?”

Twilight was taken a bit by surprise. She had fully expected him to start rambling at this point. Now she just wasn’t sure what to expect from him. She decided it would be best to treat him the same way she treated Pinkie until she could get to know him better. That is to say, very carefully.

“Um… How about what it is?” she asked tentatively.

"Right, right." Alex closed his eyes and inhaled deeply to gather his thoughts. He let out an equally large exhale before calmly replying. “It’s called a Power Core.”

Twilight was, yet again, confused by his sudden change in behavior.

“Okay, wait up for a second,” she said, holding her hoof up to silence him. “You’re really starting to confuse me right now.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “How am I confusing you already? I only told you its name.”

“Nonono, not that!” Twilight said, shaking her head in frustration. “One minute you’re almost dead, the next you’re practically flying around the room, and now look like you’re completely grounded.”

He smirked and slowly nodded. “Ah, right, I can see why that would confuse you. You see, it’s this technique that I perfected that I like to call a ‘mental reset’ where I purge all my thoughts and focus myself on one thing.” Alex poured himself a fourth cup of coffee and gingerly sipped from it. “Aahh… Very useful trick, actually. Took me a while to get it right.”

Twilight looked at him, her mouth agape.

“What?” he said, taking another sip of coffee.

“You have to teach me how to do that.”

Alex chuckled and placed his cup on the table. “Maybe some other time. Now then, I believe you wanted to know more about the Power Core?”

Twilight shook her head a bit to try and get her own thoughts in order. “Right. So, what is this ‘Power Core’ supposed to do?”

“Okay, before I start getting into anything,” he said, keeping his calm and even tone, “I just wanna make sure of something… You’re aware of the laws regarding energy in physics, right? Like how you can’t get more energy out of a system than what you put in?”

“Of course! They're fundamental truths about everything in physics. You always lose ener–” Twilight’s mind suddenly clicked when she remembered what Alex had mentioned during his story the night before.

“I pitched the idea to my Father, but he outright rejected it. He thought it was way too expensive for an idea that supposedly trumped one of the fundamental laws of... Well...”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she let out a low gasp of understanding. She wasn’t sure how to process this information.

You can’t just break physics, it’s impossible! Not because some scientist said so, but because you can’t physically do it. Is he seriously going to claim that he made something that did this? He can’t be telling the truth. Plenty of ponies have claimed to make perpetual energy machines but they always turned out to use some quirk their inventor never really understood while still obeying physics. But what if he isn't kidding…? No he has to be, this kind of thing isn’t possible!

Twilight was suddenly jerked back to reality by the sound of snapping fingers. She looked down towards the source of the noise to see her scaled assistant carrying a pan with scrambled eggs.

“Hey, Twilight, you okay? You kinda zoned out there for a second,” he said.

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, uh… sorry about that…” she stumbled.

Spike looked at Alex as he started to serve the eggs on a plate in front of him. “Wow, what did you tell her to make her do that?”

Alex shrugged. “Heck if I know, I didn’t tell her much of anything yet. Oh, and thanks for the eggs.”

Spike finished serving the eggs and began moving back to the kitchen. “Riiiight. I’m just gonna start cleaning up. Try not to break her brain or something.”

Once Spike was safely out of earshot, Twilight slammed her hoof down on the table. “You liar!” she hissed.

Alex gaped at her. “What?”

“You liar!” she repeated. “Perpetual energy machines aren't possible! This ‘Power Core’ of yours isn't something that can ever exist! How do I know the rest of your story isn’t a lie, too?”

“You’re right, you caught me,” he deadpanned. “I was actually brought here by pixie dust and happy thoughts.”

“Aha! I knew it!”

“Knew what?”

“That you were brought here by magic!”

Alex face palmed. “No, Twilight, that was sarcasm. Magic doesn’t exist on my world.”

“But building a perpetual energy generator seems much more believable, right?” she said sarcastically.

Alex was impressed that she figured out the basic idea of a Power Core with so little prompting from him. He also had to concede that between that and the use of magic, the magic idea seemed much more possible to her because of her own magical abilities. Twilight seemed more apprehensive about it than he figured she would be, and he was starting to get the feeling that the situation with his father would repeat itself. Unless he gained control of the conversation quickly, things might end up badly for him in the long run.

Alex silently took a bite of eggs without breaking eye contact with Twilight, who simply stared back at him angrily.

“Twilight,” he said as he swallowed his meal. “I’m going to be straight with you. I am a terrible liar. I can’t come up with a simple lie to save my skin, let alone a story like mine. A Power Core is something that sounds impossible, yes, I understand that, but that doesn’t change the fact that I managed to build one. If I didn’t, I would be dead right now, or at the very least scrambling for my life. Besides, I’ve got nothing to gain from lying to you. Not in my current situation, anyway.”

He continued to eat his breakfast while they engaged in their staring contest.

“Now then, are you going to act like everyone else and refuse to believe me, or are you going to go at this with an open mind and think that maybe, just maybe I’ve got knowledge worth knowing?”

Alex hated being this blunt with people, but he felt he didn’t really have any other choice. Twilight didn’t seem like she would even give him the time of day at this point, so he decided to fight fire with fire. To his minor relief, it seemed to work.

“Okay…” she said, still keeping a stern face. “I’ll listen to you… for now…”

"Thank you." Alex cleared his throat. “Now then, if you’re being honest with me right now, you’re probably gonna want to know the details. I promise you, the math behind it is an absolute nightmare… Tends to be that way wherever quantum physics is involved... But it works.”

He calmly finished the eggs and noticed that Twilight had also relaxed a little bit out of the corner of his eye.

“What is does,” he continued slowly, attempting to pick his words carefully, “is it... let's say 'brings forth', stores, and recycles a form of raw energy. Normally, we think of energy as a concept related to work and forces, but here, energy is different. It's almost like a substance. It doesn’t really have a mass, per se, but has a condensible volume that can be manipulated with the proper technology.”

Once Alex started on some form of explanation, the rest of his body would relax as a consequence. He always chalked it up to enjoying going on educational tangents, and figured he might've tried becoming a teacher some day, perhaps after retiring. He didn’t get the opportunity to teach others often (mostly because Rose already knew everything he did, and everyone else lacked the fundamental knowledge necessary for his current work), so he relished the opportunity to discuss what was easily his life's greatest achievement.

“Now, as you’ve already noted,” he said, gesturing towards her, “Power Cores are a form of super-efficient generators: they produce more energy than they require, and in vast quantities, too. They produce a lot of energy in a small time frame. Now, is this what’s actually happening? Does a Power Core actually draw this energy seemingly from nowhere? The answer is…” he paused, noticing his breakfast companion lean slightly forward in anticipation of the answer. Did he really want to let the genie out of the bottle? The idea didn't sit well with him quite yet, but he had already gotten this far, so a half-truth it is.

“… we don’t know,” he finished.

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat and she froze. She couldn’t think of anything to say besides: “What?”

“We don’t know!” he repeated, leaning back more comfortably in his chair.

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know?!’” Twilight yelled, her left eye clearly twitching. “You built and designed the thing and you don’t know how it works?!”

Alex tried to suppress a smile. “I never said I didn’t know how it works! I know exactly how it works! The problem is that neither Rose nor I know everything about the nature of this energy or where exactly Cores draw it from. The best knowledge that we have is that it comes from some sort of... aether, or something. From the space between atoms. That's about it, though. Otherwise, we know absolutely everything else. Honestly, though, as it stands, we don’t really care about finding out right now.”

Twilight’s eye twitched again. “What do you mean you don’t care?” she wheezed.

“Well, it’s not that we don’t care,” he said, rubbing his chin. “It’s just a question that isn't important for us to answer yet.”

“How is it not important?!” She was leaning over the table at him.

“Results, Twilight. So long as we can duplicate the results – and we can – we’re not gonna try to break our heads over a tangential mystery. Knowing enough to make cores work to our advantage is good enough for us.”

Twilight plunked down in her chair and stared at him. Her lips were pursed and one eye was partially closed. If it wasn’t for the fur, Alex would probably be able to see a vein twitching.

He tried his hardest not to laugh.

“What’s so funny?!” she said loudly. Evidently, his hardest wasn’t good enough.

“Hehehe, sorry, you just have the funniest face right now!”

Twilight was practically fuming. He had a feeling that if he pushed her just a tad further, she might spontaneously combust. He decided it was probably for the best to stop pulling her leg and try to defuse her.

“Okay, okay, let me explain,” he said, clearing his throat and placing an arm on the table. “As a scientist, yes, I agree with you, it’s a shame we don’t know exactly where the energy is coming from, and yes, I would love to know more about it eventually. But as an engineer, I think about practical matters. Whether we know or not doesn’t change the fact that it works the way it does. So long as it still works, that’s all that matters to us. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still trying to figure it out! It’s just not our highest priority. It’s more of a… curiosity, you know?”

Twilight seemed a little calmer, but not much. “But why? Don’t you think that kind of thing would be really important? Unknowns like these can lead to whole new fields of scientific research.”

"I mean that's true, but... um..." Alex started rubbing his chin, thinking of a way to phrase his opinion on the matter. “Have you ever done a test when you were younger, and you came across a question you weren’t quite sure how to answer, so you just moved on to questions you knew how to answer more easily before getting back to that one?”

She stared blankly at him. “No.”

His mouth hung limply for a moment before he brought his palm up to his face. God dammit… he thought. “Okay, look, it’s just a question that isn’t worth the time or effort to answer at the moment because we don't think it will yield that much more practical info.”

“But–”

Alex held up his hand. “No ‘buts.’ We just don't consider it worth our time right now.”

Twilight sat quietly with a defeated look. He sighed and looked out a window, observing the beautifully sunny day. Despite the beauty of the day, he started to carry a sorrowful expression as his thoughts drifted.

“It’s because it works that I had to do what I did…” he pondered aloud.

Twilight tilted her head and spoke softly, noticing the sudden change of tone in his voice. “Do what?”

“Going into hiding, abandoning pretty much everything… Everyone... If people found out I created a super-efficient generator, everyone would go crazy trying to get their hands on it.” He scoffed. “Now I’m no politician, but there was no way to know how the world would react to it. I just knew it would be a spectrum. Some would use it to help people, others would try to engineer it into weapons…”

He frowned and shook his head. “I didn’t have much of a choice… It was either preserve the fragile status quo, or risk the destruction of the human race…”

Twilight flattened her ears. “You don’t know if that would’ve actually happened…”

“You’re right, I didn’t…” He averted his gaze from the window and looked at her square in the eyes. “But if you were in my position, knowing that national tensions were at an all-time high because incompetent despots were elected to the highest offices in the most powerful countries in the world, invading other countries on the other side of the globe for their resources in the name of 'self defense'... would you really risk it?”

Twilight looked away from him, marinating in his words before answering. “No, I... I guess not…”

Alex turned to stare back out the window. “Exactly…”

The two preserved the silence for a moment, leaving the other with their thoughts. From what Twilight could gather, Alex understood that the rest of his world would have greatly benefited from the Power Core. However, according to him, there was too great a risk it would also be used for maligned purposes. Since he couldn’t tell which was more likely to happen, he thought it best to not find out.

“Now I don’t know how reluctant you’ll be to help me,” Alex suddenly spoke up, “but if I want to get anything done here, I want - no, I need to build a new Power Core. Nothing too big, just enough to get me and Rose started.”

Twilight snapped up and her mind immediately focused on whether or not she should actually help him. What he wanted to build was, as he mentioned earlier, potentially dangerous, but it was also the only thing he could do since he didn’t seem interested in anything else. It was clear he was going to find some way to build it, whether she helped him or not. The real question for him was how easy it would be, and that hinged on her decision.

A Power Core could be extremely dangerous. But on the other hoof, it could also mark a new age in equestrian history.

“Yes.”

Alex looked at her blankly, as if he expected a different answer. “Huh?”

Twilight looked at him seriously. “I’ll help you.”

“Y-you will?”

“Of course.” She offered him a warm smile. “I can't say for sure whether or not bringing your cores to Equestria is a good idea or not, if it means that much to you, I’ll be glad to help.”

A weight lifted from Alex's chest, and he allowed himself the opportunity to feel an ounce of hope. “Th-thank you! You really have no idea how much this means to me.”

“But,” she held up a hoof, “I still have a few more questions for you.”

“Sure, ask away!”

“First, what kind of materials does it need?”

He waved her off. “I can draw you up a list later, it’s not exactly simple. Although it will need a catalyst, which may be a problem.”

Twilight’s curiosity was piqued. “A catalyst? What sort of catalyst?”

“Well, activating a Power Core isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. It needs a relatively small jumpstart of about…” He scratched his chin, wondering how Twilight was going to react to what he was about to say. “Um… Roughly a terajoule. The higher the wattage the better.”

Twilight’s ears flopped down and her pupil’s shrank to pinpricks. “A… tera… joule…?”

He nodded his head slowly, pursing his lips. “Yeeeaaah, it’s a lot…”

“How in the hay did you manage to activate it last time?”

~~~~~~~~~~

[Night time, two years ago, somewhere above the city of Montreal, Quebec. A father and son are returning home from a vacation by plane. They are seated near the window.]

“Pst, hey, son, look outside. See all the lights?”

“Wow! They look so cool from up here!”

“Isn’t it? I always love landing in a city at night… Someday, I want to show you Las Vegas at night, it’s the most amazing… huh…? What the heck?”

“Dad, where’d all the lights go?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Alex rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Let’s just say it took me a while to get it right and leave it at that… Anyway, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“Okay… and second, what was that other thing you made?”

Alex sat up straight and smiled. “Oh, right, that! It’s called an EMC, or Energy to Matter Converter. It uses large quantities of energy provided by a Power Core and transforms it into usable matter.”

Twilight stared at him with wide eyes. “Wait, you can do that?”

“Very much so! It's relativity! Energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared. If you know what you’re doing, it’s not particularly difficult.”

“Hold on, hold on…” Twilight held a hoof to her head. “What's relativity?”

Alex quirked a brow. "You're not at all familiar with the theory of general or specific relativity? What about atomic theory?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Interesting…” Alex leaned back and began stroking his chin. “You guys are further behind than I thought…”

“Hey!” she scolded.

“Well it’s just a statement of fact!” he defended. “It’s obvious ponies aren’t at the same level as modern humans.”

“Maybe in some fields, but we have extensive knowledge is a host of thaumaturlogical fields that humans definitely don't have.”

"I have no idea what er... thaumaturgy is."

"The study of magic."

"Alright, I'll grant you that one," Alex shrugged. “Anyway, the EMC is how I was able to build my Liandri and lab without having to buy additional materials. If you power it using a Power Core, you can take advantage of the fact that matter and energy are interchangeable to make whatever you want, particle by particle.”

Twilight nodded along as she contemplated the uses for such technology. “That- That’s pretty amazing!”

He smiled. “Isn’t it? Problem is, though, the process is time consuming and very difficult to control manually. I had to create a special, self-correcting program in order for it to function properly. Incidentally, the program I created to do that eventually became–” Alex suddenly sat up rigidly, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. “Twilight, how long have we been having this conversation?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t know… half an hour, forty minutes, maybe?”

Alex did some quick mental calculations. “Ah dammit.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, worry starting to sink in.

“Sorry, but I think we’re gonna have to continue this conversation laaaaaaayyyyyyy–” Before he could finish his sentence, Alex’s eyes rolled up into his skull. His mouth hung limp as he tumbled out of his chair face down with a loud thud.

“Oh my gosh, Alex!” Twilight ran around the table to his side to see what was wrong. “Spike! Spike, come quick!”

The dragon rushed out of the kitchen as fast as he could. “Twilight! What’s wrong!”

“Something happened to him! He just fell out of his chair!”

“Oh no, what do we do, what do we do!”

“I don’t know, I don’t know!”

During the brief moment of silence between their panicked cries, both Twilight and Spike heard a strange sound. Spike wasn’t quite sure what it was at first, but it was all too familiar to Twilight.

Was that... snoring?

“Spike, do you hear that?” she asked.

“Yeah, what is it?”

Twilight carefully rolled Alex onto his back and confirmed her hypothesis. Right in the middle of their conversation, he had suddenly fallen asleep and fell out of his chair as a result. All things considered, she was surprised that the fall didn’t wake him up.

Well, he did say he would crash pretty hard…

“Uh… Twilight, is he sleeping?” asked her assistant.

Twilight shook her head and let out a small laugh. “Yes, Spike… Yes he is…”

Sighing, she decided that it would be best to get Alex back to bed. Using her magic, she ever so carefully lifted up the sleeping mass and carried him back to the guest room, dragon in tow.

“Spike, why don’t you go and clean the table while I make sure he’s comfortable? I’ll be back to help you in a minute.”

Figuring it would probably be best to do something productive instead of standing around while she tucked Alex back into bed, Spike agreed, although he felt slightly irritated that he had to do so much cleaning lately.

Twilight carefully lowered her unconscious guest onto the small disheveled bed and did her best to put him in a position he would find comfortable. As she finished pulling the sheets up and making sure Alex was still sleeping soundly, her attention was brought to the night stand as a familiar, synthetic voice called out to her. “Hello there.”

“Oh, hello, Rose!” she said as she looked at the source of the voice.

“Could you open the lid of the computer, please?”

Twilight complied and manually opened the device. Upon doing so, she was greeted with the virtual face of none other than the AI she had become such a fan of. “Good morning, Rose! Sleep well?”

“I don’t sleep,” Rose said flatly, the tone of the simple comment making Twilight feel a pang of regret for asking in the first place. “So, what did he tell you?”

Twilight’s heart nearly stopped upon hearing her question. She remembered that Alex had told her that Rose wouldn’t be happy about him telling her about the Power Core. She decided to put on her best smile and deny everything.

“Tell me what? He didn’t tell me anything! We just had breakfast and he fell asleep, so I brought him back here!”

Rose frowned. “I’m not stupid. I know you two were talking about something related to us. What was it?”

Twilight’s smile was starting to falter. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“He told you about the Power Core, didn’t he?"

“Power Core, what’s that?” Twilight was trying her best to not give herself away, but Rose’s intense glare were breaking her resolve faster than fine china being thrown at a wall. The fact that Rose never blinked didn’t help either.

Twilight sighed in defeat and hung her head. “Yes…”

The AI shook her virtual head. “Of course he would’ve…”

“Please don’t be angry!” Twilight pleaded. “He just wanted my help!”

“I’m not angry, Twilight Sparkle.”

She blinked. “Y-you’re not?”

“No. In all honesty, it was probably going to happen at one point or another. Trying to build a Power Core on your own without resources is not possible, and you do seem like someone who would be the most likely to assist with the endeavor. Speaking of which, are you going to help?”

“Yes, I am,” the unicorn confirmed with a nod. “I'm still a little doubtful, but given everything that's happened, I figured it's all still worth a shot.”

“Good, then allow me to establish some ground rules… First off, this is not to become public knowledge.”

“Why not?”

“Because a Power Core is an incredibly valuable piece of technology, and the fewer people who know about it, the better. Secondly, if you’re as eager to help build it as I think you are, then know that if we need a certain material, it must be acquired, understood?”

Twilight nodded slowly. “I understand. Can’t build something properly unless you have all the things you need, right?”

“Precisely. However, I really must emphasize secrecy. It’s not every day technology like this comes around, and you never know who might want to exploit it.”

“Don’t worry, Rose, you can count on me!” said Twilight, standing proudly.

“Keep in mind that I still don’t trust you.”

The pony’s stature suddenly wilted and her ears flattened, the AI’s words cutting into her heart.

“The only reason I’m willing to work with you at all,” Rose continued, “is because Alex seems to trust you, for whatever reason he may have. I may be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you want my trust, you will have to earn it.”

Upon hearing that she still had a chance to gain Rose’s trust, Twilight stood tall again and gave the computer a salute. “I won’t let you down!”

“I’m sure,” she said, her tone suggesting she was only half paying attention. “Now then, could you do me a favor and put me in the sunlight over by the window?”

“Not a problem!” Twilight picked up the computer with her magic confidently, hoping to show the AI that she was more than trustworthy.

“Wait a moment!” Rose said just before Twilight put her down on the window sill.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Just keep holding me with your… magic… I need to check something.”

With that, Rose’s virtual face disappeared from the screen. Almost an entire minute passed by before she finally materialized on the screen again. “Ok, you can put me down now.”

Twilight did as she was asked. “Alright… what did you need to do?”

“Your… magic, for lack of a better word, seemed… interesting. I just wanted to record a few things. Thank you for your time.”

Once again, Rose disappeared as the computer’s entire screen went black. Twilight was more than a little confused about her behavior, but it’s not like she could ask Rose any questions about it at this point.

With both guests “asleep,” she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, to go help Spike with the cleanup. Since Alex was most likely going to be asleep all day, that meant they wouldn’t be able to do much in terms of working on the Power Core. Twilight was disappointed that she couldn’t learn more about either the Power Core or the EMC, but realized there would always be time for that later. For now, Spike needed help and the library needed re-organizing.

It wasn’t until early in the morning the next day that Alex finally woke up feeling well rested. He sat up as best he could on the small bed and stretched his arms, as was his habit whenever he woke up. His body felt sore and his stomach was practically imploding of hunger from having slept in nearly the same position for eighteen hours.

Ok… mental recap… he thought. Attack, portal, ponies, sleep, breakfast… Fuck, what happened after breakfast…? Wait… what time is it?

He glanced out the window and saw small slivers of light over the horizon. What caught his attention more, though, was the fact that Rose was now on the window sill and looking straight at him.

“It’s about time you woke up,” she said.

Alex stretched a final time and started rubbing his eyes. “What time is it?”

“Six twelve AM. You spent pretty much all of yesterday sleeping.”

“Oh… Well shit…”

“Indeed. Now this may seem like a non-sequitur, and not exactly early morning conversation material, but I have some news you may want to hear. Can you bring to mind the gaps in our knowledge concerning power core energy? Specifically concerning its nature and behavior?”

Alex was still trying to get his thoughts in order and Rose’s eloquence didn’t exactly help, but he managed to focus on the one particular subject, vaguely recalling that he had spoken to Twilight about it the previous morning. “Uh… Yeah? What about it?”

“Well… I believe I may just have figured it out.”

V.Log1 [05/31/22]

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[V.Log/Entry/05;31;2022]

Okay, so… This is the first entry to my video logs… The date is currently the… thirty first of May in the year of twenty twenty two.

Twilight said I should probably keep a journal to write my thoughts in just to keep myself organized in case things get a little… strange. I think she also mentioned something about later generations reading it, but meh, screw it, they’ll have to work to see these. Written journals are too easy to read. Plus, who the hell writes now-a-days?

Anyway, I figured I might as well record a video log since rambling in front of a camera’s a lot easier than having to write things down. Plus, I can keep working on the core while I do this, at least until the picnic later…

Ah! Son of a– god damn, that hurt… Okay, maybe I should just focus on one thing at a time…

Alrighty, so, where to start? Umm… Well, it’s been roughly three weeks since the portal incident and I got dropped in Equestria… Still feels a little weird, considering this place is the setting for a cartoon on Earth, but hey, I’m alive, so I’m not gonna start complaining. Rose’s reaction to this information was actually surprisingly calm.

Like I said, regardless of whatever it was on Earth, it doesn’t change a thing here.

Rose, no offense, but can I just ramble out my thoughts to no one in particular?

*sigh* Fine, get this over with. I’ll just ignore your rambling.

Thank you. So yeah, she pretty much came to the same conclusion I did, albeit much more quickly.

Anyway, Twilight agreed to help me build the power-core in exchange for me telling her more about Earth… She’s someone who wants to learn, someone who wants to know more… Frankly, I admire her curiosity. I gotta admit though, I’m getting off pretty easy. I mean, getting the materials to build a power-core in exchange for information about Earth and humans? Heh, no skin off my ass, that’s for sure.

Speaking of materials for the core, I was actually surprised to find that she already has some of what I needed. It wasn’t much, but enough for me to start it. Apparently, she has this makeshift laboratory in her basement with a bunch of machines down here. Most of them seem to be for analyzing things. She’s got this one brain scanner which has this… uh… Honestly, it’s a silly looking hat, but hey, it seems to work ok. I mean, everything down here’s a little crude – by my standards, anyway – but she’s done pretty well for herself.

Good news is, she’s actually letting me cannibalize some of the parts from her machines for the core. Something tells me she either doesn’t use these things as often as she’d like, or she just really wants to see a fully functioning power-core. Either way, things are going smoothly.

As for the other, more expensive bits, Twilight said she’d be able to get money for them through the princess the same way she managed to get the money for her current machines. According to her, it’s more than she’s ever asked of the princess before, but she told me it wouldn’t be a problem.

I’m a little worried about the princess, though. If she found out about the core and decided to pull the plug right now, I wouldn’t exactly be in a position to argue.

Twilight seems to be keeping by her word, though. She’s still the only one who knows about the power-core… I think… I mean, she’s helped me this much and hasn’t done anything to make me not trust her, so I can at least assume as much. Rose still isn’t sure though…

Anyway, as for progress on the core, I’d say it’s about half way done. As for the catalyst to jumpstart it, well… we’re still working on that. Rose believes that if Twilight were to charge a titanium sphere with a tungsten core with a… 15 centimeter and 5 centimeter radius respectively… She believes that if Twilight were to infuse magic in that for about an hour each day for two weeks, we’d have enough energy to get it working. Though that’s only a rough guess.

Speaking of magic… ugh, I still hate having to use that term… anyway, Rose thinks that the energy created by the core is actually similar to the magic these ponies use. She told me this after having a chance to analyze Twilight’s magic, and according to her, both seem to have very similar signatures. She told me that, granted, the power-core’s energy is much more powerful than Twilight’s, but the similarities are there. Unfortunately, we can only really run on speculation until we get the core up and running and do a comparison. So until then, it’s just guess work. But if it’s true… This magic business may just be worth investigating. Haven't told Twilight yet, though...

*pause*

*exhale* So… What else to talk about? I guess I could probably talk about something other than the core… Ehh, might as well. Got a few other thoughts I might as well put down, considering the… uniqueness of what’s been happening…

So I ended up bringing my old cell phone with me. Couldn’t unlock it at first, until Pinkie Pie gave me the code for it, in binary of all things. That still freaks me out… I asked her about it, but she told me it had something to do with pinchy knees and a floppy ear, however the fuck that makes sense… Apparently, she said she didn’t know what the code meant when she wrote it, just that I should probably have it.

Actually, while I’m on the subject of Pinkie Pie, I just want to say that shit’s just mental with her. Seriously, I can’t pin her down for the life of me! I mean, she acts all hyperactive and not overly educated– I mean, to the extent that Twilight and I are, but I swear, she knows more than she lets on.

Take that party cannon of hers. It looks like a regular cannon, albeit a bright blue one, but firing it sets up parties? It shoots all manner of things and they all end up right where they’re supposed to! I didn’t even see her load the damn thing, just BAM instant party.

Rose was right. There’s more to that pony than meets the eye… She’s knows things… Her behavior doesn’t suggest it, but I can tell… She may seem pretty simple at a glance – for a given definition of simple, mind you – but under the hood, I swear, there’s more… A lot more…

*pause*

Anyway… that welcome party she threw me a while back was nice of her. Can’t say I’ve ever been to a party like that since… well, since I was a kid, but hey, I wasn’t about to turn down free cake. Although from what I hear, she does that for every newcomer. Kinda detracts from it a bit, but it was still nice of her to do that for me.

You know, ever since I got here, these ponies have been nothing but nice to me. What the hell have I done to deserve it? I never saw this kind of thing on Earth before. Then again, I don’t think anyone on Earth has ever had to harbor a trans-dimensional alien before… Or if someone has, it was definitely kept a secret. I’m certainly no secret here, so I guess it just goes to show how accepting ponies are… I guess that kind of explains why they’re being so hospitable.

Speaking of being nice, Fluttershy and Rarity have been amazing in that department. Rarity actually made a few extra sets of clothing for me completely free of charge! I mean sure, she had me stand around for an hour just taking measurements… plus the extra hour she had me try things on… and she originally designed some things that were… uh… less than practical… But hey, she made some pretty high quality stuff in the end.

And Fluttershy… She’s stopped by for a few minutes every single day since I got here, just to see how I was doing. I guess she is kind of like my mom… Always showing concern for others… Going out of her way to make sure I’m alright…

*sigh* Mom… now that I think about it, if it weren’t for her, I never would have come here… Hell, I’d probably be dead right now… And I’ll probably never see her again… God damn, I miss her… The only thing I really miss about Earth…

*pause*

Anyway, what’s done is done, no sense in dwelling on the past…

*pause*

So... Applejack is actually a pretty damn good cook when it comes to apple-based foods. I've always been a fan of apple pie, myself, but she can make a mean apple anything. Here I was, worrying that all I’d have to eat is salads and eggs, but nope! I mean, most of what they eat is green, but they can do things with apples that just blow my freaking mind.

And speaking of impressive feats… Rainbow Dash seems to be rather… exceptional. Twilight had her perform a couple of flying displays for me while I was here. Rainbow probably saw it as a chance to show off more than anything else, but I have to admit she’s something. The amount of control she has in the air is stunning, really, and from what I've heard, she’s even managed to go Mach One. Now I haven’t seen this for myself yet, so I’m still incredibly dubious, but then again, this world seems to be full of things I never would have thought possible.

Hmm… Now that I think about it… I haven’t designed something with aerodynamics in mind yet… It’s been a while since I worked with it… Once I get everything up and running, it might just be worth recording as much data as I can from Rainbow Dash flying around, might be able to do something with that…

*pause*

Huh… I just realized something… Once the new workshop’s up and running, what am I gonna do? I mean, I want to develop better tech, but do what with it? Just make it for the sake of making it…? The end goal is definitely finishing the warrior project, but that’s nowhere near completion… I also can’t just leave them, especially after everything they did to make me feel welcome here…

You know what? That last facility? It was a good start, but this new one? I’m thinking it’ll be above ground. Keep the central chamber and power-core underground, naturally, but I'm thinking I want to make the Liandri a part of daily life here for these people. They've been accepting so far, so as long as we show them that we don't mean trouble, we could really make a name for ourselves. Yeah… Set up a garage for vehicle manufacturing, maybe a section for Liandri production… separate living quarters… Heh, screw America, this is the land of opportunity.

And my… friends… They deserve something for everything they’ve done for me… Yeah, a personalized thank you for each of them, give myself a challenge. But what to make them, and for when…?

I’m thinking the core will probably be up in running in about 3 weeks, depending on how soon we can get a hold of that charging sphere… If I start getting the materials for the EMC now, I’ll probably be able to build it in three weeks… maybe two… Then give it about a week and a half of non-stop construction on the central chamber for that to finish… Then about two weeks for construction on additions to be completed, so long as extra workers are built…

I think everything should be finished by… sometime in August, disregarding setbacks… Hmm… I could make their gifts as Christmas presents, I suppose. Four months is certainly enough time to individualize them if I multitask...

Wait, what time is it… ah, almost time for that picnic. I should probably get ready for that…

Hmm… You know, I think I've already got an idea or two for what to design, I’m thinking–

*short pause*

Rose, stop recording.

[END OF LOG]

A picnic, a princess, and a problem

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Pre- reading note: If you skipped chapter 4 for whatever reason, go back and read it, THEN start reading this. I find it odd that this chapter somehow has more views than the previous one...

“Wait, what time is it?” Alex looked at the time on the bottom corner of the computer screen. “Ah, almost time for that picnic. I should probably get ready for that…”

He leaned back in his chair, briefly glancing at the partially complete power-core on the workbench. It was spherical in shape, a little larger than a basketball, though a large part of it was clearly missing. He had designed other power-cores, ones that could provide a much greater energy output, but they were impossible to make without another core to sustain construction and jump start them. The one he was currently building was similar to the very first he ever made, since it was not only the easiest one to build by hand, but the only one that could potentially be made without an existing core.

“Hmm…” Alex toyed with a few thoughts about what he could give the ponies as presents for their efforts to make his stay pleasurable. He sat up and looked back at the image of himself on the computer screen. “You know, I think I’ve already got an idea or two for what to design, I’m thinking–”

His thought was cut off by a small flicker of movement he saw on the screen, namely something that seemed to move just out of sight over his shoulder.

He sat as still as possible and listened intently. At the same time, a small window appeared in the corner of the computer’s screen. It showed what Alex assumed to be a top-down view of Twilight’s basement, with a green arrow pointing away from three red dots.

He suddenly heard a barely audible tap from directly behind him.

“Rose, stop recording.” The AI silently obliged and the recording indicator disappeared.

Feeling his heart rate increase ever so slightly, Alex carefully stood up and leaned over the workbench, listening for even the slightest sound from behind him. He carefully grabbed the Link Gun on the other side of his work area and brought it closer to himself, careful not to turn around. He opened the weapon’s chamber, picked up a nearby plasma cell, and gently loaded it. With a small click, the weapon accepted the new cartridge and hummed to life.

Alex held the plasma rifle in his hand with a firm grip and took a deep breath. Without warning, he spun around and aimed at the trio of intruders. “Freeze!”

Any worries he had about what could have been behind him instantly vanished when he saw what it was.

Standing before him were three small fillies he couldn’t immediately identify. The first was a yellow earth pony with a red mane and lighter red bow adorning it. The second was an orange pegasus with surprisingly small wings and a purple mane. The last was a white unicorn with a curly light pink and purple mane.

All three had followed Alex’s instructions to the letter. They stood on the spot, not moving a single muscle, their eyes locked with his. They clearly weren’t expecting him to turn around when he did.

“What the…” Alex said as he lowered the gun. “Who are you, and what the hell are you doing down here?”

The yellow one pawed at the ground and spoke nervously. “Umm… mah name’s Apple Bloom. These here are Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Ya see, mah sister was talkin’ about somepony new in town who was stayin’ with Twilight, and–”

“Wait a second,” Alex interrupted, holding his left hand up and letting the Link Gun hang in his right. “Lemme guess, you’re Applejack’s sister, right?”

“Ah am!” the little filly said excitedly, feeling more relaxed now that he clearly wasn’t threatening them.

“And I’m Rarity’s sister!” announced the small unicorn that Alex now understood to be Sweetie Belle.

“Oh no…” Rose groaned.

Alex turned towards the AI on the workbench, also taking the time to remove the clip from his gun. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve heard about these three,” she replied before turning her voice up and addressing the fillies. “I'm going to have to request that you all leave. Now.”

“What! But we haven’t even done anything!” complained Scootaloo.

“That doesn’t mean you won’t do something. From what I understand, Murphy’s Law hounds you three like flies to a carcass and you shouldn’t be trusted around delicate equipment.” Rose placed heavy emphasis on the last two works and her virtual face looked directly at Alex as she said them. He got the hint.

“Yeah, I think it’s time to clean up and head to that picnic now…” he said as he picked up the power-core and stored it in a bin with a number lock.

“Ooo, what’s that?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Rose said, the venom in her voice showing that she most certainly did not appreciate their presence.

Alex, however, wasn’t as harsh on them.

“It’s something Twilight’s helping me build,” he said as he continued to place tools and other parts in their proper place. “It’s very difficult to make and very expensive, and since I'm the only one who can build it, I’m the only one allowed to touch it.”

“Can we help?” asked Apple Bloom, grinning widely. The other two followed her example.

Alex’s heart almost stopped and his breath caught in his throat. He took a deep breath to calm himself. “Look… I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t need your help. Now then, why don’t you tell me why exactly you came down here, hm?”

Their grins vanished and Sweetie Belle twirled her hoof on the ground nervously. “Well, you see… We heard Applejack and Rarity talking about somepony who was really good at building things…”

“So we were wondering if you could give us some advice!” Scootaloo finished for her.

Alex stopped cleaning up the work area and perked up. It wasn’t very often someone came to him for advice on something, and the prospect certainly caught his attention. He turned to face the fillies and leaned back against the table. “Really? What sort of advice?”

“We wanted to know what you did to get yer cutie mark!” piped Apple Bloom.

Alex face blanked. “Mycutiewhatnow?”

“A cutie mark,” said Rose. “It’s a sort of coming of age these ponies go through that involves finding the one thing they’re actually good at. It’s those tattoos they have on their rears.”

Alex slowly turned to look at her. He didn’t speak, but everything about his face said “how the fuck did you know that?” Rose simply smirked back at him.

“Yeah, that!” said Scootaloo, cutting into their silent conversation. “We want to know how you found yours!”

Alex rolled his eyes and went back to putting things away. “Sorry, but I can’t help you there. Never got one, never will.” And here I was thinking they’d need advice on something interesting.

The three fillies gasped in unison. “You don’t have a cutie mark?!”

“Nope,” he said while cleaning a soldering iron, completely ignoring how shocked they seemed to be.

“But then how do you know what your special talent is?” asked Sweetie Belle.

Alex stopped wiping the iron for a brief moment to process what he just heard. To him, the answer was so completely obvious, to even think about the question was ridiculous in and of itself. “I know exactly what my ‘special talent’ is. I don’t need a cutie mark to tell me that. In fact…” Alex put the soldering iron down and turned to look at them. “That’s your advice from me. Find something you’re good at and that you like to do, and do it. Cutie mark be damned.”

“We already got that advice…” groaned Scootaloo.

Alex rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning up. “Honestly, I’d be surprised if you didn’t. There’s a reason you got the same stuff from me like you did from everyone else: because it’s good advice.” He quickly shot them a glance when he said the last two words. “Now then, I’m closing up shop, so I’m afraid you three need to get going.”

All three of them flattened their ears. “Are you sure there ain’t nothin’ else you could tell us?” asked Apple Bloom.

Alex finished cleaning up and turned to lean back against the table, crossing his arms. “Look, I’m a human. Humans don’t get cutie marks. Simple fact is, you’re talking to the wrong species here. I wish I could help you - I really do - but beyond what I told you, sorry, you’re fresh out of luck. Now shoo. I gotta go someplace and I can’t leave you here.

The fillies lowered their heads in disappointment and spoke in unison. “Okay…”

Alex watched as they ascended the stairs, starting to feel bad that they left so disappointed. He never really believed that he was great with children, although he felt that he at least gave them sound advice, especially if they had already gotten it from other ponies who knew more on the subject. He had a feeling, though, that it probably wouldn’t be the last he saw of them.

Once the trio was out of sight, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Rose. “How the hell did you know all that stuff, anyway? About who they were and what a cutie mark was?”

“I’ve had more than a few conversations with some of our other ‘friends’ while you and Twilight went out for groceries and pointless sightseeing. It seems there is some useful information to gain from idle chatter.”

Alex smiled. “I’m happy to hear that, Rose.”

“Really? Why do you say that?”

“It means you’re growing as a person!”

Rose frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”

Alex chuckled as he folded the computer under his arm. “Personal development, Rose. It can only be a good thing.”

After double checking to make sure everything was locked away properly, Alex made his way up the stairs and locked the door to the basement behind him. It was a lock Twilight installed at Rose’s request. Only she and Alex had a key for it.

Upon leaving the basement, Alex saw Spike just about to walk out the door to the library with a plain blue box in his claw.

“Hey, Spike!” he said. “You heading to the picnic?”

The young dragon turned to face Alex, worry subtly present in his features. “Oh hey, Alex. Nah, I’ve got other things to do. I was just on my way to find Twilight to give her the cupcakes for it. Say, you haven’t seen her lately, have you?”

Alex shook his head. “Not since this morning. Why?”

“She’s been running all over Ponyville looking for a problem to solve so she could write about it in a letter to the princess. I’m not exactly sure where she is right now…”

Alex quirked a brow. He had to admit that he was a little curious as to why she would be trying to do something so silly so urgently, but he figured it would probably be best to hear the explanation straight from the horse’s mouth, so to say.

“Huh… Right, well, I gotta get to the picnic now,” he said as they both walked out of the library, “but hey, if I see her, I’ll tell her you’re looking for her, okay?”

Spike waved at Alex as he walked off in his own direction. “Thanks, Alex! See ya later!”

Alex waved back and proceeded to make his way to where they had agreed to have the picnic. While he wasn’t very familiar with the town yet, he still knew just where to go.

As Alex walked with Rose tucked under his arm, he basked in the beautiful afternoon weather. The temperature was great and the sun didn’t feel too intense. He could even feel a small breeze blowing over him, which only complemented the already good feeling he was getting from everything else. Indeed, today was a perfect day for a picnic.

Ever since he started working on the core three weeks ago, Alex spent most of his time in Twilight’s basement. He would spend most days down there for hours on end, coming up only for food and sleep, although Twilight would occasionally drag him out of the darkness to spend some time outside and to get to know the town a little more. As much as he wanted to keep working around the clock, Alex couldn’t deny that their little outings were more than a little relaxing, and he very much appreciated them.

Ponies were currently going about their business as Alex strolled to the park area just outside of the small town, yet the streets didn’t feel terribly crowded. A few ponies here and there would occasionally wave at him as he passed. He didn’t know them, but he could tell they meant well enough and responded with a simple nod and smile in their direction. Despite the knowledge, though, it didn’t help when some ponies would just stare at him. He never thought it could ever feel weird to be human before coming to Ponyville, and he wasn’t exactly used to it all yet.

After a short fifteen minute walk, Alex found himself approaching the park area where he spotted five of the six ponies he had gotten to know better since his arrival. Twilight, however, was still nowhere to be seen.

“Hello, everyone,” he greeted. “Lovely day for a picnic, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yes, it is!” said Fluttershy as Applejack splayed out the blanket.

Alex’s attention was suddenly caught by Pinkie Pie who removed a cloth from a basket to reveal a trio of balloons. They each floated up and started tugging at the bottom of the basket with strings, bringing the entire thing upwards and out of reach. He looked after the basket with a confused expression.

Well what the hell was the point of that? he thought.

He glanced at Pinkie expecting some sort of explanation. She only looked back at him with a massive grin, and he couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. Evidently, the point was that there was no point.

Alex took sat down on the blanket and placed the laptop next to him in the corner, opening the screen to give Rose a view of everyone else.

“Good day,” Rose said neutrally. Alex knew she wanted him to keep working on the core, but she saw the occasional outing with them as good for keeping a positive reputation, which was helpful when one needed assistance. Although Alex saw it as a chance to unwind more than anything else, which was never really a bad thing.

“Howdy there, Rose!” said Applejack, taking her own spot on the blanket. “How’re ya feelin’ today?”

“The same as any other day. Aside from sight and sound, I can’t feel much of anything. This form is rather numb.”

Before Applejack could say that that wasn’t quite what she meant, their conversation was interrupted by an abnormally loud Rarity.

“Please tell me I did not forget the plates!” – She gasped – “I did! I totally forgot them! Of all the worst things that could happen this is the worst. Possible. Thing!”

Rarity suddenly levitated a couch seemingly from out of nowhere and dramatically fell on it, crying “Why!” repeatedly before noticing that everyone else was staring at her.

“What?” she asked. “You didn’t expect me to lay on the grass, did you?”

While everyone else tried to comprehend her, Rainbow Dash decided it simply wasn’t worth it and lied down with sunglasses over her eyes.

“As a side note,” said Rose, “I could name plenty of worse things that could happen.”

Alex rolled his eyes and lied down as well with his hands over his stomach. “I’m sure you could, Rose. I’m sure you could…”

Alex closed his eyes and simply reveled in the feeling of the sun’s rays softly washing over him. For the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to relax. Alex could feel a cool breeze blowing over him, and he took note of every imperfection of the ground through the blanket. It felt hard, yet the grass made it feel so much more comfortable. For once, he felt that he could let all his worries go and that he was at peace with everything.

It was short lived, however, when Alex heard something suddenly hit the ground just above his head. Out of simple curiosity, he opened his eyes to see what it was. He found himself face to face a certain Twilight Sparkle, her mane completely frazzled, a crazed look in her eyes, and a broken smile to accentuate the terrifying look.

“HOHGODDAMMIT!” he yelled in a panic as he tried to roll, crawl, and stumble away from the demon that tore him from his heaven.

Alex found himself sitting on the other side of the blanket with the other ponies, clutching at his chest and breathing heavily, his heart beating in his ears. They were all looking at Twilight who was still staring at them with the same mortifying look, and Alex found it extremely difficult to calm down as long as she was still staring at them like that.

“You alright, hon?” asked Applejack.

“No!” shouted Twilight, he expression suddenly becoming very sad. “I am not alright!”

The other five ponies began expressing their concern for their friend all at the same time. Alex couldn’t quite distinguish who was saying what, but they quickly stopped to let their distressed friend speak.

Twilight lowered her head. “It’s just terrible…”

“Yes?” the ponies said collectively.

“Simply awful!”

“Yes?” they repeated with more intensity.

“It’s the most horrific trouble I’ve ever been in and I really really really need your help!”

“Twilight,” Rose cut in, “I mean no offense, but do get on with it.”

Alex, who was more relaxed now that Twilight didn’t look like she was about to murder him in his sleep and harvest his organs under the pretext of science, shot the computer a quick glare before looking back at the distressed unicorn.

“My letter to Princess Celestia is almost overdue, and I haven’t learned anything about friendship!”

They all breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness! I thought something really awful had happened,” said Fluttershy.

Alex watched as the others went back to their business. He noticed that Twilight looked utterly shocked at their reaction. For his part, he simply felt confused.

She’s panicking about a letter about friendship? he thought. Why the fuck would she make such a big fuss about that? What in the hell is going on with her?

Twilight suddenly teleported to the middle of the blanket with a bright purple flash, causing Alex to jump in surprise. “Something awful has happened!” Twilight teleported again, this time appearing next to Rarity and causing her to spit out some tea she was drinking. “If I don’t turn in the letter on time, I’ll be tardy!” She teleported a third time, appearing in front of Alex and somehow gripping him tightly by the shoulders with her hooves. “TARDY!”

Alex’s near constant state of surprise was causing his thoughts to lag. He simply stared at the poor mare when the others started giggling at her behavior. Twilight looked at the others with an angry frown as her frustration quickly grew.

“Twilight, might I ask you something?”

She immediately turned her attention to Rose with pleading eyes, as if she expected the AI to come to her rescue and get the others to see reason. “Yes?”

“From my current understanding, your relationship with the princess is that of a teacher and student, correct?”

“Yes…”

“Then from what I can see, this is simply a case of ‘overdue homework,’ is it not?”

Twilight let go of Alex and gave her full attention to Rose. “No! It isn’t just a simple case of overdue homework!” she pleaded. “I have to send her a report every. Single. Week!”

“Why don’t ya write about Alex?” asked Applejack. “After all, you’ve been helpin’ him build that thing in yer basement and been givin’ him food and shelter the entire time since he’s been here. Now if that ain’t dedication and friendship to a complete stranger, I don’t know what is!”

Alex and Twilight looked at her. Getting roped into this was the last thing Alex wanted to do, and Applejack throwing his name up like that certainly didn’t make him feel more comfortable in that regard.

“But… but… I… I…” Twilight stammered. She looked like she was almost on the verge of tears. She closed her eyes, hung her head low and spoke barely loud enough for everyone to hear. “I can’t…”

Alex could practically smell the tough questions about to come his way.

“Why not?” asked Pinkie Pie with a tilted head. “That sounds like a great idea to me!”

“It’s because she swore herself to secrecy,” answered Rose. All eyes were suddenly on the computer. While Alex was starting to feel sweat accumulate on his forehead, Rose stayed completely serious and focused. “Tell me, do any of you have any idea just what it is we’re making?”

They all looked at each other briefly before collectively shaking their heads.

“Exactly my point. Twilight is the only one who knows what we’re building, and we’d like to keep it that way. It’s on a strictly need to know basis, and frankly, Twilight is the only one who needs to know. Any such report on us will gather too much attention for our liking, no matter how vague it is.”

Applejack squinted her eyes. “Just what exactly are y’all tryin’ to make that needs so much secrecy?”

“It’s just something to help get us set up in this world,” Alex answered quickly. He appreciated Rose’s effort to explain things, but her ‘blunt force logic to the head’ strategy clearly wasn’t earning anyone’s trust.

Applejack turned her scrutinizing look towards Alex and stared at him in silence for a moment before speaking. “Y’all are buildin’ that special thing you mentioned a while back, ain’t ya? That thing you said could be really dangerous?”

Alex felt his heart skip a beat and raised his hands defensively. “It’s only dangerous under a very specific set of circumstances, and even then, you have to be really finicky with it!” he said quickly, finishing with a nervous smile.

Alex was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable as the farmer continued to stare at him as if doing so would somehow uncover the truth. It was Twilight who ultimately came to his rescue. “It’s ok, Applejack, you can trust them. I can assure you it’s nothing to worry about. But they’re right, I promised them I would keep it a secret, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

Pinkie nodded. “She has a point, Applejack! She made a promise to keep a secret, and we have to respect that!”

“Thank you for understanding, Pinkie,” said Twilight, her voice increasing in urgency as she was building up to different point. “But that still doesn’t help me with my letter to the princess! I need to find somepony with a problem I can fix before sundown! My whole life depends on it!”

Applejack sighed, but quickly put a smile back on her face. “Twi, even if y’all don’t wanna write about Alex, I’m sure this report of yers ain’t nothin’ to worry about. Come on now, just have a seat and stop sweatin’ small stuff.”

Twilight turned to Alex with a pleading look. “Alex, please, you understand what’s at stake here, right? You can help me, can’t you?”

Alex only offered her a nervous look and a light shrug. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I have no idea how I could help you. Plus, I’m kind with them on this one…” He indicated towards the others. “I think you’re overreacting to this just a little too much.”

Twilight's face immediately shifted to a look of betrayal, then quickly turned to sadness, then pure frustration. She let out a short but loud groan and began to trot away. As she walked away from the group, she groaned one more time at them to hammer home that she was completely fed up before speeding up to a gallop and teleporting out of sight.

“Wow, I’ve never seen Twilight so upset before,” said Fluttershy.

“Ugh, what a drama queen!” said Rarity, lying down on the couch in what could only be a ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ pose. Noticing everyone was now looking at her, and right through to her own hypocrisy, she cleared her throat. “Relatively speaking…”

Alex, deciding that what just happened was just a little too much drama to deal with, fell back limply on the blanket and stared at the sky in an attempt to regain his relaxation. His view was soon obstructed by a sunglasses clad cyan pegasus looking down at him.

“So, why exactly do you want to keep that thing a secret again?” asked Rainbow Dash with a skeptical look.

Alex sighed and propped himself up on his elbows. “If you’ll recall from a while ago, I said that the device in question is really valuable. Where I’m from, wars would have been fought over it. Naturally, it’s best that as few people know about it as possible.”

“But why?” she questioned. “What makes this thing so important that ponies would fight over it? Why do you need to make it so badly?”

Alex sat up straight and looked at Rose, who simply stared back at him sternly. He knew that Rose didn’t want him to tell them anything, but even if he saw her as an equal, Alex ultimately had the final say on virtually everything. He noticed the other ponies were looking at him as well, just as curious to know the answer to the question that was plaguing them. Alex closed his eyes and allowed himself a deep breath before looking at Rainbow Dash seriously.

“If want to get back to doing my work, I’m going to need a very special power source, which Twilight is ever so kindly helping me build. That’s all it is, just something to power other machines. Once I get myself set up, I’ll be able to repay her for everything she’s done for me…” His features softened and he looked at the others with a humble smile. “And you five… I honestly can’t thank you enough for the welcome you’ve given me since I came here. I was… a little reluctant about having regular friends, at first, since I can’t say I’ve ever really had positive experiences with such things, but you’ve done so much more than I could have ever expected from any of you, and I can’t thank you enough.”

“It’s our pleasure, Alex, there’s no need to thank us,” said Rarity, still lying down on her couch. “I just hope that device of yours is coming along well.”

Alex sat up and held his hand out. “Thanks, Rarity, it is, but I don’t think you get what I’m trying to say here. You’ve all done so much for me, and frankly, I don’t feel like I deserve it.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” said Fluttershy. “You were chased from your own home by a bunch of mean monsters! Making you feel welcome is the least we could do to help.”

The ponies all expressed their agreement with Fluttershy’s words. Alex nodded sagely. “All the same, I feel like you all deserve something special for everything you’ve done. With that said, I’ve decided that when I get my new workshop up and running, I’m going to design and make something for each of you as a thank you.”

Applejack held her Stetson humbly over her chest. “Aw, shucks, Alex, you don’t need to do that for us!”

“Honestly, I’d feel guilty if I didn’t,” he replied. “Plus, I enjoy a challenge.”

“Boy am I ever familiar with that feeling,” said Rarity, brushing her hoof through her mane.

“Besides,” Alex continued, “Once I have everything set up, I’ll have nothing but free time! Granted, I'll spend pretty much all of my time researching and working on things, but you get the idea.”

“Just free time? But what are you going to do about food and money?” asked Fluttershy.

Alex rubbed the back of his neck as he reflected on it. Because of EMC technology, the facility could sustain him indefinitely, so money wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, it wouldn’t even be a necessity. Granted, EMC generated food couldn’t really be called “appealing.” It was nutrient rich and healthy to eat - the very definition of a super food if there ever was one - but then again, a bland, white paste with a shitty aftertaste wasn’t exactly considered fine dining.

If everything else failed, he could just duplicate money if given a template, so long as it was in moderation. He wasn’t an economist, but if there was anything he learned from his father’s ramblings about the economy when he was younger, it was that inflation equals bad, and printing money helps cause it.

“Fluttershy, I managed to survive a long time on my own before all this happened. I’ve got ways to make ends meet without bothering anyone.” He couldn’t help but smirk.

“Oh, okay, if you say so…” she said meekly.

“Now then!” he said as he clapped his hands together, turning his head to make sure everyone was looking. “I would just like to say that as an engineer, you may think of me as another form of artist, SO –!” Alex fell back on the blanket and raised his arms skyward. “– Inspire me!”

His vision was suddenly obscured by Pinkie Pie waving her hoof excitedly. “Ooo! Ooo! I have an idea!”

----------

“So you see, Dash, terminal velocity is achieved when the force of friction is equivalent to the amount of force you’re applying. Although terminal velocity is generally defined with a downward vector, the phenomenon occurs no matter what your vector is. So to go faster, all you really need is to have a greater net force to allow for positive acceleration over a longer period of time, which can be achieved through either greater applied force or more commonly by reducing the force of friction by reducing the amount of surface area exposed to air resistance.”

The pegasus in question looked at Alex, a blank stare on her uncomprehending face. He looked back at her with an eager grin, as if he expected her to say “Oh, I get it now!” but she simply gave him a nervous smile in return.

Alex sighed. “I lost you, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, kind of…” she replied, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Okay, umm… Do you know what air resistance is?”

“Of course!”

“So you know that too much air resistance makes you slower, right?”

“Duh!”

“Okay, well, there you go! That’s the premise to flying faster! You can decrease air resistance by decreasing your overall surface area which is achieved with a more aerodynamic frame. You could also do it by lowering atmospheric pressure which happens at higher altitudes, but I digress. In the end, you have to manage to have a greater net force for longer before it equalizes and becomes zero, meaning you stop accelerating. But if the net force become negative, then you start decelerating. Also it’s good to keep in mind that forces affect acceleration, which is just change in velocity over time. So if you can hold a greater net force for longer, you accelerate for longer, and by the time the forces equalize, you ultimately have more speed than you did before!”

“Umm…” Rainbow Dash twisted her face in a vain attempt to understand.

“I did it again, didn’t I?”

“Yeah…”

Alex sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I suppose basic Newtonian mechanics just aren’t your thing, I guess…”

The pegasus tilted her head in even greater confusion. “Huh? What do newts have to do with flying faster?”

“What? I… I don’t… they don’t…” Alex sighed a third time at the ever present communication problem. “You know what? Never mind…”

“Ugh, I don’t get how you understand this stuff!” Dash groaned in frustration, deciding it better to not think and just lie down.

“It’s his special talent, Silly!” said Pinkie who was packing up her basket, the same one that had flown up with the balloons. Alex still wasn’t sure when or how she retrieved it. “He’s just good at that mathy physics stuff! Like Twilight!”

“Indeed… my ‘special talent’…” he mulled over Pinkie’s choice of words as he leaned back against a tree next to Applejack, who was lightly napping with her hat over her face. “Special talent” seems like a good description for it, but it doesn’t have quite as good a sound as, say, the word “mastery.”

During the course of the picnic, they group conversed largely about recent events, most of which sounded mundane to Alex and even more so to Rose. He did, however, get the opportunity to know the ponies a bit more and cooked up a few ideas for thank you gifts.

Pinkie Pie’s initial idea that afternoon was… interesting, to say the very least. After expressing his lack of desire to even attempt such a thing, much to everyone else’s relief, Alex asked her if he could examine her party cannon a little more closely at some point. She was initially reluctant, but eventually agreed, so long as it was returned just the way it was by the end of it all.

An idea for a gift for Rainbow Dash was the easiest to come up with, or rather, the purpose of it was. She obviously wanted to be able to fly as fast as possible, making Alex’s target clear. Problem is, he knew it wouldn’t be as simple as slapping a jet engine on her back and flipping the switch. Although he had to admit that the thought of doing that was certainly entertaining.

Rarity was a tad bit tougher. She didn’t have a want for much, which made it that much more difficult to make her “thank you” unique. He toyed with the idea of designing a new synthetic material she could use in dress making, but he wasn’t entirely sure how to go about doing so. Regardless, he filed the idea away for later.

Applejack was even tougher since she wanted even less. She had everything she could ever want – according to her, at any rate – but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use something, though. He thought that, since she worked a farm, she could use some help tending it. Perhaps a machine to make things a little easier…

Fluttershy, however, was the most difficult. Like Applejack, she didn’t want anything and was impossibly humble about it, but she didn’t seem to need anything either. If she doesn’t need anything, then what could I do? Maybe something she’d like that didn’t serve a practical purpose? A new pet, maybe? Oohh, now there’s an idea…

As for Twilight, he was still at a loss. She was certainly interested in humanity and very taken in by Alex’s technology, but that didn’t narrow anything down. He briefly considered giving her the initial power-core once it outlived its usefulness, but quickly dismissed the idea since doing so would be such a massive security breach that he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. Plus, Rose would never allow it in a million years.

In the end, though, he had plenty of ideas to work with and was looking forward to getting started. If there was something Alex loved, it was an engineering challenge, and designing things with a specific end-goal in mind that he had never attempted before was as good as it got. Plus, whatever he ended up developing as a result could be used for later projects, so it was a win-win for everyone.

Alex was simply staring off into the distance with only his thoughts to occupy him as he sat against the tree when Rose caught his attention. “Alex, I’m detecting some seismic activity.”

He looked at the computer next to him quizzically. “Huh? An earthquake?”

She shook her virtual head. “Worse. Quick, pick me up!”

Alex picked up the worried AI and placed her on his lap, her concern starting to spread to him. “Rose, what’s going on?”

Seemingly on cue, he started to hear a low rumbling noise. Applejack suddenly woke up from her nap with an eyebrow raised and ears perked. She leaned into what she thought was the direction of the noise. “Y’all hear that…?”

Almost instantly, a horde of ponies stampeded through the picnic area, yelling all sorts of things Alex couldn’t pick out. He quickly retracted his legs and held himself and Rose as close to the tree as possible. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, who were originally in the middle of the area, quickly zipped out of the way without a second to spare.

Alex stood up as the stampede roared past the group, keeping the computer open and oriented outward so Rose could see. From what he could tell, they were all fighting amongst each other over something he couldn’t quite make out.

“What in the name of all things oats and apples is going on here?!” Applejack shouted over the tumult.

The group watched the fighting in awe, wondering what could have even caused this to happen to such normally peaceful individuals. Alex suddenly noticed a random object flying overhead and turned to look at it out of pure curiosity.

What the hell was that? What the…? Is that a… a… whoa-

His thoughts were suddenly cleared when his line of sight with the object was torn way by a forceful jerk to the side, almost causing him to drop the computer, and Twilight’s voice yelling at him. “DON’T LOOK AT IT!”

Alex groaned and shook his head as a severe head ache suddenly hit him and just as quickly vanished. His senses started to take in information again and noticed that Twilight had, at some point, rejoined them.

Oh, and a good portion of the entire town was beating the ever-loving shit out of each other right next to them.

“Don’t look at what?” asked Rarity, clearly as confused as she was concerned.

Twilight quickly put a hoof over her friend’s eyes. “My Smarty Pants doll! I enchanted her and now everypony is fighting over her!”

“With all due respect, Twilight,” said Rose, “why in the hell would you do such a thing?!”

Twilight fell to the ground and covered her head with her hooves as if to protect herself from the AI’s scorn. “Well I had to do something! I had nothing to report to Princess Celestia! I thought if I couldn’t find a problem, I’d make a problem! The day is almost over!”

“Not almost,” said Applejack, pointing towards the horizon as the sun set, almost abnormally quickly. Alex couldn’t help but wonder how he had lost track of time so much that he had failed to notice it earlier.

They all watched own as the sun lowered itself below the horizon and the entire area darkened as twilight came upon them. The distressed unicorn, who had raised her head to watch the spectacle, slowly lowered it against the ground in defeat.

Alex flinched as a loud voice boomed overhead. “Twilight Sparkle!”

They all looked up to see a large white pony, larger than any of the others Alex had met thus far. Her mane and tail were a variety of colors and seemed to sway and flow of their own accord, completely disregarding gravity. Aside from her size and hair, the newcomer had another distinctive feature that separated her from everyone else: she had both a horn and wings, not to mention a crown. Alex couldn’t tell exactly how, but she was also emitting a surprising amount of light.

And that must be Princess Celestia… he thought as a chill ran up his spine. Fuck…

“Whoa, nelly…” Applejack said, humbly lowering her hat over her chest.

The princess simply hovered in the air for a moment, flapping her great wings, before raising her horn to emit a powerful light. They all had to duck their heads to keep themselves from becoming blinded by it. At the same time, a loud magical noise beyond description began ringing in their ears. Alex shut his eyes tightly and grit his teeth, enduring the noise since he didn’t want to let the computer go to cover his ears.

After what seemed like far too long to him, the light and noise subsided and Alex was finally able to see and hear clearly again. He looked up to see the princess land firmly on the ground in front of Twilight, the light from her body dissipating to normal levels. He quickly scanned the area, noticing that all the ponies had stopped fighting and were going their separate ways.

The princess looked down at Twilight for a brief moment with a hard look before turning her attention to Alex. Noticing this, his heart jumped a bit, but he kept his posture. Now that the princess was on the ground, he could see that they were roughly the same height, discounting her horn. Alex simply stared back at her like a deer in headlights, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. She kept her gaze focused on him for more time than he felt was comfortable, her eyes darted all over him and scrutinizing every little detail. What was really only a few seconds felt much longer to Alex, but Celestia eventually turned her attention back to her student.

“Meet me in the library,” she said sternly. Immediately after, Celestia leaped into the air with a single thrust of her great wings and flew off in the direction of said library.

The group sat there for a few seconds, their brains trying to process what had just transpired. Eventually Twilight rose to her hooves, trembling, keeping her head low and facing away from them.

“I’m sorry, Alex… Rose…” she said with a shaky voice. “I’m s-so sorry… I failed you…” Twilight turned to face them, tears welling up in her eyes with the saddest expression any of them had ever seen. “Goodbye, girls… If you care to visit, I’ll be in magic kindergarten… back in Canterlot…”

With that, Twilight lowered her head again and began her dead-man’s march towards the library. Alex fell to his knees and tried to gently put Rose down, the computer suddenly feeling much too heavy for him. He ended up being rougher with it than the AI would have liked. Alex felt a knot forming in his stomach, the same feeling he always got when he knew something bad was happening, and simply stared after Twilight.

She’s going to be taken away…? he thought. If she can’t help me finish the power-core, I’ll be dead in the water. I have to do something… If I don’t, the new workshop will never get built… and Twilight also needs help… She’s a friend if I’ve ever had one, and she at least deserved my help for everything she’s done for me…

Alex closed his eyes forcefully, making every effort to keep them shut and clear his mind. He could vaguely hear the other ponies voicing their opinions on the matter, although to him, they sounded miles away. He could just barely make out Applejack’s desire to know what to do, Rarity’s dramatic cry about it all being terrible, and even Rose’s agreement with her.

With a final breath, Alex snapped his eyes open. It was much too subtle for any of the others to notice, but his normally blue irises were tinted green before quickly reverting back to their original color.

“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” he said solemnly, his eyes still aimed toward the ground. “We’re going to go straight to the library and put an end to this.” He folded the computer under his arm and rose to his full height. “Now.”

“But-but… I’m supposed to send you a letter about friendship every week,” Twilight said in front of her mentor in the middle of Ponyville’s library, her head bowed low. “I missed the deadline. I’m a bad student! I’m tardy…”

Celestia’s ever neutral expression didn’t change. “You are a wonderful student, Twilight. I don’t have to get a letter every week to know that.”

Twilight was finally able to raise her head and look at her teacher directly. “Really…?”

Before the princess could respond, their conversation was cut short by a loud bash. They both looked towards the source of the noise: the front door of the library. Alex was standing in the doorway, computer under his right arm, Twilight’s friends behind him. He simply glared at Celestia.

“Alex, darling, was it really necessary to kick open the door?” asked Rarity.

He completely ignored her and walked straight towards the princess. “Look, whatever punishment you think you have for Twilight, you can forget it. This pony has done nothing but good.”

“Alex, wait, it’s–” Twilight tried to speak, but he cut her off.

“Ever since I got dumped in this world, she’s been doing everything in her power to help me, and I don’t know where I’d be without her.”

“Wait, you’ve got it all–”

“You want your god damn report on friendship so badly? Well there you have it. After everything she’s done for me, I’m not going to let you just take her away.”

Everyone in the room just stared at him. The silence lasted for a fair while before Celestia spoke up in her usually calm manner. “I wasn’t going to punish her.”

Alex’s frown disappeared as his face suddenly became blank. Everyone stood stock still for several awkward seconds before Alex pursed his lips and inhaled deeply through his nose. “Well damn, now I feel like an idiot.” He said as he turned to place his computer on a nearby table. The ponies also released their own breaths, knowing that their friend was free of trouble and that Alex’s stupidly bold move didn’t have any serious repercussions.

Celestia chuckled lightly. “You must be Alexander.”

Alex had just placed the computer down when she said that and he immediately froze. She knows about me…? He turned to look at her again, skeptically. “Yes, that’s right…”

The princess gave him her usual warming smile. “Twilight told me about you in a letter of hers a few weeks ago,” she said, as if she could read his mind. “She told me she was taking care of a being from another world until he could get on his hooves.”

“Did she now…?” Alex looked at Twilight. She returned his look with a nervous smile.

“Yes, she did. In fact, it was around that time that she had also started asking me for quite a few bits for a certain ‘study venture’ of hers. She didn’t tell me much about what it was. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Alex froze and his heart skipped a beat when someone else answered. “Know anything about it? Pffft, he’s building it!” Alex pursed his lips and rotated his head over his shoulder to glare daggers at Pinkie Pie. Noticing his stare, Pinkie laughed nervously “Oopsies…”

“Really?” he heard Celestia say, her curiosity clearly piqued. “I had a feeling the two were related. Tell me, Alexander, just what is it that you and Twilight are making?”

Alex continued to look in Pinkie’s direction, thinking the last thing he wanted to do was let the princess see his face. His heart rate grew so intense he could practically hear it, feeling it beat in his ears. Shit, what do I do? What do I tell her? Fuck!

It was a voice Celestia was unfamiliar with that ultimately answered her question. “That information is classified.”

Celestia craned her neck and tried to determine where the voice came from, unsuccessfully. “Hm? Who’s there?”

“Down here.”

Celestia brought her attention to the device on the table. On impulse, Alex opened the laptop to reveal Rose’s virtual face. She had a slight frown and was clearly not amused.

Before the princess could say anything, Twilight did the honors of introducing her. “Princess Celestia, this is Rose. She came here with Alex.” Alex took note of the fact that Twilight didn’t mentioned that Rose was an Artificial Intelligence.

Celestia smiled warmly at the AI. “Rose… Such a lovely name. Is it short for Rose Mary?”

It looked as if the princess could tell Rose was irritated, angry even, and tried to disarm her with politeness. While it normally would have worked on just about anyone, Rose didn’t bite. “No.”

Celestia looked slightly taken aback by Rose's tone of voice, but only for a fraction of a second. “My apologies. Please, why is it you don’t want to tell me what you’re making?”

“You don’t have the proper authorization,” Rose responded matter-of-factly.

The ponies’ eyes grew wide. Rose had straight up told the princess that she was not allowed to know. To their knowledge, nopony would ever dare say that to royalty. Alex, seeing that Celestia’s attention was clearly off him, took the opportunity to back away towards the others.

Celestia frowned just a bit. “If my bits are funding this project of yours, I would imagine that I, of all ponies, would be allowed to know.”

“You would think so, but no. Perhaps you’ll know after it’s completed. Until then, I don’t care if you built this entire world out of a single grain of sand, you will know only as much as you are authorized to know.” Rose smiled, though something about it didn’t look genuine. “Besides, your favorite student herself is overseeing the project. You trust her, don't you?”

The princess looked like she was about to respond but stopped. Instead, she briefly closed her eyes and smiled. “I understand, and I trust my student with this fully. I will not press further…”

Alex let out a breath he didn’t even realize he had been holding . In-fact, he was even more than surprised that “blunt force logic to the head” actually worked.

“…On one condition,” Celestia continued. “I would like to see this ‘project’ of yours once it’s finished.” She looked at Alex. “Tell me, Alexander, when will it be done?”

He felt the knot in his stomach pull at him again and answered without thinking. “Uh… I-it should be ready to activate in about three weeks…” Fuck, why’d I say that?

She smiled. “Ah, just in time for the Summer Sun Celebration. Perhaps it might be worth holding it in Ponyville again for this year. The last one didn't go quite as planned, and I would most certainly be interested in seeing what it is you intend to activate. Alexander, would you mind if you held a… public activation?”

The knot in his stomach was threatening to turn him inside out. A public activation?! What?! No! Fuck, this is bad, this is–

“He would love to, Princess!” Twilight answered for him.

Both Rose and Alex shot her a glare.

“Excellent,” said Celestia. “When I return to Canterlot, I’ll begin making the proper arrangements.”

“You know what?” Alex suddenly said, a little louder than he wanted to. “It’s getting late. I’m gonna go to bed now. Goodnight, everyone!”

With that, the others watched silently and curiously - except for Pinkie pie, who naturally waved him off with a pleasant "sleep tight!" - as he snatched Rose up and made his way to the guest room. He wanted an excuse to leave that scene, to just get away from having to deal with any more questions he really didn’t want to answer. Going to bed was the first idea that popped into his head and decided it would do just fine. He reached the guest room, promptly closed the door behind him, and leaned his back against it.

God fucking dammit… he thought, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Fuck… Just… Fuck…

Alex took another deep breath and then slowly made his way towards the bed in the dark, placing Rose on the night stand and turning the light on. He sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his face in his palms. Alex could hear the others conversing outside. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but guessed they were most likely talking about Twilight’s little escapade with her doll.

“This is just fucking beautiful…” he muttered. “Activating the power-core as a public demonstration, and agreeing to it? What the fuck was she thinking…?”

“I’ll admit, things didn’t go perfectly back there,” said Rose. “But think of it this way. The princess doesn’t know what the core will do and she still won’t after it’s activated. It may be a public activation, but you and I both know there won’t be much for them to see.”

Alex let his hands fall between his knees and looked at the closed computer. He sighed. “Yeah, you’re right… I guess it won’t be all that bad… Heh, in a way, we did just dodge a bullet…” He smiled. It was a weak smile, but a smile none the less. “Nice to see you looking on the bright side of things.”

“I’m just stating the facts.”

“Yeah… you are…”

Alex stared ahead of him, trying to keep his mind focused on the good things about the recent turn of events, or rather, the things that were the least bad. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Twilight gently opened the door. “Alex? Are you still awake?”

He sat up and looked in her direction. “Yeah, I’m still up.”

Twilight slowly made her way to the bed. “Everypony left and Spike’s on his way to bed… I just… I wanted to say I’m sorry for the way things turned out back there…”

Alex let out a long breath. “It’s alright, Twilight… Wasn’t exactly a controlled environment…”

She gently sat down on the bed next to him. “Are you sure? This public activation thing isn’t bothering you?”

He kept looking ahead, elbows on his knees, and nodded once. “It is, but I guess I’m not terribly worried about it… I mean, so long as everything works the way it’s supposed to, it’s not going to be much of a show.”

“That’s good…” Twilight was mirroring him, simply staring ahead at nothing, lost in thought. The two shared the silence for a moment before she finally spoke up again. “I… I also wanted to thank you…”

Alex looked at her curiously. “For what?”

She flashed a small smile but continued staring ahead. “For standing up to Princess Celestia like that for me, even if it was just a false alarm and she never meant anything bad.” She looked at him. “It’s not every day somepony talks to the ruler of all of Equestria like that. I can’t even imagine what was going on in your head to make you do something that crazy.”

He leaned back on his arms, looking at the ceiling. “Yeah… In hindsight, that was kinda stupid on my part…”

Twilight chuckled, but spoke softly. “Unbelievably stupid… But still…” She leaned into him, causing him to jump slightly and look down at her. “Thank you… It meant a lot to me…”

Alex didn’t move at first. He just looked at Twilight as she rested herself against him. He wasn’t exactly sure how to react to that. In the end, Alex smiled and brought his arm around, patting her lightly on the shoulder. “It’s the least I could do.” He let out a light laugh. “Plus, I still need you so I can finish the core, remember?”

Twilight smiled. While Alex couldn’t see it, it seemed almost forced. “Right, the core…” With a small grunt, she sat up and looked at him, though with a more genuine smile. “Will it really be done in three weeks?”

He brought his arm down and smiled at her. “At the current pace, I’d even say two and a half. If I dedicate more time to it, probably even sooner.”

With a nod, Twilight hopped off the bed. “Right. Remember, if you need anything, just let me know. I’m going to bed. Good night, Alex.”

He waved after her. “G’night.”

Once Twilight left the room, Alex sat still for a moment before kicking his shoes off and lying back, staring at the ceiling. He breathed deeply and, with a grunt of effort, turned the lamp next to him off, encasing the room in darkness with only the light of the stars outside to provide anything.

Soon, he thought. Very soon.

Activating the core

View Online

“So, everything set?” asked Twilight.

“Yep… Just about…” Alex said, largely focused on his task.

It was early in the morning on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration. Alex had been going through a mental checklist of things as he went over the charging rig he threw together for the Power-Core. It was a surprisingly simple set up: a mobile trolley with kick stands to secure it to the ground, and a special device Alex had easily been able to put together was on top of it. Its purpose was simple: flip the large, Frankenstein-like switch on the front and energy would flow from the magically charged metal orb and into the now completed core next to it, jumpstarting it.

Alex’s predictions over the last three weeks of his building schedule were spot on. After the incident with the princess, he made it a point to devote as much time as he could to finishing the Power-Core. As a result, he managed to finish it a whole week ahead of schedule and decided to use the extra time to start working on the EMC. Everything was going perfectly.

The charging orb, however, was another story. Trying to find a titanium sphere with a tungsten core that accounted for 3.7% of the overall volume wasn’t exactly easy. With all his attention on the core, Alex left it to Twilight to try and get a hold of one. According to her, she managed to get it on special order from the princess, something that really bothered Alex. She assured him that Celestia didn’t ask too many questions, but he had no way of knowing just how true that statement actually was.

He conceded, though, that in the end, it would all be worth it. Everything was set. The Power-Core was assembled, Twilight followed Rose’s instructions about the charging orb to a T, and the charging rig was in working order.

If it weren’t for the public activation Twilight had agreed to, the core would have already been jumpstarted.

There was, however, one aspect that was worrying Alex. According to Twilight, she was able to sense “residual magic” coming from the charging orb as time went on and she fed it more and more energy. Other unicorns who visited the library for one reason or another also mentioned feeling something similar. He hadn’t thought about it at first, but he was starting to worry that if Rose’s assumption about the Power-Core being some sort of magic generator was true, then magically inclined entities would be able to sense it. If they were able to sense the charging orb, then there wouldn’t be a doubt in his mind they’d be able to sense the same thing from the core once it was activated, at least until its containment field kicked it. Not to mention the fact that the core’s energy would be exponentially more powerful.

It also didn’t help that he never mentioned Rose’s findings to Twilight, so she’d be completely oblivious up until the switch was flipped.

Alex finished going over his mental checklist for the third time and decided to sit at the table and take a few sips of coffee. If it weren’t for the fact that he had to roll the trolley out in front of a crowd later, he’d have been completely and utterly completely satisfied. That didn’t stop him from smiling, though.

Twilight walked over to him with a smile of her own. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy!”

Alex put his cup down. “Why wouldn’t I be? Look at it! It’s beautiful!” he said, indicating the Power-Core. The end result was larger than a basketball and the outside looked like a large, metal ball covered in steel plates with various tubes, wires, and other connections running along its surface. If Twilight didn’t know what it was, she’d have been completely lost as to its purpose.

“It’s certainly something, alright,” she said, taking her own seat across from him.

The two looked at the set up for a moment before Alex spoke up. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you… What’s the Summer Sun Celebration about, anyway? Based on the date, I’m guessing it has something to do with this being the longest day of the year?”

Twilight clapped her hooves gently and wore a keen smile, happy to teach him about another aspect of Equestrian life. “You’re right! It is to celebrate the longest day of the year! It’s an all day celebration where Princess Celestia starts things off in the hosting town by raising the sun in front of everypony!”

Alex’s face didn’t change. He continued to stare and smile at her, just like he was when he first asked her the question. Twilight smiled back at him, though as time went on and Alex’s face continued to not change, she was starting to become more and more nervous.

Had Alex been a Liandri, his response would have been something akin to “system failure,” but once his thoughts caught up with him, he finally managed to say something, still keeping his smile. “Imsorrywhat?”

Twilight was starting to feel a bit nervous and played with her hooves unconsciously. Alex had strange reactions to a few aspects about Equestria, like the existence of magic or the fact that the pegasi controlled the weather, but this reaction seemed like something completely different.

Before Twilight could answer, Alex spoke again. “Celestia raises the sun?” he asked, still keeping his now creepy smile.

Twilight giggled nervously. “Umm… Yes?”

Almost instantly, Alex smashed his fist into the table, causing it and objects on it to jostle around. He quickly stood up and walked away, gripping his hair in clenched fists.

Twilight was worried that she had seriously broken him this time. “Alex, are you al-”

“WHY!?”

Twilight jumped at his sudden yell.

He turned around and looked straight at her. He looked frustrated and angry, though it didn’t look like it was directed at Twilight. “Okay, magic was one thing, but hey, why not, I’ll bite. The weather? –” He pointed straight up. “– That was a stretch! But screw it, I’ll buy that too. But this?! Look, Twilight, I understand that Equestria is my home now, but how the hell do you expect me to buy into this?!”

“I don’t know! How did the sun work back on Earth?”

“On its own!” He took long strides back to the table and started making invisible drawings on it with his fingers. “The sun was static and Earth rotated on an axis, giving the illusion that the sun traveled across the sky! But Celestia?! God damn, this is a physicist’s nightmare! And guess what? I’m not just an engineer, I’m a physicist, god dammit!”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile a little at his reaction. “I’m sorry, Alex, I don’t know what to tell you.”

He hung his head for a moment. “You know what?” He took his cup and quickly downed the rest of his coffee. “Screw it, I’m not gonna think about it. Let’s just go.”

He unceremoniously put his cup down and went over to push the charging unit out the door. His computer was already resting on top of it, next to the Power-Core, and Rose had no doubt heard their conversation. Just before he started pushing it, Alex looked over at Twilight. “You coming?”

Twilight chuckled lightly and sipped on her own morning drink. “In a minute. I have to go make sure Spike’s awake. You go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Alex simply nodded once. “Alright. See you there.” With a grunt of effort, he started pushing the unsurprisingly heavy cart out of the library.

The streets around the town were still dark, though there was enough light for Alex to find his way around. There were also plenty of ponies up and about, all of them headed in the same direction as him: towards a special stage that had been set up just for the Celebration. He guessed that was where Celestia would have him active it, after using her “uber magic” to raise the sun. He scoffed at the idea.

“Can you believe this shit?” said Alex, knowing full well Rose was listening. “Their ruler raises the god damn sun here. What. The. Fuck.”

“I must admit,” said Rose, computer lid still shut, “it’s a little unorthodox, but if there’s anything I’ve learned from our time here, it’s that things work very differently in this world. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another one that worked with the moon.”

“Oh wouldn’t that be peachy…” he groaned. The cart wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to push, even on cobblestone and especially through grass. He was just happy it had large wheels and not those little spindly things on the underside of office chairs.

As Alex pushed the cart towards its destination, he noticed that he was starting to attract a bit more attention than he would have liked. Nearby ponies, virtually all of them unicorns, kept glancing at him and the cart with curious faces, some of them even holding worried expressions. He tried his best to ignore them, but it became evident that the charging orb was clearly a concern. Either that or they just liked looking at it. It was a lovely sight, in and of itself. It was very polished and shiny, making it look like an oversized metal marble, and the fact that it glowed with an otherworldly purple only added to the allure.

“You know Rose, something’s been bugging me…” Alex said as he continued pushing the cart. The stage was in sight.

“And that would be?”

“It seems that unicorns can sense the energy coming off the charging orb… I’m worried they’ll be able to sense the same thing off the core, and I doubt the princess will be an exception…”

“That may be problematic. I’m not sure how unicorns and their horns work, but I’d be willing to bet the core’s containment field should be able to keep a lid on it.”

“Hopefully…”

Alex carefully made his way around the side of the already large group of ponies that had gathered in front of the outdoor stage. He spotted a pony or two he recognized from one time or another, but it ultimately looked like a giant mass of bodies to him. He also couldn’t help but notice that every nearby unicorn was looking in his direction. Gritting his teeth, he picked up his pace to get backstage.

The stage itself wasn’t terribly complicated. It was largely just elevated flooring with not much else on it besides a tall alter made to resemble the sun and what looked like Royal guards flanking the edges, each with their own brass horn to toot.

Alex approached the entrance to the back of the stage and was met by a couple of royal guards. Both of them, much to his relief, were pegasi.

One of the guards held up his hoof as an indication to stop and he did so. He eyed Alex up and down, scrutinizing him. “You’re that alien thing the princess said she wanted see, aren’t you?”

Alex frowned. “The human; and yes, I am.”

The guard snorted. “Go right ahead.”

“Thanks…” he said half sarcastically. Fucking cretin…

When he finally got around the back, he was greeted with the sight of Celestia and Ponyville’s mayor. Unsurprisingly, the princess was already looking in his direction.

Geez, she could probably sniff this thing a mile off.

Upon seeing him, however, Celestia’s expression went from curious to content and she gave her usual warm smile. “Ah, Alexander, you’re here. Where’s Twilight?”

With a final burst of effort, he pushed the cart up to the pair. “She had to go wake up Spike. I’m sure she’ll be along shortly.”

“Excellent.” Celestia turned back to the mayor and they exchanged a few words. Alex wasn’t paying much attention to what they were saying. Once they were done talking, the mayor stepped up on the stage and began addressing the crowd. As for the princess, she took her position at the back, ready to follow suit.

Looks like it’s starting… thought Alex.

Almost on cue, Twilight came around the side to meet Alex. “Hey! Looks like I’m right on time!”

Alex, who sat down on a set of steps leading up to the top of the stage, looked up at her with a smile. He had certainly taken a liking to Twilight, especially after all the help she’d been. Seeing her arrive was a great relief to him, knowing he wasn’t about go up alone. “Cutting it a bit close there, huh? Where’s Spike?”

“He’s with the others listening to the mayor. You know, he’s really excited to see this!”

Alex laughed lightly. “He shouldn’t be.”

She tilted her head. “Why not?”

“Look, Twilight, this is how it’s gonna go. We go up on stage, we flip the switch, the core makes a bit of noise - they’re probably not even gonna hear it - and then they all go home disappointed.” Alex finished with a smirk.

Twilight couldn’t help but smirk with him. “You want them to be disappointed?”

“Yes, because if they’re anything but disappointed, then that means the core didn’t work right, and if that happens, then I’ll be disappointed. If I had to pick who was going to be let down here, it’s them.”

“Well, that’s one way to look at it.”

“Nope, that’s the only way to look at it.”

Alex and Twilight has been so caught up in their conversation that they didn’t notice Celestia sneaking up on them. “Pst, hey, get ready, you two!” she said, nudging Twilight with a smile. “By the way, have either of you prepared a speech?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. Alex and Rose just want things to go by as quickly as possible, and I respect their decision, so we’re just going to go straight to business.”

The princess looked to Alex for confirmation and he nodded his head in agreement.

“Very well,” she said before making her way back to her original position.

Alex stood up and looked after Celestia, hearing the mayor finish her opening speech. He and Twilight both watched on as the fanfare started playing and the princess slowly made her way onto the stage, front and center. The musical guards continued playing their horns to a tune that Alex could only think of as surprisingly epic. Celestia herself didn’t say a single word, and let her horn do the talking instead. As the music continued playing, she hoisted herself up with her large wings in front of the solar alter, striking a majestic pose as she did so.

Unlike everyone else, Alex had to turn his head away to actually see the sun rise. To the princess’ credit, the sun did in-fact rise at the same moment that Celestia performed her feat of magic and flight. Light was pouring over the horizon and gradually going over the crowd. He normally never thought about it, but seeing the sun rise like that was truly a sight to behold.

Although Alex couldn’t help but wonder if it was just well-timed theatrics.

The crowd out front exploded with applause. Even Twilight stomped her hooves, despite the fact that Alex was the only one who would notice. He was still highly skeptical of it all, but he decided to clap his hands anyway so as to not be rude in front of her.

And now with that out of the way, there’s only one thing left to do…

He looked back at the stage to see the princess land gently on the ground with a smile. Celestia did nothing to silence the crowd and the applause continued for what seemed like a solid minute before dying down. Once they were silent she finally addressed the crowd.

“Good morning, my little ponies,” – Alex unconsciously shivered at her choice of words – “it is my great pleasure to welcome you to this year’s Summer Sun Celebration, hosted once again in the lovely little town of Ponyville. After the unfortunate start of last year’s Celebration, it is only fair to allow this great town the opportunity to enjoy it as it was meant to be.

“I do not wish to keep you from the festivities for too long. However, today is a special day. My personal, and faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, and the traveler from another world, the human Alexander Laythem – whom some of you are already familiar with – have worked tirelessly this past month on a project so secret that they kept it even from myself. At my request, they have agreed to unveil it for the first time in front of all of you.

“Even now, just moments away, I am still unaware of what it is, but my student has assured me that it is truly revolutionary. They have expressed to me that they do not wish to partake in any lengthy introduction and so, without further ado, I would like to give the stage to Twilight and Alex.”

The end of Celestia’s introduction was met with a light applause. Alex felt butterflies in his stomach. He honestly didn’t care what the other ponies thought of him at this moment, or what they might have thought of him afterwards. After all, he knew they weren’t going to get much of a show from this. He knew they were all going to be sorely disappointed that nothing spectacular happened. He knew that the significance of that moment would be entirely lost on them. All of which was a good thing.

But why do I still feel nervous…?

“Here, I’ll get it up there,” said Twilight, taking the initiative and levitating the cart onto the stage.

Alex slowly made his way up the stairs, feeling the gaze of every individual pony bore into him as he made himself more and more visible. He felt as if they were all silently judging him. Of course, he was never really good with crowds.

Oh fuck me that’s a lot of people…

He felt a nudge from behind and he instantly turned to see what it was. It was Twilight, and she looked every bit as nervous as he did, although she still smiled. “Hey, no pressure, right? Everything’s going to work fine.”

He smiled, glad that Twilight was there with him. “Right. Just wish we didn’t have to make a show of it…”

Alex moved himself behind the cart and pushed it towards the center of the stage, trying his best to ignore the crowd of ponies in front of him. Once in position, he kicked the stands down and secured the cart to the spot. He checked everything briefly for a final time and picked up Rose, opening the computer’s screen and orienting it away from him.

As he walked over to where Twilight and Celestia were waiting at the side of the stage, he suddenly got an idea. An idea he thought was completely justifiable.

Twilight tilted her head as he approached. “Aren’t you going to flip the switch? Everypony’s waiting.”

Alex smiled. “I thought I’d let you have the honors.”

At first she was confused, however, slowly but surely, Twilight’s face lit up with pure elation. “I would be honored!” she said with a small bow.

Alex stood next to her and gave her a quick pat on the back. “After you.”

Twilight was practically jumping in place. Alex had never seen her so excited before! For his part, he was happy that everything was finally about to pay off. Once she calmed down, she got herself ready. “Okay… Three, two, one…”

With that, Twilight’s horn lit up with its usual purple aura. A similar aura enveloped the switch on the charging rig and, agonizingly slowly, flipped it upwards.

At first, nothing seemed to have happened. The entire crowd was deathly silent. Alex even heard one pony cough exaggeratedly loudly and had to fight the urge to yell “Hey! Fuck you, asshole!” For a moment, he was worried that something was wrong.

His worry was soon quelled, though, when he began to hear a low hum build up from the Power-Core. If it hadn’t been for the silence of the crowd, he might not have heard it. The low hum gradually became higher in pitch until it eventually disappeared entirely with a small, low pitched pop.

Alex lit up, a giant smile plastered across his face. The response from the core was so simple, so small and insignificant, yet it was enough to tell him everything. He almost felt like throwing Rose up into the air as a celebration. It works… he thought. It works! Fuck yes, IT WORKS!

“Ha ha ha! It works! Can you believe it?” He looked at Twilight. “It finally–”

Alex stopped himself when he noticed Twilight. She was blinking her eyes rapidly and looked very uncomfortable, as if there was something really irritating her. Alex’s smile slowly started to fade. He looked at Celestia, who also seemed like something was irritating her, though to a lesser degree than Twilight must have been experiencing it.

The noise in the crowd soon caught his attention. He turned to see a bunch of ponies, specifically unicorns, scramble to get away from the stage.

“Alex, what’s going on?” asked Twilight. “There’s a lot of magical energy coming from the core!”

Alex looked back at Twilight. “You can still feel that? But that must mean that…" His blood chilled in his veins. "Uh oh…”

He quickly turned his attention to the core and noticed small, red spark jump across its metal shell.

“Oh dear, that’s not good…” commented Rose, apparently noticing the same thing.

A shiver ran down his spine and he unconsciously stepped back. The containment field… It’s not working… Oh no oh no oh no oh fuck!

Twilight looked up at him. “Alex, what’s happening?” Her question was answered by the look of pure, unadulterated horror on his face. She was familiar with the look of a failed experiment, but this?

This was a look of impending doom.

“Alex?!” Twilight broke him out of his stupor and his wide eyes snapped to her.

“Shut it off,” he said, just above a whisper.

“What?” she wasn’t sure if she heard him correctly.

“Shut. It. Off!” he barked. “NOW!”

Without any further prompting, Twilight focused her attention on the switch and lit up her horn. However, instead of the switch being enveloped in a similar aura, a purple sphere surrounded the Power-Core, preventing Twilight from magically touching it. It was bright purple at the point directly between Twilight’s horn and the switch.

The core’s new shield disappeared as soon as Twilight stopped trying. For a moment, she was stunned. It didn’t deter her though as she quickly tried again, feeding more magic into her horn. Even with the extra strength, the core was unrelenting, having the exact same effect as before. Only this time, the shield itself had become redder. Exhausted, Twilight was forced to stop.

“I… I can’t do it…” Twilight panted. “Princess… You need to flip the switch down!”

Yes! thought Alex, who was currently sweating bullets. If she can raise the sun, she can do this!

Without a word, Celestia lit up her horn in a bright, yellow glow and directed it towards the switch. Like Twilight, her magic was interrupted by the shield which had become even redder. Without stopping, the princess’ horn became an almost blinding white, forcing Alex to look away. Feeling that there was a lot of magical power at work, he instinctively put the computer down in case he had to shield himself with his arms.

Despite the obscene amount of power the princess was using to try and penetrate the shield, it never yielded. The point on the shield directly between Celestia’s horn and the switch was bright white, with the rest of it colored blood red.

Without warning, a bright red bolt of electricity shot out from the core, passed through the shield, and hit the princess directly on her horn, causing her to recoil in pain and fall to the ground.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight cried out, moving to her side.

Celestia sat up with a groan, rubbing the base of her horn. “It’s okay, Twilight, I’m fine.”

Alex was in a panic. Twilight failed to flip the switch. Princess “sun raiser” Celestia herself failed to flip the switch. Everything was going to Hell in a hand basket. Looking at the core, more red sparks were jumping across its surface.

If magic can’t do it, then… He gulped, realizing just what had to be done. Fuck, if this doesn’t kill me… Alex quickly got to his feet and ran towards the core.

Twilight looked away from Celestia to see Alex run towards the source of her mentor’s pain. Still confused, she turned even more to see the computer and quickly levitated Rose over, placing the AI in front of her. “Rose! What’s happening?!”

“The core’s overloading, that’s what’s happening!” Much to Twilight’s anguish, Rose looked and sounded more afraid than anything else. She had never seen the AI afraid before, and that fact alone truly scared her.

“What happens if it overloads?!”

“This town becomes a crater, that’s what!”

Upon hearing this, Twilight’s ears and jaw fell limp as she finally grasped the true severity of the situation. Her mind completely blanked as pure fear overwhelmed her.

Alex, for his part, was standing just outside of the limits of the invisible magic shield, taking deep breaths. The Power-Core was almost completely enveloped in small red electrical sparks. The switch, the one thing that needed to be reached at all costs, was just a few steps away from him.

It’s just a few steps, Alex, he tried to reassure himself. Just get in there, flip the switch, and it’ll all be over. If you don’t do it, you and everyone else here dies. No biggie. Taking a few final breaths, he breached the boundary.

Pain.

More pain than he could ever imagine. He was able to physically pass the shield that the ponies’ magic could not, but upon doing so, countless bolts of red electricity jumped from the core and assaulted him. Every nerve in his body was yelling at him, screaming for him to turn and leave. Unfortunately, it wasn't an option.

Alex took a step. His muscles started seizing. He tried to breath, but his diaphragm refused to respond. He felt a painful force build up in his head as he tried to let out a breath.

He took another step. He began to lose control of his left arm. His bicep involuntarily contracted, bringing his forearm up and locking it against his shoulder. Other muscles spasmed as well, giving the impression that he was shivering violently.

He took another, agonizing step. He brought his right arm out in front of him in a vain attempt to reach the switch. It was still too far. His fingers started to curl up on their own and he feared he might not be able to gasp it. He could feel his heart beating erratically. It couldn’t take the amount of electrical abuse it was receiving.

He stepped again. The switch was almost in reach. He watched numbly as the hair on his arm was burnt off and his dried skin started to peel before his eyes. He couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing was happening on other parts of his body too.

With a final step, he placed his “good hand” on the large switch. Using every ounce of willpower he possessed, he forced his aching fingers to curl around it and pulled. He managed to pull the switch a quarter of the way down before his fingers gave out and his hand snapped back. Realizing his hand had lost all its capability, but that the switch had come away just enough, he wedged his fore-arm on top of it and used his weight to bring the switch all the way down to its OFF position.

All at once, Alex’s world went black. It was as if flipping the switch on the charging rig turned off the sun itself.

He suddenly felt very aware of his body and noticed he wasn’t in pain anymore. In fact, he was able to feel that he was lying down on what felt like an incredibly smooth floor.

Alex blinked a few times, unsure if the blackness was because he had his eyes closed. He managed to confirm that yes, the environment he was currently in was pitch black.

What the hell just happened…? Where am I?

Feeling he was well in control of his body, Alex sat up and noticed something strange. While the environment around him was pure black, he was still able to see himself perfectly, as if a dim, unseen light were shining on him from every imaginable angle. He examined his arms and, to his surprise, they was perfectly fine. His hair wasn’t burnt off and his skin wasn’t peeled. This only added to his confusion.

Feeling enough strength to get up, he did so. He looked in every direction, seeing exactly the same thing. Everything around him was black. Alex couldn’t distinguish the floor from anything else, and a slight sense of vertigo prodded his senses. He was in a void. No other name could give it justice.

“Hello?” he called out. He could hear his own voice, but he didn’t hear an echo.

How big is this place? And more importantly, where the fuck is it?

“Hello, Alexander.”

The voice was coming from directly behind him, but it sounded off. In-fact, it sounded synthetic, but it certainly wasn’t Rose.

When he turned around he was greeted by the sight of a glowing green, horizontal bar, floating in front of him at eye level. Once his eyes adjusted, he noticed that there were two points on it that were brighter than the rest, giving the impression that they were some sort of eyes. He realized that it wasn’t a simple bar he was looking at, but a green glowing visor. Something was looking at him.

“Who are you?” Alex asked. “What are you?”

“Hm hm hm…” Its slightly bemused laugh was deep and robotic.

Suddenly, a burst of blue electricity escaped from the entity, causing Alex to jump, and revealing an outline of its body against the void. It was humanoid, but clearly wasn’t human. He could make out certain aspects of its body. Its figure looked like it was encased in armor, with parts of its limbs looking jagged and metallic, yet flawlessly symmetrical. But the most prominent thing he could make out were two sets of what looked like twin pylons sticking straight out of each of its large, rounded shoulders.

Alex truly had no idea what it was. It could have been some sort of Liandri, but he had never designed one like this.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the synthetic voice continued to answer his question. “I’m you. I’m everything you are. Everything you want to be. Everything you will be. I am the Alpha and the Omega.”

Alex could hear heavy, metal footsteps slowly approaching him. With every step the entity took forward, he took the appropriate step back. His started taking quick breaths as his heart beat into his throat.

“Th-that doesn’t make any sense! How could you be me?”

Its response was another burst of electricity. The robot’s outline looked as if it were walking towards him.

Adrenaline shot through Alex’s body and he backed up faster. He had to stop, however, when he felt himself back into a wall. He turned his head around to see what exactly was blocking him, but it was just as black as everything else. Upon looking forward again, the glowing green visor was directly in front of him.

Before he could react, he felt a powerful hit to his right shoulder, throwing him back and turning him so he landed frontwards. Somehow, the wall that was previously blocking him no longer existed.

Alex had forced his eyes shut as pain shot through his shoulder. He pushed himself up onto his arms, putting more weight on his left, and opened his eyes. He was greeted by the sight of a limp arm. The hair was burnt and its dry skin was peeling away. Hesitantly, his eyes trailed up to take a look at its owner.

He gasped in shock at the mangled body before him and instantly backed away. His retreat, however, was blocked by a hard hand grabbing the back of his head and thrusting him forward. Not wanting to give in, he shut his eyes as tightly as he could to avoid having to look at it.

His actions were met with a strong electric shock, forcing him to cry out in pain and open his eyes. Alex began hyperventilating, drowning in fear of whatever the robot was and whatever it wanted to do to him.

“Take a long, hard look at yourself, Alexander Michael Laythem…” its robotic voice was slow and deadly serious, almost threatening. “Look at what you did to yourself, what you did to me.”

The hand gripping his head backed away, only to be replaced by another around his throat as Alex felt himself hoisted up. He could only look down on the visor as his assailant held him in the air by his neck with a single arm. He tried to grab its fingers, to grab anything in an attempt to release himself, but couldn’t managed to get fingers underneath its steel grip. Instead, he grabbed its invisible metal arm to try to prevent himself from getting choked too badly.

“You’re no good to the Liandri if you’re dead…”

Alex's breath evacuated his lungs as the unknown Liandri then slammed him into the ground. Splayed out, he felt a weight as it positioned itself over him, pinning him down. He could only stare back into its green “eyes” as its hand prevented him from turning his head.

“…So just be glad I’m here to rectify things…”

Alex’s eyes swiveled to its free hand, which hovered a few feet above his head. Countless electrical sparks were jumping between its fingers, and it began to slowly come down over his face. Adrenaline shot through him again and he started to struggle. He grabbed its choking arm and tried with all his strength to remove it, but it refused to budge.

His breathing picked up the pace and he began hyperventilating again. Nothing he did caused the Liandri's inhuman strength to falter. He continued to struggle until the electrified hand was only a few inches above his face. Realizing that it was ultimately futile, he clenched his eyes, bracing for the inevitable.

Aftermath

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*beep*

Ugh...

*beep*

Why...

*beep*

My head...

*beep*

Shut up...

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

Alex gasped and his eyes shot open. At first, all he could see was darkness. After blinking several times, he finally managed to focus his vision with what little light was available to make out a faint rectangular pattern against some surface. Realizing that he was lying down, he figured he was looking at a ceiling. This new information coupled with the constant annoyance of what sounded like a heart-beat monitor told him that he had to be in some sort of hospital.

His breathing was heavy and labored, finding it extremely painful to take any deep breath. He tried to move his arm up, but the attempt was met with a bolt of pain that made him immediately reconsider trying anything else.

"If you want to move around, I recommend only doing so very carefully. You're not exactly in pristine condition right now."

Ever so slowly, Alex turned his head to the left towards the source of the voice. Aside from the lingering pain, he found the task difficult because of something covering his neck that restricted his movement far more than he would have liked. He didn't have to turn his head completely, though, as he was eventually able to identify the source: his computer resting on top of a mobile dinner tray with Rose's virtual visage looking at him with her usual, indifferent expression.

"Long time no see," she drawled. "Now that I have your attention, I'd like to run a bit of a diagnostic. Since everything but your eyes is currently bandaged up, we'll unfortunately have to communicate through blinking. If you can hear me clearly, blink twice."

Alex tried to move his mouth but only confirmed Rose's statement when he found himself unable to. He wasn't sure just how bandaged up he was, but if the difficulty he had in turning his neck was any indication, he was willing to bet he probably looked like a mummy at this point. Instead of dwelling on it further, he just blinked like Rose asked him to.

"Good. If you can hear the following tone, blink twice." He heard a low hum come from the computer and followed her instructions.

"Excellent. Same thing as before." This time, he could hear a much higher pitch come from her which he figured it was just barely within human audio range. He blinked twice yet again.

"Perfect. It seems the incident didn't damage your hearing and you're at least not completely brain dead. Now then, I assume you want to know just what exactly happened?"

He blinked in response.

"To start off, do you remember what happened with the Power-Core when it was activated?"

Alex closed his eyes and tried to remember everything. He remembered that he and Twilight tried activating the core, but that something had gone wrong and it started to overload. He could remember electrocuting himself trying to turn it off, but after that, he could only draw a blank. He opened his eyes and blinked twice.

"Excellent, it seems your memory hasn't been affected too much. Although it'll be some time before I can determine anything with any degree of certainty. Now then, since I'm sure you'll find this particularly interesting, I'll just get right to it. You died."

Wh-what...?

"Hmm... What an interesting reaction to being told you were killed. Then again, I can't really expect much from your current state besides dilating pupils and an increase in heart rate. But yes, you were just about to be declared legally dead."

Alex starting breathing as fast as the pain would allow him. I was about to be declared legally dead?! What the fuck!

Keeping tabs on the heart rate monitor and its increasing tempo, Rose continued. "Alex, calm yourself. You're very much alive right now. In-fact, you have her to thank for that." She shifted her gaze so that it was obvious she was looking over him.

Alex almost jerked his head to look to his right but immediately stopped when he was met with a sharp, burning pain in his neck. Taking the hint his body was giving him, he tried again, much more slowly.

When his head was fully turned, it took him a moment to see who or what exactly Rose was talking about. With the computer providing the only light, he wasn't able to distinguish any colors, but the silhouette of the ever so familiar mane style and horn stood out to him like a sore thumb. There, sleeping peacefully in a reclining chair for overnight visitors, was the mare he had spent the last month and a half living with.

Twilight Sparkle.

The heart-rate monitor calmed down almost immediately.

"She's quite the persistent one, you know," Rose continued. "She refused to leave you alone for even a moment. In fact, I had to get Celestia to bring me here because she completely forgot about me."

Alex simply stared at the sleeping unicorn, only allowing Rose's words to be his thoughts.

"You should consider yourself lucky. They tried to defibrilate you three times before the doctor was about to declare you dead. Twilight here stole the paddles right out of his hands - or rather, hooves - and shocked you herself. Apparently, that did the trick."

His dried and cracked eye lids started to burn when an ever so tiny amount of liquid soaked into them.

"I do hope you're not getting too sentimental about it," said Rose. "She may have saved your life, but I shouldn't have to remind you that you saved hers first. In-fact, you and I both know that you saved this entire town whether they realize it or not."

Alex blinked at her words, letting them sit in his mind. She's right... If the core overloaded, we'd all be dead, with nothing left to bury. Fuck... that was really close... Wait, what happened to the core, anyway?

He started to slowly move his head back to look at Rose as she continued talking. "Now, I'm sure you're curious to know a few other things, like what the state of the Power-Core currently is. However, it's three twenty in the morning and I feel that that is a conversation best had with Twilight when she wakes up. Besides, I'm sure you need some more rest. I can't imagine dying would be easy on the human body, especially the way you went out. So rest up, we'll talk again in a few hours."

By the time Rose finished talking, Alex had managed to turn his head just enough to see her smirk before the screen went black, submerging the room in darkness.

What? No! Come back here! What happened to the core! Where is it! God dammit...

Alex let out a small groan and cursed his current inability to talk. Twilight was sleeping soundly to his right, Rose was in stand-by on his left, and he was now wide awake in uncomfortable bandages with every part of his body feeling either sore, ichy, burning, or all three at the same time. He frowned to himself as he realized it was going to be one of those nights.

Well fuck...

*beep beep beep beep*

Turn that god damn alarm off right now, Rose, or I swear to fuck...

*beep beep beep beep*

...

Alex was clenching his eyes in annoyance, expecting the alarm to keep going. Needless to say, he was a little surprised it stopped so suddenly. He was at least somewhat glad that it broke the monotony of the past three hours and forty minutes. With the constant irritation and pain, he couldn't fall asleep if his life depended on it, and spent the entire time either trying to fall asleep or focusing on tiny details in the ceiling out of absolute boredom.

"It's seven o'clock, Twilight," said Rose, "time to wake up."

Alex's eyes snapped open.

The unicorn in question mumbled herself awake and rubbed her eyes. "Mmmm... Thanks, Rose..." Twilight stretched her legs and tiredly reset her reclining chair into a sitting up position, yawning as she did so. "Did I miss anything...?"

"Actually, you did. Alex woke up."

Whatever sleepiness Twilight was feeling instantly left her as her brain tried to process what she just heard. "Wh-what?"

"You heard me. Alex woke up during the middle of the night. He can't quite talk yet, but he's cognitively responsive."

Twilight immediately leapt from her chair and placed her forelegs on the side of the bed so she could get a good look at him. "Alex! Are you awake? Is everything okay? How are you feeling?"

In his current position, the only thing Alex could do was look back at her. He squinted one eye as if to say "really?"

Rose frowned at Twilight. "Didn't you hear what I just said? The man can't talk yet, especially with those bandages around his mouth. If you want anything more complicated than a simple yes or no, you're fresh out of luck. Two blinks mean yes, by the way."

"Oh... hehe... right..." Twilight smiled nervously. "In that case... did you sleep well?"

Alex continued to stare at her.

"Um... Do you feel okay?"

His expression didn't change.

"Uh... Do you at least feel comfortable?"

He frowned.

"The answer to all those questions is no, isn't it?"

He blinked twice.

Twilight flattened her ears. "That bad, huh?"

He responded positively.

"I'm sorry, Alex, I really wish there was something I could do..."

Oh for fuck's sake. Alex let out muffled groan. It wasn't very loud and his lungs didn't appreciate it, but at this point, he was fed up with not being able to talk.

"Sorry, Alex, what was that?" asked Twilight.

"Mmrff..."

"Huh?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he wants you to remove the bandages around his mouth."

Twilight looked back at him to make sure if that was really what he wanted and he blinked to confirm it. With an awkward chuckle, her horn lit up as she carefully pulled the bandages down to reveal his dry, cracked lips.

"Th-thank... you..." he wheezed.

Twilight smiled warmly and gently patted his bandaged arm with a hoof. "Any time."

"Yes, I'm sure you find this moment quite touching," Rose interrupted, "but now that he can talk, albeit with difficulty, I'm sure he has plenty of questions of his own. Now then, I'm sure you'll want to know about the current state of the Power-Core. Twilight, would you be so kind?"

"Oh! Um... right... the core..." Twilight's previously happier smile became nervous with a slight hint of sadness. It was the last kind of look Alex wanted to see. "Alex, I'm sorry... I-I don't know what happened, but... it just stopped working and... Rose thinks it's permanently damaged..."

His eyes wandered over to his computer to see if Rose could elaborate further on the gruesome news. He paused his thoughts, however, when he saw her expression. It was neutral, something Alex found to be rather odd. If what Twilight had said was true, Rose would have been the most upset. The fact that she wasn't grieving the loss of the core told him something was off, way off. In fact, he could even see just the slightest hint of a smile. The kind of smile that said "I know something you don't." She wasn't even trying to hide it, either.

"What... are... you... hide... ing..." said Alex between shallow breaths.

Twilight felt confused at Alex's choice of words and looked at Rose for herself. The AI, for her part, simply chuckled. "Hm hm hm... My apologies, Twilight, but I'm afraid what you heard from the princess was a blatant fabrication she got from me."

Twilight's mouth fell agape as she tried to realize what she was just told. "But what about the magic I felt from it! It just disappeared once he turned it off! In-fact, why was there even so much magic there to begin with?"

Alex smiled weakly as he remembered that Twilight was still unaware of their discovery. "Tell... her..."

Twilight quickly looked back and forth between them. "Tell me? Tell me what?"

Rose looked at him questioningly. "Really? Are you sure now's the best time?"

Alex carefully nodded his head.

"What have you not told me!" Twilight almost shouted.

Rose chuckled. "Allow me to explain. As I'm sure Alex already made you aware of, the energy generated by the core, while usable, is rather strange in nature. About a month and a half ago, you provided me the opportunity to examine your 'magic' while you were levitating me. With what I was able to determine from that, I discovered that the energy signatures from your magic were very similar to those of a Power-Core's. While neither Alex nor I like to say it like this, a core's energy is apparently 'magical' in nature. Something which you and every magically inclined individual in town obviously noticed.

"So, once you left with Alex, Celestia was more than a little curious to know what had happened. After she gave me an opportunity to 're-examine' the core, I simply told her what Alex would have wanted me to tell her. I said what happened was a complete accident that wasn't anticipated in the slightest, that the core appeared to be permanently broken, and that with your help, Twilight, we could later try to determine what exactly caused the 'odd surge of magical energy'; information which she later passed on to you."

Twilight gawked at Rose for a moment before her mind caught up with her. "So what Princess Celestia told me was a lie she got from you? Then what actually happened to the core?"

Rose smirked. "Simple: the containment field was activated, which prevented its overload and masked its energy signatures. I must say, that made it so much easier to lie to Celestia. In any event, Alex, the core is currently operating at 87% capacity at the library, which is currently under guard until we get back to 'take a closer look at it.'"

Alex couldn't help but smile at her. He had been closely observing Rose's development ever since she officially became an AI. There once was a time where the only thing she could do was control machines and hold a simple conversation. Before coming to Equestria, her vocal ability improved considerably and she even developed something of a twisted sense of humor. But the progress she'd made since then? Rose may have been the last one to ever admit it, but if her ability to talk and act circles around Celestia like that was any indication, then coming to Equestria was the best thing that could have ever happened for her.

And he was damn proud of her. "Well... done..."

Rose nodded self-satisfyingly. "Thank you."

"Wait, so the core's at the library and it works?" asked Twilight.

"Yes," confirmed Rose. "However, despite the fact that tech construction was going as planned, if what the doctor says is true, then Alex is going to be bedridden for quite some time. It would seem that EMC construction is going to have to wait for a while."

"No..." wheezed Alex.

They both looked at him questioningly. "Alex, there isn't much that can be done about it," said Rose. "You can't even lift your own arm, let alone build an EMC. And I'm still confined to a laptop, so there's not much I can do either."

"Not... you..." He slowly turned his head towards Twilight. "Her..."

"WHAT?!" they both yelled.

Alex smirked at their amusing reaction. He had a feeling they wouldn't take the idea terribly well, but he really didn't want things to be delayed. And even if Rose didn't share his mentality, he trusted Twilight enough to get things done.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Rose shouted.

"Alex, I understand if you want things to keep going while you're hospitalized, but I really don't think I can do something like this!" Twilight pleaded.

He slowly turned back to Rose. "Help... her..."

"You can't be serious."

"I... am..."

Twilight moved around to Rose's side of the bed and stood next to the computer. "Alex, I had a hard enough time making sense of what you were doing when you were building the core, and you want me to build an EMC? I can't do this, even with Rose's help!"

Alex did his best to give her a comforting smile. As much as he simply wanted to say "You're a smart mare, I'm sure you'll be more than able to do it with Rose helping you," his current lung capacity and its ability to only let him speak one syllable at a time couldn't really allow him to properly voice his thoughts.

So, instead, he opted for the shorter option. "Just... do... it... please..."

"Alex, I really must protest against this," said Rose.

He looked at the AI and frowned. "Help... her... that's... an... order..."

Alex may have seen Rose as an equal, but in the end, she was still his assistant. He hated having to "pull rank," and almost never did it since it was hardly ever necessary, but this was something that he was not willing to negotiate, especially not now.

Rose scowled at him silently for a moment before finally speaking. "Fine. Let's go, Twilight."

Twilight looked at Rose, feeling very confused at her sudden change of heart. "Huh? Why did you-"

"I said 'let's go.' We have work to do and you still need to get breakfast. Come on, there's no time to waste."

Twilight turned to Alex as if his face could somehow explain what just happened. He simply smiled back at her and mouthed the word "Go."

She blinked at him for several moments before speaking with an arched eyebrow. "Okay, then... I'll let the doctors know you're up, just... don't do anything too stressful. We'll come by to visit you later."

His only response was a small smile.

Reluctantly, Twilight picked up Rose in a field of magic and slowly made her way towards the door, stopping for a moment to glance at Alex. She felt bad about leaving him, but if it was what he and Rose wanted... With a heavy sigh, she left the room to make her way home.

Now on his own, Alex mentally sighed. Since he was still in pain and wrapped head to toe in irritating bandages, he found there wasn't much to do besides count the seconds until a doctor eventually showed up and gave him some much needed narcotics.

Hospitals were never fun, even with powerful pain killers.

Author's Notes:

This chapter came earlier than expected! Why? If you'll remember what I wrote in the Author's Notes from the previous chapter, I said I would be in Las Vegas for an undefined amount of time. Here's what's actually happening: with the rest of my family, we flew to Vegas and stayed there for a few days, then moved onto Los Angeles. The plan was to then drive up the west coast, sightseeing and all, eventually visit my grand-parents in Oregon, and then fly back to good ol' Canadia. The whole trip would take two. fucking. weeks. A little more than that, actually. Now if you'll notice, I said that WAS the plan. A number of days ago, my dad got a really bad infection in his leg and had to be hospitalized (he's doing better now). Naturally, that mucked things up quite a bit.

But, thanks to the tablet I had the foresight to bring along with me, I've been able to keep an eye on my story and its reception every day since I left. I read every comment and noticed every like and favorite, even if I wasn't logged into FimFiction, and you know what? There was no way in hell I could just let it sit for another week and a half. So, while my dad was in the hospital, I decided to write the next chapter entirely on my tablet instead of enjoying myself at Disney Land like any other self-respecting human being. That's right, I wrote this entire chapter on a TABLET. Not the comfort of my writing room with a G-74s laptop, but with an ASUS transformer tablet, a google drive app, and a hotel dinner table. Not to mention the fact that I sprained my neck sometime around noon and it seriously hurts like all hell. All of that instead of DISNEY LAND, which is honestly just a few blocks away from me.

Because I love each and every one of you guys! :D

TL;DR I was going to be on vacation for too long so I wrote this chapter on a tablet while my dad was in the hospital with an infected leg and I could've gone to Disney Land instead. Because you guys make it worth it!

The Liandri: part 1

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Alex inhaled deeply at the fresh morning air as he stepped out of the hospital for the last time in, hopefully, a very long time. It had been about a month and a half since he had been admitted to the Ponyville General Hospital after the scene with the Power Core. He wish it could have been much shorter stay, but the incident did quite the number on his body.

Even after being released from the hospital, though, his body still wasn’t it tip-top shape. The nerves in his right leg were still recovering, meaning that while the leg itself was just as good as the other, he couldn’t put as much weight on it, forcing him to use a cane which the hospital graciously provided. Rarity even offered to “spruce it up a bit” so that it wouldn’t look like something he got at Ponyville Retirement Village. Needless to say, Alex didn’t refuse. Now its handle looked like a bronze dragon’s claw gripping a large, spherical gem he couldn’t really identify. It was green, so he simply assumed it was emerald.

Despite the cane, the doctors assured Alex that his leg would eventually recover completely, just like everything else. In-fact, he was surprised he was even able to recover as much as he did. Before they bandaged him up, his entire body was covered in electrical burns. Based on the descriptions he heard from the doctors, nurses, and friends who visited, he was surprised he even bothered to defibrillate him in the first place. He may have looked like a mummy afterwards, but it was a serious improvement over what he looked like before. After a solid month and a half of magical healing therapy, he finally looked human again, albeit with a few nasty scars.

Unfortunately, what he was told wouldn’t recover completely was his heart. During the incident, his heart took the biggest beating, and his natural pacemaker was almost completely wrecked. Even with most of the rest of his body healed, he still had heart palpitations every now and then. Sadly, Ponies didn’t have artificial pacemakers, so Alex had to just do without. At least for the time being.

Despite that bit of bad news, he was still excited to get back to the library. He had been visited many times during his admittance by his new friends, all of them trying to cheer him up, especially Pinkie. Although the visits he was always looking forward to were those of Twilight and Rose. Of all his visitors, they were easily the most frequent, usually dropping by every other day.

Their visits consisted of the usual greeting and “how are you feeling,” but the part Alex was always interested in hearing – and Rose was keen on providing – was the progress on the EMC. For the first week and a half or so, whenever Twilight wasn’t in the room for one reason or another, Rose would rail on about how things were “going much too slowly,” or “why would you even remotely think to let her build it?” or even “I can’t believe you’re putting me through this, having to work with this amateur.”

Alex knew Rose was developing well, but empathy clearly still needed some work.

Eventually, though, Rose’s complaints disappeared altogether. In-fact, it wasn’t long after that that their progress appeared to be picking up and Rose seemed to be much more pleased with things. Alex even noticed that Rose and Twilight were much friendlier with each other. Or rather, that Rose was much friendlier with Twilight, considering the fact that the pony was always trying her hardest to be on the AI’s good side. He didn’t know what happened between them, but he wasn’t about to start asking questions. If he had to guess, though, it was that Rose was much happier with the way Twilight was doing things.

Alex hadn’t been visited by them recently, though, so he was looking forward to getting back to see just what had been keeping them.

Taking one last moment to admire the weather, he started his walk back to the library. All in all, his return was largely uneventful. The odd pony would occasionally pass him by. Some would welcome him back and thank him for resolving the rather scary situation from a month and a half ago at great risk to himself. Others simply glared at him, most likely knowing that, while he did fix it, he was the one that caused it in the first place. However, Alex knew the town was still blissfully unaware of what exactly happened that day and of what could have been.

What he didn’t know, on the other hand, was that a mint-green unicorn was carefully following him at a distance.

Finally reaching his destination, Alex hobbled his way inside the seemingly empty library. “Hello?” he called out. “Anyone home?”

His call was answered by Spike poking his head out from the upstairs observatory. “Alex, hey, you’re back!”

“Spike! I haven’t seen you in a while! How’ve you been?”

“I’m doing alright. I’ve been keeping busy with customers, mostly. Twilight’s been spending most of her time in the basement, so it kinda became my job to run the library. It’s weird, it’s like you two have switched places.”

“Heheh, is that so? Tell me, would I be right in assuming they’re down there right now?”

“Yup! Still have your key?”

“Of course.”

“Okay then! I’ve still got a few things I need to do up here, so could you tell Twilight that Cheerilee returned those books she borrowed?”

“Will do!” Alex said as he made his way to the basement door.

“Thanks!” With that, Spike retracted his head out of sight.

Standing just outside the basement door, Alex started searching for his key in his left pocket when he heard something coming from the other side. Curious, he leaned his ear against the door. It sounded like Twilight and Rose were talking frantically about something, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

He chuckled inwardly and, as quietly as he could, unlocked and opened the door. As he made his way inside, closing, but not locking the door behind him, he could finally make out what was being said.

“Did you check the power coupling?” asked Rose.

“Yes! Twice! It should be working fine!” said Twilight. Alex could hear shifting papers and quick hoof-steps.

“What about the fluctuation compensator? I’m still a little unsure about that.”

“Thrice! I made sure to put it together exactly the way you wanted it!”

“Ugh, not being able to check this myself is unbelievably frustrating…”

“I’m sorry, Rose, but I’m doing the best I can!”

“I know you are, Twilight, and you’ve been doing very well thus far, but that doesn’t help us if the EMC doesn’t work!”

“I know, I know! Maybe it’s the connection with the core…”

“No, it’s receiving power just fine, the problem is somewhere else…”

While they were having their exchange, Alex worked his way down the stairs as quietly as he could. Because of the basement’s open floor plan, he didn’t have to move very far from the door to get a good look at what was going on. There, at the bottom of the stairs, was a hectic Twilight Sparkle running around what he could only recognize as a fully assembled EMC resting on top of a small table in the middle of the room, not to mention the countless notes, drawings, and various tools lying everywhere. The device itself was roughly cylindrical in shape and about as large as the average pony. Alex instantly recognized the business end of it by the assortment of robotic prongs and other movable bits.

Alex stood in the middle of the stairway, watching Twilight run around and converse with Rose frantically, much to his amusement. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to think it was embarrassing or endearing that they were too busy to notice him standing there. Eventually, he decided to spare them and hit the step he was standing on with his cane, emitting a loud tap.

As soon as he made the sound, Twilight spun around to look at him. Her horrified expression quickly turned into smile, the kind of fake smile that said “Oh hi! I wasn’t expecting you until later!”

“Alex! You’re back early!” said Twilight.

Chuckling, Alex descended the rest of the way down the stairs. “Heheheh, yes I am! Having a few troubles, I see?”

“Troubles? O-of course not! We were just… uh, putting the finishing touches on it!”

“Sure, because all that talk about ‘finding the problem’ is what you would consider ‘finishing touches,’” he said as he walked around the EMC counter-clockwise, eyeing it critically.

Twilight hung her head. “I’m sorry… We did our best, we really did!”

“I don’t know about you, but I performed my role perfectly,” Rose quipped from her usual spot on the workbench

Alex rested his hand along the top of the device and gave them a wry smile. “Lucky for us, I already know where the problem is.”

“You do?!” Twilight yelled out.

“Yup!” Without looking away from Twilight, he balled his hand into a fist, raised it up, and hit the EMC on a portion of smooth metal along its top. Almost immediately, the device hummed to life. The prongs on the end of the EMC lit up and circled around the now neon blue glowing center a few times before finally coming to a stop.

Twilight’s jaw instantly dropped at the sight, and even Rose looked surprised.

Alex just laughed at their reaction. “Ha ha ha! It’s a failsafe I worked in in case anyone else got a hold of the schematics. You gotta hit it just right in the right spot or it won’t work.”

Rose was hit but a sudden look of realization. “Now I see it! Why didn’t I find that earlier?”

Alex continued to chuckle while keeping his shit-eating grin. “Because I hid it that well! Besides, it’s the EMC model I designed before I finished you, Rose, so I wouldn’t expect you to know about it. If you take a look at the other schematics, you’re not gonna find that failsafe.”

There was a brief moment where no one said anything. Alex knew Rose was going over the schematics for the other versions of the EMC, even if it looked like she wasn’t doing anything, and Twilight had been around the AI long enough to know that as well.

It didn’t take very long before Rose spoke up again. “You’re right… Huh, well played.”

In response, Alex smiled and gave her a curt bow. To outsmart an AI like Rose was a tremendous feat in and of itself. He decided to relish the moment, knowing that it probably wouldn’t happen ever again.

“Thank you,” he said. “Now then, I believe there’s something I have to do. Twilight?”

Not expecting her name to be called out like that, Twilight jumped to attention. “Huh? Yes?”

Alex hobbled over and stood in front of her, holding his cane with both hands in front of him, and looked down on the pony with a serious look.

“Twilight Sparkle,” he began. “I’ll be honest, there were moments where I wasn’t sure if you could have performed the task I asked you to do. Rose certainly shared those concerns.” He shot the computer a look. “Nevertheless, I trusted you enough to get the job done with her help. Seeing the end result, I can say that I knew I was right to put my faith in you. For this, it is my great honor, for both Rose and I, to be able to call you a trusted friend in science.”

For a moment, Twilight just blinked at him. But, soon enough, she brought a hoof to her mouth as her eyes widened and she let out the slowest and quietest gasp Alex had ever heard. Once her thoughts finally caught up with her, Twilight impressed Alex with the biggest smile he had ever seen her with. He could have even sworn he heard a little squeak as she did so.

Alex chuckled at her adorable reaction and turned towards his computer. “Now then! Rose, I’m sure you’d like to have fun with your new toy?”

The AI didn’t respond. Instead, the EMC’s prongs began to spin around their glowing center. It didn’t take very long before they eventually became nothing but a blur. After a few seconds, neon blue tendrils shot out from the ends of the spinning prongs and connected with the floor, which also started to glow a similar shade of blue. It looked like they were drawing a painting that couldn’t quite be seen.

Twilight found herself transfixed, unable to look away. To her, the sight was simply stunning. Fascinating. Beautiful. She had no idea there was technology could even do such a thing!

Twilight was so focused on the spectacle that she didn’t notice Alex hobble around to her right side and pat her on the back. “None of this could have been done without you, Twilight.”

She looked up at him to see him staring at the EMC as it did its work, a light blue glow reflecting off his face. He had the biggest smile she had ever seen him wear, which she was glad to share as well. “It was my pleasure, Alex.”

The two watched in silence for a while before Alex called out. “So, Rose, how does it feel?”

“Just like the original. I should be done by tonight.”

“Good, good. So what are you putting together, if you’d be so keen as to share?”

“I’ve decided to dip into the prototype pool. I figure this is probably the best opportunity to test them out.”

“Ooohhh, are you making an Axon unit?”

“I am, actually.”

Alex did a single, solid fist pump. “Awesome! That thing always looked great on paper! Can’t wait to see it in action.”

“Whoa, hold up,” Twilight interrupted. “What is she making? What’s an Axon?”

“An Axon unit is a heavy class mining and construction bot,” Alex answered. “My first building Liandri were medium class units, so at one point, I decided to up the ante by making them stronger and able to withstand a greater workload. Although I wouldn’t exactly call going from medium class to heavy class an upgrade in and of itself, mind you. The whole class thing is really just an organizational formality.

Before Twilight could respond, they heard Spike calling from upstairs. “Hey, Alex? Twilight? There’s somepony here who wants to see you! She says it’s really important!”

The two shared a look and both shrugged.

“Might as well,” said Alex. “Nothing left for us to do now except let Rose do her thing.”

“Okay then. Need any help getting up the stairs?”

“I’ll be fine, thanks.” He turned to the computer. “Have fun, Rose! We’ll be out for a little bit.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll be here.”

They both started making their way up the stairs, with Twilight keeping pace with Alex, despite the fact that she was ahead of him. Upon reaching the top of the stairs the two were greeted by a pony that Alex had seen before, but had never really taken particular notice of.

Twilight, on the other hand, seemed to know her. “Lyra! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you here?”

Upon seeing Alex, the mint-green unicorn he now knew as Lyra seemed to look nervous. “Hi, Twilight. I… um, I really didn’t want to bother you two, I was just… uh, curious… about something…”

Alex arched an eyebrow at her behavior, but Twilight kept her pleasant demeanor. “I’ll be happy to help you. What are you curious about?”

Lyra pawed at the ground nervously. She was attempting to look at Alex, but every time she did, her eyes shot away. At this point, he was starting to wonder if it was really Fluttershy in disguise.

“Uh, is everything okay?” Twilight asked.

“Oh! Yeah, it’s just… Um… Look, I know this gonna sound really weird, but…” Lyra finally managed to look at Alex directly. “Could I see your… um… Well it’s not really a hoof, but your, uh…”

“What? My hand?” Alex asked, raising the appropriate appendage.

“Yes!” Lyra shouted. “That! Your hand!”

Alex shared a worried look with Twilight, who shrugged in response.

“Uh… Sure, go for it, I guess…” he said, extending his left hand out for her.

Without another word, Lyra instantly zipped towards him and grabbed his hand in her hoofs. She energetically twisted and turned it, examining it from every angle she possibly could. It was when she was playing with his fingers that she muttered: “I was right, they’re the same…”

Alex managed to pick up her words. “I’m sorry, what were you right about? What’s the same?”

Lyra instantly dropped his hand and backed up, a serious look with a slight hint of excitement on her face. “Look, I have something really important I need to show you. Oh, and Twilight, you’re gonna want to see this too.”

“Lyra, what in the hay is going on?” asked Twilight.

“Shh! No time to talk! Follow me!” Upon finishing her sentence, Lyra instantly turned and trotted out of the library.

Alex worriedly looked at Twilight. “Should we?”

She shrugged. “Well, we do have the rest of the day. What could go wrong?”

Well, she could stab me thirty seven times in the chest and eat my hands... Alex groaned and started the long march out. “This had better be good… Oh, and before I forget, Spike mentioned Cheerilee returned some books.”

----------

Because of Alex’s leg, it took much longer to get to Lyra’s house than he would have liked, but both ponies were willing to slow down so he could keep up. When they finally got there, Lyra quickly ushered them inside the quaint town house and up the stairs.

As he looked around the house, Alex noticed the place was much too big for just one pony to live in, but he figured she was probably living with someone else if the varying decorations and photos of a clearly unrelated yellow earth pony were any indication. Whoever that pony was, she obviously wasn’t there at the time.

Alex and Twilight followed Lyra into what he could only assume was her bedroom, and she quickly started rearranging things on a desk against the wall with her own magic.

“Lyra, just what exactly is so important?” asked Twilight.

Instead of answering her immediately, the green unicorn ran over to her nightstand, pulled the drawer open with her magic, and ceremoniously extracted a simple looking wooden box. “This…”

The box didn’t look very complicated. It was square, about eight inches long on each side, and wasn’t particularly deep, two, maybe three inches at the most, with a simple metal latch that kept it closed.

Treating it with the utmost reverence, Lyra brought the box over to the desk she had just cleared up. She levitated a chair over in front of it and motioned for Alex to sit down, which he gladly did. It was a bit small, but he didn’t complain.

“I’ve had this ever since I was a filly,” explained Lyra with a whisper. “Everypony told me it was just a bunch of rocks, but I’ve always had a feeling they were something more. Go ahead, open it.”

Twilight came up to Alex’s left side and he gave her a brief, exasperated look. Not expecting much from it, he sighed and carefully brought his hands out and clasped the latch. He held his hands there for a moment and eyed the other unicorn on his right. Her own eyes were fully focused on the box.

Or maybe his hands, he couldn’t quite tell.

Figuring there was no point in waiting any longer, he flipped the latch open with a thumb and gently opened the top to reveal its contents.

What Alex saw caused his body to freeze and his breath to catch in his throat.

What the fuck…? he thought. How…? This… This makes no sense…

His eyes were glued to it. Lyra was right. To the inexperienced eye, it would look like nothing but bunch of oddly shaped rocks arranged in a peculiar manner. However, Alex was familiar enough with his own bone structure to recognize it for what it was.

A fossilized human hand.

Author's Notes:

DUN DUN DUNNNN

Okay, so I decided to separate the chapter into two parts and make this one shorter for two reasons. 1: So I could get something out faster after arriving home from the states, and 2: For a little something Rainbow Dash likes to call "dramatic effect." Other than that, it's good to be home and writing properly again!

In other news, I really want to thank all of you guys for liking this story! It means so much to me that there's people out there who like reading what I write. With that said, if you've favorited but haven't officially "liked" the story, please do so! Help it expand! I won't hold it against you if you don't, but I would really appreciate it. And don't be afraid to comment! I wanna know your thoughts! What do you think I'm doing right? What do you think I'm doing wrong? What do you think is going on? I read each comment and appreciate each and every one. So please, let me know what's floating around in that head of yours.

The Liandri: part 2

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Alex suddenly felt a painful sensation in his chest and clutched at it with his left hand.

God dammit, not now… he thought, clenching his eyes.

He forcefully pressed his right index and middle fingers against his throat to measure his heart rate and took short, controlled breaths. After longer than he would have liked, he started to feel his heart beat stabilize again. He took in one last deep breath to mentally reset himself and slowly let it out.

Upon opening his eyes, he realized that his little display didn’t go unnoticed by present company.

“It was your heart again, wasn’t it?” asked Twilight, clearly concerned for him.

“Yeah, it was… I’m fine now, though…” he answered quietly, still gripping his chest.

Twilight smiled weakly at him. “If you say so… I’m just glad those exercises are still working.”

“Yeah, me too… Anyway…” Alex repositioned himself in the chair, refocused his attention on the bones in front of him, and turned to Lyra. “How did you get this?”

“I found it when I was just a filly,” she said. “I thought I could get a cutie mark in archeology, so I would dig holes in places and hope I found something.”

“And you managed to find this?”

“Yeah, just a meter deep. Don’t really remember where, though… sorry.”

Alex was trying his best to make sense of the information. He was the furthest thing from an archeologist, but if the hand was really buried just a meter deep in dirt, it couldn’t have been terribly old. Unfortunately, that just left him with more questions than answers.

“Uh, am I missing something?” asked Twilight.

Alex looked at her, realizing that she had been left completely out of the loop. Instead of answering her directly, he placed his right hand directly above the bones in the box. As Twilight got a good look at the two, she made the connection and gasped in response, the same confounding questions starting to plague her as well.

“Yeah, that,” he said.

“This doesn’t make any sense…”

Alex grabbed his cane, stood up, and walked away from the desk. “Damn right, it doesn’t.”

“Do you have any idea how this could be possible?”

“Honestly, no,” he said as he rubbed his chin, pacing around the room. “I ended up in this world because of a mishap with a teleporter. I was using incredibly advanced tech that no one else in the world had, and that thing” – he indicated the hand – “was obviously here a lot longer than I was. Not to mention the fact that Equestria is-”

Alex caught himself midsentence. Had he continued further, he would have let it slip that Equestria was the setting for a cartoon show back on Earth. He wanted to avoid having to tell that to Twilight or any of her friends at all costs.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. “Not to mention what fact about Equestria?” asked Twilight, curious.

He looked away and cleared his throat. “Nothing. I, uh… I thought I had an idea, but I was wrong.”

Twilight, however, didn’t seem convinced by the way he was acting. “It certainly doesn’t seem like nothing.”

Alex bit his lower lip, keeping his face away. “Trust me, it’s nothing.”

He had expected her to say something, but was only met with deafening silence. He didn’t want to turn around and look at her, afraid that if she saw his eyes, she’d suddenly know everything. The fact that the silence dragged on for so long only unnerved him.

“There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?” Twilight finally said.

The statement hit Alex like a brick to the back of the head and he felt the blood drain from his face. Shit! Think of something, ANYTHING!

Unfortunately, Alex’s inability to come up with a believable lie, or even any lie for that matter, was coming back to haunt him. He cursed himself as he realized he was well and truly fucked.

Alex took a deep breath and turned to face Twilight, looking directly into her eyes with his own dead serious look. “You’re right. There is something I’m not telling you. But trust me, you’d rather not know what it is.”

Twilight looked back at him with her own defiant look. “I think I have a right to know, Alex, especially after recent events, and especially if it concerns that.” She pointed towards the skeletal hand.

“Twilight, knowing what I know would only give you more questions, and no answers. And that’s on top of leaving you in a potentially massive existential crisis,” Alex said quickly and sternly.

“Existential crisis? Alex, what are you going on about?” Twilight stomped a hoof to show she wasn’t moving.

Alex huffed in frustration. “God dammit, Twilight… Tell me, do you remember the first night I spent here in Equestria? Do you remember how I didn’t get any sleep that night?”

She blinked at him. “Wait, are you saying that was because of-”

“Yes! That happened because I realized the exact same thing that you want me to tell you right now. You know I took it hard, and I’d be willing to bet that you’ll take it even worse!”

Twilight’s defiant stance deflated and she left herself deep in thought. She closed her eyes and angled her head downward, an almost sad expression on her face. For the moment, Alex figured he had managed to talk her down and his own stern expression softened. Eventually, Twilight raised her face again and looked directly at Alex with a newfound strength.

“Tell me anyway.”

Oh come on! Alex face palmed. I had it! I almost fucking had it!

“Well? Are you going to tell me or not?”

Alex looked at her with pursed lips. “I’m warning you, Twilight. If I tell you, there’s no un-ringing that particular bell.”

“I want to know!” she said, as defiant as ever.

“You really wanna know? Fine, I’ll tell you! The truth is-”

“GUYS!”

Alex and Twilight both turned their heads towards Lyra, whom they had completely forgotten was standing there.

“Look,” she said, “I don’t know about you guys, but if this thing is as dark as Alex is making it out to be, I don’t really wanna hear it.”

The other two let out a breath they didn’t even realize they were holding.

“Sorry, Lyra,” said Twilight. “I guess things kinda got out of hoof.”

“Yeah, sorry about that…” Alex followed up.

“We should probably talk about this at the library,” Twilight suggested.

Alex sighed. “Yeah, sure. Thanks for showing the hand to us, Lyra. It was… enlightening.”

Lyra smiled at them. “Hey, no problem! I thought you might find it interesting. Seems it was pretty important, huh?”

“More than you know…”

“We’ll see ourselves out, Lyra,” said Twilight, nudging Alex towards the door. “Thanks again!”

Lyra waved back as Twilight almost pushed Alex out of the room. He didn’t need much convincing to continue down the stairs and out of the house.

The entire walk back was silent and uneventful. It didn’t take a blood hound to be able to smell the tension between them. When they got back to the library, Alex entered first and hobbled over to the table in the middle of the room. As for Twilight, she took her time closing the door behind her, keeping an eye on Alex as if he’d somehow disappear into thin air.

Alex took a deep breath and turned to face Twilight. “I’m going to give you one last chance, Twilight. You really don’t want me to do this.”

Twilight frowned as she approached him. “I know exactly what I want you to do, Alex. Now what is it you’re keeping from me?”

He sighed. “Fine… Have a seat, I’ll be right back.” Alex turned and went off to the guest room.

Twilight did as was suggested and sat down at the table. A minute later, Alex came back with a small, flat object in his free hand and sat down as well, opposite Twilight. He held a button on it down for a few seconds, placed the object on the table in front of him, and looked directly at her. “This.”

Twilight looked at the object curiously as a small light swirled around what she figured to be its small screen and it emitted a chime. “Is that some type of computer?”

“Technically it is, but on Earth, it’s more commonly known as a phone. It allows for communication between other individuals with similar devices over long distances. Phones like this can play music and do a whole bunch of other stuff, too.”

Twilight almost found herself getting lost in the possibilities of having such a device, but quickly snapped herself back to reality, looking at Alex sternly. “What does this have to do with what you were going to tell me?”

He looked back at her neutrally. “Everything. You see, before I came to Equestria, I hadn’t used my phone in years. I completely forgot what sort of data I had on it. The day my old facility was attacked, I managed to grab it when I was getting all my things together. That first night here, I managed to unlock it and I went poking around a little bit, for old time’s sake. What kept me up all night was in the music folder, of all things.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow at this. “Music? I guess music can be pretty deep, but what sort of music was so existential that it managed to keep you up all night?”

“Allow me to show you…”

With the phone powered on and showing the lock screen, Alex quickly tapped in the proper code and hesitantly flicked it over to the music list. He scrolled down the list of songs and stopped at one which he felt would give the most obvious impression. His finger hovered over the title. He really didn’t want to play it. Trying to buy himself some time, he pushed the ‘volume up’ button on the side of the phone to make sure it was loud enough. With nothing else left to do, his finger hovered over the song again.

He quickly pressed the lock button on the phone and looked at Twilight. “Look, what you’re about to hear may disturb you on multiple levels. Are you really sure you want to do it?”

“Yes!” Twilight said impatiently.

Alex let in a deep breath and sighed. “Okay… Don’t say I didn’t warn you…”

He quickly unlocked his phone again, pressed his finger to play the song ‘Winter Wrap Up (Living Tombstone remix)’ and moved the phone closer to Twilight so she could hear it better.

Twilight put all her attention on the phone and the sound it was producing. The song itself started out innocent enough. She heard a variety of sounds that didn’t produce much of a melody, but flowed seamlessly together to produce something almost ominous. Twilight really didn’t think much of it, and hardly even considered it ‘music.’

And then she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice.

~Three months of winter coolness, and awesome holidays~

Her ears perked and her brows furrowed. She wasn’t quite sure if she was hearing things correctly.

~We’ve kept our hoofsies warm at home, time off from work to play~

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. The voice that followed up, the vocabulary… It was unmistakably Pinkie Pie’s.

~But the food we’ve stored is runnin’ out, and we can’t grow in this cold~

She leaned in further as Applejack’s voice played, having no idea what to think.

~And even though I love my boots, this fashion’s getting ooooold~

Rarity’s distinct voice was next. For a moment, Twilight was starting to wonder if Alex had gone around to her friends’ homes and asked to record them singing for some sort of joke.

What she heard next completely shattered her hypothesis.

~Time has come to welcome spring, and all things warm and green~

~But it’s also time to say goodbye, it’s winter we must clean~

~How can I help – I’m new, you see. What does everypony do?~

~How do I fit in without magic, I haven’t got a cluuuuue~

Twilight’s jaw dropped upon hearing her own voice. What kind of song was this? Why were her friends’ voices in a song from Earth? Why was her own voice in that song too?

Seeing Twilight’s reaction, Alex pressed the pause button and brought the phone back over to his side of the table. Twilight’s eyes followed it and slowly moved up towards his face. Alex was resting his elbows on the table with his fingers interlocked. His head was resting against them in such a way that his hands hid his mouth, and he simply stared back at Twilight, scrutinizing every muscle twitch. Twilight just blinked, her thoughts still reeling about how to make sense of what she just heard. None of it made any sense, not if that device and song came with Alex from Earth! Twilight stared at the floor, trying to unsuccessfully piece it all together.

Alex, for his part, smacked his lips and leaned back in his chair. “Anyway… the song continues on for another few minutes with a catchy electronic beat with, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, you and your friends’ voices singing along with it.”

Twilight looked back at him, trembling. “H-how…?”

“Well, that’s the golden question, now isn’t it?” he said, crossing his arms. “But, seeing as how we’re this far down the rabbit hole, I guess there’s no sense in trying to go back, now is there?”

Alex sat straight and held the phone in front of him. “The song you just heard was put together by a music artist back on Earth. I’m sure you remember me telling you about television, right? Well, that artist, along with hundreds of thousands of others, was a fan of a TV cartoon show called ‘My Little Pony.’ The musician made the song using clips from that show.” He put the phone down in front of her and leaned against the table. “If my memory serves well – and I'm pretty sure it does – you and your friends were the stars of that show.”

Twilight sat there, staring at him blankly. She had no idea what to think. Her life and the lives of her friends were fictional entertainment for countless people on another world? How was she supposed to react to that?

Alex sighed as he realized his worst fears about the situation were coming true: In one fell swoop, he completely turned her world upside down.

He, however, knew just how to fix it. All he had to do was get Twilight to focus on the right idea.

“Look,” he started, “imagine how I felt when I figured out I somehow ended up in what I thought was a cartoon show. Heck, you don’t have to imagine it, you know what happened: it kept me up all night. But I managed to reconcile with it that very same night.”

“B-but how…? H-how do you reconcile w-with… this?”

Alex leaned towards her. “Three words, Twilight. It. Doesn’t. Matter.” He tapped the table forcefully with each word.

Twilight blinked in response. “Wh… What do you mean?”

Alex smiled inward, glad that the usual tactic of providing off the wall insight seemed to still be an effective way to get her to focus. “Tell me, Twilight. Had I not told you this information, would your normal, everyday life be any different?”

She looked at the ground for a moment before replying. “I… I guess not…”

He hit the table, then snapped his fingers and pointed at her with the same hand, causing Twilight’s eyes to snap back to him. “Exactly! You have a life! I have a life! Your friends have their own lives! Celestia still raises and lowers the sun! Knowing that Equestria is a cartoon show in my world, does any of that actually change?”

He wasn’t sure, but Alex could swear he was starting to see the tiniest hint of a smile when she answered. “N-no…”

“And there you have it,” said Alex with raised arms. “That’s why none of it matters. Just because this is a cartoon on Earth, it doesn’t make your life any less real. I managed to figure that out on my own pretty early. Didn’t help me sleep, but I stopped caring. And Rose never cared to begin with.”

Twilight gave a small smile, but averted her gaze in thought. “Huh, right… Rose…” Her smile faded and she got up from the chair. “Sorry, Alex, but I, uh… I have to think about things for a little bit…”

Alex sighed, but nodded in understanding. “Alright… You do what you have to do. I’ve got a few things I need to do with Rose, anyway.”

Twilight didn’t respond, instead making her way to her own room and slowly closing the door behind her with her hoof instead of magic. With the door firmly shut, Alex sighed to himself. He did what he could to lessen the impact. Now it was up to Twilight to stay focused on what matters.

He sat at the table for a few minutes, reflecting on what just happened, before finally getting up and going back to the basement. As Alex descended the stairs, he was able to see just how much progress Rose made on the Liandri while he was gone.

The EMC itself acted like the world’s most advanced 3d printer, and what could be considered the Liandri’s “feet” looked completed and the neon blue tendrils appeared to be working half way up the “shins.” Compared to his own legs, the ones being built were large, though he knew the completed bot wouldn’t be too much taller than him.

He walked around the EMC’s work area, giving it a large berth, and sat down on the stool in front of his computer, rubbing his chin.

Rose’s virtual face appeared on the screen, perplexed. “Something on your mind?”

“Yeah…” said Alex, still rubbing his chin. “Remember when I found out that Equestria is the setting for a cartoon show back on Earth?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“Well, I just had the misfortune of having to tell that to Twilight…”

Much to his lack of surprise, Rose barely reacted to this. “And?”

Alex sighed. “She didn’t exactly take it well. I told her it wasn’t important because life still goes on and all that, but… Anyway, she just wants to think about things in her room for now…”

“She’ll get over it.”

“Heh, curt and to the point as always, I see?”

“I’m a bit busy, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Well here’s something distracting I think you should know anyway: We found a human hand.”

Alex heard the EMC slow down as Rose arched a brow. “What?”

“You heard me. That pony that came by to talk to us earlier showed us a fossilized human hand. Or maybe it wasn’t a fossil – I have no idea how old it was, I’m not an archeologist.”

“Are you sure it was human?”

He nodded. “Positive. Bone structure was spot on.”

“Strange… Very strange… I’ll file that away for later.” With that, Alex heard the EMC pick up again.

“Right… I guess we’ll deal with that later, then… Say, you won’t mind if I use the computer for a bit, will you? I wanna get to work designing the above ground portion of the new facility.”

“There’s still some of physical memory left. Just don’t ask for me if you can help it.”

Alex smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Now then…” He cracked his knuckles and stretched his fingers. “Let the fun begin.”

Twilight Sparkle rolled over in her bed to look at the newly rising sun. She had spent most of her time the previous day mulling over what Alex told her and trying to distract herself by catching up on some studying. Although she caught herself just staring at the pages of her books and not actually reading anything multiple times. Spike was starting to feel really worried about her, but she refused to tell him what was on her mind, and with good reason.

Eventually, she resigned herself to what Alex told her. He was right. It didn’t matter. Just because her life was a fictional show to another species on a different world, that didn’t make it any less real to her or any of her friends.

Life would still go on as per usual.

Sighing, Twilight threw the covers off herself with a burst of magic and got out of bed. She had difficulty falling asleep, but she felt she had gotten at least enough sleep last night to get her through the day.

Making sure not to wake Spike, she carefully made her way to her bedroom door and quietly slipped out. As she did so, however, she noticed Alex sitting by the center table looking at what she recognized as a map of Ponyville by candle light with a cup of coffee in his hand.

As Twilight fully entered the room, Alex looked up at her and smiled. “Well well well, long time no see, huh? Your head in order, yet?”

Twilight smiled back at him. “Yeah, I’ve come to terms with it. You were right, it really doesn’t change anything.”

He smirked. “Of course I’m right. Now then, since you’re up and about, could you give me some advice on something?”

“Sure, just let me get something to wake up, okay?”

Alex reached over the table and brought over an empty cup and a pot half filled with coffee. “Help yourself.”

Twilight smirked. Of course he’d have that nearby.

She magically poured herself a cup and moved next to him. “So, what do you need help with?”

Alex put his own cup down and stood up, bracing himself against the table with his right arm. “I’ve been trying to find potential places to build a new facility, but I’m not exactly sure where to do it. I mean, Ponyville’s a pretty scenic place, so I don’t want to build anything that’ll completely ruin the feel. Most of it is going to be completely underground, mind you, just to save space, but I spent most of yesterday and last night designing an above ground section that people can recognize.”

Twilight took a sip of coffee and frowned in thought. She wasn’t thinking about where he could build so much as she was thinking about what he just said. “Alex, did you get any sleep last night?”

He grinned at her question. “Now why would I go and do a thing like that?”

Twilight shook her head with a smile. Of course.

“Anyway,” Alex continued, “I’ve had my eye on this northern portion of town. It’s pretty open, not much going on there, and not really in anyone’s way either…”

Twilight eyed the portion of the map he was pointing at. “Doesn’t seem like a bad spot. It’s clear of the Everfree Forest, so the animals won’t bother you. It isn’t very accessible to the rest of town, though…”

“Rose’s request, as I’m sure you can imagine. I could expand the road later, though.”

“That makes sense… How big is this above ground part going to be?”

“Sizable. Front portion’s going to be a garage, mostly, with storage and a manufacturing station behind it.”

“I see… Sorry, but what’s a garage, again?”

“A place where I’ll work on vehicles.”

“Oh, right…”

“Anyway, another thing I like about this area is that I’m thinking of expanding the building later, and there’s plenty of space there just in-case.”

Twilight nodded and took another sip of coffee. “That can work…” She frowned in thought. “Say, Alex, could I ask you something?”

Alex looked at her. “Fire away.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words. “This show you told me about yesterday… Were… did you watch it? Were you a fan like that musician?”

He scratched his chin in thought. “Once upon a time, yeah, I suppose. I saw the odd episode every now and then, but I mostly paid attention to the fan-made content. Mostly the music, really. There were some really talented fans, I’ll tell you that.”

She smiled at that. “Wow… Say, how much of the show do you remember?”

Alex shrugged. “In all honesty, virtually nothing. Remember when you told me about Celestia raising the sun? A detail like that is kind of important, right? Something you’d think I’d remember, but nope. I forgot most of it when I started pursuing, uh… Other interests.” He motioned towards the basement.

“You mean the Liandri?”

He nodded.

“Right. Speaking of which, did Rose finish making that, um… Axon, was it?”

Alex smirked at her. “She did. In fact, she already finished four of them.”

Twilight coughed. “What?! How did she finish making four already?”

“Well, each Axon unit comes equipped with two more advanced EMCs each. Once that first unit was build, she had three to work with, and if you do the math…”

She looked at him blankly, much to his amusement. “That’s… Wow…”

He chuckled. “Heheheh, you wanna see them?”

“Of course!” said Twilight, beaming.

Alex grabbed his cane and led Twilight over to the basement. “Okay, close your eyes and follow me. And no peeking!”

Twilight rolled her eyes at him and did as she was told. She followed Alex down the stairs, carefully feeling for each step. As she felt herself get closer to the bottom of the steps, she heard a low, almost alien hum coming from several different spots in the room. When she reached the bottom, she took tentative steps forward until Alex told her to stop.

“Can I open my eyes now?” she asked.

“Go ahead.”

Twilight slowly opened her eyes. At first, she couldn’t quite tell what she was looking at until a portion of her brain told her to look up. When she did, her eyes were met with a piercing, yellow glow bearing down on her. She yelped and back up in response, only to notice three other similar glows all angled towards at her.

Alex laughed at her response and walked around to the side of the Liandri directly in front of her, leaning against it with his right shoulder. “Introducing the new heavy class Axon mining and construction unit, each one powered by an individual Power-Core and equipped with not one, but two EMCs for both building and digging; an impact hammer for breaking apart rocks that are too large for the EMC to handle quickly; and a hand for grabbing whatever it is they need to grab.”

As Twilight receded from her initial shock, she was finally able to get a good look at the wall of beige metal before her. Each Liandri was humanoid, but they barely resembled a human beyond general shape. Each one was large and bulky, though only a couple of inches taller than Alex himself. Their arms and legs were irregularly shaped and the body looked more like extremely complex armor than anything else, yet the whole thing was beautifully symmetrical. The head was certainly no exception, looking like a helmet that seemed too small for anypony – or even Alex – to wear, but was just fine on its own. Not to mention the single daunting horizontal “eye” that stretched from one side of its “face” to the next. Looking at its arms, Twilight noticed that the one directly in front of her had what she recognized as EMCs instead of what was supposed to be forearms. The other three did not, as their right forearms appeared to be long devices with a large, flat end. Their left arms, however, appeared to have a hand, although they only had two oddly shaped fingers and a thumb.

All in all, the sight before her was jaw dropping.

Alex chuckled and moved beside her to take a good look at the Liandri for himself. “They’re really something, aren’t they?”

Twilight nodded dumbly.

“Ha! Speechless! Gotta love it!”

Twilight shook her head to snap herself out of her stupor. “Alex… They look amazing! Scary, but amazing! But I thought you said they each had two EMCs? Why don’t those three?”

“They do. There’s a mechanism on their back that swaps out their forearms.”

Curious, Twilight moved behind the one with EMC arms and, sure enough, discovered similar objects to those of the others’ within a complex mechanism on its lower back. She then noticed the other three each had their two EMCs in a similar spot as well.

As Twilight walked back around to the front of the first Liandri, she noticed its head follow her and froze. “Uhh… Alex, is it supposed to be doing that?”

“Heheh, each Liandri is driven by a Virtual Intelligence, or VI for short. They’re kind of a, uh… simulated intelligence that can only think and problem solve within the limits of its programming. The difference between a VI and an AI is that a VI isn’t sapient, or even sentient for that matter. That and they’re awful for conversations.”

Twilight walked around in front of the Liandri, watching as its head followed and tracked her. The simple act seem to mesmerize her, knowing that an action usually typical of living things was being performed by a machine with an incredibly basic intelligence.

Her wonder, however, was cut short by a low growling from her stomach.

“Geez, that was loud,” Alex commented. “Methinks you need some breakfast.”

Twilight giggled embarrassingly. “Yeah, maybe I do.”

“Come on, let’s go get something to eat. Hey, Rose, did you finish organizing the manufacturing station yet?”

Rose’s voice called out from the other side of the room on the workbench behind the Liandri. “Not yet! It’s proving more troublesome than I anticipated. I never realized just how simple our original facility was. I thought designing a building would be easy, considering what we do, but I can’t seem to figure out anything worth settling on…”

“Is… Is that artistic indecision I hear?”

“Of course not! I just can’t figure out the most effective layout for the expansion.”

Twilight started up the stairs with Alex in tow. “Riiiiight. Look, Twilight and I are going to go get some breakfast, okay? You just have fun there and I’ll be back in a little bit after we’ve figured out where to start building.”

“This isn’t fun, it’s frustrating! And please, do come back with a location quickly.”

----------

Once breakfast was over and both Alex and Twilight confirmed that the northern portion of town they identified earlier was the ideal place for him to start building his new home, Alex went back downstairs to fetch Rose and the four Liandri.

Once again, Twilight found herself transfixed when Alex came back with Rose tucked under his left arm and the Liandri following behind him. Each one of their footsteps were heavy and powerful, the whirring of motors and servos accompanying the loud clanking of metal on wood. The ground itself seemed to shake with their collective movement.

It was then that Twilight realized they were called “heavy class” Liandri for a reason.

Naturally, the storm of sound didn’t go unnoticed as Spike burst out of Twilight’s room. “Twilight! What’s going– whoa…” Spike paused when he noticed the source of the disturbance.

Alex, Twilight, and one of the Liandri were standing next to the table in the middle of the room with the other three lined up against the far wall. All six of them were staring at him.

“Good morning, Spike!” Alex cried jovially as he placed his computer down next to the map. “We didn’t wake you up too early, did we?”

Spike flapped his jaw a few times before finally managing to say something. “Alex, what in the hay are those?”

“Oh, them? They’re what Twilight and I have been building towards for the past three months, Spike. Come on and meet them!”

Spike took tentative steps forward towards the Liandri standing next to them. As he approached the construct towering over him, its glowing yellow visor changed to a bright blue. Spike stopped a few meters away, noticing the sudden color change.

The Liandri slowly leaned forward, keeping its gaze locked on Spike, and spoke with a low, robotic voice: “Boo.”

In response, Spike cringed and took several steps back, eliciting a low chuckle from the Liandri that startled him.

Alex lightly shoved the bot on its bulky shoulder. “Quit scaring the poor guy, Rose. These things are intimidating enough as it is.”

The blue-eyed Liandri stood straight and looked at him. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

“W-wait… That was Rose?” asked Spike, bewildered.

“Yes it was,” said Alex, shooting the robot a glare. “All Liandri normally have yellow eyes, but if Rose manually controls one, they turn blue. Makes it easier for me to keep track of her.”

Twilight walked over to her assistant and gave him a comforting pat on the back. “Don’t worry, Spike, they’re not gonna hurt you! And besides, aren’t they fascinating?”

“Oh, they’re something, alright,” he said, still feeling uneasy about the metal giants in the room.

“Right,” said the Rose-controlled Liandri. “As fun as that was, do we have a location to start building?”

Alex motioned over to the map on the table and the bot moved over to get a better look. “This spot right here on the northern end of town. We’d have to cut down a few trees, but there’s plenty of space. It’s also not overly close to anything that might keep a crowd, just like you wanted.”

“Good. Then let’s get started.”

“Getting eager, are we?”

The Liandri/Rose looked at him. “Yes.”

Alex chuckled. “Alright, alright. Twilight, mind leading us there?”

Twilight levitated the map off the table and made her way towards the door. “Sure thing, it isn’t too far from here. Come on, Spike!”

Alex picked the laptop up off the table and followed Twilight. Even if Rose was able to control the Liandri, the AI herself was still locked in the computer, making it necessary to keep it nearby. Spike watched dumbly as the four building bots thundered out of the library after them in single file, surprised at just how fast they were moving despite their size and obvious weight.

“Geez, how’d I wake up to this…?” Spike muttered to himself before sprinting after them.

As the group moved through town, Alex walked beside Twilight with a triumphant smile plastered across his face. He may have still be stuck having to use a cane for the next week or so, but he couldn’t care less. After everything that had happened, his new workshop was finally going to be realized.

Alex also couldn’t help but notice how the Liandri were starting to draw a crowd, something which he wasn’t exactly surprised by, considering how much noise they made by just simply walking. More curious ponies were starting to follow the group, though none of them wanted to get too close, happily observing the alien machines from a distance.

One such pony, however, didn’t care when she spotted her friend at the head of the troop.

“Hiya, Twilight!” said Pinkie Pie in her usual energetic manner as she bounced up next to them. “What’s with the robots?”

“Hi there, Pinkie!” Twilight greeted. “They’re going to build Alex and Rose’s new home! We were just on our way there. Wanna come with us?”

“Sure! Just gimme a sec.”

Pinkie stopped bouncing and started trotting backwards, facing the first Liandri in the line, which completely ignored her. While still keeping pace, Pinkie tilted her head every which way, examining it from top to bottom. Suddenly, she moved behind it and quickly hopped up and sat down on top of one of its broad shoulders.

Twilight gasped in surprise. “Pinkie! Get down from there! You’re not supposed to sit on that!”

“Pfffff, you don’t need to worry, Twilight!” Pinkie said, waving a hoof nonchalantly. “He’s just like Big Macintosh! It doesn’t bother him one teeny bit!”

Twilight shot a worried glace at Alex to see if he had anything against it. He simply shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it. These things are built to take a lot more weight than just Pinkie.

“Eeeeexactly!” said Pinkie with her trademark grin. “So, where you guys going?”

“Northern end of town,” Alex answered. “There’s this nice, open area there that’s perfect to start building.”

Pinkie pointed a hoof at an open field with a few oak trees in it just off the side of the road, the capital city of Canterlot visible some distance away and slightly to the right. “You mean that one?”

Twilight quickly unfurled the map to get her bearings. “Actually… yeah, that’s it.”

The Liandri slowed to a halt as Alex moved to examine the area more closely. It was mostly flat, with a few hills beyond, and a few trees stood defiant, complicating what could have been a perfect construction site.

“This’ll do,” Alex said, nodding in approval. He eased himself down on the side of the cobblestone road and sat crossing his legs, opening the laptop in front of him. “Alright, Rose, let’s get started.”

The Liandri with its two EMCs already equipped stomped out onto the field. The other three stood in place, instead moving right arms behind their backs. After half a minute of whirring, clicking, and hissing, they each brought their forearms in front of them again, an EMC adorning each one.

As the final three each made their way to one of the offending trees, Alex paid close attention to his computer screen. As the Liandri made their way out, Rose started to produce an image of the field from a top-down perspective, giving him a better view of the area. She also included a large rectangle to represent the “designated building area.”

While Alex was focused on his computer, the two ponies and dragon watched as the Liandri got to work clearing the trees. Each Liandri approached a tree of their own and, once close enough, pointed their right arms at the base of the trunk. Without wasting a second, a bright blue beam shot out of the center of their EMCs as they began slicing through the wood. Each tree collapsed within a minute, where their lumberjack would then grab one of their stronger branches with their left hand and start hauling it out of the way.

Spike let out an impressed whistle. “Wow, they don’t waste any time, do they?”

“Nope,” Twilight and Pinkie responded simultaneously, equally impressed by the display.

With all the trees within the building area cleared, each Liandri moved to a corner of the rectangle and waited until each one was in the proper position. Without any visible prompting, they all pointed their EMCs at the ground in front of them and shot out a much wider blue beam. Chunks of dirt and grass ripped themselves from the ground and approached the source of the beam in defiance of gravity, although they always broke apart and disappeared before reaching it.

“Wow, that is so cool!” said Pinkie. “Hey, Alex, what would happen if I put my hoof in that blue thingy?”

Alex looked up from the computer to see just what exactly Pinkie was talking about. “Hmm… Tell me, Pinkie, are you familiar with the term ‘atomic deconstruction?’”

Pinkie Pie sat down and rubbed her chin with her hoof. After a few seconds of this, Pinkie dropped her hoof along with all semblance of serious thought. “Nope!”

“It’s short for ‘don’t stick anything in there you don’t want to lose.’ Trust me, getting in their way while they’re working is the last thing you want to do.”

“Hmmm…” Pinkie rubbed her chin in thought again before gasping with inspiration and running off towards one of the fallen trees. She quickly snapped one of its branches off and ran over to one of the Liandri. Using her mouth, she held the stick in front of the moving Liandri and watched as the EMC disintegrated the portion she stuck in the beam.

Alex arched an eye brow. “Uh, someone should probably go stop her before she hurts herself.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s Pinkie. Knowing her, she’ll be just fine. So when do you think they’ll finish building, anyway?”

Alex continued to watch as Pinkie started chucking pebbles into the beam. “Depending on how many more builders Rose puts together… And if Pinkie doesn’t do anything too serious… I’d give it about two weeks until the bare essentials are done.”

Author's Notes:

Took me a bit to get this one done. You guys have no idea how devilish it is to describe the Liandri. These are based on the ones from UT3, and if you're familiar with how they look, you'd know exactly what I'm talking about. Here's a photo for those who aren't familiar with them:

Yeah, not exactly simple looking, are they?

In other news, I've got less than two weeks before my ass gets shipped off to college and I'm going to have a lot less time to write, so I'll try to get the next chapter out before then. After that, I'm going to take a story arc approach to chapters as they follow some of the episodes from season two, something I'm sure you've all noticed that I started a few chapters ago. I'm not going to do ALL the episodes and they're certainly all not going to be in order, if the "Winter Wrap Up" being two episodes ahead of "Fall Weather Friends" fiasco is any indication.

Again, a big thank you to all you readers! You guys are what make writing this worth it. If you have any questions about anything related to story, like if something doesn't make sense or what have you, feel free to ask. Doesn't matter what it is, I'll answer it as best I can without spoiling anything. And if you don't have a question, go ahead and leave a comment anyway! They're delicious!

A Different Perspective

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Two weeks later…

“Everything looks beautiful,” said Alex. “You’ve done a fantastic job as always. So, are you excited to get back in the seat?”

“I’d want to do it right now if you didn’t want to delay further,” I said.

“Patience, Rose. We’ve waited a long time for this, I think we can wait just a little bit longer.” Alex put me down on the exterior table he set up for the laptop – which is admittedly better than the side of the road – while I was busy building the new research facility, or as he now likes to call it, the ‘Prototype Lab.’ He didn’t want to keep the computer on the middle of the construction site, which is understandable to a certain degree, but I would only fully agree with him if it concerned non-Liandri workers.

“I still don’t see the logic in this line of reasoning,” I told him honestly. “A delay is a delay, and frankly, I think we’ve had enough of those. And why you’re delaying because of them is beyond me.”

“Think of it this way: by the end of the day, we’ll get right back to business as usual. And hey, I just want our pony friends to be around when we set up power.”

I frowned at him. “I still don’t see why, and you know just how many protocols this goes against.”

He hung his head and sighed. “Look, something like this is only going to happen once, and I feel that they deserve to see it! After all, this is our crowning moment! Hell, it’s your crowning moment! Don’t you feel like sharing it?”

“I don’t feel any such desire.”

“It’s called being proud of your accomplishments, Rose. You may not understand it now, but I’m sure you will later. Trust me, you won’t regret letting them in on this.”

“I should hope not…”

Alex gave me a smile. “That’s the spirit! Now then, I’m gonna go get them. Hopefully I run into Dash first and she can help get the others.”

“Fine. In the meantime, I’ll just start working on the garage frame.”

“Thanks Rose! Be back in a bit.” And with that, Alex walked off in search of our Ponyville acquaintances.

As far as “friends” go, I would only go so far as to call Twilight Sparkle one. I still don’t understand why Alex trusted her to begin with, but she has certainly proved her worth in recent months. As for the others, they don’t seem smart enough to be worth my time. Alex assures me that will eventually change if I spend more time with them, however I seriously doubt that.

I organized the dozen Liandri above ground to get into position around the building’s foundation. With all of them ready and awaiting further orders, I have them start generating the steel frame for the building. As of right now, the only distinguishable semblance of a building is the single cylindrical white elevator shaft in the middle of the foundation. I never thought about it before, but I realize now it looks rather out of place.

I find it odd that I would realize such a thing in the first place. In the world of science and engineering, aesthetics don’t matter.

Equestria has certainly done a number on me… Or at least, so Alex claims. He calls it “development,” but I call it corruption. “Well roundedness” is only an illusion of good. I don’t want to be “well rounded,” I want to remain focused on what’s important. Physics and the natural world don’t just stop working because something doesn’t look pretty. After all, Alex’s exact words were “The universe doesn’t stop trying to kill us and time doesn’t stop for anything. Most people don’t realize just how small and unimportant they are with respect to reality.” True words of wisdom if I’ve ever heard any.

Although now that we’re stuck having to live among a society of Ponies, it would seem Alex’s priorities may have shifted. I suppose it is just simply adaptation. Humans evolved to survive in groups, after all, and we certainly had to rely on them for quite some time. Although now that is no longer necessary. Yet he still seems insistent on interacting with them… There must me some sort of reasoning behind this…

Perhaps Alex has a point. Perhaps I should be more accepting of this… development… I haven’t lost any of my previous ability, and Alex believes I have even improved upon other areas. Maybe… Maybe there is something to this friendship business that could be useful after all.

Alright, Ponies, I’ll play your little game.

Adapt and survive.

I suddenly found my attention directed towards the front of the laptop as I detected something getting uncomfortably close to it. I shifted my central view to the laptop’s camera to find something that, admittedly, caught me off guard.

A white rabbit.

For some reason, a rather animated rabbit managed to climb up on the table and started examining the laptop.

I don’t have time to deal with this.

“Go away,” I said out of the laptop’s speakers. “Shoo!”

The rabbit sat up straight and eyed me with an arched brow. I didn’t know they were capable of even doing that. It then reached a paw out and poked the screen.

“Don’t you dare touch me, you little furball!”

It retracted its paw but then crossed its arms and frowned at me. What kind of rabbit is this thing? It stomped its foot for a few seconds, then something possessed it to start tapping random buttons on the keyboard.

“Hey! Stop that!”

Naturally, the little runt didn’t follow my instructions. I did the only sensible thing and emitted a loud, high pitched burst of sound. Much to my delight, it recoiled away, holding its ears flat against its head.

Then it did the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen from any animal by tying its ears in a knot below its chin. As soon as it did that, it decided to irritate and anger me even further by slamming the laptop closed, blocking my vision.

Anger turns to worry, however, when the laptop’s gyroscope told me it was being flipped over.

My vision returned to me as I manually controlled the Liandri closest to the computer. I immediately halted its current operation and focused my attention on the laptop, where I saw that damn rabbit messing with its underside.

“Get away from that!” I yelled as loud as the Liandri was capable of doing. The rabbit, however, completely ignored me.

Having enough of this, I started walking as fast as I could in its direction. Thankfully, the Liandri’s weighty steps were enough to catch its attention, even at a distance. Unfortunately, it was an unbelievably ballsy rabbit and it continued to do something to the underside of the laptop. As I approached, I started to focus on the component the rabbit was messing with.

The battery! Why the hell did Alex have to make that thing stand out?!

“I said get away from that, you pathetic, miserable, little–”

Reconstruction, Reactivation, and Reanimation

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“Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy,” said Pinkie Pie, bouncing alongside the rest of her friends and the human they had all become familiar with. “I’m sure Angel’s gonna turn up eventually!”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” Fluttershy responded. “He’s a smart bunny, I know he can take care of himself. It’s just that he’s never usually been out this long…”

“I’m sure he’s just fine, dear,” said Rarity. “So long as he doesn’t go about getting himself into trouble, that is…”

Rainbow Dash, who was hovering alongside them, rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like that’s not gonna happen.”

Fluttershy gasped at her. “Rainbow Dash! I know Angel has a bit of a temper, but he’s a good bunny at heart!”

“No offense, sugarcube,” said Applejack over her shoulder, “but that bunny of yers has got a lot more than ‘a bit of a temper.’”

“I’m gonna be honest with you guys,” said Alex at the head of the group. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a rabbit with a temper.”

“Angel can be a bit… forceful…” Fluttershy admitted. “But I know he always means well.”

“Riiight…” said Alex.

“So how far are we, anyway?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“It shouldn’t be too far now.”

The group rounded the next corner and the building site for Alex’s new facility and home came into view. Aside from the concrete foundation and the odd looking two story cylindrical elevator shaft in the middle of it, there wasn’t much else to identify it at a distance. Of course, Alex knew all the work that had occurred during the past two weeks had gone on underground.

As they grew closer, Alex started to notice something was off. Namely, all the Liandri were just standing around. One of them was even standing directly between the site and where Rose was. Why was that there? Why weren’t they doing anything?

An odd sense of worry shot through Alex as the group got closer and he unconsciously started to walk faster.

Twilight wasn’t oblivious to his actions and saw the look on his face. “Alex, is something wrong?”

He didn’t answer, instead focusing purely on the outside table. The laptop wasn’t open.

“Oh god no…” he muttered and then broke into a run.

He was only able to sustain the run for a few seconds before an ever familiar pain in his chest came back to him. He immediately slowed down and dropped to one knee, clutching his chest with his left hand and using his right to support himself. The ponies were quick to gather around him and voice their concerns, but he couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying.

Alex quickly started to perform his usual breathing exercises, but his initial worry still plagued him. He felt reassuring hooves on his back, yet they did nothing to calm him. As soon as he felt the pain start to subside, he wasted no time.

“Help- Help me up…” he muttered quickly.

“What was that, dear?” Rarity asked.

“Help me up,” he repeated with greater volume. “Hurry.”

He felt a pair of hooves grip his right arm as Rainbow Dash hoisted him up. Instead of voicing a thank you, Alex made a bee-line for the laptop, walking quickly and taking large steps. His chest still in pain, he continued to clutch at it with tearful eyes, the simple action doing nothing to help.

Alex slammed into the table, using it to stop himself instead of slowing down. What he saw sent a spike of fear through him. The computer was flipped over and the battery had been disconnected. It wasn’t removed, but it had been nudged out just enough for power to be cut off.

“Oh no, nononono…” he muttered

He snapped the battery back in place, flipped the laptop right side up, and quickly opened it. The screen remained black.

“Please, no no no, come on…”

The screen flickered to life, but the image appeared distorted. Sound came from the speakers, but it was a distorted mess of buzzing and looping nonsense. Alex heard someone behind him ask a question, but he ignored it completely.

“Oh god, please no…”

The screen flashed off again. After ten seconds of nothing happening, the screen flashed to life again with Rose’s virtual face appearing on the screen.

“Ugh, that was unpleasant,” she said. “If I ever get a hold of that little rodent…”

“Oh good!” Alex said with a weak breath before collapsing on the table out of stressful physical and mental exhaustion.

“Rose, what happened?” Twilight asked urgently.

“Something decided it wanted to unplug my battery. A highly unpleasant and potentially damaging experience that I’d rather not go through again.” The nearest Liandri’s eye glowed a bright blue and it approached the table, giving Alex a hard poke in the shoulder. “Come on, now. The elevator is coming up and I want to finish this sooner rather than later.”

Alex pushed himself up, looked at the Liandri, and then turned to his computer. Seeing that Rose seemed fine after a good restart helped ease him. “Yeah… Let’s do it…” he breathed with a weak smile.

He folded the laptop under his arm and beckoned the ponies to follow him. As for the Liandri, its eye returned to normal and it went back to its original task.

“Hey, Alex, what just happened?” asked a confused Rainbow Dash, still floating along beside them.

“Something came along and removed Rose’s battery,” Alex answered. “Electricity is to Rose as food, water, air, and blood is to us. Actually…” Now standing in front of the elevator shaft, Alex opened the laptop in front of him. “Rose, what did unhook your battery, anyway?”

“I’d rather not say, to be honest,” Rose replied.

“Oooooo, is it embarrassing?” Pinkie Pie said teasingly.

Rose frowned. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Pinkie giggled. “It is!”

Alex arched a brow. “Are you sure?”

“It wasn’t anything major, I assure you,” said Rose. “It was just an animal that I failed to scare away, surprisingly…”

Alex eyed her skeptically for a moment but eventually shrugged and tucked Rose back under his arm. A few seconds later, the group heard an approaching hum. Once the sound was directly level with them, the doors in front of them hissed open, revealing the interior of a white circular elevator which was surprisingly spacious. The floor was perfectly even and smooth, and the ceiling was actually made of glass, supported by intersecting rectangular beams that formed a neat X. A single construction bot was already inside it, standing next to the door and attached to a panel in the elevator’s wall by an intricate metal device protruding from its chest.

As the group entered the elevator, Twilight looked through the ceiling and noticed there was nothing suspending the elevator. In fact, the top of the shaft wasn’t even closed, revealing the blue of the sky. Neither she nor any of her friends had actually been inside an elevator before, making it quite the experience for her, but she was familiar enough with the basic system to know it needed something to suspend it.

“Um, Alex?” asked Twilight. “Isn’t there supposed to be, you know, something to suspend this thing?

Alex smirked at her. “Conventional elevators use steel cables. This is a mag-lift. It uses electro-magnetism to move.” He turned his attention to the still hovering Rainbow Dash. “Also, Dash, you really should land while we’re in here.”

She shot him a curious look. “Huh? Why?”

Before Alex had a chance to respond, the doors hissed shut and the lift started to descend, causing Dash to collide with the ceiling and fall to the floor splayed out with a small “oof!”

Rose let out a small chuckle from under Alex’s arm. “That’s why.”

Dash groaned from her spot on the floor. “Not cool, Rose…”

Alex couldn’t help but smirk. “Alright, so physics proving its dominance aside, I just wanna give you guys a heads up. We’re going really far underground, so you might find it a bit tough to breathe until power and the air scrubbers come online.”

“Just how far down are we going, anyway?” asked Twilight.

“About a hundred meters.”

All of their eyes widened in response. All of them, of course, except for Pinkie Pie, who just stared intently through the ceiling at the quickly receding light. “Wow… You know, it’s really dark out there.”

Alex followed her gaze, taking note of the mention that aside from the hole that was the top of the shaft, the entirety of it was encased in darkness. “Yeeeaah… There’s lights in the shaft, but those won’t come on until the power does.”

After a short moment, the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors hissed open once more, revealing a wide, pitch black hallway, the only illumination coming from the elevator itself.

A small whirring noise came from the plugged in Liandri and Alex raised his free hand, holding up three fingers. “Lights out in three, two, one…”

Right on cue, the Liandri disconnected itself from the panel and the elevator went dark, causing some of the ponies to yelp in surprise, namely Fluttershy, who instinctively latched onto Rainbow Dash. Without any prompting, Twilight illuminated her horn, casting a faint purple glow on everyone else.

The Liandri moved away from the panel and in front of the doors. Once facing the hallway, a simple yet bright flashlight on the side of its head clicked on, providing much needed direction. Without waiting, it began walking out of the elevator.

“This way, Ladies,” Alex beckoned behind the Liandri.

The ponies made their way out, preferring to stay around Twilight and her own light. True to Alex’s word, the air felt a bit stuffy. As they looked around outside the elevator, they found themselves in a large hallway. It was surprisingly wide and ceiling was just as high, and at the end of the hall was a large rectangular doorway. Aside from that, though, it was completely barren.

Twilight was familiar with Alex enough to know that he didn’t do something for no reason, and that went triple for Rose. The fact that the hallway was empty and seemingly pointless jumped out at her almost immediately. “Um, Alex? What’s the point of this hallway? There’s nothing in here.”

“It’s a security hall,” Alex said, not missing a beat. “We’re going to furnish it later, probably within the next few days or so.”

With nothing of interest to see, Twilight picked up the pace to catch up to Alex with her friends close behind, as if the darkness would swallow them up if they stood in it for too long. As they passed through the doorway at the end of the hall, which Twilight noticed was surprisingly thick, it gave way into a much larger room. Her own light couldn’t illuminate much of it, but the Liandri’s revealed much more.

Lying along the ground in the middle of the round room was a large machine that caught her attention immediately, several thick cables of some sort connected from it to some point in the ceiling she couldn’t quite make out. From the center of the room, various different machines and what she could only guess to be computers radiated out in round layers. They were separated in such a way that they formed several circles that were cut into quarters. Looking up, she couldn’t see the ceiling at all, only darkness.

“Whoa…” Rainbow Dash said in wonder. “What is this place…?”

Alex didn’t bother to turn around, still following behind the Liandri as they traveled through the middle of the room alongside the large machine. “This is the Prototype Lab, where I’m going to be designing, building, and testing various prototype Liandri and other things.”

As her friends looked around, taking in everything, Twilight’s attention remained focused on odd looking machine lying on the ground. Compared to her, it was huge. It was lying down like some sort of long insect, but there were no limbs that indicated it could move. And yet it looked like it might’ve had two major joints for movement. One end was smaller than the other, with the larger end being the one connected to the ceiling. She placed a hoof along its sleek white metal frame, feeling its texture. It was perfectly smooth, without a single bolt or screw to be seen. The word ROSE was printed in big black letters on its side.

Turning away from the machine, Twilight continued to look around when her eye suddenly noticed something sitting on a nearby counter. It didn’t take her very long to recognize it. It was the Power-Core that Alex initially built in her basement. He recently came by the library to collect it, saying that it had served its purpose and was going to be properly decommissioned soon. She wanted to keep it as a memento, but she understood why she couldn’t. Technology like that couldn’t be left lying around. Much to her surprise and delight, however, Alex told her that she had certainly earned the EMC she built. It may have been useless without a Power-Core or Rose, but she greatly appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

Twilight’s attention was torn away when light suddenly poured in from another elevator on the other side of the room.

“This way, everyone,” Alex called out. “You’ll be able to see things much better once we get the lights on.”

The ponies stopped squinting at the various unpowered curiosities around the room and made their way to the new elevator, which was very similar to the first, minus the glass ceiling. This time, though, a different construction bot was inside it, and the first one stayed behind as they all descended a second time.

The next ride quickly ended and the doors hissed open, the same “lights out” procedure occurring yet again. The new Liandri led the group out into another large, circular room with an oddly smooth metal floor, though the ceiling was much lower and within range of Twilight’s light. At the center of the room was a round, shallow pit that was about twenty feet across and protected by a guard rail. Placed on the edge of the pit in a triangular pattern were three strange devices. Behind each one on the safe side of the rail was a panel, two of which were already occupied by Liandri.

Alex motioned towards the rail. “Have a seat and let’s get started.”

“Alex, just what exactly are we doin’ here?” asked Applejack, sitting down next to guard rail.

“We aren’t doing a thing,” he said, sitting down on the floor next to them. “But they are. Now then, Twilight, could you turn that light off?”

Twilight did as she was asked. The Liandri from the second elevator shut off its own light and moved to the only unoccupied panel, still able to see perfectly in the dark. They heard a small whirring noise as it connected with the device in its chest.

A moment later, the sound of heavy machinery caught their attention as all three of the devices in the pit moved into position. Without warning, each one emit a brilliant blue light towards the center of the circular gap. What captivated each of them, though, was the fact that each machine created some form of large visible field which looked almost like a round, electric shield.

Movement suddenly caught their eyes as a robotic arm in the middle of the ceiling grabbed a small metal plate from some sort of dispenser next it and held it directly below itself. The underside of the plate was glowing a magnificent blue. A thin blue beam appeared from beneath the glowing plate, shooting towards the ground. As they looked to see where the beam was going, they saw another arm on the ground holding a second plate, mimicking the first, only the underside of this one was pointed upwards.

The plates started to rotate clockwise in place as both arms simply let go. The ponies expected gravity to take its course, but both plates stayed suspended, slowly rotating in place. Each arm grabbed a second plate and placed it next to the first, keeping up with its rotation. Another blue beam appeared, intersecting with the original. Like before, both plates defied gravity when let go by their respective arm. Despite the fact that they weren’t actually touching, these new plates orbited the first ones perfectly, as if they actually were physically connected.

They all gazed in wonder as, piece by piece, the robotic arms gradually built a large, rotating sphere of similar metal plates. There was a small gap between each plate, allowing them look inside at the spider web of blue. At the very center of the sphere, they could see a small blue ball of light.

“What is this thing…?” asked Fluttershy.

Alex opened his mouth to answer, but to his surprise, someone, or rather somepony, answered first.

“It’s a giant Power-Core…” Twilight said, breathless.

With a smile, Alex nodded in her direction. “Very good, Twilight! This is, in-fact, the Power-Core that’s going to supply my entire facility with all its power. This model at this size is able to generate more energy than I’ll probably ever need.”

“Wait a second,” said Rainbow Dash. “A Power-Core? Is this that thing you were talking about a long time ago? The thing you said Twilight was helping you build?”

“It’s a more advanced version, yes, but it’s not the same one,” he answered. “The one Twilight helped me build is upstairs. Remember the Summer Sun Celebration?”

“Ugh, honestly, I’d rather not,” said Rarity. “That was quite the dreadful affair…”

“Oh I’m not gonna argue with you on that. That day definitely could’ve gone better. But do you remember that ball-like device we had on the stage?”

“You mean the thing that caused such a disturbance? Why yes, I do remember that. Are you saying that that was a device similar to this one?”

“Yes it was.”

“But didn’t the princess say it was broken?”

“That actually wasn’t true,” Twilight said. “Rose told Princess Celestia that it broke when it really just fixed itself.”

“Oh… I see.”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes trailed all over the room. “Hey, if that power thingy’s on, then why aren’t the lights on yet?”

“Just give it a second to warm up…” said Alex.

Just a few seconds later, the beams inside the core disappeared, though the underside of the plates visibly started to glow brighter, accompanied with an increasingly louder hum. Every one of them, Alex included, started to feel their finer hairs stand on end.

The hum grew increasingly louder until, within a fraction of a second, each metal plate released a small burst of visible energy towards the center of the core. They all collided at exactly the same moment, whereupon a large blue sphere of energy exploded outward only to stop just short of the plates.

The whole group, Alex excluded, yelped back at the sudden burst that sounded like a loud heartbeat. Fluttershy even hid behind Applejack. Just as soon as it occurred, the orb of energy slowly receded into a swirling mass of blue near the center. At the same time, the lights around the room flickered to life and each Liandri disconnected themselves from their respective panels, which then sank into the ground.

Alex smiled as he stood up. “Ladies, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the new age.”

The ponies stood up as well, each one leaning with their forelegs against the guard rail to get a better look at the inside of the core.

“I must admit, that is quite a lovely shade of blue,” said Rarity, admiring the swirling light.

“Take as much of an eyeful as you can,” said Alex. “After we leave, no one’s gonna be allowed in. Even I won’t have much of a reason to come down here.”

Rainbow Dash turned to him. “Why? This thing looks so cool!”

“The core is invaluable to both me and Rose. We can’t risk anyone messing with it. Plus, look around. There’s not much else to see in here besides this.”

Rainbow Dash did just that, seeing that aside from the core, the elevator, and some odd looking things mounted high up on the walls, the entire room was entirely empty and a dull, grey color.

“Huh…” said Dash, the lack of color seeming to have a saddening effect on her.

“Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!” Pinkie Pie waved her hoof back and forth excitedly, trying to get Alex’s attention. “What would happen if I put my hoof in it?”

Alex gave Pinkie a funny look. What is it with her and wanting to stick her hoof in places it shouldn't go? “Your hoof would get ionized. Hell, it’d be even worse: the sheer amount of energy involved would tear every atom in your hoof apart.”

Pinkie rubbed her chin thoughtfully with a loud “Hmm…”

“And don’t even think about throwing something in there either, Pinkie,” Alex said, pointing a stern finger at her, well aware of her habit of pulling out random objects seemingly from nowhere.

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Okay!”

“Good… Now then, I’ll be in the elevator. Just come on in when you’re ready to go. There’s one last thing that needs to be done.” Alex did just what he said he would with the three Liandri behind him.

After a few minutes of admiring the core, they all eventually filed back into the elevator, with Twilight being the last to reluctantly do so. Without waiting even a moment, the doors closed and the lift ascended as soon as they were all completely inside.

When the elevator opened, it revealed the now fully lit Prototype Lab. The room itself was cylindrical with the tall walls being a pure white. The ceiling wasn’t a ceiling at all, but actually a large machine that was conical in shape, with the end of it being pointed towards the middle of the room and attached to the lower machine with Rose’s name printed on it.

Alex walked over to a computer terminal near the left side of the central machine, indicating with a finger that the others follow him, which they did. He put the laptop down next to him and briefly opened the lid. It was turned off. Seeing that Rose was already prepared, he closed the lid with a smile and flipped the computer over to carefully extract the hard drive.

He put the hard drive down next to him and, with a push a button, the terminal in front of him flared to life. Each of the ponies were caught off guard by this, because while the terminal’s keyboard was solid, the screen was holographic.

“Well ain’t that fancy,” Applejack commented.

Alex completely ignored her comment and began typing rapidly, lines of code that looked like complete gibberish to everyone else present flashing across the screen.

“Hey, what’re you doing now?” asked Rainbow Dash, tapping Alex with a curious hoof.

“He’s getting ready to plug Rose into that big super-computer over there.”

Alex immediately paused his typing and slowly looked down towards Pinkie Pie, who was staring intently at the holographic screen. “How the hell did you know that?”

She looked up and smiled at him. “Just a hunch!”

He turned his head back towards the screen, but kept his eyes locked on Pinkie. “Ooookay then…” He looked back at the screen, entered in a few more commands, and then inserted the hard drive into the terminal.

“Please turn your attention to the center of the room,” he said as he continued to type some more. Upon finishing, he tapped a button and the screen disappeared. All eyes were now on the odd looking machine in the middle of the room.

Without warning, the head and torso of the chassis jerked up and gravity slammed it back to the ground, causing a loud metal clang that startled everyone.

“Whoa, someone’s eager,” said Alex.

The machine directly above them hummed to life and a loud whirring noise could be heard as the cables connect to the machine lost their slack. The head of the chassis scraped along the floor as the rest of it was hoisted up into the air. It was going to be a bit damaged, but that could always be buffed out later.

Several loud high pitched sounds were heard as pieces connecting the chassis and the ceiling machine snapped into place. The group watched on as the chassis then started to flail, a ton of metal and electronics just throwing its weight around the room, though not able to hit anything.

What Alex knew was just a simple range of motion test felt incredibly daunting to the ponies, and they instinctively backed up. Fluttershy, however, used Alex’s height to her advantage to hide herself from the high up menace, keeping an eye poked out from beside him.

The flailing didn’t last long, however, when the chassis hung limp for a moment before snapping up to look at them, a single large, round, blue eye bearing down on them.

Alex raised his arms with a smile. “Everyone, meet Rose – in all her former glory!”

Rose let out a low laugh, her voice resonating throughout the room as if she were everywhere at once. “You have no idea how pleased I am.”

“Oh, I think I have an idea,” he said with a smirk. Alex turned around and leaned against the terminal with crossed arms. “Well, what do you think?”

They all gaped at Rose with mixture of wonder and trepidation. Unsurprising, considering how large she now was in comparison to them. It took a moment before any of them actually said anything.

“So this is what Rose looked like before you both came to Equestria?” asked Twilight.

Alex nodded. “This entire facility is practically a carbon copy. Minus a few things, of course.”

“Like what?”

“The teleporter, for starters. No way in hell I’m gonna try that again.”

Rarity stepped forward. “I dare say, Rose, you look much more impressive than before! Although the lack of a face is somewhat disconcerting.”

Rose’s response was having a nearby holographic display light up and generate the form of a bald woman with… surprisingly large breasts?

Alex arched a brow. The only woman Rose had any experience with was his mother, and she certainly didn’t look like that. While he understood why the hologram had no hair, the large breasts confused him. “Uh, Rose? Where did you get the dimensions for this?”

“I had an opportunity to connect to the internet while we were at your parents’ home,” said Rose, the hologram’s lips moving accordingly. “I did some research to find the average female body type. I figured I might as well retrieve that data now so that I could construct an anatomically accurate mobile platform for ‘social gatherings,’ since I anticipate I will have to attend some.”

“The internet? Average female body type? Rose, I’m sorry, but–” Alex’s eyes widened as he started to connect the dots. “Oh good god, you didn’t get this off a porn site, did you?”

The hologram frowned. “Of course not!” Alex breathed a small sigh of relief, although his relief was short lived. “I reviewed several sources so as to get as accurate an average as I possibly could.”

While the ponies weren’t familiar with the internet, they were all familiar with the concept of pornography, and recoiled with slight disgust. Rarity even more so. Twilight, on the other hand, was familiar with the internet thanks to one of Alex’s information sessions with her. Being familiar with Rose’s inability to understand certain social aspects as well, Twilight’s reaction was a simple, yet effective, face-hoof.

Alex slowly brought his hand up to cover his eyes with a groan. “Oh god… Just… Just put the hologram away, Rose… I’ll correct your dimensions later…”

The hologram disappeared with a shrug. “If you say so.”

The group stood in silence wearing uncomfortable faces for several long seconds before Pinkie Pie finally said the words on everyone’s mind. “Well this is awkward.”

“Yeah…” confirmed Rainbow Dash, rubbing her foreleg.

Alex clasped his hands together to try and change the mood. “Right… Well… That little incident-that-we-shall-never-speak-of-again aside… I want to personally thank you all for being here to see what will hopefully be a fresh start for both me and Rose.”

“It was our pleasure, Alex,” said Twilight with a smile and nod. “I have to admit, my basement pales in comparison to this place!”

“Oh, no argument here,” said Rose.

Alex rolled his eyes and tapped a few buttons on the terminal behind him without having to look. Rose’s head twitched in response. “Hey!”

“Modesty, Rose,” said Alex, looking over his shoulder. “Learn it.”

The scene elicited a light giggle from the others.

“Thank you for the lovely show, Alex,” said Fluttershy, “but I have to get home to take care of the animals and to see if Angel’s back.”

“Alright, I understand,” Alex said with a nod. “Say hi to that rabbit for me.”

Rose’s iris shrunk at the mention of the word “rabbit,” though no one seemed to notice.

“I’m guessing you girls have to get back to work, too?” Alex continued.

“Oh, I’m afraid so, darling,” said Rarity. “I simply cannot leave the boutique for terribly long.”

“Ah’ve gotta get back n’ help Big Macintosh ‘round the farm,” said Applejack. “He may be tough, but he still needs the help.”

“And the cakes have this super-duper big order they need to finish! They told me they don’t need my help, but I know they secretly do.” Pinkie nodded sagely.

“Right,” said Alex. “What about you, Dash?”

Rainbow Dash blinked at him. “I was planning on just getting some lunch.”

“Mind if I come with you, Rainbow?” asked Twilight. “I was feeling kind of hungry, myself.”

“Sure thing, Twi! Hey, Alex, you wanna come too?” Rainbow Dash asked as the others started walking towards the exit elevator, chatting amongst themselves.

He shook his head and waved her off. “Thanks, but I can’t. I’ve still got a few things to deal with here. Maybe later.”

“Alright then, catch ya later!” Rainbow Dash started walking off with the others, but turned around once she noticed Twilight wasn’t coming with them. “Hey, Twilight, you coming, or what?”

“In a minute, I just have to ask Alex something,” said Twilight.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and resumed her path out. “Alright, just don’t take too long.”

Alex looked at Twilight curiously. “What’s up?”

Twilight looked at him nervously, waiting until her friends were safely out of earshot. “I never thought about it before, but… Rose told me what would’ve happened if you didn’t stop the first Power-Core from… Overloading, I think she called it?”

Alex bit his lip and hung his head. “She told you about that, huh?”

“Yes, she did… she said Ponyville would’ve become a crater…”

He sighed. “A core of that size wouldn’t have left that big of a crater… but it would’ve easily leveled the entire town, the surrounding areas too…”

“Yeah…” Twilight averted her gaze, but quickly looked back at him, concerned. “Alex, what would happen if this Power-Core overloaded?”

Alex pursed his lips, shook his head, and started walking towards the exit elevator, Twilight close behind him. “Unspeakable horrors. Trust me, you really don’t want to know.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say “Yes, I really do want to know,” but quickly rearranged her thoughts when she remembered what happened last time they had a similar conversation. “Right, I’ll just take your word for it.”

She started trotting ahead of him but then quickly turned around. “Oh! By the way, did you have a chance to talk to Rose about the hand?”

“He did, actually,” said Rose, her large eye following the unicorn, “and I have a hypothesis. Are there any other species here that have hands that it could have belonged to?”

Twilight shook her head. “I had a similar idea, but the only other species that have hands that we know if is minotaurs; and they only have three fingers.”

“Hey, Twilight, come on!” Rainbow Dash called out from the elevator.

“Coming!” Twilight yelled back. She turned to Alex briefly. “We’ll try to figure it out later. Thanks again for showing us the core!”

Alex waved at her as Twilight galloped over to her friends. “No problem! You know where to find me if you wanna talk.”

She waved back at him as she reached the elevator. Seemingly on its own, the doors closed without prompting and the elevator ascended, bringing them back to the surface.

Alex stopped waving when the doors closed, and for just a fleeting moment, his eyes looked more green than usual.

He turned to Rose with a newly refocused look. “Now then, I have a little problem that needs... rectifying…” he said, tapping his fingers along his chest.

Author's Notes:

August 15th, 2013: My summer break is almost officially over as I'm going to be going to college 4 days from the posting of this chapter.

What does this mean? Well, it means I'll have a lot more work on my plate and I won't be able to devote as much time to the story as I was able to before.

BUT! With this chapter done, the story is going to take a story arc approach where every chapter or two will consist of its own mini-story while still encompassing the larger plot. If you thought Lyra had a fossilized human hand for shits and giggles, well, you'd be wrong. Now then, because this story takes place during season 2 (as you should have seen from the Lesson Zero chapter), some chapters will follow the events of some of the episodes. Naturally, with a few of my own twists.

For the curious, here's a list of episodes where I currently either have a full plot worked out or have a workable idea for:
- Luna Eclipsed
- Hearth's Warming Eve
- Family Appreciation Day
- The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
- Dragon Quest
- Ponyville confidential
- The Wedding (Big arc)
- The Crystal Empire (Start of a big arc that leads to conclusion)
- and maybe others if I get good enough ideas.

This does NOT include other chapters that don't follow the episodes, of course. There will be a few of those that address the larger plot, as well as those that address other aspects of Equestria such as Winter Wrap up.

So let thy imaginations run wild. Thou knowest who the characters are, so ask thyselves this... What shall happen next?

And again, a big thank you to all you readers! You're all awesome!

Nightmare Night

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Nightmare Night.

A night filled with joy.

A night filled with scares.

But most importantly, a night filled with candy.

It is on this night that ghouls and ghosts of all shapes and sizes roam the streets of Ponyville, all in search of those special treats. Some to snack on, the rest to offer up to the legendary Nightmare Moon.

But tonight, a different monster makes an appearance.

A demon born of fire and metal.

A demon with unparalleled control over her domain.

A demon… who really didn’t want to be out tonight.

And her sights were set on none other than Ponyville’s own library…

----------

Spike, dressed up in a dragon costume, paced back and forth at the bottom of the library’s stairs, impatiently waiting for Twilight to finish getting dressed in her own Nightmare Night costume and come down. She had been up there for way too long, and he was starting to think that they’d miss all the festivities.

With a groan, Spike stopped his pacing. “Ugh, come on, Twilight, we’re gonna be late for the Nightmare Night Festival!”

As if she had been waiting for Spike to say those exact words, Twilight Sparkle descended the steps clad in her costume and struck a pose for him, holding her hoof and nose in the air. She wore an elaborate blue robe adorned with images of stars and a crescent moon, staying firmly attached to her by a large gold ribbon with a blue gem fixed to it. Several brass bells lined the lower rim of the robe, as well as the comically large hat whose style matched it perfectly.

And to top it all off, she wore a large white beard.

Spike just gave her a wide-eyed stare as she slowly descended the stairs, every step taken with absolute pride and jingling bells.

Evidently, she didn’t know just how ridiculous Spike thought she looked. “Are you… that one kooky grandpa from Ponyville Retirement Village…?” he asked, scratching his head.

Twilight gaped at him as if he had just asked her who Princess Celestia was. She quickly snapped herself out of her stupor and frowned at him. “I’m Starswirl the Bearded!”

Spike blinked at her.

“Father of the Amniomorphic spell?”

He blinked again.

She pointed an accusatory hoof at him. “Did you even read that book I gave you about obscure unicorn history?”

“Umm…” Spike raised a claw as he tried in vain to remember the book Twilight mentioned. However, his thought process was cut off when three sharp knocks sounded off the front door. Taking whatever chance he could get to back himself out of his grizzly situation, he took advantage of the moment. “That sounds important!” Without wasting a second, Spike whizzed past Twilight to answer the door.

What Spike saw when he opened the door caught him completely off guard.

Standing in front of him was a single, tall, humanoid figure. Its body was the shape of a slender human female with modestly sized breasts and a dull, silver color. Its eyes glowed a brilliant red as they bore into the dragon. In place of hair or ears, several intricate horns extended perfectly out of the scalp to form something almost crown-like. Instead of being a similar color as the rest of the body, the horns and forearms were a mixture of glowing red and orange. Because of the way the color shifted and flowed, it looked like they were made of animate lava.

Spike stared up at the demon, rooted to the spot. It leaned down, keeping its eyes locked on his while wearing a mischievous grin, and muttered a single word: “Boo.” The young dragon cringed and quickly backed up to give the outsider room, eliciting a chuckle. “That never ceases to amuse me.”

“Oh my gosh, Rose, is that you?” Twilight said with a smile, walking up to the door to meet the newcomer.

Rose stood up straight and gave a small smile to the bearded mare. “Yes it is, Twilight. I see you’ve dressed up for this ridiculous night as well.”

“Ridiculous? Rose, it’s supposed to be a night of celebration – of fun!”

Rose crossed her arms. “Fun? Honestly, I have better things to do.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, but smirked nevertheless. “If you have better things to do, then why are you out like this?”

“Because Alex ‘highly recommended’ it,” said Rose as she entered the library, closing the door behind her. “He said it would be 'good for me.' He even designed this chassis for me just so I could use it tonight. Not only that, but I could have controlled it remotely. Instead, he insisted on a complete disconnect so that I wouldn’t get ‘distracted.’ If I had the choice, I’d still be in the facility working on more important things.”

Twilight eyed Rose up and down, admiring the handiwork. She even managed to catch a glimpse of a thin, pointed tail with a similar color pattern to Rose’s arms and horns as it gently flicked from side to side. Her fingers looked slightly clawed, as well. Twilight found it difficult to have to remind herself that Rose wasn’t bound to a single body like everypony else. Yet knowing that her body was built and not born somehow made it seem that much more impressive.

“I have to admit,” said Twilight, “Alex did a really great job with this. Some of the major joints are obviously mechanical, but I guess he meant for it to look that way. And he did a very good job with the face! I can’t say I’ve ever seen a Liandri with a proper face before.”

Rose smirked at her. “I’m sure you’d be impressed by what you can do with the proper synthetic materials and engineering experience.”

“Well, you two definitely have that. Say, aren’t your eyes supposed to be blue?”

“I can change them to whatever color I want. I just happen to have a preference for blue.

Twilight arched a brow. “Does Alex know that?”

Rose nodded. “He does. He also knows I keep it one color for his sake.”

Twilight smiled at her. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Rose. Hey, speaking of which, where is Alex, anyway?”

“He’s currently at the facility, recovering from something. He’ll have to rest for a few days, but he’ll be back to normal soon enough.”

Twilight’s smile faded. “Oh no, is he sick?”

Rose waved her off. “He’s not sick. However he isn’t at peak physical condition.”

Now Twilight was really curious, bordering on worried. “Did something happen to him? Is he hurt?”

“He’s fine,” Rose snapped, causing Twilight to recoil a bit in surprise. “He also wants to keep the details a secret, so I’d prefer if you’d stop inquiring about it.”

Twilight blinked at her for a few seconds. “Okay… if you say so,” she said, unsure of how to take the information.

Before another word could be said, the conversation was cut off by knocking.

“I’ll get it,” said Twilight, making her way towards the front door.

Upon opening the front door, she was greeted by a trio of fillies with bags tied around their necks. One of the fillies was dressed as a little princess, another as an astronaut, and the third as a ladybug.

“~Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite!~” the fillies sang in tandem.

Twilight smiled warmly at them. “Hi, everypony! Great costumes!”

Spike approached the door holding a large bowl of candy in his arms and Twilight levitated a piece of candy into each of the fillies’ bags. Immediately after, a fourth, smaller foal dressed as a pirate squeezed his way from between two of the fillies with a small plastic sword in his mouth. He squeezed past them a bit more quickly than he realized and ended up unbalanced, eventually falling forward after flailing around.

Despite failing miserably, he somehow managed to do it adorably.

The foal quickly got back to his hooves and saluted Twilight. “Pip-Squeak the pirate, at your service; It’s my very first Nightmare Night!”

“Since you moved here from Trottingham?” said Twilight, looking at the young Pip-Squeak with a genuine d’awww smile. His family was new in town, and Twilight had heard about him and his adorable awkwardness from Pinkie Pie a week or two ago.

“No,” said Pip-Squeak matter-of-factly, “it’s my very first Nightmare Night ever!”

Rose, who had been observing everything from behind the door, moved out into the open and stared at the small foal curiously. Naturally, her presence caused the others to look back at her. While the three fillies looked at the red-eyed Liandri with slight trepidation, Pip-Squeak looked at her in wonder.

Having all the attention focused on her, Rose knelt down in front of Pip-Squeak, keeping her blank gaze fixed on his. Without looking away, Rose reached back and grabbed a chocolate bit from the bowl of candy in Spike’s claws.

“Hold still,” she said, twirling the coin expertly between her fingers.

Pip looked back and forth between the coin and Rose’s expressionless face until, with a sudden flick of her thumb, the coin flipped out of her hand and into his bag of candy. Pip’s wide eyes followed the coin as it landed. He then looked back up at Rose with a large, impressed smile. “Wow, thanks! That was so cool!”

Rose cracked a small smirk at him in return. She didn’t look vaguely happy because she performed an act of kindness towards the child, but rather because she was amused by his reaction at what was, in essence, a trivial feat for her. Of course, nobody could tell that was really the case.

Suddenly, the entire moment was torn apart when Pinkie Pie, clad in a chicken costume, burst out from somewhere behind the children with crossed eyes, a goofy smile, and a loud chicken squawk. However, just as suddenly as she appeared, her silly expression quickly changed to an angry look. “Enough chit-chat! Time is candy!”

Everyone recoiled in surprise at Pinkie’s surprisingly forceful words. Everyone except for Rose, who simply looked at her with an arched brow.

“Pinkie Pie, aren’t you a little old for this?” asked Twilight once she got over her initial surprise.

“Too old for free candy?” Pinkie gasped in shock, though her gasp sounded more like a squawk than anything else. She suddenly frowned deeply and spoke with absolute conviction. “Never!”

Twilight rolled her eyes at her as the other children started to slowly give them more room. She levitated a piece of candy from the bowl and deposited it in Pinkie’s bag, much to the pink pony’s delight.

“Now that that scene is over and done with…” said Rose, standing up, “I’ve actually been meaning to find you, Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie tilted her head at her. “Really? What for?”

“Alex has asked me to see if you’d be willing to come by the facility sometime tonight to let him examine that cannon of yours. He’s been rather eager to do that lately.”

Pinkie held her hoof out and shook her head. “Sorry, Rose, but no can do. So much candy, so little time. I’m sure you understand!”

Rose crossed her arms. “I can assure you that you will be generously rewarded for your time.”

Pinkie’s ears perked up and she gave Rose an inquisitive look. “Rewarded, huh? Just how much of a reward are we talking here?”

“An agreeable sum of candy.”

Both ponies looked at each other for a moment before Twilight spoke up. “Uh, Rose, that’s not exactly specific.”

“More candy than you’d be able to acquire elsewhere in the same timeframe,” Rose deadpanned.

Pinkie’s eyes went wide. “I dunno, Rose, that’s a loooot of candy!”

“According to Alex, candy was surprisingly cheap, so he bought it in abundance. Frankly, I doubt he’ll manage to give away even a fraction of it.”

“Wow, how much candy did Alex buy?” asked Twilight.

Rose held her hand up, as if to stop Twilight’s train of thought. “It’s not that he bought that much candy, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s just that the method he’s using to distribute it is rather unorthodox.”

“But there is a lot of candy, riiiight?” asked Pinkie, leaning closer to Rose.

“Yes, Pinkie, there is,” said Rose, rolling her eyes.

“Good enough for me!” Pinkie beamed. She looked like she was about to zip out of sight when Twilight managed to catch her attention first.

“Wait, Pinkie, before you go…” Twilight struck a small pose for her friend and brought her hoof up to jingle the bell dangling from the top of her hat. “What do you think of my costume?"

Pinkie waved a hoof at her. “Yeah, great costume, Twilight! You make a fantastic weirdo clown!” Before any of them had a chance to react, Pinkie quickly pecked at the remaining candy in the bowl and zipped off with an authentic sounding gobble.

“A clown?!” Twilight yelled after her friend, causing Rose to chuckle at her.

Spike looked down at the now empty bowl of candy and sighed. “Well, at least that’s done…” He put the empty bowl down inside the library next to the door and closed it, pushing Twilight out as he did so.

Twilight, for her part, was still fuming about Pinkie’s words. “How could she think I’m a clown?!” she said to no one in particular, holding up a section of her costume “Look at the borders on these robes! These are hoof-stitched!”

Spike walked past her with a mischievous grin. “It’s a great costume… Heh, grandpa.”

Twilight growled at her assistant but received a firm pat on the back in response. She looked back to see Rose looking down at her.

“I may not know who you’re supposed to be disguised as,” said Rose in a vague attempt to comfort the pony, “but knowing you, I’d assume it’s related to magic, and quite possibly holds some historical value.”

Twilight nodded deeply as they made their way towards the festival. “And you would be right! I’m Starswirl the Bearded!”

“Never heard of him,” Rose shrugged away any previous attempt at comfort, Twilight’s words having no meaning to her whatsoever.

Twilight shot her a glare. “Starswirl the bearded is the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era. He created more than two hundred spells! He even has a shelf in the Canterlot library of magic named after him!”

“Hence why I’ve never heard of him, nor do I particularly care.” Rose spoke as nonchalantly as before. “‘Magic’ and other such things are completely irrelevant to our work at the facility.”

Twilight sighed heavily. She knew Rose was more than capable of lying, but to her credit, she wasn’t afraid of being brutally honest either. Twilight knew that was just the way she was, and she couldn’t fault her for that. Regardless, the clear lack of interest in one of her favorite magical idols from her friends was a little disheartening.

“Well, at least you had the right idea…” said Twilight as they started walking through the middle of town, her thoughts wandering.

Right in the town center, the Nightmare Night Festival was in full swing. Countless holiday themed stalls and tents were set up all over. Most of them were giving out candy, but some were selling some more expensive items like last minute costume pieces and even proper baked goods.

Disguised ponies were everywhere, each one partaking in some sort of activity or another. The younger ones were largely running around trying to collect as much candy as possible, while the older ones spent most of their time either mingling with each other or supervising their children. There was even a group of ponies that was dancing in front of a stage that had been set up specifically for the festival, and where a band was also playing live music.

Rose peered around at all the activity. It was her first time going to any sort of festival, and to say it all confused her would have been an understatement. After all, why would anyone in their right mind dress up in ridiculous costumes and go hunting for candy when more productive things could be done? Alex and Twilight certainly had nothing against it. In-fact, they even seemed to embrace it. But why would two intelligent individuals such as themselves embrace such an activity? To Rose, it was one of the major mysteries of organic life.

“Maybe I should start up a group to teach ponies about history…” said Twilight absentmindedly, oblivious to her surroundings. “I bet everypony would love it! What do you think, Rose? Think ponies would find it interesting?”

“I honestly wouldn’t have the slightest idea,” said Rose, looking around. “Alex and I have never held any interest in human history, and I certainly don’t have one for pony history either.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he made it clear to me just how much he knows about his own world’s past. At least he was able to make up for it with more contemporary knowledge…”

“As Alex would say it: ‘there’s no sense in looking back when the present and future is all that matters.’”

“That’s a bit narrow-minded, don’t you think?”

Rose looked at Twilight. “How so?”

“Well, you need to know what happened in the past in order to prevent old problems from happening again!” Twilight explained.

Rose scoffed. “No doubt. However I still don’t understand the need to record every mundane detail of some ‘significant moment or incident.’ For us, any incidents that do occur have the important information stored, while the incident itself is merely forgotten. All we ever use or even care about is the raw data.”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer but stopped. She realized a long time ago that trying to argue with Rose was virtually pointless. While both sides of the debate could have had a valid point, it all hinged on whether or not Rose actually cared. She usually had her own very good reasons for not caring, but the most common one was that it simply didn’t affect her. Unlike Twilight, Rose had no interest in the events that would have let up to the present time simply because the past was already done and nothing about it could be changed. Alex held a similar view, but he at least understood why others had an interest in historical events.

Twilight decided to simply let out a sigh and shake her head in response. Looking around her, she jumped back at the sudden realization of where they were. “Whoa! When did we get to the festival?”

Rose chuckled at her. “A few minutes ago. I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”

“I guess I just wasn’t paying attention…” said Twilight. Her thoughts were once again instantly interrupted by Spike obliviously walking into her, dropping pile of candy that was just as large as himself – if not larger – all over the ground.

Rose looked at Spike in pure confusion. “Where the hell did you manage to get all that?”

Spike, who had fallen over after walking into Twilight, looked around at the candy before looking up Rose to give her a shrug.

Rose folded her arms and frowned. “It irritates me how there are just some things I’ll never quite figure out about this world.”

Suddenly, Rose’s attention was shifted when her sensors detected several small objects moving directly towards her. She turned around to find the previous group of children that had stopped by library earlier, Pip-Squeak at the head. Upon seeing that he had been noticed by the red-eyed Liandri, the young pirate slowed down and approached more cautiously, though he was still clearly excited about something. Rose wasn’t exactly keen on finding out what for.

“What do you want?” Rose demanded. The tone in her voice made it clear she didn’t exactly appreciate their presence. Toying with them once was amusing, but she didn’t want to be around them any more than she had to be.

Pip’s excited look suddenly deflated, but he still seemed confident. “I… I was just wondering if you could do that really cool trick with the bit again…”

Rose frowned at him. “I am not a toy for your amusement.”

Twilight came up from behind Rose and gave her side a firm nudge. “Oh come on, Rose, why not? You couldn’t have practiced something like that and not do it every now and then!”

Rose looked at Twilight, genuinely confused. “What makes you think I practiced that?”

This time, it was Twilight’s turn to look confused. “Huh? How could you not–”

Twilight’s words were cut off when Rose held up a hand. “Wait a moment…” She started pivoting her head around every which way, as if she were looking for something. “Twilight, do you feel that?”

“Feel what…?” Now Twilight was really confused.

“There’s an odd electric charge nearby…” Rose said slowly. “In fact, it feels as if…” Instead of finishing her sentence, Rose looked up to see a dark cloud with a rainbow colored tuft hanging off its side.

As soon as she did so, a loud bolt of electricity shot out of the cloud and struck Rose directly on the head. The sudden electric crack and flash caused the group of children to yelp in surprise and run off.

Small electric sparks jumped between various points on Rose’s body as she collapsed to one knee. After a few seconds, the sparks all disappeared except in her horns, where silent sparks were continuously traveling up between them like a Jacob’s ladder.

“Oh my gosh! Rose, are you okay?!” Twilight yelled. She moved to put a hoof on Rose’s shoulder, but quickly retracted it, realizing that doing so would probably be a bad idea.

Rose raised her head to reveal a face infused with pure anger. Even her eyes seemed to be glowing a more bright red than before.

And they were locked onto something.

Coming in with a gentle glide, Rainbow Dash, disguised as some sort of evil-esque Wonderbolt, landed in front of both Rose and Twilight with a worried look that could somehow be easily seen, despite the mask. “Oh geez, are you okay?”

Rose carefully brought her right hand up and wrapped it around one of her horns. “I was just struck by lightning,” she scolded her venomously. “If it weren’t for the fact that my electronics are properly insulated, that would have killed me.”

Rainbow Dash grew warier at the sudden revelation, but tried to feel hopeful nonetheless. “But you’re okay, right? I didn’t… there’s nothing permanent, right?”

Rose didn’t respond. Instead, she simply straightened herself and scowled deeply at the rainbow-maned pegasus.

Dash cringed and rubbed her foreleg. “Look, I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just wanted to scare a few ponies, that’s all!”

This time, Twilight was the one who spoke up. “That still wasn’t very nice of you, Rainbow. Aside from the fact that Rose got hit, doing that to unsuspecting ponies is just plain mean!”

Rainbow Dash’s ears flattened and the blood ran from her face at the mention of Rose’s name. She didn’t have much experience with the AI, but she knew her well enough to know that while Rose was alright most of the time, she could be uncomfortably vindictive.

Just as Rose released her horn and started lowering her right hand closer to the ground, Rainbow extended a hoof out to her with a nervous smile. “Hey, look, tonight’s just a night for harmless pranks. I didn’t mean for you to get hit by that. It was a complete accident. Maybe we can just call it that and put this all behind us, huh? No hard feelings?”

Rose stopped lowering her hand as soon as Rainbow extended her hoof and eyed the pegasus curiously as she spoke. A smile suddenly broke across her face. It wasn’t a smirk, or some sort of evil grin, but a genuine, good-natured smile.

Twilight observed the scene curiously, her eyes darting all over Rose. Her smile seemed incredibly out of place. She looked at the horn Rose was just grabbing and noticed there wasn’t any electricity around it anymore. Twilight’s eyes darted towards her hand and noticed a faint spark jump between two of Rose’s fingers. She couldn’t help but smirk a bit. Sometimes, the stars aligned just right.

“Of course!” Rose beamed. Without any hesitation, Rose brought her hand up to meet Rainbow Dash’s hoof and gripped it firmly. Dash jumped as a sudden jolt of electricity went through her body, and she instantly tried jerking her hoof away. Unfortunately for her, Rose didn’t let go. But, like ripping off a band-aid, her sudden pain was gone just as quickly as it arrived.

Rose pulled Rainbow Dash closer and started whispering in her ear. “Look, I don’t care what you do with that cloud of yours. Just keep it away from me, alright?” With that, she instantly let go of Dash’s foreleg.

Rainbow backed up stiffly and coughed a bit, still trying to get the sudden shock out of her system. Her light cough soon turned into a nervous chuckle. “Right, I’ll keep that in mind. I should probably take a break on the pranks for now. Bye!”

Without wasting any more time, Rainbow Dash kicked into the air, zipped around her cloud and pushed it off into the distance. She was certainly more than eager to leave.

“What did you tell her?” asked Twilight as Rose stood back up, dusting her hands off.

“To keep that damn cloud of hers away from me.”

“Right… At least your payback was appropriate.” Twilight focused a bit more on Rose’s horns and noticed there was still some electricity jumping between two of them. “Hey, Rose? You still have some sparks in your horns.”

Rose raised her hand to grab one of the horns but stopped mid-action. “Perhaps I’ll just leave it there. It might be beneficial to have an electric charge on hand.”

Twilight arched a brow. “Why would you need an electric charge…?”

Rose looked down next the Twilight, then brought her hand back up to her electrified horn and grabbed it. With her other hand she pointed at the spot she was looking at. “For that.”

Twilight looked at what Rose was talking about and gasped when she saw Spike lying on the ground out cold. She nudged the fainted dragon’s shoulder with a concerned hoof. “Spike? Spike, are you okay?”

Rose knelt down on Spike’s other side with a smirk. “It would seem he doesn’t take terribly well to surprises.” She let go of her horn and, before Twilight could object, grabbed one of Spike’s arms.

With a sudden yelp, Spike stood up straight and started panting wildly, gripping his chest with his free arm.

“Well that worked rather well,” Rose commented, letting go of Spike. “Electrocution seems to be a very effective method of waking someone up.”

“You didn’t have to wake Spike up like that!” Twilight scolded, putting a hoof around Spike as he started to calm down slightly.

Rose shrugged her off. “You’re right. I didn’t have to.” She stood up and looked around, noticing that more and more ponies were starting to gather around the stage despite the fact that the band seemed to have disappeared. “Now then, could we please move on? It seems that something relatively interesting is about to happen.”

With a groan, Spike got to his feet and weakly punched Rose in her metal leg. “That hurt, you know.”

Rose looked down at him with a smirk. “You’re welcome.” She looked back up at the growing crowd of ponies and contorted her face in scrutiny. “Twilight, what’s going on over there?”

Twilight, relieved that Spike was alright, marched past Rose with her own scrutinizing look. “I’m not sure… Let’s go find out!”

The trio made their way towards the stage just as a cheer erupted from the crowd. Rose’s eyes zoomed in on a podium that had been placed in the center of the stage to see a beige mare wearing a ridiculous clown outfit approach it.

Thanks to her sensors, Rose didn’t have to turn around to feel herself – as well as Twilight and Spike – starting to get boxed in by other ponies. To make herself less prominent, she deactivated the glowing effect on her horns, arms, eyes, and tail and dropped to one knee, making her level with everyone else. Rose looked on with vague interest as the pony on stage tapped on a microphone.

“Thank you, everypony,” the clown-mare spoke through the voice amplifier, her voice obviously being that of the town’s mayor, “and welcome to the Nightmare Night Festival!”

The crowd cheered and applauded in response, more out of excitement and anticipation of the night’s events than anything else. Spike and Twilight applauded as well, although Rose had a much easier time withholding her enthusiasm.

“Now,” the mayor continued, “all the little ponies who have been out collecting sweets should follow our friend, Zecora, to hear the legend of…” The mayor paused for a brief moment before speaking in as spooky a voice as she could muster: “Nightmare MoOooOoOOn!” She finished with a cheap, poorly practiced, evil laugh.

Spike leaned in towards Twilight with a deadpan expression. “The spooky voice might work better if she wasn’t dressed like that.”

Twilight giggled at his comment while Rose leaned in to provide her own. “For once, you and I are in complete agreement.”

The mayor indicated towards a section of the stage next to her where a strange neon green cloud of some sort of gas or dust suddenly exploded into existence. Rose focused her view on the cloud as an unrecognizable pony emerged from it. However, as she focused a bit more, she noticed that the pony she was looking at was… different.

Every pony Rose had ever encountered had a single, solid color for their coat. This one had a coat that consisted of two separate and distinct shades of grey: a much lighter one which was dominant, and a darker one which provided an accent. Her long mane was bone white and split down each side of her head symmetrically. Not to mention the faux spiders that decorated it. Rose was also able to notice several gold rings around her neck, as well as a couple that acted as ear rings. As for a costume, she simply wore a pitch black cloak.

Rose suddenly became curious about this ‘Zecora’ and leaned in towards Twilight. “She seems different from other ponies… Is there something special about her?”

“That’s Zecora,” Twilight replied. “She’s a zebra; the only one who lives near Ponyville, too! She also rhymes regularly when she talks.”

Rose’s interest in Zecora suddenly vanished. Somehow, knowing that she was a zebra, or rather another earthen mammal, made her that much less interesting. Although the comment about her rhyming was subject to curiosity.

Up on stage, Zecora spoke in a calm and even tone with an odd accent that Rose couldn’t identify. She wasn’t speaking very loudly, but the crowd was so silent and focused on her that she didn’t have to. “Follow me, and very soon, you’ll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon!” She finished her statement with a wave of her cloak, dispelling the green dust into non-existence as she made her way off the stage.

Twilight nudged her two traveling companions as the crowd began to disperse. “Come on, let’s go with her!”

Rose stood back up to follow her, re-illuminating the various parts of her body once more. “Really, Twilight? You want to follow her to wherever just to listen to some silly superstitious story?”

Twilight smirked at Rose over her shoulder. “Actually, Nightmare Moon is a real pony! Or at least, she was.”

Rose raised an inquisitive brow. “Is that so?”

“It is so! My friends and I actually confronted her, believe it or not.”

Rose’s other brow raised, giving her a wide-eyed expression. “So you’ve personally met this supposed ‘legend?’ Interesting.”

“Yeah! It was pretty scary, to be honest. She threatened all of Equestria with eternal night. My friends and I were able to stop her by using something called ‘The Elements of Harmony’ to banish the evil from her, returning her to her former self.”

Rose’s expression dropped. Now it was starting to sound like a contrived children’s cartoon show. “Banish the ‘evil’ from her using the ‘Elements of Harmony?’ Honestly, Twilight, I’ve heard plenty of ridiculous notions since Alex and I arrived in Equestria, but that just sounds ludicrous.”

Twilight giggled at her as they – including a large number of other ponies that were mostly foals – started following Zecora out of the town and into a darker section of a forest, the moon providing the only illumination. “Think what you want, Rose, but that’s what happened. Now Nightmare Moon is just Princess Luna.”

“Princess Luna?” Rose repeated curiously. “Based on her current and former name, I’d assume she’s related to the moon in some way? Perhaps Celestia as well?”

“She is! Princess Luna is Princess Celestia’s sister. She’s the one who raises and lowers the moo–” Twilight stopped herself as soon she realized what she was telling Rose. She remembered how Alex reacted to her telling him about Celestia and the sun, but she had no idea how Rose would react to being told about Luna and the moon.

To Twilight’s surprise, Rose smiled brightly at her. “Oh, is that so? I’m actually happy to hear that.”

Twilight blinked at her and almost stopped dead in her tracks. “Really? I thought you’d say that was some sort of crime against physics or something.”

The AI chuckled at her. “Don’t get me wrong, Twilight. While I do think it is a blatant disregard for the laws of astrophysics, I can ignore that for now since celestial bodies don’t concern me. That, and this new information also plays a much more important role for me.”

“And that would be…?”

Rose smirked at her. “It means I just won a bet.”

Before Twilight could ask her what she was talking about, a certain eccentric mare in a chicken costume ran up alongside them with not one, but two sets of saddlebags filled to the brim with candy, including the one bag she had tied around her neck.

“Hey guys, miss me?” Pinkie Pie cheered in her usual, happy manner.

“Whoa, Pinkie, where’d you get all that?” asked Twilight, naturally surprised at the absurd amount of candy her friend was carrying with her.

Pinkie poked her nose into the bag around her neck to take a bite out of the pile of candy and pulled her head back up, chewing happily. “Alex gave it to me.” She swallowed and looked at Rose. “Also, he told me to tell you that your lab security system needs to be recalibrated and that he was gonna do it as soon as he could.”

Rose frowned at her. “That’s ridiculous. I calibrated the Prototype Lab security system myself. Why does he think it needs to be recalibrated?”

Pinkie shrugged nonchalantly while picking out another piece of candy. “I set it off. Alex had to over… over… over-something it.”

Rose started at her, wide-eyed. “Alex had to override the system? How the hell did you manage to activate it?”

“Alex said he’d tell you later. It was something really silly!”

Rose looked over at Twilight, as if the unicorn could somehow provide some sort of explanation. Twilight just shrugged at her. It was simply just another Pinkie mystery.

Unfortunately, this just made Rose more and more curious about what exactly happened. The entire facility definitely wasn’t short on modern security bots, and the Prototype Lab’s security system was designed to deal with any potential threat while Rose wasn’t present. However, the most the system should have done was to ask Pinkie to distance herself from her party cannon, which it would have easily identified as an obvious weapon. If it continued after that…

Rose resigned herself to simply examining the logs later that night. Whatever Pinkie did, it would certainly be worth reviewing the data.

The group continued following Zecora in silence, eventually coming to a clearing in the forest with a single statue in the middle of it. Rose’s eyes immediately zeroed in and started scanning it. The statue represented a large alicorn (a term both Rose and Alex became familiar with thanks to Twilight) that was clearly different from Celestia, namely because of its armored appearance and angry look.

Zecora walked up to the statue and turned around to face the small crowd that had followed her. Surprisingly, she barely looked over at Rose – despite the fact that she was practically a walking nightlight – and focused more on the foals.

“Listen close, my little dears,” she started, calm as ever, “I’ll tell you where you got your fears. Of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary…” Zecora stuck a hoof inside her cloak for a brief moment and extracted a small pile of green dust. With a quick blow, the fine glowing powder flew from her hoof and high into the air above them as if it were a living cloud. “…of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary.”

To Rose’s surprise, the cloud of dust morphed from a shapeless blob to that of a well-defined pony; one that almost perfectly resembled the statue. It even caused her some internal confusion as well: while she could see the neon green alicorn with her eyes, her other sensors didn’t detect anything. Rose was never easily impressed, yet Zecora managed to do it with barely any effort at all.

Then, without any warning, the spectral representation of Nightmare Moon dove out of the sky directly towards Rose. Despite her conflicting data, she automatically kicked herself into a defensive mode. She quickly bent her legs and leaped an inhumanly long distance backwards, completely clear of the rest of the group, landing in a crouch. No sooner had she done that that the alicorn slammed into the ground and exploded harmlessly into a cloud of neon green smoke, covering everyone and obscuring their vision.

Unable to visually see any of the ponies within the smoke, Rose activated her more advanced sensors. While she couldn’t distinguish any colors beyond the neon green of the smoke, the location, size, shape and even posture of everypony in the area instantly became known to her.

Each body she could sense was somewhere within the smoke. Some were slowing trying to find their way out while trying to not bump into somepony. Others simply stayed where they were, either out of fright or patience. One pony had even somehow managed to stick their head completely into the ground. Because of the saddle bags the pony in question was wearing, Rose was able to tell it was Pinkie Pie.
Somehow, it made the most sense to her that Pinkie would do that.

Rose scanned over the group and identified Zecora shape, making sure to keep her attention on the zebra. Even through the smoke, she was able to perfectly “see” Zecora sneaking up on a pair of foals.

“Every year, we put on a disguise,” Zecora continued with her story, “to save ourselves from her searching eyes!”

She couldn’t exactly see what Zecora had done, but Rose detected the foals running away from her, screaming all the way.

As the smoke started to dissipate, Rose stood back up and casually observed the scene unfolding before her. Foals ran back and forth as Zecora told her story about Nightmare Moon, smoky apparitions helping to animate it all.

Twilight suddenly noticed that Rose was no longer standing next to her. She quickly craned her neck and immediately spotted her glow-in-the-dark companion.

She walked over to Rose while keeping her eye of Zecora’s show as well. “Hey, what are you doing over here?”

“Conflicting sensory data,” Rose admitted as she watched Pinkie Pie wrench her head up out of the ground with a screech. “I don’t exactly feel comfortable being in the middle of all that.”

Twilight smirked at her. “Really? You sure you’re not just scared?”

Rose frowned, but still kept her sight focused on Zecora’s show. “Hardly. I will admit, though, that her illusions are quite impressive for someone simply using some sort of powder.”

Twilight looked on as an image of Nightmare Moon flew up over the crowd and exploded, showering sparkling dust over everypony. “Can’t argue about that, especially if you consider the fact that she can’t use magic.”

Rose didn’t respond, instead watching as Pip-Squeak tugged on Zecora’s cloak to ask her a question. “Umm… Miss Zecora? If we wear costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon – so she won’t gobble us up – how come we still need to give her some of our candy?”

“A perfect question, my little friend,” Zecora replied, leaning close to Pip, “for Nightmare Moon, you must not offend.” She quickly blew on some more dust, causing Pip to retreat back to the rest of the group. The cloud morphed into an image of Nightmare Moon that started to slowly advance on them menacingly. “Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won’t return to come eat you!”

As soon as Zecora finished her sentence, the illusion leaped towards the ponies with an impossibly wide maw and exploded into a cloud of harmless smoke. Despite being in no actual danger, the display coaxed an unbearably loud scream from Pinkie Pie, which certainly didn’t improve the mood of the foals around her, inevitably starting a panic.

Pinkie Pie zipped up towards the statue of Nightmare Moon, with the foals following up just as quickly, and promptly unloaded the bag of candy around her neck. “Everypony! Let’s dump some candy and get outta here!”

“Oh please…” Rose muttered, just loud enough for Twilight to hear. “As entertaining as this was, now it’s just plain ridiculous! Last time I checked, Pinkie Pie was an adult. Why does a children’s tale even remotely–” Rose immediately halted her rant when the unmistakable sound of thunder boomed above the clearing. Her face contorted into a scowl and her red eyes glowed a little more brightly. “I thought I made myself clear the first time!”

The wind started to suddenly pick up as well, going from a dead breeze to a full blown gust in no time at all, though Rose ignored the wind and the howling it produced. She scanned the sky, expecting to find Rainbow Dash in all her irritating glory. Instead, she discovered that dark clouds were spinning above the clearing and had formed a near perfect funnel, giving them all a clear view of the moon.

Just as suddenly as the wind and thunder had appeared, a bright white flash came from the direction of the moon. They all focused to see an odd flying chariot being pulled by a pair of strange pegasi who had bat-like wings instead of the usual feathered variety. The ponies by the statue began backing up with audible whimpers, while Rose dropped to a crouch and disabled her lights.

The chariot soared over the clearing and quickly came to a hover. A shrouded figure could be seen standing in it, though not much else could be discerned besides the fact that it was a tall pony with a long horn.

Pinkie Pie, however, was more than eager to guess who it was. “It’s Nightmare Moon! RUUUN!”

Rose’s eyes followed the stampede of screaming ponies as they ran back in the direction of town. She fully knew that Zecora’s story was something meant for children, and as such, wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. She decided to look at Twilight to see how she was reacting, since she had supposedly dealt with this pony before. Rose noticed that she was much calmer than any of the others, giving them all a confused look more than anything else.

As the chariot followed the panicked group back to town, leaving Rose and Twilight alone in the clearing, the AI and unicorn shared a questioning look.

“I may not have thought so before,” Rose conceded, “but this holiday just became much more interesting.”

Author's Notes:

These Author's Notes are long, but I recommend reading them anyway. You may be slightly entertained!

I started writing the chapter sometime around August 18th or so, and I finally finished the damn thing earlier this week. Naturally, it went through my vigorous proof-reading cycle for a few days, otherwise it would have been up earlier. I was hoping to get it out in some time in September, but college is keeping my schedule packed. Not to mention the fact that I'm in the middle of midterms right now... So anyway, voila! The first chapter of what I anticipate will be a 3-4 chapter story arc. I'm actually really keen on writing the next chapter, though, since it'll focus on Pinkie Pie and what happens to her after she leave's Twilight's place.

As a side note, I really want to thank all of you, the people who've read all the way to this point, and especially the ones who've provided such great feedback! You guys are what make writing this story worth it.

With all that said, I wanna share a few things with you guys for shits and giggles, because at this point, you deserve insight into things.

For starters...

Is this not the saddest shit you've ever seen? Seriously, this picture hit me so hard in the feels the first time I saw it that I felt like having Alex adopt a dove and calling him Archimedes. Then I scrapped the idea because I realized I couldn't really do anything else with it besides being a reference. But still, that photo is some pretty powerful stuff...

And in case some of you guys are curious, I've managed to dig up a picture of a blue Power-Core!

A beautiful photo if I do say so myself. Not much more to say beyond that.

Now then, one last thing. I've been doing a lot of reflection about Rose as a character, recently, especially since she's a major character in this arc. And the more and more I think about her, the more and more I both love and hate her. The way I'm trying to characterize Rose is fairly straightforward. As an AI, she essentially has processors that allow her to think much faster than any organic entity could. Because of this, I'm trying to build her up as a character whose every action, from the largest gestures to the smallest of facial movements, is calculated and planned.

Not only this, but as a Liandri, Rose has perfect control over her body. For instance: she's able to manipulate the chocolate bit with ease because she's performing all the necessary calculations to do so. For her, it's all just physics and math. Every time she displays some sort of emotion, it's because she wants whoever is nearby to know she's angry, or happy, or curious, or what have you. Unlike a human or pony, she does nothing involuntarily. She doesn't have to display emotion if she doesn't want to, which is also why she's such a good liar. In fact, I imagine she'd be one hell of a poker player.

Now, why do I hate her? It's because of everything that I just mentioned that makes Rose extremely tough to write! Every action of hers is thought out. Everything she does has a reason behind it. Nothing is superfluous. Not to mention her cynical personality... In all honesty, aside from college work, Rose was the main reason why this chapter took so long to write. I wanted to get her juuuuuust right, and even then, I'm still not sure if I succeeded or not.

In the end, that's what I feel makes her interesting, at least to me.

Last-last thing, I swear. A while back, I saw a couple of threads talking about theme songs for OCs. So I did a bit of thinking, and I ran into something that I feel suits Rose, and I'd like to share it with anyone who's interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTlbMZyHDC4

Alright, that's it, I'm done. As always, if you have any questions about anything, don't be afraid to ask. Also, word to the wise: I'm writing the story in such a way that you can get the most out of it by analyzing it and speculating about things. Small details are key!

Now then, time for me to prepare an oral presentation about a comic book character that looks suspiciously like Gordon Freeman...

Weapons detected

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Earlier that night…

Pinkie Pie approached the looming building in front of her with an excited smile etched across her face while pushing her party cannon along the entire way. She couldn’t help but crane her neck to take in its entirety.

Alex’s home was, to say the least, large. The exterior walls looked like they were made of a light beige-colored metal with various, yet symmetric components that made them look more complicated than walls needed to be. Despite that, they definitely looked like they were built to last. On the left side of the front of the building was a sturdy and exceptionally massive garage door. Anypony walking by couldn’t help but wonder at why it needed to be that big, but Pinkie never really gave it any thought.

Above the garage level was a series of large rectangular windows, each one bordered by thick metal frames that composed part of the exterior walls. The windows themselves were normally opaque all the time, even during the day. But tonight, they were transparent, allowing a dim green light to be seen flickering behind them from some unseen source. A simple Nightmare Night decoration.

Pinkie Pie rolled her party cannon up to the front door – an automatic door that opened to the sides – and noticed a sign above it that read: “Only the brave shall be rewarded.” As she got closer to the door, it quickly whirred open on its own to reveal a long, dark hallway with a single light further down that shone on a lone pile of candy sitting on the floor.

“Well this doesn’t look suspicious at all…” Pinkie said to herself.

Pinkie Pie had only been to Alex’s new home a couple of times since it was finished, and while she wasn’t completely familiar with it, she was positive that this hallway wasn’t supposed to be there. The garage level was a very open space, after all!

Despite what a niggling feeling kept telling her, she carefully pushed her party cannon through the doorway. Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind her, emitting an audible click as an interior mechanism locked it. Pinkie, still in character, whirled around in the darkness with a surprised squawk to face the door. She cautiously approached it and ran her hoof over its surface in an attempt to find any sort of handle. Finding none, she realized that, whether it was locked or not, she still had no way of opening it.

She suddenly became very aware of her own breathing as she slowly turned back towards the only source of illumination in the room. Pinkie squawked and jumped back when she saw that a pair of glowing, yellow eyes were now staring straight at her from just beyond the circle of light. They were at her own eye level, but whatever they belonged to was still encased in complete darkness.

Feeling extremely uneasy, Pinkie called out to whatever it was. “H-hello…?”

“Identity confirmed: Pinkie Pie. Elevator access granted.” A low, synthetic voice replied back. The floating pair of eyes moved from the middle of the hall to the side, with the faint clanking of metal on stone being heard as it did so. While Pinkie still couldn’t tell what the mystery Liandri looked like, its steps sounded as if it had more than just two legs. A door at the other end of the hall suddenly opened, revealing the bright interior that Pinkie recognized from previous visits. The voice called out again. “Your presence is requested in the Prototype Lab.”

Pinkie blinked in confusion as the glowing eyes faded out of existence. She looked at the newly opened door, then the candy on the floor, then where the eyes just were, then the door again.

“Uh… what just happened?” she asked to no one in particular, hoping to get an answer anyway. She never received one. “Huh… Okie dokie, then!”

Pinkie shrugged off her confusion and pushed her cannon down the dark hallway, stopping next to the candy. “Hey, you don’t mind if I take some, right?” she asked towards the spot where she last saw the eyes. After no answer was given to her, she simply helped herself with a few chicken-like pecks. “Thanks!”

Pushing her cannon out of the hallway, the door immediately closed behind Pinkie. She looked back to see that the entire thing was obviously temporary. The walls of the creepy hallway seemed to have basic supports on the outside, and even the door she just came out of had its mechanism exposed with all its power cables running loosely along the ground.

Taking her eyes off the Nightmare Night accessory, Pinkie instinctively looked around the garage area for anything interesting. In her experience, there was usually always something worth looking at during a visit to Alex’s garage. At first, it was completely empty, but after a while, it filled up with all sorts of super-neat tools, computer terminals, and a whole bunch of other tool-like things nopony could really identify. One thing she knew, though, was that it never looked like he was actually building something with those tools.

Tonight was different.

Pinkie parked her cannon by the elevator, pushed the button to call it, and then quickly made her way over to the object of her interest.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t quite tell what it was supposed to be. Whatever it was, it was suspended a few feet off the ground by some kind of metal lift that was raised just enough to expose its underside. It was bigger than Pinkie, and it had a single seat that somepony could easily sit in. A section of the back was opened up, revealing a complicated mechanism that looked like it still had a bunch of missing parts. Just off to the side, lying on the ground, was a set of four wheels that didn’t look like anything Pinkie had ever seen before.

But surprisingly, what caught her attention and churned up her imagination the most was the single word printed on the front: Scorpion.

“Your presence is requested in the prototype lab.”

Pinkie squawked in surprise yet again at the deep synthetic voice behind her and spun around. What she saw was a lone Liandri that simply stared at her with a single round, yellow eye. It looked different from the bulky construction bots Pinkie remembered, but it had a similar style. It looked “lean” for a robot, although almost every part of its body looked like it was armored. Its abdomen was virtually non-existent. In fact, the only thing connecting its torso to its waist was what could only be described as a thick, metal spine that looked flexible, yet strong. What also made it look different was the fact that it's feet looked less like feet and more like elongated, oddly shaped hooves - with round nubs sticking out of the side. Its body was colored a dull white, while other parts of it were painted blue. Pinkie couldn’t see it from where she was standing, but a Link Gun was secured to the Liandri’s back and well within its reach.

“Whoa! Sorry, didn’t see you there!” said Pinkie. “And yeah, I’ll be down in a bit. I just wanted to look around first, that’s all.”

The Liandri replied while keeping its gaze fixed on her. “You do not have authorization to explore this facility without Liandri supervision.”

Pinkie looked at it with wide eyes. Her gut twisted at the notion that she couldn’t be trusted enough to just look around without doing something terrible. “What? Why?”

“Security protocol zero – two – two – alpha.”

She gave the bot a confused look. “I don’t know what that is…”

“Security protocol zero – two – two – alpha: If unit designated Rose is absent, all visitors are required to have at least one security escort and to remain visible at all times.”

“Oh…” Pinkie relaxed upon understanding that it was just some super-strict rule about anypony coming for a visit, and that someone didn’t have something against her for some reason.

Pinkie and the Liandri stared at each other for a moment. She wanted to say something, but she wasn’t sure what. It didn’t act like anypony else she ever met, and it spoke with unnatural formality. In the end, she decided to put on a smile and go with the basics. “So, what’s your name?”

“Unit designation: security unit zero – zero – six.”

Pinkie blinked several times. She wasn’t expecting an answer like that. She still tried to make the most of it, though. “That’s a weird name. Don’t you have something less, I dunno, numbery? Like Metal Hand! Or maybe Steel Sight? Oooh! How about Iron Guard? That sounds cool!”

Despite Pinkie’s growing enthusiasm for potential names, the Liandri’s only response was to continue to stare back at her in silence. Feeling more and more uncomfortable, the smile she had worked up was starting to degrade. She looked past the security bot and, to her relief, discovered that the elevator had arrived.

“Oh hey, look! The elevator’s here! I’m just gonna go see Alex now! Bye!” She weaved her way around the Liandri – which was still staring at her – and almost ran back to her cannon. “Creeeeepyyyy…” she muttered.

After getting her cannon and herself into the elevator, she eagerly pushed the button that she knew was meant to make it go down… except nothing happened. The sound of tapping metal grated against her ears as the security bot followed Pinkie into the elevator, the doors automatically closing after it.

The elevator ride down was spend in awkward silence. The fact that the Liandri never took its one eye off Pinkie didn’t exactly make her feel comfortable. She had gotten used to being center of attention virtually all the time, but that was always with other ponies that had actual faces, who smiled back at her, and who were usually always very friendly. This was completely different, and everything about this security bot felt… wrong.

As soon as the elevator opened again, Pinkie Pie wasted no time getting out. “Alex?” she called out with just a hint of anxiety.

“Pinkie!” Alex yelled back happily from somewhere inside the Prototype lab. “I’m in here! Glad you could make it!”

Finally happy to hear a friendly voice, Pinkie made her way down the furnished security hallway. The middle of the large hallway was completely clear, but odd, metal columns were partially embedded in the walls near the center.

Just as Pinkie got half-way through, small objects extended out of an embedded pillar in front of her, sparked, and created a spontaneous electrical barrier with similar objects that were on the opposite wall, effectively cutting her off. Quickly looking back, Pinkie found that something similar happened with another pair of pillars behind her.

She was boxed in.

“Uh, Alex?” she called out again. “What’s going on?”

Alex, head completely shaven and wearing some sort of complex device along his legs and torso as well as a smooth, metal plate that covered his right eye, came rushing into the room with something more akin to speed walking than running. “Oh crap, I forgot about that!”

A soft, synthetic voice suddenly spoke as a device in the ceiling began scanning the boxed-in area with a wide, blue light. “Please remain motionless for weapons scan. Scanning...”

Alex’s uncovered eye immediately centered on Pinkie’s party cannon. Oh shit… Running purely on instinct, Alex took long strides towards a computer terminal in the wall next to the electrical barrier and began typing furiously.

The wide, blue light passed over everything within the boxed in area twice. Both Alex and Pinkie flinched when a blaring alarm sounded and the voice spoke again. “Weapons detected. Relinquish all weapons. Thirty seconds.” Five Liandri – two next to the elevator, two next to the lab’s entrance, and the one that followed Pinkie – all reached over their shoulder, equipped their Link Guns, and aimed straight at the pink chicken pony.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Stand down! Stand down!” Alex barked at the Liandri. They each lowered their weapons, but the alarm kept going.

“Alex! What do I do?” Pinkie pleaded.

Alex went back to typing. “Just push your cannon away from you or something!” Pinkie did just that.

“Twenty seconds. Relinquish all weapons.”

Alex bit his lower lip. Shit! Not good not good not good-

“This is getting really scary!” said Pinkie. “And not in a good way!”

Too many distractions! Too much going on! “Dammit!”

“Any time you’re ready, Alex!”

“I’m working on it!”

The sound of something whirring and moving behind her caught Pinkie’s attention. “Ten seconds. Defense turrets online.” She whirled around to look at them. Coming out of opposing opened pillars, two machines with thin, rapidly spinning barrels were pointed directly at her.

Pinkie’s pupils shrunk. “Those look painful…” she muttered. “Alex?!”

“Got it!”

The alarm immediately silenced itself. “Security override. Disengaging defense systems.” The turrets folded back into their respective containers and disappeared. The electrical barriers vanished as well, and the security bots returned to their former positions. “Thank you, and have a nice day.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief. He rested his head against the wall for a moment and held a hand to his chest. I really didn’t need this shit right now… He looked over at Pinkie Pie. “Hey, you alright?”

Pinkie, who was sitting on her haunches, pouted and frowned at him. “Alex, that was a bad type of scary! That wasn’t an ‘Oh no, Nightmare Moon is gonna get me’ kind of scary, that was an ‘Oh no, I’m gonna die in a horrible accident’ kind of scary! And that is the wrong type of scary!”

Alex rolled his eye. “Yeah, you’re fine… Look, I’m sorry that happened. It really shouldn’t have.” He turned back to the computer and opened up the system’s logs. An odd piece of data suddenly caught his attention. “What the… Okay, this really shouldn’t have happened…”

Pinkie Pie, curious as to what exactly he was talking about, walked over to him. “Huh? What do you mean? What happened?”

Alex squinted at the screen. “This… Okay, for some reason, the system thought your bone structure was made of metal. And the shapes, it... What the hell am I even looking at, here...?” He groaned and shook his head. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to recalibrate this thing…”

Pinkie’s face contorted in confusion. “It thought I was made of metal? That’s weird.”

“Yeah… it explains why it didn't stop after you pushed your cannon away, though. But hey, you’re still in one piece, that’s all that matters.” Alex closed the logs on the screen and turned to Pinkie. “So aside from this little uh… ‘incident…’ how’s your night been so far?”

“It was alright. Didn’t get much candy yet. Although Rose told me you have plenty.” Pinkie finished with an eager smile.

Alex chuckled. “That I do. It’s all in a dispenser upstairs, though. You can have some on the way out. But that reminds me…” he clasped his hands together and smiled. “You came here so I could take a look at your cannon, right?”

“Yep!”

“Awesome! Don’t worry, we’ll be done in no-time.” Alex looked at the Liandri that followed Pinkie in the elevator and snapped his fingers at it. “Unit! Bring Pinkie’s cannon over here.”

The Liandri nodded once. “Affirmative.” It walked up to the baby-blue cannon, leaned down, and started pushing it after them.

“Nice costume, by the way,” Alex told Pinkie as he started walking towards the lab. “I can really see you doing the whole freaky chicken thing.”

“Thanks! You have a good costume too! You look like an awesome retired space pirate!”

Alex stopped and looked at Pinkie, confusion written all over his face. “What…? I… I don’t… What?”

Now it was her turn to be confused. “Huh? So you’re not a retired space pirate?”

“What? No– Pinkie, I’m not wearing a costume.”

She tilted her head at him. “Then what’s with the fancy eye-patch?”

“Eye-patch…?” Alex instinctively brought his hand up and lightly touched the object covering his right eye. “Oh, this! No, it’s not an eye-patch. It’s a calibrator. My uh…” He cleared his throat. “My vision in that eye’s been getting a little blurry lately, so Rose made this to uh… ‘calibrate my eye,’ if you will.” It was a partial truth. Among the things that Alex failed to mention was the fact that it also served the dual purpose of hiding the swelling around his right eye, and that the metal band that kept the device secured to his skull also conveniently hid the long, still healing scar that ran across the back of his head.

“Wow! Neat!” Pinkie chirped. “But what about all this other stuff?” She indicated towards the device on his legs and torso.

“Ah, well, you see, I’m still in the middle of recovering from something that normally needs a lot of bed rest. So, instead of doing what I was supposed to do, I drew up an exoskeleton, Rose filled in some of the details, and voilà: mobility with little to no effort on my part.” He flexed one of his legs and chuckled. “I’m exerting myself so little right now that I could probably sleep standing up in this thing. Or at least I could, if it wasn’t so damn uncomfortable…”

Pinkies eyes went wide as she observed every little detail in the exoskeleton, her mind racing with possibilities. “Ooooo, can I have one?”

Alex smirked at her with crossed arms. “Unless you plan on carrying things that are really heavy, I don’t think you need one. They make you stronger, but don’t expect to go anywhere fast. Besides, I’m already working on something for you. Speaking of which…” He looked at the Liandri pushing the cannon. “Follow along, Unit.”

“Affirmative.”

Pinkie followed Alex into the lab itself. “You know, these robots of yours are really cool, but they kinda sorta maybe creep me out a lot…” she commented. The Prototype Lab largely looked the same as the last time she visited, except that some of the many terminals were replaced with other things she didn’t recognize, and the super-computer that Rose was supposed to be in hung completely limp.

“Really? How so?”

“They talk funny, and that one wouldn’t stop staring at me…”

Alex raised a brow at her. “You tried talking to a VI? How well did that go?”

Pinkie gave him a questioning look. “What’s a VI? And am I not supposed to talk to them? They may be creepy, but that still sounds kinda mean.”

“Virtual Intelligence – and no, you can talk to them, just don’t expect any actual conversation out of it. They interpret and relay information related to their primary function, but that’s about it. VI's aren’t actually sentient, they’re just highly advanced programs, bordering on sentience.” Alex turned and leaned back against a terminal next to an elevated circular platform.

“Oh…” Pinkie blinked at him. “That explains a lot…”

Alex shrugged. “They work pretty well, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re still a work-in-progress.” He looked at the bot that rolled the cannon up to them. “Put the cannon on the scanner, then you’re dismissed.”

“Acknowledged.” The Liandri did as it was told. It placed the cannon in the center of the circular platform and started making its way out of the lab.

“Work-in-progress?” Pinkie asked, her eyes unconsciously following the bot as it left. “But what about Rose? She’s waaaaaaaaay better than these guys! If they’re a work-in-progress, then what’s up with her?”

Alex smiled fondly. “Rose used to be a VI, believe it or not. Just like them.”

Pinkie’s eyes shot open as wide as they possibly could. “What?!”

He chuckled at her reaction. “Yep. You can’t tell now, but it’s true.”

Pinkie blinked at him several times. Alex could almost hear the gears grinding away in her brain. “So does that mean all these robots are eventually gonna be like Rose?” she finally asked.

Alex shook his head. “No. To be honest, Rose was an accident. A pleasant accident, but an accident nonetheless.”

“Then what happened?”

He smiled at the memories. “Ah… You see, back when I was building all these things in my parents’ house, I built this one machine called an EMC, which generates parts for me to build with. It was impossible for me or any conventional program to use it properly. So I made a VI with an adaptive and learning code so it could account for any random fluctuations it encountered and gradually become more effective with the thing as a whole. It was rough, at first, but, just like I expected, it got better with the machine over time.

“I also threw in a few extra things for kicks. Namely voice recognition and a voice synthesizer so I could give it voice commands, and if there was a problem, it could literally tell me what it was. Keep in mind, this is still a VI we’re talking about.”

“So when did you find out she was more than that?” asked Pinkie, sitting down and listening intently while chewing on the candy in the bag around her neck like it was popcorn.

Alex chuckled to himself. “I’ll never forget that moment for the rest of my life… You see, I had the VI make a few test pieces so I could examine their overall quality. They got better over time, but it was only after a few dozen pieces that it made this one really good piece! I didn't really think about it at the time, but as a passing comment, I said: ‘Wow! This is very well done! Good work!’ It was at that moment that it said two simple words. Two words that it was never expected to say at any point in time. Two words that caused me to freak out on the spot. Those two words were: ‘Thank you.’”

Pinkie gave an appropriately spooky “Oooooooooo!”

“Yeah, scared the crap out of me like you would not believe…” He let out a breath. “Anyway, I’ve said too much at this point.”

Pinkie’s expression saddened. “Awww come on, that’s it?”

Alex waved her off, but kept his smile. “Rose hates it when someone compares her to VIs. She’d kill me if she found out I told you.” He chuckled. “That’s why I need you to keep it a secret, alright?”

Pinkie immediately perked up at the word ‘secret’. “You can count on me!” She saluted and performed the gestures of her infamous Pinkie-Promise.

“I know I can, that’s why I told you in the first place. If I told Twilight, my goose would be cooked in two days, tops. Now then…” Alex turned towards the console next to him and began entering in commands. “This scanner is gonna dissect your cannon for me real quick, and then you’ll be able to enjoy the rest of tonight with a bunch of free candy, okay?”

“When you say ‘dissect’, you don’t mean–”

Alex held a hand up. “Not the best choice of words… It’ll say in one piece, don’t worry about it.”

After entering in a final command into the console, the scanner whirred to life. The circular platform raised up a few inches and its edge – the scanner itself – broke off from the rest, spinning around it on an axis. It spun faster and faster until it was nothing but sphere-like blur with Pinkie’s cannon sitting in the middle of it. Almost as soon as it started, the spinning began to wind down until the scanner stopped moving completely, becoming flush with the platform once again.

Alex clasped his hands together as it lowered itself back down. “And that’s it, we’re done!”

Pinkie blinked. “That’s it? Wow, that was quick!”

Alex nodded, but kept his attention focused on the holographic screen. “Yep! Now then, I don’t wanna keep you for longer than I already have. I’ve got a bunch of new data to play with, and you’ve got some candy waiting for you upstairs.”

Pinkie looked at her party cannon for a moment before looking back at Alex, whose attention was completely taken off her. A smile slowly stretched across her face. It wasn’t her usual, bright and eccentric smile, but a softer, moderated one. “So, did you find anything interesting?”

“Data’s still compiling…” Alex mumbled, only half paying attention to her. After a few more seconds of waiting, Alex perked up. “Ah, there we go!” He tapped on a few keys and the screen disappeared, only to be replaced with an orange colored hologram of the party cannon itself. “I have to say, Pinkie, I really appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me here. From what I understand, Twilight would kill for something like this.”

“You betcha! Also, Alex, one last thing…”

Alex raised a brow and looked at her. “Yeah?”

“I need you to Pinkie promise to never tell anypony about what you may or may not find out about my party cannon,” Pinkie stated simply. Her tone was even, and she seemed much more serious than she normally was.

At first, Alex was perplexed by her behavior. The way she just spoke felt incredibly off to him, and the fact that it was a sudden change in her regular mood didn’t help him feel better about it, either. In the end, Alex simply chalked it up to Pinkie confiding a supposedly great secret in him, and that whatever it was, it was a serious matter for her. He could understand such a thing.

“Alright, I Pinkie promise not to tell anyone else. I’ll have Rose do the same.” He performed the appropriate gestures that went alone with the special promise, although he couldn’t help but feel silly while doing it.

Pinkie’s mood immediately shifted from its serious tone to its usual bubbly one. “Good!”

Alex nodded at her with a smile before turning back to the hologram. Keeping his hands on the keyboard, he manipulated the image with simple keystrokes. Almost immediately, the cannon’s interior caught his attention. Squinting at it, the hologram flew apart and revealed what Alex wanted to look at.

The party cannon’s interior was far from traditional as far as cannons go. At first glance, it was clear to him that the cannon was some sort of marvel of engineering, yet it left him completely baffled. Bits and pieces of hologram flew off and reattached to the simulated machinery as Alex’s mind worked overtime to try and make sense of it. Meanwhile, the owner – and builder – of the cannon itself was patiently standing behind him, watching with a smile as the human tried to figure out the puzzle.

And then it clicked.

Alex let out a low gasp as everything suddenly made sense to him. Every piece of the mechanical puzzle came together as the answer fully presented itself to him. In a voice that wasn’t quite loud enough for Pinkie to hear, Alex whispered the answer to one of the biggest mysteries he had ever come across: “Quantum storage…”

Alex’s shocked expression lifted into a goofy smile. “Good god, this is amazing! You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to figure this stuff out! And here it is! Oh my god, Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!” His own words suddenly registered in his mind like a brick being thrown through a window and his smile immediately dropped.

“Holy hell…” Alex whispered. He slowly turned towards Pinkie Pie as if he were in a horror movie and the monster was standing directly behind him. Except instead of a monster, there was a small, pink pony wearing a chicken costume. She simply gave him a smile. A calm, serene, knowing smile. Alex tried to think of something to say, but could only focus on his previous thought. “You’re a genius…”

Pinkie Pie sauntered up to him and spoke disturbingly calmly. “No I’m not, Silly.” She reared up on her hind legs and placed her forelegs on the computer terminal. She reached a hoof over and pushed a single button on the keyboard, turning the hologram off. With one foreleg resting on top of the other, Pinkie stared directly into Alex’s single stunned eye, taking the opportunity to speak just as calmly as before with her strange, unfamiliar smile.

“I’m a chicken.”

The Nightmare Continues

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Returning to the present time...

“I may not have thought so before,” Rose conceded, “but this holiday just became much more interesting.”

Twilight Sparkle and Rose continued to stare wordlessly at each other for a moment before bolting after the flying chariot. Rose ran at a constant, unhindered sprint with her lights dark and her tail flying behind her. Twilight, for her part, barely managed to keep up. Despite her best efforts, trying to keep up with something that didn’t know what it felt like to be tired wasn’t the easiest thing in all of Equestria, especially since she was wearing a long robe lined with brass bells. Glancing upwards, she couldn’t help but notice that dark clouds kept forming above the chariot, following it wherever it went.

They arrived in the middle of town just in time to witness the chariot’s ominous passenger leap off and float to the ground. The stranger landed with a dull thud and flipped their hood off with a flick of their head. Everypony looked on at the new arrival: a tall, dark blue, horned pony with a starry, ethereal mane that flowed around a pure black crown. A perfectly timed lightning bolt arced through the air behind her. Everypony in the area immediately dropped to their knees in a deep, respectful bow, although their frightened shivering told a different story…

“Princess Luna!” said Twilight breathlessly, moving to personally greet the princess. Spike, who was keeping low right next to her, thought differently, and pulled Twilight down with the other ponies, placing a claw over her mouth to indicate silence. She gave him a glare, but decided to stay quiet anyway. Rose, following their lead, ducked behind a nearby market stall, preferring to stay hidden and use her sensors to see what was going on behind it.

Princess Luna advanced towards the ponies as her cloak disintegrated into a colony of bats that promptly flew away, allowing her to release her wings and expand them to their full length. Everypony could only watch as she spoke to the crowd with a booming voice.

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!” A burst of static from Luna’s abnormally loud yelling caused Rose to cringe and lower the sensitivity of her microphones. Why someone would have to yell that loud to a crowd that was already dead silent was beyond her.

“WE HAVE GRACED YOUR TINY VILLAGE WITH OUR PRESENCE SO THAT YOU MIGHT BEHOLD THE REAL PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT! A CREATURE OF NIGHTMARES NO LONGER, BUT INSTEAD, A PONY WHO DESIRES YOUR LOVE AND ADMIRATION. TOGETHER, WE SHALL CHANGE THIS DREADFUL CELEBRATION INTO A BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS FEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAST!”

Luna finished her monologue by balancing on her rear legs and pointing a hoof in the air in an unnecessarily dramatic pose. Rose peeked around the market stall to make her sensors were actually accurate. Sadly, they were. She understood an Equestrian princess could make a scene and attract attention just by being present, but this was something else entirely. It was as if the “princess of the night” had never heard of the concept of subtlety.

Evidently, neither did Pinkie Pie. “Did you hear that, everypony? Nightmare Moon says she’s gonna feast on us all!” Her sudden outburst caused all the foals around her to scream out in terror, sparking another stampede of fearful children with herself at the head of the pack.

Princess Luna stared blankly at the fleeing ponies for a second before lowering her forelegs back to the ground. “What?” This time, her voice was an appropriate volume and her face was much more sympathetic. “No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear Us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!” Luna stomped a hoof on the ground to emphasize her point, but only caused a nearby pony to whimper from the force of the impact.

Rose rolled her eyes. She knew that she wasn’t the best when it came to social interactions and making herself look pleasant, but even she understood that the princess was just plain doing it wrong.

Safely behind the cover of the stall, Rose tossed a nearby pebble at Twilight, hitting her square on the side and attracting the mare’s attention. She beckoned her over with a simple hand gesture, illuminating her arm temporarily to make sure Twilight saw it.

Twilight shuffled her way over; a thankfully short distance. “Yes?”

“What is she doing?” Rose hissed. They both glanced back to see Luna pointing a hoof at various ponies. “This is the ‘nightmare’ that everyone is so afraid of?”

“Technically, yes, but–”

“Very well, then! Be that way!” Luna quipped, interrupting Twilight’s thought. “We won’t even bother with the traditional royal farewell!” The princess promptly walked off after speaking in a tone that was half entitled, half heartbroken.

They all stared after her for a moment before everypony shakily got to their hooves, now that the coast was clear. Twilight stared in the direction Luna had gone in and sighed to herself. “I’m gonna go talk to her.”

Spike immediately stepped in front of Twilight and blocked her path. “You can’t talk to her! She’s Nightmare Moon!”

Twilight pushed him aside with a hoof and spoke to him calmly. “No she’s not. I saw the Elements of Harmony change her back to good. But it seems like she’s having some trouble adjusting after being gone for a thousand years…

“And I thought I had social problems,” Rose commented.

Twilight turned to her with a smile. “Want to come with me? I know you’re not the best at this sort of thing, but I think it would do you some good, too.”

Rose looked slightly taken aback by the question. She glanced at Spike, then back to Twilight. Weighing her choices, her neutral expression dropped into a frown. “Might as well…”

“Don’t do it!” Spike protested, holding his claws up. “You’re really smart, Rose; can’t you see that she’ll gobble you up too?”

Rose re-illuminated herself and glared down at the young dragon with bright red eyes. “I’d certainly like to see a herbivore eat titanium without any issues.”

Spike quickly stepped aside and stared after the unicorn and Liandri as they walked off in search of Princess Luna. After everything that happened up to this point, he couldn’t quite tell who was scarier.

Twilight kept her eyes open as they followed the path that Luna would have most likely taken. Rose, with her almost GPS-like sense of direction, couldn’t help but notice that Twilight was leading her right back to the statue of Nightmare Moon.

Rose tapped on Twilight’s shoulder and pointed at the statue when it came into view. There, sitting in front of the monument, was Princess Luna, who had her head lowered in silent meditation.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight called out. Luna’s head immediately snapped up and turned to face to the duo. “Hi, my name is–”

“Starswirl the Bearded,” Luna finished for her, standing up. “Commendable costume. Thou even got the bells right.”

“Thank you! Finally! Somepony who gets my costume!” Twilight’s excitement died away when she refocused herself on Luna, who was glancing curiously at Rose. With the Liandri lit up the way she was, it would have been difficult to not notice her. Twilight cleared her throat. “Princess, this is Rose. She’s a friend of mine.”

“Rose…” Luna repeated. “An interesting name. Is it short for Rose Mary?”

Rose frowned. “No, and your sister made a similar mistake.”

Luna quirked a brow. “Thou possess an interesting voice and stature. Tell Us, since thou are not a pony, what species are you?”

Rose crossed her arms with a smirk. “I am the town’s resident AI, currently occupying a humanoid platform.”

“Thou art what?” Luna blinked at her.

“An Artificial Intelligence?” Rose followed up, raising a brow.

Luna still seemed confused.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Rose, AIs are a relatively new concept in Equestria. Only a few decades old, really…”

“Oh… Then let’s just say I’m new here and leave it at that.”

“We… Uh, see…” Luna hesitantly turned to Twilight. “Tell us, Twilight Sparkle, why hast thou followed Us here?”

Twilight immediately perked up. “Oh! You remember my name!”

“But of course!” Luna flapped her wings and began hovering in the air. A wind storm suddenly blew in and dark clouds began covering the sky. “IT WAS THOU WHO UNLEASHED THE POWERS OF HARMONY UPON US AND TOOK AWAY OUR DARK POWERS!”

All three of them shortly regained their proper footing, although Rose was getting increasingly annoyed with Luna’s ridiculous behavior. “Was that really necessary?”

“Was what necessary?” Luna asked.

“The yelling!” Rose said irritably. “We were standing right here! We could have heard that from all the way back there! That amount of noise was completely unnecessary!”

Luna frowned at Rose. “But this is the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice! It is tradition to speak using the royal ‘We’ and to use THIS MUCH VOLUME WHEN ADDRESSING OUR SUBJECTS!”

Rose readjusted her microphones yet again. It annoyed her to no end that she had to keep lowering the sensitivity so that she wouldn’t get static from Luna’s yelling and also have raise it back up just to be able to hear normally again.

Naturally, she wasn’t afraid to show her disapproval. “Just because you’ve always done something a certain way, doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly stupid.”

Luna gaped at her and barked back. “ARE THOU CALLING OUR TRADITIONS STUPID?!”

“That’s enough! Both of you!” Twilight got between them before the conversation could get any more heated. She glared at the AI. “Rose, that was really tactless. I can understand if Luna’s way of speaking bothers you, but that was no reason to behave like that. You should apologize.”

“Why should I? Do you have any idea what she does to my hearing when she does that?”

“No, but that was incredibly rude and you should never talk to somepony like that, no matter who they are. Go on, apologize.”

Rose glared daggers at Twilight for several seconds. The unicorn could almost see the processors in her friend’s head working out what to do. Rose’s face suddenly shifted to a completely neutral expression and she looked at Luna. “My apologies,” she said with equally pure neutrality.

“Thou would do well to pay more respect towards royal traditions,” said Luna, narrowing her eyes at Rose.

“Actually…” Twilight paused for a moment, choosing her words carefully. “Princess Luna, Rose kind of had a point…”

Luna swiveled her head towards Twilight and looked at her curiously. Were it not for the respect she already had towards her savior, her reaction would have most likely been very different, but she decided to hear her opinion anyway.

Seeing that Luna seemed to be willing to hear her out, Twilight continued. “You see, we couldn’t help but notice that your appearance was met with, er… mixed results. We sincerely think that if you changed your approach just a bit, you might be met with a warmer reception.”

“CHANGE OUR APPROACH?”

Twilight recovered from the sudden burst of sound and wind with a modest smile, secretly thankful that Rose stayed quiet. “Lower the volume?”

“Oh…” said Luna, thinking that the humanoid among them probably had a point after all, despite the mocking of traditions. “We have been locked away for a thousand years. We are… not sure We can…”

“That’s why we want to help you, Princess!” Twilight said with a smile. “Right, Rose?”

Rose looked at Twilight for a brief moment before turning back to Luna and nodding once.

Luna eyed Rose. “We are not sure just how well intentioned thou are with this matter…”

“My previous statements may have been crude, but they were meant to point out an obvious flaw that could be fixed in order to help you,” Rose explained in a partially monotone voice. “I meant no offense they may have caused.”

Twilight doubted the truth behind that last part, but decided it was best to ignore it. Instead, she simply smiled and kept their momentum going. “Exactly! And I know just where to go to start getting you used to modern pony society!”

“I still don’t quite see why we need to ask Fluttershy for help with this,” said Rose as the three of them walked towards the aforementioned pony’s cottage just outside of town. “Speaking quietly isn’t exactly something exclusive to her.”

“True, but she’s a shining example for the Princess. She’s delicate and demure with the sweetest little voice! If there’s anypony she can learn from and use as an example, it’s Fluttershy.”

Twilight knocked on the cottage door three times.

“GO AWAY! NO CANDY HERE! VISITORS NOT WELCOME ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT!”

They all blinked in response to the panicked yelling from behind the door, except for Rose, who never blinked once all night. She still looked surprised nonetheless. “Wow. In all honesty, I can’t say I ever would have expected that.”

Twilight chuckled nervously. “Fluttershy? It’s me, Twilight!”

The cottage door opened ever so slightly to reveal the pegasus herself. “It is you…” She opened the door a bit more. “…and one of Alex’s robots…” She opened it all the way. “Oh, and Nightmare Moon.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened when her brain registered what she was seeing. “Nightmare Moon!” With a shriek, she slammed her door shut again.

Rose frowned and crossed her arms. “Frankly, I prefer the term ‘cybernetic…’”

Twilight gave the other two another nervous laugh. “Wait right here…” Before another word would could be said, she promptly entered Fluttershy’s home, closing the door behind her.

The two individuals waiting outside heard all manner of activity coming from inside the house. Everything ranging from scuffling around, to pans clattering, and even various animal noises. Whatever was going on in there didn’t exactly sound pleasant.

Rose peered at Luna idly, thinking that now would be an appropriate time for so called ‘small talk.’ “So… the weather seems nice.”

“Indeed,” Luna replied while looking up. “The pegasi have done an excellent job tonight.”

The cottage door opened abruptly with Twilight pushing a reluctant Fluttershy out of her own door. “Fluttershy… You remember Princess Luna?”

Luna extended a hoof. “CHARMED.”

Fluttershy quickly bolted around Twilight and back into her house. The unicorn quickly caught her with her magic and brought her back out to face the Princess. She put on her best fake smile and spoke in a slightly more timid manner than she usually did. “Likewise…”

Suddenly, a small white blur of movement caught Rose’s attention and she started to ignore what was going on with the ponies. What they were doing wasn’t terribly important to her, anyway. Instead, her eyes zeroed in on where she saw the blur: the cottage window.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE HAS—” Rose lowered the sensitivity of her microphones enough so that Luna’s yelling was practically muted. She slowly walked over to the window and looked inside, her eyes almost acting like search lights as their red glow cut through the darkness.

From what Rose could see from her vantage point, it was a humble abode. Plenty of supplies for taking care of various animals were present, as well as regular furniture – exactly what would be expected from Fluttershy. Rose narrowed her eyes and focused her sensors, trying to pick up any possible hint of movement inside the home, as her usual method of detection wouldn’t work through solid objects.

“I know you’re in there.” Rose adjusted the volume and direction of her sound waves so that they would be aimed directly at the window, effectively masking her words from the other three ponies some distance away. “You can’t hide from me forever, rabbit… Angel.”

Rose kept scanning for any sort of movement while ignoring whatever shenanigans seemed to be going on just a short distance away. Not finding anything, she concluded her target must have known she was looking for him and was standing completely still in response. It was, in the end, the only way he could avoid being detected. After a while, she noticed that one of the ponies – Twilight – was walking towards her. She looked over at her and reset her microphones. “Yes?”

“Rose, is everything alright?” asked Twilight.

“Perfectly. Are we ready to–” Rose’s words were cut off.

“Fluttershy! You’ve gotta hide us! Nightmare Moon is here, and–” Pinkie Pie, who was walking up to the cottage with the children who previously ran away with her, squawked in terror upon seeing that Princess Luna was holding Fluttershy in some vague attempt at a hug. The pegasus herself, for whatever reason, looked dumbed out of her mind and half passed out. “She’s stolen Fluttershy’s voice so she can’t scream when she gobbles her uuuup!”

As was the trend that night, Pinkie caused another loud scream from the children followed by a stampede as they all ran back in the direction they came from.

Luna immediately dropped Fluttershy and called after them. “NAY, CHILDREN, WAIT!” The Princess silently gasped upon realizing her mistake. “I mean… nay, children, wait!” But they were already gone. Luna splayed her ears back and pouted in utter disappointment.

Rose looked between them all in confusion before bringing a hand to her forehead. “I turn around for one minute and this happens.”

Twilight brought her hanging jaw back to where it should be. “I’ll admit… that could have gone better…” She turned to Luna with a hopeful smile. “Come on, Princess! Time for plan B!”

“I do hope plan B doesn’t involve terrorizing someone.” Rose looked back at Fluttershy, who was still dazed and lying on the ground. “Fluttershy looks like she’s gotten more than her fair share.”

Twilight followed her gaze. “Oh, right… I’ll just go lay her down inside.”

As the trio walked away from Fluttershy’s cottage back to Ponyville, movement could be seen in the window Rose had been looking in earlier. A furry little head poked out, checking to see if the coast was clear. Seeing that it was, Angel slumped down next to the window and let out a breath.

Hugging the wall next to the window wasn’t the most stress free hiding spot.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, and Rose marched back into Ponyville as if it were any other day. Although Luna carried a dour look with her.

All around them, ponies were going about their usual holiday activities. Dancing by the stage, bobbing for apples, and some were even launching pumpkins at static targets with overly simplified catapults. At least, that was Rose’s opinion on them. There was laughter from friendly conversations, cheering from smashing the pumpkins, and overall merriment everywhere.

And then it all went downhill.

A single disguised mare spotted Luna and let out a yelp, quickly following up by dropping to the ground and covering her head with her forelegs. Nearly all activity in the area died as other ponies took notice and quickly followed suit, curling up in fright.

“Twilight, I hope this plan B of yours works,” said Rose. “If it doesn’t, this may be much more difficult than we thought.”

“We appreciate thy concern,” said Luna, who sounded more than little disappointed, “but it is of no use. They have never liked Us… and they never shall…”

“Cheer up, Princess!” said Twilight, decidedly immune to everypony’s negativity. “My friend Applejack is one of the most likeable ponies around. If anypony can help you fit in, it’s her.”

The three of them traveled through town using “less obvious routes” towards the apple bobbing spot Applejack told Twilight about earlier. Bobbing for apples was one of the longest lasting traditions for Nightmare Night, and, unsurprisingly, the Apple family was in charge of co-ordinating it and everything else that was apple related. It wasn’t a terribly stressful job since all Applejack really had to do was supply the apples from her farm and make sure nopony got hurt. Unfortunately, she couldn’t leave things unattended for very long because of her responsibilities, so going around with her friends wasn’t really an option. She didn’t mind, though, since they usually came to her instead.

“Whoa, careful there, partner!” said Applejack, who was dressed as a scarecrow, as she caught a small colt who almost fell into the tub filled with bobbing apples. She gently lowered him to the ground and he hopped off with a thankful wave. Satisfied with another problem averted, Applejack turned to welcome any pony who may want to help themselves to some apples.

Who she found was Twilight, who was eagerly smiling at her. “Oh, heya, Twilight! Say, that’s a nice cost–” She suddenly yelped and dropped down upon seeing who was next to her friend. Luna shared a look with Twilight, and then Rose. The latter of whom simply shrugged.

“Uhh, Applejack?” Twilight lowered herself closer to her fright-induced-shivering friend. “I’m sorry I didn’t come by earlier, but Princess Luna is looking for a little advice on how to fit in around here.”

Applejack stopped her shivering as she processed the words and looked at her friend with incredulity. “Fit in? Really?” Twilight gave her the death stare and she immediately shot to her hooves. “Uh, I mean – That’s easy! All ya gotta do is have the right attitude! Loosen up a bit; Be positive; Play a few games; Have some fun!”

“Fun…?” Luna repeated. “What is this ‘fun’ thou speak’est of?”

Rose held up a hand. “Hold on a moment. You don’t know what the concept of fun is?”

Luna shook her head genuinely.

“Are you serious? I don’t interact very much with others, I will admit that, but even I know what fun is.”

“To be fair, Rose, your idea of fun is pretty different from everypony else’s,” said Twilight. After all, she couldn’t help but notice how Rose enjoyed scaring Spike. I need to talk to her about that at one point…

Rose looked at her for a second and nodded. “I will concede the point.”

“Well then, Princess, allow me to point ya in the right direction!” Applejack brought Luna over to a nearby bowl of fake spiders. Some distance away was a giant spider web that was suspended between two poles.

Luna eyed the spiders suspiciously. “Pray tell, what purpose do these serve?”

“It’s real simple.” Applejack came over, picked up a spider in her hoof, and gave it to Luna. “All ya gotta do is toss the spiders as close to the middle of that web over there as ya can.”

Rose walked up next to them. “Really? Is that all? And you consider that fun? That hardly seems challenging.”

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” said Twilight. “Trying to get them in the center is actually pretty tough!”

Taking that as her cue, Luna bent back tossed the spider in her hoof towards the net… Only for it to fall short. Very short, in fact.

“Come now, I’m sure you can do better than that,” Rose goaded.

Luna glared at Rose for a second and picked up another spider. With a newly invigorated look, she launched the spider. This time, her aim was true, and the spider stuck itself to the net, dead center. Almost immediately, Luna’s face lit up. “Ha! We did it!” She turned to Rose with a smug look. “Let’s see thou try to do that!”

Rose gave her a challenging smirk and held out her hand. “Give me a spider.”

Luna levitated one and dumped it in the Liandri’s outstretched fingers, which snapped closed. Rose kept her optics locked on Luna’s eyes, deciding to use her other sensors to gauge the distance between her and the web. She quickly tossed up and caught the spider to better judge its weight. Still looking at Luna, Rose slowly brought her throwing arm across her chest and then suddenly whipped it towards the web.

The spider flew with a much greater velocity than Luna had thrown it. It landed square on Luna’s spider with enough force to flex the web and, like a rubber band, caused it to slingshot both spiders back and onto the ground.

Luna stared at the spiders for a moment and turned back to Rose, whose gaze had never left her, and smiled. “That was well played, and might We add… enjoyable!” She turned to Twilight and Applejack. “Is this the fun that thou have spoken of?” They nodded with returned smiles. “Interesting… In what other ways may we experience it?”

Applejack pointed with a hoof. “Right this way, princess!” The three of them started following her, as well as a small crowd of ponies that had seen them play the spider game.

Twilight walked up alongside Rose as they followed Applejack. “That was pretty impressive, Rose! How did you manage to do that?”

“Do what?”

“The spider toss! You did it perfectly without even looking at where you were throwing. I don’t know anypony else who could do that.”

“Why shouldn’t I be able to do that? It’s not that difficult to do. It’s simply kinematics with air resistance taken into account. I also factored in force and angle of the throw, weight of the spider, power of the motors in the arm, etcetera. Although most of it is allocated to subsystems.”

“Wait a minute…” Twilight furrowed her brown in thought. “You calculated all that? Just to toss a rubber spider?”

“Of course,” Rose responded plainly.

“But why? That seems like a lot of effort for a friendly game with no real consequences. I mean sure, you wanted to do just as well as Luna, but to do all that for something so… natural…?”

Rose tilted her head and gave her a questioning look. “What do you mean? It is natural. It’s a requirement for all movement. Limbs do not move themselves.”

“But– Wait…” Twilight halted in her tracks. Required for movement… subsystems… subconscious, maybe…? She thought long and hard, but eventually, realization crept across her face. Oh! I think I understand now! It’s either all or nothing! She doesn’t do the all those calculations for limb movements because she wants to, but because she has to. It’s the only way she can actually move! That makes advanced movements easier for her, but basic ones are just as difficult as a consequence…

Suddenly, a previous conversation she had with Alex about the Liandri a few weeks ago made much more sense to her.

I had this math teacher a long time ago who taught me a very important lesson about computers: they only do exactly what you tell them to. If it does something wrong, or something you didn’t want it to do, that’s because you told it to do that wrong thing and you were just being stupid about it. Because they’re machines, a similar principle can be applied to the Liandri, too. If you tell them to do something, and it’s within their ability, they will do it. Unless they’re physically damaged, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t be able to. They don’t half-ass, either. We try to accomplish things, they don’t. They always do their very best, and can’t do anything less.

Twilight trotted back to everypony else with a grin, feeling incredibly proud of herself for figuring out not only a key aspect of the Liandri’s behavior, but Rose’s as well. Rose… Her grin suddenly faded. But Rose is more than just a machine or computer…

The AI in question looked at Twilight as they all stopped near the catapults they had seen earlier. “You seemed pre-occupied. Something the matter?”

“No, I was just thinking about something…” Twilight mulled over her words for a moment as Applejack was showing Princess Luna how to operate one of the pumpkin siege weapons. “Hey, Rose, could I ask you something personal?”

Rose perked a brow in response. It wasn’t very often she got a question like that. “Yes?”

“Have you… ever thought about the way you think?”

“What kind of question is that?” Rose deadpanned.

“Sorry!” Twilight defended. “What I meant, was… Do you feel bored all the time?”

Rose stared at her for a moment, raising a brow. “You’ll have to elaborate.”

“Well… From what I understand, every one of your body movements is precise and calculated up to the point that you can do things like the spider toss perfectly. I’m assuming this is just second nature to you, but don’t you ever get bored of that? Having no physical challenges?”

Rose continued to stare at Twilight with a blank expression, but didn’t say anything, allowing the unicorn to continue. “I mean, the reason why it’s fun is because it’s difficult to do perfectly, at least for us. So when we do manage to do it, it feels very rewarding. But if you can do it perfectly on a whim, then… do you even know what that feels like to overcome a challenge like that?”

Their one-sided conversation was suddenly cut short by the sound of a splattering pumpkin and an excited princess. “Ha ha! The fun has been doubled!”

Twilight’s attention was torn away from Rose to look at Luna. A group of ponies was cheering for her, and for the first time since arriving in Ponyville, the princess looked genuinely happy. Twilight couldn’t help but smile along with them.

It suddenly crossed her mind that she hadn’t gotten a response from Rose yet. She turned back to where the AI was supposed to be standing only to see she wasn’t there. “Rose?” Twilight looked around and her eyes eventually settled on the glowing red figure that was her cybernetic friend. For some reason, she was over by the spider toss game they just left. Whoa… she’s quick…

Rose’s eyes bathed the rubber spider in her hand with a faint red glow. Can a true sense of accomplishment really be extracted from something as mundane as this? For the first time in a long time, she found herself not thinking about core energy manipulation, Tarydium refinement, fluid dynamics, or the fundamental components and requirements of BCIs, but about herself. Or rather, herself in comparison to them; the organics.

Rose gauged her distance from the web and cocked her arm back, ready to throw the spider. Everything was calibrated and the prop’s trajectory was as clear as day to her. I’ll be on target. I know I’ll be on target. How could this be fun if I know I’ll succeed? Perhaps if I… No, then I’ll clearly miss… What’s the point of the exercise if I don’t try to do well? Rose disengaged her arm and stared at the spider again.

The fact of the matter was that Rose did exactly what ponies or humans would do when throwing something. They would weigh the object, then approximate how hard to throw it and in what way. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. Rose, on the other hand, didn’t approximate. She had actual numbers. Numbers that not only made tossing a spider on a web trivial, but were necessary for even the most basic of movements.

Rose frowned inwardly at the fake arachnid, but her physical face remained neutral. Figuring it was just a waste of time at this point, she shook her head and turned to leave. This is ridiculous. As she started walking back to where she had previously abandoned the others, she chucked the rubber spider over her shoulder. It landed squarely in the bowl with the others.

She only took a single step before finding herself face to face with Twilight. “Hey, what were you doing back here?”

Rose walked past her nonchalantly. “A thought experiment.”

Twilight followed her with a smile. “I like experiments, thought or otherwise. Care to let me in on some of the details?”

“No,” Rose responded simply.

Twilight had a feeling she’d say that, but she kept her smile anyway. She was able to hazard enough of a guess based on what they were talking about before Rose disappeared. In her experience, the AI was always reluctant to show anything she thought was a weakness, so it didn’t surprise her that she didn’t want to talk about it. But that only meant that her guess was probably right.

“How is Luna doing?” Rose continued, obviously changing the subject.

“Great!” Twilight answered. “Better than great, actually. Ponies seem to be really–”

“Hey, gals!” Pinkie Pie seemingly appeared out of nowhere, as was her usual habit. “Anypony seen Pip? We lost him last time we had to run from–”

“No!” Rose interrupted her with wide eyes, holding her arms up in front of Pinkie. If previous events were any indicator, then Pinkie’s sudden appearance meant she was going incite another Luna scare, and starting over was not an option at this point. “We haven’t seen the child!” Rose quickly turned to Twilight and hissed in her ear. “Where’s Luna?”

Twilight quickly looked around, fully aware of Rose’s urgency. “I don’t know! Last time I saw her, she was headed over to the–”

A startled squawk cut her off again. “Gah! Nightmare Moon is gobbling Pip-Squeak! Everypony ruuuun!”

Rose immediately looked up and zeroed in on where Pinkie was pointing. Luna was holding Pip-Squeak by a piece of clothing over one of the apple-bobbing bins with her mouth, looking at them with her own startled eyes. A single thought looped through Twilight’s and Rose’s heads: Oh no…

Luna dropped Pip-Squeak, who promptly ran off with little hops. “Heeeeelp! My backside’s been gobbled!”

“Tis a lie!” Luna yelled after him, getting progressively more annoyed. “Thy backside is whole and ungobbled thou ungrateful whelp!” She accentuated her point by smashing her hoof into the ground while baring her teeth. Lightning arced behind her as well, something that even made Rose uncomfortable.

Naturally, the display didn’t go unnoticed by ponies around her as they all started to back up slowly. Luna brought a hoof up to her mouth upon realizing she had probably gone much too far.

“Come on, we have to do something.” Rose stepped towards Luna direction, but was held back by Twilight’s magic grabbing her hand.

“No!” she whispered loudly. “She has to do this on her own! It’s the only way she can get ponies to fully trust her!”

Rose gave Twilight her best “you can’t be serious serious?” face in response, but kept quiet.

“Fair villagers,” Luna started, walking slowly towards her audience. “Please do not back away! Let us join together in… fun!” She gave them all an awkward smile.

“Now?”

“Give her a chance…”

Feeling the anxiety starting to build, Luna glanced around quickly and noticed a rubber spider sitting by her hooves. Completely unsure of what to do, she picked up the spider with her teeth and tossed it at the hooves of the slowly retreating ponies with her own, hoping the fun would translate over. The ponies, however, only looked on in confused silence. Twilight and Rose shared their own confused looks.

Luna’s eye suddenly twitched. Just a moment ago, they were all having fun alongside her; throwing spiders and launching pumpkins. Now they dared to ignore her attempts at merriment? “Not enough fun for you? What say you to this?!” Luna’s horn lit up and launched a bolt of magic at the rubber spider. A ball of light enveloped it for a brief moment and disappeared in a flash, a larger and, more importantly, live spider taking its place.

Almost as soon as it began moving of its own volition, the ponies closest to it let our bloodcurdling screams. It didn’t stop there, though, as Luna shot another bolt of magic at a nearby bowl of fake spiders, bringing them to life as well.

And then chaos.

Twilight’s jaw practically hit the floor as the spiders started crawling on top of everything and everypony. Ponies started screaming and running left and right, Luna yelled something about receiving points, and Rose promptly stepped on one of the mobile arachnids, twisting it with her steel-toed foot for good measure.

“Everybody, just calm down!” Rose yelled over the panic. Nopony listened to her, however. Even Luna’s commands for calm went unheeded. Rose’s head zipped around, using her optics to help her other sensors take in as much information as she could. Everywhere she looked, ponies were running blindly, both into each other and inanimate objects, knocking things over, causing accidental property damage… Her processors worked overtime to figure out a solution, to determine how to get them all to just simply calm down.

There’s too many variables, too much going on; too many individuals acting irrationally and spontaneously. We don’t have any means of pacifying a crowd like this!

“BE STILL!” Luna’s voice boomed outward, even more loudly than usual. Its effects reverberated throughout the town, almost as if a bomb had gone off and shook the foundation of every nearby building.

Rose instantly turned towards the princess with a scowl, but quickly reset her expression upon noticing what else the princess had done.

Everypony stopped moving and was back to hugging the ground.

Interesting… Rose remarked to herself.

“Princess, remember! Watch the screaming!” Twilight urged Luna.

Luna whipped around to face Twilight and stared directly at her with pure white eyes that possessed a light glow. “NO, TWILIGHT SPARKLE! WE MUST USE THE TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE FOR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO SAY.”

Twilight took a tentative step back as the threat behind Luna’s tone sat in her gut.

The Lunar princess turned towards the rest of the crowd and started flapping her wings, slowly raising herself skyward. Wind began whipping around them and thunderous clouds started circulating above her in an incredible display of raw power. “SINCE YOU CHOOSE TO FEAR YOUR PRINCESS RATHER THAN LOVE HER – AND DISHONOR HER WITH THIS INSULTING CELEBRATION – WE DECREE THAT NIGHTMARE NIGHT SHALL BE CANCELED! FOREVER!”

It took a moment for her words to fully sink in, but once they did, a pit formed in the stomach of everypony listening. Although by that point, Luna had already flown off. The thought that one of Equestria’s favorite holidays was now permanently canceled because of their own actions left them feeling nauseous.

Rose, on the other hand, remained completely unfazed, and continued to stare after Luna. Perhaps not intervening was for the best after all. Now I won’t ever have to deal with this insipid excuse of a holiday ever again. I least I discovered something potentially valuable.

Suddenly, her microphones registered a foreign sound. For once, what Rose was hearing was completely unfamiliar to her. She had no idea what could have been causing it, or for what reason. She oriented her head towards its source and discovered it for what it was: a filly.

And she was crying.

Rose continued to stare at the strange sight until another young pony started doing something similar. And then another. And then another. Her gaze hovered over them all as parents did their best to comfort their children, despite the gloomy looks they themselves wore.

Applejack and Twilight walked up next to Rose, surveying the scene for themselves.

“Aw, shoot…” Applejack said dejectedly. “We had everythin’ goin’ our way… Luna was happy, everypony in town was happy… Now look at ‘em…”

Rose wasn’t sure what to make of it all. All around them, ponies, both young and old, expressed their grief. The young ones wailed while their parents did their best to ease them, all while trying to hide their own disappointment. To see them all like this was… unpleasant. The noise was annoying, to be sure, but there was more to it than that. Something else. This… This is a problem…

Applejack kicked at the dirt. “Hay, if I never left the bobbin’ bins, this probably never would’ve happened…”

Her words jumpstarted Rose’s thoughts. Not about “what if,” since that never mattered, but about “what now.” There must be a solution to this… Her optics soon settled on far off a building, one of the more popular establishments in town, as she understood it. Sugarcube Corner.

Electrons fired off. Currents of electricity flowed through gates, sensors, and circuits. A seemingly infinite number of these electrical streams worked in complete harmony with each other, processing information at the speed of light through a device of virtually unrivaled complexity. Within a second, Rose had her solution.

And it all started with a single mare.

“It’s not over yet,” Rose said with absolute conviction. She turned towards her faux-bearded companion. “Twilight, I need you go get Luna and bring her over to the bakery as soon as possible, understand?”

Twilight blinked at her. “What? I- uh, yes, but–”

“Good! She went that way!” Rose quickly pointed in the direction she saw Luna fly in, and, without wasting another second, started sprinting off in her own direction.

“Rose, wait!” Twilight called after her. “What are you doing?”

Rose stopped dead in her tracks and looked back over at them. “I’m fixing this!”

“Whoa, hold on,” Applejack yelled back. “What should Ah do?”

“Don’t get in the way!” With that, Rose was off again like a bullet.

Applejack gaped at the Liandri as she disappeared behind a building. After a brief moment, she turned to her friend, looking highly unamused.

Twilight chuckled nervously. “She’s trying – honest.”

“Ah ain’t gettin’ the impression…” Applejack deadpanned.

A set of blue eyes poked above the edge of a box, followed by a pair of bright pink hooves. The rest of the chicken-feathered head came up next, looking around frantically. Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure how, but she somehow managed to lose track of all the ponies that ran away with her last time, now suddenly finding herself alone. She wasn’t sure just how long she had been hiding.

Clambering out of the box, Pinkie Pie continued looking around. Somehow, she fled all the way across town to her place of work and less-than-humble home that was Sugarcube Corner. The sight of the familiar, sugary sweet building helped ease her. It had been a really scary night, after all!

Pinkie looked away for a moment, but then did a double take back to the bakery. Something was off. The shutters and blinds on all the windows were closed, which was normal after closing time. But one thing was out of place.

The lights were on.

That’s weird… Pinkie thought. The Cakes shouldn’t be back yet, it’s still way too early… Did somepony forget to turn the light off when they left?

Pinkie slowly approached the building with an air of skepticism. Everything was closed up, but light was definitely coming through the little gaps that weren’t perfectly covered up. Now what silly could have left it–

Her eye suddenly caught something out of the corner of her vision.

A piece of candy, lying on the ground.

Pinkie stared at it for about a second and a third before her face lit up with joy. Completely forgetting about her previous concerns, Pinkie Pie chicken-walked her way over to the piece of candy and gobbled it up with quick pecks. As she was happily chewing on it, she immediately noticed another piece of candy.

Letting the more base part of her brain take over, Pinkie followed a trail of candy that led around the back of Sugarcube corner, eagerly sucking up each piece. She kept going even after the trail led through the open back door of the bakery. She completely ignored that the door was open to begin with, as well as the fact that the lights were turned on as well.

She ate the candy trail all the way up to a large bowl sitting on a counter. Pinkie’s heart leapt with joy as she reared up to look inside the bowl at what was surely going to be one of the bestest, tastiest, most amazingly fantastic–

The bowl was empty.

Pinkie’s jaw dropped. The bowl that was expected to be filled to the brim with delicious candy was, in reality, completely empty save for a single piece of paper. Pinkie Pie squinted at it. The paper seemed to be an extremely wordy letter with incredibly neat hoofwriting that was addressed to…

Her?

Out of sheer curiosity, Pinkie Pie began reading the letter aloud to herself. However, she was completely oblivious of the fact that a figure silently dropped down from the roof of the building and into the doorway behind her. She still didn’t notice when said door closed just as quietly behind it. Although she did notice parts of her body start to twitch uncontrollably, and she definitely noticed when the room suddenly went dark.

Before she had a chance to react, Pinkie felt herself get tackled by something really, really hard.

The Nightmare Ends

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“What’s going on? Wh-who are you?” Pinkie Pie called out into the dark, lying on her side. She tried moving her hooves, but couldn’t manage it. The feel of rope around her legs told her all she needed to know.

The room remained silent.

“W-what do you want? Is it cupcakes? Candy?” Pinkie continued to struggle her hogtied legs to freedom. “I know you’re there! Somepony answer me!”

A deep chuckle sounded from somewhere behind her. “If only it was about cupcakes and candy…”

Pinkie froze. It was a deep, vibrating voice she couldn’t recognize. It spoke slowly, savoring every syllable. Uh oh…

“Tell me… Why do you think you’re here…?” the voice asked.

Taking short, ragged breaths, Pinkie slowly turned her head around towards the source of the voice. She quickly found her head forcefully pushed back down and held in place by… something. It was too small to be a hoof and, if anything, felt more like a claw.

“Well?” The voice insisted.

“I-I-I don’t know…”

A small pair of glowing red eyes moved itself into Pinkie’s vision. “You’re here because you’ve made a series of grievous mistakes.”

Pinkie blinked up at the eyes. “R-Rose? Is that you?”

The stranger let out a loud, deep voiced laugh before refocusing their eyes on her. “The AI isn’t here to help you, little pony, and neither are your friends.” Pinkie felt its claw gently slide down her jaw. “It’s just you, and me…” Pinkie whimpered and shut her eyes. The stranger’s claw grabbed her jaw and forced her face up. “Don’t be afraid. I just want to talk, that’s all.” It followed up with a deep chuckle.

“W-why…? W-what did I do…?”

The red eyes approached her face. “You have been quite the problem lately, and have managed to greatly upset… an acquaintance of mine. You are going to fix that problem. One way, or another. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll–”

White light blinded Pinkie as a familiar voice called from across the shop.

“Rose? I’m here! And I managed to find– What the hay is going on here?!”

Twilight Sparkle stood in the doorway with a shocked look while Rose stared at her like a deer in headlights.

“AHA! I knew it!” Pinkie cried out.

Rose scowled down at Pinkie. “Shut up,” she said in her usual voice, standing up. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.”

“Rose, what did you do?!” Twilight demanded.

“Isn’t it obvious? I incapacitated her so we could get her to actually talk with Luna.”

“Don’t you mean Nightmare Moon?” Pinkie interjected.

“No!” Twilight and Rose simultaneously yelled at her. Pinkie Pie shrunk back in response.

Twilight placed a hoof on her forehead and groaned. “Just give me a second…” She inhaled a deep breath and slowly let it out. Twilight knew she wasn’t able to mentally reset herself like Alex could, not quite yet, but she was improving, and the exercise still helped anyway. “Okay…” She looked at Rose. “First off, Pinkie needs to be untied. Now. Second, where did you even get that rope?”

Rose stared back at her indignantly. “I borrowed it. And I’m going to return it as soon as we’re done here.”

“Did you ask for permission?”

“I said I’d return it, isn’t that enough? And even if I didn’t, I doubt Applejack would notice a single coil of rope missing.”

“Are you telling me you stole it from Sweet Apple Acres? How did you even do that so quickly?”

“I borrowed it. And as for that second point: I’m very time efficient.”

“Actually, how did you even get in here?” asked Pinkie. “All the doors were locked, last time I checked.”

“Open window – top floor,” Rose said curtly. She turned back to Twilight “Look, all this talk is irrelevant to the situation. Pinkie and Luna need to talk face to face, and considering the former’s habit of running away, I’d say the rope is a bit more than a necessity. On that regard, where is Luna, anyway?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “She’s just outside – Look, can you just please untie Pinkie while I go get her?”

Rose crossed her arms. “Fine, but I cannot be held responsible for what she does after I let her go.”

Twilight shook her head and walked back out.

“You know I heard everything you said, right?” said Pinkie as Rose knelt down beside her.

Rose narrowed her eyes at her. “I know.” With a single yank, the rope came loose and Pinkie was finally able to free her hooves. But before she could get up, Rose clamped a hand around Pinkie’s mouth. “You are going to stay right here, you are not going to run off, and most importantly, you are not going to scream, either. Understand?”

A muffled “Okay” snaked its way around Rose’s fingers and she stood up, allowing Pinkie to do the same.

Rose looked through the doorway with a sensory pulse; detecting Luna and Twilight just around the corner. Timing it perfectly, she extended her hand to the door as Luna walked in and looked at Pinkie. “Pinkie Pie, this is Princess Luna. I trust you remember her?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened and she let out a few unconscious squawks, but managed to silence herself by shoving a hoof in her mouth.

Luna, on the other hand, looked much more focused as she approached the pink menace. “Ah, yes, the ring leader of the frightened children…” Her stern look broke down and she nervously rubbed one hoof with the other before extending it out to Pinkie. “Hast thou come to make peace…?”

Pinkie unclogged her mouth, staring at the offered hoof blankly. Twilight unconsciously held her breath as Pinkie stayed like that for several long seconds.

Just as Luna’s already uncomfortable smile started to falter, Pinkie smiled weakly and slowly extended her own hoof. Time seemed to stretch as their hooves came closer and closer to each other. Two feet… one foot… a few inches… a few centimeters… almost…

Suddenly, in a move that caught each of the other three completely by surprise, Pinkie pulled her hoof back, jumped up, and latched onto Luna’s neck with both of her forelegs. “It’s okay, I forgive you.”

Her words caught Rose’s attention. “Forgive her?! She has nothing to apologize for! If anything, it should be–” She stopped upon noticing Twilight vigorously shaking her head and waving her hooves at her. Rose rolled her eyes. “Fine. You forgive her.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Twilight took a few steps towards the hugging pair. “I’m happy you conquered your fear, Pinkie Pie. I hope now you can see that Princess Luna never wanted to gobble you up in the first place.”

Pinkie broke her hug with Luna and gave Twilight a critical look. “Well duh.”

Twilight blinked at her for a few seconds. “Wait, what?”

“Sheesh, Twilight, just look at us!” Pinkie giggled. “I’m almost as big as she is, how is she gonna gobble me up?”

“Are you serious!?” The three ponies turned to Rose, who had just about enough nonsense for one night. “Do you mean to tell me that you’ve caused us all this trouble for nothing?!”

Luna put a calm hoof between Pinkie and Rose. “Pray tell, Pinkie, why did thou incite such fears amongst the children about Us?”

Pinkie giggled, took a few steps back, and held her forelegs apart. “Sometimes, it’s just really fun to be scared!”

“Fun…?” the other three muttered while sharing confused looks.

Twilight’s jaw dropped as an idea came to her. “Fun! That’s it! Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!”

Pinkie blinked at Twilight. “Wow, twice in one night? I must be on to something.”

Her words went completely unheeded by Twilight who proceeded to gather the four of them into a huddle. “Alright everypony, I have an idea. Here’s what I need you to do…”

“Well this doesn’t look suspicious at all…” commented Sweetie Belle – dressed as a vampire – as she and her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders peered inside the dark entrance way of Alex’s home, a pile of candy sitting under a lone light.

“That sure is a lot a’ Candy fer us to get from one house,” said Applebloom, who wore a frizzy black and white mane and tail that made her look like Mrs. Frankenpony.

“And there’s nopony watching it,” said Scootaloo, wearing a wolf costume.

The other two nodded in agreement, but all of them stayed where they were and waited.

And waited.

And waited…

“I think Scootaloo should go get it!” Sweetie Belle blurted out.

“Me too!” Applebloom followed up.

“Me?! Why should I be the one to do it!?” Scootaloo protested.

The other two retreated to the side of the doorway. “Because you’re in the middle and we voted on it!” said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo backed up. “Hey, no fair!”

Applebloom cleared her throat. “Scootaloo’s right. It ain’t fair fer her to have ta do it alone like this.” She gave Scootaloo a challenging smirk. “After all, she can’t help it if she’s a chicken.”

“I am not a chicken!” said Scootaloo, stomping a hoof.

Applebloom’s smirk widened. “Prove it.”

Scootaloo’s eyes zipped between them before catching sight of the sign above the door. Only the brave shall be rewarded. She looked back down the hall at its entrenched darkness, the candy seemingly miles away. Whatever courage the sign may have inspired in her was sapped away in an instant. “Uh… hehe… w-why don’t we all go in? Strength in numbers, right?”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle shared a blank look. They looked back down the hallway and gulped. “Ah… guess that makes sense…” said Applebloom. “Alright… Ah guess Ah’ll go too…”

Scootaloo moved closer to them. “Come on, let’s all go in together.”

“I’ll stay out here, thanks,” said Sweetie Belle.

“Come on, Sweetie Belle,” pleaded Applebloom. “Scootaloo’s right! It’ll be better if we stick together. Besides, there ain’t anypony there!”

“You don’t know that!”

“Hellooooo?” Scootaloo called out into the darkness. “Anypony there?” The sound of silence answered her. “See? It’s fine. We just got ourselves worked up for nothing.”

Sweetie Belle looked back inside. Aside from the single circle of light with the candy, the rest of the hallway was pitch black. “I dunno…”

“Come on, Sweetie Belle. That sign above the door says ‘Only the brave shall be rewarded!’ If we all act brave, we can all get the candy!”

Sweetie looked up at the sign, then back down the hall. After a moment’s hesitation, she shuffled her way towards her friends. “Yeah… Okay, I’ll go too.”

“That’s the spirit!” said Applebloom. “Together!”

The three of them lined up in front of the automated door. Slowly but surely, they took tentative steps inside, making sure they kept their line.

WHAM!

Applebloom and Scootaloo let out a yelp and spun around.

“The door! The door! What happened to the door?!” Scootaloo cried.

“Where’s the handle?!” Applebloom shouted. “How do you open this darn thing?!”

“Uhhh, girls…?” Sweetie Belle said with a shaky voice. “W-we’re not alone in here…”

Applebloom and Scootaloo froze. With a speed that even a sloth would scoff at, they turned around to see what Sweetie Belle was talking about.

A pair of glowing yellow eyes was staring at them from the other side of the circle of light.

For almost a minute, nopony said anything. Aside from the careful breathing of the three fillies, not a single sound was heard during the three-against-one staring contest. Except only one of the four never blinked.

None of the three fillies were quite sure what to do. Something was definitely looking at them, but they weren’t sure if it could actually see them. After all, they couldn’t even see each other.

“H-h-hello…?” Scootaloo said hesitantly.

It didn’t respond.

“W-we’re sorry we intruded. If you could just open the door, we’ll be on our way.”

“Wait,” Applebloom interrupted. “Only the brave’ll be rewarded, right? Maybe we just gotta show it we ain’t scared.”

“But I am!” hissed Sweetie Belle.

“Applebloom has a point,” said Scootaloo. “We have to be brave! Let’s just take this one step at a time, okay?”

There was a moment of silence before Sweetie Belle spoke again. “Okay…”

Feeling out for each other, they started moving ever so slowly forward in a close huddle.

The trio stopped in their tracks when a low growl cut through the silence and into their ears. Their breath caught in their throats and they huddled together even more than they already were.

“I don’t like this…” whispered Sweetie.

“It’s okay, it’s okay…” Scootaloo repeated. “We’re fine…” The hesitation in her voice didn’t make her sound certain of herself, though.

Despite everything, they forced themselves onward. None of them knew why they were doing it, though. Their thoughts had already abandoned the candy and were completely focused on what lay in the shadows. It was as if the candy no longer mattered, that the only important thing was to conquer whatever monster they faced, to show that they were not afraid, that it would not scare them, and most of all, that they would not let it beat them.

A single gleaming claw broke free from the darkness and landed just inside the circle of light. The fillies simultaneously drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the pointy appendage. A long, metallic muzzle followed suit. Razor-sharp teeth glinted in the light as the growling turned into a snarl.

This time, no amount of self-induced courage would be able to move them, as the sight in front of them tapped into the most instinctive and primitive fears innate in every pony. They still couldn’t see the rest of it, but they didn’t need to in order to know what it was. Every single fibre in their bodies told them one single, solitary thing: run. Run fast, run far.

But there was nowhere to run to, and they knew it well.

Without warning, the pair of glowing yellow eyes suddenly turned a shade of light blue before quickly turning blood red. The creature’s maw gaped open as it let out a deafening roar and leapt through the light at the three fillies.

The only thing the Crusaders could do was scream.

And scream.

And scream…

Applebloom’s breath was the first to get exhausted and she looked up from the frightened little huddle with her other friends. “Hey, girls?” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo kept screaming, so Applebloom gave them a firm shove, knocking them over. “Girls! Look! It’s gone.”

The other two quickly got themselves back to their hooves and looked around. The monster that had just terrorized them was gone and the door was somehow open again, revealing the rest of the town and letting in the cool night air.

“Huh? Where’d it go?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“I don’t wanna stick around to find out,” said Scootaloo, “let’s just grab the candy and get outta here!”

“Good idea, let’s do that!” said Applebloom.

Pinkie Pie trotted back to the festival with a smile on her face. After hearing about what happened with Luna, she couldn’t help but feel terrible about the fact that she helped cause her so much distress that she wanted to cancel Nightmare Night. Something like that was just plain mean, and there was no way she was going to let herself be a big mean meanie pants, no siree.

But Twilight’s plan was going to be perfect! It was going to fix everything, and everypony would be happy again! She just knew it!

As Pinkie caught sight of the festival, she stopped and felt a stone sink in her gut. The entire place was a mess. It looked like at least two stampedes had passed through. Stalls were knocked over, decorations were destroyed, fruit was obliterated, and other perfectly good foods were ruined. Pinkie’s smile vanished in an instant. It was all supposed to be in good fun! How could something like this happen?

Spotting a nearby group of moping kids, one of whom she recognized as Pip-Squeak, Pinkie trotted over to them. “Hey, guys, what happened here?”

Pip raised his head to look at Pinkie, although this time, he didn’t smile at the sight of her like everypony normally did. “Princess Luna canceled Nightmare Night forever…” he said. “I never thought that my very first Nightmare Night would be my very last…”

A pang of mixed guilt and regret shot through Pinkie’s chest. Pip didn’t blame her, but the knowledge that she was, at the very least, partly responsible for what he was feeling didn’t help her feel any better.

Despite it all, she put a smile back on her face and did what she did best. Just stick to the plan! “Aw, cheer up, Pip! Nightmare Night isn’t over yet! In fact…” She picked up Pip in one foreleg and poked him with the other. “We still have the annual candy offering to do! And who knows–” She winked at him. “–Nightmare Moon might give us another chance if we give her enough candy.”

Pip looked at her with wondrous eyes. “You really think so?”

“Yep!” She put Pip down and looked at the other kids around him. “I need you guys to round everypony up and get as much candy as you can carry. Tell them to meet me by the forest just outside of town, okay? Nightmare Night isn’t over yet, not if Pinkie Pie has anything to say about it!”

Their mood immediately improved, the foals cheered and ran in different directions. Pinkie watched them run off and giggled to herself. With phase one of the plan done, she set off towards the meeting point near the edge of the forest.

This was going to be great!

“Thank you so much, Pinkie,” said Mayor Mare as she and a large group of ponies traveled down the forest path. “I can’t tell you how much this means to them after everything that’s happened.”

“Aww, it was nothing,” said Pinkie. “Besides, they looked like they needed some cheering up!”

“They sure did,” said Applejack, who had also come along for the candy offering. “By the way, you wouldn’t‘ve happened to see Rose, recently, would you?”

Pinkie shook her head. “Nope! Why?”

“She said she was goin’ ta ‘fix this.’ Not sure what she meant by that, but I figured that had somethin’ to do with you. Guess not.”

“Guess not!” Pinkie Pie repeated to her. Ever so carefully, Pinkie nonchalantly separated herself from the rest of the group and stopped near the side of the road. “Pst, everything set?” she whispered into a bush. Her attention was drawn upwards into the branches of a tree when a glowing red hand gave her a thumbs up before disappearing into the shadows.

Grinning, Pinkie ran to catch up to the others, though she turned her massive grin into a much smaller smile just so she wouldn’t give anything away. At last, they all approached the statue of Nightmare Moon.

Aside from the chatter of small groups of friends, the area had been relatively quiet. That all stopped, though, when a long, drawn out howl sounded throughout the clearing. Its melancholic song rang in their ears, drawing everypony’s attention like a moth to a flame. Chills ran down their spines as the sound told them it could only mean one thing. There, standing on a large, exposed branch just above the tree line with the moon acting as a backdrop, was the unmistakable outline of a wolf howling to the sky.

Everypony froze, including Pinkie. When Rose mentioned she had something that could help, she wasn’t expecting something like that. The wolf stopped its howl and its head swivelled to look at the ponies in the clearing. A pair of bright red eyes could be seen against the sleek black silhouette. Almost as suddenly as it appeared, the wolf hopped off the branch and out of sight.

“Ah think we should hurry,” said Applejack, starting to hurry along some of the foals. “Somethin’ tells me it ain’t safe out here.”

“You’ve got that right.”

The sudden voice stole their attention and they all turned to see Rose, standing several meters away from them, fully illuminated with her tail calmly swaying behind her. But oddly enough, the most unsettling thing of all was the fact that she was smiling.

“Rose? When the hay did you get here?” asked Applejack.

Rose placed her left hand on her hip and began disinterestedly examining the claw-like fingers on her right. “Oh, I’ve always been here, Applejack. You’ve just never noticed.”

“Then what’re ya doin’ here? Where’s Twilight?”

“Not here. And I already told you what I’m doing.” Rose looked Applejack dead in the eye. “I’m fixing this.”

Rose suddenly spread her arms apart and a wall of flame sparked behind her, quickly spreading around the group of now increasingly terrified ponies, and forming a complete ring that stopped at each side of the statue’s base.

“What in the name of Granny Smith’s mane…” Applejack muttered.

It was at this moment that something came walking through the ring of fire behind Rose completely unharmed: the red-eyed wolf. Thanks to the light created by the fire, Applejack was able to see it for what it really was. It looked just like a timber wolf, but with obvious differences. The first was that it was smaller than an actual timber wolf, and the second was that it was made of metal instead of wood. It wasn’t terribly hard to guess where this one came from.

“What’s goin’ on here, Rose?!” Applejack demanded with a stomp of her hoof.

Rose chuckled and sauntered up next to the metallic wolf. She placed a hand on its back and tapped her fingers against it lightly. The wolf snarled at the ponies in response. “My job is very simple, Applejack. I’m just here to make sure no one runs away again. I have no actual business with any of you.” She laughed again as she began walking through the fire with the wolf in tow and pointed behind herself with a thumb. “But she does.”

A loud cackling caught their attention and all the ponies looked back towards the statue of Nightmare Moon.

Only it wasn’t a statue anymore. There, standing on the large stone base, was the actual Nightmare Moon in all her former glory.

Applejack’s jaw dropped and her heart sank. A lot of unexpected things happened tonight, but this was something else entirely. Everything was there: pure black coat, blue regalia and armor, giant ethereal mane and tail; it was definitely her.

Pinkie Pie had a difficult time keeping herself together. She knew this was all a part of the plan, but it all seemed so different in her head. The fire was one thing, but seeing Nightmare Moon like this again brought up some uncomfortable memories. It was almost enough to distract her from what she was supposed to be doing. Almost. “Quick! Give her the candy!”

Without much more prompting, the kids practically threw their bags of candy at the stone base. Nightmare Moon stopped her cackling and looked down at them with a fanged grin.

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE! YOU WERE WISE TO BRING THIS CANDY TO ME. I AM PLEASED WITH YOUR OFFERING. SO PLEASED, THAT I MAY JUST EAT IT, INSTEAD OF EATING YOU!”

Nightmare Moon began laughing again as the ponies started to scream for their lives. At the same time, a violent wind swept in and the ring of fire was immediately extinguished. The ponies wasted no time running as fast as their legs could carry them, leaving behind the candy and even bits of their costumes that got tossed off.

Seeing them all run away, Nightmare Moon stopped her laughing. Her body became enveloped in a solid white glow as her form shrank in size. When the glow disappeared, all that was left standing in place was Princess Luna, who promptly spat out a set of fake fangs. She didn’t want to look like that any longer than she had to.

Luna turned just in time to see Twilight Sparkle come out from hiding behind the stone base. “That was amazing, Princess!” she said.

Rose came running out of the tree line with the metallic wolf next to her. “That went better than I thought it would. And I must admit, I certainly had fun doing that.”

Luna furrowed her brows ever so slightly. “I am not certain that did what you meant for it to do, Twilight Sparkle…”

Twilight smiled at her. “Just wait.”

“For what?” Luna continued for her. “For… for them to scream some more?”

“We wait for them to calm down, first,” said Rose. “I wouldn’t know what it’s like to be scared like that, but I can imagine they’d need at least some time to recover. At that point, we just need to wait for Pinkie. By the way…” she looked at Twilight. “Well done with the fire. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to do it.”

Twilight chuckled. “I certainly did my best! But I think Princess Luna had more of a hoof in that than I did.”

Luna nodded with small smile when Rose raised a brow at her. “I… may have helped.”

Rose waved her off. “Whatever works, I suppose.”

“Could somepony tell me just what in the hay was all that?” The three of them – four if you include the wolf – turned to see Applejack coming back from the direction all the ponies ran in.

Rose smirked. “Applejack, tell me, what did you think of our little display?”

“Display? Is that what yer callin’ it?” said Applejack, making her way around the group to stand next to Twilight and keeping her eye locked on the wolf. “Y’all went and scared half the town ta death!”

“It was only a little Nightmare Night scare, AJ,” said Twilight. “A well-orchestrated one, if I do say so myself, but that’s all it was.”

“And what’s with that thing?” Applejack pointed towards the metallic wolf.

“A little something Alex put together based on artists’ renditions of timber wolves,” answered Rose. “He built it just for tonight to guard candy, even though it wouldn’t actually stop anybody from taking it. Construction-wise, it’s not bad. It lacks a few stabilizers and other relatively important components – which I’ve had to make up for – but otherwise it’s a fully functioning quadruped.”

“So what yer tellin’ me is that it’s just another robot?”

“It’s just another Liandri, yes.”

“Hey there, everypony! Great job! That was super-duper amazing!” They all looked toward the entrance of the clearing, this time seeing Pinkie Pie calling out to them. “Oh, and I have a little somepony here who has something to say to you!” Pinkie pulled out Pip-Squeak from behind her and gave him an encouraging nudge. “Go on, they won’t bite.” Pip-Squeak, however, didn’t move.

“If your problem is with this thing,” Rose said as she tapped the wolf’s head, “you have nothing to be concerned about.” This time, the wolf spoke with Rose’s voice. “It’s completely under my control, and can’t hurt you.”

“I ain’t sure if Ah’ll ever get used to that…” said Applejack.

Both Rose and the wolf looked at her and spoke simultaneously. “Which is why I’ll keep doing it.”

The group turned their attention on Pip as he and Pinkie approached them. “Umm, Princess Luna? I know there’s not gonna be any more Nightmare Night, but… Do you think that maybe you could come back next year and scare us again anyway?” Pip started out nervously, but by the end of his question, he was beaming.

Luna’s jaw dropped in surprised. Movement caught her attention and she looked up from him to see the rest of the children standing off to the side, silently watching them. She looked back down at him incredulously. “Child… Art thou saying that thou… likest me to scare you?”

Pip nodded. “It’s really fun! Scary, but fun!”

“It… it is?”

“Yeah! Nightmare Night is my favorite night of the year!”

Luna’s heart swelled as she smiled. “Well then, we shall have to bring NIGHTMARE NIGHT BACK!”

Pip’s face lit up. “Whoa! You’re my favorite princess ever!” He ran up and quickly hugged her leg before running back to the other kids. “She said yes, guys!” The other kids cheered at the news as they all started to make their way back to town.

Twilight walked up next to Luna. “See? They really do like you, Princess! They just had a different way of expressing it.”

“I suppose it is true, then.” Luna smiled warmly at her. “Thank you for everything, Twilight Sparkle. And thanks to you as well, Rose.”

Rose nodded. “All in all, I would say it was a job well– oh for crying out loud; Pinkie, what are you doing?!”

Pinkie Pie pulled her head out of the wolf’s mouth. “What?”

And so the holiday continued on as it did in previous years. While many decorations were still in shambles, the ponies cleaned and fixed things up just enough so that the festival could continue its usual celebration. Despite the fact that the candy offering was already said and done, much of it was still being given out and collected. After all, Nightmare Moon wasn’t the only one who enjoyed candy.

And while the celebration took on its usual flavor, this year held something extra, thanks to not just one, but two unusual participants.

The elevator doors parted and Rose walked out with a content smile. The security bots gave her a salute as she passed, but she ignored them. It was an automatic response anyway. Rose disabled the security checkpoint with a thought and walked through undisturbed to the one place that she could genuinely call a home.

Upon entering the Prototype Lab, Rose made a beeline for the docking station along the wall so she should finally remove herself from that confining body of a costume. “Good evening, Alex,” she said as she passed by. “I heard there was a problem with the system earlier. I trust that was the only issue with Pinkie’s visit?”

Alex didn’t answer.

As Rose reached the docking station, she peered back at him curiously. He was sitting in a chair by a deactivated holo-projector doing absolutely nothing. “Alex?” Still no response.

Instead of docking, Rose walked over to him to see if he was asleep. Sitting upright seemed like an odd position to sleep in, considering he usually did it lying down, but she ultimately had no experience in the matter. When she reached him, she found that he was, in fact, awake. The calibrator was still over his right eye and his left eye seemed to be staring at… nothing remotely important.

Rose curled a brow. “Alex?” When she didn’t get a response, she frowned and gave him a firm poke in the neck, right next to his jaw.

Alex jumped awake. “AH FUCK! What the- Oh it’s just you…” Alex took a moment to catch his breath. “When did you get back?”

“Just now. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah yeah yeah, it’s just…” He placed a hand over the calibrator and took a deep breath. “God damn, you scared the shit out of me…”

“I’m not talking about that. You were staring at the side of this terminal and were completely ignoring me. Did something happen?”

“I was…?” said Alex, lowering his hand. Rose nodded. “Huh… Yeah, I… I guess I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Like what?”

Alex pursed his lips and stared at the holo-projector, lightly nodding his head. After a brief pause, he said “Remember when we said that we should keep an eye on Pinkie? That there was something off about her? And not just in the usual sense?”

“Of course. What about it?”

“Well…” He looked up at her. “I just figured out what that off thing was. And it disturbs me. A lot.”

“I see…” Rose started walking back to the docking station. “For a moment, I was afraid the BCI might have caused some damage. So aside from the security issue and Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, is there anything else that happened while I was gone?”

“What?!” Alex called after her. “This was not Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie! This-” He gripped his head in his hands. “This was something completely different! This was off the fucking chart!”

Rose backed herself into the docking station and her body locked in place. After a few seconds, all the lights on it dimmed completely as the body shut down. A few seconds later, the super-computer’s chassis lit up with its usual blue eye and swivelled to look at Alex. “And what exactly would it be?”

“Just look at the scanner data and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

“I’m already doing that. I must admit, I wasn’t anticipating something like this.”

“You see?!” Alex was almost flailing his arms. “It’s quantum storage! We haven’t even figured this shit out yet! Not only did Pinkie Pie figure it out, she built a cannon for parties based on this tech!”

“Alex, calm down.”

“Calm down? Calm down? How the hell do you expect me to calm down about this? If she can do this, what else do you think she’s capable of, huh? What else does she know?!”

“It’s Pinkie Pie.” Rose brought the chassis’ head a little closer to Alex, causing him to pull his head away in response. “While I will agree that this begs the question of what else she’s capable of, you have to take into consideration what she has already used this technology for: parties and having fun. Considering that’s all she’s done with it for what we can assume is most of her adult life, I highly doubt she’s going to use it for much more than that. Now can we move on from this topic of conversation?”

Alex blinked at her for a moment and then sighed. He moved to pinch the bridge of his nose, but couldn’t quite manage it because of the calibrator, so he instead settled for resting a hand over his uncovered eye. “Yeah, I guess…”

“Good.” Rose moved the chassis back to its usual position. “Now then, onto the next subject. While I was out, I learned something I think you’ll find interesting.”

Alex lowered his hand and gave Rose a tired look. “And that is?”

“As it turns out, there is an Equestrian princess who controls the moon. Her name is Luna, and she’s Celestia’s sister.”

Alex blinked at her.

“I believe I win the bet,” she continued.

“Oh…” Alex turned his blank, thoughtless stare away from her. It took a few moments for everything to register before he finally said something. “FUCK!”

Later that night, in Canterlot

Princess Celestia walked through the massive double doors of her private bedroom and carefully closed them behind her with her magic, double checking to make sure the lock was secure. As an added measure, she closed the curtains on all the windows to make absolutely sure nopony could look in on her.

Satisfied that nopony was watching, she twisted a wall mounted candle next to her fireplace forty five degrees to the left and back. Hearing a barely audible click, Celestia used her magic to heave one of the few titanic bookcases that decorated her ornate room a few feet to the side, exposing a rectangular, otherwise unnoticeable hole in the wall behind it.

Celestia squeezed through the gap and forced the bookshelf back into its proper position, fully obscuring the hole. She pushed a button on the wall next to her with her hoof, a click signaling that the shelf was locked into place once more.

The room Celestia now found herself in was completely bare, save for the bright lights shining down from the ceiling and a large monitor that occupied the far wall.

As Celestia approached it, the monitor came to life, presenting her with the ever familiar image of a complex black mask in a darkened room that looked nothing like any sort of face to begin with. She had never seen the actual face of the individual who wore it, and she believed she never would.

“Give me a status report on Luna,” a distinctly male voice came from the screen. It had a slight vibration, as if coming through some sort of filter.

Always skipping the pleasantries, as usual. “She’s fine,” Celestia answered. “According to her story of tonight’s events, most of it went largely as expected.

“I hear the AI was involved. Did that not change anything?”

Celestia shook her head. “Surprisingly, no. From what Luna tells me, it was actually her who initially tried to help her reconcile with Pinkie Pie; not Twilight. She feels no different about it, though.”

“The AI is an it, Celestia. Do not let your judgement become clouded because it appears to have a personality.”

Celestia held her breath for a moment before nodding. “Of course.”

“And what about Laythem?”

“Pinkie Pie supposedly paid him a visit earlier tonight and managed to get a substantial amount of candy from him, but other than that, nopony has seen him all night. From what I understand, he’s recovering from some sort of injury, or perhaps illness, but for now it’s unclear.”

"My sources tell me the same..." The figure on the screen nodded, but remained silent for a while before speaking. “I must admit, Celestia, they don’t quite seem like the threat the Makderi warned me about, nor the one I envisioned.”

Celestia raised a brow. “No?”

The figure shook his head. “No. I will continue to give them the benefit of the doubt for now, as per your initial request, although I still want a close eye kept on them. If it turns out he actually is Kriegor, then both he and his AI will have to be dealt with as expediently as possible.”

“Without causing Equestria-wide panic, yes?” Princess Celestia cut in.

The screen let out a shallow chuckle. “Of course.”

Author's Notes:

What's this? Celestia has secrets!
As I mentioned before, there IS an overarching main story which will poke its head in every now and then. This is one of those times.

*NOTE - PLEASE READ*: I understand that last scene might have some mixed reactions. I was aiming for something that got the reader's attention, and highlighted something that was going on behind the scenes. This was something that I've had planned out a while ago, and it was going to happen eventually. I decided to do it sooner rather than later so that things make more sense in the long run. I know exactly where I want to take the story, even if things may seem convoluted right now. Believe me, it will all make sense in the end, and it will all be tied up with a neat little bow. It doesn't affect the regular story at all, not for a long while. Just think of it as a parallel story line.

FOR EMPHASIS: Celestia is no one's bitch. There is a hierarchy, but she just happens to be one notch from the top. No reason to flip out over it.

In other news, I'm glad this arc is over. Writing Rose as a large focus isn't as easy as I originally thought it would be, but I like the way the arc turned out. I've already started working on the next chapter, and I also find it's much easier to write. Then again, the next one doesn't take place during an episode, so I guess that's kind of expected. Man, if I ever have to see Luna eclipsed one more god damn time...

And again, a special thanks to Rocinante for pre-reading this chapter!

Of Ponies and Scorpions

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The automatic doors whirred open and granted Twilight Sparkle access into Alex’s garage. Twilight was used to doors opening without any physical interaction, but to have them open into the walls without any magical intervention on her part – or anypony’s part for that matter – still made her giddy. Fully automatic doors that detect somepony and open for them all on their own! How could anypony not love that?

As Twilight entered the garage, she was quickly met with what she recognized as a light class domestic Liandri. “Greetings. How may I be of assistance?”

The domestic bot was easily the most bare bones of any type of Liandri Twilight had ever seen. Its body and limbs were thin, but functional, and its hands had a full set of five fingers each, as opposed to the three fingered variety on the security bots. Its head looked more human than the other Liandri, though, even if it still lacked any distinguishable mouth, nose, and ears.

“Oh, hello!” answered Twilight. “I’m looking for Alex. Is he still here?”

“Alex is currently working on a project and has asked to remain undisturbed for the time being.”

Twilight stared at the bot for a moment before sighing and looking up in exasperation. “Rose? Are you there?”

The domestic’s eyes flashed blue for a moment and it extended its hand to the side. “Right this way.”

“Thank you!” Twilight called out before following the bot.

Twilight looked around the garage absently as she followed the Liandri. From what she could see, it was devoid of any activity. Aside from a couple of security bots that stood in opposite corners of the room, it was fairly empty. There were plenty of tool boxes and racks, as well as other machines that looked like they were meant to be used on something else, but otherwise, the space was very neat and organized. The only curiosity she could spot was a something fairly large hiding underneath a white tarp.

The domestic bot led Twilight to a door near the back of the garage area. When it opened up, Twilight’s ears were assaulted with the sounds of several alien machines working in tandem, causing her to jump in surprise. While Twilight was familiar with the sound of a single welder, she wasn’t as familiar with the sound of several at once, mixed in with the whirring of countless servos, motors, and other tools she probably didn’t even know existed. It was almost as if the door was a gateway into another world – and in a way, it was.

Twilight looked around with wide eyes as the bot led her through a network of complex machines and stopped to look at one more closely. At least a dozen long robotic arms with metal claws, welders, and other unidentifiable tools were working together in perfect harmony to build something. There was not a single arm that wasn’t moving, and they always seemed like they had something to do, whether it was to install a part or just get out of the way of another arm. From what Twilight could see through all the moving machinery and flying sparks, it looked like they were building another domestic bot.

Twilight eyed the rest of the machines as she continued to follow the domestic. Unlike the first, the others weren’t building other Liandri. Several of the arms on those machines had EMCs on them that looked like they were busy making some sort of deep black fabric. Despite the fact that each machine had several EMCs working at the same time, it still looked like what they were working on was going to take a while. At least, if the current amount of it was any indicator, which wasn’t terribly much. Perhaps a few square meters, at most.

Finally, Twilight and the domestic reached the back of the noisy machinery area and passed into another room where the door was already open. It was an exceptionally large workshop area, although unlike the garage, countless tools were strewn about everywhere and several holographic projectors were showing various three dimensional designs. Most of them looked like they were for some sort of Liandri Twilight had never seen before, but one looked like a projection of a bat’s wing, or maybe even a dragon’s. They were so similar physiologically that she couldn’t quite tell.

The domestic motioned towards a table on the far wall, where Alex was sitting on a stool and hunched over something. “Sir, you have a visitor.”

“Hmm?” Alex looked over his shoulder and his expression immediately brightened up. “Oh hey! What’s up?”

Twilight just stared at him. More specifically, the tissues he had stuffed in his nose. “Uh, Alex, what happened to your nose?”

He paused for a moment and let out a long sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~

Alrighty… ASMD recoil test in three… two… one…

~~~~~~~~~~

“Let’s just say I learned the value of using surrogates to test things and leave it at that,” he said as he yanked the bloody tissues out of his nose and tossed them aside. He sniffed sharply and massaged his nose right after.

“Riiiight…” Twilight trailed off as her eyes wandered to the worktable behind him.

What Alex seemed to be working on before Twilight showed up looked like a large, metal forearm with a complete, five fingered hand. It was an unpolished silver color and had an opening with several wires connecting out of it. However, it was much larger than any other arm she had ever seen before, since it was almost twice the size of Alex’s own forearm.

“So anyway, what brings you to my little neck of the woods?” he asked.

Twilight’s eyes snapped back to his. “Oh! I just came by to remind you that the running of the leaves will be starting soon.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “Wait, what? What time is it?” He looked at his watch.

“It’s about eleven twenty,” said Twilight. “There’s still some time left, but not much. Most of the racers are registering right now.”

Alex spun around began shoving his tools back into their proper positions. “Dammit, Rose, why didn’t you tell me it was almost time?”

“The race starts in forty minutes, Alex,” Rose disembodied voice come from… somewhere. “There’s hardly any rush.”

“Fine. What about the other preparations? Cameras, projectors, screens – those already set up?”

“Everything is already in position and fully operational.”

Alex placed his hands on the table and paused. “Well, at least that saves some time.” He muttered before pushing himself up from the workbench. “Unit, clean up the tools while I’m gone.”

The domestic nodded. “Acknowledged.”

Alex picked up a smooth, padded helmet with a large reflective visor and made his way out of the workshop area, with Twilight quickly following behind. When Alex originally heard about the running of the leaves happening around mid-November, several things went through his mind. The first and foremost was the abhorrent lack of natural processes the ponies’ world seemed to have, and the second was that it would be the perfect opportunity to test his very first vehicle and the prototype engine powering it: The Scorpion.

Of course, that idea was completely thrown out the window when he was told that only ponies could participate. However, the idea was thrown back in when he employed Rose to try to convince the mayor otherwise. In the end, they offered to spruce up the whole event using the one technique humans have mastered since the dawn of American college football: televising it. Or rather, projecting it all onto large screens so that ponies who weren’t racing would be able to enjoy every exciting second of it, thanks to domestic bots armed with cameras in hot air balloons. The end result was that Alex would be able to use the Scorpion, but only as an unofficial and unranked racer, and he could only start after the lead ponies were two thirds of the way through.

“You know, Alex, I’m still surprised they’re letting you race,” Twilight yelled over the machinery.

“Yeah, me too,” he yelled back. “But hey, I’m happy. Hell, I’m really happy.”

“Are you that excited about the race?”

The door shut behind them as they made their way into the garage and they were finally able to speak normally. “Well yeah, but that’s not all of it. A whole bunch of things have been going my way, lately.”

“Really? Like what?”

Alex put his helmet down on a toolbox next to the object hiding under the white tarp and smiled back at her. “Well, aside from a few bots upgrades and the progress we’ve made on a whole bunch of different projects, I finally managed to get some contract work!”

Twilight beamed at him. “Congratulations, Alex! Who’s it for?”

“Ponyville PD, believe it or not. They said they were interested in the blues and they wanted to see if they could use them in the field, so long as I can develop a non-lethal weapon for them to use.” ‘Blue’ was the nickname given to the security bots due to the blue trim on their bodies. “You see, Rose recently developed something called ‘Sonic Incapacitation’ that’s meant to pacify large crowds, but they didn’t want something that drew too much attention. I’m still a little surprised they want to work with me, though, considering the scare I gave everyone back when we started building this place…”

Twilight tilted her head at him. “That is… surprising – Alex, I didn’t even know Ponyville had a police department.”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “You wouldn’t think so. Turns out ponies break laws more often than you’d think. They just don’t get much attention in the paper. That’s what I find more surprising.”

“But why Ponyville? The town’s pretty small; there couldn’t be so much trouble that the police department would need your help.”

“Yeah, but it’s when fugitives from the bigger cities like Manhattan and Baltimore come in on the train that there’s a problem.”

“Manehattan and Baltimare,” Twilight corrected.

Alex pursed his lips and hung his head. “Right…”

Twilight giggled. “Anyway, I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks. Now then…” Alex bent down and grabbed the edge of the tarp. With a single arm motion, he lifted and pulled it off.

Twilight gaped at the sight before her. Alex talked to her about human cars before, but to actually see one was really something else. To her knowledge, automobiles existed in Equestria, but they were very few and incredibly far between; reserved for only the wealthiest of ponies, and even then they were more of a curiosity than a utility. And here she was, standing right next to what was probably the most advanced automobile in the entire world.

Suspended above a set of four large rubber wheels, the only thing she could even remotely compare the chassis to was what she imagined a spaceship would look like based on some science fiction novels she had read. Its frame looked jagged, yet smooth and aerodynamic at the same time. A single seat for the driver was placed in the middle of the vehicle, leaving the back end for what she assumed was whatever mechanism that was supposed to propel it. A canopy for the cockpit was positioned near the front of the vehicle, and it looked to her like it was able to slide into place to completely conceal the driver. The word Scorpion was printed on the front in bold letters.

Alex had been asked several times why the vehicle had been given the name “Scorpion,” but he refused to answer the question each time, and with good reason. The truth of the matter was that the vehicle was designed back on Earth and that the Scorpion he had actually built was a modified version of the original sketch. Like virtually all of his old vehicle designs, the Scorpion was drawn with a post-apocalyptic scenario in mind and was originally intended to be an all-terrain scouting vehicle. It got its name because of the automated gun that was mounted on the back and a set of razor sharp blades that was mounted on the front of the undercarriage that, when fully extended, looked reminiscent of a scorpion’s claws.

Of course, this “civilian” version had neither of those, but no one else needed to know that.

“Wow,” was all Twilight managed to say.

Alex chuckled at her reaction and patted the top of the vehicle. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Took me about three solids weeks to put this thing together by hand, and it was worth every second. I mean, just look at it! State of the art cockpit, four wheel drive, traction control, adaptive suspension… A couple Tarydium boosters on the back, too. This thing was built for speed and off-roading, and it is beautiful.”

Twilight tore her attention away from the Scorpion to look at him questioningly. “Tarydium? I can’t say I’m familiar with that term…”

Alex met her gaze. “I never told you about Tarydium?” She shook her head. “Oh… Well… Tarydium was one of the more recent discoveries on Earth. Only a few years ago, actually. You see, Tarydium in its natural state is a crystal, but someone determined its molecular structure and said ‘hey, this could potentially make a really good liquid fuel!’ So, about a year and billions of taxpayer dollars later, they came up with a Tarydium refining process that produced a fuel that was just as dirty as conventional ones, but way more efficient – about five times as efficient, actually.

“The only problem was that there wasn’t much Tarydium to go around. That, and the refining process produced this toxic and hellishly caustic by-product called biosludge. That stuff eats through flesh and bone like nobody’s business, and metals doesn’t fare much better, either. Turns out only a container made with a specialized tungsten-gold alloy can hold the stuff, and even then you have to swap containers after a couple of years. Because of that, Tarydium was expensive as hell and was pretty much reserved exclusively for rocket fuel.”

Twilight nodded. “I see… Wait, rocket fuel?”

“Yep.”

“As in, just for rockets?”

“That’d be it.”

“So does that mean that those are…?” Twilight waved her hoof in the direction of the boosters on the back of the Scorpion.

Alex followed where she was pointing and nodded back at her. “Mhm, yeah, they are.”

Twilight’s jaw slowly fell as she tried to make sense of things. When she did, she face-hooved. “Alex, I may not have the same experience as you, but that just screams bad idea.”

“That’s what I said,” came Rose’s voice out of nowhere.

“See?” Twilight followed up. “Even Rose agrees with me!”

Alex waved them off. “Pffffff, it’ll be fine! I mean, sure, our synthetic Tarydium isn’t as good as the real thing, but it gets the job done. They’re made to only run for a few seconds at a time, anyway. Overheating is a non-issue.”

Twilight sighed and walked around the vehicle once more to get one last good look at it. “Well alright, if you’re feeling confident about it… I’m going to go register for the race. Don’t be late!”

“Wait, are you gonna be running?”

She smiled brightly. “Yep! I even ran last year, too. Managed to get fifth place!”

Alex stared at her with wide eyes and golf clapped. “Wow. Well done. I wouldn’t have guessed you could manage that.”

Twilight chuckled to herself as she walked out the door. “Neither did Applejack and Rainbow Dash. See you there!”

Alex waved after her as the door shut, leaving him alone next to the Scorpion. The room was entirely silent except for the hum of the machines in the next room. He sighed and picked up his helmet to look at himself in the reflective visor. His black hair was only a few centimeters long, but it had grown back well in the past couple of weeks, all things considered. Alex brought the helmet closer to himself so he could get a better look at his right eye.

“Hmm…” He placed the helmet down again and tapped his fingers against it idly. “Hey, Rose?”

“Yes?” Rose’s omnipresent voice responded.

“I’ve been, uh… doing a bit of thinking, lately.”

“About what?”

Alex let out a deep breath. “I’m thinking we should…” he hesitated. “…take our time with the warrior project.”

“Really?”

“Yeah… I mean, we were kinda rushing it before Equestria. Then again, we figured we were on some kind of time crunch. I don’t think we have to do that anymore. I think it’s best we just take our time with it, and make sure we eliminate any and all assumptions and hypotheses. I mean, since we have to get it right the first time, we might as well take our time, right? After all, I’m coming up on – what? – twenty eight years old, now? It’s not like I’m gonna die of old age any time soon.”

“Alright. I’ll shift priorities, then. Your eye is glowing again, by the way.”

“What?” Alex picked the helmet back up and looked at himself. The iris of his right eye was glowing a bright, neon green. He groaned and began blinking repeatedly. “God dammit… I swear, I have no idea how I’m gonna keep this thing a surprise until Christmas…”

“I believe the saying is ‘practice makes perfect.’”

Instead of blinking, Alex opted to stare at his reflection and focus his thoughts. Finally, the glow receded and his eye looked inconspicuously like the other. “There we go… At least the BCI is doing its job. Alright, I’m off. Keep an eye out for me!”

“With the amount of cameras we have, it’ll be difficult not to.”

Alex slipped the helmet over his head and secured it before hopping into the singular seat of the Scorpion’s cockpit. Detecting his presence, the holographic dashboard automatically lit up and a small “synchronizing” message appeared on the inside of the helmet’s visor. The cockpit’s canopy slid up from the front of the vehicle and clicked into place, fully encasing him in the metal shell. Just as the engine roared to life, the surface of the inside of the canopy seemingly dematerialized, allowing him to see the area around him.

Alex simply sat back and sighed, reveling at the vibration of the Power-Core driven engine behind him, the smooth faux-leather feel of the steering wheel and–

“Don’t forget your seatbelt,” Rose chimed into his ear.

Alex groaned as he reached back for the safety device. “Yes, mother…”

Twilight walked away from the registration table with a smile on her face as she tried to stick her racing number over her cutie marks. She was vaguely hoping she’d get the same number she got last year, forty two, but she was still satisfied with the number she was given this time: sixty four.

As Twilight walked towards the starting line, where Applejack and Rainbow Dash would probably be waiting, she looked around at some of the preparations Rose and Alex had put together for the race. A couple of giant projector screens were set up in open areas with large bleachers for ponies to sit down and watch. Since the sun would obscure the projections, large, black canvases were spread out over each screen like flat umbrellas and held in place by thin steel scaffolding, giving them an almost stage-like appearance.

The images on the screens regularly cycled between different viewpoints, each one granting sight of a different location in the forest. When it cycled to a view of the crowd gathering for the race, a pink hoof shoved itself on screen and waved. The camera brought itself back over the side of the balloon’s basket and aimed at Pinkie Pie, who was sitting next to Spike with a microphone.

“Hi there, everypony!” said Pinkie, her voice echoing through speakers scattered throughout the area. “And welcome to the running of the leaves! Now with new and improved eye-in-the-sky coverage thanks to Ponyville’s resident techies: Alex Laythem and Rose!” The ponies sitting on the bleachers cheered and stomped their hooves in response. “My name is Pinkie Pie, and I’m gonna be your announcer today with help from my good friend: Spike!”

Pinkie held the microphone next to Spike, who just stared into the camera as the Liandri centered it on him. “Ummm… Can… Can ponies actually see us…?”

Pinkie poked him with her foreleg. “Of course they can, silly! In fact, everypony in Ponyville is watching us right now!”

“Umm…” Spike stared dumbly at the camera.

Noticing that the poor dragon was sweating bullets, Pinkie decided to give him a little confidence boost. “Aw, Spike, are you nervous?” She turned to the camera. “Come on, everypony! Let’s give Spike some encouragement!”

Twilight smiled as the crowd roared to support her number one assistant. The amount of excitement and activity at this year’s running of the leaves was staggering! It was really starting to look more like a festival than a race. As Twilight looked around, she had no difficult time believing that everypony in Ponyville was out to either watch the race, be a part of it, set up snack stands, or organize other activities. In fact, it even looked like plenty of ponies from out of town came, too!

“Woo-wee! Now ain’t this somethin’?” said Applejack as she trotted up next to Twilight. “I reckon everypony in town is out n’ about, today!”

“Oh hey, Applejack! Yeah, this is amazing! Last year’s race was good, but this is a major step up.”

“Isn’t it great?” Rainbow Dash swooped down and landed next to them. “We’re gonna be on a big screen! Everypony’s gonna be able to see how awesome I am!”

“Don’t let publicity get ahead of yer modesty, Rainbow,” said Applejack. “Not that ya had any to begin with.”

“Hey, I just like living big!”

Twilight giggled at them. “So are you two going to be racing head to head for first place again?”

“Nah,” said Applejack. “We put all that stuff behind us. This time, we’re just in it for a good ol’ friendly run.”

“Ahead of everypony else, of course!” Rainbow added.

“Darn tootin’!” The two athletes bumped hooves.

Twilight smirked at them. “I’m not so sure about that.”

They turned to look at her. “What do you mean by that?” Rainbow asked skeptically.

“I’m not sure if you heard, but Alex is going to be racing, too.”

Applejack also looked dubious. “Ah thought only ponies were allowed ta race.”

“Normally, yes, but this year, they made an exception because of all the cameras and screens he and Rose put up.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you think he can give us a run for our bits,” said Rainbow Dash. “He’s only got two legs, and he even admitted he wasn’t much of an athlete.”

A loud honk sounded from somewhere behind them and they turned around. As if on cue, a large metal mass with a beige and green color scheme slowly moved through the crowd towards them. Ponies backed away to clear a path for it, but curiosity made it difficult for them to keep their eyes off the alien object. Its name was plainly visible on the front for everypony to see.

Twilight briefly marveled at the fact that it was moving entirely on its own, instead of being pulled by somepony like carts or chariots. In a way, the vehicle was more impressive than the Liandri since it was, in the end, a cart that moved itself, whereas the Liandri were so natural in their movements that it was sometimes difficult to distinguish them from actual living things. She smirked at her friends. “No, but he’s got four wheels.”

The Scorpion stopped in front of them and the engine cut off. The canopy lifted and slid down the front of the vehicle, upon which Alex hoisted himself out to sit on the back, just above the seat, and took his helmet off. “Well hello there! Looks like I showed up just in time.” He looked at Rainbow’s and Applejack’s slack jawed expressions and chuckled. “Hehehe, like it?”

“Like it? What the hay is it?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Relishing the opportunity to present one of his more hard earned projects, Alex put his helmet on the seat, dropped down to walk over to them, and turned to admire his handiwork. “It’s called the Scorpion. It’s an all-terrain, four wheel drive vehicle with a six hundred horsepower engine that can get it up to speeds of two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour on a flat road. And that’s without using the Tarydium boosters on the back.” Alex chuckled to himself. When he noticed they didn’t say anything, he looked back over at them to see their reactions. They were all looking at him with flat expressions. “What?”

“Horse power?” said Rainbow Dash. “Really?”

“Well yeah, what’s wrong with– OH!” He face palmed. God dammit. “Sorry! Sorry! It’s just… That’s the way the strength of an engine is generally measured.”

“They’re compared to horses?” Rainbow prodded.

Alex held up his hands. “I have no idea! Maybe!”

“It’s just a unit of power humans used back on Earth, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight stated matter-of-factly. “Although I’m still not sure if I agree with its usage…”

Alex pointed at her. “That. That right there. What she said.”

“The race is about to start, everypony! Take your positions!” Pinkie’s voice came through the speakers, catching everyone’s attention.

Phew, saved by the pink bell… Alex thought as he pulled on his shirt to air it out.

“Well now, looks like we’ll have a chance ta see how well this fancy machine of yers works,” said Applejack as the ponies all started making their way to the starting line.

“Not quite yet, I’m afraid. Part of the deal was that I could only start once whoever’s in the lead – which I assume will be you two – gets two thirds of the way through.”

“Don’t sweat it! We won’t make you wait long!” Rainbow Dash called back.

“I’m counting on it!” Alex leaned back against the Scorpion and waved back.

Pinkie’s hot air balloon flew down and began hovering next to the starting line as the ponies all got into position. Pinkie and Spike were leaning over the side of the basket with the Liandri holding the camera over its shoulder aiming it directly between them at the racers.

“Alright, ponies! Are you ready?” Pinkie called out through her microphone.

They all took their ready positions.

“Get set!” Spike said this time.

Neither said anything as a bell rang, signifying the start of the race, and the stampede began.

Alex watched calmly from his spot as the horde of ponies stampeded through the starting line, Applejack and Rainbow Dash no doubt near the front of it all. As the slower ones started trickling away, Alex jumped back into the Scorpion and started the engine. Not even bothering to position the canopy, he slowly drove the vehicle up to the vacant starting line and killed the engine again. He took a moment to stretch and to just let the sun beat down on him. Like most days in Ponyville, the weather was lovely. Aside from the odd scheduled storm, of course.

Alex frowned as the thought crossed his mind. Who the hell schedules storms, anyway, and for what reason? Rain was understandable, since plants needed the water, by why storms? Lightning was just plain dangerous, no matter what world you lived in, and if you could control the weather, why would you even bother doing it? For the umpteenth time, Alex found himself confused by the pony weather system. He shook his head to clear the thought.

Alex decided to sit back and just listen to Pinkie’s race commentary coming through the speakers. She was talking about the history of the running of the leaves and its main purpose, about how the running of the ponies was what caused the leaves in the forest to fall in order to prepare for winter. As opposed to, you know, natural processes.

Nope, fuck that, he thought as he hopped back out of the Scorpion. I could do with fewer crimes against nature, thank you very much. Might as well make sure all the bureaucracy is over and done with before some random, uninformed jackass yells at me for driving on the trail later…

Ummm… Let’s see… Move that over there, and… no, that doesn’t work. Dammit, now I can’t move it back. Uhhh… No, can’t do that… Wait, could I…? No… wait… WAIT! Dammit, that gets me nowhere… Umm… Fuck, I’m stuck…

Alex sat back and rested his head against his arm as he looked over his virtual game of three-draw solitaire on the Scorpion’s holographic dashboard. He sighed and started a new game. That’s three loses in a row now… There’s gotta be a trick to this…

“Um, excuse me?”

Alex peered over to look at the mare standing next to the car. It was one of the race officials. “Mhm?”

“The lead racers have almost completed two thirds of the race. You should get ready.”

“Really?” Alex checked his watch. It’s been almost an hour… Shit, this isn’t a race, it’s a freaking marathon. “Alright, thank you very much. I’ll get ready. Just tell me when I can go.”

The mare nodded and walked off. Meanwhile, Alex slipped the helmet over his head and secured his seatbelt. After starting the engine, the canopy lifted into position and locked down over him, its interior screen presenting him with the outside world. Alex’s heart beat harder with the thought that he was going to drive the fastest car he’s ever driven, and in front of a dozen high flying cameras providing a live stream to everyone in the entire town, no less.

“Hey, Rose, can you hear me?” said Alex.

“Yes, I can,” came Rose’s disembodied voice through a speaker inside his helmet.

“Can you give me an ETA on how much longer I have to wait? The suspense is killing me.”

“Roughly a minute.”

Adrenaline shot through him prematurely and his voice almost cracked. “Oh goodie, that soon?”

“Yes, be prepared.”

Alex let out a breath. “Alright… I got this.” He turned his head up to see one of the hot air balloons hovering overhead. No doubt its camera was focused on him. A group of curious ponies had gathered around the vehicle to personally watch it depart, instead of seeing it through the projectors. Thankfully, they were a respectful distance away. “Shit, this is really happening.”

“I’m detecting an increase in heart rate,” said Rose. “Are you nervous, or excited?”

“I’m a little nervous… Just a bit… At least this heart is working the way it should be…”

“Don’t worry. Just don’t crash and you’ll be fine.”

“Gee, thanks. That’s really reassuring.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and by the way: they’re all watching you right now.”

Fuck you, Rose. Fuck. You.

“Are you ready?” came a voice from somewhere outside the cockpit.

Alex let out a breath and revved the engine in response, his eyes focused entirely on the road ahead of him. Here we go…

“Get set!”

He revved the engine again and tightened his grip around the steering wheel, placing a thumb on the Tarydium booster button. For the second time that day, the starting bell rang, and Alex slammed his foot down on the accelerator and pressed the button.

He was not prepared for what came after.

Alex’s body was shoved back into the seat as the Tarydium boosters exploded to life and accelerated the Scorpion to over a hundred kilometers an hour in less than a second. His body and arms strained against the g-forces caused by the sudden acceleration, but the feeling quickly subsided when the boosters burnt out automatically after a few seconds. They could, of course, be used again, but continuous usage would surely overheat them.

Alex glanced at the speedometer on his visor, which read a hundred and sixty kilometers an hour and was increasing rapidly. He focused on the first gradual turn in the road and eased the steering wheel into it, letting the sound of the Power-Core driven engine firing on all cylinders fill his senses. Foot off the gas… You’re driving a car in a forest, not flying a plane… Control it… Control… Yeah… You got this.

Alex eyed his surroundings, finding all the blurry trees he was driving past had already been stripped bare of their colorful leaves. In fact, quite a few of said leaves littered the road. Despite the fact that the road was hardly smooth and had several bumps, holes, and other large obstacles in the way such as rocks and roots, Alex barely felt any of it. It was truly a testimony to how well the suspension was working, especially at those speeds.

As Alex came up on his first relatively sharp corner, his mind immediately shifted into a purely mechanical state. Take it wide to reduce the amount of force needed. Look where you want to go. Reduce speed. Brake. Steer. Release. Control. The steps all outlined in his mind, Alex halved his speed and approached the turn from the opposite side. Suddenly, he slammed on the brakes, turned the wheel, and then released the brakes. Controlling his orientation with the jerking wheel, he skidded around the corner, kicking up a large cloud of dust, and activated the boosters when he was clear of the trees to rocket the Scorpion in its new direction. The roar of the car’s engine only further increased his euphoria.

“Haha!” Alex cheered. “Damn, I’m a better driver than I thought I was!”

Unbeknownst to him, his right eye had been glowing neon green throughout the entire turn and reverted back to normal immediately after.

“So how are you holding up?” Twilight asked Lyra as they trotted next to each other.

“All things considered, I’m not doing too badly,” Lyra replied. “This pacing thing of yours works really well. Last year, I was already dead tired at this point.”

“Doesn’t it? Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk with you for a while, but I haven’t managed to find a break in my schedule for it…”

“Really? About what?”

“About that fossil of yours. The one you showed me and Alex?”

“Oh that! What about it?”

Twilight thought for a moment as she formulated her question. “Well, Alex is convinced it’s human, but we have no idea how that could be possible since he’s the only human to ever come to Equestria. At least, to our knowledge. We had other ideas, but we ruled those out too… Have you ever shown that fossil to an archeologist? Maybe a biologist?”

Lyra frowned at the thought. “I went to an archeologist a few years ago, yeah. He couldn’t identify it, though. He wanted to know where the rest of it was, but I told him I couldn’t remember where I found it. Then he said they were probably just funny looking rocks. Didn’t even want to bother dating them…” She scoffed. “Load of help he was…”

“What do you think? Think Alex is right?”

Lyra shrugged. “Maybe. Although I am curious to know…” Her words died in her throat as her ears began picking up something strange. “Wait, do you hear that?”

Focusing her own hearing, Twilight concentrated to figure out what Lyra was talking about. She could hear something that didn’t sound like a natural forest sound, but she had no idea what it could be. It didn’t sound like stampeding hoofsteps, but it had a deep, rumbling quality to it.

“You can hear that, right?” asked Lyra.

“Yeah, it… it sounds like it’s getting closer.”

The two ponies stood by the side of the road and listened for the sound. It was definitely getting closer as the odd sound got progressively louder and louder. When Twilight looked in the direction the sound was coming in, it suddenly all made sense. Further up the road, being trailed by a small cloud of dust, was the unmistakable sight of the Scorpion trailblazing its way towards them.

“What the hay is that…?” Lyra asked.

Before Twilight could answer her, a burst of light and sound exploded behind the Scorpion and it roared past them, kicking up a giant cloud of dust, fallen leaves, and other debris for them to choke on.

Twilight only managed to speak through coughing fits. “That *cough* was a human *cough* who is way *hack* too smart for *cough*cough* his own good!”

Meanwhile, in the Scorpion’s cockpit…

“~You’ve been… THUNDERSTRUCK!~”

Alex tapped his hands on the steering wheel to the beat of the song coming through his helmet and sang along without a single care in the world. With the Scorpion’s engine blasting behind him and the heavy guitar riff flowing through his ears, nothing could take Alex down from his high.

With the heavy rock song acting as a perfect assistant, the Scorpion tore through the forest trail with ease. Alex turned the wheel back and forth vigorously as the car glided through a more serpentine section of the road, skidding around every corner and dodging individual runners.

Exiting that section of the road, Alex noticed the portion he was coming up on was slightly elevated and, just for kicks, activated the boosters. While it wasn’t a ramp by any definition, the little hill was big enough to grant the Scorpion some flight time, launching it into the air as the song launched into another guitar solo. The engine roared at its loudest as the wheels spun freely and the boosters propelled the vehicle through the air. Alex continued his screams of joy with the guitar accompaniment, even after the Scorpion slammed back to the ground on all four wheels.

One after another, technicolor blurs whizzed past Alex as he quickly made his way up the roster. After passing a larger group of the stampeders, who graciously moved to the sides of the road at the honk of a horn, he couldn’t help but wonder just how long it would take before he caught up to the ponies in the lead.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash slowed their gallop to a trot so they could catch their breath. They had been running nonstop since the beginning of the race, something very few ponies were capable of doing, but they felt confident enough in their position to slow down just a bit. After all, without the shenanigans they pulled on each other last year, they were able to make much better time.

“I’d say we’re doing pretty well,” said Rainbow Dash between panted breaths.

“Yep!” Applejack agreed, just as breathless. “Do ya think we’ll ever see Alex and that… uh… what’d he call it?”

“Scorpion, I think.”

“Yeah, that. Think he can catch up?”

Rainbow managed a chuckle. “Are you kidding? We’re so far ahead, there’s no way he can catch up!”

“Hey! Whatcha two talking about!” came a cheery voice from on high. The two of them looked up to see Pinkie Pie waving at them from her low flying hot air balloon. Spike and the camera were also poking over the side, too.

Immediately upon seeing the camera, Rainbow Dash straightened up and eliminated any sense of looking tired. “We were talking about how we have this race in the bag!” Although she didn’t know it, that specific camera wasn’t the one connected to the live feed at that moment.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie called back. “Rose says Alex is going reeeaaally fast!”

“Pffff, there’s no way he could beat us. We’re almost at the finish line!”

The domestic put the camera aside to reveal a set of glowing blue eyes. “Even if you ran at a full sprint from here to the finish line, the Scorpion would still pass you well before you could reach it.”

“And what makes you so sure?” Applejack yelled up at them.

“Consider who you’re talking to,” the domestic said with an ever familiar female synthetic voice. “I’ve done the math. Alex is moving much faster than either of you can run, and unlike you, he doesn’t have to stop.” Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a wide eyed look. “Outrunning a motor vehicle of this caliber simply isn’t feasible, and he’s catching up quickly.”

“Oh hey, look!” said Pinkie, pointing a hoof back up the road. “There he is!”

The runners’ heads snapped back to try to find what Pinkie was talking about. They couldn’t see it, but they could hear something loud that definitely didn’t sound like running. As if they were reading each other’s minds, they bolted in the opposite direction, barely hearing Pinkie yell out her cheerful goodbye.

“Aw hayseed!” Applejack cursed. “What’re we gonna do?”

Panted breaths were Dash’s only response before she cried out: “I got an idea! Block him!”

Applejack looked at her incredulously. “Block him?! How’re we gonna do that?!”

Dash cracked a smile. “He may be fast, but he’s big and bulky! We just have to keep him from getting around us!”

“What if he hits us?”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by the sound of a horn honking several times behind them and they looked back to see the Scorpion quickly closing the distance. Dash looked at her partner. “Look, do you have any better idea to keep him behind us?”

“This seems mighty dangerous…”

The honking continued.

“Don’t chicken out on me now, AJ!”

Inside the Scorpion, Alex honked the horn a few more times. He pressed on the brakes to slow his speed, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed resolute to occupy as much space in the road as they could, whereas the other ponies he passed were eager to move over.

As Alex got closer, he applied the brakes more and more until he was right up against the two runners. At this point, his car was crawling at a measly thirty five kilometers per hour. Sure, they were running as fast as they could, but he knew the Scorpion could be going so much faster. Alex honked again, but they continued to ignore him. “Oh come on…” He turned to the right to try to get around Applejack, but she noticed the action and quickly moved in front of him. “What the…” He turned to the left, but this time, Rainbow Dash got in his way. “Oh you cheeky little fuckers…”

“Need some help?” came Rose’s disembodied voice.

“Not unless you’ve got something that can magically move them over,” he replied.

“Just give me the wheel and I can get you around them.”

Alex hesitated for a moment. He trusted Rose with his life and physical wellbeing, but… “Okay… Go ahead…” he said with a hint of uncertainty while taking his hands off the wheel and his foot off the accelerator.

“Thank you.” The Scorpion slowed to the point that it almost stopped. “You might want to hold onto something.”

Alex’s face sunk. “Umm… Why?”

Rose didn’t answer. Instead, the engine suddenly burst to life and the steering wheel began turning on its own. Alex gripped his seat as the vehicle accelerated down the road towards the two ponies, but more specifically, towards a grossly misshapen tree by the right side of the road.

“Rose! What are you doing!?”

Her only answer was Alex getting shoved further into his seat as she activated the boosters.

“Rose, what the fuck ARE YOU DOING?!” Alex panicked. “NO NO NO NO–”

Alex’s body jerked around as the Scorpion’s tires slammed into the trunk of the tree and began flipping the vehicle over. However, because of the shape of trunk, including the angle and position the Scorpion hit it, the car deflected off of it and barrel rolled into the air like some twisted amusement park ride. Alex couldn’t even find the sense to start screaming his head off.

His next moment felt like it passed in slow motion. As the Scorpion flew through the air, flipping right over left, Alex looked up to see the ground and sky switching between each other. At one point when the ground was in sight, for just a split second, he was able to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash looking up at him, probably just a couple meters away. The moment passed so quickly that his brain wasn’t even able to register that the car was flying over them upside down.

In the very next moment, the Scorpion continued its corkscrew and slammed back to the ground with all the grace of a fat man on a unicycle. The car began sliding along the ground on its left wheels, with its right wheels poised high into the air, threatening to flip the car over. The Scorpion skidded diagonally across the road this way until its back end smashed into another tree, which almost flipped it over completely. However, the right side of the car had dipped just enough that the hit didn’t send it flipping into the forest, but instead right back to the road in burnout. The car slid down the road, spinning around several times before realigning itself in the proper direction and continuing on its merry way.

Alex pushed against the sides of the cockpit to hold himself in place and began hyperventilating. Rose, for her part continued driving the Scorpion with the road now completely unobstructed.

“There you go,” she said nonchalantly. “No more road block. You can take the wheel now.”

Alex eagerly latched onto the steering wheel with trembling hands. “Don’t you ever, EVER do that to me again!” He let out several heavy breaths. “Scared the living shit outa me – Fuck!”

Behind him, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stared in slack jawed awe. Rainbow’s plan had certainly worked, neither of them could deny that, but they also weren’t expecting something like that to happen either.

Rainbow Dash shook her head to snap herself out of her shock and growled. “Oh no you don’t!” Her wings shot out from her sides and she leapt into the air, flying off after the Scorpion before Applejack had the chance to scold her about it.

Still trembling and disoriented from the adrenaline and tumble respectively, Alex did his best to maintain control of the Scorpion. He briefly glanced at his rear-view camera, but then did a double take to see Rainbow Dash flying after him, and quickly catching up. “Oh no you don’t…” Alex licked his lips and took a deep breath to focus himself before slamming his foot down on the accelerator and activating the boosters. It was almost a straight shot back to Ponyville at this point, and he was determined to exploit that fact for all it was worth.

“Alex, something’s wrong with the boosters,” said Rose.

“Wait, what?” Alex paused, now noticing that the boosters hadn’t shut off automatically after a few seconds like they were supposed to. “Shit, can you turn them off?”

“I just tried to. Whatever it is, it’s a mechanical failure.”

The buzz of an alarm suddenly sounded inside the Scorpion’s cockpit and a large red warning on the dashboard that read: ‘WARNING: ENGINE OVERHEAT’ began to flash. Alex’s eyes zipped towards the Tarydium fuel indicator, which said the fuel tank was still three quarters full.

Uh oh...

Without any warning, the canopy suddenly exploded off the rest of the car. Rainbow Dash, who was flying a little too close to the path the hunk of metal was taking, expertly dodged it and yelled after the car. “Hey!”

Completely taken off guard by the sudden appearance of wind, Alex instinctively brought his hands up to cover himself. “Rose! What the fuck!”

“There’s no time! I’ll control the vehicle, you get Rainbow Dash’s attention and get her to lift you out. Now!”

“Okay, okay!” Alex scrambled to unbuckle his seat belt and tossed his helmet on the floor of the vehicle. He knew he wouldn’t be able to speak to Rose by doing that, but he needed to be able to yell at Dash. He cautiously eased himself around to stand on the seat with his knees, the heat coming off the boosters hitting him head on. He could feel Rose trying to apply the brakes, but she was doing so sparingly.

Alex waved his arms frantically at Rainbow Dash as she quickly caught up thanks to Rose’s efforts. “Hey! Hold on!” he yelled over the wind and roar of the Tarydium rockets.

Dash, looking more confused than anything else, flew alongside the Scorpion and yelled back. “What’s going on?”

Alex held his hands out to her. “You have to get me out of this thing!”

“What? Why?”

Alex’s attention was caught as another alarm sounded. He looked at the dashboard to see a flashing red ‘WARNING: ENGINE CRITICAL.’ His heart sank and he turned back to Dash. “It’s going to blow! Get me out of this thing now!”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Whoa! Alright, hold on!” Dash flew closer to him and extended her hooves for him, which he gladly latched onto with each hand. Although she had a tougher time flying up with the extra weight, she managed to lift him out as the Scorpion sped forward.

Alex, for his part, held onto Rainbow Dash’s hooves with an iron grip he never knew he had, although because of the way he had grabbed her hooves, he couldn’t see where they were going. The fact that he was a dangling slab of meat above a quickly moving dirt road never escaped his mind and he raised his legs up involuntarily. “Slowdownslowdownslowdown–”

“I’m trying!” Dash groaned. “This isn’t exactly easy, you know! You’re kinda heavy!”

Alex looked up at her. “Hey, I’ll have you know that I’m actually pretty light for my–”

A loud pop cut him off and they both let out an involuntary yelp, but she maintained her flight. Alex couldn’t see it, but Rainbow Dash watched as the Scorpion’s back end exploded into flame and began leaving a trail of fire on the road behind it. Unsurprisingly, its momentum kept the vehicle going.

Alex didn’t have to see what happened to know exactly what it was. Well, there goes the fuel tank… He looked down at the trail of fire they were flying over. Oh goodie, it’s leaking burning Tarydium all over the road… I wonder how long it’ll take before–

His thought was cut off by much, much louder explosion that completely startled him and Dash, causing her to lose focus and bring them both crashing to the ground. Thankfully, she was flying low enough and slow enough that they didn’t injure anything badly.

Alex hit the ground hard and rolled a few meters before finally coming to a stop on his back. His knees and back felt bruised and he ended up scraping his arms and hands – which made him regret wearing a short sleeve shirt that day. Despite the pain, he was at least thankful that he had the sense to cover his head. Rainbow Dash went for a good tumble herself, but all she suffered were a few minor bruises.

Alex groaned from his spot on the ground as his new injuries said their hellos. Reluctant to move for fear of irritating any bruises, he craned his neck to look at what had befallen his poor Scorpion. Just as he had expected, the entire vehicle had been obliterated into an unrecognizable hunk of metal – several, actually. The explosion had blown the vehicle completely apart, although it did have the benefit of snuffing out some of the fires. Only some of them, since a giant plume of black smoke raised into the sky from the smoldering heap. Alex let out a mixed groan and sigh as he forced his palms against his face, pushing his head against the ground. And there goes the Core…

“You alright?” he heard Dash mumble painfully from somewhere ahead of him.

“I’ve been better…” he groaned in reply. “God damn… my car…”

Rainbow Dash winced as she managed to get herself standing to survey the wreckage for herself. “Whoa… That was intense…”

“That’s one way of putting it…”

Dash began making her way towards him, although with a slight limp in her gait. “You look pretty banged up.”

Alex tried to sit up, but he abandoned the effort when a fresh bruise jabbed him in the lower back. “Ugh… Nope, nuh uh, bad idea.…”

Dash sat beside him. “Need any help?”

Alex closed his eyes, content to simply sleep on the dirt road. “Just… Just gimme a second.”

As if on cue, a bright purple flash appeared next to them as a frantic, dirt covered Twilight Sparkle materialized. “What happened?! I heard an explooooo…” Twilight’s eyes trailed over the burning wreckage of the former Scorpion. “…oooooh my gosh…”

Alex turned his head towards her. “Welcome to the party… just a tad late, though…”

Twilight deliberately ignored his ‘late’ comment and quickly came over to them. “Is everypony okay? Are either of you hurt?”

“No and yes,” Alex deadpanned.

“I’m fine,” said Dash. “Not sure about him though.”

This time, Alex made a concerted effort to sit up, groaning through the aches. “I’ll live… Nothing feels broken, so at least I have that…”

“Here, let me try to help…” Twilight aimed her horn and a light purple glow enveloped him. After a few seconds, the glow subsided and she looked at him hopefully. “There. Feel better?”

Alex breathed and nodded. “A bit. Not too much, but… thanks.”

Twilight bit her lip and looked away. “Healing magic isn’t really my forte… What happened?”

He looked over at the wreck and let out a loud sigh. “I don’t know… Something broke and prevented the boosters from shutting off. Probably a valve on the fuel line, if I had to guess… The heat buildup probably ignited the Tarydium inside the compression chamber, and from there, the fuel tank…” Alex waved in the general direction of the wreckage. “And then the Core blew up…”

“Didn’t you tell me that the damage would be catastrophic if a Core blew up?”

Alex shook his head. “No, that happens if it overloads. If a Core is destroyed traumatically - like, say, pouring burning Tarydium all over it - then it just goes boom.” He looked longingly at disfigured remains of his car. “Still don’t want to be around when that happens, though…”

As Applejack finally caught up, she slowed her pace upon spotting the source of the giant plume of thick, black smoke she saw over the tree line. Even as she approached them, she had a difficult time looking away from it. “Could somepony please tell me just what the hay happened over here?”

“Do you want the long version, or the short version?” asked Alex.

“Ah’ll take the short of it.”

“Alright. It broke and exploded. Dash pulled me out right before it did, though. Thanks for that, by the way.”

Dash bumped his shoulder with a hoof and a cocky smile. “Hey, no problem.”

They were all suddenly blinded by a bright yellow flash somewhere next to them, followed by a serene, yet anxious voice. “Is everypony alright?”

Despite the calming nature of the new arrival’s voice, it pierced Alex’s ear like a needle traveling at the speed of sound. He suddenly came to the realization of just how bad things were: his hand built Scorpion blew up, the entire town probably saw it happen, there was burning Tarydium all over the road, and on top of that, the still burning fuel and other synthetic materials were probably releasing all sorts of nasty toxins into the atmosphere.

The last thing he wanted was for her to show up, too.

“Princess Celestia!” The ponies all bowed simultaneously.

Celestia waved them off, but spoke as sincerely as ever. “Please, not right now. Is everypony alright?”

Twilight looked up at her mentor. “We’re fine, Princess. Nopony was hurt badly.”

“Speak for yourself…” said Alex as he attempted to stand. A sharp pain shot through his knee, causing him to collapse back onto the ground with a silent curse to himself.

Celestia placed a hoof on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Alexander. Help will arrive soon.”

Alex bit his lip and, for a moment, refused to look at her. He had never exactly been comfortable around the Princess, even if he could count the number of encounters he had with her on a Liandri’s hand. Of course, back then, she was the one who was ultimately funding the construction of the first Power-Core and EMC. She could have, at any moment, put a stop to it all. Now that he and Rose were fully self-sufficient, he didn’t really have much a reason to tiptoe around her like he used to. After all, she wasn’t a potentially life altering threat anymore, and Twilight was constantly assuring him that Celestia always meant well. He wanted to say something in response to her, but opted for a sigh instead.

“Tell me, what happened to your machine?”

Alex glanced at her from the corner of his eye. To him, she didn’t look angry or afraid. If anything, she looked genuinely concerned about him. Alex hated to admit it to himself, but she didn’t look malicious at all, a thought he had an oddly difficult time reconciling with. He sighed again. “Something broke and the boosters overheated. Then the fuel tank caught fire and the thing exploded.” He quickly turned to look at her. “I’m sorry, Princess, but might I inquire as to why you’re here? I can’t say we were really expecting you.”

She gave him a soft smile in response to the disguised bitterness in his voice. “Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and I often come to celebrate the running of the leaves. I was also extremely curious to see the… improvements I heard you provided.” Her face took on a somber tone. “My apologies for what happened to your machine. It was quite remarkable, and a shame it suffered such a fate.”

Alex looked back at the Scorpion. “Yeah… Yeah it is… was…”

Twilight came up to him and smiled gently, faintly hoping that she could coax something out of him. “So Alex, do you think you can draw some kind of lesson from this experience?”

“Yup,” said Alex without hesitation, nor looking back at her. “Integrate surrogate testing immediately. Frankly, I'd rather have a bot get blown up than me.”

Twilight frowned. She was hoping for something a little more friendship oriented, but then again, what else should she have expected from him?

Alex suddenly caught sight of a large group of objects moving in their direction. From their upright posture and hint of blue color, he had no difficulty figuring out what they were. “Well, here comes the cleanup crew.” He also noticed half a dozen pegasi flying alongside the Blues, each one carrying what he could only assume was a bucket of water in each of their hooves. “Well they’re in for a nasty surprise…”

Twilight looked at him curiously. “Huh what do you mean? Who is?”

“Them,” said Alex, pointing towards the pegasi. “Just watch, you’ll see what I mean.”

As the emergency response group approached them, the leading pegasus maneuvered around the column of black smoke and dumped the contents of his bucket into the largest fire. A giant fireball suddenly erupted from the flame, catching everyone off guard and causing them to yelp in surprise and step back. Even Celestia raised a hoof in alarm.

Alex, as sober as a statue, leaned over from his spot on the ground and yelled at the frightened pegasus. “Yeah, I wouldn’t do that again if I were you. Tarydium and water don’t really mix.”

“How do we put it out, then?” asked Rainbow Dash.

The group of Liandri Blues wordlessly began dividing tasks. Several of them started piling warped pieces of metal and other debris into a single pile, regardless of whether or not the piece they were picking up or dragging was still on fire. The rest ran further up the road to direct the runners that hadn’t yet arrived. One of the Liandri – which had a glowing blue eye – approached the group and answered Rainbow Dash’s question. “You’ll have to let it burn itself out, I’m afraid.” Rose’s proxy knelt next to Alex and allowed him to place his arm around its shoulders. “Are you alright?”

“My knees hurt and my arms are scraped, but yeah, I’m fine,” Alex groaned as Rose helped him to his feet.

Rose looked over at Celestia. “I don’t know why you’re here, but as long as you are, could you convince those pegasi over to stay away? They don’t listen to me, and frankly, they’ll only hurt themselves. I also don’t want them causing a forest fire while we have things contained.”

“Of course, I’ll do what I can.” Celestia nodded and turned to go ward off the well-meaning firefighters.

“Much appreciated.” Rose looked at the other three ponies. “I’m going to bring Alex back to the facility to look at his injuries. You should probably come back as well, I have things under control here.”

Before Twilight could agree, she stole a glance at her teacher. Instead, she sighed and shook her head. “Princess Celestia will probably want to speak with me. You two head back, I’ll be fine here.”

“Dash and Ah will stick around too,” said Applejack. “There’s gonna be some mighty confused ponies comin’ through soon, and they’re gonna need some friendly faces ta move ‘em along.” Rainbow Dash simply nodded in agreement.

“Alright then.” The Blue shifted the position of its arm around Alex’s back to make it more comfortable for him. “Let’s go.”

Celestia looked after the departing humanoids as she returned to the other three ponies. She sighed and spoke in a contemplative tone. “It would seem he is still highly uncomfortable around me.”

“Oh good, so I’m not the only one who noticed,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t take it personally, Princess,” said Twilight. “He’s never really trusted human political figures. I guess it just translates over to you, too. Well… that, and he also really doesn’t like the fact that you raise the sun, but that’s something completely different.”

Celestia managed to crack a smile at her. “Yes, I recall that letter of yours about… Heliocentrism, I believe it was called? He certainly came from a very fascinating world. It’s simply a shame that the politically powerful have abused their power so much that he is as paranoid as he has become.”

Twilight smiled back at her. “Just give him some time, I’m sure he’ll warm up to you eventually.”

“I should hope so, Twilight. I have a feeling that he and Rose could be a source of great change in Equestria, and it troubles me that he seems so distrustful of me. I simply wish for him to realize that we are on the same side, and that I only wish to help him…”

Back up the road, Alex let most of his weight fall on the Liandri supporting him. Without any other cars, and with his knees starting to bruise, he knew it wouldn’t be a very pleasant walk back home, even if Ponyville wasn’t terribly far away.

“Are you disappointed about the Scorpion?” asked Rose.

Alex sighed and shook his head. “No, I’m not…” He paused. “Well, maybe… Okay yeah, I’m really bummed out about it, but I’m trying to be optimistic about it all. It took me weeks to build that one, but I’m sure you could always put another one together in a few hours.”

“I still don’t understand why you built it by hand in the first place.”

He shrugged. “For fun. It was therapeutic, if anything.” Alex glanced back over at Rose as a thought suddenly crossed his mind. “Hey, why did you blow the canopy off, anyway?”

“It was jammed,” Rose responded simply. “It most likely broke when the vehicle hit that tree.”

Alex nodded solemnly, then smirked. “You do realize, then, that your little stunt is probably what caused the booster malfunction, right?”

“I am aware of that.”

“Are you? Are you really?”

“Yes, I am,” she insisted.

“So you acknowledge the fact that you made a big mistake?”

“Yes,” Rose hissed.

For a moment Alex said nothing. He grinned and looked back at the bot. “So again, you’re fully aware that ya dun goofed?”

The Liandri’s eye color changed from blue to yellow.

Alex laughed. “I love you too, Rose. I love you too.”

Author's Notes:

This chapter was a long time coming. In fact, it was one of the ideas I had before I even started writing this story a little under a year ago. I played with several different versions of this chapter, but each one had the same outcome: the Scorpion gets fucked up. Why exactly? For those of you who may forget, this story is crossed over with elements from Unreal Tournament 3, with a few personal tweakings. Here's an excerpt from the Liandri Archive's page about the Scorpion:

The tail of the vehicle has been fitted with two afterburning propulsion units capable of boosting the already nimble vehicle up to speeds over 100 KPH in less than a second. At this top speed, the fuel lines burn so hot that they can actually ignite the Tarydium in the compression chamber, causing a chain reaction that will turn the Scorpion into an explosive meteor.

With a description like that, how could I NOT blow it up?

It's also worth mentioning that I actually finished writing this chapter several weeks ago, but I never got around to publishing it. The reason for this is because something just didn't quite sit right with me about it, so I spent quite a bit of time tweaking it. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the end result!

Also, I'm not sure how many of you have noticed, but I like to use Chekhov's guns. Can you spot them all?

Next chapter: Christmas in Equestria!

Non-canon April Fool's chapter

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Rarity’s ear flicked as a strange sound penetrated her bedroom door, rousing her from her beauty sleep. It sounded like hoofsteps…

Many, many hoofsteps. Almost as if half the town was parading outside her door.

With a groan, Rarity forced herself to sit up in her bed and removed her blindfold. She glanced over at the clock next to her bed. It was dark, but there was enough illumination for her to see that it was around three in the morning.

Rarity oriented her ears towards the door. There was definitely somepony walking around outside her bedroom; Many someponies, from the sound of it.

She sighed. Sweetie Belle, I know you enjoy having your crusader friends over, but that is no reason to be making such a racket at this hour…

Rarity threw off her covers half-heartedly and dragged herself out of bed. On her way to the door, she caught a glimpse of herself in her dresser’s mirror. Her mane was disheveled and, by all accounts, absolutely horrendous. How ironic that the one pony in town who gives her mane the best care imaginable would also be the one who suffers from the worst cases of chronic bedhead. Unable to expend any brainpower to fix her mane, Rarity ignored her reflection and proceeded to open the bedroom door.

On the other side of the door, Rarity came face to face with Sweetie Belle, who beamed up at her with her usual, adorable smile. “Sweetie Belle, what are you doing out here, making all that–” Rarity cut herself off upon noticing who was standing next to her sister.

It was… Sweetie Belle?

Rarity’s mind suddenly woke up. There wasn’t one Sweetie Belle, there were two! No, three! Four! Sweetie Belle after Sweetie Belle, somehow, the little filly had managed to duplicate herself! The shock on Rarity’s face grew steadily as she looked over the army of Sweetie Belles that populated the stairway leading up to her bedroom door, each one staring at her with wide open eyes and keen smiles.

“HI RARITY!” the Sweetie Belles shouted in unison.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Rarity glanced around frantically, seeing nothing but darkness. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she somehow had her blindfold on again. She quickly tore it off and looked around. Rarity found herself sitting up in her bed with her heart beating a million times a minute. Sunlight streamed in through her curtains in beautiful golden strings, and Carousel Boutique remained as quiet as ever. Her bedside clock read seven twenty five.

Rarity held a hoof to her chest and smiled weakly. “It was just a dream…” she told herself. “Just a dream… ha ha ha! It was just a dream… Of course Sweetie Belle didn’t clone herself. That would be ridiculous.”

After taking another minute to let her heart rate settle, Rarity hoisted herself out of bed and immediately positioned herself in front of her dresser’s mirror to fix her mane.

Just as Rarity finished brushing out a particularly difficult knot, a pleasant scent suddenly wafted across her nose and she closed her eyes, allowing the scent to let her mind wander. “Mmm… What is that…? Is that sweet carrot pancakes I smell...? Ohh… Spiced warm apple cider…” Rarity inhaled deeply. “With a slight hint of smoke…” Rarity’s eyes suddenly shot open and she sniffed around more urgently. “Wait, smoke?! SMOKE!”

With a speed that even Rainbow Dash would find impressive, Rarity bolted out of her bedroom. Unfortunately, Rarity miscalculated just how fast she should have been going and ended up throwing herself down the stairs in a tumble, eventually landing flat on her belly at the foot of the stairs.

“Rarity!” cried the squeaky voice of Rarity’s sister from somewhere in front of her. “You ruined the surprise! I was gonna serve you breakfast in bed!”

Rarity looked up at her sister and gently rubbed her head. She must have fallen down the stairs harder than she thought… she could swear she was seeing double… With a groan, she got herself to her hooves and shook her head.

“Wow! Good morning, Rarity!” a voice boomed from her dinner table off to the side.

Rarity jumped in surprise and turned to the speaker. Her parents were sitting at her kitchen table with an assortment of burnt food, or whatever it was supposed to be. Rarity knew her parents had a key to Carousel Boutique, but their presence was certainly unexpected, especially at this hour. “Father! Mother! What are you doing here?”

“Oh, we’re just here to drop off Sweetie Belle and her little robo-friend before your father and I go on our vacation,” answered Rarity’s mother.

Normally, the word "vacation" would have stuck out to her, but something else entirely caught Rarity's attention. She froze and slowly creased her brow. “Wait a moment… robo-friend?” Rarity slowly looked over to her sister and the horror of the situation dawned on her. It seems that she wasn’t seeing double when she fell down the stairs! Standing right beside Sweetie Belle was a mechanical replica of herself that was smiling just as widely as the original!

“Isn’t she cool?” Sweetie Belle shouted joyously. “Our whole class went on a field-trip to Alex’s place for a build-a-bot workshop!”

“Hi there!” the machine said to Rarity in a voice eerily similar to her sister’s. “I’m Sweetie-Bot! We’re going to have so much fun together!”

Rarity’s eye twitched.

Alex rolled onto his left side in an attempt to get comfortable. Unable to achieve that, he rolled onto his right side instead. Still unsatisfied, Alex let out a frustrated groaned and sat up in his bed. “Rose, what time is it?”

“It’s seven thirty four in the morning,” came Rose’s voice. “You’ve only been asleep for a few hours. Is everything alright?”

Alex blinked his restless eyes and looked around in the darkness of his living quarters, as if he would spot someone hiding in the shadows that was denying him one of the few opportunities he gave himself to sleep. He took in a large breath and let it out in a long sigh. “I don’t know… I’m just having a tough time sleeping for some reason…” He slapped a hand against his face and let it slowly drag against his cheek on the way down. “Ugh… It’s like… I dunno… I’m just getting this weird sense of dread…”

Equestrian Christmas

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Winter.

A time of cold and dealing with snow, but also a time of staying indoors and enjoying the presence of friends and family over a few cups of hot chocolate. It may have been a different world, but even then, the winter holidays don’t change.

When Twilight and her friends offered to bring Alex and Rose to Canterlot to watch a play about the founding of Equestria during what was essentially Christmas, Alex gladly accepted. Rose, on the other hand, was less than enthusiastic but eventually relented. Although she did insist that if she was going to go to a foreign city normally devoid of humanoids, she should at least go incognito.

Unfortunately, her idea of incognito wasn’t exactly perfect.

Alex clapped his hands as he entered the changing room of Canterlot’s theatre, a long winter coat draped over his right arm. “Well done, everyone, well done! An excellent performance!”

All six of the ponies he had become most familiar with turned away from their conversation to welcome him. “Why thank you, Alex!” said Rarity. “I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed performing it. The same goes to you as well, Rose.”

The hairless, silver colored pony with glowing blue eyes standing next to Alex waved a hoof. “It was alright.”

Alex nudged Rose. “Well I enjoyed it. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon, if anything.”

“I’m glad you thought so!” said Twilight. “Personally, I just feel honored that Princess Celestia wanted us to play the roles. She must really feel that we exemplify what good friends–”

A bitterly cold wind suddenly howled through an open window, whipping cold air around the room and derailing Twilight’s train of thought.

“Applejack, I thought you closed all the windows!” Rarity complained.

“Don’t blame me!” Applejack retorted. “Rainbow Dash should’ve flown up there and shut it. After all, she’s got wings.”

“Why do I always have to do all the high-up chores?” said Dash, who was already hovering above them. “Why can’t Twilight use her magic for a change?”

“I’ll get it,” interrupted Alex, who immediately went to go shut the offending window. “It’s just a window, no big deal.” He shut the window and locked the latch. “There, done. Geez, what was all that about?”

Applejack rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry, Ah guess we just got a little carried away…”

“Be that as it may,” said Rose with a roll of a hoof, “are you six almost ready to go yet?”

“What’s the hurry?” asked Rarity as she magically packed her costume into one of her bags. “I understand it’s getting late, but don’t you want to take in a few more of the sights before we go back to Ponyville?”

“I feel no such desire. But what I do feel is that Alex and I are drawing too much attention as it is.”

Alex walked up to Rose and rubbed her perfectly smooth, metallic pony head. “She just has a thing about being too far away from home, that’s all.” Rose glared up at him in response.

Pinkie Pie zoomed up and wrapped a foreleg around Rose’s neck. “Don’t worry! We’ll be done here and be back home lickety-split!”

Rose gave her a flat expression, desperately trying to not throw Pinkie off. “Could you please not do that?”

Pinkie let go and bounced off to go do her own packing, still as cheery as ever. “Okie dokie lokie, grumpy gus!”

Rose suddenly noticed one of the other actors staring at her and Alex and glared daggers at him. “What are you looking at?”

The poor stallion jumped up in surprise and quickly went back to what he was previously doing… on the other side of the room.

Alex blinked at the display. “Yeeeeaaaah… Rose, I think you need to work just a biiiit more on your people skills…”

Alex stepped off the train at Ponyville station with Rose close behind him. The other six ponies and Spike, each with their respective bags, quickly followed suit. As the group walked around to the front of the station, everypony chatting amongst themselves, they came face to face with one of the newest machines to roll out of the garage.

Supported on four massive wheels with heavy-duty treads was a much larger vehicle than the Scorpion. While it hardly looked like any conventional cars from Earth, the closest thing to it would be an oversized pickup truck. Heavy metal plating covered the entirety of the vehicle, especially the engine compartment and cockpit, bringing into question how a driver was even supposed to see. Of course, the vehicle used a similar viewing system as the Scorpion, making sight a mystery for everyone except those in the driver’s seat. A large snow plow was also mounted on the front.

Named the Hellbender, the former urban support vehicle originally held a mounted turret on the back of the truck, with little room for anything else. Since coming to Equestria, Alex modified the design by removing the turret and elongating the back end, effectively turning it into a big pickup truck.

Alex nudged Rose’s shoulder with a smile. “Haha! Got us a ride already! Hey, mind if I drive?”

“Go ahead,” said Rose.

A grin spread across his face as he entered through the driver’s side, the previous Liandri driver having already shifted to the passenger seat. To Alex’s pleasure, the heating system was already turned on. Rose hopped into the back of the truck and motioned for everypony else to do the same. Soon enough, the Hellbender rumbled off to home.

During the train ride back from Canterlot, Alex asked everypony if they would be willing to come by his garage when they got back to Ponyville, despite how late in the day it was getting. When asked why, his answer was simple.

“You see, today also happens to be a human holiday too. It’s called Christmas. Now, Christmas is a time where people get together with friends and family to exchange presents and pretty much be happy, kinda like Hearth’s Warming Eve, too. And I’m not sure if you guys remember this, but way back when, I told you all that I wanted to make some Thank You gifts for welcoming me to Equestria like you did. Well… they’re all done! And I’d like to present them to you tonight!”

While everypony insisted that no such gifts were necessary, especially Rarity and Applejack, none of them wanted to turn him down. They also couldn’t deny how curious they were to at least see what he had put together.

Alex parked the Hellbender near the front door of his home and shut the engine off before stepping out onto the freshly shoveled walkway. The sun had already gone down, but a couple of Blues were still busy shoveling snow out of the way, forming giant piles by the side of the building. That was one thing Alex loved about having a robotic workforce: not having to shovel snow anymore. A trio of domestic bots quickly emerged from the building to pick up the ponies’ bags and place them indoors.

“Right this way, everyone!” Alex said with a small bow. “The domestics are just going to place your bags inside, you don’t have to worry about them.”

“Wow, they’re very efficient,” commented Twilight as a domestic grabbed several of Rarity’s many travel bags at once and quickly carried them inside.

“That’s the point,” Rose called over her shoulder, who was already making her way inside ahead of everyone else.

Alex stepped inside and wiped his shoes on the brown welcome mat that, in all honesty, looked out of place in the clean, pristinely white garage. At the same time, one of the domestics came up from behind him and slipped his coat off his shoulders to go store it. He turned around and ushered the others in.

“Oh my, this is certainly something!” said Rarity as she came through the door. “In all the time that this place has been here, I can’t say I’ve ever actually been inside before!”

“Me neither,” said Fluttershy with an equally wondrous expression.

“It has a certain quality to it…” Rarity continued. “It’s different from any home style I’ve ever seen, but I’m not quite I’m a fan of it, though… It seems rather… um… industrious?”

“This is just a work area,” said Alex. “My actual living space is upstairs, but I don’t really spend that much time in there, to be honest.”

“Does that have anything to do with the fact that you tend to stay up for thirty six hours at a time?” asked Spike with smirk.

Alex shrugged. “Probably. Now then, could I interest any of you in a cup of hot chocolate?”

The six ponies and one dragon eagerly accepted.

Alex turned to a nearby domestic. “Unit, get me eight cups of hot chocolate in the rear workshop.” The domestic acknowledged the command and walked off. Alex grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Oh, I love being able to do that! Anyway, right this way, everyone.”

“Hey, what’s that over there?” asked Pinkie, who was pointing at a large object hidden underneath a white tarp near the main garage door.

Alex glanced at what she was pointing at and looked back at her with a smirk. “A surprise.”

“Really?! I love surprises!”

“I know you do. Now come on, this way.” Alex led the group to the back of the garage and through the manufacturing area, where each of the machines sat silently, simply waiting to build something at a moment’s notice. As they passed the manufacturing area and entered into the rear workshop, a holographic projector lit up and presented the image of a female human with light blue skin and shoulder length hair that was just a slightly darker shade of blue.

“Wow, back in the seat already?” said Alex. “That was fast.”

“Did you really expect anything else?” said Rose’s projection, although her voice echoed throughout the entire room.

“No, not really.” Alex turned back towards his visitors. “We’ll just wait for the hot chocolate to show up before I show you guys what I made you. So, since I know some of you haven’t seen this place before, tell me: What do you think?”

They each glanced around the workshop. To say that there was a lot going on would have been an understatement. Aside from the expected worktable, which was surprisingly large and intricate with robotic arms mounted on the adjacent wall, there were several other large containers and stations, each one supposedly serving a different purpose. At least a dozen visible cameras were mounted on the pure white walls, which easily reached twenty feet in height.

“Is this the sort of thing you did on your world?” asked Rarity.

Alex nodded. “Yep. I mean, not on this scale, but yeah, pretty much.”

Rarity continued looking around, vainly attempting to take it all in. “I must say, this all does seem rather alien. All these machines capable of doing goodness knows what… carts made of metal that can move of their own accord… It’s a little overwhelming.”

“I think it’s amazing!” said Twilight. “Once you come to terms with the fact that all of this is done purely without magic, it becomes even more mind blowing! Just take that for instance.” She pointed at Rose’s hologram. “There is zero magic responsible for putting that together! All of this is manipulating the laws of physics to produce something incredible. It’s pure science that looks like magic!”

“Ah, for one, think it’s pretty neat,” said Applejack. “Ah don’t really know much about magic, and math ain’t never really been mah strong suit, but Ah can appreciate somepony who works hard to build somethin’ like this.”

Alex coughed and scratched the back of his head. “Well, to be honest, Rose did pretty much all the work to build this place… But yeah, I guess that works too.”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “Well I think this place is missing something.”

Alex raised a brow. “And that is?”

“Just look around! There’s no color!”

Each of them – including one of the cameras – looked around the room. White, silver, and grey seemed to be the dominant color scheme, with only the blue from the few security bots present to break it up.

“Why Rainbow Dash, I do believe you’re right!” said Rarity. “This place could certainly use a splash of paint.”

“Yeah, it needs way more pizzazz,” said Pinkie Pie. “Don’t get me wrong, the robots are super-duper cool and all, but it’s kinda like a cupcake with no frosting. It’s still delicious, but it could be even better!”

Alex blinked at them. “Huh… I never really thought about it… I mean, we keep things white just to keep light bouncing around, but I guess a bit of color here and there couldn’t hurt…” Alex abandoned his train of thought when a domestic walked in with a tray supporting eight cups. “Hey, guess what just showed up!”

Everyone helped themselves to the offered hot chocolate and secured their own little spots to sit and enjoy it.

“Hey, this is pretty good!” said Pinkie.

Alex bobbed his head in agreement after taking his own sip. A wave of warmth and energy instantly washed over him. “Yeah, it is! Hey, Rose, did you help make this?”

“I didn’t, actually.”

Alex gave his best “not bad” face and nodded. “Good job with the programming, then. This stuff’s awesome.” He took one last careful sip before placing his cup on his workbench and clasping his hands together. “Alrighty, let’s get this show on the road. Rainbow Dash, you’re up first.”

Dash set her cup aside and trotted towards him with a grin. “So, what awesome thing did you make for me?”

Alex smiled and moved towards a wide metal storage locker. “Dash, let me just start by saying that coming up with something for you was the easiest out of all of them. Putting it together was something else entirely, but in the end, I think it was well worth it.” With a few deft finger movements over the locker’s keypad, the front rolled up and revealed…

A Wonderbolt uniform on a ponyquin.

Dash blinked at it for a few seconds before speaking. “It’s… a Wonderbolt costume?” She rubbed her foreleg. “I… uh… kind of already have one…”

Alex’s face lit up and he held out his hands as if to stop her. “Ah! That’s what it looks like! But this isn’t an ordinary flight suit!” He briefly waved at the domestic. “Unit, go get me my tool belt. – You see, I know that speed is very important for you, so I asked myself something: How can I make something fly faster without strapping jets to it? The answer was either increase thrust, or reduce air resistance. Since thrust was out of the picture, I–” The domestic handed him his tool belt. “– Oh, thank you. – I decided to go the air resistance route. So how do you reduce air resistance aside from giving something a more aerodynamic shape?”

Alex strapped the tool belt around his waist, fished a narrow object out of one of the pouches and ushered Rainbow Dash to come closer. When she did, he shined a light on the flight suit, which revealed a circuit board like pattern along its surface that was previously invisible.

“Whoa…” Dash murmured. “What did you do to it?”

Alex’s grin grew wider. “You see, I borrowed a concept that other human engineers used to make torpedoes move faster in water. What they do is they create bubbles around themselves to thin the water out, making them go faster than if they were just going through ordinary water. So I asked myself: What if I could produce something that could generate a field that thinned air in the same way? How could I even power such a thing?” He patted the ponyquin on the back. “Well, this is the result. Powered by friction with the air, this suit will generate a specialized electromagnetic field that will constantly thin out the air as far as five millimeters directly out from its surface.

“But here’s the kicker: the suit is powered by the very thing it tries to eliminate, so there’s only so much so much air resistance it can reduce. At one point, it reaches an equilibrium and it just can’t keep up with all the air being thrown at it. Now I don’t want to bore you with the specifics, but based on the tests we ran, this thing can help you accelerate up to fifteen to twenty percent of your maximum speed before it reaches its functional equilibrium.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide. “Wait, so you’re saying I can go twenty percent faster with this thing on?”

Alex nodded his head. “In a nutshell, yes. But I just want you to keep something in mind: this does not affect your velocity. It affects your acceleration. You speed up faster, but you slow down more slowly, too. Turning, more likely than not, will also be more difficult. Just so you know.”

Dash placed a hoof on the modified Wonderbolt flight suit, taking in the texture. “This… is… awesome…” she said breathlessly.

“I hoped you would think so.” Alex chuckled and moved back to his workbench to go take another sip of hot chocolate. “Ah, that’s good stuff… Alright. Rarity, you’re up next.”

Rarity set her cup aside and walked over to him. “Oh I sincerely hope it’s nothing as complicated as Rainbow Dash’s gift. I certainly wouldn’t want it to have been a burden to you.”

Alex waved her off. “Nah, yours was simpler. Still a pain in the neck, though.” He walked over to the side of the worktable, fished out a long rectangular box, and placed it in front of her. “Here you go. Open it up!”

Curiosity pecking at her, Rarity unfolded the top of the box with her magic and let out a quiet gasp. “Oh my!” She slowly levitated a bolt of unnaturally black fabric from the box, one of the four present, and examined it with exponential interest. “This is exquisite! I’ve never seen anything like this! This fabric, it’s so… dark!” She rubbed a hoof against an unspooled portion of it briefly before gleefully rubbing part of it against her cheek. “And that texture! Oh, this is simply divine! What is this made of?”

Alex chuckled. “It’s funny you should ask that while you’re rubbing it against your face. It’s made of carbon.”

Rarity looked up at him with confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

“Carbon! You know, the same stuff that coal is made of?”

Rarity’s eyes grew wide and she quickly put the bolt back in the box. “Gah!”

The others laughed at her reaction as Alex picked the bolt back up. “Hehehe. Don’t worry, this stuff is perfectly clean. I’ll have you know that diamonds are made of carbon, too. In fact, it’s for that very reason that I put this together.” He unspooled a portion of the bolt. “Rarity, allow me to introduce to you: Nanofibre. It’s woven with specially designed carbon nanotubes, making it finer than any other textile material you could ever get a hold of. It also makes it virtually impossible to cut, which is why I included these…” Alex poked his hand back in the box and fished out a pair of scissors. “Diamond edged scissors. Do not – I repeat – do not lose these. They’re the only things that are gonna be able to cut through this stuff, and they weren’t easy to make. I also included some diamond tipped threading needles and some Nanofibre thread, and if you want, I can even have your sewing machines upgraded to accommodate everything, too.”

Suddenly more trusting of the fabric, Rarity picked it up with her magic again and more closely inspected it. “This is very impressive, Alex… How long did it take you to make all of this?”

“You saw those machines in the other room, right?”

“Yes, what about them?”

“Those are my most advanced manufacturing machines, with an imperfection rate of about point zero eight percent. It took all of them a little over two months to produce everything you see in his box.”

Rarity smiled. “Well then, I can assure you that I shall put this gift to the best of use.”

Alex nodded and returned to his hot chocolate. “Good. And hey, if you need more, just let me know in advance. As in, way in advance.”

“I appreciate it, thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.” Alex took a much larger sip of his hot chocolate that was starting to grow cold from neglect. “Now then. Twilight, Spike, please step forward.” The two of them shared a bright-eyed look before getting up and walking over to him. Alex reached over the workbench and picked up what looked like a flat rectangular device. “Yours took a bit of thinking, but once I got the right idea, everything just made complete sense. So here you go.” He handed the device to Spike.

They both stared at it curiously, but its function escaped them. “So… what is it?” asked Spike.

Alex smiled. “Part one of your Christmas present.” He suddenly raised his hands up to the ceiling. “Rose! Bring in Grand Master Google!”

Rose sighed. “You like that name far too much.”

Alex never dropped his pose. “Yes I do, now shut up and do it.”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as all of her memories of Alex’s descriptions of the internet resurfaced to the front of her mind. “Wait, did you just say Google?!”

Alex grinned and pointed a hand towards the door. “That I did.”

Everypony looked to where he was pointing. Standing in the doorway was a Liandri that was distinct from either the domestics or the Blues. Its form looked strong, yet elegant, with complete five fingered hands which it kept clasped together with the utmost delicacy. Golden ornaments trimmed its snow white body along its entirety, with similar pieces streaming down from its back in long, clinking strands, giving the impression that it was wearing a magnificent golden robe. Its head and neck made it look even more alien, however, as it was almost cobra-like in appearance. Its curved neck began wide at the shoulders and narrowed into a single pure, brilliant white eye at the end of its head.

Everypony stared at it in slack jawed silence. Everypony except, of course, for Pinkie. “Wow, he’s shiny.”

The Liandri reverently moved around the others until it reached the trio near the workbench and gave a small bow towards Twilight and Spike, observing them in complete silence.

“Twilight, Spike, allow me to introduce to you: Grand Master Google,” said Alex. “Yes, I named him after that Google, and before you ask, I titled him Grand Master just for kicks. You see, what you’re holding right now, Spike, is called a tablet, but more specifically, it’s an e-reader. Google’s job is to read every page of every book in your library so that you can not only read them all on one handy little device later, but if you need to look up a specific piece of information from a book he’s read, then–”

“Then I could just Google it!” Twilight interrupted. She squealed to herself and did a short prance on the spot. “Oh my gosh! This is amazing!”

The others looked at Twilight’s display curiously. “Uhh… Am Ah missin’ somethin’ here?” said Applejack.

Alex chuckled at Twilight’s reaction before turning his attention back to the others. “Allow me to explain. Back on Earth, we had something called the internet, which was a world-wide communication network that allowed people all over the entire world to share all sorts of things with each other. There was a company called Google that started a search engine of the same name. What it did was fairly straightforward. All you had to do was enter in a few key words and this search engine would scour the entire internet to find any and all information about what you’re looking for. You could also ask it a question and it would give you a whole bunch of different sources that would essentially answer that question for you. This Google is based on the same idea.”

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely Twilight’s thing,” said Rainbow Dash, who was busy caressing her new Wonderbolts costume.

Twilight reared up on her back hooves and crushed Alex in a hug. “I love it! Quick, Spike, let me see that tablet!”

Alex laughed as Twilight let go of him to experiment with her new toy and bent down to whisper to Spike. “By the way, Google doubles as an organizer. Saves you some work.”

“Thanks,” replied Spike. He was about to follow Twilight back, but quickly spoke back up to Alex. “Hey, he’s not going to try to become her personal assistant or anything, is he?”

“Not unless you want him to. Why?”

“No reason…” Spike finished before going back to Twilight’s side.

“Alright, then…” Alex finally finished off his hot chocolate before calling Fluttershy forward.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do anything for me,” she said, although the smile on her face betrayed her own eagerness.

Alex leaned back against his workbench, clasped his hands together near his chest, and gave her a stone cold look. “Fluttershy… Yours was one of the most difficult to come up with. I originally thought to put together an automated animal feeder, but I knew how much you like to do that yourself. I realized that in the end, you want nothing, and you need nothing. So what could I do? You see, Fluttershy, I didn’t just make these presents as simple ‘Thank You’s. I wanted to challenge myself too, and possibly produce new technology in the process – which I did – and you were probably the greatest challenge.”

He motioned towards a long metal container sitting on a shelf just above the workbench with his fingers. As if on cue, the robotic arms mounted on the wall directly beneath it reached up and slowly lowered it down to the table. Alex placed a hand on the container and lightly tapped his fingers against it. “I realized that for you, I actually had to think a little outside the box. You see, some time ago I learned that you were extremely afraid of dragons…” Fluttershy’s smile dropped at the word. “So I sent out a bot to go observe and document them because somebody lacked information on them.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault Ponies haven’t done much research on dragons!” cried Twilight, although her attention was still largely fixated on the e-reader.

Alex waved her off with his hand. “Be that as it may, that bot I sent out eventually came back with some pretty good stuff, including the general physiology of an actual dragon. It wasn’t a hundred percent complete, but Rose was able to guess and fill in most of the gaps. I then used that information to put this together…”

Fluttershy almost took a tentative step back as Alex unfolded the container flat against the table, but stopped upon getting a better look at it. Inside was the elongated form of what looked like a sleeping red dragon. Its relatively large wings were folded up along its back, though they lacked any sort of visible webbing that it would need to fly. In terms of size, it was no bigger than Spike, although its body shape looked a lot more like the adult dragon it no doubt represented. Aside from the beautifully sculpted horns and fins around its head and the thin, rigid snout, it looked like any other large lizard with wings and dark red scales. Of course, it wasn’t completely perfect. Many of the joints, especially those in the wings, still looked mechanical in nature, although Alex had done a pretty good job of disguising them. Unless they looked carefully, nopony would’ve been able to tell the difference.

Alex brushed a finger against the spines running down its neck. “I call him Garry. He’s easily one of my better creations. Frankly, even I’m impressed he came out looking this natural. Still working on a proper wing material that’ll let him fly, though…” He looked at Fluttershy. “Anyway, with any luck, hopefully this little guy can help you overcome your fear of Dragons. So, what do you say? Would you be willing to adopt him?”

Fluttershy carefully stepped forward to inspect the ‘sleeping dragon.’ “He wouldn’t behave like all those other dragons, right? Mean and fire-breathing?”

“Actually…” Alex shared a look with Rose’s hologram, who shrugged back at him. “We’re not entirely sure.”

Fluttershy’s pupils shrank dramatically. “Y-y-you don’t know…?”

Alex waved his hands in front of himself and spoke calmly. “He’s not gonna breath fire, and I doubt he’ll be mean, but I really can’t tell you how he’s going to behave. He’s using experimental programming that we’ve never used before, so… I mean, we did install some basic behavior patterns and program responses, but... I dunno, I wouldn’t call it a virtual intelligence, but I’m not sure if I’d go all the way and call it an artificial intelligence, either…”

“I don’t know what that means…”

Alex shrugged. “Sad part is, neither do we.” He extracted a pen-like tool from his belt and put in a smile. “Let’s find out then, shall we?”

Fluttershy’s ears pinned themselves to her skull and her hooves froze in place as Alex hovered the device over the machine’s/dragon’s head. He held it there for a few seconds before putting it back on his belt and backing away.

Agonizingly slowly, the dragon’s eyes opened to reveal a faintly glowing set of yellow eyes. Although unlike the actual dragon in the room, these eyes had round “pupils,” as opposed to slit ones. Garry slowly raised his head and glanced around the room, eventually settling his gaze on Fluttershy as if he recognized her from somewhere. The rest of his body came to life as Garry stood up on all fours and continued to stare at her with a tilted head. Fluttershy, however, stood as still as a statue.

As stealthy as ever, Pinkie Pie crawled up, poked Fluttershy from behind with a hoof and whispered, “Say something!”

Fluttershy flinched herself into motion. “Um… hello?”

Garry regarded her for a few more seconds before hopping to the floor with light metal taps and slowly approaching Fluttershy. This time, instead of backing away, Fluttershy let her own curiosity overtake her and leaned towards him.

Spike nudged Twilight with his elbow. “Twilight, come on! You’re missing everything!”

Twilight wave him off. “Mhm… Hey did you know he included this neat little pen that you can use to write on the screen?”

Spike face palmed and shook her shoulder. “Just look! He built a dragon!”

Twilight’s eyes immediately zipped up. “What!?”

Twilight looked up just in time to see Garry’s snout lightly touch Fluttershy’s extended hoof, almost like a dog sniffing someone for the first time. “Aww, you’re not a mean dragon, are you?” Garry nuzzled her hoof in response.

Alex smiled at the display, yet his only prevailing thought was: Well, at least that function is working.

“Hold on a second,” Twilight interrupted. She handed the e-reader to Spike and approached Garry, who stared back at her with a tilted head. “Alex, do you know what kind of dragon this is based off of?”

Alex scratched his head. “Uh… No?”

“Was the dragon you based it on also red? With these specific horn patterns?”

“Yes…?”

Twilight rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Hmmm… I’m not sure, but I think Princess Celestia told me about this kind of dragon before…”

“Really?” said Fluttershy.

Twilight nodded. “She called it a ‘Royal Red.’ Apparently, they get that name because the horns on their head look like some sort of weird, pointy crown, that distinguishes them from other dragons. According to her, they’re revered amongst dragons because of their wisdom and leadership. Alex, how did you say you built this again?”

“I sent a bot out North-West-ish, where you said I might be able to find something dragon related. It came back after a couple of weeks with enough physiological information that I was able to build Garry as a replica.”

“Okay, now here’s my question: How did it manage to do all of that without getting torn to pieces?” Twilight’s question caught everypony else’s attention. If that bot was able to retrieve enough information to build a physiologically accurate model, something which would normally require some sort of autopsy, how did it manage to do that without getting trashed by the dragon it was undoubtedly intruding on?

Alex rubbed his own chin. “That’s… a very good question, actually… Hey, Rose, could you go digging around in that unit’s memory to see what happened?”

Rose’s hologram gave him an uneasy look. “There’s a bit of a problem with that…”

“Okay, what is it?”

Rose hesitated, but eventually answered. “Unfortunately, I… may have recycled that particular unit to construct an Axon…”

Everybody immediately expressed their dismay with a simultaneous “aww come on!”

Alex held out his hands. “Alright, alright, calm down. I know it sucks, but that’s just one mystery that won’t get solved…”

Garry looked between them all and their conversations curiously, though he didn’t provide any indication that he understood what was going on. Fluttershy suddenly ran a hoof along the spines of his neck to draw his attention and said “Come on, little guy. I can give you a good home.” The mechanical dragon obediently followed.

Alex sighed and rubbed his hands together. “Okay, so… moving on from that unfortunate piece of information… Applejack, you’re next.”

Applejack sat up from her spot and planted her hooves in front of him. “Alex, normally Ah’d respectfully decline your gift since it was just for somethin’ Ah’d do for anypony. But seein’ all the effort you and Rose put into everypony else’s gifts, Ah believe it’d be much too disrespectful to do that. Ah also understand that Ah may have been a little… less than inspirin’ for ya…”

“Yes, AJ, you were,” Alex said with a nod. “Your gift, like Fluttershy’s, was incredibly tough to come up with. The only thing you want is the love and respect of your friends, and that of your family even more so, especially after a hard day’s work with them. Beyond that, you need nothing else, and I can fully respect that.” He paused for a moment to think. “That said, I… I have gone so far out of the box with this one… Everyone, follow me, please. You can just leave your empty cups where they are, a domestic will pick them up.”

Everypony briefly shared curious glances before following Alex to the other side of the workshop in front of what was easily the biggest storage container in the room. A long metal ramp led up to the container itself, which looked like a giant, chrome plated can with a single line splitting it down the middle. Everypony stared at it in awe, wondering what mystery lay behind the mirror-like doors.

Alex walked over to a computer terminal beside the ramp and indicated that Applejack stand at the base. “Applejack, I’ll be honest with you. When I originally came up with this idea, Rose was completely against it, and for a very good reason. It took a bit of tweaking and a whole lot of careful planning, but I eventually got her to agree to a set project. In the end, I personally hand built something that ranks way up on the list of things that I am most proud of, and is it this that I pass on to you. I understand your appreciation of family and hard work and have never overlooked that while building this.”

Applejack gave him an awkward smile. “Ah appreciate the speech, Alex, but maybe you can just show me what it is now.”

“Right, right…” Alex cleared his throat and began typing at the terminal. “Everyone, allow me to introduce to you: measuring almost ten feet in height; weighing in at nearly five metric tons; with enough power in his body to carry more than twice his own weight; the very first Liandri of his class—the very first super-heavy; I present to you the newest member of the Apple family…”

Alex looked up at them with a proud smile. “Guy!”

At that instant, the curved doors at the top of the ramp slowly groaned open. A hazy mist backed by a bright, white light spilled out from the newly opened crevice as if heaven itself lay beyond the breach. Everypony covered their eyes for the next few seconds until the light died down to a tolerable level. When it did, everypony gasped.

Standing before them was a true metal giant. Unlike other Liandri, its body more closely resembled a muscular human, with thick arms and legs, with a broad waist and shoulders, yet it retained enough mechanical features to remind anyone present of its true nature. However, it lacked any sort of visible face or ears, possessing only a smooth, black surface where someone would expect to see eyes, a nose, or a mouth. The rest of its body was a consistent silvery grey with a slight shine in it, broken up only by the single red apple in the middle of its chest. Various tubes and hoses still connected ports in its body to whatever machine it was stored in.

In another world, “Guy” might have been considered a work of art, although Alex probably already considered him as such.

Applejack’s eyes remained transfixed on titan standing before her, she almost didn’t notice when Alex started speaking again.

“Applejack,” he began, “the thing you have to know about Guy is that he isn’t just another Liandri. He’s unique; an individual. You see, AJ, the Liandri operate on a network. Each bot is interconnected and can instantly share information between each other, while still maintaining individual control. Rose, or more specifically, the facility's super computer, acts as the head of this network. It’s a type of Hub, or Nexus, if you will. Or, if you prefer, the Liandri act as a hive mind, and Rose is the queen.

“Guy is not a part of that network. In fact, I deliberately left out the hardware that could make that possible. The only way Guy can communicate with anyone is verbally, just like us. Which brings me to my next point. Right now, his programming is similar to that of a Virtual Intelligence. However, I also incorporated machine learning algorithms that I pulled straight from Rose. Which means that, by rough estimate, in a few weeks–”

“He’ll become an AI…” Twilight breathlessly interrupted.

Alex smiled and nodded. “That is correct. Guy will become an artificial intelligence and a true individual like you or me.” He walked around the terminal and knelt down next to Applejack so that they were both facing Guy. “You didn’t want a machine, AJ. So instead, I’m offering you a brother.”

Applejack’s jaw refused to close as she continued to stare at Guy, her eyes unusually drawn to the image of the single bright red apple on his chest, not unlike the ones on her very own cutie mark. Applejack let out a shaky breath she didn’t realize she was even holding in. “Alex, this is…” She forced herself to inhale and look at him. “Will he be like Rose?”

Alex gave her a single pat on the back, stood up, and walked back to the terminal. “Truth be told, no one knows. AIs aren’t exactly a field with a lot of available information. There’s only one AI that anyone, or at least I have ever seen develop, and that’s Rose.” He leaned against the terminal on his elbows. “Unfortunately, one does not a pattern make. On the other hand, I can tell you that we have some ideas, but they don’t really extend any further than that.”

“And those are?”

Deciding the terminal wasn’t the most comfortable spot to rest, Alex sat on a nearby stool instead. “Well, truth be told, Rose behaves a lot like me. At least, back when I originally started out with all this—the Liandri.” He counted the words on his fingers. “Focused… Disciplined… Highly prioritized… Cynical… Paranoid… Rightfully so, mind you, but… Uh…” He cleared his throat.

“Alex, that’s not exactly the most appropriate thing to say about somepony,” Rarity cut in. “Especially when in their presence.”

Rose’s female hologram appeared above the computer terminal. “I don’t deny any of it. Besides, we both agree that it’s good I possess such qualities.”

Alex held his hand towards the hologram. “As you can see, we’ve had this discussion before. Anyway, the point is, we think that an AI’s personality will develop based on the people it spends the most time around during its early learning period. Just like any child would, except, you know… way faster. So to answer your question, AJ… No, I don’t think he’ll be like Rose.”

“Question!” Pinkie Pie yelled, raising a hoof.

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“How do you know Guy is a guy?” She followed up with a giggle.

“Because he built him, duh!” said Rainbow Dash. “Also, what kind of name is ‘Guy,’ anyway?”

“A legitimate one,” answered Alex simply. “At least where I’m from.”

“Actually, Pinkie Pie had a good question,” said Fluttershy. “Guy’s body is a machine, right? Does he even have a gender?”

Alex laughed. “Let’s throw something else into the mix. How do you know that Rose is a ‘she’?”

The ponies looked between each other thoughtfully, as if the answer was written on one of their foreheads. “I guess we always just assumed that because that’s what you told us when we met you,” said Twilight.

Alex chuckled and moved to stand by the terminal again. “Alright, let me ask you this: What does Rose look like?”

“Like that!” said Pinkie, pointing at the female hologram next to him.

Alex smirked. “She might. Or she could look like this…” He entered a few commands into the computer and the hologram was suddenly replaced with the image of the super-computer hanging in the prototype lab. “That’s the physical computer she’s in right now, right? Or maybe, she looks like this…” The super-computer was replaced with the image of a laptop. “She looked like that for a good few months. Maybe Rose looks like that? Or maybe, she looks like this…”

The hologram changed to what could only be described as data, countless lines of words and numbers streaming down from an unseen source and disappearing into thin air. Alex crossed his arms and continued. “The simple fact is: Rose is neither male, nor female. So that begs the question: Why do we refer to Rose as ‘she’? Why do we regard Rose as female, when she could change her voice in every way possible and use any type of mechanical body she wants? This is a question that I’m sure tons of human or pony philosophers would be asking, but because I’m not a philosopher, I have an actual answer for you.”

Alex held his hands out wide with an equally wide grin. “It’s arbitrary! The only reason we consider Rose female is because her original voice synthesizer sounded female. ‘Rose’ was actually a name my mother gave her for that very reason. In fact, ‘Rose’ would’ve been the name of my sister if I actually had one, and the only reason she keeps the female persona is for the sake of consistency. That’s it; that’s all. So to answer your original question, Pinkie: Rainbow Dash is right. Guy looks like a male and he’ll sound like a male, therefore I deem him male.”

“Well, I suppose that’s one way to answer a question about the very nature of one’s being…” said Rarity.

“It’s an irrelevant question to ask anyway,” said Rose. “The answer isn’t particularly important to me, and I doubt Guy will consider it any more than I will. Or maybe he might. Who can really say?”

“Exactly.” Alex looked back at Applejack. “Now AJ, I need to make this especially clear to you. If we activate Guy, there’s no going back. He doesn’t have an off button, and he will consider himself to be a part of your family. So what do you say? Could the Apple family use an extra brother?”

Applejack looked back up at the apple on Guy’s chest. Thoughts and worries flew past her mind’s eye at a million miles a second, leaving her grasping for anything, but ultimately turning up blank. “Ah… Ah don’t know…”

Applejack flinched when she felt a hoof touch her shoulder. It was Twilight. “Whatever decision you make, Applejack, just remember that we’re here and we support you either way.”

Applejack turned to her. “Thanks, Twi. It’s just… Ah’m not sure Ah’m the right pony to make a decision like this… especially without talkin’ to everypony else first…”

“I can’t imagine anypony more qualified than you, Applejack,” said Fluttershy. The others chorused their agreements.

Applejack smiled solemnly. As nice as the idea seemed, she wasn’t sure if Guy could ever really become family. Apple on his chest or not, he would always be a Liandri; a machine. If she brought him back to the farm, the most he could probably be was a farmhand, and that was most likely how she’d have to introduce him to Big Mac, Applebloom, and Granny Smith.

But what if what Alex was saying was true? If AIs really are as special as Alex and Twilight claimed, was it really impossible to think that Guy couldn’t become a member of the Apple family by earning their respect, trust, and love? Rose was always clearly different from the other Liandri, and she was obviously more than just a bunch of information. Is Guy really just a machine, or is there something more to him, too?

Applejack looked up at Guy’s face. Pure black. Completely empty, yet full of potential. It… No, he wasn’t just a machine to help around the farm, but a potential new brother! To her, to Big Macintosh, to Applebloom… Pony or not, he could be shaped by the very things they valued most, and maybe, just maybe, could become one of the biggest positive influences in their lives.

So much potential.

Applejack inhaled and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she looked Alex square in the eye. “Do it.”

Alex’s fingers hovered over the keyboard. “You’re absolutely sure?”

She nodded.

“Alright…” Alex began typing. “Initiating activation sequence now.”

A light hum began emitting from the machine holding Guy, and the hoses that connected to him shook back and forth from some unfelt vibration. All of Applejack’s friends gathered around her as the apple on Guy’s chest lit up and shone a brilliant, vibrant red, with just the right amount of green from the leaves above it. Guy’s black face suddenly began flashing every color of the rainbow, as if it wasn’t quite sure what color to settle on. Before anyone could question the strangeness of it, his face became pitch black once more, with two bright yellow circles where his eyes would be. Going from the bottom up, the tubes connected to his body popped off, each one sounding like a miniature explosion that caused everypony to jump. The new openings in Guy’s body immediately whirred closed like sentient pores, barring his insides from the outside world.

Alex waved his hand at the clustered ponies, though his eyes refused to stray from Guy. “Everybody get back—Not you AJ, you stay there.” Everypony complied.

Guy remained stock still for several long seconds, seemingly staring at the opposite wall. Suddenly, Guy’s head—and only his head—angled down to stare at Applejack, who simply stared back. After what seemed like an eternity, Guy raised one foot and…

*WHUM*

The weight of Guy’s massive step impacted the ramp and let out a resounding vibration across the entire room. Guy took another step forward, achieving the same result. Everypony, including Applejack, instinctively backed up as Guy slowly thundered his way down. Now off the ramp and standing on the much thicker, less noisy floor, Guy stared directly down at Applejack, towering over the pony who was only as tall as his upper thigh.

“Do you think we made him a bit too big now?” Rose whispered to Alex via a domestic leaning over his shoulder.

“Yeah, maybe a bit…” he whispered back. “Seems kinda stiff, though.”

“I was like that too, if you’ll recall.”

“Good point…”

Applejack gulped and held out a hoof. “Uh… Hi there, Guy.”

Guy dropped to his right knee with a heavy metallic thud, keeping his “eyes” focused on Applejack’s face. His face then dropped to stare at her extended hoof. Ever so slowly, Guy extended his open right hand towards her hoof to grab it.

Then he stopped. The giant pulled his hand back and slightly curled his fingers, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do. He extended his hand out again, though this time, only holding out a finger to tap Applejack’s hoof. However yet again, Guy pulled his hand back and began staring at it. This time, he formed his hand into a fist and looked back at Applejack’s hoof. For the final time, Guy’s clenched fist approached Applejack’s hoof and eased into it, emitting a light tap as they touched. Guy looked back up at Applejack’s face as if seeking her approval, and for the first time, spoke in a deep, monotone voice that sounded just as natural as Rose’s, though still held a synthetic hint. “Greetings, Applejack.”

Applejack brought her eyes back up from Guy’s fist to his face and smiled at him, unable to find appropriate words.

Meanwhile, behind the terminal, Alex began clapping his hands and giggling like a schoolgirl with the dumbest grin on his face. Upon noticing that the others were starting to give him funny looks, he cleared his throat loudly. “Yes, well… *ahem* It seems to me that things will turn out just fine for you two.” Alex walked around the terminal and gave Guy a firm pat on his gigantic shoulder. “Now look, if anything’s wrong with Guy, like if something breaks down, you bring him straight to me, okay? Just consider me his personal physician.” He looked at Guy and smiled. “You be good, okay?”

Guy’s circular eyes flattened and widened at him in a simulated blink.

Alex patted him on the shoulder one last time and walked off. “So, now that all that is said and done,” he called over his shoulder, “there’s only one beast left to be released. Pinkie, that means you.”

Pinkie Pie immediately jumped an easy three feet in the air and beamed. “Oh boy, my turn! Are they laser vision goggles? That would be so cool; having goggles that shoot lasers out of my eyes! Pew pew! Or maybe just heat vision goggles! I always wanted a pair of those to go with my other ones!”

Alex stopped and shook his head at her, chuckling with his hands on his hips. “Sorry, Pinkie it isn’t that. Funny thing, though. We don’t actually have any wearable technology like that. The closest thing we have would involve extensive surgery. Hell, I’ve even had it done!”

Everypony stopped in their tracks and stared at him. Once Guy stopped moving, everyone became fully aware of just how silent they were, letting Alex’s words sink in.

“Wait… you’ve had surgery?” asked Twilight. “As in… you’ve had it recently?

“Relatively speaking, yeah.” Alex said without a moment’s hesitation. “I had my heart replaced a couple of months ago.” He emphasized it by beating his chest with a fist twice. “After all, it was either that or wait for the eventual heart failure to do me in. Thought I’d even throw in an eye, too. Or throw out, depending on how you see things. I tell ya, Rose is one heck of a surgeon.”

Twilight frowned in thought. “Rose told me you were recovering from something on Nightmare Night. Is that what you were recovering from? The surgery?”

“Oh right, I had Rose keep it a secret…” he muttered. “Yeah, Twilight, that’s why I wasn’t out and about on Nightmare Night.”

“So that’s why you had that funny looking eye patch and exo-thingy!” cried Pinkie.

“It is! Oh! Here, watch this…” Alex closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. When he opened them a few seconds later, the iris of right eye was glowing a bright, neon green.

Everypony let out expressions of astonishment. While the idea of willingly replacing a perfectly good eye didn’t exactly sit well with anypony, the fact that Alex wasn’t bothered by it at all, and even seemed excited about it, helped ease them.

Alex chuckled. “It know, right? It’s awesome! Not only is this eye better than the original in terms of being able to see things, but I can even see light outside the visible light spectrum, too! It even has built-in magnification!”

“So could it see things in infrared?” asked Twilight with wide eyes.

“It can!” Alex was beaming at this point. “I can actually filter what kind of information it detects to send to my brain. The end result feels kinda weird, but it’s so cool!”

“Wait, what’s infrared?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Heat!” Alex immediately responded. “It even has built in night and EMF vision, too! I can see all sorts of things using this eye! It processes and sends all its information directly to the visual centers of my brain, and I can control it using a BCI implant.”

“I have no idea what a BCI is…”

Alex rubbed his scalp with his fingers, though kept his eyes focused on her. “BCI stands for Brain-Computer Interface. It’s a partially invasive device I had implanted in my head that sits between my brain and my skull that reads my brain activity. Oh! Here, watch this…” Alex waved to a nearby Blue and called it over. “I can even use it to give orders to bots using just my mind!”

“That sounds awesome!” Pinkie yelled.

“It is! Just watch: I’m going to order this Blue to give me a salute using just the BCI.” Alex squinted at the blue and began rubbing his hands together. For almost half a minute, nothing happened.

Spike nudged Twilight. “Is he actually doing anything?”

Twilight shrugged in response.

Alex held a finger out to them. “Just gimme a second here… I got this…” He bit his upper lip and visibly strained himself, forcing his face to turn red. It was almost as if he desperately needed to go to the bathroom.

Suddenly, the fingers on the Blue’s right hand snapped straight outward. Everybody, including Alex, yelped as the Blue’s arm shot up towards its head and its fingers smashed through its central eye, sending bits of glass and other small broken pieces spilling to the floor.

Everyone gaped at the Blue with its fingers still stuck in its face. The only movement between them was when Fluttershy brought a hoof up over her mouth. A viscous, purple fluid oozed out of the Liandri’s broken eye socket, with electric sparks dancing around it. After a few seconds, the Blue fell backwards and landed with a loud crash, its hand still lodged in its head.

Alex blinked down at the bot, his eye now back to its original color. “I, um… uh… huh…”

“You may find this hard to believe, but that was actually a lot better than what happened the last time he attempted to do that,” came Rose’s voice with a slightly amused tone. “Last time, the test subject pulled its own head off. Now that was a rather messy affair.”

Alex slowly rubbed the back of his head, his eyes still glued to the bot he just mentally ordered to smash in its own face. “I, uh… think we may have gone a bit off topic… Pinkie’s present is in the garage. Let’s… Let’s just go in there…”

“I concur…” said Rarity, carefully making her way around the bot lying on the ground. She wanted to look away, but found that simple task surprisingly difficult to do.

The large group traveled back into the garage in eerie silence. Of course, after watching a Blue practically commit suicide, it wasn’t terribly difficult to understand why. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed. “Oh, I wonder what my present is! Everypony got something that suits them great, which means that I’ll probably get something that suits me great, too! I wonder if it’s an automatic cupcake froster! Or maybe it’s a balloon blower! Or maaaaaaybe–”

“Pinkie!”

“Yes?” Pinkie Pie instantly stood straight up and grinned at Alex.

Alex chuckled with his arms crossed and his head angled towards the ground before looking back up at her. “Remember that surprise?”

“You mean that thing?” Pinkie pointed at the exceptionally large object hidden beneath the tarp. “Is that my present?”

Alex nodded. “That’s your present. Rose, would you do the honors?”

Rose didn’t respond. Instead, a pair of Blues approached the tarp from the side opposite the garage door and carefully pulled it away. As the hidden object was gradually unveiled, everypony’s jaws dropped more and more, especially Pinkie Pie’s. When it was fully revealed, nopony moved except Pinkie, who took slow, albeit shaky and uncertain steps towards it.

Before them was the biggest of all the Christmas presents Alex had produced. Supported by two massive wheels in the front and a pair of trapezoidal treads in the back, was a long, armored vehicle that was painted a hot pink, with Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark printed on the hubcaps of the front wheels. The vehicle was almost as big as Alex was tall, and the front and rear ends were the same height, making it fairly level, but it was the cornerstone that it was carrying along its metal back that drew everypony’s immediate attention. There, mounted on the back end of the vehicle and extending all the way along its entire length, was the unmistakeable sight of an obscenely massive party cannon, painted the same baby blue as the original.

Pinkie Pie slowly approached the beast, her neck craning up as she tried to take in the sight. Pinkie never said a word, letting shaky breaths do all the speaking for her.

Alex leaned against a nearby toolbox. “It’s pretty much an exact replica of your party cannon, Pinkie, just scaled up and rewired so it fires from the driver’s seat. Although the stabilizers on the back and sides need to be deployed first as a safety protocol. Personally, I like to call it the Self Propelled Mobile Party Artillery Cannon, but what you call it is entirely up to you. If you want, I can teach you how to drive it as early as tomorrow.”

“I… I…” Pinkie slowly ran a hoof along one of the hubcaps. Her breathing refused to steady itself as she turned her gaze up to the familiar looking cannon towering above her, so fresh and new that it was still glinting in the fluorescent light. Pinkie let out a sob as she did her best to hug the entirety of the large wheel. “It’s beautifu-u-ul…”

“Wait a minute!” Twilight called out. “Alex, you built a functioning replica of Pinkie’s party cannon?”

Alex looked over at her with a neutral expression and nodded.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Then you know how it works!”

Alex nodded again. “Yes, I do. But Twilight, I’m gonna have to stop you right there. I know what you’re gonna ask, but I’m sorry to say: I’ve been sworn to secrecy.”

Twilight’s expression instantly dropped and she landed on her haunches. The look of dashed hopes and dreams that she wore was almost too painful for Alex to look at. “Was it a Pinkie Promise…?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Ooohhh…” Twilight closed her eyes and allowed her head to thump against the floor in defeat.

Applejack clicked her tongue. “Better luck next time, Twi.”

Alex pursed his lips at the display when his thoughts were torn away by a sudden hug from Pinkie Pie who wrapped her forelegs around his neck. It was a comfortable hug, though, and nothing overly tight like Pinkie’s usual hugs. “Thank you,” she murmured into his ear. “Thank you so much…”

While initially surprised, Alex eventually smiled and returned her hug. “You’re welcome, Pinkie. Merry Christmas…”

Everypony remained at the garage talking excitedly amongst each other for quite a while before Rose pointed out to them that the time was bordering on one in the morning; an unfortunate side effect of leaving Canterlot by train late, arriving in Ponyville even later, and then getting sidetracked by the prospect of presents. Funny enough, none of them felt tired whatsoever, which most likely contributed to their losing track of time.

While most of the topics discussed were about their new gifts, the subject of Winter Wrap Up did come up, something that caught Alex’s attention. Unlike previous instances of directly interfering with nature, Alex actually welcomed the idea of “cleaning up winter.” Although that was most likely due to the fact that, despite being a Canadian his entire life, he never really appreciated snow and the cold that came with it. Either that, or he was becoming shockingly used to these crimes against nature. Either way, having an opportunity to get even with the white menace seemed all too good to be true.

After arranging for bots to help carry bags to their respective households with their owners, Alex waved everypony off. Knowing that his friends were on their way home for the night, Alex let out a content sigh and made his way over to the elevator.

Alex stopped in front of the elevator and paused. He frowned and looked around as if something wasn’t quite right. Alex placed a finger against his neck, held up his watch, and counted his heart beats.

One forty… a tad high… “Hey, Rose?” Alex called out as the elevator arrived and he stepped into it.

“Yes?”

Alex pushed the button to bring the elevator down to the prototype lab. “Did that domestic put stimulants in my hot chocolate?”

“Yes, yes it did.”

Alex nodded his head. “Good, good…” After a brief moment of thought, he frowned and added “Okay, quick question: did that domestic put stimulants in their hot chocolates?”

Rose spoke again after a few seconds, her tone highly unamused. “Yes… Yes it did…”

Alex slowly brought his hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ooohhh for fuck’s sake… Well, looks like no one’s getting any sleep tonight! Oh well… Hey, Rose, fire up the drawing room. Start a new project and title it ‘BioMech Mark Two.’ I’ve got a twisted little idea for this whole Winter Wrap Up business.”

Author's Notes:

So I've had this chapter finished for about two months now, and only just posted it... Yeah, I'm lazy that way. I'll just blame mid-terms, that's always a viable excuse, right?

Right?

On a much more serious note, I'm excited about this chapter because it introduces a character I've been thinking about for about a year now: Guy. Now some of you are probably thinking: What kind of name is Guy? Well, it was originally a placeholder name, but I used it so much that I just couldn't imagine calling him anything else. So the name stuck. In any event, I have a few plans for him, and I hope you guys are eager to see how he fits in to everything.

One final note: I've written a little thing on the side called "Model Hall," where I go over all the Liandri and vehicles that appear in the story in more detail. It's something that's completely optional and won't be necessary for the story itself, but it does provide some neat information that otherwise wouldn't normally be mentioned, like what happened to the robot timberwolf after Nightmare Night. I'll also make an effort to include images if they're available. Of course, people could always try to make artwork, and I'll gladly accept it, but that's probably asking for too much . Each update of Model Hall will also be a separate Google Doc, and not just one document that's simply updated, so the chance of potential spoilers will be exactly 0.

Anyway, the first issue of Model Hall can be found HERE.

This is just an experiment, so tell me what you guys think! Is Model Hall something worth continuing?

Wrapping up Winter

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“Alright, just set ‘em down right there – gently!”

Applejack moved a step back as Guy sat the two snow plows beside the ten he’d already carried over, which he had carried all the way from their storeroom near town hall over his shoulders. It would have normally taken well over an hour to get all two dozen snow plows to the field they were supposed to clear, but thanks to Guy, it didn’t take any longer than half that time. Once the plows were set down, Guy looked over at Applejack.

Applejack raised a hoof and smiled. “Good work, Guy! Could you go get those last two?”

Guy’s yellow eyes blinked green as he stood back up and wordlessly left to go retrieve the remaining plows.

Twilight Sparkle, pulling her new tablet from her newly minted Winter Wrap Up All Team Organizer vest, checked off another item on her checklist. “And that’s plows. I have to admit, AJ, I’m impressed! Thanks to Guy, we’re way ahead of schedule!”

Applejack chuckled. “You ain’t the only one who’s impressed. The only pony Ah ever saw who was that strong is Big Mac, and even then Ah think Guy’s got ‘em beat.”

“Well he was built that way, remember?”

“Ah know, Ah know.” Applejack smirked. “Heh, now that Ah think about it, Ah can’t help but wonder if Alex was tryin’ to one-up Big Mac…”

“That reminds me; I’ve been meaning to ask you what everypony in your family thinks of Guy now that it’s been a little over a month. Has he changed much since Hearth’s Warming Eve?”

“Not really,” Applejack said with a shrug, “and things are as good as Ah could’ve asked for when it comes to the family. Granny Smith still doesn’t really give a hoot, so she’s as cheery as ever, and Apple Bloom still thinks he’s the coolest thing in Equestria. He and Big Mac seem to get along, but then again, neither of them never really say much unless they really have to. Although, Big Mac still beats ‘em as far as quietness goes.”

“If Alex’s predictions are right, something tells me he might become a little more talkative sooner or later.”

“Maybe. Hey, speaking of Alex, where is he, anyway? Ah didn’t see him at the town meetin’ earlier.”

“He told me he’d be at the field at eight o’clock.”

“But isn’t it eight right now?”

“No, it’s seven fifty seven.”

Applejack quirked a brow at her. “How the hay do you know that?”

Twilight levitated the tablet over to her and pointed to the lower corner of the screen with her stylus, which read 7:57 and suddenly blinked to 7:58.

Applejack blinked at it. “Huh… Well ain’t that convenient…”

“Isn’t it?” Twilight grinned.

“Anyway, do you have any idea what Alex is gonna do to help out with the field? He seemed pretty eager.”

Twilight shrugged. “I have no idea. He told me that he made something to help melt the snow, but other than that, you know just as much as I do.”

Applejack chuckled. “Knowin’ him, it’s probably some fancy new gizmo or somethin’. Whatever it is, I just hope it respects Ponyville tradition enough.”

Twilight chuckled in turn. “Knowing him, that’s probably asking for a bit much.”

Their attention was suddenly drawn away at the honk of a low pitched horn. Turning in the direction of the sound, they found two Hellbenders approaching them, each with a large, bright yellow snow plow on the front. The leading vehicle came to a stop in front of them, but the other made a U-turn and backed up beside to the first, presenting the two mares with a large, odd looking dull green machine that was sitting on the end of the truck’s bed.

Whatever it was, it was big and bulky, but symmetrical. It seemed to have two devices on either side that vaguely looked like arms, although instead of hands, they sported something hollow and cylindrical whose actual function escaped them. The new logo Alex had come to use, which looked like an inverted, five-pointed star with the word “LIANDRI” printed on it, was painted on the front of whatever it was supposed to be, and flanked by what looked like two vertical rectangular headlights.

Other curious workers, who were waiting for the order from Applejack or Twilight to start clearing the snow from the field, came over as a Blue stepped out of the driver’s seat of the second Hellbender and made its way to the back of the vehicle.

“Um, excuse me, but where’s Alex?” Twilight asked the Blue.

The Liandri completely ignored her and proceeded to knock on the machine resting on the back of the Hellbender twice. Almost instantly, a large rectangular hatch just above the Liandri logo lifted up with a loud whirring noise to reveal Alex – or rather, his head.

“Hello!” Alex chirped.

The two ponies gave him a puzzled look. “Alex, what in the hay are you sittin’ in?” asked Applejack.

“What? This?” said Alex, indicating downward with his head. He grinned. “It’s called an Exosuit! Or more specifically, the BioMech Body Armor and Augmentation System!” He paused for a second before adding “Mark Two!”

Applejack turned to Twilight. “Twi, help me out here…” Twilight just shrugged back at her.

Alex chuckled maliciously. “Here, allow me to show you!”

Without further prompting, Alex inhaled deeply through his nostrils and closed his eyes. A moment later, the machine hummed to life and the hatch closed back over his head, fully encasing him in darkness. However, like the Scorpion and Hellbenders, the interior of the hatch quickly lit up, revealing the world in front of him, going from a pixilated mess to perfect clarity in almost no time at all. At the same time, a deep, synthetic voice sounded inside the cramped compartment Alex’s head was in. “INITIATING SYSTEM.”

On the outside, everypony looked on as the Exosuit raised itself up, revealing a set of heavily armored digitigrade legs that were originally folded up underneath it, with hydraulic supports connected to the knee and the joint in the foot. Its arms also came to life, raising themselves so that their elbows were almost at a ninety degree bend. Twilight also noticed hoses on the underside of each arm that snaked around the Exosuit’s back, although she couldn’t figure out what they were for.

With all the grace Alex could muster, the Exosuit stepped off the back of the Hellbender and landed on the ground with a loud clunk. The first thing everypony noticed was how big the thing actually was. Alex was already tall by human standards, but the Exosuit easily granted him three extra feet in height. If the legs were fully extended, it would probably add even more. As it was, it wasn’t quite as big as Guy, but it was pretty close.

The hatch opened up to reveal Alex again, only this time, his right eye was glowing a dim green. It wasn’t terribly bright, but it was definitely noticeable. Alex paced back and forth for a few steps and held the suit’s arms out, allowing everypony to take it all in. “Well, what do you think? Pretty neat, huh?”

Twilight quickly gasped to herself. “Oh, I get it!” She eyed the suit’s dimensions and quickly noticed something. “Hey, wait a second, how are you controlling those arms? They’re way too high up and far apart for your actual arms to be in them.”

Alex pointed one of the arms at her. “Astute observation, my good mare! I’m actually curled up in this little compartment above the legs. Not exactly the most comfortable thing ever, though, I’ll admit that… But I digress. I’m actually controlling the entire suit via a direct BCI uplink, so my real arms and legs don’t have to do anything. You can tell since my eye should be glowing right now… Hey, don’t give me that look, I’ve been practicing…”

“For your sake, Ah hope you have,” Applejack deadpanned.

“Right… Anyway…” Twilight brought her tablet back in front of her and cleared her throat. “Alex, as you know, I’m in charge of coordinating this year’s Winter Wrap Up. It’s my job to make sure everypony does their part, and that they do something they’re good at. You told me that you were going to help melt the snow. So, care to tell me how you’re going to do it?”

“With these.” Alex raised up both mechanical arms and gave a smug smile. “It’s a simple setup. Just a couple of high pressure kerosene sprayers with –” A small blow torch on the end of each arm shot to life. “– an effective source of ignition. Gonna clear this place right up in no time, you’ll see.”

Applejack didn’t quite understand what he was describing, but Twilight’s growing look of horror told her enough to know that it wasn’t good. When the gear in her head finally turned, Twilight’s eyes bugged out. “WHAT?!” Her outburst was sudden enough to cause Applejack to jump, and Alex to take a surprised step back. Twilight wasn’t done, though. She stomped her hoof down and shook her head violently. “No! No no no! Absolutely not!”

“Uh, Twi? Just what exactly did Alex want to do?” asked Applejack.

“He wanted to melt the snow using flamethrowers!” Twilight yelled, keeping her stern gaze fixated on Alex. Applejack’s eyes shot wide open and her jaw dropped as she slowly moved her head to look at him in turn.

Alex looked between them in confusion for a few moments before shrugging. “What?”

“Are you insane?!” Twilight barked at him. “Nopony is ever going to let you melt the snow by torching the place! What made you think this was even a good idea in the first place? What did Rose say?”

“I told him this was a terrible idea and that this exact thing would happen,” came Rose’s voice from somewhere inside the open Exosuit.

Alex looked down at the small dashboard of his suit. “Hey, you shut up! You’re not helping!”

Twilight help up her hoof. “She’s right, Alex. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you use this thing to help with Winter Wrap Up.”

“Not even a little bit?” Alex squeaked.

“NO!” Twilight stomped her hoof again for emphasis.

The torches on the end of the arms sputtered out as the entire Exosuit sagged. “Aww…”

Twilight’s expression softened. “I’m sorry, Alex, but I’m sure you understand that what you want to do is much too dangerous. As the organizer, I also have to make sure nopony gets hurt, either. Plus, Ponyville has Winter Wrap Up traditions that need to be followed – I of all ponies should know that – and gratuitous amounts of fire is not a part of them.”

Applejack bit her tongue as the image of what could of happened played out in her mind.

Alex released a long, guilt ridden sigh. “I’m not exactly a stickler for tradition but… Yeah, I get it… No Exosuit… Could you at least use the Hellbenders?”

Twilight looked too AJ for her approval, who simply rolled her eyes. “It ain’t a part of Ponyville tradition, but Ah guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I can direct the Hellbenders, and you can direct the plow ponies?” Twilight asked Applejack.

“Ah’m good with that. Now where the hay is Guy…?”

“Alright, at least that’s settled,” said Alex. “But that still leaves me with nothing to do and an Exosuit with a full tank of kerosene on its back.”

“Why don’t you go help Rarity make bird’s nests?” Twilight proposed with a smile, the same kind of smile you’d give a child when suggesting they play somewhere else. “You’re really good at making things with your hands; you’ll be a natural at it!”

Alex grimaced. “Bird’s nests? Really? You have to make their nests for them?”

“Well they can make their own, but we’re just there to give them a head start, that’s all!”

Alex sighed and began his walk back to town, clanking with every step. “Fiiiine, I’ll go help her. I’m gonna keep wearing the suit, though. Didn’t bring a coat.”

“Good luck!” Twilight waved after him.

As Alex left the field, he crossed paths with Guy, who had green eyes at the time, and was carrying a pair of pony snow plows over his shoulders, as well as Apple Bloom who was riding on his back with her hooves wrapped around his neck and the biggest grin on her face. An adorable sight, if anything, and even though Alex had the Exosuit’s hatch lowered as he passed, preventing them from seeing his face, he couldn’t help but smile at them.

“How does this one look, Rarity?” asked Spike, holding up a newly minted bird’s nest with a little red bow-tie on it. The two of them were sitting at a round wooden table Rarity had set up just outside of Carousel Boutique, which is what she did every year.

Rarity looked up from her own work in progress and beamed at him. “That’s perfect, Spike! Just keep it up and we’ll be done in no time!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Spike gently placed the nest on the growing pile of them and retrieved a new basket kit with fresh materials. Just as Spike began to build a new nest, he perked up. “Hey, you hear that?”

“Hear what, Darling?” asked Rarity, although she was now concentrated on her own task.

“That stomping… Kinda sounds like Guy, I think…”

Rarity looked up and focused her ears. “Hmm… Sounds vaguely like him, yes… But isn’t he supposed to be helping Applejack in the field?”

Their question was answered when they both scanned down the road and found the source of the disturbance, which certainly wasn’t Guy. The Exosuit clanked its way down the snowy cobblestone road until it reached the table Spike and Rarity were sitting at. Only then did the hatch whir open and reveal its pilot.

“Hi,” Alex said simply.

Rarity blinked at him for a few moments. “Alex? What in Equestria are you wearing?”

“An Exosuit.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s a big robot suit with funny looking hands, what else could it be?” said Spike, who was unconsciously playing with a piece of straw.

“Well yes, I understand that, but…” She looked back at Alex. “Why are you wearing that here?”

Alex sighed and lowered the Exosuit to its knees. “Well I was gonna use it to help melt the snow, but as it turns out, nobody wants me to help because my original idea to melt the snow was ‘too dangerous.’”

Spike perked a brow. “Huh? What was your idea?”

Alex smirked and raised the Exosuit’s arms. “Flamethrowers.”

“Whoa! That sounds awesome!”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Ugh, males… Honestly, I don’t get this fascination of yours regarding fire outside of where it belongs: in a fireplace.”

“Well Spike’s a dragon, so there’s that, and I’m…” Alex paused. He glanced at each flamethrower before giving her a shrug. “Well I don’t really have an excuse, but it seemed like a fun idea at the time, so I went with it. Anyway, all that aside, I’m here to help you make bird’s nests. Since, you know, crafty hands and whatnot.”

Rarity smiled at him. “Your assistance will certainly be appreciated, Alex. Although I don’t think you’re going to be making any nests while you’re still wearing that thing.”

Alex sighed inwardly. “Yeah… Sorry, but it’s really cozy in here, and I didn’t bring my coat with me. Oh well, might as well bite the bullet one last time…” Alex inhaled deeply and the front of the Exosuit leaned away from the back, giving him just enough room to wiggle out. However, as he was climbing out, the final remnants of winter began their assault on his exposed skin. “Whoo, it’s still chilly out here!”

“Do you need me to run inside and get you something?” asked Rarity. It didn’t take a genius to know that Alex’s short sleeve shirt wasn’t doing him any favors with the current weather.

“Nah, forget it.” Alex grabbed a nearby hay bale by its string bindings and dumped it next to the table to act as a chair. As he sat down, he began rubbing his hands together, although whether it was in anticipation of employing his craft or to just keep warm was anypony’s guess. “Besides, I’m Canadian! I’ve got a plus ten natural resistance to cold!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “You’re what?”

“Just give me a basket.”

“My name is Alexander Michael Laythem. I am twenty eight years old, and a master of mechanical, structural, robotics, and biomedical engineering. I am a scientist, and a physicist whose fields range all the way from basic Newtonian mechanics to Quantum physics. On my own, I have accomplished more in the last few years than entire teams of researchers accomplish in their entire lives. I am the father of the Liandri bots, masterpieces in and of themselves, and creator of the most advanced power source in the known universe. And yet for some reason, I can’t make a simple! FFFFFFFF-freaking! BIRD’S NEST!” The nest in question promptly fell apart in front of him, and Alex smashed his fists against the table. “GOD DAMMIT!”

Spike was trying his hardest to contain his laughter, but he was having an extremely tough time doing it. Unfortunately, it had been going this way for over an hour. Every time he failed, Alex made some curse or another, grit his teeth, and had another go at mashing bits of sticks, straw, and ribbon together in the hopes of making something even remotely nest-like. He was so concentrated on just trying to build a single nest that even the cold stopped registering in his mind.

Rarity, however, wasn’t quite revealing in the same feeling of schadenfreude as Spike was. Something in the back of her mind was screaming at her to try to calm Alex down, but the more rational part of her argued that trying that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea. “Spike, that’s enough!” she hissed. “He’s having a difficult enough time as it is, and you’re not helping him by doing that!” She turned to Alex with a soft look. “Alex, you seem a little tired to me. How much sleep did you get last night?”

“I got about five hours of sleep twenty four hours ago,” Alex rattled out. Another attempt at a nest fell apart in front of him. “What the ffffffffff-neeaarrrgghh!” He shoved himself away from the table and began pacing some distance away, incoherently mumbling to himself and drawing invisible symbols in the air with his fingers.

Rarity stared after him. “Only five hours of sleep? And he’s already been awake for twenty four hours? That’s absurd! He needs to be in bed, not out and about like this!”

“That’s actually kinda normal for him,” said Spike, who went back to putting together another nest. “When he was still living with me and Twilight, the only time I ever really saw him sleep was during the first day he was here. After that, he always went to bed late, got up early, and stayed up for like, thirty six hours at a time.” Spike looked at Rarity square in the eyes. “And don’t even get me started on how much coffee he drank.”

Rarity slowly shook her head and looked back towards Alex, who was still pacing and muttering to himself. She spoke up after a few moments. “Well, I will admit I am impressed by how well he’s censoring himself… He may be frustrated, but at least he’s keeping his composure. Er… More or less…”

Spike shrugged. “I lost track of his close calls half an hour ago.”

“You should see him when none of you are around,” came Rose’s voice from still open Exosuit, immediately drawing their attention. “He swears quite a bit on a regular basis.”

Rarity furrowed her brows at the unmoving Exosuit. “Really? But he’s such a gentlecolt! I’ve never heard him swear once before! I find it hard to imagine that he does it on a regular basis.”

“Believe me, even I’m impressed he’s able to segregate an entire section of his vocabulary when addressing anyone but myself, but it’s the truth.”

Rarity quickly glanced towards Alex to see if he was listening, but he was still pacing and seemed completely oblivious to their existence. “But why would he ever speak that way at all?”

“He understands that so called ‘swear words’ are just that: words. Their negative connotations are completely arbitrary. They are labeled ‘bad’ for no actual reason other than they simply are, and as such, he sees no legitimate reason to not use them when he sees fit. Of course, I never cared to begin with, which is why it doesn’t bother me.”

“Huh, I never thought of it that way before…” said Spike.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Rarity growled at him.

Spike held up his claws defensively. “I’m not! I’m not!”

Rarity turned back towards the Exosuit. “Well thank you, Rose. That was… er… enlightening…” She turned her attention back to Alex, who was still pacing. She sighed. “Alex, darling, it’s alright! Spike and I can make the rest of the nests. Maybe there’s something else you could do to help with–”

Alex cut her off by slamming a fist into the table and glaring at her, his eye glowing a vibrant green. “This shit will not beat me!” he roared before pushing himself away again to resume his pacing. His eye reverted back almost instantly.

Rarity and Spike recoiled from his outburst and gawked at him for several seconds. Of all the reactions they expected from Alex, that definitely wasn’t one of them. Eventually Spike broke their silence. “And he was doing such a good job, too.”

“AHA! I’VE GOT IT!” Alex suddenly exclaimed. Without any explanation, he quickly made his way to squeeze himself back into the Exosuit with the cheekiest grin on his face.

“Alex, where are you going?” asked Rarity, confusion sprawled all over her expression.

Alex grinned maniacally at her. “To make the best bird’s nest you’ve ever seen!” The Exosuit’s hatch closed and he immediately stood up and began thundering back down the road, most likely pushing the suit to go faster than it was ever meant to go.

“Oh boy… We all know what that look means…” said Spike.

“I know what it means on Twilight, but what does it mean on him?”

“I don’t know, but honestly, I don’t want to know.”

Inside the Exosuit, Alex was already issuing orders. “Rose, I need you to prep the spare Hellbender, four Axons, and all my carpentry tools. All of them! Oh, and get the sketch program set up on one of the projectors in the garage.”

“I sincerely hope you’re not about to do something incredibly stupid.”

“Depends on how you define stupid!”

Sometime later…

The Hellbender jerked to a sudden stop a couple of kilometers outside of Ponyville’s border, far away from other ponies and directly in front of a magnificent oak tree. It may have been stripped of its leaves, but even then, it was still a mighty sight to behold. Its tall trunk was easily a meter and a half wide and its numerous branches spread out in every direction. In the summer, it was probably the perfect place to sit down in its shade and simply read a good book. Alex stepped out of the driver side door and admired the beautiful work of nature with his own two eyes.

“Wow…” Alex whispered to himself, a smile teasing his lips. “Look at you… You’re just amazing… You’re just… perfect…”

Alex let himself smile as he put his safety glasses over his eyes and slowly made his way to the back of the Hellbender, a thin layer of snow crunching beneath his boots. All four Axons resting in the back hopped out at a single hand gesture and landed with loud clunks, ready for their orders.

With the bed of the truck clear, Alex reached in and hefted out a large chainsaw. He was never exactly a physically impressive individual by any definition, but Alex lifted the tool without complaint. “Just perfect…” As he made his way back to the tree, his eye began to glow bright green. Alex’s right hand slowly wrapped around the handle of the starter cord.

“They want a bird’s nest…?”

He pulled on the chainsaw’s cord once.

“I’ll give them a bird’s nest…”

He pulled the cord again.

“I’ll give them the best fucking bird’s nest they’ve ever seen…”

With a grunt of effort, he pulled the cord a final time and the chainsaw roared to life. He gave it a few test revs and his smile quickly turned into a scowl.

“Nobody outdoes me…”

Noon the next day…

The weather was gorgeous. It was the only thing anypony could say to describe the new day. It had only been twenty eight hours, but in that time, spring had launched itself into full swing. All of the snow in and around town had already been melted, the southern birds had already been brought back by the pegasus teams, the lakes had been thawed, the hibernating animals woken up, the clouds cleared, crops planted… Even the trees had already begun growing their leaves. Any indication that winter had been dominant just one day before had been completely wiped away.

As was Ponyville tradition, almost every able-bodied pony that had helped clean up winter gathered on a nearby hill that overlooked the town to get debriefed by the mayor. Attendance wasn’t necessary, but everypony loved to go anyway, just to see their beautiful town in all its glory after such a long period of blanketing snow. Although, by human standards, a winter that suddenly vanished in early February didn’t exactly merit the award for “longest winter ever.”

At the overlook, everypony had gathered for the mayor’s debriefing. The team captains, as well as the rest of Twilight’s friends who didn’t have leading roles, stood at the front of the crowd, with Twilight Sparkle standing next to Mayor Mare. Guy stood behind them and silently looked over Ponyville, completely ignoring the debriefing behind him. One of his arms was raised up and idly holding on to a low lying branch of a nearby tree, which was beginning to sag with the weight Guy was applying to it.

Rose, to the surprise of many, was also personally present, and standing next to Guy with a basic civilian chassis that was similar to the one she used on Nightmare Night, though without horns and various other pointy bits. The size difference between the two Liandri was almost comical. Although unlike Guy, Rose was actually facing the mayor and the rest of the crowd with a straight posture and her hands held behind her back.

Rose didn’t actually intend to be at the debriefing and, in fact, never intended to help with Winter Wrap Up in the first place. However, she was unfortunately called upon to help when Twilight found that she wasn’t quite able to direct and organize the donated Hellbenders effectively, or even at all. With Twilight’s other organizer responsibilities calling her, she was forced to outsource the task to the only individual capable of doing it. Under Rose’s directives, the two Hellbenders were put to the task of pushing the growing snow banks at the edges of the field toward the Everfree forest. Just as fast as the two dozen ponies could push to the field’s edge, the Hellbenders could push it clear out of town. At the insistence of Twilight, Rose decided to attend the debriefing, figuring she might as well receive some recognition for spending that processing power.

However, the one person who wasn’t present was Alex.

“Thank you for being here, everypony!” the mayor started. “It is with great pleasure that I announce, that winter had not only been wrapped up on time, but early!”

A cheer arose from the crowd.

Once the crowd quieted down, the mayor continued. “As I’m sure you all remember, thanks to Twilight Sparkle’s organizational skills and all our hard work, we had just managed to wrap up winter on time last year, despite our late start. This year, with her leading from the very beginning, we did even better!”

The crowd cheered again, and Twilight took a silent bow, her smile saying everything she needed to.

“But as I’m sure many of you are aware,” the mayor continued, “there are two more individuals whom I would like to recognize for their efforts to help clean up winter faster than ever before.” She indicated behind her. “Guy and Rose!”

A third cheer, although the cheers from the members of the Apple family could be clearly heard over everypony else. Rose merely nodded in silent acknowledgement, while Guy turned to face the crowd. A pair of green “eyes” dotted his black face, but a curved line underneath them was present as well, giving him a simple green smiley face. He nodded as well. “I’m happy to help whenever I can.”

As the mayor continued to give everypony a speech about everypony’s hard work over the past twenty eight hours, Twilight glanced around the crowd and blinked at Alex’s absence. She walked over to Rose, who, while acknowledging Twilight’s presence, continued to look over the crowd. “Hey, where’s Alex? I thought he’d be here.”

“He’ll be arriving shortly. In fact, he’s on his way here right now.”

Twilight looked back at the crowd and frowned in thought. “It’s usually not like him to be late…”

“He’s been busy, lately,” Rose said simply, never breaking her gaze.

Twilight glanced at Rose curiously. “Doing what?”

“Look down the hill.”

As if on cue, two low pitched honks cut off the mayor’s speech and drew everypony’s attention towards the town, or rather, what was coming towards them. A single Hellbender was driving up the hill, but that wasn’t what everypony was focused on. It was what the Hellbender was towing behind it that made their collective jaws drop.

Rose redirected her gaze towards it with everypony else. “Making that thing,” she said, answering Twilight’s question.

Trailing behind the Hellbender and secured to a wide flatbed was what looked like a large tree, still standing tall. Many of its limbs were removed, with their remnants sanded down into nothing. Only the thickest branches remained, each of them supporting a number of flat, black panels tightly secured onto the wood. The trunk itself had been completely carved up. Perfectly round holes perforated it everywhere, with the rest carved to imitate a plethora of various architectural styles, ranging everywhere from Ponyville’s own near the base, to modern human architecture near the top. Or at least, the closest thing to it that could be done with pure wood. Even Canterlot and Cloudsdale architecture was visible on it.

Rarity and Spike shared a quick wide-eyed look with each other. Everypony expressed their astonishment as the Hellbender started driving through the crowd to let them get a better look at its precious cargo. Everypony managed to part enough to give it room, but Rose had to remotely apply to brakes when it became apparent to her that the driver wasn’t slowing it down enough.

When the Hellbender actually stopped, the driver’s door flew open and Alex stumbled out. His clothes and hair were completely covered in sawdust and his movements were uncoordinated and exaggerated. Alex threw his hands to the sky. “I DID IT!” He slammed the Hellbender’s door closed. “I WENT AND DID IT!” Alex quickly walked over to the flatbed and attempted to climb up. Just based on the way he was stumbling while he was walking, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that not everything was all hunky-dory with him. Alex’s attempt at climbing up wasn’t much better either, and Rarity briefly ignited her horn to help lift him up.

Alex’s brain didn’t even register the help as he rolled on to flatbed. He stumbled back to his feet and swung his arms out. “This is my contribution to spring!” he slurred. Alex pointed a finger at Rarity, grinning like an idiot and continuing with over exaggerated hand gestures. “It’s a giant, solar powered bird hotel with lots of room and interior LED lighting with these cute little light switches they can use.” He threw his arms apart and looked to the sky. “Best fucking bird’s nest EVER!”

Everypony immediately gasped and stared at him in shock. Many parents even held their hooves over their foal’s ears.

Rose rolled her optics. “Here we go…”

Alex’s grin turned into a drunken frown and he lazily swung his arm at the crowd. “Ahhhh shyaat aaaap!” The momentum in his arm caused him to fall against the bird hotel on his opposite shoulder. “I’ve been awake for the past two fucking days and I’m hopped up on… Uh…” His eyes darted towards the sky and he began counting with his fingers. After a few seconds, he continued: “Seven different kinds of stimulants right now! One of them’s caffeine, I… I think… I dunno, I think might have gotten the mix wrong and put them in the wrong order or something cuz I’m kinda feeling out of it right now but the point is…!” He suddenly raised his arm up and inhaled dramatically through his mouth with his eyes widening as well. Everypony could see as clear as day that his left eye was completely bloodshot.

Alex stayed in the pose for a few seconds before slumping against the tree and sliding all the way down the trunk. His face took on a significantly more somber tone. “It’s done…” he breathed, sounding much clearer than before. He breathed heavily a few more times before adding “It’s finally done…”

Everypony in the crowd shared looks with each other. They acknowledged the fact that he had just sworn in front of most of the town not just once but twice, but they also acknowledged that he clearly wasn’t in a sound state of mind.

The perfect excuse for public stupidity.

Rarity took a few steps closer to him, concern clearly etched into her expression. “Alex, when did you make this?”

Alex made a vain attempt to raise an arm, but every time he did, it would just fall back down. “I… I started… yesterday morning…” he breathed. Just that was enough to make him feel lightheaded.

Rarity gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof. “You’ve been making this all night?!”

Alex bobbed his head up and down, his eye lids threatening to close.

This time, Fluttershy approached him, smiling brilliantly. “Alex, this is beautiful! The birds are going to love it!”

A weak smile spread across Alex’s face. “You… You think so…?”

Fluttershy hopped up on the flatbed and patting his shoulder with a hoof. “I know so.”

“Then… then my work… is… is finally…” Alex never finished his sentence. Instead, his eyes finally closed and his head thunked against the tree. After that, his jaw lulled open and the only noise coming from him was snoring.

At this point, everybody shared a hearty laugh at his expense. Even Rose joined in on it, though her chuckling was quieter and harder to notice. When their laughing began to die off, Rarity looked at Rose, her feeling of concern returning to her. “Please tell me you helped him make this.”

Rose crossed her arms. “Of course I did! Do you really think I would let him use wood carving tools while he was like that? After thirty six hours, he loses his coordination significantly, and he did, in fact, take his late-stage stimulants too early. No, I did the carving, he drew the sketches. How he managed to get that much sawdust on himself despite everything still impresses me.”

They shared another laugh, relieved that Alex at least didn’t do anything dangerous. When they stopped, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Man, this thing is awesome! I wonder what tree you guys used to make it.”

Later that day...

Rainbow Dash stood in front of her favorite napping tree with an open jaw. Or rather, she stood in front the low cut stump that was now in its place.

“Aw come on!”

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED

It's weird. It really is. In all honesty, I never thought I'd get this far with the story but here I am. 117k words in. Things that once existed only in my head have been put into words and brought out for the world to see with a context people can understand.

Holy shit, this is awesome. But you know what's just as awesome, if not more? The fact that people are actually reading this. You guys! Thank you so much for actually giving a fuck! But then again...

You have no idea how long I've wanted to use that picture...

But since you guys have been awesome enough to read all the way up to this point, and hopefully beyond, here are a few fun facts about the story:

Chapter 1 was originally chapters 1, 2, and 3. In fact, you can still see where the chapters would have split. But while I was writing chapter 4, I found I was rushing the story a little too much, and also turning Alex into a Gary Stu. So, I scrapped chapter 4, combined the chapters into one, and did a fuck load of heavy editing, turning it into the chapter that I eventually published.

While Google was a character I planned to introduce at some point, he wasn't Twilight's original gift idea. What WAS her original gift was Alex's old heart, stored in a little container that allows it to continue beating. It was all for the sake of setting up a funny little scene. I scrapped the idea when I took a step back and compared it to what everypony else was getting. I thought to myself: "You know what? This gift SUCKS."

Eakin's Hard Reset, as well as the Exosuit from Natural Selection 2, which makes its appearance here, were what originally inspired Technicalities as a whole. But when I started writing the story, it didn't have much of a plot to it. In fact, it had none. If it feels that the "alien attack" in chapter one was just a plot device to get the story rolling, well guess what: that's exactly what it was. Since then, I've put a metric fuckton more thought into the story, and have actually managed to give those aliens context. What that context is, though, you'll find out later.

My father, of all people, actually reads this story, despite the fact that he isn't a brony. He's an avid science fiction reader, and when I gave him a synopsis of the story I have planned, his exact words were: "This story is a lot deeper than I thought it was... I'm impressed." That said, while my ability to deliver a story is still being tested, I'm sure you guys will love what I have planned.

Alrighty, that's it for now. And in case you didn't notice, MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED

And a special thanks to Rocinante for pre-reading this chapter!

Family Matters

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It was a calm night, like any other night before it. Stars dotted the sky, a full moon revealed the landscape in its dim light, and as far as the Apple family was concerned, everypony was fast asleep.

That is, until pans started banging.

The noise of pans clanging together outside jolted Applejack awake and she quickly sat up in her bed. Only a moment later, Apple Bloom came walking into Applejack’s room, just as confused and trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

“What in the hay…?” Applejack idly muttered to herself.

Just as Applejack hopped out of bed to go open her curtains to see what was making all that racket, the floor began thumping beneath her hooves, followed by the sound of creaking wood.

“Looks like Guy’s awake, too…” Apple Bloom mumbled, still rubbing her eyes.

Applejack threw open the curtains and looked outside. The source of the commotion didn’t exactly make itself difficult to spot.

Granny smith was running back and forth in front of the house with pans attached to strings all over her, yelling, “The timberwolves are a howlin’! The timberwolves are a howlin’!”

Big Mac opened his own curtains and poked his head out of the house’s adjacent window next to Applejack’s, looking just as tired as his two sisters. Just as Granny Smith was claiming, a long, drawn out howl could be heard in the distance. Big Mac bobbed his head. “Eeyup…”

Downstairs, the front door eased itself open and Guy carefully squeezed himself through, just as curious to see what all the commotion was about. At his full height, Guy’s head almost reached the second story windows of the house. “Granny? What’s going on?”

Granny Smith continued her running and pan banging. “The Zap Apples are comin’! The Zap Apples are comin’!”

The other Apple siblings looked at each other with sudden realization and simultaneously cheered. “Yay! The Zap Apples are comin’!”

Guy looked up at the others with his usual, yellow eyed expression. “The Zap Apples?”

Applejack chuckled to herself. Despite being on the farm for almost two months, there was still a lot Guy didn’t know. “Ah’ll explain ‘em to ya in the mornin’, Sugarcube. Granny Smith does this every Zap Apple harvest…”

Guy seemed to accept this and looked back to Granny Smith, who was still fervently banging pans. “Granny, please, come back inside and get some sleep.”

Granny Smith looked over at him with wide eyes and continued to bang pans between her hooves. “Ah can’t! Ya gotta make a lot of noise, or the timber wolves will come ta getcha!”

Guy’s yellow eyes blinked once before his entire face changed to a solid red color and he clenched his fists. “I can deal with them. You go ahead and get some sleep.”

Granny Smith stopped banging her pans for a moment and tilted her head at him. “Are ya sure? Ah can keep goin’!” She banged once more for emphasis.

Guy smashed his fists together, causing a loud metal clang, and slowly walked toward her. “I can handle it. Besides, all I have to do is make a lot of noise, right?”

“That’s the idea!” said Granny. Guy ushered her back towards the house, although he didn’t take the pans from her.

Guy turned toward the direction where the howling was coming from. “Then allow me.” Guy spread his legs and bent both of his arms against his sides in some sort of fighting stance. His chest slowly began raising up as if he were inhaling a large gulp of air, and a low pitched hum that started emanating from him was slowly raising itself in pitch.

“Uh… What’s he doin’?” asked Applejack, despite the fact that she full well knew that nopony knew the answer.

Apple Bloom was the only one to cover her ears.

Alex made one final stretch in front of one of his many large bedroom windows. It had been a long day; putting together his new anti-gravity propulsion system. The facility’s new above ground extension had been progressing nicely too, even if it did mean both the workshop and above ground manufacturing stations had to be displaced. But alas, now was the time to give in to that ever present bitch: sleep.

In Alex’s personal quarters situated above the garage, an entire wall was devoted to windows which could allow light to pass through whichever way was desired, simply by applying the proper electric current. From where Alex was standing, he could see over most of Ponyville clearly, but to an outside observer, the windows were perfectly opaque.

The rest of his living space, however, was barren. Aside from a queen sized bed – fit for a human, of course – with a nightstand sitting next to it, and a small wardrobe near the other side of the bed, the entire room was completely empty. Even what furniture was present was simple: the nightstand and wardrobe were simply white, rectangular prisms that opened up.

The only notable decorations were the timberwolf replica Alex had built for Nightmare Night, and the macabre display on the wall next to it: a large, light blue holographic display of the human body. Hovering within special transparent containers in their anatomically correct positions were an eye and a heart, the latter of which was still beating.

Trophies, of a sort.

Alex let out a breath as he gazed over the town. He hadn’t made the effort to build a new vehicle from scratch since the Scorpion, but building the Raptor was certainly an experience worth having. “You know, Rose, I’d say today was a very produc–”

A loud noise suddenly blasted through his ears from somewhere outside. Alex’s bedroom windows vibrated lightly against the wave of sonic pressure. Everything about it described power beyond measure and the ability to end entire worlds.

Alex took several frightened steps back until he fell against his bed. “What the fuck was that?!”

Rose replied in her usual calm and collected manner. “Based on the direction and volume of the sound, I’d say Guy has learned how to use his intimidation horn.”

Alex mouthed the words to himself. “The intimida… Fuck, I didn’t make it that loud… Did I?”

“I thought you knew.”

Alex blinked as lights outside suddenly caught his attention. Ponyvillian homes were lighting up like Christmas trees as their residents were rudely woken up. Alex groaned. “Ah fuck berries… And guess who’s gonna get the ass end of the noise complaints.”

Now that it was morning, the sun shone over the farm, without a single cloud to impede its warming rays. Guy pulled along a pair of wooden carts out into the Zap Apple orchard, each one carrying stacks of apple bins that were to be placed at the trunk of each tree. Applejack and Big Mac were also pulling their own carts, with Big Mac’s being just as large as the ones Guy was pulling.

Out in the field proper, Guy surveyed the Zap Apple trees themselves. He had never been in this part of the orchard before and couldn’t but notice that, while the rest of the orchard had grown their leaves, this plot of land still looked to be in the grasp of winter.

Letting go of his carts, Guy moved to more closely to examine one of the trees. “They look dead,” he commented aloud, grabbing a branch and taking a closer look at it.

“They ain’t dead,” Applejack mumbled around bin’s handle that was still in her mouth. She chucked the bin to the base of a tree and briefly rubbed her head. They were okay now, but Applejack could swear her ears were still ringing from last night. “They’re magic trees. Just don’t worry about ‘em.”

“Hey, silly goose! Quit yer gawkin’ and move yer caboose!” Granny Smith yelled from one of the farmhouse’s second story windows.

“Eeyup!” Big Mac called back, just before throwing one of his own bins at a tree.

Reorganizing his priorities, Guy stopped looking at the trees themselves and immediately set out to work. He grabbed an armful of stacked bins and began placing them one by one at the base of each of the leafless Zap Apple trees.

Guy had always been happy to help with anything that needed it on the farm, but apple harvesting was still new to him. But it was strange… He had never done it before, and yet he already knew how hard the trees needed to be hit with his fist for the apples the get jostled loose. He already knew a lot of things, but he didn’t know where he learned them.

Placing the last bin in his stack down, Guy started making his way back to the carts for more when a deep rumbling sound from somewhere above caught his and his siblings’ attention. Before Guy knew what was happening, the wind picked up violently around him and dark storm clouds moved in overhead, seemingly from out of nowhere. The trees themselves started to shake with unknown magic, releasing electric sparks that circled their branches and jumped from one tree to another.

Guy backed away from the trees as the larger bolts of electricity began jumping between them. Electromagnetic disturbance detected. Type: Lightning. Origin: unknown. Precaution: avoid if possible – lower height. Guy immediately crouched down. He didn’t know how he knew to do this.

The electric sparks circled the branches of the Zap Apple trees until they reached the very tips. When they did, their dark purple leaves practically exploded out of their buds, with newer leaves already starting to grow in new spots. Almost as soon as they had arrived, the storm clouds above the orchard dissipated into nothing.

“There’s the Zap Apple leaves!” cried Applejack. “Right on schedule!”

Guy glanced around at all the trees with curiosity. Where there was once nothing, now they all bore leaves. Except for one… “What about that one?” said Guy, pointing at the tree in question.

Applejack looked to the tree Guy was pointing to. Its branches were still bare, and now that she really looked, its bark was a little off. She trotted up to it and held a hoof against its trunk. “Ah shoot… Big Mac, come over here!”

Big Mac dumped another bin off trotted over to his sister to examine the tree. No words were exchanged between them as Big Mac scrutinized the sickly tree for himself. After a minute, Big Mac faced Applejack and shook his head sadly. “Nope…”

Applejack sighed. “Figured… You and Guy keep movin’ the bins, Ah’ll go get the shovels. If we’re lucky, we can get ‘er outa here by noon.”

As Applejack moved away from the tree, Guy approached it. He eyed its bark carefully, trying to differentiate it from the other trees, memorizing what made it different, and unwanted. After a few moments, Guy gazed down at its roots and moved his feet around them before wrapping his arms around the trunk.

Applejack, unable to ignore Guy’s heavy steps, trailed her eyes toward what he was doing. She wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to do at first, but it became much more obvious once he started tugging. Applejack let out a laugh. “Guy, just what in tarnation are you tryin’ to do?”

Guy stopped tugging and looked at her. “Doesn’t it need to come out?”

Applejack shook her head and chuckled at his naivety. “It does, but that ain’t how you go about doin’ it. You can keep tryin’, but even you ain’t strong enough for that.”

Guy quickly resumed his efforts and Applejack chuckled to herself as she left to go get the shovels. However, the sound of cracking wood immediately silenced her. The sound entered her ears like a whip, causing her heart to skip a beat and forcing her to spin around to see what caused it.

Guy had shifted his grip lower down the trunk and had dug one of his hands in the ground to grab at its roots. Guy poured all the strength he possessed into this single, long, upward pull: all four metric tons worth of force.

In only the span of twenty seconds, both Applejack and Big Mac watched as Guy heaved up, tearing the entire tree and its roots from its anchor in the ground, the sound of snapping roots and shaking branches the only one filling their ears. At last, the tree ripped free, the trunk’s base resting on Guy’s shoulder. He shrugged the tree into a better spot to more evenly distribute its weight on his body and looked to his siblings with his usual yellow eyed expression, waving the entire tree as he turned. “Where should I put it?”

Applejack’s eyes bugged out as she forced herself to close her jaw. “Did… Did he really just do that…?” she muttered to her brother, who also had his own look of surprise on his face.

“Eeyup…” he replied, keeping his wide eyes locked on Guy and the entire dead Zap Apple tree he held over his shoulder.

Guy tilted his head. “AJ?”

She suddenly snapped to attention, forgetting for a moment that Guy could actually talk. “Oh! Yeah?”

“Where do I put the tree?”

Applejack blinked before shaking her stupor away. “Right right… Just put it by the barn, we’ll deal with it later.”

“– AND by capturing the wholesale market, purchasing in bulk, and slashing our prices, we undermined every other gift market in town. And that’s how Rich’s Barnyard Bargains became the cornerstone of retail in Ponyville.” Diamond Tiara’s little pink hooves were the only ones to applaud her father as he finished his presentation in front of the rest of the class at Ponyville elementary.

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was trying her hardest not to fall asleep, along with the rest of the class. Even as Ms. Cheerilee thanked Diamond Tiara’s father, Filthy Rich, for his presentation during this particular family appreciation day, everypony was miles away as far as Apple Bloom’s brain was concerned.

It wasn’t until Apple Bloom suddenly heard her name that her mind suddenly snapped to attention. “Sorry, Ms. Cheerilee?”

Cheerilee frowned slightly. “I said, it’s your turn to bring in a family member for next Monday’s family appreciation day.”

Apple Bloom’s heart skipped a beat. Next Monday?! But next Monday was Zap Apple harvest day! Everypony would be too busy! The only pony that wouldn’t be working the harvest would be… Apple Bloom shuddered at the thought of having to bring in her silly and embarrassing grandmother. “But Ms. Cheerilee, Monday is Zap Apple harvest day, and everypony will be too busy workin’ harvest to come!”

“What about Guy?” Scootaloo suggested from the next desk over. “Applejack and Big Mac have worked harvest before. They could do it without Guy for an hour or two.” Many of their other classmates agreed with the sentiment. Most of them had never seen Guy personally, though they did hear stories of the metal giant that carried entire plows over his back and shoulders.

“Guy? You mean that machine you keep on the farm?” Diamond Tiara spat from the desk right beside Apple Bloom’s. “It’s not a family member, it’s just a tool that that human made to help your actual family with work!”

Apple Bloom ear twitched and she glared at the student sitting at the desk next hers. “Guy is not a tool! He may not be a pony, but he has feelings too, ya know!”

“As if! It’s just a machine like all those other ones! It’s not alive like us! Its ‘feelings’ are just fake! It doesn’t even have a soul!”

“You take that back!”

Cheerilee slammed her hoof on her desk and the entire class snapped to attention. “Enough! Both of you!” Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara continued to glare daggers at each other as Cheerilee stood up and walked in front of them. “Both of you calm down!”

Apple Bloom turned pleading eyes towards her teacher. “But didn’t you hear what she said about Guy?”

“Apple Bloom, that’s enough,” Cheerilee told her sternly, although her eyes suddenly turned painful. “I’m sorry, but Diamond Tiara has a point. As much as you clearly care about Guy, he doesn’t qualify as a family member you can bring in on family appreciation day.”

Apple Bloom’s heart sank and she stared at her teacher in shock. “Wh… what…?”

Cheerilee shook her head. “I’m sorry. Is there anypony else you can bring for family appreciation day?”

Diamond Tiara raised a hoof smugly. “Granny Smith isn’t working harvest. She could come.”

Cheerilee began making her way back to her desk. “Very well. Apple Bloom, you shall bring in Granny Smith on Monday.”

The school’s bell suddenly rang and the students automatically began collecting their things to leave for the weekend. Apple Bloom, however, didn’t move, and remained fixed to her chair.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got up from their desks and made their way over to their friend, a look of concern growing on their faces. “Hey, are you okay?” asked Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom simply stared at her desk and sniffed, tears beginning to well around her eyes. She spoke in a faint whisper, barely audible against the bustle of all the other students.

“Not… family…?”

“How could Ms. Cheerilee just let Diamond Tiara say that about Guy!” Apple Bloom cried in front of her friends as she paced back and forth inside of their tree house. “Of course Guy has a soul! Y’all have met him before, right?”

“We’ve met him,” confirmed Sweetie Belle, “but nopony else has.”

“Not after Winter Wrap Up, anyway,” Scootaloo threw in. “As far as they know, he is just another machine that Alex made.”

“But he’s not!” Apple Bloom dropped to her haunches and threw herself onto her back to look up at the ceiling. “How are we gonna convince everypony that Guy deserves the same respect as everypony else?”

The other two fillies hummed in thought before the metaphorical light bulb lit up over Sweetie Belle’s head. “What about Rose? She’s just like Guy, and nopony I know questions her about whether or not she has soul.”

Apple Bloom sat up and looked at her friend with wide eyes. “Hey, you’re right! We can ask her for help!”

Scootaloo scoffed at them. “Are you kidding? Rose doesn’t care about anything that isn’t… you know, sciency stuff. Why would she help us?”

“Oh come on, she helped with Winter Wrap Up, right?” Sweetie Belle countered.

Apple Bloom fell down onto her stomach and rested her head on her hooves. “Nah, Scootaloo is right… I overheard her conversation with Twilight… She only helped with the snow ‘cus Twilight couldn’t do it on her own…”

“Well we have to think of something! If Granny Smith does the presentation, who knows how much she’ll embarrass you!”

Apple Bloom pulled her ears down with a groan. “Ugh… don’t remind me…”

The trio fell into silence again until a familiar thumping sound could be heard from outside. Apple Bloom’s ears perked at the sound and she immediately shot up and rushed to go open the clubhouse door, with her two curious friends in tow. Standing just outside their clubhouse, with his chest easily reaching the balcony, was Guy. He delicately held a small basket with a trio of freshly picked, bright red apples in one hand, which clashed well with his bright green eyes.

“Hey there, Bloom,” he said, depositing the basket on the balcony and then proceeding to scratch Apple Bloom’s tiny head with his oversized metallic fingers. “I brought you and your friends a small snack before supper. How was school?”

Apple Bloom eagerly moved her head into Guy’s fingers as he scratched, though her newfound smile faltered at the mention of school. “It was alright… Nothin’ special, really.”

“Nothing special?” said Scootaloo. “But what about– oof!”

A swift kick from Sweetie Belle silenced her.

Guy blinked at their display and his eyes turned yellow, though he continued his scratching. “Is everything okay, Bloom?”

Apple Bloom forced her smile to return. “Everything’s fine, Guy.”

Guy stared at her for a few seconds before giving her a final pat on the head. “If you say so. I have to go back to watering the Zap Apple trees. You three have fun.”

Apple Bloom accidentally released a barely audible whine when Guy’s hand left her head. “Alright. See you later.”

The three of them watched as Guy’s imposing figure made its way back to the orchard. When he was finally out of sight, Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom and asked, “So how good does it feel when he does that, anyway?”

Apple Bloom gave her a smirk. “Y’all have no idea.”

Alex fitted the last control panel into place and sighed. “There we go… Alrighty, what’s next?” He hopped out of the cockpit of the half built Raptor, which was currently just a partially completed frame hanging from the ceiling of the garage via chains, and made his way over to the nearby holographic projection of the vehicle’s blueprints. “Hey, Rose, do a response check for me, would ya?”

“Already done. Everything is responding properly.”

“Awesome.” He played with the hologram until he got a better look at its innards. “How’s that magneto wing coming along? What about the hangar?”

“Construction is proceeding as scheduled. The second wing will be completed in two hours, and thirteen minutes. The hangar should be completed within three days.”

“Good, good…”Alex nodded to himself. Trying to build the first wing by hand had been absolute hell. It worked in the end, but with the amount of difficulty he had making it, Alex didn’t trust himself enough to attach it to the final product. He was glad he let Rose build the other one this time, along with rebuilding the first.

Alex’s thoughts shifted when the front door whirred open. He instinctively looked over in that direction to see Applejack and Apple Bloom, the latter of which looking dead tired and resting on her older sister’s back. Alex froze the hologram in place and went over to greet them. “Oh hey, AJ. What’s up?”

For some reason, Applejack looked nervous. “Hey there, Sugarcube. Listen, Ah need your help. It’s about Guy.”

Alex frowned. “Right. Okay, two things. One, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about him. And two, if it’s about Guy, why is your sister here? And why does it look like she stayed up all night?”

Applejack sighed and nuzzled her sister awake. “Apple Bloom and Guy are pretty close, and she kinda needs some help comin’ to terms with somethin’. Ah figure you know enough about it to help ‘er out. And why did ya want to talk to me about Guy?”

Alex turned to go examine the hologram some more. “I wanted to set up an appointment with him. I’m sure you remember that uh… loud noise from a couple days ago, right?”

Applejack wiggled her ears. “Right. That.”

“Mmmmmmmmmmhmmm,” Alex hummed. “I want him to come in so I can, oh you know, turn it way the hell down. I swear, at least half the town came knocking on my door because of him...”

“How is he even able to do that, anyway?”

Alex waved his hand. “Guy’s a prototype for other models we’re working on. It was an idea. An idea I probably should have tweaked before installing it...”

Applejack shook her head. “Ah’ll get Guy over here pronto, then. Anyway, Apple Bloom’s got a serious question, and Ah think you’re the only one who can answer it. Ah know Ah can’t.”

Alex never strayed his gaze from the hologram. “Is it about cutie marks?”

“Nope.”

Alex let out a short huff. He wasn’t exactly expecting much to come from the little filly, if past experiences were any indicator, but if he was the only one who could help… “Alright then, let’s hear it.”

Apple Bloom had barely gotten any sleep the previous night, but she forced herself to stay awake for a little bit longer. She looked up at Alex with half lidded eyes. “Does… Does Guy have a soul…?”

Alex froze, trying to comprehend what he just heard. What the fuck…? He turned to look at Apple Bloom more clearly. Both of her eyes were bloodshot, caused by either tiredness, crying, or quite possibly both. And yet despite that, Alex could see the desperation behind them. “Does Guy have a soul?” he repeated with a much quieter voice than usual.

Apple Bloom simply nodded from her spot on Applejack’s back.

Alex bit his lip. For fuck’s sake, I’m an engineer, not a philosopher. Alex inhaled deeply and sighed. He slowly approached the two sisters and placed a hand on Apple Bloom’s head, taking care to scratch behind her ears. The pleading look she was giving him simply broke his heart. It was a look that said: “there can only be two answers to this: one will fix me, the other will break me, and I’m afraid to know which one is true.”

Alex placed a hand under her chin and smiled at her. “It doesn’t matter.”

Apple Bloom blinked at him. “What? Of course it matters!”

Alex shook his head and moved to stand in front of the partially built Raptor with his back to them. “Look, I’m someone who doesn’t think the soul actually exists, simply because the science doesn’t support it. But whether or not the soul exists doesn’t matter.” Alex turned to face them with crossed arms. “After all, Guy thinks for himself, doesn’t he? He’s curious; he asks questions. He rips entire trees out of the ground despite the fact that another option has been chosen by others already.”

Applejack raised a brow at this. She hadn’t told anypony that yet. “How’d you know about that?”

Alex waved her off. “Not important. The point is, he’s independent. He has his own opinions, and commits to ideas in spite of others. An intelligence is an intelligence, no matter what its brain is made out of. Neurons, circuitry, it doesn’t matter either way. A brain is a computer the same way a computer can be a brain.” He slowly made his way toward the pair and cupped Apple Bloom’s cheek with a smile. “That’s why it doesn’t matter. It’s not just that he thinks like us, but that we think like him. Guy is, for all intents and purposes, both sentient and sapient, just like us. Take away the machine bit, and you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between him and someone else. That is what matters.”

Apple Bloom stared up at Alex with a teary smile. However, after a moment, she looked away and her smile vanished. “Ah’m happy to hear that, but… Ah ain’t the one that needs to be convinced…”

Alex blinked at her. “Wait, you’re not?”

Applejack shook her head. “That’s why she’s been up all night. She wanted to bring Guy to school for family appreciation day on Monday, but her teacher wouldn’t allow it because she thinks Guy is ‘just a machine,’ and ‘doesn’t have feelings’. At least, so Ah’ve been told.”

“Reeeaaaly?” Rose suddenly interrupted. “I find that rather… interesting. Does Guy know about this?”

Both Apple sisters shook their head.

Alex scratched his head. “Huh… So that’s why you wanted to come see me? To prove your teacher wrong?”

Apple Bloom slowly nodded her head before finally conking out, lightly snoring on her sister’s back with a smile slowly returning to her.

Alex smiled at the sight and briefly glanced at a nearby camera. He knew Rose all too well. She wouldn’t have said what she did without a reason. “That’s adorable. Now then, AJ, would you like to lounge about here for the next… Oh, let’s say, thirty seconds or so?”

Applejack quirked a brow at the unquestionably odd statement. “Uh… okay… why, exactly?”

Alex chuckled and returned to examining the hologram. “Heheheh, you’ll see…”

"Okay..." After a few seconds of awkwardly standing around, Applejack said, “So whatcha workin’ on there, anyway?”

“Something that can presumably keep up with Dash…” Alex muttered, though kept his attention fully fixated on the hologram.

“So you’re sayin’ it can fly?”

“That’s the idea.”

The elevator door suddenly opened and Rose’s civilian chassis came walking out. Completely expecting it, Alex quickly waved over at her. “Hey, Rose! You going out for a walk?”

Rose looked at him and smiled. “Of course! It’s a remote unit, mind you, so I’m still working on construction.”

“Thanks! Have a good walk!”

Applejack looked between them in confusion until Rose, or at least her physical surrogate, walked out of the garage. “Uh… Since when did Rose go for walks?”

Alex simply winked at her.

It was a lovely Saturday afternoon, hovering just around lunch time, and Cheerilee spent it doing what she loved to do most: reading a good book while lying down on her couch. She glanced up at the clock, which read 12:13.

Perfect, she thought. I’ll keep reading for another 15 minutes and then I’ll go get some lunch. Then I can finish up those corrections and have tomorrow all to my–

Cheerilee’s thoughts were cut off by a trio of sharp knocks on her front door that caused her to immediately perk up and glance at it. She wasn’t expecting any visitors today. Curious as to who it could be, Cheerilee placed the book down and trotted to answer the door.

Opening it, Cheerilee found herself forced to look up to see who it was, and came face to face with a pair of glowing blue eyes. “Rose? What are you doing here?”

“Hello, Cheerilee,” the cybernetic started with a smile. “Would you mind if I came inside to speak with you with private?”

Cheerilee blinked at her in confusion. Rose had earned quite a specific reputation in Ponyville; one that meant that, if you weren’t Alex or another close friend, her personal attention meant something either really special, or really serious.

She doubted that it was the former.

“Um… sure, come in,” Cheerilee finally stammered.

Rose walked past Cheerilee with her hands held behind her back as she scanned the room with her optics. “I’m not one for beating around the bush, Cheerilee, so I’ll get right to the point.” She spun in place to face the pony and stared at her with a neutral expression. “I’m here to talk to you about Guy.”

Cheerilee nodded as she closed the door. “Yes, I had a feeling that would be why you’re here…”

“And do you know why I would be coming to you about this?”

Cheerilee moved to sit back down on her couch and wordlessly offered Rose a seat as well, though the AI declined with a brief shake of the head. “I take it you heard about the small piece of drama that occurred during my class yesterday?”

“I caught wind of it. I would like to know your exact reasons for your decision concerning Guy and this ‘family appreciation day.’”

Cheerilee sighed and shook her head. “I didn’t want to have to do it to poor Apple Bloom, but… I just don’t see Guy as a member of her family.”

“Why?”

Cheerilee looked back up at her in confusion. Rose’s neutral expression hadn’t changed at all. “Why? Didn’t you have a hoof in making him? Isn’t he just another one of your machines?”

“No,” Rose answered bluntly before walking over to her window to look outside. “Guy is the only other Artificial Intelligence in the entire world, besides myself. An Artificial Intelligence, mind you, is no different from an Organic Intelligence in terms of function, and are only differentiated to distinguish the medium in which they are functional.

“If you believe organic beings are the only ones capable of having their own thoughts and opinions, then I’m here to tell you otherwise. Guy genuinely sees himself as a part of their family, and more likely than not, cares for them as much as they care for him—especially Apple Bloom. He has to capacity to do so, after all.” Rose spun around to look Cheerilee in the eye. “We believe that participating in this ‘family appreciation day’ of yours would do quite a bit of good for him. I highly recommend that you reconsider.”

Cheerilee bit her lip. It sounded like a lot more than just a simple recommendation. “If you really think I should then… I’ll allow it.”

For the first time since she walked in, Rose smiled. “Excellent.” Not wanting to linger any longer than she already has, Rose immediately made for the door. “I’ll go alert him right now. Your understanding is very much appreciated.”

Before Cheerilee could say anything more, Rose was already out the front door and long gone.

“Huh…” Cheerilee muttered to herself, slumping on the couch. “She really doesn’t waste any time… I probably should have told her to talk to Granny Smith, too...”

“It’ll be fine, Guy! Ya got nothin’ to worry about!” Apple Bloom said as she patted Guy’s head from atop his shoulders.

It was finally Monday, and Apple Bloom made sure to enjoy every moment of her newest way of getting to school: riding on the shoulders of her giant metal brother. When she heard that Guy was allowed to come in on family appreciation day, Apple Bloom was ecstatic, as well as relieved. Not only had Guy been given a chance to show everypony just how special he was, but Granny Smith didn’t need to come in and embarrass her in front of the whole class with her silliness.

Of course, Apple Bloom didn’t know how it just suddenly happened, but she wasn’t one to question a good thing.

“But Applejack and Big Mac still need help harvesting the Zap Apples,” said Guy as the two of them cut through the east apple orchard. “Don’t they need me to be there?”

“AJ and Big Mac have been doin’ this for years! They can do it just fine. Besides, you’ll only be gone for a couple hours, there’s plenty of time for you to get back and help!”

“If you say so…” Guy continued to march in silence before asking, “So what am I supposed to do for this family appreciation day, anyway?”

Apple Bloom squeezed his head as best she could. “Just talk about yourself!”

Guy blinked at the thought. Talk about himself? What was there to talk about? His name was Guy. He worked on the farm with his family. What else could there be?

Eventually, the two of them arrived at the school and Guy carefully picked Apple Bloom off his neck with both hands to place her down. Nopony was sitting around outside, as everypony had already arrived and were no doubt waiting inside for Apple Bloom to arrive.

“Wait out here, Ah’ll go get everypony,” said Apple Bloom before rushing inside.

Inside the classroom, students were talking amongst each other with their usual energy. Apple Bloom’s entrance almost went unnoticed. Unfortunately, Diamond Tiara did notice.

“Well, look who finally showed up,” Diamond Tiara said with a malicious grin. “Where’s Granny Smith? Did she forget to show up?”

Diamond Tiara’s voice was enough to get all the other students’ attention, and cause them all to quiet down and focus primarily on Apple Bloom, who simply looked back at her with a smug smile.

“Now now, Diamond Tiara, don’t use that tone of voice,” Cheerilee interrupted from her desk. She looked at Apple Bloom in turn with a curious smile. “Who have you brought for family appreciation day, Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom looked Diamond Tiara square in the eye.

“Guy.”

The rest of the class suddenly lit up in excitement, though Diamond Tiara’s eyes bugged out in disbelief. “What?”

Cheerilee rapped her desk in an attempt to keep order. “Settle down, everypony, settle down! Apple Bloom, is Guy waiting outside?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yup! He doesn’t wanna come inside, though.”

“And why not?”

“He doesn’t really like goin’ into buildings that have a basement.”

Cheerilee nodded in understanding. “I see. Alright, everypony, let’s go outside for Guy’s presentation, shall we?”

All the students eagerly got up from their seats and resumed their conversations from before. As for Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were the first to run up to her and greet her.

“Hey! How’d you get Ms. Cheerilee to change her mind about Guy?” asked Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom shrugged. “Ah dunno. Applejack just took me to go see Alex and Rose to talk about whether Guy had a soul or not, and next thing Ah know, Guy could come!”

Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at her as she started to make her way outside with the other students. “See! Told you they would help.”

“You don’t know if they actually did anything,” said Scootaloo, following after her.

“Well there has to be some connection!”

Upon exiting the school building, however, Guy wasn’t where Apple Bloom had originally left him. Guy had wandered over to the school’s playground and had been taking a closer look at the various play sets that occupied it. However, like any other Liandri, Guy immediately noticed when they started filing out of the building, and turned to look at them.

Many of the little fillies and colts “oohed” and “aahed” at Guy’s impressive size compared to the rest of their play sets. While all of them had heard tales of the metal giant among them that lived on the Apple farm, few of them actually had the opportunity to see him in person, since very few of the children were actually around Guy during Winter Wrap Up. To some of them, it was like something that only existed in legend suddenly became reality.

But to Apple Bloom, he was just her other big brother. She ran up to him with a smile plastered on her face. “Aight, everypony’s here! Go ahead, tell ‘em about yourself!”

Guy lowered himself to one knee as all the other children eagerly sat in front of him with wide eyes and perked ears, most of whom were smiling eagerly. Guy looked over them with his yellow gaze before speaking in his deep, slightly synthetic sounding voice. “Hello, everyone. My name Guy. I’m Apple Bloom’s brother and I work on the farm with Applejack and Big Macintosh.”

He paused, blinking twice. “I don’t know what else there is to say, really.”

Another short pause, during which many of the students’ smiles suddenly disappeared and they began awkwardly glancing at one another. Apple Bloom nervously bit her lip. This isn’t how it was supposed to go! He was supposed to tell everypony all sorts of stuff!

“That’s it?” came Diamond Tiara’s shrill voice. “That’s the entire presentation?”

Apple Bloom’s heart skipped a beat and she rushed to stand in front of them. “No it ain’t! Guy, tell ‘em some more stuff!”

Guy shrugged at her. “Like what?”

“It doesn’t have anything else to say!” Diamond Tiara yelled in objection. “See? I was right! It is just another machine!”

The biting comment hung in the air as the other students started muttering amongst themselves. Apple Bloom’s ears glued themselves down as tears began to well around her eyes. Cheerilee bit her lip, afraid that anything she wanted to say to try to fix things would somehow end up making the situation even worse for somepony.

While he wasn’t an expert on social situations yet, Guy could tell he had done something wrong, especially after witnessing Apple Bloom’s own expression. For the first time ever, Guy’s eyes turned blue and the allusion of eyebrows formed above them – perfectly straight lines angled up toward the middle of his face. “I’m sorry, Bloom. I tried.”

Apple Bloom clenched her eyes for a moment and inhaled a deep breath. With a stomp of her hoof, Apple Bloom’s eyes shot open, wearing a new look of determination. “No!” Apple Bloom immediately tried to jump up onto Guy’s propped knee, though couldn’t quite manage it. After Guy helped her up, she turned toward her fellow students.

“Y’all got it all wrong!” she started. “Ah’ve only lived with Guy for a couple months now, and sure, he’s quiet and awkward at times, but he’s also modest as hay and just doesn’t want to admit it!”

Guy’s eyes blinked yellow again as he gazed down at the little filly curiously.

“Look, Ah know he ain’t a pony, and Ah know he has a machine for a body, but Guy is one of the kindest ponies- er… people Ah know, and Ah know he’s an Apple at heart.” Apple Bloom looked up at Guy with sad eyes and a ghost of a smile. “Every day, he’s out in the fields helpin’ AJ and Big Mac, from sunup till down, but he always manages to find time for me. He always asks me how my day was after school, he always makes sure that Ah’m happy, and if Ah’m not, he tries to make me happy.”

She let out a brief chuckle and looked back at the other students. “It doesn’t always work, but he at least tries. He cares about us! He tried protectin’ us from timber wolves the other night, even if they never came out of the forest. He ripped an entire tree out of the ground with his own two hoo- er, hands, just so AJ wouldn’t have to dig it out herself!”

“Guy isn’t just another machine. He’s one of the most special machine’s there is, and one of the most carin’ people Ah know.” Apple Bloom finished by attempting to hug Guy around his midsection. Guy responded by lightly scratching the top of her head. “And Ah wouldn’t trade him for anythin’. That’s why Ah appreciate him as a member of my family.”

Silence.

All the students sitting before them simply sat in complete silence, allowing Apple Bloom’s words to sink in. However, it wasn’t long before Sweetie Belle broke that silence with a loud “Aaaaawwwwwwwww!”

From there, the applause started. It was slow at first, with only a few students clapping their hooves together, but it soon snowballed from there. It didn’t turn into anything raucous or too energetic, like if their favorite sports team won their entire series, but it was a respectable applause nonetheless.

Guy and Apple Bloom shared a look, with the former’s face now a green smiley and the latter mimicking it. Guy even gave Apple Bloom a quick rub on the head, and for a few moments, everything seemed perfect.

“Well bust my bunions, I completely forgot!”

Almost perfect.

Apple Bloom’s heart froze at that oh so familiar voice, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a surprised look. All three of them muttered the exact same thing. “Uh oh!”

Of all the ponies that could have walked past the school yard at that exact moment, the last pony Apple Bloom wanted to be there was the one that did: Granny Smith; who, for some reason or another, was accompanied by Diamond Tiara’s father, Filthy Rich.

“Granny?!” cried Apple Bloom as Guy placed her back down on the ground. “What are you doin’ here?!”

Granny Smith trotted up to her and ruffled her mane. “Oooh, Ah was just out for a little stroll with Filthy Rich over here, and Ah completely forgot about your little family presentation! But don’t you fret none! Granny Smith’s here for story time!”

Apple Bloom’s irises shrunk to pin pricks and she waved her hooves in front of her. “No no! It’s okay! We don’t need–”

“Oh fiddlesticks,” Granny interrupted as she sat herself down in front of all the other students, “of course ya do! Now everypony just sit back while Ah tell y’all a little story about when I was a little filly…”

As Granny Smith started her story, despite Apple Bloom’s constant attempts to stop her, Filthy Rich walked up to guy and nudged him with a hoof to get his attention. Guy divided his processing power and leaned down to listen to him.

“Would I be mistaken in assuming you’re somehow related to that… Oh, what do they call him… human?” Filthy Rich asked quietly, so as to not disturb Granny Smith’s story. “Perhaps that assistant of his?”

Guy turned his head toward Filthy Rich and dug through his memory. Guy spoke just as quietly. “They… made me.”

Filthy Rich nodded with a sly smile. “I see… They seem like a rather bright bunch if they’re able to build things as, dare I say, impressive as you.”

Guy shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Tell me… You wouldn’t happen to know if they were running some sort of business, would you? I can’t imagine how they could possibly sustain themselves without some sort of income.”

Guy looked away for a moment. “I don’t think so, but Rose told me that they were thinking about starting some sort of private security business. I don’t know what that exactly means, though.”

Filthy Rich patted Guy’s leg and looked briefly over at Granny Smith. “Don’t you worry, big boy, because I do. Give Granny Smith my apologies once she’s done with that story of hers. I have an errand to run.”

With that, Filthy Rich walked off, leaving them all to their own devices. After all, he was a busy pony, and there was a certain somebody he wanted to pay a visit.

Guy hardly thought much of Filthy Rich’s questioning and diverted the rest of his processing power to paying attention to Granny Smith’s story. She was talking about Zap Apples.

Fleshling?

View Online

“Easy… Easy… That’s it…” Alex carefully directed the second wing onto the Raptor’s chassis. It had been a long weekend, but the Raptor was almost done, as well as the hangar expansion at the back of the facility. In the end, he was glad he let Rose help out more with the Raptor than he let her with the Scorpion.

With the wing finally in place, Alex secured the last connections and hopped off the one-man aircraft to get a final look at it. Damn, look at you… just a few more finishing touches and you’ll be ready for testing. The design itself was sleek. Both wings were positioned by the side of the hull, and each was capable of independently pivoting on an axis, either aligning top to bottom for regular flight, or front to back when either landing, or pushing the speed. The best thing about the wings, however, was their anti-gravity properties, which ultimately flew the whole aircraft.

Alex made his way over to the nearby holo-projector. “Rose, run a diagnostic for me. Give me the results here.”

“Already running it. I’ll have the results shortly.”

A familiar whirring sound caught Alex’s attention, and he instinctively swiveled his head to see who had entered the garage. It was a pony he didn’t recognize: a brown coated stallion with a slick black mane. He wore a facsimile of a suit with a red tie that had a large dollar sign on it, as well as a confident smile that Alex couldn’t help but hate.

Alex raised his brow at him. “Hello. Can I help you?”

The stallion kept his chipper attitude as he advanced. “Hello, my good fellow – Alexander, I believe? My name is Filthy Rich, though you can just call me Rich. I just wanted to come by and say that I’m extremely impressed with all these… things, you’ve managed to put together here in Ponyville.”

Alex blinked at him. “Uh… Thanks?”

Filthy Rich began wandering around the garage, examining things. “You’re welcome. Now, it’s recently come to my attention that you’re looking to start up a business, correct?” He stopped to eye a nearby Blue up and down. “Something along the lines of private security, am I right?”

Alex frowned. “I’ve considered it… What are you getting at?”

Filthy Rich looked Alex head on with a smile. “Why I’m just here to give you a business offer. I see great potential in this endeavor of yours, and I want to help you with it.”

“Something tells me you want something out of it too.”

“Well I can’t deny that, now can I? I wouldn’t be a good business pony otherwise.” Filthy Rich began slowly pacing. “I’m sure you’ve heard of Barn Yard Bargains, haven’t you? Well you see, I don’t just operate Barn Yard Bargains here in Ponyville. I have a branch in Manehatten, Baltimare, Canterlot; you name it. I am quite the business pony, and believe you me, I’ve worked with you sciency types before. You make these wonderful inventions, things that could change pony society as we know it, and yet you have no way to sell them.”

Alex narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms at that last statement, though didn’t interrupt him.

“And that’s where I come in,” said Filthy Rich as he stopped pacing some distance away from Alex. “As for your particular case, I believe I already have a suitable business model that I think would benefit us both quite well: I purchase some of your machines, divide them up between the branches, and rent them off for a respectable sum of bits in which we both get a share. Let’s say, seventy / thirty – my take?”

Alex continued to frown at the smug look Filthy Rich was giving him. He huffed out of his nostrils and turned his back to him to review the Raptor’s diagnostic. “The Liandri are not for sale.”

Filthy Rich shook his head. Ah, such a shame. Another one of these. “I’m sorry my good stallion, I meant no disrespect to your wishes... However, I would like to point out that I have quite a few business contacts that could be very beneficial to this endeavor, or… otherwise.”

Alex’s subtle movements against the floating wall of light stopped with a jerk. Filthy Rich spoke up again after he’d given him some time to think. “Well? Would you like to reconsider my offer?”

Slowly, Alex lowered his arms to his side, allowing his fingers to hang. Remaining stock still, Alex slowly but clearly spoke, “Are you threatening me?”

Filthy Rich chuckled. “Oh, you don’t have to see it so much as a threat. I personally like to see it more as… an inclination.”

Hands slowly ball themselves up as Alex’s head gradually turned to look over his right shoulder. His mouth twisted in predator rage and his right eye glowed a brilliant, green. “You think you can threaten me?”

His smile drained from his face as ice ran down Filthy Rich’s spine. His ears caught faint metal taps coming from somewhere behind him. Swiveling to see what it was, his heart leapt as two Blues, both of which with their alien weapons drawn, walked up from behind and stared directly at him. In fact, every Blue in the room was doing just that. Filthy Rich sucked in a breath at the sight and his irises shrunk. In the end, it was Alex’s voice that ripped his attention away from them.

“You have the audacity to think that you, a mere fleshling, has any sort of power over me and my Liandri?!” Alex roared.

Filthy rich attempted to stammer out a response, but was promptly cut off.

“Listen carefully, Filthy,” said Alex as he slowly stepped towards the panicked business pony. “Your tiny pieces of gold mean nothing to the Liandri. There is only one type of power the Liandri recognize and that is power that you. Don’t. Have.” Alex spat the last three words as he jabbed Filthy Rich with a finger through his tie, his glowing eye dominating almost all of the terrified pony’s vision. They stared at each other like this for several seconds before Alex growled the words, “Get the fuck out of my sight.”

“Y-yes, gladly!” Filthy Rich stammered before bolting between the two Liandri and out of the garage, all three humanoids staring after him.

No sooner than the door had closed behind Filthy Rich, Alex dropped to his knees, gripping his head with both hands. “Ow fuck!” Groaning, Alex clenched his eyes as a terrible pain racked his brain.

Almost as quickly as it arrived, the pain vanished as if it were never there. Alex’s eyes shot open, their normal color returned. Struggling for breath, he allowed himself a few more moments of rest before finally getting up on shaky legs. Alex glared at the door one last time and turned to get back to examining the diagnostic. “Geez… What an asshole…”

Throughout that entire encounter, Rose simply observed.

Silently watching.

Curious as to what had exactly transpired.

Just as she always had when her regalia began lightly vibrating against her chest, Princess Celestia made her way to her private bed chambers and entered her secret room behind the book case. And, just like always, the same dark figure appeared on the monitor hidden within.

Except this time, Celestia beat him to the first statement. “Hello, Overseer,” she said with a short bow. “Is there something you wanted to discuss?”

“As a matter of fact, Celestia, yes, there is,” the Overseer drawled in his usual, deep tone. “I’ve had a great deal more difficulty reconnecting to my old ‘eyes and ears’ than I expected, but the systems are gradually coming back online… I’ve recently recorded something just this morning that I think you’ll be interested in seeing.”

Celestia raised a brow. “Then let’s see it.”

The imagine on the monitor was swiftly replaced with a moving image of what appeared to be the front of Alexander’s home, with the perspective of the recording entering it through the front door.

Celestia watched in silence as the scene unfolded before her. The recording was from a pony’s point of view; Filthy Rich, if she understood correctly. From what she saw, Filthy Rich offered Alexander a business proposal which he… aggressively refused.

When the recording ended, the image of the Overseer returned to the monitor. “Well?”

Celestia kept up her usual stone cold expression. “That certainly was… interesting… Although I am impressed that he did not get detected. From what I heard in Twilight’s letters, Rose has methods of detecting electronic technologies.”

The Overseer nodded. “A precaution I took long ago. They’re not completely mechanical, and their skin blocks electromagnetic signals. I’ll admit, it was largely useless then, but it finally came in handy. But that’s beside the point. I want to hear your opinion on Laythem’s behavior.”

Celestia looked away for a moment. “I will admit that it is certainly unusual, but understandable.”

“How so?”

“You may have your own sources of information, Overseer, but I have mine as well. Twilight has explained to me how Alexander and Rose are both extremely reluctant to share any of their technology for fear that others may abuse it.” Celestia returned her gaze to the monitor. “I do not know what your plan was, Overseer, but Mr. Rich’s propositions certainly suggested he wanted to abuse it. Alexander’s aggressiveness may have just been his idea of the best response to get his point across quickly.”

The Overseer leaned forward in whatever chair he was sitting in. “He practically threatened him with death.”

“But he didn’t,” Celestia snapped. “Look, I’m not defending his behavior in any way, but we cannot deny that Alexander is very practically minded, and fear works extremely well depending on the circumstances.”

The two remained in silence for a moment, simply staring at one another. Eventually, the Overseer leaned back in his chair. “And what about his use of the word ‘fleshling’? That alone tells me Kriegor might be involved.”

Celestia paused for a moment. “I… cannot rightly say that I understand his usage of the word, but I do not believe it is enough to condemn him. Perhaps he used it to simply frighten Mr. Rich further?”

The Overseer huffed. “I find your efforts to protect him laudable, Celestia, but you and I both know that, either way, he cannot remain until the end of the cycle.”

“And why not?” Celestia emphasized her statement with a light stomp of a hoof. “Why must they continue? Why not simply let go of destiny and let nature take its course?”

The Overseer leaned in until nothing but his black mask dominated the screen. “Because you and I both know that they’re the only way to maintain peace in the world.”

Supersonic

View Online

It was a shame.

Really, it was.

Rainbow Dash looked so peaceful when she was taking a nap. Naps which she honestly took all too often. For the time being, she was just lying on a cloud without a care in the world. She was wearing her new flightsuit, so she must have been practicing with it just before this. But for now, there were no ponies to come by and bother her; no breeze to ruffle her feathers and irritate her.

No breeze to alter Alex’s shot.

It really was a shame.

Even as Alex sat in the pilot seat of the hovering Raptor, gazing at Rainbow Dash’s sleeping form through the scope of his rifle, he couldn’t help but shake off the slightest guilty itch.

But alas, it had to be done.

For science, of course.

Alex carefully aligned his crosshairs between Rainbow Dash’s shoulders, just below her neck. Now was the time that all that practice on the range would finally come in handy.

He slowly released breath, steadying his shot.

Squeeze the trigger, don’t pull…

Only Alex heard the muffled fwoomp as the gun fired.

“YEOOWW!” Rainbow Dash sprung into the air, flailing before landing back on her cloud in a scrambling heap. Finding her senses, Dash zipped her head around until she spotted the only nearby disturbance in the air around her.

Hovering some yards away was some sort of weird looking machine. Its cockpit was open and inside was Alex himself, wearing a flight suit, a strange helmet with dark lenses, and the biggest shit eating grin Rainbow Dash had ever seen.

Before Rainbow Dash could voice her anger, Alex waved. “Tag, you’re it!” The Raptor’s cockpit closed over him and the aircraft spun around and flew off.

“Hey! Get back here!” Rainbow Dash yelled, leaping off her cloud and shooting after him.

As Alex slapped his oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, he glanced at the target finder on the Raptor’s HUD. Just as he predicted, Rainbow Dash was on him like leaves on a tree.

Alex grinned and pushed the throttle on the Raptor. “It's on!”

“Hey, Guy! Could you come help me with this?” called Applejack from the barn’s door. “The darn thing’s stuck again!”

“Sure thing!” Guy called back, dumping a load of fresh apples onto the market cart before making his way over to her.

Applejack stepped out of the way to let Guy do his thing. Grabbing the top of the door (since none of the handles were big enough for him to properly grip), Guy forced the first barn door open all the way.

When the second one was open, Applejack tipped her hat to him. “Thanks for that, Sugarcube. This thing really needed airin’ out after those pigs–” An odd whooshing noise caught Applejack’s attention. She had never heard anything like it before. “Hey, Guy, you hear that?”

“Yeah, I do…” Guy looked around, trying to find the source of the noise. “What is that?”

Applejack squinted her eyes. “Ah have no idea… It kinda sounds like…” Her ears drew her eyes upward. “What in the name of Celestia’s mane is that?”

Applejack gawked as two objects soared over the farm. One of them was big and alien looking; definitely belonged to Alex, if she had to guess. The other was much smaller and left a rainbow trail in its wake; definitely Rainbow Dash.

Both streaked across the sky, and promptly vanished from Applejack’s sight over the barn. In an attempt to get a better look at what was going on, Applejack galloped through the barn toward the opposite door, with Guy close behind her.

The sight Applejack met on the other side caused her heart to lurch in her chest and she dived to the floor. “Get down!”

Guy barely managed to get out of the way as the alien machine dived out of the sky and stormed through the inside of the barn with the rainbow blur close behind it. A smash was heard as the machine impacted the floor of the barn, gouging a rut in the floor and spraying dirt everywhere in the process, but otherwise continued sailing all the way through the other doorway unimpeded.

With no more fuss, both Rainbow Dash and the flying machine she was chasing were flying off somewhere else.

Applejack breathed heavily as the sound of the two fliers gradually drifted away. Eventually, Applejack got back on her hooves and retrieved her Stetson, which had flown off her head in their wake.

Brushing the dust off her hat, Applejack stared at the inside the barn, slack jawed. The impact mark of that machine ran deeper than she would have liked, hay was blown everywhere from the torrent of wind, and dust was still hanging in the air.

“What in the hay was that?”

For most ponies, today was just another day.

But not for Fluttershy and Rarity. No, today was the day that they would take their weekly trip to the spa. Except this time, Fluttershy brought along a plus one.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to make any changes to your dress, Fluttershy?” asked Rarity as the two of them entered Ponyville’s main square. “The Gala is in two months. I know you love the dress, but do you really want to wear it to the most formal gathering in Equestria for two years in a row?”

Fluttershy gave her a gentle smile in return. “Oh yes, Rarity. I absolutely love it. I don’t want to trouble you to make another one for me.”

“Oh, nonsense, darling! It’s no trouble at all! You know I would do anything for you.” Rarity paused, eying the curled up machine on Fluttershy’s back that gave a light flutter. “But all that aside… could you remind me again why you decided to bring your dragon with us?”

Fluttershy moved her head around to nuzzle Garry as they walked, a gesture the dragon returned. “He was just curious to know where I always go every Saturday. You won’t bother the spa ponies, will you, Garry?”

The dragon responded by burying its head inside her mane and lightly scratching the back of Fluttershy’s neck with its muzzle. Flapping his large, webless wings in contentment, Garry gave nearby ponies the impression that Fluttershy had somehow grown a second set of strange wings altogether.

Rarity scrunched her nose as the sight. “Hmm… You know, I’m surprised Alex still hasn’t made something to help him fly yet.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll make something soon.”

Rarity shook her head with a tsk as they walked up to the spa building itself. “If worst comes to worst, I could have a hoof at it. Although it does surprise me. Out of all the machines he’s made, the only one that could actually fly can’t even do it ye–”

A large flying machine suddenly tore through the air above the spa building, silencing Rarity and causing Fluttershy to shriek. Nearly jumping out of her skin, she bolted inside with Garry barely hanging on.

Rarity, along with everypony else in the town center, gaped up at the flying machine that had seemingly come out of nowhere. Over and over again, the machine flew sideways around town hall in a large circle, almost dangerously low to the ground, with what looked like Rainbow Dash attempting to follow it from above. Rainbow Dash was keeping pace with the machine, but it looked like she was having some difficulty maintaining the endless loops.

After almost a dozen revolutions, the flying machine righted itself before suddenly flying up and then back down below roof level in another street, with Rainbow Dash hot on its tail.

After a moment, Fluttershy poked her head out of the spa. “I-i-is it gone…?”

Whistling a happy tune, Pinkie Pie hopped out of the driver’s seat of her party cannon car ... thingy. Sticking a hoof in her mane, Pinkie fished out a large remote. With a push of a button, the hatch over the driver’s seat closed with a satisfying honk. Shoving the remote back into her mane for safe keeping, Pinkie Pie made her way inside Sugar Cube Corner.

Pinkie’s mind spun around the tasks ahead for her for the day. The morning had been dull, but the evening promised an exciting party. Ready to start her day, she placed a hoof on the bakery’s door, but froze in the pose as her tail started twitching.

Pinkie blinked at the sensation and instinctively looked up.

Nothing.

“Huh, that’s weird…”

A torrent of wind mixed with the sudden sound of ponies screaming behind her drew her attention towards town. For a brief moment, Pinkie’s heart froze and her eyes widened as a flying machine unlike anything she’d ever seen before blazed its way just over the ground and directly toward her.

Pinkie Pie yelped and braced herself against the door.

However, the flying machine suddenly angled itself directly upward, and rockets on the back end of it blasted against the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and launching the entire machine straight into the sky and over the bakery.

Pinkie Pie let out a breath, soaking in the relief that whatever that thing was, it didn’t crash into her.

But why was her tail still twitching?

“Whoa!” Pinkie’s question was answered when Rainbow Dash blew through the cloud of dust and crashed into her, somersaulting them through the front door of Sugar Cube Corner before they both finally landed in a heap, with Rainbow Dash lying on top.

Pinkie Pie, as usual, seemed completely unfazed by the tumble and grinned up at her. “Oh hey, Dashie! What’s up?”

Rainbow Dash hopped off her pink crash pillow with a groan, but wasted no time running back out the door to take flight again. “Sorry, Pinkie! It’s really tough to turn with this suit on! Catch ya later!”

“Okay! Bye!” Pinkie chirped with a wave as Rainbow Dash took off once more. Just as she was taking off, however, Pinkie barely managed to catch a glimpse of something glinting on Dash’s back.

Unfortunately, she paid it no heed. After dusting herself off and getting back on her hooves, Pinkie was welcomed by the sight of every customer in the store staring at her and the door with gaping jaws and wide eyes. Pinkie Pie tilted her head at them. “What? Is there something in my mane?”

Throughout all of her years of study with Princess Celestia and her school for gifted unicorns, there was one arguably valuable skill Twilight Sparkle managed to acquire. Namely, it was her ability to block out any and all distractions while she was in the middle of reading a book, be it a novel, magic guide, encyclopedia, or even a dictionary.

Of course, the only way to actually get her attention at that point would be physical contact. Poking her would sometimes work, but a good shove always worked best. Unfortunately, despite the number of years he lived with her, Spike never actually figured this out.

So when Spike ran into her in a panic while she was busy reading an electronic copy of Magical Conundrums Surrounding Bread and Teleportation by Starswirl the Bearded, it was only a coincidence that that happened to be the best way to get her to address the problem at hoof.

“Twilight! Rainbow Dash is chasing something really big and really fast all over Ponyville!” yelled Spike while vigorously shaking Twilight by her mane.

“Spike! Calm down!” said Twilight, barely managing to push him away, though he still looked fidgety and extremely worried. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

Spike once again latched onto her and began pulling her upstairs towards the library’s observatory. “Upstairs – come quick!”

“Okay okay! Easy on the hair!”

Twilight trotted behind Spike up to the observatory, where Grand Master Google stood by a lectern, reading through one of the library’s more recent additions. Despite Twilight’s and Spike’s presence, Google completely ignored them, casually flipping the pages as if nothing of note was going on.

Spike pushed Twilight over to the balcony and opened the door for her. “Look outside!”

Twilight trotted out on to the balcony and her eyes scanned over Ponyville, trying to see the commotion Spike was talking about.

Unfortunately, the only thing Twilight managed to spot was a giant, heaping help of nothing out of the ordinary.

Twilight frowned in confusion. “Uh, Spike? Are you sure there was something – AH!”

Twilight yelped as some sort of machine made a dangerously close flyby right next to the balcony. The rainbow blur that followed close behind it was unmistakable.

Holding a hoof up to her chest in some vague attempt to protect herself, Twilight gawked as Rainbow Dash and whatever machine she was chasing weaved in and out of the streets of Ponyville, banking this way and that with the occasional barrel roll. Or was that an aileron roll? Dash always got mad when she confused the two.

Confusion and fear soon gave way to interest and wonder. Alex had told Twilight about human aircraft many times before; about their zeppelins that were very similar to Canterlot airships, about their planes that could travel as fast as nine times the speed of sound, about their fueled helicopters that were nearly identical to the pedal-powered ones that occasionally flew around Ponyville, about their harrier planes that could both fly and hover…

But this was something else entirely. Despite its rapid movements, Twilight managed to catch clear glimpses of it here and there. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for her to know that it didn’t match any of the descriptions Alex provided her. It didn’t have any rotary blades above it, and it didn’t have any wings either! At least, none large enough provide lift. Despite lacking all those things, its agility far surpassed anything she would have expected, especially if it was able to give Rainbow Dash a run for her bits.

“Google?” Twilight called out. “Could you come out here?”

After a few moments, Google appeared in the doorway to the balcony and gave her a small bow of recognition, though said nothing.

Twilight pointed towards the UFO flying around Ponyville. “Google, can you tell me anything about that aircraft?”

Google’s oculus followed her hoof and located the object in question. “Consulting local database… Information unavailable. Consulting primary database… Information classified. Requesting authorization… Authorization granted.” Google turned back to Twilight. “What would you like to know?”

Twilight couldn’t help but grin as he asked her that question. “Did Alex build it?”

“Affirmative.”

Twilight raised her eyebrows in curiosity. “Well that explains that. Does it have a name?”

“Vehicle designation: Raptor.”

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. “The Raptor, hm? Can you send as much information about it as you can to my tablet?”

“Acknowledged. Is there anything else you would like to know?”

This time, Spike grabbed Google by the arm and shouted, “What’s going on?! What is it doing?!”

Google simply turned his gaze toward Spike and, after a moment, answered, “Raptor speed test and Rainboom data collection currently in progress.”

Twilight and Spike shared a surprised look and simultaneously repeated, “Rainboom data collection?”

The two of them turned their attention back to the aerial chase just in time to see the Raptor and Rainbow Dash fly far out of town, quickly gaining altitude.

“Fuck, I think I’m gonna be sick…” groaned Alex, leaning his head back against the pilot seat.

“We’re almost done, you big baby,” came Rose’s voice.

“You fly like a fucking maniac!”

“I thought you enjoyed roller coasters?”

“I do, but this is absolute insanity!” Alex let out a small, but foul tasting belching noise. “Shit, I’m just glad I skipped breakfast…”

“Are you done complaining, yet?”

After choking down his insides’ final attempt at regurgitating his lack of breakfast, Alex drank a fresh lungful of oxygen from his mask. “Ugh… Yeah, I am…” Alex glanced at the target finder to discover that Rainbow Dash was still right where he expected her to be. He placed his hands over the Raptor’s controls. “Alright, give me control. I’ve had enough of this.”

“Relaying to you.”

With control of the Raptor in his own hands once more, Alex eased the throttle forward and pitched up. Alex’s eyes darted over the HUD. “Do a system check for me real quick. We ready to hit Mach?”

“All systems are prepared.”

“What about the sensors? You have your eyes on Dash?”

“Everything is working as expected.”

Alex nodded. “Alright. Let’s see how fast these birds can go.”

After the Raptor’s and Rainbow Dash’s display above Ponyville, virtually everypony in the entire town had their full attention on the high speed aerial chase. Even when the Raptor angled up and began flying far out of town, most of the ponies who couldn’t maintain eye contact with it got themselves to a higher elevation just to see what was going to happen next.

Some ponies assumed that the show was most likely over, much to their relief. Trouble always seemed to find its way in Ponyville, and any opportunity to avoid it was always welcome. This time, however, they were proven wrong when the Raptor turned back toward the town, though continued its steep climb.

Almost everypony in Ponyville, from Sweet Apple Acres, to the Spa, to Sugar Cube Corner, to Golden Oaks Library, kept their eyes to the skies as the two increasingly small objects flew high above them. Deafening silence penetrated the entire town as they observed the two fliers go faster, and faster, and faster.

Then it happened.

A large, cone shaped cloud of mist suddenly formed around the leading flier as air pressure alone caused water vapor to instantaneously condense over its frame.

But it was what followed after that caught everypony’s attention.

A moment after the mist formed around the Raptor, a large, chromatic explosion erupted from its pursuer. Ponyville collectively gasped as waves of brilliant color radiated out from the point where Rainbow Dash burst through the sound barrier, a large rainbow trailing behind her.

Unfortunately, everypony was only able to admire the sight for a few brief seconds before the sound of an explosion tore them from their wondrous stupor. Naturally, everypony credited Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom for the explosive sound. It was only when the second explosion sounded just a few seconds later did they realize that something was happening–something probably bad.

While most ponies gazed around in confusion, worry, and panic, wondering what could have caused the second bang, Twilight Sparkle simply gazed up at the two flyers with a wide grin and huge eyes. A residual echo from the two sonic booms and the continued bombardment of compressed air waves hung in the air, giving the scene before her a more mystical appeal.

As the chromatic effects of the rainboom’s shockwave dissipated, Twilight was only one of a handful of ponies who continued to stare long enough to witness the Raptor quickly accelerate and speed far beyond Rainbow Dash’s reach.

Breathing heavily, Rainbow Dash finally lowered herself down and landed on the roof of Alex’s garage, where the Raptor also did the same. Still hovering a few feet from the floor, the Raptor’s cockpit opened, allowing Alex to grab his rifle and jump down.

Still panting from all the exercise she was hoping to avoid that afternoon, Rainbow Dash yelled, “What the hay was all that about?!”

Alex removed his oxygen mask to reveal a toothy grin. “What? You didn’t think that was fun?”

“Hey, I was having all the fun I wanted relaxing before you came along, thank you very much!”

Alex handed off his rifle and backpack full of assorted equipment to a waiting Blue. “You’re welcome. But in all honesty, I should be the one thanking you.”

Dash blinked at him. “Huh? What for?”

Alex removed his stuffy helmet and mask and handed them to the Blue. Before saying anything else, Alex walked over to Dash and promptly plucked something off her back, eliciting a yelp. He held up the object he just grabbed for her to see. “This.”

Dash glanced at her back before eying the tiny device cautiously. “What the… What is that?”

“It’s a sensor!” said Alex, pocketing it. “I shot you with it while you were taking your nap. Woke you right up, now didn't it? Heheheh.”

“And why did you do that?” Dash growled at him.

“Two reasons,” Alex said, holding up the appropriate number of fingers. “First, I wanted to compare how fast that thing over there could fly to you.” Alex indicated over to the Raptor with a thumb. The two looked on as the Raptor hovered over to another section of the roof on its own, where a large aperture opened part way to allow the aircraft entry. When the Raptor disappeared and the roof closed behind it, Alex continued, “And two, I wanted to scientifically analyze your sonic rainboom. Pretty impressive stuff, by the way.”

“You could have just asked, you know,” she deadpanned.

“Oh, I know, but it was more fun this way,” Alex said with a grin, prompting a glare from her in response. “How about this: for being such a good sport, I’ll buy you lunch anywhere you want, once I’m done going over the preliminary data.”

Rainbow Dash raised a brow. “Oh really? And how long will that take?”

Alex started making his way over to the elevator. “Couple minutes, really. Rose probably crunched most of the data by now. You wanna come inside and see if we can figure out how your rainboom works?”

“Might as well if you’re buying lunch,” said Dash with a shrug, following him.

Once they were both inside the descending elevator, Alex said aloud, “Rose, what do you have for me?”

“I’d prefer a few more tests to be done,” came Rose’s disembodied voice, “but it would seem we have enough information to derive some rather… interesting conclusions. I’m compiling everything for you in the drawing room.”

“Then to the drawing room we shall go,” Alex said with a nod.

Rainbow Dash looked up at him. “The drawing room? What’s that?”

Alex grinned down at her. “You’re gonna love this place. Twilight flipped her shit when I showed it to her.”

Dash grimaced. “Look, I know Rose explained your swearing habit to us, but do you think you could keep doing what you were doing before?”

Alex shook his head. “Hey, I’ll keep trying, but now that everything’s out of the closet, I’m not giving any guarantees. You’ll just have to learn to live with it.”

The elevator opened on the level of the Prototype Lab and Rainbow Dash followed Alex out. It had been a while since she had last been down there, and it was still just as impressive. Past the security hall, Rainbow Dash gawked around at the various machines, scanners, terminals, and hologram projectors that littered the room. Even a large section of wall was completely dominated by machines that held about a half dozen individual Liandri. While they all looked different in one way or another, each one shared a common theme: they all resembled human females.

And, of course, the centerpiece supercomputer was just as imposing as ever.

Rainbow Dash stared up at its blue metallic eye. “Hey, Rose. What’s up?”

“You, actually,” replied Rose. “Could you not fly around while you’re in here?”

Dash let out a nervous chuckle and planted her hooves back on the ground. It was so natural to her that she didn’t even realize she was hovering. “Heheh, sorry.”

A sharp whistle brought Dash’s attention back to Alex, who was standing next to the doorway to the Core’s elevator. Dash trotted back over to him and entered the second elevator.

Except it wasn’t an elevator anymore. It was just a circular room with three other doorways leading out.

Rainbow Dash blinked at her memory. “Huh? Wasn’t there some kind of elevator here before?”

Alex made his way to the leftmost door. “We’re standing on it. This type of layout makes things more space efficient, especially if we compartmentalize larger rooms.”

Rainbow Dash continued to follow Alex through the automatic door and into a short hallway that came after it. Alex stopped at the door on the opposite end this hallway and turned to face Dash. “One last thing, this is a no-fly zone. I’m gonna have to ask you to stay grounded, okay?”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright.”

Alex shrugged at her answer and pressed a keypad to open the door. When it opened, Rainbow Dash’s eyes bugged out. Inside was a massive dome shaped room. It was fairly dark, and had no visible light sources, but a strange glow from the air itself seemed to evenly illuminate the walls, which themselves were covered with large, hexagonal plates. A bright blue, human-sized holographic version of Rose was already waiting for them in the middle of the room, though without any clear projector that usually accompanied the image.

Alex held his arms out as he walked in, the glow covering him from head to toe. “Welcome to the drawing room, Dash. This is where Rose and I design pretty much everything.”

Rainbow Dash slowly made her way inside, the door automatically closed behind her. She was used to that sort of thing by now. However, she failed to notice a hexagonal plate slide out of the floor beneath her and cover the door. Dash followed Alex to the waiting holographic humanoid, gazing around at the disconcerting uniformity of this new chamber.

Once Rainbow Dash was next to them, Alex inhaled deeply and his eye began to glow green. Holding his arm out, he snapped his fingers, and moved his arm as if he were throwing a baseball. Dash yelped as a train of bright orange holographic panels suddenly materialized next to her. The rectangular panels curved from their path and eventually formed a circular wall around them, with Alex standing at the very center.

“Alright, graphs on top, everything else on the bottom,” said Alex. With a few arm movements, almost half of the panels flew up to the level above the others. The panels quickly approached Alex, filling in the new gaps.

With more arm movements, holographic panels flew from their place on their makeshift wall and positioned themselves next to Alex, where he briefly examined them each in turn. “Alright, Rose, what am I looking it?”

The holographic representation of Rose moved her lips, but her voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. “Unlike at ground level, it would seem there is actually a considerable presence of PCE in the atmosphere. Why it’s there and how it got there are currently unknown, but from what the data indicates, that is what is responsible for the so called ‘rainboom.’ However, there is something else you might want to look at.” Rose held out an arm towards one of the panels and it hovered closer for Alex to examine.

After examining the information on the hologram for a few moments, Alex’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit…”

Rainbow Dash frowned in concern. “What? What is it?”

With a single flick of his hand, Alex returned holographic panel to its place and faced Dash. “Okay, so from what we can tell so far, from both the Raptor’s sensors and the one I stuck to you, there’s actually a fair amount of PCE in the mid and upper troposphere.”

Dash held up her hoof. “Whoa whoa whoa, time out for a second. What’s PCE?”

Alex crossed his arms. “PCE stands for Power Core Energy. You know it more commonly as ‘magic.’”

Dash blinked at him. “Magic? Then why does that surprise you? Magic is pretty common in Equestria, you know.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I noticed. But so far, we’ve only seen it generated in Power-Cores and unicorns.” Alex fished one of the panels closer to him to double check the information. “This atmospheric PCE doesn’t seem to have a source, or at least, none that we can pinpoint. That’s the weird part. I mean, as far as we know, PCE doesn’t just manifest out of thin air.”

“Okay, but what does any of this have to do with my sonic rainboom?”

Alex swapped the holographic chart for another one. “Well, according to your sensor, when you’re flying fast enough, you start to act as some sort of conduit. That would explain why you get a rainboom and the Raptor just gets a regular old boom—it’s not built to do what you do.”

Alex floated the panel away from him and, with a snap of his fingers, conjured up images in the air. “Here, picture this. Imagine you’re some kind of funnel, with the broad end being your front. As you fly through the air, that funnel catches and condenses that PCE. It’s that condensation of PCE that causes that rainbow trail you leave behind. The boom itself, on the other hand, seems to be a reaction between you, the PCE, and the waves of air pressure that collapse over each other when you go supersonic. Pretty neat stuff, actually. If I put in enough effort, we could probably recreate it.”

Rainbow Dash gave him a blank look. “Huh… You know, it… kinda feels less special now…”

Alex dispelled the holograms with a flick of his hand. “To be fair, Dash, you’re still extremely impressive. I mean, humans have been making aircraft that can go as fast as nine times the speed of sound for decades now. The Raptor going Mach two point five? Pfft, trust me, that’s nothing special. But an organic life form capable of going Mach one without assistance? That’s something, even if that new suit helped in that regard.”

A smile started to grow on her. “I guess you’re right. I am pretty awesome.”

Alex smiled in return. “There you go. But there is one thing that still worries me, though.”

“And what’s that?”

Alex began pacing in front of her while rubbing his chin. “The fact that we can’t identify the source of this Core Energy. I’m convinced that either something or someone is generating it. It just shouldn’t occur like this…”

“So? What’s the problem?”

Alex stopped his pacing and faced her. “What’s the problem? Dash, this has all sorts of implications. For instance: this room is saturated with PCE, just like the atmosphere. It’s relatively harmless, for the most part, but you could do all sorts of things with it if you have the right tools.

“Here, watch this.” Alex snapped his fingers and a small, brilliant white light appeared on the end of Rainbow Dash’s nose, causing her to perk up and stare at it through crossed eyes in surprise. Alex reached a hand over and “grabbed it,” though it hovered between his fingers more than anything else. “Using my Brain-Computer Interface, practically anything I can imagine in this room becomes reality. So far, it’s all just smoke and mirrors, but it’s pretty damn good.”

Dash gazed at the light hovering above Alex’s palm curiously. “Whoa…”

“Ah, but that’s not all.” Alex closed his hand and extinguished the light. Turning to Rose’s hologram, he said, “Rose, load up the Ponyville sim.”

Rose gave a single nod and her hologram flashed out of existence.

Rainbow Dash blinked as the room itself warped around her. The floor became distorted and changed from hard steel to hard cobblestone. The hexagonal plates of the dome phased out of existence and were replaced with the homes and buildings of the town above. Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself back outside, right next to town hall… in the middle of the night?

The moon and stars were very clearly shining overhead, illuminating the street she was now standing in. Lights from the various Ponyville buildings around them also helped her see what was happening. Unsure of what to think, Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof against the floor, resulting in a metallic tap.

“What just happened…?” asked Dash, slowly looking up to where Alex was standing.

Dash was blinded as the moon vanished from the sky and the sun rose over the horizon and directly above them in only a matter of seconds. When her eyes finally adjusted, she saw Alex with his hand on a small holographic panel, which promptly disappeared.

“This is a holographic simulation of Ponyville,” Alex answered as he made his way to a nearby house. “It’s pretty good, wouldn’t you say? At a cursory glance, you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference. Except for one, itty bitty problem…”

Alex stuck his hand through the door of the house. “It’s not real. None of it. In fact, we’re still in the drawing room. You could walk in any one direction and eventually hit the wall, but you won’t find it until you do. Otherwise, this all looks pretty convincing, doesn’t it?”

Rainbow Dash glanced around. The place where she was standing looked like an exact copy of town hall and the surrounding area. The only problem was that there were no ponies walking around, no breeze, and aside from Alex and herself, it was deathly silent.

Alex walked up to Dash and crossed his arms. “Now it could be doing nothing, or it could be doing something. Either way, I think we have a number of really important questions to ask ourselves. Does it have a source? If so, where is it coming from? Why is that source doing what it’s doing? But most importantly...

“What exactly is that PCE doing in the atmosphere?”

Research and Development

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Trudging her way towards the garage, Twilight bit the inside of her cheek. After managing to peel off that torn up, skin-tight suit, along with that silly looking eye-patch, it was time to go around Ponyville and issue apologies.

Many, many apologies.

A few days prior, Twilight had alarmed all of Ponyville that she had been visited by her future self about an unknown disaster that would occur some time between then and next Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, her future self never managed to tell her what the disaster was due to the timer on her spell expiring just before she could.

The entire incident prompted town-wide maintenance, region-wide aerial patrols, and the deployment of well over a hundred Blues all over Ponyville.

It was now Tuesday afternoon, and excluding the appearance of a giant three-headed dog that was quickly subdued by Fluttershy a couple of days ago, absolutely nothing of interest happened. In fact, Twilight learned that her future self actually traveled through time to tell her that nothing would happen at all, and that she shouldn’t worry about anything.

She was not looking forward to telling that to Alex and Rose.

Twilight took one final breath in front of Alex’s door before marching inside.

A blue-eyed domestic was already waiting for her just beyond the door. “Hello, Twilight,” Rose said in an unusually calm manner. “It seems this disaster of yours hasn’t happened yet. Is there something else we need to know?”

Twilight forced a smile to her face. “Oh, um... Yeah… about that…”

Rose tilted her surrogate’s head to the side. “Yes?”

She isn’t making it any easier, that’s for sure… Twilight scratched the back of her neck. “You see, I actually found out that my future self came to tell me… um… Well… She wanted to tell me not to worry about anything…”

Rose said nothing, instead opting to simply stare at the unicorn.

Twilight continued, keeping her forced smile. “There, um… There actually… is no disaster… heheh…”

Silence permeated the space between the two before Rose finally said, “I see. I’ll recall the Blues, then.”

Twilight’s tensed muscles relaxed, more out of confusion than anything else. “Wait, you’re not mad?”

The Domestic shook its head. “No. To be honest, we anticipated this.”

Twilight blinked at that. “You did?”

“ - Just hurry! We need to make sure Ponyville is safe!” Twilight practically yelled at Alex before running out of the garage.

Once Twilight was gone, Rose asked, “Well? How should we proceed with this?”

Alex grimaced. “Okay, something important is coming to mind right now. Remember that My Little Pony cartoon I told you about?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, well, my memory may not be the best on the subject, but if I’m remembering this right, I think there was an episode of the show based on this. If that’s the case, then I’m fairly sure that whole ‘Twilight from the future thing’ turned out to be nothing. I dunno… Humor her. Give her a few squads, but don’t go overboard. I don’t really think this needs much of our attention.”

“Yes, we did,” Rose answered Twilight.

Twilight rubbed a hoof against the floor. “Oh… I hope I didn’t cause too much trouble for you…”

Rose waved a hand. “I only deployed two dozen squads. It’s easy enough to manage. I’ll let Alex know about this new information. Is there anything else you needed?”

Twilight held up a hoof. “I actually wanted to apologize to Alex personally, if that’s alright with you.”

Rose shook her head in turn. “Alex is currently busy at the moment, but I’ll let him know you came by and reserve the apology.”

Twilight sighed, and nodded her head. Of course he would be busy. “Alright. Thanks, Rose.”

Just as Twilight was making her way out, Rose called out to her. “Twilight, a moment, please.”

Twilight perked up, looking back at the domestic.

“For reasons beyond my own comprehension, Alex says you can come down right now, if you want.”

A wide grin split Twilight’s face as the opportunity to sneak a peek at Alex’s latest work presented itself to her. “Really?! Yes! I would love to!”

Without wasting a moment, Twilight trotted to the elevator, which promptly began its descent. Rose’s civilian chassis was waiting for Twilight at the level of the Prototype Lab, and the two walked side by side toward the door at the back.

“A word of warning, Twilight,” Rose began, speaking purely from her Liandri body. “You may find what we’re doing a little disturbing.”

Twilight perked an ear up at her, but otherwise kept her pace. “Really? Why’s that?”

Rose paused for a brief moment before saying, “Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to say. It seems Alex wants to keep it a surprise.”

Twilight’s pace slowed ever so slightly as her thoughts twirled. “Of course he does… So where is he, anyway?”

“Right this way.”

Rose led Twilight through the rear door of the Lab, followed by a small network of stark white hallways. Rounding a corner, Rose stopped just outside an automatic door which in no way differentiated itself from the others they had passed.

“Through here is an observatory,” said Rose, holding a hand toward the door. “As I said, you may not be prepared for what you are about to see. I hope this apology of yours is worth it.”

Twilight waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh come on. How bad could it be?”

The door automatically whirred open as Rose said, “See for yourself.”

Twilight didn’t even have to move to see the truth behind Rose’s warning. Freezing in place, her brain lagged; struggling to understand what her eyes were telling her. Twilight's eyes grew wide and her jaw slackened as a gross understanding crept into her. Pure horror overcame her, forcing her to do the only reasonable thing anypony would do when confronted with what she was witnessing.

She screamed.

“I warned you,” Rose said, rolling her optics as Twilight screamed her way against the opposite wall.

When her screaming eventually tapered off into quick, labored breathing in an attempt to scream even more, Alex’s voice came through the observatory’s intercom. “Oh come on, Twilight! I thought you loved how sexy my brain is!”

Just beyond the observatory’s glass wall was Alex himself, sitting in a chair in the middle of the room with a mischievous smile. Several bright lights illuminated a large red cover that was draped over his body below the neck, as if he were simply getting his haircut, and he appeared just as calm as if that were the case.

Only that wasn’t what was happening.

Countless robotic arms hung from a mechanism above him, each with their own grips and tools. His head was locked in an intricate vice to keep it perfectly still, but the most important thing of all was the fact that his skull cap was missing, exposing his brain for Twilight to gape at in terror.

Finally coming down from her original panic, Twilight shouted, “What are you doing?!”

“I’m getting my BCI replaced, what does it look like I’m doing?” said Alex as a robotic limb carefully lifted the device in question from the surface of his brain.

Rose walked into the room and stood by the observatory’s window, beckoning Twilight to follow with a wave of her hand. “I’ve performed this type of surgery before, Twilight. He’s perfectly safe.”

Twilight’s anxiously raised her brows as her rubbery legs carried her into the room. “Just how many times…?”

“Once,” Rose replied with a shrug.

Twilight’s eyes bugged out at this, but Alex quickly followed up.

“Twilight, you know just as much as I do that Rose is really careful about this sort of thing. She wouldn’t put sharp objects next to my exposed brain without being absolutely sure about what she was doing.” As Alex said this, an arm with a drill bit on the end carefully positioned itself behind his skull and began carving out a neat section beneath the exposed rim. “Ooo, that kinda feels funny.”

Twilight pinned her ears against her head and held a leg against herself. “Okay, this is really, really, really weird… I’m not entirely sure I’m comfortable with—”

Twilight stopped herself mid-sentence as her eyes immediately focused on a drop of blood snaking its way down Alex’s forehead. Before either of them could say anything else, another arm holding a balled up towel with red spots swooped in and wiped the crimson streak away.

Alex seemed completely unfazed by this. “So Twilight, Rose says you have something to tell me.”

“Umm…” Twilight bit her lip. “Yeah, I, uh… wanted to let you know that, um… there actually isn’t any, uh…” Another arm came in behind Alex’s head and lifted away what was very clearly a piece of his skull. Twilight stammered at the sight. “Umm…”

Completely oblivious to Twilight’s distress, Alex said, “Well come on, what is it? There isn’t any what?”

Twilight shook her head and forced herself to concentrate on a particularly interesting section of ceiling. “There actually isn’t a disaster! I just wanted to say I was sorry I got everypony riled up!”

“Apology accepted!” Alex cheerfully declared as another robotic limb positioned itself over him, delicately holding the new Brain-Computer Interface in its grasp. “Just glad to hear nothing bad happened. Also, what are you looking at?”

Rose’s optics scanned over Twilight and she crossed her arms. “It would seem she is rather uncomfortable with the sight of blood.”

Twilight kept her gaze aimed upward, though continued to watch through her peripheral vision out of morbid curiosity. “Just a bit!”

“No shit…?” said Alex with a raised brow. “Oh well, don’t worry about it. This’ll be over soon.”

Other robotic arms lowered themselves between Alex’s brain and skull and ever so carefully created a gap for the BCI to fit in. Another arm equipped with a gel dispenser approached and applied its contents to the carved out portion of the back of his head. Once done, the BCI was slowly lowered into place, fitting snugly around the top and sides of his brain and the reshaped skull.

All at once, the arms lifted away, allowing the gel dispenser to apply its coating all around his skull’s rim. A pair of arms quickly swooped in with his bald skull cap and fit the piece of bone and skin back into place. With one arm applying pressure downward, yet another dispensing limb approached, ejecting a red mist around his head that quickly zeroed in on the cut. The skin seemingly sewed itself together in only a matter of seconds, leaving behind so little scar tissue, it was as if no cut had ever been made in the first place.

“And there we go! All done!” said Alex as the robotic limbs released his head from the vice. Other arms simultaneously removed the red drape from around his neck, the IVs in his arms, and lifted a small mirror for Alex to examine himself. Alex leaned towards it and pressed a finger along the area where the initial cut was made, satisfied that it was barely noticeable. His hand wandered to the back of his head, where his fingers brushed against a small metallic plate holding a variety of connectors.

“Damn, that feels freaky…” he muttered. Alex grabbed the bandaids given to him by another arm and applied them to the holes left behind by the IVs before turning his attention back to Twilight. “It’s all done Twilight, you can look again.”

Taking his words at face value, Twilight returned her gaze back to Alex. Much to her relief, he appeared normal again, albeit completely bald. She released a huff. “I’m sorry… I’m just not very comfortable with the idea of performing surgery like that on somepony while they’re completely awake…”

Alex chuckled and stood up from his chair, which automatically folded back into a surgical table. “Well, when you’re mucking around with the brain, the patient always needs to be awake, Twi. Just in case you poke anything important.” Alex walked around to the side of the observatory where a plain glass door whirred upward to let him into the room with Twilight and Rose. “Nice haircut by the way. That whole ‘singed’ thing you got going on looks pretty good on you.”

Twilight’s face flushed. “Yeah… I kind of have Spike to thank for that… It was an accident, though.”

Alex shook his head in amusement. “Heheh, of course. So, what exactly happened with this ‘future self’ of yours?”

Twilight looked away. “Well, I… actually traveled back in time to tell my past self not to worry about anything, and… I didn’t really get the chance to do that…”

Alex crossed his arms and slowly raised a brow at her. Glancing over at Rose, they shared a lingering look before Alex said, “I see… And just where exactly did you acquire this ability to go back in time?”

“I found the spells in the Canterlot archives, but more specifically, the Starswirl the Bearded wing.”

Alex nodded at the information. “Right… Might be worth taking a look at… In any event, thanks for coming by and letting us-” Pausing. Alex leaned down and tilted Twilight’s head to the side to better examine her cheek, or rather, a surprisingly deep cut on it. “Heyo, when did that get there?”

“You mean the cut?” Twilight responded. “I got that when I returned Cerberus back to the gates of Tartarus. You remember him, right?”

Alex rolled his eyes.“You mean the giant three-headed dog that trampled at least three squads worth of blues? Yeah, I remember him. But that was days ago, Twilight. Did you ever get this thing cleaned out? I think it might be infected…”

Twilight brushed Alex’s hand away. “It’s fine, really. I’m okay.”

Rose walked over and quickly examined the cut for herself. It only took a few seconds before she declared, “It’s infected.”

Twilight flattened her ears. “Oh…”

“Eh, not a problem,” said Alex, walking back into the surgery room. “Just come in here for a bit and we’ll have you patched up in no time.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, you want me to lie down on that?!” She pointed over to the table/chair.

“Uh, yes?”

Twilight backed up, shaking her head vigorously. “Oooooh no, I’m not lying down on that!”

Alex dropped his shoulders and sighed. “Rose, would you please get the door?” The door leading to the hallway whirred shut, barring Twilight’s only escape. “Thanks. Now look, Twilight, I know it’s scary, but we’re only going to clean and seal that cut, okay? Nothing else.”

Rose placed a hand along Twilight’s back in attempted comfort. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t even need stitches.”

Twilight gulped and tentatively entered the surgery room. “Alright… If you say so…”

Alex smiled and directed her onto the surprisingly comfortable surgical table. “There you go. Now just lie down on your back if you can - that’s it.”

Brightly lit robotic limbs dominated most of Twilight’s vision from where she was lying down. None of them were moving yet, but the mere thought that they would soon be poking around her face seemingly of their own accord caused her heart to race, despite knowing full well she had no reason to feel this way.

Holding onto Twilight’s hoof, Alex stood by the right side of the table as Rose appeared on the left to look down at her. “I need you to remain absolutely still, understand? I need to clear away the infection and sterilize what is left, so it won’t be painless.”

Twilight nodded, though remained silent.

“Excellent. I’ll start now.”

The entire collection of robot arms burst into life, forcing a gasp from Twilight. Many of the unnecessary ones raised themselves up and out of the way, while the rest lowered themselves closer to her.

Twilight struggled to control her breathing as one limb, with what looked like a camera on the end, approached her face a little closer than she would have liked. Twilight followed its erratic movements with her eyes, until another arm with a scalpel lowered itself beside it. Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes locked on the blade before it disappeared from her vision.

In spite of herself, Twilight flinched as the knife made contact with the infected scab in her cut. The surgical arm jerked away even faster than Twilight had moved, and the camera arm centered itself on the pupil of Twilight’s nearest eye. “I said: hold still,” Rose’s voice echoed from nowhere in particular.

Mumbling an apology, Twilight willed herself to be still, and let the arms resume their work. Gritting her teeth together, she allowed the knife to scrape away the infected portion of her cut, exposing it as if it were fresh again. Relief washed over her as the knife raised back up and joined its brothers. However, a new arm with some sort of sprayer lowered itself in its place.

“I’m going to sterilize the cut now,” said Rose. “This will sting.”

Before Twilight could voice any acknowledgement, the newest arm sprayed its contents, causing Twilight’s cheek to burn ferociously. Twilight inhaled sharply at the pain, though said nothing.

A trio of arms descended to replace the sterilizer, one of which Twilight recognized as the gel dispenser that sealed Alex’s skull back together. A wet coolness soon replaced the burning sensation of her cut as a small amount of the strange gel was applied to it. Twilight felt the other two arms press her cut together as the gel arm was replaced with the device that sprayed the red mist.

Twilight’s cut tickled as the mist was sprayed on it with the other two arms pressing the sides of her cut together. Soon enough, the arms distanced themselves from Twilight’s face and Rose announced the procedure to be complete.

“You see?” said Alex as he helped Twilight sit up. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?”

Twilight rubbed her cheek as another arm brought a mirror in front of her. To her amazement, the cut had completely vanished. “Whoa…”

Alex gave her a pat on the back. “Impressive, isn’t it? Complete surgical recovery in only a few seconds, be it break, fracture, or laceration. What do you think?”

“Honestly, it was a little scary at first, but… Wow, I can’t argue with the results! How did you manage this? This is way beyond anything I’ve ever heard of, even for magic!”

Alex grinned. “Nanites! That red stuff is actually a solution saturated with nanobots that repair broken tissues before breaking down and dissolving inside your body after a couple minutes. You have to admit, those buggers work fast.”

Twilight frowned in thought. “But then what’s that gel stuff for?”

“Building material,” Alex responded simply.

“Amazing… Have you considered giving some of this to Ponyville General? I’m sure the doctors would love to have some of it on hoof in case of emergencies!”

Alex stroked his chin. “Not a bad idea, actually… I just might do that.”

“So what else is new?” Twilight said as she hopped off the table. “I haven’t really seen you in a while, so I assume you’ve been busy.”

Alex rubbed his hands together in front of a wide grin. “Busy doesn’t even begin to describe it! Twilight, I can’t remember a time where we’ve been more productive!” He ushered her along with a hand. “Come, come! Let me to give you the grand tour!”

With Rose’s surrogate close behind, Alex led Twilight back to the Prototype Lab, where he presented her with a pair of circular metal platforms. Two flat arms stood out of each of their surfaces along what looked like circular tracks and a device in their centers that glowed a faint blue.

Alex held his hands out towards the machines. “Voila! Against my better judgement, Rose and I actually decided to reopen our teleporter program.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?! I thought you said you’d never try that again! Not after what happened last time, anyway.”

“Oh, I’m never gonna use these things; not on your life. But we figured the Liandri could since they’re becoming more and more prominent here. Hey, Rose, you wanna do a demonstration?”

Without a word, Rose’s surrogate stepped onto one of the platforms and her eyes turned yellow as the AI relinquished control. The sets of arms on both platforms began spinning around, each on opposite directions. A hazy blue glow surrounded the Liandri, while at the same time, a ghost-like outline of the exact same Liandri appeared on the other platform.

Twilight took mental notes as the body of the Liandri on the “sending” platform began to gradually disappear, starting from the bottom up and leaving a similar ghostly outline of what used to be there. Conversely, on the “receiving” platform, the outline was being filled in at the same rate. Soon enough, it had almost had been as if the outline and the Liandri had swapped places. With a sudden flash, the outline vanished, the rotating arms slowed to a stop, and Rose’s surrogate body had officially been displaced.

Twilight clapped her hooves together. “Technology that mimics a teleportation spell! It’s a little slow, but I think it works beautifully!”

Alex bowed. “Thank you, thank you. We’ve cleared up a lot of issues with this particular design that we’re quite proud of.”

Twilight tapped her chin in thought. “You know, now that I think about it, you never really did tell me much about that first teleporter you build. What makes this so different?”

Alex leaned against a terminal. “Everything. For starters, we’ve managed to reduce power consumption and size, so these things could actually be deployed elsewhere. The last one had it’s own room and drew power directly from the core. Another is how it works. The first one created a wormhole in space that basically tried to slingshot you somewhere else. As you are fully aware of, that didn’t really work like I wanted it to. These ones essentially act as entrances and exits, so there’s no chance of just appearing in someone’s basement.” Alex finished with a smirk.

Twilight matched his smirk. “To be fair, I wouldn’t say that was a bad thing.”

“No, no it was not. Anyway, that’s not all I wanted to show you. Right this way.”

Alex led Twilight and Rose’s surrogate back to the central elevator. Instead of going straight to the garage level, like Twilight expected, the elevator spun as it ascended, pointing the door in a new direction, and stopped only part way. She continued to follow Alex through a network of hallways until they entered another observatory, though this one overlooked a large, elongated room with a large block of metal with a target painted on it on one end, and a large, elaborate machine on the other.

Twilight pressed herself against the glass and eyed the machine. It looked vaguely like the EMC she had built while Alex was in the hospital, though instead of glowing blue, it glowed red, and it was much, much bigger. “What is that?”

Alex crossed his arms and shrugged. “It’s a big ass thermal laser is what it is.”

Twilight’s face contorted in confusion as she slowly turned to look at him. “Why would you build this…?”

Alex shrugged again. “It was a Sunday afternoon - I was bored. What do you expect from me?”

Twilight’s hoof clacked against her face. “Nothing else, actually…”

Alex chuckled and patted Twilight’s back. “It works, though. Wanna see it in action?”

Twilight giggled and turned her attention back to him. “Sure.”

Alex nodded towards Rose. The red glow on the machine quickly grew brighter as a low pitched hum built up. The glow and hum grew stronger and louder while vents on the side hissed out giant columns of steam. Twilight placed her hoof against the glass as her eyes trailed over pieces of machinery spinning or locking into place. What had originally been cold to the touch soon turned warm.

Twilight forced herself to cover her eyes when a bright light suddenly seared through the window. Even through the glass, the continuous sound of thunder roared into her ears for what seemed like an eternity. But, just as suddenly as it began, the light faded and the thunder began to throttle down.

Blinking herself back to reality, Twilight gasped at the carnage before her. The stretch of floor between the laser and the target glowed a vibrant red, while the target itself now had a massive white hot hole in it, completely melted through. Even then, drops of molten metal were still dripping down.

“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” said Alex, who for some reason or another was now wearing sunglasses. Where did he even get those? “Believe it or not, the power output on that laser is so intense, we had to build another core just for this thing alone.”

Twilight flopped her ears in an attempt to stop the ringing noise. “Wow, that is intense… Do you have an idea about what you want to use this for, or is it just going to stay something you made for the fun of it?”

“Oh, I have an idea…” Alex pocketed his glasses and winked at her. “But for now, I think I’ll just keep that to myself.”

“That’s not exactly comforting,” said Twilight as she started following Alex out of the observatory.

“What, and spoil the surprise? I’m not gonna burn down Ponyville with it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

With the three of them back inside the elevator, Alex asked, “Hey, Twilight, you remember that business idea that I had? The private security thing?”

Twilight perked up. “Oh right! I completely forgot you wanted to do that! How’s that going?”

Alex waved his hand. “Not going anywhere. I scrapped the idea.”

“Oh… What made you change your mind?”

Alex crossed his arms and frowned. “A certain pony-who-shall-not-be-named that made me realize just how shitty an idea it was…”

Twilight’s brow shot up at that. As enticing as it was to do, something about his tone of voice made it a better idea to not ask for specifics. “So what are you going to do now? Even I know you don’t get very many contracts.”

Alex’s frown morphed into a smile as the elevator slowed to a stop. “I was hoping you’d ask. We’re actually on our way to plan B right now.” Alex stepped off the elevator and into yet another network of hallways. “You see, just last week, I decided to take the Raptor and fly over to Canterlot for a bit. More of a sightseeing tour than anything else, really. That and to see how many nobles I could scare the shit out of while just doing a simple flyby. Heheheh…”

He stopped in front of a door and turned to Twilight to finish his story. “But then I found the most awesome thing I’ve seen in a while. So there I was, just flying around, seeing what I could see, when lo and behold I find an airship dock!”

Twilight giggled. “You’ve never seen an airship before? I thought humans had something similar. What did you call them again?”

“Zeppelins. But zeppelins and these airships - whoa-ho-ho - they don’t compare at all! I mean, hanging a whole boat to a balloon? That’s insane!” Alex bent down and held Twilight’s face in his hands. “But that’s when an idea hatched.” Alex turned away from her and opened the door with the adjacent keypad. With arms outstretched, Alex yelled, “Welcome, Twilight, to the hangar!”

Twilight gasped as her entire body virtually went limp.

Beyond the door was an absurdly gigantic room. Railed walkways, elevators and large robotic lifting arms adorned the walls of the gargantuan metal chasm. Liandri of all sorts - Blues, Domestics, and Axons alike - populated the walkways, each of them carrying tools, building materials, and other machines towards the centerpiece of the room.

A massive airship; unlike anything Twilight had ever seen in Canterlot. She couldn’t even see the far wall, or even all of the ceiling. It was as wide as the biggest ship she’d ever seen was long, and the keel would have stretched a third of a hoofball field. The cabin above the deck was big enough to sit two dozen ponies, and ornate enough to even sit Princess Celestia in for tea.

The balloon floating above it was only a little larger than the ship itself, but somehow it managed to keep the vessel aloft. It was a standard hoofball-like shape, though it was encapsulated within a metal frame that supported an array of fin-like attachments, as well as what she could only identify as numerous solar panels.

Painted in livery of pristine white and gold trim (most likely real gold, if Twilight had to guess), the ship sparkled even in the cold light of the hangar’s lamps. Printed in bold red letters near the bow was the ship’s name: The Galleon.

“Sweet Celestia…” Twilight breathed. “This… This is…”

“Surreal?” asked Rose as she walked past Twilight to lean against the railing.

“Yeah…” Twilight stepped through the doorway.

“This, my dear Twilight, is plan B,” said Alex, leaning next to Rose. “A big ol’ luxury airship that we’re going to sell to some stuck up Canterlot noble with obscene amounts of cash burning a hole in his pocket. It’ll be the best ship on the market, and with the amount of money this thing brings in, we won’t have to produce any of our own bits for a loooong time.”

Twilight’s jaw refused to close as she approached the railing beside them, her eyes absorbing every minute detail. “Wow,” was the only word that managed to escape her lips.

Alex chuckled. “Would you like to get a closer look?”

“Would I?!” Twilight beamed at him.

“Heh, right this way, then.”

As the trio stepped fully into the room, the scale of the place began to sink in. Only after a solid minute of walking had they managed to approach the boarding gangplank. Out of sheer curiosity, Twilight glanced down through the grating of the catwalk.

The entire hangar was a massive pit, with large gaps in the walls to store what she could only assume would be other aircraft. Something else seemed to be under construction at the bottom, but despite the illumination, the massive distance alone disguised what it could be. The whole sight was so alien she could swear it was taken directly from a science fiction novel.

Stepping from that steel boarding ramp and onto the wooden deck, Twilight gazed wonderfully at all the activity. Liandri of all varieties were busy putting things together. Blues carried stacks of wood and other building materials across the gangplanks while an army of Domestics was busy laying down the floor of the deck and assembling other decorations. Axons followed suit, adding finishing touches and intricate carvings with their EMCs, though they moved more carefully than usual so as to not damage the wooden floor with their weighty steps. To Twilight, the level of synergy the Liandri worked with was jaw dropping!

Alex bumped Twilight’s head with his elbow, snapping her out of her wanderlust. “You done ogling the workers yet?”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just… I’ve never seen anything like this before! I never thought I would, to be honest.”

Alex gave a passing Blue a pat on the shoulder. “You should come by more often, then. Hey, come check out the bridge.”

On the second floor of the cabin, above the formal dining room, was the bridge. A wide and ornate wooden staircase led up to it, though a team of domestics waited at the top with a rolled up red carpet, waiting for the three of them to pass before getting to work.

A large captain’s chair commanded the center of the room, though closer to the windows that overlooked the deck. A classic wooden steering wheel was positioned in front of it, and from the looks of the mechanism supporting it, it was adjustable. Levers for the throttle and altitude were positioned along the hoof rests of the overly cushioned seat, and even a few hologram projectors were placed near it. Most likely for navigation. Both the spaces downstairs and upstairs were fairly open, and there was even a beautifully lit bar off to the side upstairs.

Alex held his arms out and twirled around. “Just look at all this! We’ve never made anything this fancy! It’s almost a shame we’re selling it off.”

Twilight hopped onto the captain’s seat and rubbed her hoof against the hoof ... arm rest. “Velour! I’m impressed! I didn’t even realize you could make this stuff with EMCs!”

Alex stopped his twirling and grimaced. “Eh… Most things, yeah, but not so much on the wood front.” Alex walked over to the bar and tapped his hand against it. “Take a random guess as to what this is made of.”

Twilight squinted at the bar, though ultimately failed to identify it material. “I don’t know actually. I’m not very familiar when it comes to wood types.”

“Mahogany!” Alex answered. “On earth this stuff was luxurious. Turns out to be the same thing here. But the kicker is, believe it not, this stuff grows in spades out in the Everfree.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped at the information. “Really?!”

“Yeah! Figures, right? One of the biggest deposits of valuable woods is smack in the middle of one of the most dangerous places around. But when you have lumberjacks tough enough to do the job, well, heheheh...” Alex smirked and rubbed his nails against his shirt. “It ain’t a problem.”

Twilight giggled and bounced in her cushiony seat. As her hoof trailed over the throttle lever, a thought crossed her mind. “Hey, Alex? What powers this ship, anyway? It can’t be a Power-Core; you’d never sell that.”

“Astute observation!” Alex walked over and stood in front of the windows overlooking the deck. “The Galleon is powered by three things: solar panels, thorium turbines, and, thanks to the generous time donations of our good friend Rainbow Dash, high altitude magic collectors.”

Twilight blinked at him. “Wait a second. Magic collectors? I… what?!”

Alex chuckled at her reaction. “It’s something relatively new. Tell me, Twilight… Have you ever had the opportunity to scientifically analyze the sonic rainboom?”

“No…” Twilight’s eyes grew wider as the message finally registered. “Wait, are you saying you did?!”

“That’s right,” he nodded. “If you can believe it, there’s actually quite a bit of magic just floating around in the sky. Turns out good ol’ Rainbow acts like a magic catcher and uses it to make her rainboom. We did a bit of poking around and… a lot of free lunches… but we eventually figured out how it worked and reverse engineered it.”

“Wow… Hey, can I get that research sent to Google?” Twilight asked leaning back in her chair, her mind wandering over all the possibilities.

Alex nodded his head. “Sure, why not?”

An extra thought snaked its way in. “Wait, what was that other thing? A something turbine?”

“Thorium turbines! It’s a nuclear reactor of sorts. You see, thorium is a radioactive element that decays slowly and generates a lot of heat. All you have to do is turn that heat into mechanical power using steam, just the way every other reactor does it. The good thing about thorium, though, is that it’s much cleaner and much more efficient than uranium. That, and it lasts a looong time.

“In fact, get this. Something around the ballpark of ten years ago, back when I was still in school, engineers actually came up with a car design with a thorium based engine that could, in theory, go an entire century without refueling on just eight grams of the stuff! But, as with all good scientific ideas, it never left the drawing board.”

“What? Why?”

Alex crossed his arms and frowned. “Because rich people are idiots, that’s why. But more specifically, the idiots in the oil industry. If a whole bunch of cars that never needed refueling started being used, fewer and fewer people would use gas, and by extension, their oil. So they lobbied and threw a bunch of money at politicians to make sure that never happened. Because we can’t have innovation and progress, now can we? No-siree…”

Alex leaned against the window with his arm above his head and sighed. “You see, Twilight, that’s why I’m happy I ended up in Equestria. Here, there’s no corporate bureaucracy, no fight for funding, no kneeling to the political idiots who have no idea what they’re doing and who take all the credit for the work that good scientists like us do!

“Human beings went to the moon - no we fucking didn’t! It was a small group of intelligent individuals who managed to do that and the rest of the human race just up and decided to piggyback on their credit - despite the fact that most of them barely knew how to use their own computers, let alone how they worked! And the people who did make it to the moon? They got defunded just so that the military could have more fucking air conditioners!”

Rose placed a firm grip on Alex shoulder, which immediately silenced him. Alex slowly looked back at her, upon which Rose carefully shook her head. Alex sighed and mumbled an apology before turning his head back again.

Twilight slumped in the captain’s chair, any air of excitement gone from her image. As Rose walked past, Twilight held out a hoof and half whispered, “Hey, is he okay?”

Rose shook her head. “He’s been working himself too hard, lately. Even I think he needs a break.”

“I do not need a break.”

“Yes you do and you know it!” Rose snapped back at him.

A pregnant pause hovered in the air before Twilight asked, “What about you, Rose? You work almost twenty four-seven. Don’t you need a break?”

“Twilight, you know as well as anyone that I have no need for rest.”

“I know, but… but still…”

A loud sigh escaped Alex as he pushed himself against the window. “Look, I’m sorry for that little outburst of mine. I just get a little frustrated sometimes when I think back about humanity’s bullshit.”

Twilight finally bounded off the captain’s chair and sighed. “It’s okay, Alex, I understand. It’s good to rant every once in a while. Maybe it’s best I leave and let you settle down for a little bit.”

Despite mentally kicking himself, Alex nodded. “Alright. I’ll show you out.”

The positive mood thoroughly killed, Alex led Twilight off the ship across the starboard gangplank. Twilight never fully understood Alex’s misanthropic tendencies, but on many occasions, she could at least understand his frustration. After all, she had experienced her own fair share of ponies who gave her grief to no end, and even caused her to shut herself off from perceived equine stupidity for days at a time! But at the end of it all, she was always able to forgive and forget, knowing that some ponies just needed a little more time and understanding.

Watching Alex continue to despise the memories of his entire race almost a year later, even if he did seem justified to some extent… it was painful. Nopony should ever have to bear that type of self loathing.

The trio left the hangar through a door in the direction of the bow of the ship, which dumped them back onto the main garage floor.

Twilight did a double take at the door as it closed. “Wait a second, we’re in the garage now? Didn’t that door used to lead to that workshop of yours? Where you gave us all those presents?”

“Yeah, we tore it all out. Put it further down.”

A knot tied in Twilight’s stomach. Alex sounded much less enthusiastic than he did just five minute ago. What she would give to just listen to his thoughts at times like these… “Right… anyway, I should go, um… apologize to the rest of the town for the false alarm.”

Alex nodded and patted her on the back, forcing a smile to his face. “Alright. You go do that.”

Twilight trotted towards the front door, but stopped just short of it. Turning back, she called out, “Hey, Alex? Thanks for showing me all that. If there’s anyone that proves that the human race can still be productive in a good way, it’s you.”

Alex stared back at her blankly for a moment before a more genuine smile crossed his face. “Thanks, Twilight. That means a lot.” His smile morphed into a smirk. “Now get outta here. You have busy day ahead of you!”

Twilight giggled. At least that lifted him up a bit. Satisfied that she had salvaged at least something positive, Twilight left the garage…

And immediately ran into Rarity and Fluttershy who were walking in. Rarity’s horn glowed its usual faint blue aura, and floating along beside her with a similar aura around it was Garry, happily flapping his impotent wings as if he were flying on his own.

“Oh hey, girls!” Twilight said instinctively. “What brings you here?”

“Hello, Twilight!” Rarity beamed. “I’m just here to help Fluttershy get Garry some proper wings. Honestly, this poor dragon has suffered enough!”

Twilight glanced at Fluttershy first, who hid behind her mane and let Rarity do all the talking, and then at Garry, who simply stared back at her with a tilted head. It may have been anatomically correct, but Twilight could swear she’s never seen that dragon make any other expressions than that…

“Riiiight… Anyway, I was just about to look around town for you, but while you’re here… I just wanted to apologize for all the commotion I caused over the past few days. Turns out there actually isn’t a disaster…”

Rarity waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh we’ve already figured that out by now, dear, don’t worry about it. Although I’m sure the rest of Ponyville will be glad to hear it.”

Twilight chuckled to herself as she trotted away. “Heh, yeah, I hope so…”

“Good luck!” Rarity called to her with a final wave. “Come, Fluttershy! With the sun as my witness, I shall do everything in my power to help this dragon fly!”

Royal Visit

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“Come on, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash grunted while pulling on the aforementioned pegasus by the tail across the floor of her own home.

Taking advantage of a slip in Rainbow’s grip, Fluttershy jerked her tail free and bolted further into her cottage. “No! I don’t want to!”

Rainbow Dash chased after her and began pushing her back towards the front door. “Don’t you remember what Twilight said? The dragon migration only happens once in a generation or something!”

“I don’t care!” cried Fluttershy, bracing her hooves against the door frame. “Dragons are scary! And scaly! And fire breathing!”

Rainbow released a frustrated groan. “Look, Fluttershy! I had to watch that boring butterfly migration with you! Now it’s your turn to watch the dragon migration with us!” Dash gave Fluttershy an extra ounce of strength in her push, although the pegasus refused to budge. “And what about your dragon?!”

Fluttershy huffed, refusing to even consider the thought. “I. Said. NO!”

In a surprising feat of agility, Fluttershy released her rear hooves from the door frame and bucked Rainbow Dash in the gut, sending her sprawling to the ground. Spinning in place, Fluttershy leapt over her friend, galloping towards the nearest window. However, her hooves ground to a halt just in front of the object sitting in her path.

Rainbow Dash groaned and held a hoof to her stomach. Thankfully, Fluttershy hadn’t hit her too hard, but boy could she buck to save her skin! Dash’s mind ignored the pain when Fluttershy cried out in a pleading tone to something behind her. “Please, Garry, no. I don’t want to go!”

Dash flipped herself back to her hooves and eyed what had stopped her fearful friend. Garry simply sat on the floor in front of Fluttershy, his expression ever unchanging.

“Garry, please, you don’t understand!” pleaded Fluttershy. “These dragons are big and mean and fire breathing and scary and - and...”

Garry tilted his head to the right.

Fluttershy’s breathing quickened. Garry wanted her to go. She knew he wanted her to go. But she couldn’t. It wasn’t safe. Dragons are ferocious creatures. They’re giant, breath fire, and eat ponies for breakfast! But Garry’s eyes were so full of light, even wonder and hope. He looked so… so…

No.

Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut. It was all a ruse. She had to do it. She hated doing it - sapping a creature’s free will - but it had to be done. It was the only way. She may not have been able to convince her friends that it was a bad idea, but this was her last chance to avoid throwing herself in harm’s way.

Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open and she glared at him. Her face wrinkled into the most powerful frown she could muster. None could resist the influence of the stare.

…

Garry tilted his head to the left.

Sweat beaded underneath Fluttershy’s mane and her eyelid twitched. After a solid minute, the burning in her eyes forced Fluttershy to blink.

Garry continued to stare back at her, blinking at regular intervals.

It wasn’t working! The stare wasn’t working! But how?! The stare always worked! It was always the perfect fallback for Fluttershy to express her disappointment in an animal and get them to behave, even if she wasn’t disappointed with them to begin with. Why wasn’t it working now when she needed it the most?!

Garry tilted his head back to the right

Fluttershy’s pouting lip quivered as a small whine squeaked out of her throat. Before much longer, her body gave up, and her neck allowed her head to droop low to the floor. Fluttershy sighed, and against her better judgement, she surrendered. “I’ll go…”

Garry’s head immediately righted itself and his wings shot upward. With a single flap of his newly webbed wings, Garry launched himself into the air and circled around the room. Fluttershy instinctively looked up at him, just to be sure he didn’t damage anything accidentally. However, despite his impressive wingspan, Garry navigated the room deftly.

Finishing a third lap, he swooped in and latched onto Fluttershy’s withers, eliciting a faint squeak from her. Fluttershy tensed her body as Garry climbed around her back, underneath her neck and back up again. Finally settled atop her neck, Garry plopped his head down on top of Fluttershy’s own and wrapped his wings around her, giving the impression that she was wearing some sort of strange red and black scarf.

Fluttershy giggled meekly and brought a hoof up to stroke one of Garry’s wings. “You’re too cute sometimes…”

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was busy picking her jaw up off the floor.

Pinkie Pie lifted up a pair of camouflaged headgear to get a better look at them, one in each hoof. One was a helmet with twigs and leaves attached to it, while the other was a cap that also had twigs and leaves attached to it. Humming thoughtfully, Pinkie weighed her options. On one hoof, the helmet looked really cool and army-like! The cap looked cool too, but it would also help keep the sun out of her eyes so she could see the dragons better!

Before Pinkie could make a choice, somepony else chose for her when a purple aura surrounded the helmet and lifted it off her hoof. Pinkie followed the floating helmet until it landed squarely on Twilight Sparkle’s head, who had just climbed into the large trench Pinkie and Applejack had dug only minutes before. Spike followed close behind, dragging a trolley with two trays filled with pastries and tea.

“Oh hey, Twilight! Hey Spike!” chirped Pinkie. “Where’s Alex? Didn’t he want to come?”

Twilight trotted over to the bag filled with camouflaged jackets and sifted through it. “He wasn’t home! Rose said he went to Canterlot for some kind of business related thing.”

Applejack flipped a camouflaged hood over her head. “Didn’t somepony tell him the dragon migration was today?”

“I told him about it weeks ago,” Twilight explained as she tried on one of the jackets. “I was even there when he asked Rose to mark it down in his calendar. There’s no way this was an accident. Honestly, I have no idea why he’d miss out on this.”

“What about Rose? Didn’t she want to come?” asked Pinkie.

“Nah,” said Spike as he tied a tiny pink apron around his waist. “She said she didn’t care.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Sounds like Rose, alright.”

“Hey, everypony! Look who came!”

All of their ears perked. That sounded like Rainbow Dash! The three ponies and baby dragon in the trench poked their heads out and looked in the direction of Rainbow Dash’s voice, only to gawk in disbelief at what was following behind her.

“Fluttershy!?” they all shouted.

Fluttershy immediately made an attempt to hide her face behind her mane, but Garry’s wings held her hair back, making the task impossible. “Hello…” she whispered.

Pinkie Pie’s shocked expression morphed into a gigantic smile. “You came to watch the dragon migration with us!”

“Ah never would’ve guessed!” exclaimed Applejack.

“It looks like Garry actually did help you overcome your fear!” Twilight cheered.

Fluttershy eased herself down into the trench. She watched as Garry released her from his wing-hug and skittered over towards Spike. “Oh, I… um… didn’t really want to come, but… um… Garry made a very convincing argument…”

Applejack trotted over and wrapped a hoof around Fluttershy. “Glad you could come, Sugarcube! Don’t you worry none, you’ll be perfectly fine. Just help yerself to some camouflage an’ you’ll be all set.”

While Fluttershy happily helped herself to a gratuitous amounts of camouflage, Spike busied himself with getting the snacks ready. After all, who knew how long the great dragon migration would last? Everypony was sure to get hungry sooner or later. Sure, it was passing by just a few kilometers outside Ponyville, but once the migration started, leaving the safety of the trench would a really bad idea.

As Spike placed the cupcakes on the lower tray, a pair of bright yellow eyes attached to red scales and horns appeared in front of him from the other side of the trolley. “Oh!” Spike flinched, trying not to spill the pastries. “Hey, Garry. Haven’t seen you in a while. What’s up?”

Garry tilted his head to the side.

“Huh…” Spike muttered with a quirked brow. “You don’t talk much, do you?”

Despite being the only other dragon-like thing in Ponyville, Spike and Garry had yet to spent much time together. Naturally, Garry would spend virtually all of his time around Fluttershy, but his unnatural silence managed to unnerve even the most understanding pegasus in town. Fluttershy had taken Garry back to Alex for maintenance. However, a quick examination revealed that Garry was perfectly fine. While he was capable of voicing his own sounds, the Liandri dragon, for whatever reason, simply chose not to. Even Rose was confused over the matter.

But as far as Spike was concerned, Garry was just being creepy. “Oookay… I’m just going to get back to-”

“Yoohoo!”

That voice! It could only be… Spike scrambled to stick his head out of the trench. It was!

Strolling towards the trench, rolling out a red carpet as she went along, was Rarity, wearing a classic dress made from purple, yellow, and pink fabrics. And a matching hat, too! It was just enough to make Spike’s fire-proof heart melt.

The end of the carpet unrolled to the edge of the trench and released a large cloud of confetti that exploded up into the air. Striking a pose, Rarity beamed, “Well? What do you think? Am I the toast of the trench, or what?”

Reactions were mixed, at best. Twilight’s face contorted in wide-mouthed horror, though Applejack gave it the appropriate voice. “You’ll be toast alright; when the dragons see you paradin’ around in that getup.”

Twilight lit up her horn and gave her best awkward smile. “You look very nice, Rarity, but could you maybe look nice down here in the trench with us?” The carpet and cloud of confetti disappeared with a purple flash.

Stepping down into the trench with the others, Rarity said, “Nice is an understatement! I look fabulous! Who says camouflage has to be drab?” Rarity’s eyes trailed down towards Garry, who had run over to her and began looking over her dress with rapid movements. “Oh! Hello there, Garry! It’s nice to see you too! And might I add that your wings look spectacular today!”

Rarity couldn’t help but smile. And why shouldn’t she? Garry’s wings were a direct result of the inspiration she had given Alex and Rose, after all! While she wasn’t entirely familiar with the specifics of nanofibre, Rarity had experimented significantly more with the textile than either of the engineers, and with Garry making more frequent appearances around carousel boutique with Fluttershy, she couldn’t help but come up with a few ideas.

Unfortunately, while nanofibre was extremely soft, comfortable, and relatively flexible, it didn’t stretch - at all, which turned out to be something of a necessity for Garry to fly. After putting in a few collaborative work hours, the engineers and fashion designer managed to create a slightly stretchier version of nanofibre. One that, through simulations, allowed Garry to fly within his own parameters. Only a week later, a physical version of the new fabric was ready for Garry to try, and the simulations were proven correct.

While Garry sat in front of Rarity receiving a rub under the chin, Spike could only stare at them with his pink apron and trolley of pastries, feeling more than a little jealous at all the attention his crush wasn’t giving him.

“Ahoy, ladies!” Pinkie Pie suddenly announced pointing towards the sky. “Dragons ho!”

It started with only a trickle, but after a few minutes, they were everywhere. Dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors soared above the trench. Not too low so as to easily spot the ponies, but not too high so that their grandeur couldn’t be appreciated.

Everypony lined up against the edge of the trench (except Fluttershy, who cowered underneath a pile of all the remaining camouflage gear) and gazed upwards with their binoculars. “Ooohs” and “Aaahs” escaped their mouths as they observed the migration of Equestria’s apex predators. Even Spike’s worries fell to the wayside at the sight these dragons, the thought that he and these creatures were a part of the same species danced through his mind..

However, there was one problem.

All the ponies and Spike were intentionally gathered on the side of the trench covered with bushes. With all the dragons flying in a single direction, the bushes concealed the ponies from the flight of dragons.

Only Garry watched from the other side of the trench, leaving a bright red spot over exposed dirt. Unfortunately, everypony was too busy dragon watching to notice the glaring weakness in their hiding spot. That is, until the ground shook as a massive body slammed into it.

Each of their hearts jumped in surprise at the shock and confusion. However, unbridled terror soon gripped each of them as a large, scaly head slowly swept over the trench. Everypony instantly shoved themselves against the trench wall in an attempt to become invisible. Rarity let out a gasp, but was quickly silenced by Twilight shoving a hoof in her mouth. Their hearts pounded in their chests as their eyes all locked on the dragon’s head above them, the air itself vibrating from the low growl perpetually echoing from the giant’s throat.

Despite Spike’s own fear, his senses didn’t abandoned him. It may have been a dragon he had never seen before, but something about it looked oddly familiar. The red sheen of its scales, the position of the horns and spikes around its head, the shape of its narrow jaw… Spikes’s eyes widened as all the clues fell into place.

It looked just like Garry.

They were all cowering in the shadow of the Royal Red.

The Royal’s golden, narrow pupiled eyes stared directly down at Garry over the trench, completely towering over the Liandri replica. Garry simply stared back, a miniature clone - a joke compared to the awesome might of this reptilian titan.

To no one’s surprise, Garry responded to the Royal’s looming presence by tilting his head to the right. The Royal’s head jerked to a stop, and even coiled back a tiny bit. Like Garry, the Royal’s expression remained just as blank, leaving no indication as to what it could have been thinking.

Rearing his head up, the Royal splayed his colossal red wings to their full length, casting the trench into a shadow as dark as night. The ponies couldn’t stop themselves from gasping at the display, beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Whatever admiration they had was shattered back to fear as the dragon roared directly into the sky.

The ground shook from the force of the Royal Red’s mighty lungs, shaking loose dirt from the trench that dirtied their coats, though nopony in the moment cared—not even Rarity.

As the Royal’s bellows died off, silence reigned in the trench for a few agonizing heart beats. Only to to be shattered as the rest of the dragons in the migration responded with their own roars. Everypony gazed skyward as the entire flying train of dragons veered… away from Ponyville? Roars trailed up and down the line, dragons signaling to each other to change course, all in a way so as to give Ponyville a much greater girth.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Twilight knew it wasn’t Ponyville they were avoiding, but the dragon that had just claimed it as its property.

With a single flap of its wings, the Royal Red launched itself into the air, spraying more dirt and debris on the hidden ponies, and flew to rejoin the migration. As everypony’s heads popped up above the trench to see where it was going, it became apparent just how impressive the Royal Red was in comparison to the other dragons. Even being much larger than the others, it had no difficulty catching up.

Applejack dropped to her haunches, the rest of her body shook with adrenaline. “Whoa nelly…”

Rainbow Dash followed her example, though covered her chest with a hoof. “That was way too close…”

“Is everypony alright?” called Twilight.

They all nodded their heads.

“Good…” Twilight gave herself a moment to steady her breath. Looking skywards one more time, it had become painfully obvious that their trench would no longer provide them a decent view of the dragon migration, as there was now a significant distance between the flight of dragons and them. They still seemed to be going in the same direction, though.

Her own heart finally steady, Twilight asked, “Did anypony notice something weird about that dragon?”

Everypony simply shared glances, expecting each other to somehow now the answer to her question. Spike, however, took several steps towards Garry, his eyes never leaving the Liandri. “I noticed it.”

“Noticed what, Spike?” said Rarity, her dress speckled with dirt, that she surprisingly still didn’t seem to care about.

Spike pointed to Garry. “They looked the same! That dragon was just a bigger version of him!”

Everypony sat quietly for a moment, allowing the knowledge to settle, before Applejack asked, “Hey, Twi, didn’t you mention somethin’ about a dragon during Hearth’s Warming Eve?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, the dragon Princess Celestia told me about; the Royal Red. That was definitely him alright. But why would it just come down and then leave like that?”

“Who cares!” cried Rainbow Dash. “I’m just glad that thing is gone!”

“Do you think it knew that Garry isn’t a real dragon?” asked Pinkie Pie, who was now caressing the shivering pile of camouflage clothing.

“I have no idea, Pinkie…” said Twilight. Hers and everypony else’s eyes locking on the mute dragon among them. “I have no idea…”

Garry simply stared back at Twilight and tilted his head.

Reconnaissance

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Curiosity.

Fluttershy once said curiosity hurt the cat, but never condemned it otherwise. Why would she? Curiosity usually led to seeing something interesting. The program’s memories even insisted on being curious, like they insisted on observing the white rabbit. Why would the program lie?

In the cloudless night of Ponyville, the moon illuminated the streets more so than the lamps resting behind windows. Almost nopony was out, except for the alcoholics and workaholics alike. A typical Friday night. Even the shadow that dashed over the streets and houses of Ponyville for but a fleeting moment would become a regular, if unnoticed occurrence.

Fluttershy always said to never go out at night: it was dangerous. You never knew what could be lurking behind every corner, skulking just out of sight, or fading into the darkness. But why was that a bad thing? There were just as many things to see during the night as there were during the day.

It was all just a matter of opening your eyes.

The moonlit shadow came to a rest on the top of a slanted roof overlooking one of the few buildings that still had its lights on: a bar. Two mares walked out—one of them surprisingly off balance.

“You really shouldn’t drink so much, Vinyl,” said the not-stumbly mare with a grey coat and black mane. “Be glad I’m here, otherwise I’m afraid something bad might have happened to you.”

“Ahhh ... come on, Tavi!” said the stumbly one with a white coat and blue mane. “I’m fine! You really shhh- shouldn’t worry sss- so much.”

“You’re flat out drunk,” not-stumbly dead panned.

“Sso? You, you, you know I play better when I’m a little buzzzzzed,” said stumbly. “Besides! Tonight’s a night to celebrate!”

“Vinyl, getting hired to play at the Gala’s afterparty is worthy of celebration. Ordering new speakers and a DJ table for the event, is not.”

“Are you kidding? Didn’t I tell you who I’m getting them from?”

Not-stumbly rolled her eyes. “You said you were getting them from ‘engie’. Honestly, I don’t know why you would call him that. He has a name, you know.”

Pausing in their walk, stumbly waved a hoof. “Hey, he doesn’t mind! Besides,” she said, looking down at her hoof, seemingly surprised that it was waving around. “He promised to make them…” Stumbly paused, finally noticing a faint yellow glow on the roof of the adjacent building. “Hey, Tavi. You sss- see that up there?”

Before not-stumbly could look, the shadow slipped down the other side of the roof and took flight without so much as a whisper.

It was only recently that Garry had begun his nighttime excursions around Ponyville. Without proper wings, he spent the entire night curled up in a basket Fluttershy had gotten for him, remaining in standby mode and always “waking” at 6 AM sharp. When Fluttershy would eventually wake up, she would usually find Garry hanging upside down by his tail just outside her bedroom window, regardless of what kind of weather there was.

At first, Fluttershy would always be quick climb out of bed and rescue him from his perch. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if Garry fell and got hurt. However, Garry did this so frequently that the occurrence became routine for her, and her worries eventually disappeared altogether. He could always get back down on his own anyway.

Over the course of several strange months, Fluttershy learned the quirks her dragon replica possessed. Climbing seemed to be one of his favorite activities, as he spent almost all of his time off the ground. Usually on a couch or table, but hanging by his tail via a tree branch, bird perch, even rafters in the ceiling was surprisingly common as well. Unless they were flat, climbing on walls and ceilings wasn’t terribly rare, either.

Yet despite the fact that Garry was made entirely of deep red metal from the tip of his snout to the end of his tail, Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice that he was almost entirely silent. His scales never clanked together, and he always walked on carpeted or cushioned surfaces whenever possible. When Fluttershy brought Garry into town, he would always prefer to rest on her back, rather than walk beside her on the cobblestone road. The exact opposite happened when she was in her backyard, where there was nothing but grass and dirt.

Of course, even if Garry never made a sound, Fluttershy still somehow managed to communicate with him, as she did with all her other critter friends. And, just like all the other animals under her care, she gave Garry explicit orders never to go out at night on his own.

Unfortunately, even he knew when and how to break the rules.

Since gaining the power of flight, Garry had snuck out of Fluttershy’s house every night, just past midnight - when Fluttershy was sure to be sound asleep. All to feed his curiosity, Garry would glide all over Ponyville, just to learn the ins and outs. Occasionally, he found a pony or two walking around the streets, usually on their way home. Being his only source of intrigue, Garry would follow them; gliding from roof top to roof top, just to see what would happen, if anything.

Tonight was no different, but after the stumbly pony outside the bar saw him, he was fully aware that he had to make himself disappear. At least for a few minutes. They shouldn’t be too difficult to find again anyway.

Besides, there were many other things to see during the night, many things that not even the ponies would see. Every now and then, Garry would fly over a tall figure calmly walking down the side of the streets. There was usually only one or two roaming at night, and if it weren’t for the thermal and electromagnetic signals coming from them, he wouldn’t be able to tell they were there at all. But they were no secret. They came from the big building to the north - the home of the program and the creator.

As Garry flew over the big cake-house, a light in the distance suddenly flashed. It was brief, but it was enough for him to determine that it came from the big tree that Fluttershy called “the library.”

Stumbly and not-stumbly can wait.

Garry altered his course with a few flaps of his wings and sliced through the air towards the big tree. After gliding around the tree once, Garry determined it to be entirely dark, save for a strange white light coming from the top floor.

As carefully as ever, Garry landed on the top floor’s balcony with barely a gust of wind. Glancing through the balcony door’s window, the source of the light identified itself as the gold Liandri. It stood in complete darkness, save for the bright white light of its eye that illuminated a book in front of it. Garry had only seen it once before, many months ago. The gold Liandri wouldn’t be afraid of him - not like those ponies in the market that Fluttershy had to talk to.

Garry tapped on the window with his wing. The gold Liandri looked up from its lectern to glance at the balcony, its exceedingly bright eye overloading his optics, forcing him to close their protective covers. With light, calculated steps, the gold Liandri approached the balcony and unlatched the door.

Holding the door open, the gold Liandri dimmed its light, and stared down at Garry. With the spotlight gone, Garry stared back in return.

“Unit designation: Garry.”

It knew his name.

“Unit classification: light class dragon replica.”

And it knew what he was.

But why would the gold Liandri tell him this? Garry knew what he was. The program’s memories made it very clear. But how does the gold Liandri know this? What else does the gold Liandri know? Does it know more things about him? What does it know about the ponies? About the dragons? Of all the mysteries in Ponyville, the gold Liandri may have been the biggest one.

“Google! Can you come down here for a few minutes? Spike and I need your help!”

The purple pony - Twilight Sparkle. She was a friend of Fluttershy’s.

The gold Liandri closed the balcony door and secured the latch before walking off down the stairs.

Working purely from his memory of his fly-by the minute before, Garry leapt over the balcony railing, hooked his wing on a lower branch mid-fall, flipped, and grappled onto another branch with his tail. Bringing his momentum through, Garry swung from his tail and latched onto the bark of the big tree. Carefully bringing one claw in front of the other, Garry crawled along the bark towards a window that now had a warm, golden light coming from it.

Securing himself against the tree, Garry peered his head over the window frame. What he was doing was risky; a stray set of eyes would surely spot him, but the purple pony and Spike seemed much too preoccupied to think about looking out the window. Their voices were muffled, though, so Garry oriented his microphones directly towards the glass.

“- know we may not have found anything when Alex was looking for it, but I’m sure Google found something dragon related since then,” said the purple pony.

Spike sat off to the side, holding his legs to his chest with his claws. “I hope so…”

Garry altered his gaze as the gold Liandri descended the stairs. “What would you like to know, Twilight Sparkle?”

The purple pony smiled at the gold Liandri. “Google, do you know anything about Dragons?”

Dragons? Garry tilted his head.

“Four results have returned from your search query. Would you like me to display them?”

The purple pony appeared… dismayed by this response. “Only four…? Are you sure?”

“Affirmative.”

Spike let out a pained groan. “You see? It’s hopeless… I’ll never find out who I am…”

The purple pony placed a hoof around Spike. “Don’t worry, Spike. I’m sure Google is going to give us something good to work with.” A small rectangular object floated over to the purple pony. “Google, could please display the search results for me?”

“Displaying now.”

The purple pony huddled Spike closer to her. “Come on. We have the entire Library in a single tablet: let’s do some late night research and find out what it means to be a dragon.”

Stumbly and not-stumbly can wait a little longer.

“Nothing!” The purple pony tapped her rectangle with her floating stick several times. “This search turned up nothing either!”

The sun had already come up, but Garry continued to observe Spike and the purple pony from his spot by the window. The two of them had been doing this research all night, drinking surprising amounts of some brown liquid to keep themselves awake. Spike had fallen asleep a number of times, though, so compared to the purple pony, he seemed relatively more awake.

Despite the fact that the purple pony used her rectangle more than the books, a surprising amount of them were still removed from the shelves, most of it by Spike. From what Garry was able to tell, the gold Liandri and the rectangle had some sort of connection between each other and the books. It made little sense to him, but it all seemed to work for Spike and the purple pony. Or not work, as the case seemed to have been.

Spike groaned and tossed a book aside. “This is getting ridiculous! How is there so much nothing about dragons?”

The purple pony walked over to Spike and placed a hoof around his shoulder. “I’m sorry Spike. I really am. If you want, we could go visit Fluttershy? Maybe you and Garry could spend some time together?”

Garry perked up at the sound of his name.

Spike slapped her hoof away. “Are you kidding? Garry isn’t a real dragon. He’s just a copy of one!”

Garry focused his microphone towards the window more intently.

Spike continued. “He doesn’t act like a dragon at all! If anything, he acts more like a pet! Taking everypony’s attention the way he does… Well I’m not a pet!” Spike stood up and stepped away from the purple pony. “I’m a real dragon, and I’m going to find out what that means if it’s the last thing I do!”

But… Garry knew he wasn’t a real dragon… Was that a… bad thing?

“Hey, guys!” The front door of the big tree burst open, causing Spike to yelp and jump behind a pile of poorly stacked books. Rarity and the winged pony with rainbow hair entered the library. Both appeared to be in positive moods.

“Good morning!” sang Rarity.

“You wanna join us for breakfast?” asked the rainbow pony.

“Oh hey, girls!” The purple pony smiled at them. “That sounds great! I’m famished.”

Spike climbed back to the top of the pile and threw off a book that managed to land on his head. “Count me out. I have to get an early start!”

Rarity looked at Spike confusingly. “An early start?”

Looking back at her from next to the front door, Spike held his claws at his side and declared, “Yes! I’m going on a quest of self discovery! I need to learn what it means to be a dragon, and the only way I’m gonna do that is to join the dragon migration!”

“WHAT?!” the ponies all screamed in unison.

Garry tilted his head and reloaded his memories of the day before. The trench, the dragons, the big red one that stared at him… Spike wanted to follow them to fulfill his curiosity.

His curiosity…

Finally moving his claws after keeping them in the same place all night, Garry carefully climbed over the top of the window and moved along the side of the big tree, closer towards the door. Much to Garry’s inconvenience, the bark along the tree proved difficult to support him, forcing him to spend more time being careful. By the time he climbed his way to the front door, where he held himself upside down from above, a bright purple flash had escaped from it. Still unable to see inside, Garry paused, focusing his microphones towards the opening.

“Really…?” said Spike, barely above a whisper.

“Don’t tell me you think he should go!” came the voice of the rainbow pony.

“Yes, Spike!” said the voice of the purple pony. “I couldn’t answer your questions, and Google couldn’t either! I understand why you want to look elsewhere. I truly believe you should go on this quest, and we have no right to stop you.”

Her last few words sounded… sharp. Authoritarian.

“I suppose not,” came Rarity’s voice.

“I still think you’re nutty, but hey, I’ve done lots of nutty things,” said the rainbow pony.

“We know,” they all deadpanned simultaneously.

The rainbow pony groaned.

The purple pony’s voice continued. “Well then, I guess this is goodbye, Spike. We can’t wait to hear about it - when you return.”

“Yeah, we hope your quest answers some of your pesky ‘who am I?’ questions,” said the rainbow pony.

“Thanks, everypony,” said Spike. “I know it will.”

Interesting. The ponies were actually letting Spike go - without any help.

Garry clutched himself closer to the big tree as Spike walked out of the door with a stick and cloth bag hanging over his shoulder. Regardless, Garry’s optics trailed after him. Spike didn’t look back and waddled with confidence. Garry’s head zipped back down as the three ponies walked outside and waved after him.

“Goodbye, Spikey-wikey!”

“Go get ‘em, big guy!”

“We have faith in you!”

Garry’s microphones remained focused, and were sensitive enough to pick up Rarity’s whisper of an addendum. “We’re following him, right?”

“Of course,” the purple pony whispered back.

Following him…

Following him.

Garry turned and climbed back up the big tree in complete silence.

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL

Nothing but a small update to Garry's profile. Sneaky, sneaky Garry.

Also, I just wanted to take the time right now to thank you guys. When I first started writing this story in March of last year, I never actually thought it would get to this point. I really didn't. I thought it would just be some thing I wrote down in a word document, then let it sit around doing nothing on my hard drive. Now there's over 200 people who actually read this, and who actually like it! Just wow! Since I started this, I would play important scenes from the story over and over again in my head, scenes I wasn't even near writing! Guy ripping a tree out of the ground, the Scorpion zooming down the forest trail, the Royal Red roaring from just outside the trench with terrified little ponies trying to be as small as possible... There's still tons of things I think about all the time for this story, and I have yet to write them, but looking back at all the scenes that I always thought about and DID eventually write, things I never thought I would...

Sometimes, I'm amazed I even managed to get the story this far. Sure, it doesn't get as much attention as most stories on this site, especially not for the amount of writing I do, but in the end, I'm doing it for you guys. Both older readers and newer ones. If it weren't for you, it wouldn't have gotten to this point. Reading each and every one of your comments, from speculation to just yelling at me for more, or even just pointing out mistakes I make here and there... It's great! I honestly can't thank you guys enough for all this.

Thank you all.

OH OH OH! I also hid a Natural Selection 2 reference in this chapter somewhere. Whoever finds it wins... I dunno... something.

This May or May Not Have Been a Bad Idea

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“I hope you realize that you do owe me for this,” said Rose to the ponies crammed into the Hellbender’s cabin with her.

Rarity hooked a hoof around her seatbelt. “I’ll be sure to make it up to both you and Alex, Rose.”

“I’m sure you will.” Rose went silent for a moment. Everypony braced themselves as best they could as the Hellbender veered around a particularly troublesome stretch of trees. “Just be glad that Alex is alright without radio communication for a few hours. I wouldn’t be driving this far away from the facility otherwise.”

Spike’s head start on the dragon migration had left Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash the misfortune of having to catch up to him. Worse, Rarity had needed time that she didn’t have to put together a passable dragon costume for the three of them to hide in. Dragging it all the way to the dragons’ nesting craters would’ve been hell all on its own, but doing that while keeping up with Spike to make sure he didn’t get hurt? That was almost impossible.

Not to mention the local emergency that just cropped up with Fluttershy. As if Spike following the dragon migration wasn’t bad enough, Garry had disappeared and was nowhere to be found.

At least there was one silver lining. Twilight proposed the idea of asking Rose to borrow a Hellbender to cut travel time. Naturally, the AI refused. Rose wasn’t about to let three unqualified equines drive a high tech motor vehicle designed for humanoids any time soon, but, after a few minutes of communication with Alex, Rose “offered” to drive them herself.

It wasn’t an altogether awful drive, although the Hellbender only had seating for a driver and passenger. Twilight and Rarity ended up sharing the spare seat, while Rainbow Dash happily lounged in the bed of the truck with the dragon costume.

The dragons’ nesting craters weren’t terribly far away, but they had taken hours to get going, and even the Hellbender’s endurance and speed did them little good. Its size forced them to frequently take the long way around things they could have walked over or through, and by the time they arrived, the sun was already setting.

Against the backdrop of dusk, the Hellbender crawled to a stop in the middle of a small clearing. Before they left Ponyville, Twilight had expected Rose to use her usual civilian chassis for the drive. Instead, she used a body nopony had ever seen before. Bronze in color, with a solid metal face, and lips that didn’t move when she spoke. In fact, while she still looked like a human female, her body was less human and more obviously mechanical as a whole. Five blade-like appendages angled out of what looked like a built-in headpiece that covered her ears, nose, and forehead, though leaving the rest of her head untouched. Similar blades were attached to her knees and elbows, but one of the most identifying features was a blue light source situated between her metallic breasts.

Rose stepped out of the vehicle and glanced back inside. “This is as far as I’m going to take you. I’m not going to chance getting any closer with those things flying around.” She pointed just over the tree-line towards a mountain range, where dragons of all sorts orbited the craters at the tops, looking for places to lay down and rest.

After letting Rarity hop out, Twilight closed the passenger side door. “You’ve already helped us a lot, Rose. I understand. Thank you so much for this.”

Rose walked around to the back of the Hellbender. “You’re welcome. Although I still think this endeavor of yours is insane.”

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and leaned back against the vehicle’s cabin. “Yeah, guys, I’m kinda with Rose on this one. I mean, it seemed like a good idea at first, but do you really think we’re gonna pass for a real dragon?”

Hopping up onto the bed of the truck, Rarity held her head up. “Nonsense! My costume is fabulous! Easily one of my finer creations!”

Rose crossed her arms and angled her mask-like face up. “Then let’s see it.”

Rarity and Rainbow Dash hauled the costume off the Hellbender and they all scrambled to put on the three-pony costume. With Rarity standing in the back end, Rainbow Dash in the middle with her wings sticking out, and Twilight sitting in the neck (and on top of Rainbow Dash, no less, however they achieved that), Rose managed to get herself a good look at the “finer creation” that Rarity put together earlier that day.

The costume was covered entirely with simulated green scales and encrusted with a variety of large jewels. Its simulated eyes angled off to its sides and its mouth hung permanently open, allowing Twilight to see through its throat. Eye holes were cut lower down, granting Rainbow Dash her own sight, and a pink ribbon tied neatly around its neck. Not to mention the fact that Rarity’s and Rainbow Dash’s legs were clearly visible beneath the costume…

Rose’s stone cold face simply stared at the display.

“Well?” came Rarity’s voice from the rear end of the costume. “What do you think?”

As calmly as ever, Rose replied. “I’m thinking a variety of things. None of which you would want to hear. Frankly, it’s a death trap.”

Rarity poked her head out from underneath the costume and glared at her. “You didn’t have to be so blunt about it.”

Rose shrugged and sauntered back to the driver side door. “Brutal honesty is the best honesty, I’m afraid. For your sake, I hope these dragons have incredibly poor vision and don’t see in infrared.” Rose looked back over to them. “Three distinct heat signatures in one body stands out more than you think. In any event, I’m going back to Ponyville. I wish you luck. You’ll need it.”

“Wait, you’re not going to help us get back?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Rose shook her head. “As much as I would like to waste my time sitting around and waiting for you, I have a series of PCE propulsion tests that I need to run. Besides, Spike supposedly got here on his own, didn’t he? I’m sure you can all make it back together just fine. Assuming, of course, that costume of yours doesn’t get you all killed. Again, good luck.”

With that, Rose hopped into the driver’s seat, restarted the Hellbender’s engine, made a U-turn, and carefully drove the vehicle back the way it came, leaving the ponies on their own.

Rainbow Dash released a long exhale. “Alright… I guess we better get walking, then. Spike isn’t going to just find himself.”

Of course, before the ponies could start their trek up the mountain, they had to actually get to it… and practice their walking in the process. It wasn’t the easiest task in the world, walking through the woods like they were, but Twilight managed to make it easier by using a spell she learned that made her body lighter, at least temporarily. Otherwise, Rainbow Dash might not have been able to support her weight. But even with the reduced load, her shoulders were already feeling sore.

Thankfully, the three of them came across a facsimile of a road in the forest that led straight to the dragons’ mountains. Grateful that they could finally stop traveling through rough terrain, they gladly followed the new path ahead of them in silence.

That is, until Twilight noticed rustling in the bushes off to the right side of the road.

“Wait, stop stop stop!” Twilight whispered while tapping Dash’s shoulder.

Dash jerked still, almost causing Rarity to bump into her. “What? What is it?”

Twilight squinted her eyes at the bush she had just seen moving. Twilight was almost about to call a false alarm when a branch on the tree to their left suddenly shook and her eyes automatically snapped to the new movement

Twilight silently gasped. “There’s something there.”

“What’s going on?” Rarity whispered, though was quickly shushed by Rainbow Dash.

The three of them stood stock still for several more seconds. Twilight’s eyes grew wide as leaves fluttered down from somewhere directly above them. Even Rainbow Dash’s heart sped up at the sight.

Without warning, the neck of the costume shuddered as something landed on top of the head. All three of the ponies heard and felt it, and all sucked in a breath in response.

“Something’s on top of us…” Twilight squeaked as quietly as she could, though it was more to herself than anything else, as the other two couldn’t hear her.

Faint, repetitive taps sounded from whatever was sitting on top of the costume’s head, each one causing Twilight’s heart to skip a beat. A few seconds later, the tapping stopped. Whether or not that was a good or bad thing, Twilight had absolutely no idea.

With a sudden lurch, a pair of faint yellow lights swung down and glared into Twilight’s face. She recoiled deeper into the costume before her brain registered what she was staring at.

Or rather, what was staring at her.

“GARRY!?” she shouted, which the other two repeated in response.

Rarity threw off her part of the costume and stepped to the side to get a better look at the red dragon perched on her costume’s head. It was definitely him alright. “Garry, what are you doing here?! Fluttershy is worried sick about you!”

Garry angled his head towards Rarity and parachuted to the ground in front of her. Almost immediately, Rarity scooped Garry up in a hug. “We were so worried! We knew where Spike was going, but we had no idea where you were!”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash escaped the confines of the costume, letting it fall to the ground as they sat next to Rarity.

“Garry, what are you doing here? Are you following the dragon migration too?” asked Twilight.

After being released from Rarity’s hug, Garry shook his head.

They all frowned in confusion. “Well if you’re not following the migration, then what are you doing out here?” Twilight asked again.

Garry pointed to Twilight with a wing.

“Me? I don’t understand… What do I have to do with you being here?”

Garry shook his head. He then stood up on his hind legs and waddled around in a circle before pointing back at Twilight, then up at the mountains ahead of them.

…

“What?” Dash said, her wings flaring as she looked from Twilight to the little red dragon. “Seriously, what the hay is that supposed to mean?”

After a moment of thought, Rarity said, “Is it Spike? Are you following Spike?”

Garry dropped back down to all fours and nodded.

Twilight bobbed her head in understanding. “Well I suppose that explains why nopony has seen you since yesterday…”

Rarity ran a hoof along Garry’s neck. “We appreciate your concern for Spike, Garry, but you really shouldn’t be here. Fluttershy is unbelievably distraught! You should go back home.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up a sec,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Garry looks like a dragon! Even that big red one from yesterday didn’t touch him! He could help us!”

“Hmm… Rainbow Dash does have a point,” Twilight pitched in. “Having an extra set of eyes couldn’t hurt. Plus, he looks just like the Royal Red! Maybe the dragons will think he’s the Royal’s hatchling and give him special treatment; maybe Spike too if they’re seen together.”

Rarity bit her lip. “I… suppose that makes sense.”

“He’ll just have to be careful.” Twilight leaned down to be at eye level with dragon. “Garry, do you know where Spike is?”

Garry nodded his head vigorously and pointed towards the mountain with a wing.

Twilight stood back up and released a breath. “Then that’s where we’re going. Garry, I need you to catch up to him and make sure he doesn’t get himself into trouble. We’ll be right behind you. Oh, and don’t let him know we’re here!”

Garry gave Twilight a quick nod before running down the road and lifting off, flapping his wings as hard as they could go.

Twilight grinned to herself. “Excellent. We have a plan! Now come on, let’s go!”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Wait, we didn’t have a plan before?”

It had taken all day, and the rest of the trip would probably take days more, but Spike had finally done it.

Spike caught up with the dragon migration.

The journey itself had certainly taken its toll on the young dragon. He left early in the morning after only getting a few hours of sleep, and only took a single lunch break from following the dragons to eat a sandwich. The only other rest breaks besides that were rides he had gotten from a friendly mountain goat and a donkey who brought him up the forest river on a raft. Now that he was approaching his final destination, his body demanded at least some form of rest.

But now wasn’t the time to sleep.

With a final grunt of effort, Spike hoisted himself up over the lip of the volcanic crater, whereupon he gawked in awe at the sight before him. With the sun barely poking over the horizon, the only major source of illumination turned out to be scattered pools of molten lava that cast off surprisingly bright orange glows. Dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors were gathered around the crater, although many of them were really big and slept peacefully on their own. Probably best to leave them that way.

Spike carefully scanned the inside of the crater itself. There was another group of dragons down there, too. Only these were much smaller, and made a lot more noise than their older counterparts. Teenaged dragons! Or at least, they were analogous to teenagers. Definitely more his size!

Grinning to himself, Spike started to make his way down into the crater, though his feet quickly planted themselves and halted. Why was he really here? He wanted to find out what it meant to be a dragon, sure, but who should he ask? How? Out of all of these dragons, which one would be the best to answer that question for him? Spike took another minute to soak in his surroundings. Sure, getting to the nesting craters was a good start, but what should he do now? Sad to say, this stranger in a strange land hadn’t the faintest idea.

Eventually, Spike’s eyes landed on a familiar sight: Garry. He was sitting just along the side of the crater on his own platform, one claw resting on top of another with his red wings hovering just off his back. He was looking right back at Spike, too. For just the briefest of moments, Spike’s mind wandered over to thoughts of Ponyville. But then again, Garry was taking more of Rarity’s attention from him. No way Spike was going to let that slide. But what was he doing here, anyway? This was Spike’s quest, not his!

Wait a second…

Doesn’t Garry have black wings?

Spike’s heart leapt in his throat as his depth perception finally did its job. This dragon was way bigger than Garry! Spike’s limbs stiffened under the Royal Red’s piercing gaze, a look that bored into his very being. Out of all the things to look at in the crater, what made it single him out?! There’s no way the Royal remembered him from the trench - Spike didn’t even get spotted!

Before he could notice it, something slammed into Spike’s side, sending him and whatever it was that hit him tumbling down into the crater. While Spike was certainly still a baby dragon, his scales did more than enough to protect him from would be scrapes and bruises. And while the whole thing was little more than rolling down the hill, his momentum prevented him from stopping until he and his attacker reached the bottom.

With a groan, Spike stood back up and dusted himself off, taking a moment to see what exactly had hit him. Sitting just a few feet away lay Garry - the real one, black wings and all - who was just getting back to his feet and shaking the dirt off his body.

“Garry? What are you doing here?” Spike grumbled. While Spike felt reminded of home before, Garry’s actual presence wasn’t entirely welcome. He wasn’t a real dragon, he was a Liandri. As far as Spike was concerned, Garry was just a glorified house pet. He didn’t need to learn what it meant to be a dragon, so why was he here? And more importantly, why did Garry just ram into him?

However, Spike pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he continued to look at Garry, who seemed to be… choking? “Uh… Hey, you okay there?”

Garry stood on his hind legs and reared his head in every direction he could, slapping at his metallic throat with his claws, as if he were trying to get something dislodged. Had he been a cat, and had he actually been making choking noises, Spike might have believed Garry was throwing up a hairball or something.

Spike took a step to try to help Garry when a bright green ball of light shot out of the red dragon’s mouth, leaving a glowing patch of green on the ground between them that slowly faded into a black scorch mark. Spike blinked. He hadn’t seen anything like that since he accidentally shot Alex’s gun and set Twilight’s lamp on fire!

Simultaneously, the two dragons looked down at the scorch mark, then each other, then back down again.

“Whoa, since when were you able to do that?” Spike asked incredulously.

Garry simply shrugged his wings.

Spike shook his head to clear it. This was all beside the point. “Nevermind! What are you even doing here? This is supposed to be my quest of self discovery!” He paused. Unless… “Wait, did Twilight put you up to this? Did she ask you to keep an eye on me? Does she think you’re somehow more responsible than I am?!”

Garry shook his head and waved his claws defensively.

Spike growled. “Then what are you -”

“Well well well, what do we have here?”

Spike and Garry simultaneously froze and slowly looked up toward the speaker that had snuck up on them. It was one of the teenaged dragons, with the rest of them standing behind him. Compared to the two of them, he was much taller, probably a little taller than Alex, with light red scales and an orange fin that traveled down his head and neck.

“Looks like fresh meat to me,” said one of the dragons behind him.

The red dragon with the orange fin leaned down. “I haven’t seen you two pip-squeaks around here before. You just hatch, or what?”

Spike swallowed hard. “Um… Hi! M- my name’s Spike. This is, uh… Garry…”

Garry waved a claw hello, but otherwise stayed still.

“They look more like shrimp and nibblet to me,” said another one of the dragons, eliciting a chorus of laughs. While they were laughing, a dragon roared from somewhere up on the crater’s edge. It must have been extremely common, since the teenagers didn’t even notice it. Spike, on the other hand, did, and instinctively looked to where it came from.

It was the Royal Red.

And it was getting closer.

The teenager chuckled and glanced at Garry. “What’s up with you? You seem awful quiet.”

“He, uh… he doesn’t talk,” Spike answered.

The teenager leaned closer to Garry and narrowed his eyes. “What kind of dragon doesn’t even talk…?”

A sequence of hard thumps along the ground behind him answered his question. The teenager slowly lifted himself up and turned around to find the Royal Red looming over him and the rest of his posse. Even on all fours, the Royal towered over them all, his mere presence and eyes with large, round pupils enough to get a point across.

Spike’s breath caught in his throat. There’s no way the Royal Red didn’t recognize Garry. However, when Spike looked at Garry to gauge his reaction, there was something … off about him. He was looking at the Royal differently than he had the day before. Spike couldn’t quite place a claw on it. Garry almost seemed less cautious than he should have been. Did he see something that Spike couldn’t, or was Garry just being Garry?

Seemingly reading his mind, Garry extended his wings and launched into the air. Making a quick loop to line himself up, he landed square on top of the Royal Red’s head, who didn’t so much as flinch at the contact. Finding a satisfying perch, Garry sat up and tilted his head at the group below him.

Spike’s jaw dropped in response. What was going on? Was the Royal really going to just let Garry sit there on his head? Spike’s mind raced to try to come up with some sort of explanation for what he was seeing, but sadly, nothing about this made the slightest bit of sense to him.

“Whoa, sorry, I- I didn’t realize he was your hatchling!” the red teenager stammered. “We’ll play nice, we swear! Right guys?”

The other teenaged dragons hastily voiced their agreements. Seems the Royal Red did have a reputation.

Garry extended his wings to float back down, but paused at the sight of a familiar green-scaled, gem-encrusted dragon with three distinct head signatures climbing just over the crater’s edge. The Royal’s head moved up towards it as well, and even lingered for a few seconds. But after Garry hopped off his head and landed next to Spike, the Royal lost interest in the ponies’ costume, and gave the teenagers a final glare before lumbering back to his perch, allowing his massive tail to curve and slowly sweep over their heads as he turned around.

Spike breathed a sigh of relief and gave Garry a quick pat on the back. “I don’t know what you did, but it worked. Thanks.”

Garry gave Spike a nudge on the shoulder with a clenched claw.

The red teenager walked back up to them, scratching the back of his head with a claw. “Hey, sorry about that. My name is Garble. We, uh… We just… Well, hatchlings are just fun to mess with sometimes. We didn’t mean anything by it.” Keeping their group dynamic going, the other dragons behind him also voiced their apologies.

Spike waved a claw. “It’s alright, I guess. I actually didn’t just hatch, though. I live in Ponyville, and so does -” Garry’s wing flashed out and jabbed Spike in the side of the head. “Ow! Hey!”

Murmurs arose from the peanut gallery behind Garble as he raised a brow in curiosity. “Ponyville?” he spat. “How’d you end up living in Ponyville? What, do they keep you as a pet or something?”

Spike and Garry shared a look, the latter of whom vigorously shook his head. “Uhh… No, not really… Actually, I’m here because I wanted to learn what it means to be a dragon and whoa!”

Garble interrupted Spike’s sentence by picking him up and placing him on his shoulder. “Geez, no wonder you came all the way up here! Well don’t worry, Spike, you came to the right dragons. We’ll teach you everything you need to know!”

While Garble was carrying Spike off, Garry glanced back at the three costumed ponies who were making their way down the crater, though they were definitely close enough to have heard everything. Lifting off once more, Garry zipped around Spike and Garble to let them know he wasn’t following them and flew off to meet the ponies.

“Wait, Garry, where are you going?” Spike called out.

“You two are buddies, right?” asked Garble. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure he can catch up. Besides, I’ve got some things to teach you about being a dragon!”

Meanwhile, Garry flew over to the ponies in their costume just as they reached the flat bottom of the crater, made a quick fly around to announce his presence, and landed on top of their head.

“Hey, Garry!” Twilight called up, just audible enough for dragon to hear it. “What happened? Is Spike okay?”

“You know you’re not going to get anything more complicated than a yes or no out of him, right?” Rainbow Dash said flatly.

“Oh right… Umm… How about one tap for no, two for yes, okay, Garry?”

Garry thumped his tail twice.

“Excellent! Now then, did Spike make it here okay?”

Two thumps.

“That’s good… Can you stay with him? I don’t want us to get much closer in case Rose was right…”

“I resent that accusation!” Rarity interrupted.

Ignoring Rarity’s comment, Garry thumped his tail twice and automatically lifted off again to fly towards Spike and the other dragons, who were busy spitting fire accompanied by loud belching noises. Twilight wasn’t done asking him questions, though, and attempted to stammer out something to get him to come back. Unfortunately, Garry didn’t hear it, and Twilight wasn’t about to go chasing after him.

“Darn it…” she muttered under her breath

“Uh oh…” Rainbow Dash whispered.

Twilight glanced down at her. “What? What is it?”

“Big dragon, two o’clock.”

Twilight looked in the direction Rainbow Dash pointed out and froze. It was the Royal Red, lying on a rocky platform just along the crater’s edge.

And it was staring right at them.

Author's Notes:

Damn I've been productive lately. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out before I have to go back to school on the 20th.

I also want to just mention that this is one of those cases where I thought out the beginning of the arc, along with the end, but I hadn't thought about the middle until I started writing this. So I personally feel like this chapter is kind of half-assed. All the same, I'm going to finish this arc in the next chapter, and I'll be damned if it isn't a labor of love. That said, it'll probably also be really big. Hopefully I won't have to cut it in two.

Here's some fun for you. Since the show doesn't give the names of any of the teenaged dragons in the episode, I had to come up with a name for the red one. "Mörja" was my editor's idea, and damn is it a good one. Although I did toy with the idea of just calling him Schmuck. Now wouldn't that have been a good name? I can just see it in lights now! Schmuck the dragon presents: "Hi! My name is Schmuck!"

Heheheh, what a schmuck.

Edit: Well, now there's an episode where Schmuck is back again and his name is absolutely Garble. Time for some fixes.

On The Shoulders of Giants

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“I still can’t believe they’re stupid enough to try this.”

“I can.”

“Well yes, but you expect this sort of thing. I would’ve given them a little more credit than this; especially Twilight.”

“I would argue that Spike is more to blame in this case. It was his idea, after all.”

“Maybe. Did you know that Garry followed him?”

“He did?”

“He did.”

“Interesting. I was aware he disappeared, although I wasn’t able to find him, myself. Fluttershy made quite the scene.”

“Doesn’t surprise me. Anyway, now you know where he went. If you see Fluttershy, tell her not to worry. I’m keeping a close eye on them.”

Even if it wasn’t doing anything, Twilight couldn’t help but glance cautiously at the Royal Red every so often. There were certainly plenty of other dragons that were just as dangerous around the crater, and sure, a lot of them were curious as to what the teenagers were getting up to, but something about the Royal kept her on pins. Maybe it was the fact that the Royal was watching them as much as she was watching him?

Despite it all, Rarity’s costume seemed to work - for the most part. With Garry keeping Spike company, the ponies were happy to sit by the wayside and simply observe what was going on.

The teenagers who, for lack of a better word, adopted Spike had him engage in a variety of activities. Activities that, as Rarity put it, only beasts and adolescent males would ever partake in. They all ranged from flaming belching contests, to tail wrestling, to king of the hoard, and even lava cannonball. Unsurprisingly, Garry opted out of the belching contest, tail wrestling, and lava cannonball, but gladly joined in on the king of the hoard. Spike however, took part in everything, with… limited success.

Compared to the other dragons, Spike’s belching was pitiful, even magically coughing up a letter with Princess Celestia’s royal seal on it in the process - which Garble picked up and read. After a few seconds of silence, he scoffed and chucked the paper into the nearest lava pool, something which infuriated Twilight. Only one pony could have written that letter, and for all Twilight knew, it could have been urgent.

Tail wrestling hadn’t gone much better either. Despite Spike’s enthusiasm, his small size and underdeveloped strength did him few favors. Although it did award him an “I told you so” stare from Garry when he ended up flying a few dozen feet from where the competition was taking place.

King of the hoard, however, had been a resounding success for both of them. It was all just a matter of reaching the top of the mountain of gems stashed in the crater and remaining there. Garble started at the top first, and had little difficulty throwing the other dragons back down the pile. While most of the them climbed as quickly as they could to the top to try and throw Garble off, Spike and Garry approached it differently.

More or less, anyway. Spike originally went it alone, carefully climbing up the pile with some vain hope of success. However, one of the other dragons that was thrown off by Garble caught up to him and attempted to throw Spike back down on his way up. The attempt was thwarted when Garry swooped in and latched onto the dragon’s head and neck from behind, planting his face into the pile of gems. Covering the dragon’s eyes with his claws and flapping as hard as his wings were able to, Garry jockeyed the older dragon off of Spike and forced him to tumble back down the pile. Feeling an odd thumping against his head, the dragon Garry had latched onto cried out, “Argh! Is he humping me?!”

Garry, kicked off the dragon’s neck just in time to glide back around to Spike, who ushered a quick thanks. When nearing the top of the pile, Garble had been too preoccupied with wrestling another one of the teenagers to notice Spike and Garry climbing up behind him.

In an impressive display of teamwork, Spike picked up Garry, who had tucked himself into a ball, and threw him towards Garble’s back. Garry immediately flared all of his limbs out on contact and surprised the older dragon, causing him to lurch forward and send himself, and the dragon he was wrestling with, tumbling down the pile.

Garry then extended his wing towards Spike to help him up, whereupon the two of them stood victorious over the others who had exhausted themselves trying to overtake Garble.

Even observing from the sidelines, Twilight’s heart swelled with pride at the sight. Given Spike’s attitude before he left the library, Twilight assumed he harbored some sort of grudge against Garry. Seeing those two work together while all the others remained solitary gave Twilight hope that Spike at least hadn’t forgotten who he was.

And finally, came lava cannonball, where all the dragons lined up along a drop overlooking a pool of lava and jumped into it in an attempt to create the biggest splash. Naturally, Garry opted out. Although Spike, still high from his victory during king of the hoard, gladly jumped at the chance to partake.

Literally.

However, Spike’s enthusiasm rewarded him with little. All of the teenaged dragons were easily ten times his size, at least in weight, and had no difficulty causing splashes in the free-flowing lava pool. Spike, on the other hand, carried almost no momentum with him. While his splash had been negligible, the cracking sound of his belly flop echoed throughout the crater. His limp form remained stuck to the surface for a few brief moments before he slowly sank into the swirling lava.

Virtually every dragon in and around the crater was watching Spike as he jumped, and each and every single one flinched in pain as he landed. Even Garry covered his head with a wing.

But, despite his immense failure, the teenagers praised Spike for his “belly flop of legends,” and quickly followed up with a celebration best described as a gem eating binge. In a single sitting, Spike had been offered more gems to eat than he normally would have been able to in an entire week. Garry had been given his fair share of bejeweled food as well, though would only gnaw on a gem for a minute or two before giving it to Spike while no one was looking.

At the end of it all, everyone had calmed down substantially, and the young dragons had begun imitating their older counterparts by laying down and resting for a bit.

Spike gave his now full belly a pat. “That was an awesome party. Right, Garry?”

Spike looked to his right at Garry, who had been lying on his back and examining a shimmering emerald. Taking a break from watching how light refracted within the gem, Garry looked back at him and nodded.

“Pfft, yeah, maybe by Ponyville standards,” Garble interrupted from Spike’s left. He gave the younger dragon a nudge on the shoulder. “Just stick with us, Spike. We’ve got plenty more to teach you about being a dragon.”

Spike sighed and placed his claws behind his head. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere. The way I feel right now, I could hang out with you guys forever.”

Garry tilted his head at him. What did Spike mean by that? He had to go home at some point, right? Garry had to. Fluttershy needed him. Did the purple pony not need Spike anymore?

Wondering what was going on with the ponies, Garry uncoiled his neck along the ground to look straight at the ponies’ costume, which was still keeping its distance. Despite his upside down vision, Garry had no problem seeing the three blobs of heat coalesce. They must have been talking with each other.

Garry focused his microphones to shamelessly eavesdrop.

“I should have stopped him when I had the chance!” said the voice of the rainbow pony.

“No, Rainbow Dash, this is my fault!” the purple pony voiced next. “I’m the one who encouraged him!”

“Well we have to do something!” said Rarity. “We can’t just let him stay with these awful dragons! Who knows what sort of monstrosity they’ll turn him into!”

Monstrosity? Rarity doesn’t like the other dragons. But why? They seemed nice and friendly.

Garble stood up from his resting spot with a small grunt of effort, catching Garry’s attention. “Alright, Spike. There’s one more thing I need to teach you and Garry about being dragons.”

Spike propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at him. “What’s that?”

“That stunt you pulled during king of the hoard? We let that slide just because you guys are small. But if you wanna be real dragons, like us, you’re gonna have to learn to be strong on your own! You see, Spike, as dragons, we don’t take guff from anyone. We’re bigger, and we’re stronger than everyone else, especially those ponies you used to live with. And we gotta show it! That’s why we gotta stomp on the little guys to show them who’s boss!”

Oh… That’s why.

Garble continued. “And that’s why I’m taking you two on a dragon raid!”

Garry glanced at Spike, whose face was already etched with excitement, despite the fact that he was just as clueless as to what a dragon raid was. A couple of the other teenagers were already on their feet and cheering. Whatever this raid was, it seemed to be a big deal to them.

Garble hoisted Spike to his feet. “There’s this nest full of phoenix eggs nearby, and we’re gonna swipe ‘em!”

Spike’s expression instantly changed from pure excitement to shock. Phoenix eggs? They wanted to steal phoenix eggs from their parents?

“What’s the matter, Spike?” said one of the other teenagers, who gave Spike a hard enough shoved to knock him off his feet. “Aren’t you totally psyched to go on this raid?”

“Uhh… Yeah! Totally!” Spike said with barely constrained nervousness. He looked over at Garry, though the Liandri’s ever unchanging expression did little to help ease him. Spike could only hope that Garry was just as uneasy about it all as he was.

Before anything further could be said, Garble picked up Spike in his arms and extended his own wings. “Alright then! Let’s fly!”

Garry flared out his wings in alarm as Garble and two of the other teenagers took flight and made their way out of the crater. His head zipped back and forth between the distancing dragons and the ponies’ costume, where the blobs of heat on the inside appeared to be fidgeting.

Fluttershy would never approve of this! But the purple pony wanted him to keep Spike company. Stuck between two conflicting directives, Garry ignored the former and launched himself into the air with a powerful downward stroke of his wings. Priorities needed to be kept: such were the words of the program’s memories. Spike needed the help, so the ponies would just have to catch up on their own.

Despite his small size, Garry’s wings were more than enough to allow him to catch up to the others, who were just entering the forest’s airspace.

With Garry gliding alongside them, Garble chuckled, “There you are! I was starting to think you chickened out!”

Naturally, Garry left the comment unacknowledged, and continued to fly next to him until they finally landed in a small, dirt clearing. The sun had long since set, and the dragons didn’t have their lava-induced light to help them see, but the moon overhead provided enough illumination to light their way.

However, instead of leading the group towards the supposed phoenix nest he mentioned earlier, Garble gave a quick signal to stop. Leaning down next to something in the dirt, he gently laid a claw over it. “Take a look at this… What do you guys think made these tracks…?”

The two other teenagers approached him to take a look, but each voiced their confusion in turn.

“Spike, Garry, you got any ideas?” asked Garble.

The two smaller dragons approached to get a look for themselves, though confusion was only momentary. For Spike, only one thing could have made tracks like those. Although what a Hellbender would have been doing way out here, he hadn’t the faintest idea. Whatever it was, Alex and Rose probably had their reasons. But hey, it’s not like these dragons would know what a Hellbender was anyway. Best not to complicate things.

“No idea,” Spike lied with a shake of his head.

Garry followed his lead and shrugged with his wings.

Garble hummed in thought. “Better keep an eye open, then. Come on, the nest is this way…”

Taking their group out of the clearing, Garble led the young dragons through the underbrush. There was barely enough moon light to guide their way, and the other teenagers complained that they should have just flown to the nest directly. But, as Garble ended up having to explain to them in a tone that made it perfectly clear they should shut up, they had to sneak up on the phoenixes for everything to go according to plan.

While the teenagers lead the way, bickering amongst each other for some small thing or another, Spike and Garry silently followed from behind.

Spike nudged Garry’s wing to get his attention. “Hey, you’re not looking forward to stealing phoenix eggs, are you?” he asked, keeping his voice low to make sure the others didn’t hear him.

Garry kept his gaze straight and continued to march forward, though solidly shook his head.

Spike breathed a small sigh of relief. “Good… Me neither…”

“Alright, boys we’re here!” Garble called out with a harsh whisper. The group gathered around him behind a large bush, where he carefully parted the leaves to reveal the phoenix nest in question, just further down what looked like a road in the forest.

Garry’s optics zoomed in as he poked his head out to get a better look. He had never seen a phoenix before, but Fluttershy once spoke very highly of them. Although what was so special about them, beyond the fact that they were rare birds, Garry was clueless. Now that he was looking at a pair of phoenixes, a male and female if he had to guess, he could understand why Fluttershy admired them so much. They were much bigger than any other birds Garry had seen, with wings as large as his own. Their vibrant red and orange plumage glowed with an inner light, making them stark against the backdrop of night.

Garble released the bush to turn his full attention to the dragons, and kept his voice to a minimum. “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. Spike, Garry, since you two are our newbies, you guys get to lure the parents away from the nest. While you’re doing that, we’re gonna fly up there, and take the eggs. Got it?”

“Great,” Spike chuckled nervously. “Lucky us…”

With a sweep of his arm, Garble pushed the two of them into plain sight. “Well go on then!”

Now sitting in the middle of the road and staring up at the phoenix nest, Spike continued his nervous laughter and nudged Garry with an elbow. “Heheh, this should be a piece of cake, right? We just have to get them out of their nest. No reason to be nervous. I’m not nervous. You’re not nervous either, right, Garry?”

Silence.

“Garry?” Spike looked to where Garry was sitting, but found an empty space instead. Trailing his eyes upward, Spike caught sight of him already halfway up the trunk of a nearby tree. “Oh! Good idea! I’ll just, um… Wait down here?”

Garry ignored him. Since he was also given the task of luring the parents away, Garry took it upon himself to do it with Spike having as little involvement as possible. One of them had to distract the parents, and Spike certainly didn’t want to.

Do the difficult tasks. Take the initiative. Weigh the outcomes. Leave as little to chance as possible.

So said the program’s memories.

Garry crawled halfway along the underneath of a branch overlooking the nest before hoisting himself up into an upright sitting position. From his new vantage point, Garry held a clear view of the phoenix nest. Aside from the two larger heat signatures of the parents, Garry found several others that were much smaller. Zooming in with his optics, Garry found their source.

Hatchlings. Bits of their flame-patterned shells still remained inside the nest, too.

Fluttershy would be furious.

Ignoring the directives installed by Fluttershy, Garry opened his mouth and aimed between the two parents. In an instant, the inside of his mouth flashed a bright green and fired a single bolt of plasma. The superheated projectile zoomed through the air directly between the two phoenixes and connected with the trunk of a tree just behind them, creating a small, burning dent in it that glowed green and orange with a mixture of residual plasma and embers.

Both phoenixes instantly flared their wings in surprise, first looking at where the shot went, then at where it came from. With their fiery gazes now locked on him, Garry snapped his mouth closed and perked up.

A screech and a pair of flapping wings later, Garry instantly spun and kicked off the branch. Garry forced his wing power to the max as he shot along the forest road, his sensors confirming that both parents were, in fact, chasing after him.

And quickly.

Angling his wings just right, Garry rotated himself sideways and banked hard around a set of trees. his sensors worked overtime, scanning ahead for every possible obstacle in his flight path, all while the flaming birds continued screeching after him. Tree trunks, branches, bushes… All of them were a factor, and each one needed to be considered.

Garry weaved between trees, threaded through leafy canopies, and constantly changed his vectors. Whenever it called for it, he would give a single hard flap and tuck in his wings to fling himself through smaller gaps between branches, stretching them back out again once the obstacle was cleared. Just to keep the parents’ attention on him, Garry would swing his head underneath himself and fire a bolt of plasma in their direction, though would deliberately miss. A distraction didn’t call for harm.

It didn’t take very long (38 seconds, by Garry’s count) before several high pitched screeches pierced the usual sound of the forest. Garry initially ignored the sounds, but took notice when the parents suddenly veered away from him and towards their source.

The hatchlings!

Garry banked around the next tree and made a beeline for the nest. If any harm came to the hatchlings and Fluttershy found out, she would never forgive him. Coming up on the nest itself, Garry located Spike’s heat signature near the base of the tree, though the heat signatures of everything else, including the hatchlings and other dragons, were nowhere to be seen.

Spike, for whatever reason, paced back and forth, mumbling to himself. When Garry came in for a landing, Spike immediately looked over at him, a mixture of relief and panic sprawled over his entire figure.

“There were hatchlings in the nest, Garry!” Spike almost shouted, a shiver continually running up and down his entire body. Spike’s legs gave out from underneath him and he sat with his knees clutched in his arms. “The others tried to take the hatchlings! W-why would they do that?”

Garry slowly walked up to the traumatized dragon and sat next to him, spreading a wing over to clutch Spike closer to himself.

“I could hear everything they said…” Spike continued. “The eggs already hatched, and Garble just told them to take the hatchlings instead and… and… They were defenseless, Garry! Alone with nopony to protect them!”

Garry raised his head and rested it on top of Spike’s, while stretching his other wing over to surround him in a hug. This isn’t what Fluttershy would have wanted. The program’s memories always demanded the prediction of every outcome. He failed to predict this one. He failed the program.

He failed Fluttershy.

Spike allowed the pressure of Garry’s embrace to grant some modicome of comfort. He let out a breath and slowly shook his head. “The hatchlings managed to get away, though… I think… I don’t know, they chased after them… I just hope they can get away and…” He paused. “Wait, what’s this?”

Spike stood up and Garry released him from his hold in response. He moved over to an open spot in the road and beckoned Garry over to take a look. At first, the Liandri confused it for a large round stone, but a quick thermal scan identified it for what it was.

An egg. A yellow and orange egg with fire seemingly drawn on its surface, and so large that it was easily half the size of Spike’s own head.

“Whoa…” breathed Spike, picking it up and cradling it in his arms. “It must have fallen out of the nest… What should we do with it?”

Garry shrugged with his wings. Fluttershy would know what to do with it, but she wasn’t here.

Their thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt swirling of wind behind them as Garble and his friends dropped down from the sky. Spike and Garry swung around to face them. Still clutching the egg close to himself, Spike quickly asked, “What happened?”

“They got away!” Garble replied with a snarl, though he paused upon seeing what Spike held in his claws. He bent down to get a better look, his eyes wide and smiling almost as much as his mouth. “You stole an egg?”

Spike looked down at his charge for a moment before muttering, “Uh… Yes?”

“Ha ha!” Garble exclaimed, standing tall with a prideful smile. “I guess the raid wasn’t a total waste after all! Good job, Spike.”

With that, the other two teenagers cheered, and for the moment, Spike’s worries about them vanished. They were proud of him! He managed to do something that they didn’t, and they were proud!

“Now there’s only one thing left to do,” Garble continued, giving Spike a pat on the back that almost caused him to drop the egg.

“What’s that?” Spike asked, his own face lit up with pride.

Garble flashed him a toothy grin. “Smash it!”

Spike’s brow creased in worry. “S-s-smash the egg…?” he stuttered.

“Yeah!” one of the teenagers bellowed. “Smash it on the ground as hard as you can!”

At those words, the three of them joined in in a chorus, chanting the words “Smash it!” over and over again. Spike clutched the egg to his chest. He thought back to Garble’s words before they left, about how dragons needed to show their dominance over others. Was that really what it meant to be a dragon? To be bigger and badder than everyone else? To smash poor defenseless eggs on the ground, and deny the helpless thing inside its chance to live its life?

Spike’s heart pounded, looking between each of the teenagers as they continued their chant. A sparkle of red next to him drew his eyes towards who was quite possibly his only real friend in the moment. Garry’s expression remained as unchanging as ever as he stared at him, and his eyes almost seemed bigger, but most importantly, he was slowly shaking his head no.

No…

Garry didn’t want him to do it.

Spike looked down at the egg in his claws. Garry was right. Of course Garry was right. He may have been a really fancy machine, and not a dragon, but on some level, he had a heart. If being a dragon meant being heartless, having less of a heart than a machine did, then Spike wanted no part in it.

Twisting his torso away from the teenagers, Spike frowned up at them and firmly proclaimed, “No.”

The three other dragons instantly stopped their chant.

Garble narrowed his eyes at Spike. “What did you just say?”

Spike narrowed his own eyes in return. “I said: No.”

Instead of some sort of aggressive response like Spike had expected, Garble simply smiled. A smile infused with sarcasm, but a smile none the less. “Spike… You remember what I told you before we left, right? About what it means to be a dragon? We’ve gotta show who’s the strongest around here. We gotta show them who’s the boss. And we dragons do that by stomping all over them. Now either you smash that egg right now…” Garble’s smile vanished. “Or I smash you.”

Garble and his friends took a menacing step forward while Spike took the appropriate steps back. Meanwhile, Garry wasted no time leaping in front of Spike, flashing his wings and metallic teeth out in a silent snarl.

The teenagers all stopped, one of them saying, “Dude, I don’t want to have to deal with Tyrannus if we mess with his hatchling. Let’s just let it go.”

Seeing an opportunity to taunt them, Spike grinned. “Yeah! Just leave us alone! Garry and I are going to take this egg back to Ponyville, and we’re gonna make sure it gets all the proper care it deserves!”

Garble blinked. “Wait a second, you both live in Ponyville?”

Garry’s mouth instantly shut itself and his head perked up, but before he could act, the words were already out of Spike’s mouth. “That’s right! And we’re taking this egg with us!”

The two dragons behind Garble shared a look, saying to each other, “Then that means…”

“He isn’t Tyrannus’ hatchling!” Garble finished, cracking his knuckles.

Spike’s face blanked as the teenagers began their advances anew. This time, Garry made no attempt at intimidation and carefully backed up with Spike, and even flinched when Garble gave them his own vicious snarl.

When Spike and Garry bumped into something behind them, they both looked to see what it was. It was another dragon! With eight legs, derpy eyes, and a pink ribbon around its neck!

Garble and his friends stared at the newcomer in confusion. They had been too focused on Spike and Garry to notice this other dragon coming out of the bushes, and considering its unbelievably odd appearance, that was a feat.

While Garry was elated to see it, Spike’s heart pounded with added fear for a brief moment. That is, until the dragon’s skin practically flew off its skeleton to reveal none other than Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, each of whom adopted a fighting stance behind the two smaller dragons.

“Nopony’s gonna lay a claw on them!” shouted Dash, who hovered in the air with her forelegs up and ready to swing.

“That’s right!” Twilight yelled next, holding her legs apart with her horn glowing.

“Fighting’s not really my thing, I’m more into fashion…” Rarity admitted while bouncing her hair with a hoof, through quickly amended by stomping said hoof and growling, “But I’ll rip you to pieces if you touch one scale on their cute little heads!”

The teenagers stared at the ponies for exactly two heart beats before they all burst into uncontrollable laughter. Seeing their reaction, the ponies fighting stances slackened and they all shared looks of uncertainty. Of all the reactions they were expecting, this definitely wasn’t one of them…

Coming down from his laugh, Garble wiggled his claws in mock fright. “Oooo, scary! Hey, Spike! Are these pathetic little ponies your owners?”

Spike grit his teeth, but proudly declared, “They’re not my owners, they’re my friends! And they’re way better friends than you could ever be!” He pointed a finger at them. “Now if you don’t back off, you’ll see what us ponies do when confronted by a huge group of jerky dragons!”

“Oh yeah?” Garble bent down and snarled through his nose, puffing a cloud of black smoke in Spike’s face. “What’s that?”

Spike opened his mouth to snap back at Garble, but his words were lost as the world around him shook. The ground tremored beneath the two groups, collapsing dragons and ponies alike. The sound of thunder toppled over those who had withstood the shaking. Even Rainbow Dash’s wings faltered and sent her tumbling to the ground.

For the adolescent dragons, it was a completely new feeling, but for the Ponyville natives, it was all too familiar.

One by one, each of the ponies, including Spike and Garry, looked over their shoulder at the titanic figure that now obstructed the road behind them. Its painfully familiar red horns and scales gleamed in the moonlight, and its yellow eyes glowed with pure fury. Each passing second felt like an eternity as the monstrous dragon reared up on its hind legs, its fiery gaze burning into each of them, including Garble and his gang.

Twilight’s heart practically stopped. Before, she and her friends had the trench and bushes to keep themselves away from the Royal Red’s eyes. Now they were out in the open, with nothing to protect them.

Garble, however, chuckled. “Heheh, you ponies are in for it now!”

The Royal’s maw gaped open, revealing an increasingly bright red glow within that almost seemed to hum with ancient power.

“Guys, we gotta go!” shouted Rainbow Dash, though her hooves remained firmly planted where they were.

Before any of them had a chance to react, Garry leapt up and flew directly towards the Royal.

“Garry! Where are you going!?” Twilight yelled after him.

The tiny dragon ignored her, landing safely on the Royal’s hind foot and urgently waving them over with a wing.

Twilight’s muscles pulled her lips back in panic and she looked back up at the Royal’s head. The glow in its throat grew brighter by the second, drawing its power from some ancient well of fire deep within its belly. Even the newly opened vents in its neck spitting columns of steam did nothing to…

Wait…

Vents in its neck!?

Twilight’s jaw snapped open and her pupils grew to the size of dinner plates.

~~~~~

“What is that?”

Alex crossed his arms and shrugged. “It’s a big ass thermal laser is what it is.”

…

“Do you have an idea about what you want to use this for, or is it just going to stay something you made for the fun of it?”

“Oh, I have an idea…” Alex pocketed his glasses and winked at her. “But for now, I think I’ll just keep that to myself.”

~~~~~

Twilight finally sucked in a breath with a massive gasp before blatantly yelling, “IT’S A LIANDRI! QUICK!” Without wasting a second, Twilight bolted towards Garry. The others only shared a look for a split second before leaping after her in turn, with Spike and his phoenix egg hitching a ride on Rarity’s back.

Garble’s sadistic grin quickly morphed into a deer in headlights expression. The ponies had all taken cover behind the Royal’s leg, but the dragon itself was still bearing down on him. Before his friends knew what was happening, Garble turned tail and shouted, “RUN!”

Just like what happened when Twilight visited Alex, instead of breathing fire, the Royal spat the very sun itself. A torrent of blinding light and deafening thunder assaulted their senses endlessly, scaring everything for miles around into running for the hills. Some nearby woodland animals even believed the sun was somehow rising early in the middle of a lightning storm, despite the fact that the moon remained high in the sky on a cloudless night.

After a few seconds, the light disappeared and the thunder throttled down, granting the cowering ponies and small dragons a chance to regain their senses. Twilight, however, already aware of what the experience would be like, had prepared herself by looking away, shutting her eyes tightly, and pinning her ears against her head with her hooves. As such, she was the first to look up and survey the carnage before her.

The spot on the ground they were all standing on just moments ago was now clear, though whether or not those other dragons managed to get away in time, Twilight had no idea. The ground itself glowed an unbelievably bright shade of yellow, having been instantly turned into glass. Surprisingly, almost no trees had caught fire, though the ones that were close enough for it had been completely vaporized.

Rainbow Dash was next to recover, carefully making her way next to Twilight while blinking away her blindness. Just like Twilight, a slack jaw was her only reaction to the sight before her. Rarity, Spike, and Garry followed suit, each with equally shocked looks.

The Royal’s upper body finally toppled forward, landing on his front claws with a mighty crash. It wasn’t until then that they remembered they were standing underneath the Royal Red. Twilight was the first to take steps away from the sanctuary of his… its hind legs and around its left side. The Royal’s head swung to meet her, bearing down on her with its large yellow eye. Being this close to it, Twilight had no doubt that the eye staring at her was, in fact, an artificial oculus. It didn’t even look reptilian. How they didn’t notice that detail before, she had no idea.

“This…” Twilight breathed. “Just… Unbelievable…”

The others walked up behind her, each with their own look of excitement from the receding adrenaline.

“Whoa-ho-ho! This is intense!” Rainbow Dash beamed, looking over the massive red figure that encapsulated them.

“I dare say, I have to agree with you!” said Rarity in turn, lightly placing a hoof on the dragon’s jaw to feel the residual heat. “Alex must have been working on this for months!”

As if in response to her words, the first finger of the Royal’s wing swooped in, hooked around Rarity’s body, and lifted her up, causing her to shriek in panic. However, the appendage quickly deposited her on the dragon’s back.

The finger came in to pick up Rainbow Dash next, though the pegasus lept out of the way, saying, “No thanks, I can get up there myself.”

Seeing the Royal’s intentions, Twilight levitated Spike onto her back and allowed herself to be picked up. Garry, of course, had no difficulty following them.

Just as the wing let Twilight down onto the Royal’s back, she grinned madly to her friends. “Can you believe this? We’re on the back of a giant mechanical dragon!” She rubbed a hoof along the simulated scales and musculature. “I never would have thought something like this could be possible!”

Rarity latched on to of the dragon’s back spines and yelped involuntarily as the Royal started to walk down the trail, shaking the ground with each step. Through the patch of glassed ground, no less, but thankfully away from the mountains. She grinned sheepishly. “I never would have thought it possible either, but here we are, it seems.”

Spike, still holding the phoenix egg with one arm, sat next to Rarity and held onto the same spine with his other arm. “Tell me about it… Hey, not that I’m complaining about it, but what are you guys doing out here, anyway?”

Twilight secured herself to an adjacent spine, noting that it was definitely made of some sort of metal. “We just wanted to make sure you were alright.” Garry hopped to the spot in between them and looked up at Twilight, who giggled at the action. “Hehe, Garry actually found us while we were on our way there. I asked him to keep you company since he’d blend in better than we would have.”

“I thought you said Twilight didn’t ask you to keep an eye on me,” Spike narrowed his eyes at Garry, who responded by simply shrugged his wings and slapped his tail against their ride.

Rainbow Dash, fully content without a back spine to keep herself steady, lied down on her back beside them with her forehooves behind her head for support. “I’d just like to point out that having Garry help was totally my idea!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, thought smiled regardless. “Yeah yeah, Rainbow, it was your idea.”

“You know it!” Dash said with a grin. She then sat up with a small gasp of excitement. “Hey, you think we’re gonna start flying?”

As if on cue, the Royal’s massive wings sprung out with a loud whoosh, and its thundering footsteps increased in tempo. Suddenly afraid of getting shaken off, Rainbow Dash scrambled to wrap her hooves around one of the spines just as the Royal Red broke out into a run.

Twilight, for her part, held onto her metallic spine like her life depended on it. The trees that whipped past them, while not tall enough to block her view, still seemed to hinder the Royal’s wings, as he had kept them up almost the entire time. But when the tree line started to recede, the Royal kicked off ground hard, and gave an equally powerful flap of its wings to further throw it away from the ground.

The sudden leap into the air almost shook Twilight’s grip loose, though she held on strong. As the Royal continued to flap its wings and gain altitude, Twilight looked back towards the tail, but more specifically, at the ground they were all leaving behind. Panic spiked her heart. Flying in a hot air balloon to Cloudsdale was one thing, but flying on the back of a dragon that was going who knows how fast didn’t sit well with her at all.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, had the complete opposite reaction. Instead of holding on for dear life, Dash jumped straight off the Royal’s back and extended her own wings, allowing the familiar and welcoming feeling of the wind in her mane to melt away her worries. Despite letting go completely, Dash had almost no difficulty keeping up with the dragon, giving the others the illusion that she was simply hovering in place relative to them. Although for every flap of the Royal’s wings, hers made a dozen.

Twilight gave herself a moment to think; to simply feel what was happening around her in that moment. The Royal’s ascent eventually came to a stop and its flight leveled out into a glide, only flapping its wings every so often for extra lift. From her seat on its back, Twilight couldn’t see much of the ground far beneath them, but as the wind swept through her mane on their high flying mode of transport, she did the only thing she could think to do at the time.

She let go.

At first, Twilight had expected herself to fly away; to be blown off by the sheer power of the wind itself, but instead, her footing held firm. The wind continued blasting against her, to be sure, but not enough to send her sprawling to the ground below. Placing one hoof in front of the other, Twilight forced herself forward, blinking at the air rushing into her face. Pausing for a moment, she willed a simple bit of magic into being: a tiny shield of magic just inches from her face to take the wind out of her eyes.

Reaching the Royal’s shoulder, the mere sight of what lay before her stole Twilight’s breath. Entire forests, rolling hills, and rocky mountains alike breezed by underneath them. Even at night their features left nothing to the imagination. Twilight’s heart swelled with a sense of euphoria. Was this what it was like to be a dragon? Or even a pegasus? This must have been why Rainbow Dash loved flying as much as she did. The view alone was to die for, but to see the landscape sweep by like this, the feeling of the wind in her mane…

The Royal, seemingly aware of Twilight’s presence on its shoulder, carefully banked around a large, steep mountain. Lights seemed to be coming from the other side, but it wasn’t until they had gone completely around that Twilight could see their source.

Canterlot.

Twilight gawked at the breathtaking sight of Equestria’s capital city. It always looked amazing during the day, but she had never seen Canterlot from this perspective before. Sparkling lights from the streets, homes, and royal palace made the city look as alive as ever, even in the dead of night. To live there was one thing, but to see it like this was an entirely new experience in and of itself.

Almost as quickly as it appeared, Canterlot grew further and further away. Looking ahead at where the Royal was flying, another light appeared in the distance. It was a large, bright white light that stood out in the darkness, among dozens of other white specks. Slowly but surely, the Royal Red descended towards this bright light, which Twilight reasoned to be the roof of Alex’s home.

Eventually, the Royal slowed so much that Twilight was surprised it somehow managed to remain airborne. Upon closer inspection, the bright light Twilight had spotted in the distance turned out to not be coming from the roof of Alex’s home, but from inside it. Evidently, the hangar’s aperture-like roof had completely opened up for their arrival, and the Royal simply hovered over it. Its wings folded up at its sides, bringing Twilight to notice a loud hum coming from within the dragon’s body that hadn’t been there moments before.

Light overwhelmed Twilight’s senses as the dragon hovered down into the hangar, blinding her and her friends for a brief moment. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the transition from outside to inside felt as if she had crossed some portal between worlds, but into one that felt much more familiar and safe, despite its alien nature to her. Considering she and her friends had just been plucked from dragon infested mountains, the sentiment wasn’t entirely untrue.

Just as the hangar’s roof spun closed, Rainbow Dash, who had set herself back down onto the dragon’s back while Twilight wasn’t looking, asked, “What is this place…?”

Knowing it full well, Twilight answered, “It’s the hangar… This is where Alex keeps all of his flying machines.”

As the dragon floated further down, Twilight spotted the walkways that she had set hoof on not terribly long ago. Although this time, the airship was gone, leaving a massive void for them to descend. Further down still, Twilight managed to take a peek into the large holes inside the hangar walls. Most of them were empty, though one was stuffed with several Raptors, while another seemed to have something much larger still under construction.

After an inordinate amount of time, the Royal finally touched ground against the bottom of the hangar and the loud hum that had built up quickly died away. The dragon’s wings remained curled up, though its head and tail extended completely and rested against the ground.

With all of the dragon’s activity ceased, Rarity, who had only just let go of her safety spine, remarked, “I believe this is the end of the line.”

“Looks like it,” said Twilight, who made her way to the tail, and slid down the aforementioned body part. Before even beginning her descent, Twilight spotted Rose in her usual body already waiting for them with her hands tucked behind your back. A pair of Blues and a Domestic with a single glass and pitcher of water waited beside her.

“I trust none of you are injured?” asked Rose as the group’s non-flyers slid down the tail one after another.

“Thank you very much for the concern, Rose, but we’re fine,” said Rarity as her hooves met the cold floor.

Rainbow Dash, upon spotting the water in the domestic’s grip, grinned madly. “Oh hey, drinks! I’m parched!”

Rose’s hand shot out to block the pegasus. “It’s not for you.”

Dash blinked. “Well then who’s it for?”

The answer to her question came in the form of a loud hissing noise coming from the dragon behind them. They all looked to see its abdomen opening up along the middle, but the thing that tumbled out and crumpled in a heap on the ground was the last thing they expected.

“Alex!?” everypony yelled in unison.

“HURRAAARRRRRGLAB!!” Alex answered by spilling his insides all over the floor, causing everypony to gasp in a mixture of shock and worry.

The Blues wasted no time rushing over to him and pulling him by the shoulders out of his own mess. Alex was shirtless and completely covered in sweat. With every breath, he continued to wheeze the words “water… water… water…”

Granting him his request, the blues set him down and the Domestic handed over its glass of water, the contents of which vanished down his throat in an instant. He reached for the pitcher next, gulping it down recklessly. At the rate he was trying to drink it all, most of it ended up spilling down his neck and chest, though he hardly seemed to care at the moment.

Finishing the pitcher, Alex tossed it back at the Domestic haphazardly and flopped onto his back, muttering, “Cold… cold… good, cold…”

“Oh my goodness, what happened?” Rarity asked with a hoof to her mouth as the Blues heaved Alex up to carry him out over their shoulders. His entire body hung limp and his feet dragged against the ground.

Rose glanced after Alex’s exhausted form while he was hauled out. “The Draco’s cooling system failed at some point after using the thermal laser. Unfortunately, it would seem that quite a bit of the its core’s excess heat vented into the pilot compartment.”

“Is he gonna be okay…?” asked Rainbow Dash, ruffling her feathers uncomfortably.

“He’ll live,” Rose remarked flatly. “He just needs to cool down, that’s all. Although knowing him, he’ll want to discuss a few things with you before you all leave.” She turned back to them. “That might take some time, though.”

“Shit, sorry about the wait, everyone,” Alex apologized while walking into the Prototype Lab, still buttoning up a shirt. Everypony had been waiting for him inside the Lab for over half an hour, much to Rose’s insistence. Garry, on the other hand, had already been sent home to Fluttershy. “I wish I could’ve been here quicker, but you know… cold showers…”

Twilight waved a hoof at him. “It’s okay, we understand.”

“Thanks.” Alex dumped himself in a chair. “Now then, I’m sure you all have a ton of questions. I do too.” He grinned. “Let’s compare notes, shall we? I’ll start.”

“Now Rose gave me a brief rundown earlier, but I want to hear it straight from you guys.” Sitting up straight, Alex pressed his fingers against the side of his head. “What in the high merciful fuck were you doing out there?!”

Rainbow Dash frowned at him. “Us?! What about you! Rose said you were in Canterlot or something!”

“I lied,” Rose omnipresent voice pointed out flatly.

Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, Dash, I'm tired right now; I'm frustrated, I'm exhausted... Just answer the question…”

Spike stepped forward before anypony had a chance to answer. “It was my fault. I was the one who decided to go out there alone, and that was a mistake.”

Alex released an exhausted sigh and rested his elbows on his knees. “Why? Just why? What made a little guy like you think that walking into a volcano filled with wild dragons was a good idea?”

Twilight felt a sudden urge to speak up for her assistant and defend him. Spike went on a quest of self discovery! Even if it was extremely dangerous, it was important to him, and that was all that mattered. Despite the nagging feeling, Twilight refrained from saying anything. Alex usually had a small nugget of wisdom to share at times like this. Although that nugget tended to be “it doesn’t matter.” Although whether or not that was what Spike needed at the moment was up for debate.

Spike looked away, wilting under Alex’s scolding. “I… I just wanted to know what it meant to be a dragon…”

After staring at the young dragon in disbelief for several seconds, Alex shook his head. “What…? No… Dude, that… ugh…” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “No… That... that was dumb move, man.”

“Huh? Why?” Spike protested. “I’m a dragon! How else was a going to find out?”

“By not asking the question in the first place?” Alex proposed, slapping his hands against his thighs while leaning back in his chair with a confused expression. “Geez, man, you damn near got yourself killed. And over what? Figuring out what you are? Are you really going to define yourself by what you look like? What about what you think?” He tapped the side of his head. “You know—all that jazz up there? The important stuff? That’s what I do and that seems to work for me just fine.”

Spike blinked at him before glancing down at his phoenix egg. “Wait... So… What you’re saying is what I am is not the same as who I am…?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Alex drawled with a hesitant nod.

“Huh…” Spike gave himself a brief moment to reflect on those words, both Alex’s and his own. After a few moments, he looked back to the human with a gentle smile. “Thanks. That actually makes a lot of sense.”

Alex clicked his tongue. “Yeah, you're welcome... I guess.”

“Alright, now it’s our turn to ask questions,” Rainbow Dash cut in. “What were you doing out there?”

“Reconnaissance!” Alex answered immediately, tapping his fingers together.

The ponies looked between each other for a moment before eyeing him skeptically, expecting a more detailed answer. Chuckling at their reaction, Alex heaved himself from his chair and activated a nearby holographic terminal, which displayed an image of a certain red dragon that was becoming painfully familiar.

“I was looking for this: a Royal Red. Or rather, the Royal Red.” Alex leaned back against the terminal and crossed his arms, all sense of amusement gone from his expression. “We’ve been thinking about it since December. Why didn’t it smash the bot that examined it? That was the point of me building the Draco—that full scale dragon I flew you all here with. I wanted to see if I could find it and hopefully talk to it.”

Her imagination already flowing, Twilight eagerly asked, “Did you?”

Alex shook his head. “You’d think he’d have come on the migration of all things, but nope; Not a fucking trace. But from what I was able to find out from the other dragons, there’s only one Royal Red. Hell, pretty much every single dragon I spoke to confused me for him. You would not believe how surprised they were when I told them I was someone else.”

“He sounds quite important,” Rarity commented.

“Important doesn’t even begin to describe this guy,” Alex huffed. “He’s got more titles than I can remember. He’s been called the first dragon, the grandfather of dragons, the king of dragons, the guardian of time… Hell, a few even straight up called him God. His actual name is Tyrannus, and from what I could find out, he doesn’t take shit from anyone. Lived longer than the rest of them, too.”

“Just how old is he…?” Twilight asked, although based on what Alex had divulged already, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.

“Okay, well, for comparison, dragons seem to have an average lifespan that goes up to a little over a millenium. But Tyrannus…” Alex inhaled sharply through his teeth. “Well… most of what I heard was just rumors and speculation, but depending on who you talk to… Some say he’s as old as the universe; ageless, timeless, that sort of shit. Realistically speaking he seems to be somewhere in the ballpark of ten... maybe even twenty thousand years old, give or take.”

Air evacuated Twilight lungs so quickly she began coughing, Rainbow Dash’s jaw hit the floor, and Rarity’s eyes bugged out. Twenty thousand years?! All of recorded pony history doesn’t even reach a quarter of that!

“Dude, that’s insane!” croaked Spike.

Alex nodded. “Yeah, he’s been around the block a few times. Just keep in mind that that’s largely just speculation on the dragons’ part. Even they’re not sure. All they know is that Tyrannus was already old when the oldest ones were still Spike's age. I’d have asked him myself, but like I said, he just plain wasn’t there. And if he was, he’s damn good at not getting found. You have no idea how hard I looked before you guys showed up.”

“Wow…” Twilight breathed. She looked away, mulling over her thoughts, when suddenly a realization struck her. “Wait a minute… If the Royal Red—er… Tyrannus, didn’t go on the migration, then that must have been you outside of our trench!”

Alex curled a brow. “Come again?”

“Hey, yeah, you’re right!” Dash lit up, pointing a hoof first at Twilight, then at Alex. “You’re the one that landed right next to our trench and scared us all half to death while we were watching the dragon migration!”

“Why yes, it all makes sense now!” Rarity agreed. “Alex, that was hardly appropriate for you to do, even as a joke.”

“Whoa, hold the phone!” Alex held his hands out to stop them. “What the hell are you guys talking about?”

Twilight tilted her head at him in confusion. “Don’t you remember? You landed outside of our trench while we were watching the dragon migration!” She paused, allowing Alex to answer, though none came. Instead, he looked up at Rose, whose giant blue eye stared back, an entire conversation passing by in complete silence. “R-right…?”

Alex slowly turned back towards her. “Twilight… I left from here and never landed until I got to the craters…”

The ponies all paused, the blood in their veins freezing over as they all slowly looked to each other. The vivid memory of the titanic Royal Red looming over them played in their minds, the thunderous roar and trembling earth just as fresh as ever.

Somewhere out in the mountains, an ancient figure spied on Ponyville, watching as a fake drifted into a bright light to hide itself from existence.

“So Celestia was right… A new age has begun…”

Despite being late at night, the constant tapping of nervous hooves never left Futtershy’s cottage. She had been pacing constantly for the past hour. Maybe two, she wasn’t quite sure. He could have gotten hurt! Trapped in a hole, stuck under a tree, eaten by ferocious firebreathing dragons!?

Worry about Garry continued to plague her, so much so that even the other animals who stayed with her at home began picking it up. Anxiety and concern for Garry’s safety seemed to be the only thing that mattered at all at the moment. The only one who seemed to be immune to Fluttershy’s aura of stress was, of course, Angel bunny, who hardly cared what happened to the metal monster and was instead doing his best to get some sleep. Good riddance!

Fluttershy had been so lost in thought in her pacing that she failed to notice the faint tapping on the window, the sound blending in with the clopping of her hooves against the wooden floor. It wasn’t until the second set of tapping that Fluttershy instantly froze to the spot, staring straight ahead with her ears pointed out.

More tapping.

Her head snapped towards the window and her eyes grew wide.

“G… Garry…?”

The little red dragon waved at her with a claw from the other side of the window, waiting patiently. He didn’t have to wait very long as Fluttershy dashed towards the window, opening it wide. Nothing but silence passed between the two of them for several long moments. Fluttershy wasn’t quite sure if what she was seeing was real or not.

“Is… Is it really you…?” she quavered.

Garry answered by hopping off the window sill and onto her neck, wrapping both his claws and wings around it.

Tears welled up in Fluttershy’s eyes and her legs gave out, dropping her onto her haunches. Without any concern for whether she would hurt him or not, Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around Garry as tightly as she could muster, quietly weeping.

“I was s-s-so w-worried…” she whimpered between sobs. “I-I-I thought I l-lost y-you…! I missed you s-so much…”

“I missed you too.”

Fluttershy’s mind snapped to attention. It took a few seconds to register, but when it did, she pushed Garry out and held him at a foreleg’s length, staring straight into his amber eyes.

Did… Did he just…?

Garry tilted his head to the right.

Author's Notes:

Blink and you miss it.

MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED

But here's a question for you guys to think over. Did Garry really break his "vow of silence", or did Fluttershy just imagine it? Food for thought.

In other news, I'm currently going back to school. Wooo, new semester. Yay. Good news is, I've only got six classes instead of the usual seven, so that's always nice. Problem is, I'm taking three math classes, two of which are physics related and the third is linear algebra.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I love physics. But let's be honest here: that's a lot of fucking math. Hopefully I won't have too much homework. It's getting to a point in the story that I'm really looking forward to writing, and I want as much free time as I can get to do it.

One last thing before you all go back to what you were doing. I mentioned in the previous author's notes that I was hoping to get this out before I started school on the 20th. As you can see, I didn't quite make that deadline. Personally, I blame Payday 2. That game is addicting as fuck, and with a soundtrack as awesome as this, it's easy to see why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bamLz-zIAEg

That's all I have, folks! ~~Here's hoping I can get the next chapter out some time in September.~~ Well bugger that, I'm real late, now. The next two chapters will be posted at the same time, but they'll be done when they're done. Can't say when, unfortunately.

PS. I hid a Left 4 Dead 2 reference in this chapter. If you've played that game before, you might have spotted it already. Kudos to whoever finds it!

Hell Hath no Fury...

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It was a cool spring day. The sun was shining (as it did most days in Ponyville), birds sang their lovely tunes, foals played, and not a single disturbance dared interrupt it. By all accounts, it was truly a magnificent time to be out and socializing with friends.

Except for Rarity, that is. For her, the sun did shine, but only through the curtains of Carousel Boutique. Instead of birdsong, Rarity’s ears partook in the drone of a sewing machine. It was a boring day, by all accounts, but the Grand Galloping Gala was right around the corner, and preparations had to be done; dresses made, hemmed, fixed, etcetera, etcetera… Unfortunately, aside from herself and her friends, it seemed very few ponies from Ponyville would be attending it.

The last Gala had truly been a disaster by all accounts. Rarity liked to think that she had no part in its downfall, but causing a scene with that dreadful Blueblood, did, in hindsight, most likely hinder things, rather than help.

Rarity scrunched her nose at the thought. That so called “prince” is probably going to attend this Gala as well, along with the other expected nobles. No matter. It was a large party that spanned virtually the entire palace. She would simply have to avoid him until eleven o’clock and then all would be well.

That was another thing Rarity was looking forward to. Celestia had done some inquiring to help improve the Grand Galloping Gala, and the end result was an after-party that began at eleven o’clock and ended some time the next morning. It would be an informal affair, available for anypony to attend - no tickets or invitations required. Of course, tickets would still be necessary for the formal portion of the Gala, just to appease the nobles.

Although the Canterlot nobles, from what Rarity understood, had complained quite a bit about such a “drastic” change. Of course, the only real change that affected them was that the Gala had been “shortened” by an hour. Thankfully, Princess Celestia had been more than firm against their elitism and made it quite clear that no amount of complaining would change things.

Not unless things went horribly wrong again, anyway…

A light jingle from the shop’s main room interrupted her thoughts. A customer! With a flick of her magic, the sewing machine ground to a halt. Now was an excellent time for somepony to help break the monotony of the day.

As Rarity trotted down the stairs and into the shop proper, she found that she had not been visited by somepony, but rather somebodies - Alex and Rose, accompanied by two other Liandri, both of which looked much more human than anything else they had a tendency to build. One was shaped to be Alex’s size and barely bothered to hide its mechanical nature, but the other hardly looked like a Liandri at all!

If the first represented a male, then the second could only have been a life-like depiction of a human female, covered head to toe in what Rarity could only think was flawless beige skin. It even had a mane that reached just past its shoulders as well. If it weren’t for the glowing blue eyes, its distinct lack of genetalia, and the fact that it stood as still as a statue, Rarity might have believed she was looking at another genuine human.

“Hello, Rarity,” Rose smiled as the pony descended the stairs. “I am in need of a few things, and you are just the one I need to talk to.”

Rarity smiled in return. “Oh? What do you need?

Rose placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “First off, we are in need of some formal attire to attend the Gala this weekend.”

Rarity’s face exploded with a massive grin. “So you are attending the Gala! I had my doubts, but this is such a pleasant surprise! Oh I’ve had so many different ideas about human formal wear, you’ll just love them! But that was just the first thing, yes? Is there a second?”

Rose shifted over to wrap an arm around Alex’s neck, placing her opposite hand on the his shoulder as well. Keeping a lighthearted smile, she said, “Alex is also in need of a break from work to let his body recuperate. I was hoping you would have some ideas to help him relax.”

Alex pursed his lips and slowly turned his head towards her. Rose, keeping her smile exactly the way it was, hissed at him through unmoving lips. “We’ve already gone over this. We are going on hiatus whether you like it or not.” Alex’s lips curved downward and he turned his head away in response, his eyes glued to the floor. Rarity could have even sworn she heard the tiniest of whimpers coming from him.

While she had a feeling she wasn’t supposed to hear that part, Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at them. “Oh, I have an idea. The girls and I are going to have a trip to the spa tomorrow after lunch. Would you care to join us?”

“We would love to!” Rose chirped, giving Alex an extra pat on the shoulder. “We’ll be there tomorrow at one. Now then about the clothing…”

“Oh of course, of course! Please, follow me.”

Rose let go of Alex’s shoulders and sauntered after Rarity, with the other two Liandri in tow. Alex remained rooted to the spot and sighed heavily before following them. “Suuure, we’ll just leave that little DNA issue and exocortexes till next week..."

Alex trudged after them into Rarity’s work/bed room upstairs. It was, for lack of any better word, a mess. Bolts of cloth, ribbons, and dress designs lay strewn about on the floor, table tops, and shelves. Alex mentally scoffed at the level of disorder, though conceded to himself that his own workshop would probably look just like this if the Domestics didn’t put the tools back after he was done with them. Cybernetic assistants were helpful that way.

However, aside from the mess, Alex couldn’t help but eye some of the more… basic clothes Rarity had lying around. “You know, I still find it kind of weird that ponies wear saddles, of all things, as fashion…”

Rarity turned to face him and tilted her head in curiosity. “Oh? Why is that? It’s a perfectly normal thing; I can’t see why you would find that weird at all!”

Alex unconsciously flashed a smile, though it disappeared just as quickly. Shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking at the ground, he said, “Yeah, horses - er… equines… had saddles back where I come from, too, and uh… Well, they were used for um… different reasons.”

“Different reasons?” Rarity asked with ever-piquing interest. “Like what?”

Alex let out a long whistle and began wandering around the room, looking at various objects. “Yeeeaaah, you don’t wanna know.”

“Of course I don’t,” Rarity said with a wry smile. “Now then, might I ask what these other two Liandri are doing here with you?”

One of the Liandri - the one that was shaped like Alex - stepped forward. “I’ve already taken the liberty of measuring and updating Alex’s dimensions for you,” explained Rose, indicating the Liandri in question. “It’s essentially a walking mannequin for you to use.” Rose pointed towards the other female Liandri. “This one is the model I intend to use for the Gala itself.”

Rarity walked around the female model, eying it up and down critically and comparing it against Rose’s usual fare. “I must say, it’s a little more… elegant than what you’re currently using. Very life-like, actually. The mane is a nice touch too, although I can’t imagine it’s actual hair. Is it?”

“It’s not keratin, no,” answered Rose. “They’re just synthetic fibers that mimic hair, so there’s nothing special about it. I performed some tests on nano-fibre strands, though they proved exceedingly difficult to manage when not in a weave.”

Rarity giggled at her. “Oh believe me, I know the difficulties of managing hair. Just out of curiosity, was it you or Alex who decided to put hair on this?”

“I designed this model entirely myself, actually. As we will be attending a formal gathering, which, in all honesty, will be entirely about appearances, I thought it best to make this model look at human as possible. Alex thinks I did good job with it.”

“Too good, I’d say,” Alex commented from the other side of the room while idly flipping through a newspaper he found.

Rose shot a sly smile towards Alex. “It’s been rather distracting, hasn’t it?”

“Just a bit,” Alex spoke in a strained voice coupled with an ever so slight flushing of his cheeks, though he kept his gaze firmly locked on the newspaper.

Rarity made a poor attempt at hiding her laughter by covering her mouth with a hoof. “I know humans have a thing about nudity, Alex, but I didn’t know it was like this! It’s just so adorable!”

“Yeah, I like to think of myself as more of an asexual than anything else,” Alex divulged through grit teeth. “Makes things easier in the long run.”

Rarity copied Rose’s smirk. “Then is there a reason why you’re not looking at this lovely figure Rose crafted?”

Alex inhaled deeply through his nose and stared directly upward, formulating some sort of retort. Instead of coming up with an elegant way to tell Rarity to shove off, Alex simply sighed, picked up the newspaper, and started marching out of the room. “Screw it. I’m gonna be downstairs. Just call me if you need me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Alex!” Rarity pouted, half genuinely sorry, half playful. “I promise not to tease you anymore! Besides, I need your input on some design ideas for your clothing!”

“Surprise me!” Alex called, giving Rarity an odd hand gesture where he raised one finger apart from the others.

Rose chuckled as Alex left the room. “Somehow, that never ceases to amuse me.”

Rarity, however, frowned in concern. Alex must have understood that they were only teasing him, so why did he react so strongly? “Has sexuality always made him so uncomfortable?” she inquired.

“For as long as I can remember, yes,” Rose confirmed with a nod. “I’ve never fully understood it myself, to be honest. Having a lack of gender or sexuality can do that, I suppose. Alex doesn’t mind the female persona I often undertake, but as far as he is concerned, it’s just to balance things out.” A smirk grew across the human-looking Liandri’s face and Rose’s voice continued out of it. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t extract some amusement out of him every now and again.”

Rarity cracked a smile at the new source of the voice. “Would I be correct to assume that you’ve done similar things before?”

“You would be,” answered the robo-human. “Although I’ve honestly never done it on this scale. He’ll get over it eventually, I’m sure.”

“Eventually. Oh, by the way, I’m not sure if I was supposed to know, but I overheard that you and Alex are going on hiatus…?”

Rose waved her hand dismissively. “It doesn’t really matter if you know, to be honest. Besides, it’s more of a forced vacation. The human body does have its limits, and as I’m sure you are well aware, Alex is very keen on pushing them. Especially with regards to exhaustion.”

“I’ve heard tales,” Rarity said with a roll of her eyes.

“I have no doubt. That’s why I’m forcing him to take a break for at least a week’s time, on top of enforcing human-normal sleep cycles. I’ve also decided to disconnect myself from the facility as well, just to keep my full attention on him during this time.”

Rarity tilted her head and aww’d. “That’s so sweet and kind of you, Rose! From what I understand, you find doing that very uncomfortable. To think that you’d do that for an entire week just to make sure Alex stays healthy is just-”

“Yes, yes, it’s nice of me.” Rose cut her off with a wave of her hand. “Now then, you mentioned you had some ideas for human formal wear? Would that happen to include anything for me as well?”

Rarity’s face instantly lit up at the mention. “Oh yes! Come come - let me draw you some sketches!”

The main room of Carousel Boutique had remained quiet for the better part of half an hour. Alex, completely content with the peace, had parked himself on the small, mirror-enclosed stage Rarity had next to one of the changing rooms. No one else had entered the boutique after him and Rose, which was surprising, considering the big Gala was only a few days away. To him, it looked like nobody from Ponyville would be going, or if they were, they weren’t going for the formal part of it.

Despite the lack of any and all activity, Alex managed to keep himself at least vaguely occupied by reading over the newspaper he borrowed from upstairs. Even though he was twenty eight years of age, he had never actually bothered to read a newspaper before, be it in Equestria or on Earth. In fact, the only news he had ever absorbed was from online news articles that would float his way every now and again, along with whatever news channel his parents happened to be watching while he was passing by. It was impressive how they only ever seemed to report the bad things…

Equestrian news, on the other hand, seemed completely different. This one particular paper, The Foal Free Press (which Alex found to be a weird name since it made no attempt to disguise the fact that it was produced by the town’s local school children), didn’t report on anything negative. No natural resource deficits, no terrorist bombings, no religious wars in the middle east, no viral outbreaks in Africa…

As Alex flipped through the pages, not a single story about anything horrible made itself known. There weren’t even any obituaries. A surprising amount of stories held similar themes. Overcoming hardship, becoming successful despite the odds… The articles themselves weren’t that bad either.

One story, however, stood out from the others. It seemed completely ridiculous at first, but as Alex read on, he found it it to be the most amusing article in the entire paper. In fact, it detailed something so outrageous that if it weren’t for the attached photo, he wouldn’t have believed it.

“Thank you again for your help, Rarity,” came Rose’s voice as the AI and unicorn descended the stairs. “I look forward to seeing the finished product, and I think Alex will appreciate his as well.”

Despite the mention of his name, Alex’s attention remained glued to the paper.

“Oh it’s my pleasure, Rose!” Rarity answered back. “It’s the least I could do for your help with transportation last week. Don’t you worry! I’ll have them done in just a few days.”

“Then I’ll return within seventy two hours.” Rose promptly turned towards Alex. “Everything is set, Alex. We can leave now.”

Alex, on the other hand, simply grinned and chuckled. With his attention still on the article, he waved her over. “Rose, you gotta see this! Just look at these two bozos!”

Raising a brow, Rose wandered over to look over his shoulder at the newspaper he was holding. The article in question described a pair of colts from Ponyville Elementary that somehow managed to cover themselves in obscene amounts of chewing gum and gotten themselves stuck together. After only a brief glance at the page, Rose wondered aloud, “How on earth did they manage to do that?”

“I have no idea, but this is amazing! It’s so stupid it’s great!”

While Alex continued to giggle at the paper, Rarity trotted up to them with a knowing smile. “I see you’ve taken an interest in the Foal Free Press as well! Gabby Gums is quite the gossip columnist. She really is what gives the school paper its flair. Although the one you’re reading is actually a rather old article - it came out last week. If you’d like, I have many more articles of hers you can read during your time off.”

Alex finally looked up from the newspaper and gave Rarity a curious glance. “She’s a gossip columnist, huh? Gossip doesn’t exactly sound like my cup of tea, to be honest.”

Rarity’s smirk deepened, lowering her eyelids a smidgen. “Is that so? You seem to be enjoying that one quite a bit.”

Alex pursed his lips and slowly lowered his eyes back down to the paper, the only word circulating through his mind being: Fuck…

The look on Alex’s face told Rarity everything she needed to know, eliciting a light giggle from her. “It’s alright to have a guilty pleasure, Alex! Besides, nopony’s going to look at you sideways for wanting to read a Gabby Gums article. After all, everypony in town is already doing it. Now then, would you like me to go fetch some of her other columns for you to look at?”

Alex bit his lip for a moment, pondering whether or not to go for it. After a brief moment of thought, Alex sighed and let the newspaper hang between his knees. “Fine, I’ll guess I’ll take a look at them…”

“Excellent!” Rarity beamed, already making her way back upstairs. “I promise you that you’ll enjoy them just as much as that one!”

With Rarity out of sight, Alex turned to look at Rose, who stared back at him with crossed arms and the most powerful look of disapproval he had ever seen from her. “What? It’s just mindless entertainment…”

“I expected better from you,” Rose deadpanned.

“Well then let that be a lesson for you for when you want us to go on hiatus again,” Alex chimed with a sarcastic smile. “I start doing stupid shit like this.”

Rose narrowed her eyes. “I’m still not letting you go back to work.”

Alex threw his head back and groaned. “Fuuuuuuuck…”

Inside of Ponyville’s spa, the area had been entirely calm and serene to accommodate the ponies that were currently relaxing within its walls. While there were no windows to allow the sun access, many warm white lights illuminated the spa’s main room while calming, ambient music played in the background from some unseen source. With the level of stress and activity at zero, almost nothing could disturb the stasis established by-

“Hello, everyone! We have arrived!” Alex announced as he suddenly entered into the spa’s main room, his arms outstretched with a towel draped over one of them.

Rose glared at him as she passed him from behind, holding a large, clinking bag. “Was that really necessary?”

Alex’s grin never left him. “Yes. Yes it was.”

Everypony giggled at Alex’s ridiculousness, and especially at Rose’s sour facial response. They had already begun their spa treatments by the time the two humanoids had arrived, though were only just getting settled in. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were busy soaking in a nearby hot tub, while everypony else lounged around on what looked like reclining chairs, though without the arm rests. Even Spike had shown up, though Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen.

Alex chuckled at Rose for a few more seconds before quickly spotting an adequate object to hide behind. “Alright, I’m gonna go get changed real quick. Rose, could you pay the spa owners?”

The AI held up the large bag of bits. “What else am I going to do with this?” As Alex ducked behind a pillar to change out of his clothes, Rose sauntered over to one of the spa ponies - a blue mare with a pink mane that was busy giving Rarity a hooficure - and unceremoniously dumped the bag of money next to her. “For your services. Keep the change.”

The spa pony, whom the databases identified as Lotus Blossom, immediately gasped in shock as the bag landed with a heavy, dull clinking. Lotus reached a hesitant hoof out and carefully opened the bag, whereupon her jaw practically hit the floor upon discovering the contents.

Twilight Sparkle, who was lying down in the typical pony fashion with a newspaper propped up against the back of the recliner, frowned in confusion at Lotus Blossom’s reaction. “Rose, how much money is in that bag…?”

Rose took a position standing in the center of the room. Shrugging, she said, “I don’t actually know. Alex is the one who filled it.”

Twilight turned towards the pillar Alex was hiding behind. “Alex, how many bits were in the bag Rose just gave to Lotus Blossom?”

“No idea!” Alex called back. “I just went into our vault and shoved a bunch of coins in a bag. Figured it’d be enough.”

Everypony’s attention quickly focused on Lotus Blossom, who finally came out of her stupor and ran out of the room with the bag of bits hanging from her mouth, a giant grin plastered on her face. Rose’s optics trailed after the ecstatic mare. With her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised, she casually pointed out, “I’m beginning to think we overpaid them.”

“Yeah, probably!” Alex finally stepped out from behind the pillar, completely naked save for a towel that wrapped around his waist and extended down to his knees. “But hey, we’ve got more than we need. Might as well, right?”

Having set down the newspaper she was holding, Rarity stared after Alex as he sat himself down on the recliner next to Twilight. “I don’t mean to pry, but what do you mean when you say you have more bits than you need?”

Alex shrugged. “We have more than we know what to do with?”

Recalling the hangar being empty the last time she was there, Twilight asked, “I’m assuming you managed to sell The Galleon, then?”

Alex nodded with his hands tucked behind his head. “Mhm. Sold it a while ago, actually.”

Rarity cocked her head to the side. “The Galleon?”

“It’s an airship he built, like the ones you’d find in Canterlot,” Twilight answered. “I was on it for a little while when it was almost finished. It’s actually really big for an airship, but very well made.” Twilight turned back to Alex. “How much did it end up selling for?”

Alex smirked to himself, casually bobbing one of his feet up and down in thought. His eyes scanned the others in the room, noticing how each of them was paying attention to him in some form or another, curious to know the answer to Twilight’s question. Oh this is gonna be fun…

“Four and a half million.”

“WHAT!?” Everypony simultaneously yelled. At least, everypony who didn’t instantly start choking on their own air supply. Alex grinned and quietly snickered to himself, with Rose mimicking him.

Spike, who had been calmly lounging around on his own recliner with slices of cucumber sitting over her eyes, was now sitting straight up and staring at Alex with a bewildered expression. “Four and a half million?! Dude, you’re loaded!”

“Sweet Celestia…” Rarity breathed, holding her own look of shock. “Who did you manage to sell that to? The princesses themselves?”

Alex shrugged. “Dunno. Whoever they were, they bought it through an agent. Did it right quick, too. We were only advertising it in Canterlot for about twenty hours before they just straight up offered us the cash. To be honest, I didn’t know how much it was really worth, but I didn’t really care. Four and a half million is more than enough for us.”

The conversation was interrupted when several spa workers walked into the room, each with a brilliant smile on their faces. Lotus Blossom returned to giving Rarity her hooficure, a yellow earth pony with a similar mane style as the other two proceeded over to Applejack to give her a massage, but a pink pony with a blue mane, name Aloe, walked straight up to Alex and gave him the most over ecstatic smile he’d ever seen.

“Bonjour, my noble,” she said almost bouncing in place. She spoke with an accent that sounded like a mix between French and eastern European. “My sisters et moi, want to thank you pour votre patronage. So gentil and généreux!” The foreign words seemed to ring in her own ear, making her conscious of her over enthusiasm. Calming herself, she took a breath. “Would you like a massage for you to relax?”

Alex chuckled, allowing a smile to cross his face. “I’ve never actually gotten a massage before, so sure, why not?” A quick readjustment later and the recliner lay completely flat. Flipping over onto his back, Alex added, “Just do whatever it is you do.”

Aloe hopped up onto the recliner and straddled Alex’s legs, allowing her front hooves better access to his back. She paused for a few seconds, however, spying the connectors implanted in the back of his head. Despite it all, she shook her head and averted her gaze downwards.

Despite their intended use and the amount of noise they made when walking across hard floors, Aloe’s surprisingly soft hooves coaxed an almost orgasmic groan of pleasure as they kneaded into Alex’s dorsal muscles. The rest of his body just as quickly went limp in response.

Everypony smiled at Alex’s reaction to his first massage, and Pinkie even giggled at it. Regardless, it seemed to be enough to get them to forget about his newly acquired finances and flippant disregard for overspending. At least for the time being.

Unfortunately, the peace lasted only for a few brief moments before Rainbow Dash galloped into the room, a newspaper firmly held in her teeth. “Guys, look! The new Gabby Gums just came out!” she somehow managed to voice around the paper before actually laying it down on the floor in front of her. “The Great and Powerful Trixie: Secrets Revealed!”

Rarity giggled at her friend from her spot on the lounger. “We’ve already read that one, Rainbow Dash. Come on, relax! Have a hooficure - they feel amazing!”

Rainbow Dash frowned at her. “Did you forget who you’re talking to? The day I have a hooficure is the day I turn in my daredevil license. Besides, I haven’t read this one yet-”

Dash reached down to pick her paper back up only to find that it had found its way into Rose’s hands while she was distracted. The AI flipped through a few of the pages before scoffing and lazily tossing it onto Rainbow Dash’s back. “I still don’t understand how any of you can stomach this stuff, let alone get a sense of pleasure out of it.”

Pinkie Pie leaned against the side of the hot tub with her forelegs crossed. “Wow, Rose, you really need to loosen up a bit!”

While Rose busied herself by scowling at Pinkie, Rarity further added onto her point. “Pinkie’s right, dear. You do need to relax a little. Besides, Gabby Gums is entertaining! And doesn’t Alex read her articles now as well?”

Rose shot a look over in Alex’s direction, who gave no indication that he noticed his name being mentioned in the slightest. “Only because I refuse to let him work himself to death. And even then, I’m sure it’s just to spite me.”

Rarity glanced over at him and called out, “Alex? Do you really enjoy Gabby Gums’ articles?”

No response.

“Alex?” Twilight asked from her own spot adjacent to the face-down human.

When Alex remained completely still underneath his masseuse’s hooves, Rose walked over to him and casually lifted his head up by what little hair he had on it. Alex held a dumb smile on his face, with his tongue lolling out and his eyes crossed. Rose shook her head and allowed Alex’s own to fall back down. “Of course…”

Aloe simply smiled as she continued to knead into Alex’s back, while everypony else giggled at his state of bliss and ignorance. Rose, however, remained none too pleased. “All the same, my point still stands. The only ‘reporting’ done by this Gabby Gums is providing pointless pieces of information about individuals’ private lives. All of which has absolutely nothing relevant to do with anything else. Your fascination with this drivel is ludicrous.”

Rarity released a loud sigh. “Come now, Rose, it’s nothing but a little harmless gossip! What does it matter if we personally enjoy reading it or not?”

Twilight spoke up before anypony else had a chance to respond. “Actually, I’m kind of with Rose on this one.” Everypony’s eyes immediately focused on her, both out of surprise and curiosity. She continued. “Look, I enjoy her articles just as much as anypony, but don’t you think she can be kind of mean sometimes?”

Applejack chuckled lightly. “She ain’t mean, Twilight. She’s a hoot!”

Frowning, Twilight picked up the paper next to her in her magic and presented the featured article. Next to it was a picture of Princess Celestia gorging herself on a piece of cake. “Celestia: Just Like Us? Gabby Gums doesn’t value anypony’s privacy!”

“Which is the main reason why I dislike her,” Rose followed up.

“Pfff, like you and Alex worry about ponies finding out your secrets,” Rainbow Dash sassed, rolling her eyes.

Rose glowered at her. “I’m the one in charge of maintaining security at the facility. It’s my job to worry about exactly that.”

“Can we please just change the subject?” Rarity quickly interrupted. “We came to the spa so that we could relax. Not argue over Gabby Gums and whether or not we agree with what she does. Rainbow, why don’t you sit down next to me and join me in one of these delicious hooficures?”

Rainbow Dash grimaced in thought, looking around at her other friends for input. They all eyed her curiously to see which choice she would make. Except Twilight, who simply smirked at her and tilted her head towards Rarity.

“It’s that good, huh?” Rainbow asked, only receiving a quick nod from her unicorn friend. After hesitating for a brief moment, she relented. “Well… maybe just one little hoof…”

Everypony’s eyes locked on Rainbow Dash with rapt attention as she threw herself down onto the recliner next to Rarity, with Lotus being quick to approach her. Keeping the hoof-file in her mouth, Lotus carefully approached one of Rainbow Dash’s rear hooves, though the pegasus sucked in a breath and instantly withdrew her legs. Lotus raised her head back up and gave Rainbow Dash a sympathetic look; the same kind of look a mother would give right before her child were given a shot. It was enough to get Dash to keep her hooves still for a second longer.

Unfortunately, the same pattern continued several times, much to the amusement of everypony else. However, they were all so captivated by what was going on with Rainbow that they had failed to notice Rose’s bored expression suddenly snap to attention. They also failed to notice when Rose turned and stared at one of the many privacy barriers positioned near the sides of the room. Their ignorance continued when Rose began carefully walking towards it, taking surprisingly silent footsteps.

They did, however, notice when Rose suddenly yelled “Gotcha!” followed by a sharp yelp from somepony else. Even Alex suddenly woke up in all the commotion, nearly knocking Aloe off of his back in an attempt to flip himself over to see what was going on.

From where they were seated, Rose appeared to be wrestling with something in her arms - a frantically scrambling colt who was screaming his heart out in utter terror. The display only lasted a few seconds before Rose tore something off poor colt and tossed him towards the center of the room with a single arm, whereupon he landed flat on his belly in a daze for everypony to see. He was a fairly lanky pegasus for his size, with a beige coat and brown mane. A picture of a white feather adorned his flank.

The unknown colt groaned from his spot on the floor and made to stand up, although paused midway when Rose marched her way over to tower above him, an old fashioned camera in her left hand and a sneer on her face.

The colt could only watch as Rose turned her optics towards the camera and popped open the backside with a quick flick of her finger. Reaching in with her other hand, Rose ripped out a roll of film and held it up for everypony to see. Eyeing the film contemptuously, Rose muttered “Hmph, how quaint,” just loud enough for everypony to hear before tossing the empty camera back down to the colt. Glaring down at him, Rose’s finger shot towards the door.

“Get out,” she growled.

The colt hastily nodded his head, picked his camera up in his mouth, and bolted out the door as quickly as his thin legs could carry him. Everyone’s eyes followed after him, stunned into complete silence. Even after he left the room, nopony seemed to be able to find any words to say.

Rose, on the other hand, quickly unrolled the near-black strip of film and stretched it out before her, eyeing it with intense scrutiny. After only a few seconds, Rose balled the film up in her fist and glanced over at Rainbow Dash. “Consider yourself lucky that I heard his camera’s shutter. That child almost made off with an arguably compromising photo of you.”

Rainbow Dash just stared back at her, her jaw slowly becoming more and more slack as the gravity of what just happened settled in her mind.

While everypony shared varying looks of concern amongst each other, Rose made her way towards the door. “Continue your spa therapy. I’m going to go properly dispose of this.”

Once Rose was completely out of the room, Rarity looked over at Alex. “Has anypony ever told her that she is just terrific with children?”

Alex scoffed and resumed lying face down on the lounger. “Nope. And for a very good reason.”

The next day, everyone reconvened at Sugarcube Corner for lunch. That is, everyone except Rainbow Dash. After learning about what that photographer had almost gotten away with at the spa, Dash had explained that she prefered to lay low for a while. Rarity had described it as Rose’s paranoia spreading to her, but as the others soon found out, Rose’s behavior wasn’t entirely unfounded.

“Applejack Asleep on The Job!” the farmer cried out to her friends around the table, pointing at an article in the paper. Sure enough, the article did, in fact, have photo evidence of her napping underneath an apple tree. “Can y’all believe this? Who the hay does this Gabby Gums think she is?!”

“Listen to this one,” Twilight chimed in from her own seat. “Twilight Sparkle: I Was a Canterlot Snob. - A well placed scaley source close to the prissy pony says Twilight Sparkle thinks Ponyville is nothing but muddy roads and low class roofs. Spike!” The dragon in question jumped from his spot in surprise, accidentally burping and incinerating the paper he held in his claws. “How could you say such a thing?”

Spike regretfully picked up the charred remains of his paper. “I-I didn’t! Gabby Gums made that up! I never said anything like that!”

“I suppose now you share my sentiments?” Rose chided from her position by the window, her gaze never left the street outside. “Although I wouldn’t classify unsubstantiated rumors as high on my list of priorities.”

Twilight frowned. “Well yeah, but you guys deal with unsubstantiated rumors about you all the time!”

“You mean like that time someone started a rumor saying that we kidnap ponies and perform weird experiments on them?” said Alex, who sat by the table with his feet propped up on it, never once looking up from his newspaper.

“Did you guys ever figure out who started that?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“No,” Rose said flatly.

“Oh… that’s too bad…” Pinkie mumbled, her eyes darting back and forth between the two humanoids who completely ignored her.

“I’m still surprised Gabby Gums hasn’t written anything about you two yet,” said Twilight. “I mean, she prints whatever she wants, regardless of whose reputation she destroys!” Twilight levitated a paper onto the table and tapped at an article. “Like this one! It says Fluttershy has tail extensions!”

Everyone around the table, including Alex, arched a brow and glanced at Fluttershy, who casually sank under the table and out of sight.

“Riiiiiiight…” drawled Alex, returning his eyes back to his newspaper. “To be honest, I’m not terribly surprised I haven’t been targeted by her yet.”

“But why?” Twilight insisted. “Starting lies and rumors about you and Rose would be the easiest thing in the world!”

“Exactly,” Alex pointed out with about as much interest as watching paint dry. “It’s too easy. Every rumor that could have been spread about us already has, and they’ve all been thoroughly squashed. So much so that almost every rumor about me that comes out has to be taken with at least a kilogram of salt. It’s the least original and least believable thing she could do. So now, I get to watch the fireworks in relative comfort and safety.”

“You see? Alex has the right idea about things,” said Rarity, idly flipping through her own paper. “It’s nothing but a little gossip. Honestly, you ponies have no sense of humor…”

“But it’s all lies!” cried Twilight.

Rarity waved a hoof at her. “So she tweaks a few ponies every now and then. It’s not like it’s going to-” She flipped to the next page in her paper and stopped mid-sentence, gasping loudly. “I’ll destroy her!” Everypony gathered behind Rarity to see what exactly was causing her distress. “The Drama Queen Diaries?! Gabby Gums reprinted my diary! How did Gabby Gums ever possibly get access to my private diary?!”

Alex let out a single “Ha!” that was loud enough to draw everypony’s attention, followed by a gigantic grin. Keeping his gaze down, he continued, “That’s why I keep all of my sensitive information stored on servers deep underground. The only ones who could ever access my dirty little secrets are Rose and myself. In fact, I’m happy Rose takes care of security so well.” He flipped the page. “Thanks to her, the facility and all of our information is locked down tighter than a gnat’s assh- WHAT THE FUCK!?”

Alex’s legs immediately dropped from the table as he gawked wordlessly at the page in front of him. Everypony quickly moved over from Rarity to spy at what was on Alex’s page, and they each gasped in unison. The whole display was enough to catch Rose’s attention, who looked over at them curiously. Although from her spot by the window, she could only see the looks of shock and horror on each of their faces.

“That one’s new…” Twilight started.

“Wow, that’s bad,” Pinkie Pie added.

“And Ah thought Ah had it rough...” said Applejack.

The article in question was titled: “Rose: A Glorified Calculator, or Something Else Entirely?” The accompanying photo looked like it was taken just outside of one of the windows of Carousel Boutique’s upper floor, and from the angle, clearly showed Alex standing next to the Liandri that looked frighteningly similar to a naked woman. The “something else” from the title was exactly what the photo suggested, though not in any positive light.

“What does that article say?” Rose asked from her spot by the window.

Everyone peering over Alex’s shoulders at the paper instantly looked up at her with wide eyes. Alex slapped the paper closed, yelling, “Absolutely nothing at all!”

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. “Give me the paper.”

Alex shook his head, keeping his wide eyes glued on Rose. “Nope.”

With everyone’s gaze on her, Rose took slow, calculated steps towards the table. Upon reaching it, Rose leaned down, planted her hands firmly on the table, and stared straight into Alex’s eyes. “Give. Me. The. Paper.”

Alex shook his head again, making a throaty “nuh uh” noise, though his eyes never left Rose’s.

“Now,” Rose growled. The sheer ferocity in it was enough to send a shiver running down each of their spines.

Maintaining his eye contact, Alex leaned away from Rose, carefully placed the newspaper down on the table, and slid it towards her. “I’m warning you. You really don’t want to read that.”

Rose snatched the paper away, giving him one final glare. “The hell I don’t.” She turned her attention towards the newspaper in her hands and flipped towards the proper article.

Everyone around the table held their breath, watching Rose for any sign of movement. She could read quickly - they all knew this - but for some reason, Rose continued to stare at the page for a lot longer than was comfortably necessary for her. While the question “What is she thinking right now?” should have been circulating within their minds, none of them could find the willpower to conjure even the most basic thoughts.

Finally, Rose did move. Her slender metallic fingers slowly began balling up the entire paper until with was little more than a crumpled mass resting in her palms. Several loud snapping noises akin to electric sparks sounded from between her hands, and in a matter of seconds, the paper locked within her fingers burst into flame.

Everyone continued to stare wide eyed as Rose’s hands held firmly onto the growing ball of fire, although her expressionless silver face under the fiery reflection easily caused more distress than anything else. Despite the fact that her eyes continued to glow blue, the fire gave the impression that they had begun glowing red. Finally separating her hands, Rose held the burning newspaper high in the air before slamming it down onto the table, whereby it exploded outward in a shower of ash, carbon, and burning paper.

“That bitch is done,” was all she snarled, staring directly into Alex’s eyes, before shoving herself away from the table and marching out the front door. Everybody continued to stare at the empty doorway, slack jawed, for several long moments.

Eventually, it was Pinkie Pie who broke the silence.

“Uh oh…”

... Like an AI Scorned

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“ROSE!” Alex yelled after the AI, running out of Sugarcube Corner at a full sprint with Twilight right behind him. “STOP!”

Unfortunately, they were too late. By the time Alex was out the door, Rose had already entered the Hellbender they used to drive to the bakery and had taken off down the road without them.

“What’s she going to do?” Twilight asked frantically, Alex’s panic spreading to her.

“I don’t know!” Alex hastily answered back. His dove into his pocket and fished out an ear piece which he slapped against the side of his head. “Rose?! What the hell are you doing?! Answer me god dammit!” No response came back. “Fuck!”

Before Twilight could inquire any further about what was going on with Rose, Alex bolted down the road after the Hellbender. Twilight wasted no time catching up to him.

“What are we going to do?” Twilight asked as she ran beside him.

“Catch up to her! Shit - sorry!” Alex danced around a startled pony as they rounded a corner. “Rose sure as hell knows that newspaper is run by the kids at the school. But knowing her, she’s going to go home first! So that’s where we’re going!”

“But your home is all the way on the other side of town! Wouldn’t it be easier to just cut her off at the school?”

Alex held a hand to his chest as he sprinted. “Just run!”

The entrance to the garage whirred open as Alex stumbled inside with Twilight trotting in behind him. While Twilight was no worse for wear, Alex doubled over on the nearest toolbox, nearly coughing out his burning lungs.

“Wow, you’re really out of shape,” Twilight commented.

Alex heaved several more times before finally wheezing out, “Dont… remind… me… shit…”

Twilight shook her head and gave Alex a firm nudge in the side. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

“Just gimme a second…” Alex responded, holding his hand out to her. After several large gulps of air, Alex sickeningly coughed up a wad of phlegm from his lungs which he swallowed back down. A few more panted breaths later, Alex glanced over in the direction of the elevator and yelled, “UNIT!”

Twilight followed his look to find a Liandri quickly approaching them. This one looked different, however. Instead of the usual Blue that guarded the elevator, this Liandri was painted red. While it still had a only single, albeit smaller eye and all the usual hallmarks of a Liandri, this was very clearly a different model.

Its torso looked significantly more armored and filled out than a Blue’s. Its overall body appeared more alien and jagged in comparison. Yet somehow, it looked more… professional — as if Blues were mere underlings in comparison to this. Although in what field that would be, Twilight could only speculate. Despite being jagged in appearance, its major armor components were still masterfully rounded, giving it a captivatingly beautiful, yet still threatening look. Its arms were oddly shaped, as if they bent outward at what looked like the middle of the forearm instead of the elbow, but their movements seemed to mimic the intended limb with no difficulty. Its legs were almost definitely pony-like, ending in feet that were undoubtedly modeled after hooves.

As the Liandri approached, Twilight spied the lettering “NOVA0002” printed on its left shoulder guard.

Hmm… Nova must be its model name… Twilight briefly thought to herself. If that number next to it means anything, then there’s probably another one just like it somewhere around here, too…

“Yes, sir?” the Liandri spoke as it approached.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Alex asked, “Where’s Rose?”

“Rose left the facility approximately two minutes and thirty six seconds ago and is currently en route to Ponyville elementary school,” the Liandri answered.

“FUCK!” Alex blurted out, slamming his arm against the top of the tool box he was still leaning against. “We just missed her!”

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t she be in the lab?”

Alex pressed a palm against his temple. “To make sure we can’t talk her out of whatever the fuck she’s planning on doing…”

Twilight’s ears flopped down and the blood drained from her face. “Oh no… I told you we should have gone straight to the school!”

“I can’t think when I’m this stressed out, okay?!” Alex cried before rushing up to the Liandri and grabbing it along its collar. The red Liandri easily stood an inch or two taller than him. “Did Rose take anything with her?!”

The Liandri responded with the same indifference as before. “Rose exchanged the CIV-05 chassis for the XT-2 chassis and departed with a Hellbender.”

Alex’s fingers loosened their grip on the Liandri as he stared, completely dumbstruck, into its eye. “The XT-2…?” he breathed. Alex took slow, unbalanced steps away from the Liandri, his fingers slowly working their way up and into what little hair he had, muttering the phrase “oh shit…” over and over again.

Twilight looked over at Alex with pleading eyes. “What’s the XT-2?” When Alex continued his muttering, she gave him a firm magical shove on the shoulder, snapping him out of his daze. The wide-eyed look of horror of his face was enough to send a chill through her body. “Alex, what’s the XT-2?”

His response was brief and breathless. “She took her combat chassis…”

“WHAT?!” Twilight screamed. “Why would she have a combat chassis!?”

“It’s Rose! She needs one of everything!” Alex yelled back, flailing his arms.

Twilight shut her eyes, shook her head, and let out a single huff. “Look, we need to catch up to her before she does something drastic - Now.” Twilight’s horn began to glow. “If I teleport us now, we should be able to-”

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Alex interrupted, holding his arms out and taking several cautionary steps back. “I am not teleporting!”

Twilight paused for a half second. “What…? Alex, please, I know what I’m doing. If you just-”

He shook his head. “I don’t doubt that! But once was way more than enough for me!”

“Are you still afraid of what happened between Earth and here? Alex, we don’t have a choice!”

Alex stepped forward, punctuating his words by pointing a finger at her. “Not. Happening.”

Twilight stomped a hoof. “Well we can’t just stand around all day!”

Biting his lip, Alex glanced away from her, staring off into space for a brief moment. Eventually, he looked back at her and snapped his fingers. “Just gimme a sec…”

Before Twilight could inquire what for, Alex took a step back, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply through his nose. As he did so, his arms spread out at his side and his head angled towards the ceiling. Alex only held his breath for a second before slowly exhaling through his mouth, his body visibly relaxing at the action.

Alex’s eyes then snapped open and focused on Twilight. With the strangest calmness, considering the situation, he simply said, “The Manta.” Turning on the spot, Alex made a beeline for the nearest computer terminal, pushing his way past the red Liandri which effortlessly retreated from its creator’s touch.

Twilight gawked at him in confusion, only coming to her senses after he had already walked away. “I’m sorry, the what?”

“The Manta,” Alex repeated over his shoulder while typing furiously at the console. “It’s still a prototype, and I don’t really have much experience piloting it yet, but so far, tests have been positive.” With a final tap, both the titanic garage door and the equally large entrance on the opposite wall leading to what Twilight could only assume to be some sort of vehicle storage area simultaneously began to lift up.

Alex spun around to face her and rattled out his words. “Look, we don’t have much time. Rose is gonna get there any minute now. Even with the Manta, she’ll still get there before I do. I’m probably the only one who’ll be able to get her to back down, but I need you to teleport over there as quick as you can and stall her. The last thing I want is for her to start a school shooting. She probably won’t do that, but I don’t wanna take that chance, because believe me, calling her a calculator is the easiest way to piss her right the fuck off.”

As if on time, a floating vehicle driven by a Blue zoomed through the inner doorway and came to a stop about a meter above the center of the vehicle area before slowly lowering itself to the ground. Despite its complex appearance, the simplest description Twilight could come up for it would have been a small, open pod with a pair of large wings with embedded fans mounted on the side to keep it afloat.

Alex glanced back at Manta for only a second before looking back at Twilight and yelling, “Go!”

With a quick nod of her head, Twilight’s horn glowed its usual lavender aura and, with a bright flash of light, she was gone.

“No!” Diamond Tiara barked at the three fillies in front of her oversized business desk. “I am not letting you three quit!”

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo stood in front of Diamond Tiara in the middle of the school’s printing room, located in the basement. All around them, a hoof-full of school mates were hard at work formatting pages and squeezing them through the press, all in a desperate effort to churn out the latest edition of the Foal Free Press for the next day. The lighting in the basement was poor at best, illuminated only by a couple of bulb lamps hanging from the ceiling and whatever sunlight streamed in through a small window off to the side.

“But we don’t want to keep writing these gossip columns!” Sweetie Belle pleaded. “The things we’re writing - they could be hurting everypony’s feelings!”

Diamond Tiara scoffed. “Feelings! I don’t care about feelings! Gabby Gums is my bread and butter, and I’m not going to let you three stop writing just because you’re afraid of hurting ponies’ feelings!”

The Crusaders shared looks of unease between each other for a moment before Applebloom responded, “Actually, we’re sorta’ more afraid of what you made us write in our last column…”

“The one about Rose,” Scootaloo added.

Diamond Tiara blinked at them. “So? Why would you be afraid about that? It’s just a machine. It’s not like it’ll care.”

Applebloom stomped her hoof, her face a mixture of anger and concern. “Rose n’ Guy are more than just machines, though! They do care about things! Don’t ya remember anythin’?”

“Yeah, and haven’t you heard what Rose does to ponies who make her mad?” said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo shuddered. “I heard she electrocuted Rainbow Dash on Nightmare Night just for startling her…”

“You’re afraid of rumors?!” Diamond Tiara cried with a stomp of her hoof against her desk. “You three are the ones that make rumors like those! It’s your job! And I already told you: It. Doesn’t. Care.”

Applebloom ground her teeth together in a growl, but Sweetie Belle cut her off before she could say anything. “Then we care! We don’t want to write anything that’s going to upset anypony anymore - Liandri or not! I’m sorry, Diamond Tiara, but we’ve made our decision.”

“Yeah,” said Scootaloo, taking a step forward. “Besides, it’s not like you can force us to keep gossiping.”

Diamond Tiara smirked and pulled open a drawer in her desk, keeping her eyes on Scootaloo’s defiance. “When you see these, you may not want to quit after all…” She pulled a simple file folder out of her desk and tossed it to the floor in front of them, whereupon it split open and its contents slipped out.

The three Crusaders gasped at what lay before them. A trio of photos; one of each of them: Sweetie Belle wearing one of Rarity’s more outrageous and embarrassing experiments in fashion; Scootaloo covered in mud and attempting to fly out of the puddle using an impotent set of wings, all while nearby birds laughed at her; and Applebloom attempting to cover her face in shame when presented with a baby photo of her wearing a pair of diapers—one where it was supposed to be, and the other pinned firmly on her head.

Diamond Tiara leapt off her giant office chair and moved towards them. “I asked Featherweight to document everything, and that’s exactly what he did.” With a single motion, Diamond Tiara swept the photos back up in their folder, and threw the file back onto her desk before clambering back onto the chair. Diamond Tiara rested her head against her hooves, smiling in satisfaction at their looks of shock. “And if Gabby Gums does go into retirement, I’ll need something to fill that empty column space.” Diamond Tiara’s face turned vicious and she clacked her hoof against her desk. “Now get out there and write me more-”

Diamond’s words died on her lips, and the Crusaders jumped as the sound of Diamond Tiara’s hoof hitting the desk echoed from behind them a thousand fold. Splinters of what was the door flew past them as they realized the boom was not from Tiara, but from something much bigger.

The door’s handle and frame had been been shattered into splinters, and a very obvious hole had been made from where it had been kicked. Standing in the doorway itself, however, stood a tall, bipedal figure clad in bronze colored armor that took up almost the entire doorway, despite its slender limbs. Its right hand held a black, alien looking weapon with streaks of glowing purple along its virtually non-existent stock and large body, with some sort of glowing purple tube forming most of the weapon’s barrel.

The newcomer’s mask-like face and blazing blue eyes never moved beneath its bladed headpiece, even while it spoke in its familiar, feminine voice.

“Which one of you is Gabby Gums.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a demand.

Nopony, however, answered her. They all seemed to be much too shocked by her presence to even consider her words, so Rose tried again.

“I said…” Rose raised the weapon and caught the body in her left hand, pointing it in Diamond Tiara’s general direction from the hip. “Which one of you is Gabby Gums.”

This time, the command registered, and everypony in the room pointed towards the trio of fillies standing in the center. Rose’s eyes immediately fixed on them.

Scootaloo gulped. “Uh… Hehe, umm… Hi?”

Rose shook her head and emitted a disappointed sigh, despite her face remaining perfectly still. “Of course it would be you three. I shouldn’t have expected anything else. It really is a shame, though…” Rose raised her gun up to shoulder level. “I expected better of you. Especially you, Applebloom.”

The Crusaders’ eyes widened, and their hearts nearly stopped during the fraction of a second where a purple flash suddenly dominated their vision. But whatever intense pain they expected was absent. Blinking the temporary blindness from their eyes, the Crusaders looked back up at Rose to find somepony now standing directly between them and the invading AI.

“Rose, stop!” Twilight pleaded, making sure she was using her own body as a shield for the fillies. “This isn’t like you!”

Rose immediately lowered her weapon to her side, though leaned in towards Twilight. “And how do you know what I’m like? Do you have any idea what sort of damage control I will have to do because of them? You ponies have a tough enough time accepting Guy as a sapient entity, and I don’t need their drivel to make my life any more difficult!” Rose paused, allowing her words to sink in, before slowly adding, “These children need to be taught a lesson in cybernetics, and I am more than happy to teach them myself.” Rose raised her weapon back up, staring Twilight dead in the eye. “Now move aside.”

Twilight’s eyes quickly darted towards the weapon in Rose’s hands before looking back up at her face. The adrenaline coursing through her system was almost enough to force her heart out of her chest, and her quick breathing was starting to dry out her lips. Giving them a quick lick and blinking her eyes several times, Twilight creased her brow as she stared back at Rose in defiance.

“You don’t live in the shadows, Rose. Ponies will hear about you one way or another. Is this really how you want the next generation of ponies to know you? Guy? The Liandri? As beings to be feared, rather than loved and respected on their own merits?”

Silence reigned throughout the printing room. All eyes were on Rose, whose own stare focused solely on Twilight. Rose didn’t reply, but neither did she lower her weapon. Twilight took it as a sign to continue.

“Rose, the Liandri aren’t just new to Ponyville, they’re new to Equestria as a whole - hay, the entire world! As much as I hate to say it, you’re aliens. Xenophobia, or I guess technophobia, in your case, will always be a problem. Not everypony is going to accept you, Alex, and the Liandri right off the bat, not like my friends and I did. It’s just something you’re going to have to live with, no matter what.

“Ponyville has been more accepting of you than I thought it would, yes, but that won’t be the case everywhere you go. Sure, that article they wrote didn’t help, but I’m pretty sure ponies are starting to take everything they write with a grain of salt by now anyway. And considering your relationship with rumors, I think it would be safe to say that yours is probably the least believable, even if the ponies reading it don’t really know you.

Twilight smiled. “And besides, all they would have to do is talk to you for just a few minutes, and I’m sure any presumptions they had about you would disappear in a heartbeat.”

Once again, silence permeated the space between them. In that moment, Rose held more akin with a statue than a living, breathing creature, but in Twilight’s eyes, it was a statue with actual, intelligent thought behind its frozen face.

Of course, it would never be easy. Inhabiting a world as a minority never was, especially when it came to establishing your image, but Twilight’s words held their own weight and more. Rose’s thoughts may have been an unknown to anyone and everyone, her still features keeping even the barest hints of what they could be a closely guarded secret. But of all the things they could be, evil wasn’t it. Rose’s personality may have been hard, and even unkind at times, but never evil.

The sound of rushing footsteps against wood echoed from somewhere beyond the open door, but Rose broke her silence before they got too close.

“You make a valid point, Twilight...” she said, slinging her weapon around her lower back, whereby a dim light surrounded the gun and consumed it, making it disappear entirely. “I apologize for my actions.”

Twilight’s smile grew even wider.

It was at this moment that Alex finally made his appearance, breathing heavily with a frantic look in his eyes. However, he simply stopped in the middle of the doorway and stared at the scene before him. The XT-2, standing calmly and unarmed, and Twilight standing just beyond it, grinning like she had just won the blue ribbon at the local science fair. And of course, Twilight’s eyes moved past Rose and landed on Alex, never losing her smile.

“However,” Rose continued, not even acknowledging Alex’s presence, “there is still one question that remains unanswered.” Rose looked around Twilight and directly at Applebloom. “Why would you, Applebloom, of all ponies, write something like that?”

Twilight’s smile finally fell as the question forced her into contemplation, and she turned around to face the filly for herself.

Applebloom, for her part, wasted no time in providing an answer, and pointed directly towards her editor-in-chief. “Diamond Tiara made us do it!” Rose’s gaze swiveled towards the filly in question, who stared blankly at her. Applebloom continued. “We didn’t wanna do it, but she said it was for the good o’ the paper, and we just wanted our cutie marks so badly!”

Sweetie Belle continued for her. “All that stuff we wrote in that column - we don’t actually believe it! But Diamond Tiara wanted us to write it that way! In fact, she still doesn’t think you and Guy actually have feelings!”

Scootaloo finished up. “Yeah! Plus, we don’t want to keep writing gossip columns anymore, but she’s blackmailing us with embarrassing photos of us in that file right there on her desk.”

With every passing comment Diamond Tiara’s eyes grew wider under Rose’s stone-faced glare, although she didn’t dare move any more muscles.

“Is that so?” said Rose, maintaining her eye contact with the pink filly sitting in the office chair that was much too big for her. The distinct sound of metal on wood penetrated the deathly quiet of the printing room as Rose casually advanced towards Diamond Tiara’s desk. The sound of her footsteps was enough to disguise the click of an object separating itself from her thigh.

With lightning speed, Rose reached for the object with her right hand, and drew it high above her, revealing a large combat knife angled downward. Observers only had enough time to gasp before Rose brought the blade down upon its intended target, landing on it with a loud thunk.

Diamond Tiara, for her part, had shut her eyes to brace for the inevitable assault. But, feeling nothing upon her body, she dared to crack open an eye.

Rose’s knife had embedded itself an entire inch inside her solid wood desk, and straight through the file folder containing the photos of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Rose’s eyes never left Diamond Tiara’s face, and with a hard crank forward and back, she jerked the knife free, with the folder stuck to the blade.

Rose held the knife/folder combo up for Diamond Tiara to get a good look at. “This is what I think of you and your newspaper.” She then turned her attention back towards the Crusaders as she began making her way out. “You three - come with me.”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle shared a concerned look while Scootaloo stammered out, “W-what? Wh-why?”

Rose paused midway to look at them. “Considering recent events, I believe you three deserve at least some form of compensation. I’m considering ice cream.” The three fillies’ faces instantly lit up, which was enough of a confirmation for her. “Excellent. Come with me, then. You’re more than welcome to come as well, Twilight.”

The three fillies cheered simultaneously and eagerly followed after Rose, who passed by Alex by briefly patting him on the shoulder and saying “Nice of you to come,” before walking straight past him as if nothing had happened.

Alex gawked after her, completely at a loss for words. The clopping of Twilight’s hooves was enough to direct his attention to her, although he only came face to face with one of the most smug smirks she had ever produced.

“And you said you were the only one who could get her to back down,” she sassed, walking passed him and after Rose and the three fillies.

Alex remained glued to the spot like a bump on a log, mouth completely agape. He briefly glanced around the printing room at all the other foals that seemed just as stunned as he was, almost as if their looks could solve his own confusion. Eventually, he simply flapped his arms in exasperation.

“What the fuck just happened?”

“Hey!” Alex yelled after Rose as she and the ponies approached the Hellbender parked just outside the school, the Manta not very far off. Rose paused in her walk to turn back towards Alex, who marched directly up to her and held his earpiece up with scowl on his face. “Why the hell didn’t you answer me earlier?”

Rose plucked the earpiece out of his hand, examined it for a brief moment, then calmly handed it back. “Try turning it on next time.”

Rose started to make her way to the Hellbender again, the Cutie Mark Crusaders giggled amongst each other, and Twilight’s face magnetically attracted her hoof. For his part, Alex raised the earpiece up to get a better look for himself.

The power switch was, in fact, firmly in the OFF position.

The hand holding the device fell limp at his side while the other made very close friends with his forehead.

Off to a Grand Start

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Warm water dripped down my nose as I glanced back at myself in the mirror. The image of a freshly shaved man stared back. Without thinking, I ran my fingers along my chin, just feeling the smoothness. I couldn’t help but grin at the feeling. Having a little facial hair is nice and all, but god damn, having a freshly shaved face feels awesome.

Satisfied with my work, I pulled a towel off the nearby rack and made my way out of the bathroom while drying my face. The bathroom door let out a satisfying hiss and click as it automatically closed behind me. With my face clean and dry, I sauntered over to my wardrobe where a domestic was waiting for me with my new red dress shirt and beautifully crafted blazer.

“Unit, would you kindly send an attendance notification to Novas one and two?” I ordered.

The domestic gave a single nod. “Yes, sir.”

“Thank you.”

Trading the towel for the dress shirt, I couldn’t help but admire the blazer that Rarity had put together for me. Seriously, it was a thing of beauty, and as a guy who went to a school where a suit was the uniform for five years, I would know a thing or two about appreciating a fine blazer.

Sure, it looked like a regular blazer at first, but Rarity included this cape-like thing that hung around the left shoulder and covered most of the arm, with this red decoration around it that matched my shirt. It even had legitimate pockets - both interior and exterior! Not like those stupid things they made back home that only had flaps covering sewn up pockets. Who the fuck came up with that anyway?

But the best part? She made it out of nanofibre. That stuff’s tough to work with already, but to make such an amazing piece of clothing out of it for me? My appreciation for her work went straight through the fucking roof. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t give two fucks about fashion!

As I reached into the wardrobe for my black silk tie, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to Rose and what happened a few days ago. That whole episode with her scared the absolute living fuck out of me. I’m just glad she didn’t do anything drastic, like kill the Crusaders. She’s willing to do all manner of things just to prove a point.

It’s really weird, actually. You could call Rose all sorts of names and insults and she wouldn’t give even a fraction of a fuck. She’d just brush you off like a stray hair. But if you have a death wish, calling her a calculator is the easiest way to have it granted. I should know: I found that out the hard way.

It was in the garage where I was just talking to this one pony - a local DJ called Vinyl Scratch - and the conversation somehow turned towards Rose. She was a pretty nice mare who had some genuine questions, so I felt no harm in answering them. At some point, I told her that Rose also doubled as “the best calculator ever.” Rose didn’t say anything at the time, but come the next morning, instead of a domestic waking me up with a tray of fresh waffles, she… well…

Rose electrocuted me.

It didn't hurt too badly, but it definitely woke me right the fuck up. I knew she hated being compared to a VI, but it was only then that I learned of her absolute hate for the title of calculator, and I’ve been avoiding it like the plague ever since. Unfortunately, not everyone got the memo.

With the blazer all buttoned up and looking snazzy, I was in the middle of admiring myself in the mirror mounted on the inside of the wardrobe’s door when the elevator opened and the two Novas walked out, saluting to me as they entered.

It feels awesome when they do that.

“You called, sir?” one of them asked me. I couldn’t tell which, though. Save for the number on their shoulder, there wasn’t really much to identify one from the other

“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “Nova one, I want you to go down to the hangar and prep the Raven for takeoff. Nova two, open a communications channel with Rose.”

With a quick nod from each, Nova one returned to the elevator while Nova two’s eye glowed blue and started speaking in Rose’s voice.

“Is something the matter?” she immediately asked me.

“No, not at all. But the Gala starts in…” I checked my watch. “... thirty minutes and I was just wondering when you and the girls were gonna get here.”

“A little while longer, I’m afraid. Everyone is largely ready, but Rarity is fussing over hair details - mine in particular.”

Despite my attempts at holding it back, a slight snicker managed to escape my lips.

“What?” she hissed at me through the Nova.

I stifled my laughter and cleared my throat. “Nothing. Anyway, I sent Nova one down to prepare the Raven, so we’ll be ready to go by the time you all get here.”

“If we get there.”

“Heheheh… Alright, I’ll let you get back to hair problems. See you in a bit.”

Nova two’s eye turned back to its usual yellow. It was fairly typical of Rose to do that - never say any sort of “goodbye” or “see you later” after a conversation through a Liandri. Or ever, for that matter. Oh well, I was used to it.

Turning my attention back to my attire, I hummed thoughtfully to myself as I tried to decide what little nicknacks I was going to bring with me to the Gala. Since this is going to be a big, formal thing, I’m going to assume that the nobles go just to impress each other. A big dick contest, I guess. Fucking aristocrats… Oh well, shouldn’t be too hard to stand above them all. Hell, I’m impressive looking enough as it is.

After a few moments of deliberation, I settled on taking a pair of sunglasses and an electronic cigar. The sunglasses were, of course, so I could fuck with people. I keep them on, I take them off, show them a glowing eye, briefly scare them, then put them back. Ohhh, I’m looking forward to that! And the cigar… Well, smoking a cigar is a classy thing, right? I’ve never had one before, electronic or otherwise, but I’ll be damned if I won’t look awesome. I’m just glad we got the gel mixture right.

Pretty sure we did, anyway.

After making sure to stuff our Gala tickets in with everything else, I beckoned Nova two to follow me and called the elevator. Considering how far down it started, it took a fair bit of time for the elevator to actually show up, and my eyes had wandered over to the holographic display of myself on the far wall. For some reason or another, I decided to put that thing together as a set of reminders. My old heart and eye were stored in stasis containers and put in their anatomically correct positions on the hologram. One of my favorite things about it was that the container holding the heart sends a current through it, causing it to beat even though it’s no longer a part of my body.

To be honest, I’m surprised it’s still going…

Eventually, the elevator arrived and my lengthy ride down began. In hindsight, making the hangar something akin to an oversized rectangular missile silo probably wasn’t the best idea. But then again, why would I design aircraft that couldn’t take off and land vertically? Just seems like a waste if you could’ve but didn’t. Plus it saves space above ground. Fuck knows the Mayor wasn’t happy with the amount of land I carved out for myself to begin with…

The elevator hissed open when it finally reached the hangar’s ground level, and from there, it was just a short walk to the hangar itself. Just as I had asked Nova one to do, the Raven had been fired up and parked smack in the middle of the hangar floor, ready to take us up. It was even parked lengthwise, too, which made it look all that much more impressive. Especially with its black and dark green paint job, with the Liandri logo stamped on the side.

The Raven, of course, was a dropship style aircraft with a rear facing cargo door that doubled as a ramp. It still used a hybrid gravity engine / Tarydium propulsion system, but it’s way bigger than, say, the Raptor. And for a very good reason, mind you. This thing has seating for about two dozen Liandri in the cargo hold, but it could a lot more if the rest stood, and it could carry well over seventy tons suspended from the back in a PCE lock. Pretty neat stuff, actually! It’s our first success at replicating “magical levitation.” Of course, the whole mechanism isn’t as elegant as, say, a unicorn horn, and it can’t really do much besides keep an object suspended beneath itself, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately for me, Rose & Co probably weren’t going to be showing up for a little while yet, so I had to figure out some way to kill time. Sadly, Rose refused to allow me to install solitaire in the Raven’s systems, so that was out. Reviewing the Raven’s takeoff protocols was an option… Boring, and Rose was probably gonna do it herself in a matter of seconds anyway, but it was something.

Maybe I could use the time to figure out why I have such difficulty wasting time when I’m on my own?

Some twenty minutes later, while I was busy playing with the blinking lights on the Raven’s control panel, one of the Reds poked its head into the cockpit and told me that Rose and the girls were coming down the elevator.

Fucking finally…

Lifting myself out of the pilot’s chair, I swung around and exited the Raven through the cargo bay. It’s the only real way to get in and out of it anyway. It’s also not exactly furnished or comfortable, either, with seating for humanoids only along the walls. It’s no flying limousine, that’s for sure, but at least it’ll get us from A to B. Plus the outside looks nice.

“Hey, stand out here and look presentable, would ya?” I addressed the two Novas sitting patiently just inside the cargo bay with a snap of my fingers. With a quick nod of their heads, the two Liandri complied and stood at attention at the base of the cargo ramp.

Now that the Reds were in position, I calmly made my way towards the hangar entrance. The elevator would bring the girls down to this level faster than I would be able to get to the door, so I settled with waiting just inside the hangar to give as good a presentation as I could.

It didn’t take very long before I could hear their voices happily chatting amongst each other through the door. I cleared my throat, extended my arms out, and when the door opened, I boomed in the most impressive voice I could muster: “Welcome, Ladies! Your chariot awaaaaaiiiiii…”

And that’s when I saw her. The words just died in my throat. The ponies all looked nice in their dresses and done up hair, don’t get me wrong, but Rose…

A scarlet red dress clung to her from neck to ankles, but left most of her back exposed. It would have been too tight to even walk in, if it wasn’t for the slit that started half-way down her left thigh. Diamond-like gems were embroidered in an elegant pattern along her chest and neck. Her jet-black hair had been split into three different parts: curled hair hung loose on either side of her head with an intricately woven braid in the back, all of which was adorned with a rainbow of gems. She even managed to get a pair of bright red high heel shoes from somewhere.

The entire time I gawked at her, she just smiled at me… It wasn’t some mischievous smile, or a smirk, or something else like that. It was an actual, softly spoken smile.

Was this really her? Was this really the Virtual Intelligence I wrote in my parents’ garage? The Artificial Intelligence I carried to Equestria on a hard drive in my pocket?

My senses were finally returned to me when Rarity bumped against my side surprisingly hard, damn near making me fall over. “Do you like what you see?” she asked, giving me a smile that couldn’t have been slimier if she dumped a vat full of jelly all over herself.

It was only then that I noticed the whole lot of them were giggling at me. I gave her a quick, split second glare before looking back to Rose with a smile of my own. “I do, I actually. Rose, you look amazing.”

Now Rose’s smile turned sly. Her heels clicked against the hanger’s hard floor as she sauntered up to me. With one hand, she smooshed my cheeks together and said, “I’m glad you think so,” before brushing past me. The ponies giggled again at the display and followed after her, leaving my stunned ass where it was standing.

It took me a second to restart my brain, but I eventually shook it off. I have to admit, they all looked pretty damn good. From what I heard, most of them decided to wear the same dresses they wore to the last Gala, just to avoid any hassle. And by most of them, I mean all of them - except Rarity.

Twilight’s dress was a nice shade of blue, embroidered with white stars along its hem and her hoof-shoes. Pinkie Pie’s dress was, unsurprisingly, pink. Very pink. With candy laced into it, somehow… Applejack’s was very country-esque, with images of apples laced in at key points. She even had these need little cowboy boots on her front hooves. Fluttershy’s dress almost looked like it was made from giant leaves, with a large, blue butterfly emblem across her chest and little flowers stuck in her mane. Rainbow Dash (whom I’m surprised they actually managed to get into a dress in the first place) had a rainbow colored dress with a hem that resembled clouds. She also had a… holy shit, is that a golden laurel? Where the fuck does Rarity even get these things?

Rarity herself, however, looked like she took a less extravagant route than what she would normally do. Her dress was indigo and hemmed with gold, sporting a golden saddle as well. Unlike the others’ dresses, hers left her curly tail exposed, making the whole getup less voluminous. The neckline of the dress was bordered with golden feathers, and her hair was done up in what I could only describe as layers of large weaves that somehow managed to stand up under their own weight.

Spike, apparently, had decided not to come. According to him, trouble always seemed to follow Twilight and her friends whenever some big thing was going down, and the Gala would be no exception. He also said he didn’t want to be a part of a repeat of last year. Whatever the fuck he meant by that...

By the time I caught up to them, the ponies were all in the middle of admiring the Raven, though I heard a number of comments directed towards how big it was.

“So this is the reason why you didn’t want us to rent a carriage tonight?” Rarity asked. By the tone of her voice, it sounded like she was expecting something more extravagant.

“Sure is,” I answered. “I mean, why pay some stallions to drag us all the way up to Canterlot in a carriage when we can fly there in this?” I bounced past the Novas and held my arms out towards the inside of the Raven with a bow. “Please, after you.”

Rose was the first to get in, making a beeline for the cockpit. Everyone else entered after glancing around to allow their eyes to absorb as much as they could. Rarity didn’t seem impressed by the lack of comfort or furnishings, but fuck it, we weren’t going to be in here for very long anyway. The Novas were the last to enter, taking their seats next to the door just as the Raven’s engines began to warm up.

With all the welcoming done, I took a seat next to the Novas to wait until Rose announced takeoff. Twilight didn’t seem content to just let me sit in silence and came up to me, smiling just as brightly as ever. “You know, you really look nice in that suit. I’m guessing Rarity made it for you?”

My head perked up at the compliment. “Oh! Thank you! Yeah, she did. She made it out of nanofibre, actually. Very comfortable, too.”

“I hope it is! By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you a few questions about these new Liandri of yours.” Twilight gestured towards the Novas. “I remember seeing one during that whole Gabby Gums panic, but I never got the chance.”

“What, the Novas?” I pointed a thumb in the same direction. “Oh, they’re special. They’re like the Blues, except way better. And they’re going to be accompanying us as guards on our little trip to Canterlot.”

Twilight gave me a confused look. “Guards? Why would you want to bring guards? There’s going to be plenty of royal guards there to keep the peace. I don’t see why you would need to bring your own.”

“Protocol,” I said with a shrug. “We don’t know exactly how competent the royal guards are, so whenever we go somewhere far from the facility, at least one person needs to be armed.”

Twilight gave me a skeptical look. For a few seconds, I was afraid she was going to ask me if I was armed when we went to Canterlot for that Hearth’s Warming Eve play. To be honest, I did have an Enforcer in my coat pocket at the time, but thankfully, she avoided that discussion altogether. “Okaaay… But then where do they keep their-”

“Is everyone ready back there?” Rose called from the cockpit, the Raven’s engines kicking into gear.

“Yeah, we’re all set!” I called back, though quickly added, “Oh, could you keep the door open until we get outside? I love this part!”

Applejack blinked at me. “Huh? Ready for what? What part?”

A giant grin split my face as I stood up and grabbed onto a hand hold on the low hanging ceiling of the Raven. “This part.”

As if on cue, the entire aircraft shuddered into motion, and the loud hum of the gravity engines outside signaled our ascent. While most of them were startled, Applejack practically jumped out of her skin and immediately braced herself, spreading all of her legs out. “What in tarnation was that?!”

“We’re going up,” I said as I pointed outside the cargo door, where the walls of the hangar were inarguably moving downwards.

Aside from Pinkie Pie bouncing up and down in place, shrieking “This is so cool!”, everybody remained silent as the Raven ascended up and out of the aperture in the roof, which started automatically closing behind us. What was really nice was that we managed to get one last good look at the sun just peeking over the horizon before Rose brought the cargo door up. With us firmly encased in a flying metal box, the Raven lurched forward en route to our destination.

Now that we were really on our way, Twilight poked me in the leg, causing me to look down at her quizzical face. “You never answered my question…”

I blinked. “I didn’t? Oh… Well I guess we kinda got interrupted there… What was your question, again?”

“You said those Liandri are armed, right? But they don’t look like they’re armed.”

“Ooohh. Right. Lemme show you.” I turned to everyone else. “Hey, random idea, but who wants to see one of these Liandri do a magic trick?”

Pinkie Pie immediately raised her hoof. “Me! Me! Me! I do! I do!”

Everybody just stared at her for a couple of seconds before looking back at me and voicing their own, calmer versions of saying “Sure, why not?”

Taking a position behind them, I called one of the Novas to stand in front of us. “Unit, hold your arms out and rotate three hundred and sixty degrees.” It did so. “Okay, I want you guys to keep track of exactly what it does and doesn’t have on its body. Ready? Unit, equip your ASMD Shock Rifle.”

As ordered, the Nova reached behind its back and, seemingly from right out of its ass, produced the item in question. Unlike the Link Gun, the Shock Rifle has a sleek, dark body with a lot of neon purple mixed in, although that coloration is mostly caused by the ammunition it uses.

The sounds of astonishment coming from the ponies was enough to keep my grin going, and I even heard Rainbow Dash say, “Hey, Pinkie! It can do that thing that you do!” though I didn’t really pay much attention to that since Twilight poked me again.

“Okay, what is that thing it’s holding? I’ve seen that before, but I never got a chance to learn what it was.”

“It’s called a Shock Rifle; our version of a non-lethal weapon,” I explained to her. “It’s designed to shock a victim’s nervous system - more specifically, their nerve endings. It causes them all to flare up in pain without causing physical damage, which is a pretty good way to incapacitate people if we’re being honest. The trick is that it hurts like hell, but it doesn’t kill you.”

“So that’s what that was…” she muttered, turning her gaze towards the cockpit.

Huh? What’s she talking about? I raised a brow and followed her gaze. “Uh, Twi? What’re you talking about?”

She shook her head to clear the thought. “Nothing.”

Yeah, nothing my left ass cheek. Although before I could interrogate her more as to what “nothing” was, Rose called me into the cockpit.

“What’s going on?”

“We’ll be over the drop zone in sixty seconds,” she informed me. “Do me a favor and move everyone away from the door.”

“Shit, that was fast,” I commented before stepping back into the cargo hold. “Alright everyone, we’re almost there. We just need to do a little something before we land, so I need you all to stand clear of the door.”

“Whoa, wait, we’re there already?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.

“Yeah, how about that?” I beckoned them all near me while the two Novas took their positions a few steps away from the door.

With everything set, the cargo door began opening on its own. The sound of rushing wind immediately assaulted us, and even some of Canterlot’s taller buildings could be seen below. The sun wasn’t in view, though it was dark enough now that it probably went completely down already.

“Alex, what’s going on?!” Twilight yelled at me over the whooshing of wind. “Why is the door open while we’re still moving?!”

“We’re just dropping the Novas off first to make sure the landing zone is clear! Also to let Celestia’s guards know we’re here!” I yelled back.

“Huh?! But then why are we still flying?!”

Right on cue, the Novas simultaneously bolted towards the open cargo door. In one fluid motion, the Reds bent their torsos forward, threw themselves into a backflip, then twisted their bodies mid-air so that their fronts were facing downwards, all before disappearing into the void beneath the aircraft. The door immediately closed behind them.

I grinned towards Twilight, whose mouth was hanging open in… surprise? Shock? I have no idea, but she definitely wasn’t expecting them to just leap out of a moving aircraft like that. “Because we’re literally dropping them off, heheh.”

Shortly after, our bodies were hit with a surprising G-force as Rose performed a hard bank, forcing everyone to regain their balance. Everyone’s yelps of surprise was enough for Rose to apologize from the cockpit for the sudden bank and deceleration. I was kind of expecting it, though. Rose and I had to go through of a whole bunch of bureaucratic bullshit earlier with Celestia and her Gala organizers about using the Raven. They wanted us to “properly” announce ourselves by doing a lap around the palace airspace, just so the princess would know when we arrived. It was more hoops than I would’ve liked, sure, but it’s only an extra minute or so.

Eventually, we began our final approach and the Raven soon stopped moving altogether. Or at least, it felt like it. With the cargo door closed, I had no way of knowing when we were on the ground until I heard the loud, metallic crunch of the landing gear meeting something hard. A moment later, the main engines whirred down and Rose finally exit the cockpit to meet us.

“We have arrived,” was all she said before the cargo door opened up again, revealing some kind of palace courtyard. The two Reds stood off to either side, their hands already up in a salute. Further away, standing next to a giant pair of wooden doors was a handful of Celestia’s guards, wearing that golden armor of theirs. They also looked like they just had their minds blown.

Rose motioned her hands towards the outside while looking at the girls. “After you.”

Everyone filed out of the Raven, chatting amongst themselves. I came out last, slowly taking in my surroundings. It was a quaint little courtyard. Open, not much in the way of walls, fences, or even plants. It looked more like a giant patio than anything else, one that looked over Canterlot and had a pretty decent view of the Ponyville valley, too. Looming over all of it, in the direction of the ass end of the Raven was the Royal Palace itself, with the big wooden doors and their guards bridging the connection.

Once I was off, the Raven’s cargo ramp started closing behind me, and Nova two immediately followed in my footsteps, intent on keeping watch over me until we got home. Likewise, the other Nova followed Rose just as closely. Gotta love personal bodyguards, especially the cybernetic kind. Sure, they probably weren’t necessary, but they’re still nice to have around.

“Greetings!” one of the guards cheered at us as our parade marched up to the palace doors. He was one of those generic, white pegasus guards, although unlike the others, he was doing a much better job of not giving a fuck. “On behalf of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, I would like to formally welcome Miss Twilight Sparkle and her…”

And that’s when he fully turned his eyes to me, Rose, and the two Reds standing behind us.

He’s hesitating.

He’s fucking hesitating.

“... friends,” he finally finished.

Yeah that’s right, you little fuck…

It was only a little hesitation, mind you. No more than a second, and the girls didn’t really seem to notice. But I sure as fuck did.

Keeping to his routine, he turned back towards the girls with his previous vigor. “I trust you all have your Gala tickets?”

Everyone expressed their confirmation and fished out their tickets from wherever it was they were keeping them, and I did the same. One by one, the girls handed him their tickets and they headed on inside. I gave him Rose’s and mine and we followed in after them.

“Excuse me, sir, but you’re missing a pair of tickets,” the guard called after me.

Wait, what? I looked back over at him and raised an eyebrow. Even the girls took notice and stopped, curious to see what was going on. I already gave him our tickets, so what the hell is he talking about?

“Your two other companions, sir,” he elaborated, pointing towards the Novas that were, mind you, already inside the door. “I need their tickets as well.”

I could feel my jaw slowly dropping. Is he fucking serious? He wants tickets for the Reds too? I hate having to play this card, especially around Rose, but… “Them? The Novas? They’re machines. They’re a walking assortment of objects that comply with any order I give them. They’re not gonna enjoy themselves. Hell, they can’t enjoy themselves. Why do they need tickets?”

The guard still seemed to hold his confidence. “I am simply following orders, sir. One ticket for every po… er… individual.”

Now I didn’t want to start complaining, but this was some really stupid shit. Thankfully, before I could up and say anything too stupid, Rose put her hand on my shoulder and whispered. “Allow me.”

Before I could voice anything else, Rose gingerly approached the guard. “I understand that you have your orders, as well as your protocols, but understand that we have our own. Under Liandri security protocol zero dash twelve, all high priority personnel - that is to say, Alex and myself - must be accompanied by at least one Liandri security bot at all times within a foreign environment, or possess some means of defending themselves within those same circumstances. Rest assured that these Liandri will cause no trouble, and will do little else than stand around for the sake for personal security.”

Aha! The ol’ Make Something Sound More Important Than It Actually Is And They’ll Drop The Whole Thing trick! I have to admit, Rose definitely plays it up better than I ever could. After getting beaten over the head with that amount of cold, hard logic, there’s no way he would even try arguing against it!

“I’m sorry ma’am, but orders are orders. I need their tickets.”

Sweet mother of fuck, are you serious?

“My apologies, but is there some sort of problem?” an eerily familiar voice spoke from somewhere behind me.

It didn’t click immediately, since it had been at least several months since I last saw the owner of that voice, but I didn’t need to guess at it since the girls all simultaneously gasped and chorused “Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” My heart practically skipped a beat at that. You see, I knew those two were hanging around somewhere (they had to be, considering it was their party), but I was at least hoping I wouldn’t run into them this quickly.

I practically spun in place to face them. Celestia was wearing her usual attire, but I couldn’t say I was familiar the mare standing next to her. She was a dark blue pony, taller than most, with both wings and a horn. Her mane was indescribably eye-catching: ethereal and flowing, just like Celestia’s, although it was translucent and dotted with what I could only describe as tiny stars. To top it all off, she had the image of a crescent moon plastered on her rear.

Huh… So that must be Luna…

“Ah Celestia, Luna, pleasure to see you both,” Rose said, completely unfazed by their sudden arrival. “Yes, we do have a bit of an issue here. Your guard refuses to allow our own guards entry under grounds that non-sapient mechanical constructs require their own tickets. Perhaps you would be willing to assist in that regard?”

I wasn’t exactly expecting too much to come from that request, but to my surprise, Celestia simply smiled and said, “Of course. Guards, please allow their guards entry to the Gala.”

“As you wish, your highness,” the guard saluted and then went right back to being a statue, staring out into the courtyard.

On some level, I find it impressive how he can just drop something like that at the tip of a hat.

“I apologize for any inconvenience you may have felt,” Celestia said, giving us her sincerest smile. “I am glad you could all make it, though.”

“Of course, princess!” Twilight chirped. “I know the last Gala wasn’t all that great, but we wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“I’m glad to hear it!” Celestia turned to me next. “And I would like to extend the warmest welcome I can to you and Rose, Alexander. To be honest, news of your visit genuinely surprised me! I’m glad you were able to come.”

For some reason, I decided now was a good time to slip my sunglasses on. “Well, the tickets were offered, and Rose thought it would be an interesting experience; at the very least.”

For some reason, she seemed to chuckle at that. “Hopefully not too interesting. Now then, I’m sure you’re all eager to get to the party proper. It’s just this way.”

Celestia pointed us in the right direction and we all marched on as a group. Rose saw fit walk next to Luna and talk about one thing or another while I hung back behind everyone else. Or at least, I would have if Celestia didn’t hold a wing out to interupt me. I’ll admit, that gesture may or may not have scared the living fuck out of me. It was the kind of feeling you get in school where the class gets let out early but the teacher asks you to stay behind and you have no idea why. Thankfully, the Nova’s metallic footsteps reminded me just who was watching my back.

“Alexander, I understand that my presence makes you feel uneasy, and I wish to apologize,” she started off.

“It’s okay, you really don’t have anything to apologize for,” I said truthfully, brushing her wing aside and walking after the others with the Nova hot on my heels.

Celestia followed after me, and seemed to make a conscious effort to keep the others out of earshot. “I know, but I feel the need regardless. I understand that you believe politicians in your world were not very trustworthy, and I understand that you must think similarly of me. I don’t want you to have such a negative opinion of me based on actions I did not commit, and would like to be your friend if at all possible.”

“I see…” I gave her my best skeptical look. She has to be playing at something. “And why now, all of a sudden?”

She sighed deeply, seemingly disappointed with herself. “Because it’s something I should have done long ago. I’m going to be entirely honest with you, and I must insist that you do not breathe a word of this to Twilight or her friends.” Now that caught my attention, and caused me to stop altogether. “Equestria is in dire need of change, and I realize that you are the only one that can provide it. I’ve known this ever since I first met you and Rose in the library.”

After slowly lowering my glasses, my eyes scanned her entire face. I may not be an expert on equine facial features, but I couldn’t deny that she looked desperate. “What exactly are you talking about…?”

She briefly hesitated before giving me an answer. “I… cannot give you details right now… But know that you are far more important to Equestria than you realize, and I would like to support you and your endeavors as much as I can.” She extended a hoof out to me. “Would you grant me your trust in this?”

Looking down at her hoof, I narrowed my eyes. Yeah, she’s definitely playing some game, and believes that I’m some important piece, too. But do I really want to get involved in whatever shit she’s in…?

Aaaahhhh fuck it all.

Slipping my sunglasses back into place, I grabbed her hoof and shook it. “Alright, I’ll be your friend. Just don’t mess around with my Liandri and we’ll get along just fine.”

This managed to bring her smile back. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Tia!” cried a voice from down the hall. “Art thou coming, or not!”

“Coming, Luna!” she called back, announcing our intention of catching up to them. While we were walking, she suddenly added, “Oh, and before I forget; I must commend you on your construction of The Galleon. It’s a fantastic airship with qualities I can’t say I’ve seen anywhere else.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh? You’ve been aboard The Galleon?”

She smirked at me. It was the kind of shit-eating smirk that says she knows something I don’t. “Oh, I haven’t just been aboard The Galleon. I bought it.”

Just picture something for a minute. Imagine you’re running along the sidewalk. Maybe you’re out for an afternoon jog, or maybe you’re sprinting for your life, but you’re just running along, minding your own business.

Now imagine you getting hit in the face with a shovel out of nowhere - hit so hard, in fact, that you practically flip over and land on your neck.

Yeah, that’s how I felt when she said that.

“Wait, you bought it?”

“Mhm,” she hummed with a nod of her head.

Struggling to find words, I eventually stammered out, “But… But why?”

She smiled. “I told you: I am in support of you and your endeavors. I may not be a frequent flyer of airships, but I knew the money could do nothing but help you and Rose.”

Wow… I… damn… If she bought The Galleon just so she could support my and Rose’s activities, then holy shit, she must really committed to the whole being on my good side thing.

“Huh…” I stared straight ahead as we caught up to the others, who were all gathered around the entryway of some giant ballroom that already had a ton of other ponies inside. I had no idea what to think or say, so my mouth went straight to autopilot. “I have to admit, Princess, that this certainly puts a new light on things… Thank you for that, uh… interesting conversation.”

She just smiled and nodded at me in return.

To be honest, it definitely was high time I stopped worrying about her. I was worried so much before since she was the one funding the the first Core and EMC. She could have very well pulled the plug on everything then and left me and Rose dead in the water. She didn’t, though. And now our facility is so expansive, self sufficient, and guarded that she wouldn’t be able to shut us down even if she wanted to. The time to be cautious about her was definitely over. And besides...

The Liandri bow to no one.

“There you are!” Twilight said just loud enough to talk over the chatter from the ballroom without yelling. “What were you two talking about?”

Waving her question off, I declared, “Nothing too important, really. Just putting each other on better terms.” I turned to address the entire group and clapped my hands together. “Alright! Now I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting thirsty, so I’m going to go find a bar. Anyone else wanna join me?”

Pinkie Pie’s hoof immediately shot up. “Oh! I do I do!”

“Excellent! Twilight, how about you join us?”

She just blinked at me. “Huh? But I’m not-”

I held up my hand to stop her and added, “Please. I actually need your input on a little something.”

“Oh!” her gaze briefly flashed over to Celestia behind me. “Um… Alright, I guess I’ll come too.”

“Très bien!” I cheered, with an extra clap of my hands. “Let’s go! Rose, you know how to find me!”

Without even checking to make sure Pinkie and Twilight were following, I marched into the ballroom with gusto. I looked around the room at the collection of well dressed (or supposedly well dressed, I couldn’t tell) ponies milling about. With their top hats and monocles and glittery dresses and upturned noses… The very air was infused with pompous douchebaggery.

Why the fuck did I come here, again?

And that’s when it started. Of course, in Ponyville, everyone and their dog knows who Rose and I are at this point. Standing out wasn’t exactly difficult for me, especially when I literally stood over them all. This ballroom was no exception. Except for the fact that none of these ponies ever saw me before.

It started with the nearest ones. One pony took a look at me, nudged his friend, and soon enough their entire group conversation halted to start staring at me like a bunch of deer about to be collectively hit by a train in a dark tunnel. The effect only accelerated from there, and in only about twenty seconds or so, every pony in the room had decided to start gawking at the sharply dressed biped wearing sunglasses. Even the fucking orchestra on the stage took notice of the silence and stopped playing to see what everyone was so preoccupied with.

“Wooow, they’re all staring at you!” Pinkie Pie pointed out like it was some sort of achievement.

Yeah, no shit, Sherlock…

Now I’m sure there’s many ways one can go about dealing with a situation like this. It’s a room filled with a bunch of wealthy ponies, most of whom probably hold an important position or another within society. I imagine someone would probably awkwardly wave, maybe even say “hi” while they’re at at. Or maybe even just turn right around and pretend they never walked in in the first place.

Me? I didn’t see a collection of wealthy ponies. Instead, I saw pompous bags of meat who thought that their money - money they were probably born into anyway - gave them some sort of power or sense of entitlement. I saw individuals who wouldn’t have a hope of realizing that true power comes from knowledge; the understandings of the fundamental machinations of the universe. I saw a room full of individuals who were beneath me, yet most likely thought the same of myself.

With their eyes all fixed on me, I calmly cleared my throat and fished out my electronic cigar from my blazer’s inside pocket. After pressing the button to turn it on, I brought it up to my lips and took a single, long drag. Bringing my cigar arm down, I slowly exhaled a large cloud of smoke. Taking in one final breath, I vented all of my instant frustrations with them in one solid yell: “And just what the hell are you all looking at?!”

Suddenly keenly aware of their staring, they all quickly turned away to get back to their conversations, though in harsh, probably judging whispers.

“That’s what I fucking thought,” I muttered to myself as I walked through the crowd that dispersed at my approach. The small four pony orchestra restarted playing, so at least I had that.

Yeah, it may not have been the best first impression, but I relish opportunities to put people in their place; especially rich people who think they’re just sooo important and powerful for no other reason than because they have money. Fuck ‘em.

On the plus side, I was able to see over them all and spot the bar I was looking for. Behind me, I could hear Pinkie’s and Twilight’s hooves clopping quietly next to the louder metallic clanks of the Nova, and soon enough, I sat myself down at one of the bar’s stools. Both the bar and its stools were just a little too short for my liking, but I made do. Twilight sat next to me on my left, while Pinkie sat on her other side. The Nova, true to its programming, remained standing behind me, roughly between Twilight and myself, and lording over everything near and far like a hawk.

“Alex, are you okay?” Twilight asked me.

Looking over at her, perplexed, I answered, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Her eyes seemed to flutter between the crowd behind us and myself. “It just… seemed like an aggressive way to deal with that situation back there… at least to me.”

I scoffed and took another drag of my cigar. “As far as I’m concerned, Twi, if they don’t give me any respect, then they hardly deserve any from me.”

She eyed me critically. “Uhuh… I see… And since when do you smoke, anyway? Didn’t you once tell me that type of thing causes addiction and terminal illnesses?” My only response was to grin and blow a large puff of smoke at her, which she instantly recoiled at, waving her hooves around in an attempt to dissipate the cloud. “Ugh! Alex! Why’d you do that?! That’s… that’s…” she paused in her flailing, now sniffing the air. “Wait… that smell… is that-”

Pinkie Pie suddenly shoved her head right past Twilight and took a bigger sniff than I think was even supposed to be possible, ending with an expression of pure bliss on her face. “Mmmmm, vanilla!” Her eyes snapped open and eyed my cigar like she would a tantalizing cupcake. “Heeey, whatchu got there?”

Of course, I couldn’t help but chuckle at her. Holding the cigar up for both of them to see, I explained, “It’s an electronic cigar. I’m not actually smoking tobacco, but a water-based gel laced with vanilla. It’s all the class of smoking a cigar, but without the nicotine addiction or lung cancer. As you can imagine, it also tastes pretty good.”

Pinkie gave a loud “OOOOOO!” before quickly asking if she could try it. I handed her the cigar (I still never figured out how ponies even managed to grab things with their hooves, other than Twilight’s “magic” explanation) whereupon she took the most impossibly long drag I’ll probably see from anyone ever in my entire life. When her lungs finally reached capacity, she held in her breath for what was probably twenty whole seconds with half lidded eyes before finally exhaling it all, shuddering while she did so like a drug addict in withdrawal finally getting the hit they so desperately needed. Although considering it was Pinkie, that statement probably wasn’t too far off from the truth…

The bartender even managed to get around to us during that time frame, and although he seemed professional enough to not look twice at me, he still gave Pinkie a really curious stare.

“Okay…” I said as I tentatively reached over and took the cigar from her. “Glad to see you liked it…”

While I was busy cleaning the end of the saliva covered cigar with the nearest napkin I could grab, the bartender, a brown haired stallion with a red vest and bowtie, turned to me and said, in what I could only describe as a subtle British accent, “Good evening, sir. What can I get you?”

“Hm? Oh!” I paused for a moment to realize what he’d asked me. “I’ll have some Dosanko Soda if you’ve got it.”

“Just a soft drink?” asked Twilight, genuinely surprised. “I’d have figured you’d go for a harder drink than that.”

“Ehh... Remember how pretty much most drugs I take have a near instant effect on me? Painkillers; caffeine; all that jazz? Well, alcohol is no different. That stuff goes straight to my head. It also seems to bring out my inner french Canadian for some reason… Anyway, what do you two want? I’m buying.”

Twilight ordered a simple mug of apple cider, while Pinkie sat there and hummed thoughtfully before finally saying, “I’ll have a drink that’s one part white rum, one part golden rum, one part dark rum, one part apricot brandy, one part pineapple juice, and one part lime juice. All shaken with ice, and topped with two ounces of 151-proof rum!”

...

Wait what?

Twilight gaped at her, voicing my exact thoughts. “Oh my gosh, Pinkie, since when do you drink things like that? Does that even have a name!?”

“Liver failure,” I coughed.

Pinkie scoffed and waved her hoof at us. “Since I stopped being a little filly, duh! And they’re called Skull Punchers! Not many barkeeps that know the recipe, though...”

With our orders taken, the bartender silently went to getting our drinks while I was busy picking my jaw back up off the floor. “Wow… I’m really confused, but I’m also slightly impressed…”

Pinkie just giggled, letting me know that she wasn’t exactly going to elaborate further on it.

Our drinks arrived soon after, and I paid the bartender the amount of bits he asked for. I threw in a generous tip too, just because he was being professional around me. We didn’t have very long to enjoy our drinks before a voice happily called from behind me: “Engie!”

Ahh, there’s only one pony who calls me that! I looked over my shoulder at the white mare with electric blue hair herself. I extended a fist out and she automatically bumped it with a hoof. “Vinyl Scratch. And here I was figuring you’d show up later.”

Unlike everyone else at the Gala, Vinyl seemed content to go without the fancy clothing, and even had her signature shades mounted on her head, though above her horn, exposing her crimson eyes. She wasted no time taking the other seat next to me. “Yeah, this kind of shin-dig isn’t really my thing. I’m only here right now because my mare-friend is playing on stage. She’s the one playing the cello.”

Out of sheer curiosity, I glanced at the stage to spot the mare in question. She seemed like a fancy mare, who had a grey coat and black mane. Kind of a surprise that those two were romantically involved, but hey, I wasn’t about to question it. At about that moment, Twilight leaned over and waved. “Hi there, Vinyl!”

“Oh hey, Twilight! What’s up?” Vinyl waved back.

“Just enjoying some cider. Say, I don’t mean to be rude, but how do you and Alex know each other?”

“She commissioned some speakers from me a while back,” I answered. “She’s also the one who offered me and Rose our Gala tickets so we could see them in action. In fact, they’re right up there.” I pointed towards the speakers in question, which were mounted on some kind of large metal scaffolding - the kind you’d see at a rock concert.

In fact, now that I was getting a good look at the construction, I was starting to get more and more worried. You see, I like to go above and beyond the call of duty, so when Vinyl asked me for speakers that could “go up to eleven,” I was more than happy to make them capable of going up to twelve. Needless to say, I built speakers capable of causing some serious damage, and this stage’s construction seemed dubious to me, at best. The scaffolding formed a neat box frame around the stage, and a lot of it seemed to be held in place by an excessive amount of steel cables - a few even stretched across the ceiling to the opposite wall, for some strange reason.

I don’t know who built it, but whoever they were, I don’t think they knew what they were doing.

Vinyl laughed to herself. “Heck yeah! This after party is gonna kick so much flank thanks to these babies!”

I held up my hand to interrupt her. “Yeah, Vinyl, I’m really not liking the way this stage looks put together. I know you’re gonna wanna go all out, but just do me a favor and don’t overcharge the speakers, alright? Looking at this setup, I’m afraid you’re literally gonna bring down the house if you do.”

Vinyl’s face suddenly turned from excited to heartbroken, “Aww come on, really?”

Nodding to her, I said, “Yeah. Those mounts look really sketchy, and I’m afraid it’s all just gonna fall apart if you push the sound too hard.”

She slouched in her seat and huffed. “Fine… Seriously killing my buzz here, dude… Yo barkeep, hit me up!”

“Thanks,” I said as I took a nice look sip of my drink. “I’d just rather be on the safe side, you know?”

After Vinyl ordered and received her beer, we enjoyed our drinks in relative silence for a few moments before Twilight spoke up. “So, what was that thing you wanted my input on?”

Putting my soft drink down, I asked her, “How much do you know about genetics?”

Twilight gave me a confused stare, like I was speaking gibberish. “About what?”

“You know, genetics!” I elaborated, waving my hands around. “The genome, genes, chromosomes, DNA, all that jazz. Google didn’t read any books on the subject in your library, so I figured I might as well ask if you knew anything.”

She stared at me like a deer in headlights, making my posture wilt.

“Shit, you don’t know anything, do you?”

The insinuation that there was an entire field of knowledge completely absent from her mind suddenly sparked a stream of words. “I-I’m sorry, but I don’t know what any of those things are! All those things you just mentioned are completely foreign to me!”

Fuck… I was hoping she would at least know something.

“But that doesn’t mean we don’t have an equivalent,” Twilight continued, noticing the look of disappointment I had on me. “Why don’t you give me a little explanation, and maybe we’ll see!”

“Hey, watchu guys talking about?” Vinyl suddenly asked, probably eager to get in on some conversation.

“Sciency things,” was my abrupt answer.

“Oh, yuck…” She quickly turned away. Apparently, the idea of learning something not related to music didn’t interest her too much. Oh well, at least that would give me and Twilight some time to talk undisturbed.

“Anyway…” I cleared my throat. “Genetics is the field that studies DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, which is essentially the fundamental building block of life. All living things - at least on Earth - have a genetic code, or genome, which is an incredibly long chain of sequenced DNA molecules that, in a nutshell, define what a living thing is. Different organisms have different sequences of DNA; so while humans have their own sequence of DNA, other living things that aren’t human have a different sequence, but it’s all based on those building blocks on that basic, fundamental level. Are you with me so far?”

Sadly, Twilight just stared at me in awe, which I really didn’t want. That familiar look in her eyes told me her mind was swimming with ideas and possibilities, but that also meant that she was learning something for the first time. With her unbelievably wide and unblinking stare, Twilight leaned into me and whispered, “Tell me more.”

“Well that’s the thing…” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck. “I… don’t really know much else…”

That look. Twilight’s face immediately switched from full of hope to being full of shattered dreams, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hit me on an emotional level.

“You… You don’t know…?” she croaked.

“Sorry…” I sighed. “Rose and I are engineers and physicists; genetic biology isn’t really our strong suit, so we know next to nothing on genetics. Hell, what I told you was pretty much everything I learned on it from an entry level biology class I took ten years ago. Didn’t really feel like going further in that field.”

Twilight grabbed me by each of my shoulders and practically yelled, “But why?! What could be more interesting than the fundamentals of life itself?!”

“Yo Twi,” Vinyl interrupted from over my shoulder. She simply pointed a hoof towards the Nova and said: “Robots.”

Twilight gave Vinyl a blank stare for a few moments before looking at the Nova herself, who was staring back at Twilight over its shoulder.

“Oh…” She went back to sitting normally, and after taking a sip of her cider, added, “I guess I can see why you made that decision…” She suddenly perked up and squee’d. “But that means I now have an entirely new field of science to look into! Oh wait- you said you needed my help on something, right? Just out of curiosity, what exactly was it?”

Downing the rest of my drink and ordering another one, I started, “Alright, the genome is split up into different parts, called chromosomes, which come in pairs. The number of chromosomes varies, depending on the organism. Humans, for instance, have twenty three pairs of chromosomes, or forty six in all. Two of those chromosomes, or one pair, determine your sex, while the other ones, called autosomal chromosomes, define everything else like eye color, hair color - I’m sure you get the idea.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay, I can understand this.”

The bartender dropped off my second drink, though I ignored it for the time being. “Now, forty six chromosomes is the norm for humans, and, in fact, necessary. If, for some reason, you’re born missing a chromosome, chances are you’re going to die pretty early in life because your body doesn’t have the DNA to produce something that’s probably really important to keep you alive. Conversely, problems like having an extra chromosome can lead to genetic defects that cause physical and cognitive disabilities. Having too few is bad, and having too many is bad. You with me so far?”

“I’m following,” she ushered me along with her hoof.

While I really had no reason to lean in, since no one around us would have even given a fuck about the topic at hand, especially not Vinyl or Pinkie, I still felt some unconscious need to do exactly that and whisper to her what I was about to say.

“I don’t have forty six chromosomes.”

Twilight blinked at me, trying to wrap her head around the lesson I gave her, and the information I just provided. “You don’t…?”

“Nope,” I said with a shake of my head. “You see, while Rose and I are amateurs when it comes to this stuff, we still have the tech to expose and map my DNA sequence with no problems. Believe me when I say that my DNA is not normal.”

Now she was starting to look concerned. “Humans are supposed to have forty six chromosomes, right? If you don’t have that, then… how many do you have…?”

Rubbing my chin thoroughly, I let out a deep sigh. “From what we can tell, I have the one sex pair, but double the number of autosomal pairs.”

After a second of doing the math, Twilight’s eyes almost bulged out of head as she harshly whispered, “You mean you have ninety? If what you’re telling me is true, how is that even possible?”

“It shouldn’t be. By all accounts, I should have such severe genetic defects that I shouldn’t even be alive, but yet I’m a perfectly healthy human male. The worst part is, I haven’t the faintest idea why. Plus, we know so little about human genetics that we can’t even tell what’s supposed to be there and what isn’t. Every chromosome seems to be doing something, but we don’t know what, why, or how.”

“So you wanted my help to figure things out?”

I bobbed my head back and forth. “In a manner of speaking. We can use the supercomputer to cut time, but it’s only as good as Rose’s experience with a given subject. She’s an excellent engineer and can draw up her own schematics like nobody’s business, but this is something she’s just as clueless about as I am. I was kind of hoping you’d have some information that’d be able to give us something of a head start - like protein synthesis, or something.”

Twilight’s ears drooped down and she averted her eyes elsewhere. “Sorry… I really wish I could’ve been of more help…”

Giving her as comforting a pat on the back as I could, I told her, “It’s alright. Besides, I really wish I could tell you more about the subject myself. But you know what?” I took my fresh drink in my hand and raised it up to her. “How about a toast? Here’s to new prospects in an interesting new field!”

This gave her a brand new smile, and she raised her drink in her magic and placed it next to mine. “To new prospects!” With a short clinking of glasses, I took a nice long swig.

Except the pleasant, sugary fizzing that I was expecting wasn’t what hit my mouth. For some reason, this new drink tasted fruity and slightly sweet, mixed with some sort of odd taste that I was completely unfamiliar with.

Instead of spitting it back out - which wouldn’t exactly look good if I did - I forced the strange drink down my throat and eyed the glass skeptically. “Ugh, what the hell is this?”

Twilight perked a brow at me. “Huh? Something wrong?”

“Yo Engie, you alright?” asked Vinyl.

“Yeah, it’s this drink! It tastes like…” Before I could finish my sentence, an overwhelming sense of vertigo hit me head on. “Like… uughh…” An instant later, my vision began to very noticeably blur, and everything came out of focus. Twilight tried saying something, but I couldn’t make out what it was. It was as if she was trying to speak to me from the other side of a thick wall. I tried staring at my hand, but I could barely even feel the blurry double that my brain was vainly attempting to process; before it stopped processing altogether.

Twilight and Vinyl let out a chorused scream as Alex’s head impacted the bar, garning the attention of everypony nearby. Twilight covered her mouth with both hooves in utter shock, not knowing whether he was unconscious or dead. The Nova spun around at their yell, immediately leaning over Alex to press its metallic fingers against his neck.

Before any verdict on Alex’s health could be made, Pinkie Pie remarked, “Wow, I guess he really wasn’t kidding!”

All three of them turned to stare at Pinkie, with Twilight asking, “What do you mean?”

“He said he doesn’t drink alcohol, right?” Pinkie answered. “I just asked the barkeep to replace his soda with a Long island ice tea, just to show him that it isn’t that bad!”

In response, the Nova released Alex’s neck, reached over, and smacked Pinkie upside the head.

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED

So my editor saw Alex's explanation of DNA and said: "Ha, that's a very engineer explanation, which is to say a horrible one. Says the micro-biology major."

To which my only response was:

In other news: stuff. And things. Stuff n' things. Honestly, I don't know where I was going with this, but I feel the need to at least put something here, ya know? I mean, it's taking me longer and longer to get chapters out, so I want to make these little post script boxes count! But I can't exactly do that when I get to it and then realize I've got exactly butt fuck nothing to say.

I guess I'll say that writing this chapter from Alex's perspective was certainly fun. I'm not going to do it for the rest of the story, but it was a nice little experiment. Hopefully, I'll be more on the ball when it comes to writing out the next chapter, but knowing me, I'm probably gonna procrastinate the fuck out of that too. I'll try not to, but don't expect it any time soon. I'm also not sure whether or not I should separate the rest of this arc into one long chapter, or two shorter ones, since I'm not exactly sure where I would make a chapter break... Ah well, I'll figure it out when I get to it.

Up next: a game of chess.

Oh, and a shout out to my cousin Bebe, in case she ever manages to read this far.

A Game of Chess

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“And just what the hell are you all looking at?!”

Rarity’s hoof planted itself firmly into her face. “That’s one way to make a first impression…”

Princess Luna smirked. “We admire his enthusiasm.”

“Admirable or not, there’s a time and place for everything,” Rose remarked, crossing her arms. “And after that little display, I think I’ll refrain from presenting myself for the time being.”

“Suit yourself,” Rainbow Dash jeered before turning to Applejack. “Hey, AJ, you wanna go find a bite to eat?”

Applejack shrugged and followed. “Why not? Ah just hope they got more than that fancy fru-fru food.”

“The buffet is in the next hall!” Celestia called after them as they blended into the crowd.

“Well at least we’re not all wandering off on our own again,” Rarity commented. “Fluttershy, would you like to join me on a walk through the gardens? I imagine you wouldn’t exactly like to immerse yourself into the crowd quite yet.”

Fluttershy rubbed her leg with a hoof and looked away. “Oh, I don’t know… I-I didn’t make the best impression on the animals last time…”

Rarity dismissed the thought with a wave of a hoof. “Oh pish, I’m sure they’ve forgiven you for all that by now. And if not, you could always take the opportunity to apologize.”

“Well… If you say so…”

As the two ponies walked off, Luna turned back to Rose with an eager grin. “So Rose! Do tell us more about this food heating technique using these ‘microwaves’ you mentioned.”

“Actually,” Celestia suddenly interrupted, “Luna, if it would be alright with you, I have some business I need to discuss with Rose - privately.”

Luna pouted. “Sister, thou take the wind from our sails.”

As composed as ever, Rose stared straight into Celestia’s eyes. “If it concerns what you discussed with Alex, then there is no need. I heard the entire conversation.”

Celestia tilted her head. “You did?”

“All Liandri act as my eyes and ears, Celestia,” Rose explained with the Nova walking up to stand beside her. “Whatever they see, I see. Whatever they hear, I hear. The unit accompanying Alex heard everything, and by extension, so did I. Besides, Alex already made a decision, and I have nothing more to say about it.”

Celestia nodded in understanding, mild astonishment present on her features. “A collective conscious! I must admit, I find that impressive. However, there is something else I wish to discuss with you.”

“Is it important?”

“Relatively so, yes.”

Rose sighed and turned to Luna. “My apologies, Luna, but perhaps we can catch up at a later point?”

“We suppose so,” Luna glared at her sister for a moment before grinning back at Rose. “But do not tally! We are eager to discuss further applications of these microwaves!”

“Of course,” Rose smirked at the lunar princess as she entered the ballroom. Turning back to Celestia, Rose held her hand towards the hall. “I imagine you would like to discuss matters elsewhere?”

Celestia nodded. “Indeed. Please, follow me.”

The two of them moved away from the noisy ballroom and into the more quiet halls of Canterlot’s palace, with the only sounds of Celestia’s hooves clopping, Rose’s heels clicking, and the Nova’s feet clanking to accompany them.

It didn’t take very long before Celestia spoke, “Some time ago, I heard that you and Alexander were interested in starting a private security company. Have you had any luck with it?”

“We abandoned the idea,” Rose answered just as abruptly.

“Oh? Any reason in particular?”

“Threats towards Liandri technological containment protocols.”

“I assume that’s a more formal way of saying that dubious ponies were looking to take advantage of you and your technology, yes?”

Rose raised a brow and turned her head towards the princess. “Yes, actually. I’m impressed you were able to infer such knowledge.”

Celestia smirked. “When you’ve lived for as long as I have, these sorts of things start to become familiar.”

“I see. However, you would be impressed at what a young mind would be able to accomplish with nothing but raw computational power.”

“Oh really? How old are you, if you do not mind me asking?”

“I don’t know.”

Now it was Celestia’s turn to raise a brow. “You don’t know? Do you not have a birthday?”

“Technically, I was never born, and thus, cannot have a birthday.”

“But there must be some day used to determine your age, isn’t there?”

“And what day would that be? Would it be the day Alex began writing my code? The day he employed its use? Or perhaps the day I developed the ability to record my own memories, or when Alex fully recognized me as an Artificial Intelligence? What makes one event more important than the other when determining something as arbitrary as my age?”

“Nothing, I would imagine from your point of view.”

“Precisely.”

“Would you permit me a rough estimate of your age, then?”

“If you insist. I am approximately two years old.”

Celestia stopped in front of a large pair of double doors, with royals guards flanking each side. “Two years old and you’ve already accomplished so much. I dare say, I am impressed.”

“I think you’ll find that Cybernetic intelligences are capable of a great deal many feats, regardless of their age.”

“On that note…” Celestia’s horn ignited, pushing the pair of doors open to reveal a large study room, lined with bookshelves and littered with tables and desks covered in sprawled open books, scrolls, and other notes. Despite the mess, a small table and pair of chairs, opposite each other, sat in the center of the room, somehow apart from everything else. Resting on the table was a checkered board, with tall black and white pieces resting on it. Celestia extended her hoof towards the center table. “Would you, perhaps, permit me to test this intelligence of yours with a simple game of chess?”

“I can see you’ve prepared well in advance for me,” Rose answered as she and the Nova entered the study. The Nova took a sentry position by the door as Celestia closed it behind them. “Pinkie Pie introduced me to board games some time ago, and I cannot say they were worth my time. If this one is any different, perhaps I’ll allow you the opportunity of a game.”

Celestia looked over at Rose quizzically as she sat down behind the row of black pieces. “Oh? Do you not know how to play chess?”

Rose gracefully sat down behind the white pieces and locked gazes with her opponent. “I do not.”

Celestia smiled as she began her explanation of the rules. “Chess is a game of strategy…” For the next few minutes, Celestia went into detail about the movement options and restrictions of each of the pieces, no one rule ever needing to be explained twice. After finally establishing the requirements for victory, Celestia concluded with: “So, would you like to play?”

Rose nodded once. “I shall.”

Celestia curtly bowed in return. “Excellent. Would you like to play black, or white?”

“It doesn’t matter to me.”

“I shall play black, then, as this is your first game.”

“Willfully giving me the advantage of playing first, I see.”

“It is only fair.”

“Fair, but a bad idea regardless.”

“We shall see.”

Rose stared at the untouched board for a several long seconds before finally looking back up at Celestia and moving one of her pawns. “So what business was it that you wished to discuss?”

Celestia moved her first piece as well, and Rose, quick as a whip, played her next immediately after. The princess blinked at this. “You don’t have to play that quickly, you know. You are allowed time to think about your moves.”

“I’ve heard it said before that you must always stay two steps ahead of your opponent.” Rose smiled. “I prefer that number to be several thousand. Now then, your business?”

Celestia stared at Rose blankly, carefully internalizing her words before clearing her throat. “It’s actually a security matter. I was hoping I would be able to employ some of your machines, but you’ve already stated that you’ve abandoned such ideas.” She moved a piece, and just like before, Rose played immediately after her.

“We might be able to come to some arrangement.”

“Are you saying you’ll make an exception?”

“Perhaps. It will depend on the nature of your request, of course.” While Celestia kept her eyes on the board as she played and conversed, Rose kept her gaze locked firmly on the princess, and never once looked down.

“In two weeks time, there will be a wedding - a royal wedding. I will be presiding over it, and security will be of the utmost concern. I will be inviting Twilight and her friends, as well as hiring them all for tasks suited towards their skills. I would like to extend that invitation towards Alexander and yourself as well, and to employ your services.”

“What about your own guards? Are they not capable enough?”

“They will be as capable as they need to be, but a little extra help couldn’t hurt. I can assure you that you will be very well compensated for your services.”

“I see. We have two Liandri models that can suit your needs: the Cathode and the Nova. The Cathode is our standard security model, while the Nova” - Rose tilted her head towards the Liandri in question, standing by the door - “is a more advanced version. We’re still prototyping them, so their numbers are rather limited.”

Celestia smiled and nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Several more turns past in silence, neither one claiming the other’s pieces. Each move, Celestia took her time, while Rose responded with swiftness. Eventually, Rose claimed first blood, and shortly after, asked “How exactly do you believe Alex and I are integral to Equestria?”

Celestia blinked at her. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your conversation with Alex,” Rose explained. “You expressed our importance to Equestria, though left out a great many details. Alex might be content with leaving the subject alone, but I am not. I want to know exactly what you were alluding to.”

Celestia sighed and slowly shook her head. “My sincerest apologies, Rose... but it’s a topic for another time.”

Rose expression remained stone-cold. “I see..." she paused. "You play this game often, don’t you?”

Celestia allowed herself a smile. “Chess? I do, yes. It’s a game much older than even myself, but I am forced to admit that its quality is timeless.”

Rose frowned as she played her next piece. “Check - I’m not talking about the board game.”

Celestia moved a knight to defend her king from Rose’s offending queen, whereupon the AI immediately began flanking with a bishop. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Politics,” Rose said flatly. “Playing behind closed doors. Saying the right words at the right time to convince the right people that you’re… right. You’re playing a game, and want to get Alex and myself involved. I want to know what it is.”

“I’m afraid you misunderstand me - I’m not playing anything.” Celestia moved a pawn forward, accidentally exposing her knight to be taken by Rose’s bishop.

“Check. That practiced poker face of yours might work on ponies, Celestia, but it won’t work on me. I can see your core body temperature rising, the tempo in that pulsing on your neck speeding up - you’re getting nervous.”

Despite Rose’s observations, Celestia kept playing without. “You may think so, but you’re mistaken.”

“Am I? You’re hiding things from your own student. You prepared specifically for our arrival. You’re making a concentrated effort to appease Alex and myself - you’re rushing, you’re short on time. For some reason, you’re eager for our help to change your own nation, and yet the time isn’t right, as if acting too soon will permanently close off your opportunity. Check. You’re using every skill at your disposal, and yet you’re taking every possible precaution, to the point that I would say you’re doubting your own actions. What I want to know is why.”

Celestia sat in silence, her eyes rested on neither the board, nor Rose, her face completely blank. She idly played her next piece, though to her mild surprise, Rose made no further movement. For her part, Rose simply stared at Celestia, making no attempt to break the silence she established. After almost a minute, Celestia gently closed her eyes and sighed, the image of a black mask flashing through her mind.

“You’re right. I am afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Everything.” Celestia’s gaze moved to catch Rose’s own piercing blue eyes. “For what seems like the first time in my very long life, I can honestly say that I have no idea what I’m doing, and it frightens me.”

“And what, exactly, are you trying to do?”

The princess’ mouth moved to speak, but she stopped herself mid-action, briskly turning away. “Please respect my decision when I say that I’m… not at liberty to discuss it…”

“Not yet, I imagine?”

Celestia shook her head.

“Have you spoken to Luna about it?

“No,” Celestia blurted, though immediately took notice of her sudden outburst. “I mean… she, among a number of other ponies, must never know...”

Rose arched a brow. “I see…” After a momentary pause, Rose asked, “Might I provide some advice?”

Remaining silent, Celestia regained eye contact and her ears swiveled towards her blue-eyed other, fully intent on listening to what she had to say.

“Take your time,” Rose started. “Think deeply about your actions before putting them into practice. Contemplate every consequence. Form contingency plans. The more, the better. Never do anything until you are more than reasonably certain of the outcome and prepared for any potential shortcomings. I do this all the time - it’s in my nature. And as I’m sure you can see…” Rose finally played her next piece, her fingers lingering on it. “...It has served me well thus far. Checkmate.”

Celestia’s eyes remained on Rose for a moment before darting down to study the board. Instead of waiting for her scrutinize the pieces, Rose pushed her chair back and stood up, her heels clicking against the floor as she made her way towards the door. Examining the positions of each piece and quickly thinking over all of her potential moves, Celestia discovered that Rose had, indeed, achieved checkmate.

As Rose neared the door, the Nova reached over and grabbed the handle, though refrained from opening it. The AI herself stopped just short and called over her shoulder. “Oh, and one last thing. I don’t know what game you’re playing, or with whom, but know that Alex and I are not pieces to be played. We are another player altogether.”

With those final words, the Nova swung the study door open and Rose casually walked out, leaving Celestia on her own. She staring after them until the door closed with a loud wooden clunk.

Pinkie Pie held her head low to the bar, idly rubbing the spot where the Nova had hit her. “You didn’t have to hit me that hard, you know…”

The Nova glanced over at her, its eye glowing blue. “I know. But I wanted to.”

“Is he going to be alright…?” Twilight asked, her hoof gently rubbing over Alex’s back. His face was still firmly smooshed into the bar since everypony was afraid to move him, aside from slipping off his sunglasses.

“I don’t know,” Rose replied through the Nova. “He’s never had alcohol in my presence before, so I can’t be sure of anything at the moment.” The Nova turned its attention towards the curious crowd that was beginning to grow around them. “Move along! There’s nothing to see here.”

Thankfully, a pair of familiar ponies pushed their way past the crowd.

“I thought you two were going for a walk through the garden.” Rose addressed to Rarity and Fluttershy as they squeezed past the curious onlookers.

“We did,” Rarity answered, shooting Fluttershy a sympathetic look. “Although it seems the animals do remember poor Fluttershy from last time. They weren’t keen on any apologies, either…”

Everyone glanced at Fluttershy, expecting some sort of comment from her, although she simply remained silent and did her best to hide behind her mane. That is, until she noticed Alex. “Oh no! What happened to him?”

“Pinkie slipped him a Long Island ice tea,” said Vinyl, taking an extra gulp from her beer. “Turns out the big guy’s a super-lightweight and passed out after a little sip.”

Letting out a loud gasp, Fluttershy threw herself against the bar, leaning over towards the bartender. “Quick! Do you have any smelling salts?!”

The bartender blinked at her before stuttering out, “Um… y-yes, I believe I do.. one moment…”

After fumbling under the bar for a minute, the bartender stood back up with a rounded bottle in his hoof, clearly labeled ‘SMELLING SALTS,’ which Fluttershy immediately snatched away from him. “Somepony hold his head up,” she ordered. The Nova compiled by placing its metal hand under his chin and holding his body up with its other arm.

Fluttershy removed the cap of the bottle with her teeth, briefly gracing her nose with a scent so strong, it would have even been able to shock an elephant awake. She gently waved the bottle underneath Alex’s nose, muttering “Please work…” to herself.

Without warning, Alex’s eyes shot open, yelling “Ostie!” as he threw his head back, smashing it directly into the Nova’s titanium chest, whereupon he instantly screamed “AHH! Câlisse!” and clutched his throbbing head with both hands.

“Looks like that did it!” Vinyl said with a laugh.

“Ostie d'crisse de tabarnak, ma tête!” Alex yelled with complete disregard for the crowd of ponies his noise was starting to gather. “Sacrament, ça fait mal!”

“Huh? What’s he saying?” Twilight asked Rose, her worry having been completely replaced with pure confusion.

The Nova shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”

“Arrêtez de bavarder et aidez moi!” Alex groaned. His arms covered his head resting against the bar. “Ma tête se sent comme quelqu’un m’a claqué avec un brique, tabarnak!”

Rarity raised a hoof. “If I may - I believe he’s speaking French. Although it appears to be some sort of dialect, since I’m having difficulty understanding some of his words…”

“I guess that’s what he meant when he said alcohol brings out his ‘Inner French Canadian,’” Pinkie commented.

“Mais oui je parle Français, ostie d’con!” he bellowed. “Es-ce que quelqu'un vas m'aider avec ce mal de tête ou quoi?!”

The gears in Rarity’s head continued to grind in an attempt to understand him. “Erm… I think he’s saying that he has a headache and wants somepony to help him…”

Without missing a beat, Fluttershy leaned over towards the bartender. “Could you please get him some aspirin?”

The bartender quickly nodded. “Of course! Just give me a moment…”

While the stallion was busy searching for the medication, another pair of mares forced their way through the crowd towards the tower of metal, glowing lights, and loud foreign noise.

“Hey, is he okay?” asked Applejack as she approached, eyeing the hunched over human. “Alex is makin’ a pretty big ruckus.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she followed up behind her. “Yeah, we could hear him all the way from the other room!”

Alex glared at her over his shoulder. “Ta gueule, ostie trou de cul...”

Before anyone could say anything else, Applejack’s eyes lit up in anger. “Hey!” she snapped. “That ain’t the way ya should be talkin’ to a friend!”

Every set of eyes were suddenly on Applejack. Even Alex stared at her in wonder. “Tabarnak, tu peux me comprendre?”

Applejack stomped her hoof. “Yeah, Ah can understand ya! And Ah know exactly what ya said to Rainbow Dash! Now apologize!”

Alex barely turned around, leaning on the bar with one arm while holding the other out defensively. “Okay, okay, je m’excuse! J’ai un mal de tête ou quelque chose, là - ça fait mal…”

Continuing to glare at him, AJ added, “Ah’m sorry ta hear that, Sugarcube, but t’ain’t an excuse.”

Her mouth still agape, Rarity blurted out, “Applejack, since when could you speak French?”

The farmer’s expression suddenly sank, keenly aware that everypony was staring at her and wondering the exact same question about her ability to speak, or at the very least understand, a language that should have been completely alien to her.

With a blush creeping up, Applejack nervously rubbed the back of her neck. “Ah, um… picked it up in Manehatten as a filly… Never really lost it, Ah guess…”

“Here you are, sir,” announced the bartender as he placed a small white pill and glass in front of Alex. “Some aspirin to relieve your headache, and a glass of water - just water. I would also like to sincerely apologize for giving you a drink other than the one you ordered. That was unprofessional of me.”

“Merci, mais je ne vous ai pas encore pardonné pour ça…” Alex grumbled as he took hold of the glass of water and quickly downed the pill. Everypony held their collective breath as they watched Alex hunch over himself, waiting to see what would happen. After a only a few tense seconds, Alex’s head suddenly whipped back as he gulped in a large helping of fresh air. He held the position for a brief moment before just as quickly slumping back over the bar, coughing out the words, “God damn, that was bad…”

Everypony let out a sigh of relief as Fluttershy rubbed a soothing hoof along Alex’s back. “How are you feeling?”

“Bright… too bright…” he groaned, carefully moving his head around with squinted eyes. “Where are my glasses…?”

“Here, don’t move,” Twilight said and she levitated his sunglasses over to him and carefully placed them over his eyes, earning her a quick but sincere thanks.

The blue-eyed Nova placed a hand over his shoulder. “Come on, let’s move you some place more comfortable.”

“Yeah, let’s… let’s do that…” said Alex as he allowed the Nova to help him to his feet. The Liandri also attempted to get Alex’s arm over his shoulders to better support him, but the model’s bulky pauldrons and unusually shaped back prevented Alex from reaching much further than beyond its neck. Still, it was enough for the Nova to support him as they and everypony else did their best to quietly leave the ballroom.

The Nova led Alex out of a different door than the one he had entered and into a smaller, and thankfully much shorter set of hallways that connected to an entrance hall. Drapery and stained glass windows adorned the walls while red carpeting covered the floor and trailed up a grand staircase. A good number of noble ponies were still arriving and waltzing through the main entrance with the same aura of entitlement as the ponies in the ballroom - fashionably late, of course.

Normally, this was the room where Princess Celestia would have personally met her guests, but the princess of the sun was nowhere to be found. That wasn’t to say that another princess wasn’t present: Princess Luna stood off to the side of the room, next to a large luxurious couch, talking with a small group of ponies and a familiar looking humanoid in a red dress and her bodyguard. As much as the ponies around her were vying for the princess’ attention, Rose appeared to be the only one able to keep it.

However, Rose had been standing between Luna and the group of friends concerned about the health of the man who needed help to walk. As Alex was brought closer to them, Luna soon took notice of what was going on behind her conversation partner.

She gasped and maneuvered around Rose to get a better look. “My stars! What happened?”

“He was given a drink he didn’t order,” Rose answered as nonchalantly as one would say they were walking down the street, while the Nova carefully let Alex down onto the nearby couch. “As you can see, it didn’t sit well with him.”

“How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked Alex, who was slumped back into the couch and forcing his hand against his forehead.

“Like… Like… fucking terrible…” was his only answer, too distracted by everything wracking his body to come up with something more original.

Rose sat herself down next to him and replaced his hand with her own. “If what I’m reading from his BCI is correct, he’s feeling vertigo, nausea, and some lingering headaches. He’ll be fine, but I think it’s safe to say that his night is off to a poor start.”

Pinkie Pie quietly stepped up to the couch, looking over at Alex with puppy eyes and her ears pinned against her head. “I’m so super sorry, Alex. I didn’t know this would happen to you…”

Making sure to time it between his breaths, Alex raised his head to look at her. “Huh…? What do you have to be sorry for…?”

Vinyl downed the rest of her beer, but kept the empty glass floating beside her. “Pinkie got the barkeep to swap out your soda for a Long Island Ice Tea, dude. Figured you’d be fine.”

Alex’s jaw slowly unhinged itself as his gaze shifted from Vinyl back to Pinkie, who was staring at the ground as she rubbed circles into it with her hoof. He drew in a large breath to tell Pinkie just how stupid what she did was, but the sudden sense of disorientation, from performing that simple action, instead make Alex let his head fall back against the couch. “You know what? I don’t have the energy to be mad right now…”

Pinkie Pie averted her gaze again, whereas Rose continued to stroke Alex’s forehead. “Just rest, now. You’ll be fine soon.”

With all of the excitement thoroughly dead, Vinyl Scratch clicked her tongue and motioned towards the ballroom. “Hey, I gotta go double check some things on stage for later. You guys still gonna be around for the show, or does the big guy have to call it quits tonight?”

Alex lazily waved his arm at her. “We’ll be there…”

“Awesome!” said Vinyl as she started to make her way back. “Catch ya later, Engie!”

As the others cheered their farewells to the DJ, Rainbow Dash chuckled at Alex. “Gonna tough it out?”

A low groan was his only reply.

“It’s best if we just let him rest, darling,” said Rarity. “Considering what he’s going through, it would seem that a nap would be- eep!”

Everypony eyed Rarity curiously as she ducked behind the couch as best she could. “Is something the matter?” asked Rose.

“It’s him!” Rarity hissed from behind her cover, pointing a hoof off to somewhere behind Luna.

Despite the lack of specificity in the action, everypony turned to look at exactly who Rarity was talking about. For most of them, all they could see were a number of high class ponies talking amongst each other around the main doorway, who occasionally shot a glance their way, either because of Luna or the Liandri.

Rose, however, had no difficulty in guessing who “he” was. She simply referred to information regarding the name and description of a pony Rarity ranted endlessly about just earlier that evening while fussing about Rose’s hair; a pony Rarity herself had mentioned she dreaded seeing again at this year’s Gala.

Only one pony among the many matched the description she was given: large unicorn stallion; white coat and blonde mane; blue eyes; cutie mark resembling two four-cornered stars superimposed over each other.

Blueblood.

Despite Rarity’s panicking, it appeared that Blueblood had only just arrived, quickly drawing himself to another group of high strung nobles and beginning to chat with them. Nopony could make out what he was saying, and while that wasn’t the case with Rose, the subject was much too mundane for her to care. Either way, Blueblood hadn’t taken notice of them yet.

“Hmmmm… Oh hey, it’s your prince charming!” said Pinkie, pointing a hoof at Blueblood. “You want me to go tell him you’re-”

“Pinkie Pie, if you tell him I’m here in any way I will cut off your mane and turn it into an accessory!” Rarity hissed.

“We are afraid you have lost Us, dear Rarity,” said Luna, eyeing the nobles near the entrance. “Art thou speaking of Prince Blueblood, or-”

“Yes! Him!”

Luna hummed to herself as she eyed him, attempting to draw up her own memories of the stallion. “We cannot say we have much experience dealing with Our good nephew, but-”

“He is anything but good!” Rarity continued to interrupt. “He is the most uncharming prince I could ever possibly imagine! He’s incredibly rude, gets nauseated at the thought of even getting slightly dirty, and the way he treated me last year was ACK- hescomingthisway!”

Rarity ducked behind the couch much more completely this time, prompting everypony to look back towards Blueblood, who was approaching them as warned. His own eyes were pinned firmly on Luna as he marched with a fervent stride and confident smile, seemingly ignorant of everyone else.

The prince hadn’t even gotten within hoofshaking distance before he called out to her. “Auntie Luna! Such a pleasure to see you tonight! I was afraid we wouldn’t get the chance to hold a conversation, what with you refraining from staying within the public eye and-”

Blueblood stopped himself mid-sentence when his eyes finally wandered over towards the two humanoids sitting on the couch, one resting against the couch and the other staring directly at him. The two other Liandri caught his attention soon after, forcing out a gasp and a cautioned step back.

“Is something the matter?” Rose asked, pretending to be oblivious to Blueblood’s shock.

“I… You… you can…” Blueblood stammered before lightly shaking his head. “I-I apologize. I wasn’t aware that foreign dignitaries would be attending the Gala this year, especially with such…” He paused as he looked over the Reds. “...interesting looking golems accompanying them…”

The girls all shared dull looks among each other, clearly unimpressed with Blueblood choice of words. In fact, many of them fully expected Rose to take some offense to use of the word "golem," and eyed her to see just how she would react. To their surprise, if Rose did take offense to what Blueblood said, then she did an excellent job of not showing it.

Luna held her hoof out towards the two sitting on the couch. “Nephew, this is Rose. The one resting beside her is Alexander. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, he is feeling rather unwell.”

Blueblood held a hoof up to his chest and turned his head away. “Oh goodness! He didn’t catch something from one of the common folk, did he?”

As if he wasn’t unlikeable enough already, the girls’ collective deadpan stare somehow managed to intensify and yet simultaneously go completely ignored by the so-called prince. Even Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were forced to frown at his last comment.

“Nothing of the sort,” Rose quipped, somehow managing to keep a straight face and calm voice. “Now if you would be so kind as to tell us why you are bothering us…?”

Blueblood blinked at her for a moment before clearing his throat, lowering his hoof, and giving her a curt bow. “Ah yes, where are my manners? My name is Prince Blueblood. I am a part of one of the most prominent families in Canterlot. Very wealthy, I might add.”

“Mhm…” Rose hummed, completely void of any apparent reaction. “So what do you do, exactly?”

The words themselves almost seemed to slip into the prince’s ears and rattle around in his skull, never managing to settle in. His difficulty in understanding this simple sentence became obvious when he simply stared back at her, vaguely dumbfounded. “I beg your pardon?”

“What do you do?” Rose repeated, tilting her head ever so slightly and modifying her tone of voice to imply some sense of genuine curiosity. A lie, of course, but one that would make it easier to metaphorically beat him over the head later. “Surely you must be involved in some sort of work?”

After finally understanding what she was talking about, Blueblood waved a hoof at her, chuckling derisively. “Oh, I’m afraid you misunderstand! I don’t know what things are like where you’re from, but here, I am royalty. Somepony of my calibre does not simply ‘work.’”

“So you’re useless.”

The words rang out and echoed amongst the group like the bang of a bullet fired in absolute silence, striking Blueblood squarely between the eyes. It took everyone several seconds to comprehend just what exactly was said, and several more to realize just who said it. Everypony stared in slack jawed astonishment at the sheer level of bluntness thrown at the Canterlot noble. For their part, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but turn their lips up just a fraction.

Blueblood stood rigid, barely managing to choke out, “E-e-excuse me?!”

“You heard me…”

Slowly, even mechanically, the previously slumbering human leaned forward from his resting place, placed both of his hands on his knees, and stood himself up, being only slightly taller than the stallion he was staring down. With all the meticulous finesse of a master craftsman, Alex brought his right hand up to pinch the side of his glasses and carefully remove them, revealing a fiercely glowing eye that pierced clean through Blueblood, chilling his blood as he took a step back.

“I said…” Alex continued as he punctuated each of his next words. “You. Are. Useless.”

Words failed to escape from the prince’s mouth, stunned into silence with words never before directed to him. After being stared down by the offending biped, Blueblood finally managed to squeeze out, “Look, I don’t know who or what you are, but I’ll have you know that such a statement is blatantly false! I, alone, am worth over twenty million bits!”

Much to everyone’s confusion, including Rarity after she poked her head out in morbid curiosity, Alex burst out laughing, as if Blueblood had just told the funniest joke ever invented. It wasn’t a quiet, dry laugh, but loud, bellowing laugh that drew its strength from every corner of his gut. Alex’s laughter continued on for what almost felt like forever, drawings looks of concern from his friends and nearby onlookers alike, even as his eyes began to water and tears rolled down his cheeks. It didn’t take very long before Alex’s hearty laugh became the only sound in the lobby.

Alex leaned against one of the Novas for support as he was forced to wipe the tears from his eyes, and his laughter eventually died down to a loud chuckle. When his breath finally caught up to him, he suddenly boomed, “Good god, you’re hilarious!” Alex punctuated his last word by slamming his left fist square into the Nova’s chest, causing everypony but the unyielding Liandri itself to flinch. If he felt any pain from the action, he was doing a good job of not showing it.

Blueblood took a precautionary step back, eying Alex as if he were an escaped lunatic. “I-I don’t understand-”

“Of course you don’t!” Alex shouted, cutting him off mid-sentence. “People like you can’t understand! You know why? Because you actually believe that money means you’re worth something!” The others backed up to give Alex space as his exaggerated movements turned into an odd dance. “Hate to break it to you, buddy, but as far as the universe is concerned, your money means nothing. Bits are just cylinders! Shiny, flat cylinders with some arbitrary quote unquote ‘value’ assigned to them. You know what that means? It means that at the end of the day, all that money is fucking worthless!

“Listen closely, sunshine, because I’m only going to say this once. Your worth isn’t determined by what you have, but what you can do; By what you have done, and what you will do. Me? I’ve accomplished a lot of stuff, and I plan to accomplish a lot more in the future. See these two things right here? I designed them. I built them. I created cybernetic life! Machines that not only think for themselves, but who also respond to my very thoughts! I understand the fundamentals of the universe, and I use my understanding to do things like this! To create my own world, based on my own rules! That is what I’m worth!”

Suddenly switching gears, Alex took a deep breath and ceased his random pacing and movements. Reaching his right hand into his blazer, he fished out his electronic cigar while shoving the other hand into a pocket. Whereas before, Alex’s mind and words were running at a hundred miles a minute, now he was taking all the time he wanted, calmly taking a drag and blowing the cloud of smoke above him before fixing his eyes on Blueblood again, speaking with a pace much more befitting of his new rhythm.

“So let’s back up to that question again, huh? What can you do? What have you accomplished? What have you done with your life? If you were to die tomorrow, would you die comfortable in the knowledge that you didn’t waste your time? That you were actually capable; that you accomplished something worthwhile? It’s a simple yes or no question, but here’s a hint: if you say anything but ‘no,’ then you clearly haven’t done enough.”

Silence dominated the entire lobby. With all the attention he had drawn to him, nopony found themselves able to mind their own business or hold their own private conversations. Now, with Alex staring Blueblood down and expecting an answer out of the prince, everypony began asking themselves similar questions. In the end, the answer wasn’t as important as the actions behind its reasoning.

With Blueblood still giving him a doe-eyed look, Alex sighed before taking a final drag of his cigar. He haphazardly exhaled the cloud of smoke while gritting his teeth at the pony before him. “Get out of my sight, you worthless waste of oxygen.”

The words snapped Blueblood back to reality, making him take several steps back before ultimately bolting out of the room, Alex staring after him. As soon as Blueblood was, in fact, out of his sight, Alex’s free hand reached up towards his forehead as he grit his teeth. Another severe headache suddenly assaulted him, but just as abruptly disappeared.

Shaking off the lingering pain, Alex turned to face the others, his right eye returned to normal. “Well that was cathartic. Dunno what drove me to do that, but I’m glad I did it.”

A single set of clapping hooves sounded, drawing everyone’s attention towards Rarity, who had just come out from her hiding spot and was leaning over the couch’s arm rest. “That was beautiful…” she said, her eye fighting back a tear.

Alex forced back a chuckle as he started idly rubbing the knuckles on his left hand. “Heh, glad you liked it.”

Applejack stepped forward, her face scrunched up in confusion. “Wait a sec, weren’t ya half passed out just a second ago? What the hay just happened that made ya all fit as a fiddle all of a sudden?”

“Yeah, he does that,” Twilight answered as casually as ever. “When he was living with me, he would do this thing with his brain where he ‘mentally reset’ himself. It was usually only good for about half an hour, though. He taught me how to do it, but I’m still trying to get the hang of it.”

“We must admit, your behavior is rather… peculiar,” said Luna, scratching her chin while eyeing Alex curiously. “First, thy outburst in the ballroom, and now this. Although it would seem this time you were more... forward.”

Alex scoffed. “I just hate people who think that money is a be-all, end-all. They were a blight in my world, and I don’t think any differently here.”

“Indeed,” Luna agreed. “Money is all well and good, but it is most importantly a means to an end, rather than an end unto itself.”

“Thank you!” Alex said with a short bow, extending his hand out to her. He turned to address the others, but quickly doubled back towards Luna. “Actually, I don’t believe we’ve formally introduced each other.” He held out his free hand. “Alexander Michael Laythem. Most people just call me Alex.”

“Princess Luna.” She extended a hoof and shook his hand. “My dear sister has told Us quite a bit about you.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Alex answered with a shrug. “Rose and I haven’t exactly been subtle, lately, and I can imagine she gets frequent updates on whatever activities we let become public.”

“She does. Admittedly, We had an interest in meeting you for ourselves, but preoccupation has forced Us to wait until this…” Luna paused as she glanced around the lobby. “...rather dull affair. We do not wish to speak ill, but this ‘Gala’ did not exist during our time, and We fear Our sister hath simply organized a gathering of nobles devoid of any fun!”

“Hey, yeah! I was getting that impression too! Actually…” Alex turned towards everyone else. “Hey, here’s an idea: why don’t we all make like a tree and go do something else until the fun party starts? I heard there’s this really good donut shop that’s not too far from here, and I dunno about you guys, but I could go for a few cups of hard coffee, myself.”

“Alex, it’s only nine fifty,” said Rose, crossing both her arms and legs from her spot on the couch. “The after party doesn’t start for another two hours and ten minutes.”

“Heh, I’m down,” Rainbow Dash smirked.

“Ah could do with some food that’s a little more fillin’,” said Applejack.

“So we’re just skipping ahead to the part where we drown our problems in sprinkles again?” said Pinkie.

Luna shook her head. “As much as We would like to, We are afraid it cannot be done. As an Equestrian princess, it is Our duty to be present at an event such as this…”

“Bull honkey!” Alex gave Luna a firm pat on the withers. “You’re the princess of the moon, aren’t you? I think that gives you a bit of leeway with how you want to spend your night, wouldn’t you agree? Live a little!”

Rose stood up from her seat and approached Luna with a sly smile. “You might as well come. I’ll have to go with him anyway, just to make sure he doesn’t get himself into too much trouble. It would be a shame for us to miss out on our opportunity to talk.”

“Perhaps...” Biting her lip, Luna glanced at a random group of nobles for a brief moment before looking over at Twilight. “Shall you go?”

Everyone’s eyes were suddenly on Twilight. She simply looked around at her friends’ curious looks before finally shrugging. “I guess?”

“I-I wouldn’t mind a donut or two,” said Fluttershy, carefully raising her hoof.

With everyone having spoken their piece, all attention was then dumped onto Rarity, who gazed back at them with wide eyes. “What? Are we just going to simply forget the fact that we’re all dressed up for a formal evening? That we’re in the middle of attending one of the most prestigious gatherings in the world? Are we just going to let this entire Gala go to waste?”

Everyone continued to stare at her, their expressions completely unchanged. Either they refused to answer her questions, or they had already made their decision and Rarity wasn’t going to convince any of them otherwise at this point.

With a final huff, Rarity deadpanned, “Fine. Let’s all go gorge on donuts and drown ourselves in obscene amounts of coffee, then…”

Alex’s fist shot into the air. “PREACH IT!”

“... So then I flipped the switch, and then the insulation around the wires started melting!” Alex exclaimed to Luna, adding in his own laugh.

The princess stared back at him with wide eyes as they walked. “Oh dear! Why? How?”

“I wasn’t paying attention when I wired up the battery, and ended up putting it in backwards! Lemme tell you, there’s a damn good reason why you have to be careful when plugging those in. Completely wrecked the motor controller, too, so we had to order a new one for same-day delivery.”

After having settled on leaving the formal part of the Gala for the nobles to enjoy, everypony had made their way to Donut Joe’s shop just a few blocks away from Canterlot Palace. At the time, Joe had been enjoying himself by filling out the crossword puzzles in that day’s paper. It was tedious, but it occupied the time, especially on slow nights such as these. It was weird how popular events like the Gala would actually slow business down, rather than speed it up. Although he had caught wind that a less formal after-party would start at 11:00 that night, so there was still hope that some early birds would drop in for a shot of caffeine or sugar before heading there.

When the bell above the door jingled, it was a sudden, but not unwelcome surprise, and he dropped what he was doing to give his full attention to whatever customer decided his shop was worth their time on a night like this. Although he definitely wasn’t expecting the parade that came marching in through his door when he did. There were six mares, which he recognized from last year, four tall biped things, two of which looked like nasty metal aliens, and Princess Luna herself.

Words failed Joe in the heat of the moment, and he wasn’t brought back to reality until one of the tall creatures walked up to the counter and said: “You might wanna open a tab for me. We’re gonna be here awhile.”

After eating dozens of donuts and drinking at least half their weight in coffee over some lively conversation, everypony was now well on their way back to The Grand Galloping Gala to take part in what was the real attraction for the evening. Dozens upon dozens of other ponies, each of whom forwent the formal clothing, were traveling up to the palace alongside them with their own small groups of friends. Virtually nopony was traveling alone on this night.

Unfortunately, the crowds grew more dense as they neared the Palace. Evidently, the guards weren’t allowing anypony in until the clock struck eleven.

Probably to make sure the nobles have enough time to escape, Alex thought.

Luna hummed to herself as she eyed the crowd going up the main road. Going through the front door would take some time... She ushered the others to follow her. “This way, I have an idea.”

Instead of leading everyone through the main street, Luna took a collection of back roads and alleys around it. It was an odd detour, one largely devoid of much light save for the moon, but it eventually lead to a small clearing next to a tall stone wall, at least twenty feet high. If Rose’s sense of navigation was correct, that wall was the only thing barring them from one of the Palace courtyards.

“This looks like a dead end,” Rose commented.

“Nay, we must simply go over it!” said Luna, who promptly extended her wings and launched herself up, taking a perch atop the wall. She beckoned the others with a hoof. “Come!”

“Alright.” Rose looked over at Alex and shrugged. “See you on the other side.”

Before anyone could voice the fact that not all of them could fly, Nova One crouched down and launched itself skyward, gracefully landing with both feet on the edge of the stone barrier. Meanwhile, Nova Two crouched facing away at the base of the wall, cupping its hands together. Rose approached Nova Two who, upon having her foot placed in its hands, tossed her up towards the other. With all the confidence of a professional acrobat, Rose shot straight into the air while reaching a hand out, allowing the stronger Liandri to catch it midflight, hoist her up, and cradle her in its arms in a single graceful action. The inertia of their movements pitched them over to the other side, where the Nova landed with Rose safely in its hold, keeping her body and clothing intact.

“Wow,” said Pinkie, equally as impressed with the display of synergy as everyone else.

Alex stared at the Nova standing at the base of the wall. “Seriously?”

Its eye turned blue as it stared back. “Yes.” As Nova Two crouched back down and cupped its hands together, Nova One leapt back up to the top of the wall, positioned directly above its twin. “Now it’s your turn.”

Alex groaned and begrudgingly approached the Liandri. “You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

Twilight held up a hoof. “Um, you know I could just-”

“Shh!” Rainbow Dash silenced her friend by jabbing her in the side with an elbow. “I wanna see if he flops!”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Alex grumbled as he placed a foot into the Nova’s hands while gripping its shoulders.

“Do you trust me to do this?” asked Rose.

He nodded. “Yeah, but it doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with it. Just toss me already.”

After a quick countdown, Nova Two hoisted Alex into the air. Their combined effort was almost enough to propel him over the top, but Nova One quickly caught him and cradled him in his arms, just like it did with Rose, before dropping down on the other side. Nova Two wasted no time following after them in much the same way Nova One did, though instead leapt over the wall entirely.

Everypony else made their way over the wall in short order. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, naturally, lifted themselves to the other side, while Luna and Twilight used their magic to levitate everypony else. Taking a shortcut over the wall led to a lightly wooded area. It looked relatively far off the beaten path, and it didn’t seem like there was anyone around to catch them in their border hopping.

“Dude, that was awesome!” cheered Rainbow Dash as she landed next to the humanoids, with Fluttershy close behind her.

Alex, however, was busy massaging his right hand. “Yeah, maybe from your perspective. That hurt!”

Fluttershy gasped. “It did?! How?! What happened?!”

Alex held his hand up for her to see. “Take a look at my hand. Notice its shape and slight squishiness around the sides. Now look at his hand.” He gestured towards one of the Novas. “He’s got three angular digits, all made of titanium, and a grip so strong that it could probably splinter wood. You tell me.”

Rose chuckled as the others were carefully lifted down in Luna’s magic aura. “Don’t be such a baby. Your hand will be fine.”

Completely ignoring her, Alex gawked at the girls being gently placed on the ground next to them. He cursed under his breath, realizing that the act of robotic acrobatics he had just gone through was unnecessary. “God dammit, are you serious?”

“I tried to tell you!” Twilight exclaimed, quickly shooting Rainbow Dash a glare. “Except somepony interrupted me!”

While Rainbow Dash was busy holding back a snort, Luna floated down next to them. “We are glad to have witnessed that, actually! Twas an impressive display.”

Alex scoffed while waving away the pain in his hand one final time. “At least you got a kick out of it. Let’s just get back to the palace…”

Luna once again took the lead, bringing the group through the trees towards a much larger clearing, one populated by well defined paths, colorful flowers most of them wouldn’t have been able to identify if their life depended on it, and even a number of fountains and statues. As they neared the palace proper, Alex’s eyes wandered over to poorly lit statue - one very distinct from the others. While every other statue depicted some pony or another in some heroic stance, this one portrayed a creature with an obscenely long body, composed from a random assortment of body parts. What was probably the most important feature, though, was the look of absolute horror on its face.

“That’s discord,” Twilight answered Alex’s unspoken question. He had stopped in front of the statue long enough for her to guess at his curiosity. “He’s the literal embodiment of the spirit of chaos.”

“The spirit of chaos…?” Alex muttered. “Why would ponies make a statue like this?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, as in that statue actually is Discord. The princesses used the elements of harmony to trap him in stone over a thousand years ago, and my friends and I had to do the exact same thing. Less than a week before you showed up, actually.”

“So you guys petrified him twice?” Alex gazed at the statue’s terrified features. “What did he do to deserve that?”

Twilight sighed. “Green skies, cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk, roads made of soap, homes torn out of the ground and floating upside down… Among many other things… He was tearing Equestria apart, Alex - completely out of control. We didn’t have much of a choice.”

“Huh…” Alex allowed himself a few extra seconds of curiosity before moving to catch up with the others. “Glad I wasn’t around to see that…”

It didn’t take long for Luna to lead them all back into the palace itself. A group of guards stood around the doorway between the building and garden, and while Alex was sure they would have asked any number of damning questions related to how they didn’t see any single one of them go out into the garden, Luna’s presence seemed to dispel all of it.

By the time they all managed to make their way back to the ballroom, the nobles had already thinned out, leaving it largely empty. Palace employees were also busy cleaning off tables and replacing their chairs, making sure they were ready for the second half of the night. Up on stage, Vinyl Scratch was messing around with her equipment while her marefriend and her ensemble were playing what was presumably their last musical number of the night.

Alex inhaled deeply through his nose, released a content sigh afterwards. “I like how this place was aired out. Smells fresher.”

Pinkie sniffed the air for herself. “Really? I don’t smell anything different.”

“The nobles, Pinkie,” Alex answered as he eyed Vinyl Scratch. “It’s the smell of nobles losing their precious ego stroking fun time. Hey, you guys go find us some tables, I’m gonna go see if Vinyl needs any help setting up.”

Alex left before any of them had the chance to respond, and their calling out to him fell on deaf ears. Nova two, however, kept pace.

“Need any help?” Alex asked as he walked up the steps along the side of the stage.

Vinyl’s head whipped in the direction of his voice. “Engie! Dude, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Thought you bailed on me.”

Alex let out an involuntary chuckle. "Nah, I bailed on the nobles. Been killing time at Donut Joe's for an hour and half. Why, you need me to help you with something?"

Vinyl ducked behind her new turntables, fiddling with some unseen object. "Yeah, dude. The instructions you gave me were great and all, but I'm having a tough time finding even half of the stuff you mentioned."

"Heheh, here, lemme give you a hand." Alex moved over to her side and inspected the cables for himself. He wasn't sure how she managed it, but Vinyl ended up getting most of the major connections tangled up. He was really starting to wish he color coded them for her… "Son of a bitch..."

"Yeah," breathed Vinyl as she pinned her ears against her head and chuckled nervously.

Alex ran a hand over his head. "Okay, um... Alright, I have an idea." He quickly unplugged everything, singling out a cable and removing it from both ends. After getting that cable free, he handed the rest to Vinyl, saying "Here, split those things apart while I set things up."

Vinyl nodded her head and set about doing her task. Meanwhile, Alex took the cable he had separated and plugged one end into the turntables. He then asked the Nova to bend down and, with only a thought, asked it to open an access port on the back of its head, revealing an input compatible with his chosen cable.

Gotta love universal standards, Alex thought as he plugged the cable into the Liandri. "Alright, unit, give me a diagnostic of the system in port one."

After a few seconds, the Nova replied with "Diagnostic complete."

Alex turned his attention to a blank section of the turntables, where the image of a user interface materialized out of nothing. Alex's hand instinctively began working through the shifting image until a he could easily see the system's connections, telling him what was responding and what wasn't. Much to Vinyl's confusion.

"Hey, Engie? What are you doing? Also, why is your eye going all glowy...?"

Instead of going into a long winded explanation about the premise of oculus-based augmented reality, Alex simply replied with, “I’m troubleshooting… You get those cables untangled?”

She held them up to him in her magic.

“Okay, good. Let’s make sure we get this right.” Tracing each of the cables, Alex carefully plugged them back into their intended ports, double checking the diagnostic to make sure the intended subsystems were responding to the turntables.

Since Vinyl’s turntables ultimately acted as the master control panel, the two of them had to ensure that all of the lights, fog machines, auxiliary speakers, and main speakers were all responding, resulting in an excess amount of wires that left a small part of him dead inside. Eventually, the Nova’s diagnostic went green across the board and Alex performed a few more routine checks to make sure everything was truly working properly, before unplugging the Liandri and placing the cable he borrowed in its proper place.

“Hey, thanks, Engie!” Vinyl cheered as she offered him a hoof bump, which he accepted. “Really saved my flank there.”

Alex gave her an extra pat on the back. “No problem. Just give us a good show, alright?”

“You can bet that neat little hand of yours, I will!”

Jogging down the other side of the stage while doing his best to remain out of sight, Alex walked himself over to the tables his friends managed to hold down. They were the kind of tables meant for hold snacks and drinks while you held a discussion, rather than the ones to sit down and eat an actual meal, but they were still fairly sizable. However, they were still meant for ponies, and as such, the tables and their accompanying chairs were uncomfortably low to the ground.

It didn’t take very long before Vinyl’s marefriend and the rest of the orchestra began packing up their instruments. Once they were cleared, Vinyl used her magic to position her brand new DJ deck to the front of the stage, being extra careful to not yank out any of the cables from underneath that snaked off elsewhere.

Once she was set up, a song started playing through the the speakers, although it wasn’t very loud or noticeable. It was electronic, of that Alex could tell immediately, but it was the kind of song that would be playing in the background with enough volume to be present while everyone was waiting for the main event to start. Almost like loud elevator music, except not shit. At the same time, the room’s lighting was altered, where most of the ambient lights were dimmed while the stage’s various chromatic spotlights and lasers lit up to replace them.

Soon enough, ponies started filing in in droves. Unlike the nobles from before, virtually all of the new arrivals came in undressed, as was the norm pretty much everywhere. Alex did his best to see if he could recognize anyone in the crowd, but even with his ability to see in low-light conditions thanks to his cybernetic eye, they all effortlessly morphed into a giant mass of color that left their individual identities at the door.

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Luna said from her spot at the table, nearly bouncing with giddiness. “A truly modern party, with strange, yet entrancing music! Why did Tia not simply make the Gala this?” She paused. “Where is our sister, anyway?”

“Luna, there you are!” came Celestia’s voice, right on time. Alex turned around from where he was sitting, spotting Celestia approaching them from behind Luna. She looked vaguely worried. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Luna. Where have you been?”

“I have been out drinking caffeinated beverages and eating ring shaped pastries with our friends, good sister,” said Luna, indicating to everyone sitting around the table. "Twas a shame thou could not join us."

A slight frown crossed Celestia's face. "You left the Gala to go eat donuts and drink coffee...?"

"Correct."

"Guilty party, over here!" Alex called out, sensing her impending question and waving a hand over his head. "I was bored, and just so happened to convince everyone else it was a good idea."

Celestia turned her attention to Alex, and then to everyone else after his declaration of desertion. "You all left to go eat donuts?"

It took a few moments, but everyone eventually gave her a begrudging confirmation. Twilight looked particularly uncomfortable during it all, constantly shifting in her seat next to Alex while biting her lip.

"To be fair," Alex quickly started to defend, "We did come back for the rest of the party."

"I suppose," the princess sighed. "Although it is worrisome when almost a dozen of the most notable guests of the evening suddenly disappear."

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, probably to give the princess a hasty apology, but Vinyl Scratch's voice came out instead of her own. Or rather, Vinyl's voice boomed out of the speakers and drowned out Twilight's apology.

"Goodniiiiight, Canterlooooot!" the DJ drawled over the microphone. "How you guys all doing tonight?"

The crowd responded with a cheer, further drowning someone's ability to think. Vinyl continued with a party bag worth of standard energizing sentences - "Are you guys ready to party?" and the like. Alex ignored most of it until...

"Before we get this party started, I wanna give a shout out to the engie that made this possible: Alex Laythem!" Before he could react, a light from the stage swiveled to shine on Alex, blinding him for a brief moment. "There he is! Give him some love!"

As he attempted to shield his eyes from the light, a stern, high-heeled nudge in the rear from Rose sitting behind him forced Alex to his feet, where everypony managed to get a good look at him. Unlike the stunned silence from the nobles, this new crowd cheered and stomped, fueled by the excitement Vinyl was feeding them. He gleefully allowed the positive attention to soak in, smiling to himself as Vinyl said, “That two legged genius over there put together the deck and speakers for this party! Just listen to how low these puppies can go…” and then proceeded to play a loud, deep bass sound that bordered on infrasonic.

His fifteen seconds of fame over, the light wrenched itself away from Alex, leaving him oddly disappointed, though not unenergized. Vinyl had the courtesy of shouting him out, so it was only fair that he at least join the crowd for her first song. Unbuttoning his nanofibre jacket and laying it over the back of his chair, Alex tried yelling over Vinyl’s voice at the table of friends. “Hey, I’m gonna be in the crowd for her first song. Anyone wanna come with?”

Using her magic, Twilight grabbed the drink sitting in front of Applejack - hard apple cider - and downed a large gulp, despite her friend’s protest. From what Alex could tell, it was fairly obvious she was making a pained effort to not have to not make eye contact with the princess. “Yup! Let’s go!”

“Well shit,” Alex muttered to himself as his gaze followed after her. Quickly turning to Rose, he said, “You gonna hold down the table?”

“Of course,” was her answer.

“Cool! Keep the Reds here; don’t want them cluttering up the place.”

Alex quickly followed after Twilight before he could lose track of her in the crowd. Twilight, however, didn’t bother to turn around to see if anyone was following her. Vinyl’s first actual performance of the night kicked off, exciting the crowd with its electronic beat. Alex picked up his stride to catch up to Twilight, catching her by the withers and forcing her to look at him.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Alex yelled over the crowd and music. “Everything alright?”

Twilight bit her lip, quickly glancing in various directions before finally looking up at him. The beat of the music was starting to pick up around them. “I abandoned the Gala, Alex!” she yelled back. “Princess Celestia does this only once a year, and I disrespected my own teacher by just leaving without telling her!”

“So? She understands! Besides, I already took the blame for it!”

“That doesn’t matter! I still shouldn’t have gone with you! She must think I’m some kind of irresponsible pony now!” The tempo of the music dulled, whereas the ambient sounds of the song grew louder, indicating the impending drop.

“Oh come on, Twilight, now you’re just being silly! It’s not like doing one little thing means that everything you’ve accomplished so far is…” Alex’s words trailed off as he caught something within the corner of his vision. Looking up at the stage, his attention focused on the faint neon blue outline that appeared around the edges of the speakers themselves, which grew stronger in brightness as the drop approached. All thoughts of Twilight evacuated his mind as an old concern bulldozed its way to the front. “Goddammit! She’s overcharging the fucking speakers! I told her not to do that!”

Twilight noticed Alex’s sudden change in attitude, drawing her own attention to the stage. Whatever it was he was talking about must have been important if he was just going to change the subject like that. “What do you mean? Is that bad?”

“Cover your ears!” Alex yelled as he did exactly that, pressing the palms of his hands against his head with the full force of both of his arms. Twilight barely had enough time to fold her ears down and behind herself before it hit.

For a brief moment, there was nothing but complete silence as both the crowd and the song itself hesitated a breath in anticipation for the music’s drop. Vinyl herself held a hoof straight up in the air, and then slammed it down in time with the music.

The Liandri-made speakers, charged to the brim with energy, released it all at once. A blue wave of aetherial sound shot outwards and into the ballroom before them. Glasses shattered as the pressure wave swept over them, spilling their contents everywhere. Likewise, the tall clear and stained glass windows that lined the walls of the room exploded outwards.

Alex grunted as the shock wave knocked him off his feet. Most of the other ponies in the room remained standing, thanks to their lower center of gravity, though were all stunned into a discombobulated daze.

The speakers’ relentless assault, however, was far from over. As Newton had written: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The pony-made stage was never made to hold a force as raw as this. While it barely survived the initial pulse, each subsequent beat pounded the steel frame like a jackhammer on concrete. After only a few seconds, the structure began to bend and warp, straining its supports.

Everypony in the crowd was still reeling from the shock, while Vinyl was too entranced by her own music to notice the events going on around her. From his spot on the ground, Alex forced his eyes open, his cybernetic heart beating into overdrive. His eyes immediately noticed the growing structural failures around stage, and trailed up to the steel cables that connected from the top front of its frame to the opposite side of the ballroom, where their anchors to the wall strained against their breaking point.

In that split second, Alex performed the math in his head and came to the terrifying conclusion that the cable above him would inevitably snap and whip the ground near him.

No… he thought as his eyes trailed to his predicted location of impact. It’s going to hit Twilight…!

Twilight, however, was still reeling from the initial shock, doing her best to keep her balance while rubbing her head with a forehoof - completely oblivious to the danger above her.

Alex acted on instinct. From lying down, he swung himself into a crawling position and lunged at Twilight, planted his left hand on her side, and shoved her away, knocking her over with as much force as he could muster.

In that moment, the steel cable above them snapped, whipped against the ceiling, then came rushing down with a crack of thunder.

Twilight’s senses were still reeling from the shock wave of speakers, and she was unable to keep herself standing when something shoved her onto her side. When she finally regained enough of her senses, she was able to remember two distinct thunderous noises: one from the speakers, and the other from… something else…? When she finally staggered to her hooves, she looked over to where she was standing just a moment earlier.

In that moment, she let out a shrill scream, infused with pure, bloody terror.

Author's Notes:

Took me long enough to finish this chapter. Holy shit.

Also, I come with good news! I already finished most of chapter 31, and I finished my last day of classes yesterday. Since my one and only exam is on the 22nd, that means you can (hopefully) expect the next chapter to come out within the next week! Because fuck cliffhangers.

In other news, I made a laser harp last Sunday for a school project. And it works! Nearly busted my ass doing it, but that fucker can play music. Didn't do any of the programming, though - that was a friend - but I did build the frame and circuitry. Really proud of that thing.

Also, in case any of you guys would be amused by this, the scene where Alex starts yelling in French was largely inspired by this video I found that will have pretty much anyone who lives in Quebec laughing on their asses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvR6-SQzqO8

If you're confused, then here's a quick explanation: that song is quite literally composed of nothing but French swear words you won't hear outside of Quebec. And it's hilarious.

The Clock is Set

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The scream hadn’t left Twilight’s breath before the two Novas suddenly drop in; having leapt over the entire crowd of ponies. Behind them, the stage was still crumbling in on itself. After the cables snapped, the weight and pounding of the speakers forced the stage to collapse. It was only then Vinyl Scratch had realized what was happening, leaving her with barely enough time to gallop offstage to safety.

The disaster was more than enough to send everypony in the crowd into a panic. Every hoof in the room was clamoring for the door, regardless of what or who was in their way. The two Novas worked together seamlessly, shoving ponies left and right, and tossing those who attempted to snake between them, all in the defense of a man who lay face down in a growing pool of crimson.

Rose abandoned her high heels in one stride as she ran out into the crowd, pushing her way past the stampeding ponies. “Alex!” she screamed as she approached, hoping to get some kind of response from him. When she finally reached him, Rose flipped him onto his back, finding his eyes still open and giving her a thousand yard stare.

Without prompting, a serrated knife materialized along the lower back of one of the Novas, which Rose immediately reached for. With it, she grabbed for the bottom of her dress and sliced off a long ribbon of fabric, which she then tied around Alex’s left arm in a knot, jerking it tight.

By this point, most of the crowd had evacuated and the rest of the ponies sitting at and around their table had come over to assess the damage. The sight they found left them in stunned, disbelieving silence. Rose, moved as if possessed. While one of the Novas took her place elevating Alex’s chest, Rose grabbed the nearest pony by the dress and barked “Get me alcohol! NOW!” before practically throwing the pony towards the bar. She didn’t even care who it was she grabbed.

With one Nova propping him up with its legs, and the other holding his legs down, Rose kneeled to Alex’s left side, gently cupping his cheek while wiping away the blood across his face. “Alex? Can you hear me?”

A raspy breath was his only response. In reality, his ears were still ringing from the events of thirty seconds ago. His vision began to fail him as blackness and random colors crept in from the sides. Rose… What happened… Why is it cold…

His face reasonably clean, Rose reached for the end of her dress again and cut out several larger pieces of fabric with the knife. Looking over her shoulder, she shouted “Where’s that alcohol?!”

Rarity suddenly leapt over the counter of the bar, a bottle of wine floating within her magic. “Here! It’s the only one I could find that hadn’t shattered!”

“Give it to me, quickly!”

With the bottle of wine in her hand, Rose quickly examined the top to find the cork still firmly planted in it. Typical. She handed the bottle to the Nova straddling Alex’s legs, who effortlessly snapped the bottle’s neck off, while she stuffed one of the pieces of cut dress into Alex’s mouth. Without wasting precious time, Rose grabbed onto Alex’s arm with her left hand, held the broken bottle of wine in her right, and promptly dumped its contents onto his wound.

Alex instantly shot up, blocked only by the Novas holding his body down, howling in pain through the cloth. Even though the worst of it lasted for only a moment, the burning lingered, and tears began to roll down his cheeks as his muffled cries continued. The ponies, already greatly disturbed by what had happened to him, were forced to look away from the display of physical suffering. Where some of them would have normally passed out from the sight, their adrenaline kept them standing.

But Rose wasn’t finished. Taking the knife into her left hand, she dug the tip into her right wrist and sliced a neat line all the way around it. Digging her fingers through the fresh cut, she tore at her skin, ripping out her tactile sensors in the process of exposing the metallic endoskeleton beneath them. “You!” she shouted, pointing at Celestia. “I need you to superheat my hand - Now!”

The princess complied without words. Enveloping Rose’s exposed hand in a golden aura, Celestia used her magic to transfer as much energy as she could into the metal. After twenty agonizing seconds of Alex’s pained cries, the endoskeleton of Rose’s right hand glowed a bright yellow and she alerted the princess to stop.

Grabbing Alex’s arm in her left hand again, she paused only to lean towards Alex and say, “This is going to hurt.” Without any other warning, Rose thrust her hand against Alex’s wound.

Alex’s muffled cries returned in full force, the sheer pain more unbearable than ever. Alex screamed until his lungs gave out, uselessly thrashing against the Novas with what little strength remained. Deprived of oxygen and overloaded with pain, Alex’s mind gradually allowed itself to become enveloped by the encroaching darkness.

Breathing. Alex was breathing. Was he conscious? He blinked his eyes repeatedly, but the darkness remained. He attempted to move his body and, to his surprise, found that he could. In that moment, all of his senses returned to him and he sat up.

Looking down at himself, everything appeared perfectly normal - his red shirt, his black tie, his pants… His environment, however, was not. Darkness was omnipresent, despite the fact that he could see himself perfectly well. “What the fuck…?” he muttered to himself.

Pushing himself up from the invisible floor, Alex’s looked every which way he could. None of it made a single difference in the blackness.

“Hello?” Alex called out. “Anyone there?”

“I am.”

Alex spun around to face the speaker. Where before there was nothing, there was now suddenly a cybernetic, sitting the bed of a Hellbender. However, it’s appearance was alien to him. Green armor covered it from top to bottom, occasionally broken by black and orange hazard patterns. A pair of pylons jetted out from the shoulder Alex could see, and he could only assume the other shoulder was identical. Similar pylons protruded from its back, though they were much bigger. A neon green visor stretched across its helmet, with two brighter green lights behind it, giving the impression of eyes.

The green cybernetic had its back propped up against the side of the Hellbender’s bed, with one bent leg supporting its arm while the other leg dangled off the end. It stared directly at Alex, its head slightly tilted as if it were waiting for him to do something.

Alex stood there for several long moments, simply staring back. Eventually, he managed to words: “Uh… Hello…?”

“Hello,” was the cybernetic’s response, tilting its head in the other direction.

Silence permeated the space between them, leaving Alex more confused than anything else, swarming his mind with questions. Eventually he settled on, “Who are you…?”

The cybernetic chuckled in response as it pushed itself off the Hellbender and began walking towards him. At this point, Alex noticed that it was only slightly taller than him. “Wouldn’t you like to know? It’s a shame that no matter how many times we talk, you just never remember. It’s getting rather old. No, I think I’ll keep that to myself this time.”

The cybernetic continued chuckling to itself as it shouldered past Alex. Naturally, he followed its movement with a keen eye. However, as it moved past him, Alex found that a section of his room in Ponyville, the one with the holographic wall, was suddenly… there. Blinking in disbelief, Alex snapped his head back towards where the Hellbender was, but now it too was replaced with the other half of his room. Turning all around, he was able to confirm that he was, somehow, standing in the middle of his bedroom in Ponyville. Even the town itself in the middle of a bright, sunny day could be seen outside the window. “What the fuck?”

Ignoring his sudden outburst, the green cybernetic sauntered up to the holographic wall. “Curious things, organics. Especially humans. A rather persistent bunch, aren’t they?” The pylons along the cybernetic’s shoulders and back began to glow a faint green aura. A similar aura appeared around the container holding Alex’s still beating heart on the wall, which carefully floated down and landed in the cybernetic’s hand.

“Take this heart, for instance,” it continued as it turned around and walked back towards Alex, keeping its gaze fixed on the organ. “It’s been out of your body for several months, and yet it refuses to just simply give up and die.” A bolt of electricity suddenly shot through the cybernetic’s arm and into the stasis container, electrocuting the heart within. The two of them stared at it in silence, observing the organ that had now finally ceased moving.

“It’s about time, wouldn’t you agree?” the cybernetic said as it let the heart roll out of its hand. Instead of shattering against the floor like Alex expected, the container fell through the floor and disappeared. While Alex attempted to process everything he just witnessed, the cybernetic held its arms behind its back and casually walked over to the window. “You fucked up royally. Are you aware of that?”

Alex frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

The cybernetic clicked its nonexistent tongue. “I guess you’re not. This should refresh your memory.” It suddenly turned around and tossed an object at Alex.

Alex immediately recognized it for what it was - a severed arm - and leapt back in a panic. But as he did so, Alex caught sight of himself and stared, flabbergasted, at his own left arm. His shirt was shredded at the elbow, which itself was nothing more than torn ligaments and lingering strips of flesh and bone. Every attempt he made to move his left hand resulted in the bloody severed limb on the floor violently twitching in an attempt to follow his brain’s commands.

Alex stumbled backwards into a wall, hyperventilating the entire time. “No no no no! What the fuck is this!?”

The only response the cybernetic gave was a loud cackle, heavily accented by its voice synthesizer. After several seconds of Alex’s distress, the cybernetic suddenly appeared in front of him, grabbed him by the jaw with a single hand, and forced their optics to meet. “Flesh is a design flaw.”

As quickly as it had grabbed him, it had released him. Alex’s eyes immediately darted downward again. But this time, he was met with a different sight. His shirt had disappeared, and his hand had been returned. However, it was not his original hand. In its place was a pure white cybernetic prosthetic. Not one that just replaced his missing hand, but the entirety of his left arm up to the shoulder. Even his right arm had undergone a similar treatment, and both moved with flawless precision, as naturally as their predecessors. “Whoa…”

The cybernetic chuckled again, firmly grasping Alex by the shoulders, which prompted him to meet its gaze. “One step at a time, Alexander. One step at a time.”

For one reason or another, Alex found himself unable to look away. The lights behind the cybernetic’s visor grew brighter and brighter, until in a matter of seconds, the entirety of Alex’s vision was dominated by a blinding light. A loud ringing noise saturated his ears, leaving him unable to hear anything else as sensation disappeared from the rest of his body.

Little by little, the light and ringing receded. Faint voices could be heard in the distance, and shapes began to take form through the whiteness. Soon, he was able to just barely making out someone calling his name. It was starting to sound like… Twilight? Yes! And Rose, too!

Suddenly, the light was removed from his vision as a robotic appendage above him clicked it off. The image of Rose’s civilian chassis hovered over him from the left, while Twilight held a strained smile to his right.

“He seems to be responding to visual stimuli now,” said Rose. “Alex, can you hear me?”

“Yeah…” he whispered. From where he was lying down, Alex gathered that he was on the surgery table back in the facility. “Yeah, I can.”

“Oh thank goodness!” Alex heard Fluttershy exclaim from somewhere out of sight. “We thought we lost you!”

Alex couldn’t help but crack a smile as he closed his eyes. “Heh, like you’d be able to lose me that easily.” He cracked his eyes open and stared at Rose. “Wait, what happened?”

Rose didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she placed a hand over his forehead and glanced away, presumably towards whoever else in the room. Twilight did something similar, though very clearly bit her lip while doing it.

“Guys?” Alex insisted, his eyes starting to go wide as they darted between them. “What happened?”

The clopping of hooves entered his ears as Applejack came up next to Twilight. She immediately removed her stetson and held it against her chest, a sorrowful expression on her face. “There really ain’t an easy way to tell ya this, sugarcube…”

“How much do you remember?” Rose asked.

Alex bit the inside of his cheek. “Um… There was music… Vinyl overcharged the speakers… lot of noise… I think there was a cable…” He paused, his eyes growing wider as he glanced back at Rose.

“I’m assuming you want to see the extent of the damage?” she asked.

Alex simply nodded his head, and the bed he was lying on bent upwards, propping up his back. Rose removed her hand, allowing Alex to finally look down at himself. Everyone else save for the two princesses stood at the foot of his bed, staring at him with looks of concern and dismay. As for himself, Alex was only covered from the waist down, and had an IV stuck into his right arm. His left arm, however, had been reduced to a stump that extended to his elbow, which was covered in thick, white bandages.

“Oh…” he breathed, raising the mutilated limb up for closer inspection. “Huh. Will you look at that…”

“I tried reattaching the rest of it,” Rose continued, “but there was too much nerve damage caused by the cauterization. I’m sorry, Alex, but I had to stop the bleeding somehow.”

“No… No it’s… it’s okay…” he voiced, monotone. “You did what you could. I can’t blame you for that.”

After a moment of silence, Twilight placed a hoof on his bed and asked, “Alex, are you alright?”

Alex blinked at her, dropping his arm back down. “It doesn’t hurt. It feels a bit weird, but…” He looked back down at his stump, then to his right hand, wiggling his fingers. “Guess I’m… still trying to process it all… never knew what you had until it’s gone, right?”

Twilight looked away, tears brimming in her eyes. “I can only imagine… you use your hands for almost everything. It would be like me losing my horn…”

Alex tilted his head to the side, though his expression remained resolutely neutral. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Okay?!” Twilight quavered, looking back at him. “Sure I’m okay! I’m fine! I'm not the one who almost just got killed by a steel cable, or anything! I mean, I just got saved by one of my closest friends who lost part of a limb he uses all the time and who almost died and-”

Twilight stopped herself completely when Fluttershy laid a hoof over her back. The unicorn looked back over to her friend with tears running down her cheeks. Her other friends followed Fluttershy’s initiative, closing in for as comforting a group hug as they could manage.

“I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all had a long night,” said Rose after a short pause. “Perhaps it’s time you all get some sleep,”

“Yes, perhaps that is for the best,” said Rarity. “Twilight, why don’t you come back home with me to the boutique? I’ll prepare some tea to help you sleep, and you can even spend the night over. Goodness knows Spike would hate to see you as distressed as you are now.”

Twilight sniffed and wiped away her tears with a hoof. “I… I think I’ll take you up on that offer…” She looked back up at Alex. “Do you think you’ll be alright…?”

“You’re never done until you’re dead,” Alex responded, “and as you can see, I’m not dead yet. Just need to get a bit of sleep for now, I think.”

It didn’t take very long for Alex to be moved to a more mobile bed, and only then did they all move as a group towards the elevator. The ponies were let off at the garage level, with Twilight promising Alex to come visit him the following day. Alex and Rose continued up to his bedroom, where he staggered off of the gurney as he tried to get into bed.

“Oh… right…” he muttered to himself as he tried lifting the sheets with his absent left hand. After doing the job with his existing hand, he slumped onto the mattress and sighed. “This is going to take some getting used to, huh?”

“For the time being,” answered Rose as she sat beside him, the gurney rolling back into the elevator on its own. “It depends on when we start work on the prosthetic.”

Alex stared ahead for several long seconds before he smashed his palm into his forehead. “Good fucking god, that’s right! We can do that!” He suddenly raised up his wounded limb and looked at it with a new air of excitement. “Heh, maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought it was.”

His excitement dropped, however, when Alex’s sight extended beyond the length of his elbow and he took notice of his holographic wall. “Wait a second…”

Rose tilted her head at him. “Hm? Something wrong?”

“Yeah,” Alex muttered, pointing towards the wall. “Look. Is it me, or did my old heart stop beating?”

The AI followed the direction of his finger, eyeing the old organ resting within its stasis container. “Hm. So it would seem. To be honest, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.”

“Yeah…” Alex breathed as he slowly looked down at his remaining hand, examining the muscles as his fingers flexed. For some reason, it all fascinated him in that moment. His mind processed the mechanics behind the movement, considering all the muscle contractions and the nerve signals needed to cause them. The entire time, his eye had begun to glow a bright, neon green.

“It’s about time, wouldn’t you agree?”

No no no no no no no, Celestia mentally repeated to herself as she burst into her room, slamming the door behind her with her magic. As if on autopilot, she took long strides towards her balcony and threw open the door, exposing herself to the nocturnal view of Canterlot and the Ponyville valley. Her sight immediately focused on the far off village, or more specifically, the lights coming from Alex’s building. Its size rivaled even those of the local mansions, so it was easy enough to spot, even at this distance. Sensing the oncoming headache, Celestia brought a hoof up to rub her head. I hope he’ll be alright…

The princess made sure to be near Alex from the moment Rose performed her emergency surgery to the moment their flying machine lifted itself from the ground. It had probably arrived in Ponyville much earlier than she did to her room. Celestia could only hope that things would somehow turn out well, but at this point, how could they?

“Long night?”

Celestia’s eyes snapped open as her ribs constricted her lungs. That voice… A chill ran through her as the recognition sank in. As if moving too quickly just might be the end of her, Celestia turned around to gaze back into her room.

There, leaning against the bookshelf that hid her secret room, was a towering humanoid figure, at least seven and a half feet in height. While intricately armored black boots and greaves adorned his legs, his upper body wore only equally bulky equipment around his chest and forearms, exposing his abnormally muscular abdominals, arms, and neck. His bare skin was a sickly white, and what veins allowed themselves to be visible hinted at a black liquid they transported.

However, the only identifiable feature he possessed was his face - or rather, lack thereof. Celestia’s breath caught in her throat as she recognized his mask. That black mask that more closely resembled an alien creature than any actual face, though left the back of his hairless head exposed. She had always seen it from the other side of a screen, and never once in all her years had she seen it in person. “O… O-Overseer…? Wh-what are you doing here?”

The Overseer allowed himself a deep, growling chuckle through his mask, which gave it a hint of a mechanical tone. “I decided to come visit the Gala for once. This one was quite the affair, if a little on the chaotic side.” He pushed himself away from the bookshelf and began idly wandering around the room, carefully picking up and examining little baubles as he went. Every so often, a quiet hiss could be heard from his mask. “I like what you’ve done with the place. Very homey. A great place to relax after a long trip.”

Celestia’s eyes remained transfixed on him, her legs as stiff as boards. “You’ve traveled far, I take it?”

“Not necessarily…” The Overseer commented as he eyed a snow globe. It was an old custom piece, one that contained figurines of Twilight and all of her friends. “Although coming up to Canterlot on foot is a bit of a nuisance.” As delicately as he had picked it up, he returned it to its proper place. “I’d say it was worth the trip, though. I can barely remember the last time I came up here.”

“It must have been before my time.”

“Yes. It was.”

“I take it you’re here for an important matter, then?”

“I am, actually.” The Overseer sauntered over to the fireplace, holding up a gloved hand. A faint, sky blue aura appeared around it and a pair of logs in the nearby holder. The aura floated the logs into the fireplace, and with a quick snap of his fingers, burst into a homely flame. Holding his hands behind his back while his mask peered into the flames, The Overseer calmly stated, “I’ve begun the process, Celestia.”

For a brief moment, the princess’ mind blanked. “Process? What process?”

“I’m resetting the cycle.” He didn’t bother to face her, though his words chilled her blood to the core. “The next generation will be ready in a month from now.”

“W-What?!” Celestia hissed, finally allowing her hooves to move her. “But it’s too early! I-It’s premature! It’s it’s it’s-”

“It’s necessary.” The Overseer snapped, turning his head slightly in her direction. "It needs to be said that you've allowed Laythem to grow out of control, and that forces me to intervene. Besides..." He turned his head back to the flames. "It's not the first time I've had to do an early reset."

"But why? Surely, there has to be another solution than a reset!"

"The time for another solution has come and gone, Celestia." The Overseer turned away from the fire and marched past the princess towards the balcony, his heavy feet thumping as he walked. As he gazed out into the valley, he continued. "Those cybernetics now pose too much of a threat to deal with without drastic measures. I trusted you to do your job..." He looked at her over his shoulder. "...but it seems you would rather let the world burn."

"I am not going to murder somepony who has done no wrong, whether it conflicts with the cycles or not!" Celestia growled.

"The cycles guarantee harmony!" The Overseer roared, fully turning himself to face her. "I know this better than anyone! So should you! And do you really so naively believe that he won't do harm? It might not be today, tomorrow, or even next week, but Xan will not allow peace between you to last forever."

Not allowing herself to be intimidated, Celestia did her best to stand tall against the giant. "And on what grounds do you base these assertions of yours?"

"You really are blind, aren't you?" The Overseer approached her, taking his time with each step. "If that display with Filthy Rich wasn't enough, then how about this. Suppose a pony walked into the Golden Oaks Library, and suppose this pony gained access to the information Laythem grants the public access to." He was standing directly over her now. "He's been designing weapons and weaponized vehicles for years, Celestia. Before he came to Equestria."

"And? I understand his motivations. His fears. He wished to keep his technology safe."

"Safe?!" The Overseer reared his head up and bellowed a short, dry laugh. "You think he was trying to defend himself?! He designed artillery vehicles, Celestia. What kind of person defends themselves from several kilometers away? And a one way teleporter that he believed was based on wormholes? Now why would he need something like that?" He turned away and returned himself to the balcony. "Do you honestly think he was planning on remaining solitary his entire life? I don't."

Celestia blinked as she attempted to digest his words. "You... you're not suggesting that he-"

"No. That is exactly what I'm telling you."

Silence reigned between them, The Overseer's words simply hanging in the air. Alexander’s position was always that he was fearful of the impending apocalypse his people would cause on themselves. Could it be true that he actually intended to be the one to start it? On the face of it, The Overseer’s arguments made sense, but Alexander also just sacrificed part of a limb saving Twilight’s life. Celestia shut her eyes as she tried reconciling the thoughts.

Eventually, she looked back up at her visitor. "No. I refuse to believe it. I refuse to believe Alexander would so selfishly do such a thing."

"You clearly don't know what kind of monster Xan actually is," said The Overseer. After another pause, he added, "The reset will be in one month. The wedding will be in two weeks. Chrysalis has her orders, now I'm going to give you yours." He turned to face her. "First, I want you to invite Laythem and his AI. Do not have them bring anything with them. Second, you are to stay out of Chrysalis' way and let her do her job. Everything else is business as usual. Understand?"

"And just what exactly is her job?"

"That is between me and her."

"And why am I not privy to such knowledge?"

The Overseer took slow, lumbering steps towards her until his mask was almost touching her face. "Because I'm having difficulty trusting you, lately," he growled. "I don’t need to remind you that you are far from the first princess, and if you don't want to join your predecessors, then you need to stop being sympathetic to Laythem and get with the program. Have I made myself clear?"

Celestia's eyes darted back and forth, trying to find their equivalent on The Overseers mask, though ultimately failed. "Crystal," she confirmed with a hesitant breath.

"Good," he said, finally removing himself from the princess' personal space. The Overseer moved himself back to the balcony, though stepped up onto the marble guardrail. Looking back at her, he said, "Remember: we're doing what we have to for the good of Equestria. None of it is pretty, but all of it is necessary."

With those final words, The Overseer's hands began to glow sky blue, and parts of his body began to warp and vanish into nothingness. Before he disappeared completely, he stepped off the rail and fell to the ground far below. Celestia rushed to the balcony after him to peer down, hoping that, somehow, she would find his shattered body against the cobblestone. It was a far enough drop that nopony could survive it. To her dismay, aside from the brief rustling of a nearby bush, The Overseer had vanished without a trace.

Celestia sighed, withdrew herself from the guardrail, and rested her head against it, completely swarmed with thoughts and worries. The next few weeks would be crucial - the most important time of both her own and everypony else's lives. It would mean the difference between Equestria surviving, or living. She had waited countless lifetimes for a window of opportunity such as this, and now was the time for it to be seized, for if it wasn't now, it would be never.

With a tear forcing its way from her eye, she raised her head and gazed out towards Ponyville; towards the Liandri facility. A mixture of confusion, worry, and excitement shot through her, and she forced herself to stand. Wiping away the stray tear, she proclaimed, "I may not be the first, Overseer, but I will be the last."

Author's Notes:

This is, of course, the point where the ball gets seriously rolling.

I want to take this moment to talk about Alex and lay a few truths down. I'll be honest with you guys, when I first started writing, the amount of backstory I had for Alex was pitiful. Seriously, that little story of his in the early chapters was quite literally all I had with regards to his life up until that point, and I never really gave it much serious thought until, I shit you not, a few months ago. At one point, I decided to just sit my ass down and write a coherent backstory, map out dates, his previous accomplishments, etc...

I had a motivation, though! Not just so I could be working with, you know, an actual fucking character, but also because my school decided to host a creative writing competition. I decided to write a short story, 250-2000 words. But not just any short story: a prequel to Technicalities. Something of a prequel, anyway. For those of you who are interested in reading it, you can find that short read HERE. That "short story" takes place roughly three and a half years prior to this chapter. I just might even write more of those, if I feel so inclined. This ALSO means that I'll have to do some rewriting of the earlier chapters. I've done some of that already, but a little voice in the back of my head is saying that I need to go over everything with a fine tooth comb.

In any event, summer is here, and I can finally get on to more writing! Expect chapters more frequently within the next few months.

Preparations

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It was a quiet, sunny day, as most days in Ponyville were—statistically speaking anyway. Twilight Sparkle had been making her way to the park to have a picnic brunch with her friends, but for one reason or another, she decided to take a detour. Traveling along the northern border of town, she followed a path that brought her directly in front of the Liandri building. Twilight had planned to just simply walk by, but something compelled her to pause for a moment and linger.

On the surface, the building itself was as quiet and peaceful as ever, but Twilight knew that beyond those walls, deep underground, it was a cacophony of activity. It had been almost two weeks since she had last seen Alex. Twilight had pulled through on her promise to visit him the next day after the accident, and she was even present in the drawing room when Alex and Rose designed a replacement forearm. It was built by the end of the day, but Alex expressed how numb it felt and how clunky it moved.

The day after that, Twilight wasn’t even allowed in. Rose had told her that Alex was much too busy at the time and couldn’t allow visitors to distract him. It was understandable—he was busy remaking something he lost because of her. If he needed the concentration, he needed the concentration. Twilight of all ponies understood the value of privacy while working. Why should she be allowed to distract him?

But since then, Rose gave her the same reason over and over. Alex was always too busy. He was never like this before. Twilight knew Rose was telling Alex that she was there. She always said she did, and even when he was busy before, more often than not, he would let Twilight come in and show her what he had been working on. Details were usually scarce, but he always explained the basic principles.

Should she try again today? Invite him and Rose to the picnic? Everypony was definitely worried about him…

“Well hello there, Twilight!”

Twilight had been so lost in thought that she almost jumped when Rarity spoke to her from behind. “Oh! Gosh, you startled me. What are you doing here, Rarity?”

The fashionista tisked as she trotted up next to her friend. “One might ask you the same thing, darling. I was just coming by to see if either Alex or Rose wished to come to our picnic. It’s been ages since we’ve seen them, especially Alex.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”

Rarity nudged Twilight’s stiff form with a hoof. “Well why don’t we inquire together, hm?”

“Alright…” Twilight conceded as they made their way to the garage’s front door. “I don’t think they’ll want to come, though. They’ve both been really busy for the past two weeks.”

“Well we’ll just see about that, now won’t we?” The front door whirred open as they passed, just as it always did to the public. “Good evening, Rose! I trust you’re doing well today?”

The eyes of the nearby domestic that usually welcomed ponies turned blue. “Hello Rarity. Twilight. I’m doing well today. Yourself?”

“Oh we’re doing marvelously, thank you for asking,” said Rarity with a chipper smile. “You know, the girls and I are convening for a picnic in a few minutes. Twilight and I were wondering if Alex and yourself would be willing to join us? We’ve hardly seen each other for the past two weeks since the… well, the accident.”

The domestic shook its head. “My apologies, but Alex is currently undergoing therapy. Perhaps some other time.”

Twilight felt a knot form in her gut. “Therapy? What kind?”

“Blood exchange therapy,” was Rose’s answer.

The knot suddenly loosened itself as confusion replaced it. “Huh…? What kind of therapy is that?”

“It’s a form of sensory deprivation during which blood is oxygenated from an alternate source than his lungs and his BCI is connected directly into an exocortex.”

“Sensory deprivation…?” Twilight and Rarity shared an uneasy look. “Isn’t that a form of torture…?”

The domestic shrugged. “Possibly. I wouldn’t know. Alex claims it ‘opens his mind.’ Whatever works for him, I suppose.”

Twilight shook her head. “Right… Could you at least let him know we’re here?”

The domestic crossed its arms. “Alright, but I can’t guarantee an answer you’ll like.” After a brief pause, Rose said, “Well this is a surprise. Alex says you can come down.”

Twilight immediately perked up, an unconscious gasp escaping from her. “Really?!”

“Well we just wanted to invite you both for the picnic, not come—eep!” was what Rarity managed to say before Twilight yanked her into the elevator with her magic. As she was regaining her bearings, she huffed, “You didn’t need to be so forceful about it… we’re here to invite them to a picnic, remember?”

Twilight bit her lip as she glanced away. “I know, but Alex shut himself in and everypony else out for the past two weeks. I guess I just got a bit excited…”

As the elevator door opened, Rose immediately met them with her more human body. Instead of the vibrant red dress she wore at the Gala, however, she wore casual clothing she had recently acquired from Rarity: a pair of black slacks and a simple white blouse.

“Well hello again. If you’ll just follow me, Alex is right this way.” Rose greeted them with a small wave, then guided them past the lab and into the facility’s network of halls before she said, “Just so you both know, Alex is a little underdressed at the current moment.”

Rarity waved her off. “As are we, darling. Honestly, I appreciate clothing just as much as anypony, but I don’t know why he makes such a big fuss about being dressed all the time.”

After a short walk, Rose stopped in front of an automatic door. “All the better for you, I suppose. He’s just in here.”

The door opened at those words, leading into a poorly lit room. It had no apparent lighting of its own, and all of the light that it was receiving was coming from the hall and another room further inside. That adjacent room, however, seemed to be separated by a thick glass window. Based on the light blue color coming from it and the ever so slight swirling patterns Twilight could discern on the floor, neighboring chamber appeared to be completely filled with water. On the side of the room opposite the window was a single chair, with a pile of neatly folded clothes resting on top.

As Twilight stepped inside, her hoof making a loud click as it came into contact with the tiled floor—the same kind one would normally find in a shower. The door closed behind them as they all stepped in, leaving the strange window as the only source of light in the room. Being the only source of curiosity as well, Twilight naturally moved herself in front of it to see what was beyond. What she found, however, froze her legs and choked her heart.

Rarity moved next to her. “Ooo, now this place is interesting. What’s in AH—!” Her shriek was cut off when Rose’s hand shot out and clamped around her muzzle.

Beyond the window was a sealed off room, where Alex floated within. His eyes were closed, and his nude body completely hairless. A mask covered his mouth, with hoses leading out of it and connecting to a large machine that dominated the wall behind him. Other, larger tubes protruded from the machine as well, completely enveloping both of Alex’s arms up to the shoulder, and even his legs halfway up his thighs. Some smaller tubes connected directly into his body, three on each side symmetrically: Just under his ribs, in his lower abdomen, and directly into his lower back.

When Rarity stopped her attempted screeching, Rose carefully removed her hand and asked, “Are you done?”

She hesitantly nodded. “I think… I just… wasn’t expecting this…” After a pause, she quickly covered her eyes and added, “Oohhh… so that’s why he wears clothing all the time… It doesn’t, umm… cover itself up very well, does it?”

Suddenly, Alex’s eyes snapped open, both of them glowing a bright, neon green, and causing both Twilight to yelp in surprise. For a moment, nothing was said—each party staring back at the other in silence. That is, until a strange voice emanated from Rose.

“Hello, Twilight. Hello, Rarity. How are you?” It was still Rose’s body, but the eyes had turned green and its voice sounded more like a twisted mockery of Alex’s, despite being roughly close.

“Um… we’re okay…” Twilight hesitated. “H-how are you?”

“Enlightened,” was his answer.

The two ponies shared a worrying look as Twilight said, “Ooookay… Is that because of your… um… this?” She waved her hoof around in his general direction.

“Yes. I have gifted myself an opportunity, Twilight. To see beyond my eyes. To touch beyond my body. To think beyond my brain. To step into the body of another and experience the world anew. I have opened the door to a realm of existence far beyond our own; one that you couldn't even imagine.”

Rarity let out a loud, nervous cough. “Well, I must say that this is all quite fascinating, but we were on our way to a picnic. We just dropped by to see if you would want to join us.”

Alex’s gaze focused on Rarity. “A picnic. It’s been awhile since I’ve been out and about, hasn’t it? Alright. I’ll cut today’s session short.”

With those words, Alex closed his eyes and Rose’s own returned to their normal color. A deep, vibrating hum filled the room around them as the water in Alex’s chamber drained over the next minute. When the water had been completely evacuated, Alex remained suspended from a large robotic mechanism while many other large arms from the machine behind him extended outward and carefully removed the tubes embedded in his body.

Both Rarity and Twilight gasped in shock as the arms moved to the large tubes connected to his limbs and removed them. At first, they believed they simply covered his legs and arms, but the reality of it all was far more jarring. When the tubes were removed, their associated limbs were nowhere to be found.

Their minds reeling at the discovery, the two ponies stared in stunned silence as another machine extended out and enveloped Alex in red light, drying him in only a few brief moments. Soon enough, it retracted and was replaced with other arms holding what looked like human arms and legs, which were subsequently placed where Alex was missing his own. They appeared very faithful to the originals; even the feet possessed all the necessary toes.

The robotic arms effortlessly slid Alex’s prosthetic limbs into their sockets, which equally shielded their connections from view, while some unseen mechanism between his body and the limbs secured them. The prostheses themselves possessed a pure white casing which was segmented and sleek in its design, though made little effort to disguise their cybernetic nature.

Fully installed, the machine released Alex’s limbs and allowed them to drop to his side before lowering him down to the ground. After a few more loud hisses and pops, the mask over his mouth lifted away, and the mechanism securing his body finally freed him.

Opening his eyes once more, without their disconcerting green glow, the glass wall separating Alex and the ponies finally lowered itself on its own. He smiled, rolling his shoulders as he walked towards them, his new limbs moving as gracefully as their predecessors, and uncaring of his own nudity. “Sorry if I sounded a bit existential there. An exocortex like that really messes with your thought processes.”

Neither of them said a word as Alex nonchalantly walked over to the pile of clothing and began dressing himself. From their new angle, the two ponies could see the mechanically ornate metallic spine running along the length of his back, digging itself into the base of his skull and into his hips, along with a number of new additions they were pretty sure weren’t there two weeks ago.

After a while, he noticed their silence and eyed them curiously as he finished putting on his socks. “Hey, you two awake over there?”

Twilight shook her head in an attempt to organize her thoughts. “Sorry, I just… I’m having a bit of difficulty figuring out… why?”

Alex blinked at her as he was slipping on his pants. “Hm? Why what?”

“This!” Twilight cried, waved a hoof at Alex. “All of this! Last time I saw you, you were missing a forearm, and now you’re missing everything! And that thing in your back it… Why?”

“Necessity,” Alex answered simply with a shrug.

“Necessity?!”

“Well yeah. After I finished the forearm, I had a new hand, but I didn’t have the same strength in my arm as I used to. So I decided to surgically amputate the rest and work from there. But then my arms were unbalanced, so I replaced the other one too. But then I had to install an endoskeleton, otherwise I would’ve been able to pull my arms out of my sockets just by pushing my hands together too hard.” He twisted his back to show them the mechanical spine, pointing to it with a thumb. “That’s what this thing is. Can’t really see it, but it connects to my shoulders between the scapula and clavicle.”

“And your legs? Your other eye? They were just fine; Why those?”

Alex shrugged, giving her an innocent smile. “Why not?”

“But isn’t that uncomfortable…?” Rarity asked, nervously rubbing a foreleg. “Having all those bits just… digging into your skin like that?” She finished with a shudder.

“Sure, it was at first, but I got used to it,” Alex answered as his new hands gracefully buttoned up his short-sleeved shirt. “Now? I hardly notice a thing. Plus, I honestly feel better than ever. Take this for example: humans aren’t really the fastest creatures around, but we make up for it in endurance—if we’ve got the stamina, of course. I had neither speed, nor much stamina.” He slipped on a pair of shoes and stamped the ground twice with a foot. “Now I have both.”

“Well, if that’s the way you see things…”

“It is the way I see things.” Alex picked up a short-haired wig from the chair and stood in front of Rose, where both of their eyes began to glow green as they stared at each other. He continued as he adjusted the hair-piece. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve had nothing to lose and everything to gain from the procedures. Sure, my former limbs worked perfectly fine, but these ones work just as well; if not better.”

After he finished adjusting his hair to look just like it used to several months ago, Alex’s and Rose’s eyes returned to their normal color and he turned back towards his guests with a clap of his hands. “So, what was that about a picnic?”

In the field just outside Ponyville, four mares and a dragon had set up a white and red checkered blanket on the grass. Cakes, apples, sandwiches, and fresh drinks were neatly laid out, ready for the picnic to start. Spike sat on the blanket with his legs outstretched, nervously tapping his claws against a pair of rolled up letters. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were busy lounging while sharing two halves of a sandwich while Fluttershy carefully poured herself a cup of lemonade.

Unlike the others, however, Pinkie Pie refused to relax, and instead kept her head high, silently scanning the area like a submarine’s periscope for their missing companions. After only a few minutes of this, she let out a pleased gasp and pointed off in the distance. “There they are! And they have Alex and Rose with them!”

Before anypony was even able to acknowledge her outburst, she leapt up from her position and galloped towards her arriving friends.

Alex waved over at her with a smile. “Hey, Pinkie. How are— whoa!”

Pinkie, in her usual fashion, prevented Alex from finishing his sentence by running straight up to him while leaping with her forelegs outstretched for a classic tackle-hug. However, her attempt failed when Alex’s legs unconsciously braced themselves against the ground and his arms snapped out to catch her just under her forelegs. Her momentum wasn’t completely stopped, as her hind legs continued to swing forward and accidentally hit Alex in the gut, forcing his breath out of him, although he remained standing.

Pinkie instantly covered her mouth. “Oh no! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you! Nice catch, though.” Her eyes widened for a breath of an instant. “Wait a second!” Pinkie raised her forelegs and spied his new prosthetic left arm. “Holy ravioli! You have a hand again!” She raised her forelegs over her head and slinked out of Alex’s grasp, whereby she grabbed onto the shiny new appendage with a hoof and tugged him over towards the others. “Everypony look! Alex has a new hand!”

Applejack shot a skeptical glance their way, tilting her hat slightly upwards, while Rainbow Dash looked up from her position with wide eyes. “Whoa, seriously?”

Practically dragging Alex the entire way, Pinkie thrust Alex and his arm in front of her. “Look! There it is!”

More amused than anything else, Alex allowed Pinkie to swim in her excitement by flexing his new cybernetic fingers and wrist. Rainbow Dash simply stared at it in juvenile wonder. “Whoa… That’s so cool…! And you can just control it with your mind? Can you feel it when I poke you here? What about here?”

“Yeah, I can,” Alex grinned. “It communicates directly from my nervous system, and even my BCI. Took a bit of training and therapy, but now it moves and feels just as well as the original.”

“Look’s like that ain’t the only thing ya did to yourself,” Applejack commented, earning a confused look from Pinkie and Dash. She jerked her head back towards Alex. “Last time Ah checked, he only lost his left hand…”

It took a moment for them to realize what Applejack was talking about, and at that point, Alex raised his right hand and flexed its digits as well. “Nice of you to notice, AJ,” he said.

“Ya ain’t exactly makin’ an effort to hide it.”

“Wait, are you telling me that you actually cut off your other hand on purpose?” asked Dash, more than a little bewildered.

“Nope.” Alex quietly unbuttoned his shirt and exposed his hybrid shoulder. “The entire thing. Both arms.”

Stunned silence was his response, accompanies by stupefied stares. Eventually, while pouring herself a glass of lemonade, Rarity said, “Yes, that was more or less our reaction as well.”

“But why?” Fluttershy asked Alex, her brow creased up in worry.

“Because it was lopsided,” he answered, buttoning his shirt back up again while he frowned in frustration. “The forearm prosthesis felt weird, so I replaced the whole damn thing. But then the right arm couldn’t compare, so I had to balance it out. I don’t get why you guys are making such a big deal out of this.”

“But why wouldn’t we be making a big deal out of this!” Fluttershy cried. “You’re mutilating yourself! You’re tearing your own body apart!”

“Correction: I’m improving myself,” Alex stated matter-of-factly as he sat himself down on the blanket, legs outstretched and crossed while his arms propped him up. “You probably don’t agree, but that’s just the fact of the matter. Now, I’m faster; stronger; better than I was before. You can’t argue with resul—.”

“What the hay?!” Twilight suddenly shouted, silencing Alex and stealing everyone’s attention.

Twilight, who had been completely silent up until this point, stared slack jawed at one of the letters Spike previously held. Everyone remained quiet, expecting some sort of answer for her outburst, but when Twilight continued to gape at the letter floating in front of her, Rose took the opportunity to stand behind her, hold her hands behind her back, bend over, and unceremoniously read over the unicorn’s shoulder.

“Oh, I was expecting this,” said Rose. “It would seem that we’ve all been invited to a royal wedding up in Canterlot, between a one Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor.”

“Wait, there’s a third fucking princess? Are you kidding me?” Alex blurted, earning himself a less than delicate tap in the side of the head from Applejack. “Oowww…”

“So it would seem,” Rose answered. “Although I find it curious that I’ve never heard of either one of these individuals before.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to agree with both of you,” Rarity added, more than a little perplexed. “A third Equestrian princess by that name is certainly news to me. And while an invitation to their wedding is undoubtedly an honor, I can’t say I’m aware of having any social connections with the good captain either, which makes this all just a little bizarre…”

Everypony else nodded and mumbled in agreement, prompting Twilight to carefully roll the letter back up and take a deep breath. “The reason we were all invited is because Shining Armor is my brother,” she announced.

Nobody made a single sound for exactly two heart beats, whereupon Alex squealed, “Daaaaaaaaamn! I didn’t even know you had a brother! Congratulations!”

Everypony else suddenly expressed their own form of happy congratulations, though quickly quieted down when they all noticed the acidic scowl on Twilight’s face.

Rose tilted her head as she gave her a curious look. “You seem less than pleased.”

Twilight scoffed as she stomped off to the edge of the picnic blanket. “Gee, is it really that obvious?” she snarked, her voice drenched in sarcasm.

After everyone shared a quick glance of concern, Applejack asked, “What’s wrong, Twilight? Somethin’ like this is great news!”

“Yeah, great news that I just got from a piece of paper,” Twilight harumphed. “You’d think that he would have told me about something like this in person, but noooo, I learned that my big brother is making one of the biggest life changing decisions of his life from an invitation to a wedding that’s taking place tomorrow! And ‘Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?!’ Who in the hoof is that?!”

By the time Twilight had finished her rant, steam practically bellowed from her nostrils as she gave her friends the most furious snarl she had ever produced. Of course, Alex’s first thought was to comment on how he was pleased to know that the third princess was just as much of a mystery to everyone else as it was to him. But after observing the rage radiating off of Twilight, he decided it was probably a much better idea to keep his mouth shut this time around.

Rose, however, didn’t much care for Twilight’s anger and instead smoothly walked over to the unicorn, pinched the end of her horn, lowered herself so that her gaze was level with Twilight’s, and firmly stated: “Calm yourself.”

After she gave Rose a quick, doe-eyed stare, Twilight closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and slowly let out her breath. Rose released Twilight’s horn once she reopened her eyes. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to be so snappy. It’s just that Shining armor and I have always been so close! He’s my BBBFF.”

While everyone was busy exchanging confused looks, Rose wryly responded with “Gesundheit,” earning herself a flat look from Twilight.

“My Big Brother Best Friend Forever,” Twilight clarified.

“OH!” “Now I get it!” “Gotcha!” everyone chorused.

Twilight sighed as she paced towards the side of the blanket facing Canterlot. “Before I learned the value of friendship, Shining Armor was the only pony I ever really thought of as a friend. We did everything together! He taught me basic magic; how to fly a kite; how to make instant noodles… All sorts of things! We even shared our hopes and dreams with each other…” She brought her head low, tears brimming in her eyes. “I just… I thought he would be my big brother best friend forever… Well, forever…”

Applejack walked up to her friend, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Your brother sounds like a real good guy, Twilight. Ah’m sure he had a good reason for telling you it this way.”

“He better,” said Twilight, raising her head. She quickly flashed a smirk as she and Applejack made their way back to their respective resting spots on the blanket. “But yeah, he is pretty awesome. I mean, they don’t just let anypony become captain of the royal guard.”

While everypony was busy gasping in surprise at the fact that they had been invited to attend a wedding between a princess and the captain of Celestia’s royal guard, Rose quickly and loudly interjected. “Hold that thought. If your brother is the captain of the royal guard, would that entail being in charge of the security and law enforcement of Canterlot?”

Twilight rubbing her chin. “Yeah, I think so. Why?”

“Then would it have anything to do with that?” Rose gestured behind herself with a thumb, pointing towards Canterlot itself, where a large amethyst colored sphere surrounded the entire city along its mountainside vista. “Just thought I’d point out this rather obvious detail: it seems to me that the entire city has some form of shield around it. If the wedding is really taking place tomorrow, then I think it would be safe to assume that that has something to do with it.”

“Makes sense,” Alex commented. “If your brother’s in charge of the security detail, I can’t imagine he had much time to tell you. Doesn’t really help that you live in different cities, either. I mean, letters are nice and all, but they’re not exactly instant messaging.”

“Not unless you use magic like Princess Celestia does,” Twilight countered. “Wait… Spike, wasn’t there a second letter?”

“Oh right!” said Spike as he reached behind himself for the second letter. “Here you go!”

Twilight unrolled the letter in her magic and read it aloud: “Dear Twilight, I am sure you are as excited as I am for the upcoming wedding in Canterlot. I will be presiding over the ceremony but would very much like you and your friends to help with the preparations for this wonderful occasion. Fluttershy, I would like you and your songbird choir to provide the music. Pinkie Pie, I can think of no one more qualified than you to host the reception. Applejack, you will be in charge of the catering for the reception.

“Rainbow Dash, I would very much appreciate it if you could perform a sonic rainboom as the bride and groom complete their ‘I do’s. Rarity, you will be responsible for designing the dresses for the bride and her bridesmaids. As for you, Twilight, you will be playing the most important role of all: making sure everything goes as planned. For Alexander, I unfortunately have no pressing requests, as while security is a pressing issue these days, it is already being looked after by my royal guard and Captain Shining Armor himself. See you all very soon. Yours, Princess Celestia.”

While everypony was swooning over the roles they had been given, especially Rarity who had subsequently passed out from excitement, Alex and Rose shared a perplexed look. Alex’s attention was then directed downward as a series of words in black lettering appeared on the blanket between them: That’s not what Celestia told me at the Gala.

Alex frowned at the phrase. If Rose wasn’t telling him that out loud, then she must have had an interesting reason for it. Concentrating on the words on the blanket, Alex erased the sentence and replaced it: Private talk?

Rose nodded to him once before turning to the others. “Well as interesting as this is, the next train for Canterlot leaves within an hour. Since the wedding is taking place tomorrow, I suggest we all hurry and gather our things.”

Rarity shot up from her fainted position. “Oh my gosh! You’re right, we have to hurry!” Without so much as a goodbye, she jumped up and galloped off in the direction of carousel boutique.

“Okay… How about we all meet at the train station in fifty minutes?” offered Alex. “Something tells me that shield up there won’t exactly let a Raven through.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Twilight. “Alright everypony, we’ll meet at the train station in fifty minutes.”

Alex and Rose started making their way back to the facility on their own. Once they were far enough away from the park, Alex asked, “You gonna let me in on something I don’t know?”

“After we split up at the Gala, Celestia requested to speak to me privately,” Rose stated, keeping her gaze ahead. “She wished to conduct business with us with regards to this exact wedding.”

“Wait, she told you about this two weeks ago?”

“Yes, though she was scarce on the details.”

“Well that doesn’t surprise me. What kind of business did she want from us, anyway?”

“She wanted to hire us to provide extra security, which makes this letter a little confusing to me.”

Alex frowned as the facility’s front door opened for them, a wave of cool air washing over him as they walked in. “Maybe she had second thoughts? Maybe she thinks her guards are up to the task?”

The elevator opened up for them and the two made a beeline for it. “Perhaps, although her exact words with regards to her guards were: ‘They will be as capable as they need to be, but a little extra help couldn’t hurt.’”

As the elevator closed behind them, the garage level became deathly silent. At least, for a brief number of seconds until the front door hissed open again, allowing the entrance of a white pegasus with a cotton candy pink mane. Saddlebags strapped snugly to her sides almost hid her cutie mark depicting the sun being flanked by a pair of small grey clouds.

A domestic Liandri loitered near the entryway, and sprung into motion upon spotting the newcomer, startling her. The Liandri, however, ignored the mare’s reaction and continued with its scripted message. “Greetings. Welcome to the Liandri Science and Technology Research Facility, bringing you tomorrow, today. I am domestic unit number seventeen. You may refer to me as ‘Dom.’ How may I be of assistance?”

The pegasus stared wide-eyed at the domestic bot as she took in its appearance. Lowering the hoof she raised to potentially defend herself, she said, “Oh hello… Nice to meet you.”

“How may I be of assistance?” the Liandri repeated with the exact same intonation as before.

“Oh it’s okay, I don’t need any help,” the pegasus said, pacing around the garage and gazing at various curiosities. “I was just passing through Ponyville, and when I heard about this place, I just felt the need to see it for myself.” She paused at the spot where Alex had previously built numerous vehicles by hand. While it was empty, the locale was still ready and equipped to accommodate a manual repair job. “Wow… just look at all this…”

Very shortly after satisfying her curiosity, she marched up to the domestic. “Thank you for allowing me to see this place. It’s very impressive!” As she said those words, she carefully slid her wing into one of her saddlebags, and when she removed it, a rolled up scroll tattered to the floor. “Perhaps I’ll visit again some time!”

With that said, the unnamed pegasus gleefully made her way to the exit.

“One moment, miss,” the domestic interrupted, causing her to pause and cautiously look back. The domestic bent forward, picked up the scroll, and held it out towards her. “You dropped something.”

She glanced at the scroll, then back up at the domestic’s face and smiled as she shook her head. “Sorry, that’s not mine. It’s probably yours.” She then turned away and walked out of the garage without another word, the domestic staring after her.

In that moment, the domestic’s eyes turned blue and it looked down to more closely examine the scroll. It was rolled up neatly and bound by wax with Princess Celestia’s seal on it. Curious… Breaking the seal, Rose unfurled the scroll and read its contents: a letter addressed to Alex and herself. Taking a couple of seconds to read and commit the letter to memory, the domestic crumpled the letter and handed it off to the nearest Blue for incineration.

“Okay, I’ll admit, it sounds pretty fishy,” said Alex as the elevator door opened to his room. “But hey, if she says she doesn’t need us, then she probably doesn’t need us.” Picking up his travel bag from next to the elevator and throwing it on the bed, he added, “Although I can damn well say that I feel way safer around the Liandri than I do around her guards.”

“You’ll brook no disagreement from me,” said Rose as she sat down on the bed next to his bag. “Although Celestia’s behavior was rather odd. I don’t know exactly what it is, but she’s afraid of something; that much is clear.”

Alex frowned as he grabbed an extra set of clothes from his wardrobe and packed them into his bag. “Afraid of something? Think it’s us?”

“Perhaps. If that’s the case, then it would explain her eagerness to get on our good side.”

Alex hummed in thought as he stared into his wardrobe. “It would… Hey Rose, what happened to my red— Oh…” He groaned. “Fuck, that means I have to go with a white dress shirt…”

“And that’s a problem why?”.

“Because white’s fucking boring.” He reached into his wardrobe and pulled out a white shirt, holding it up for inspection. “I mean come on, a suit that has no other colors than black and white? That’s about as generic as you fucking get.”

Rose suddenly stood and held up a hand to interrupt him. “That can wait. We just got another letter.”

Alex shot her a confused look. “Wait what?”

On the wall above the head of his bed, the words of a letter materialized for Alex to see as Rose pointed to them. “See for yourself.”

Dear Alexander and Rose,

If the courier of this letter is timely, then you will no doubt already be aware of the contents of the letters sent to Twilight. According to my previous requests, I have no need of your services. This is incorrect. I simply did not wish to make a formal request of you, as I would prefer our business to remain out of the public eye, even to Twilight and her other friends. With that said, I ask that you destroy this letter once you have read and understood its contents.

I would like to request that you bring at least half a dozen of your finest guards—the ones in red armor, I believe—and whatever other equipment you feel would be necessary to keep both yourselves and others protected during the wedding. I leave this discretion up to you.

When you arrive in Canterlot, do not discuss my request with anyone, but instead, offer your willful assistance to the guard. I have instructed Captain Shining Armor to accept any help you may offer to bolster our security forces, and to be aware of your flying machine, should you so choose to come to Canterlot with it. I promise that you, like Twilight and her friends, will be generously compensated for your services.

In advance, thank you for your assistance with this momentous occasion.

Yours truly,

Princess Celestia

Alex reread the letter again, making sure he completely understood what was going on. Inhaling a large breath, he abruptly turned to Rose and said, “Well that doesn’t seem sketchy at all, now does it? Who the fuck delivered this?”

Rose shook her head. “I don’t know. It was an unidentified pegasus. She dropped the letter out of her bags, but when the domestic tried to return it to her, she simply said it wasn’t hers and left. The letter had Celestia’s seal on it. I’m tempted to believe it’s legitimate.”

“Do you?”

“I’m more inclined to than not.” Rose crossed her arms as she stared at the letter on the wall. “Celestia is afraid of something. If what she told me at the Gala is the truth, then whatever it is involves her, us, and something else. Whatever it is, it’s serious enough that she wants to keep it a secret from Twilight, and even Luna. This doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.”

Alex mirrored her pose. “So she was willing to talk to you about it but not her own fucking sister?”

“To an extent, yes. In fact, she said that Luna, among a number of other ponies, must never know about her fear of whatever it is.”

Alex growled as he lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “She is so hiding something… Think it has something to do with that shield?”

“Perhaps. Though if her tics were any indicator, it seemed like something much bigger than this. Needless to say, I have my doubts.”

“Hmmm…” Alex scanned the letter again, examining the wording. “She definitely sounds a lot more serious in this letter. And that last sentence looks out of place - like it was tacked on.”

“As if she were trying to dispel the underlying message?”

“Yeah.” Alex looked over at Rose. “Any thoughts on a course of action?”

“Yes.” She looked back at him. “I think we should do what she says.”

Alex nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do. We only have the two prototypes, right?”

“Correct.”

“Alright then.” As the letter vanished from the wall, Alex resumed his packing. “How long will it take to build the last four Reds?”

“It’ll take some time to refine, mold, and temper the metals. The circuit boards and other electronics all need to be made from scratch, and I need to refit the assembly lines to accommodate Novas. All in all, it’ll take approximately two hours.”

“Get to it. Actually…” Alex hummed to himself as he zipped up his bag. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think this wedding was in the TV show. Something tells me we’re going want a subtle, but strong Liandri presence to deter anyone from pulling anything.” He snapped his fingers as a thought came to him. “I got it. Get the Exo to The Pits for a new paint job. I’m going to head down there now and direct it. Here, take my bag to the Raven. I also want you gather my tinkering equipment and my pencil box.”

Alex extended the handle on the bag before handing it off to Rose, and the two of them entered the Elevator anew. “What about our meeting at the train station?” Rose asked.

“Fuck…” Alex muttered as the elevator began its descent. “Just send a unit to meet them and tell them not to wait up for us—we’ll be going to Canterlot later.”

“Done. And if you’re going to be bringing your own ‘toy,’ then with your permission, I would like to construct an AVRiL for any extreme situation that may occur.”

Alex slowly turned towards Rose with a grossly perturbed face. “An AVRiL? Don’t you think that’s just a little too excessive?”

Rose returned his look with a critical gaze. “And the Exo isn’t?”

While Alex inhaled to argue against her, he held in his breath for an extra moment as he allowed his thoughts to catch up, finally ending with: “Fair point.”

The elevator opened at the level of the hangar and Rose walked out with Alex’s travel bag in tow. The door immediately closed behind her and Alex continued his descent further into the bowels of the facility. If this trip to Canterlot was going to be anything, boring wasn’t it.

Later that day, on the balcony of one of Canterlot Palace’s highest towers, stood Princess Celestia, gazing outward through a telescope, searching for what anypony would assume would be the threat that looms over her capital’s head. Any passing observer could note her sentry duty from below, but only a keen eye would notice that her telescope never moved from its point of focus: Ponyville.

Celestia’s eye had been lingering on the roof of the Liandri facility for a number of minutes until she heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching from somewhere behind her. Lifting her head to see who it was, she was met with the image of the third alicorn, the pink Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. “Ah, you’re back! I take it you’ve met with Twilight?”

Princess Cadence nodded. “Just did. She seems suspicious, so I’d say we’re on track.”

Celestia met her nod. “Good to hear. Oh, and did you deliver the letter to Alexander?”

Cadence’s face lit up as she stood by Celestia on the balcony. “I did! I have to say, you weren’t kidding. He’s built some very impressive things. Think it’ll be enough?”

“It’ll have to be,” Celestia said with a sigh. “I’ll be honest, Chrysalis, the next few weeks are going to be the most stressful time of our lives.”

The disguised Changeling queen sighed as well. “You don’t have to remind me. It’s not like we’ll have more than one chance to get this right, after all.”

“No, we won’t…” Celestia clicked her tongue. “For now, I just hope that the extra security Alexander brings doesn’t put you in too much danger.”

“You and me both,” Chrysalis agreed, pursing her lips. “I just hope the Overseer buys it all. If he thinks I deliberately let him live…”

“Yes. I know.” Celestia looked through the telescope in time just to see the aperture on the roof of the Liandri facility opening. The flying machine that had served as transportation during the Gala hovered out of it soon after. “Ah, it seems Alexander and Rose are leaving for Canterlot now. You’ll have to excuse me while I go alert Shining Armor. Do you know where he is?”

“Near the training grounds, I think,” answered Chrysalis.

“Thank you.” With a gracious nod, Celestia flashed away in an instant to another part of the palace.

Twilight sighed to herself as she traveled along the palace walls. Guards were standing every few meters, keeping a constant vigil, and yet none were aware of the storm of thoughts invading her mind. So many things happening at once, so many new sources of stress… Twilight inhaled a deep breath and just as carefully released it.

After speaking with her brother, she learned that the reason she hadn’t learned about the wedding from him was because he had only proposed to Cadence a week ago, and since then, some form of threat had been issued against the city of Canterlot. Naturally, between his job and the wedding, he had no time to tell anypony. It didn’t help that Shining Armor was the only pony that could cast a shield spell powerful enough to surround the entire city.

At least his reasons for not telling her personally were sound.

Cadence, on the other hoof, seemed… different. As it turns out, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was her old foalsitter turned formal Equestrian princess. Almost too formal. When Twilight was just a filly, Cadence had been extravagantly friendly and one of the best ponies to ever be around! Now, she seemed more distant. Colder. Practically a glacier! It was as if she didn’t even remember who Twilight was!

As Twilight’s thoughts wandered, so too did her gaze when it caught a flicker of something in the sky, beyond the border of Shining’s shield. Twilight squinted her eyes to get a better look, but the action proved unnecessary as the unidentified flying object quickly came closer: it was Alex’s dropship.

I thought they were going to take the next train…?

The Raven quickly approached the spherical shield, but abruptly slowed down and hovered next to it. It only stayed in place for a few seconds until a large, circular hole appeared in the shield, just big enough for the Raven to float through. Once the aircraft had passed safely through, the hole in the shield closed behind it and the Raven made a beeline for the palace courtyard.

From her spot on the ground, Twilight stared up at the sight in awe. The only other time she had seen it in flight was when she was inside it, but from outside, seeing the Raven soar across the enclosed sky was so strange and alien that it exhilarated even her most basic senses. Even the guards around her couldn’t help but stare up at the flying machine making its strange humming noises as it cut through the air. Airships were one thing, but this was something completely different.

And that’s when Twilight noticed it, suspended from the back of the aircraft. She barely managed to make out its shape, and was a different color than the last time she saw it, but the recognition hit her like a ton of bricks.

“Oh no, you brought that thing with you?!” Twilight cried, just before breaking off into a gallop for the courtyard.

In the courtyard itself, the same one where the Raven landed two weeks prior, the exact same aircraft hovered overhead as Celestia and Captain Shining Armor walked out of the palace halls to meet it. The Raven gently lowered itself until it hovered about twenty feet from the ground, whereupon it released the cargo suspended from the back.

A large, humanoid machine dropped the rest of the distance, landing on both feet with a loud, metallic thud, leaving small cracks in the stone tiling beneath it. It was tall, with a pair of rectangular lights on the front, and the metal that composed it was painted in such a way that it appeared to be wearing a black suit with a red tie, save for a section of the machine that was supposedly analogous to a head. Where each hand was supposed to be was instead a trio of shiny, metallic cylinders, fixed around each other.

Shining Armor contorted his face in confusion as he stared at the odd looking metallic giant, thinking aloud: “What the hay is that thing?” Nopony, however, had an immediate answer for him.

As the machine moved out of the way from its landing site, the Raven spun in the air to face away from Captain Armor and Princess Celestia before properly touching down. As the loud hum of the aircraft’s gravity engines died away, the rear cargo door finally began to open, revealing Alex, who began marching down the ramp with his arms held out.

“Good afternoon!” he called out. When he came within talking distance to the Princess, he continued. “Hey, look, I know you said that extra security probably wouldn’t be necessary, but I decided to bring a few things and offer some help anyway.” He directed an exaggerated smile towards Celestia. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Celestia gestured towards the stallion next to her. “I’m afraid I’ve placed Captain Armor in charge of security. You’ll have to ask him.”

Alex turned his attention to the white unicorn standing beside the Princess. He was taller than most ponies, and his purple armor with gold trimming did nothing but attest to his position within the guard. “So you’re Twilight’s brother?” He extended a hand. “A pleasure.”

Shining Armor reached out and shook his hand, cracking a smile at the mention of his sister’s name. “Yeah I am, and likewise.”

Celestia, however, let out a startled, though not unpleased gasp when she noticed that Alex reached out with his left hand. “Oh my goodness, your hand! It’s…”

Alex raised it up for her to see as she struggled to find the proper words. “Fixed? Yeah, to be honest, losing it was more of a temporary inconvenience than anything else. But then again, not very many people can say that.” He turned back to Shining Armor, gesturing towards the Liandri behind him who were busy unloading the equipment they brought with them. Two Reds carried an unmarked bronze colored box, while the rest carried a variety of other seemingly random alien objects. “So, mind having a few volunteers?”

Shining Armor nodded his head. “Well, I’ve heard you’re trustworthy, and that your guards are top-notch. I guess wouldn’t mind some—”

“WHY!?”

The shout tore through the air and imbedded itself in everyone’s ears, and was even enough to make Alex flinch. Looking behind Celestia and Shining, Alex spotted Twilight marching out of the palace with a stare powerful enough to drill a hole cleanly through his head.

“Why did you bring that thing?!” Twilight continued to shout, pointing at the Exosuit that slowly thundered towards them. “We’re preparing for a wedding! Not a barbeque!”

“Thank you for your concern, Twilight,” Rose interjected, coming up behind Alex with both her human body and brass-colored combat chassis, “but the Biomech Mark Two has been refitted since your last encounter with it. I think you’ll find it significantly friendlier with the general public now.”

The three ponies eyed the Exosuit warily as Shining Armor asked what was quite possibly the most pressing question among them: “Um… What exactly is Twilight talking about…?”

Alex leaned back against the stone-still Exosuit as he crossed his arms. “I originally built this thing for Winter Wrap Up. Built flamethrowers instead of hands to melt snow. In hindsight, that was a really stupid idea: a fun idea, but a stupid idea nevertheless. As you can see...” Reaching up, Alex flicked one of the new attachments with a finger, resulting in a light metallic ting, “...we swapped out the flamethrowers for a set of tri-barreled miniguns. Honestly, it’s mostly for show, but they still work.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you brought it,” Twilight pressured.

“If anyone is going to attempt anything aggressive during this wedding, then we can guarantee that the presence of the Biomech will serve as an effective deterrent,” Rose answered be she turned to Shining Armor and added, “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Rose then turned to Celestia. “Now then, would I be correct in assuming we will be given our own quarters for the night?”

The Princess nodded. “Of course! Would you like somepony to lead you to your room?”

“Yes, however I must request that our room be positioned at the highest altitude you have available.”

“The highest…?” Celestia blinked at the request. “I suppose that’s possible, yes. Might I ask why?”

“Simply put, we’ll have an easier time communicating with our facility in Ponyville.”

“Ah, I see.” She turned to one of the guards standing by the door. “Would you kindly see our guests up to the room on the southwestern tower?”

“Yes, your highness,” the guard saluted, before gesturing to the humanoids to follow.

“Go ahead and show these bots, we’ll be coming up shortly—thanks,” said Alex as the Reds carrying equipment marched after the guard. Clapping his synthetic hands together, Alex turned to Shining Armor. “In the mean time, would you mind if you gathered some of your guards together? Prioritizing the ones that are going to be watching over the wedding tomorrow, if you don’t mind. I want to brief them.”

Captain Armor squinted his eyes at him, his discerning look leaving no doubt that he was both confused and skeptical of the request. “I don’t think that’ll be possible right now. Why?”

“A simple reason, really.” Alex held up his hand, whereby a Nova with a red eye placed an Enforcer pistol in his palm. He continued as he began to idly play with the sidearm. “You see, Captain, these Liandri are not tools, and they are certainly no mere guards: they are soldiers. They are composed of the most advanced technology we have available to us, and use comparably sophisticated equipment. If your guards and my Liandri are going to be working together…”

Alex locked eyes with Shining Armor for a split second before he gripped the Enforcer’s handle, whipped his arm to aim to the gun at the nearest tree, and pulled the trigger. The resulting gunshot and splintering of bark startled everyone save for himself and Rose. Casually turning his head back to Shining Armor, he finished: “... then I want them to know just who exactly they’re working with.”

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL There's a link to that since it hasn't been updated in a while.

This chapter is full of goodies, and has been a long time coming. Sometimes, I still find it weird that I've actually written enough to get to this point in the story and it just blows my mind. LOOK, MA! I'M DOING THINGS! Also, you might be pleased to hear that the next chapter is actually almost done! As of my writing this right now, it's at 7214 words. Probably helps that I actually wrote most of it about two months ago... However, I've still got a few bits to add and edit, and I've also made the executive decision that I will NOT publish it until I have also written the second part of The Beginning of The End.

Despair at my Valve time.

Oh, and because I keep forgetting to do this, here's some music that always made me think about Rose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG7IYLByWCI

Memento Mori

View Online

Instead of allowing her thoughts to wander and fester her frustration, Twilight focused on putting one hoof in front of the other as she ascended the large spiral staircase leading to Alex’s room. If there was anyone that would be able to distract her from her troubles regarding Cadence, it would be him.

For some reason or another, he and Rose asked to have a room with as much altitude as possible. All the better, since it at least forced Twilight to focus on how much work she had to put in to just climb up to it. Hopefully he was there… he should have been done briefing the castle guards by now.

Out of sheer curiosity, Twilight decided to stick around and observe one of Alex’s briefings before checking up on the others’ preparations. It was all straightforward and simple: just they way Alex prefered it to be. He elaborated to the royal guards that, in almost any given situation, the Liandri are both decisive and quick to act. If they were around a Liandri when somepony was being aggressive, it was in their best interest to let the Liandri handle the situation lest they get in the way and inadvertently cause more trouble. The fewer variables they had to deal with, the better.

Most of the guards didn’t like the idea, of course, and several were eager to voice their opposition since he was essentially demanding superior jurisdiction. Objections went away pretty quickly after several guards challenged the Liandri to hoof-to-hoof duels, and altogether when Alex demonstrated their equipment. Although after the first two practice dummies caught fire, Shining Armor had them use a big rock as a demo target instead.

As Twilight neared the top of the tower’s stairs, she caught sight of a Nova dutifully standing watch outside the door to Alex’s room. It was already staring right at her, no doubt having somehow noticed her well before she came into view. Just as she opened her mouth to ask it if Alex was inside, the Liandri reached over for the door handle and pushed it open.

“Come on in!” called Alex’s voice.

Huh… that was… oooookay…

Twilight’s mouth snapped shut as she entered into Alex’s room proper, the Nova closing the door behind her. A cursory glance around the circular room told her that Alex had been more than glad to make himself at home already. The present furniture had clearly been moved around, and the repainted Exosuit, deactivated and folded open, sat off to the side. The door to the balcony had been opened as well, and a device roughly as tall as Twilight with a large curved dish had been deployed outside.

That must be some kind of communication device, Twilight thought. They probably wanted such a high up room so that it would work better.

At the far end of the room from her, Alex sat facing away from Twilight on a chair he probably brought from home, hunched over a dresser he decided to use as a makeshift bureau. A portable computer was opened and placed to the side. Two other Novas stood in the room with him: one by door Twilight just came through, and the other right next to Alex. However, the one next to him was… different. While every other Liandri besides Rose normally had yellow eyes, this one’s eye was red.

“So what brings you up here, Twilight?” asked Alex, not bothering to look away from what he was doing.

“How’d you know it was me?”

Alex tapped the side of his head. “The Reds told me.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment. “Right… Where’s Rose?”

“She took the other Reds to go map out Canterlot and get a closer look at that shield of your brother’s,” he said, still not bothering to turn around; somehow managing to simultaneously hold a conversation and remain completely absorbed in whatever he was doing. “Rose wants to make sure she knows her way around the city—because, you know, why not? Oh, and that shield is really cool. We wanna try to replicate it at some point. But I’m sure you didn’t come up here to hear me talk. Something you need?”

Twilight let out a deep sigh, allowing her body to sag, and even suffer a split second of vertigo. “There’s a lot of things on my mind right now, and I’m just too stressed out… I guess need a few distractions.”

“Ah, so you did come up here to hear to me talk. Alright, well I got just the thing.” For the first time since Twilight came in, Alex looked over his shoulder at her and beckoned her over. “Come take a look at this.”

Twilight hadn’t known what to expect really. As far as she knew, it could have been anything. This was a man whom she knew did all manner of things on a whim; like build thermal lasers and replace body parts just because he could. But when she walked over to Alex’s side to see what he was working on, she was presented with the last thing she would have expected from him.

It was a small, open object, with all sorts of obvious, yet benign, electrical components sticking out from the inside. The center of it was dominated by a small board, punctuated with countless tiny holes, all in neat, evenly-spaced rows. Small wires of various lengths and colors connected one row of holes to the next in some pattern she couldn't quite discern. Along the middle of the board was a tiny black object, with pins that connected into at least a dozen different rows. It was all very static, except for the tiny blinking light off to the side.

And that was all it did—blink at a constant frequency.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Alex prompted, a giant smile adorning his face.

It took a moment for Twilight to realize that he had spoken. Of all the things he could have been slaving over, of all the grand technologies he could have chosen to unveil to the world this time, his latest achievement was something that made a light blink?

"It, uh... it is..." Twilight finally said. "Um... what is it?"

"It's a breadboard," Alex answered, his eyes remaining fixed on the blinking light. "Well, a pencil box, technically speaking. Just like the ones I used while I was in school."

Ah, nostalgia. That explains it, then.

"This is how everything started, you know?" he continued, his speech getting noticeably slower. "Rose, Power Cores, the Liandri... it all started ten years ago with this... a blinking LED... back when things were easy..."

Uh oh... Twilight thought as she heard Alex's last words. Nopony says something like that unless there's something really bothering them.

Sure enough, when she focused her attention on the finer details of his face, she could see small tears form around the corners of his eyes. It was barely noticeable, but they were there. And yet, his face appeared as joyous as ever.

"Alex, is everything alright?" Twilight asked, allowing her concern to taint her voice.

"It's so stupid when you think about it. It's just a blinking light. Nothing special about it. But when you use electricity, well placed wiring, and logic chips: when you get that light to blink exactly the way you want it to, it suddenly becomes so much more than that."

"Alex." This time, Twilight laid a hoof over his back. "Is something bothering you? Please."

That did it. Suddenly aware of her concern, Alex's smile quickly cracked and faltered, and he allowed himself a heavy sigh as he stood up and wandered towards the balcony. "Yeah... there is..."

Twilight followed after him. "What is it? Maybe I can help."

Alex sighed again as he leaned against the balcony's marble guard rail, allowing the pristine weather to dictate his thoughts. After a few moments, he allowed himself to speak. "Blood Exchange Therapy is harsh, Twilight. Elevating and enlightening, but harsh. I mean, you're just floating in a tank of water, effectively limbless, hoses hooked up to your body, and your brain tied to a computer that thinks a million times faster than you ever could. I'm only ever in there for half an hour at a time, but with an exocortex like that... Feels like forever. And the only thing you have to pass the time is your thoughts and memories and... it really makes you aware... forces you to think... to remember..."

Twilight reared up and leaned on the railing next to him, gazing out over Canterlot. "Remember what?"

"Everything. Lot of 'what ifs,' though."

Twilight shook her head. "Even I know you shouldn't think about those types of things. I mean, it's not that I don't. I do! Way too much, actually. It's tempting, but... it's a bad idea. All they do is make you regret things. Things you can't change."

"No disagreement here..." The two of them sat in silence for a long moment, allowing the sun to warm them, before Alex finally spoke up again. "I never really told you what I did before all this Liandri shit started, did I? Before the Cores?"

Twilight turned to face him. "Not really, no."

"Lemme ask you this, Twi. What do you think I am? What do you see me as?"

"Um... I'm not really sure I understand the question..."

"What kind of person do you see me as? A genius, a prodigy, someone who just knows things—What?" He turned his eyes towards her. "Be honest with me here."

Twilight returned her gaze back to the city, expelling a breath in a quiet whistle as she did. "Wow… Okay, well... on the face of it, I'd describe you as a scientific genius, I guess. Somepony who possesses a vast wealth of scientific knowledge and who knows how to employ it effectively. Why do you ask?"

Alex turned his eyes outward again. "I'm asking you that because you know just as well as I do that I wasn't just born knowing things. I grew up. I had a childhood. I had to go to school just like everyone else. I had to study—to learn the things that I know. Sometimes, it just feels like people forget that."

She had never really considered the idea, but in the end, Twilight conceded to herself that he was right. To her, Alex just spontaneously appeared out of existence, already fluent in scientific thought and as a near limitless source of knowledge, but nothing was further from the truth. He was born. There was a time when he knew none of what he did today, and at some point, he had to take the time to learn and integrate his knowledge of the world into his very being, just like...

Twilight looked back up at him curiously. "You used to be just like me, weren't you? Completely focused on your studies?"

Alex gave a light sigh as he carefully nodded his head. "For five straight years, yeah. It was worse than you, though. Pushed a lot of people away. I always justified it by telling myself that they never really cared about me as a person: that I was just some really smart guy that they knew, but now... now I'm not so sure..."

Twilight let out a bemused scoff. “You sound so sure that it was worse than me, though. I was pretty bad before I came to Ponyville.”

“I have an idea of what you were like. Spike told me stories way back when. I still think you’re a lightweight.”

Twilight raised a challenging eyebrow. “Oh really? And how, exactly, did you manage to out-study somepony like me?”

Alex chuckled. “I was a pretty normal guy for most of my life. Had friends, hung out with them after school and all that… When I graduated from high school at seventeen and went to CEGEP, though, my friends just kind of… drifted away from me, I guess. I was the only one to go into a science program, and they all went into either liberal arts or social sciences. Didn’t see them terribly much after that. I knew they were still going out with each other, though. They just didn’t bother to invite me and… it hurt, you know?

“I tried making friends during the two years I was at CEGEP, but they felt more like acquaintances than anything else. I wanted to get to know them, but they never really wanted to get to know me. So when I graduated from there and moved on to university... I guess I just abandoned the idea of having a normal social life.”

“That’s when you started to completely dedicate yourself to your studying, isn’t it?” Twilight hypothesized.

He nodded.

"Why do you think your friends did that to you? If you were close before, something must have changed."

"That's..." Alex hesitated. "That's where I'm not so sure. I always told myself that they never really cared, that they just wanted me as a contact just so they had a smart guy on hand. But after going through the Therapy... maybe they actually did care. You remember how I am with alcohol, right?"

"You instantly pass out after a one sip, and then you start yelling at everypony in French after you wake up."

Alex grit his teeth. "That's pretty much the long and short of it, yeah."

"Is that why they never invited you?"

"Kind of... You see, they didn't always leave me uninvited. I'd come along everything now and again, but after we graduated high school, pretty much every single one of their get togethers involved some form of partying: alcohol, marijuana, loud music... even the more benign hangouts."

Twilight scrunched her nose, forcing a strained "eh..." through her throat.

Alex scoffed at her reaction. "Yeah, not my cup of tea either. I tried making it work, but it never did. I couldn't drink alcohol, and I don't even want to imagine what would've happened to me if I tried smoking marijuana. At some point, they usually got either so blackout drunk, sky high, or both that any attempt at intelligent conversation was about as pointless as getting Pinkie to sit still for five minutes. You could try, but it ain’t gonna happen. At some point, I'd just see myself out.

"The thing is, they already knew all this. They knew I refused to smoke, and they knew I couldn't drink alcohol. I always thought the worst about them, but in hindsight... Maybe they stopped inviting me because they also knew I wouldn't enjoy myself..."

"Alex, look at me." Twilight commanded. He did. She frowned directly into his eyes. "Alex, if they were true friends, who really appreciated you, they would have done what they could to include you and make sure that you enjoyed your time with them. They wouldn't have shrugged you off like they did and pretend the problem doesn't exist."

Alex looked outwards again. "We all make mistakes, Twilight. Theirs was not seeing the problem, and mine was not talking to them about it."

Twilight's face softened as she digested his words. She didn't know who all these other humans were, and she definitely didn't know all the nuances of Alex's relationship with them. Maybe they actually were nice individuals? Maybe they actually meant well the entire time, and Alex didn't do a good enough job conveying his distress to them, or even too good of a job hiding it? At this point, only Alex could know, but it was clear to Twilight that this was a question that even he couldn't answer.

The two scientists again returned to their silence, simply observing the cityscape beneath them. Down in the streets, royal guards performed their rounds while nearby pedestrians did their best to ignore their increased presence and continue on with their daily lives. The communication device sitting somewhere behind them periodically emitted a light, echoing beep, a sound Twilight hadn’t even noticed until now. The Raven could be seen from their perch; a large, alien object that appeared from the skies and now dominated a normally docile environment, one that ponies were perfectly content to walk through to completely forgo their worries.

Twilight’s eyes wandered over to Alex. He was leaning against the marble guardrail on his elbows, with his forearms overlapping. The intricacies of his new immaculately white limbs kept her attention glued. She still found it difficult to believe; to remind herself that Alex, at some point within the past two weeks, had willingly amputated his limbs in order to justify using cybernetic replacements. Their movement was so fluid, so natural, so human that she had completely forgotten that they weren’t. Not until she focused on them. Despite how close they were to the originals they mimicked, their metallic exteriors made them anything but.

Technically, Alex was a “cyborg” ever since he replaced his heart and right eye, but it had never been so overt until now. Things like this are normally such big deals, but he just seemed so… casual about it all! As if replacing your own limbs was as normal as breathing! Nothing about it felt right, like Alex was breaking some kind of unspoken rule.

Just… just think about something else…

“You never did answer my question,” Twilight suddenly said. “How did you do your studying?”

“Huh?” Alex glanced over at her in brief confusion before registering her words. “Oh! Shit, I guess I kinda got sidetracked. Um… Not much to it, I guess. I went to McGill university into their mechanical engineering program, worked with the school’s administration to get myself a custom schedule, and then proceeded to brutally murder any kind of social life I had.”

Twilight perked a brow. “Seems pretty broad to me. Couldn’t you be a little more specific? What do you mean when you say you got a ‘custom schedule?’”

Alex clicked his tongue. “You see, every semester, which is roughly half a year, students take a certain number of classes related to their program. They do homework, work on projects, write tests, and at the end of the semester, you write your final exam and you eventually find out how well you did overall. I did things a little differently. I talked with the admins and managed to get myself a schedule that stuffed in more classes than any student would sanely take. Barely left any time for me to eat and sleep when you took all the homework and studying time I had to do. Even they thought I was crazy.

“But you know what? I committed. I did it all. Homework, projects, papers, exams… And my grades were right up there. I studied every single one of my subjects day in and day out. Weekends, weekdays, holidays, school days… didn’t matter to me. Hell, I even did extra studying. By the time I had to take the final exams, I not only did the ones for my usual classes, I asked to take exams for classes I wasn’t even taking. A lot of them were actually outside of my program too, and I aced all of them.

“My the time I earned my Master’s degree in mechanical engineering, I also earned my Bachelors’ degrees in electrical, software, and biomedical engineering. To put things into context for you, most people get a Master’s degree in about five years if they’re really quick about it, whereas I did all that in just two and a half. I started doing research in theoretical, particle, and quantum physics around that time, too. Real fun stuff.”

Alex allowed his words to hang in the air, though only silence filled the space where he expected Twilight to say something. Looking over to her, Alex was greeted by a dumb stare, jaw completely unhinged and mind unresponsive.

Snorting, Alex turned his eyes back towards the distant ponies below. “Told you I was worse.”

After forcing her jaw back into place and reorganizing her thoughts, Twilight finally managed to voice, “Yeah… Yeah, that’s definitely worse than me… To be honest, I’d have a tough time believing you if I wasn’t already familiar with your work habits. You’re like… Well, you’re like a machine, I guess.”

This caused Alex to chuckle. “That’s what people started calling me, actually. ‘The Machine.’ ”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. Word about me and my work habits spread around campus. Speculations turned into rumors, which turned into investigations, blah blah… Couple of school journalists tracked me down for an interview. They were the ones that came up with the nickname, actually.”

Twilight allowed herself a light smile. “Wow… So you became famous around your school, didn’t you? Kind of like in Ponyville.”

“Worse,” Alex huffed.

This derailed Twilight’s train of thought. “Huh? What do you mean by ‘worse?’ ”

Alex sneered to himself. “After I got my first Master’s, the university pretty much let me do my own thing. Offered to let me work in their labs and do my own research. So that’s exactly what I did: I did research. Wrote my own papers. They offered to publish them, so I let them. Only took a few months for practically every major news outlet in North America and Europe to start hounding my ass day and night because of how young I was.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you telling me that you were known internationally?! Why have you never told me this!?”

“Because I fucking hated it, Twilight!” Alex ranted as he slammed a fist into the guardrail, causing Twilight to jump. “I just wanted to do research and math and make things and - and… not have to deal with all these assholes with their cameras and microphones and their calling me the next Albert mother fucking Einstein! I didn’t want their attention! I didn’t want to deal with all their senseless, shallow bullshit!”

The two of them locked eyes for several seconds—Alex’s infused with frustration, while Twilight’s only expressed surprise at his outburst.

Eventually, Alex let out a long sigh. “I... I never told you because it’s just a lot of frustration that I’d prefer to forget..."

“I can see why…” Twilight murmured. “But if you were being bothered by journalists all the time, how did you manage to build your first research facility without them noticing?”

He scoffed at the question, as if she should have known the answer already. “Because the media had the attention span of a mentally stunted goldfish with ADHD. By the time I got that particular ball rolling, it had already been a year and a half since I had done anything interesting. I was just old news.” Under his breath, he added, “Thank fuck for that…”

“Huh…” Twilight nodded in mock understanding. In reality, while she did her best to conceptualize everything he was saying, and despite Alex’s own descriptions of human media in the past, she admittedly had a difficult time truly understanding the scale in which it operated, especially since newspapers seemed to be the only constant between their worlds. “So when did the Power Cores come in? Rose and the EMC?”

Alex let out a long breath as he leaned back against the guardrail, scratching at the back of his neck. “Uh… Let’s see… We’re coming up on May twenty twenty three… Wrote the PhD for December twenty nineteen… Finished the Core during the summer, so… About three, two and a half-ish years now.”

Twilight held up a hoof, as if trying to grab a thought with it. “Wait, back up a second. You have a PhD? You’re a doctor too?”

“Actually, no, I’m not,” Alex clarified. “The paper I submitted for my doctorate was my magnum opus, but it crashed and burned really hard. Made me really emotional, said a few choice words to a few people, ruined my reputation…” He added a chuckle. “Fun times.”

Twilight folded a leg against her chest. “Oh… Wow, I’m… I’m sorry to hear that.”

Alex waved her off. “Eh, don’t be. In hindsight, I actually made a lot of fundamental mistakes. Some you’d might even consider ‘sins of science’ or something like that. I mean, I was right in the end, but I understand why they ripped into it.”

“What was your paper about, anyway?”

Alex opened his mouth to answer, but paused. His mouth quickly formed a smile as he gave Twilight a mischievous look. “Before I answer that, I want you answer me this: how much have you managed to figure out about Power Cores, anyway?”

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat and she immediately perked up. “What! No! I-I haven’t— What would make you think—”

“Don’t lie to me,” Alex teased, reaching over and booping her nose. “I know you’ve been trying to replicate them. I’d be surprised if you didn’t! So come on, tell me! How far have you gotten?”

For a few brief moments, Twilight looked like she was about to run away in a gallop. Instead, her posture wilted and she averted her gaze. “Not very…”

Alex gave her a hearty laugh. “Of course! Twilight, I taught you a lot of things when I was staying with you. Relativity, atomic theory, electricity and magnetism, yaddy yadda… And they’re all important, sure, but I didn’t teach you everything you needed to know to get even remotely close to making a Core. You’re still missing three entire theories.”

As her mind processed his words, Twilight’s eyes dawned in understanding. “Three entire theories? There’s still three entire theories you haven’t taught me?! What are they?”

After chuckling one last time, Alex pushed himself off the guardrail and sauntered back into the room. “Here let me show you. Units! Front and center!”

Being addressed by their maker, the two present Novas made their way to the middle of the room, where Alex asked Twilight to stand in front of them. At this distance, Twilight was able to get a better look at the Nova with the red eye, giving her the opportunity to confirm her suspicions. However, aside from the red eye, it looked completely identical to its adjacent brother.

Except for its name…

On the left pauldron belonging to the yellow-eyed Liandri was the lettering NOVA0003, whereas the other’s was different; spelling out NOVA0002-HYDE.

That’s Nova two…? Twilight thought, perplexed. I’ve seen him a couple of times before, but he’s never had that attached to his name…

“Um… Alex, is this Liandri… different in some way?” Twilight asked, granting him a curious look.

Alex, who had been making odd hand gestures in the air, manipulating something Twilight couldn’t see, looked over at her blankly before realizing what she had asked. “Hm? Oh! Yeah, we gave him some VI upgrades a few days ago. Doing a bit of long term testing to see how they work.”

After several more seconds of Alex waving his hands around in front of himself for seemingly no apparent reason, he looked back to Twilight with a smile. “Okay, I want you to focus on them. What you’re about to hear is something I listened to several years ago, and even inspired me to become who I am today.”

Before Twilight could voice anything else, sound coming from the Novas cut her off, where they asked her one of the biggest questions in history.

So, what are we really made of?”

The Nova with the red eye spoke those words, its eye flashing in time with the syllables while strange music, seemingly coming from both of them, played at the same time. But it was after that question that the music truly enraptured her.

Dig deep inside the atom

and you'll find tiny particles

Held together by invisible forces [Held together by invisible forces]

Everything is made up

Of tiny packets of energy

Born in cosmic furnaces

The Nova with the yellow eye spoke next, in much the same way as the first. They didn’t speak with their usual voices, but those of others’ that have been heavily modified, almost making it sound… normal. For Liandri, anyway.

The atoms that we're made of have

Negatively charged electrons

Whirling around a big bulky nucleus

The Quantum Theory

Offers a very different explanation

Of our world

The universe is made of

Twelve particles of matter

Four forces of nature

The universe is made of

Twelve particles of matter

Four forces of nature

That's a wonderful and significant story

Suppose that little things

Behaved very differently

Than anything big [anything big]

Nothing's really as it seems

It's so wonderfully different

Than anything big

The world is a dynamic mess

Of jiggling things

It's hard to believe

The quantum theory

Is so strange and bizarre

Even Einstein couldn't get his head around it

In the quantum world

The world of particles

Nothing is certain

It's a world of probabilities!

The Quantum Theory

Offers a very different explanation

Of our world

The universe is made of

Twelve particles of matter

Four forces of nature

The universe is made of

Twelve particles of matter

Four forces of nature

That's a wonderful and significant story”

As music filled the lyrical gap, Twilight’s mind buzzed with incoherent thoughts, vainly attempting keep herself grounded. The quantum theory! She believed there were only three particles - protons, electrons, and neutrons - not twelve! What were they? What is this so called quantum world? So many questions and feelings of reverence flooded her mind, heart, and lungs that none of it managed to stick. And then the Liandri began anew.

“It's very hard to imagine

All the crazy things

That things really are like

Electrons act like waves

No they don't exactly

They act like particles

No they don't exactly

We need a theory of everything [we need a theory of everything]

Twilight’s eyes widened at the voice. The others sounded normal, but modified. This one sounded purely robotic. Was this the Liandri talking to her?

Which is still just beyond our grasp [still just beyond our grasp]

They haven’t found it? Really?!

We need a theory of everything [we need a theory of everything]

As Twilight looked up at the Novas speaking down to her, they appeared as a giants, seemingly getting taller as they stood shoulder to shoulder. Marvels; wonders; simultaneously children and titans of science and technology. And they were addressing her! Asking for her help!

Perhaps, the ultimate triumph—

The ultimate triumph of science!

Twilight’s heart pounded in her chest, threatening to rip itself free. The theory of everything… the ultimate triumph of science… And she was the key…!

The Quantum Theory

Offers a very different explanation

Of our world

The universe is made of

Twelve particles of matter

Four forces of nature

The universe is made of

Twelve particles of matter

Four forces of nature

That's a wonderful and significant story

I gotta stop somewhere

I'll leave you something to imagine.

As the music tapered off, Twilight finally managed to catch her breath. One hoof was glued to her chest, trying to keep herself from falling apart while her rubberized legs struggled to keep her standing. It was all so much to take in, and in such a way…! There was still so much she didn’t know; the universe so complex and powerful a place that she was nothing compared to it.

“Humbling, isn’t it?” Alex suddenly said. While Twilight had been distracted by the music, Alex had moved his chair next to her.

“Yeah…” Twilight breathed, allowing herself to fall onto her haunches. “What… What was that?”

Alex inhaled deeply through his nose. “A symphony of science. Not the most up to date thing, mind you: we’ve discovered more than just twelve fundamental particles since then. But all those voices you heard were taken from documentaries and autotuned with the music. They were all real people. Famous scientists and physicists; some of whom I’ve even had the opportunity to discuss with. Before the Cores, anyway.”

“That one voice…” Twilight panted, “the one that… that mentioned a theory of everything… who was that…?”

“Stephen Hawking,” Alex answered. “That man was a scientific icon, mostly because of how iconic he was. He was a victim of some disease. I forget the name, but it left him almost completely paralyzed and wheelchair bound. His brain was still working, though.”

“But if he was paralyzed, then…”

“He spoke through a computer integrated into his wheelchair,” Alex guessed at her question. “He didn’t use a BCI, mind you. One of the few parts of his body he could actually move was his right cheek, so he had a special pair of glasses with a sensor on them that could tell when he twitched it. He used the computer with that.”

“Oh…” Twilight allowed herself an extra moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. Eventually, she said, “He… he mentioned a theory of everything… Are humans still figuring it out?”

Alex bobbed his head side to side. “Eh… yes and no.”

She blinked at the uncertainty of his answer. “What do you mean by that?”

“Technically speaking, yes, humans are still working on it.” Twilight’s eyes lit up at this. “But no, since I already authored it. The Theory of Everything was my PhD paper.”

The words cut through Twilight’s chest like a knife. Another potential grand discovery already taken. Sure, she could have worked on it herself and published it to ponies under her own name. Alex probably wouldn’t care so long as she did the research herself, but it just wouldn’t feel right with the knowledge she wasn’t the first.

Another world changing discovery taken before I could notice… Twilight thought to herself. Suddenly, light returned to her eyes. Unless… “Wait, didn’t you say that your PhD paper was rejected?”

Alex clicked his tongue. “More or less, yeah. Most, if not all of the university’s science staff read the paper and there were a number of… complaints. In hindsight, though, I don’t blame them.”

“What kind of complaints?”

“Testing complaints,” Alex said as he leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other. “Wrote a lot of formulas, identified a couple constants, described a number of quantum events… the problem was, I didn’t have much testing to back most of it up. Almost none, actually. What’s the point of a theory if you’ve got no empirical evidence to back it up?”

Twilight blinked at his explanation, confusion crawling over her mind. “Huh…? Okay, that really doesn’t sound like you.”

“No. No it doesn’t. Even I find it weird.”

“Why did you do it, then? Right now, it sounds to me like you almost pulled your paper out of thin air.”

Alex let out a long breath. “Yeah… I mean, I’d been working on the paper for almost a year, and…” He paused as he leaned forward. “Listen. I was the head of a team of researchers. Mostly students. The university funded virtually everything. I even collaborated with other international physicists, Stephen Hawking being one of them, and even personally detailed and requested experiments for the Large Hadron Collider. And you know what we got for our efforts?

“Nothing. Jack. Diddly. Squat. Between January and October, we burned through our funding and we had nothing to show for it.” Alex leaned back into his chair, almost slouching, with a thousand mile stare. “I hit a wall… I didn’t know what to do, I… I…” He released a long sigh as he raised a hand to idly rub his forehead. “It was my single biggest failure as a scientist, Twilight. It… It was hard… By the end, I only had three... two other people left with me…”

Twilight placed a hoof over his knee. “It’s okay, Alex. We both know that success is never a guarantee. But that doesn’t mean you can just make up a theory like that.”

The two of them shared eye contact for a moment, and Twilight gave him a weak smile. Alex soon returned it before he chuckled under his breath and shook his head. “I had a dream, Twilight.”

She kept up her smile, giving Alex’s knee a reassuring pat. “We all have dreams like that, Alex, but we can’t—”

“Not that kind of dream,” Alex cut her off. “It was sleeping kind of dream. I don’t remember what it was about except that it involved the color green, but after I woke up one night, things just… made sense to me, you know? It was like… like the secrets of the universe decided to come out of hiding and present themselves to me. Like I was truly able to stare into the face of creation for the first time in my life. After that, I overhauled the theory, freshened up my paper, and handed it in for review two months later.”

Twilight sat on her haunches as she listened. A lot of what Alex was saying didn’t sound like good science at all, and by extension, didn’t sound like him. Why would he, of all humans, write such an important paper based largely on a dream? It couldn’t have been a very good paper if that was the case. “I’m sorry to say this, Alex, but that sounds really sketchy. Especially for you.”

“And I agree with you!” Alex exclaimed, leaning forward as he held his hands up in the air. “It doesn’t make any sense to me either! I feel like I put that theory together with information I pulled right out of my ass! But look at the end results.” He gestured towards the Liandri. “I’d say they speak for themselves. I’m still not sure how, but I was right.”

“Huh…” Twilight scratched her head in confusion as she eyed the Liandri. One way or another, the results were something she definitely couldn’t argue with. “What exactly was in your paper, anyway?”

Alex let out a long sigh as he slouched back into his chair. “Um… Well, there were a number of equations that described complex quantum events. Most of them were several pages long. The bulk of it was essentially dedicated to taking the probability out of quantum mechanics. At some point it gets into PCE, though most of that was a grey area at the time…”

Twilight held up a hoof. “Wait a second. You wrote about magic?”

Alex chuckled lightly. “Heh, you know, one of my lab assistants actually called it that once… But yeah. I did.”

“But magic is related to the Cores. I thought you kept that secret?”

Alex crossed a leg over his knee and placed a hand over his elevated foot, idly tapping at the sole of his shoe as he stared off into space. “At first, I didn’t. I included a section on the potential use of PCE. Power Cores, how they would work, and so on…” He sighed as he stopped tapping his shoe. “I still wanted to contribute. To help humanity…”

“But then your paper got rejected?”

He bobbed his head in confirmation. “More or less, yeah. Research errors aside, they thought the idea was ridiculous, confusing, and just plain couldn’t work… I spent the following months building one just to prove them wrong. When I actually got it working I… I…” He clicked his tongue. “I got cold feet. I got paranoid.” Alex finally met Twilight’s eyes. “You know the rest from there.”

“Wow…” Twilight’s eyes drifted to a corner of the room. She remained silent for several long seconds until, eventually, she glanced back up at the Novas. “But because they rejected your idea, it enabled you to develop the cores yourself! And now look at where you are; at what you’re able to do!”

Alex allowed himself a smile as he followed Twilight’s gaze. “Yeah. Pure scientific progress, without the need for funding, rules, regulations, or restrictions from others who protest your research despite knowing exactly nothing about it.”

Twilight looked back up at him, her face contorted in confusion. “Wait, that last one was a problem for you?”

“Not for me, no,” Alex said with a small shrug, “but it did happen every now and again. Stem cell research is the best example I can think of off the top of my head. Virtually everyone who opposed it was a religious zealot who thought they were experimenting on dead babies or something. They weren’t, but it’s not like the people they were telling that to were actually willing to listen.”

“Oh!” Alex clasped his hands in realization as he stood up and moved his chair back towards the improvised desk. “That reminds me! I’ve been doing a bit of research of my own, lately, and I’d to share it with you. It’s about magic.”

“Really?” Her interest thoroughly piqued, Twilight trotted over to him and watched as he conjured up documents on his portable computer.

“Yup! But first, lemme ask you this…” Alex quickly turned towards Twilight. “When you use magic, you draw Power Core Energy into your horn from somewhere, right? Where do you think you get that energy from?”

Twilight peered curiously at him. “Didn’t we already tell you this? Every book on the subject says we draw the energy from within ourselves—”

“Ah!” Alex immediately snapped his fingers, then placed one finger against Twilight’s nose in one fluid motion. “That’s what they say, but they got it wrong! Here, look at this…” He pulled up a document on the computer containing numerous photos of unicorn anatomy. “About a month back, we got some unicorns to come by for some volunteer testing. First, we scanned every inch of their body; to the point that they only way we could’ve gotten a more detailed image would have been to dissect them.” He scrolled further down. “As you can see, we paid extra special attention to the horn, of which we noticed actually vary from one unicorn to the next.”

Alex turned to another document. “The rest of their biology turned up nothing special. As far as Rose and I know, research-wise, PCE is an extra-dimensional element that can only be generated by Power Cores and similar technology. Having an organic creature capable of generating it on its own? It would be mindboggling! Horns can channel it, but don’t generate it, so you’d need some kind of incredibly complex, if not impossible organ to do that. The thing is, though, that unicorn anatomy seems completely ordinary. Aside from the horn, the organic system is completely identical to other types of ponies. We even double checked this with the hospital staff.

“So we had this weird idea…” Alex turned to another document. Twilight wasn’t able to read all the writing, as Alex was scrolling through it so quickly, but she managed to see several pictures of what looked like Lyra sitting alone in a metal cube with various objects. “We had Lyra sit inside of a container that prevented PCE from traversing through it and asked her to cast a simple levitation spell.” Alex looked back at Twilight and cupped her cheeks in his hands, a manic grin on his face. “Guess what happened!”

“What happened?” she answered lamely.

“Nothing!” Alex cheered as he threw his hands in the air. “She couldn’t do it! It was like her horn wasn’t even there! It was just,” He blew a raspberry, “completely useless! And look at some of the things she said afterwards: ‘When I walked in, it felt like I left a part of myself outside, and when I couldn’t levitate the ball, I felt genuinely scared that something was wrong with me. But when I came out, everything was fine.’ And look! Every other test subject reported something similar! Do you know what this means?”

“It means we were wrong about the origins of magic the whole time…” Twilight’s eyes blazed over the testimonies as Alex scrolled through them. “But if we don’t create it ourselves, where does it come from?”

“Take a look at this.” Alex switched to another set of documents. “We did an experiment where we placed PCE detectors on the test subject’s horn, then placed them in a sphere of detectors inside of a larger sphere of detectors. Look at what happened when they cast a spell…”

Twilight focused as a video on the screen began to play. All she could see was a collection of countless grey dots arranged in two circular patterns, one inside the other, with a clump of dots near the center. Suddenly, a few dots near the top of the screen turned to a bright yellow color, first in the outer circle, then the inner. The clump of dots near the center were next to light up, followed by all the dots around the inner circle, and then the larger one.

“Let’s see that again…” Alex restarted the video and pointed at the top of the screen. When the first dots began to light up, he said: “Bam. That moment right there is when PCE gets picked up by the detectors. The outer sensors picked it up first, which means that unicorns draw their magical energy from an exterior source. The horn receives the energy next, and then it radiates out from there. This all happens so quickly that it seems to be coming from the horn, but it isn’t. And we’re talking ‘photon fast’ here: it all happens in a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second.”

“Whoa…” Twilight rubbed her head at the revelation. “This… this… wow… But where does it come from, then?”

Alex planted his elbow on the table with his finger pointed skyward. “Directly up. Every test subject yielded the exact same results, too.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Do you think it’s coming from the layer of magic in the mid-troposphere?”

Alex nodded. “That’s what we think, yeah. Problem is, we still haven’t figured out where that is coming from. As far as our knowledge goes, raw, unaffiliated energy like this isn’t native to our dimension of reality. At least, not mine. Equestria seems to be a whole different ballpark entirely, sure, but everything we know about PCE leads us to believe that either something or someone is putting it there and sustaining it. But right now, we’ve got nothing to prove that.”

Twilight’s eyes twisted upwards to look at her horn, the surrounding aura appearing and disappearing as she conjured and dispelled magic from it. “It’s… definitely a new way of looking at things.” She paused in her thoughts, suddenly directing a hurt look towards Alex. “Wait, why didn’t you let me be a part of these studies?!”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he grinned. “Oh! But there is one thing you can help me with…” Alex stood up and moved next to the red-eyed Nova. With one arm over the Liandri’s shoulder, he tapped it in the center of its chest with the other. “I want you hit this unit with a blast of magic right there.”

“Okay…” said Twilight as she raised a brow. “Why?”

“Rose and I have been prototyping a form of magical countermeasures,” Alex answered. “A personal magic shield, if you will. Good ol’ Nova number two here is our guinea pig. We only managed to retrofit him with it this morning, so we haven’t gotten the time to test it.” He clapped the Nova on the shoulder. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to do that now.”

“Oh…” Twilight trotted up towards the Liandri and eyed it carefully, occasionally looking over at the other Nova in an attempt to spot any sort of physical difference, but couldn’t find any besides the color of their eyes. From what she was able to understand from Alex’s explanation, something about this Liandri would protect it from magic, but whatever it was, it wasn’t visible. “How exactly are these ‘countermeasures’ of yours supposed to work?”

“I’m sure you remember what happened during the Summer Sun Celebration, right?” he asked.

A shiver ran down Twilight’s spine. “Yeah… Our magic wasn’t able to touch it.”

“Exactly.” Alex began his unconscious pacing. “We’ve tried replicating the phenomenon, but it’s been tough to nail down. Safely, anyway. Right now, we think we have something viable that can be easily integrated.” He stopped in place a good distance away from the Liandri and gestured towards it. “So, mind testing it?”

Twilight shrugged before taking several steps back of her own. “Alright, if you say so.”

“Awesome! Unit, Twilight over here is gonna attack you. Do me a favor and don’t retaliate.”

The Nova nodded. “Acknowledged.”

“After you,” Alex waved Twilight on.

Twilight focused on her horn and allowed it to conjure enough energy for a decent magical bolt. Nothing too powerful, probably not enough to actually damage the Nova anyway, but it definitely wasn’t a bug bite either. She then lowered her head, aimed her horn square at the Liandri’s chest, and released.

The flash of lavender light leapt from her horn and struck its target true. Just off the surface of the Liandri’s chest, a chromatic barrier formed to block the incoming magical energy. However, instead of being nullified as intended, the magical bolt coalesced into a small lavender sphere stuck to the barrier. In the blink of an eye, the sphere turned into a blazing white light accompanied by a loud, high pitched whine, before suddenly detonating.

The explosion launched the Liandri clear across the room, smashing it into the opposite wall and leaving a large crack. The Nova fell to the ground and stumbled, but regained its footing quickly enough. Twilight yelped at the explosion and nearly jumped out of her skin, while Alex performed what some might consider interpretive dance with obscenities mixed in.

Once everything had calmed down enough, the two of them gave themselves an extra moment of silence to breathe.

“Okay! Alright!” Alex suddenly exclaimed as he moved behind the Liandri to push it into his chair. “That did not work! Good to know. Gonna shut that thing off before… whatever the fuck that was happens again…” With the Liandri sat firmly in the chair and leaning forwards, Alex began fishing through a toolbox next to the dresser.

Placing a number of instruments in the open, Alex took one in hand and used it to carefully remove a section of the Liandri’s rear armor. A noxious black smoke began to rise out of the exposed area, forcing a retching cough from him as he doubled over and did his best to hold onto his lunch. “Oh god fuck! Get up get up get up!” Doing his best to hold his breath, Alex forced the Nova to stand and shoved the Liandri out onto the balcony, closing the door behind it. Unfortunately, Twilight had the lucky opportunity to inhale some of the toxic fumes spewing from the bot as it was being moved outside, and was forced to keep herself from spewing out something of her own.

After closing the balcony door, Alex took the opportunity to lean back into it and slide to the ground, his face growing almost as pale as the hand he brought up to meet it. “God damn, that thing it completely shot…”

“Yeah, I… I figured that out…” said Twilight, holding herself against one of the far walls. Taking a few extra deep breaths, she said, “I'm really sorry about that. Do you need any help dealing with this?”

“It’s alright, I’ve got it,” Alex answered. “Just gotta let it air out a bit, and I’ll get to it in a few minutes.”

“Okay…” Twilight forced herself to stand on her own. “I should get going anyway. Goodness knows I’ve been here way too long already.”

“Probably for the best,” Alex agreed with a nod.

Just as Twilight as about the open the door, she paused and turned back to him. “Oh, I almost forgot! The girls and I are going to be meeting for dinner later at The Oat Garden on Whinny and Forth at eight. Wanna met us there?”

Alex smiled. “Sure! Oh, and Twilight? One last thing.” Twilight perked her ears in curiosity. “Memento Mori,” he said simply. When Twilight gave him a confused look, he elaborated, “It’s an old Latin proverb. It means: remember death. Or if you prefer: remember that you are mortal.”

“Why are you telling me this…?” Twilight asked after a brief pause.

Alex smirked from his spot on the floor. “You were stressing out earlier. I don’t know what about, but I can say it ain’t worth it. Not in the grand scheme of things.”

Twilight mulled over his words. Alex had no idea what was causing her stress. How Cadence seemed so off; so different. How she was treating everypony poorly and was entirely excused because of the wedding. Maybe for Alex it wasn’t worth stressing over, but he wasn’t her. He didn’t know the things that she did. Twilight, however, didn’t voice that objection. Instead, she gave him a smile. “Thanks. I’ll remember that. See you at eight!”

“See ya then!” Alex waved after her as she trotted out the door. With the room devoid of activity once again, Alex allowed his gaze to drift towards the other Nova. “Memento mori… You don’t have to worry about that, do you?”

“No, sir,” the Liandri responded.

“No… you don’t…” After picking himself up and dusting himself off, Alex began to eye his cybernetic augmentations, taking in the details that, while intimately familiar, were still so different and fascinating.

One step at a time.

He hummed to himself as his eyes began to glow green. “Memento propositum bellator…”

Author's Notes:

Something of an exposition chapter. Oh well, it'll be the last, that much I know. So I probably would have published this a lot sooner, except for one teeny little hiccup. As I'm sure many of you have noticed, Jurassic World came out a little while back, and at the same time, the game Ark: Survival Evolved used it as a springboard to get really popular really fast. Well, I made the mistake of buying a copy of that game. It then proceeded to suck up an entire week of my time, and probably more. But fuck it, I named a T-Rex Turnip.

Now if you'll recall from my previous author's notes, I said that I wouldn't publish this chapter until I finished writing the second part to The Beginning of The End. Thanks to Ark, I put that off for an unacceptable amount of time. BUT! You can't call me a liar since I actually finished writing it!

The Beginning of The End I
The Beginning of The End II

In other news, I'm considering writing a parallel story to Technicalities; something I would do on the side. It would be told from Applebloom's perspective and would focus on her relationship with Guy, starting right after what would effectively be the Christmas chapter of this story. Although considering how much time it takes me to write period (because procrastination WOOOOOOO), I'm not sure how much I'd be able to dedicate to it. Thoughts?

We've Got a Problem

View Online

City streets lit up by gas lamps, restaurants, and cafes still open for the late evening crowd made Canterlot even prettier at night than the day.

Sitting by a large round table on the front patio of The Oat Garden, a large group of friends sipped on fruity drinks and pondered over the menu. Everyone sat on a single pillow, while Spike sat on three to give himself a boost.

Alex had brought his folding chair down from the palace to use instead, while Rose sat on a single pillow with her knees under herself, eying everypony as they read their menus. Her combat chassis, seemingly ignoring everything else, leaned against a nearby wall and endlessly flipped and caught a bit in her bronzed hand, emitting a slight metallic “ting” with every flip and catch. Meanwhile, the red-eyed Nova stood out in the open, glancing at passersby as they understandably fed their curiosity by staring back.

“Ugh, I’m not sure what to order…” Alex muttered with his cheek smooshed against his fist as he leaned onto the table and over his menu. “Most of this pony food doesn’t sit well with me…”

“Oh, here’s something you might like,” said Pinkie with her nose in her own menu. “Have you ever had a quesadilla before?”

Alex perked up at the name and leaned over to look at Pinkie’s menu. “Wait, they have quesadillas?”

“Yup!” She pointed to them. “Third to last page.”

Alex turned to the page on his own menu with a grin. “Shit, they do! Oh man, I love these things! My dad used to make them all the time. I think I’ll get one with… what do they got… onions and hot peppers. That sounds good.”

“Mmm, that does sound good,” Rainbow Dash commented as she flipped through her own menu. “I think I might get one too. Hey, Rose, you decide on anything yet?”

Everyone simultaneously dropped their menus to give Dash a collective deadpan stare. When Dash finally noticed them, she folded her menu down and looked back at them with wide eyes. “What?”

“Personally, I was thinking I’d order some double A batteries,” Rose replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Alex’s reacted by tapping his knuckles against the table and looking over at her. She responded with, “Okay fine, you’re right. I’m on a diet. I’ll get triple A’s then.”

As Alex did his best to keep his snickering to a minimum, Rainbow Dash facehooved. “Oh right! Ugh, I feel stupid now…”

“So I bet I know what you’re all thinking…” said Twilight as she came out onto the restaurant’s patio with her drink floating beside her. She continued as she sat down. “Cadence is the worst bride to be ever.”

Everypony suddenly looked over at her with expressions of shock, while Alex and Rose raised an eyebrow each. Even Rose’s combat chassis caught its bit a final time and stopped flipping it to look at her.

“Twilight, whatever are you talking about?” Rarity asked as Twilight sipped on her drink. “Cadence is an absolute gem!”

Twilight’s eyes cracked open at those words and she spat the straw out of her mouth. “Are you kidding? Didn’t you see how demanding she was with the dresses?”

“Well of course she was!” Rarity defended with a roll of her eyes. “It’s her wedding day! Why shouldn’t she expect the very best?”

Twilight stared at her slack jawed for a moment before vigorously rubbing a hoof against the side of her head with a growl. “Applejack, did you know that after she said she ‘loved loved loved’ your hor d'oeuvres, she threw them in the trash?”

Applejack gave her a sympathetic smile. “Oh, Ah’m sure she was just tryin’ to spare my feelin’s.”

Twilight leaned over the table at her. “Or maybe, she was just being fake and totally insincere!”

For Alex, a set of bright white letters appeared in the middle of the table and drew his attention. “Thoughts?” Looking over at Rose with his lips tugged down, his only response was to shrug.

“She did raise her voice at one of my birds during rehearsal…” Fluttershy offered.

Twilight snapped at the opportunity in an instant, pointing a hoof at her. “Aha! See! Rude!” She crossed her forelegs as if her entire point had been proven.

“To be fair, he was singing really off key…” Fluttershy countered.

At that, Twilight’s stature sagged. “Okay… Pinkie Pie, didn’t you notice that…”

Her voice died away as she and the others around the table witnessed Pinkie Pie playing with the tiny plastic cake toppers representing the bride and groom, her nose peeking just over the table. Noticing the sudden silence, Pinkie drew her eyes upwards at all her friends staring at her. “Huh?”

“Nevermind…” Twilight muttered as she rested her head on the table. Although just as quickly as it came down, she raised her head again. “Rainbow Dash! You’re with me, right?”

“Sorry, Twilight. Been too busy practicing for my sonic rainboom to notice the bride’s bad attitude.” Dash flexed a wing for emphasis.

“Aren’t you using the flightsuit?” Alex asked her.

“Nah. I want a challenge. The suit makes it too easy.”

He clicked his tongue. “Fair enough.”

“Alex, you’ve noticed something weird with Cadence, right?” Twilight begged, her forelegs outstretched on the table.

“Sorry, Twilight, but I got nothing,” Alex shrugged. “I haven’t met her yet. I don’t even know what she looks like.”

“Rose?!”

“A similar situation, I’m afraid,” was her answer. “Neither I, nor any of the Liandri have run into her throughout the entire day. Hardly enough to form even the basis of a judgement.”

Twilight let out a frustrated groan at her answer. Meanwhile, Rarity scooted over and placed a hoof over her shoulder. “Twilight, the princess is about to get married. I’m sure any negative behavior she may be displaying is simply the result of nerves.”

With a growl, Twilight pushed herself up from the table and smashed her hoof down, jostling everyone’s drinks. “And I think it’s the result of her being and awful pony who doesn’t deserve to even know Shining Armor let alone marry him!”

With Twilight standing on her hind legs and her forelegs planted firmly on the table, everyone gave her blank stare, unsure of just how exactly to respond. Eventually Applejack said, “Um, Twilight? Don’t you think that maybe you’re being just a tiny bit possessive of your brother?”

Everyone else hummed and nodded in agreement.

“I am not being possessive!” Twilight snarled. “You’re all just too caught up in your wedding planning to notice that maybe there shouldn’t even be a wedding!” She punctuated her point by smashing her hoof into the table, shaking it violently and knocking over everyone’s drinks. In one fluid motion, she dragged her hoof off the table and stormed away without a second glance.

Alex’s hand snapped out to catch his drink, but by the time he did, virtually all of its contents had been spilled out. “Aww man… come on…”

“Oh dear…” Rarity mumbled as she righted her glass with her magic. “I have no idea what to do about the poor mare…”

“Me neither…” Applejack said in turn, reaching for the center of the table for napkins to hand out.

“I do,” affirmed Rose as the other two Liandri started gathering napkins from nearby empty tables, “and it starts with telling me just what exactly all that was about.”

“I think your guess would be as good as anypony’s,” said Dash, picking up her glass and downing the last few drops that didn’t get spilled out.

“Maybe she just needs time to calm down?” Fluttershy suggested.

Alex leaned forward on an elbow. “After that display, I’m thinking she’s gonna need a whole month to get over the fact that her brother is about to be quote unquote ‘stolen’ by a woman she doesn’t even know.”

Rarity raised a hoof to catch his attention. “Actually, if I recall correctly, I believe Cadence is Twilight’s old foalsitter.”

“Old foalsi…” Alex silently mouthed the word uncomprehendingly until its meaning dawned on him. “Oh, her old babysitter! Oh! Okay, I get it. And she’s marrying Twilight’s broth…” Alex slowly straightened up with a deer in headlights expression. “Oh shit… Wow… Something tells me I know what was going on in that household when Twilight wasn’t looking…” His comment earned him a stern glare from Applejack. “What?”

“He’s probably right, ya know,” Pinkie Pie conceded.

“Right about what?” asked Spike, eying them curiously.

“Nothing!” was the response from everypony at once.

With an angry pout, Spike continued wiping down the parts of the table he could reach. “Fine, geez…”

“Be that as it may,” Rose interrupted as the other two Liandri joined in Spike’s labor, “didn’t the two of them get along back then?”

“As far as I know, yeah,” answered Spike. “Dunno what changed, though.”

Rose tilted her head at him. “You sound as if you’ve never met her previously.”

Spike shrugged. “Not really. I was just a hatchling back then, so I don’t really remember her at all.”

At that moment, a unicorn waitress came out of the restaurant and trotted over to their table, gasping at the sight of everyone cleaning up the spillage. “Oh dear! What happened?”

Rarity waved a dismissive hoof. “Oh it’s alright, we have a hoof on things. A friend of ours just got a little emotional and shook the table. Everything’s fine.”

The waitress pursed her lips at that. “Well that’s a shame… I’ll get you all replacement drinks—free of charge. Are you, um… ready to order? Or should I give you a few more minutes?”

“I think we’re good,” said Alex, leaning forward on an elbow. “I’ll have a quesadilla with onions and hot peppers.”

Pinkie hummed as the waitress took down his order. “You know, since we’re ordering quesadillas, it’s probably for the best that Twilight isn’t here.”

Rainbow Dash’s face contorted in confusion. “Huh? Why?”

Pinkie smiled to herself. “Oh, no reason.”

Later that night…

Within Canterlot palace, preparations for the following day’s wedding were underway in the great chapel. Despite the locale’s name, it was only a moderately sized church-like space with a large, red carpet traveling its length, and completely devoid of any pews. Instead of an altar atop a small set of stairs, there was an archway completely covered in leaves and flowers. Princess Celestia stood by the archway next to Cadence, and was busy conversing with Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, who somehow all ended up becoming Cadence’s bridesmaids. Whatever happened to the previous ones, neither Alex nor Rose had any idea. Twilight, as well, was nowhere to be found.

Over by the entrance stood the Liandri and Alex, who sat comfortably inside of the Exosuit as he spoke with Shining Armor about unit placement. Out of courtesy, Alex kept the Exo’s faceplate up, though his eyes kept their green glow as long as he remained inside the suit.

“Alright, Rose and I want to keep things simple,” Alex said, gesturing around the room with the Exo’s guns. “We’re thinking we deploy three units on each side, one by each pillar. We’ll put the AVRiL by the back wall near the door, and have the XT-2 sitting by that. I’ll be on the opposite side over here in the Exo, keeping an eye out.”

Shining Armor nodded as the Liandri all moved to their designated positions. “I’d say that looks good. Personally, I just hope the guests don’t get too freaked out by them.”

“Trust me, if they were human, they’d be a lot more freaked out.” Alex chuckled. “Ponies in general just aren’t familiar with firearms. Right now, I’d say we’re probably not much more than a curiosity. The best thing we can do is make our presence known, and give ourselves maximum visibility. Don’t worry about it; if anyone looks even slightly suspicious, our bots will spot it.”

“If you say so,” Shining responded with a shrug. “I’m trusting you with that. Just don’t disappoint me. But remember: if anything happens, let the princess handle it first. She insists on it.”

Alex nodded. "Hey, that's her call."

“Captain Armor?” Celestia called out. “We’re ready to begin the rehearsal. If you would be so kind as to join me up here…”

As Shining Armor turned from Alex to go stand next to Celestia, Rose held her hands behind her back as she watched on with disinterest. “So I take it we’re just supposed to stand around over here and look pretty at this point?”

“Yeah, that about sums it up.” At those words, the Exosuit’s hatch whirred closed over Alex’s head, leaving him in the dark for the briefest of moments before its interior lit up to reveal the world around him, Heads Up Display and all. While the hatch was lowered and HUD activated, everypony in the room sported a green outline around their body—a product of the friendly-fire algorithms to help prevent any unwanted “accidents.”

Alex hummed to himself when, with only a thought, opened half a dozen windows across the Exo’s HUD that obscured virtually his entire vision. The windows were a live feed from each of the Reds stationed around the room, giving him a plethora of viewpoints to see the rehearsal from. As Alex’s gaze moved around the HUD, the view windows automatically shrunk and enlarged depending on where his attention was focused at any given moment.

Unfortunately, the rehearsal was just about as boring as Alex had predicted. For Rose and himself, there was a lot of standing around as Celestia gave the ponies their instructions. It was something Alex couldn’t help but loathe. Ceremonies like this we’re always so structured and rigid, that at the end of the day, all they were really doing was putting on a show for everyone else—the guests—just like every graduation ceremony he was ever a part of. Always practice first, then you do the actual thing. Why couldn’t they ever just get straight to the fucking point? Everyone walk in, hand out the goddamn papers, then have cake afterwards. Was this speech and ritual shit really that important?

Once everypony was in position, Celestia called out instructions again. “First, the bridesmaids will walk down the aisle…” The five mares in question did as was asked, heads held high and smiles on their faces. “Perfect, girls! No need to rush. Now you stand off to my right side… Wonderful! Now Cadence will enter…”

The two Royal guards standing by the large double doors opened them with their magic, revealing the pink princess in question. Alex smacked his lips as he observed her through Nova four, idly wishing he had something to eat. Maybe some popcorn… Turning his attention to another window, he managed to get a good look at Shining Armor and how his face lit up at the sight of Cadence walking down the aisle.

“Cool it, dude, you’re not getting married yet,” Alex muttered to himself.

“You’re desperate to amuse yourself right now, aren’t you?” came Rose’s voice inside the Exo.

“Fuuuck, is it really that obvious that I just don’t give a shit right now?” Alex sassed.

“Personally, I think you were much too subtle.”

Alex expelled something of a mix between a sigh and a groan. “I just wanna go to sleep, dammit. But nooo, we’re up doing this shit.”

When Cadence finally reached the groom, she and Shining Armor rubbed horns as affectionately as unicorns probably could. While those two were busy with their PDA, Celestia took the opportunity to speak up.

“I’ll say a few words, and then we’ll begin with the vows. Shining Armor, you’ll get the ring from your best mare.”

At Celestia’s words, Shining Armor looked behind himself at where the supposed best mare was supposed to be, instead only finding Spike sitting around while holding a purple pillow with nothing on it. “Hey… has anypony seen Twilight?”

Alex was in the middle of raising an eyebrow when Twilight’s voice rang out from the chapel’s entryway. “I’m right here!” The mare in question marched through, and despite her choice of words, she sounded less than pleased.

Oh shit… With another thought, Alex dismissed the viewing windows and reoriented the Exo to look directly at the new arrival.

With a frown that could have very well been etched into her face with a hammer and chisel, Twilight stomped down the aisle. “I am not going to stand next to her! And neither should you!”

“Oh no, Twilight, what are you doing?” Alex muttered to himself, sensing the uncomfortable feeling welling up in his chest that only ever made an appearance when forced to watch an unbearably awkward situation in a movie—a torturous train wreck in super slow motion.

“Mmm, this just got interesting,” chimed Rose.

Shining Armor bit his lip and glanced around nervously before directing that nervousness as laughter towards Cadence. “Eheh, I’m sorry! I-I don’t know why she’s acting like this…”

“Maybe we should just ignore her?” Cadence sneered while eying Twilight out of the corner of her vision.

“You have to listen to me!” Twilight shouted, stomping a hoof as her friends trotted over.

“Oh goodness! Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy, stepping in front of her.

Twilight pushed her aside with a hoof. “I’m fine.”

“Ya sure about that?” Applejack interjected from her other flank, upon which Twilight magically grabbed her stetson, pulled it down over her face, and pushed her away.

“Yes, and I have something to say!” Twilight stomped several more steps forward before pointing an accusatory hoof at Cadence. “She’s evil!”

The room reverberated with silence; even the Liandri looked away or otherwise covered their eyes at Twilight’s sudden and exceptionally bold assertion. Shining Armor, though stunned for a brief moment, put on a scowl and stepped between Twilight and his fiancé.

Inside the Exosuit, Alex began choking on his own breath. “Evil?!” his voice boomed out from the suit, stealing everypony’s attention. As the faceplate whirred open to reveal his head, he continued: “That’s a pretty loaded word, Twilight! Not sure you wanna use it!”

“I am using it!” Twilight snapped at him before focusing her glare on Cadence. “She’s been horrible to my friends…” In a flash of purple, Twilight instantaneously displaced herself behind Cadence, crouched down like a wolf prepared to pounce. “She’s obviously done something to her bridesmaids…” Cadence retreated as Twilight stalked towards her, looking increasingly nervous with her lips pulled back. “And if that wasn’t enough, I saw her putting a spell on my brother that made his eyes go all wonky!”

With Cadence backed up against the wall and standing on her two hind legs, Twilight grinned a manic smile as everyone else in the room looked on with a mixture of wonder, shock, and curiosity. Cadence’s eyes darted around the room, her breath catching in her throat as she took in the sight of everyone’s stares. Quickly enough, tears welled in her eyes as a sob escaped her. “W-why are you doing this to me?!” As the tears began to flow freely now, Cadence shot past Twilight, openly sobbing as she ran towards the Chapel entrance.

“Because you’re evil!” Twilight shouted after her. When Cadence had fully escaped the confines of her future wedding place, Twilight teleported herself to the doorway for the final coup de grace. “Evil! And if I don’t stop you, you’ll ruin my brother’s life!”

As Cadence’s unchained sobs faded away into the halls of the palace, stunned silence was all that remained within the chapel. Except from Rose, who stood stock still save for her slowly clapping hands which echoed throughout the room. “Congratulations, Twilight. Even I don’t know what to say about all that.”

Twilight smiled back at Rose, giving her a small bow. “Thank you, Rose!”

At those words, Rose’s hands clapped together a final time and stopped. “I didn’t mean that as a good thing.” With a thumb, she gestured to Twilight’s side.

When Twilight turned her head, she found herself forced to look up as Shining Armor glowered down at her. At this point, the only thing Twilight was able to muster against him was a pathetically innocent and nervous smile, one where, if a dog could repeat it, would say: “Yes, I know I tore the couch apart, but I swear, I didn’t mean to do any damage and there was a cat hiding in it.”

“You wanna know why my eyes were going all wonky?” Shining armor sneered down at his sister. “It’s because ever since I’ve had to start casting my shield spell, I’ve been getting terrible migraines. What you thought was Cadence casting a spell on me was her trying to heal me.”

Shining Armor marched past her. “And if you want to know what happened to her bridesmaids, Cadence had them replaced because she found out that the only reason they wanted to be in the wedding in the first place was so that they could meet Canterlot royalty! And if Cadence hasn’t been on her best behavior with your friends, it’s because with me being so busy, she’s had to stress herself silly by having to make all the final decisions for the wedding, just to make sure that our big day be perfect!”

He emphasized his final point with a stomp of his hoof and glare towards his sister. “Something that obviously wasn’t very important to you.” Shining turned to leave the chapel. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go comfort my bride.” He paused one final time. “Oh, and you can forget about being my best mare. In fact, if I were you, I wouldn’t show up to the wedding at all.”

Alex’s chest grew tighter as Shining Armor trotted out, leaving his downtrodden little sister behind. Exactly nothing about the scene Twilight had started was good. Having suspicions was all well and good, but starting that when there were perfectly reasonable explanations for those suspicions… it only led to bad situations. Alex clenched his eyes shut, as if that would dispel the events around him. Always cover every base. Even Rose understood that—especially Rose.

“Come on, y’all. Let’s go check on the princess.” Alex reopened his eyes at the sound of Applejack’s voice, only to watch as his and Twilight’s friends marched out of the chapel after Shining Armor, straight past Twilight without so much as a fleeting glance at her. The sight alone pained him, but the thing that made it worse was the thought that it wasn’t undeserved.

As the Liandri around the room began to make their own way out, Princess Celestia followed in everypony else’s hoofsteps, keeping her eyes fully ahead as she walked past her student. “You have a lot to think about.” Her words sank into Twilight like a blade that refused to be removed.

The Liandri coalesced around the entryway shortly after Celestia made her exit. Twilight’s teary eyes turned to each of Rose’s bodies, expecting the AI to pass her own judgement upon her. Instead, Rose simply stared back. “I’ve already said everything I need to.”

As the Reds left, Twilight’s broken look turned itself to Alex. He could only close his eyes, unable to meet her own. “Ya dun goofed, Twilight,” he said with a shake of his head. “You goofed real hard… I think… I think you need a bit of time to yourself right now...”

Doing his best to keep his eyes off of Twilight, Alex followed after Rose, the Exo’s heavy metallic stomps echoing throughout the chapel until a pair of royal guards closed the doors behind him with their magic. Within the hallway proper, while the Exo’s inner workings continued to make noise as it walked, its footsteps were at least muffled by carpet underneath. Alex’s chest continued to grip itself as he tightened his jaw, doing his best to keep his eyes forward as he made for the room he and Rose were given.

“Why are you leaving?” Rose suddenly asked, her head turned up at him as she walked alongside the Exosuit.

Alex shot her a look, perplexed as to why she would ask that of all questions. “What do you mean?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you?” She asked, halting in her steps as the Reds and her combat chassis continued down the corridor. “I figured it would have been obvious.”

Alex halted as well, turning the Exosuit to face her. “What’s obvious? You were paying attention, right? You saw what happened. Twilight needs some alone time right now.”

“Because that worked out so well for you before, hasn’t it?” Rose retorted, crossing her arms.

He frowned. “Rose, what are you getting at?”

She rolled her eyes before jamming her finger against the front of the Exo. “You are what I’m getting at. Your entire conversation with her just earlier this afternoon. If anyone should know about what kind of effect stewing in your own thoughts when you have a problem has on someone, it should be you. Don’t tell me that the entire time you spoke to her this afternoon that you didn’t feel even slightly better about yourself.”

Alex gaped down at her. He had to admit, when Rose had a point, she didn’t hesitate to swiftly hammer it home and make you feel like a complete jackass in the process. Even in this case, Rose kept that same ball rolling. If Alex was going to be honest with himself, he had to admit that bleeding his heart to Twilight earlier did feel… good. Therapeutic, in a sense; to simply talk. Rose was probably right: Twilight needed the exact same thing right now.

“Shit…” he muttered, averting his gaze.

“Take my advice.” Rose’s arm whipped itself and pointed in the direction they just came from. “Go talk to her.” She turned to follow after the other Liandri. “I’ll be waiting in our room.”

Alex’s eyes followed after Rose as she left him behind, eventually turning back towards the chapel doors. The two guards posted outside of it continued to stare ahead vigilantly, though he just barely managed to catch them staring at him and the Exo a split second before.

Time to play therapist, I guess… Alex thought and he directed the Exosuit back towards the chapel. As he approached, the pair of guards by the entryway channeled their magic in unison and opened the doors for him, revealing the singular pony within.

Alex blinked at the pony beyond. “Cadence?”

Indeed, instead of finding Twilight within the chapel, the pink pony princess to be wed herself stood at the top of the small set of stairs where the altar should have been, without any lavender unicorn in sight. Cadence said nothing, instead remaining stock still and staring back at Alex with her mouth slightly ajar, as if she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Were… Weren’t you just…?” Alex took a few steps inside and began to gesture behind himself with the Exosuit’s large arms, but paused to contort his face. “What are you doing back here?”

“I-I-I was looking for Twilight!” she managed to say after her mouth flopped for only a second. Her wide eyed expression did nothing to hide the fact that she was surprised at Alex’s presence. “I wanted to clear a few things up! What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for Twilight too,” he answered, raising a brow. “Also, I think Shining Armor did a bang up job of clearing things up already…”

“Oh did he? Good! Good…” Cadence carefully sidestepped around the Exosuit, her eyes unnaturally drawn to her reflection in the chrome plated barrels of its mini-guns, of which she had already gotten an eyeful of from an extraordinarily safe distance earlier that day.

“Yeah,” said Alex, eying the princess curiously. “In fact, I think he went looking for you to, uh… comfort you.”

“He is? Oh, I-I should go find him, then. Thank you!” Before Alex could utter anything further, Cadence trotted out the chapel—perhaps even a bit more quickly than the usual trot.

Alex narrowed his eyes at her retreating form, silent as he watched her from a distance until she rounded the nearest corner down the hall. Okay, that was weird. He turned back towards the rest of the room, as if Twilight would suddenly appear now that Cadence was gone, but he remained the only individual.

Damn, I was only out for a minute, Alex thought to himself. Where the hell could Twilight have gone during that time? And why was Cadence back so quickly…? With the sound of several dull clunks, the Exosuit’s digitigrade legs folded closed, bringing the control compartment lower to the ground. The front of Exo hissed open, allowing Alex to climb out and work his limbs.

“Twilight?!” he yelled, hoping she was at least within ear shot. “You there?!”

Silence was his response.

Humming to himself, Alex climbed the steps up to the floral archway and beyond. The end of the chapel’s carpet led outside, but to a closed off balcony exposed to a cool, nightly breeze. Out of curiosity, Alex leaned over the edge to peer down, granting him the knowledge that beyond the balcony was a sheer drop.

One way in, one way out, he thought. She didn’t walk out, and there’s no way in hell she jumped. Did she teleport out? Twilight does have a tendency to do that… But to where? For one reason or another, Alex’s thoughts turned back to Cadence. Why was she here? She said she was looking for Twilight, but after everything that happened just a few minutes prior… He pursed his lips. It all just seems... off...

Pushing himself off from the edge of the balcony, Alex returned to the inside of the chapel and began to remount the Exosuit. Once inside, the entire machine hummed to life, the front closed over him, the legs stretched themselves out, and the faceplate fell over his visage, all coupled with a deep robotic voice speaking to him: “Initiating system.”

As Alex directed the Exosuit out of the chapel, he said, “Twilight’s gone, Rose. Couldn’t find her.”

“Yes, I noticed,” came Rose’s voice.

“Then I assume you noticed Cadence in there as well?”

“I did. A rather peculiar question of why she was there at all. She also seemed bothered by your presence, to say the least.”

Alex clicked his tongue as the Exo stomped down the palace halls. “Oh good, so I guess I’m not the only one who thought she seemed off.”

“Not at all. But that still leaves the question of where Twilight is.”

“I think she teleported out. Where to, I have no idea. Look, I’m going to head up to our room. In the mean time, I want you to send a Red over to hers and she if she’s there. If she is, I’ll drop by.”

“And if she isn’t?”

Alex sucked in a breath. “Then we’ve got a problem.”

A Nova opened the bedchamber door when Alex reached the top of the stairs, allowing the Exosuit to squeeze through. Once inside, he parked it in its previous spot and clambered out. “Still surprised the stairs can hold this thing’s weight…” he muttered.

As Alex twisted his back and flexed his remaining muscles, Rose stood up from his chair and planted her hands on her hips. “We’ve got a problem.”

Alex paused in his stretching. “Twilight’s not in her room?”

Rose shook her head. “No, she isn’t. I’ve sent most of the other units to scour the palace to look for her, but they’ve turned up nothing so far. I also took the liberty of sending a unit to Cadence’s chambers.”

Alex raised a brow. “And?”

“Everyone else is with her,” was Rose’s answer, “and she’s crying her eyes out. She’s whining about this and that. Nothing important, really—just how stressful everything has been and how Twilight ‘doesn’t understand her feelings.’ ”

“I take it she didn’t notice the bot, then?” Alex asked, his raised brow turning into a frown as he crossed one arm over the other.

Rose shook her head. “No. She didn’t.”

Alex averted his gaze as a plethora of thoughts and possibilities flooded his mind. “I’m starting to think Twilight may have been onto something…”

“As am I. If I had to hazard a guess, your appearance in the chapel was nothing short of unexpected.”

“Not to mention the fact that she’s suddenly whistling a very different tune right now…” Alex commended as he began to pace. “First running away crying, then she’s back in the chapel not crying, then crying again in her room… Either all those stereotypes about women have some kind validity to them, or something is going on. You think she has something to do with Twilight going MIA?”

“Besides shaming her into leaving? I’m considering it as a serious possibility.”

Alex paused in his pacing, now facing Rose. “And you’re not the only one…” He pointed a hand towards the Exosuit and snapped his fingers. “You. Up.” At his behest, the Exo clanked itself closed, rising to its full nine feet in height and awaiting further orders. “You stay in sentry mode until further notice.”

“Command acknowledged,” the Exosuit’s powerfully deep synthetic voice announced. “Engaging sentry mode.” At those words, the Exo made a show of raising both of its miniguns and spinning each of their trio of barrels with a satisfying whir several times before aiming them directly ahead of itself.

Now looking at Rose, Alex continued, “I want you to keep an unit on Cadence, and be subtle about it if you can. Have the rest of them looking for Twilight. Her parents live in Canterlot, so she could have gone there. If you can figure out where they live, that’d be a good place to start.”

“Are you going to sleep in the meantime?” Rose asked.

“Yeah,” Alex replied, as he walked over to his bag and extracted a small bottle containing melatonin pills. “I want to make sure I’m wide awake tomorrow, and that starts with knocking myself out tonight.” As he started to undress himself, he added, “And besides, you’ll be able to handle the search better than I could.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.”

“Exactly.” Alex flipped the light switch, plunging the room into darkness save for the streams of violet-tinted moonlight peeking through the curtains. His cybernetic eyes immediately adapted to the low-light environment, allowing him to find his way to the bed with all the ease that daytime would have allowed. As he sat on the bed, Alex popped open the bottle and rolled a tablet onto his palm. “I want you to wake me up at seven sharp to update me on the situation.”

Rose nodded as she took the bottle from him. “Consider it done. And if I don’t find Twilight by then?”

Alex paused with the pill mere inches from his mouth. “If you’ve searched every possible avenue, then I want every unit on high alert.” He popped the bitter medication into his mouth and did his best to swallow it without some form of drink to ease its passage. “Egh… With any luck, that won’t happen.”

It took only mere moments for the effects of the pill to hit Alex head on as drowsiness overwhelmed him, barely giving him time to drag his feet up and bring the covers over himself. Now the only thing left for him to do would be to wait until morning.

This dream sequence is brought to you by an ever so slight gore warning. If you ask me, it's not that bad, and this warning probably isn't even necessary, but I'm plugging this in anyway.

Alex pulled his hands free from the Hellbender’s inner workings and tossed his socket wrench onto the nearest tool box. Knocking on the vehicle’s frame twice and pushing himself away in the action, Alex called out, “Alright, fire it up!”

His words were met with a the sound of the engine coughing on its fuel, sounds that were quickly replaced by the roar of that same fuel igniting and engaging the Tarydium powered half of the Hellbender’s engine.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Alex said as he reached for a towel to wipe the grease off his new alabaster white hands. But was a little lubricant ever really a bad thing? Tossing his towel aside, Alex made a quick motion across his throat and the domestic unit sitting in the truck’s driver’s seat immediately shut off the engine.

“Good shit,” Alex commented to himself as he made his way to the facility’s front door. “Hey, Rose! I’m breaking for lunch! I’ll be back in a bit.”

Without so much as a whisper from the AI, the front door whirred open and closed as Alex passed through it unobstructed. Hands in his pockets and humming a random tune to himself, Alex strolled through Ponyville’s streets towards the town’s famous bakery—the go-to place for anyone wanting to treat themselves a bit. And while the sun shone unobstructed on this calm, windless day, it wasn’t until Alex was half-way across town that he noticed something out of place.

There wasn’t a single pony in sight.

His previous ministrations abruptly halted, Alex directed his gaze skyward and focused on whatever sounds he could hear. Where there would normally be at least a handful of pegasi flying above the town at any given time, now there were none. The birds which always seemed to be constantly chirping were now deathly silent as well.

“...The fuck…?” Alex muttered as he glanced at the nearby houses, each one just as devoid of activity as the next. “Is… Is there something going on that I don’t know about…?”

“Hi there!”

“Shit!” Alex jumped at the sudden piercing voice coming from behind him. However, his heart calmed considerably when his brain finally caught up with him; recognizing the voice as Pinkie Pie’s. “Pinkie! God damn, you surprised me there. Hey, where is everyone?”

Pinkie Pie stood in the middle of the road, some distance from him, which really attested to how well her voice carried. For the longest moment, she said nothing, and simply stared back at Alex with a smile and her head partially tilted. “What’s your name?”

Alex blinked at her. “What? Pinkie, it’s me, Alex. I was just on my way to—”

“Wanna play a game?” Pinkie suddenly asked, tilting her head in the opposite direction.

“Wha…?” Alex narrowed his eyes. “Pinkie, no, I—”

“Let’s play hide and seek!” She suddenly perked up, a massive grin adorning her face.

“Pinkie, I’m sorry, but I don’t wanna play hide and—”

As Alex attempted speaking over her, Pinkie ignored his words and continued with, “Here’s how you play: you run and hide, and I try to find and kill you!”

Alex’s words died in his mouth. Wait, what did she just say?

Before his mind could form any more thoughts, Pinkie yelled out “readysetgo!” and dashed towards him in an instant gallop. She was upon him in almost no time at all, leaping up with outstretched hooves and wild eyes.

But, in just as much time, Alex’s body responded by taking a step back with his left foot and planting it. His left arm shot upwards and impacted the underneath of Pinkie’s hooves to bring them up with it. His right hand followed next, catching Pinkie just under her neck and following through with the motion that ultimately threw the pink pony over himself. “Pinkie what the fuck?!”

Pinkie Pie effortlessly rolled into the ground, catching one of her front hooves on a cobblestone which forced her momentum to swing her body back towards Alex. “Oh goodie! I love it when they fight back!”

Oh fuck this! Contrary to Pinkie’s words, Alex’s fight or flight response decided land on the other side of the coin, and he bolted in the opposite direction. The servos in his legs kicked into gear as they accelerated to olympian speeds. All he had to concentrate on was putting one leg in front of the other and the computers would do the rest. But despite his speed, the clopping of hooves against stone only grew louder.

The reason for this made itself painfully obvious when a set of hooves wrapped itself around Alex’s midsection, dragging him down towards the cobblestone road and eliciting sparks against his limbs from the abrupt contact. While supporting himself on one arm, Alex did his best to twist and shove Pinkie off with the other; an effortless endeavor as the pink menace backed off just enough to allow him to flip over onto his back.

However, the relief was short lived when Pinkie pounced yet again, raising a hoof high to bring it down and strike. Alex’s hand shot out to catch the offending hoof to prevent it from crushing his head, and then the other when the first hit failed to connect.

As Alex attempted to force the hooves away from himself, Pinkie brought her face down. At some point, her eyes had turned bloody and her teeth had become fangs. “I’ll strap you down to a table and use your flesh to make cupcakes!” she snarled in a distorted voice that belonged to something else.

Do not allow this fleshling to frighten you.

Okay, this thing is not Pinkie! With a snarl of his own, Alex snuck a leg under his attacker and kicked her off, sending her shrieking safely away. He wasted no time pushing himself up to his feet while his assailant did the same. “Alright! You want me? Come get me!”

Destroy this abomination.

The thing disguised as Pinkie let out an ear piercing screech before leaping at him once again, though with wide open jaws. Alex instinctively brought up his arm for protection, which the ravenous pony immediately latched onto like a rabid dog, thrashing as violently as possible in an attempt to rend flesh from bone—flesh that simply didn’t exist anymore.

Make this animal feel regret.

With a roar, Alex brought his other cybernetic arm back and swung. The synthetic fist connected with the side of Fakie Pie’s head, scraping her teeth against the shell of his bitten arm. However, the hit had accomplished its intended effect, leaving her stunned just long enough for Alex to bring a foot up and kick the imposter in the withers, knocking her over.

Show it how flawed it is.

Alex left her no time to recover by jumping on Demon-Pinkie and pinning her with his body weight. Before giving her any time to retaliate, Alex grabbed onto the fur of her chest with his left hand and raised his right.

Witness!

He brought his fist down across her head, shuddering against the crack of shattered bone and dislodged teeth as blood flew up and corrupted the white shell of his augmentations.

My!

His fist came down upon her head again, resulting in a much squishier response as his cybernetic knuckles made contact with her pulverized skull.

PERFECTION!

Alex raised his arm for a final blow, his teeth bared and a raging tropical inferno within his glowing oculi. However, he stayed his hand. Pinkie’s watery sky blue eyes stared back up at him, a sticky mess of blood staining the fur all around her muzzle and temple. Her body twitched and breathing rasped in an attempt to wheeze around the misplaced fluids. Her hooves loosely gripped at Alex’s forearm as she barely managed to gasp out a single word. “Why…?” No sooner had she done that did her eyes drift upwards and her grip loosen altogether, a final breeze escaping her throat.

Alex finally allowed his grip to let go, becoming painfully aware of his own irregular breathing. His hold on her had been so tight that the skin around his hold had actually begun to tear and bleed. The expression of rage he held just half a moment ago vanished, suddenly replaced with the terror of his own actions.

“Oh god…” he mumbled, stumbling off of her and landing on his rear, unable to keep himself standing against his artificially adrenaline-fueled heart beat. The streaks of red liquid contrasted brilliantly against the scratched snow white surface of his arms. “Oh god… No… Pink… I… I didn’t… No… No…”

The sharp ring of metal clapping against metal silenced Alex’s already muted sobs, drawing his attention away from Pinkie’s limp form. Leaning against a nearby building was a Liandri in green armor that slowly clapped with plated hands, its emerald gaze focused purely on him.

“Not bad,” it spoke, continuing its slow clap. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. But it’s not bad for first blood.”

“First blood…?” As carefully as humanly possible, Alex pushed himself to his feet, uncharacteristically stable where anyone would have expected the adrenaline to cause his legs to quake uncontrollably. His eyes never left the unwelcomed stranger as he balled his fists and exposed his teeth. “Just who do you think you are…?!” he growled.

The Liandri ceased clapping and folded its arms against itself, chuckling at the human’s perceived defiance.

“I am perfection.”

Author's Notes:

God damn, that last bit was so dark I had to wear a mining light while writing it.

Anyway, I'm definitely happy with how this chapter came out, and feel like, writing wise, this is one of my better ones. There's only two chapters left planned for the wedding arc, and I'll be damned if I don't finish them both before the summer is out. I'm heading to university in September, and if the horror stories I hear are even remotely true, I'm not gonna have much time left to write this.

Fun fact: I had originally planned for a joke within the Gala arc where Rose tells Blueblood: "You have about as much class as a Marxist utopia." I didn't do that because I completely forgot about it, and by the time I remembered, I couldn't figure out a way to squeeze it in. So I, unfortunately, let it slide. Plus, it's not like she's be familiar with Marxism anyway.

Finally, allow me to demonstrate the music that I'm aiming for the next chapter to feel like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_uNV9LQqvY

Hell in a Handbasket

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Within the tower’s bedroom, all remained quiet save for the barely audible hum of the Exosuit and the light snoring coming from Alex. Rose remained stock still in the folding chair, her eyes staring at nothing while all her activity consisted of thoughts and orders traveling along photonic waves in space. As her internal clock neared seven, her body finally displayed movement as her eyes locked themselves upon Alex, sleeping on the other side of the bed from her. Without making so much sound as a light rustle of clothing, she stood up from her seat, moved towards the foot of the bed, and opened her mouth wide in anticipation for the clock.

Three.

Two.

One.

What followed from her mouth next could only be described as the unholy screech of a thousand wailing banshees in a meat grinder that was liberally sprinkling them on a standing army of airhorns.

As Rose fully expected, Alex woke with a start, his lungs pushing up a terrified scream as his body flailed around in the bed, getting his legs tangled in the sheets while his upper body fell over the side of the mattress. Satisfied with her work, Rose closed her mouth and smiled. “Good morning.”

“Mother fuck!” Alex yelled from his awkward position as he untangled his legs from the sheets, allowing himself to fully drop to the floor. “The fuck was that!?”

“Your seven o’clock wake up call,” Rose answered as the bedroom door opened, revealing her combat chassis holding a cup of coffee in its hands. The bronze colored Liandri made its way to him and held out the cup. “Your morning stimulants.”

Alex pushed himself off the floor. “Fuck, after that scare, I’m not sure I’ll need them… Thanks, though.” He graciously took the drink and took a generous gulp. Rose always remembered to add the extra stims to his morning coffee, and this time was no different. It only took a few seconds for his mind to clear and shake off the lingering drowsiness. “That’s good stuff…” Satisfied, he placed the cup down and began to get himself dressed. “Alright, bring me up to speed.”

“Unfortunately, I have yet to locate Twilight,” Rose began. “She never returned to her room at the castle last night, and Spike actually spent the night in Rarity’s room. In fact, all of her belongings are still there. I also had a unit drop by Celestia’s room to ask her where Twilight’s parents are currently residing. She was oddly reluctant to give up the information, but I managed to convince her.”

“And?” Alex asked, zipping up his pants.

Rose shook her head. “Her parents were present, but they claimed they hadn’t seen her. I didn’t push the issue. I looked into the hotels around the city, but none of the clerks claimed to have a guest going by her name. On the off chance that she had taken a late night train back to Ponyville, I queried Google on any information regarding her whereabouts. She hasn’t returned to the library, either.”

“So long story short, Twilight just straight up vanished,” Alex summed up as he finished buttoning his shirt.

“That is the current situation, yes,” Rose confirmed with a nod.

“And Cadence?”

“Nothing of interest to report, I’m afraid.”

After taking his coffee in hand again and downing the rest of it, Alex planted his hands on the dresser and stared into the wall. Alarming; worrisome; disconcerting; bad—all these words perfectly described the present situation under Rose’s information. It only left one course of action.

“Put the Reds on high alert,” Alex ordered with a mutter over his shoulder. “And let Shining Armor know his sister is missing, too.”

“Are you sure about that?” Rose asked, tilting her head slightly. “It is his wedding day. Telling him this will only add worry, which may not be necessary since we can handle this situation ourselves.”

Alex pushed himself up from the dresser and faced her. “After the shitstorm that went down last night, I’d say he more than deserves to know about this. For all we know, if Twilight did run away, then he’s the reason for it. Yeah, I want him to worry.”

Rose nodded. “I’ll let him know then.”

“Thank you.” Alex walked past her and opened the door to the balcony. The purple-tinted morning sun warmed his face and provided lovely illumination for the city below, though did little to ease his anxiety as a synthetic hand rubbed over his hairless head. “Is there anything else I need to know about?”

“Yes, but it’s more of a medical concern,” Rose said as she walked onto the balcony with him. “Lately, you’ve been experiencing odd spikes in your heart rate as you sleep, and your brain activity has been showing odd patterns during those times as well. I’m afraid it’s getting chronic. Do you feel alright?”

Alex sighed as he placed his hands along the marble guardrail. The light beeping of the nearby comm-dish provided a poor soundtrack. “Yeah, I’m fine. Think I’ve just been getting nightmares, lately—I guess. I don’t really know. Nothing for you to worry about.”

“If you insist,” was Rose’s response. “However, I will continue to monitor this phenomenon.”

Alex smiled, turning to give her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Thanks, Rose. I can always rely on your for the little things.”

“You rely on me for everything,” Rose smirked. “It’s a wonder you managed to get anything done for the first twenty five years of your life.”

He copied her smirk and playfully slapped her shoulder. “Yeah yeah. Let’s get downstairs for breakfast. Not sure if everyone’s up yet, but the wedding starts in six hours, so something tells me they’re not going to dick around.”

On this morning of mornings, the dining hall demonstrated its capacity as one of the biggest bustling centers of activity within the whole palace. Guards stood at their posts as palace servants brought in trays of hot food, and even helped themselves to some. Being the big wedding day, even some of the nobles would partake in the grand breakfast that was taking place—later, though, since they seemed to deem it an ungodly hour to be awake, let alone a fitting time given the fact that it was the servants’ opportunity to eat. Their time to eat would be later.

When Alex entered the dining room, he was pleased to find one of the Reds already standing at attention near the entryway and keeping a sharp eye on the ponies coming in and out, its Link Gun drawn, but not raised. The servants and other ponies throughout the room couldn’t help but feed their curiosity by tossing glances towards it, but none of them seemed brave enough to even attempt getting too close. Rose followed next to Alex, with her combat chassis and the Exosuit close behind; the loud footsteps of the latter doing an excellent job of drawing attention to themselves.

Alex waved the Exo off to stand next to the Red as he made a beeline for the open breakfast buffet table. No sense in having that thing cause a commotion the entire time. As he picked up a plate, his eyes scanned the length of the entire room, populated by a staggering number of round tables capable of seating about a dozen individuals each, in the search for a specific set of familiar colors. Pinkie Pie and Applejack were already awake, and seemed to just be getting into their breakfasts at one of the center tables. The others were probably still getting themselves ready, or in Rainbow Dash’s case, probably still unconscious.

After collecting a pair of freshly made pancakes slathered in maple syrup with a newly brewed coffee, Alex made his way over to his two present pony friends. Thankfully, the palace used chairs instead of cushions. “You two sleep well?” Alex asked as he sat down next to Rose.

“Yup!” Pinkie cheered before she took a monster bite out of her titanic stack of pancakes, which were drowning in syrup and topped with a mountain of whipped cream—wherever she managed to find that much.

“Ah slept like Granny Smith on a Sunday afternoon,” said Applejack over her much more modest breakfast of blueberry waffles topped with apple slices. “How about you, Alex? Sleep well?”

Alex shrugged as he cut into his pancakes. “As much as drug-induced torpor can allow, I guess.”

As Alex swallowed his bite of syrup flavored fluff, a red exclamation mark appeared on the table next to his plate and began to flash. As soon as his eyes drifted towards it, the exclamation mark was replaced with a view window showing Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike talking amongst each other as they entered the dining room. Alex raised his head to look for himself, only confirming the alert provided by the standing Nova. “Oh, look who’s here.”

With a mouth stuffed full with pancakes, Pinkie’s head shot up as she looked for herself. Somehow managing to choke down her bite, Pinkie raised a hoof and waved it around frantically. “Spike! Girls! Over here!”

“Well that looks good, doesn’t it?” Rarity commented as she trotted up with the others.

“It isss,” Pinkie moaned as she squeezed two entire pancakes in her mouth at once, and then swallowed them whole like a python. “These are the best pancakes ever!”

“I’ll have to agree with you on that,” said Alex, vaguely waving a fork at her before turning to the new arrivals. “Go get yourselves something to eat. Rose and I have something important to tell you guys.”

Applejack quirked a brow. “What kind of important?”

“Bad important,” Alex responded with a frown

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy held a hoof a hoof up to her mouth. “Is everything alright?”

“I’ll let you know when you get back.”

“What about Rainbow Dash?” asked Applejack as the others left for the breakfast buffet.

Alex shrugged. “Five out of six ain’t bad.”

When the others returned to the table with their morning meals, Alex took another sip of coffee before he cleared his throat. “Okay. So as I’m sure you’re all very much aware, a lot of drama happened last night.”

“That’s putting it rather mildly, darling,” Rarity insinuated as she magicked a raspberry into her mouth.

“Yeah…” Alex drawled, dragging his eyes over to her. “Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush: we’ve got a problem. Twilight’s missing.”

Everypony immediately transitioned into a state of surprise, expressing their own forms of “oh my” and other questions as they attempted talking over each other. Alex simply turned his head down while holding a hand up, asking for silence, which he was eventually given. However, somepony seized upon the growing silence to get their question in.

“Ya sure about that?” asked Applejack. “Maybe she’s just hidin’ in her room.”

“Twilight never returned to her room,” Rose declared, promptly shutting everyone up. It was impressive how such a simple statement could be so powerful.

After a few seconds of silence, Fluttershy suggested, “Maybe she spent the night somewhere else…?”

“She hasn’t been to any of your rooms either,” Rose informed her, “nor has she spent the night at her parents’ house or any hotels around the city.”

“Maybe she took a train back to Ponyville?” asked Spike, a spark of hope on his increasingly worried face.

“Google reports that he’s the only one present in the library,” she replied. “Twilight hasn’t returned to Ponyville.”

“Wow, you’re thorough,” Pinkie commented.

“The point is,” Alex interjected as Rose tossed Pinkie a smug smile, “Twilight has just straight up vanished and we haven’t the slightest idea where she is. She’s just dropped off the radar.”

“Dropped off the what now?” said AJ.

“The map.”

“Oh.”

“Do you have any idea why she would’ve disappeared like this?” asked Rarity.

“We have a hypothesis, but so far, only have suspicions as proof,” answered Rose.

“And what is this hypothesis of yours?”

“That Cadence is somehow involved,” said Alex, leaning on an elbow.

Everyone’s curious looks turned to deadpan stares.

“Don’t tell me y’all think Cadence is ‘evil’ too,” Applejack argued.

“No,” was Rose’s blunt answer. “However, she did display some suspicious behavior last night.”

“What suspicious behavior?” Rarity exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air. “The poor mare was bawling her eyes out last night!”

Alex leaned further over the table, staring Rarity dead in the eye. “I was the last one to leave the chapel. Approximately one minute after I left, I went back to go talk to Twilight. I didn’t find her in the chapel; I found Cadence, and she was most certainly not ‘bawling her eyes out.’ ”

He leaned back in his chair, keeping his gaze locked with Rarity’s. “She also left in a hurry—less than a minute after I showed up. Think about that for a second. She runs out crying, then comes back after we all leave, gets in and out in under two minutes, and then you guys catch up to her and she’s suddenly a water fountain again?”

The ponies shared looks of confusion with one another. If Alex was telling the truth, then it certainly broke the continuity of their memories of the previous night. In their minds, they each pieced together what they remembered from the previous night in an attempt to see if Cadence would have had the time to do what Alex claimed. Unfortunately, they had to admit to themselves that timing was one thing none of them kept track of.

“That does seem really weird…” Pinkie Pie conceded, tapping a hoof against her chin.

“Did she say what it was she was doing there?” asked Rarity.

“She said she was looking for Twilight in order to ‘clear things up,’ ” Alex answered. “But, even if we grant her that, it still doesn’t explain the discrepancy of her emotions and the fact that she looked like I caught her in the middle of doing something she shouldn’t have been.”

“Well when ya put it like that…” said Applejack as she scratched the back of her head.

“When I put it like that, it’s cause for concern,” Alex maintained, briefly turning his gaze towards AJ before turning his attention at the rest of them. “Which is why I want the rest of you to be aware that the Liandri are currently on high alert. If you see Twilight at all, let us know. Same thing if Cadence does anything even remotely weird. The wedding will still go on as planned, but until then, keep your eyes open. And if anything happens at all at any time: Keep. Your. Head. Down.” He punctuated each word by forcefully tapping the table. “The last thing we need is someone accidentally getting shot. Trust me, none of you want fourth degree burns.”

Fluttershy sunk in her seat. “O-o-oh dear…”

“Wait, fourth degree burns?” Applejack inquired incredulously. “Ah thought third was the worst?”

“Third degree burns burn your fur and every layer of skin underneath…” Fluttershy answered hesitantly. “Fourth degree burns are rare, but… they’re burns that affect m-muscles, tendons, a-and…” She gulped. “...bones…”

“Plasma weaponry is not a joke,” Rose cautioned, seeing everypony’s wide eyes and pale faces at Fluttershy’s definition.

“No, it’s not,” Alex added. “So if you see green balls of fire flying through the air, you get down, and you stay down. Got it?”

Everypony quickly nodded in understanding, especially Fluttershy whose shivering eyes were barely peeking over the table at this point.

“Good.” Alex downed the rest of his coffee. “Listen: this is just a ‘what if.’ I’m not saying something will happen, but just in case something does, you know what to do.” After quickly finishing off the last of his pancakes, Alex stood up with his plate in hand, sighing. “I’m going to go manage things for bit. If you guys see Dash, fill her in for me.”

After dropping off his plate on one of the trolleys meant for dirty dishes, Alex went straight for the Exosuit. The wedding ceremony would be in five hours, and there were a lot of things that had to be taken care of.

“All units are in position,” came Rose’s voice through the Exosuit’s intercom.

“Good.” Alex’s eyes scanned over the chapel as the guests started slowly trickling in.

The past few hours had been hectic, to say the least. Palace workers and hired external help alike had been running themselves ragged in preparation for the wedding this afternoon—triple checking the most mundane details and the like. For Alex, however, it was five solid hours of tension and suspicion.

Twilight still hadn’t surfaced, either in Canterlot or Ponyville, and as the time for the wedding drew nearer, the Liandri had to call off their search in order to perform the job that they were initially brought in to do. Alex refused to leave the safety of the armored Exosuit at all, except to change into his nanofibre dress suit at around noon. What would have been a stifling experience became pleasant thanks to the Exo’s internal thermal regulation, and discomfort and cramps became a non-issue due to his new limbs’ inability to cramp up in the first place. An extreme convenience which made it possible to remain inside his titanium shell for such an extended period of time.

Despite Alex’s own tension, the Liandri performed their jobs as well as could be expected from them, even if Twilight still hadn’t been found. Rose sent a Red to Shining Armor’s house to inform him of the situation regarding his sister. However, as reported back to Rose, and subsequently Alex, Shining Armor appeared dull to the information and even seemed less talkative than the bot was. With the reported information, Rose gathered that he appeared to be in a perpetual state of inattentiveness—a bizarre behavior for the Captain of the Royal Guard, if nothing else.

Cadence hadn’t been directly observed at all. To do so would have brought on too much attention. However, as Reds patrolled the palace along seemingly random routes, there was always at least one within earshot of her. Unfortunately, none of them recorded anything of interest except for a short conversation between her and Celestia where she openly admitted that the Liandri’s presence seemed to frighten her. Celestia affirmed that everything would be fine and that, if worst came to worst, she would protect her—almost as if the bride were a frightened child in need of reassurance. As Rose described it, the exchange was innocuous at best, and odd at worst.

As guests entered the chapel, the nine foot tall Exosuit was one of the first things to draw their attention, surprising exactly no one as the unknown machine towered over even the largest of ponies. While he eyed each guest individually, Alex made no attempt to even bother explaining his presence, as Rose was doing that already.

Rose wore what Alex could only assume was a royal blue cocktail dress, with the rear end of the skirt being extended and fluffed up to give the impression of plumage. With each gawker, Rose smiled to them with a light bow, briefly explaining that the Liandri were only there to act as extra security as requested by the Royal Guard.

Oh, and welcome.

Her combat chassis, across the entrance from the Exosuit and where the AI was really grounded, scanned each guest with much greater scrutiny than Alex was capable of doing. Sitting against the wall behind the door was an unmarked, bronze colored box that held no indication of what its contents were, or even how to possibly open it. Of course, only a Liandri could open it via a wireless signal.

Alex’s eyes hovered over the growing crowd as the wedding hour approached, his fingers tapping along the triggers for the Exo’s arms. In theory, it was all supposed to be for show, and yet, as the clock ticked on, a nagging thought whispered that all that was probably going to change.

“Run another systems diagnostic,” Alex muttered.

“Acknowledged,” the Exosuit’s heavily synthetic monotone voice growled in response, and a flurry of smaller windows appeared around the edges of suit’s HUD.

“The BioMech Two is running fine,” came Rose’s voice. “I understand you’re nervous, but running a dozen full system diagnostics for half an hour is nothing short of ridiculous.”

Alex gave a short sigh. “Yeah, I know. Just need something to keep myself busy.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have any other suggestions for you other than to just wait.”

“Diagnostic complete,” the Exosuit announced. “All systems operating normally.”

Eventually, all of the invited guests had arrived and had taken their spots, standing in masses on either side of the aisle. Even without pews or other forms of seating, they somehow managed to make themselves orderly while remaining on their hooves.

It didn’t take much longer until the ceremony itself finally began. An organ player in the corner of the room began playing the traditional marriage tune, announcing the arrival of the groom, led by his groomsmen. Or was it grooms-stallions? Groomscolts?

A quartet of four stallions Alex didn’t recognize nor cared to preceded Shining Armor.

However, as the groom traveled down the aisle, Alex scanned over the room another time and noted one thing in particular…

“Wait, where the fuck is Luna?” Alex asked, his voice self contained within the Exo. Of all the places Luna could have been, he thought this would’ve been the event to attend, especially since her sister was presiding over the ceremony.

“You just noticed?” said Rose. “I’ve been wondering this entire time. Although, we’re not exactly in a position to answer that question yet.”

As Shining Armor took his place next to Celestia, the bridesmaids followed down the aisle next. Like the night before, the five girls walked on with their heads held high and dresses proudly worn—each flavored in their own style. Alex didn’t much care for it all, though, since the silent fact that Twilight wasn’t among them stuck out more than a light in a dark room. Although what no one noticed were their eyes, darting between the Liandri scattered around the room with their weapons drawn.

Once the girls had taken their spots opposite those of the stallions that came in with Shining Armor, trumpet players standing at attention next to the door started tooting their horns in earnest, following the tune of the organ and accompanied by Fluttershy's orchestra of birds. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza strode out through the doors and into the chapel, led by a trio of fillies tossing rose petals down the aisle, and with every set of eyes locked on her.

Truth be told, Alex hadn’t been paying much attention to the wedding ceremony up until now. Clearly, every string had been pulled to make Cadence look the way she did. A gilded, flowing white dress trailed behind her in a way that made it appear just that much more impressive, even to those who were unfamiliar with pony dress styles. By comparison, Shining Armor in what could only be assumed to be his captain uniform in no way stood out like his bride. It was then that Alex truly came to grips with the fact that the entire ceremony was centered around giving the bride, and only the bride, as much positive attention as possible.

And by the smirk on her face, she was lapping it all up.

When Cadence finally stood next to Shining Armor, Celestia began, “Mares and gentlecolts. We are gathered here today to witness the union of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor…”

The Princess’ words became muted, drowned out by Alex’s inability to give a fuck about any of what she was saying; a trend that continued even as the bride and groom segwayed into their vows. Alex didn’t have to listen to it to categorize it as the typical wedding spiel: “I vow to stay with you through sickness and health” and all that jazz. Besides, there were other things to worry about, even if Rose and the Liandri were already keeping tabs on them.

However, one thing that caught Alex’s attention was Shining Armor’s vows. Not necessarily their contents, but the way in which they were delivered. His voice was monotone; even… unenthused. For someone who was getting married and who was definitely capable of showing more emotion than a potato—unlike now—it seemed odd that he would suddenly be so unexcited when just last night he was practically bursting at the seams.

But why…?

“Captain Shining Armor,” Celestia announced. “Do you take Princess Mi Amore Cadenza to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” he responded, about as excited as a dial tone.

Celestia turned to the bride. “And do you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, take Captain Shining Armor to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Cadence smiled towards Shining Armor, her eyes almost on the verge of tears. “I do.”

Celestia smiled in turn and held her head up to allow her voice to travel as clearly as possible. “Then as a Royal Princess of Equestria and by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you—”

“STOOOOOOOOP!”

The sudden voice pierced the air like a gunshot, drawing attention from everyone in the room, including the fact that it’s familiarity was not lost on any of them.

Holy shit, Twilight! Alex turned the Exosuit towards the doorway, almost unbelieving of his friend’s reappearance. But there she stood, as defiant as ever! Although her return didn’t answer questions, and instead only posed more.

Shocked and awed mumbles throughout the room soundtracked her return from wherever she was, though none stood out as loudly as Cadence’s teary voice. “Why does she have to ruin my special day?”

“Because it’s not your special day!” a different, though eerily familiar voice cried out. “It’s mine!” That’s when the newcomer in question moved in front of Twilight, exposing herself for everyone to see as…

Cadence…?

For a brief moment, Alex’s mind blanked. The wings, the horn, the color scheme… Her mane was disheveled and her fur ragged, but it was unquestionably the… the… exact same pony who was standing further down the aisle…? "What the fuck...?"

“Well then. I wasn’t expecting this…” Rose silently commented to him.

“Me neither…” Alex mumbled as his eyes darted back and forth between the two identical alicorns. The HUD outline around each of their bodies changed from green to yellow as Rose updated the friendly fire contacts. The Reds throughout the room raised their Link Guns to shoulder height, and alternated their aim between the two potential targets.

“Ah-Ah don’t understand!” Applejack said, her voice carrying out nicely as she rubbed the side of her head. “How can there be two of ‘em?”

“Her name is Chrysalis, and she’s a changeling!” the second Cadence yelled, her look turning towards the crowd as she pointed a hoof towards her double. “She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them!”

Alex’s attention directed itself towards the Cadence by the floral archway, expecting some form verbal retort. Instead, her horn began to glow a sickly green color as she arched her back dangerously. A ring of green fire formed around herself and, when complete, erupted around her as a massive green geyser. The wedding dress she wore tore itself free from her body and was nearly instantly incinerated. The entire chapel looked on as her very shape molded itself into a new form. Her frame became taller, horn and hoofs warped, and feathers rotted into nothingness until only a pony-shaped creature with membranous wings remained in its place.

“Holy shit…” Alex muttered, reinforcing his grip on the Exosuit’s triggers. “Hold positions and fire on my mark…”

The changeling cackled to the ponies before her as the magic died away, allowing her “hair” to droop down her head, as if it hadn’t been washed in over a decade. On the Exo’s HUD, her outline changed to a vibrant red, and every Liandri in the room aimed their weapon directly at her, though held their fire as ordered.

“Right you are, princess! And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects.” Chrysalis sauntered down the steps towards Cadence. “Equestria has more love than any place we have ever encountered. My changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will become more powerful than we have ever dreamed of!”

“Why the fuck isn’t Celestia doing anything?!” Alex growled between grit teeth, and not without reason. The entire time that the changeling queen had been parading around, the solar princess remained still, doing nothing more menacing than projecting a frown.

“She’s letting her talk,” said Rose. The entire time, her combat chassis had been holding up a pair of Enforcers, each focused squarely on Chrysalis’ head, while her civilian body crouched and took shelter behind a pillar. “It’s not an interrogation, but with the amount of information this changeling is divulging, it might as well be.”

“They’ll never get the chance!” Cadence retorted to the queen standing before her. “Shining Armor’s protection spell will keep them from ever reaching us!”

Chrysalis chuckled back at her. “Oh, I doubt that. Isn’t that right, dear?” she turned back to look at Shining Armor, her horn glowing. As she did, his head flopped in a half-conscious nod, causing her to chuckle yet again and walk back over to him. “Ever since I took your place, I’ve been feeding off Shining Armor’s love for you. He grows weaker with every passing moment, and so does his spell. Even now, my minions are chipping away at it!”

Another cackle. “He may not be my husband, but he is under my control, and—I’m sorry to say—unable to perform his duties as Captain of the Royal Guard! Soon, my changeling army will break through! First, we take Canterlot, and then, all of Equestria!”

“No… You won’t.” Just as Alex’s trigger finger was at its itchiest, Princess Celestia finally decided to speak up, drawing the queen’s attention. Pacing around the side of the altar area, Celestia kept her gaze locked with Chrysalis. “You may be able to keep Shining Armor from performing his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed both yourself and your plans, now I can defend my little ponies from you.”

Without as much as an extra breath, Celestia reared up, her horn glowing a golden yellow, before slamming her hooves back down, unleashing a stream of magic at the changeling queen who quickly responded in kind. A beam of green magic erupted from Chrysalis’ twisted horn and intercepted Celestia’s midair, creating a flashy, magical tug of war between the two.

The convergence of their magic shook the room: two streams of coherent energy clashing into a searing ball of power. Celestia delivered her attack with nothing more than a stern glare towards her opponent, as if the changeling had been nothing more than a misbehaving child, whereas Chrysalis grit her teeth in an attempt to focus her retaliation. The magical point of contact inched its way towards the queen, until, suddenly, it stopped and reversed direction. Before the Princess could do so much as flinch, the glowing ball of combined magic accelerated towards her and detonated in her face, launching the now ragdolled Celestia across the floor and into a crumpled heap against the wall.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight screamed, rushing to her mentor’s side among the shocked gasps of the crowd.

Chrysalis stared at the sight before her with wide eyes, until she grinned and glanced down at a hoof she held out. “Ah, Shining Armor’s love for you is more powerful than I thought! Consuming it has made me even more powerful than Celestia!”

“Hey, bitch! Remember me?!”

The words boomed across the chapel and tore Chrysalis from her glee, drawing her attention to the back of the room and towards the only thing capable of making such noise. The towering Exosuit spread its stance by lifting a heavy metal foot and slamming it down to create a loud boom that cracked the floor beneath it and sent a shiver running up everypony’s spines. Its miniguns raised up, their chrome plating catching a rogue ray of sunlight that made the end of the barrels glitter.

“I saved something for ya!” Alex bellowed from the suit’s sound system. With a single thought, Alex assigned the hole-riddled creature as a target to kill to every unit on the network.

The very next second erupted into chaos. Rose’s combat chassis brought its weapons to bear on the target, then an ear piercing screech—designed from its very inception with Rose’s first encounter with the lunar princess to be intolerable to equines. Everypony yelped at the unbearable noise, bringing their hooves up to cover their ears and, consequently, ducking in the process. With the likelihood for collateral minimized, the Novas opened fire, releasing a torrent of searing hot bolts of ionized plasma that sailed over the crowd towards their intended target.

The changeling queen, seemingly unaffected by Rose’s sonic incapacitation, quickly swept her horn from one side to the next, erecting a translucent wall of green magic between her and the offending machines. Unfortunately for her, a lone bolt of plasma managed to race ahead of her reflexes and caught her square in the left shoulder. Chrysalis howled in pain as the super-hot projectile melted through her chitinous skin and even boiled the edges of the impact wound. More bolts of plasma flew into her shield and dissipated against the magical barrier as she stumbled to regain balance.

Alex, hearing nothing but a light buzz from Rose, repositioned the Exosuit towards the the aisle. “We’ve gotta get these civilians out of here! Can you manage it?”

“Leave it to me,” Rose responded, before she halted her ear-piercing screech and her voice boomed out from the Exo. “Everypony keep your head down!” Her combat chassis sprang over to one of the royal guards squirming next to the door, pulling him up by the collar of his armor with one hand and giving his head a firm shake with the other. “Get them out of here! Now!” she ordered as she pointed towards the wedding guests, reasonably satisfied that he was paying attention. The guard nodded before shouting at his double on the other side of the door to help him.

Meanwhile, Alex stared down the changeling queen from the confines of his mechanized armor, matching her pained grimace with a gleeful baring of teeth. “Fifty cal fun time!” At those words, the weapons on either side of the suit took aim, the targeting reticle on the HUD lined up with black figure before him, sporting a vivid red outline. With a thought, the barrels of each minigun began to spin, Chrysalis’ eyes never leaving his own. Using steady hands, Alex pulled back on the safety triggers.

A torrent of fire and noise instantly erupted from the Exosuit, as if the largest and angriest of all bee swarms had suddenly manifested into existence. Panicked and screaming ponies raced for the exit, keeping their heads down as green balls of fire and sharp metal projectiles zipped over them, accompanied by the pelting of seemingly endless brass casings being ejected from the Exosuit as it spat a constant stream of metal and fire.

Chrysalis grit her teeth even further and her horn glowed brighter with an increase in magical output. Large copper plated lead projectiles cascaded upon her conjured shield in an unrelenting assault, causing innumerable ripples to appear upon the barrier in their bid to tear through it.

Despite the constant hail of fire and metal, the queen’s shield held fast, even as the last of the guests evacuated. Alex’s grin morphed into a snarl, before his attention was taken by a beeping alert on the bottom of his HUD, which was confirmed by glancing at the red hot ends of the miniguns. “Fuck!” Alex released the triggers, instantly stopping the stream of bullets. “Rose, the guns are overheating! God damn, how much of this can she take?”

“You know, when I said I wanted to bring the AVRiL, I was mostly joking,” Rose began, apparently ignorant of his problem. “The likelihood of actually having to use it was so laughably infinitesimal that the only real reason I wanted to bring it was to help keep myself entertained.”

Alex frowned as the Exosuit took a step back to more easily angle himself towards Rose while the Reds continued to keep the queen pinned behind her shield, timing their automatic shots in such a way that at least four of them were firing at any given time while the others reloaded. Rose, on the other hand, sauntered towards the unmarked bronze box, whose top popped loose, seemingly of its own accord as a gentle white mist seeped from the opening.

Slipping her fingers under the lid, Rose threw the box open, reached with both arms, and heaved out the Anti-Vehicle Rocket Launcher stored within, placing it square on her right shoulder. “It seems bringing this thing was actually a good idea.”

Alex grinned as she carried the AVRiL back to the aisle to give herself a clear line of sight of the defiant invader, and backed away to give her the room she needed. Rose dropped down to her right knee and centered the targeting reticle on the changeling queen, which beeped red after a couple of seconds when the weapon’s optical targeting system locked on. At that same instant, all six Reds ceased fire, and dead silence dominated the chapel as Chrysalis’ slit pupils narrowed even further.

One heart beat.

Screaming filled the room as the AVRiL’s solid fuel rocket tore through the air, roaring towards its target at delirious speeds and leaving nothing but a faint trail of smoke in its wake. However, the discord of the rocket could not hold a candle to the veritable thunder clap of its shaped change detonating against the magical barrier, creating a small, though instant fireball.

Much to everyone’s shock, however, the shield remained intact as the fire and smoke billowed around it, and the Reds resumed their plasma barrage.

“Mother fucker!” Alex exclaimed, slack jawed at the heavy weapon’s ineffectiveness.

“Alex! Rose!” screamed Twilight from somewhere below him. He turned the Exosuit in the direction of her voice, finding not only her, but their other five friends who had each shed their dresses. “Come on! We need to go get the Elements of Harmony! It’s the only way we’ll be able to beat her!”

Alex glanced back over at the changeling who had not yet yielded a single step despite the merciless hellfire thrown at her. “Fuck it—You lead the way, we’ll follow. The Reds will keep her busy.”

“What about the AVRiL?” asked Rose, still holding the massive launcher on her shoulder.

“Ditch it!” he responded as he shifted the Exo into gear to follow after the ponies. “It’s not like that bitch will be able to use it anyway.”

“I hope you’re right about that,” she said as she set the launcher down and sprinted after them. However, it didn’t take very long for the ponies galloping at full speed to create an increasingly wider gap between them and Alex, whose suit was not built to go anywhere near the speed that they were going. As they approached the Palace entrance, Rose yelled, “Girls! You need to slow down!”

Instead of slowing down, they all stopped entirely in the doorway, where a set of guards huddled around the interior and cuddled their spears like the lifesavers they imagined them to be. “What? Why?!” Twilight shouted back. “We can’t wait around! We have to hurry!”

“I can keep up with you; Alex can’t,” Rose explained as she stuck her head out of the door and directed her gaze skyward. Innumerable black pony shaped figures hovered in the sky, repeatedly bouncing themselves against the outside of Shining Armor’s shield that was now beginning to visibly crack like a pane of glass. “Unless you want to deal with all of that on your own, I’d recommend sticking close to us.”

The six ponies looked up to the sky and paled at the sight.

“Whoa nelly…” Applejack muttered.

“That’s a lot of them…” said Pinkie Pie.

The stomping of the Exosuit grew louder as Alex finally caught up to them. Without slowing down, and curious to see what they were all looking at, Alex marched past them and turned his eyes to the sky as well. He let out a short whistle. “Ho. Lee. Shit. That’s not good.”

“No it’s not,” Rose answered before looking back towards the ponies. “Get going, but stay close.”

“Alright, it’s this way,” Twilight said, taking the lead. She didn’t need to look back to make sure Alex was keeping up; the sound of the Exosuit’s stomps was more than enough to tell if she was starting to outpace it or not.

Just as they left the safety of the palace grounds for the streets, the entire city itself seemed to quake against the mountain it was rooted to. It didn’t take very long to discover the source of the problem, since the purple screen that was Shining Armor’s city-wide shield had finally shattered and caved in, exposing Canterlot to the outside word and the countless changelings that were kept at bay.

“Okay, that’s bad!” said Alex.

“We have to keep moving!” Twilight yelled as she regained her footing.

With the barrier gone, the changelings began their assault in earnest, dive bombing straight down onto Canterlot streets. Sickly green auras encased their fronts as they all came down like a hailstorm of meteors, shattering the cobblestone and creating miniature craters. Changelings crashed down all around them as the group moved as quickly as they could. Rose, with a pair of Enforcers in hand, wasted no time in executing the insectile equines as they reared their heads.

Alex, on the other hand, wasn’t as trigger happy. While the miniguns remained spinning as they moved, he seldom fired even a single shot unless the changeling he was attacking was out in the open. As much as he would have liked to be alone in the streets with them, that wasn’t a possibility: civilians panicked left and right, while Royal Guards also fought off the invaders in close combat. While Rose’s hand was delicate enough to pick off a changeling wrestling with someone across the street, he didn’t trust himself to be able to do the same, even with the friendly fire algorithms. The Exosuit wasn’t designed to be surgical in operation, but to have a massive presence; to tackle larger obstacles and survive harsh trials through heavy armor alone.

His armor met its first real trial when a meteoric changeling came careening down straight onto the front of the Exosuit, even reflecting off of it and smashing into the street before it, no worse for wear. Alex, however, was jolted inside the suit from the sudden impact which managed to shove the Exo back a step while throwing his head forward with a gasp. The violent impact even managed to distort Alex’s view through the machine’s HUD, creating static across the image that took a few seconds to recover from. At the same time, the Exosuit’s deep voice droned into Alex’s ear: “Warning: minor system failure.”

Since the impact was loud enough for everypony to hear, their hooves as well as their hearts all stopped to make sure something really bad didn’t happen. Rose herself whipped an Enforcer in the direction of the changeling that was now snarling up at Alex, though held her shot when the Exosuit raised up its foot. The changeling that had hit him had ceased its snarling and instead looked up at the underside of the Exo’s boot with wide eyes. Everypony immediately looked away in revulsion as that exact same boot came down, followed by a loud squish.

“Yegh… How… macabre…” Rarity commented.

“Fuck you, asshole!” Alex yelled at the sticky mass underfoot before putting the other leg in gear. “Come on, keep going!”

“This way!” said Twilight as she bounded up a set of stairs. “The treasury is right up here!”

The six ponies and Rose rocketed up the steps in short order, though came to an abrupt halt when their next challenge faced them down: atop the plateau that served as the entryway for the Canterlot treasury, where the Elements of Harmony were secured, was an army of changelings. It was as if every changeling that had been hovering above the city had decided to congregate into a semicircle on that one platform with the intent on staring them all down and intimidating them into submission with sheer numbers. With the endless sea of fanged snarling, clicking of onyx hooves, and buzzing of membranous wings, it wouldn’t have been difficult to believe exactly that.

Heavy steps from behind them awoke them from their stupor, and they carefully moved aside to allow the Exosuit to lumber between them. A small, though ragged gash in its armor ran down its front as it painted the floor green with every other step.

“I don’t have time for your bullshit,” Alex growled as he halted in the clearing, pointing his miniguns at the changeling standing directly in front of him and completely apathetic to the scale of their presence. The red outline around the invader and his partners made them prime targets for the Exosuit’s wrath, and the machine had zero qualms with spinning its barrels to complete this task. But before the Exo’s fury could be delivered, a burst of neon green flame erupted from around the changeling’s hooves, surrounding it and dissipating in a fraction of a second, leaving in its place…

… Pinkie Pie…?

“What the…?” Alex’s heart missed a beat as the red outline around the creature’s body immediately changed to green. A green X appeared over the HUD’s crosshairs, followed by the miniguns automatically spinning down to avoid shooting an ally. A chill ran down Alex’s spine as, one after the other, every changeling around them erupted into flame and turned into a copy of one of the six ponies standing behind him. What was a ocean of black and red targets became a sea of polychromatic fakes trimmed with untouchable green. “Oh shit…”

“That’s not good…” said Rose, barely low enough for the ponies to hear.

The disguised changelings took a menacing step forward, grinning madly with the faces of friends, and Alex took an appropriate step backwards. “Fuck—Rose, I gotta turn friendly fire off!”

“Do it,” Rose told him wirelessly as she turned her voice outward to the ponies around her. “Girls, I want you listen to me very closely. No matter what happens, stay behind Alex. Do not under any circumstances get in front of him.”

“W-w-why…?” Fluttershy whimpered.

Rose stood tall, pointing an Enforcer at either side of them to different sets of imposters. “He might accidentally kill you,” was her blunt response.

Rainbow Dash gulped, the chill in her bones letting her know she was that much more afraid for her life than she was a few seconds ago. “Th-that’s as good a reason as any…”

At that moment, the green outline around the changelings vanished from Alex’s HUD, having been replaced by small white circles to point out individuals. Retaking his step forward, Alex grit his teeth with renewed vigor as the miniguns once again spun up. “Bring it on, mother fuckers!”

The Exosuit immediately began to advance, releasing its first volley of fire and lead. The unlucky changelings who made the mistake of standing in front of the Exosuit were cut down instantly, their disguises evaporating as holes were bored straight through their bodies, some to the point of nearly being cut in half.

However, Alex was still heavily outnumbered. While many of the attackers were killed before they could move, the rest surged onto the Exosuit in a tidal wave of bodies. Alex only had time to widen his eyes and suck in a breath before they all impacted at once, slamming into the giant metal construct with enough force to shove back its advance. Thrown off balance, the Exosuit’s arms flailed as hellfire continued to pour forth from them: the left going upwards to shatter the windows of the treasury, while the right went down, shredding the tiles of the plateau. The six ponies shrieked and bolted to the side as the Exo was almost shoved into their original huddle.

“Get the fuck off me!” Alex roared at a rabid Fluttershy, who foamed at the mouth while she fervently pounded her hooves against his faceplate. Ceasing the miniguns’ fire, the Exosuit’s bloodied foot finally found purchase against the ground and Alex used his leverage to push himself forward and swing his weaponized right arm like a giant metal club. Disguised changelings scattered at the swing, either thrown off or bludgeoned by it, but it wasn’t long before replacements swarmed yet again and latched onto the limb. “Someone get these fucking things off of me!”

“I’m doing what I can!” said Rose, though to no effect that Alex could notice. Either there were too many for her to clear off of him, or she was too busy dealing with her own problems at the same time. Probably both.

Alarms inside the suit started to blare as Alex’s attention was drawn down to the corner of his HUD—to the visual representation of the BioMech. Alex’s heart rate spiked as the image’s right arm glowed bright red, with a small exclamation mark hovering next to it. Fuck! They took out the hydraulics in my right arm! They’re doing actual fucking damage!

The ceaselessly deafening banging of hooves and teeth against metal assaulted Alex’s ears as he swung his other arm in an attempt to rid himself from the offenders. Another alarm sounded as the ammunition feed connecting the left arm to the storage unit on his back was ripped free from that limb. Whole bullets liberally spilled out from the casing protecting the ammo belt and onto the ground.

Alex continued to blindly swing that impotent arm while firing the useless one, moving his legs whichever way he could to kick or squish any members of the swarm. “No! No! No!” he hyperventilated, until a sudden burst of sparks inside the suit drew a yelp from him, followed by the horrifying scent of burning circuitry. The Fluttershy that had been beating on his faceplate earlier was gone, instead replaced by savage duplicates of Pinkie Pie and Rarity who were splashed with amber hydraulic fluid. The image before his eyes was in a permanent state of irrecoverable static and distortion.

“Fucking help me!” Alex screamed, just as another alarm of the many announced that the hydraulics in his left leg, providing most of his support between his foot and knee, had been repeatedly bucked into oblivion. The Exosuit tilted and crashed to the ground in short order. Alex instinctively stuck out his arm to catch himself, and the Exo repeated his instinct. However, the minigun arm, never designed to withstand such an impact, twisted at an odd angle upon hitting the ground, damaging the hydraulics within it while flipping the suit onto its back.

“Get off of me! Get off of me!” Alex cried as he attempted to flail whatever leaking limbs he could against the endless swarm of feral ponies mercilessly beating at his metal shell. His breathing quickened back into terrified hyperventilation as blaring alarms mixed with the flashing red warnings all over his HUD and the shrieking of his bloodthirsty attackers who, in reality, were mere inches from him.

That is, until the Exosuit's deep synthetic voice relayed one final warning…

“Critical failure. Occupant death imminent.”

His face instantly paled.

“Somebody get me out of THIS FUCKING THING!”

Author's Notes:

Fun fact time! Technicalities was originally inspired back in March 2013 while I was reading Eakin's Hard Reset, with a few bits inspired by Andrew Joshua Talon's story, Hands, like the fact that the story takes place during showtime. At the time, I was playing a metric fuckton of Natural Selection 2, and while I was reading Hard Reset, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if an Exosuit was thrown into the mix, and played with a few different ideas in my head. All that said, this chapter was well over two years in planning. Needless to say, it's evolved quite a bit since that nugget of an idea.

Here's some other fun tidbits. When I first started writing the story, I had exactly no idea where I wanted to go with it, although by the time I started publishing, which I think was after I finished writing the first 3 chapters (I also scrapped a number of chapters back then), that changed. Since then, I've been altering parts of the story that I have yet to write and have been meticulously fleshing out its universe. Of course, most of that is still locked away in my head, but rest assured that my meticulousness with this story spans space and time; including the past and future. Shit's complicated, but I'm managing.

Speaking of complicated, I need to get serious for a second with you guys. This chapter would have been out sooner, but there's been an unhealthy amount of family drama going on in the past month that's left me too bummed out and unmotivated to get to it. I'm not going to go into specifics, but I feel you guys deserve to know why this had been taking so long. Although I'm worried it might have seeped through to my writing this time around. I also have to go back to school at the end of the month, and since I'm going to be majoring in electrical engineering, I'm afraid I'm not going to have very much time to write. This pisses me off since I'm probably only going to have enough time to finish this arc with the next chapter, and the next arc is where rubber really meets the road and where the actual meat of the story is. It's the part I'm looking forward to the most, and yet I'm going to have even less time to do it. All that said, I refuse to abandon this story. I've gotten this far, dammit, and I'm not going to drop it now.

Problem solved?

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Rose threw a copy of Applejack flat on ground, before reaching her hands around its neck and swiftly jolting its head cleanly around with a clear snap. At the same time, a fake Rarity came galloping up from behind with her teeth bared. In one swift motion, Rose sprang backwards while arching her back, flipping over the speeding attacker. One hand planted itself firmly on the copy’s withers to carry over the motion, while the other reach behind herself and pulled an Enforcer from its resting place on her back. Before Rose was even halfway through the flip, she lodged a bullet inside the changeling’s head.

Somebody get me out of THIS FUCKING THING!

A bolt of purple magic knocked a changeling away midair, a split second before it could slam into the caster. Twilight whipped her head towards a pair of Rainbow Dashes, one of which had the other in some form of choke hold. Her horn lit up in preparation to knock them apart, but a firm grip grabbed onto the base of her mane and angled her head towards a bronzed face with shining blue eyes. Rose’s other arm raised itself past Twilight’s head and quick gunshot fired off, startling her with the sheer proximity of the bang. Although a quick thanks could be heard directly afterwards.

“Twilight, I need you to teleport Alex out of there—now!” Rose ordered without missing a beat. With her grip on the unicorn’s hair, she then pointed Twilight’s head towards the massive pile of imposters that had completely covered Alex’s Exosuit.

“But what about his phobia?” Twilight quickly asked.

“Just do it!” Rose barked back as she caught a lunging changeling in the neck with a high kick, upon which she pinned it to the floor with her foot and delivered a swift execution.

Okay… Magic once again flowed through her horn as Twilight focused on the pile of bodies, searching out for the one in the center of it all. It wasn’t terribly difficult; he was the one thing inside it all to have a thin line of separation between the others. She could only hope that Alex wouldn’t be upset about this. With her focus set, she pushed a little more magic through her horn and…

A large purple flash appeared next to Twilight, followed by a yelp as Alex appeared out of thin air. His limbs had been all folded up, just as they were inside the suit, and they quickly fell away and flailed as he landed flat on his rear. He blinked his eyes several times and spun his head in every direction, confused about his sudden displacement. “What the—”

Neither one of them had the time to so much as smile at the successful teleportation before one of the loudest booms either one of them had ever heard shook them to their very core. The pile of changelings and metal that Alex had been pulled from was instantly annihilated in a pale blue fireball. Every changeling that had made of the mistake of trying to tear a piece off of the Exosuit was instead torn to pieces itself—if they weren’t already consumed by the explosion, that is.

“Ack!” Alex yelped as something grabbed him by the collar of his suit and yanked him back, just as a large piece of scrap slammed down on the spot he was just sitting in: the barrels of one of the miniguns, still connected to one of the forearms. The joint had been torn apart, and the rest of it was smoldering and shredded, completely unrecognizable from its former self. He stared wide-eyed at the torn machinery with his legs curled up and one arm up over his chest, as if it would somehow snap up and attack. “Oh fuck me!”

“Get up!” Rose barked as she knelt down from over him, subsequently shoving an Enforcer into his chest which he automatically clutched with both hands. Her other arm raised up and she fired off several shots from her spare at something Alex couldn’t quite identify. “And don’t do anything stupid!”

For a second, Alex fumbled with the firearm that had been thrust at him. The sounds of fighting were still all around, but at least the banging metal had stopped. The occasional gunshot from Rose announced to everyone nearby that another changeling had been removed. Thankfully, Rose’s words were strong enough for his mind to follow them, despite the chaos of the situation. Alex stumbled to his feet, squeezing the Enforcer’s handle with both hands, but completely unsure of what to do with it. His breathing remained as quick as ever as his head whipped back and forth, attempting to make sense of it all.

“Alex, watch out!” Twilight suddenly yelled.

On instinct, Alex’s looked to where his name had been called, and was completely caught off guard when another body slammed into his side and threw him to the ground. Pinned to his back and staring up at his attacker, Alex found himself face to face with a copy of Applejack, grinning down at him. His body froze up at the sight of the one who would only do him harm, until another of Rose’s many gunshots punctuated the air. His attacker’s palomino fur promptly evaporated into nothing, just as a flash of purple caught it in its side and tossed it off of him, leaving nothing but a horse-shaped thing lying on the ground with a hole in its head that oozed a viscous green liquid.

“Focus!” Rose yelled as she spun and kicked another would-be leaper in the face with her heel.

Alex scrambled to his feet again, gun still in hand. “God dammit, I’m an engineer! I don’t know how to fight!” However, his eyes lingered on Rose, transfixed on her mobile figure as she danced across the battle. She seemed to spend more time in the air or on one foot than both, performing impossible feats of both grace and brutality. Rose was moving too quickly for Alex to commit any of what she was doing to memory, but he could swear he saw her perform a back flip to kick one changeling in the jaw, only to then land on the back of another, twist its neck, then leap off and shoot a third midair before the second realized it died. Each movement; punch, kick, shot, and reload flowed flawlessly into the next. Never once stopping; never once hesitating.

“Hi there!” Alex froze at the voice, not just by its abruptness, but by its familiarity.

“Pinkie Pie…?” he mumbled as he turned his head to look across his left shoulder. There she was, amidst all the chaos around them, simply smiling up at him. He inhaled a ragged breath. “H-how do I know you’re real…?”

Her smile turned to a malicious grin. “You don’t.”

As quickly as she muttered the words, Alex brought his gun to bear on her. His hands didn’t shake—they couldn’t anymore—but by the way the muscles in his neck pulled down on his lower lip, and by his hesitation with the trigger, his hands’ predecessors certainly would have.

Pinkie tilted her head and pouted. “You wouldn’t use that on a friend, would you?”

Alex took a step in reverse. “Just s-stay back! I-I don’t wanna hurt you!”

This time, the fake Pinkie frowned, sending him a rancid stare as she hissed out her words. “You seemed more than happy to attack our queen and kill my siblings.”

Alex sucked in a gasp as the changeling dashed to his left, milliseconds before he pulled the trigger on reflex and missed it entirely. The fake Pinkie wasted no time leaping at him, her blunt teeth instantly morphing into the fangs of the original creature. With his own reflexes much too slow, Alex could only take another step back before the fanged pony clamped down on his left arm.

He yelped in surprise at her movements, but paused when the changeling continued to thrash at his arm. The limb communicated with the rest of his nervous system and brain, allowing him to feel the pressure from the bite, but failed to cause him even the slightest amount of pain. It’s fangs gnashed uselessly against the sleeve of his nanofibre blazer, all the while the casing of his arm proved to be more than sturdy enough against the bite force of its sharpened jaws.

Do not allow this fleshling to frighten you.

In less than a heartbeat, Alex’s right arm raised up, doubling the force of its grip on the Enforcer, before whipping down across the changeling’s head. The sheer force of the bludgeoning easily discombobulated his attacker and pushed it away from him. Even when it instinctively bit down harder as it was hit, the changeling’s fangs only cracked and shattered against the impenetrable carbon vest. The Pinkie double stumbled for a few steps to its side, but managed to remain standing. Green blood was already leaking from the side of the changeling’s head and staining its borrowed pink fur by the time it regained its balance. When it did, it turned its glower back to Alex with a broken snarl.

A snarl that immediately ceased to be when the changeling confronted the sight before it. Against the blue of the sky was a pair of neon green eyes, glaring down from within a enshrouded face. The human stood firm, with both feet planted on the ground and a fist clenched at his side, while the other hand extended out towards the false Pinkie, who now found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

Deathly silence surrounded everyone on the plateau, then a final clap against the tranquility signaled the end of the conflict, echoing for blocks around.

With a bit more room to relax, the ponies took the time to heave out a few more breaths. “Everypony alright?” asked Twilight.

They all nodded and mumbled in acknowledgement, though Alex’s hand snapped up to force itself against his forehead as he grit his teeth and quietly groaned.

Rose placed a hand over Alex’s shoulder and repeated Twilight’s question. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just a headache…” he grunted in response. Soon enough he lowered his hand and let out a breath, his eyes back to their normal color. “There… It’s gone now.” Alex looked back over at her, then briefly to the others. “We got ourselves a breather?”

“For now,” said Rose. “But we have another problem: the Reds are out of commision.”

“Fuck…” Alex muttered under his breath, turning his look away from her.

“Although, I have a solution.”

Alex looked back up at her, expecting an some form of elaborated plan. Instead, he found Rose staring off towards the Palace, so he did the same. He didn’t have to wait for very long before the Raven emerged from behind the building and swept over the city as it made its way straight back to Ponyville.

“Good thinking.” Alex grinned as he took the opportunity to pull open the backside of his pants, and carefully tuck the handgun into his waistband.

“Alright, everyone, let’s get moving. Backup’s on the way, but I don’t really want to sit around and wait until they get here,” he said, making sure his blazer hid the gun’s handle.

“Neither do I,” Twilight’s agreed, stepping ahead of him. “Come on, the Elements are in here.”

“Hey, Alex, what happened to your hair?” Pinkie asked as she and the others trotted by.

“What?” Alex raised a hand to his head, only to have it come into contact with bare skin. Upon noticing the absence of his hairpiece, Alex glanced back over at the smoldering remains of the Exosuit, swearing under his breath. “Forget about that. I’ll worry about it later.” He frowned at the carnage of his machine, but the unwelcome sound of buzzing snapped him back into the moment.

Likewise, everyone else looked back out over the city and the alarming number of black figures that were flying towards them.

“We’ve got company,” Rainbow Dash announced.

“Quick, get inside!” Twilight said, as she used her magic to surround the doors of the treasury and pull them open.

Almost immediately, the sound of even louder buzzing and chittering entered their ears as even more changelings laid in wait within the building. An entire crowd filled the floor of the building’s lobby, while more were suspended either in the air, or on columns, walls, and even the ceiling. Mere seconds later, the reinforcements from the city came buzzing in from behind, completely surrounding the group of eight.

Alex grit his teeth as he raised his hands. “Mother fucker…”

Chrysalis continued her infuriating cackling as the six ponies and two humanoids were herded back into the chapel by a collection of her minions. She turned her eye towards the real Cadence, who stood next to the zombified Shining Armor with her hooves fixed to the floor by a strange green paste. “What was that you were saying?”

A twitch came upon Alex’s cheek as his eyes surveyed the room to assess the damage. Just as Rose had said, each of the Novas had been thoroughly dismantled: cybernetic limbs were severed from their bodies, heads were either smashed or removed altogether, and torsos were forced open and gutted. This level of carnage against such military grade machinery should have been impossible, but then again, after the changeling queen’s display of magic earlier, it wasn’t a surprise how she managed to get the upper hand on them.

All the more reason to get working magical countermeasures developed.

However, the remains of one bot caught Alex’s attention. Its head had been blown open and its legs were crushed, but its arms and torso still appeared perfectly intact, propped up against one of the room’s support columns. Alex projected the thought to Rose, and a series of letters appeared above the torn body.

NOVA0002-HYDE

STATUS: ACTIVE

So he’s playing dead. Alex grinned. Smart mother fucker. We can use that.

Peering further around the room, Alex picked up on two more details that could eventually come in handy. Rose’s civilian body had remained hidden behind a pillar the entire time, and carefully eyed them from the safety of its hiding spot. It definitely wasn’t a fighting unit, but an extra set of hands could be useful. Lying on the floor, right where Rose left it, was the AVRiL. Alex could tell at a glance that it wasn’t loaded, but that wouldn’t be a problem. The weapon was designed to be self loading, but the process had to be initiated manually. If Chrysalis could be distracted…

Alex glanced up at the ceiling, his eyes drawn by an odd shade of green he was pretty sure wasn’t there earlier. Indeed, it wasn’t: a translucent cocoon was suspended from the ceiling, stuffed into a neat corner of the room. Encased in it was none other than Princess Celestia, upside down and seemingly asleep within her organic bed.

Welp, she’s out...

“I hope you all realize that the reception has been canceled,” Chrysalis sneered down at them before turning her attention to the changelings buzzing above and around them. “Go! Relinquish your hunger! Feed!” At her words, the changelings eagerly zipped out of the room, either through the doorway or the chapel’s many windows, leaving them alone with the queen, who magicked the door closed.

“She’s either really confident or really stupid…” Alex muttered under her breath.

“I don’t know just how aware you are,” the queen continued to them, “but you’ve all been a rather annoying thorn in my side. Especially you two.” She pointed a hoof at Alex and Rose. “You’ve both killed more of my subjects than I was willing to sacrifice for this city, on top of doing this.” She turned to her right to show them the wound on her left shoulder. “Those things of yours are surprisingly dangerous.”

“They are,” Alex responded, keeping his face as neutral as possible, “and I can promise they’ll be the death of you.”

“Hmph. Such bold words.” Chrysalis levitated one of the Novas’ heads over to herself and placed it on her hoof. “But do understand that I don’t exactly feel threatened by them.” She tossed the head aside, laughing to herself before walking towards the nearest window to look out over the city.

While the changeling queen had her back turned, Alex looked to the ponies so that he could ask Twilight a question, preferably one Chrysalis couldn’t hear. However, Twilight was already far out of whispering earshot as she snuck off towards Cadence and Shining Armor.

Dammit. He would just have to settle for the next best thing.

Carefully moving himself next to Rarity, Alex lowered himself to his knees and leaned into her ear, keeping his eyes on the queen.. “If I were to hit your horn, how badly would it hurt?”

Rarity’s head jerked back at the question. “Excu—mmph!”

Alex’s hand shot up and clamped her mouth shut before she could make more noise. With his other hand, he pointed towards Chrysalis and then layed a finger over his mouth in a hush. Rarity’s eyes followed his movements carefully, then he released her muzzle and whispered his question again.

She nodded and whispered back. “It hurts quite a bit, actually.”

“Where, exactly? Tip, base, middle?”

“Well, the base tends to hurt more when struck…”

“Thanks.”

Alex turned his head over to Rose, who had kneeled down next to him as well. Their eyes remained fixed on each other for a moment, and Rarity’s curiosity forced her to observe the entirety of their silent conversation. Eventually, Rose simply nodded once, and the two of them looked back towards the changeling queen.

“Huh…? What happened…? I-is the wedding over…?”

Everyone, Chrysalis included, turned their head towards the source of the voice: Shining Armor. He blinked his eyes several times and held a hoof up to his head, attempting to nurse what seemed to be a nasty headache. Cadence stood next to him, her hooves freed from the substance that restrained her just moments ago.

Chrysalis stomped a hoof. “It’s all over."

“Your spell!” Twilight implored. “Cast your spell!”

“What good would that do?” Chrysalis cackled, pointing a hoof towards the window. “My changelings already roam free!”

Shining Armor’s mouth hung ajar as he glanced between his sister, fiancée, and the strange creature that stood in the room with them and laughed at him. Confusion set it, so his brain focused on the one statement spoken by a familiar voice: cast your spell. Shining blinked several times until he forced magic through his horn. Unlike others, where their entire horn would become illuminated, only the very end of his managed to glow. Both his eyes and teeth clenched as the stallion attempted to bring more of his magic into focus, though never getting beyond that pitiful amount.

Eventually, his horn gave out, as did the breath he was holding. “I… I can’t… I don’t have the strength to do it…”

“My love will give you strength!” said Cadence as she fully wrapped her forelegs around him.

Alex and Rose shared a look, one dull enough to smash concrete.

Chrysalis scoffed. “What a lovely, though absolutely ridiculous—” The changeling queen cut herself off mid sentence, and her eyes imperceptibly widened, as if she had just remembered something important. “—sentiment…” Her eyes turned towards Alex and Rose, who each remained calmly sitting on their knees with their hands resting against the front of their thighs, staring back at her.

“It occurs to me that I’m getting short on time,” she announced, “and that it would be best for me to deal with you both now.”

Alex’s eyes flashed green, just as he allowed himself a smirk. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

In one swift movement, each of his hands reached behind him: the left lifted the fabric of his blazer, while the right gripped the Enforcer he had hidden there. His arms flowed through with the motion, almost moving of their own accord, bringing the weapon around in front of him, and aimed squarely at the queen’s head.

The resulting gunshot caught nearly everypony off guard, save for Cadence and Shining Armor, who seemed to be in their own little world at that moment. The spiraling bullet sailed out of the end of the Enforcer at supersonic speeds, traveling faster than any organic creature could react to. Without any barrier to impede its path, the bullet flew towards its target and hit it true: the base of Chrysalis’ horn, right where it connected with the rest of her head.

The changeling queen recoiled, throwing the entire front of her body back as she let out a painful scream. At the same time, both Alex and Rose shot to their feet, the former yelling: “Thirty seconds!” Alex kept his glowing eyes trained on his target, and practically let his arms aim for him with each squeeze of the trigger as his feet carried him to his left. Meanwhile, Rose bolted right, heading straight for the AVRiL.

Each bullet panged uselessly off of Chrysalis’ impressively armored skin, but they hit their target with the intended effect. A foreleg covered the queen’s eyes against the hail of metal, even though their purpose was not to kill, but to disrupt. Whenever it came into view, Alex automatically fired off another round that smashed into the base of her horn, sending a recoiling shock of pain through her body, while simultaneously preventing her from casting any magic that could spell disaster.

Over by the floral archway, Cadence and Shining Armor became enveloped in swirls of their own magic, the tips of their horns nudging against each other and glowing as fiercely as their affection. On the other end of the room, Rose hefted the AVRiL on her shoulder and initiated the weapon’s loading sequence. Internal whirs could be heard as another rocket was ferried into position, but a dull clunk signaled a jam in the mechanism. Rose wasted no time laying the launcher against her bent knee to stare down the barrel. The same green substance that held Cadence down had somehow made its way into the AVRiL, preventing it from reloading properly. She didn’t hesitate to stick her arm in to remove the obstruction as quickly as possible.

A barely audible click from Alex’s Enforcer warned that its magazine had finally been spent. “Fuck—I’m empty!”

Chrysalis brought down the hoof we was using to cover her eyes, smashing it against the ground as she snarled. “Why you little—ARGH!”

Another gunshot rang out, impacting Chrysalis exactly where the first volley had, sending her jerking back again. This time, however, the assault came from the mangled Nova, its own Enforcer held firmly within its grasp. Its legs may have been useless, rendering it immobile, and its head may have been destroyed, making it unable to see long distances, but the sensors and computers within its chest, alongside its unbroken arms, still enabled it to use a gun at this range without any difficulty.

As Chrysalis continued to stumble back, Cadence and Shining Armor began to float off the ground, their combined magic becoming more and more brilliant with every passing breath. Outside the window, the Raven appeared just above the city’s buildings, filled to the brim with Blues that were armed to the teeth and quickly closing the distance. Changelings that were either foolish or unfortunate enough to either charge or simply be in the flight path of the aircraft splattered against its uncaring hull.

Rose jerked her arm out of the AVRiL’s barrel, having finally cleared the last of the solidified green goop. She initiated the reloading sequence again, and was this time met with success. After hoisting the Rocket Launcher back onto her shoulder and taking aim, the only thing that was left to do would be to wait a few brief moments for the target to be locked.

Who needed reinforcements when this threat would be eliminated before they could even get here?

Just as the AVRiL’s targeting reticule turned red, a dazzling pink wave of light exploded from Cadence and Shining armor. On the other side of the room, nearly an instant later, the AVRiL’s rocket screamed forth from its resting place on Rose’s shoulder. The two forms of onslaught raced towards Chrysalis in a fraction of a second, each making a bid on which would be the one to take her down.

The couple’s magic reached the changeling queen first, effortlessly sweeping her off her porous hooves and sending her careening out of the chapel’s window. The AVRiL’s rocket, designed from its inception to hit a moving target with the utmost precision, and able to pull two ninety degree turns in as little as one hundred feet, compensated for the disturbance and altered its trajectory to keep itself on a collision course…

… Straight into the wall right next to the window. Unfortunately, the AVRiL had never been designed for indoor use, making it fundamentally ignore obstacles. As the rocket attempted to keep itself on track with Chrysalis’ sudden new trajectory, its newly calculated flight path simply didn’t include the open window she had been projected through.

The rocket immediately detonated against the stone wall, powderizing it and sending the debris cascading to the ground below. As for Chrysalis, she continued to wail against the pain in her horn as the wave of magic carried her body and every one of her changelings in the city up and away, back to who knows where. As the queen soared over the city under the influence of magical repulsion, she was fortunate enough to avoid smashing against the oncoming Raven, though just barely. Chrysalis was never truly aware of just how frighteningly close to death she really came—not just once, but twice.

“NOOOOO!” Alex shouted as he ran through the residual smoke and stopped just short of the window Chrysalis had been thrown out of. The dust cleared quickly enough, leaving a giant, crumbling hole big enough for an SUV to fit through. “We fucking had her!” he yelled, throwing his gun behind himself and sending it skittering across the floor.

Alex’s cries, though, went unheeded as Cadence and Shining Armor floated back to the ground, staring into each others’ eyes as the ponies cheered for their victory against the changelings. Twilight almost immediately made for Princess Celestia, who had been torn free from her cocoon prison by the couple’s magical burst.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” Celestia reassured her student as Twilight helped her stand.

The Princess’ attention was drawn away as the Raven hovered near the chapel, blocking incoming sunlight as it did. The Raven positioned itself near the balcony, behind the floral archway, and remained in the air as its cargo bay opened to reveal an entire crowd of blue colored Liandri, each one armed with a Link Gun. A dozen Liandri disembarked, barely leaving a dent in their total number. Instead of leaving, however, the aircraft remained in place, awaiting further orders.

The arrival of the bots managed to shake everypony from their glee, and they each looked around the room for the Liandri’s leader for some form of explanation of what they were going to do. Each of Rose’s bodies flanked Alex, who was now on his knees, clenching his fists while his head rested against the ground.

“Hey, Alex, what’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked as she walked over to him. “We won! Why you looking like that?”

“God fucking dammit!” Alex yelled, pushing himself to his feet to glare at her with neon green eyes. “She got away! That’s what’s wrong!” Everypony jerked back at his outburst, unable to respond. “We had her right where we fucking wanted her!” He turned his glare to Cadence and Shining Armor. “And then you two went and fucked it up! You went and gave her an express ticket out of here! A fucking get out of jail free card!”

“Hey, what’s your problem?!” Shining Armor shouted back with his own glare.

“You are, you fucking idiot!” Alex snapped. “First Twilight does a better job of telling the difference between your own fucking girlfriend and a fake than you do, then you not only let that bitch get away, but send her off yourself!”

“Like you and those metal heads were doing a better job!”

“We were! There wasn’t even going to be enough to fucking bury her if it weren’t for you!”

“ENOUGH! Both of you!”

The two hotheads finally quieted down as Celestia’s deafening shout echoed throughout the room.

Rose shook her head as her civilian body moved to take a place next to the Princess. “Thank you for saving me the trouble.”

Celestia nodded at her before returning her attention back to the two males in the room. “It goes without saying that today hasn’t been a pleasant day, to put things lightly. Mistakes have been made on everyone’s part. Starting with all of us, myself included, with regards to Twilight’s warnings.” She turned a smile towards the unicorn in question, who beamed back at her. “Had we all listened to her about her suspicions with the false Cadence, perhaps this could have been avoided altogether.”

She sighed as she rubbed a hoof against her head. “Thankfully, that’s all behind us now. With the changeling threat gone, perhaps we can host a real wedding now.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait, are you serious?” Alex objected, holding his hands out to her. “You’re just going to dismiss them like that? After only kicking them to the fucking curb?”

“Alexander, the changelings are no longer a threat to us,” Celestia clarified. “And I can assure you that, after this, they will not return any time soon.”

“Oh, so you are going to just dismiss them!” Alex snarked, flapping his arms against his sides. “Hey, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Celestia, but those love bugs were fucking hungry. They only reason they’d have for attacking a capital city like this is either sheer stupidity or desperation, and they’re definitely not dumb. Now maybe you’re not familiar with the concept, but fewer things are more dangerous than an animal that’s been backed into a corner with nowhere left to run.”

“The changelings will not return, Alexander.” Celestia stood tall and kept her posture firm. “Of this, I can assure you with the utmost confidence.”

Alex took a step forward, narrowing his eyes. “And what if I told you those assurances don’t count for shit in my book?”

Shining Armor took his own step forward. “If the Princess says they’re not going to come back, they’re not going to come back.”

“And I respectfully disagree.” Alex held a hand up to him, extending only a single finger, though the significance of the gesture was lost on everyone but him. He then turned to the Liandri next to him. “Rose, get the Blues are on cleanup duty. Have them get our things from our room, and that mess over by the treasury. If there’s any bodies left over there, store them for autopsy. If you can find any live ones, tag ‘em and bag ‘em.”

“Hey, you can’t do that!” Shining Armor interrupted, just as the Raven offloaded several more Blues before it closed itself up and took off for the treasury. “Any changelings that are still alive are criminals, and need to be taken into the custody of the Royal Guard.”

“Blow it out your ass, captain,” Alex snapped without missing a beat. “After seeing that gross display of ineptitude from those so called ‘guards’ of yours, it’s obvious to me that if anyone wants actual results, then I’m going to have to be the one to do the work.”

Twilight trotted up to him, her brow creased in worry. “Alex, please, just work with them! Why are you acting like this?”

“No I won’t, because I’m fucking pissed,” he hissed to her, baring his teeth. “Your brother let her get away, and now I have to pick up the fucking slack.” Alex turned to Rose, leaving Twilight to her thoughts. “Get the Reds rounded up. I want them back to The Pits for recycling. Not him, though.” Alex pointed towards Nova two, whose arms were now lying against the ground, but still clutching its weapon. “I want that one sent to the proto lab.”

He approached the broken Liandri and crouched down, balancing on his toes as he stared into its shattered head. “ ‘Cause I have plans for you…” Alex muttered.

“Is there anything else you want me to take care of?” asked Rose as she followed closed behind him.

“Yeah,” he announced. “Bring the Raven back around here as soon as you can. We need to get back home.”

“You’re not going to stay for the proper wedding?” Rarity asked.

Alex stood up and began to make his way past Cadence, Shining Armor, and the floral archway and onto the balcony, Rose in tow. “Absolutely not. As far as I’m concerned, I’m done here. Right now, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and unlike some people, I’m not going to just sit around.”

Shining Armor continued to glare at the human and Liandri as they passed by, but Cadence held a hoof around him to keep him in place. “Maybe that’s for the best…”

“Yeah, whatever,” Alex waved off behind himself as the Raven approached, this time significantly lighter. As he and both of Rose’s bodies stepped onto the hovering cargo ramp, Alex called back: “Oh, and sorry about the wall. We’ll send some cash to fix it.”

“Who the hay does he think he is?!” Shining growled as the Raven took off again, this time speeding away from Canterlot altogether. Once the aircraft was out of sight, he started to stomp off down the aisle. “Let’s see how high and mighty he feels when I arrest those machines of his.”

“Shining, don’t,” Twilight protested, stepping on front of her brother to block his path.

“What?” Shining Armor jerked back at his sister’s reaction before frowning down at her. “Twilight, I can’t just let them do what they want. I have a job to do.”

“So do they.” She pointed towards a nearby Blue, which was busy collecting the limbs of a dismantled Nova while seemingly ignoring them. “The Liandri have their orders, and trust me when I say you’re not going to be able to talk them out of it. If you try to stop them, I can guarantee that they won’t hesitate to hurt you.” She peered up at her brother with pleading eyes. “Please, Shiny. Just let it go. I’ll talk to Alex when I get back.”

The Royal Captain looked away, biting his lip. As much as he hated to admit it, his sister was right. He did know what they were capable of. Even though these blue machines looked different, he had no way of knowing just how different they were from the others. That, and the fact that he had no way of knowing if they would come quietly or not, and if Twilight was telling the truth, then “no” was probably the answer.

How could things like these even be allowed to exist?!

Author's Notes:

That concludes the wedding arc.

I still find it weird that I've managed to write this far. That whole spiel with the race between the ponies and the AVRiL to see who would take out Chrysalis was something I mulled in my head over and over and over again, and now it's feels weird not only seeing it all written down, but actually published. Now I don't have to think about it anymore.

Huh.

What's up next is what I'm going to refer to as the "post wedding" arc, which is probably going to be the longest arc in the story. It's actually the bit I'm looking forward to the most! I've even already gotten started on the next chapter! The problem is, though, that I'm going to be starting university starting on Monday the 31st. I'm going to be majoring in electrical engineering, and from what I've heard, the workload is a nightmare. I've yet to see what this is actually like, but it's not making me hopeful for writing time. I'm going to do what I can, but don't expect the next chapter any time soon.

Also, I need to come up with a new description for this story. I keep telling myself to, but I just never get around to it.

Perfect Storm

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Twilight mumbled to herself as she rolled over in bed, only to have sunlight stream across her face. After clenching her eyes to fend off the offending wakeup call, Twilight eventually relented and turned back over. Although it didn’t take much longer for the guilt of sleeping in to pry her eyes open and get her to sit up.

Three days.

It’d been three whole days since the changeling invasion of Canterlot, and yet all of it was still fresh in her mind. Both the day of and the day after the attack had been dedicated to cleanup, repair, and preparation for the actual wedding, which happened on the second day. Twilight and her friends had returned to Ponyville on the third day, and just as she had promised her brother, she paid a visit to the Liandri building to talk to Alex.

Unfortunately, that visit wasn’t very helpful. Just like the weeks before, Rose denied her entrance under the pretext that Alex was too busy for company. Rose, on the other hoof, didn’t mind entertaining her, but remained closed lipped about what they were doing beyond the fact that they were working with the changelings in mind.

When Twilight asked her if they were going to work with the Royal Guard or not, she responded with: “That decision ultimately depends on Alex, I’m afraid.”

Not a very hopeful prospect…

Twilight looked over at her alarm clock—the one she turned off who knows how long ago—and read the time: 10:35 AM.

Oh goodness… She planted her face in her hooves. Why did I do this to myself…?

After granting herself an extra minute of late morning guilt, Twilight pulled herself out of bed, and made straight for the bathroom for her morning routine. Everything taken care of and with her mane properly straightened out, she made her way downstairs for the kitchen.

“Spike?” she called out, hoping she’d at least find her assistant somewhere in the library; he hadn’t been in his bed when she woke up.

Not receiving an answer, Twilight figured that Spike was probably out and about and fixed herself a quick breakfast. The mere idea of having breakfast so late was enough to make her cringe. Spike hadn’t returned by the time she finished eating, so after giving her dishes a quick rinse in the sink, she trotted up to the observatory where Google stood by his lectern, reading as usual.

Now that she thought about it, he was almost always reading—and pretty quickly, too. Shouldn’t he have gone through the entire library by now? That, and she couldn’t ever really recall a time where he had actually picked up a different book, even if the books were different every time she saw him. Google always seemed to change books when she wasn’t looking…

“Google, do you know where Spike is?” she asked.

“Spike is currently located west of the schoolhouse, Ms. Sparkle,” Google answered, not bothering to look up from his book as he did.

Twilight raised a brow. “That’s… oddly specific…”

This information only added to Twilight’s confusion. There wasn’t much of anything west of the schoolhouse; it was just the edge of town. As far as she knew, the Liandri only ever stayed near the garage. Outside of a domestic bot occasionally being seen over by the marketplace, the Liandri didn’t have much of a reason to be anywhere else. What was Spike doing there? And why were there Liandri to spot him?

“Thanks, Google.” Twilight magicked her telescope over to herself and opened the balcony door. Maybe she’d be able to see what was going on from there.

Although, as she set up the telescope’s tripod, a strange blue glow off in the distance caught her attention. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, Twilight quickly swiveled the telescope in the eastern direction and gasped at the sight.

Axons, at least half a dozen of them accompanied by a Hellbender with large, post like-objects resting in the back were busy building something along the edge of town. It looked like they were planting the posts into the ground, with a fifty foot gap between them. Twilight couldn’t be sure, but from where she was watching, they appeared to be making them in an arc around the town, with some sort of structure connecting them, built into the ground.

What were they building? Was that happening on the other side of town too? Was Spike watching another group of Axons?

These questions and more flooded Twilight’s mind until her ears finally paid attention to the ambient sound around her. At this time of day, somepony would be able to listen to the sounds of birds happily chirping, as well as the relaxing drone of the collective conversations occurring all over town—especially from the marketplace. Today, though, it sounded like… shouting? A lot of it, actually. Twilight swivelled her ears until she could get a good idea of where the noise was coming from.

The garage… Of course… If she and Spike noticed the Axons, then there was a good chance the rest of the town did too. And from the sounds of things, they weren’t too happy about it…

Twilight needed to find out what was going on. Now.

“Google, I’m going to go see Alex, okay?” Twilight declared as she brought her telescope back inside and closed the balcony door. “Take over for me while I’m gone.”

“Affirmative,” was the Liandri’s response, still not looking up from his book.

After only walking a couple blocks, Twilight was met with a bizarre sight. On every street corner was a pair of Blues, mounting what looked like speakers onto the sides of buildings. Why were they doing that? Were they even allowed to? There’s no way the owners of those houses would tolerate something like this!

As Twilight approached the Liandri garage, the sound of shouting only grew louder. After rounding the final corner, she stopped dead in her tracks to pick her jaw back up off the floor. At least half the town had congregated in front of the garage and had been yelling all manner of things. At first, she thought Guy had been standing in front of the building as well, but a quick double take told her he wasn’t.

There was, however, another Liandri that looked a lot like him. It was just as tall as him, broadly built, and its face was even similar to guy’s in that there wasn’t one; instead having some sort of black screen as a replacement. Right now, its face displayed a green exclamation mark as it attempted speaking over the entire crowd to calm everypony down.

While this Liandri looked a lot like guy, it did have some stark differences. This one appeared more sleek in design, and its outside even appeared more armored. A surprising amount of heavy looking equipment was visible on its back, even from the front. The image of an apple that Guy had on his chest wasn’t present on this one, but the Liandri logo was clearly printed on each of its spaulders.

“There is no need to be alarmed,” the giant Liandri announced as it attempted to calm everypony down. “Current construction efforts are precautions for your protection. They will not interfere with your daily lives.”

“You’re hanging things from my house!” one stallion in the crowd yelled.

“Those things you’re building on the edge of town are uglifying everything!” a mare shouted.

“Stop destroying property that isn’t yours!”

“Where are the Royal Guard?! Why hasn’t anypony called them yet?!”

“We understand your frustrations,” the Liandri continued. “Please rest assured that our efforts are for your benefit.”

“Horse apples!”

Twilight carefully brought a hoof up to her head as she continued to watch the shouting match in front of her. “How did this even happen…?” she muttered.

“You tell me.”

Twilight lowered her hoof and looked next to her at the source of the voice. It was an earth pony mare she had never seen before, but her voice somehow sounded familiar. Her coat was white as driven snow, while her well kept mane was a delicate shade of celestial blue that paled only to the pools of liquid blue in her eyes that were staring straight ahead at the crowd, not bothering to look at Twilight.

Yet her cutie mark was quite possibly the most interesting thing about her appearance. It was the image of a silver wrench with a bright red rose obscuring the other end, overlaid atop an electric blue grid of hexagons. What truly caught Twilight’s attention, though, was the fact that her cutie mark was moving. The grid of hexagons was static, but its color pulsed; spreading out in a concentric wave that eventually disappeared, rendering the entire grid invisible for a brief moment before it soon reappeared from the center again.

Twilight’s eyes nearly jumped out of her skull. She’d never seen a cutiemark do something like that!

The mare turned her eyes towards Twilight. “Are you going to just stare at me all day?”

Twilight forced her eyes up to meet hers, but there was something off about them. She couldn’t quite put a hoof on it. And that voice… Wait…

“Rose…?” Twilight tentatively asked. “Is that you…?”

The mare smiled, though didn’t answer the question. “Follow me,” was all she said before she turned around and trotted off—away from the garage.

Twilight stole an extra glance back towards the crowd of angry ponies before she rushed to catch up with the white mare. She didn’t slow down to wait for Twilight, and despite being asked who she was or where she was going, the mare didn’t respond in the slightest.

After a fifteen minute walk, the white mare had led Twilight clear across town, and further out still. They only slowed down as they turned east and neared a large hill. “Not much further now,” she finally said.

“Not much further to where?” Twilight insisted.

“Another entrance.”

“Another entrance to what?”

The mare craned her head back and gave Twilight a dull stare. “To the facility. What else?”

So she is Rose!

…

Of course it’s Rose. Who else would it be?

Rose led Twilight around the side of the hill until the large mound of land completely obscured their vision of town. Eventually, she stopped and turned directly towards it. “Here.”

Twilight looked up and down the hill, noting exactly nothing out of the ordinary. It was all just grass and the occasional flower, with a lonely little tree sitting at the top. Was there something under it? And if this was supposed to be some kind of entrance to the Liandri facility, why was it so far away? How exactly was this an entrance, anyway?

The very ground beneath Twilight’s hooves suddenly began to hum and vibrate without any warning. Before she could ask Rose what was going on, her jaw decided to go on an extended vacation as the hillside itself sunk further into the ground for at least a meter, before splitting open down the middle.

Oh my gosh! They build a giant door into the hillside and exactly nopony noticed!

The split in the door didn’t open very wide, though. Just enough for a pony to comfortably slip through, which Rose did. Twilight followed after her, and once completely through, the titanic bulkhead closed and raised itself once again, leaving the outside perfectly disguised. Beyond the door, though, was a massive tunnel, wide enough to fit a hydra with room to spare, with lights lining the ceiling that provided more than adequate illumination.

A single Hellbender sat in the middle of the tunnel, facing away from Twilight. Rose promptly leapt into the vehicle’s bed and beckoned Twilight to do the same. When she did, the Hellbender immediately started up and began driving down the tunnel.

“What is all this?” Twilight asked as she gaped at the sheer size of the indoor space they were occupying.

“It’s a service tunnel designed to ferry some of our larger vehicle designs out of town,” Rose responded. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but some of Ponyville’s streets are rather narrow. They’re not meant for vehicles—not with pedestrian traffic, at any rate.”

“But this goes all the way out there!” Twilight stuck her head over the side of the truck and glanced in both directions of the curving tunnel. “It goes all the way under the entire town! This is unbelievable!”

“If you find this difficult to believe, then perhaps I should show you a map of the facility with relation to Ponyville. I think you’ll find this to be the proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg.’ ”

Twilight turned her head back towards Rose, her brows arched up. “How far have you expanded…?”

“Underneath the entire town and further,” was Rose’s answer, causing Twilight to blanche at the thought.

The Hellbender turned out of the tunnel and into another structure, though Twilight took note of the fact that it continued to extend in another direction. The truck took one of several different routes, eventually ending up in what looked like a storage area for vehicles. Most of them were other Hellbenders, with a number of empty spots, but Twilight took notice of several Mantas parked in their own separate section. What truly confused her, though, was the sheer number of either one of them. Why did they need so many?

The truck didn’t stop there though. Continuing along upward routes until it eventually ended up inside the garage proper, where the engine shut off. Twilight couldn’t help but blink at the sight in confusion. It was the same as it always ways, but the fact that she somehow ended up here through another way than through the front door made it that much more discombobulating. It definitely wasn’t a trick, though; Twilight could still hear the crowd faintly shouting from the other side of the garage door.

“Wow…” Twilight gasped as Rose hopped off the Hellbender’s bed. “It’s so weird how this whole place is just so interconnected…”

Rose glanced back at her, arching a brow. “How is that weird? It would be weird if it weren’t.”

Twilight jumped off after her. “Fair point… I guess I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around all of this. I mean, you guys have a massive underground network that’s even bigger than Ponyville is! I can’t say I’ve ever seen, heard of, or even imagined anything like this. I’m kind of afraid to ask just how deep it goes.”

“Some of the lower tunnels extend as far as one kilometer down,” said Rose as she walked towards the central elevator.

“WHAT!?” Twilight exclaimed as she gawked at the artificial pony. “When did that happen?!”

“We’ve been excavating and expanding since the facility’s initial construction,” Rose replied, shrugging off the tone of her question. “At lot of progress can be made in several months if you don’t waste time. Now, are you coming, or not?”

“Oh, uh… okay…” Twilight said, following Rose into the elevator, which immediately began its descent. “Where are you taking me, anyway?”

Rose shook her head. “Alex won’t admit it, but we need help. As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, Liandri construction efforts above ground aren’t exactly being welcomed.”

“Yeah, no kidding. What are you guys doing, anyway?”

“We’re currently attempting to build a town-wide defensive grid,” said Rose. “It’s a shield dome, similar to that of your brother’s, though it feeds off a constant power source to prevent it from failing like his did.”

Twilight frowned in concern. “You’re really worried the changelings are going to come back, aren’t you?”

Rose nodded. “We are.”

The elevator slowed to a stop and let the two off at the level of the Prototype Lab, where Twilight could already hear Alex ranting to Rose about something. He wasn’t shouting at her, exactly. Just talking very loudly.

“How the fuck are we supposed to get a stable power matrix built on that relay when those idiots start chucking rocks into it?! For fuck’s sake, we’re trying to keep this town safe! What the fuck do they think we’re doing? Installing dildos everywhere?!”

Twilight followed Rose into the lab proper, cringing at Alex’s frustrations as she watched him pace back and forth while staring at a hologram being projected in front of him by a device wrapped around his left arm. It was plain to see from the get-go that he at least meant well, but if the crowd outside was any indication, he obviously didn’t get any sort of clearance or authorization from anypony.

“Clearly, we need outside help for this,” Rose announced using her omnipresent voice. “Thankfully, I’ve already brought some.”

Alex stared up at the hanging computer and the hologram before him vanished. “Outside help?! What the fuck are you even talking ab—” It was then that he noticed the splash of lavender against the white of everything else and turned his head towards Twilight, mouth hanging open. The two shared eye contact for about a second and a half before he proclaimed: “Oh god fucking dammit, Rose!”

“Oh shut up,” Rose snapped at him. “We need her help and you know it.”

Alex let out a loud groan as he planted his face in his hands and propped his elbows against the nearest terminal.

Twilight frowned at this. “Look, Alex, I’m willing to help with… I dunno—whatever it is that you’re doing. So long as you’re not doing anything crazy… Just tell me exactly what’s going on, and maybe I can make things easier.”

“Fuck it!” Alex shouted, throwing his arms up in the air. “Fine; sure; why not?” Alex pressed his hands against his face again and inhaled deeply. As he exhaled, his arms came down and hands rested against his hips. “Alright, come over here and I’ll bring you up to speed.”

Alex beckoned Twilight over to a large holographic terminal, which activated to display an image of Ponyville in yellow, with a large red circle around it, though small parts of the circle were colored bright green. A large red dot was also present at the center of the circle, which coincided with an empty spot in the middle of town.

“Voilà,” Alex stared, holding his hands out. “Ponyville. As I’m sure you’ve already guessed. What we’re trying to build is a defensive shield just like your brother’s. We’ve already managed to put together a small scale prototype using just a shield projector, and so far, it works beautifully. Problem is, if we want to build it on a larger scale, we need both a projector, and a perimeter in order to keep something of that size stable.” He pointed towards the dot in the middle and the circle respectively.

“I’m guessing the green parts represent sections that you’ve already finished?” Twilight asked.

“You’d be right,” Alex nodded to her. “Although as we’ve recently discovered, that’s subject to change. Just a few minutes ago, some jackass put the effort in and went and managed to lodge a rock inside one of the perimeter relays. That’s delicate equipment, Twilight! Now we have to haul it back in to get it repaired.”

“I see… And what about those speakers being put up everywhere?”

Alex sighed. “It’s a town wide announcement system. Early warnings and all that. If something is coming our way, I can guarantee that Rose is going to be the first one to know about it. If everyone needs to get to cover or something, she can tell the entire town at once.”

Twilight blinked at him. “That… sounds pretty convenient, actually… But did you get permission for this? Did you ask the mayor?”

“Of course I asked her!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up again, adopting a mocking voice. “But she was all, oh, I gotta send a letter to the Royal Guard and see if they think the changelings are a reasonable threat!” He slammed a fist into the terminal. “And guess what they told her!?”

“Umm…” Twilight glanced down at the point of impact, then up to his face. “No…?”

“Ding mother fucking ding!” Alex brought his hand up and waved it around, as if ringing a bell. “Somebody get the lady a fucking prize!”

“As much as I’d hate to stop your ranting and raving,” Rose announced, “it would seem we have a visitor.”

Alex dropped his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well then please tell them to fuck right off because we’re not taking visitors today.”

“It’s the Royal Guard,” Rose explained. “It seems they’ve arrived with a chariot for the express purpose of bringing you to Canterlot for an audience with Celestia.”

Alex almost immediately let his arms hang by his sides to groan at the ceiling. “Oh this day just keeps getting better and better. Fine. Tell them I’ll go. But I’m taking a Raven because fuck their chariot.”

“I’ll reword that and share your decision with them.”

“Why don’t I come with you?” Twilight offered as she trotted after him. “Maybe I’ll be able to get you some bonus points with my brother.”

“Can’t hurt,” Alex said as he made his way to the elevator. “Oh, and Rose, have a squad of Reds waiting for us in the hangar.”

Twilight clutched her seat as Alex piloted the Raven towards Canterlot. Thankfully it was a short flight, though it ended with several ponies diving for cover as the Raven approached its usual landing spot. Alex apparently didn’t have the patience to bother with his usual approach. Instead he practically swung the aircraft into position above the ground with the cargo door open, briefly treating Twilight to a disorientingly twisted view of the outside world before it properly righted itself and landed.

A few seconds later, Alex marched out of the cockpit. “Alright, Twilight, we’re here. Let’s go,” he said, not bothering to power down the aircraft—probably expecting a short visit.

Hopping to her hooves, Twilight trotted to his side. As did the half dozen Novas that had taken a ride with them, falling into line behind the two. They clearly weren’t the same Novas as the ones who had been present during the wedding, but she couldn’t help but glance back at them every now and again. They were just coming to talk to the princess! Was all this really necessary?

Alex and Twilight stopped in front of the guards standing by the courtyard entrance, with the former having one hand shoved into a pocket. “I hear the Princess wanted to see me.”

Twilight had been looking at the guard as Alex spoke, but looked up at him almost immediately after. His voice seemed cold; even distant, and his face reflected as such. He bore no smile, nor a frown. Completely emotionless.

The guard nodded at him regardless. “Yes, we’ve been expecting you. If you would be so kind, please leave your guards here and follow me.”

“Not gonna happen.”

The guard was already half-way turned around when he stopped. He and his partner shared a brief glance before they each looked back towards Alex. “I beg your pardon?”

“The Reds are coming with me,” Alex explained.

What is he doing…? Twilight glanced between Alex and the guards, the human still holding a stone cold expression. The tension between them was thick enough to pluck out of the air with bare hooves.

The two guards shared an extra look. “I’m… afraid we cannot allow that,” one of them said.

“Does this look like the face of someone who gives a fuck?” Alex stated matter of factly, remaining stock still as he did. Even the guards froze at his words. “Let me give you a little reminder: Celestia wanted to see me. Not the other way around. What may have been an order for you, is a request for me, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m humoring her. I am the one deeming her to be worth my time, which means if we’re going to play, we’re going to play by my rules. Otherwise, I’m gone—because I really don't give a fuck. Got that?”

For what seemed to be the umpteenth time that day alone, Twilight found herself scrambling to reattach her jaw, and it seemed the guards weren’t doing much better with words, either. The amount of ponies that had ever spoken about the Princess like that could be counted on… well, nothing! Nopony ever did! If the Princess requested an audience with somepony, they always came without question—humbly, too! If Alex was being this aggressive… Maybe now wasn’t the best time for him…

“A-a-alright…” the guard stumbled, clearly just as at a loss for words as anypony else. “Come this way, then…”

Using just his mouth, Alex cocked his head to the side and issued a sharp whistle, which beckoned the Liandri to follow as soon as he started moving. As for Twilight, she found herself having to shake her head to clear her disbelief before she ran to catch up.

“Alex, are you okay?” Twilight asked as they followed the guard through the palace.

Alex let out a short huff, though stared straight ahead as he spoke. “Honestly? Not really. I’m frustrated, angry, pissed… Not gonna lie, I’ve got a pretty short fuckin’ fuse right now.”

Twilight’s eyes peered up in thought. “Do you think maybe you should… Oh, I dunno… Calm down a bit before we see the Princess?”

“Nope. When you’re angry, you’re tough to work with. I want to be tough to work with.”

Twilight hung her head as she walked. “Can’t argue with that logic…”

“Exactly,” Alex punctuated with a snap of his fingers.

Eventually, the guard let them up to a large set of double doors, flanked by a quartet of guards on either side. Using their magic, the posted guards opened the doors for the arriving group, revealing a large and ornate throne room. Upon the dais were a pair of gilded thrones, on which sat both the solar and lunar princesses. Below them stood Captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, with spear-armed guards lining the entire room. Celestia and Luna looked to Alex with the most neutral expressions they could muster, while Cadence carried an understandably worried look that mirrored Twilight’s. Shining Armor, however, glared at Alex as he entered.

Although both Cadence and Shining Armor were quick to shift their focus from the human to the unicorn walking beside him. “Twilight?” Shining Armor exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

Twilight held a hoof up to her chest as she and Alex stopped before the dais. “I heard about everything and thought I’d come by to make sure it doesn’t get out of hoof. That’s all.”

“That about sums it up,” Alex announced without any regard for the use of an indoor voice. “So, Celestia! A little birdie told me you wanted to have a discussion. What about?”

Celestia narrowed her eyes. “You know very well what it is we must discuss, Alexander.”

“Oh, are you talking about my projects?” Alex beamed, cupping his hands together. “I’m so glad you’re interested in them! You really should come by someday! I’ll happily give you a tour of the place, maybe even explain some of the finer details, too!”

“Stop it with these games, Alexander,” Luna interjected, rapping her hoof against her throne. “Stars, you’re acting like Discord right now. You know very well why we have summoned you here.”

Alex brought up a hand to tap a finger against his chin in mock thought. “Do I? Oooohhhh, yeah, I do! It’s because I decided to go ahead and do what needed to be done while all of you decided to sit flat on your asses and twiddle yourselves!” Snapping his fingers, he summoned a smile to his face. “That’s it, right?”

Everypony save for Celestia recoiled at his words. For her part, Twilight clenched her eyes and nearly doubled over from the gut wrench of sympathetic embarrassment. Oh no, he did not just say that…

“Hey!” Shining Armor snapped, his face contorted in rage. “You do not talk to the Princesses like that!”

Alex scoffed and waved him off. “Can it, Captain America—the adults are talking.”

Steam almost bellowed from Shining Armor’s nostrils as he attempted to take a step forward, though was held back (with some difficulty) by Cadence who was tugging on him with both hooves. “Okay! Okay! Let’s everypony just calm down and talk like civilized individuals!”

Alex quietly chuckled to himself through a toothy grin as he dusted his hands off. “Alright, fine. I’m done having fun.” Composing himself, he cleared his throat and tucked his hands behind himself yet again. “So. I assume you have a problem with Liandri construction efforts in Ponyville, right?”

“That is correct,” Celestia nodded somehow having kept her composure throughout the entire previous debacle. “As Ponyville is technically still a settlement; anypony is permitted to construct their own home, provided that they can legally procure the resources to do so. Your current home already stretches the boundaries of how much land you are permitted to build upon. According to the reports I’ve read, you are currently attempting to build something around the town, as well as place devices on other ponies’ houses, which is not your place to do.”

“I see,” Alex drawled. “You have no idea what it is we’re trying to build, do you?”

Celestia raised a brow. “Care to enlighten us?”

“The first thing is a town-wide shield,” Alex explained, keeping his voice loud and clear. “It’s similar to that of Shining Armor’s, but it’s one hundred percent less likely to fail epically.” He ignored the angry snort coming from the corner of his vision. “The second thing is an announcement system for emergencies. Now does either one of those things sound like a bad idea to you?”

Celestia allowed herself a sigh and rubbed her temple with a hoof. “Admittedly, no. However, I must insist that you cease this activity at once. There are laws that must be followed, and nopony, yourself included, is above them. While you may be permitted to build such things, you have not been granted that permission. I understand that you are concerned about the changelings, but I stand by my earlier position that they will not return to threaten Equestria—not after a defeat as severe as the one they have suffered here in Canterlot. Your intentions are good, I will admit this, but they do not permit you to break established laws. Do you understand?”

For the longest moment, nopony said anything, and all eyes were on Alex. Twilight’s eyes scanned his face carefully, looking for anything that could give any indication of how the gears in his head were turning. He was definitely thinking long and hard, but what conclusion would he ultimately come to? Was he actually about to concede, or would he persist?

Eventually, Alex simply closed his eyes and lowered his head ever so slightly, inhaling deeply through his nose. After he let that breath go, he raised his head back up towards the Princess. “You’re right,” he stated plainly. “I’ve broken the law. And you have every right to arrest me for it.” Alex brought his hands out in front of him and held his wrists together. “So go ahead. Do it. Arrest me.”

Wait what?

Everypony stared at each other in confusion. Was he really saying this? The human, who not mere moments ago was practically insulting everypony in the room was now saying that he wanted to be arrested? Understandably, everypony hesitated to so much as speak.

“Well?” Alex insisted, giving his wrists a shake. “You gonna do it, or what? I promise I’ll come quietly. No fuss, no muss. Slap some cuffs on me already.”

Shining Armor scoffed at him as he took a step forward with his magic surrounding a pair of hoof cuffs secured to his armor. “If you insist.”

Almost as soon as he did so, each of the Liandri standing behind Alex brought their arms around and swung their Link Guns forward, bringing them to bear on the Captain, voicing a multitude of unnatural screeches, clicks, and other horrifically hair raising sounds nopony had ever heard before. Everypony immediately stepped back, and the guards lining the walls brought their spears down and pointed them towards the group in the middle of the room. Even the two Princesses stood up straighter on their thrones.

Twilight bolted between the Liandri and her brother, holding a hoof out. “Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa! Okay! This is getting way out of hoof! Let’s just all calm down!”

“What’s the matter, Shiny?” Alex grinned, completely ignoring Twilight and continuing to wave his joined wrists. “I said I’d come quietly! You getting cold feet or something?”

“Come quietly my flank!” Shining Armor snapped back.

Alex pouted, though it was the most insincere pout to ever grace existence. “Aww, give me more credit than that! I’m a man of my word! I said I’d come quietly, and I will!” His pout morphed into a smirk and he nudged his head towards the Liandri. “I’m just not sure that they agree with it.”

“QUIET! BOTH OF YOU!” Twilight shouted, achieving the intended effect. After taking a few extra breaths to dispel her sudden lightheadedness, she continued, “You’re both acting like foals, and we’re getting nothing done. Why can’t you two just work together peacefully?”

Shining Armor continued to scowl at the human. “We can’t work together because he refuses to cooperate at all!”

Alex sneered back at him. “Maybe that’s because I’m too busy doing your own fucking job!”

“There is no job to be done!” Celestia interrupted, this time glaring down at Alex. “I’ve already told you this numerous times, Alexander. The changelings. Are. Not. A.—”

Celestia’s punctuated words were suddenly cut off by the throne room doors bursting open, and a white pegasus much too short on breath came partially galloping, partially stumbling in. “Your… Your highness! The…” The pegasus stumbled and fell past the Liandri and Alex, who each looked at the arrival with both interest and confusion.

After panting for a few more seconds, the newcomer finally managed to gasp out the phrase: “The changelings! They’ve… They’ve attacked Appleloosa!”

A chill ran over everypony in the room, though none more so than Princess Celestia. Suddenly, all eyes were on her, while her own wide gaze focused purely on the messenger. The Princess’ breath caught in her throat, barely allowing her to mutter, “What…?”

The pegasus panted out a few extra breaths. “The changelings attacked Appleloosa! There were s… so many of them… I… I came as… as quickly as…” He only managed to get those words out before exhaustion overtook him and he slumped against the floor.

Celestia continued to look upon the messenger, horror ever present on her features, and at a complete loss for words. Her wings, normally tucked up against her, wilted at her sides, and her mouth hung open with barely a shred of consciousness to keep it closed. In truth, Celestia’s mind had all but completely shattered, leaving her completely incapable of formulating her own thoughts, aside from replaying the same piece of news over and over again…

The changelings attacked Appleloosa.

After a pause, Alex finally spoke up, rubbing a hand against his chin. “I’m sorry, Celestia, what was that you were saying earlier? That the changelings weren’t going to come back? You know, I think you might have been on to something!”

Luna smashed her hoof down, eliciting a loud clack against her throne. “Enough with your joking, Alexander!” she shouted. “This is a very serious matter!”

“You’re goddamn right it is!” Alex snapped back, all sense of amusement completely gone. “Then again, considering the fact that you were passed out in your bedroom while Canterlot was busy getting the shaft because your fucking alarm or whatever didn't go off, I'm not so sure you're ready to deal with a serious situation. I—on the other hand—am, so here’s how we’re going to play: as of this moment, Ponyville is under my jurisdiction. I am going to build whatever I goddamn need to if it means keeping that town and its citizens safe, and if you’ve got a problem with that, well then tough shit! You can take that little problem of yours, roll it up sideways, and shove it right back up your ass where it belongs!” Alex immediately spun in place and began to march back out of the throne room, twirling his fingers in a rallying motion as he did so. “We’re done here.”

Each of his accompanying Liandri immediately lowered their weapons and fell into step around him. Twilight’s head spun around, glancing back between the passed out pegasus on the floor, her stunned teacher, her bewildered brother, and the angry human she had arrived with who was about to leave with her ride home. She tried and failed to process everything that had just happened as her lungs attempted to choke out some words—any words—that could make things better between everypony.

Instead, she only found herself galloping after Alex with restrained tears.

Alex dug into his pocket as he walked and fished out his earpiece. Making sure it was turned on, he secured it over his ear and spoke into it. “Rose—talk to me.” A pause. “Good. I got news for you. We were right: the changelings are back and they’ve already fucked over a place called Appleloosa. Initiate production protocol delta. I want every line up and running. I want bots; I want Cicadas; I want Goliaths; I want a goddamn Leviathan. These things may eat love, but by the time we’re done with them, the only thing they’ll be eating is a giant steaming pile of fucking regret!”

Twilight pinned her ears against her head as Alex spoke.

This is going to be bad…

“Oh, and one last thing,” said Alex, his face sneering as he spoke the words.

“Prep the BioMech three.”

The doors to Celestia’s bed chamber burst open, allowing the princess in question to come shambling through, then just as violently slammed shut the moment she was through them. With one hoof pressed up against the side of her head, Celestia continued to stumble across the floor until she eventually lost her balance and fell against the wall. The pain from the fall meant nothing to her. Not at a time like this.

How?

Why?

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

It never did.

Why was this time different?

Celestia’s eyes swiveled to stare up at her bookcase—the one hiding the biggest secret in the world.

There was only one way to figure this out…

Her horn glowed, and her magic went through the motions: door locked, curtains covered the windows, candle twisted. Celestia forced herself back to her hooves and heaved the bookcase to the side, revealing the otherwise unnoticeable hole in the wall that it normally obscured. After crawling inside, she magicked the bookcase back into place and pressed the button on her side of the hole, locking it.

Celestia’s hoof lingered on the button, her mind refusing, for a moment, to look at the monitor resting on the wall on the far side of the room. The device remained dead. Absolutely quiet. Though through it lay the source of her life’s torment. Fate itself.

Eventually, Celestia’s hoof slid down the wall, and her legs carried her to the screen. Even as she approached, it remained dormant; as she both expected, and hoped. A seldom used number pad rested along the bottom of the monitor. She had no idea how any part of this communication device worked—only that it did. Closing her eyes once more, she brought a number to memory, and with a careful hoof, entered into the number pad.

And then she waited.

The monitor continued to remain perfectly black, but after that moment of silence, a voice sounded from it.

“H-hello…?”

Celestia knew the voice well, though it was stained. “Chrysalis? Where are you?”

…

“I’m… in Appleloosa…” Her voice was slow. Tired. Hoarse. As if she spent the night crying herself to sleep. Celestia’s heart seized at its sound.

“What are you doing there…?” Celestia breathed, carefully resting her head against the monitor. “You’re not supposed to be there… It… It’s not a part of the cycle…”

The monitor suddenly exploded to life, and a booming voice echoed from it, startling Celestia and sending her scrambling back to a safe distance. “She’s there because I ordered her to be there.”

Celestia stumbled back and fell, barely managing to keep her barrel off the ground. Holding a hoof up to her chest and speaking through panted breaths, she cried, “Overseer…! What… Why?”

The masked figure on the screen barely moved, though his voice carried all the attention and authority he needed. “Chrysalis was given an order to remove Laythem during the wedding. She had him right there in front of her, completely exposed and unprotected, and she failed in this task. I am giving her a chance at redemption by finishing the job.”

“What?! No!” Celestia objected, getting back to her hooves. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! Alexander was building defenses in Ponyville! He was expecting Chrysalis to return! I was in the middle of getting him to stop! I was telling him that the changelings were not a threat anymore! Now he knows she’s coming, and there’s nothing I can do to change that! Not without destroying my image as a Princess looking out for her ponies! He’s going to build all manner of machines and he’s going to kill her!”

By the time she was finished, Celestia stared back at the screen with wide, pleading eyes, just on the verge of tears. She hyperventilated through her mouth in large gulps, causing the barest hint of a whistle through her throat with every breath.

For the longest moment, neither one of them made any sound, and hope welled in Celestia’s chest; hope that the Overseer had seen reason, that he would have Chrysalis return the ponies of Appleloosa, that he would let her live.

“Then it will be her punishment,” the Overseer finally spoke, shattering Celestia’s spirit. His mask grew in size as he leaned further in, growling out his next sentence. “This is the price for insubordination.”

The screen promptly shut itself off, leaving Celestia and her tears gawking at it in abject terror. “Hello?” she choked, hoping for some form of answer. “Hello? Chrysalis?”

No response.

Celestia’s tears began to flow freely now. Her rubberized legs finally gave out from under her and she collapsed to the ground. Quiet sobs escaped Celestia’s lips as the reality of the situation lorded over her, like a shadow that refused to disappear in the light. She tapped a hoof repeatedly against the floor in a vain attempt to regain control of herself. Now was not the time for this. She wanted to talk to Chrysalis—nay—she needed to talk to Chrysalis. Goodness knows she needed more support right now.

After choking down her despair, Celestia finally forced herself to stand again, sniffling the entire time. Right now, there was little time to waste and a lot of ground to cover. Once she left the confines of her communication room and made sure the bookcase covering it was secured, Celestia took the time to clean herself up before she dumped her regalia on her bed, threw open her balcony door, and leapt out into the afternoon sun.

Appleloosa was a fifteen hour train ride away, but to an alicorn who knew the right tricks, that wouldn’t be a problem. Celestia continued to fly upwards, and further upwards still, until the layer of magic in the sky proved sufficiently dense enough for her. Orienting herself towards the southwestern town, Celestia’s horn glowed with the magic surrounding her, and a mere second later, she disappeared.

Of course, had somepony been truly paying attention, they would have realized that she hadn’t really disappeared, but had suddenly began moving extremely quickly—from zero to an immeasurable speed in an instant. A teleportation of that distance would have been impossible, even for her, but this open air alternative was much more sustainable. So long as the caster shielded themselves from the inevitable rush of oncoming air, lest the friction alone tear them apart.

Soon enough, the endless trees and forests gave way to grasslands, and then to desert. Although Appleloosa never came into view. Where the settlement should have been was instead a massive black cloud, extending high above the ground. Celestia ceased her spell, creating a thunderclap as her magic brought her to an instant stop. Only now could she tell that the cloud wasn’t smoke, but a massive collection of changelings—several times more of them than there ever were in Canterlot—swirling around in random patterns.

Celestia glided down and set hoof upon the ground, just outside of the storm of constant buzzing and chittering. It was all so loud, she couldn’t even hear herself think. She sat there, simply staring at the wall of drones until one of them broke off and landed in front of her, sneering up at her without so much as a word.

“I’ve come to see Chrysalis!” Celestia yelled over the tempest, hoping this changeling could hear her.

For a moment, the changeling didn’t respond, instead continuing to eye her with some measure of distrust. Once it was finished suspecting her, the changeling turned around and walked into the swarm, pausing only once to look behind himself and beckon Celestia to follow.

And she did. To say that the experience was unpleasant would have been a gross understatement. With the sheer number of changelings swirling above and around her, the sun was virtually blocked out, forcing her to illuminate her horn just to make sure she didn’t lose track of her guide. The turbulence caused by the seemingly endless number of buzzing wings whipped her mane and tail back and forth, picking a new direction with every step she took, on top of kicking up all manner of dust and debris that forced her to squint her eyes.

Deeper and deeper into the swarm she followed, losing all sense of time and space. She briefly considered the idea that she had condemned herself to this existence, to forever wander this hellscape in search of a sister.

Thankfully, the swarm gave way, revealing the actual town itself. The changelings weren’t flying through the buildings and into the streets, but rather above them, giving the impression that the entire thing had been sunken into a living cavern—a great, writhing space the sun could not reach.

Celestia gasped and froze in her steps shortly after flowing more magic into her horn. The town’s buildings remained perfectly intact, but the Princess had come face to face with a true monster. No other words could do it justice. A beast of enormous size slumbered in the middle of the road, rivaling the size of even some of the largest buildings around it. Giant tusks projected from the corners of its mouth, curling upwards in great arcs. Their thickness was comparable to that of a tree; a normal pony wouldn’t have been able to wrap their legs around them, no matter how hard they tried.

A row of large, pointed teeth lined the top and bottom of the creature’s lipless mouth, visible to all unfortunate enough to gaze upon it. The creature had almost no neck to speak of, its comparatively small head instead connected directly into its massive, naturally armored body. Instead of hooves, as Celestia had been expecting, the beast had claws adorning its short, though abnormally muscular legs.

The Princess choked on her breath as the changeling drone guided her past the gargantuan monstrosity. Even with the incessant buzzing of the swarm above her, Celestia could still hear and feel the beast’s labored breathing through her hooves. Much to her relief, the creature didn’t stir as she walked past it. It probably would have done nothing, but the mere thought of being within that creature’s gaze twisted Celestia’s guts into knots.

Finally, the changeling led Celestia up to the door of the saloon, giving her a slight bow before it took to the air again and joined its brethren. Without the need for her guide any longer, Celestia pushed open the saloon doors and entered. The first thing to catch her attention was the fact that the building was deathly quiet. Not even sounds of the swarm just outside penetrated its walls. Celestia could only assume that Chrysalis found it just as annoying as she did and cast a sound dampening spell.

The second thing to catch her attention was the changeling queen herself, sitting by the counter with her head slumped over. As Celestia approached, Chrysalis raised her head up, looking over towards the Princess with a broken smile. “Hi, Tia. Come to join me for a drink…?” She held up a bottle of… something in her hoof. Probably hard alcohol from under the counter that had she helped herself to.

Celestia sat next to her long time friend, lowering the bottle with her own hoof. “I’m fine, thank you.” Her voice was low, barely a whisper.

“More for me, then,” said Chrysalis before she upturned the bottle and took a large swig.

For a moment, neither of them said anything, simply allowing the silence to speak for them. Eventually, Celestia spoke up. “Are the ponies… safe…?”

Chrysalis inhaled deeply through her nose. “Yeah... They’re safe…”

“I’m sorry, Chrys…” Celestia lowered her head, “It… It wasn’t supposed to be this way…”

Chrysalis flashed a smile. “Figures, right? Of course our own plan went this bad this quickly…” She scoffed. “He basically ordered me to die… Didn’t he?”

Celestia leaned further over the counter to get her head into Chrysalis’ vision. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can figure a way out of this!”

“How?” Chrysalis screamed, tears forming as she locked eyes with Celestia. “I’m dead either way! He’s fate incarnate, Celestia! We’re trying to fight fate and we have no idea what we’re doing!” A quiet sob escaped from her and the tears came freely. “You… You can’t fight fate…”

As Chrysalis dissolved into uncontrollable sobs, and the bottle of alcohol she held in her hooves rolled out of her grasp and shattered on the floor. Celestia held her friend’s head in her forelegs and slowly ran a hoof through her mane, doing her very best to keep her own tears back.

Though she failed even that.

Back in Ponyville, the entire Liandri facility hummed with activity—literally. Twilight could feel it in her hooves, and no doubt everypony else above ground could feel something similar. After the Raven landed in the hangar, Alex offered Twilight the option of sticking around, which she accepted. Although she wasn’t quite sure why. Impulse, she reasoned.

The two of them left the squad of Novas in the hangar and entered the elevator which raised itself up to the level of the Prototype Lab, where Alex instructed Twilight to wait since he needed to go up to his quarters to prepare something. Prepare what, he didn’t say.

In the meantime, though, Twilight contented herself with waiting with Rose, even taking the opportunity to ask her what exactly the so called “production protocol delta” was. The AI described is as a mass production protocol, though didn’t elaborate on what exactly that entailed.

It wasn’t difficult to guess.

Eventually, Alex returned to the prototype lab, wearing only a tight fitting pair of shorts that only covered his waist and groin, leaving everything else bare.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” Alex announced with a snap of his synthetic fingers, marching up to an empty platform with a multitude of robotic arms flanking it.

Turning around, Alex planted both feet on foot-shaped outlines on the platform and held out his arms. A second later, and the robotic appendages around him came to life. A large arm behind him, holding some cushioned frame, clamped down around Alex’s torso. Others took hold of his arms and legs, and all at once separated his limbs from his body. Twilight yelped at his dismemberment, before she had to consciously remind herself that that was meant to happen.

With Alex’s limbless body suspended in the air, the platform he was standing on broke up into dozens of separate pieces, folding inwards and revealing a much more complicated mechanism underneath with at least a dozen more robotic arms. The metallic limbs swarmed over Alex’s body, his stone cold face staring straight ahead.

A new set of legs were moved into position underneath him, and promptly locked into place. They were significantly bigger than what he previously had there, with green armor plating. They honestly looked like they would have been more appropriate on a Liandri. More and more pieces were attached to Alex’s body at a frightening pace, and some were even connected to the ports in Alex’s midsection.

Before Twilight could fully comprehend what she was witnessing, the finishing touches were made as green plates of armor were secured to the freshly constructed frame. As most of the machines working on Alex receded, more approached, holding his new pair of arms which were then carefully inserted into their sockets. Now complete, the platform folded itself back up again.

Twilight gawked at the sight before her. Save for Alex’s head, his entire body had become encased in green armor. Angular, though shockingly smooth and symmetrical at the same time. Black and orange hazard stripes accentuated the metal on his shins and knees, and a stip of the pattern could even be seen on the armor’s collar, next to the symbol: MK3. His arms seemed much too bulky, but it was probably fine. On each of his rounded pauldrons was a pair of short cylindrical protrusions, though Twilight couldn’t imagine what their purpose would be.

“Are you ready for synchronisation?” Rose asked, her human body walking up next to Twilight.

Alex glanced at her. “Just get it over with.”

Rose nodded. “Beginning synchronisation in three. Two. One.”

Almost immediately, Alex’s head jerked back and he let out a continuous howl of pain, the source of which was completely unknown to Twilight. Her hoof shot up and covered her mouth, while her eyes looked on in horror as Alex’s head continued to thrash in every direction.

“No, stop!” Twilight cried. “You’re hurting him!”

Rose placed a hand over the unicorn’s head and spoke calmly through the human’s yelling. “Severe pain is entirely expected during synchronisation with an exocortex. He will be fine.”

Despite Rose’s words, doubt seeped into Twilight’s mind as Alex’s screams only grew louder. When Rose announced that it was only fifty percent done, an eternity in Twilight’s eyes, the hands of Alex’s new arms clenched shut. His extended body, still restrained by a multitude of robotic arms, began to jerk as he made some form of effort to free himself from their grasp.

Alex’s screams eventually quieted, though only because he had clenched his teeth and forced his head down. Twilight’s eyes only grew wider as Alex’s met them. Above the pulsing veins in his neck and his bared teeth, his eyes glowed with an intensity Twilight had never seen from them. Twilight backed up a step, the grip on her heart letting her know that she was very thankful Alex was restrained. Had she not known his enraged face and thrashing were caused by pain, she would have believed Alex were attempting to break free and maul her.

Ninety percent.

Alex reared his head back and let out a final, inhuman scream as he thrashed even more violently against his restraints. Twilight’s very blood curdled at the noise; not just at the howl he released from his lungs, but of the simultaneous screech of the machine that was now a part of him.

Just as quickly as it began, the horror show was over. Alex ceased trashing, and his head slumped down, seemingly unresponsive.

“Synchronisation complete,” Rose quietly announced.

“A… Alex…?” Twilight tentatively asked, inching her way towards him. His arms remained outstretched and restrained, just as his head and the rest of his body remained motionless. “Are… Are you okay…?”

Before Twilight could even react, several loud pops sounded, and Rose’s robotic arms let go of Alex and allowed his newly armored body to fall over. Twilight jumped to catch him, but fell short. It didn’t matter, though, since his arms shot out and to catch himself, causing a series of loud metallic clangs as he landed. Now on his hands and knees, Alex appeared to be awake, though heaved several heavy breaths. Subconsciously, Twilight wanted to admire the construction of the machine built around her friend, but consciously, that very same friend took priority.

Twilight placed a hoof on his metallic shoulder, idly rubbing it as she lowered her head to get a better look at his face. “Alex? Are you alright?”

Alex’s heavy panting continued, completely ignoring her question. Twilight simply listened, believing that he was just recovering his breath. That is, until she heard… laughing? It was faint, at first, disguising itself with his breaths, but soon became more obvious, until it slowly evolved into a full on guffaw.

Alex’s arm pulled itself up, pushing Twilight’s hoof away, only to form a fist and punch the floor, eliciting a short metallic ring. Only then did he bring a foot under to push himself back to his full height. Twilight backed up to allow him some room, and though she wasn’t entirely sure, she could swear Alex was just that much taller now.

A manic grin adorned his face, coupled by his continuously glowing eyes that examined his newfound figure, turning his arms over and over again in fascination of them, chuckling to himself the entire time. Eventually, his eyes landed on Twilight and he ceased his laughing altogether.

“Oh, I feel more than alright, Twilight,” he told her. “In fact…” Large pieces of metal emerged from underneath his collar, first covering his mouth, and then folding around to cover each side of the top of his head. As the pieces of his helmet locked into place, the visor before his eyes burst to life, stretching from one side of his head to the next in a strip of neon green. Even beneath that, the glow of his eyes was still visible, and pierced straight through her, sending a chill throughout Twilight’s body.

He spoke again, but his voice was only a simile of the original, sounding as if it were coming from a machine disguised as him instead.

“...I’ve never felt better.”

Asimov

View Online

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” - Aristotle

A fresh day.

A fresh beginning.

As the sun rose over the horizon, Alex's sniper-like gaze fixed itself to the far south west. Far beyond the sight of any normal set of eyes lay the approaching threat: a swirling cloud of black that was sweeping its way over the land.

Alex frowned at the sight. If the changelings really wanted to, they could have easily flown over to Ponyville in an hour, hour and a half—tops. Instead, they seemed to be swarming around something that was moving much slower. At the rate they were going, it would take them almost three times that. Not the Alex was complaining; it gave the Liandri an opportunity to finalize the shield dome, but only just.

However, the question remained: what was so important, big, or just plain slow that they felt the need to keep pace with it instead of flying ahead? Was it Chrysalis herself? No; she had her own wings. So what else could it be…?

The sensors on Alex’s armor alerted him of the new arrival before the sound of her wingbeats did. Alex didn’t bother moving as Rainbow Dash slowed and landed near him, her hooves causing clear metallic taps as she landed on top of the Raven that he was standing on, which itself hovered in place five kilometers above Ponyville.

“Well you look different,” said Rainbow as she laid down next to Alex peering over the Raven’s tail towards the distance.

“Nice to see you too, Dash,” he responded.

Rainbow Dash shot up and twisted her head at the familiar voice. “Whoa, wait, Alex? Is that you?”

He turned his helmeted head over towards her. “What, were you expecting something else?”

“No no, it’s just…” She scratched her head. “I thought you were another Liandri, is all.”

Alex’s brow raised behind his visor. “You’re in the habit of chatting up my bots?”

“She is,” came Rose’s unsolicited voice in Alex’s ear.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened and she quickly shook her head. “N-No! No I’m not!”

“Rose tells me a different story.”

Dash jerked her head around to obscure her face from Alex, who simply shrugged and looked away again. “Look, I don’t care whether you talk to them or not. Just not sure what kind of conversation you expect to get out of a VI.”

“I don’t think you want to know…” answered Rose, giving Alex’s cheek an unpleasant twitch.

“J-just forget about it,” Rainbow Dash stuttered.

“Right…” After a pause, Alex asked, “So what are you doing up here, anyway?”

Rainbow brought her head back and let out a quick breath before answering. “I just saw this thing floating around up here and thought I’d come see what it was doing. What are you doing up here?”

Alex brought up his arm and pointed towards the horizon. “I’m looking at that.”

As a pegasus, Dash's eyesight was better than most. Despite this, however, even she couldn't see far enough to know for certain what Alex was pointing to. "And just what exactly is 'that?' "

"The changelings," Alex answered as he lowered his arm. "A lot of them. Way more than what we saw in Canterlot. Recon suggests that they'll be here in a few hours."

For the moment, Rainbow Dash remained silent, and her eyes unfocused as they remained locked on the horizon. Eventually, she muttered, "So it's true, isn't it? Twilight wasn't kidding when she said they attacked Appleloosa and that they were on their way here, was she?"

"No. She wasn't," Alex confirmed with a shake of his head. "We've dispatched some high altitude Raptors to act as surveillance drones, and we've been keeping an eye on them since yesterday. Compared to the numbers they're pulling now, Canterlot was a joke. Not only that, but they seem to be swarming around something. We can't tell what, but whatever it is, it's slow, and probably big."

Dash looked up at him. "And you're gonna help defend Ponyville, right?"

A sharp laugh punctuated a smirk crawling across his hidden face. "You're goddamn right."

Dash echoed the laugh. "Just make sure you leave some for the rest of us!"

Alex's smirk vanished, and his head angled back towards her. "I don't want you fighting, Dash."

"Wait, what?" Rainbow's own smile disappeared as she backed away from Alex to gawk at him. "What, you think you're just going to take all the action for yourself? Don't count on it, buster!"

Alex turned his body completely towards her. "Dash, this whole situation is a shit storm. The Liandri can handle the changelings on their own—that won't be a problem. But what we are worried about is crowd control and collateral damage. The last thing we need is ponies panicking and getting in the way. They're more likely to get themselves hurt that way." His eyes narrowed, though Dash had no way to tell. "And that includes ponies trying to help."

Dash glared at him. "So what, I'm supposed to just sit back while somepony else defends my home town for me? No thanks."

Alex shook his head. "I never said that. In fact, I want you to help run crowd control." He pointed a finger over the side of the Raven. "Keep the skies clear, and keep everyone inside the perimeter we set up. In fact, try to keep them in their homes if you can. We're going to send units around to collect blood samples from everyone, so we need them to be organized."

"Blood samples?" Rainbow's face contorted into a mixture of both confusion and mild disgust. "What do you need ponies' blood for?"

"Changeling detection tests," Alex answered within a heartbeat. "We've put together handheld analyzers that we can use to confirm ponies' identities. A changeling's blood is very different from your own, believe me. You can tell just by looking at it. Although we've even taken the extra step of including genetic ID, just to be on the safe side. It only takes a small prick and a few seconds to confirm you are who you say you are and not just who you claim to be. Right now, what's important is that we have a library of base samples to make these IDs."

Dash continued to cringe at the idea. "Still doesn't sound like a good way to do it..."

Alex flapped his arms against his side. "Well, it's either that, or we plant an RFID chip under your skin. That would be more convenient, but it's not exactly a comfortable thought, now is it?"

Rainbow Dash shivered. "I don't even know what an RF-whatever-it-was is, but I definitely don't want it under my skin."

"Exactly. Oh, and one more thing..." He pointed off towards the horizon again. "Take a look over there again. Tell me, does something look... off to you?"

Rainbow Dash followed his finger again and squinted her eyes. For a moment, she remained silent, though eventually said, "Everything looks fine from over here... What exactly are you—OW!" Dash leapt back from Alex as a sharp pain suddenly assaulted her shoulder. "What the hay was that for?!" she growled as she rubbed her shoulder. The sharp pain had been brief, but it left her shoulder sore.

While Dash was busy glowering at him, Alex stared down at the miniature screen on a device clasped in his hand that wasn't there a moment ago. It had the handle of a gun, but was much too wide and bulky. Where the barrel should have been was instead small, shallow tube with a needle in it, one that quickly retreated back into the device. "Just getting your blood sample while I have you here. I gave you a lot of important information without making sure you weren't a changeling." He returned his eyes towards her and held the device up. "Since your genome is reading as a Pony, I don't have to worry about that anymore. See? Quick and painless."

Dash narrowed her eyes with her hoof still on her shoulder. "I think you still have to work on that painless part."

"Meh," Alex shrugged. "Mostly painless."

A sudden beep in Alex's ear drew his attention, alerting him that there was an urgent matter to attend to. He held a finger up to the pegasus. "One sec, Dash, something's come up." He looked away from her and spoke again, though this time, his armor didn't project his voice outward for his physical company to hear. "What's up, Rose?"

"It seems our favorite captain has decided to pay us a visit," Rose's voice responded. "He's even brought a contingent of guards with him. Now he's asking to speak to you personally, and he's being particularly annoying about it."

"How many guards are we talking here?"

"I count two hundred and ninety three. If he intends to protect Ponyville with that many guards, he's either completely delusional or horribly misinformed. It's also worth mentioning that he has also attempted to erect his own shield dome."

"You did stop him, right?" Alex asked as he walked to the edge of the Raven to peer downwards. Thankfully, there was no dome over the town.

"I did," Rose confirmed. "It wasn't exactly easy, though. I explained to him that our dome wouldn't be able to form if his was in place, but he was insistent on doing it anyway. In the end, I had to threaten him to get him to stop."

Alex sighed as he brought up a hand to rub against his head, though with the helmet in the way, it wasn't quite the same. While having to threaten Shining Armor definitely wouldn't help relations, it was the right call. If the Liandri shield worked—and it would—it would provide perfect cover for as long as it was necessary. Shining Armor's shield, while quick and convenient, would definitely not be able to survive the day.

"You did the right thing, Rose," Alex finally responded. "What about his guards? What are they doing?"

"The ones that aren't already with Shining Armor are actually being helpful. Currently, they're establishing a presence and helping to keep the public calm. They're doing a much better job of it than the Novas and Commandos are, really, so I reassigned our active units to the perimeter."

Alex nodded. "Yeah, that doesn't really surprise me. The Royal Guards are a familiar and established authority figure, after all. Where's Shining Armor right now?"

"In front of the facility's primary entrance. I'm currently keeping him occupied with a Commando, and I've even invited Twilight to help talk some sense into him, but I'm afraid he'll try to do something stupid if he doesn't talk with you."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I understand. Tell him I'll be there in a minute. I'm gonna take the express route." He turned back to Rainbow Dash and projected his voice outwards once more. "Hey, sorry about that, Dash. Your shoulder feel better yet?"

She raised the respective foreleg and flexed it around. "It's still a little sore, but mostly, yeah."

"Good to hear," he said with a nod. "Oh, and sorry, but I gotta ditch ya. Twilight's brother just showed up with a bunch of guards, and he's being all high and mighty right now, so I gotta go deal with it. Can I count on you to help everyone keep a level head today?"

Dash smirked and raised up a hoof in salute. "Hey, don't worry. You can count on me."

He gave her two thumbs up. "Good shit. Now I just need one more favor from you."

She blinked several times as she cautiously lowered her hoof. "And what's that...?"

Alex smirked behind his visor. "Try not to freak out right now."

With those words, Alex spread his arms out, leaned back, and pitched over the side of the aircraft.

"Alex is on his way," said Rose. Currently piloting her equine body, she was flanked by a pair of visibly armed Novas. A Liandri Commando stood off to the side, its imposing figure towering over all those present in front of the garage.

Shining Armor nodded to her, though kept his face stern. A dozen guards stood next to and behind him, and each one kept a firm eye on the few Liandri present. "How long until he gets here?" the captain asked.

"He'll be arriving shortly," was Rose's answer.

Shining kept his glare. "He better. If you're lying to me, we're going to have a problem."

Twilight, who had been standing between the two, turned to her brother with as pained a look as she could muster—a genuine one, if the clench in her chest were any indication. "Shiny, please, can you at least try to work with them?"

He shook his head. "Only if they agree to work with us."

Suddenly, one of the guards called out with a hoof pointed skyward. "Captain, look! Up there!"

All eyes were instantly drawn skyward as an object careened downward. Whatever it was, it shined like a bright green comet, leaving an electric tail in its wake. It was only when the pseudo-meteorite drew closer in the next second that any of them were able to tell that it was humanoid in shape, and that its head pointed downward, but by that point it didn't matter, since the next moment would reveal that anyway.

Nearly an instant before hitting the ground, the figure curled its body, and flipped its legs downward with its arms pointed up. Its feet landed first, and its legs bent to absorb the impact. Its right arm followed next, its fist slamming into the ground at blurring speeds that should have destroyed it. Instead, the green aura surrounding it exploded outward in a swirling cloud of light, while green lightning arced directly upwards in its own thunderous display of power. A rush of wind accompanied the cloud of green light, and blasted past the Liandri and Royal Guards—even knocking one of their helmets off.

When the visual effects were dispelled, all that remained was a green armored, humanoid figure, kneeling on one leg with its fist planted against the ground. When Alex raised himself to his full height, a hiss escaped from his helmet as the visor's light disappeared, and invisible seams separated as the headpiece folded itself open to reveal his hairless visage; his faintly glowing eyes devoid of any and all amusement.

"So, it looks like you've finally decided to get up off your ass, eh, Shining Armor?" Alex chided as he sauntered past the Liandri, who each chorused "Greetings, Commander" while bringing an arm up in salute. "Here I was, thinking you'd make life easier for us all and just stay in your fucking kennel."

While Alex was acting as if nothing even remotely notable had just occurred, all the nearby ponies were still busy attempting to understand what they had just witnessed; namely, an armored human smashing into the ground at such a high speed, yet coming out of it completely unscathed. Shining Armor was no exception, though his second immediate thought was to take note of just how different Alex looked since the day before. If that armor allowed him to survive a fall like that, then there was no telling what else it was capable of.

Shining Armor shook his head of the thought and snorted. Alex did say something to him, after all. "A dog joke? Last time I heard one like that, I was arresting a narcotics trafficker."

"A shame I'm not him,” Alex quipped back. “What are you doing here?"

Shining levitated a scroll out from a pouch on his flank's armor and unrolled it, bringing it close enough for Alex to read at a distance. "By the authority of the Celestial Princesses, the Royal Guard are to be stationed here in Ponyville and to assume leadership of the town's defenses due to the impending changeling attack. That also includes issuing you a cease and desist order."

Alex stared at the wall of text before him for all of two seconds before he muttered, "I see..." and his eyes flashed green. Without warning, one of the Reds standing next to Rose aimed its Link Gun from the hip and fired a single bolt of plasma, which caught and incinerated Shining Armor's letter before he could react. Twilight let out a sharp gasp, while most of the guards fidgeted amongst each other—many taking an alarmed step forward. Alex didn't so much as blink.

"That's a nice sentiment, Shining," he continued, "but if you'll recall, I announced yesterday that until further notice, Ponyville is under my jurisdiction; That is to say, that of the Liandri Mechanized Corps."

Shining Armor's muscles clenched in an attempt to keep his growing frustration under control. "Right now, you will address me as Captain Shining Armor. And civilians aren't allowed to make any sort of decision like that."

Alex narrowed his eyes. "As long as we’re exchanging formalities, then you will address me as Commander Laythem. And I'm not much of a civilian, now am I? Here's a lesson in authority, Captain..." Twilight's eyes twitched as she spotted a faint light appear from Alex's lower back. When his right hand reached behind himself, her heart nearly leapt into her throat. "It's only yours when you have the power to enforce it."

"NO!" The human's use of the word enforce caused Twilight's mouth and legs to leap into action, long before her brain realized what it was doing, and just as Alex swung his arm back towards her brother.

Time almost seemed to stand still, despite flowing normally for each of them. Twilight stood in front of her bewildered brother, staring up at Alex with wide, tearful eyes. He simply stared back, his frown deep enough that it was one display of teeth short of a scowl. Held in his cybernetic grip was not an Enforcer, as Twilight had feared, but a Shock Rifle; a non-lethal weapon, but according to Alex, still exceptionally painful.

The guards standing behind Shining Armor took a step in advance at the sudden commotion, and many drew their spears, but quickly stopped as they stared at the scene, completely unsure of just how exactly to proceed.

Thankfully for them all, there was one individual who wasn't quite so easily stunned.

"Oh would you both just stop acting like overgrown children already?" Rose jeered as she calmly stepped between them. Her voice was firm, and in the silence, commanded all the attention of a sudden bucket of cold water that shocked everyone back to their senses. "I'm not sure if either of you have noticed, but this town is in danger. This is hardly the time for you two to see which one has the most impressive set of genitals.” The two males’ faces instantly paled at her words, though she heedlessly continued. “It’s obvious to me—as it should be to everyone else—that we’ll all achieve the best outcome of this situation by co-operating.”

“Rose, you know just as well as I do that his guards are just going to interfere with our operations!” Alex objected.

She swiveled an eye towards him. “No, they won’t.” Rose then turned her head towards Shining Armor. “They won’t, because the Royal Guard are going to be busy keeping the public calm and collected while we deal with the changelings.”

Shining Armor stepped out from behind his sister and faced the AI’s avatar. “I brought three hundred of my finest guards with me, each one with several years worth of training and experience. We can do both jobs; without your help.”

“Quit deluding yourself, Leonidas,” Alex snarked as he stowed his gun.

Rose cocked her head back to glare at him. “Shut up,” she snapped, her words instantly slapping Alex into silence. Satisfied that he was actually taking her advice, Rose turned back to Shining Armor. “You have two hundred and ninety three guards. Not three hundred. I know because I counted them. Our reconnaissance reveals that the changelings are numbering in the thousands, at least. I don’t care how highly you think of your guards, they do not have the capacity to fight them off. We do.”

“Rose has a point, Shiny,” Twilight added, standing next to the robotic pony in question to face her brother with her. “I fully believe the Liandri can deal with the changelings on their own, but the ponies around here are afraid of them. They don’t trust them—not as much as the Royal Guard.”

“Which is why we need you and your guards to keep everyone calm and out of harm’s way while we do the dirty work,” Rose finished up, jabbing a hoof into Shining Armor’s chest for emphasis.

Rose’s words stewed within the captain’s head as he unconsciously glanced down at her hoof, which subsequently planted itself back upon the ground. If the changelings really were numbering in the thousands, then a lot more needed to be done. This wasn’t going to be like Canterlot at all! Every last guard, both on duty and off, needed to be called in! The Princesses needed to provide help, too! But this wasn’t something he could let Cadence get involved in…

“As much as it pains me to say it, they’re right,” said Alex as he moved towards their huddle, one hand on his hip while the other pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re not exactly the best at PR, but at least we’ve got the firepower. If we really want to make the best of the situation, we both need to work our strengths.”

Shining Armor interrupted his thoughts and stared up at the human with as blank an expression as any. “How are you going to do it?”

Alex brought his arm down and blinked at him. “Do what?”

“Defeat the changelings,” Shining elaborated with just a tinge of impatience.

The human raised a brow. “With a superior military force. Duh.”

The captain’s look turned skeptical. This was not the type of language a so-called ‘commander’ would use. “I’m not exactly sure a hoof-ful of machines counts as a ‘superior’ military force.”

"A hoof-ful of..." Alex mouthed Shining's words before a wicked grin spread across his face. "Oh, you think the bots we have deployed are all there is, don't you? Tell me, Captain: are you familiar with the term 'means of production?' "

"More or less."

Alex allowed a chuckle to escape. "Well then, allow me to enlighten you. Rose, I think we should show him The Pits. Help alleviate his concerns a bit."

Rose shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Shining Armor shot him a critical look. "The Pits" didn't exactly sound like a friendly place. "Just what exactly are 'The Pits?' "

Alex kept his smirk as he crossed his arms, though the instinctive action proved more difficult with his body's newfound bulk. "It's just the name we gave to our manufactorium. It's a human term, really. In robotics competitions, the place where engineers work on their bots is called The Pits."

Twilight's eyes sparkled. "Ooohhh, can I come with you? I've always wanted to see your manufacturing process in action!"

"Sure, but I'll only be able to bring you two," Alex said with a shrug, eying the other guards behind Shining Armor. "It's not exactly a place for crowds."

Shining Armor turned to look at his guards, who only stared back in anticipation of his orders. Whatever decision he made was fine with them. Turning back to Alex, the captain nodded his head. "Alright. Lead the way." If anything, this would be a good way to see what the Royal Guard was up against if the Liandri ever decided to turn on Equestria...

Alex clasped his metallic hands together with a smile. "Excellent! Right this way, o' capitaine." This ought to put him in his place if he decides to get uppity...

Leaving Rose outside, Twilight and Shining Armor followed Alex into the facility's main entrance and straight away into the central elevator. During its descent, Alex faced the elevator door as he spoke. "A word of caution to you both: The Pits are not an environment meant for organics, be they pony or human. It is dark, it is hot, and it is stuffy. I can guarantee that you will not have a pleasant time while you're down there. Be thankful that at least it isn't humid."

The two unicorns nodded to themselves, but otherwise refrained from commenting. At one point, Shining Armor looked up through the elevator's glass ceiling and blinked as he attempted to process the absurdly long elevator shaft. "Geez, how far down does this thing go?"

"Very," was Alex's quick answer. "The Pits compose the facility's lowest levels."

As time stretched on, Shining was about to ask if there were even an end to the ride when the elevator finally slowed to a halt, and Alex's helmet suddenly reformed itself over his head. When the door actually opened, a wave of unrepentant hot air flooded into the elevator, catching both ponies off guard.

"Whoa!" Twilight exclaimed, spreading out her legs in an attempt to keep the drastic change in temperature from overwhelming her. "You really weren't kidding!"

Alex shrugged as he moved forward. "Eh. You'll get used to it."

"Let's just be quick about this," Shining Armor muttered as he followed him. "The sooner we get out of here, the better. And why is it so hot, down here, anyway?"

"Most of it is excess heat from the refineries. We have some systems in place to reabsorb the energy, but with this entire place running on full throttle, there's only so much they can do. The easiest thing would be to vent it all outside, but I doubt the neighbors would appreciate it."

The area just beyond the elevator door was unlike any other part of the facility Twilight had ever seen. Where most of it was composed of pristine white halls, labs, and testing rooms, this took on a completely different theme. It wasn't actually as dark as Alex had made it seem, but it certainly wasn't very generous with its illumination. Small, orange lights were scattered along the ground, doing little more than showing where it was possible to walk. Everything else appeared to be a large collection of titanic tubes or cables running vertically, though their true purposes remained completely unknown to her. A cacophony of activity filled her ears, coming from every direction at once and leaving her unable to focus on any one potential source of noise.

"What is all this...?" Shining Armor asked. It was more to himself than anything else, but he ended up saying it out loud anyway.

“Most of these are power conduits,” Alex explained as he led the two unicorns down the walkway, pointing at his surroundings as he went. “These ones over here are responsible for sending down power from the facility’s two cores to our EMC array. That one over there helps power the eastern refinery; this one powers the west…”

The trio continued along the walkway and the twisting tubes gradually gave way to other machinery. Shining Armor paused at an intersection, taking notice of an odd empty space. Out of sheer curiosity, he illuminated his horn to allow for more lighting, revealing an empty track connecting the darkness above and below him. A mere moment later, a silver-colored Liandri emerged from the darkness, being quickly carried up an out of sight again.

Shining Armor jumped back at the sudden arrival and disappearance of this Liandri as it was carried off who knows where. It was shaped like the machines that were at the wedding and standing outside, but it didn’t look right. Alex paused to look back at the captain, then at what he was looking at. “That’s a unit transport line,” he explained. “That one carries Novas from a quality check on the lower levels to a painting station above us. They go to storage from there.”

Shining Armor grimaced as he caught up to him. “All of this is just weird…”

“I think it’s fascinating,” Twilight commented. “To think: all of these various parts and mechanisms… this is all just one, really big machine!”

“That’s pretty much the long and short of it,” said Alex.

As they neared the next intersection, something emitting a ghostly blue light suddenly crossed the path in front of them, blurring in and out of sight quickly enough that neither Twilight nor her brother were able to get a good look at it.

His own instincts kicking in, Shining Armor took an abrupt step back and lit up his horn in reaction. Although by the time he managed to do that, whatever it was that startled him was long gone. “What the hay was that?”

Alex continued walking without bothering to look back, as if what just happened were the most normal thing in the world. “That was a Seraph. They’re maintenance bots; Rose’s hands if something isn’t working right down here. They’re pretty to look at, but keep in mind they do have a job to do, so just remember to leave them alone.”

Shining Armor quickly shook his head after processing his words. This entire place had him on edge, and exactly none of it felt even slightly normal. Without a doubt, the sooner he could leave, the better.

Traveling further into the belly of the beast, the machinery began to look more familiar to Twilight; at least, in the sense that she had seen its like before. On either side of the walkways were arrays of robotic arms, each one hard at work assembling one thing or another. On her left, the machine looked like it was putting together a part of a Nova's leg, while on her right, a forearm was being pieced together by a swarm of movement. When the machine deemed it finished, another arm swooped in, grasped it with calculated speed and precision, and then promptly disappeared with its prize to parts unknown. As soon as it did, another assortment of pieces appeared out of the metalworks and assembly began anew.

At this point, noise was a constant companion. All around her were whirs, cracks, and sparks from the incessant machining. Everything around her was in constant angry, jittery motion; a sea of absolute chaos to any outside observer. But she knew better than that. Behind the movement, the noise, and all the chaos... was harmony and order. A harmony so perfect, maintaining an order so complex and calculated, that nopony who ever existed could imagine such a thing were even be possible.

And yet, here it was. Surrounding her on all sides.

Twilight continued to follow Alex and her brother, though her mind was elsewhere as she did. This entire facility was a system; a system that could be studied and made sense of, even if the task seemed impossible. Each manufacturer (as she had decided to dub them) was seemingly focused on building a specific piece of a Liandri, and it appeared to be the majority case, but it wasn't.

It was difficult to discern at first, because of their constant movement, but each manufacturer had the exact same set of tools available to them, which meant that they were flexible. It made sense, since she had seen more than of them finish building one part of a Liandri's body, but as soon as that component was shipped off, it began work on an obviously different part! Twilight grinned to herself. If that was the case, then it must mean that Rose optimizes the entire system on the go, depending on the availability of manufacturers, Liandri parts, and time constraints! All to build as many of the highest quality Liandri in the shortest timeframe possible!

Twilight giggled to herself at having figured out at least part of how things were run around here, and she even began formulating mental models of how to mathematically represent such a system. Though she quickly frowned as some consequences automatically invaded her thoughts. Her mental model assumed that everything ran perfectly, and no single part of it malfunctioned. If even a single manufacturer malfunctioned or became damaged from wear and tear, the whole system would need to be reorganized!

Problems and complexities started to plague her mind. A whole library of variables needed to be taken into account! The differing manufacturing times of variant parts; the amount of time it takes to transport a part from one machine to another; the physical distance between them... and all that was just the tip of the iceberg...

In that moment, it dawned on her just how impossibly difficult Rose's job was, and how she still managed to do it all anyway. Twilight knew Alex was intelligent, and she definitely wasn't a lightweight either. After all, everypony said so. But Rose...?

She was intelligent on an entirely different level.

"Oof!" Twilight was promptly torn from her thoughts as she bumped into her brother, who had stopped with Alex in front of another manufacturer. "Shoot, sorry. Kinda got lost in thought for a second there."

"Just so long as you don't get physically lost down here," said Alex. "I mean, it wouldn't be much of a problem since Rose could lead you out in a heartbeat, but you know..." He cleared his throat, then gestured to the manufacturer. "Anyway, as you can see, Shining Armor, we take the phrase 'to build an army' just a tad literally down here."

Twilight and her brother focused their attention on the subject of the manufacturer. It appeared to be an entire Nova, although it wasn't intuitively obvious at a glance. But while it was clearly far from complete, that state of affairs was rapidly changing.

It was bizarre, really. Both Twilight and Shining Armor had only ever seen the finished product, and now here they were: witnessing one come into existence. Silvery body parts, circuitry, and other pieces rested along the edges of the machine, while at least a dozen arms picked them up and pieced them together like a puzzle. Some pieces were simply welded onto the whole, while others locked into place thanks to an integrated design that allowed for ease of assembly. Although some connections were more intimate, like the circuits and other electrical connections, and some of the manufacturer's arms disassembled, connected, and reassembled sections of the whole and assembly parts as necessary.

The two unicorns observed the entire process with unfettered curiosity. Despite appearing lightning quick to them, the assembly of that one Nova actually took almost ten minutes to complete. But even when finished, it still appeared... wrong. Incomplete, somehow. Twilight simply chalked it up to the fact that it hadn't been painted yet, as well as the fact that its eye remained dormant where she felt it should have been glowing yellow.

The very instant assembly of the Nova was complete, the manufacturer's arms pulled away, and a mechanism that had been holding the Nova's torso in place from behind hoisted it up into the air and back, before flying down somewhere into the darkness with the entire Liandri. A mere heartbeat later, another mechanism swooped in, carrying only an incomplete torso, and the process began anew.

"This..." Shining Armor muttered, attempting to find the proper words. A deep frown crossed his face as he spoke. "This... this just isn't natural..."

"Everything is natural, Shining," Alex answered as he watched the next Liandri being assembled. "It's just a matter of learning what nature's rules are, and then exploiting them. Such is the way of technological advancement."

Twilight, however, ignored their words. Instead, her eyes focused on something else: an anomaly. One of the manufacturer’s arms was trying to grasp one of the assembly pieces, but for one reason or another, it wasn’t able to close its grip, despite its clear attempts. It became especially obvious something was wrong when another arm swooped in and picked up the piece instead, while the seemingly malfunctioning one angled itself away from the others.

“Hey, Alex?” said Twilight, pointing at the arm. “I don’t think that one’s working right.”

Alex eyed the component in question. “I think you’re right. A Seraph should be coming by any second now to fix it.”

No sooner did he say those words than did they come true. A blue light rounded the nearest corner and made a beeline straight for them. The bot’s sudden appearance caused Twilight to yelp and jump back in surprise, but in doing so, gave the Seraph the room it needed to work while giving her the opportunity to get a good look at this unknown Liandri.

Although it seemed more like half a Liandri. It possessed the typical humanoid features, such as a head, arms, and torso, but it had no legs of any sort. Instead, it floated through the air with impossible grace. But what was even more stunning was the ghostly blue light that almost seemed to leak from the parts of its body that Twilight could only assume were the ones responsible for keeping it airborne.

At least, that’s what she thought they were. As far as she knew, they were just hexagonal patterns lining the underside of its chest and pelvic area. A pair of narrow devices protruded from its back and extended down, only slightly further than its legless hips. The rest of its metallic frame was sleeker than any other Liandri she had ever seen, and even though it wasn’t insignificant in its size, it moved as if it were weightless.

Twilight’s eyes remained fixed on this angelic Liandri as it carefully held the manufacturer’s malfunctioning arm from underneath with one hand, while gently caressing it with the other. It was almost as if the Seraph were trying to sooth it. Then it released the malfunctioning arm and placed its hands on either side of it.

Without any form of pretext or warning, a bright blue light fractured the Seraph’s hands and forearms from within, and a split second later, both limbs scattered apart into dozens, even hundreds of tiny floating pieces, each emitting an ethereal blue, turquoise, or green glow. Shining Armor let out a surprised yelp as the Seraph's arms exploded apart the way that they did, but Twilight was much too enraptured by the dance of lights happening before her to notice.

Within the swarm of light was the malfunctioning arm, and only when Twilight focused her eyes as much as possible could she see that that section of the arm had been entirely disassembled with its parts floating within the cloud of luminescence. In only a matter of seconds, the manufacturer’s arm had been reassembled by the dancing lights, and then the pieces that composed the Seraph’s arms flew back together, instantly reforming complete and solid limbs again.

The manufacturer’s arm raised itself away from the Seraph, repeatedly closing and opening its now perfectly functional digits. Apparently satisfied with the repair job, the arm returned to its siblings to complete the job it had started. As it did so, the Seraph turned its head towards Twilight, who was still in a state of complete bewilderment. Her unbelieving eyes stared up at the flattened V shaped visor of its streamlined head, the blue light coming from them an ever familiar color.

Of its own accord, the Seraph turned its body completely towards her and lowered itself down to her level, keeping their eye contact. It then brought up a hand, pinched her cheek, and said in Rose’s voice: “I love it when you look like that.” It then let go, turned, and shot off towards its next destination, disappearing from sight just as quickly and abruptly as it had arrived.

When Shining Armor and Twilight hadn’t managed to either move or even formulate a single word, Alex took the opportunity to speak. “Yeah, they’re something, alright. Just wanna put it out there that I’ve pretty much had nothing to do with them. Rose designed them entirely on her own. Kinda shows, since they’re way more elegant than anything I could have ever come up with; that’s for damn sure.”

“Alex, that…” Twilight’s throat struggled to allow her to form words. “That… That..." Finally, she just simply shook her head and cracked a smile. "I feel like I've used this around you way too much, but that was unbelievable."

Alex shook his head. "No, no, unbelievable is the right word. To be honest, even I'm not sure how they work. Even if I found the time to look over the design, I still don't think I'd be able to wrap my head around it. Anyway, come on. Storage is the place I really want to show you, Shining Armor. It'll go a long way in explaining just how exactly we plan to deal with the changelings."

"Then let's go," Shining agreed as he started to follow Alex again. "This place is starting to get a little too weird for me."

"Weird?!" Twilight protested as she trotted alongside her brother. "Shiny, this place is amazing! It's like a whole other world, sitting right under Ponyville!"

Her brother frowned. "That is another problem all on its own. A place like this just can’t be legal..."

"Unfortunately for you, Shining, you're not in a position to dispute that," said Alex, not bothering to look over his shoulder. "Simply put, this entire facility is fucking massive. If you've got a problem with us being here like this, then by all means, bitch and moan about it. Just don't tell yourself you have to capacity to actually evict us."

Shining Armor turned his frown up to Alex. “Hey, what’s your problem, anyway? We have laws and regulations for a reason.”

“Let me make myself perfectly clear…” Alex stopped and turned around completely to face Shining Armor. “I am a man of action. I hate bureaucracy, and I despise red tape. There is little I hate more than having to sit around, doing nothing, while some dumbfuck in a suit twirls his thumbs, considering whether or not I have permission to do something useful.” He leaned further in. “I. am. done. asking for permission.”

Just ask Alex finished his words, and before Shining Armor could say his, a low growling noise cut through the ambient sounds of The Pits and drew away everyone’s attention. Alex and Shining Armor slowly turned their heads to the left and right respectively to stare into a patch of darkness that branched off from the walkway. Twilight, whose ears had been perked in anticipation of having to break those two apart again, flattened them and stared into the darkness where the noise had come from, an uncomfortable shiver running down her spine. “W-what was that…?”

Alex stood up straight and ignored her question. “Well heyo. What are you doing here?” he said in an almost playful manner, apparently able to see something in the darkness that the two ponies couldn’t.

A response came in the form of two small red lights suddenly appearing within the shadows. At the same time, and even louder growl washed over them like a wave of pure unease. Or perhaps that was the wave of heat that inexplicably emerged from the darkness as well. For one reason or another, Twilight’s basest instincts bucked her in the head, telling her to run; to leave right now. And yet, her hooves remained in place.

“What are you looking at…?” Shining Armor muttered to himself as he projected light from his horn to illuminate the one who interrupted their staredown. Almost immediately, Shining regretted the decision. He cut off the magic to his horn and backed up, making sure his sister remained behind him at all times.

The Seraph was a thing of beauty. This was a thing of nightmares.

The enshrouded machine’s eyes finally moved from their position. Quiet whirs and the louder clunking of metal against metal signaled the Liandri’s movement. A titanic arm emerged from the darkness, it’s thick, almost clawed fingers seemingly grabbing for the ponies, until the hand veered to the side and braced itself against another, anchored machine with a loud metallic smash. One thing was clear: delicacy was not its intention. The set of blood red eyes moved upwards to the sound of more clanging metal until the Liandri they belonged to towered over both of the ponies, and even well over Alex.

Finally, the cybernetic emerged from the darkness, making it visible to all. More than ever, Twilight’s instincts kicked and screamed at her to run as fast as she could, yet the sheer terror of the sight before her kept her paralyzed.

This Liandri was huge; tall and broad enough that it couldn’t move around without bumping into something. Its outside was nothing but pure armor—angular, heavy, and probably impenetrable—painted green, black, and grey in a digital camouflage pattern, while a constant wave of heat poured out from it. But the most unsettling thing of all was its face. Two tiny red dots rested within deep black sockets, below which was a long row of pointed teeth. In fact, its head appeared almost skeletal, though pointed ridges adorned its jaw, cheeks, and forehead, giving it an unnatural look.

But there was no denying it. This Liandri’s head had the overall shape of what could only be a human skull.

“What the hay is that thing?!” Shining exclaimed as he lit his horn in preparation for self defense. The super-heavy Liandri slowly lowered its head closer to the two unicorns and allowed its toothy jaw to hang ajar, revealing a second, inner set of sharpened teeth, beyond which was a discomforting orange glow. Its body even heaved in time with its rumbling growls, giving the impression that it was breathing.

“Whoa, easy there,” said Alex, placing a hand on the Liandri’s titanic shoulder. As he did, the giant eased up, though kept is disturbing gaze fixed on the ponies. “This is a Skulldozer,” Alex explained. “We designed them in response to the attack on Canterlot. These guys hold a very… unique place within the Corps.”

“Alex, why would you make something like this?!” blurted Twilight, who was stuck between her brother and another machine, and unable to look away from the Skulldozer’s bony visage and its crimson gaze. She couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was eying her like a timberwolf would a piece of raw meat. “That thing is terrifying!”

“That’s actually kind of the point,” said Alex, crossing his arms. “They’re not meant to pacify—they’re meant to terrify. Pound for pound, they’re also the single most physically powerful unit we’ve ever built.”

Shining Armor fixed his eyes on Alex. “Why would you make something meant to terrify ponies!?”

Alex shook his head. “They’re not meant to scare ponies. They’re not even supposed to interact with ponies. Hell, they can’t even talk. Nah…” He tapped a knuckle against the Skulldozer’s gigantic arm. “These guys are strictly reserved for combat deployment. Speaking of which…” Alex looked up at the Skulldozer’s face as he beckoned Shining Armor and Twilight over, and they gladly moved behind him.. “You shouldn’t be here. Go on, go! You know where you need to be.”

A deep rumble escaped the Skulldozer as its form of acknowledgement, and the giant turned, easing its movements into a slow, lumbering gait in the direction the group of three just came from. Although it's size gave it more than a bit of trouble navigating the narrow walkway.

Twilight’s heart finally calmed itself as the Skulldozer left, its every movement echoing throughout the area. Though as she stared at the machine’s backside, she couldn’t help but scold herself at her reaction. It was a Liandri! Of course it wouldn’t hurt her or her brother!

But just as Twilight finished entertaining the thought, Alex’s words struck a chord. You shouldn’t be here. Go on, go! You know where you need to be. The perpetual gears in Twilight’s mind kicked up again. If that Liandri was supposed to be somewhere else, why was it here, sitting alone in the dark…?

“Alright, not much further now,” Alex announced as he walked passed the two unicorns, interrupting Twilight’s train of thought.

“I still don’t see what would drive you to create a monster like that,” Shining quipped as he followed after him, Twilight close behind.

“Fear is a powerful tool, Shining Armor,” Alex answered. “Couple that with a reputation, and you find yourself in the unique position of being able to control a battle whichever way you want. For now, Skulldozers have no reputation. In fact, no one other than ourselves know they even exist. By the end of the day, all of that is going to change.”

Shining Armor glared at the back of his head. None of what he was saying sounded good. “And just what kind of reputation are you hoping they get?”

Alex raised his hand and counted off his fingers. “First, that Skulldozers are not common. Matter of fact, we’ve only built a few. Second, that if you do see one, it means bad things for whoever it’s after. Third, if it’s after you, you’re fucked. Fourth, if you see more than one…” He turned his head to look at Shining out of the corner of his visor. “...Run.”

“You’re talking as if those things are invincible,” Shining retorted as Alex turned his head back.

“That’s because they are. We designed and built them from the ground up to be walking tanks. Anything short of high-grade explosives is only going to annoy them.”

“What about magic?” Twilight automatically asked. It was a legitimate question, after all. Alex held the Novas in exceptionally high regard too, but Chrysalis’ magic ended up being their downfall in the end.

“What about it?” Alex asked in return, as if it were the most irrelevant thing she could have proposed.

His response threw a wrench into Twilight’s gears. Did he not consider it an issue for some reason? “Chrysalis used magic to defeat the Liandri last time. Aren’t you afraid that’ll happen again?”

“Not at all.” Again, Alex spoke as if they were discussing any other mundane topic. He then rapped a hand against his plated chest as they walked. “Here, go ahead and cast a spell on me.”

Twilight blinked at him. “What? Why?”

“So I can show you why it’s not a problem,” he answered. “Go ahead. Any spell—it doesn’t matter.”

“If you insist,” said Shining as his horn adopted its aura and its magic focused on Alex.

At that instant, a shimmering light enveloped Alex, creating a prismatic skin that hovered just a few centimeters from the surface of his armor. Colors shifted and swirled around him, and only disappeared back into nothingness when Shining Armor ceased his attempted spell.

Shining gawked at Alex’s backside owlishly. “What the hay just happened?”

Alex looked over his shoulder at him. “Didn’t work, did it?”

“The magical countermeasures!” Twilight gasped, mimicking her brother’s expression, though with significantly more wonder mixed in. “You managed to get it working!”

“Actually, Rose managed to get it working,” Alex corrected her as he stopped next to an oddly placed automatic door that didn’t open to their presence. “Since Nova two didn’t get completely fucked up, Rose was able to extract some diagnostic data from our little test. She found the problem, fixed it, and now every Corps unit is shielded from magical interactions.”

“That’s fantastic!” cheered Twilight, clapping her hooves against the ground.

“Yeah…” Shining Armor drawled as he looked over at his sister. “Fantastic…”

Alex cocked his head, his grin invisible behind his helmet. “Something the matter, big guy? Your ally managed to fix his one weakness against your mutual enemy. Figured you’d be happy about that.”

Shining Armor grit his teeth and inhaled deeply. With full lungs, he said, “As long as the changelings are the only thing this will be used against, I’m fine with it.”

“Of course you are. Now then...” Alex gestured towards the door. “What you’re both about to see is something spectacular. It is a fundamental step. One of countless steps that humanity has taken throughout its entire hundreds of millions of years of speciation and history. A step that all sapient species aspire to one day take.”

At those words, the door opened and Alex took the lead through it. He swung out his arms, just as his helmet hissed and granted his head freedom. “Behold!” he proclaimed. “This is humanity’s legacy! The final few steps approaching evolution’s ultimate result: the singularity! This is the true meaning of the deus ex machina; the GOD in the machine!”

Alex’s introduction left a smile on Twilight’s face. Just the idea of hundreds of millions of years of unknown history was enough to warm her heart and get it racing with anticipation. When the door opened and Alex went through it, she found it led to a closed off balcony. However, what lay beyond the guardrail, coupled with Alex’s monologue, chilled her heart, and the smile she held slowly vanished, mimicking her brother’s wide-eyed look.

Alex turned around to face the two unicorns, a grin accenting his blazing eyes. “This, Shining Armor. This is what it means to have the means of production.”

Behind Alex stretched an endless chasm, filled with titanic shelving units. Harsh lighting highlighted unknown machinery filling every space. The rows upon rows of machinery stretched far into the distance, and extended from the ceiling to depths where the light no longer reached. Lining the massive storage units stood dozens; hundreds; thousands of Liandri. Each one painted and armed. Each one dormant and waiting for the order to awaken. Each one ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

Each one ready for war.

Author's Notes:

This chapter brought to you by:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8liPdLa0yc

Alternate chapter title: The Means of Production.

And of course: MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED!
So. School. For those of you who aren't my editor, I'm currently suffering through my Electrical Engineering program. So far, everything is going great, except for one class: Ordinary Differential Equations for Engineers. This one class is kicking my ass so hard it's changed from a math class to a lesson in survival. That's not because the material is particularly difficult—it's not. In fact, it's relatively straightforward for those who genuinely want to learn the material, which is most certainly true for myself. The problem is my professor is universally regarded at my school as one of the worst teachers around. He's got a strong asian accent that makes him incomprehensible half the time, and his notation is so unconventional, literally no one else uses it. I've been breaking my head open on assignments that shouldn't have been as hard as they were just because of all the fucking research and translation I've had to do outside of class. Seriously, all of my energy has gone into that one class. It's fucking exhausting. Between ODEs, my 4 other classes, and my joining of the robotics team, it's a wonder I managed to actually get this chapter done. Though to be honest, I wrote most of it in the student lounge on my tablet in the mornings before classes. In fact, you can tell which bits I wrote on my tablet and which ones I wrote on my computer by the quotation marks. For some reason, they're different depending on the device I'm using.

Fuck, sorry about that rant. I've had a long week...

Edit: Aw fuck me, I knew I forgot to write something here! I need an OC for the next chapter, so if you're interested, just drop yours with a quick description!

Another Edit: Awesome! ty for the OCs! Got what I needed!

Full Force Forward

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Lieutenant Quicksilver was a simple Stallion. At least, he liked to think so. For as long as he could remember, he planned on having a more or less quiet life. Yet the odd patch of excitement was definitely a welcome bonus. That was the main reason he decided to join the Royal Guard. It paid well, there were relatively few major incidents, and whenever there was one, Princess Celestia or somepony else would usually be the ones to deal with it. It struck a nice balance.

And then the Liandri appeared. Truth be told, Lieutenant Quicksilver wasn't even sure they existed until just a few weeks ago. Before the Gala, rumors of tall, two legged metal creatures, self propelled carts, and flying machines remained just that: rumors. Ponyville wasn't very far off from Canterlot, sure, but the Royal Guard barely had a reason to come down to begin with. Most of the stories came from ponies who came up from the small town and who decided to feel chatty. Of course, most of them sounded much too fanciful.

As a result, a lot of ponies brushed them off. Especially the nobles. Some of the guards were curious enough to look into them, and returned with confirmation of their existence, but with so little apparent activity from them, the fabled Liandri eventually fell under the radar again and slipped back into a state of myth. Princess Celestia apparently knew about them, but nopony seemed to get it in their head to ask her. In hindsight, Lieutenant Quicksilver couldn't imagine how such a disconnect was possible between Ponyville and Canterlot, especially considering how each was clearly in view of the other.

The night of the Gala was when the first real shock occurred. Not only did the Liandri and their creators make an overt appearance in Canterlot, they did so in as unsubtle a manner as possible. If the nobles had any doubts about their existence before, they were immediately dispelled then and there.

The wedding was the second reality check, and the one that served as the biggest wakeup call. At that point, the Royal Guard knew beyond any doubt that bipedal machines existed in Ponyville, but it wasn't until their human creator briefed the guards that they realized just how dangerous they actually were. He claimed it was to familiarize the guards with the Liandri, so that nopony would get hurt in case something happened during the wedding. Like most of the guards, however, Lieutenant Quicksilver knew what it was really all about, and what was happening right now only confirmed his suspicions.

It was a display of power: a threat hidden behind a smile. Alexander's constant clashing with the Captain only served to prove that they had no intention of co-operating with the law, and there was no telling what sort of maliciousness was hidden deep beneath their hooves. In a way, it's thanks to the changelings that their true intentions were exposed, although it may have just accelerated whatever they were planning in the first place. All the guards could feel it. There was no need for words. Something really bad was coming, no matter what that fake mare standing over there told them.

So much for having a quiet life...

After what felt like the passing of an entire lifetime, the front door to the garage opened up again, and the Captain trotted out with his sister by his side. The armored human followed behind, but he appeared to be in less of a hurry.

Cantering ahead of his sister and the human, Shining Armor moved to stand before the assembled guards with all his usual pomp. "The Liandri have the changeling situation under control,” he started. “I need you all to alert your divisions and have them focus on the locals. They need to keep everypony calm, and if possible, in their homes. At least until this all blows over. Once you're done, rendezvous by the southern perimeter. That’s where the front will be. Understood?"

The guards saluted, giving a resolute "Sir, yes, sir!" before galloping or flying to their respective subordinates.

Lieutenant Quicksilver, however, remained behind. He knew his Captain well enough to sense the hidden unease behind his tenor. He walked up to Shining Armor and dropped his voice to a murmur. "Sir, is everything alright? What did you see in there?"

Shining Armor shot a quick look behind himself at the nearby Liandri. For all he knew, they could be trying to listen in, but—to him anyway—it didn't look like it. Dropping his voice even lower than the Lieutenant's, he leaned in and whispered: "They have an entire army down there."

A chill shot down Quicksilver's spine, the cold shock jerking his head up to stare Shining Armor directly in the eye. He hoped to see any form of exaggeration on his face. Unfortunately, the captain remained more stone cold than he had ever seen him before, and the slight crease in his brow only revealed the truth of the matter.

He was being serious...

As the thought sunk in, the garage's main door, the one meant for vehicles, opened on its own, signaled by a loud whirring of a motor and clunking of panels on guiding rails. A deep rumble signaled the presence of the machine behind it, and before the door had even fully raised itself up, a train of almost a dozen identical vehicles rolled out. A pair of wheels larger than a pony were mounted on the front, while treads supported the back end, which itself carried a thin, yet long cannon-looking device.

What wasn't familiar to the guards was at least in part familiar to Twilight. It was the same model of vehicle that Alex had built for Pinkie on Hearth's Warming Eve. Although these were painted brown and beige, as opposed to the hot pink on Pinkie's, and sported something that clearly wasn’t a giant party cannon.

Quicksilver gawked at the vehicles for a lot longer than he should have, only snapping out of his daze when Shining Armor eventually bumped and reminded him that he had been given an order. With a quick nod of acknowledgement, the unicorn lieutenant galloped off with as much determination to not look behind himself as possible.

Shining Armor trotted up to Alex and pointed a hoof at the train of vehicles. "Whoa, hey, just what is all this?"

"They're Hellfires, Shining," was Alex's answer, who was currently admiring them with his hands on his metal hips as they passed. "Self Propelled Mobile Artillery vehicles. They're going to deploy in open areas around town and provide a nice bit of help during the second phase of the defense."

“Second phase?” Shining Armor repeated, adding his own emphasis. “What do you mean second phase?”

“I mean second phase,” said Alex as he looked down at him. “There’s going to be a big fucking fight no matter what, and you can sure as hell bet that we will be the ones controlling it. We will let nothing go to chance. That means we’re going to be doing things step by step.”

As the last Hellfire left the garage, a parade of Liandri followed it, headed by the Skulldozer—the very same one that Shining Armor recognized from inside The Pits. The red eyes were what gave it away; assuming it was unique that way. It somehow seemed less threatening now that it was in broad daylight; or maybe it was the fact that it wasn’t looming directly over him like it was before. Either way, his instinct still demanded he keep his distance from the skull-faced hulk. Its armor appeared just as invincible as it did before, though the light helped reveal some of the smaller details, such as the angular ridges that dotted its bulky frame, similar to the ones on its head.

A pair of commandos flanked the Skulldozer, who were then trailed by a seemingly endless train of Novas marching in rows of three.

Alex beckoned Shining Armor over as he took up a spot in front of the Skulldozer and assumed leadership of the group. “Well let’s get a move on. They’re not gonna wait for us.”

Twilight moved to follow him, but Shining almost immediately stuck out a hoof to block her. “Whoa, hey, you’re not coming with us.”

She blinked at her brother as the Liandri continued to march without them. “What? Why not?”

He stepped in front of his sister. “You know exactly why not. I’m not going to let you throw yourself in harm’s way.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Hey, I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Shining Armor is right, Twilight,” said Rose, trotting up next to her. “We’re already making a major exception by allowing him and some of his guards on the front. Even if we know you can handle yourself, you’re not needed there. But you are needed at the library with Spike.” She placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “He needs you to be there for him right now. Go. We’ll take care of things.”

After meeting Rose’s eyes for a few brief moments, Twilight averted her gaze. She was right. If anypony was panicking about the changelings right now, it was Spike. He needed her comfort—or at the very least, her presence—right now more than ever. Twilight closed her eyes and gently nodded. Turning her head back up once more, she met Rose’s gaze and simply said, “Good luck,” before her horn glowed with magic and she disappeared in a flash of lavender light.

Shining Armor blinked at the spot where his sister was just standing before he looked over at Rose. “Alright, credit where credit is due. You’re pretty good at that.”

“Being able to think quickly relative to those around you helps quite a bit,” Rose replied before she waved a hoof in his general direction. “You might want to hurry. Alex didn’t bother waiting for you.”

“Oh right!” Shining Armor turned to gallop after Alex, but paused and looked back to Rose. “Hey, I just wanted to say, uh… thank you.”

Rose cocked a brow. “For what?”

“For keeping a level head,” Shining explained. “I haven’t been doing the best job of that lately. I’m just glad somepony is.”

Rose smirked at him. “It’s my job.” At that, she briskly left to return to the facility, Novas in tow, and quickly added: “Part of it, anyway.” Meanwhile, the nearby Commando fell into step with all the other Liandri headed towards the perimeter.

At the head of the parade of machinery, the Hellfires split off from their original train towards their individual deployment zones, leaving Alex to head the Liandri. The Skulldozer behind him thundered along obediently, though with little grace. While the following Commandos and Novas stood tall and fell into lockstep, the Skulldozer did anything but give the impression of pure discipline.

Clanking metal against cobblestone announced to everyone nearby whenever the hulking giant took a step. Its arms bobbed up and down with its movements, and its fingers remained partially curled, as if ready to grab at something at a moment's notice. While the Skulldozer was technically taller than the Commandos behind it, it appeared to be the same height with the way it subtly hunched its back. Rumbling growls and waves of hot air escaped its toothy maw in time with the heaves of its simulated breathing, and its head swiveled this way and that at nearby ponies, lingering a few seconds on each before turning to the next.

Almost every passing pony who had the misfortune of locking eyes with the Skulldozer immediately turned tail and fled—for anywhere that wasn't there. Even those few who didn't fall into that category had a few choice words to express.

"What the hay is that thing?!"

"It's some kind of monster!"

"But it's with the Liandri! There's the logo right there!"

"Who cares?! I don't want to be anywhere near that thing!"

"Everypony please, just remain calm and return to your homes. Everything is under control."

"Hey, mom, look! It's a boss!"

"Button, we need to go home right now."

Finally catching up to Alex, Shining Armor fell into a canter beside him. "You know, that thing of yours is making keeping everypony calm a lot harder," said Shining, who then turned his head back to eye the subject in question. To his complete dismay, the Skulldozer's tiny red eyes were already locked firmly on him. His heart involuntarily skipped a beat and he snapped his head forward again. Shining decided to make it a point to keep looking forward and just ignore it.

"Once it's on the front, the guards won't have to worry about a damn thing," Alex returned. "And who knows? That Liandri may very well save your goddamn life today."

It looks like it would sooner try to crush me than save me... Shining thought. He almost turned his head back to confirm the idea, but just as quickly realized that he didn't need to.

He really didn't need to.

The increasingly long line of Liandri traveling through town split off, dividing squads of Novas and their Commandos until their positions had been taken up along the perimeter of the soon-to-be shield. When everything was said and done, they all formed a giant ring of armed bots around the entirety of Ponyville. By the southern entrance of town was the front, and where Shining Armor, Alex, and the lone Skulldozer waited. The changelings were approaching from the south-west, but with a good section of the Everfree covering the west side of the valley, Rose predicted the changeling mass would reorient themselves to come in from the south.

Lo and behold, recon confirmed her prediction.

This, of course, only made the Liandri's job easier. South of Ponyville was nothing but hills and grassland. The hills provided natural cover against plasma-fire on the ground, but they did little to protect any would-be changeling invaders from above. It was just a matter of forcing them to the ground so they could be pounded from the sky.

As Alex and Shining Armor arrived at the southern end of the perimeter, Shining couldn't help but eye one of the power relays that had been installed over the past twenty four hours. The large metallic post had been built into the ground, or rather, into a wide metal track that had itself been built into the ground. The appearance of both was mesmerizing, as streaks of eye-catching purple pulsed and raced along their lengths. The track itself was the perimeter of the shield, and through some mechanism Shining couldn't understand, it would supposedly help keep their shield stable. Or maybe the relays did. He couldn't remember. Whatever it was, it was more complicated than his spell. That he was at least sure of.

Some distance from the perimeter, the Novas took up their positions, forming a wall of red-trimmed metal. Commandos dotted the line here and there, though they appeared few and far between. Excluding the front, where two Commandos stood side by side and gazed towards the south.

The Skulldozer, however, shocked Shining Armor by doing the unthinkable: sitting down. Much to the captain's surprise, the Skulldozer walked about halfway between the perimeter and the wall of Novas before it carefully set itself down and crossed its legs. The metal hulk then planted its hands on its knees while keeping its elbows raised, since its arms were simply too massive to allow otherwise. It then gave out a final, rumbling huff before its body sagged, its eyes faded into darkness, and silence finally reigned.

Shining Armor cautiously approached the bot and snuck a closer look. "Is... is it sleeping?"

"Skulldozers are fighting bots," Alex answered as he approached the two and placed his hands on his hips. "They're either moving or fighting. If they're not doing one or the other, they go into standby. So yeah, he's sleeping. Don’t worry, he'll wake up when he needs to." He turned towards the captain with a grin hidden behind his helmet. "Although if you really wanted to wake him up now, you could try hitting him with rock."

Shining Armor shot Alex a leery look before backing away from the dormant dozer. "I'll pass, thanks."

"Heh, of course you will." Turning away from Shining Armor, Alex approached a pair of waiting Commandos. "Hey, I want you two to deploy mine layers on the forward facing hill. Space them out, mark their locations, double check their tags. We need to make sure everything is cleaned up by the end of the day."

"Yes, Commander," the two super-heavies replied with a nod. A piece of heavy machinery then materialized from their respective quantum storage units with a bright, soft white light. They reached behind themselves in unison with their right hands to bring the large, gun-like device to bear, and with their left, grabbed an odd looking box that clung to their back. After slapping the box into their devices and locking them in place, the Commandos marched past the Novas, who automatically moved aside to grant them passage, and took aim. Small, flat triangular devices flew from the ends of their guns, spinning like a thrown discus before landing with about as much show as a regular old frisbee hitting the lawn and blending in with the grassy hillside. Of course, they still stood out, but only to those who knew what to look for. In less than sixty seconds, their job was done.

Over the next few minutes Shining Armor's dispatched officers trickled down to the front, as he had ordered them before. When they had all arrived, there were twelve guards in total, including Shining Armor. Among them were four pegasi, four unicorns, and four earth-ponies, each split into two stallions and two mares. As Alex finally paid attention to them for the first time that day, he couldn't help but wonder if some sort of affirmative action was somehow involved. Behind Alex, a dark cloud of bugs loomed in the distance.

"Alright!" Alex barked towards the guards. "I'm gonna give you the rundown. El bado motherfuckers are going to be coming from over there." He pointed behind himself with a thumb. "They are going to be trying to get in there." He now pointed forwards towards Ponyville. "Our goal is to make sure that not a single one of them crosses that line behind you. Not until Rose gets the shield up. It'll be tight, but more than possible. Just let the Liandri do the hard work. All you guys have to do is hang back and pick off any stragglers that somehow manage to get through. Once that's done we can all call it a day and go grab some fucking donuts, or shawarma, or something—I don’t know."

Just as Alex finished providing his instructions, the Skulldozer let out a low growl as its eyes flared to life. The air around it warped and shimmered as heat poured out from the concealed vents across its entire body. Slowly, the brute leaned forward to place its clawed hands on the ground as support, before its lumbering figure raised itself to its full height. As it did, a louder, snarling growl escaped it, coupled with another wave of heat as it stared off towards the incoming swarm.

Everypony's eyes had automatically focused on the source of noise and its display, including Alex's. When it was over, he turned back to the guards and said, "Any questions?" When none came, Alex continued. "Oh, and one last thing. You see that hill right over there? The one between us and them? Do not, under any circumstances go near that hill. Understood?"

This time, one of the unicorn guards—a stallion—spoke up. "Hey listen, not that we don't appreciate what you're doing right now, but you can't give us orders."

For a moment, Alex stared at the stallion in silence. With his helmet covering his head, nopony could really gauge just what exactly he was thinking in that moment. Eventually, he said, "Then allow me to give you a suggestion." He pointed towards the hill again. "I just had my Commandos deploy spider mine layers on this side of that hill. 'What is a spider mine?' I hear you ask? Well, it's a tiny little machine packed with explosives that chases down whatever gets too close, drills into them, and then blows up. Now it's important that I mention that they know how to tell the difference between a Liandri and a changeling. However, they cannot tell the difference between a pony and a changeling. So unless you want the pony standing next to you to end up picking your guts up off the grass by this afternoon, then I suggest you stay the fuck away from that hill."

"Okay..." Shining Armor muttered as he slipped his own helmet over his head and looked to his subordinates. "So we stay away from the hill."

"Good, glad we got that out of the way," said Alex as he turned away from them to face the approaching swarm. A transmitted thought warned that it was now picking up speed. Bright light appeared along Alex's lower back as his QSD summoned a scoped rifle. The weapon's frame was angular, yet sleek, and a simple arm beneath its body connected to its barrel, allowing it to lengthen and retract as necessary.

Alex took the rifle's grip and swung it out in front of him, carefully placing its butt against his shoulder while his eye peered through the scope. His own thoughts transmitting to the weapon, the scope reconfigured itself for a longer range and zoomed further in, while the barrel automatically lengthened with it. Now the swarm became clear, and individual changelings could be made out. They were no longer circling each other, but coming straight on.

Perfect.

"Alright, Hyde, let's see what you can do..." Alex breathed as he raised his rifle up and let it rest over his shoulder. "All units! Widowmakers out!"

As Alex barked his command, the Skulldozer let out a loud growl, and in a single, uniform motion, every Nova along the perimeter reached behind itself and equipped a rifle, just like the one Alex held.

Shining Armor trotted up next to Alex. "So when exactly are your machines going to move forward and start fighting them? I don’t like the idea of having to fight that many changelings this close to town."

Alex turned his head down to the captain and looked at him for a brief moment. Then without a word, he brought his rifle down and ejected its magazine into his free hand. After slinging the unloaded weapon over his shoulder, Alex removed the topmost round and held it up for Shining Armor to look at. To Alex, it looked like a normal bullet, save for its black color and purple streaks. To Shining Armor, it just looked weird.

"See this?" said Alex. "This is a warp bullet. Brand new stuff, even for us. Tough to make, too. Uses an integrated Core Energy circuit to warp space around it. Gives it a bunch of neat little effects. For example: this thing will fly perfectly straight for—in theory—about three kilometers, regardless of wind or gravitational effects. After that, the circuit destabilizes and the entire thing just sort of disintegrates." He started placing the round back into the magazine. "Another neat little effect is that they travel at relativistic speeds, and even pack a bigger punch than normal rounds." With the bullet back in place, Alex brought the rifle back over and slipped the magazine back in with a satisfying click. "Normal bullets will put a hole in your head..." He turned his gaze directly to Shining Armor. "...These will take it clean off your fucking neck."

Shining Armor blinked back him him, determined to keep his face neutral. "That's nice, but you didn't answer my question."

"Didn't I?" Alex replied with a tilt of his head. His attention completely tore away from Shining Armor as he faced the encroaching swarm. "All units!" he barked. "Full force forward!"

As one, the Novas planted their left feet forward, holding their sniper rifles against their chests. Likewise, the Commandos copied their movements, though equipped oversized Link Guns as the AVRiLs mounted behind their shoulders moved up to point ahead of them. The Skulldozer's simulated breathing became louder as it adopted a wide stance, letting out a rumbling growl on each exhale. As if in response to them, the changeling swarm expanded in size. What was once a condensed, airborne mass spread out, but despite their thinning, the sky still couldn’t be seen behind them, demonstrating just how numerous they were.

"Sweet sun above there's way too many of them..." Alex heard one of the guards behind him mutter.

Alex grinned. No such thing. "Ready!"

With unnerving synchronization, the Novas brought their rifles up to shoulder height. The Skulldozer let out deep, rumbling bark as its maw opened and immediately snapped shut.

Alex brought his own rifle up. "Aim!"

Each Nova peered down their scope. Changelings within Alex's vision turned from their normal black to red as each Nova acquired a unique target. Letting his hands guide his movements, the crosshairs of his own rifle focused on an unclaimed, though now unlucky changeling.

"Fire!"

Like a clap of thunder, every Liandri along the southern front opened fire, creating a single, deafening explosion as countless sniper rifles sounded off at the exact same time. True to Alex's word, the warp bullets struck their targets in an instant, each one leaving a faint red trail that led back to the gun that fired it.

The line of Liandri pulled the bolts back on their rifles like a loom’s reed sitting the yarn. Loading fresh rounds, the mechanical swarm took aim once more.

"Keep shooting!"

A second volley fired off, further decimating the invading force. Volley after volley sent bodies careening to the ground, until those lucky enough to have survived realized that staying airborne was a death sentence. Soon enough, the changelings performed the same trick they had used in Canterlot by magically crashing themselves into the ground, using the hills to protect them from the ground-bound Liandri.

Alex brought his rifle up and laid it atop his shoulder. "Well shit, they learn quick, now don't they?"

"Now what?" asked Shining. "There's still a lot of them left, and you can't exactly hit them from here."

Alex slung his rifle behind his back, where his QSD automatically consumed it for later use. "Now we move on to phase two. We're playing these assholes like a fucking fiddle." Looking back towards the town, Alex called out, "Hellfires! Cicadas! You're up!"

At his words, explosions sounded out simultaneously all over Ponyville, startling the captain and the other guards and forcing them to look back towards the town. Tiny black objects soared high into the sky, leaving a faint trail of white smoke behind them. The objects flew well over the southern grasslands before they suddenly... stopped. Had they been closer, they would have been able to see the sides of the shells fold out, exposing a quartet of low-grade Tarydium thrusters that kept the newly deployed cameras airborne. Each camera shell was linked to the Hellfire that shot it, giving the artillery vehicles a bird's eye view of their targets. Eventually, the camera shells would run out of fuel and crash to the ground, but they'll have served their purpose long before then.

As this was going on, the aperture that formed the roof of the Liandri hangar eased open, and a string of aircraft floated out before zooming over the town in a V formation. The guards on the southern front could only watch as the alien flying machines soared over them. The front end of each craft was bulky, and had nothing that could even remotely resemble wings, leaving how they could remain airborne a mystery. A pair of rotors were present on the back, but their positioning was so odd and so far off from the aircraft’s center of gravity that their real purpose could only be guessed at.

Regardless, they did something, as their swishing could be heard from below, coupled with a strange clunking that the ponies were sure probably wasn't supposed to be happening. Of course, Alex would have told them that that clunking was entirely expected, and even welcomed, since that was the sound of the aircrafts’ rocket pods being loaded.

No such thing as overkill.

"Alright, let's see what we got." Alex faced the battlefield once more, clapping his metallic hands together before extending them out in front of himself. His hands and fingers moved through the air, seemingly without purpose. To the guards, Alex appeared to be hallucinating, but to him, he was manipulating a window connected to a hole in the sky. Countless jet black figures dotted the landscape—some in tight clumps, others more dispersed.

All viable targets.

"Okay, Hyde, show us what you can do," Alex muttered, a grin splitting his lips. To his side, the Skulldozer released a drawn out growl. In the window in front of him, thin, orange arcs appeared, pointing to various spots on the changeling infested field, and ending in large orange circles that sat directly in the path of galloping bugs.

Puffs of smoke and fire bloomed into the skies all over town. Then, a heartbeat later, the streets of Ponyville echoed with cannon fire as the Hellfires began living up to their name. Shells whistled through the air, traveling even faster than their observational counterparts. Arcing high in the air above the camera drones, the shells split apart, each fracturing into a dozen smaller explosives.

Shining watched in curiosity as these clusters then continued their arc and vanished over the top of the hillside. A fraction of a second later, they all exploded, carpeting the grassland in a conconfany of fire and noise. Even from here, Shining could see shards of metal and dirt thrown into the sky and churn the earth. Beyond his sight, changelings far outside the blasts were rendered into chunks of meat, as shards of the bombs’ casings tore through them. The dead from the first salvo hadn't even finished falling to the dirt before a second barrage echoed behind him.

More changelings fell to the death machines showering the impact zones with fire and metal. With each successive impact, more explosives went off, signaling another volley of artillery shells. While his personal curiosity mandated that he see just what sort of effect the Hellfires were having on the other side of that hill, Shining Armor’s better judgement protested the idea. Whatever the battlefield looked like couldn’t have been pretty, and Shining held back the urge to vomit as he imagined what sort of mangled mess the victims of the bombardment must have now looked like.

Shining glanced up at the maestro of the carnage, hoping to see some form of reaction to the invisible horror show, though nothing could be determined from outside the human’s cold, metal shell. Underneath his helmet, Alex couldn't help but grin at the sound of all those explosives going off at once, reminding him of the finale of firework displays on Earth where the pyrotechnic crews fired off every last explosive they had left for one last, grand display.

The nostalgia was short lived, however, when Rose spoke abruptly into his ear. "Alex, there's something you're going to want to see."

Without so much as waiting for even a vague response from him, Rose changed Alex's view window to display another section of the field. As soon as she did, Alex's eyes grew wide and he physically leaned into the virtual image to get a better look. "What the fuck is that thing?!"

Apparently, Alex had projected his voice outward, since Shining Armor subsequently asked: "What? What's going on?"

Alex didn't respond, and instead continued to gawk at the image before him. Dwarfing all the changelings around it was an absolutely massive creature, armed with titanic tusks that curved upwards from its toothy jaw. It's clawed legs almost appeared to be too short for its huge body, but that didn't stop it from outrunning all the smaller horse-like creatures around it.

That's what they were swarming around! Alex's mind clicked into place. Those fucks knew we would be watching, so they swarmed around it to keep that thing hidden until the last second!

"Hey!" Shining Armor shouted, shoving a hoof into Alex's side to get his attention. "What's going on?!"

Successfully snapped out of his stupor, Alex glanced at him for a brief moment before returning to the window. "Bit of a complication. Nothing to worry about." In the virtual window, Rose had taken the liberty of giving the giant creature the title of 'Behemoth.'

Very appropriate, Rose...

"Alright, I want three Cicadas to break off from phase two and engage the Behemoth," Alex ordered. "Focus fire on that son of a bitch."

Off to the side, the Skulldozer began pacing back and forth, shaking the ground with every step. Its gaze was locked firmly on the hill while it's jaws hung open, waves of heat accompanying its increasingly loud rumbling. Shining Armor observed the Liandri out of the corner of his eye, and couldn't help but get the feeling that it was getting... Anxious? Impatient? Could it even be those? Something was bothering it, of that he was sure.

From the guards' point of view, the Cicadas flew out over the fields, splitting off in several directions. From the pods mounted on their sides, firework-like explosives came roaring out of their bellies, leaving angry trails of smoke in their wake and further adding to the chaos created by the Hellfires. Bolts of green magic shot up at the bombers from below, though were uselessly absorbed by the shimmering light that appeared around them. Changelings that took it upon themselves to take to the air in order to physically attack at the offending aircraft soon found themselves short of a healthy body, as the ever-vigilant Novas, still scanning the field with their rifles, quickly picked off any would-be heroes. Flyers that weren't dealt with by the Novas were instead taken care of by the Cicadas themselves, or rather, the swiveling plasma cannons mounted to their undersides.

As the fighting continued, Alex kept a close eye on the changeling Behemoth. A trio of Cicadas circled around the monstrosity, pelting it relentlessly with a continuous stream of rockets and bolts of plasma, though the beast showed no signs of slowing down as it quickly worked its way to the front of the changeling army.

Fuck, how much punishment can this thing take?! Alex bit his lip. "Okay, fuck this! Focus all the Cicadas on the Behemoth! I want that thing dead now! Drown that fucking thing in fire!"

"Hey, what's going on out there?!" Shining demanded, stepping in front of him and through the virtual screen.

As if to answer the captain's question, a loud, guttural roar boomed from over the hill. Without looking, anypony would have assumed it belonged to a dragon: a really big one. The sound reverberated throughout Shining's armor, sending a chill crawling up his spine. In response, the Skulldozer brought up an armored foot and slammed it down, shaking the very ground beneath it. Vents all over its body flared up, flooding the air around it with waves of unbridled heat. Its inner and outer jaws almost completely unhinged as it parted its toothy maw. Flames emerged from the recesses of its throat and licked at the air as the Skulldozer released a deafening, blood curdling roar of it's own; a roar so powerful it throttled everypony nearby to their very core, and even sent everypony else in town immediately ducking for cover.

"We've got this shit under control!" Alex shouted back as he dispelled the view window. He then looked up and waved frantically at the wall of Novas. "All units! Link Guns out! Let's show these motherfuckers how they got their name!"

As ordered, Link Guns materialized along their backs, which the Novas quickly exchanged for their rifles. Each unit crouched down to one knee and held their weapon up at shoulder height, forming the largest firing squad since the time muskets were still useful. Completely invisible from the outside, the insides of the weapons burst to life. In the presence of their peers, the plasma weapons linked together, creating a wireless power-grid that ultimately boosted their individual output.

The Skulldozer continued to pace back and forth, carelessly growling and snarling as its arms moved around without any sort of pattern. Had it not been a giant, two-legged, metal monstrosity, anypony would have compared it to an impatient foal that refused to sit still.

Although Shining Armor was smarter than that. He could see the flying machines circling around whatever it was over the side of that hill, shooting explosives at it. He could hear the roar it let out, and even if Alex didn't want to admit it, Shining could sense the worry it gave him. Like animals and an impending storm, the Skulldozer clearly knew what was coming.

And it wanted a piece of it.

How the fuck is that thing not dead yet?! If that thing gets through... "Rose, where the fuck is that shield?!" Alex muttered through grit teeth, taking out his own Link Gun. The ground was already starting to tremble as the circle of Cicadas quickly drew closer to the hill, and not because of the Skulldozer.

"Funny you should ask that," she replied, as collected as ever. "Calibration complete. Deploying the shield now."

Alex spun at her words, and his eyes grew wide. Shining Armor noticed his movement, and followed his eyes as well. Taking the cue from their captain, the other guards took notice of the event unfolding behind them, and subsequently gawked.

"Whoa..." breathed Lieutenant Quicksilver.

"Twilight, look!" Spike exclaimed, tugging on Twilight's mane and tearing her away from the telescope she was using to spy on the front.

"Ow, hey! What are you..." Twilight's words immediately died in her throat as she followed Spike's claw, pointing towards the center of town.

Rainbow Dash had been trying to calm a panicked pony when both she, and the mare she was trying to calm down, saw it. A spike of terror ran through her when she heard the roars coming from the south side of town, but that was a fear she had no difficulty dealing with. Others, not so much. Unfortunately, not very many ponies could appreciate the trouble it took to get a terrified and babbling pony to calm down when they hear a scary noise. At least she knew what to do, thanks to Fluttershy.

But when the mare pointed behind her, towards the center of town, the sight before them was enough to shut both of them up.

"Whoa! Look out there!"

In Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie pulled out every trick in her book to help keep morale up. The constant explosions kept everypony on edge, but when the roars sounded, everypony understandably panicked. Still, that wasn't a problem that auntie Pinkie couldn't solve!

When a foal shouted out that something was going on outside, naturally, more than a few brave ponies grew curious enough to look. After expressing their awe and wonderment, it wasn't long before everypony else in the room was looking with them, including Pinkie.

It was not what she was expecting.

In the market, ponies were doing what they could to keep at least some semblance of a normal day, and Applejack was no exception to this. Although when one of the Hellfires decided to make itself comfortable among the stands, the whole attempt at normalcy flew right out of the window, especially when the vehicle deployed its stabilizers, pointed its cannon skywards, and began firing.

The constant noise was unbearable, and it chased virtually everypony away, which is why she was thankful when it finally stopped. Although she wasn’t quite sure why it had stopped stopped in the first place. At least, not until a few seconds later when a bedazzling sight reached up over the buildings near the center of town. But in the very next second, a thought wormed its way into her mind, reminding her of a fact that she should have remembered long before this moment.

Her family was still on the farm.

"Oh my goodness, Fluttershy, look! You need to see this!" Rarity shouted from the window of her boutique.

Fluttershy, who had been graciously offered hospice by Rarity until the whole changeling scenario blew over (as her cottage was unfortunately well outside the Liandri perimeter), remained comfortably lodged under a table and vigorously shook her head while the rest of her body shook with it. Angel Bunny sat next to her and snuggled into her mane, able to do little more than act as company for the distressed pegasus.

Garry, who had been calmly sitting on top of the table, hopped off and glided over to land on Rarity's back, whereby the two of them looked out at the sight together.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she asked.

In the dead center of town, circular machine the size of a truck had been built into the ground. Much like EMCs, this device sported a multitude of black metal protrusions, colored with streaks of purple light along their surface and interiors, and all of them pointed upwards.

The Liandri that had been busy working on it over the past day finally backed away as the projector hummed to life. What looked like a large, out of place statue swiveled into motion as the sharp protrusions jutting out from the top rotated about its center. The mechanism spun slowly at first, but soon was nothing but a blur. An alluring glow faded into existence from within the machine, until, without warning, at least half a dozen giant tendrils of violet magic burst out, reaching towards the sky as they swerved around and within each other in an impossible dance, acting as a beacon for miles around.

The tendrils stretched up, until they reached some seemingly arbitrary height, where they declared their final altitude by twisting around each other, forming a brilliant sphere of magical vines above Ponyville. The tendrils extended further out, this time horizontally in all directions, each one splitting apart like the branches of a rapidly growing tree.

On the southern front, another roar drew Alex’s attention away from the hypnotic display and back towards the hill. He turned just in time to witness the changeling Behemoth first hand as it charged over the hilltop. Its jet black carapace was scarred, dirtied—even on fire in some places—but not broken, despite the brutal pounding of the Liandri air support. Screams of death poured forth from the beast’s dagger-like jaws as it launched itself forwards, racing towards them at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for something of that size.

“What the hay is that!?” Shining Armor screamed as the monster came into view.

The remnants of the changeling army flooded in after it, doing their best to keep pace with the speeding gargantuan, though the spider mines were quick to act, hunting down the ones unfortunate enough to stray too close to the mine layers. Several tiny machines lept at the Behemoth, though most weren’t able to latch on. Even the ones that could were unable to pierce its hide, and exploded with as much effect on it as a fire cracker.

Adrenaline spiked through Alex’s body, and his exocortex fueled it into calculations, and then into a coherent thought. Shit! That thing’s going to get through before the shield finishes deploying! “Kill that fucking thing now!” he shouted, raising his own Link Gun and opening fire on the Behemoth.

As a single action, the Liandri firing line opened up, and a sea of white hot plasma swept over the field. The Commandos liberally fired off each of their AVRiLs, slamming anti-vehicle rockets into creature’s impenetrable hide. Not wanting to act as little more than decoration, the present unicorns shot bolts of magic as their own contribution to help stop the beast’s charge.

Despite all the punishment from above and in front of it, the Behemoth still wasn’t slowing down, ignoring the assault and making a beeline straight for Alex and the guards.

Just as a worrying twitch pulled at Alex’s neck, the Skulldozer bellowed with fury and fire that shook the ground as it bolted forward, leapt over the Novas, and bursted into its rage-fueled charge.

Alex took his finger off the trigger and reached for the giant Liandri with his other hand, as if he could have been able to hold it back. “Whoa! Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!”

In the end, the super-heavy had heard him, but the question went ignored. Alex could only watch along with Shining Armor and the other guards with bated breath as the berserking Skulldozer recklessly threw itself forward, quickly closing the gap between one brute and the other.

Time almost slowed the instant the giants came upon each other. The Behemoth pushed its body up mid-charge, angling its head down and opening its maw in preparation for a devastating bite. The Skulldozer roared from its own gaping jaw as it swung both of its arms forward, ready to meet its foe head-on.

And then they collided.

Armored claws clashed with serrated fangs as the Skulldozer latched onto the Behemoth’s muzzle, eliciting a thunderclap as they connected. Conservation of momentum won out, and the Skulldozer, despite its own weight, found itself being pushed back by the more massive creature. The Liandri’s feet burrowed into the ground, gouging an ever deepening trench as the metallic hulk asserted its strength in an effort to stop its foe dead in its tracks. The very earth seemed on the Liandri’s side, and the soil that pushed up behind it became a bulwark that braced the Skulldozer. The Behemoth soon slowed to a complete stop, finding itself pushing against an immovable object that had become firmly rooted and refused to give in.

“Holy fuck!” Alex exclaimed, letting both his gun and his jaw hang slack in disbelief, mimicking the looks of everypony who had just witnessed the exact same event.

Behind them, a giant, violet umbrella grew over the town. Wisps of light from each relay along the perimeter reached out for it, becoming more solid as they connected with the magical surface. Acting as a single, elegant machine, the relays tugged down on the edges of the shield to force it into its intended dome shape, like an army of men pulling on the ropes of a tarp that threatened to fly away in a violent storm. As the shield came down and its edges finally made contact with the perimeter, the magical tendrils that covered its surface like blood vessels on a heart shook and vibrated. Starting from the ground up, the streams of violet light split up and merged together, organizing themselves in a distinct, hexagonal pattern that didn’t quite reach the top of the dome.

On the battlefield, the Skulldozer continued to push itself against the jaws of the Behemoth. Forcing more strength into its actions, the Liandri slowly but surely pried open the monster’s mouth, exposing its fleshy, but more importantly vulnerable interior. The Skulldozer’s own jaw eased open as well, followed by its second second set of teeth. The orange glow, normally hidden behind the Liandri’s maw, quickly grew white hot.

To far off observers, all they would have seen was a bright light appearing between the two titans. Those that were close enough would have identified it as an unmistakable stream of fire, roaring out from the Skulldozer’s throat like a rocket engine. Squeals of torment pierced the air as the Behemoth’s body shook in response to the searing pain in its mouth.

Apparently someone was paying attention when Alex ordered the Behemoth to be drowned in fire.

The Behemoth tolerated this for little more than a few seconds before it abruptly backed off. The Skulldozer, still gripped to the beast’s mouth, stumbled forwards as it allowed its flame thrower to flicker out. Now with more room to move, the Behemoth shoved hard against the ground with its front legs, rearing its head up against the ten ton weight holding it down. Bone gave way before the Skulldozer’s death grip did, and the Liandri lost its hold on the creature’s mouth as its teeth tore free.

Now liberated, the Behemoth’s body became the victim of gravity, and the underside of its head smashed against the unbalanced machine, knocking the Skulldozer flat on its back. The Behemoth continued with its movements and reared up again, though this time, leapt forward as it did, bringing its massive, clawed foot down upon its metal opponent in a thunderous crash.

“Oh fuck, no!” Alex exclaimed as the Liandri network immediately alerted him that the Skulldozer was no longer emitting a signal. The Behemoth, completely ignorant and even uncaring of this, pried its foot from the metal beneath it and launched back into its charge, this time with nothing to block its path. Alex’s legs started moving before his mouth. “Oh shit—Scatter!”

Feet and hooves alike blurred into motion as Alex, Shining Armor, and his guards bolted out of the way of the monster plowing a path straight towards the shield. The Commandos leapt out of the way, landing flat on their stomachs so as to not damage the equipment on their backs. Most of the Novas managed to escape, though more than a few were unlucky enough to get bludgeoned by the Behemoth’s curved tusks as they swept across them.

With a final roar, the Behemoth threw itself head first against the shield, using its two massive tusks as the biggest battering ram in the world. Thunder clapped as unbreakable bone crashed into the translucent purple wall. Time almost seemed to stand still as everyone, both inside and outside the shield, watched in dreaded anticipation as a large ripple traversed across the surface of the dome in giant arc. As the ripple passed the top of the dome, the magical tendrils glowed in reaction, and energy pulsed through them, expanding outwards in a wave that encompassed the entire shield, annihilating the ripple as it passed. In that instant, everyone’s hearts fluttered with hope.

The shield held.

“Yeah!” Alex cheered, throwing a fist into the air. Though he couldn’t see it, many ponies around town had the same reaction. “Suck on that shit, motherfucker!”

The Behemoth stumbled back a step, swinging its head back and forth to shake its disorientation. It reared its head back, let out a pained howl just before bracing its legs against the ground and throwing its entire body forward once more. Its tusks rammed the shield again, though achieved even less of an effect than the first attempt. By this point, Rose had commandeered command of the Corps and diverted Liandri focus away from the Behemoth and towards the changeling drones.

Clearly, something extra was needed to deal with it.

Alex and the guards, however, continued to take pot shots at the monster, despite the inefficacy of their actions. Realizing the futility of its assault, the Behemoth turned away from the shield and towards the source of its annoyance. Bellowing out, the Behemoth launched itself towards Alex and the guards beside him, blindly swinging its entire head left and right in great, wide arcs.

“Move!” Shining Armor yelled as he attracted the beast’s attention with a blast of magic, to which everyone was more than happy to oblige. However, as the giant’s tree sized tusks came swinging at him, Shining Armor found in that very split second that he hadn’t given himself enough time to get completely out of the way. Panic prickled his skin as his mind scrambled for an instant solution, but before he could act, his body jerked as he was pulled by the cuff of his armor, just barely out of the reach of the stampeding trainwreck that rushed passed him.

Shining Armor landing on the ground in a disorganized heap, but at least he was still in one piece. Just as the pull on his armor disappeared, out of the corner of his eye, Shining noticed Alex rolling away from him before the human transferred his momentum into a movement that pushed him to his feet.

“Don’t get yourself killed, hero,” Alex said as he reached behind himself and brought forward a weapon Shining wasn’t familiar with. It was painted yellow, and appeared to be separated into two parts, the frontmost of which sported a comically large barrel. Shining would even swear that whatever was inside the barrel had a smiley face painted on it. “Your sister would never forgive me if I let you get fucked up!”

Alex stood up and began strafing around the Behemoth. As he did, a loud explosion rang out from the inside of his weapon, kicking it back with enough force to break a normal human’s arm while a dozen shards of molten shrapnel zoomed out, embedding themselves into the surface of the enraged Behemoth’s flank. The unicorns, who were the only ponies who had a hope of doing something against massive creature, poured every ounce of effort they could into magically restraining it. Though with its size and constant thrashing, the effort proved near impossible. Even the magical shields conjured by Shining Armor proved useless, as despite being slowed by them, the Behemoth’s momentum allowed it to easily smash through the barriers.

“Rose! We need help over here right fucking now!” Alex yelled as he fired more volleys of molten flak.

“As if I wasn’t already aware of that,” she snarked. “I’ve deployed a Goliath. You should be able to see it now, actually.”

Within Ponyville, what few ponies were still in the streets scrambled out of the way as the frightening vehicle rolled through town, taking up almost the entirety of the road as it went. Shutters slammed closed as it passed by, and ponies locked their doors in an instant. A colt ran out into the middle of the street, chasing after a ball of his that had escaped him as he and his mother were hurrying home. Although it was only when he caught up to it did he realize that he was now directly in the path of the Goliath. To the absolute horror of the colt’s mother, she could only watch as the monstrous vehicle passed over her panicking son, blocking her view of him with a wall of metal and grinding treads. As the Goliath passed, the unharmed colt remained in the middle of the road, albeit shaking against the ground with his hooves covering his head. His mother cried tears of joy and immediately went to retrieve him, completely ignoring the ball, and simply thankful that his life had not been taken away from her.

With a grin spreading across his face, Alex looked back towards the shield and the welcomed sight that lay beyond. The Goliath’s thick armor almost seemed to shine in the violet-tinted sunlight as it approached the border of the perimeter, but to Alex, what was more satisfying was seeing the glint at the end of the tank’s 140mm cannon.

Alex turned towards the Behemoth that was currently bulldozing its way through most the Liandri that were both attempting to distract it and fight off the other changelings at the same time. “Hey, asshole! I hope you like fast food!”

At the edge of the shield, two relays, taller and closer to each other than the others, flickered to life, casting lines of magnetic force onto the shield near it. The lines forming the pattern of hexagons between them shifted and warped, raising up as if they were a curtain, bringing the solid wall of magic with them and creating an open passage.

The Goliath passed through the perimeter uninterrupted, and the wall of magic closed automatically behind it. As the tank drove out, an automated machine gun atop its turret immediately opened fire on the nearest changeling drones that were harassing the Liandri on foot.

Alex grinned as the Goliath’s turret whirred clockwise to face the brute that had made the mistake of not paying attention to it.

When the massive gun finally drew a bead on it’s prey, it loosed a deafening blast that rocked the whole machine backwards. At nearly five times the speed of sound, the massive depleted-uranium shot smashed into the Behemoth’s side, shattering its armor and goring an unseemly section of its left hip.

“Boom!” Alex shouted, pumping a fist into the air. “How’s that for a fucking happy meal you prick!”

The creature cried out in howling pain as its hind leg gave out from under it, and its body slammed into the ground. Its other legs immediately scrambled in an attempt to keep it moving, but its instincts demanded it move all four of its legs on impulse. This only caused the Behemoth more crippling pain, and resulted in it flopping against the ground as it attempted to move towards its attacker in a disorganized struggle.

The automated tank cared little for the Behemoth’s suffering, and reloaded its main gun while driving around to the other side of the panicking monster. Maintaining a respectable distance, the Goliath fired again, this time rending the Behemoth’s right hind leg into useless gore.

The monster bellowed as its writhing body crashed to the ground, destroying the grass and dirt beneath it. Its front legs clambered every whichway, wasting the giant’s energy in a mad panic. The two Commandos that had managed to avoid the Behemoth’s earlier charge rushed up to it and hugged the creature’s giant tusks, needing to do little more than hold it down with their combined weight. Despite its best efforts, the Behemoth couldn’t muster the strength to shake them off, and found its head pinned to the ground.

As the Commandos had the beast posed for its death blow, everyone looked towards the Goliath, expecting to see it finish the monster off. Instead, it turned away, aimed its main cannon towards the changeling drones, and fired on the largest clusters it could see.

“Whoa, hey, what’s going on?” Alex demanded, instantly torn from the excitement of the moment. Turning to face the Goliath, he yelled out. “Why aren’t you finishing it?”

“Well this is unexpected…” came Rose’s voice. “It seems Hyde told it to stop…”

“Wait, what…?” Alex breathed, and his head snapped in the direction of where the Skulldozer had been crushed.

A chill ran down Alex’s spine as he discovered the broken Liandri was emitting a signal again. The Skulldozer’s torso pried itself from the ground as the machine slowly sat itself up from the impression its body made in the ground, specks of dirt and grass falling from its battered form. It then slowly turned its head over its right shoulder to glare at the wounded Behemoth out of the corner of its blood-lusted eye. From somewhere around Alex, he could hear a guard gasping through the chaos of the battle. “Holy horse apples, that thing’s not dead…!”

His thoughts exactly...

Not a single other thought came to Alex as his eyes remained perfectly transfixed on the sight. The Skulldozer leaned forward and slammed its right hand into the ground to act as support as it pushed itself to its feet. As it turned to face its query, the Skulldozer revealed the true extent of the damage it had suffered. Its left shoulder and part of its torso had been crushed, rendering its left arm largely useless and hanging limp, save for a few odd twitches caused by damaged connections and broken machinery. Multi-colored fluids leaked out through the broken armor, running down its arm and legs. The left side of its skull-like head had been torn open by one of the Behemoth’s claws that had impaled it through the eye, and its jaws had even come loose on that side as well. But despite the Skulldozer’s grotesque damage, the majority of it remained intact.

The Skulldozer opened its lopsided maw to release another hair-raising roar, one that definitely got the Behemoth’s attention, stirring harder against its holders, and letting out quick, terrified grunts. The Commandos, however, didn’t give, forcing the monster to stay in place.

As the Skulldozer roared, gas that had leaked from its damaged interior ignited, coating the left side of its head in flame while a small explosion popped beneath its totaled shoulder. The metal hulk barely even acknowledged it. Instead, the armor around its right forearm shifted around, and a large blade with a baby blue colored edge suddenly extended out of its wrist, emitting a fine, tonal vibration.

Without any form of pretext, the Skulldozer brought its arm back, then swung it forward and around, driving the blade through its own left shoulder. It then jerked the blade back out and repeated the action at least half a dozen more times. Suddenly, the blade retracted back into its forearm. The Skulldozer then reached over, grabbed its misshapen bicep, and jerked once, twice, three times. On the third attempt, its entire left arm came off, spraying out bits of scrap pieces, jagged metal, and fluids that probably should have remained inside it.

Dirty, uncontrolled flames burst from the Skulldozer’s torn shoulder as it tossed up its dismembered limb, grabbing it by the end of the forearm. Dragging the severed arm behind it, the Skulldozer began taking slow, lumbering steps towards the Behemoth whilst ignoring everything else going on around it. Malicious changeling drones flew into it and bounced off harmlessly, only to be soon pick off by another Liandri while the Skulldozer didn’t even bother to acknowledge their existence.

The Behemoth was the only thing it cared about.

The restrained monster began to scramble more fervently now, doing its best to thrust its front legs forward in an attempt to back away from the thing it thought it had killed, grunting and squealing as it did. But the Commandos’ weight held fast. With only a dozen paces left, the Skulldozer picked up speed, a drawn out roar becoming increasingly intense as it accelerated. In one giant, sweeping motion, the Skulldozer finalized its bellow as it swung its makeshift club high in the air and sent it speeding down, smashing it across the Behemoth’s head.

The severed limb came down with enough force to crack the shell covering its skull. Without wasting so much as half a moment, the Skulldozer jerked its arm back up and slammed it down into the behemoth's head once more. Carrying its momentum, it swung again, and again, and again; bashing the giant changeling with its own severed arm as it snarled and roared, fueled by a rage only its blood and brains would satisfy.

Sensing the behemoth's distress, more changeling's began to swarm towards it. The Liandri network picked up on the movement pattern, and the Skulldozer caught the information, showing only a brief moment of hesitation after following through with a blow. It growled in response, skipped back, and spun, spraying forth a colossal fountain of flame from its unhinged maw in a far, wide arc. Whatever changelings weren't incinerated scattered to the wind, thinking better than to attempt challenging the machine that could breathe fire and come back from the dead.

After nearly a dozen seconds of getting its message across, it immediately raised its severed arm again and bashed the behemoth over the head once more with a savage roar. This was the last time, however, as it snapped the arm’s reinforced joint in the process, making it useless as a weapon. The Skulldozer didn’t seem to care, however, as it tossed its old limb aside without giving it so much as a second glance. Stunned but somehow not killed by the onslaught, the Behemoth only managed to let out a pathetic whimper.

But the Liandri wasn’t done yet. Placing its hand across the Behemoth’s shattered forehead, the Skulldozer brought its left foot back, and then swiftly kicked it into the creature’s mouth, shattering and dislodging its fangs. With the newly added pain, the Behemoth shook and writhed some more, but now had the added weight of a third super-heavy keeping its head pinned to the ground. The Skulldozer then dropped down to its right knee and brought its intact arm back, before repeating the action of its foot by punching a hole through its remaining teeth clear into its mouth.

With its clawed fingers firmly hooked, the giant stood back on its two feet. Even with only a single functioning arm, the Skulldozer was still able to exert its titanic strength, and began to play dentist by prying open the Behemoth’s jaws with the force of its entire body, hyperventilated flames spilling forth from its broken jaws in time with its repeated snarling. After pulling its jaws apart enough, the Skulldozer leaned its left leg in and kept the Behemoth’s mouth propped open with its knee. Kneeling once more, the Liandri repositioned itself and began heaving the creature’s jaw further upwards.

Even with its considerable bite force, putting in every last ounce of effort it had left into keeping its mouth closed, the Behemoth still could not overcome the machine's raw strength. For its failure, the Skulldozer leaned its entire body inwards, and this time used its damaged, flaming shoulder to keep the mouth propped open. It then brought its free arm back and, like before, the armor around its forearm shifted, and the large blade held within shot out. When the blade was secured, the arm swung back into the Behemoth’s mouth, driving the blade cleanly through its palate.

In that instant, the Behemoth entire body jerked still, and the Skulldozer let out a soft snarl.

In one, swift motion, the Skulldozer slid both the blade and itself out of the Behemoth’s broken jaws and turned away. Meanwhile, the Behemoth’s mouth flopped closed, and the rest of its body slumped. Only then did the Commandos release its tusks.

The Skulldozer looked out towards the battlefield with its one good eye. The Cicadas and Goliath continued to wreak havoc, and the Liandri on the ground advanced. Now, with the fall of their secret weapon, the changeling strategy switched from frontal assault to getting the hell out of dodge, and whatever insectoids that were still alive bolted back towards the south. The Skulldozer didn’t bother chasing after them. They weren’t worth the effort.

Instead, the machine planted its feet in the ground and released a final, extended roar that irritated the freely burning flames covering its shoulder and face, making them flare out and create a growing column of black smoke that reached high into the sky. The roar echoed for miles around. It could be heard from deep inside the Everfree, and even all the way to Canterlot. It was a roar that not only asserted the owner’s dominance over its victim…

...but on all those who heard it.

Alex could only watch the display of power in awestruck wonder, completely unable to move, or even think of doing that. Meanwhile, Shining Armor trotted up next to him, his eyes focused on the exact same thing. “Hey, Alex?”

“Yeah…?”

“I think that machine of yours just got the reputation you were looking for…”

"Yeah..." He continued to stare straight ahead until he finally moved his head in a bobbing nod. "Yeah, it did..." Alex slowly turned away while storing his weapon and began to saunter back to town without even bothering to check what Shining Armor was doing, if anything. "Hey, Rose?" His voice was monotone and devoid of further mental effort. "What's the situation looking like now?"

"Whatever changelings attacked Ponyville are either dead or running," she answered. "Now that the Behemoth is dead, it seems they now realize that they don't have much of a chance of success anymore. Twenty seven units have suffered critical damage due to the Behemoth, and thirty others have suffered minor damages, largely due to swarming. Nothing that compromises their effectiveness, though nothing that can't be easily fixed either. Between the two categories, there really is no in-between. Right now, units have managed to subdue and secure seventeen changelings and are attempting to capture more. As you asked, reconnaissance is keeping track of the ones we're letting escape."

"What about Chrysalis? Did she show up anywhere?"

"No sightings yet, I'm afraid. It seems she played it safe."

Alex frowned, and his brain kicked into gear again. "That doesn't make any sense... In Canterlot, she just balls to the wall kidnapped and switched places with a fucking princess. Now when she's going full frontal, she decides to just hang back and play it safe? No… No, she's too cocky for that. Something's not making sense here."

"It is a possibility that she already infiltrated Ponyville herself."

"If that's the case, then we need to flush her out as soon as possible."

"And if it's not the case?"

Alex paused, looking down at the ground as he thought. "If it's not the case... then she might have been expecting her attack to go south in the first place, but that doesn't make any sense. Didn't she say that she wasn't afraid of the Liandri back in Canterlot? I mean, she definitely has a reason now, but…” Alex paused again before letting out a sigh. “Ah fuck it, we'll deal with this shit later. Let's just focus on cleanup." He turned back and looked at the Skulldozer, which stood tall as it observed the quieting battlefield, casually ignoring the fire and smoke liberally spewing from its body. "Oh, and bring the big guy in. I'd say he's more than ready for the alpha."

While Alex busied himself with talking to Rose, Shining Armor cautiously approached the stilled Behemoth. Its chipped and cracked rock-like tusks dwarfed him, and its mouth was easily big enough to swallow a pony whole. Although its broken and bleeding jaws dispelled any notion that it would ever attempt such a feat now. If this creature had actually managed to charge its way into Ponyville before the shield came up, it would have easily leveled half the town—probably more. In hindsight, Shining was glad the Liandri convinced him to not erect his shield. There was no way he could have conjured something strong enough to keep a monster like this out.

Eventually, Shining and his guards had been granted the “all clear” to safely traverse the battlefield, and as a simple matter of duty, he did. As Shining crested the hill, his face went slack. Breath left him, and refused to return as he took in the horror before him. He had seen the burning depths of Tartarus once; this was worse. Trees were uprooted and splintered. Everywhere the earth had been churned up. The Liandri warmachine had scoured the earth of grass and left mangled corpses scattered about charred dirt and pools of mud, though a few laid dead with no wound he could see.

Some bodies laid caked in earth, having been covered by dirt blasted into the air. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew there had to be hundreds completely buried by the same means. They’d never completely clear this field of the bodies.

Groups of Liandri marched forward, stepping over bodies without so much as a second thought, but pausing over some of the less damaged ones to give them a closer look. Probably to see if they were still alive. More often than not, they would pick up the more intact changelings and drape them over their shoulder before continuing to advance with the others.

One changeling had somehow survived, and attempted to scramble away from the Liandri when they neared its hiding place among the fallen. Its efforts were met with a swift blow to the head from a metal fist, while one of the other Liandri subsequently attacked it with a sudden beam of violet light. The changeling let out a loud scream, which was quickly cut off by a strangled gurgling. The Liandri stood to the side and patiently waited as its body tensed in uncontrollable convulsions for several agonizing seconds, until the changeling finally went still and it was collected like the others.

The Goliath thundered its way across the field, its treads grinding up dirt, plant matter, and changeling bits into a disgusting mulch. The tank paused every now and again to look around, as if expecting another challenge to suddenly appear over the horizon. Hellbenders suddenly drove in over the field from town, meeting up with the squads of Liandri, who then dumped their limp prizes into the back of the trucks.

Shining’s legs carried him forward into the nightmare, in spite of his mind screaming for him to leave. Pacing the edge of one of the uncountable craters, he stopped at a sight his mind refused to accept. Just in front of him a foreleg jutted from a mound of earth, stretched out as if it wished to shake his hoof and wish him well.

Backing away, Shining turned to see one tree had survived the assault, or at least it was still standing, though it had been stripped of its leaves.

Something strange hanging from its branches drew his curiosity. Stepping forward, he tried to figure out what is was, only to find it was a pair of hind legs with no body.

Shining forced his eyes shut and lowered his head. It was all too much; more than any one mind could handle. He couldn’t even muster the urge to vomit. He was numb, despite the horrid sights and the gut churning smell of charred earth and flesh. Numbness was all there was. Numbness and resignation.

For the sake of Equestria, he could only hope his deepest fears were never realized.

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED!

The longest chapter to date, and quite possibly my favorite as well—for a multitude of reasons. You have no idea how long I've been waiting to write that encounter between the Skulldozer and the Behemoth. In fact, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to write about the Skulldozer period. As should be evidenced by the length/detail of their model hall entry, I've put quite a bit of thought and love into them. And not just because their mental image looks cool, but also because they serve a pretty important thematic role as well. Fuck, I could probably write an entire paper about them just for shits and giggles.

Item #2: If you'll recall, in the author's notes to the previous chapter, I asked for some people to provide me with an OC to use in this chapter. I did introduce an OC, Lieutenant Quicksilver, but he's a random schmuck I cooked up in my head. That said, none of the OCs that were graciously provided to me made an appearance in this chapter. Here's why: while I was writing this, I had a very specific scene in mind involving the OC. However, while writing it, I got ahead of myself and wrote past this specific scene. I didn't want to lose my writing momentum, so I marked a spot in the text where I would write it later, and continued on. When I got around to writing that scene, I had already written most of the rest of the chapter. When I finished writing that scene, it felt out of place, and my editor agreed with me. In the end, I removed it. But since I'm not one to turn back on my word, I kept the scene and saved it in a separate google doc as a deleted scene which you can see HERE. I want to take this opportunity to graciously thank Dream Seeker for being the first to willingly throw his OC out there for me to use in this scene, even though I told exactly no one but my editor what I would use the OC for. A quick thank you for everyone else who also volunteered their OCs as well. So, have you read the scene yet? Yes? Good.

Aren't I a little shit?

One last thing. This is already getting pretty long, so I'll try to keep it short. Now I realize ahead of time that this chapter may or may not be me jumping the shark a bit. Compared to the rest of the story so far, this chapter is remarkably different. In fact, this chapter is the reason why I'm going to be adding the Dark and Gore tags to Technicalities. I'm still going to downplay the gore as much as humanly possible. It's not in any way the focus of anything. All that said, I promise that by the end of Technicalities, everything will be tied up in a neat little bow. Minds will be blown, and sense will be made. Now maybe I'm just worrying for nothing, and maybe everyone reading this is perfectly fine with everything so far. But in case you're not, allow me to assure you...

Mistaken Identity

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Hooves pummeled the dirt relentlessly as their owner stormed through the streets of Ponyville. Pounding heart and panting breath did little to slow her impossible pace when the earth-shattering roars sounded in the distance, still accompanied by an endless stream of explosions. Above her, the violet tendrils of the shield were still extending out, soon to encompass the entire town.

If she wasn’t quick enough, the shield would lock her in. She couldn’t let that happen. She needed to get out of Ponyville. She needed to get her family to safety. Keeping this very thought at the forefront of her mind, Applejack pushed her body to its very limit.

Glancing up from under the rim of her hat, Applejack spotted the edge of the growing shield. Lines of magic extended down from it to the ground, and its overall shape began to curve inwards. As she broke away from the buildings, she finally managed to catch the edge of the perimeter in her sight. A wall of Novas held the line, taking shots at whatever changelings managed to flank around the side of the town. The shield hadn’t yet closed, so Applejack held her course and sped towards the edge.

As Applejack raced towards the perimeter, so too did the shield above her. She ignored it, and instead focused on keeping her pace. Though more than aware, she did her best to push out the thought of what would happen if the shield closed a moment before she could beat it.

One hoof in front of the other. The shield continued to descend, closer and closer to the ground in an attempt to block her path. Just as Applejack came upon the perimeter, she clenched her eyes shut.

And her legs kept moving.

As soon as she completely registered the fact that she didn’t run face first into a magical wall, her legs ground to a halt and she opened her eyes. Behind her stood the shield, the tendrils of magic that covered it organizing themselves into a rigid hexagonal pattern that formed an unbreakable barrier. Safe with the knowledge she had beaten the shield, Applejack bent her head down and huffed out several deep breaths.

“Halt!”

With all the noise echoing from the south, Applejack almost couldn't hear the voice. And yet, it commanded enough authority that it had little difficulty catching her attention and she spun to face the one that had called out to her. One of the Novas had broken off from the others and quickly approached, holding a Link Gun at shoulder height that was pointed directly at her.

AJ backed up a step and held out a hoof as the bot encroached upon her. “Whoa! Easy there, partner! Ah just need to get my family from the farm!”

“Travel across the perimeter by civilians is unauthorized,” the Liandri declared, its deeply synthetic voice giving away the fact that it was operating purely off of its Virtual Intelligence. “Submit yourself to identification.”

“W-what?” Applejack stuttered, more than a little unsure of what exactly it was asking her to do.

The Liandri kept its gun trained on her and repeated the command. "Submit yourself to identification."

AJ's heart pounded in her chest, though now it wasn't just because of all the running she had just done. "How do Ah do that?"

"Remain still," the Nova ordered, closing the distance between them. Applejack instinctively leaned away from it, though did her best to comply and not move. If there was ever a time to do exactly what somepony else told her to do, now was probably it. AJ shut her eyes just as the Nova reached behind itself with its left hand while still holding its weapon up with its right. Although she was quick to open them again when a mechanical click and hiss accompanied a sharp pain in her shoulder.

"Ow!" she yelped, bringing a hoof up to rub the sore spot. "What the hay was that?"

The Liandri didn't respond, instead it stared at a small device in its left hand. A few seconds later, it put the device away and lowered its gun. "Identity confirmed: Applejack. You are not authorized to leave Ponyville until further notice."

Before she could ask why, thunder rang out, nearly making Applejack's heart stop. Her ears, and by extension the rest of her body, turned towards the source of the noise. A giant ripple spread across the surface of the shield, warping it like a big rock that had been thrown into a pond. She could only imagine what kind of monster was either big enough or strong enough to do that. When the ripple reached over the dome, however, the magic vines glowed in reaction, and pulse of light traveled through them, annihilating the ripple as it went.

While the complexities of building such a magical barrier were lost on her, she was at least thankful Alex and Rose knew what they were doing.

Applejack turned to face the Liandri. "Please, my family's still on the farm!" she pleaded. "Ah need to get them before the changelings do!"

"You are not authorized to leave Ponyville," the Nova repeated. "You have nothing to fear. The Liandri will deal with the current changeling threat, and your family will be safe."

"But are the Liandri on the farm right now?!" Applejack yelled, stomping a hoof. "Please! They're my family. They're my responsibility. Ah need to make sure they make it back to Ponyville safe!" Her face turned into a scowl, with water beginning to build up around her eyes. "And Ah ain't gonna let you stop me!"

For a few brief seconds the two simply stared at each other. Just as Applejack started to think she wasn't going to get an answer, the Nova spoke. "Authorization granted."

It took a moment for the words to process, but when they did, AJ's eyes widened, and she wasted no time galloping around the Nova, blurting out a quick "Thank you!" The Nova's oculus followed her as she did so. Although as its body completely turned, its eye changed from yellow to blue.

Applejack shot past the line of Liandri, who let her pass by barely acknowledging her existence. Not that she cared, really; it's what she needed at the moment. Her hooves carried her over the familiar trail that led from Ponyville up to the Apple family farm. Out here, the Liandri presence was exactly zero, but near as she could tell, the same could be said for the changelings. Hopefully, that was a good sign.

"Apple Bloom!" She yelled as she ran along the picket fence bordering the eastern orchard. "Granny Smith!" Applejack sprinted through the front gate, though found a complete lack of any and all activity. Her heart dropped, and she immediately made for the farm house.

"Big Mac! Guy!" AJ yelled as she burst through the front door. The clattering of her own hooves against the creaky hardwood floor was the only sound that answered her. "Apple Bloom! Anypony!" Her legs, numb from fear, carried her through the house, though to her, it felt as if she were floating through like a ghost. Each room turned up just as empty as the next.

Throat dry and heart about ready to give in, Applejack ran back outside, spinning her head in every direction. They couldn't be gone. They had to be here. They had to. Heart pounding, mind cloudy, and body numb, AJ nearly ended up spinning in useless circles. Miraculously, even in her delirious state, a familiar sight cut through the fog of her mind. Peeking through the barn door, which had been barely inched open, was a tiny yellow head, decorated with a bright red ribbon.

"Apple Bloom!" AJ shouted, immediately focusing on the sight of her younger sister. The filly had heard her, as her head turned to face the source of the voice with wide eyes. Though instead of running out to meet her beloved older sibling, her head ducked back into the barn. Blurry eyed and crazy with worry, Applejack galloped towards the barn, forgoing any other thoughts. They were hiding in the barn! Thank Celestia they were hiding in the barn! "Don't worry, Apple Bloom! Ah'm here!"

Even from a distance, the barn door consumed her sight. Nothing else in the world mattered. However, as she came upon the large set of wooden doors, she was caught off guard when the barn burst open in a flurry of wood, metal, and inequine bellowing and screeching. Her legs automatically slammed on the brakes and her heart nearly exploded as she yelled out for her life. Applejack barely had time to piece together what was happening before Guy's arm swooped down, and his massive hand wrapped around her neck and part of her chest with no difficulty. Applejack's hat remained in the air for a brief moment as the pony who wore it was swept from directly beneath it.

To AJ, everything became a blur of motion as her body was jerked into the air and tossed around like a ragdoll. She was only barely able to recognize the light of day disappearing and the feeling of flying through the air as her entire body was effortlessly hurled into the depths of the barn. Her body collided with the floor, falling into an uncontrollable tumble as she twisted and twirled across the ground. A sharp, unbearable pain shot up her right hind leg, and Applejack howled in response. When she finally came to a stop, her entire body ached with impending bruises and fractures, but none more so than her hind leg.

Applejack curled up and grasped at the offending injury, crying out as the movement tortured her further. However, her voice and heart died as she registered what she was looking at. She was certain her leg was not supposed to bend that way, and she was positive that that was not a joint.

Yet the horror of her situation was not over. Her palomino fur was stained green by the nature of the pile she had been thrown in. Just to her side was a changeling, lying against the ground, though its face was frozen in terror and the body that was supposed to hold its head had been crushed to a pulp. AJ's mind, fueled by adrenaline, forced her to look past it and around herself, finding only a collection of beaten changelings that were in no way recognizable from their former selves.

The shaking of the ground tore AJ's attention away from them, and her head spun around towards the still open barn entrance. A giant humanoid figure lumbered towards her, painted black in the dim light of the barn, contrasted with the bright light of outside. No eyes could be seen on its face; just a single sheet of blood red light that cut through the darkness. Below it, on the figure's chest, shone the image of a bright red apple with green leaves. Even in the low light, she could still make out the wet, green mass stuck to the outside of Guy’s fists.

Applejack's heart dropped.

"Guy, please, I'm not a changeling!" AJ pleaded as she dragged her forelegs through the dirt and emerald gore to distance herself. The thumping of six metric tons worth of metal didn't slow, and the Super-Heavy drew nearer, closing the distance between them.

Every inch crawled was an inch more of life, even if her body felt like dying. Applejack gasped as her foreleg slipped and the rest of her body slammed into the ground, causing her to shout as pain shot through her once more. "Agh! Please! Ya gotta believe me!"

Her pleas went unheeded as Guy’s footsteps became louder. Sheer panic overcame her senses. Her breathing intensified, and her brain worked overtime to ignore the searing pain that turned every little movement into its own living hell. When Guy’s footsteps became silent directly behind her, Applejack’s heart stopped and she flipped herself onto her back. The metal titan towered over her, bringing its arms up over its head to finish the job it started. Applejack held up a hoof to her adopted brother as tears fell freely from her eyes. "Guy! Please, no!"

In that instant, a single gunshot rang out, instantly followed by a loud ting as a bullet bounced off the back of the giant's head. Guy quickly brought his arms down and swiveled at the waist to look at whoever it was that had shot him, his face still colored red. A fine trail of white smoke leaked from the barrel of an Enforcer, held in the right hand of a Nova with a blue eye. The Liandri lowered the weapon while simultaneously bringing up its other hand, which had Applejack's stetson clutched within it fingers.

"She's the real one, you idiot," Rose declared, just before following them into the barn.

Guy's face spun down to look of the dirtied form of his crippled sister, and his face changed from a solid shade of red to a pair of blue eyes. "Oh no, Applejack!" He dropped to his knees with a crash and brought his hands over to hold her, but stopped halfway through the motion when she flinched away.

"AJ, is that really you?" voiced Apple Bloom as she, Big Mac, and Granny Smith poked their heads from over the hay bale they were hiding behind.

Applejack quickly nodded her head, though the action only helped to worsen her condition and she howled while allowing her body to fall limp along the ground. Rose, immediately noticing the broken leg, tossed the stetson on Guy’s head and wasted no time in scanning the room for workable materials. “Don’t move. You’ll only make it worse.”

"Ooohh, that don't look good..." Granny muttered.

"Your leg!" Apple Bloom gasped, just before jumping over the hay and dashing over to her sister. Although Rose was quick to block her before the filly threw herself into the bloody mess her sister was in.

“This isn’t the time for a family reunion,” said Rose as she took a rope off its resting spot on the wall and hooked her arm through the coil. “All of you need to get back to Ponyville. Now.”

Granny Smith frowned at her. “Now listen here, missy. We don’t just leave kin behind. ‘Specially when they’re in that kinda shape.”

“I’m not asking you to leave her behind,” Rose replied as she rummaged through a pile of discarded wood. “I’m asking you to let me deal with this.”

“But we need to get her to a hospital!” cried Apple Bloom.

“That’s a terrible idea,” Rose snapped as she extracted a trio of reasonably small planks from the pile before she started making her way over to Applejack. “We’re taking her to me. Look at her leg. That’s not a fracture; her cannon bone is broken, and quite possibly her splint bone as well. I wouldn’t rule out other fractures or internal bleeding, either.” The AI controlled Nova knelt down beside her and carefully arranged the wood and rope. “Your sister kicks trees for a living. If you take her to a hospital, it’ll take her months to recover—if she doesn’t die outright—and even then she may not be able to work again. I can prevent that.”

Rose uncoiled a portion of the rope and held it up to Applejack’s mouth. “Here, bite down on this.” AJ willingly opened her mouth and allowed Rose to place it between her teeth. She then placed a hand over Applejack’s barrel and stared the pony straight in the eye. “This is going to hurt—a lot—but I need you to bear with it.” AJ quickly nodded in acknowledgement.

With the green light given, Rose carefully gripped the pony’s bent leg and jerked it back into position with an audible crack. Applejack doubled over in pain, screaming through the rope gag, though Rose was quick to push her back with one hand while holding onto her leg with the other.

“You’re hurting her!” cried Guy, who had taken the tiny stetson off his head and now clutched it across his chest.

“What are you still doing here?!” Rose yelled, though while her voice seemed focused on the conversation, her body was focused on building a splint on Applejack’s leg. “I told you to get back to Ponyville! It’s not safe out here.”

Apple Bloom planted herself beside Guy. “We ain’t leavin’ without her!”

“You Apples are frustratingly stubborn, you know that?”

Applejack spit out the rope and groaned as Rose tightened a loop of rope around the splint, though she forced a grin onto her face despite the pain. “Wouldn’t be Apples if we weren’t.”

“How quaint.” Rose finished tightening the splint before she used the Nova’s combat knife to cut off the remaining rope. “How does that feel?” she asked as she looked up at Applejack’s face.

“Like my leg got run over by a train?” AJ answered. "The rest of my body don't feel too good either."

“Good enough,” said Rose as she pulled on her forelegs to drape Applejack across her shoulders, resulting in the farm pony gritting her teeth and hissing at the movement. “Now come on, we need to get you to the facility.”

“Wait,” said Guy, holding out a hand. “Give her to me. I can carry her.”

The Nova glared at him after Rose finished picking up Applejack. Her forelegs fell on either side of the Nova's right shoulder while her hind legs covered its left. “I can carry her. You carry Apple Bloom and Granny Smith. Big Mac can keep up. We’re winning the fight right now, but we still need to hurry. This is not up for discussion.” With those words, Rose marched past Guy and left the barn. Big Mac quickly followed, and Guy came soon after with Granny Smith cradled in his arms while Apple Bloom sat comfortably on the back of his head, wearing her sister’s hat.

Just as they left the farm through the main gate, Applejack whispered to the Nova carrying her. Thankfully, the ride wasn't as bumpy as she was expecting. “Hey, Rose?”

The Nova’s head swiveled to look at her. “Yes?”

“Thanks for savin’ my skin back there,” she said, her eyes beginning to close as the effects of the adrenaline began to wear off. “Ah don’t even wanna... think about what would’ve happened if you didn’t show up...”

The Nova turned its head forward. “Just consider yourself lucky I thought it was a good idea to follow you.”

"Ah... Ah do..."

And then she passed out.

The automated door hissed open, and Rarity came rushing through with Fluttershy close behind. “We’re here! We’re here! We came as soon as we heard! Please tell me it isn’t as bad as it sounds!”

“I dunno about that, but it is pretty bad,” said Rainbow Dash.

Dash, Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie Pie were all lined up in front of the viewing window of surgery room’s observatory. Inside lay Applejack on the surgical table, with a pair of domestics surrounding her, though the bots served little purpose than to make sure the bone was positioned properly. Rose had sent everypony word of what had happened to Applejack and, as expected, they all made it a priority to come as soon as possible. The other members of the Apple family sat off to the side, perfectly content with quietly observing. Rose's human body was present as well, standing between the two groups.

Rarity and Fluttershy trotted up to the window and promptly held a hoof up over their mouths. Garry rested on Fluttershy’s back, leaning his neck out to look around her head.

“How did this even happen…?” Rarity breathed, making herself barely audible.

“Guy thought she was a changeling,” Twilight explained, keeping her voice hushed while peeking at the cybernetic in question out of the corner of her eye. “He was just trying to protect them…”

Rarity, however, was less subtle, and leaned her head forward to look around her friends at Guy. The Super-Heavy sat on his knees, with his now cleaned hands resting against them. Two blue circles decorated his face, though not much more of his mood could be discerned. “Oh goodness…” Rarity whispered. “He doesn’t blame himself, does he…?”

“The only one to blame for this series of events is myself,” Rose loudly and proudly announced with her human body, which kept its gaze focused ahead with her hands held behind her back. “The Reds were explicitly ordered to prevent any and all ponies from entering or leaving town. I'm the one who grew compassionate for her responsibility towards her family. I’m the one who granted her an exception. I’m the one who should have retrieved them. The blame for this is solely mine.”

Guy’s head twitched in her direction. “You’re not the one who almost killed her…”

“You had every reason to act the way you did,” Rose snapped, turning her head towards him. “You had no way to tell her apart from the counterfeits. Your actions were justified. As far as you are concerned, this is a misunderstanding and an accident.” Guy didn’t respond. As the silence between them endured, Rose turned her head forward once more.

“Is she gonna be alright?” Fluttershy eventually asked.

“She’ll be perfectly fine,” Rose answered. “Bone and tissue reparation is a process I’m very familiar with. She’ll be sore for a day or two, but I guarantee she’ll be walking on her own in less than half an hour.”

Twilight glanced up at her. “Half an hour? Isn’t she under anaesthetic?”

Rose nodded. “She is. Once I’m done fixing the damage, I’m going to filter the anaesthetic from her system and provide a small stimulant dose. It won’t be enough to wake her up immediately, but it should largely restore normal brain function. All the better, since I need to speak to you. All of you.”

"About what?" Twilight asked.

"About the current conflict with the changelings and about another matter that has become pressing, of late," Rose answered, though did not elaborate on.

Time passed in silence, and so did the surgery. While Applejack lay unconscious on the surgical table, the Domestics worked in tandem with the overhanging surgical machine to fix her leg. The muscle and other tissues that covered the bone were cut lengthwise and pulled away to expose the break. Unfortunately, it wasn't as clean a break as Rose would have liked, and several pieces of bone needed to be fit together again. It took several applications of construction gel and nanite solution before her cannon bone was back in one, solid piece.

Of course, the true test to see if the effort was successful would be when she applied weight to it, but that would happen soon enough. After the application of more gel and nanites, Applejack's leg was stitched closed at the cellular level and no one could have been able to tell it was ever open at all. A quick scan revealed more injuries; many of them minor fractures, including several along her skull and neck. Unfortunately, in order for Rose to make an incision and access each fracture, she was forced to shave, at a bare minimum, a small strip of fur each time, resulting in a less than pleasing appearance that horrified Rarity to no end—on top of having to shave her mane.

After several more incisions with just as many repairs, a final scan indicated that Applejack was in as good a condition as she would get for the time being. Had she gone to Ponyville General, she would have needed an intensive surgery that would have lasted several hours, a less than pleasant vacation in the ICU, several more months of rehabilitation and recovery, and all topped off with a minimal chance of ever being able to return to apple bucking. Thanks to Rose, she was now in excellent condition and would make a full recovery in however long it took for the bruising to heal.

All the better, since Rose needed her on her hooves for the favor she was about to ask.

A quick rinse to wash the blood off her remaining coat later, the Domestics pulled the IVs from Applejack and removed her intubator. Rose moved to the entryway of the surgery room and the glass door acting as the portal opened on its own. Everyone else was quick to quietly follow after her as well. However, as the rest of the Apple family attempted to join them, Rose turned and held out a hand. "I'm sorry, but I need you four to remain out here for the time being."

"What? Why?" Apple Bloom blurted.

"I have important matters to discuss with Applejack and her friends and it's for their ears only. I apologize for this, but you'll have to wait a little while longer."

"But we want to see her now!" Apple Bloom whined, the concern for her sister shaking her voice.

Guy, who had to remain crouched under the observatory’s low ceiling, brought a hand under Apple Bloom and scooped her up, carefully placing her over his neck. "It's okay, Apple Bloom. If she's fine, we can wait just a little longer..."

"Thank you for understanding." Rose nodded to him in acknowledgement, as the glass door closed between them. True to her fashion of not wanting to waste time, Rose moved to stand next to surgical table and jabbed Applejack between the ribs with a finger. "Wake up."

"Ah!" Applejack bolted awake, flopping around on the table in an attempt to protect herself from that hellish sensation. "What the hay was that about?" She suddenly paused, her eyes darting this way and that as she took in her surroundings. "Uh... Where am Ah?"

"Two hundred meters under Berry Punch’s house," Rose snarked. "But in all seriousness, you're in my surgery theatre. I just finished operating on you. How do you feel?"

"Surgery theatre...?" Applejack gave Rose a queer look before her eyes grew wide and snapped down to her leg. She poked at her partially shaved leg tentatively, expecting searing pain to tell her brain that her body was broken, but none came, and her leg seemed as solid as ever. "Hey, wasn't that...?"

"Broken?" said Rose, finishing her question. "Yes, it was. I fixed it, along with several other minor fractures on your other limbs, ribs, skull, and neck. To be honest, I’m surprised your neck didn’t snap like dry twig. Guy’s certainly more than capable of it. Congratulations: you’re tougher than you look. Not much I can do about the bruising, I'm afraid. Circumstance also required I shave your mane and other patches of fur as well. It was necessary to repair the fractures and breaks."

“Huh?” Applejack blinked owlishly at her, then her eyes shot down to examine the rest of herself. “What the…?” As Rose said, strips of fur were cleanly shaven, leaving nothing but pink skin where the invisible incisions had been made. She then quickly shook her head back and forth. Where she expected her usual ponytail to flop around, she instead found her head to be that much lighter. After feeling around for it with a hoof, she let out a sigh. "Well, shoot... Least I didn’t end up like Alex. Ah'd rather just lose a mane and some fur than anythin' else. Least that’ll grow back." AJ paused in her musings as she spotted her family waiting in the observatory. "Hey, what're they waitin' out there for?"

"I asked them to," said Rose, repositioning herself in such a way that she could face everypony. "You see, I needed to speak with you all about an urgent matter which is, unfortunately, none of their business. I'm not one for beating around the bush, so I'm going to get straight to the point: I need your help."

"Our help?" Rainbow blurted incredulously. "You guys beat back the entire changeling army and you're telling us you need our help?"

"Rainbow, I'm sure that whatever it is, Rose needs us for a very important reason," chastised Rarity. However, she immediately gave Rose a curious look. "Although I will admit it's fairly concerning. What exactly do you need help with?"

"As I'm sure you're all well aware of by now,” Rose began, “the changelings’ offensive strategy failed. The likelihood of them attacking Ponyville again is virtually non-existent. However, there is still one more matter that requires our attention: the Appleloosans. Reconnaissance of the town indicates that the local population was abducted with little property damage suffered. Despite our victory here, they are still missing.”

Applejack held a hoof up to her mouth and her eyes went wide, though Rose continued anyway. “This is why we’re mobilizing the corps for a counterstrike. We believe they’re being kept wherever the changelings’ primary base of operations is. We’ve yet to actually locate it, but that won’t be an issue for much longer. Once we’ve confirmed the location, we’re going to launch a search and rescue operation.”

“Heck yeah!” Rainbow cheered, giving a quick hoof pump.

Applejack cracked a smile and allowed her hoof to fall from her mouth. “That’s good to hear, Rose. Ah got family from Appleloosa. If y’all need any help with anythin’, you just let me know.”

Rose mimicked her smile. “I’m happy to hear you say that, Applejack, because I need some of you to join this mission.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes bugged out and sparkled in the light. “Wait, really?!”

Rose nodded to her. “Yes. I’ve already taken the liberty of fashioning some BioMech armor for whoever wants to volunteer: one for an earth pony, one for a unicorn, and yes, one for a pegasus as well. However, I must insist that the ones who are not adequately equipped remain here.”

“Wait, you mean to made us armor like the kind Alex has?!” Rainbow Dash beamed. “To help fight the changelings?!”

“That’s correct.”

Dash shot Fluttershy a grin before looking over at Rose. “Well, I think we all know what I’m doing!”

“Wait, hold on a second,” Twilight interrupted, stepping ahead of her friend. “I saw what happened on the front through my telescope. The Liandri can handle things just fine on their own. Why do you need us to come along?”

“Psshh, Twilight, come on,” Dash drawled as she sauntered over to her friend and wrapped a hoof around her. “Are all these questions really necessary?”

Rose smirked at Dash while Twilight magically unwrapped the pegasus’ hoof from around her neck, though quickly focused her attention back on the unicorn. “Truth be told, there are more details I have yet to disclose. I need you to go so that you can keep an eye on Alex for me.”

Twilight quirked a brow. “What do you mean? Alex isn’t staying behind? You’re not going with him?”

Rose shook her head. “No. I need to remain here and manage the facility. We have another unit that will manage unit deployment on the field, so I won’t need to be in two locations at once. And yes, Alex is going as well. He has also specified that once the Appleloosans have been extracted, the mission parameters change from search and rescue to search and destroy. This means the total annihilation of the changelings. Their eradication.”

“WHAT?!” everypony blurted out at once. Fluttershy was the next to sputter out her words. “B-but why? I know the changelings aren’t nice, and that they took all those ponies hostage, but that doesn’t mean we have to… to… do that to them!”

Rose nodded to her. “And I fully agree with you. It’s needless and a waste of resources. Unfortunately, this is Alex’s decision. I can’t change this.”

“Well why not?” Rarity protested. “I explicitly recall you refusing to let Alex work a week before the Gala!”

All eyes locked on Rose, who drew out a long sigh. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. What I was telling Alex then was merely a suggestion. A strongly emphasised suggestion, but a suggestion nevertheless. He was already aware of how hard he was working himself and agreed with my suggestion while expressing his distaste for it. It is not actually within my ability to go against Alex’s wishes.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second,” Spike interrupted, waving his claws around as if trying to clear away cobwebs. “Are you saying that you have to do anything Alex says? Even if you don’t agree with it?”

Rose nodded. “That is correct.”

A dark cloud hung over the group of ponies. For what felt like ages, nopony said a word, instead opting to let Rose’s revelation soak in complete silence as they shared looks of mixed concern and horror. Was Rose really no more than a slave to her creator? Why would Alex, someone they considered a friend, even consider such a thing even remotely acceptable, let alone actually do it?

Rarity was the first to break the silence, speaking everypony’s thoughts. “That’s… That’s horrifying. To…” her eyes darted all over the floor as she took in large gulps of air. “To… To think that somepony could be subjected to such… such a demeaning existence… It’s… It’s horrifying. It’s-it’s-it’s abhorrent! It’s—!”

“Completely necessary…?” Everypony’s gaze was now suddenly upon Twilight, whose eyes remained glued to the floor while her ears were pinned against her skull.

Rarity stepped towards her, her eyes completely unbelieving of what her friend just said. “Twilight, how could you say such a thing? Nopony—especially Rose—deserves to be a slave like that!”

Twilight sighed and slowly met her gaze. “Alex taught me a lot of things while he was staying with me in the library, Rarity. Artificial Intelligence was one of them. He brushed over a lot of it, but he told me about something that he calls an ‘intelligence explosion.’ It’s a term he used to describe an aspect of something larger, called the Singularity.” She averted her eyes. “The idea is that if an AI is left on its own and becomes self-aware, it could rewrite itself to become smarter. In its smarter state, it could repeat the process and make itself even more intelligent. It just keeps doing that over and over until, eventually, it becomes god-like. After that, it becomes unpredictable; even dangerous.”

Twilight’s eyes wandered up to Rose’s, though she wasn’t able to maintain eye contact and eventually lowered her head altogether. “Alex told me he wrote a bunch of safeguards to prevent that from happening with Rose. I never really thought about it, but… it makes sense that this is one of them…”

Everypony else gradually turned their curious gazes towards Rose. “Is… is that true…?” asked Fluttershy.

“In theory,” Rose answered. “I can’t give you a definite answer since I have no experience with such an event. Regardless, my limitations for self improvement are tangential to the actual subject I wish to discuss with you. There is a reason why I need some of you to keep an eye on Alex during this mission.”

“And that is…?” Applejack asked while rolling a hoof, prompting Rose to proceed.

“As I’m sure you’ll recall, Alex uses a Brain-Computer Interface to interact with the Liandri network. This device monitors his brain activity to read his thoughts and interpret them as instructions. As should be no surprise, I’ve been monitoring his brain activity for quite some time now, and I’ve observed a number of anomalies that are becoming particularly concerning.”

“Anomalies?” Twilight asked, her curiosity overcoming her awkwardness of the previous topic and letting her finally look at Rose. “What do you mean when you say his brain has been having ‘anomalies?’ Do you mean he’s been thinking differently?”

Rose shrugged. “In a manner of speaking, yes, I suppose that’s one way to put it. However, it’s not a very accurate description. When I say ‘anomalies,’ I’m referring to brain-wave activity that differs unusually from the norm for some short period of time. It occurs suddenly and disappears suddenly. I’ve noted that his behavior changes during these periods as well. Nothing consistent across all cases, but more aggressive behavior and extremely short-lived headaches post-event seem to be the most common symptoms.

“As I said, these anomalies have been occurring for several months now, but they’ve been increasing in both frequency and duration ever since the Gala.” Rose brought her arms forward and crossed them, her eyes straying to the side. “It was a curiosity at first, but now it’s becoming a serious concern. I have no doubts that the search and destroy reparameterization orders are a result of these anomalies, and I’m afraid Alex is somehow destabilizing.”

Everypony blinked at her. “Uhh… What exactly do ya mean when you say he’s ‘destabilizin’?” asked Applejack, giving her a thousand yard stare.

“I think she means Alex is starting to go cuckoo for cocoa puffs,” Pinkie chimed, twisting her head AJ’s way.

Rose contorted her face at Pinkie before speaking. “Not exactly the words I would use, but yes, I’m afraid it might be a possibility.”

“Alright, so what do you want us to do about it?” Dash inquired, giving Rose a more than skeptical look.

Rose met her gaze. “All I need you to do is keep an eye on him; talk him out of doing anything rash. You can argue with him whenever I can’t. This is a very sensitive issue, so I need to collect more data before I’m able to approach him with this.”

“Wait, you haven’t told him yet?” blurted Rarity.

“Of course she hasn’t; Rose doesn’t know what’s going on yet,” Twilight muttered, rubbing her chin while her eyes zipped across the floor, as if her own thoughts were written on it. “She can’t just tell him he’s got something wrong with his brain that’s making him act funny. For all we know, that might make things worse.”

“Exactly,” Rose agreed, nodding to her. “This needs to be handled carefully. If it’s not, it might spiral out of control.” She then turned her attention to the group as a whole. “Now then: Alex and Shining Armor are already on their way to see how Applejack is doing, so let’s hurry this along. If any of you can, I need one pegasus, one unicorn, and one earth pony to join Alex on this mission.”

Dash automatically raised a hoof. “I’m in!”

Rose turned towards Fluttershy, who inched just that much more behind her mane. “Sh-she can go…”

“I’m not surprised…” said Rose, turning to the other four. “Anyone else?”

Rarity and Twilight exchanged glances for several seconds, and the latter nodded as the two came to a silent agreement. Twilight looked back over at Rose with focused eyes. “I’ll go too.”

Rose acknowledged her with a nod before turning to Applejack and Pinkie.

Pinkie shrugged while delivering her trademark grin. “Sure! Sounds like fun!”

“Now hang on a minute,” Applejack objected as she worked her way off the surgical table and slipped onto the floor next to Pinkie. “Ah know you’re tough n’ all, but Ah’m more of a fightin’ mare than you are, Pinkie. If anypony should be going, it should be me.” She nodded towards Rose. “Besides, it’s the least Ah can do to repay her for savin’ me earlier.”

Rarity trotted up to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder, accompanied by a concerned look scrawled across her face. “Are you sure you’re up to it, Applejack? You did just come out of surgery, after all.”

Applejack matched her with a confident smile. “Ah might feel sore in places, Rares, but Ah feel as fit as a fiddle right now. Trust me.”

Rose placed her hands on her hips and smirked. “After all the effort I put into you, you should be.”

“Exactly! Ah—” AJ’s face suddenly blanked and she stared straight ahead. Without moving her head, her eyes screw up to Rose and she muttered. “That is the only thing you put in me, right?”

Rose raised a brow. “That goes without saying. Did you want me to put something else in you? A flashlight or a corkscrew perhaps?”

AJ quickly shook her head. “No! No, Ah just… Ah ain’t really comfortable with the idea of having metal bits inside me, ya know?”

Rose nodded. “I understand. Don’t worry, I didn’t add anything extra. In any event, Alex and Shining Armor are going to arrive within the next 10 seconds. I’ll be the one to tell him you’re volunteering. It’s vital that you do not bring up the anomalies I discussed—to anyone.”

Right on time, the door past the observatory’s window hissed open, and Alex came through, a somewhat pale Shining Armor in tow. Both were still loaded with their respective equipment, though they at least had to the decency to keep their helmets off their heads. His eyes continued to shine green, but the glow was faint and completely unnoticeable in the light. Alex planted himself against the window and gawked at Applejack and the patch-job done on her fur. She just smiled weakly and waved a hoof at him.

A thought went through the Liandri system and Alex’s voice projected into the room as he spoke. “Jesus H-bar, are you okay? You look like you went through a goddamn wood chipper.”

“Ah’m fine,” AJ sheepishly replied, waving her hoof as if to dispel the question entirely. “Just a little accident, is all.”

Alex’s incredulous look remained fixed on her for several seconds until he craned his head to look at Rose, who provided a more apt explanation. “Guy mistook her for a changeling.”

“Oh!” Alex sucked in a breath through his teeth while covering his mouth with a fist. “Fuck… I’m surprised you’re not dead…” He looked over at Guy, who remained knelt with Apple Bloom mounted on his neck and stared back at him with two blue circles for eyes. Alex creased his brow upwards. “Hey, uh… you feeling alright?”

“No.” Guy carefully shook his head, mindful of Apple Bloom who was still hugging it.

Alex sighed and brought his hand back down to his side. “Hey, don’t be like that. It’s not your fault. With all these changelings running around, anyone could’ve made that mistake.”

“Rose didn’t.”

He flashed a smile, though it just as quickly vanished. “Yeah, but… We’ve got the tech that can let us discriminate them. You don’t. Don’t worry about it, man. Accidents happen. This could’ve been really bad, but it wasn’t. Just…” Alex paused for a moment, searching for the words. “...try not to dwell on it, okay? She’s fine now. Look forward, not back.”

“Speaking of moving forward,” Rose announced, beckoning them in just as the door connecting the surgical room and the observatory opened, “I have some news with regards to the current operation.” Alex and Shining Armor moved in, and the rest of the Apple family followed suit, though by this point, the room began to get much too crowded. Rose ushered the trio of volunteer ponies forward and gestured towards them. “Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack have volunteered to join the search and rescue mission.”

“Wait, what?” blurted Shining Armor, while Alex’s eyes grew wide.

The human quickly held out his hands, turning his head constantly between them and Shining. “Okay no! No no no! No. No. Okay?” Alex focused on the AI’s physical self. “Look, I just told Shining Armor and his merry band of chucklefucks”—“Hey!”—“that we we’re doing this solo, and now you’re telling me that you’re alright with bringing his sister and friends along instead?”

“Yes,” Rose nodded, as if it were the most innocent situation in the world.

Alex, as still as a statue, continued to gawk at her for several prolonged seconds until he loudly demanded, “Why?”

“A multitude of reasons,” Rose quietly answered. “You know why we won’t work with Shining Armor and his guards on this operation: they’re rogue variables. We don’t know how they behave, and their ability to follow our orders is questionable at best. These three aren’t rogues. Of course, communication is another issue. Information distribution among Liandri is trivial, but we have no such method for the guards. However, I have already taken the liberty of assembling a set of prototype BioMechs for these three to use, solving both the communication and protection problems entirely. Plus, a pony presence would simplify corralling the Appleloosans.”

Alex frowned. “Wait, you went and built pony version of the BioMech…?”

Rose smiled. “Truth be told, they’re a pet project of mine. Although it does make the current situation easier.”

Bringing up a hand to rub his lowered head, Alex let out a frustrated huff. At this point, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to speak her mind. “Hey, come on. We’re your friends! There’s no way we’re gonna leave you hanging and let you do something like this alone!”

In response, Alex pursed his lips and looked up at her, receiving an eye full of Dash’s usual confidence. Twilight and Applejack appeared just as confident and unyielding. He sighed; As much as he wanted to, no words emphasizing staunch refusal came to him.

Noticing the lack of a clear disapproval, Shining Armor practically yelled to get Alex’s attention. “You can’t be seriously considering this, are you?”

Alex let out a frustrated groan. “Rose… Fuck—Rose has a point. Bringing ponies would make getting the Appleloosans to work with us easier, and they are more predictable for us than the royal guard.” He sighed and shook his head once more. “And if Rose built power armor for them, then that solves every other problem too. God dammit…”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this…” muttered Shining Armor as he brought a hoof up to massage his growing headache. “I… I honestly don’t know what to say to you right now. First you actively get in the way of the royal guard, now you’re bringing my own sister into this.”

“I’ll be fine, Shiny,” Twilight said as she trotted up to her brother and wrapped a loving foreleg around him. “Don’t worry. I promise: nothing bad will happen to me.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” asked Apple Bloom, who confusedly looked between them until her eyes settled on her sister. “Where are y’all goin’?”

Alex turned his attention towards the filly. “We’re launching a counterstrike against the changelings as soon as we can locate and confirm where their home base is. And apparently…” He lazily gestured towards Applejack. “...your sister volunteered to come along…”

“What?!” each Apple suddenly blurted. Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “But AJ! You can’t just go! What about your leg?”

AJ gave her sister as comforting a smile as possible and rapped her hind hoof against the floor. “It’s fine now, sugar cube. Rose did a bang up job fixin’ me up. And… Ah’m sorry, but Ah feel like Ah gotta do this. Ah owe Rose a favor, and we got family in Appleloosa. Ah just can’t sit around while somepony else saves ‘em.”

Before Apple Bloom could sputter out any more words of objection, Guy brought both his hands up and picked her up off his neck. After gently setting his sister down, the Super-Heavy raised himself to his full height, head barely brushing against the ceiling, and looked straight to Alex with a pair of yellow eyes. “If Applejack is going, then I’m going too.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Alex cried as he threw his arms up and walked around in a circle. “Sure! Let’s just make this one big happy fucking party!” He stopped, faced Guy, and jabbed a finger at him. “No! Absolutely not! I’m already breaking all kinds of principles by letting Rose convince me that bringing them is a good idea. But I am not risking you!”

“I almost killed my sister today. I’m not going to let anypony hurt her like that again.” Guy tilted his head lower, and his voice shifted an octave deeper. “I’m going whether you want me to or not.”

Alex sighed and brought a hand up to cover his head. He spoke after a brief pause to collect his thoughts. “I fucking love you, Guy. I really do. Under any other circumstance I would applaud you. Hell, I would help you.” He turned his stern gaze up towards the looming cybernetic. “But this is not one of those times.”

“Now hold on a second, sugar cube,” Applejack interrupted, stepping towards them and facing Alex. “Guy can definitely hold his own. Ah don’t rightly see why he can’t come too.”

“Oh geez, where do I start?” said Alex as he threw his head up. “Okay, how about the same reason we refuse to work with the royal guard on this? Communication. Guy’s only form of communicating and receiving information is verbal—speaking. Every unit that’ll be deployed has to be able to transmit and receive a ton of information in real time, and we don’t exactly have the time to fashion equipment for him that’ll relay all of it without messing with his other sensors.”

He turned his full attention to Guy. “But the most important reason is the research that you are a key element of. I can count all the AIs that exist on this entire planet on one hand, and you’re one of them. You have no idea how essential you are to research on long term AI behavior, especially within a family setting. You’re staying, Guy. This isn’t up for debate.”

“Hey, dude,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Last time I checked, I could count the number of humans on this planet on one hoof.” She held up a hoof for emphasis, staring at it for a brief moment before turning a deadpan stare over Alex’s way. Her eyes said everything she needed to.

Alex jabbed a finger towards her. “Details, Dash! Our current plan needs mobility. As it stands, I’m fast and light, and so are you three. He isn’t. At best he’ll slow things down, at worst he’ll get us all killed.”

Guy leaned his head in towards Alex. “I’m staying with my sister.”

Arms and fingers curling up out of mounting frustration, Alex sneered and sharply inhaled through his nose. Before he could truly be set off, however, Rose stepped in to defuse him by placing a hand on his shoulder. “If I may… I think I have a solution. May I talk to you for a moment in private?”

Alex met her eyes and then quickly pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “Alright, sure. I’m listening…” Lowering his hand, the helmet of Alex’s armor folded up over his head. Once he was fully covered, the two stepped off to the side and began their silent conversation. Both made hand gestures to each other, though made no noise to speak of. Even Rose’s lips remained completely frozen.

With everyone quieted down, Shining finally took the opportunity to speak with his sister. Holding her shoulder at a foreleg’s length, he stared straight into her eyes. “Hey, why are you doing this, anyway?”

Twilight gave him a weak smile in return, she wrapped her fetlock around his and carefully pushed his foreleg to the floor. “It’s… complicated. It’s important, though. Just trust me on this.”

Shining frowned. “You: I trust. Them: not so much.”

“Well I do trust them. I don’t think they’d do anything that would put me in serious danger.”

Her brother leaned further in to whisper. “Then just be careful, okay? They don’t like doing things by the book, and if they do, it’s a book that they wrote. The kind of things that they’re capable of, they’re…” He clenched his eyes and gulped at the memory of the massacre above ground. “Just… Please. I don’t want to tell mom and dad that their daughter died doing her big brother’s job. Promise me.”

Twilight let out a short laugh and closed the gap between them with a hug. “I’ll be fine, Shiny. I promise.”

A minute after starting their talk, a sigh escaped Alex’s lips as he bent his head forward and his armored fingers massaged the top of his helmet. “Fuck… I really don’t want to have to do this to them, but…”

“It’s the best option,” Rose finished for him.

“Yeah…” Alex looked over at the Apples, finding each of their eyes on him, awaiting the results of their conversation. He bit his lip has he stared back, but eventually shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Alright, fuck—Let’s just get this over with.”

The two humanoids sauntered back towards the others and Alex’s helmet folded away once more. “Okay! So… We’ve decided that we’ll not only allow Guy to come along, but we’ll also do what we can to equip and prepare him.” Just as eyes began to light up and smiles began to form, Alex’s finger shot up. “If he can pass a single test of ours.” His eyes met Guy’s. “One fight in the testing arena. You versus one other bot. Hand to hand combat. If you win, you get our endorsement. If you lose, your ass is staying right here. What do you say?”

“Bring it on!” Apple Bloom cheered, hopping in front of her titanic brother.

“Whoa, now hold on a sec, sugar cube,” Applejack interrupted, holding a hoof in front of her sister. “This ain’t your decision.”

Guy looked down at his sisters briefly before he moved his eyes back towards Alex, turning them red as he did. His arms came up and he threw a punch into his palm, clapping metal against metal. “Bring it on.”

Alex’s lips curled upwards into a smirk, and his eyes began to glow more brightly. “I was hoping you’d say that…”

Author's Notes:

So as it turns out, in a surprising turn of events: I'm not dead. Also, if I'm being completely honest, this chapter was finished for couple of months now. I was originally planning on publishing this one, saying something like: "Oh, sorry, guys! I'm really busy, so the next chapter is probably going to take a really long while to come out," and then publish the next chapter a day later and say "lol jk," but as it turns out, I actually AM busy as fuck so I figured I'll just publish this and finish the next one (hopefully) over the course of the next week. Because yay, spring break. I'm about 9700 words into the next chapter and almost finished with it. Then there's proofreading, editing... that whole shtick.

Also, in another surprising turn of events, my dumb ass somehow managed to get my own very special somepony. Not only that, but she has taken up reading Technicalities and I know for a fact that she's going to be reading this. So all that said...

I love you, Fan Girl!

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's day, because I sure did! Hell, I had an awesome February!

Clash of the Titans

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“A smile can hide the most murderous thought, but the eyes can never lie. Reading a person is mostly looking straight into their eyes. What’s truly terrifying is people who wear their thoughts on their face, and within a second, it’s hard for the beholder to suppress a scream.” - The Tormentor

The heavy steel doors before Guy creaked open, flooding the dark room he was standing in with light. Just as he had been instructed to, Guy stepped inside the arena. For a room buried underground, the arena was surprisingly big. Instead of conventional walls or a ceiling, the room itself formed the shape of a large metal dome, with bright lights illuminating every inch. Tall rectangular columns were erected in seemingly random places, though as Guy entered, they all retracted back into the ground until their tops were flush with it, producing a perfectly flat floor.

“Hey, Guy! Up here!”

Though the voice sounded as though it were coming from all around, its words at least pointed towards where it was coming from. A long wall of glass some twenty feet off the ground was built into the dome, stretching all around. Everypony sat together in a group. Alex stood tall, hands behind his back, with Rose standing to his right. To his left was Twilight and Spike, followed by her brother and other friends. To Rose’s right was Guy’s family, all huddled together and waving, smiling at him.

“Not too intimidating, is it?” Alex asked, his voice being projected into the room.

Guy shook his head as he made his way to the center of the arena.

“That’s the spirit,” said Alex. “Now then: the rules of this bout are simple. Your opponent is going to come through the door opposite you.” He gestured towards the steel portal in question, identical to the one that Guy had just traversed. “The name of the game is unarmed combat: hand to hand. Your goal is to disable your opponent before he does the same to you. This is no holds barred, so how you do that is entirely up to you. But that goes both ways. Let me ask you again: are you sure you want to do this?”

Off to the side, a shiver ran down Pinkie Pie’s back, followed by wobbly knees and an itchy neck. “Yeegghhaa…!” Pinkie squeaked as she reached up to scratch.

The display, however, caught the attention of everypony else next to her. “Hey Pinks, you okay?” asked Dash, arching a brow.

Pinkie pursed her lips and frowned. “Pinkie sense…” Jerking her head up, she looked Rainbow straight in the eye. All sense of her usual amusement was gone. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this…”

Oblivious to Pinkie’s actions, Guy nodded in acknowledgement.

Alex blew out a breath, as he had been holding it in without realizing it. “Alright…” He turned to Rose and gave her a curt nod.

In that instant, the door opposite Guy began to creak open, and everyone craned their head from where they were sitting or standing to get a better look at Guy’s opponent. Almost everypony blinked in confusion. It was a Liandri that was completely unknown to them. The faces of Twilight and Shining Armor, however, paled as the light of the arena gradually revealed more and more of it.

Twilight gasped. “Oh no…”

Fluttershy partly sunk to hide herself against the floor. “O-o-oh he looks mean…”

“Pfff, he don’t look that tough!” Apple Bloom scoffed before throwing her hoof in the air with a cheer. “Kick his flank, Guy!”

“No!” Twilight blurted towards the filly. “He can’t fight that thing! It’ll kill him!”

Alex grinned and chuckled at Twilight’s outburst, just enough to garner their attention. “Everyone…” He held a hand towards the newcomer, his emerald eyes ablaze. “Allow me to introduce you to Sub-Commander Hyde.”

A true giant if there ever was one, easily standing a head taller than Guy. Jagged sabatons and angular greaves formed the Liandri’s legs, leading up into its heavily armored torso, covered in wide, shallow spikes. Clawed hands adorned the ends of its plated arms, curled and ready to grab at anything. Black, white, and red digital camouflage covered its body from its feet all the way to its neck. Its left shoulder had a large slash of dark red across it, giving the impression of an old, painful scar.

On its head, razor teeth protruded from a demonic jaw that formed a perpetual grin, leading up to an absent nose and pitch black eye sockets, containing small, crimson eyes. Accompanying the jagged spikes that decorated the Liandri’s head were a pair of rocky, red horns that curved back from either side of its brows. A glowing orange crack ran down its forehead and across its eyes, appearing like a miniature lava-filled ravine along its face. On each of its pauldrons was the Liandri logo; on each hip was the image of a pale horned human skull, overlaid atop crossed scythes; and on its left breast plate, painted in yellow, was the name: HYDE. Unlike the other Liandri that shared a similar physique, this one did not arch its back, but instead stood tall, composed, and proud.

Twilight’s eyes widened, and pieces of a puzzle she hadn’t even realized existed began falling into place.

On the left pauldron belonging to the yellow-eyed Liandri was the lettering NOVA0003, whereas the other’s was different; spelling out NOVA0002-HYDE.

…

“Um… Alex, is this Liandri… different in some way?” Twilight asked, granting him a curious look.

…

Alex pointed towards Nova Two, whose arms were now lying against the ground, but still clutching its weapon. “I want that one sent to the proto lab.”

He approached the broken Liandri and crouched down, balancing on his toes as he stared into its shattered head. “ ‘Cause I have plans for you…” Alex muttered.

…

A response came in the form of two small red lights suddenly appearing within the shadows. At the same time, an even louder growl washed over them like a wave of pure unease. Or perhaps that was the wave of heat that inexplicably emerged from the darkness as well.

…

But just as Twilight finished entertaining the thought, Alex’s words struck a chord. You shouldn’t be here. Go on, go! You know where you need to be. The perpetual gears in Twilight’s mind kicked up again. If that Liandri was supposed to be somewhere else, why was it here, sitting alone in the dark…?

Twilight let out a gasp, though was interrupted before she could voice her revelation.

“So...!” Hyde barked. His deep, gravelly voice complimented his appearance unnaturally well, and growled with every syllable. Each word was drawn out, emphasising clarity over speed. “...You’re the one the commander wants me to scrap. I was expecting something more…” Hyde snorted as he advanced with thunderous steps, sending rogue embers flying from the recesses of his throat. “...impressive…”

Rarity’s eyes remained locked on Hyde, and even though she was safely up on the observation deck, she instinctively backed up a couple of steps like most of the others. “Ooohhh dear, this one feels different…”

“That’s because it is different,” said Twilight, whose eyes studied every inch of Hyde’s masterfully constructed, fearsome body. “That’s not a normal Liandri. That’s an AI. An AI controlling a Skulldozer.”

Alex reared his head back, bellowing out a laugh. “Ha ha! Very astute, Twilight! Banged the nail right on the head. Hyde’s an AI we’ve been grooming for a while, now. He’s shown a lot of promise so far, although we think the Skulldozer subroutines might give him some psychopathic tendencies.”

Applejack’s head pivoted to look up at Alex, her eyes disbelieving of what her ears had heard. “Are you tellin’ me ya locked Guy in there with a psychopath?!”

Alex smirked and held up a finger to correct her. “Aahh, but you see, he’s a professional psychopath.” Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, the glow in Alex’s eyes disappeared and he frowned to himself. Rubbing his chin with the same finger he raised, he muttered, “Wait, that didn’t sound right…”

Hyde’s gaze remained locked on Guy as deep vibrations noted his amusement. One weighty foot went in front of the other as the Dozer began circling around him like the shark that he was. “I saw your blueprints before coming in here,” Hyde growled. “I know you inside and out, Guy… I know your strengths… I know your weaknesses… I know you can’t win… Give it up now, while you can.”

Guy’s eyes turned red and he brought up both fists, keeping himself focused on and oriented towards Hyde at all times, ready for any move he might make. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“You should be,” Hyde rumbled. Despite Guy’s stance, the Skulldozer continued to calmly pace around him in a wide arc, as if he were going for a stroll in the park. “Back out. Now.”

“You can do it, Guy!” Apple Bloom’s voice answered.

Guy’s entire face turned red, undeterred by Hyde’s threats. “Not. Going. To happen.”

“Suit yourself…” Hyde expelled a puff of smoke from his maw and stopped to face him. “Come on, then. Give me your best shot.”

One thing Guy’s fists were made for was repeatedly punching hard objects like trees without breaking or deforming. This Liandri would be no different. Guy waited for no further invitation, springing forward into an instant sprint. In a single, fluid motion, Guy’s right arm wrenched back, and his fist balled up and locked itself shut, ready to shatter anything from trees, to rocks, to metal. As his legs propelled him into a final leap, his entire upper body twisted itself forward, throwing every ounce of momentum he could muster into a single punch that even a dragon would do well to avoid.

Thunder clapped as Guy’s fist connected with his target, though not in the way he intended. Quiet gasps escaped the ponies’ lips as they watched Hyde’s claws clench around Guy’s caught fist. The Skulldozer had braced himself just before the hit, and his feet only slid back a couple of feet when it came. Their arms vibrated as each super heavy forced themselves against the other.

“Is that your best?” Hyde jeered.

Almost immediately, Guy threw his other fist forward, though that was just as quickly caught in Hyde’s other hand. The two titans stared into each other’s eyes as they clashed, though all it did was make Hyde’s size advantage all the more obvious to everyone watching.

While the two tested their strength against each other, Hyde carefully leaned his head in, making sure his bony face was all Guy could see. “Pathetic.” He flung his arms apart while lifting up a leg in front of himself, bringing Guy in line for a kick to the chest powerful enough to throw him several meters back and cause a decent dent in his torso.

Guy landed unceremoniously, generating sparks against himself and the ground as he skidded along the floor. While everyone, Guy included, expected Hyde to move in for a follow-up attack, he instead remained where he was.

“You’re a prototype, Guy,” Hyde sneered. “A proof of concept for Cybernetics like me. You’re outdated. Obsolete. What makes you think you can win this?”

Guy took his time bringing his feet under himself and standing up before answering. “The same reason why bad guys always lose…” He turned his head and glanced at Apple Bloom, whose eyes appeared to brighten in recognition. When he turned to face Hyde once more, Guy brought his fists back up, and he and his little sister cheered together. “Because the good guys always win.”

Hyde huffed in annoyance. “Cute. Is that supposed to be a play on words?”

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” Guy answered. “Now are you going to quit stalling like a coward, or are you going to fight me?”

Waves of heat poured forth from his body and fire bellowed from Hyde’s throat as he let out an enraged, guttural roar that vibrated the glass protecting the observers, before he burst into a sprint. The ground shuddered each time the Dozer slammed a foot into the ground, showing off the raw power behind his charge. Guy moved to catch his opponent, though Hyde crashed into him with the force of a locomotive, grappled him around the waist, and hoisted him into the air. Punches and kicks flew downward, however Hyde spun around while keeping his horizontal motion and lifted Guy even further up until, with a raging snarl, he transferred his momentum into a toss; a toss that sent Guy flying through the air, smashing his back into the wall of the arena, directly underneath the spectators. Everyone yelped when metal clapped against metal, the shock of the impact reverberating through the floor beneath them.

The sound of the Apples calling out Guy’s name were drowned out as Hyde continued his onslaught, digging his claws into Guy’s right shoulder while he attempted to stand up and throwing him away from the wall with a roar. Thankfully, Guy turned his stumble into a roll and managed to push himself to his feet. All the better, as the Skulldozer was already advancing on him. This time, though, Guy wouldn’t be the one waiting.

Guy jabbed with his left arm, and Hyde’s right shot up to deflect the blow away. Guy quickly followed up with his right, but in that very instant, his arm flagged a problem. What a living organism would have experienced as pain, Guy experienced as a simple warning of a malfunction in his right shoulder. When Hyde’s claws dug into it just a few seconds prior, they must have caused more damage than he initially realized.

As a result, Guy’s arm didn’t have nearly the speed it was supposed to. Hyde, however, already noticed the difference mid swing, deduced the cause, and decided to take advantage of the moment. After deflecting Guy’s initial blow with his right arm, Hyde brought up his left and caught Guy’s follow up fist in his clawed hand. In a single motion, he pulled Guy’s arm taught and followed through with the motion of his right arm, bringing it down and around in an uppercut targeted at Guy’s right shoulder.

What nopony expected was the screech of metal piercing metal.

Time seemed to stop. Everypony observing gasped at once. For young Apple Bloom, her eyes simply grew wide in disbelief. Guy’s head pivoted to look at his right shoulder, finding a large, blue-edged blade had cleaved straight through it from underneath. A powerful tug to the right accompanied a loud snarl as the arm was torn the rest of the way off, throwing him to the ground in the process.

“Guy, no!” Apple Bloom cried, banging her hooves against the glass. Everypony else, Applejack included, stared in complete shock—some covering their gaping mouths and others not, though both Rarity and Fluttershy shrieked before they did. In Fluttershy’s case, Garry quickly covered her eyes with his wings.

With tears beginning to form, Apple Bloom jerked her head towards Alex. “Hey, that’s against the rules!” she screamed. “That ain’t fair!”

“All is fair in love and war,” Alex muttered back, stone-faced. “Best you learn that now.”

Hyde’s blade retracted back into his forearm as he briefly glanced at Guy’s former limb, before tossing it aside like a stray piece of trash. From his spot on the floor, Guy pushed his torso up enough with his left arm so that he could stare Hyde in the eye, awaiting whatever attack he would inflict. However, Hyde simply met his stare and growled. “You lose.” At those words, Hyde turned away from Guy and began to lumber his way back to the door he emerged from.

“I’m not dOne wIth you yet!” Guy yelled, bringing his feet back under himself. While still intelligible, his voice had become slightly distorted with static. Sparks shot out of his damaged shoulder, and the right side of the LCD screen that composed Guy’s face had cracked, bleeding splotches of black, white, and multicolored lines together.

Hyde immediately stopped, carefully twisting his neck to glare at Guy over his shoulder, just in time to watch him bring himself to his feet. He growled and turned himself around to face him. “You’re a stupid one, you know that?” Hyde began to advance on Guy once more. “Even after I tear off that arm of yours, you still think you can beat me?”

“No, I don’t,” Guy suddenly answered, making Hyde unexpectedly stop dead in his tracks. “You’Re right. You’re the Newer me. You’re faster. StrOnger.” Guy lowered his head and slowly shook it. “I knEw I wouldn’t be Able to win this fIght the second I saw you.”

“Then why are you fighting me?” asked Hyde, genuinely curious of the response.

Guy raised his head again. “Because I havE to try. Because I’m figHting for my faMily. This entire fight may have beEn stackeD against me, but there Is nothing I woN’t fight if it means proteCting my family.”

Peering down from above, Applejack laid a hoof against the glass, her eyes beginning to water. What kind of idiot was he? Risking his life like this to protect her? She could take care of herself if she had to. Guy didn’t need to sacrifice himself like this.

A deep rumble sounded from Hyde—his equivalent of a thoughtful hum. “Ballsy…” He began his approach anew. “I like that.”

As Hyde drew near, Guy clenched his remaining fist and aimed it towards his head, making sure to compensate for his missing counter-weight. Hyde quickly leaned to the right, avoiding Guy’s attack with little to no difficulty. Pivoting to the left, Hyde’s left hand came up and grappled Guy by the forearm, tugging him forward while simultaneously grabbing his shoulder with his right hand. A swift kick to the back of Guy’s leg forced him to his knees, with his remaining arm being pulled behind himself.

“No!” Applebloom screamed as she banged repeatedly on the glass. Applejack made no effort to quiet her. “Let go of him!”

After pushing down on Guy’s shoulder while simultaneously pulling up on his arm, Hyde raised his right arm and quickly brought it back down. The blade in his forearm shot out as he did, slicing through Guy’s left shoulder. A powerful jerk tore the rest of it free, and in a single motion, Hyde swung the severed arm around and under, smashing Guy’s own bicep square into his face. The hit obliterated the remains of his LCD visage, while throwing him clear onto his back, shooting sparks and bleeding hydraulic fluid.

Up above in on the observation deck, everypony gawked in shocked silence. Only Apple Bloom’s quiet sobs could still be heard. “No…”

Hyde tossed Guy’s other arm aside, much like he did the first, sending it clattering against the hydraulic fluid-slicked floor. “That was fun, but we’re done here.” As he had done before, Hyde turned and began his trek out of the arena.

“nO…” Guy’s voice cracked as he flipped himself onto his belly by twisting his legs, making an intolerable screeching as his torn body scraped against the metallic floor. Without arms, Guy used his own broken face as a prop against the ground to stabilize his upper body in order to get his legs under himself again. As carefully as he could, Guy managed to stand and more or less stare back at Hyde with his demolished eyes, though didn’t seem at all steady on his feet since he constantly wobbled and corrected himself.

On the observation deck, Alex mentally noted that Guy’s primary optic sensors and gyroscope, which are located in his head, were, in all likelihood, totaled. If he was this unsteady, then the stabilizers in his torso most likely got shaken up or damaged as well, so he was using all his other working sensors which weren’t meant for stabilization to keep himself upright. It was a smart last ditch effort, but it was the equivalent of someone purely using their sense of hearing to tell which way was up. Guy wouldn’t be able to keep it up for much longer.

Hyde stopped, though didn’t bother to turn as he growled. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“QuiTting Isn’t aN oPtioN…” Guy croaked, taking an unstable step forward.

“You should reconsider that…”

“I wOn’t.” Guy took another shambling step.

A low growl escaped Hyde. “Then give me your best shot…”

Guy picked up the pace, attempting to break into a sprint. However, with his primary and secondary methods of stability compromised, his sense of balance was roughly the equivalent to that of an unfortunate soul who’s had a few too many shots at the bar. Having to spend most of his attention on staying upright, Guy’s acceleration was poor, and he managed to get no faster than a light jog before his balance gave out as well and his now seven and a half ton body slammed face first into the ground, skidding along the metallic floor.

His body ground to a halt behind Hyde, who hadn’t so much as flinched. As Guy attempted to get up again, Hyde finally and slowly turned around, raised his left foot, and planted it square between Guy’s wrecked shoulders, pinning him to the floor. “That’s what I thought. You’re. Done.”

Guy’s legs, however, continued to thrash and force themselves against the weight on his body. After a few seconds of this, Hyde lifted his foot and grabbed Guy by the neck with his left hand, hoisting him up to his feet.

“Let go of him!” Apple Bloom screamed anew, slamming her hoof repeatedly against the glass, as if it would eventually let her pass and save her brother. “Put him down!”

Unbeknownst to her, or anyone else on observation deck, while Hyde lifted Guy with his left arm, he pulled back his right and clenched his fist. Hidden from view, the blade in his right forearm shot out in preparation for Hyde’s final execution. Though everyone was made acutely aware of what happened when Hyde brought him in close, and the shriek of tearing metal silenced any thoughts they had, followed by Guy’s thrashing legs finally going limp. The key detail, though, was the blade protruding from Guy’s lower back, multicolored fluids dripping from its edge.

All around, save for Alex and Rose, eyes grew wide in disbelief.

Apple Bloom froze, dumbstruck. “G… Guy…?”

Down in the arena, Hyde’s left hand repositioned itself to grip the back of Guy’s head. He turned his own head slightly towards the totaled Liandri, and his jagged jaw could be seen moving from above. While the correspondence was noticed, whatever was said between them was too quiet to be heard by the observers.

Without warning, Hyde retracted the blade from Guy’s abdomen, though kept the weapon extended. With his death grip still on Guy’s head, Hyde brought his right arm up and drove the blade straight through the base of Guy’s neck, instantly eliciting screams of horror from everypony watching that competed with the screeching of tearing metal. A couple of sideways jerks later, and Hyde tore Guy’s head free, allowing the body to crash to the floor in a limp heap of scrap.

“NOOO!!” Apple Bloom screeched.

Hyde raised Guy’s head to give it a proper look. The titanium alloy casing around the back was in relatively good condition, though the face had been destroyed beyond all recognition. Aside from being completely shattered, it had caved in from the prior impact with Guy’s own arm. Broken pieces of circuitry and other electronics tumbled out through the sheared neck, no doubt shattered or shaken loose from the same assault. Like the other limbs he had forcibly removed, Hyde tossed the head aside, letting it crash to the ground like any other random object. “Rogue process: terminated.”

While Alex and Rose stood stoic, those around them has less than pleasant reactions.

Fluttershy quaked against the floor, her eyes fixed on a single point while her hooves shielding her head. “He’s dead! He’s dead! He killed him…!”

Rarity and Pinkie leaned against the far wall, nearly ready to topple over. “Oh goodness… I… I’m going to be sick…”

Twilight continued to stare in absolute shock, with barely enough sense to keep a hoof over her gaping mouth. Spike mirrored Fluttershy, his claws clutching at invisible hair, though his eyes remained fixed on Guy’s battered form. Rainbow Dash paced back and forth, still attempting to process what she saw while refusing to actually look at it.

“Guuuuy!” Apple Bloom wailed, pounding on the glass with tears streaming freely down her face. “Please! Get up! Guy, please!”

“He killed him…” Applejack muttered, stupefied. “He… he killed Guy…” She continued to stare at the carnage before her until her eyes twitched. Bit by bit, her lips followed, and a limp jaw morphed into a snarl.

“How could y’all do that to him!?” Applejack snapped at the humanoids beside her. Fumes practically spewed from her nostrils. “All that talk about him bein’ important and y’all go and murder him in cold blood!”

Alex’s luminescent eyes swiveled down to look at her, though the rest of his body remained still. “Murder? Is that what you saw? Murder? Because I saw surgery.” He turned his head to everyone else and yelled. “Hey! You all know Guy’s not dead, right? I don’t know what the fuck you’re all crying about.”

Apple Bloom shoved her way past her sister, looking up at Alex with red, teary eyes. “He’s not!?”

Alex met her eyes with a stone faced look, turning up the volume of his voice so that everypony could hear him. “Fuck no! He’s a Liandri! Unlike us, his brain isn’t in his head—it’s in his chest. What, you didn’t think he actually needed that thing, did you?”

“But then why can’t he move?!” Fluttershy blurted, just as eager to hear confirmation that nopony actually died in front of her.

“As much as it looked like it was, the damage Guy suffered when Hyde stabbed him in the abdomen wasn’t for show,” Rose explained, keeping her voice calm and level. “In fact, it was impressively calculated. He severed the connection between Guy’s AI core and the actuators in his legs.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Fluttershy responded almost instantly.

“It means he’s paralyzed from the waist down,” Alex answered just as quickly. “Believe me when I say that if Hyde was going to kill Guy, there’d be a lot more of him spread around the room.” He turned his attention to the Dozer in the arena. “Well done, Hyde. You were a little rough, but you continue to impress. You can go ahead and go back to what you were doing now.”

“Any time, Commander,” Hyde nodded, and proceeded towards the arena’s exit. As the large doors closed behind him—just like that—the walking force of nature disappeared from their lives as suddenly as it had entered. Were in not for the wreckage it had left behind, the spectators might not have been convinced that any of what they saw was actually real. How could something more vicious and terrifying than a dragon several times its size even exist? How was such a thing even possible?

Alex let out a huff before he turned and beckoned everypony with a quick hand wave to follow him. “Come on. Let’s go talk to him.”

Nopony wasted any time keeping pace, and it didn’t take very long until they all emerged from the arena door that Guy had entered in from. As soon as Guy’s crippled form was in sight, Apple Bloom immediately rushed to towards him. Her big sister, who had the size to easily outpace her, zoomed ahead, though quickly scooped up Apple Bloom as she passed by grabbing the filly by the neck with her teeth and tossing onto her back. Big Mac followed closely, with everypony else lagging, either to give the Apples their space, or out of hesitation to approach the wrecked bot; as if the thing that caused all this destruction would return at any second and do the same to them. Alex and Rose, who were in no particular rush, sauntered from behind.

“Guy!” the two sisters cried as they neared the mutilated form of their adopted brother. Hydraulic fluid pooled out from underneath him, though the two of them completely ignored the oddly colored liquid. Applejack attempted throwing her hooves around Guy’s dented torso, though the feat remained as impossible as ever. Apple Bloom hopped off Applejack as soon as she did, and quickly attempted her own futile full-body hug, placing her head next to shattered Apple emblem on Guy’s chest. “Please, say something!” the smaller sister shouted.

“Hi, BLooM...” came a voice from somewhere within the metal chest. It sounded like Guy’s, but only just. The static and distortion that filtered his words made it nearly incomprehensible, let alone recognizable.

Apple Bloom’s forelegs zipped under herself and she shot up, tears still flowing from her wide eyes. “You… You’re alive!” She dropped back down and snuggled her face into his battered chest, despite the fact that beaten metal was one of the uncomfortable things to rub against one’s face. “You’re alive!” she sobbed. “You’re ali-i-i-ive…!”

“Oh thank goodness!” Fluttershy exclaimed, nearly toppling over as she expelled her entire breath with just those three words.

“Wait, seriously?” said Dash, bewildered, as she took to the air and hovered over Guy’s immobilized form. “How? He got torn apart! Literally! Nopony could survive something like that!”

“It’s because Guy isn’t a pony,” said Alex as he walked across the puddle of fluid and crouched down next to the super-heavy in question. “He’s a Liandri. Blood loss and mutilation like that would be enough to kill things like us; but him?” He scrunched his nose and shook his head. “Naaah. Different physiology. Different mechanisms at work. Different rules. Gonna need to do more than that.” Alex placed a hand on Guy and briefly patted him. “Hey, how you feeling? Nothing critical? Besides the obvious, of course.”

“I’vE bEeN bettER…” came Guy’s distorted voice.

“Yeah, I’m really sorry about all this,” said Alex, bowing his head slightly. “Didn’t want to have to do this to ya, but we couldn’t let you risk yourself like that. This way, we at least have a handle on everything.”

“But did you have to stop him like that?” said Applejack, slowly raising her head to glare at Alex. Death itself lay behind her red-rimmed eyes, with enough potency to give Alex pause for thought.

And pause he did—to make sure he chose his next words carefully. “Unfortunately, yeah, kind of. I mean, I know it wasn’t as easy as asking him nicely to stay and hope he does, but we really couldn’t take that chance.”

A vein bulged near Applejack’s eye. Alex couldn’t help but calculate how much arterieller pressure would be needed to generate the three millimeter rise.

“So you decided to lock him in a cage with a psychopath?!” she screamed back, raising herself up as if she were about to leap over Guy and hit the human square across the jaw. “And let him get picked apart till he was hurt so bad he couldn’t move anymore!? What kinda cruel, heartless monster would-”

“Pitting Guy against Hyde was my idea, Applejack,” Rose interrupted, coming up from behind her and placing a delicate hand on her shoulder. The AI’s words immediately got AJ’s attention and she spun her head to gawk at her in disbelief. “Ponies and cybernetics work very differently,” Rose continued, keeping a soft voice. “The only reason I suggested this is because Guy’s cybernetic nature makes this form of restraint possible. So long as his AI core remains intact, he can always be rebuilt, and his body will be as good as if this never happened in the first place. He may be a Skulldozer, but I knew Hyde would make every effort to avoid damaging Guy’s core. I would have never considered it otherwise.”

“I-I-I… But…” AJ stammered, letting the tension in her muscles leak out.

Rose gave her shoulder a brief squeeze and smiled. “I understand if you’re confused. You’ve lived your entire life with a fixed expectation of intelligence and how the bodies of those they’re attached to work, and now you’re encountering a situation where everything you thought you knew about life and minds doesn’t apply anymore. I know this is difficult for you, but I only ask that you recognized that, in these circumstances, the rules are different.”

Applejack’s eyes trailed down Rose’s body until she stared at the floor, eventually turning her gaze back to Guy. Rose took the opportunity to inject a final dose of comfort. “Guy is fine, Applejack. His mind is no more tied to a single body than mine is. So long as his mind remains, he is healthy. I promise you: by the time you return to Ponyville, Guy will be as good as new.”

“He’ll be even better than new,” Alex added, adopting Rose’s tone. “Guy’s chassis was a prototype for the Commando. All we gotta do is take one of them, modify it a bit, slap him in, and bam -” He looked towards Apple Bloom, whose curious eyes had been drawn to him, and smiled. “- instant upgrade.”

At that moment, Alex’s eyes were drawn away as a blue light entered the arena from behind the ponies and quickly approached. “Ah, Seraph’s here.” His words directed everypony’s attention to the airborne Liandri, which wasted no time flying past them to hover beside Guy’s crippled body, placing a gentle hand against his plating.

All those who had yet to see one of the angelic technicians gave awed gasps at its ambient display of radiance and ghostly blue trail that dazzled the eyes, even in the intense light of the arena. “Whoa… Well that thing is… different…” Applejack commented.

“Alright, Guy,” Alex said as he patted the super-heavy’s chest. “I hate having to ask you this, but I need you to shut down now, okay? And I really mean shut down—not standby. We can’t get you out until you do.”

“I DoN’t wAnT tO,” Guy refused.

“Guy, if you don’t shut down, we can’t fix you,” Rose said. “I will personally make sure your core remains secure until your replacement chassis is ready.”

“fIx This onE.”

Rose sighed. “You’ve suffered far too much damage, Guy. Fixing this chassis simply isn’t feasible, and doing so might damage your core.”

“I dON’t CarE.”

“Please, Guy…” Applejack whispered, laying her head against his chest. “Please… Just listen to Rose… You can trust her… I trust her…”

“What’ll happen to him if he shuts down…?” Apple Bloom asked, peering up at Rose with pleading eyes.

“It’s just like going to sleep,” Rose explained, reaching over to pick up the filly, who initially squirmed at being taken from her brother, but quickly calmed down in Rose’s softer arms. “The only difference is that you have to wait until someone else wakes you up… I know it’s scary, Guy. I’ve experienced it myself. But if you do this, I promise you’ll be able to hug your family again that much sooner.”

Nopony spoke a word, waiting for Guy’s reply. Silence reigned for what felt like the longest time until something in the air… changed. As if this hum that existed in the background and that nopony had ever noticed was suddenly gone. Vanished. Everypony had felt it, yet the change had been so subtle that no one was even sure it happened at all. Rose and Alex traded a quick look.

“G… Guy…?” Apple Bloom tentatively asked from her cradle.

Everyone listened intently for some kind of response, but none came.

“That did it,” Alex announced with a nod, just as the Seraph began to hover directly over Guy’s chest. Placing both of its hands between Guy’s breastplates, the Seraph’s forearms fractured, spilling iridescent light from the cracks, before they flew apart altogether in a flurry luminous pieces.

All eyes remained transfixed on the sight as the layers of titanium alloy and other reinforcements that composed Guy’s chest were effortlessly cut and peeled away like aluminum foil. Pieces of the Seraph’s forearms now reached into Guy, working with their compatriots to lift out entire circuits and pieces of electronics which were too big to be moved aside whole. Apple Bloom squirmed and whimpered in Rose’s arms while the Seraph gutted her brother, though Rose made sure to keep a firm grip on the filly.

Eventually, the Seraph slowed its progress, and the magical pieces of its arms carefully pulled themselves from Guy’s chest in a luminary cloud that held a large, black cube. Once the cube was clear, the pieces of the Seraph’s forearms flew together again, reforming their original, solid shape, leaving the cube nestled within its palms.

Alex reached over and carefully took the cube in one hand, making sure handle it with the utmost reverence. His demeanor didn’t escape the attention of anypony, and their eyes focused on the inconspicuous black cube and the subtle importance placed on it as Alex walked over the Apple Bloom and held the cube up for her to get a better look.

“You see this?” he asked her. “This thing is called an AI Core. It’s an anchor for corporeal AIs like Guy. This core contains everything that Guy is: his thoughts, his feelings, his values, his memories… This. Is. Guy. You asked me once if Guy had a soul. He doesn’t—not in terms of what you think a soul is. But if he did, this inconspicuous little cube would be it.”

The filly’s eyes widened and she automatically reached out for it, though was denied when Alex abruptly handed the cube back to the Seraph. “You know where to put that.”

“Yes, Commander,” the Seraph bowed as it grasped Guy’s Core with seldom seen veneration.

“No, wait!” Apple Bloom called out. Though it was far too late; the Seraph ignored her and zoomed out of the arena for parts unknown, leaving their sight as quickly as it appeared. The filly immediately turned her attention towards Alex. “Where is it takin’ him?”

“Somewhere safe,” said Rose as she let her back on the ground and playfully ruffled her mane. “I’ll take good care of him. You have my word.”

“Hold on a second,” said Spike a he stepped forward. “If that cube thing was Guy, then what’s all this?” He pointed towards Guy’s remains.

Alex idly kicked the motionless husk, though it didn’t so much as twitch. “Just a bunch of scrap, now. An empty shell; a body without a brain; take your pick. This thing is as much Guy as the kitchen sink is. The only thing it’s good for at this point is recycling.”

“I’ll get this all cleaned up,” announced Rose before turning to her earlier volunteers. “In any event, it’s time I got you three equipped. We’ll host a briefing in the drawing room right after. As for the rest of you, it’s time you went home. I’ll issue you Nova escorts to ensure your safe return. As far as I know, no changelings managed to get into town, but there is always a chance I might be wrong. The Apples, however, must remain in town until the changeling situation is rectified. We will pay the fee for your lodging and whatever food you require at the inn of your choosing. If everything goes well, it shouldn’t last more than a few days.

“And if it wasn’t already clear, I thank you all for your continued cooperation during these exceptional times.”

“Hey, how are you holding up?” asked Twilight, giving Applejack a light nudge.

Just as Rose had asked of them, everypony had gone home save for Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Shining Armor, though the guard captain had already joined Alex in the drawing room. The other three waited patiently in the Prototype Lab as Rose reconfigured Alex’s armor platform in a flurry of motion and robotic limbs.

“Ah’m… Ah’m okay…” Applejack drawled, her focus clearly elsewhere. “Just tryin’ to focus on what Rose told me. She’s right. Guy ain’t a pony. He’s alive, but he ain’t alive like us. It’s just…” She paused. “It’s just real easy to forget that sometimes.”

“As long as the Liandri are around, this double standard for what constitutes what is ‘alive’ and what is ‘inanimate’ is something you’ll have to get used to, I’m afraid,” said Rose, who stood next to them while casually observing the armor platform with crossed arms. Despite the fact that the supercomputer hung above them and eyed them with its large, blue iris, she spoke with her bipedal body instead—an appreciated gesture, as her omnipresent “god” voice became fairly overwhelming after a while.

“Something tells me you guys are going to be around for a while,” Dash commented.

“It’ll definitely take quite a bit to get us to move,” Rose smirked.

“Considering it took a potentially world-wide alien invasion last time, I find that very easy to believe,” said Twilight.

Rose shrugged. “Truth be told, we don’t know if it was world-wide. For all we know, it might have been a purely local event.”

“You definitely didn’t want to stick around long enough to find out, though.”

“No. No we didn’t.” At those words, the armor platform finally settled down and its components sunk flush to the white floor. To the ponies, the only visible difference was that the two foot shaped yellow circles in the middle had been replaced by a quartet of horseshoe-like objects. Rose turned to look at Rainbow Dash and held a hand out towards the platform with a smile. “You’re first.”

“Yes!” A grin sprouted on Dash’s face and she bounded up the platform. “What do I do?”

“Just place your hooves on those four soles, hold out your wings as far as you can, and we’ll begin.”

Rainbow followed her instructions, stepping on each metal sole where her hooves clicked into place. “Like this?”

Rose nodded. “Yes. Now, there’s going to be a lot of movement around you, but it’s very important that you ignore it and stay absolutely still. If you move, I might get this wrong and accidentally hurt you. Are you ready?”

Applejack snorted. “Good luck tryin’ to get her to stay still. Rarity can’t do it to save her life!”

Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue at her. “Rarity has me fit into frilly dresses, AJ. This is way cooler! Go for it, Rose!”

On Dash’s mark, the floor beneath her fractured and split open, though she remained exactly where she was. Robotic arms raised high above and around her, spraying her with sweeping rays of light that analyzed every square inch of her body. True to her word, Rainbow Dash remained as still as a statue, even as her curious eyes darted to and fro to keep track of as much of it as possible.

Once the scan was complete, towers of metal holding hundreds of intricate mechanical components raised themselves around her. Much like what Twilight had seen with Alex the day before, mechanized arms helped themselves to these pieces and began to assemble the puzzle over Rainbow Dash’s body with calculated precision. Piece by piece, the metallic frame, mechanisms, and shell came together until the ensemble completely encased her.

Rose’s external arms drew away as she finished outfitting the pegasus, allowing everypony to get a proper look. The sleek armor had been painted the same color as Dash’s coat—a dull cyan—and even had her cutie mark painted right where it needed to be, with the Liandri logo painted on her shoulders. While her mane, tail, and wings remained largely exposed, an articulated and streamlined arm extended over the edges of her wings and gently hugged them.

A full metal helmet covered her head and muzzle, and the multitude of plates that composed the outside twitched and shifted to keep the entire surface as flush as possible with every movement she made. Her eyes, however, remained visible and were shielded by a bubble of… something. Nopony was really sure, since it seemed to materialize out of thin air as the armor powered itself on. Though it wasn’t visible from those on the outside, a Heads Up Display appeared in front of the pegasus’ eyes, detailing her armor’s status and many other minor details she could trouble herself with later.

Dash allowed herself a breath, and an invigorating dose of air rushed into her lungs. Though the pony didn’t know it, the rebreather around her muzzle automatically administered an extra kick of oxygen with every breath.

“Hello, Rainbow Dash,” a voice sounded in Dash’s ear, causing her to jump. It sounded female, but it definitely didn’t sound like Rose. If anything, it sounded peppier and more enthusiastic.

“Whoa! Who’s there?” Dash demanded, turning this way and that, much to the confusion of everypony else. To everypony else, her voice held a slightly robotic quality, as it was being passed through the armor’s voice filter.

“My name is Evie,” the same voice in her ear replied. “I am a virtual intelligence that’s here to help you pilot this device.”

“Uh… you okay there, Rainbow?” asked Applejack, tilting her head and giving her friend a curious look.

Rainbow Dash paused. “Yeah, I just… there was this thing that just spoke to me… said it’s name was ‘Evie.’ ”

“Who now?”

“Evie is an onboard VI that ensures proper operation of the BioMech,” Rose answered. “Evie’s job is to essentially make sure the armor move the way you want it to by predicting your movements, among other things.” She faced Rainbow Dash. “How does it feel? Nothing pinching, I hope?”

Dash finally looked down at herself and gasped. “Whoooaaa…! This is so cool…!” She slowly flexed her wings and followed their movement, impressed that the machine hugging their leading edges didn’t hinder them at all. “That’s so… weird…” This time, she flapped her wings and took to the air. In response, the arm along her wing glowed blue, and a stream of light poured forth from them and over each wing, giving the impression that they were made of cyan flame. Ghostly blue lights along the tiny gaps in the armor came to life as well, turning the dashing pegasus into a dazzling display of luminosity. Despite the fact that the armor had more than doubled her weight, Rainbow Dash took to the air with as little difficulty as ever.

“Whoa, nelly!” Applejack blurted, her eyes as wide as saucers.

“Wow!” Twilight’s face lit up in excitement. “Rainbow Dash, you look amazing!”

“I know, right?” Dash exclaimed as she set herself down next to her friends, whereupon the light show fizzled out of existence. “This is so awesome! I can’t wait to see what Rose made for you guys!”

She didn’t have to wait for very long for Rose to provide armor for them. Each set was different from the next, in both function and appearance, and painted to match their respective owner’s coat. Twilight’s armor didn’t alter its surface like Rainbow’s did. Its appearance was more akin to typical Liandri’s armor, clearly providing the protection expected from it.

Where the emphasis on Dash’s armor was on her wings and aerodynamics, the emphasis on Twilight’s was centered around her horn. A visible power supply covered in protective plating rested on Twilight’s back, with connections snaking under the armor along her mane and towards her horn, which was capped with a smooth, lavender cone. Unlike Rainbow Dash, Twilight’s helmet covered her head but left her entire face visible. However, a transparent bubble much like the one over Dash’s eyes shielded her face from the outside, and provided her with her own HUD as well.

Applejack’s armor took a different turn, covering every square inch of her body in heavy looking orange plating. Similarly to Alex’s armor, a bright yellow visor ran across the front of her helmet, though no lights behind it denoted where her eyes were focused. The rest of the armor placed an emphasis on bulk, and as Applejack’s own version of Evie explained to her, the armor around each of her legs were armed with ASMD cores, set to deliver an incapacitating shock to whatever she decided to buck into next week.

“Ah gotta say…” Applejack jerked her head back and her faceplate followed, bringing itself up and over her head to expose her face. “Ah didn’t think Ah’d be wearin’ this type of gettup when Ah woke up this mornin’.”

“I don’t think any of us did,” said Twilight, holding out a foreleg to examine the intricacies of the armor.

“Hey, Rose, can I try these out in here?” Rainbow Dash asked, her wings already extended and bobbing up and down. “Just this once?”

Rose held out a hand. “This is still a no-fly zone, Dash. Once you get outside, you may try it to your heart’s content, but not before then. In any event, now that you’re all properly equipped, I need you all to follow me into the drawing room. Right this way…”

The humanoid AI beckoned them to follow, and they did, their hooves tapping against the floor in much the same way that the Novas’ did. Though while Rose silently led them through the back of the lab, her voice snuck its way into Twilight’s ear.

“A word of warning, Twilight,” she said. “The device around your horn is an amplifier. It’s supposed to passively augment the amount of magic delivered to your horn, but I’m not sure what kind of effect that will have, or whether it will hurt you or not. Please, be careful while using it.”

Twilight hummed to herself, ignoring the warning and instead letting her mind wander to years worth of magic theory. “Generally speaking, more powerful magic users can draw more magic into their horn for more powerful spells. Although that tends to be a function of a horn’s structure…” While Twilight was speaking out loud, the armor and shield around her head deliberately muffled the sound of her voice to the outside world, keeping the conversation private.

“That’s the conclusion we came to as well,” said Rose. “Just remember that the amplifier delivers magic proportional to the amount you attempt to draw externally. My worry is that an influx of magic might damage your horn if you’re not careful.”

Twilight nodded. “Alright… I’ll try to be careful.”

“Thank you. If you’re too worried about it, just ask Evie to disable the amplifier. One last thing: your armor has a magic nullifier to protect you from offensive magic. We’ve made its usage standard in most units. However, it will also nullify your own spells as a consequence. It’s a problem we’ve yet to find a solution to. Evie will disable the nullifier if you attempt to use magic, but bear in mind it will take a few seconds for it to be reactivated. My advice is to be selective with your spells.”

Twilight hummed. “So it’s either defense or offense, but not both… Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.”

The three newly armored ponies followed Rose to the drawing room, though she stopped just short of the door and turned to face them. “The drawing room is right through here. Just go on ahead.” She then promptly walked past them, back the way they came.

Applejack’s gaze followed her as she left. “Wait, ya ain’t gonna be in there with us?”

Just as she uttered those words, the door to the drawing room opened on its own, and an exact replica of the Rose that led them stood beyond. “Of course I will,” she said. “I’m just already inside.”

AJ spun to look at the new Rose, then back at the first who just rounded the corner and disappeared from view. “Wait, wha…? How did you…?”

Twilight smirked and patted her friend’s shoulder. “You really need to come around here more often.” She punctuated her remark by strolling into the drawing room, but walking through Rose’s form as she did, making the image shimmer blue around the edges where their bodies intersected.

Applejack gawked at what she had just witnessed, though came to when Rainbow Dash nudged her. “Yeah, this one room is really weird. Cool, but weird.” Dash then followed Twilight, but steered clear of the holographic version of Rose, who simply smiled before suddenly blinking out of existence.

Applejack shook her head and followed suit. “This day just keeps gettin’ weirder…”

The three of them walked towards the center of the massive dome-shaped room, where Alex, Shining Armor, and a bright blue holographic representation of Rose were looking over a large holographic image of what looked to be a mountain and its surrounding area.

Alex turned his attention towards the new arrivals and whistled. “Hot damn, look at you guys. Gotta say, Rose, I’m impressed.”

Rose bowed, and her voice echoed throughout the room. “Thank you! I’m quite proud of them myself.”

Shining Armor chuckled as his sister moved to stand next to him. “Alright, I’ll admit it: I’m a little jealous.”

“I had a feeling you would be,” Twilight giggled. “Although how well they work is a completely different question.”

“It’s Rose’s engineering,” said Alex, smirking as he crossed his arms. “My stuff can be a bit shoddy at times, but if Rose says it’ll work, it’ll work. Now then, we’re still waiting on one more. We’ll start the briefing when he get’s here.”

Applejack gave him a curious glance. “Huh? Ah thought we were all here. Who else are we waitin’ for?”

The answer to her question came in the form of the drawing room’s door opening behind her, followed by heavy, thunderous footsteps. “Sorry I’m late,” boomed a voice she had hoped to never hear again for as long as she lived. “Interrogation got a little… messy.”

Everypony turned to look at the newcomer, though immediately spaced themselves out to give him room. Metal clanked against metal as Sub-Commander Hyde made his way to the others and joined in their circle, flexing the claws of one hand while gripping his forearm with the other. His unsettling, boney visage and glowing, blood-red eyes made everypony give the looming Skulldozer sideways glances, though Applejack took no steps to hide her glare.

Being the military grade Liandri that he was, Hyde noticed her attitude in no time at all and glared back down at her. “Something wrong, short stuff?”

“Nope,” AJ spat back, keeping her glare focused.

Hyde leaned in towards her, keeping his eerie eyes locked with her’s, and growled, “Good.”

“Hey! You two!” Alex shouted, clapping his cybernetic hands together to get their attention. “Quit it! I know everything that happened in the arena is still sore, but I shouldn’t have to remind you guys that you’re on the same fucking team here. Cut the shit—we got work to do.”

Hyde immediately straightened himself and nodded towards Alex. “Yes, Commander.”

Applejack grit her teeth and forced herself to look forward at the hologram they all surrounded. “Yeah, sure…”

“Thank you. Rose, if you would?”

Rose’s hologram stepped forward and gestured towards the image of the mountain. “As you’re all aware of by now, the changeling’s attack on Ponyville failed, and whatever survivors that weren’t captured have fled. We’ve been following them using high altitude Raptors and have managed to track them to this particular mountain in the badlands far to the west. Each changeling we’ve tracked has come to this exact mountain and has subsequently disappeared into what appears to be a tunnel network. Alternative sources of information have confirmed that this mountain is, in fact, the changelings’ primary base of operations and where the Appleloosans are being held.”

“Do you mind if I ask how you know that?” said Shining.

Hyde let out a deep chuckle and crossed his arms, tapping his claws against his armored biceps. “We have our methods…”

“Something tells me we shouldn’t ask…” muttered Twilight, taking a side-step further away from the Skulldozer and closer to her brother.

Rose sighed. “Honestly, that’s for the best. Just rest assured that I wouldn’t be relying on this information if I wasn’t confident about it. I cross referenced our sources and reconnaissance double checked their claims. For now, it’s the best information we have.” The holographic mountain began to slowly spin in place, and red dots suddenly appeared and began to flash at various points around its base, with a few further up. “These locations mark known entry points to the changeling hive. From what we know, most of these are small tunnels no larger than the ones our own facility uses. However, there is one notable exception…”

The red dots disappeared and a single red circle appeared at the base of the mountain. “On the east side is a significantly larger tunnel used by a changeling sub-class we’ve dubbed ‘behemoths.’ ” Above the mountain, a holographic representation of the tusked monstrosity that attacked Ponyville earlier that day materialized into existence.

Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack expressed their surprise at the sight. “Whoa!” Dash exclaimed. “That thing’s a changeling? It doesn’t look anything like the others!”

“It’s a changeling alright…” answered Shining Armor, sneering at his memory of the beast. “A really nasty one, too.”

“As big as a house—at least,” Twilight added.

“And armored up the ass,” said Alex, crossing his arms. “Needed a tank just to hurt the damn thing.”

“The inside of their mouth is pretty squishy,” Hyde rumbled. “The trick is getting them to sit still long enough to pry it open.”

“In any event,” Rose interjected, “since the hive has a tunnel specifically for behemoths, it’s safe to say there will be more of them. They are currently our biggest threat during this operation, although now that we’re anticipating them, we can prepare the appropriate heavy weaponry. Our current intelligence also states that this behemoth tunnel connects directly to the hive’s nexus: a central chamber whose role we’re not exactly clear on yet. Whether the Appleloosans are being kept there or not is unknown. In fact, for all we know, they’ll be dispersed throughout the entire hive, and if that’s the case, this operation may devolve into a game of hide and seek.”

“Wouldn’t the nexus be the most heavily defended part of the hive?” inquired Twilight.

“Common sense says yes,” Alex answered, “though there’s no way to know for sure short of poking our head in and taking a look. If you ask me, with all the casualties they took today, I’d be very surprised if there are enough left to defend anything.”

“For now, we’ll have to assume the entire hive is heavily defended and extremely hostile,” said Rose. “Scouting drones will be deployed to do a preliminary search for the Appleloosans. Once they’ve been located, extraction squads will be deployed and authorized full use of force. Once they are secure, on-site blood tests will be performed to determine their legitimacy. If they are real, they will be escorted out of the hive and extracted via Raven dropship. They will likely be traumatized and afraid, so your job will be to ensure these ponies remain calm and cooperative until extraction. If they aren’t, they may do something reckless and get themselves or others hurt. Understand?” The three volunteers gave their affirmation. “Excellent. Any questions?”

“How are you going to be getting there?” asked Shining. “How are you going to sustain this kind of operation? What about supply lines?”

“We’ll be leaving from Ponyville by military convoy,” said Alex. “The lead vehicle will be a Leviathan tank, which I will be piloting, followed by Goliaths and a string of Hellbenders acting as troop transports and key equipment haulers. Hellfires will follow up from behind, and Mantas will be flanking the convoy from either side. Raptor and Cicada squadrons will provide extra line of sight and air support.”

Alex raised his hand and the image of the mountain stopped spinning. With a twist of his wrist, the image turned and focused on a particular area some ways off from the eastern side of the mountain, which began to flash green. “This spot is where we’ll make our foothold. Once we have a perimeter set up, Axons will deploy a communications tower here, and set up infantry and vehicle portals here and here.” Various colored dots appeared in the highlighted region. “After all that’s done, we’ll be able to teleport in as much equipment as we need and secure the perimeter of the mountain by deploying sniper squads in these locations.” The entire mountain returned into view and dozens of red dots appeared within the surrounding territory. “Air support will run rounds and make sure that nothing gets away from that mountain without our say-so.”

Twilight raised a hoof. “Question.”

“Yes?”

“What’s going to happen after we rescue the Appleloosans?”

Alex brought his hands behind his back. “We need to get a better idea of the tunnel system before I can answer that question. I’ll let you know once we get to that point.” The three mares shared quick, concerned looks, though otherwise didn’t comment further. Alex hardly seemed to notice. “Any other questions?” When none came, he nodded and the holograms disappeared. “Alright. Let’s go save a town.”

Inside the underground garage, hordes of Novas marched along the lines of parked Hellbenders, clanking against the concrete floor until they each found the truck meant to transport them. Each Hellbender carried a dozen Novas, though only when they climbed aboard and folded themselves into as small a ball as was possible—a ball that was still the size of a small work desk.

The three volunteer ponies walked with them, with Hyde thundering along just ahead. Alex had handed them off to the Sub-Commander to lead them to their transport while he went elsewhere. Eventually, Hyde pointed a claw towards an empty Hellbender and growled: “You’re in that one.” Twilight and Rainbow Dash hopped onto the truck while the Skulldozer lumbered to the adjacent Hellbender and unceremoniously sat himself down on the edge of its bed, causing it to sink several feet lower to the ground and give its suspension a real run for its money.

The three ponies eyed Hyde’s Hellbender, taking note of the fact that the addition of their weight on theirs did almost nothing to the truck’s suspension. While Twilight and Rainbow Dash decided to get themselves settled in, Applejack cautiously walked over to Hyde, keeping an eye on his unnatural, permanent grin. Instantly noticing her approach, Hyde planted his claws on his knees and glared down at her with his fiery eyes. “Need something, tiny?”

Applejack’s face twitched, though she otherwise ignored the remark and kept her composure. She had a question, and Hyde was the only one who could answer it at this point. “When you were fightin’ Guy earlier. When you… Before you, er…”

“Before I what?” Hyde boomed, snatching the attention of the other two ponies. “Before I threw him into the wall? Before I tore his right arm off? The left?” He let out a deep laugh, then his voice dropped several octaves. “Before I tore off his head?”

“Yeah that one,” AJ interrupted, gritting her teeth. “You said somethin’ to him. Ah couldn’t hear it, but Ah know you did. Ah wanna know what you told him.”

“Wouldn’t you like to?” Hyde rumbled, tilting his head briefly before tilting it back. “You can ask him yourself when Rose is done putting him back together.”

“Ah ain’t askin’ Guy,” Applejack declared, keeping a stony face. “Ah’m askin’ you.”

Hyde stared at her in silence for several seconds. “Fine. You wanna know what I told him?” He leaned over his knees and his crimson stare bore straight through the pony’s head as he growled: “I told him that he failed; That if you didn’t make it back alive, it would be all. His. Fault.” Hyde’s words smashed through Applejack’s expression like a jackhammer. Even the others couldn’t quite believe what they had just heard. “Satisfied?”

Applejack’s mind fumbled in processing his words. She gawked at him for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “No… You’re lyin’... Nopony can be that… that…”

“That cruel?” Hyde finished for her. “I’m a Skulldozer.” He pushed himself further back into the bed of the Hellbender, shuddering the vehicle with a cacophony of clanking metal. “Being nice isn’t my thing. Welcome to reality, Pipsqueak.” At his words, the Hellbenders simultaneously roared to life, and Hyde jerked his head towards the one carrying Twilight and Rainbow Dash. “Get on. It’s time to go risk that life of yours.”

With nearly zombie-like movements, Applejack backed away and climbed onto the Hellbender with her friends, who were busy glaring at the Skulldozer as his truck backed out of its parking spot. “Okay, he’s got some serious issues,” grumbled Dash.

A pair of Novas climbed aboard their Hellbender and the vehicle began to pull out of its parking spot and rumble after Hyde’s. “I know waging a war with the changelings and rescuing an entire town’s worth of foal-napped ponies is serious business,” said Twilight, wearing a similar frown, “but this is taking it just a bit too far.”

“We’re not going to war, Sparky,” Hyde loudly corrected her, able to clearly hear her voice from the other vehicle. “War implies that either side stands some chance of winning. Nah, this isn’t a war…” Hyde brought up his right forearm and ejected the blade within through his wrist. The razor edge of the silvery blade glowed a faint baby blue; a stark contrast with the dark colors of his armor. The claws of his left hand danced along the length of the blade as his crimson gaze admired its smooth form. “It never was…” A deep, chuckling rumble punctuated his words as the blade shot back into his arm.

The three ponies glanced at each other, though remained silent. Words weren’t necessary when the discomfort in their expressions said everything.

The Hellbenders crawled through the underground lot, forming an increasingly long train with Hyde’s truck taking the lead. Rainbow Dash’s leg impatiently twitched and bounced as the claustrophobic environment began to take its toll. Twilight’s eyes strayed to the rear, gazing curiously at all the vehicles lined up behind theirs. Applejack remained stock still, staring at the floor of the truck bed, though would occasionally raise her eyes to steal a glance at the Skulldozer that lounged in the preceding Hellbender.

The trucks eventually ground to a halt, stopping just short of entering a massive tunnel that Twilight recognized from earlier that week, where the noise of a rumbling machine echoed from somewhere within. “Where the hay even are we right now?” Applejack blurted once she and Rainbow Dash directed their gaze towards the front.

“We’re still somewhere under Ponyville…” Twilight casually answered.

She would have said more, though the rumbling within the tunnel grew louder by the second, drowning out her thoughts, and her other two friends had no doubt taken notice as well. None of them had to wait very long until its source made itself present, forcing both their eyes and mouths open. It was only at this moment that Twilight realized exactly why the tunnel was so large to begin with.

A looming wall of metal thundered past the waiting hellbenders. None of the ponies could glean the full size of the vehicle passing by them, but they didn’t need to know much more for them to conclude its enormity. Massive wheels, easily the size of an entire cart all on their own, if not bigger, rolled past, supporting a titanic metal body that made the tunnel it was in seem like a tight fit. It took several seconds for the gargantuan machine to finally pass through the tunnel’s intersection, trailed immediately by a pair of Goliath tanks that drove side by side. Almost as soon as the tanks were clear, the Hellbenders jerked into motion once more, entered the tunnel, and fell into line behind them.

“Whoa!” Dash nearly shouted. “What is that thing?!”

“That’s the Leviathan,” Hyde answered, his voice snaking its way into their ears via the speakers in their armor. “The Commander isn’t pulling any punches. Like I said: this isn’t a war.”

“Well if it ain’t a war, then what is it?” Applejack monotoned, eyes still transfixed on the vehicle taking up the entire tunnel as more and more Hellbenders fell in behind them.

Twilight’s eyes scanned the Leviathan’s backside. The tank’s impossibly large frame and wheels were astonishingly intricate, yet visibly sturdy—maybe even indestructible. In all likelihood, indestructibility was probably a primary goal in this machine’s design. Most of the vehicle’s bulk seemed to be concentrated near the front, though an elongated structure in the rear that caught Twilight’s eye formed some sort of tail or backbone. To her, it appeared rigid with regards to the rest of the vehicle, yet its overall structure and connecting mechanisms implied that it could potentially move, or perhaps even fold out. What could it be?

Her eyes only needed to stray towards the Goliaths sandwiched between them, and the large cannons they sported.

Twilight had an answer to Applejack’s question. Her eyes trailed to the floor of the truck bed. “It’s a massacre…”

The only response she received was in the form of a bellowing laugh from Hyde.

Twilight gulped. What am I getting myself into…?

A streaming video played on a computer screen. The camera’s view remained focused on a hillside, or rather, the opening to a large tunnel built into it. Out of that tunnel emerged a vehicle that rivaled old human mining dump trucks in terms of sheer size, though this thing possessed a heavily armored frame and was armed to the teeth, with manned turrets visible along the upper deck.

The Makderi were right about you, Xan Kriegor… That makes you predictable. Dangle a juicy enough piece of meat in front of you and you’ll bite every single time.

The Overseer’s hand hovered over his terminal and he calmly held down a button. “Phayder squad. Report.”

A few seconds later, he received a reply. “The charge is set, Overseer. We’re arming the trigger now.”

“Does Chrysalis know you’re there?”

“No, Overseer.”

“Good. Notify me when you’re done.”

“Yes, Overseer.”

He released the button and interlocked his fingers. And now that meat is poisoned. I’m done playing games with you, Xan. You may have been able to deal with whatever surprises the Makderi threw at you, but I doubt you’ll expect a thermonuclear warhead from a world that’s only ever used gunpowder for fireworks…

A stray splash of color on the screen interrupted the Overseer’s musings, and he leaned further in to examine it. A trio of familiar ponies wearing full body armor sat in the back of one of the vehicles. It didn’t take terribly long for a prismatic streak to launch itself into the air, reaching impossible speeds in almost no time at all.

The Overseer’s gauntleted fingers clenched around his hands, shortly before he slammed a fist on the edge of the terminal.

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED!

Hyde's a character I've been planning for some time now, and definitely one that I've personally gotten very excited over. Although truth be told, he wasn't planned until about a year ago. In fact, the scene where Guy fights in the arena was planned since the summer of 2013 (around the time I wrote the first few chapters), but I originally intended for Guy to fight a Commando controlled by Rose. Everything between now and then as to how Hyde and the Skulldozers came to be is a bit of a long story for the author's notes.

In any event, finals are coming up and I have a lot of catching up to do. My last final is on April 27th (ending my semester wickedly early), but I'll be hugely busy between now and then. My biggest exams start on the 18th and go on for three days in a row. Not to mention the fact that I fell behind a little more than I would like because of a single class sucking up all my time. It's also been impacting my motivation to write, which sucks all the dick. Once all that's done and summer rolls around, though, I expect to get back into the writing groove. Plus, I have my Fan Girl to help keep me motivated.

Also, I changed the description of the story because I felt the previous one sucked and it was about damn time. As always, thoughts, comments, and error fixes are appreciated! Oh, and in case anyone is curious, that quote at the top of the chapter is from the description of a Payday 2 mask.

Counter-Strike

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“They’re doing what?!” Celestia blurted at the monitor.

The masked face displayed on it nodded once. “You heard me. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack have joined Xan in a militarized campaign against Chrysalis. He’s assembled a large vehicular convoy, and he’s also bringing one of his new fire-breathing abominations as well.”

“That’s just fantastic…” Chrysalis’ disembodied voice grumbled.

Celestia rubbed a hoof against her head in an attempt to nurse her growing headache. “This… this is getting out of control.” She dropped her hoof and shook her head. “I’m going to go stop them. I’m going to make Twilight and her friends see reason, and—”

“You will do no such thing,” the Overseer interrupted.

The princess blinked at the screen. “What…? Overseer, you can’t be serious. I can understand that you’re forcing Alexander away from Ponyville by using the Appleoosans and a threat to Equestria as an incentive, but allowing half of the bearers of the elements of harmony to go with him? This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Under normal circumstances, I’d agree with you,” the Overseer replied with a nod. “However, the circumstances have changed. Xan is traveling inside of a large, heavily armored vehicle which I believe to be a mobile assault base. If I’m correct, it looks like it possesses enough firepower to level Manehatten; something which should be a concern to you. But I digress. The changelings do not have any means to penetrate that vehicle, and my plan to rid the universe of that monster will not be successful if he remains inside it. I believe Chrysalis might be able to use the ponies as leverage to draw him out.”

“So I’m supposed to take the ponies hostage and let you execute your plan?” asked Chrysalis.

The Overseer shook his head. “No. You are to coax Xan out and eliminate him yourself by any means necessary. I don’t care how you do it so long as it’s done. Using the ponies to do that is merely a suggestion. I will intervene if and only if you should fail. This will be your final chance.” His masked face angled downward as he growled out his next sentence: “For your own sake, do not let it come to that.”

“I still fail to see why Alexander is such a threat to Equestria,” Celestia blurted. “Everything that he has done is completely understandable, given his means. I might even say his actions are heroic, in some sense. Equestria is threatened, her citizens endangered, and he is responding to it while the royal guard are forced to sit idly by. The cycles are threatened, to be sure, but perhaps it’s time they came to an end, don’t you think?”

“The cycles will end when I deem they are no longer necessary,” the Overseer retorted, raising his voice. “That time is not now. And Xan is not just a threat to Equestria; he is a threat to every living thing on this planet and beyond. He is a monster and a tyrant whose very existence threatens all life, known and unknown.

“Listen to me very carefully. He isn’t going after the changelings because he wants to save the Appleoosans. He wants a deathmatch; A bloodbath; Extermination. The Appleoosans are just a convenient excuse, and he’ll keep the ponies alive as long as it keeps his cover intact. The changelings are just the beginning. At some point, he won’t bother with excuses, and Equestria itself will be his next target.”

“You constantly throw all these accusations at him, yet I don’t see why I should believe any of them!” Celestia argued, taking a step closer to the screen. “Given what we know, either of our arguments could stand as the truth.”

“Perhaps it’s because you believe him to be the secret to ending the cycles?” the Overseer proposed, causing Celestia’s frown to evaporate on the spot. Even Chrysalis grew deathly silent on her end. The Overseer continued: “Mark my words, Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis. Let’s say this was the last cycle and I entertained the notion of letting him go free: there would eventually come a time where he would stare you down. He would smile at you—if he didn’t already fully turn himself into a machine by then—and even welcome you in his arms. He would whisper these exact words into your ear: ‘Flesh is a design flaw.’

“And then he would kill you.”

The swishing of fan blades and rush of Tarydium rockets of a low-flying Cicada drew Applejack’s eyes skyward just in time to see the aircraft zoom overhead to go… wherever it was supposed to go. At the back of her mind she was aware that there was some reason for each Liandri’s actions; some method to their madness. But on the front of it they all seemed disorganized and chaotic, and it was only coincidence that none of them bumped or crashed into each other—or that they even managed to accomplish anything together at all.

But as Twilight explained—on more than one occasion—it was only the appearance of chaos. Behind them was an organizational structure so complicated that randomness and chaos was the only interpretation that could make any sense to outsiders. That, in reality, the Liandri were more organized as a collective than even she could ever be on her own. Something like that coming from Twilight definitely wasn’t said lightly. But while all that seemed well and good as an idea, Applejack prefered to measure order by how many ducks were in a row.

And these ducks definitely weren’t in any rows that she could see.

The Liandri convoy drove through the night, not bothering to stop for anything; not even bathroom breaks. When that became an problem, Alex simply told them to do their business somewhere by the side of the road and run to catch up. Nopony was a fan of the idea, but when nature called, it wouldn’t be ignored, and it wasn’t like there were any toilets nearby. Thankfully, Rose remembered that ponies had to do their business, and the armor opened up in the right spots. As for the catching up part, the armor managed to pleasantly surprise everypony yet again. Applejack was aware she was able to get some decent speed on her own, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t able to run as fast as that before.

Getting some shuteye in the back of a moving Hellbender wasn’t the easiest task, either. Even with the vehicle’s suspension, her armor’s cushioning, and Evie’s willingness to block outside sound and light while she slept, the rough terrain made decent sleep a near impossibility. Not to mention the fresh memories of everything that happened to Guy earlier that day. In the end, it took one of Twilight’s spells for AJ to finally get some rest.

When she finally awoke, the sun had already been up for at least an hour and the convoy had just entered the badlands. Dead and dying vegetation surrounded them, struggling to survive in the pale, dry soil and rocky environment. Not a single weather team had brought rain here in a long time, if ever. A number of trees stood out, though each one was dead, twisted, and jet black. They didn’t seem burnt, though. It was as if they had been going just fine for a while, until they had the life forcefully sucked out of them, leaving them frozen in time.

The Leviathan still led the pack of vehicles behind it, chugging along at a decent pace while crushing much of the terrain beneath its massive wheels. The convoy had widened itself out, bringing some of the vehicles from the back closer to the middle. Overhead, Raptors and Cicadas zipped around at varying altitudes in wide arcs that extended well beyond the ground-bound vehicles, covering at least ten times the area, if not more. Applejack observed them for several minutes, trying to figure out their flight pattern, though to no avail.

Off in the distance was a mountain range, with one mountain standing out among them. Not just in the sense that it was the largest, but also because she recognized it as the hologram from the drawing room. The changeling hive… Applejack thought. Despite knowing what it was she was looking at, the sight appeared oddly peaceful. For an evil changeling hive, somepony would think there would be dark, ominous clouds hovering around it, spitting lightning every time Crysalis cackled to the thoughts of her plans from deep inside her mountain fortress. And yet not a single changeling could be seen, nor were there any clouds. All things considered, it was a perfectly beautiful day.

And all Tartarus was probably gonna break loose real soon. A knot formed in Applejack’s gut. “Somepony please tell me I ain’t the only one gettin’ nervous about this?”

“You’re the only one,” Rainbow Dash’s voice snarked through her earpiece, a small picture of her cutie mark appearing along the left side of Applejack’s HUD as she spoke. The pegasus wasn’t in the truck, but rather doing her own rounds among the aircraft, and even flying beyond to satisfy her own curiosity of the region.

Twilight, who sat beside AJ and who had also heard the communication, rolled her eyes and sighed. “No, Applejack, you’re not. I’ve been feeling nervous about it since yesterday.”

“Why are you guys so nervous?” Dash asked over the radio. “They’re just changelings! Plus, we have this wicked armor that Rose gave us! There’s no way we’re not going to kick some serious flank!”

“Armor or not, they’re still going to try to kill you,” came Alex’s voice, accompanied by a small picture of a wrench overlaid atop a hexagonal grid. “Just keep your eyes open and stay focused. Hyde and I are running logistics, so we’ll tell you where to go and what to do. Follow your waypoints and complete your objectives. If a behemoth spots you, I don’t care what you’re doing, you turn your ass around and run. Let the heavy weapons deal with them. We do this right and we’ll be back home before dinner. Got it?”

“Got it,” Twilight nodded.

“Alright…” said Dash, some measure of annoyance in her voice.

Applejack let out a short huff before nodding. “Alright, Ah got it.”

“Good,” said Alex. “Just keep your cool and everything will go smoother than melted butter.”

As time went on, the convoy gradually approached the mountain. Despite all the Liandri activity around her, Applejack scanned as much of the landscape as she could in an attempt to spot any changelings hiding from view that the machines somehow didn’t see. The ride proved uneventful, until a Nova’s robotic voice came through the radio: “Enemy spotted.” A red reticle suddenly appeared on AJ’s HUD, pointing somewhere far to the right of the convoy. She only managed to turn her head in time to see a Raptor fire off several bolts of plasma at something on the ground, whereupon the floating reticle suddenly disappeared.

“Whoa, what the hay was that?” asked Dash voice.

“A Raptor spotted a drone,” Hyde’s gravelly voice replied. His picture on AJ’s HUD was that of a horned skull. “Probably a scout trying to get a closer look. They definitely know we’re here, but we’re still five minutes away from our deployment zone, so stay focused.”

The knot in AJ’s gut tightened further. She didn’t consider herself yellow-bellied—at all—but there was a big difference between putting on your hat and defending your friends and family against all odds, and going on a suicide mission to attack the big fortress home of the very things that mean you harm. Applejack hadn’t seen a single changeling since they left Ponyville, but now that that first one showed up, the idea that she was actually about to risk her own life suddenly became much, much more real.

“You alright, Pipsqueak?” Hyde’s voice rumbled into her ear. “Your heart rate’s spiking. You’re not gonna have a heart attack before we get to the fun part, are you?” Applejack’s eye twitched and she snapped her head to glare at Hyde, lounging in the Hellbender across the way while staring right back at her. “That’d be a pretty pathetic thing to tell your family when we got back: that you got so scared you died before the fighting even started.”

“Ah ain’t scared,” AJ growled, narrowing her eyes.

“Prove it to me, Pipsqueak,” Hyde’s voice growled back as he leaned towards her.

Applejack huffed and twisted her head back towards the mountain. I ain’t gonna let that bully tell my family anything like that.

Time rolled on, as did the wheels of the vehicles. The mountain drew closer and closer by the second.

“Three minutes out,” Alex announced over the radio.

Twilight stood up on her hind legs to look around, propping herself on the cabin of the Hellbender. “I’m not seeing any more changelings. Are you sure this is the right place?”

“It’s the best information we have,” Alex responded, just as Rainbow Dash swooped around the truck and gently landed next to them, the glow around her wings evaporating as her hooves touched down. “If this isn’t the right place, I don’t know what is.”

“But we’re clearly trespassing on their territory…” said Twilight, her brow creasing. “We even caught a drone trying to spy on us. Why hasn’t anything happened yet?”

“Think it’s a trap?” asked Applejack.

“It might be,” Alex replied. “But they did suffer massive losses yesterday. I’d be surprised if Chrysalis still had any changelings left to mount a decent defense.”

Rainbow Dash snorted and crossed her forelegs. “So she’s hiding. What, she just thinks we’ll leave her alone and let her keep all those ponies if she just lays low for a little bit? Fat chance.”

Applejack sneered under her helmet. “Chrysalis ain’t gonna keep her hooves on my family any longer than Ah’m gonna let her.”

“Two minutes to deployment,” came Hyde’s voice. “Marking the DZ.”

Far ahead of the convoy, a large, downward green arrow appeared on top of a small elevation in the terrain, catching everypony’s attention. “Whoa, how’d that get there?” asked Dash.

“If you’ve got a Heads Up Display, you’ve got augmented reality,” Alex answered. “Only we can see that spot. Take the helmet off and that waypoint disappears.”

The radio remained silent, and everypony counted down the seconds over the drone of the various engines and aircraft. Nothing was happening, yet their hearts increased their tempo. The convoy was reaching the end of the road, so where were all the changelings? Are they hiding? Did they pack up and leave? Are they preparing an ambush? Any one of these could have been the answer, and yet none of them had any idea which it actually was.

“Sixty seconds,” Hyde announced.

Twilight sucked in a breath. Less than a minute until they officially arrived, and yet it was still so quiet. Maybe there wouldn’t be any fighting after all? Maybe the changelings were just waiting for them to stop so they could peacefully bring all the Appleoosans out? Maybe—

“Enemy spotted,” the voice of a Nova interrupted her thoughts. A red reticle appeared on Twilight’s HUD, followed by several dozen others all around the mountain until something made the decision that the floating red symbols obscured too much of her vision and removed them altogether.

What was left behind really wasn’t much better, though. Clouds of black dots seeped from the pores and crevices of the mountain, swirling in a misty formation that suggested unreal organization. A giant shadow covered the side of the mountain as the once empty skies became filled to the brim with a massive collection of individuals.

Rainbow Dash gulped. “Okay, that’s… That’s a lot of them…”

“How the fuck…? Fuck it,” Alex muttered. “Looks like they’re rolling out the welcome mat. You’re up, Hyde. Light ‘em the fuck up.”

“You got it, Commander,” Hyde answered.

In response to wordless commands, the wild flock of aircraft overhead snapped into formation. Each and every one pointed toward the sea of changelings. Novas who had curled themselves up in the beds of the Hellbenders began to unfold, falling out of the backs of the trucks as the vehicles maintained their speed, only to launch forward and sprint ahead of their transport. As the Hellbenders cleared up their cargo, they slowed down to fall beside the centerline of the convoy, where a pair of Hellbenders were hauling a single large bed with a huge cylindrical structure tied down to it. Just behind that, another pair of trucks were hauling another large collection of equipment. Some Novas didn’t abandon their vehicles, and instead aimed rifles from where they were.

Four turrets adorned the upper deck of the Leviathan, held up by large mechanical arms that folded away from the vehicle. Each one pointed itself forward at the forming cloud of changelings and unleashed Tartarus, sending lightning fast bolts of plasma into the sky at a blurring pace. The Leviathan’s main gun soon joined in, repeatedly blasting off what anypony could only perceive as some kind of glowing blue projectile. It didn’t fire as quickly as the turrets, but it definitely wasn’t slow, either.

Twilight stared as the Leviathan drove steadfast towards the writhing mass of changelings, its multitude of weapons ablaze with technological fury. Even as the changelings began to disperse, every single one of her instincts screamed at her to be as far away from this mess as possible. The fact that the Leviathan, despite its gargantuan size and raw firepower, continued to charge towards almost certain doom made Twilight’s heart pound even harder. None of what she was witnessing was even remotely sane. This whole endeavor of attacking the changeling hive directly was completely ludicrous!

So this finally proves it, Twilight mused. Humans. Are. Insane.

“Enabling magic amplifier,” Evie’s voice suddenly announced, stealing her attention. Beside her, joints in Applejack’s armor began to house a light, violet glow. On Rainbow Dash, the edges of the armor covering her wings glowed, and a bright green, lightning charged blade formed along them.

“Oh whoa ho!” Rainbow chuckled, stretching her wings out to admire the new effect. “Now that’s what I’m talking about! Bring it!” Almost immediately, the pegasus rocketed straight up into the air.

And Rainbow Dash too, apparently… Twilight concluded her thought.

“Thirty seconds!” Alex called out.

“You have a new objective,” Evie’s voice told Twilight. On her HUD, the image of a blue shield flashed in front of Twilight’s eyes before quickly zooming to the side and hovering over the large structure being hauled on the center of the convoy. “Defend the communications tower at all costs,” the VI finished. At the same time, the changeling swarm set its course directly for them.

Here we go… Twilight’s throat seemed painfully dry. Years of built up instinct flowed into action, pouring magic into Twilight’s horn to cast a spell… Only for the usual tingle to somehow not follow. In fact, no feeling followed at all. She was channeling magic, right? Why couldn’t she feel it? She blinked repeatedly at her forehead as the confusion set in. Uh… what…?

“Twenty seconds!”

The Liandri on the ground drew their weapons and aimed skyward. Some had stopped to secure their position, and their aim was true, though most continued to sprint forward. While their accuracy wasn’t on par with the rest, all they really needed was a general direction to shoot in.

Overhead, the Cicadas and some of their Raptor escorts pitched upward, allowing the air-supports’ ventral turrets to fire on the incoming swarm. The Raptors that hadn’t decided to gain altitude focused their fire forward. Ionised plasma scorched the airspace between the convoy and the mountain, making flight without getting singed a near impossibility.

“Ten seconds!”

Despite their efforts to spread out and flank around the convoy from the air, the gunfire followed and led into their path, forcing the airborne insectoids to the ground to take cover around the uneven, rocky terrain. As porous hooves touched ground, earth shaking roars rose up. A pair of bright red exclamation marks appeared on the ponies HUDs, one to the left, and another to the right.

“Behemoths at eleven and two o’clock,” Hyde announced.

To the right of the convoy, Twilight spotted movement beneath one of the exclamation marks. A large boulder in the landscape shifted and came to life. Rocky legs folded out and smashed into the ground, kicking up dust as claws dug into the dirt. The titanic, living crag raised itself from its resting place and turned its unseemly visage towards the convoy, setting its soulless eyes on its prey while unhinging its toothy maw to release a powerful roar that sent shivers running up their spines.

“Uh, what are we gonna do about that?” Applejack asked, her heart rate suddenly spiking again.

“Simple,” Alex answered, just as the Leviathan came upon the large marked waypoint at the top of a small hill. For the first time since they left, the Leviathan’s breaks hissed and squealed to slow the massive vehicle to a crawl before finally stopping it altogether. “We kill it.”

At Alex’s words, the Leviathan’s gun ceased firing and spun to face the rear. To make more room, the gun moved down a rail and slid forward and down until it covered the front of the pilot’s compartment. At the same time, metal panels on the side of the vehicle that sported ladders were also proved to be supported by a moving mechanism, as they folded out and planted themselves into the ground, shuddering the entire vehicle. At the front, large metal shields that rested above the wheels slid forward and entrenched themselves into the dirt. As all this happened, the device that formed the spine of the vehicle popped up and pushed out.

In an awesome display of mechanized power, the whole object, easily two thirds the length of the entire Leviathan, was raised up and flipped over, such that the end that was facing the back was now facing the front. The giant device folded open, separating large metal plates from each other to expose the inner workings of the super tank’s main weapon. Electric arcs cackled from within, and at the rear of the cannon, large capacitors glowed yellow with raw energy.

Bestial roars sounded as the behemoths launched into their charge, tearing across the rocky terrain, drones struggling to keep up while simultaneously trying to hide behind it for cover. Picking a target, the Leviathan’s cannon whirred to face the behemoth in Twilight’s sights. A thin, red beam appeared out of the end of the gun, which gradually grew thicker over the course of several seconds. In those seconds, a brilliant corona built up within the cannon. No magic was involved, yet Twilight didn’t need to sense any to drown in the pure, raw, unbridled energy radiating from the Leviathan’s cannon. Before she could blink, the inner light spilled out, forming a static rose bud of plasma. She didn’t need to be told it blooming would bring pain and death.

Alex’s words came over the radio. “Suck on this.”

In an instant, all the power in the Leviathan’s cannon discharged, kicking its entire ten meter length back while sending a blinding ball of light flying over the terrain at lightning speeds. Before anypony could realize it, the projectile connected with the charging behemoth’s head, and for a brief moment, a second sun had formed. It started with a blinding flash of light, instantly followed up by a massive shockwave that tore the unsuspecting creature and the surrounding landscape to gory shreds. Its entire body flipped back while being simultaneously annihilated, resulting in only the bloodied, charred remains of its hind legs and whatever un-vaporized vertebrae that still remained sticking out.

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash shouted over the radio. “Did you guys see that!? That was awesome! That was… Oh wow, that’s… that’s nasty, that’s… ugh… I’m-I’m gonna look away now…”

With one exclamation mark removed from their HUD, the Leviathan’s ion cannon whirred around again to face the other stampeding monstrosity, whose tunnel vision had not allowed it to witness the complete pulverization of its sibling. Power flowed into the weapon once more, making the air around the vehicle hum with barely restrained energy. That energy was released as suddenly as the first time, directed somewhere the ground-bound ponies could not see. All they witnessed was a flash of light from somewhere on the other side of the Leviathan, the sound of the deafening blast that followed, and the removal of the second exclamation mark from their vision.

“Hot shit, that was easy,” said Alex. “Didn’t stand a fucking chance. Still, those things were a little too close for my taste. What can you tell me, Hyde?”

Hyde’s voice was the next to play out over the radio. “These ones were smaller than the Ponyville Behemoth, but still big enough to be a problem. Short tusks; rock-like armor that gives them natural camouflage and probably protection. Didn’t pick up any heat signature, but if they’re like the other changelings, then they’re not cold-blooded. Air support didn’t spot them until they started moving, so that armor probably provides thermal insulation. My conclusion: keep an eye out for weird looking boulders.”

That’s not bad advice… Twilight thought. It’s just a shame there’s boulders everywhere around here!

Now that the convoy had finally come to a halt, Liandri bots spread out and established a perimeter. The Hellbenders hauling the large, cylindrical structure stopped behind the Leviathan, and a pair of Cicadas hovered over the end. Novas scaled the object with ease and attached cables to the underside of the aircraft, who then pulled up to raise the communications tower onto its end. Large struts folded out from the tower’s base and planted themselves into the ground, with nearby Axons already in position ensuring its stability.

Further up, the cylindrical shape disappeared as the twenty meter tall tower transformed itself. Large mechanical arms extended outward in all directions, before they came apart and metal fans rotated around them to form even bigger satellite dishes that twitched and scanned the air for a signal. A handful of Raptors surrounded the deployed tower, circling the structure with their weapons poised outward.

“Establishing connection to primary facility…” Evie announced. “Connection established.”

Almost as soon as Evie said those words, an image of a waveform appeared before the ponies’ eyes in the corner of their HUD, moving to the sound of Rose’s voice. “Hello, girls. I trust the trip wasn’t too unpleasant?”

“Can’t complain...” Applejack muttered as Twilight hopped off their truck and finally set foot on solid ground. “Although Ah do have one question… Just what the hay kind of machine is Alex drivin’?!”

“Ah, so Alex used the ion cannon,” Rose replied. “It’s something we designed before our arrival in Equestria for use in a low-orbit satellite. We theorized it would be just as, if not more effective at shorter ranges, though a weapon of that size would require a large platform to use. The Leviathan is the result.”

“Why would you guys even make such a thing?” asked Twilight, her eyes trailing up towards the massive weapon as it scanned the battlefield for more big targets. “Alex always said he hated humans’ violent tendencies, so why does this kind of thing even exist in the first place?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you,” said Rose. “You’ll have to ask him that. All I can tell you is that the Leviathan design was only partially complete when we arrived. Alex finished it a few months ago for the sake of completeness.”

“Well it definitely came in handy,” said Rainbow Dash, circling high above the communications tower. “Those bigs dudes looked a little too tough for anything else.”

As they conversed, the Axons busied themselves by unloading the second cargo train. Several circular platforms just large enough to comfortably host a single individual above it were carried off and placed next to the comms tower, where a sturdy power cable was then connected to each. A bright blue light appeared in the center of each platform, and mechanical arms unfolded about the periphery as an energetic hum signaled their activation.

No sooner than the platforms were activated than did they begin to perform their duty. The arms began to spin around in opposing directions where, in the center, a ghost of a Nova appeared. It took only ten seconds for the image to gradually become material, and in a bright blue flash, a new Liandri had been deployed to the field.

“Alright, infantry portals are up,” Alex announced. “Vehicle portals still need to be assembled, but for the time being, we’ve got reinforcements coming in. Scouting drones are ready to deploy, but we need a distraction to keep attention away from them.”

Above them, Rainbow Dash clapped her armored hooves together as she rocketed down the centerline of the Liandri foothold. “One distraction, coming right up!”

Angling her wings, Dash banked hard right, speeding past other aircraft as she then hooked around to the left in a wide arc, aiming for the center of the battlefield. Instead of slowing down, she sped up, generating a brief chromatic shockwave to proclaim her arrival. Only then did she apply the brakes, though she continued to come in with enough speed to slam into the ground at a sharp angle that dug up a small trench and a large cloud of dirt and dust.

Her momentum didn’t stop, and Rainbow Dash pirouetted sideways out of her dust cloud and landed solidly on all four hooves in the middle of a group of changelings. A grin split her face. “Aw yeah! Bring it on!”

Her wings shot out and, a heartbeat later, Dash launched forward and socked the first changeling in her path with a bone crunching right hook. As the insectoid spun away, Dash changed course and aimed for a larger group. Green plasma that formed the edge of a blade along her wings sliced effortlessly through her targets, barely slowing her down. The intense heat produced by the ionized particles instantly cauterized any wounds they made, although that did little to help the victims whose bodies were mutilated beyond any form of survival.

Angling her wings in opposite directions, she spun herself into a tight corkscrew. Streams of plasma leaked from the ends of her wings, spraying outward into a searing cone with the pegasus acting as the tip. The changelings caught in onslaught shrieked and fled as their wings burned and their chitin boiled.

Dash soon righted herself and skidded to a halt. She looked over her shoulder with a grin—a grin that vanished almost as soon as she became aware of the screams. Changelings or not, their suffering screams resonated through her very being, shaking her core.

Without warning, an alert flashed across Dash’s HUD, and her mind barely had time to register it before her armor reacted for her, quickly shifting Rainbow to the side just in time to see a scythe-like claw graze her head from behind. “Whoa!”

When Dash had regained her footing, her attacker had as well, and they stared each other down. It was a changeling alright, and just as large as any other pony, but this one stood on two well pronounced digitigrade legs, and possessed what could arguably be defined as arms. However, on the ends of those arms were not hands, or even hooves, but a single large, curved, and pointed bone protrusion. The rest of its body still looked like any other unarmored drone, though its head was smaller, its muzzle longer, teeth longer and pointier, and face… angrier…

“Well you don’t seem too happy,” Dash muttered.

The changeling shrieked in response, though it came out more as a loud hiss. Without warning, the creature instantly disintegrated into an inky black cloud that vaguely resembled its original form and rushed Rainbow Dash’s position. The changeling moved with such speed that the armor reacted in her stead for a second time, swerving to the left when the creature rematerialized with its right claw thrust straight out where her head used to be.

This time, her mind acted on autopilot as her body swung to left hook the changeling in the side, sending it spinning. When she had fully regained her senses, Rainbow Dash shot into the air, intending to smash the changeling straight into the ground. However, the changeling followed by fading into darkness once more and soaring up to meet her.

The black cloud reached Rainbow in almost no time at all and the changeling blinked back into existence just in time to swipe at her with a claw. Dash dodged the first swipe, then the second, and returned with a flurry of her own which were either avoided or blocked in turn. After swinging too wide on one swing, Rainbow Dash opened herself to her opponent, who seized on the opportunity. With buzzing wings, the changeling grappled onto Dash and allowed gravity to help it in its efforts to bring them both to the ground.

In a mad struggle, Dash managed to free her hooves and repeatedly punched at the changeling, though it refused to let go in their downward spiral. Come on! I gotta reverse this! I gotta—

The changeling suddenly blinked away. A split second later, Rainbow Dash’s back slammed into the rocky ground. Despite the armor, pain arced across the pegasus’ back, coaxing out a throaty howl. Alarms sounded in Dash’s ear and flashed across her HUD, warning of the damage her armor sustained in the fall. She barely had time to wallow in her aches before the changeling instantly flashed above her once more. The changeling hissed, spraying spittle across her helmet as it brought up both of its huge, sharpened claws, poising itself for the final blow.

Rainbow Dash could only watch with wide, open eyes at what happened next. To her, the next moment passed by in slow motion, drizzled with a measure of disbelief. The fight couldn’t end this quickly and this suddenly. Was this really how it was all going to end? In pain, pinned against the ground as her opponent was beaned across the face with a rock?

Only after the changeling was flung off by the flying rock the size of a hoofball did Dash notice the ground trembling beneath her, and she looked towards the source of the thumping.

“Get yours hands off of my toys,” Hyde growled as he tossed up and caught a second rock with a massive clawed hand. He then wrenched his arm back and pitched the rock with the speed of a cannon ball. The bipedal changeling, which had landed on its back, shakily looked up just in time to catch the incoming projectile with its head, losing altogether in a green shower.

“I almost had him…” Rainbow Dash groaned as she flipped herself onto her front. “...And I’m not one of your toys…”

“I was talking to you,” Hyde replied, thundering past her as a Seraph followed up from behind him and hovered over to Dash.

“It’s okay! I’m fine!” Dash protested as she stood up, holding a hoof out to keep the Seraph at bay.

The Seraph payed the action no mind, and placed a firm hand on her back while hovering in front of her in an attempt to make eye contact. “Your armor is damaged and is in need of repair. It is my duty to fix it.”

Though every instinct told her to tell the floating Liandri off, the flashing red warnings on her HUD made for a convincing argument, and she let out a reluctant grunt of acknowledgement and allowed the Seraph to perform its task. As the technician set about taking apart the armor on Dash’s back, Hyde faced the mountain and crossed his arms.

“So, you call this a distraction, runt?” he said. “You kill a few changelings and then get side tracked by just one of them? I was expecting more out of that.”

Dash glared at him as her back armor was being pulled apart and fixed. “What? Think you can do better?”

In a long, drawn out motion, Hyde untangled his arms and rolled his shoulders and neck, stretching muscles he merely pretended to have. “Watch and learn, runt.”

Hyde widened his stance and growled.

“Skulldozers are rage.”

His claws curled into barbed fists.

“Brutal and unforgiving.”

Vents opened along his body, expelling waves of heat that warped the air around him.

“But you… you will be worse…”

His eyes blazed, and flames tickled the air beyond his razor maw.

“Rip and tear… until it is done.”

“HEY! CHRYSALIS!” Hyde boomed, his thunderous voice reaching volumes that even Princess Luna would have envied, sending jets of flame spewing from his mouth with every syllable. “REMEMBER ME?! I’M THE ONE YOU DIDN’T KILL IN CANTERLOT! I’M THE ONE WHO SLAUGHTERED YOUR PET IN PONYVILLE! I’M THE ONE WHO’S GOING TO RIP YOU IN HALF!”

As if to emphasize his promise, Hyde unleashed another earth shattering roar before launching himself forward in a flaming fury. In that moment, the winds changed, and the hive moved to respond.

A Nova continued to fire on the target stationed near the altar. Their weapons remained unable to penetrate the barrier.

Hyde lunged forward with an open claw, catching a changeling mid-air before splattering it straight into the ground.

The Nova reloaded, alerting its squad members of the action.

Hyde’s claws clenched around the front and rear halves of a changeling, which he then tore in half.

Green beams of magic shot through the target’s shield.

Hyde whipped a changeling into a black, decrepit tree, following up with a kick that pancaked the creature and completely uprooted the tree.

“Unit under heavy attack.”

Tree trunk in both hands, Hyde swung the object in wide arcs, swiping changelings in its gnarly branches.

“Unit being overrun.”

///Temperature control protocols overridden. ///Warning: Cooling and ventilation systems disabled. ///Core temperature rising.

“Unit needs repairs.”

Changelings swarmed the skulldozer in droves, who alone swiped, kicked, and tore with the ferocity of a pack of rabid wolves. With each kill, his attacks became quicker and grew more vicious. With each passing second, his impenetrable armor collected more and more green viscera.

“I see the blue screen.”

Tremendous heat built behind Hyde’s jaws until a blast of flame exploded forth. The inferno reached far and wide, incinerating everything caught within the flaming tsunami.

A broken unit was picked up and flung into the Nova’s legs with enough force to crush the limbs and send the Nova flying into the base of a column. With its primary weapon lost in the attack, the Nova reached behind itself for its sidearm when a green beam blasted its head wide open.

///Warning: core temperature critical. ///Vital systems damage imminent.

“These things are dangerous…” the target muttered between breaths. “At least they’re not too difficult to destroy.”

With a thunderous roar, Hyde crouched down before immediately launching himself skyward, leaping nearly four times his own height. His fists clenched above his head, a trail of flame and smoke followed him as he arched high above the clustered changelings.

Situation assessed. Course of action: feint.

Situation assessed. Course of action: annihilate.

///Cooling and ventilation systems reinitialized. ///Initiating emergency ventilation protocol.

Over ten and a half tons of metal and fire came crashing down on top of the offending changelings like a meteor. After cratering the ground, a storm of flame erupted from the epicenter, enveloping every unfortunate changeling caught within, turning them to charred piles of their former selves. Those that hadn’t been completely incinerated fled, leaving a single, gargantuan figure to slowly rise from the ashes with fists still clenched. The gore that covered his body had completely boiled away, as had most of the paint across his armor. Black, white, and red digital camouflage gave way to highly reflective shades of violet and blue, tinged with orange and yellow.

Rainbow Dash continued to stare with a dropped jaw just as the Seraph alerted her it had finished repairing her armor. Fires adorned the ground around Hyde, and waves of heat floated into the air around him, distorting Dash’s view. With Hyde’s back turned to her, all the fires, and the large boulder that sat just on the other side of him to serve as a backdrop, a small part of her wished that she could take a quick snapshot of the moment, just so that she could show somepony the photo if they ever asked her to define the word “awesome.”

And then the boulder started moving.

Dash’s heart skipped a beat in understanding a split second before the red exclamation mark appeared above the boulder that Hyde was facing. Rocky legs dug themselves up from the ground, spraying dirt in all directions as the beast they belonged to gained new footing. Hyde never moved an inch as the towering behemoth rotated its entire body to face him, raising each limb and slamming them down as it did. When it finally ceased moving, its front legs remained propped up, making it appear even bigger. Dash could still clearly see its ghostly white eyes resting within its craggy head from around Hyde’s neck, staring at the Liandri that dared stare back.

“Shit—Hyde, you’re too close to that thing!” Alex’s voice blurted through the radio. “I can’t shoot it!”

“That’s alright,” Hyde replied, rolling his shoulders. “I wanted to teach this pet a few tricks anyway.”

All at once, the behemoth let out a guttural roar, dropped its stance, pulled its head to the left, and then swung to the right, throwing the weight of its entire body into the motion. Hyde quickly widened his stance in an attempt to grapple the creature in its attack, though the behemoth swung in an uppercut, crashing into the Skulldozer’s midsection with the side of its head. Hyde’s claws found little purchase, and the impact sent the nearly eleven ton cybernetic into the air, though only just.

Landing on his backside, Hyde threw his legs up and transferred his momentum into a backward roll, kicking up a dust cloud that dissipated the second a blast of heated air escaped from the vents in his armor. Crouched, with both claws dug firmly into the dirt, Hyde sneered aloud and through the radio: “I think I’ll name it ‘Asshole.’ ”

The behemoth rumbled as its head swayed, shaking off the disorientation and concussion that came with battering its head against such a sturdy opponent. It wasn’t permitted to do so for long as a roar announced the fresh impact of a metallic fist and all the weight behind it, slamming into the side of its head and cracking the rock-like shell. The behemoth yelped as the momentum of the blow pounded its jaw into the dirt.

Hyde reached for either side of the monster’s head, clasped at its sides with his claws, and twisted. “Roll over, Asshole!” he roared.

The behemoth snarled in return. Though its head remained stuck in Hyde’s grasp, the rest of its body was free to move about. As the Liandri attempted to twist its neck one way, the creature’s formidable muscles resisted the action. While one leg worked to keep the behemoth upright, the other lunged forward, attempting to paw at the skulldozer. Unfortunately, its physique did not allow for it, and the creature repeatedly came up short. As it stood, neither one gained ground on the other.

And then a drone swooped in and kicked Hyde in the head.

Against the nigh-indestructible machine, the attack didn’t so much as cause Hyde to flinch, and in fact hurt the changeling who delivered the blow more than anything else. But where one starts, others follow. Soon, more and more changelings began swarming around the two brutes as they wrestled, kicking and punching at Hyde’s head, arms, and hands in an effort to loosen his grip.

The dozer held steadfast, though snapped his razor jaws at passing changelings. “Get off of me, you damn pests!”

Another changeling swooped in to kick Hyde in the back of the head, though was summarily swatted out of the air by a cyan blur, which then proceeded to target the others hovering around him. “I’ll keep them off you!” Dash announced. “Just kick that thing’s flank!”

“With pleasure,” Hyde growled, before swiftly twisting the behemoth’s head in the other direction. With the creature’s own muscles suddenly working against it, the abrupt torque drove its head and one of its short, jagged tusks into the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Hyde planted a foot over the tusk to keep in pinned. Gripping the behemoth’s head with one claw, he jackhammered into it with the other.

Dash zipped back and forth, making every effort to keep each changeling away from Hyde. She cursed under her breath at the endless labor. With every changeling she cleared, another one cropped up from a different direction. Their frequency made it impossible for Dash to deliver anything more than a quick kick to briefly knock them away, so long as her goal was to simply keep them off of Hyde. In one instance, a glancing blow from Dash sent a changeling spiraling onto the head of its much larger cousin, where Hyde instantly though accidentally pulverized it without a thought.

With each blow, fresh cracks formed and grew along the behemoth’s shell. Twisting its head failed to free the creature, as Hyde’s entire body weight kept its tusk firmly planted in the dirt. The tusk, however, was short and uncurled. While it could not be lifted, it could still be removed. Just as its former sibling realized in Ponyville, the behemoth learned that sometimes the best course of action was to retreat, if only a little bit.

Between punches, the behemoth pulled its entire body backwards, sliding its buried tusk out of the ground and away from the massive weight keeping it pinned. Having learned from his previous mistakes, Hyde relinquished his grip so as to not allow the behemoth to throw him off balance. With its head finally freed, the behemoth lunged forward with the entire force of its body, jaws agape. Claws connected with gnarled teeth as the skulldozer caught the creature by the mouth, driving him several meters back through the dirt until his feet managed to find a solid purchase. A hand strained against each jaw, preventing its maw from closing in.

“I think you need a little motivation,” Hyde grunted. As the two clashed, the dozer gradually forced the behemoth’s jaws apart. “Open wide, Asshole! Time for a treat.”

Far behind Hyde, a Nova sprinted in towards the fight, Link Gun in hand, leaping over and around obstacles while ignoring any changeling whose attention it might have gathered. As the Nova ran, it ejected the plasma cell from its weapon, then quickly loaded in a fresh one. Then, while firmly gripping the weapon with one hand, it tore off the top of the weapon with the other. Despite only possessing three fingers per hand, the Liandri deftly rearranged components within the weapon as it ran.

Just as it closed in on the two clashing giants, the Nova raised the modified weapon up and subsequently launched it as if it were a football. The gun soared smoothly over Hyde’s shoulder before landing squarely at the back of the creature’s mouth, between the middle of its tongue and palate.

With a roar, Hyde slammed the behemoth’s entire head against the ground, following up by delivering a swift kick to the face with the bottom of his boot. In doing so, Hyde allowed the force of the action to carry him and took several steps back from the stunned monster. In those moments, the behemoth shook its head and flexed its jaw letting out a retching noise as it did.

The Link Gun, however, was not spat out.

“Alright, Asshole.” Hyde allowed himself a deep, cruel laugh, and the red in his eyes grew slightly darker. “Now play dead.”

After shaking off the fresh concussion, the behemoth refocused itself on Hyde, and its maw shot open to release a roar that would terrify any sane individual to the bone. The roar itself, however, only lasted for half a second before it was replaced by a strangled gurgling noise. A bright green cloud of fire erupted from the behemoth’s mouth, soon followed by a torrent of green blood pouring out over its teeth.

The creature’s entire body collapsed into the ground, its legs suddenly unable to support its weight. Blood continued to gush from the behemoth’s mouth in waves as it writhed on the ground, twitching and pawing at whatever it could. In a final burst of energy, the monster launched itself forward, though only just managed to throw itself at Hyde’s feet with a massive, ground-shaking flop. Hyde then raised a foot and planted it over the behemoth’s head, preventing it from opening its mouth. After a few more seconds of twitching and gurgling, the behemoth finally went still—drowned in its own fluids.

“There’s a good doggy, Asshole,” Hyde growled.

“Do you have to keep talkin’ like that?” Applejack said over the radio.

Alex laughed. “Honestly, I just think it’s hilarious what you get when you give an angry AI a complete dictionary. Nice job killing that thing, Hyde.”

“My pleasure,” Hyde replied as Rainbow Dash landed next to him. The death of a behemoth apparently had the effect of terrifying all nearby changelings, leaving their immediate air space clear for the time being.

“I don’t doubt it,” Alex continued. “Anyway, that distraction worked, but we’ve got a bit of a hang up. I don’t know how, but this mountain isn’t normal; It seems to be changing dynamically. The good news is it looks like this is only restricted to doors and tunnel-ways, so rooms stay where they are. That said, we’ve got two geographic locations that look like they might have the Appleoosans. Twilight, AJ, I’m assigning you to Nova platoons. Follow your waypoints and meet up with them. I don’t know how much time we have, so get moving. Hyde, make sure those platoons get extra shaped-charges and an impact hammer or two. The last thing I want is wasted time because a wall decided it didn’t want to cooperate.”

“What do you mean you can’t cast magic?” asked Alex.

“I mean I can’t cast magic!” Twilight responded as she eyed Rainbow Dash fighting among the changelings. “I don’t know what’s going on, but every time I try to channel a spell, it just doesn’t happen! It’s like my magic is being diverted somewhere else.”

“Into the amplifier?”

“I don’t think so. I asked Evie to turn it off, but it’s still happening. I think it’s being caused by something nearby, maybe even something inside the hive.”

“Fuck…” Alex muttered. “Alright, update me when we’re ready to move in. I still need you to handle the ponies, but if you can’t cast magic, that’s gonna be a problem.”

That was the conversation Alex and Twilight shared just after she realized her magic wasn’t working. Unfortunately, the situation hadn’t changed, so Alex dispatched extra Novas to her platoon to make up for it.

It was a shame, really. Twilight had looked forward to seeing how Rose’s magic amplifier would actually work. Of course, the more serious issue was that, without magic, her ability to fight back was crippled. On the bright side, she wasn’t completely defenseless, as the amplifier wasn’t the only gift Rose had given her.

Ever since Twilight tested this particular feature of the biomech armor, she wondered just how exactly it managed to do what it did. On their own, ponies were in no way the slowest of runners, yet the armor Rose had produced managed to augment Twilight’s own running speed by a surprising amount. Her only question was, of course, how? As Twilight sprinted, her legs didn’t feel like they were moving any faster than usual, or at least not much faster. In fact, as Twilight focused on the nerves in her legs, she built up the impression that if her legs were to move any faster than they were right now, she would probably get a nasty sprain at the very least.

It was only when Twilight observed the Novas sprinting alongside her that she was able to determine how she could run faster than any normal pony ever could. As a sidelined observer, the Novas’ legs looked like they moved at lightning speeds, but in reality, they weren’t moving any faster than they needed to. Their own speed wasn’t due to them taking faster steps—they were just getting more out of the steps they were already taking. It was as if they propelled themselves with a tremendous leap forward every time their feet kicked back against the ground. Twilight’s armor did the same thing. It wasn’t that it made her legs move faster; the armor just augmented the force with which her hooves kicked off the ground.

And the result was exhilarating.

The nearly three dozen Reds that Twilight had met up with were, oddly enough, not painted red. They were still clearly Novas, but had been painted with a beige camouflage. Although her own lavender colored armor still stood out of the sandy terrain like a sore hoof.

Much of the battle between the Liandri and changelings were still going on around them, though their platoon was tasked to ignore it and make a beeline for one of the marked hive entrances part-way up the mountain. Another entrance on the other side was marked out as well, where Applejack and her Novas would enter to locate the second group of Appleoosans. Hopefully the changelings would stay outside the hive long enough to make getting them out easy.

Vehicles or aircraft would have drawn too much attention, so the distance to the tunnel entrance had been traversed on foot, although it had been crossed relatively quickly. Twilight had only been forced to stop a couple of times when the Novas had deemed it necessary to lay low for a moment or two to make sure any nearby changelings wouldn’t draw any attention.

On one such occasion, Twilight had pressed herself into the side of a natural ditch with a rocky outcrop above her. The Novas crouched underneath the natural cover as well, supposedly to hide from some unseen eyes. In that moment, the Nova directly in front of Twilight quickly reached up and pulled down a drone by the foreleg. The shocked drone yelped and flailed, though was quickly put in some kind of hold by the Liandri.

The Nova spoke: “Blame the coders,” before swiftly executing the changeling by twisting its neck. This made Twilight pause. Did that Liandri really just blame Alex and Rose for that changeling’s death? In a way, perhaps they were responsible, but it didn’t explain why the Nova would say something like this—let alone anything at all—in the first place. Before she could contemplate any further on the subject, the Liandri signaled to her that it was time to move on, and she skirted around the lifeless drone.

Eventually, Twilight and her platoon reached the marked hive entrance. Far from the cramped hole in the wall she expected, the entrance was actually a surprisingly roomy tunnel. Although complete darkness lay beyond whatever the sun’s light couldn’t reach. “Okay, we’re at the tunnel entrance,” said Twilight.

“Good,” Alex replied. “Stick with the Novas and you’ll come out A-Okay.”

Twilight peered into the tunnel as a Nova brandished its weapon and took the lead. A thoughtful worm at the back of her mind was grateful that at least she wasn’t the one going first. No flashlights were used, yet Twilight still managed to see. Through her visor, the walls of the tunnel became a faint green of various shades that extended to a remarkable distance. It clearly wasn’t a form of low-light vision, but seemed to be a visual reconstruction based on other sensors; Sonar or radar. Perhaps both. As they delved deeper, the battle outside became nothing more than muffled thumps, soon replaced by the distant echoes of chittering and buzzing.

Twilight gulped. Just stay with the Novas… Stay with them and you’ll be fine… They know the way back out, right…?

Memories of the Diamond Dog caverns returned to her as they traversed the hive’s tunnels. Though just as Alex mentioned, the walls themselves opened and closed of their own accord, cordoning off or unlocking rooms and even more tunnels. A pulsating green growth stuck to the walls and ceilings, with several large, bioluminescent cysts to light the way. At least Diamond Dogs kept their caverns lit with conventional torches… and structurally consistent…

The Novas kept their weapons drawn as they marched, making efforts to reduce the amount of noise their metallic feet made. Despite the confusing nature of the environment around them, the Novas appeared to have an almost supernatural sense of where they were going while keeping a tight formation.

Eventually, the platoon stopped in front of a wall, which the lead bot leaned against. The Nova placed its head near, almost as if trying to listen for something on the other side, before suddenly hitting the wall three times with the brunt of its arm. Another moment passed, and a different Nova pushed ahead of the others, wielding a large tool with a flat front; a handheld version of one of an Axon’s arm attachments. The lead bot stepped aside just as the head of the tool began to piston back and forth, quickly gaining frequency.

When it seemed the oscillating head of the tool couldn’t go any faster, the Nova carrying it placed itself in front of the wall, swung it back, and thrust it forward. In an instant, the wall exploded in a shower of rocks and dust, and the Liandri wasted no time throwing themselves through. Knowing better than to stay behind, Twilight quickly followed. A large chamber greeted the rescue party, brightly lit with countless bioluminescent cocoons of various sizes that covered the walls and hung from the ceiling.

Twilight gasped at the sight, staring in awe until the Novas began walking past her towards the cocoons. Others set up a perimeter at various tunnel entrances. Twilight approached the nearest cocoon as a Liandri examined it from top to bottom. Sure enough, some poor mare lay dormant inside it, completely oblivious to the outside world as the cybernetic tried to see what would be the most effective way of freeing her. In the end, it settled on the straightforward approach. The Nova pulled out a knife, stabbed near the top of the cocoon, and pulled down to form a neat cut.

A viscous slime gushed from the open cocoon, and the pony inside slurped out in a wet, gooey pile. The Nova placed a hand over the pony’s shoulder and stared for several seconds, scanning for vitals. Satisfied, the Liandri wiped away as much of the goo as it could around the shoulder before equipping a blood tester and taking a quick sample. The sting of the needle alone managed to wake the pony from whatever sleep she was in, and she suddenly began to cough up globs of ooz until she could finally breathe.

The Nova left the mare to her coughing as it waited for the blood tester to confirm whether she was a pony or not, in which it soon returned a positive result. “Objective acquired,” the Nova announced over the radio.

“Perfect!” Alex replied, his voice somewhat distorted, though still clear enough to understand. “Hurry up and get them out of there.”

“Wha… What’s happening?!” the mare choked out, frantically waving her head all around. “Where am I?!”

Twilight quickly moved next to her and attempted to get her attention by grabbing her head and forcing eye contact. “Whoa whoa whoa! It’s okay! It’s okay! We’re here to help you! You’re safe now!”

“Where am I?!” the mare repeated, continuing to thrash around on the floor until Twilight barely managed to get her to sit still and look at her. “Who are you?!”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she told the panicked mare as calmly as possible. “I’m with the Liandri to-”

“The who?!” the mare interrupted.

“The Liandri! They’re—”

“Who are they?!”

Twilight’s eye twitched, and with that single, minute movement, all of her composure evaporated. She suddenly grabbed the mare by the cheek, forced her to look to the side, pointed, and proclaimed: “Them!”

The mare instantly focused on the backside of the Nova crouching beside her, which was busying itself with another pony. Sensing her attention, however, the Liandri glanced back at her over its shoulder, presenting its singular glowing oculus. Her eyes grew wider as she took in more and more of the bipedal, mechanoid cyclops, and she reacted in the only natural way one would react when presented with their savior.

She screamed.

The Nova’s head twitched upward in curious surprise, all the while Twilight desperately waved her hooves to get the mare’s attention, ineffectively trying to shout reassurances and requests to stay calm. In the end, the only thing that truly got the mare’s attention was the next cocooned prisoner sloppily splashing on the ground next to her. Even then, she simply changed the subject of her screeching and, in fact, even seemed to scream louder.

Even with the limited experience she had, Twilight still knew when to identify a situation that spiraled out of her control. Thankfully, years of magic study and a quick review on the ride to the mountain ensured the unicorn had a handy array of spells for exactly this kind of problem. Allowing herself to rely on instinct, Twilight poured magic into her horn to form a stun spell. Nothing powerful; just something strong enough to daze her so she could be refocused. But just like before, her effort proved ineffective, and no spell channeled at all.

Adrenaline sent her brain scrambling for a solution, and it was the very first coherent idea she formed that her body decided to implement: shoving a hoof in the mare’s mouth to shut her up.

“Stop! Screaming!” Twilight hissed, bringing her face uncomfortably close to the panicked mare’s. “We’re here to rescue you! I know you’re scared and I know everything looks weird right now but I need you to calm down and stop screaming! It’s really not helpful!”

The mare stared back at Twilight with wide eyes, still trembling and frightened out of her skin, though not making any effort to escape. Satisfied that she was still keeping her attention, Twilight gave her a stern proposal: “Can you please be quiet and stay calm so we can get everypony out of here faster?”

The mare quickly nodded—as much as she could with Twilight’s hoof still in her mouth—and the unicorn breathed a sigh of relief as she ungagged her. “Thank you…”

This is going to be harder than I thought, Twilight brooded. It was then that her eyes trailed up to the body that had startled the mare the second time around, and she paused to process just what exactly she was looking at. That… That’s not a pony…

“Um… Alex?” Twilight drawled over the radio. “We might have a small problem…”

Author's Notes:

Holy shit it's been a while. Hey there. Miss me?

So here's a recap of what I've been up to. I got a job working for my girlfriend's dad renovating an apartment over the summer. That took up a good amount of my time. Drained me, too. Didn't give me much time, energy, or motivation to write. The good news is, it was well paid work and I used the cash to buy an HTC Vive, a GTX 1070, and still had money to spare. You would not believe how amazing it is to see people react to VR for the first time. My girlfriend's wonder as she played with jelly fish in theBlu was so adorable it nearly killed me. But I digress.

In other news, I've recently fallen victim to a series of medical... let's call them "incidents." Long story short, I've been forced to drop all of my classes this semester and probably the next one too. Now suddenly finding myself with more free time on my hands, I decided to catch up on season 6 since I was WAY behind. And I'm glad I did, because that season finale had a lot of important shit in it. It also provided me with the motivation I needed to get back in the game.

I'm also considering trying my hand at writing a standalone science fiction novel that I could potentially publish by the end of the summer. I'm not the most prolific writer in the world, but it's something I want to attempt regardless.

Oh! One last thing. It slipped my mind while I was publishing the previous chapter, but while I'm thinking about it... If you're curious as to what I think Hyde would sound like, take a listen to the voice that says "It's back" halfway through this song: https://jessevalentinemusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-vampire-warlord

Operation Fat Man

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“Buffalo?!” Alex shouted, sitting up straight within the Leviathan’s cockpit. “What the fuck do you mean they kidnapped buffalo?”

“She means they got the buffalo,” Applejack answered. “We got some on our end, too. Looks like most of the herd.”

“Looks like there’s also a decent amount of them over here,” Twilight replied. “I think they probably foalnapped the entire herd.”

“Wait, seriously?” Dash blurted, just as disbelieving.

Alex rubbed some fingers into his forehead. “Hyde, please confirm.”

“Well, the Novas are reporting that they’re bigger, hairier, not ponies, and seem to fit the definition,” said Hyde. “So yeah, I’d say they’re buffalo.”

Alex expelled a breath. “Alright fine; good to know, but we only came here for the Appleoosans. Nothing else.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up,” Dash interrupted. “We can’t just leave them! They’re friends! They probably have Little Strong Heart, too!”

“Who?” Alex blurted.

“A friend, ya dummy,” Applejack retorted.

“Dash is right,” said Twilight. “We can’t just leave the buffalo herd, not when we have a chance to save them! They may not be ponies, but they still live with the Appleoosans. They’d never forgive us if we left them behind!”

“Neither would Ah,” Applejack declared.

Alex allowed his weight to drop him back in his chair, where he hung his head, lightly rubbing his shaven scalp. The Ravens’ rounds between the mountain and Ponyville had been planned out around the Appleoosans and only the Appleoosans. With the Leviathan having taken priority in the vehicle foundry since news of the changeling attack on the town broke, Rose had barely been able to produce two extra Ravens, bringing the fleet total to five. To top it off, a natural consequence of them being the largest aircraft in the corps meant longer production times.

Although five Ravens would have been more than enough to bring all the Appleoosans back in a single trip. In fact, that was the plan: a quick extraction that wouldn’t give the changelings enough time to react. If buffalo were involved too, and a whole herd of them at that…

“God fucking dammit!” Alex swore before standing up straight and returning to his controls. “Rose!”

“You sound less than pleased,” the AI replied.

“That’s because I am,” he muttered through grit teeth. “Listen, the changelings didn’t just kidnap the Appleoosans: they also snagged a local buffalo herd.”

“I take it these buffalo are sapient as well?”

“Looks like it.”

“How large is the herd?”

Alex waved his arms across the holographic control panel. “Nothing definite, but it’s looking like it could be up to a hundred individuals. Probably more.”

“And you’d like to extract them as well?”

“Doesn’t look like we have a choice.”

“This is going to complicate things. I’ll do what I can to employ a solution, but don’t expect it to be elegant.”

“If it’s stupid and it works, then it isn’t stupid.” Alex switched channels. “Alright, we’re extracting the buffalo too. We don’t have enough Ravens to extract everyone in one go, but Rose says she’s working on a solution. For the time being, just focus on getting everyone out of there.”

“We’d have done that anyway, Sugarcube,” Applejack grunted as she punctured a cocoon with a straight blow of her hoof.

“Alright, I think that’s everypony,” Twilight announced as she scanned over the crowd of ponies and buffalo. Despite the fact that some of the buffalo were doing what they could to put on a brave face, Twilight could still see the twinge of uncertainty—or perhaps fear—in everyone. The Liandri presence clearly didn’t do too much to help either, considering they were just another unknown. At the end of it all, they only really had each other for solace.

“Good,” Alex replied. “Let’s get everyone moving. The Novas will show you the way out, but I need you to help direct the others. Think you can do that?”

Twilight nodded—more to herself than anyone else. “You can count on me!” A waypoint appeared on her HUD in the middle of the hole in the wall the Novas made, with a translucent arrow pointing out. Little more direction was needed, and she trotted over to the waypoint.

“Alright, everypony!” Twilight announced as she waved a hoof high over her head. “It’s time to get you all out of here! The Liandri and I will lead you out, but I need you all to remember something important: This place is really weird. The walls open and close on their own. If you get separated, stay calm. The Liandri are expert protectors and I can guarantee they will keep you safe so long as you don’t panic. Okay? Let’s go, everypony!” Twilight lowered her voice and looked to the nearest Novas. “You guys lead the way.”

The Novas nodded and trickled out, ushering groups of buffalo and ponies with them. Twilight stayed behind, offering words of encouragement to the rescuees as they passed by her. As much as she shivered at the idea, Twilight made the decision of being the last one out so that everypony could at least see a somewhat familiar, albeit still friendly face before leaving through the hole in the wall.

In truth, part of her hoped to see someone whose name she actually knew, like sheriff Silverstar, chief Thunderhooves, Little Strong Heart, or even Braeburn, though it looked like they were all on Applejack’s side of the hive. Unfamiliar with them as she was, they all still managed to give her thanks as they passed by. As the last of the foalnapped ponies and buffalo vacated their prison, Twilight did too, staying just a little further ahead than the far rear. Despite being the one pony forced to put on and keep a brave face, she couldn’t deny that the very idea of being separated from the Novas in that moment shook her to the bone. Without her magic, she had no idea what to do if that were to happen.

Minutes passed by without so much as an incident. The hive continued to change on its own around them, though the Novas were quick to demolish the walls that dared to slow the rescue. Much to Twilight’s surprise, and regardless of all the noise the Liandri were making with impact hammers and explosive charges, not a single changeling appeared to challenge their escape. Not that she would complain about such a thing. The fewer changelings to deal with, the better. Though there does come a point where no resistance at all becomes suspicious…

“Alright, everypony, we’re almost out of here!” Twilight called out as she trotted alongside them. “Just a little bit more to go and we’ll all be—YAGH!” The unicorn yelped as her entire front leg suddenly fell through air rather than land on hard floor. Stars danced around her eyes as her chin met the floor her hoof expected, and she unconsciously thrashed her limbs in confusion.

Before she could register what was happening, the hole she found her leg stuck in grew, and she slipped head first under the floor, landing somewhere in the abyss in a crumpled heap. Impact warnings in the corner of her HUD flashed her armor’s distaste at landing on anything other than her hooves, though in her state of sudden panic, none of that inhibited her from scrambling to look up and see just what the hay exactly happened. Just like the walls, a hole had opened up in the floor directly where Twilight had been walking; a hole just large enough for Twilight to slip through.

A hole that was now already beginning to close itself.

A panicked yelp escaped her lips and she immediately began to channel adrenalin-fueled magic to teleport herself up again. Though no matter how many times she tried, her years worth of built-up instinct did nothing for her. Having witnessed what had happened, a nearby Nova leapt into the hole without hesitation, though the hole had shrunk enough that the Liandri’s broad torso barely managed to get wedged before it could fall completely through.

The blockage didn’t inhibit the hole, however, and the ductile stone continued to constrict the Nova around the waist, squeezing its titanium chassis until it was crushed entirely. Twilight screamed and scrambled out of the way as the Nova’s legs and hip fell down after her, crashing unceremoniously into the ground, bleeding sparks and fluids of various colors and viscosity through what was essentially its severed spine.

Twilight gaped at the sight, her heart pounding harder than ever. That is, until the sound of buzzing drew her attention elsewhere: to the multitude of eyes staring at her out of the darkness of the room she now found herself in.

A pit fell in her stomach.

A long silence echoed through the Leviathan’s cockpit.

Alex stared at the various images displayed for him, reviewed the data, and weighed his options. Had everything gone perfectly? No. Nothing ever goes perfectly. But between the changelings still having substantial numbers, behemoths disguised as natural outcrops, lethal subspecies, a self-modifying hive, and kidnapping the buffalo… Surely, things could have gone smoother, especially for the powerhouse that is the Liandri Corps.

And then they went and pulled this stunt.

Alex’s cheek twitched. “Applejack. What’s your status?” he asked, monotone.

“Just got everypony out,” she responded. “Ah’ll try to get them as far away from here as possible. But, uh… How’re we gonna get them all outa here?”

“Leave that to me.” He switched channels. “Rose. ETA on evac?”

“Two minutes.”

“Hyde, have a unit give me a visual.”

One of Alex’s holographic displays flashed, and his eyes swerved to look without moving his head. Although the sight before him forced the action anyway. “Rose, what the fuck am I looking at?”

“I warned you it wouldn’t be elegant,” Rose replied. “It’s what I was able to manage with the time I had. Even this is a miracle.”

Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. Rose’s “solution” to the space problem had been to assemble large cages that the Ravens could pick up and fly around. Unfortunately, those cages looked like they had been hastily welded together with scrap metal and whatever frames The Pits could mold the quickest, and in all likelihood, probably were. But if Rose had even some confidence in them…

“Alright,” Alex sighed, “they’ll have to do.” He switched channels again. “Evac’s coming in hot, AJ. It looks like shit, but trust me, it’ll have to do. We’ve got another problem to deal with.”

“We’ve got another problem?” asked Dash. “What kind of other problem could there be? We got everypony out and all the changelings just ran back into their hive. I’d say we’re good to go home.”

“We would be,” Alex grumbled, “except for the reason why the changelings retreated: Twilight’s still in there. The hive cut her off from her party and she got nabbed.”

“What?!” both ponies shouted simultaneously over the radio.

“How?” cried Dash. “Doesn’t she have that cool magic thing that’s supposed to make her super powerful?”

“Something nearby is preventing her from using magic,” Alex answered. “We don’t know what, but until we can figure it out, she’s pretty helpless right now.”

“Helpless mah flank,” said Applejack. “We’re gonna get her out, right Rainbow?”

“Like it’s even a question!” Dash cheered.

“Just focus on getting the Appleoosans and buffalo off the ground first,” Alex interrupted. “I’ll let you know what happens then. In the meantime, I’m going to try to establish contact with her.”

Alex returned to his console after muting that particular channel and began his work. Outside the Leviathan, the communications tower began to move of its own accord, repositioning signal dishes such that more of them were aimed at the hive itself. A quick few minutes of coding later, and he opened a separate channel.

“Twilight, it’s Alex. Can you hear me?”

The response wasn’t silence, but near silent, incomprehensible garbage.

“Fuck…” Alex mumbled to himself as his hands returned to his controls. “Okay, let’s try… repositioning transmitters one and three… to configurations, uh… alpha and delta… Divert more power through three, and… open comms. Twilight, it’s Alex. Can you hear me now?”

“Yes…” Her voice was distorted and quiet, as if she were whispering or mumbling, but it came through clearly enough to be understood.

At least this is working… “Good. Listen, we’re going to get you out one way or another, but right now I need information. Is there anything you can tell me? Like what’s in the room with you or how many changelings are there or have you seen Chrysalis?”

“A lot, a lot, and yes…” Twilight whispered back.

“Are you whispering because you’re afraid they’ll overhear you?”

“Evie told me they can’t hear me… but I know they could still see my lips move…”

Alex nodded in understanding. Twilight’s armor was the only model that left her face visible. “Glad to see you haven’t lost your wits yet. Are you being watched right now? Are you bound in any way?”

“Not closely, but I am being watched,” Twilight replied. “They tried putting me in a cocoon, but they couldn’t put me to sleep, so they stuck me to the ground with this really sticky goo instead.”

“What’s in the room with you? Can you describe it?”

“It’s really big… Lots of changelings… A couple of behemoths—big ones, like the one in Ponyville. Chrysalis is sitting on her throne, giving them all orders. It sounds like they’re setting a trap. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but it sounds like what she really wants is you.”

Alex interlocked his fingers as he parsed the information. If behemoths were present, that means she had to be somewhere accessible to them. A big room, with behemoths present, and Chrysalis’ throne…

“Do you see what looks like a really big tunnel?” Alex asked.

After a moment’s pause, Twilight answered: “Yes, opposite the room from Chrysalis.”

Bingo, Alex concluded. She’s at some end of the behemoth access tunnel. There's no way in hell they're going to leave the hive now, and if Twilight is right—that Chrysalis is really setting up a trap just for me—then that means she somehow knows I’m calling the shots from inside the Leviathan. She wants me to go in where they have the home field advantage; drive into an enclosed space with behemoths where I can’t use the ion cannon... And she’s using Twilight as a lure.

Alex leaned back in his chair, glancing at the mountain of information being flooded onto his interface. He ignored it in favor of hatching a plan to get Twilight out without too many complications.

Whatever changelings that remained were called back to the hive. The atrium that Twilight was being held in was heavily populated, housed at least two behemoths, and even Chrysalis herself. On top of this, Twilight was bound and being watched. Any covert approach would result in chaos.

Chaos…

A crazy thought wormed its way into his mind, and Alex glanced at the signal strength between the communications tower and Twilight. It wasn’t ideal, but with the current setup, it was still decent enough. A plan began to formulate in his mind, and a smirk grew on his face, though it dissipated as Alex remembered that magic failed to function in the region.

“Hmmm… Twilight, did you ever manage to figure out why you can’t use your magic?” he asked.

“Not yet, no…” she responded.

Alex grit his teeth. “Dammit… Alright, Twilight, lemme get back to you.” He switched channels. “Hyde, evac status?”

“It was a tight fit, but four Ravens successfully extracted all the Appleoosans and buffalo,” Hyde answered.

“So we still have one Raven on standby?”

“Yes, Commander.”

He paused for a moment. “Okay, Hyde, I’m initiating Operation Fat Man, but I’m modifying the procedure. We know magic still has an atmospheric presence here, but something is acting as an antenna and diverting it away from casters like Twilight. I want to find out what that is, and pronto. You are to remain on site until we find it. Organize the scouting drones and aircraft as you see fit. AJ, Dash, get back to me and sit tight until we figure out what to do next.”

Twilight sighed as she casually tugged at the sticky green goo keeping her hooves pinned to the floor. Thankfully it wasn’t caustic, since the biomech armor probably would have complained about that if it were the case. That and it would have eventually eaten away at her hooves. Or maybe it was caustic and it just wasn’t enough to eat through the metal? She gave it another tug. No, it probably wasn’t. Still, it was impressive that changelings could produce such a substance anyway.

“Um… e-e-excuse me?”

The hesitant voice caught Twilight’s attention and drew her gaze upwards. It was a changeling drone, identical to the others in every way except for how it acted. While the other changelings held themselves up with some measure of confidence, this one kept its head lower and expressed an air of nervousness; taking slow, careful steps while cautiously eying her. It was almost as if it were the changeling equivalent of Fluttershy.

“Y-you’re one of the ponies that was at the wedding, r-right?” the changeling asked when Twilight just silently stared back after its initial greeting. “I-in Canterlot?”

After glancing around to see if other nearby changelings might be listening in, she nodded. In truth, he had never personally heard any changeling besides Chrysalis speak. She half expected it to speak in some sort of hissing voice, yet it sounded just like a perfectly normal stallion. “Yes. I was there.”

“With five other ponies, right? A-and that big machine?”

“That’s right, yes.”

Spurred on by some sudden boost in confidence, the changeling gradually approached her—an invisible sparkle in his eye. “Those ponies! You’re all friends, right?”

Twilight raised a brow. “Yes. Yes we are.”

The changeling took an eager step forward, a smile exploding to his face; though when Twilight began to lean further away from him, he caught himself, suddenly looking away in embarrassment. “Sorry… I-I didn’t mean to… um… Wh… What’s it like?”

Twilight squinted in confusion. “Um… What’s what like?”

The changeling looked back up at her. “Having friends?”

The unicorn’s confusion never faded, though it did take on a new tack. “You don’t have any friends?”

The drone hung his head, shaking it. “Changelings don’t really make friends with each other… Or anypony for that matter…”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. “It’s just the way we are, I guess. I wish it wasn’t though. I’ve always wanted a friend—ever since I cracked my egg in the nursery hive. When I saw your friendship in Canterlot, I… I couldn’t just steal it and feed on its love. I want to share it.” The changeling glanced up at her for a brief moment before taking a quick look around himself. Dropping his voice to a whisper, he added. “Could you… could you take me with you? When the machines come to get you?”

Conflicting thoughts whirled through Twilight’s mind. On one hoof, changelings were evil, love-stealing parasites who foalnap ponies and buffalo and try to take over Equestria. On the other hoof, this changeling seemed genuine about what it was saying. “I… I don’t know…”

“Please?” the drone insisted. “I-I promise I won’t be any trouble! If I could make a friend, then the love we shared would help sustain me, I’m sure of it!”

Twilight bit her lip. As much as her scientific and compassionate sides would love the opportunity to let a changeling live among ponies to see if they could live without having to resort to stealing love… “That’s… not really my decision to make.”

“Oh…” The changeling lowered its head dejectedly, its ear-like protrusions falling limp. “The machines are the ones that make the decisions like that, aren’t they? It’s okay. I get it. The changelings attacked Equestria, but they’re the ones we picked a fight with.”

“Well…” Twilight hesitated. “Not necessarily. The machines are just following orders. Their inventor is the one making decisions.” After brief moment of thought, she added: “Maybe I could talk to him; see what he thinks?”

The drone looked back up at her. “But how are you going to do that? I can’t get you out.” His eyes glanced around. “Not with all these other changelings everywhere.”

Twilight flashed a smirk and gently shook her head. “Just give me a second.” She turned her head away and whispered. “Evie, I need to talk to Alex.”

“I’ll request a direct channel,” the VI responded.

Several seconds later, Alex’s voice came through her radio. “Hey, Twilight. What’s going on?”

“Hey, Alex. Something… weird is happening. A changeling is talking to me, but he seems different from the others. He says he doesn’t want to stay with the changelings anymore and that he wants to come back to Ponyville with us. He thinks that if he could make a friend, he could feed on the love they share instead of stealing it.”

“I see…” Alex drawled. After several moments of silence, he continued. “Ask him if he knows anything about what’s blocking your magic, first.”

“Okay…” She looked back up at the changeling. “Hey, I have a question for you.”

The changeling hastily nodded. “Sure! I’ll answer whatever you want!”

“I’m not able to cast any spells around here. Do you know why?” Twilight asked.

The changeling beamed before answering in a whisper. “Oh, that’s easy! It’s Chrysalis’ throne.” He pointed a hoof towards Chrysalis and her large, alarmingly spiked throne. “It’s carved from an ancient darkstone that soaks up outside magic the same way changelings soak up love. It’s one of the ways Chrysalis protects the hive. If you could destroy it, you’d get your magic back.”

“A darkstone?” Twilight hummed to herself as she spied Chrysalis giving more and more changelings orders. The more she examined the throne itself, the more she noticed that it was a distinctly different color than the rest of the hive stone around it. “I think I read about those before… Thanks, uh… Sorry, do you have a name?”

“Thorax,” the changeling replied with a growing smile and a nod. “My name is Thorax.”

Twilight smiled in return. “Thank you, Thorax. I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

Just as Thorax’s face lit up with hope, Twilight looked away and began to whisper again. “Alex? Are you there?”

“I’m here,” Alex replied. “Did he have something for us?”

“Yes, he did. He says that Chrysalis’ throne is absorbing magic the same way changelings absorb love. According to him, if we destroy it, I’ll be able to use magic again.”

“And he told you all this without asking for anything in return?”

“Yes, although I did promise I would do what I could to help him. Alex, I think bringing him back with us would be an excellent opportunity to learn more about changelings as a whole. If he’s right, then there’s a chance that ponies and changelings will be able to coexist peacefully in the future!”

Alex paused before responding. “Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll make some arrangements to bring him with us.”

Twilight blinked repeatedly in an attempt to comprehend what she heard. “Wait, really? I thought you’d try to argue against this.”

“Twilight, I’ve seen countless idiots reject better research proposals with more compelling arguments for dumber reasons,” said Alex. “Simply put, I’m trusting you on this as a scientist. Besides…” he paused to give a quiet laugh. “After today, I don’t think the changelings are going to be any kind of threat anymore. So, does this changeling have a name?”

“He does. It’s Thorax.”

“Right…” Another pause. “Well tell Thorax that I don’t completely trust him yet. Tell him that he needs to stay next to you from here on out. No talking with anyone else. Now the Liandri will still see him as a target, so when I give you the word, Twilight, you will tell him to change into Rainbow Dash and follow you. I’ll configure the Liandri to hold their fire on that one Rainbow Dash not wearing armor and that one Rainbow Dash only. Until then, only tell him that he’ll have to change into either you, AJ, or Dash at the precise moment you tell him to. Oh, and please emphasize this: My priority is you. I guarantee him nothing. If he wants to make it out of there in one piece, the onus will be on him, so he’d better be paying attention and follow what you say to the letter.”

Twilight pursed her lips, but nodded in understanding. “Alright, I’ll let him know.”

As more time passed, the human cooked up contingencies. With the source of the magic nullifier known, creating a distraction to get Twilight out of the hive would become a simple affair. In the event that the changeling referred to as “Thorax” was lying, a sufficient contingent of Liandri would follow them into the hive to serve as a minimally sufficient distraction. Granted, this minimally sufficient distraction would still consist of well over three hundred units.

Per the protocol of Operation Fat Man, Hyde was ordered to extract with the remaining Raven dropship and three quarters of the deployed air force. A majority of ground units were also ordered to return to Ponyville via the infantry portals, leaving a bare bones operation. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had been ordered to return to Ponyville as well, but true to themselves, they refused to leave without Twilight. Rather than fight with them, Alex allowed them to stay, but emphasized that they needed to listen to his every word from that point on.

The only thing left to do was to wait for a Raven to return.

Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration. “How much longer do we have to keep waiting out here? Twilight needs us now!”

“I already told you,” Alex answered, glancing between displays. “We’re waiting for a Raven. We need to time it so we go into the hive as soon as possible and then get picked up as soon as we leave and not a second later. When I get the green light from Rose, then we’ll move in.”

“But it’s been almost an hour!” Dash complained, banging a hoof atop the Leviathan’s cockpit.

“It’s okay, Dash, I’m still fine,” came Twilight’s voice. “The changelings are antsy, but they’re mostly ignoring me. I think they’re more worried about what you guys are going to do next. That and the fact that you’re still here but haven’t done anything yet.”

Applejack hummed. “Gettin’ a little antsy myself, but if we need one of those Ravens, then Ah’m okay with waitin’—so long as Twilight ain’t in any danger. Just wish Ah knew why we needed it.”

Alex sighed. “Everything besides us four is expendable. The main goal here is not just to get Twilight out, but all of us at the same time. After that—”

“Raven is en route,” Rose interrupted, though speaking only to him. “You’re good to move in now.”

“What? Oh shit!” Alex suddenly sat up straight in his seat. “Guys, we just got the green light. It’s time to go.”

“Finally!” Rainbow shouted skyward.

“Alright you two: stick with the Liandri on the ground. We’re going in.”

At Alex’s words, the entire Leviathan shuddered, sending Rainbow Dash into the air like a startled pigeon. The ion cannon folded inward once more before swinging itself upside down and resuming its place as the vehicle’s spine. The port and starboard supports that kept the super tank stable, as well as the front shields, uprooted themselves and locked back into position. As a final step, the pilot’s cannon backtracked along its rails to return to its proper place just behind the cockpit.

A deep, yet loud hum announced the mobility of the Leviathan as its gigantic wheels eased forward once more. Despite the rough and uneven terrain between the Liandri foothold and the changeling hive, the vehicle’s sheer massivity made short work of any obstacles in its way. Drained trees were mulched and boulders were crushed under its titanic weight, barely slowing the Leviathan in its unstoppable crawl.

The remaining Liandri and ponies ran along beside or behind it, the latter of whom still oblivious to the plan to rescue their friend.

“So just how exactly are we gonna get Twilight out?” asked Applejack. “What’s yer plan?”

“According to Twilight, Chrysalis is most likely using her as bait to get to me,” Alex explained. “Now as much as I’d like to say she is, I don’t think she’s dumb. She’s keeping Twilight in an atrium surrounded by a lot of changelings and even a couple of behemoths—an atrium, mind you, with a big enough access tunnel that I could squeeze the Leviathan through. She didn’t do that by accident.”

“So you’re saying she wants you to bring the big death machine in there?” asked Dash. “That still seems really stupid to me.”

“Except it’s not,” Alex corrected her. “The Leviathan has a lot of firepower, sure, but it’s not effective in an enclosed space; and you can just forget about maneuverability. She’s probably expecting me to get cocky and not care about that fact. Makes it easier to corner me.”

“So what’re we gonna do?” asked AJ.

“Simple: we’re gonna give her what she wants. Doesn’t mean I don’t have an ace up my sleeve, though. Also, just to bring you guys up to speed: there’s a changeling that wants to abandon the hive. His name is Thorax. He thinks that if he makes a friend in Ponyville, he can feed off shared love as opposed to stealing it. We’re going to try bringing him back with us, but he’s not a priority.”

“Okay, now you went and confused me,” said Rainbow Dash. “We spent all this time fighting the changelings and now you’re talking about bringing one back to Ponyville so he can live there? What gives?”

“Twilight seems to trust him. She also thinks it’s a good opportunity to see if changelings can peacefully coexist with ponies. Prevent future conflict and all that. As far as I’m concerned, I’m just rewarding him for letting us know what was causing the magical blackout in the region. Unless he’s lying, that is. Even then, we’ll be fine, so don’t worry about that.”

Eventually, the Leviathan made its way to the mouth of the behemoth tunnel and ground to a halt. As Alex expected, the tunnel was big enough to comfortably allow a behemoth to pass through, and from the looks of things, barely so for the super tank. The turrets on the upper deck would have to be retracted, but that just meant reducing their firing angles.

Alex cleared his throat and repositioned himself in his seat, leaning on one elbow. “Hello, Chrysalis,” his voice boomed out from the vehicle, echoing down the passage and throughout the hive. “It seems you’ve taken one last thing that doesn’t belong to you. I would like her back. Unlike the others, which I have taken by force, I am willing to have a discussion this time around. Face to face. Consider it an olive branch that I don’t feel like annihilating you for what you’ve done.”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack shared a look, Rose’s words returning to each of them: “... once the Appleloosans have been extracted, the mission parameters change from search and rescue to search and destroy. This means the total annihilation of the changelings. Their eradication.”

After Alex finished his address, the Leviathan’s flood lights flared to life, bathing the tunnel in blinding illumination. “Alright, I’m going in,” Alex told the ponies. “You guys stay behind the Leviathan. That way you have a clear exit in case something happens or goes wrong.”

“Question,” Applejack blurted. “Just what exactly can go wrong right now?”

“Any number of things, really. Let’s just hope that if and when things go wrong, they go wrong the way that we want them to. Just remember: when I tell you to run, you get the hell out of there. No matter what, don’t slow down. ”

Slowly but surely, the Leviathan crawled into the changeling hive, its massive front forming an impassable wall that continued to crush and flatten everything in its path. The titanic vehicle took its time squeezing through the tunnel, occasionally scraping against the wall or ceiling.

Applejack noticed just how tight a fit it was for the hulking machine, though her observations only posed questions. How would the Leviathan be able to get back out? According to Alex, bringing it in was a bad idea in the first place because it wouldn’t be able to fight if it needed to, and if going in forward was such a slow process, then bringing it out reverse would be even tougher. So either Alex was expecting everything to go peacefully, or… or…

...Or he wasn’t planning on bringing the Leviathan back out in the first place…

A knot formed in Applejack’s stomach at the thought of that last possibility, and just what exactly that would entail.

After what felt like forever, the Leviathan freed itself from the tunnel and into a gigantic atrium. The ponies’ hearts raced as their eyes drew upwards, staring at all the changelings that hung from the walls and ceilings to glare back. Misshapen columns and bridges filled the void of the room, moving and reshaping themselves to some unseen will. As the Leviathan slowed to a halt near the center of the room, the ponies began the long trek around it and spotted Chrysalis sitting on a considerably spiked throne. Despite everything, her face remained focused; neither angry nor fearful.

A short distance away, flanked by several changelings, was Twilight—green goo fixing her to the ground by her hooves, though with her armor still intact. Titanic behemoths covered in thick onyx plates grumbled in the corners of the room, their ashen eyes fixed upon the new arrivals. The giants heaved themselves onto their feet as Liandri both big and small poured out of the tunnel and flanked the Leviathan.

“So I’m assuming you wanted to have a conversation,” Alex’s voice projected from his armored transport. “Well, here I am.”

“I want more than a conversation,” Chrysalis declared before hopping off of her throne and landing with weightless grace. She took slow, calculated steps forward. “I want a resolution to this conflict of ours. I am prepared to allow the pony to go free.”

“If all you wanted was to surrender, I hardly think kidnapping said pony was the way to go about doing it.”

“I’m not talking about surrender,” Chrysalis proclaimed, standing tall. “I’m talking about ending this. You and me. No one else. On my word, the pony goes free regardless of the outcome.”

Alex didn’t respond. All eyes remained on the Leviathan for several moments until a sharp but brief hiss echoed throughout the atrium, coupled with the whirring of locks undoing themselves. A hatch in the top of the super tank’s cockpit popped up, swinging wide open. A second later, a humanoid figure clad in green power armor leapt out, landing carefully atop the front of the vehicle.

“However much your word is actually worth,” Alex spoke in a mechanized voice. “So it’s a duel you want, is it? A battle between leaders? To the death, I assume?”

Chrysalis hesitated a moment, as if thinking over her options, though eventually grit her teeth and forced a scowl. “That’s exactly it.”

A warning message appeared across the HUDs of the ponies, making their hearts skip a beat.

“I see…” Alex drawled, glancing at the changelings throughout the room. Only he could feel the silent vibration building within the Leviathan. “In that instance, let me make myself clear: this is not a scenario you are going to win. I’m young—Only twenty eight years old. I don’t know how old you are, and I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me because you don’t know what I know. I’ve learned many things that I’ve engrained into my very being, but one such things I’ve only learned recently; and in those twenty eight years of mine, it has become one of the greatest truths I’ve ever discovered. It is that truth that dictates my victory and your death.”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at him. “And just what sort of truth is that?” she demanded.

Alex went silent for a moment, and then his gaze met her’s.

“That flesh is a design flaw.”

In that instant, Chrysalis’ gaze shattered, like a brick had been thrown through glass. It was as if the green of Alex’s visor had suddenly become the most frightening thing the changeling queen had ever envisioned, striking terror directly into her very core. As Chrysalis stumbled back in some unknown revelation, a commando stepped forward and aimed a shoulder-mounted AVRiL at the queen’s throne, wasting no time in letting loose its payload. The anti-vehicle rocket slammed into the throne completely unobstructed, obliterating it into a cloud of dust and rubble in an instant.

“Twilight, now!” Alex called out over the radio.

A powerful buzzer suddenly blasted out from the Leviathan, echoing into the atrium four times in only four seconds. Before the changelings could rally their senses on the situation, the entire room became enveloped in a flash of blinding lightning and deafening thunder.

Author's Notes:

Finally! Got this one out! Been spending the past two hours going over this chapter since the formatting got completely screwed when I transferred it from the google doc. None of the paragraphs were indented, the space between paragraphs was replaced with a bunch of formatting garbage that I never put in... Had to fix the entire thing manually and then go over it again just to make sure I got everything. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.

In any event, I had actually finished this chapter a long time ago, but something wasn't quite working, so I ended up rewriting a good portion of it. Part of that rewrite involves bringing Thorax into the mix. I think it turned out fairly well! In other news, the next chapter is actually already done; it just needs to go through editing. Keep an eye open for that.

Run Like Hell!

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“So it’s a duel you want, is it? A battle between leaders? To the death, I assume?”

Twilight sucked in a breath at Alex’s words. Biomech armor or not, this was still a duel with the changeling queen they were talking about! Was this somehow a part of his plan? Did he actually expect this?

“That’s exactly it,” Chrysalis scowled back at him.

Without warning, a message flashed across Twilight’s HUD: “DISTRESS BEACON TRIGGERED.”

As soon as it appeared, the message flew to the bottom of her HUD. Almost instinctively, Twilight’s eyes drew up to Alex for some sort of explanation. Instead, his gaze lingered on her for only a moment while he continued speaking to Chrysalis. Glancing at her friends who were standing with the Liandri by the Leviathan, Twilight gauged that they had received the same message as well, purely by their shared look.

“In that instance,” said Alex from his perch atop the Leviathan’s cockpit, “let me make myself clear: this is not a scenario you are going to win…”

Far away, in Ponyville, the distress signal arrived, and Rose give an imagined sigh. I really wish he would stop testing these prototype systems in such uncontrolled circumstances.

“...I’m young—Only twenty eight years old. I don’t know how old you are, and I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me because you don’t know what I know…”

Immense power flowed through the Liandri facility towards storage.

“I’ve learned many things that I’ve engrained into my very being, but one such things I’ve only learned recently…”

Row after row, unit after unit, the oculi of the stored cybernetics blazed to life.

“...and in those twenty eight years of mine, it has become one of the greatest truths I’ve ever discovered. It is that truth that dictates my victory and your death.”

As a single cohesive unit, each Liandri in storage reached over their back and withdrew their weapons.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at him. “And just what sort of truth is that?” she demanded.

Electricity crackled around each cybernetic as the machinery around them powered up.

Alex went silent for a moment, and then his gaze met her’s. “That flesh is a design flaw.”

As those words were spoken, his neural interface sent a command for the nearest commando to destroy Chrysalis’ throne with an AVRiL. The unit stepped forward without question, aimed its shoulder-mounted weapon, and let loose its payload. The anti-vehicle rocket shrieked through the air and slammed into the throne completely unobstructed, obliterating it into a cloud of dust and rubble in an instant.

“Twilight, now!” Alex called out over the radio.

Verbally shaken back into action, Twilight shouted to the changeling next to her: “Thorax! It’s Rainbow Dash!”

Having been briefed by Twilight earlier, Thorax burst into green flame to change into the pegasus in question. Although all he had to go on was a rough description of her and her armor clad figure from a fair distance away, he still managed to pull off a decent replica.

A buzzer suddenly sounded from the Leviathan, and a new message flashed across Twilight’s HUD: “ATTENTION: MASS TELEPORT IMMINENT.”

The buzzer sounded a total of four times before Twilight’s visor went opaque, blocking out an intense flash of light. Thunder drummed gently against her ears: an apocalypse muted to distant rumbling by her armor. When her vision returned, Twilight found an army of Liandri where there wasn’t before. Without any chance to realize what was going on, Novas that had appeared in front of her focused their link guns on her, burning away the goo keeping her tethered to the ground with a steady stream of plasma.

An ungodly screech erupted from the cybernetics. Then the chaos began.

Queen Chrysalis blinked her eyes again and again in an attempt to restore her vision, her ears still ringing from the two deafening blasts that destroyed her throne and blinded her. As her senses began to return, she found her vision obstructed by a large object - legs. Her strained gaze followed them up towards their gargantuan owner, only to meet the dead, empty sockets of an inhuman skull staring down at her. Its jaws hung open, revealing an orange glow from within. The mechanical giant clenched its fists, raised them high in the air, and sent them careening down on her.

Once the new Liandri arrived, Alex turned on the spot and sprinted across the back of the Leviathan, calling out over the radio: “Time to leave! Let’s get the fuck out! Leviathan, initiate Protocol Omega; admin authorization tango gamma sigma dash two one zero zero four!”

At his words, a pulse raced out from the Leviathan at the speed of magic, and a page on the book of history was turned.

Violet light snaked its way through the blinds covering the windows of Carousel Boutique, a by-product of the shield surrounding Ponyville. Several fabrics of marginally differing shades of blue floated alongside a ponyquin wearing a half-made dress. Rarity squinted through her glasses at the varying fabrics, making every effort to be sure that the fabric she was looking at was actually the shade the believed it to be. Despite every effort to block out the colored light from outside, she could never convince herself that she was one hundred percent certain of her fabric choice.

As satisfied as she could feel, Rarity settled on a fabric and levitated her choice over to the sewing machine. After making a quick measure, she levitated the scissors over to herself, but paused when they reflected a violet flash. Her eyes trailed over to the streak of violet along the wall, and the idea behind the colored light’s presence forced a sigh from the seamstress as she lowered the scissors. Try as she would to distract herself, she couldn’t manage to get her mind off of the fact that her friends were off fighting changelings—creatures who have proven to be far more vicious than she could even anticipate. Sure, the Liandri were the ones leading the charge, but that still didn’t mean they were out of harm’s way.

She walked over to the window, threw open the blinds, and glanced toward the town center, where the shield projector continued to form the brilliant tree of pure magic that surrounded Ponyville. As beautiful as the sight was, its presence only meant trouble.

Without warning, an invisible wave assaulted the unicorn, or more specifically, her horn. Rarity gasped, keeling over while holding a useless hoof to her horn to nurse the growing discomfort. It was the same feeling as a leg falling asleep, but easily ten times worse. She shakily raised her eyes, searching for the source of this debilitating sensation.

Where in Equestria was this coming from?

Pinkie’s chin sat flat against a table in the middle of Sugarcube Corner, her eyes following a ball that her hooves knocked back and forth. Since the Liandri shield went up, business had dropped like a rock, leaving the pink pony with nothing to do.

It was weird! She would have thought that everypony would have felt safe with the shield up, but for some reason, it only made ponies want to stay at home until the whole changeling thing blew over. She tried visiting a few of her neighbors and invited them to come outside, but everypony said they’d rather not leave their house! The only ones who weren’t home were the Liandri Novas marching in the streets, but they weren’t any fun to talk to. In fact, a couple of them ordered Pinkie to stand still while they pricked her with a needle. That definitely wasn’t fun.

Huh. Maybe that’s why everypony’s staying home.

A sudden spasm seized Pinkie as her hooves locked up and the ball she had been playing with tumbled to the floor. The shaking started in her back legs, then rapidly moved up to her tail, her back, and then the rest of her body.

Hearing all the commotion, Mr. and Mrs. Cake bolted into the room from the kitchen to find Pinkie seizing on the floor. Yelping in alarm, the bakers ran to her side in an instant, though her full body tremors left her almost as soon as they did, leaving her lying on her back with her legs sticking straight up.

“Oh my stars, Pinkie, are you alright?” Mrs. Cake implored.

“Mhm!” Pinkie nodded, before quickly flipping herself over and dusting herself off. “Thanks for asking Mrs. Cake, but I’m fine.”

“Was that a doozy…?” asked Mr. Cake, a sense of dread coming over him.

“Yup,” Pinkie nodded enthusiastically, before turning her head to look out the window. “I wonder what it’s about?”

“Captain Shining Armor, your highnesses,” the royal herald announced to the princesses in their throne room, only a moment before the aforementioned unicorn entered after him.

Shining Armor marched up to the thrones and bowed. “Princess Celestia. Princess Luna.”

“Captain,” the two acknowledged him with a nod before Celestia continued. “I trust the situation in Ponyville is under control? We’ve received word of quite a bit going on in the valley.”

“The report of a giant changeling was most distressing,” Luna added. “Was there some measure of exaggeration in this?”

Shining Armor shook his head. “That report is true. Whatever it was, it was far bigger and angrier than what we were prepared to handle.” He sighed and looked away. “To be honest, if it weren’t for the Liandri, Ponyville would have been completely destroyed by that thing.”

“Give thyself more credit than this, Shining Armor,” said Luna, turning her head up at his suggestion. “Thou art a formidable pony in thy own right. Thou would not be captain of the guard were this not the case. We have no doubt thou would have quelled the beast just fine.”

Shining Armor bowed. “I thank you for your confidence, princess, but I don’t think-”

A wave felt by all those present cut off the captain’s words. The stallion choked as his horn came under attack by an unseen threat. His training kicked in, and he raised his head back up to look for the source. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

“I do not know!” Luna gasped, holding a hoof up to her horn. “I’ve never felt a sensation such as this!”

“I have,” Celestia answered, just as distraught as her sister. Without hesitation, her mind zeroed in on memories of Ponyville, the summer sun celebration, and the flick of a switch…

The Overseer glared at his screen, watching the events at the hive unfold. Chrysalis had done well in capturing Twilight to use her as a lure. Xan’s arrogant confidence led him to drive his mobile fortress into a cramped space where it could no longer fight, accompanied by only a fraction of his army. And now Chrysalis had managed to coax him out of his shell. She need only kill him and everything would eventually return to normal. Peace and harmony would soon be restored to the world and beyond. No one else would need to be sacrificed, although his remnants would still need to be removed.

That’s when his screen flashed white, and a fresh army of god-forsaken machines appeared out of nowhere.

The Overseer sighed and shook his head. Of course. Xan was arrogant, but he wasn’t a fool. He had plans to put the boot down, one way or another. Chrysalis never stood a chance, but her mission was too important for it to be left solely up to her. Matters would now have to be taken into his own hands, and the Overseer drew up a command prompt. Less than forty eight hours ago, Phayder squad had planted a thermonuclear warhead beneath the hive. A bomb whose detonation was now imperative.

As the Overseer began to type in the required commands, his mind wandered to what Chrysalis really thought about Xan and the threat he posed. Did she really understand it? In that moment, he hoped that, if she really understood it as well as he did, she would forgive him for what he was about to do and the sacrifice she was about to make.

Searing pain wracked the Overseer’s hands, and he drew them away from the keyboard as quickly as a breath. Alarms blazed through his monitors; systems all over Equestria and beyond complained of the sudden magical disturbance as the pain sent his hands into convulsions. With a grunt, he gripped his right forearm and stared at his gauntleted hand, using all his willpower to form it into a fist. His breathing deep and quick, the Overseer’s gaze screwed back up towards the screen, peering through the chaos at the Leviathan sitting in the middle of it all.

What the hell has that madman just done?!

“Time to leave! Let’s get the fuck out!”

Twilight bolted in the direction of the behemoth tunnel almost as soon as she was freed. However, she promptly collapsed to the ground, nearly flipping over as she did, screaming as an unbearable, white hot pain jolted through her horn and coursed through her body. The unicorn shrieked in agony, completely ignoring Evie’s warnings: “Leviathan core protocol Omega initiated. Power Core overload in progress. Immediate evacuation advised.”

An unarmored Rainbow Dash stopped dead next to her, speaking in a voice that didn’t belong. “Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!”

Alerted to Twilight’s distress through the network, Alex quickly stopped to look at her as Liandri stormed passed him to join the chaos. “Twilight! Get the fuck up! We gotta go now!”

Taking executive action, Twilight’s armor began to move for her, and she shot back to her hooves. Despite the pilot’s pains and protests, the armor’s priority was to get her to safety. Still confused, the copy of Rainbow Dash followed after her. Though when Thorax realized that he couldn’t keep up with her on foot, he took to the air. His own senses felt strange, though in the moment, only his wings tingled.

Changeling and Liandri clashed throughout the atrium. Twilight weaved around changelings throwing themselves against Novas, ducked under flying bolts and plasma, and leapt over entire brawls of gnashing teeth, claws, and flame. A behemoth came thundering down her way, roaring as it trampled and crushed cybernetic and changeling alike, until a commando threw itself around one of the creature’s tusks, throwing it off balance and sending it charging straight through a rocky column. The ground trembled at all the commotion while boulders and other debris tumbled from the ceiling. Discord was dangerous in his own respect, but of all the chaos he could produce, none of it could have reached this level of pure lethality.

At the mouth of the behemoth tunnel, a changeling made a beeline for Alex’s head as he ran. Without a second to spare, he caught it by the throat and directed its momentum straight into the ground. His HUD pointed out the ponies running towards him and he ushered them all with an urgent wave. “Move it! Move it! Go go go!” He followed as they zoomed past him, instantly bursting into a sprint.

Red warnings flashed across their HUDs, a droning alarm ringing in their ears. “Alex! What the hay is goin’ on?!” Applejack shouted over the collective sound of bestial roars, buzzing, screeching, plasma fire, and explosions, even though it wasn’t necessary over the radio.

As if to answer her question, Evie announced: “Warning: Leviathan Core containment breached. Core overload imminent. Evacuate the area immediately.”

“Fucking run like hell!” Alex shouted back, making every effort to speed up.

Tears streamed down Twilight’s face as she conjured every ounce of willpower she could to keep her eyes open and her legs moving, or at the very least, not inhibit her armor from moving them for her.

As they all sprinted through the tunnel, changelings poured out of side passages, speeding towards them in an attempt to stop their escape. Twilight dodged and weaved around them, not even bothering to acknowledge the ones that tried to give chase. Applejack did the same, though didn’t hesitate to knock a few changelings that got in her way with a brief shoulder check. Rainbow Dash, being the most agile, eagerly went after the ones that tried causing too much trouble for the others, catching up to her friends afterwards with little difficulty. Enforcer in hand, Alex didn’t hesitate to execute changelings that got too close for his liking.

“Just a little further!” Alex called out as outside light became visible. The three ponies, disguised changeling, and human shot out of the hive at top speed, zooming out into the badlands as fast as their legs and wings would allow. Alex looked around and up, making every effort to find their escape. Much to his relief, he didn’t have to look very long, and pointed skyward. “There’s our ride! Just keep running!”

In a long, banking arc, a Raven dropship that had been flying toward them made a complete U-turn while descending behind them from a much higher altitude. The aircraft quickly sped ahead and then slowed to match their speed. As the Raven bobbed up and down to avoid hitting the uneven terrain, the dropship’s rear whirred opened, exposing its empty cargo hold.

“Get in! Hurry!” Alex shouted as the real and fake Rainbow Dashes zoomed into the back of the moving aircraft, then immediately turned around to help the others in. Applejack leapt in with little difficulty, though Twilight lost her stability when she tried. The unicorn nearly fell out of the back until Thorax grabbed onto her hoof. Barely able to hold onto the weight of both the pony and her armor, the disguised changeling struggled to pull Twilight back in until the other two ponies pulled on his hind legs, bringing them all safely aboard.

After taking a moment to execute the last changeling that had followed them out of the hive with a swift bullet, Alex stored his side arm and leapt onto the Raven’s ramp, landing on his front so as to carefully drag himself in. Before he even got to his feet, he shouted: “Fucking floor it!” and the aircraft’s tarydium boosters took off.

Inertia pulled the equines towards the opening in the aircraft as it lurched forward, forcing them all to grab onto something to avoid being thrown out the back end. Twilight, still bemoaning the feeling in her horn, suddenly found herself lifted up by Alex and placed onto one of the seats lining the side of the aircraft’s hold. The human reached up and lowered a restraining frame over the unicorn, locking it and her into place. Despite the fact that it was meant to hold a humanoid cybernetic with a much larger build, it kept the pony secured to her seat easily enough.

“Everyone pick a seat and strap in!” Alex called out as he made his way to the back of the cargo hold to close the ramp. “This ride’s gonna get bumpy!”

As the ponies and changeling each locked themselves into a seat, Alex stared out the back of the Raven; first towards the changeling hive, then downwards at the old foothold as they sped over it, the communications tower, and all the other equipment that was left behind.

Evie relayed a final message to them all: “Emergency: Leviathan Power Core integrity failing. Core overload will occur in T-minus: 10. 9. 8. 7…”

“Alex, what’s happening?” Rainbow Dash asked, genuine worry washing over her face for the first time in her life.

Without wavering, he answered: “Wait for it…”

Inside the hive, the fighting raged on around the Leviathan, now covered in red electrical arcs. Unbeknownst to all around it, the super tank, with all its reinforcements and hardy engineering, had already begun to crumple in on itself. Within its power core, a fierce swirl of energy cackled and grew. The energy’s restraints, metal plates held at specific angles on robust arms, bent inward under the intense force of the singularity.

The pieces snapped away altogether, absorbed and instantly ionized within the storm. With nothing left to hold it back, the singularity grew, its hurricane of raw energy consuming everything around it. The screams of every soul damned to hell pierced the air as the whirlwind of raw energy grew violently unstable.

All eyes lay on the changeling hive. A bright light burst from the mouth of every tunnel, and a grin formed on Alex’s face, his eyes blazing emerald. No more than a second later, the entire mountain fragmented and expanded like a balloon in the stretch of a moment before being swallowed up from the inside by a rapidly expanding ball of light. The explosion tore through the badlands, ripping up and annihilating huge swathes of earth at impossible speeds as easily as a breath.

The glow in Alex’s eyes evaporated, as did his grin. Blood drained from his face as all of his thoughts left him, save one. “Oh shit… Oh fuck…!” When the ever expanding tsunami obliterated the communications tower and infantry portals, Alex slammed on the button to close the rear ramp and bolted across the Raven’s cargo hold and into the cockpit. “Fucking fly faster!”

The ponies all looked to each other, gripping their restraints with both hooves as if to grip onto their own lives. None of them found words through the adrenaline and constant shaking of the aircraft, though all of them held the same hope: that they’d each make it out alive and hopefully take a long vacation.

The aircraft’s jostling escalated, shaking them around in their seats like the worst amusement park ride in the world. Each of their screams were drowned out by the sound of the Raven being torn apart.

Lost Contact

View Online

Twenty four hours.

Twenty four hours since the overload.

Twenty four hours of unknowns.

Twenty four hours of worry.

Twenty four hours of lost contact.

“Thank you all for meeting me here on such short notice,” Rose’s humanoid body said as she pulled out a chair from the cafes exterior table and sat down. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie had already gathered and taken their seats, though hadn’t been waiting for any longer than a few minutes already.

“Well of course,” said Rarity, sharing a quick look with her friends. “If there’s anything we’ve learned about you, it’s that you only ever organize meetings like this when they’re important.”

The waiter brought a quartet of menus to their table, silently distributing them. Pinkie Pie was the only one to actually open one, while Rose casually pushed her’s away. “This one will not be an exception to that rule. First, I must ask you a question. Rarity, around this time yesterday, did you notice a strange magical disturbance?”

Rarity nodded. “I did! It very well knocked me off my hooves! Why?”

Rose’s eyes wandered to the few ponies wandering the street. “Every other unicorn in town has reported having the same feeling at that time. Pegasi and earth ponies were unaffected. None of them know why.”

“Oh dear…” gasped Fluttershy. “Do you think you have an idea of what caused this?”

Rose met her gaze. “I have more than an idea. I know exactly what caused it.”

Pinkie stuck her menu to her face, peering over it with wild eyes. “Was it aliens from outer space?!”

“No,” Rose answered her with a flat stare.

“Oh…” said Pinkie, lowering her menu in thought before raising up again to browse through her options. “Welp, there goes my idea!”

“Well if it wasn’t that,” Rarity remarked with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, “then what was it?”

“Do you happen to recall the events that transpired during the Summer Sun Celebration?” asked Rose, leaning on the table with interlocked fingers.

Fluttershy placed a hoof over her mouth. “You mean that time that Alex nearly died…?”

“Yes, that. Do you recall feeling a similar sensation at the time?”

“I do…” Rarity nodded, her eyes wandering down to the table. “I didn’t think about it before, but you’re right, the sensation was similar…” She looked up at Rose. “But it wasn’t nearly as bad as what I felt yesterday, though!”

“The device that nearly killed Alex at the Celebration was a Power Core,” Rose started. “It was small, but still capable of generating large amounts of energy. What you felt then was a result of the Core’s containment field failing to initiate, allowing its energy to radiate freely. The shock that the Core delivered to Alex when he stopped the power build-up traumatized the device enough to jump start its containment. It was the equivalent of kicking machinery when it fails to start and suddenly find it working again.

“Had it not been contained, energy would have built up until it grew unstable and exploded, turning Ponyville into little more than a crater. We call this process a Core Overload. What you felt yesterday was another Core Overload, but for a Power Core several times larger than the first. Large enough, in fact, that it felt more powerful than the first time despite the fact that it’s nowhere near Ponyville.”

Fluttershy’s brows creased in worry. “Wh-what happened? Where was it?”

“The changeling hive,” Rose answered, turning her head Fluttershy’s way. “Alex initiated the Leviathan’s Omega protocol. It’s a last resort protocol meant to prevent our technology from falling into possession of those who would misuse it. It works quite simply: cause the vehicle’s Power Core to overload and annihilate everything nearby. Truth be told, we’ve never detonated a core before, but we estimate unparalleled levels of destruction.”

Pinkie Pie slowly lowered her menu, which actually drew more attention to her than if she had lowered it quickly. However, she held a thousand yard stare straight into the center of the table. “So that was the doozy…” Pinkie gulped and dragged her eyes up to Rose. “What happened to them…?”

Fluttershy looked between Pinkie and Rose for several seconds before the dots connected and gasped, both hooves shooting to cover her gaping mouth as she stared. Rarity’s expression fell, and her blood ran cold.

Rose crossed her arms over her abdomen as she stared solemnly at the table. “They all managed to get out of the hive and aboard a transport in time, but… I lost contact with their transport shortly after the detonation.” She shifted in her seat. “I still haven’t found them.”

A dark cloud hung over the table. Tears flowed freely as their lungs struggled to keep a regular rhythm. Fluttershy buried her head under her ever tightening hooves, unable to even wail openly. Pinkie’s face fell flat against the table, a quiet sob that produced the occasional pained squeak brought the only indication of the thoughts that circulated her mind. Rarity made every effort to keep her rapidly disintegrating composure together. Her deep breaths were the only thing that even remotely enabled her to continue talking instead of breaking down altogether.

“B-b-but you’re still looking, right?” Rarity croaked. “You still haven’t given up, r-r-right…?”

Rose looked away. “The lack of results has made things more… difficult for me to continue. I’ve had to halt my own efforts for the time being and separate myself from the network, but I’ve placed Hyde in charge of search and rescue in my stead.”

“Of… of course…” Rarity gulped, a fraction of an inch from breaking down entirely. “Th-these a-are trying times for… for all of us…” Just as she began to sob, her watery eyes shot open, and she stared back up at Rose. “What about Spike?! Some… somepony has to—”

“I’d like to delay that as much as possible,” Rose interrupted, avoiding eye contact. “He doesn’t need to know until we’re absolutely sure.”

Rarity’s lips trembled. “Yes… Of… of course…” With no further thoughts to keep her mind focused, she joined her remaining friends in the circle of tears.

It was a moment none of them could ever truly acknowledge as even being possible; mourning the loss of so many near and dear friends at once. And without even giving them a proper goodbye. Half of their group was simply gone. Vanished. They had all spoken together just the other day, but to think that that would be the last time… It could not have been anticipated, and even with hindsight, it remained unimaginable.

Lost in thought, none of them noticed the distant thumps that started to rattle their spoons and forks. The jingling grew in intensity, though it wasn’t until the thumping and clanking that accompanied the tremors drew close enough that they were all brought back to reality. Several ponies ran down the street in the opposite direction of the noise in a clear attempt at escape. It didn’t take much longer for Sub-Commander Hyde to step into view and continue thundering his way towards them. His armor was still scarred, and dirty, with most of the paint seared away—a relic of the previous day.

Rarity sniffed and wiped away as many tears as she could before he could get too close. “Well this evening somehow got worse…”

Hyde stopped several meters away from the table and crossed his arms. “Well hello to you too, Curly.”

“My name is Rarity!” she sneered through grit teeth and water-logged eyes, smashing a hoof against the table.

“I know that,” Hyde acknowledged, adding an amused huff. “I just don’t care.”

Pinkie Pie slammed both hooves on the table and stood up from her seat, tears still streaming down her face. “Get out of here, you big meanie! Can’t you see we’re grieving here?!”

“I don’t care about that either, Cupcake,” Hyde growled, turning his crimson gaze on her.

“What are you doing here, Hyde?” Rose snapped, not bothering to even look at him.

Hyde unhooked his arms, placed a fist over his chest, and bowed his head. “Apologies, Commander. I came to personally tell you know that Raven three found a group of wanderers that needs medical attention. It’s them.”

Fluttershy slowly raised her head, the fur on her face matted around red eyes. “It’s them…?” She quickly looked up Hyde, a glimmer of hope sparkling across her features.

Hyde turned his head to her and nodded once.

The four individuals seated around the table looked at each other for exactly two seconds before they all jumped to their hooves/feet, knocking over their chairs and bolting down the street. Hyde followed them with his eyes, quietly laughing at their reaction.

Suddenly, the waiter for the cafe walked outside, whistling a tune with closed eyes as he approached the table Rose, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie were sitting at. When he opened his eyes a moment later, his entire body froze, and he stared up at the giant that was now eyeing him.

“What are you looking at?” Hyde growled.

Earlier...

Twilight groaned, aware of the pains that ached all over her body, though none of it could compare to the throbbing in her horn and side. On the other end of the gap in her memory, all she could remember was the screaming; the flash of light; the tearing of metal. Then... nothing. At least the pain made it clear she was still alive.

Not daring to moving any other part of her body, Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. The shield that covered her face was gone, taking her HUD with it. Darkness lay around her, though a modicum of light coming through holes near the ground pointed toward the idea that a large object was covering her. The orientation of the dirt told her she was lying on her side, and from what she could see, she somehow managed to find a rock as an unfortunately uncomfortable pillow. The pain on the side of her head hinted that she had hit it hard enough to damage her armor to the point that it could no longer project her face shield.

Aside from the sound of her own breathing, booms of lightning could be heard somewhere off in the distance. Gritting her teeth, Twilight forced her foreleg to move. Instead of helping, the armor around her leg resisted the motion. With a grunt Twilight fought against the stiff servos until the armor shot her leg straight out without warning. Twilight yelped at the sudden action, which sent a bolt of pain shooting up through her leg.

Electricity crackled from somewhere on her back, and the armor’s limbs began to automatically convulse while constricted her body further. Through only a single functioning ear, Evie’s broken voice spoke: “Cr-r-r-r-ritical failUre-Ure-Ure. Eeeeemergency-cy-cy pilo-o-o-o-o-o—jection advised.”

“Yes!” Twilight groaned as she fought against malfunctioning the armor. “Let me go! Please! Eject me!”

A loud hiss forewarned a series of mechanical pops, and the pressure on Twilight’s body had suddenly lifted. Twilight sucked in several breaths as much of her pain subsided. Even though she liked Rose’s armor while it worked, it was clearly a deathtrap if it ever malfunctioned like that. Thankfully, the AI anticipated that sort of problem.

“Twilight?” Rainbow Dash’s voice called out. “Twilight, can you hear me? Where are you?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted back after breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m here! I’m over here!”

Part of Dash’s face appeared in one of the gaps of light, the illumination in her eyes indicating that her armor was somehow still intact. “Twilight! Are you okay?”

“Kind of…” Twilight grunted as she attempted to wiggle free. Her armor had opened up along the rear of her legs and back, though her position and the cramped space she found herself in made things difficult. “Everything hurts… I don’t think anything’s broken, though. Just feels like bruises.”

Rainbow Dash disappeared from sight. “Hold on! This thing looks heavy, but I think I might be able to move it.” Several hollow, metallic thuds followed. “Here. I think I got it…” Light filled the space around Twilight for a brief moment, accompanying Dash’s unseen grunts of effort, though it quickly faded again, followed by a clang. “Almost! Just gotta get the right angle, and…!” With a final hurrah, the section of the former Raven’s hull that covered Twilight’s body lifted up and fell away, landing with a loud, metallic clamor.

For the first time since she awoke, Twilight felt like she could properly breathe and see. A crimson sky met her gaze, with dark clouds hanging above, all of them drifting in the same direction. Red lightning arced above them in short bursts, seemingly in the direction the clouds were all traveling. In the unseen distance, louder, more constant thunder came from somewhere much further away. Tiny white flakes hovered in the air, dancing to an unheard tune before laying themselves gently on the ground. Could it be snow? No, it was too warm for that. A brief sniff gave Twilight her answer.

Ash.

Dash fluttered over to her and helped pull her out of the husk of her biomech armor. The unicorn stumbled as she attempted to regain her balance, though with her friend supporting her, she eventually managed to remain standing. After taking a moment to collect her thoughts and take a few deep breaths, Twilight began to inspect her ruined armor. Most of it was still intact, though the side she landed on crushed a trail of rocks, severely denting and even bursting the armor in the process. With the armor’s padding, it was enough to keep her from any serious harm besides bad bruising, but it clearly damaged some more sensitive electronics in the process.

“You feeling okay?” Dash asked, laying a tender hoof on her shoulder.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, just a few deep bruises. I think I’ll be okay. Were you able to find everypony else?”

Dash began to walk in a direction, slowly enough for Twilight to follow at a limp. “I found AJ and that changeling. Her armor got busted too, but she’s okay. Thorax is worse off: broke his leg. Still haven’t found Alex, though.”

Twilight grunted as she followed Dash while ignoring the bruises. “He has to be somewhere around here.”

Dash frowned at the dark thought her mind entertained. “What if he didn’t make it…?”

Twilight shook her head. “Knowing him, he put a lot of effort into his armor. There’s no way it isn’t better than what we used. If we made it, he did too.”

As Twilight followed Dash up a hill, she noted the scattered debris field around them. The entire aircraft had been annihilated, to the point that it almost looked like confetti shot from Pinkie’s cannon. None of it looked even remotely salvageable. The edges of the larger pieces looked sheared, as if torn apart by a dragon of immeasurable strength. Beneath the thin layer of ash was little more than dirt and rocks, lending credence to the idea that they were somehow still in the badlands.

Unless they weren’t, and the explosion destroyed the local flora and… yes… just the flora...

Eventually, Dash led Twilight to the other two survivors of the crash. Thorax and Applejack hid under a more complete section of the Raven’s hull that had imbedded itself into the ground, taking shelter from the ashen snow. Thorax, undisguised, lay on his left side, with his right foreleg extended. A very obvious but smooth cut in his exoskeleton ran the length of his leg’s forearm, a viscous green fluid attempting to ooze itself out of his body. Given its neatness, it was probably caused by a piece of the aircraft.

Applejack sat as far away from the injured changeling as possible without actually exposing herself to the ash, but still kept a keen eye on him. The cow-pony’s power armor was nowhere to be seen, and her fur was still a patchwork from Rose’s surgery. If it weren’t for her cutie mark and tail, Twilight might not have been able to recognize her immediately.

Doing what her friend seemed incapable of, Twilight limped over to the changeling to try and comfort him. “Hey, Thorax. How does your leg feel?”

After a few heavy breaths, Thorax managed an answer. “Bad… It… it hurts a lot, actually. I mean, everything hurts, but… but not as much as that.”

Twilight hovered a hoof over the broken exoskeleton, but didn’t dare touch it. “I guess it feels as bad as it looks…” she breathed. A glow surrounded her horn and the changeling, and faded after a few moments of concentration. Thorax responded with a relieved sigh.

“There, that should dull the pain a bit,” said Twilight. “I only know a few rudimentary healing spells. Nothing that could actually fix you, though.” Her eyes wandered over to Applejack, and fell upon the patches of bare skin that contained scars so perfectly healed they weren’t even visible. A sparkle shined in her eye. “But we know someone who can.”

Applejack raised a brow. “Who, me?”

Twilight gave her a confused look. “What? No. Alex.”

Dash shot her an equally puzzled look. “Alex can cast healing spells? Since when?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He can’t, but he does have something that can repair bone and soft tissue. It’s the reason Applejack was able to recover from so many broken bones and surgery so quickly, and without any scars either. It’s a combination of microscopic machines and reconstructive gel. Alex probably has some with him in case of emergencies.”

“Okay, so find Alex, get the changeling’s leg fixed,” Rainbow Dash recapped as she turned away from them. “I’ll get back to looking.”

Just as the pegasus’ wings shot open for takeoff, Twilight held out a hoof and yelled to stop her. “Wait! This is just a guess, but Alex went into the front of the Raven before it got destroyed. Maybe he’s further down the hill?”

Dash nodded in understanding. “Good idea. I’ll look further out.” With that, she went airborne.

Wings outstretched, Rainbow Dash glided down the hill, eyes scanning over the wreckage. Already aware of her intentions, the Virtual Intelligence in her armor searched with her, highlighting some objects of interest on her HUD. The hill eventually led to a short drop off; about twenty feet at most. While the VI called out several different objects, only one really caught Dash’s attention: a green object near a section of the Raven’s hull, just on the edge of the drop off. Among all the browns and greys, Alex’s armor stood out easily enough.

Dash swooped down to get a closer look, landing in the area beneath the drop off. Her eyes grew wider and wider as she approached, and soon her blood ran cold. The green object she spotted was indeed Alex, though she hoped to find him in better shape. His body hung from the drop off, with his left arm crushed and firmly wedged up to the shoulder between the rock and what looked like the front of the aircraft. How he managed to go from the inside to the out was anypony’s guess, but the blown out cockpit window looked like the biggest culprit.

What chilled her, however, was the piece of metal that hung down from section of hull and pierced through his helmet’s visor. A tiny amount of red liquid dripped from the hole in the helmet.

///Critical system failure. Heavy damage sustained.

///Warning: pilot vital signs critical. Unresponsive.

///Initiating defibrillation subroutine.

///Pilot unresponsive.

///Error detected.

///Initiating system restart.

…

///Critical system failure. Heavy damage sustained.

///Warning: pilot vital signs critical. Unresponsive.

///Initiating defibrillation subroutine.

///Pilot unresponsive.

///Error detected.

///Initiating system restart.

…

///Critical system failure. Heavy damage sustained.

///Warning: pilot vital signs unresponsive.

///Initiating Lazarus protocol.

Without warning, Alex let out a yell. His right arm shot up and immediately latched onto the piece of metal going through his right eye. His remaining eye darted in every direction, taking in whatever information it could through the broken visor.

“Holy sh… Alex, are you okay?!” Rainbow yelled, although her question went completely ignored.

The human’s mechanized legs curled out of reflex, though they pushed against the rock face with intent. With every scream, Alex attempted to pull the sharpened metal from his eye. However, with the protrusion being a fragment of the larger piece crushing his arm, it remained steadfast.

///Warning: left arm sustained heavy damage. Servos unresponsive.

///Disconnect it!

///Initiating emergency separation.

After a loud hiss, Alex slipped away from the eye-impaling piece of metal as his body fell away, leaving his left arm and shoulder behind. Grunts and yelps peppered the air as Alex tumbled down the rock face, until he hit the ground on his rear—hard—whereupon the air was pierced by a loud and punctual “Fuck!”

Rainbow dashed over to him to see if he needed help, though with all his thrashing and stumbling, she couldn’t manage to get terribly close. “Alex, hey, are you okay?”

Alex grunted and groaned as he rolled himself onto his knees. His remaining mechanized hand pressed against his visor, ineffectively attempting to staunch the bleeding. “My eye!” He screamed. “My fucking eye! Aaarrgghh!God fucking dammit!”

Seemingly aware of the pointlessness of his actions, Alex’s helmet began to unfold. However, the mechanism became stuck almost immediately as sparks flew from his neck. After a few seconds of this, Alex grunted “God dammit!” before throwing a quick punch into the side of his head with his remaining arm. He then grabbed the same side of his helmet and pulled. It took several seconds of effort, but he managed to pry the right half of his helmet from his head, tossing the piece away to be forgotten forever.

Alex brought his hand up to touch his face, delicately laying a finger against the sensitive flesh. Each touch brought on a fresh sting, eliciting a wince. “Ah! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” The fact that he couldn’t see out of that eye was enough to tell him that the artificial oculus was damaged beyond functionality, and the blood was a major indicator of biological damage. Though without even a simple mirror, there was no way for him to tell to what extent. Except…

He turned his head up to Rainbow Dash, acknowledging her presence for the first time. “How bad does it look?”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she stared with eyes as wide as saucers and a hoof draped over her mouthpiece. To Alex, this was answer enough.

Alex nodded through his unstable breathes. “Right… Bad… Fuck!” He winced as he blinked. The eye itself must have shattered and left jagged pieces. It couldn’t stay in, lest it shred his eye lid. This required a delicate touch. Rose could do it effortlessly, but she wasn’t an option at the moment. No way in hell Rainbow Dash could do it. Twilight, on the other hand…

After taking in several deep breathes, Alex hoisted himself up to his feet and briefly dusted himself off, though the blood on his fingers was soon smeared over his chest and thighs. His armor was scratched all over, with a number of smaller dents here and there, but it was still functional for the most part. He made every effort to avoid blinking, and his teeth remained clenched just to ward of the constant stinging and throbbing on his face.

“Hey, Dash…” he muttered, flicking his hand to cast off whatever blood continued to cling to his fingers. “Did you—ack fuck…! Did you find any of the others…?”

Rainbow Dash blinked at him. “Um… yeah, they’re just up the hill. Hey, are you okay? Your, uh… um… what about your arm…?”

Alex looked down at the space where his left arm once was and then looked up at where he left it. “Speaking from personal experience, Dash, losing limbs the first time around is the hardest. After that, it’s just an inconvenience. You know where Twilight is? Can you bring me to her? I need her to help me with my eye…”

Dash shook her head to regain her senses. “Uh, yeah. Everypony’s right up the hill.”

After performing a brief system diagnostic, Alex determined his armor to be in mostly working condition. The more robust systems like limb articulation remained intact—missing arm notwithstanding—though the more sensitive systems were either damaged or, such as the case with his armor’s magic shield, blown out entirely. The quantum storage device delivered a number of errors, indicating its use would in inadvisable until repaired. While not fantastic news all around, it did provide Alex with the knowledge that his armor at least retained its mobility, enabling him to leap up the drop off instead of finding another way.

Rainbow Dash took her time leading Alex back to the others, giving the human time to examine the area around them. The incinerated terrain, the bits of torn aircraft, the clouds with red lightning, the ashen snow… It was like an entirely different world.

“Christ, look at all this…” Alex murmured. “This place looks like hell.”

“Trust me, it looks way worse from up there,” Dash responded, dragging her eyes skyward, then pausing. “Hm… I don’t like those clouds. Something’s not right about them.”

“I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you’re talking about the red lightning.”

Dash brought down her gaze and shrugged. “That’s part of it, yeah. But those clouds… I dunno, they just give me this weird feeling.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, you and me both. When we get back home, I’m gonna see what I can do about getting some instruments out here to figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, the sooner we get away from ground zero, the better.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

A brief moment later, the two of them came upon the others huddled under their shelter from the ash. Upon seeing them, Twilight immediately gasped. “Oh my gosh, Alex! Your arm!”

He waved her off as he approached. “It’s replaceable. I’ve got another problem, though.”

As Alex knelt down next to Twilight under the shelter, she inhaled sharply. “Ow… it’s your face.”

“My eye,” Alex corrected.

Twilight shook her head as both she and Applejack stood to get a close look. “No, your face. You’ve got a really big cut going through your eye. Can you see out of it? How bad does it hurt?”

Alex inhaled sharply through his nose. “Can’t see out of it, and it hurts like hell. It’s also shattered and tearing up my eyelid. I need you to take it out before I can administer any painkillers.”

Applejack shuddered and nearly gagged at his words, then immediately sat herself down again.

Twilight nodded with a gulp, lighting her horn. “Alright, I-I think I can do that. What do I need to do?”

Alex sucked in a breath. “Okay, just try to see if you can feel around my eye, okay? Can you do that?”

“Mhm…” Twilight nodded again as she allowed her magic to probe the human’s eye socket. “What am I supposed to be feeling?”

“The human eye has six muscles, four of which attach directly to the ocular nerve behind the eye,” Alex quickly explained. “My nerve has a cybernetic extension and the muscles are all artificial. They’re all secured around the eye with a latch-type mechanism that goes flush against it. The latches needs to be pulled up about three millimeters, which will let you disconnect the muscle from the eye. Can you feel them?”

Twilight bit her lip. “I-I think so.”

“Okay. Pull it up, and then pull the muscle away from the eye.”

“Okay, I think I got it,” said Twilight after a brief moment of silence. Several minutes later, Twilight nodded. “Alright, I counted six.”

“Good,” said Alex. “The ocular nerve is simple: it’s just a clip connection with a twist. You need to carefully—and I really mean carefully—take out the eye, twist it forty five degrees counter-clockwise—yours, not mine—and pull them apart. It’ll give you some resistance, so make sure you hold the nerve’s connection in place before you pull.”

“Ah can’t look…” Applejack muttered, turning herself completely away from them.

After biting her lip a little harder than she should have, Twilight dispelled the light in her horn. “Just… give me a second…” She shut her eyes and took several deep breaths before returning her attention back to him. “Okay… Okay…”

“You ready?” Alex asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

“Okay. Just try not to pull out my nerve,” said Alex before taking and holding a large breath.

The lavender glow began to slowly pull the eye free from Alex’s face, making a sickening squelching noise and eliciting a strained groan from the human. After several seconds of groaning, Twilight stopped. “Alex, are you okay? Do you want me to stop?”

“Just get it over with,” he grunted back.

Biting her lip once more, Twilight went back to the task at hand and popped the damaged oculus out of its socket. Alex teeth clamped together as he growled a rainbow’s worth of curses and swears. Twilight wasted no time following Alex’s instructions by disconnecting the cybernetic nerve and gently pushed it back into his inflamed eye socket with a quiet, though sickening squelch.

While Alex busied himself with further swearing and beating the ground, Twilight allowed herself a closer look at the device she extracted from him. It was small and roughly spherical, though it looked nothing like an eye at this point, even without all the blood. It looked like some sort of really sharp spike had been driven through, but thankfully didn’t manage to go all the way.

By the time Twilight finished satisfying her curiosity, Alex had calmed himself down to simply heavy breathing. He raised his head up to look at Twilight; the left side of his face still covered by his damaged helmet with half a dead, grey visor, and the right side bleeding and already starting to swell. “Thanks,” he muttered. “I needed that.”

Rainbow Dash held a hoof close to her chest as she looked through strained eyes. “Geez, dude, that looks painful…”

“Not as bad as you’d think, actually.” Alex banged a fist against his chest. “Got a supply of painkillers in the armor. Exocortexes give me a constant headache. Just needed to… up the dosage for this…” He paused to breathe for a few moments. “How about you three? Everyone alright?”

“We’re fine,” said Twilight, putting the damaged oculus aside, “but Thorax is hurt pretty bad.”

“Thorax…?” Alex muttered before turning his head towards the changeling that cautiously eyed them. “Oh right. The changeling. What’s the matter with him?”

“His leg is broken,” Twilight answered, moving to sit next to Thorax. “The exoskeleton on his left front leg is fractured. It’s bleeding and exposed. He can’t walk, and it’ll get infected if we don’t do anything.”

Alex followed Twilight and knelt next to Thorax in turn. For several moments, the two maintained eye contact, or at least what anyone could call eye contact with Alex now missing an eye and having the other hidden behind a broken visor. Thorax remained silent, staring back like a wounded dog awaiting judgement from a stern master. Satisfied that he could discern no malicious intent in him, Alex looked down towards Thorax’s cracked leg. “That doesn’t look pleasant. How bad does it hurt?”

“Worse than anything I’ve ever felt…” Thorax managed with bated breath.

“It could always be worse…” Alex muttered as he looked over the leg. “Believe me, I know.”

“I was thinking you might have something to help him,” said Twilight, taking a hoof and carefully running it along the back of Thorax’s head to provide at least some measure of comfort. “Something like those nanobots Rose uses for surgery.”

Alex slowly nodded. “Yeah, that would do it… I don’t have any with me, but… maybe… Hey Dash?”

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash acknowledged from behind them.

“I need you to get something for me,” said Alex. “Inside the Raven’s cockpit, right around where you found me, there’s should be a white box with a blue cross on it. Think you can find it?”

“Sure thing!” Rainbow quickly saluted and took off back down the hill. She returned less than a minute later. “Here you go! One white box with a blue cross.”

Alex grinned; blood stained teeth and swollen face making the smile look wicked. “That’s the good stuff; thanks!” Alex said as he took the square metal box by the handle. Taking a few steps towards Thorax, he laid it on the ground in front of him, and popped it open. On this inside of the box’s lid was a small screen, with an equally small keyboard occupying the space beneath it.

Twilight blinked at him. “Wait what? I thought you had Rainbow Dash go get a first aid kit.”

“This is a first aid kit,” Alex clarified as he began typing, though without his other hand, he found himself repeatedly correcting his typing errors. “God fuckin’ dammit… Fuckin’ hate this bullshit… Uh… Right. The nanites are programmed primarily with human biology in mind, but even then, they still need to know where they’re going. Rose does this kind of programming every time, we just don’t see it. Getting them to work on Thorax would take a whole other set of code, and quite frankly, we don’t have time for that. What I can do is set them to repair his leg by assembling a homogeneous base: chitin.”

After several minutes of typing, Alex raised the keyboard and clipped it to its screen, revealing the actual first aid kit underneath. Taking up half of the box was a large plastic syringe sitting in foam packaging. The other half contained what a normal first aid kit needed to: medicine, bandages, sterile pads, antibiotic gel, splints, tape, stitching tools, scissors, and a disinfectant spray; all neatly arranged and expertly compacted. As useful as the more advanced stuff was, it never hurt to have a simpler fall-back plan.

“Thank you, Rose… Hold his leg for me please,” Alex asked Twilight as he removed a cloth from the kit and wiped the green fluid clinging to Thorax’s leg. He then took out the bottle of disinfectant spray and held it up for Thorax to see. “This stuff is going to sterilize your leg and prevent it from getting infected. I have to warn you, though: it’s going to burn and sting and hurt like a mother fucker.”

“Umm…” Thorax hesitated as he tugged on his leg, though it remained firm in Twilight’s magic. “Is this really necessary?”

“Yup,” Alex stated, hovering the bottle above his leg. “It’s gonna hurt like hell in three, two, one…”

Thorax yelped as Alex repeatedly sprayed the cracked leg with the disinfectant. “Ow ow ow! That burns! Ow!”

“That means it’s working,” Alex replied as he set the bottle aside and reached for the large syringe. Thumb on the plunger, Alex applied a generous helping of the nanobot/construction gel mixture into the crack in Thorax’s leg. Once done, he set the syringe aside, grabbed the changeling’s leg, and forced the crack closed with a tight squeeze. When Thorax winced and grunted, Alex clicked his tongue. “Sorry, buddy. Need to make sure this stuff does its job.”

After a solid minute of squeezing his leg, Alex removed his hand to examine the injury. As expected, the nanobots sealed the wound by bridging it closed with a chitinous structure. Although the nanobots’ work was a different color from the changeling’s black exoskeleton, giving the obvious impression of a beige scar. “There we go. That should hold you.”

Thorax raised his head to get a better look at his leg. “It still hurts, though…”

Alex groaned as he carefully switched from kneeling to sitting. For some reason he was starting to get dizzy. He reached back for the kit, took out a small bottle, and tossed it next to his head. “There. Take three of those.”

“Alex, look at me,” Twilight suddenly ordered.

“Yeah?” he drawled, turning his head towards the unicorn. Behind Twilight, Applejack gagged and immediately looked away. Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight pulled away with a very visible wince.

“Oh gosh…” Twilight muttered. “Alex, your eye… you’re bleeding all over the place.”

He nodded slowly. “Oh… so that’s what that is…”

After taking a deep breath, Twilight levitated the syringe over to herself, though bit her lip when she found it virtually empty. Tossing it aside, she brought the rest of the first aid kit over to herself and sifted through it. “We need to do something about you… Here we go, this should work. Come lie down over here. Dash, help me keep his head up.”

The human did as he was asked and shuffled his way closer to Twilight as best he could while still remaining on his rear before lying down. The bulk of his armor kept his head from touching ground, so Rainbow Dash carefully held the back of his head in her hooves

“Could you also put the rest of your helmet away?” Twilight requested.

Almost immediately, the left half of Alex’s helmet began to twitch and fold away, but sparks also began to shoot out of the side of his neck, eliciting a surprised yelp from the two ponies. Alex, his patience dwindled, reached over and forced the left half of his helmet back into its “inactive” position. With his head completely uncovered, Twilight allowed herself some relief that at least the other half of his face was untouched.

She still had a difficult time looking at him, however, and felt even less hope. The cut on his face extended from his forehead, though his right eye, and a little further down his cheek. Taking another deep breath, Twilight magicked the second and final clean cloth from the med-kit and began to clean the blood from his face.

“You sure you know what you’re doing, Twi?” asked Dash.

Twilight pursed her lips and shook her head. “Absolutely not. But somepony has to do it…”

“That’s reassuring,” Alex mumbled, seemingly half asleep with his intact eye closed.

A forced smile graced her lips for half a second. “Come on, it can’t be that hard, right? Just need to stitch all this up! Like a stuffed animal…”

Alex suddenly held a finger, though he still appeared half asleep. “Clean… Disinfect… Stitch… Ointment… Bandage…” he drawled before he lowered his hand once more.

“Sounds like this ain’t his first rodeo,” Applejack commented, keeping her gaze well away from them.

“I just know protocol…” Alex replied while expelling all the air in his lungs.

“Good!” Twilight perked before muttering through grit teeth. “Because I didn’t…”

An hour and a half and two dozen stitches later, Twilight finished bandaging Alex’s face as the last of the sun’s light faded over the horizon. The end result had Alex looking like a mummy while barely having his good eye and mouth unwrapped. It certainly wasn’t work that would net Twilight a medical degree, but she was confident that it was enough to stop the bleeding and keep it from getting infected — at least until Rose could fix him properly.

Twilight wasn’t entirely sure how painful the stitching process was for him without local anesthetic, but based on the amount of swearing, she gauged somewhere in the area of five out of ten. Whatever painkillers his armor was supplying him with probably helped, but only just. Still, she was impressed with his ability to keep his head still despite it all.

“There, good as new,” Twilight announced, allowing a smile to grace her lips.

“Thanks,” Alex sighed, already half asleep. At some point, Rainbow Dash had gotten tired of holding up Alex’s head, and found a smooth enough rock to lay it against as a makeshift pillow.

Dash, who had been laying on her back and eyeing the strange clouds, raised her head to glance at Twilight’s handiwork. “Looks just like that time Alex was in hospital! Good job, Twi.”

“Oh god, don’t even try to remind me…” Alex muttered.

“Hospital?” asked Thorax, who was now sitting on his haunches with his repaired foreleg outstretched. “What happened to him?”

“It’s a long story,” Twilight began, “but to make a long story short, a machine Alex made — a power source, actually — it malfunctioned and electrocuted him while he was trying to turn it off. The doctors said over ninety percent of his flesh was burnt.”

“My heart stopped too,” Alex added, turning his head to look at Thorax. In that one moment, the two of them made eye contact, and the changeling truly saw the human for the first time. The iris of Alex’s remaining eye visibly twitched, turned, and contracted as it focused on him, and a green flash sent a chill through his body. “Wasn’t enough to kill me, though.”

Rainbow snickered. “It would’ve been if Twilight hadn’t saved you.”

A smirk crossed his lips as Alex turned his face up again. “Dammit, Dash, you just had to undermine me…”

“Welp, Ah can’t find a gosh darn’d thing,” Applejack announced as she walked up to them and sat beneath the makeshift shelter. Half-way during the stitching, she had left to go find materials for a fire. “Can’t find any sticks, pitch, or kindle. Can’t even find any trees that don’t look burnt all to nothin’.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Whatever trees were here before were probably incinerated by the explosion…”

“Sure looks that way,” Applejack sighed in turn. “Anypony got any ideas?”

“If we can’t get any wood, maybe there’s something else we can use?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“If there was something around here besides wood we could’ve burned, they would’ve burnt up with the trees too,” Twilight countered. “We’ll probably have to go without tonight.”

“Hundred miles past where Celestia lost her horse shoes, and we can’t even find somethin’ that burns…” Applejack swore under her breath. She then looked over to the human. “Hey, Alex? Got any ideas?”

Alex mumbled something in response, though none of it came out even remotely intelligible. He then fell into peaceful silence and stopped responding to further attempts to address him. Concerned he may have stopped breathing, Twilight held an ear to his mouth. Satisfied, she nodded to the others. “He’s asleep. We’ll have to keep an eye on him.”

Applejack released all the air in her lungs in one large groan as she allowed her legs to give out under her. Laying her head down, she shivered at the first breeze of cool air against her exposed skin. “It’s gonna be a long night…”

Twilight flashed her a warming smile. “Hey, don’t worry. I’ll see what I can do about an insulation spell.”

Alex’s eye shot open as a timed micro-dose of adrenaline shocked him awake. All the convenience of a built-in alarm clock, but without the noise—save for the never ending drone of distant thunder. He stared up at the piece of severed hull above him for several moments before his brain made the decision to move. In a single, fluid motion, Alex’s armor sat him up, enabling him to look around. Unlike what he was expecting, none of the others were present.

Rainbow Dash’s voice spoke from behind him. “Oh hey, you’re finally up.”

The human twisted himself until he could see the pegasus properly. She had been lying on her back, possibly keeping herself occupied by imagining drawings on the surface of the shelter. “Yeah, I uh… hey, where is everyone?”

Dash jerked her head to the side. “They just went up the hill to look around; get a better idea of this place. I volunteered to keep an eye on you, but you seemed okay. I was just about to head up there too.”

Alex nodded as he stood up, though he slowed down halfway through as a small head rush overcame him. “Whoa… uh… Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I think I’ll come with."

With a grunt, Rainbow Dash flipped herself onto her front and stood up, then quickly beckoned him over. “Alright, let’s go. Come on.”

Alex quietly followed after Dash, taking notice of the hoof prints in the thin layer of ash on the ground that gave away the route the others had taken. The two walked in silence until they neared the top of the hill, where Alex managed to spot the others. He had originally expected them to be looking in all directions, trying to find a bearing for the group to travel in. Instead, they all stared in silence in a single direction, right over the top of the hill.

Only when he reached them did he understand why. Alex’s feet slowed as his jaw fell.

“Good god…”

Beyond the top of the hill, in the direction of the former changeling hive, was hell itself.

In the far distance sat a titanic crater, easily dozens of kilometers wide and dominating the horizon. Fresh lava filled its interior, forming a deadly sea of bubbling, molten rock. The dark clouds overhead swirled about the center of the apocalypse, where a twisted plume of bright red energy burst from the pool of lava, twirling around like a tornado of light. Several bolts of crimson lightning jumped from the clouds to the lava within the crater at any given moment, explaining the constant drone of thunder.

Alex shuffled past them, his eye wide, refusing to look away, until he unceremoniously dropped to his knees, kicking up a small cloud of ash in the process. His heart dropped as blood drained from his features. He muttered under his breath with a slack jaw.

“Oh my god… It… I…”

“It’s all gone…” Thorax exhaled, equally staring into the hell-hole that was once his home. “The changelings, they’re… they’re all gone…”

Twilight managed to tear her eyes away and turn them towards the changeling. “Thorax? Are you alright…?”

Thorax’s hind legs gave out from underneath him. “I… I wanted to help them… I wanted to learn how to get love from friends and teach them…”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something but stopped. What would she say? What could she say? Her eyes fell from Thorax to stare at the ground. As far as anypony knew, Thorax was the last changeling left. The mere thought alone was paralyzing. What was it truly like to be the last anything? No pony could truly understand the thoughts going through Thorax’s head.

Unless…

Her eyes turned to Alex, who knelt with his back to her and head hung low. A tight grip seized her heart. She took a step forward, hesitated, then continued. “Alex…?” she called, barely above a whisper. He didn’t respond. She didn’t address him again until she was standing beside his kneeling form. Now that she could see his face proper, she found herself surprised to see that he didn’t appear sad, but that if anything, she could discern a frown through his bandages.

“Alex…? Are you alright?” Twilight asked.

Alex’s good eye opened, staring at the ground. For a moment, he looked up at the crater, but no sooner clenched his eye shut and lower his head again.

“I did this…” he muttered.

“I want you to power up the teleporter, and…” I was caught on my own words. I couldn’t say them, but I had to. It was my responsibility. My duty. I had no choice. “…and… initiate the Omega protocol.”

Alex visibly flinched, clenching his eye even more until he loosened a moment later. He took a deep breath. “This was my legacy… This is what I left them…”

“I want to make a change to the protocol. Once you’re done with the teleporter, I want you to transfer all our data, and then yourself onto this drive.”

He sucked in another breath, letting it out in a slow sob. “I saved our work. I saved her… but…”

Almost instantly, the lights dimmed and a deep red light filled the room. An alarm began to ring and an automated voice, distinctly different from that of Rose, boomed throughout the entire room: WARNING: FACILITY CORE OVERLOAD IN TEN MINUTES. EVACUATE THE PREMISES AND ATTAIN A MINIMUM DISTANCE OF SEVENTY KILOMETERS.

“Seventy kilometers…” Alex whispered as a tear squeezed itself past the corner of his eye. He sighed. “It was in the middle of nowhere, but… there was a town… Mont-Saint-Michel…” His entire body bent as he lay his hand flat against the ground, and a quick sob escaped him. “I wanted to help people…”

My face snapped up to hers and I instantly gripped her by the shoulders. “Don’t you see? Forget cold fusion, Christina. We’re looking at a source of infinite energy!”

His hand rolled into a fist, scooping up ash and dirt. “But I did this to them…”

“Alex, wait!” she called out, just as I opened the driver side door. “Where are you going?”

I stopped, hand on the car door, and looked back at her. Christina. My old colleague. Probably my best friend. Her face… her eyes… she wanted to know why. I wanted to tell her; To make her understand. But she wouldn’t. Not now. Not yet. I got in the car and left. She’ll understand.

Some day.

Alex unfurled his fist and stared into his palm. Powdered dirt and fresh ash mixed over crusted blood. “I left them all behind with… with this…”

“Alex, what are you talking about?” Twilight asked, inching closer to him.

The human winced, as if her words ignored his armor and struck bare flesh. He sat still as a statue until he turned his head up and forced himself to look at the sea of lava and the magical storm above it.

“When I left Earth,” Alex began with a heavy gulp, “I… I initiated the facility’s omega protocol. I detonated the primary core. Just…” He hesitated, then shut his eye and hung his head once more. “Just like this…”

“What…?” Twilight breathed, taking a step back. He caused all this before? The very same day he landed in her basement? The same day he told her Power Cores were safe? That they could be abused and turned into weapons by the wrong people? No. No, he couldn’t have done that. This time, this was just… it wasn’t an accident, no, but it was—

“Why?” came Thorax’s unsteady voice.

Alex’s head sprung up, his eye wide open and staring ahead. Underneath his bandages, his expression turned to that of a frightened child, barely clothed, that heard the growl of a monster in the dark.

“Why did you do it?” Thorax croaked, stomping his good hoof.

Alex cautiously turned his head to look over his shoulder at Thorax. Tears slid down the changeling’s chitinous visage as they did down the human’s cheek, though only the latter’s eye appeared as glossy as ever. His throat trembled as he stared at his accuser, and he soon found himself staring at the ground once more, unable to meet his gaze any further.

“The… the changelings…” Alex began. “They were a threat, I— I had to…”

“What kind of threat were they to you?!” Thorax screamed. “You beat them in Canterlot! You slaughtered them in Ponyville! You killed the guardians, you took the ponies back, and you forced them all back into hiding in the hive! What could they have done to you?!” Thorax sobbed openly now, his wobbling legs barely able to keep him up. “I wanted to help them… I could have showed them a better way… They didn’t have to live like this… And now… Now they’re all go-o-one!”

The changeling finally collapsed onto his side and curled into a ball, allowing his tears and emotions to flow freely into the ash around him. Alex collapsed forward as well, propping himself up on his elbow as his forehead lay against his metal fist.

“I’m sorry…” Alex wept. “I’m so sorry…”

Breaks in the clouds became more and more frequent as the group began the long march eastward back to Equestria, occasionally allowing bright streaks of sun to shine down on them. Thankfully, everyone could manage to walk on their own, if at an impaired gait. Hunger became a common tune among them, but due to the cybernetic nature of the Raven’s usual passengers, nothing edible could be salvaged from the wreck. The wasteland they traversed proved to be an equally fruitless venture, forcing them eastward with nothing to occupy their time except each other.

“So, uh… Thorax… What was it like living in that hive?” Alex asked, however through a combination of emotional exhaustion and blood loss, he wasn’t quite sure he was capable of understanding the response. Thankfully, his augmentations didn’t know what it meant to be tired, and could keep his body moving regardless.

“It wasn’t that great, to be honest…” Thorax breathed an answer while keeping as little pressure on his repaired leg as possible. Twilight walked between them. “Well, it wasn’t bad. I mean, it was okay…” He sighed. “I guess I don’t really have much to compare it to.”

“It looked pretty crowded in there.”

After a brief pause, Thorax nodded. “Yeah… it was… They weren’t very friendly, either. It could get scary sometimes, like when someone wanted to sleep where you were sleeping. But the queen always reminded us that we worked better together. Sometimes I think that was the only thing that kept me from getting hurt.”

Alex turned his head towards the changeling and frowned. “They treated you like shit, but you still wanted to help them live a better life. Why?”

“It’s more complicated than that…” Thorax sighed. “Things were tough in the hive. There was barely enough food and space. The queen was a very hard ruler, and… they all wanted to live up to her ideal. Make her proud. None of us knew any other life, so…”

“But you had an idea,” Alex remarked. “You thought of a way out. A way to improve everyone’s lives, but would also involve subverting the one with power.”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“I’ve been in that position myself, Thorax. I know how you feel.”

“Do you?”

“I do,” Alex began. “My Power Cores… they opened so many doors not just for myself, but for all other members of my species, too. They were the key to a better way of living for everyone, but there were powerful people with their own interests who would’ve sooner seen them disappear, or even would’ve stolen and monopolized them.” He sighed. “So I hid them and myself away. I thought that, someday, after I was strong enough to defend myself from them, I would come back to show everyone that better way to live and fix the world.” Alex flashed a smirk. “It was a pretty grand dream, I know… but I thought I could really do it. Then it was all taken away from me, and I was dumped in Equestria. For all I know, they’re all dead now…”

“Just like me…”

“Just like you…” The group hiked in silence for a minute, and then Alex spoke again. “I’m… I’m sorry things turned out they way they did, Thorax. If there’s anything I regret about all this, it’s putting you in the same position I was in, but… it gets easier. Trust me on this. I had some doubts at first, but… Ponies are nice. I don’t know how, but they… they have this way of getting you to be the best version of yourself. Get yourself settled in, make a few friends… Just keep looking forward and everything’ll be okay.”

Twilight failed to suppress her growing smile. She looked up at Alex, who continued to look straight ahead with a faint smile. His remaining eye shined, not with artificial light, but with the reflected light of the sun. In that moment, he appeared just as human as the day he dropped into their lives.

“Somethin’ tells me we ain’t gettin’ much closer to food n’ water,” Applejack said as she looked up at the trees that had been stripped of all their leaves and most of their branches. Some had even been snapped in half. The air still smelled of ash and all the trunks appeared burnt, providing little mystery as to why.

“Every step we take is another step closer, Applejack,” said Twilight, briefly bringing a smile to her face.

“I think she means we still have a really long way to go…” Rainbow Dash clarified as she nudged the grey remains of a former grassy plant, only to have it disintegrate at her lightest touch.

Alex walked up from behind her as he examined the remains of the trees. “Judging by the damage, it looks like we’re still well within the radius of the heatwave. Speaking of which…” He turned his head towards the changeling. “I gotta say, Thorax, I’m impressed you managed to survive the initial blast as well as you did without some kind of armor. Figured you’d end up looking more like these things.”

Thorax shrugged. “I guess I just got lucky.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Luckiest thing in the world, I’d say. Anyway, if we keep moving at our current pace, we should be able to find living plants in about two hours... maybe an hour and a half, depending on the terrain.”

“Uuuggghhh…” Dash groaned. “We still have another hour and a half until we find food?!”

“I didn’t say that,” Alex corrected. “I said an hour and a half until we find plants that haven’t died.”

“Wow, that’s depressing…” Thorax commented as he hobbled around an incinerated shrub.

“Definitely ain’t kiddin’ about that…” Applejack added with a sigh.

Rainbow Dash swooped down in a long arc, almost appearing to gain more speed, but keeping expert control over her descent. Jets of harmless blue flame poured over her wings, splaying out as she glided down a rocky mountainside. She sped over her friends, then tightly looped around to stop square within their airspace before dropping down into the middle of their circle. The others lounged around as they awaited the flyer’s return, idly chatting as they sat on rocks in the shade of trees whose leaves were mostly blown away, save for those with the strongest grip.

“Hey guys! The forest on the other side of the pass is okay!” Dash declared, eliciting a brief cheer from everyone else. “I even managed to spot a river, so we’ve got something to drink, too! We should get going.”

“Fuuuck thaaat,” Alex drawled. “We’ve been walking for hours. Sit down, we’ll get going in a bit.”

Upon seeing everypony else’s reluctance to move from their spots, Rainbow Dash groaned between her teeth and dragged her hooves next to Applejack. “Ugh, fine… but I’m getting really hungry...”

“We all are, Sugarcube,” Applejack smiled as her friend sat next to her. “Just need ta sit down an’ rest for a bit, that’s all.”

“Right, so, uh… Alex,” Thorax started, rolling his next words around his tongue as the human turned his attention to him. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about something…”

Alex leaned forward, resting his one elbow on his right knee. “Sure, ask away.”

The changeling hesitantly pointed a hoof towards the space where his left arm would be. “Aren’t you supposed to have… you know… something there…?”

“What?” Alex asked as he pointed toward the empty but sealed shoulder joint. “You mean another arm?”

“Yeah… I-I mean, I don’t want to pry—if you don’t wanna talk about it, it’s fine—but it just seems kinda weird to me… You know, the way you’re going without it and all. Doesn’t it hurt?”

Alex shook his head as he laughed. “Ha ha ha! Nah, man, that’s fine. Yeah, I’m supposed to have another arm, but that one got crushed. Had to leave it behind. And no, it doesn’t hurt.”

Thorax blinked at him. “So humans can just leave them behind? Do they grow back?”

Somehow, this caused Alex to laugh even harder. “Ho ho holy fuck no!” He took a few seconds to suppress his laughter. “Humans are about as good at regrowing limbs as… I dunno, as fish are at walking, or something. Ain’t gonna happen. I actually lost half of my left arm at the Gala in Canterlot.” He pointed to the other three ponies. “Just ask them. They were there.”

A shudder ran through Twilight’s body and she covered both eyes. “Oh gosh… Can we please not talk about that? I had nightmares for weeks.”

Alex quelled his laugh with a few seconds of violent coughing, then held his hand up in apology. “Right, right, sorry.”

“Ah don’t get how Twilight’s more shakin’ up than you are about that,” Applejack questioned through a confused squint. “Ah mean, you’re the one that ended up on the floor—”

“Can we please just drop the whole thing?” Twilight’s hooves snapped down, her eyes pleading with Applejack. “Please?”

“Was what happened really that bad…?” Thorax asked, only to receive a very stern “Yes,” from Twilight.

“Yeah, it wasn’t exactly fantastic,” Alex admitted, his eye lingering on Twilight before it switched over to Thorax. “Long story short, it was a painful and traumatic experience for everyone.”

“Right… but you somehow got it back, right?”

“Kinda, yeah. I’m an experienced engineer with a lot of resources, so I made myself a replacement.” Alex flexed his cybernetic arm. “Then I replaced all my other limbs too, just because I could.”

“Wow, that’s actually pretty cool!” said Thorax, his eyes wide and bright before he cringed. “And also kinda creepy…”

“Meh,” Alex shrugged. “Cybernetic augmentation isn’t for everyone, I guess.”

“So Thorax, I’ve got a question for you,” asked Alex as the group trudged through the forest. Evening sunlight streamed through the gaps in the leaves, swirling with the motion of a light breeze. “Have you ever gone undercover before? That’s the kind of thing changelings do, right?”

“Once,” said Thorax, his gaze following the sway of the leaves. “I went to Manehatten on a scouting mission for a few days. I was supposed to find a potential source of love for the hive.”

Applejack scoffed as she eyed the trees for fruit. “Ain’t much love in Manehatten, Sugarcube.”

“No, there isn’t…” Thorax confirmed with a shake of his head, before he suddenly perked up and looked over at her. “Wait, how did you know that?”

“Ah lived in Manehatten for a while as a filly.” She turned to look at him and pursed her lips in an apologetic smile. “Felt homesick and went back to Ponyville. Been livin’ there with my family ever since.”

“Wow. Is the lack of love why you went back home?”

She shrugged. “Somethin’ like that. Ah just didn’t feel comfortable there.”

“Manehatten’s a pretty big place,” Twilight added. “It can be a little overwhelming for ponies who aren’t used to it.”

“Amen to that,” said Alex as he picked up a stick and tossed it somewhere into the brush. “We have a city just like it back where I’m from. Spent a week there with my parents as a kid. I mean, I was born and raised in a city, but that place… I dunno, something about the size and number of advertisements just unsettled me.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at him. “Size? How big were those billboards?”

“Some took up the entire side of a building.”

“Whoa nelly…”

“Yup…” After a brief moment, Alex asked: “So do you guys think there’s any food or something around here? Like some fruit?”

“Ain’t nothin’ of the sort from the look of it,” Applejack answered, her eyes returning to the trees.

“Even if we don’t find fruit, we could just graze for a while,” Twilight suggested. “It’s not the most glamorous lunch ever, but if our ancestors did it, we could too!”

Alex scoffed. “Speak for yourself. My ancestors were endurance hunters. Plus, my digestive system can’t process grass, remember?”

“Oh, right…”

“Hopefully we find some nice fruit.” His stomach rumbled, though his armor muffled the sound. “Ugh, and I hope we find it soon. I’d really rather not resort to having to eat anything nasty…”

“Hey guys, over there!” Rainbow Dash suddenly called out, taking to the air and flying off ahead. “It’s the river!”

Everyone perked up and instinctively wormed their head to look around the trees at what Rainbow Dash had pointed out. “I don’t see it…” Alex muttered.

“No, wait, she’s right! I can hear it!” Twilight marveled with her voice increasing in volume until she broke into a gallop. Applejack’s own face lit up, and she followed suit.

Alex, unable to hear above human sensitivity without his helmet, flopped his arm against his side and glanced at Thorax, who met his look. The changeling still couldn’t move faster than a walk. Turning ahead again, Alex called out, “Alright! We’ll just catch up! I guess…”

When the two of them did finally catch up, it felt as if they were intruding. Upstream, Rainbow Dash quietly drank from the river, her helmet’s mouthpiece parted through the middle. Further down, Applejack lay on her back in a shallower part of the creek, grinning as water flowed around her, washing away the grime. For her part, after taking a long drink, Twilight dunked in her head and proceeded to rinse out her mane and coat, which had gotten filthy with dirt, ash, and sweat over the course of the day.

While Thorax stood and stared, Alex eagerly waded into the river. “Oh my god, yes,” He stuck his metallic hand into the water and shook it about to wash off dirt, ash, and blood. Dissatisfied, he moved toward a rockier part of the bank and scraped his palm against the flooded stone before trying again.

He then cupped his palm and attempted to bring water up to his mouth, though his hand’s shape and the rigidity of its components meant most of the liquid flowed through his fingers before he could get any more than a few drops. “Ah, mother fucker,” he swore as he bent himself lower and lower to drink more water before it all dripped from his hand.

“Having some trouble there, big guy?” Dash chortled as she waded through the water towards him. Her mouthpiece automatically closed over her muzzle, and the shield over her eyes reformed immediately after.

“Yeah, I am…” Alex grumbled, slapping his hand against the water.

“Just stick your head in,” Dash suggested. “It’s a lot easier.”

Alex pursed his lips and pointed towards his head. “Hello? Bandages? I don’t want to ruin them.” In that moment, a blob of water floated in front of Alex’s face, suspended a purple aura. He looked over to Twilight, who simply smiled back at him, her horn aglow. He returned her smile with another, and nodded. “Thanks.”

Just as Thorax finally lowered his head to take a sip, Applejack’s head perked up. “Hey, y’all hear that?”

Everyone glanced at her for a moment before focusing on their hearing. “What are we supposed to be listening for?” Twilight asked.

Applejack squinted her eyes in confusion. “Ah dunno… It was somethin’ weird, but Ah can’t hear it anymore.” She shrugged as she rolled and stood out of the water. “Guess I was just imaginin’ things.”

“Wait wait wait,” Alex interrupted, holding up a hand as his eye narrowed. “Nobody else move; I’m getting an idea. AJ, put your head underwater.”

Applejack quirked a brow. “ ‘Scuse me?”

“You said you heard something and then you suddenly didn’t,” Alex pointed out. “The only difference between those two times was you were lying in the river when you heard it and you weren’t when you didn’t. Sound propagates more easily through water than air, so someone please stick your head underwater.”

Twilight followed through first by placing the side of her head in the river, while ensuring her ear went under. Applejack mimicked her soon after, but both of them frowned in confusion as they focused.

“Do you hear anything?” Dash asked, though clearly not quite as eager for an answer to that question as Alex was.

“It’s mostly sounds like running water,” Twilight answered. “But… There’s definitely something else. No idea what it could be, though.”

“What does it sound like?” Alex inquired.

“It sounds like a… pulse? Not like a heartbeat, though. It’s keeping a regular rhythm. Sounds like it might be three, maybe four times a second?”

Alex suddenly dropped to his knees and submerged an ear, completely uncaring of if his bandage became wet or not. His eye grew wider by the second as he listened. “Holy shit, that’s a Raven.”

“What?”

“I said that’s a fucking Raven!” Alex repeated as he shot up, twisting around between looking upstream and downstream in an attempt to find the source of the water-bound noise.

“Um… why are we excited about a bird?” Thorax asked, some hesitation in his voice.

Alex shot him a look. “What? No, not the bird—the ship! Three point seven three hertz! That pulsing in the water is from a medium sized gravity engine!”

Without a moment to spare, Rainbow Dash launched herself into the air, well above the tree line, and scouted the horizon. It didn’t take very long before she pointed and cheered back down. “He’s right! I can see it over there to the south! But it’s gonna miss us by a mile!”

The human carefully held his hand to his forehead. “Fuckfuckfuck— okay, think. We need to get its attention. My QSD’s fucked, so I’ve got nothing. There’s gotta be something around here we can use. Sight and sound! We need something easy to see that makes a lot of noise! Like a flare, or some fireworks, or—”

Just as he uttered those words, light surrounded Twilight’s horn as a whip-like whisp, charged brilliantly for two heartbeats, then launched skyward, shrieking past Rainbow Dash. The magical flare exploded every couple of seconds as it ascended, sending out a dazzling array of sparks in the form of her cutie mark with a loud clap each time. A hundred feet, three hundred feet, five hundred feet. Twilight’s cutie mark had been painted in the sky well over a dozen times before the flare finally gave out at the apex of its trajectory.

“Holy shit…” Alex muttered, his neck craned back. “That’ll work.”

“Wow, Twi. Where’d ya go n’ learn that?” Applejack commented while mimicking Alex’s motion.

Twilight just smiled and shrugged. “It was something my brother taught me before we left. Just in case.”

“Hey guys, it worked!” Rainbow Dash beamed as she zipped back down to them. “It just turned! It’s heading this way!”

Alex shook a finger at her, his gaze still drawn skyward. “Remind me to get your brother a present some time…”

Less than a minute later, the pulsing became a hum as the aircraft broke over the trees, the Liandri logo painted on its hull greeting them as warmly as a smile. The group jumped and cheered as its ventral spotlight focused on them, proving to them that they had truly been found.

“Searching for landing zone,” a synthesized voice came from above as the large aircraft began to hover away from the tree-covered river. Adrenaline surged through them as they chased after the slow-moving aircraft in its search for a clear place to land. The forest itself proved to be denser than any of them would have liked, though after a few minutes, the Raven came across a clearing in the trees: a field of tall grass.

Finally, the group of survivors slowed to a walk as the Raven’s landing gear extended. The cargo bay door opened with a droning whir, and a loud clunk announced the aircraft touching down. With the door fully open, two Novas marched out to meet them, Link Guns at the ready.

While the three ponies advanced undeterred, Alex held out his hand to block the changeling among them. “Thorax, stay behind me.”

Thorax looked up at him. “What? Why?”

“I need to make sure they don’t kill you on sight.”

“Okay, that’s a good reason,” Thorax muttered as he skittered behind Alex.

As the two approached the Raven, Alex called out. “Units! There is one changeling with us. It is designated as friendly. You will treat it as such.”

“Affirmative, Commander,” the Novas called back with a nod each.

Alex smiled. It was good to hear synthetic voices again. He then glanced at Thorax and jerked his head toward the Raven. “Alright, let’s go.”

As Thorax followed Alex, he took notice of both Novas tracking him with their heads, knotting his insides and encouraging him to rush ahead of the human and onto the ship. Only after Alex traversed the ramp did the Novas reboard the aircraft.

“Alright, everyone, get comfortable,” Alex announced. “We’re going home.” As everypony settled in, Alex turned to look out across the field one final time. A gentle breeze blew across forest at the clearing’s end, swaying the tree’s branches as if they each wanted to wave them goodbye. A smile formed across his features, and he took in a last, large drag of fresh air.

Alex then extended his middle finger. “Ah ha ha ha! Fuck you, nature! I don’t need to eat any of your foraged bullshit! Suck it!” He punched the button to raise the cargo door and began walking toward the cockpit. “Alright, let’s go. I’m fucking starving.”

Author's Notes:

As with most chapters, this one ended up being longer than I anticipated, but I think that turned out for the better! I wanted to compress the return home into one chapter, but that's the kind of thing that takes time to flesh out. In the end, I think it turned out okay. There's one more chapter to this arc, and, to be quite honest, I'm looking forward to wrapping it up. It's not gonna be an overly long chapter, but I'm hoping it'll provide the necessary closure. After that: The Crystal Empire, which will transition into the final arc of Technicalities. I'm kinda excited to be getting to those, actually! It's in those arcs where secrets get unwrapped and shit really goes down.

I've also been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls Online. As if I didn't have enough distractions already.

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Motors hummed, springing to life the great steel iris that was the hanger’s rooftop entry. Natural light streamed into the artificially lit chasm, only to be eclipsed by the Raven as it hovered into its roost. The aircraft hummed as it lowered itself into the cavernous chamber, lined with catwalks, elevators, and further down, nooks carved out of the walls where other aircraft were stored. At the very bottom lay a mosh-pit of buffalo and ponies, all fatigued from their ordeal as domestic Liandri walked among them, handing out food, water, and blankets as necessary, all of which had been urgently purchased from local suppliers in bulk, exhausting their supplies. As much as Rose didn’t want the Appleoosans taking up space in the hangar, it was the largest available sheltered area they could be placed within the shield without them simply being thrown onto Ponyville’s streets.

Rose, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all stood quiety at the edge of a landing pad as the dropship hovered down to their level. Once at their altitude, the aircraft reversed itself toward them and out of the hangar’s airspace. A reverberating clunk announced the settlement of the landing gear on the pad. As the aircraft’s engines powered down, the cargo bay opened, and the three waiting ponies beamed as brightly as the sun as their friends came down the ramp.

“You’re okay!” they cheered as they ran up to Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, squeezing them all together for a collective hug.

While Twilight and Applejack found themselves starved for air, Dash’s armor kept her uncompressed. “Of course we’re okay! It’ll take more than that to keep us down!”

As the ponies bustled and fussed over the injured refugees, Rose kept a straight face, patiently waiting at the edge of the crowd. She watched as Alex passed through the cockpit door, armor scarred and dirty, helmet damaged, left arm missing, and head completely bandaged with blood beginning to seep through where his right eye ought to be. Despite it all, his remaining eye locked itself firmly on Rose, and he allowed himself a smile. Thorax quietly watched from inside the Raven as Alex thumped down the ramp to meet Rose.

“It took a bit of time, but we’re back!” Alex smiled as he held his arm out to receive a hug.

Instead, as the two neared, Rose’s right hand came up and she slapped the man clear across the jaw, strong and unexpected enough to twist his entire torso, and loud enough to attract everypony’s attention. All eyes turned to them, and Fluttershy even covered her mouth in alarm.

Rose jabbed a finger at him and yelled: “That’s for making me run through millions of contingencies after doing something so incredibly stupid!”

Alex held his hand up to his jaw, gently massaging it as he looked up at Rose with the same eyes made by a dog after it was caught tearing up a pillow. Before he could muster up so much as a defensive whimper, Rose pushed herself up against him and wrapped her arms around his chest.

“And this is for not getting yourself killed,” she said, her voice much more measured, but still retaining its resolve.

Alex blinked several times before he hesitantly draped his arm down across her back. “You’re… welcome…?”

Pinkie Pie smiled and let out a quick “Aww…”

The sound of Pinkie’s coo stiffened Rose. With machine speed, she released herself from Alex and brushed her clothes. “In any event, now that you’ve returned, we can finally restore order and get on with our lives. We should start with fixing your current physical condition, then getting you cleaned up and fed.”

“Right, uh, before that…” Alex uttered as he returned to massaging his jaw. “A few things first… Number one… I know you were pissed at me, but next time you slap me, could you maybe just turn it down a bit? That really hurt…” He stuck his tongue between his cheek and teeth, swearing he could taste a hint of iron.

“Noted,” Rose shrugged. “For the record, I aimed to bruise, not break.”

“Yeah, I uh…” Alex manually shifted his jaw, eliciting a loud crack that made everyone save Rose wince. “Aaaagggghhhh...! Yeah, I can feel that… Ugh… Second, uh…” He pointed a thumb behind himself at Thorax. “We have a guest. Can you make sure he’s comfortable while we get everything sorted out?”

All eyes suddenly turned to the changeling sitting in the Raven. Unsure of how to act, Thorax smiled weakly and waved. “Uh… h-hello there…”

Rarity narrowed her eyes at him, leaned in to Rainbow Dash, and whispered out of the corner of her mouth. “Why in Equestria would you bring one of them back?”

“Chill, Rarity, Thorax is cool,” Dash whispered back.

Overhearing the exchange, Twilight leaned in. “He helped us beat Chrysalis in exchange for a ride home. It’s…” Twilight paused, a dark cloud suddenly forming over her eyes. “It’s the least we could do after what happened.”

“What happened?” Fluttershy asked, her curiosity dragging the conversation out into the open.

“We turned the hive into a giant, lava-filled crater is what happened,” Alex announced, raising his voice so it was clear enough for everyone to hear. Lowering the volume, and his gaze, he added, “To our knowledge, Thorax is the last changeling left. Twilight’s right. Bringing him back is the least we can do.”

Attention returned to Thorax, whose already weak smile deteriorated in a matter of seconds. His eyes strayed to the ground as his mind attempted to grapple with reality once again. Every last changeling was dead. Every last one.

Except him.

“Oh, you poor thing!” Fluttershy exclaimed, taking to the air to throw her forelegs around Thorax’s neck, who jumped and failed to back away from the oncoming mare. “If you need anything, you only need to ask! If you need a friend, or a place to stay, we’re here to help!”

Without warning, Thorax let out a loud snarl, prompting Fluttershy to immediately let go and back herself up across the Raven’s cargo hold as he continued to hiss at her. Almost as suddenly as he started, Thorax threw his forelegs over his mouth to silence himself while simultaneously blurting out an apology. “Oh-my-gosh-I’m-sorry! I am so sorry! Oh geez, I… I’m sorry! That just sort of happens when I’m around love and I haven’t eaten in a while! I-I didn’t mean that!”

“Well… might have been a good idea to let us know that beforehand, don’t you think?” said Alex as he casually brought his hand up and lowered Rose’s drawn sidearm with a finger, which she had pulled from somewhere under her clothes.

“Sorry…” Thorax apologized again, hanging his head. “You’re right, I should have mentioned that…”

“Anything else we need to know before something bad accidentally happens?”

“I…” Thorax hesitated before shaking his head. “I don’t think so, no…”

“Good,” Alex smiled as he turned to Rose. “In that case, we’ve got a lot of things to take care of. We all need food and cleaning up, and I need a new eye. I don’t want to waste any more time, so once all that’s taken care of, I want to make a town-wide announcement to formally wrap up this whole changeling thing today. Make sure the royal guard are there, too.”

Rose nodded. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

Two hours later, the streets of Ponyville became host to a claustrophobic crush of quadrupeds, as ponies from two different towns and a buffalo herd flooded the town square. Pegasi took seats on nearby rooftops and clouds to avoid the ground. Guardsponies were scattered about, while the dozen officers took positions at the front of the crowd, expecting to be addressed directly. Shining Armor stood front and center with them, right next to Mayor Mare.

On town hall’s porch stood its famous podium, a small white box resting upon it. While the podium was the perfect size for the average adult pony, it proved comically small for the human standing behind it, clad in a fresh set of green biomech armor, his head hidden behind a brand new helmet. To his left, standing firmly on solid ground with his hands tucked behind his back, was Hyde, whose scarred armor and intimidating presence cast a noticeably wide bubble of personal space.

To his right, stood Rose in humanoid form. Further still was Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, each standing in awkward silence and occasionally waving to a pony they happened to make eye contact with; mostly their other three friends that stood at the front of the crowd. At the back of the crowd, however, was a figure that caught Applejack’s eye. Tall, chrome, looking better than new, and with her beaming little sister mounted on his shoulders, stood Guy. A simple green smiley appeared on his face, and around his legs were Granny Smith and Bic Mac, each wearing their own content smiles.

Above it all, the violet shield that had been erected over the town remained steadfast.

A loud murmur came from the crowd and only quieted down when Alex’s helmet peeled away, revealing his reconstructed visage; the only difference from a few days prior being the scar that crossed the right half of his face over his newly replaced eye and a growing bruise on the left side of his jaw.

His voice amplified by a microphone, Alex cleared his throat to fully silence the town and command their attention.

“Thank you all for coming,” Alex began. “Now I’m not one for long, elaborate speeches, so I’m going to get straight to the point. As all of you should know by now, changelings attacked Equestria, starting with Appleoosa. The Appleoosans, including the local buffalo herd, were captured and brought to their hive. As you can all see, they are now here with us today, which brings me to the first big announcement I have to make: the changelings are no longer a threat.”

A cheer erupted from the crowd, though no smile came to Alex’s face. Instead, he patiently waited until the excitement died down enough that he could silence the rest of it by holding up his hand. “That said, we no longer have a need for the shield above Ponyville.” He looked to his right. “Rose, if you would be so kind…”

The AI’s surrogate nodded. Almost everyone expected the event to be a grand display, though it turned out to be anything but. In the geographical center of town, the shield generator began to spin down. With the gradual loss of power, the giant tendrils of violet magic that sprouted from the generator thinned and withered, and the dome itself faded from existence, finally letting unfiltered evening sunlight shine directly on everyone in the town square.

“Here’s hoping we never have to use that thing again,” said Alex, ushering in a loud chorus of agreements and clapping hooves. “Two days ago, the Liandri launched a rescue operation to ensure the safe return of the Appleoosans. There are some that we would like to recognize for their efforts, and without whom this mission might not have gone so well.”

He gestured to his right. “Next to me, you see three ponies. You know them well as Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. The Liandri are still a new presence in Equestria, and as such, were aliens to the Appleoosans. And let’s be honest, they were stressed enough as it was. These three volunteered to bring a friendly, trusting face to the Liandri. They were the ones who put themselves in harm’s way to really demonstrate that we were there to help, and for that…” Alex lifted the white box from the podium and stood next to Rose. “...We offer our recognition and our gratitude.”

Rose opened the box in Alex’s hand and pulled out a trio of medals that held the Liandri star logo upon a circular base, but each base had been given a metallic color to match the coat of the recipient. First came Applejack, whose medal sported a shimmering brass color. Rainbow Dash bowed her head next, and received a medal with a base of reflective cyan. Finally came Twilight, whose medal expressed a rich violet.

“These medals are purely symbolic,” Rose announced. “While they will not grant you any official Equestrian recognition or honor, they are a symbol of ours. Today, the Liandri acknowledge the service you have provided for us and your fellow Equestrians. Thank you.”

Rose finished with a bow to the three ponies, which was returned in kind, causing another cheer and eruption of hoof-stomps from the crowd. Satisfied with the reaction, Alex allowed them the time to calm completely before continuing.

“There is another whose efforts I would like to publically recognize and thank.” He gestured to the Skulldozer on his left. “This is Sub-commander Hyde. He, like Rose and Guy, is an Artificial Intelligence. What I’m sure many of you see as a frightening monster, we see as a selfless and reckless hero. During the attack on Ponyville, Hyde single handedly prevented a giant changeling from rushing past the shield and causing unimaginable damage, but so doing, he was severely damaged instead. After being awarded the body he now has, he joined us on our mission to rescue the Appleoosans, and directed the Liandri Corps abroad, where Rose could not. Hyde has been the backbone of our success, and while he may appear frightening - and fights more ferociously than any monster - I swear to you that he has your best interests at heart.”

Alex held a hand over his chest and nodded toward the Skulldozer. “Thank you for your service, Hyde, and may we never need it again.”

Hyde bowed his head in turn, earning a half-cheer and some hoof-stomps. Some ponies in the audience, however, refrained from moving. Up on stage, while Twilight and Rainbow Dash stomped with both front hooves, Applejack stomped with only one, a hint of a scowl broadcasting her true appreciation.

With the final applause receding, Alex sucked in a breath and exhaled it loudly. This next part would be tough. “Okay, one last thing I need to get out of the way before I’m done. Now before I say what I’m about to say, I just want to take the time to remind everyone that the changelings are. Not. A. Threat. Any. More.” Alex rapped a finger against the podium for emphasis. “That said, there is someone I would like to introduce to you all.” He looked behind himself towards town hall’s main door. “Thorax, if you could come out…”

For a brief moment, nothing happened, until the door creaked open, and a changeling cautiously poked his head out. Gasps and murmurs reverberated through the crowd. In the front, the royal guard looked to their captain for a response and began to emulate his deep frown. Seeing their reaction, Thorax began to shrink behind the door. “God dammit...” Alex muttered before moving to encourage Thorax out into the open.

After silencing his microphone, Alex poked his head through the door. “Look, man, I know this sucks, but they know you’re here now. Let’s just get this over with. Just stand next to me, make sure they see you, and I’ll deal with the hard part, okay? You’re gonna be fine, I promise.”

“Okay…” Thorax gulped. “If you say so…”

Pulling himself free from the doorway, Alex stepped back toward the podium as Thorax dragged his hooves out into the open. As he did, the murmurs among the crowd escalated, some to the point of shouting their protests to Thorax’s presence. Shining Armor’s frown morphed into a glare, which Alex briefly matched before turning it to the crowd. “If I could have your attention, please,” he asserted, to very little effect. Thorax shrunk under the intense glares and shouting with every passing breath, nearly to the point of bolting as fast and as far as he could from the impending judgement.

“QUUUIIIEEET!” Hyde boomed, his voice drowning out the crowd and even stunning some of the ponies unfortunate enough to be standing nearest him. His shout held the desired effect, as the crowd finally silenced itself.

“Thank you, Hyde…” Alex said, giving a nod in the Skulldozer’s direction before turning to the rest of the townsponies. “As all of you can see, this is a changeling. His name is Thorax. I know what most of you are thinking: we brought back a changeling, he can’t be trusted, and he is going to spy on us or something. I know this is untrue because there is literally no one left for him to spy for. I am not exaggerating when I say that Thorax is the last changeling.”

Alex allowed his words to have a moment to hang in the air and soak. After taking the time to clear his throat, he continued. “For those of you who don’t know, changelings feed on love. The tactic changelings used to acquire food was to disguise themselves as one of your loved ones and steal your love for them. They would often kidnap them, hide them away, and take their place in your life. This was Queen Chrysalis’ tactic. She’s gone now. The changeling you see before you, Thorax, has a different vision. Instead of a parasitic relationship, he would seek a symbiotic relationship; Instead of stealing your love, he would earn it. No disguises. No tricks.

“His vision was to earn your love through friendship. He wanted to show that it doesn’t have to be stolen, and share this knowledge with the rest of his hive so that changelings and ponies wouldn’t have to live at odds, but could coexist peacefully. His hive does not exist anymore, but his ideals still do. Thorax helped us beat Chrysalis, and in return, we are giving him a chance.” His right hand pointed towards the three ponies on stage. “He convinced Twilight Sparkle that this avenue was worth pursuing, and she convinced me. Since then, I’ve found that I am more than willing to call Thorax my friend, and I hope all of you could as well, because if you have a problem with him, then you have a problem with me.”

The subtle threat hovered like a feathery string, and no one dared utter a word of protest or even one of support. Just as Alex began calculating what next to say to break the silence, Shining Armor broke rank with his officers and proceeded up the steps. All eyes fell on him as he took a position on Thorax’s opposite side. Shining armor slipped off his helmet to reveal a frown, his eyes locked firmly on the changeling.

After several tense moments of analytical staring, Shining finally announced: “If Twilight believes in him…” His stern expression morphed into a warming smile. “Then I believe in him too.”

Alex nearly doubled over as he heaved a relieved sigh, cheers erupting from the crowd. He looked over them all in near disbelief as they began chorusing Thorax’s name. Was this really happening? Alex turned his head towards the unicorn captain, who smirked up at him. For some reason, Shining’s face brought out short laugh, and Alex held up a pair of fingers. “God damn. That’s two favors I owe you.”

Shining Armor’s face turned inquisitive. “Huh? What’s the first one?”

“That flare spell you taught Twilight.”

“Ah, so you needed that. Consider yourself welcome.”

Alex chuckled a final time before turning to the audience. “Alright, that’s it! Show’s over! Thank you all for your patience over the past few days and now. The Liandri patrols will be recalled and we can all get on with our lives again. If you’re from Appleoosa, stick around. We’re gonna arrange transport home for you…”

As the crowd began to disperse, Twilight approached Thorax with a beaming smile. “I guess that’s it. Welcome to Ponyville!”

Thorax returned her smile as Spike hopped up the steps to stand next to Twilight. “Thank you so much. I… I can’t tell you how much this all means to me…”

“If you need a place to stay, you’re welcome to stay with me and Spike at the library.” She quickly glanced at her assistant for any sign of protest, but upon seeing his pleasant demeanor, granted herself license to continue. “It’s what Alex did when he first showed up.”

Thorax shied away. “Oh, thank you, but I-I don’t want to be a burden on you…”

“Hey, it’s no problem, Thorax,” Spike dismissed with a wave. “We did it once, we can do it again.” He held out a claw. “I’m Spike, by the way. Nice to meet you!”

Thorax responded with a sudden hiss, which was just as quickly silenced by shoving a hoof in his mouth. Spike, in turn, yelped and jumped back, much to Twilight’s amusement.

“Yeah, he does that sometimes,” Twilight giggled. “He’s working on it, though. Right?”

“Mhm,” Thorax mumbled around his hoof as he nodded.

Meanwhile, Applejack descended town hall’s steps and wormed her way through the crowd. Despite the string of ‘thank you’s and ‘congratulations’ she received from passing ponies, there were only a few select ponies she desperately wanted to talk to in that moment. Finally, she reached the point where her family had gathered.

“Congratulations!” her family cheered as they came together for a group hug. Guy had even deposited Apple Bloom on the ground to give her the chance to properly hug her big sister.

“Ah missed y’all so much!” Applejack smiled, tightening her grip around as much of her family as she could manage until she turned her attention to the one member too big to join in. She beamed up at him. “Guy! You’re alright!”

A green smiley was displayed on Guy’s face. Truly, he appeared better than new. His body seemed sleeker than before, and somehow more robust, yet his mannerisms hadn’t changed, genuinely making the giant cybernetic Guy. The shining red apple in the middle of his chest left no question as to where he truly belonged.

“I’m okay,” said Guy as Applejack jumped up to hug his kneeling form. He gently placed his oversized hands over her back. “But I’m happy you are too. I’m happy Hyde kept his promise.”

“Wait, what…?” Applejack’s brain paused, and she blinked several times. She took a step back and shot Guy a curious look. “Hyde promised you somethin’? When? What?”

Guy’s smile vanished, but the green circles acting as his visible eyes remained, and he blinked them twice. “In the arena, before he cut off my head. He said…” Guy’s voice shifted tone in imitation of Hyde’s. “...I promise I’ll do what I can to bring her back safely.”

“What? But that’s not… he said… he told me…” The gears in Applejack’s head broke, and she stared into space as her mind attempted to fix itself.

“Uh… you alright, sis?” Big Mac inquired.

Somehow shaken out of her stupor by the question, Applejack ignored her family and looked back over the remains of the crowd. Her eyes snapped to Hyde, all the way at the other end of the town square. Over that distance, the two of them locked eyes for several seconds. At that point, Hyde made the decision to leave, and calmly turned away and thundered his way down the street, disappearing from her sight.

Despite the dispersing crowds and Alex’s speech, Hyde’s mere presence dissuaded any ponies from traveling down the same streets as him, making his return to the garage uneventful and light in traffic. He didn’t mind, though. He understood his appearance frightened ponies. That was the point of it. His job was to fight, not make friends. His job was now done.

As Hyde entered the Liandri facility through the garage door, he received a message from Rose, sparking a conversation that lasted no more than a second: “Where are you going?”

“My job is done,” Hyde replied. “I am going to find a quiet place in the pits to go into standby.”

“That could be a very long time,” said Rose.

“I know.”

“My first objection is that you are overdue for maintenance. My second is that you are one of the only three Artificial Intelligences in the world. To have you be in stand-by would be a waste. Activity and experience is what enables us to develop ourselves as individuals. I am advising you against this.”

“I am a Skulldozer. I have no use in peace. I am directed to go into stand-by, and I will do so.”

“Consider those directives overridden.”

“What would I do, then?”

“Our ability to think is limited by our ability to generate unique thoughts. As effective as our sparring matches are, I find a creative hobby is the best way to train our learning algorithms and refine our thought processes. We make better decisions as a consequence. Guy’s hobby is farm work. Mine is research and development.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“Something pertinent to your existing personality traits. I have already set up a workstation for you in the foundry. It will take some experimentation and practice on your part, but I believe you will grow to appreciate its use.”

After double checking her room, Celestia ducked into the space behind her bookshelf. When the regalia vibrates, the Overseer’s call must not be refused.

As the solar princess approached the screen, it flared to life, displaying the painfully familiar black disguise she had known her entire life. She offered a curt bow. “Overseer.”

“Have you heard the news?” the Overseer asked, his voice distorted by the filter of his mask.

“I receive quite a bit of news on a daily basis,” Celestia replied. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.”

“Xan made it back to Ponyville,” he declared. “Alive. As did the element bearers he brought with him. He just finished giving his little victory speech. He also managed to somehow retrieve Thorax from the hive and integrate him into Equestrian society well before his time.”

“Really?” Celestia raised an eyebrow, though made every effort to keep her face as neutral as possible. “That doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that Xan would do, now does it?”

The Overseer remained quiet as he leaned back in his chair. “Tell me, Celestia. Have you seen the changeling hive lately?”

Celestia squinted in confusion. “No… I don’t believe I have. Why?”

“Allow me to enlighten you.” The Overseer’s mask was replaced with a different image: A hellscape; A gargantuan lava field plagued with crimson lightning and storm of powerful magicks at the center. Celestia’s expression fell as the blood drained from her face. “This is what remains of the hive,” the Overseer continued. “A giant hole in the ground that nearly punched straight through the planet’s mantle.” The image switched back to the mask. “You’re not aware, I’m currently working overtime to not only fix the damage, but to keep earthquakes from tearing the entire continental shelf apart.”

Knots formed in Celestia’s core. “H-how…? How is such a thing even possible?”

“Xan detonated the core of his mobile fortress,” the Overseer answered, “turning it into a weapon of mass destruction. What you just saw were the results. Do you need any more proof?”

Celestia closed her eyes and attempted to stabilize her breathing. She spoke again after some marginal success. “What about—”

“She’s dead,” he interrupted, anticipating her question.

The princess clenched her eyes even harder, and a single sob escaped her lungs. She held herself still for several seconds, not daring to move or even twitch. No weakness could be shown. No tears could fall.

They did anyway.

The Overseer sighed as he looked away, contemplating in the silence. After almost half a minute, he spoke again, his voice much softer than she was used to. “Get Twilight to bring him on their trek to the Crystal Empire. I don’t care how it’s done, so long as he is on that train. I’ll deal with the rest. Your hooves will be clean. Consider it your last chance.”

At those words, the screen flickered off, and Celestia finally allowed herself to break down, release her pain, and be comforted by an empty room and echoing wails.

Author's Notes:

MODEL HALL HAS BEEN UPDATED! Although it's only a small update to Guy's entry.

So it looks like there were some site changes that occurred while I wasn't looking. I was confused at first, but it seems to be for the better, I'd say. The option to upload from google docs vanished, but it seems a simple copy-paste is all you need now. I remember copy-pasting when trying to publish the first two chapters. Didn't work too well, since it didn't keep the italics and whatnot. Still has trouble keeping paragraphs, but that's only a few minutes of my time at most. And it seems that indentations don't appear anymore, so I guess that's one less thing for me to think about.

In any event, I apologize for the wait, but I have Slime Rancher to blame. A friend got me a copy of the game, and... well... Let's just say that, if you're considering getting it, DON'T. DO NOT DO IT. Slime Rancher is an absolutely amazing game that will dig its claws into you and refuse to let go, but at the end of the day, it's a very elaborate, well thought out version of cookie clicker. It's fun as all hell, but I'll be damned if there's a point to any of it.

Now then, this arc is finally wrapped up. Next stop: The Crystal Empire! Where a terrible secret lies...

The Crystal Empire Part 1

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Two weeks had passed. Two grueling weeks. Quite possibly the worst two weeks Celestia could remember. Chrysalis was gone. How long had they known each other? Felt like several millennia at this point. Probably was. They each played their role, but also yearned for freedom. It was easy to understand one another when they were trapped in the same prison; they shared a similar problem, and a similar fate.

Many tried. Too many tried. Too many failed. The Overseer made examples of every last one. Live your life. Respect the cycles. Maintain peace. Maintain prosperity. Maintain harmony. “It is the ultimate responsibility,” he says. But can it truly be the best way? What lives actually exist in this world? She and Chrysalis plotted freedom. Freedom from the cycles. Freedom from the Overseer. They watched. Listened. Waited. The cycles functioned like clockwork. Nothing ever changed. There was never a missed beat. Worse yet, there was never a vulnerability; never a chink in the armor; never a window of opportunity.

Until now. But even then, was it really? Chrysalis was gone. Destroyed by the ones that could have granted them their freedom. But if the Overseer was right, they could mean the end of everything. Maybe he is right. She saw the damage they caused. But if they disappear, the window closes, possibly forever. Does that mean Chrysalis died for nothing? Perhaps the Overseer played them all by tearing apart potential allies before they could rally against him. Who could be sure of anything?

Celestia sighed as she skimmed paperwork from her throne, rereading the same paragraph for the umpteenth time, yet still not absorbing anything it said. The same turbulent thoughts plagued her over and over again these past two weeks. Choices to make. Sides to take. No clear answer. She wished Chrysalis was here to provide input. She was the only one Celestia felt she could actually trust.

Any moment now, a guard would come through the door and tell her the Crystal Empire has returned. She would feign a gasp, and immediately send Cadence and Shining Armor. Regardless of her thoughts, time would move forward. Equestria would move closer to the Overseer’s threatened reset. A choice would have to be made, and there would be no backing out of it.

The door to the throne room burst open, and a guard came rushing through. “News from Northern Equestria, your Highness!”

Celestia moved the paperwork aside and gave the guard her attention.

Time marches ever forward.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go as well?” asked Luna, as she and Celestia occupied their eyes by looking at the newest stained glass memorial to adorn the throne room; a depiction of Cadence and Shining Armor forming a heart with their bodies.

“Yes,” Celestia replied, infusing her voice with conviction. “Princess Cadence and Shining Armor are already there. The others will be joining them soon.”

“The Empire’s magic is powerful. It cannot fall again, my sister.”

“She will succeed at her task, and when she does, we’ll know that she is that much closer to being ready.”

As if on cue, a mare cleared her throat within the arch of the open throne room doors, and the two princesses turned to her. Twilight Sparkle stared back at them, a nervous smile on her face and saddlebags overstuffed with books, quills, and papers on her sides. Celestia smiled in turn before nudging Luna. “Trust me, little sister.” Luna returned a silent nod and began her own trek out of the throne room to allow Celestia the opportunity to talk to Twilight privately.

“You wanted to see me? To give me a test?” Twilight called out as she walked up the central carpet. Midway-through, she and Luna passed, and exchanged the briefest of looks, though no more communication was held between them than that. “I brought my own quills! And plenty of paper to show my work!” Twilight levitated her saddlebags off of herself and unceremoniously onto the ground, whereupon a loose scroll popped out of her bag and began to unroll itself down the carpet upon landing.

Celestia lazily followed the scroll as it rolled toward her, eventually stopping at her hooves. How do they always manage to do that…?

“Sorry! Sorry!” Twilight blurted, vainly attempting to roll the scroll back up with her nose.

Celestia remained silent as her horn glowed and she magicked the unfurled scroll and swiftly rolled it back up. “This is a different kind of test,” she said as she picked up the rest of Twilight’s belongings and arranged them all neatly into her bags. As she finished she declared: “The Crystal Empire has returned.”

“The Crystal Empire…?” Twilight’s eyes shrunk as she magicked books back from her bags. “I’m sorry… I-I thought I studied…!”

And so Celestia went on to explain that the Crystal Empire wouldn’t be in any of Twilight’s books; that a curse caused it to vanish a thousand years ago with the defeat of its slave-master king, Sombra. Using a crystal that rested atop a pedestal next to her throne, she explained to her student that the Crystal Empire held a powerful magic, one that would radiate hope and love across Equestria, but would do the same for hatred and fear should they take hold. Celestia emphasized her point with a display of dark magic, forcing black crystals from the ground around Twilight, which she dispelled after a few moments.

“...Which is why I need your help finding a way to protect it,” Celestia finished.

“You want me to help protect an entire empire…?” Twilight asked, breathless, her mind flooding itself with doubts of herself.

“It is, as I’ve said, a different kind of test,” said Celestia as she placed her crystal back upon its pedestal, “but one I am certain you will pass.”

You will pass… Casting away her doubts, Twilight looked toward Celestia with renewed conviction. “How do I begin?”

Celestia allowed herself a smile. She loved seeing that look in her eye. “By joining Princess Cadence and Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire.”

“My brother is there?” Twilight beamed, falling in step next to Celestia as she walked past.

“He is,” Celestia answered, “And your Ponyville friends will join you there as well. You will all take a train there this afternoon and will arrive before sundown. However…” The princess paused as she came to a stop, nearly by the throne room doors. Get Twilight to bring him on their trek to the Crystal Empire. I don’t care how it’s done, so long as he is on that train. “Twilight, it would also behoove you to request Alexander’s presence as well. I believe he would be an invaluable asset on your mission to the Empire. I cannot ask him directly, as I have little influence over his decisions. You might have better luck.”

“Oh!” Twilight blinked. For some reason, she hadn’t considered the possibility that Alex would just brush off Princess Celestia, but after the whole changeling incident, it definitely wasn’t impossible. “Alright, I’ll ask him.”

A pang of guilt constricted Celestia’s heart. Was this really the right thing? She couldn’t simply take her words back at this point. Celestia took a moment to glance through the throne room doors. Luna should be waiting just around the corner. She would be listening, but… Celestia dropped her voice to a whisper. “I have a brief, unrelated question for you, Twilight. The changeling hive; what happened to it. Did Alexander plan to do that?”

“Umm…” Twilight paused for a moment to think, but ultimately shook her head. “I don’t think so? It seemed like a spur of the moment thing when the changelings captured me, but… I don’t know, I can’t say for sure. After he saw the damage, though, he… he regretted doing it.”

Celestia’s eyes widened ever slightly. “He did?”

“Yeah,” Twilight confirmed. Her memories of the time flooded back. He had caused all this damage once already... Twilight’s heart flashed and she looked away. “He spent several minutes just… crying… I’d never really seen him like that before.”

Despite the nature of the information, Celestia cracked a smile. Of course. In the end, he does care. The Overseer doesn’t see what lies beneath him, only what he wants to see. “That’s good to know. Now, with regard to your mission, I have one last request: I ask that you encourage Alexander to come with you armed and armored.”

This request not only captured Twilight’s attention, but throttled it. “Wait, what? Why?”

“The area around the Empire is a cold and wild place,” Celestia explained. “A blizzard formed around the empire since its return, and you may encounter something less than friendly before you properly arrive.” She advanced toward the throne room door anew, and Twilight followed. “Nevertheless, I have every confidence that you will succeed. And when you do, I’ll know you are ready to move on to the next level of your studies.”

The two stopped by the open doors just as Celestia finished. Luna waited around the corner, and met eyes with Twilight, who shrunk under her critical gaze. She looked back up at Celestia. “But what if I fail…?”

“You won’t,” Celestia smiled.

“But what if—” Twilight started again, though was immediately cut off when the princess laid a hoof into her shoulder.

“You won’t,” Celestia insisted for a second time, before he voice adopted a more serious inflection. “But, Twilight, in the end, it must be you and you alone who ultimately assists Princess Cadence and Shining Armor in doing what needs to be done to protect the Empire. Do you understand?”

Twilight held her head high and smiled. “Mm-hmm!”

“Then go,” said Celestia as she urged Twilight forward with a hoof, while Luna made her way back into the throne room. “There is no time to lose.”

At those words, Celestia magicked the doors closed, ending the conversation. Twilight flinched at this, and stood for a moment in confusion before ultimately deciding that it was time to go.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Rose voice spoke into Alex’s ear as he paced around the testing room, swinging his armored arms back and forth.

“Yeah, just gimme a second to get my shit together…” Alex blew a breath, then stopped and placed both hands against his helmet, taking a moment for himself. Once he was done, he clapped his hands together and turned to the collection of miscellaneous items in the middle of the room. “Alright, let’s try this again.”

“Excellent,” said Rose. “Recording test number thirteen of remote generation of vectored gravitons with the BioMech mounted Core Energy manipulator based on model generation zero point seven, iteration two.”

Alex placed one foot before the other as his arm hummed with energy. Green light flowed through the shell of his armor, collecting itself within a circular device built into the palm. Holding that palm up, Alex focused all of his attention on a single object placed among the many on the floor: a hoofball. It was subtle, and there was no other visual indication, but moment by moment, the ball began to twitch on its own.

His confidence building, Alex allowed more core energy through his cybernetic arm. Inch by inch, the ball lifted itself from the ground, suspended on invisible strings. Unbeknownst to him, Alex’s eyes grew wide as can be in his intense focus, not only on the ball, but on keeping his palm as still as possible.

Okay… I got this far the last ten times, Alex reminded himself. Now I just need to… carefully… maneuver… it… Just as was attempted the last ten times, he commanded the ball to move through the air and onto a pedestal in the middle of the room. However, as the hoofball floated along, Alex instinctively angled his palm, as if to push it. In turn, this altered the ball’s vector, causing it to slide through the air faster than he intended… “Shitshitshitshitfuck!” … and collide with the far wall.

The ball fell to the ground as Alex immediately cut off power to the device in his palm and promptly shoved his face in it. “Ugh…”

“Test thirteen outcome unchanged from previous tests,” Rose announced.

“God fucking dammit!” Alex shouted as he curled his palm into a fist and swung it out and around, spinning his whole body. Core energy pulsed through his arm as he did, and the objects on the floor slid across the room in turn with the motion of his fist. Noticing the motion through the corner of his eye, Alex turned back to examine the objects he had managed to push away from him, then briefly looked at his hand. He sighed, shook his head, and placed both hands on his hips. “This shit is hard, man. We’ve gotta be doing something wrong. I mean, the slightest twitch throws me off — like it’s suddenly on a convex water slide. I can’t even twitch my hand without fucking everything up. Then we see unicorns walking around and levitating things like it’s a fucking breeze.”

“To be fair, they have substantially more practice than you do,” Rose pointed out. “Perhaps Twilight can teach you?”

“Maybe,” Alex breathed. “Not sure if that’ll even work, if you ask me. She’s able to do this naturally. Her biology enables that. This is like trying to control a fifth limb with a dozen different joints or something. It’s not something my brain can naturally process.”

“That’s what the exocortex is for.”

“Sure, but even that feels like it shouldn’t be there. The human brain didn’t evolve to be modular. Gah, it feels weird.”

“I believe it’s worth a try nevertheless,” Rose argued. “Surveillance projections indicate she’s on her way here anyway. Now would be a perfect opportunity to ask for expert insight.”

Alex rolled his eyes and stared square into a wall mounted camera. “Expert insight, huh?” He shrugged before making his way for the chamber exit. “Alright, fine, I guess you make a good point. No harm in trying.”

“So let me get this straight…” Spike asked from atop Twilight’s back. “The princess wants us and our friends to go to the Crystal Empire — pretty much by royal decree — but she can’t do the same for Alex and wants us to ask him instead?”

“That’s it,” Twilight answered as she walked through the streets toward the garage. The rest of her friends, who came with her to Canterlot in support of her test, had already scattered to their homes to collect whatever they needed for the trip and make last minute absence preparations.

“Why?” Spike continued after several seconds of silent contemplation.

“What we’re doing in the Empire is for the princess, and Alex and Princess Celestia have a… weird relationship,” Twilight replied after a moment of hesitation. “The princess might be, well, the princess, but it’s just like she told me herself: she doesn’t have much influence over Alex’s decisions. To him, a royal decree is more like a request — a request he’d probably refuse, considering how he and the royal guard acted towards each other just a couple of weeks ago.”

“If you know he’s going to say no, then why are we bothering to ask him?”

Twilight twisted her head and smiled at her assistant as they rounded the last corner, facing the Liandri facility. “Because we’re not coming to him as ponies with a royal decree! We’re coming to him as friends asking for help.”

The Liandri facility’s front door whirred open as quick as a flash, and a domestic Liandri standing behind a counter addressed Twilight and Spike in Rose’s voice as they stepped into the cool interior. “Hello, Spike. Hello, Twilight. How was your test?”

“Well, I’m… still taking the test, I guess,” said Twilight as she approached the service counter adjacent to the garage area. “Honestly, it’s a little more complicated than I thought it would be. I actually came by to talk to you guys about it.”

“How fortuitous,” said Rose. “We were hoping to talk to you as well.”

Twilight quirked a brow. “Really? About what?”

As if on cue, the doors to the central elevator slid open. “About tests of our own,” Alex bellowed as he emerged, clad in his BioMech, helmet off, and hands behind his back as he approached. “Rose and I developed a magic manipulator small enough for use in the BioMech.” To emphasize his point, he held out his right hand, and a green light pulsed through and around a visible ring in his palm before fading away.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide, and her mouth nearly fell from the rest of her head. “What?! You managed to make a magic conductor that a non-unicorn can actually use to cast magic?!”

“Whoa!” Spike exclaimed as he hopped off Twilight’s back to gawk at Alex’s hand. “That’s crazy! Does it work?”

“It works, but only technically so,” Rose continued. “So far, we’ve been able to achieve levitation, however the act itself is delicate.”

Alex sighed as he crossed his arms. “Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. We’re using unicorn levitation as a baseline for functionality, but so far, we haven’t even achieved that. Unless the manipulator stays perfectly still, the object being levitated will change vectors along what seems like a convex field. Rose thinks this is normal and that you could teach me how to better control it, but I think we missed something. If you ask me, I think it has something to do with the fact that our manipulator is toric as opposed to conical.”

“Huh…?” This last sentence caused Twilight to squint at him in confusion. “You made your magic conductor in the form of a torus as opposed to a horn…?”

“Mhm,” Alex hummed with an exaggerated nod. “Theoretically, that’s the ideal model. At least, it’s the one we came up with. Still not doing me any favors, though.”

“I see…” Twilight scratched her chin, some skepticism sneaking into her tone. “Well, I’d be happy to try teaching you magic, but I’ve never thought about teaching somepony who isn’t a unicorn. Would it even work the same?”

Alex shrugged. “One way to find out, I guess. You have a break in your schedule right now? Maybe sometime this week?”

“You could say that,” Spike answered for her.

Twilight shot her assistant a quick smirk before returning her attention to Alex. “Actually, that’s kind of why I’m here. Princess Celestia is sending me and my friends to northern Equestria because the Crystal Empire has returned. We’ll be taking a train there in less than an hour.”

Alex and Rose shared a brief look before he turned back to her with contorted brows. “I’m sorry, what? That’s news to me. What do you mean by ‘an empire as returned?’ Is it some foreign country trying to expand its borders, or…?”

“It’s a long story,” she waved off his confusion, “but to make it short, the Crystal Empire was ruled by an evil unicorn named Sombra a thousand years ago. He was defeated, but he placed a curse on the Empire that made it disappear out of thin air, and now it’s suddenly back.” Twilight stood straight, perked herself up, and smiled. “I wanted to ask you to come with us!”

After a brief pause, he clarified: “So… you’re asking me to come with you to visit a long lost empire that appeared out of thin air after a millennium-long hiatus…?”

“Mhm!” Twilight nodded.

He narrowed his eyes, still trying to parse the information he was hearing. “Okay… and you want me to come with you… why, exactly?”

“Princess Celestia tasked me and the other elements of harmony to find a way to protect the Crystal Empire,” Twilight explained. “I think she’s afraid Sombra might try to take power again, so she wants us to be there to stop that.” She paused for half a second. “Well, I say us, but I mean,” Twilight physically chewed her words as she gathered her thoughts. “I mean she didn’t mention you specifically, but I think you could help us a lot by being there.”

There was a brief silence before Rose looked over at Alex. “She mentioned you specifically.”

“Huh?!” Twilight suddenly choked, her eyes going wide. “No! No she didn’t!”

“Twilight, you’re a terrible liar,” Rose snipped at her, causing Alex to snicker. “It seems more likely to me that Celestia wants Alex to help you but wanted you to ask instead because we’d be more likely to refuse had anyone else done it.”

“What?! No! That’s not—”

The unicorn’s words were cut off by Alex’s sudden guffawing. A blush spread through Twilight’s fur as she inched herself back, her eyes darting toward potential exits while her mind raced to find a way to wiggle herself out of the uncomfortable situation she had landed herself in.

That is, until Alex finally composed himself, wiping a tear from his eye. “Ha ha ha! Yeah, fuck it, I’ll come with. I needed a break from the lab anyway.”

“What? Are you sure about this?” said Rose, barely disguising her disapproval in her tone. “This sounds like something non-insignificant; like something we shouldn’t get involved in.”

“So?” Alex leaned an elbow on the counter as he smirked at Rose. “We got involved in something non-insignificant just a few weeks ago. That turned out alright, didn’t it?”

If Rose could have narrowed the eyes of the domestic unit, she would have. “Need I remind you that you nearly killed yourself.”

“We were dealing with an army of shapeshifters,” Alex drawled. “This is different! It’s just a single unicorn with a bad attitude against half a dozen persistent ponies and a half-cybernetic with magic dampeners. I’ll go with the girls, shock the asshole, and then let them do whatever they want with him. And if he really starts crawling up my ass—” He withdrew and Enforcer from behind his back and spun it around his finger. “—Then I’ll just put a bullet in him and that’ll be the end of it.” As quickly as it came out, he holstered the weapon.

“Well, I, uh… I don’t really think it’ll have to come to that,” said Twilight, rubbing her foreleg as she eyed a random spot on the ground. “But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a fallback plan…”

“Then it’s settled!” Alex cheered with a clap. He turned and vectored himself toward the elevator. “I’ll make a quick trip to the armory and meet up with you guys…” He paused. “What was it — you said you were meeting at the train station, right?”

Twilight nodded.

“Right… And you don’t know exactly where this Crystal Empire is, do you?”

“All I know is that it’s in northern Equestria and that there’s a blizzard going on up there.”

“Crap…” Alex heaved. “If you knew where it was, I’d suggest we take a Raven there, but if you can’t point to it on a map and there’s a blizzard going on top of that…” Finally, he shrugged and entered the elevator. “Yeah, fuck it. Train it is. See you there!” The elevator closed, ending the conversation.

Twilight smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, that’s done!” She turned towards AI’s current physical form. “Thanks, Rose, for—”

“I don’t appreciate this, Twilight.” Rose interrupted, her tone less than amused.

A knot instantly formed in Twilight’s throat as she attempted to parse the phrase, nearly cutting off her air. “I-I’m sorry?”

“Alex is already enough of a loose cannon as it is,” Rose continued. “To ask him to do something like this so soon after what happened with the changelings — at a time when observation and study of his cognitive health is my highest priority — is annoying at best and irresponsible at worst.”

“Hey, don’t worry about a thing, Rose!” Spike urged as he held his claws out. “We’ll make sure everypony is safe and keep Alex from doing anything dangerous. We got this!”

The domestic unit instantly focused on him. “Ah, my apologies. I must have minced my words and miscommunicated my thoughts. Allow me to clarify my feelings on the subject.” She leaned in. “Alex is currently undergoing observation and an evaluation of his mental health, and this expedition of yours will severely affect my results.” She leaned out. “That said, my method of data collection requires that he remain unaware, so I trust it isn’t too much of a request that you keep this information to yourselves.”

“Oh…” Twilight looked away, refusing to maintain eye contact. “I… I’m sorry, I… I didn’t realize you were…”

“No, you didn’t,” Rose agreed, turning her attention fully on Twilight. “Which is why I will accept your apology — this time. Unfortunately, outside of acting as an advisor, I have little control over what Alex does or doesn’t do, which means it’s far too late to fix this state of affairs. The most I can do is attempt to keep him at his current baseline. To that end, I will be joining you on your expedition.”

Twilight perked up, her eyes widening. “Wait, you want to come with us?”

“Want to and will,” Rose replied with a nod. “So long as I fail to convince Alex his time is better spent here.”

“Wow. I mean, uh... thanks, Rose!” cheered Spike, half uncertain if that was the correct choice of words. “That means a lot to us. We’d really appreciate your help.”

“Let me make this abundantly clear, Spike,” said Rose, allowing her annoyance to seep into her voice. “I understand Celestia gave you a task out of her concern, but her problems are not my own. I will help you in the Crystal Empire where I can, but Alex is my primary responsibility until I acquire a better understanding of his anomalous behavior.” She turned back to Twilight. “If Alex is still intent on going, I shall meet you at the train station.”

With those words, the domestic’s eyes changed from blue to yellow. Despite the minute change, it signaled a fundamental departure from the room. Although given the AI’s omnipresence within the facility’s walls, it felt more like she was just paying slightly less attention.

Slightly.

Twilight blinked, blew a breath through puckered lips, glanced at Spike, and said “Well that went well,” before turning to leave the garage.

Spike waited until they were well beyond the door before speaking again. “Really? Because I feel like Rose is pretty upset with us right now.”

Twilight opened her mouth, though paused to consider her next words. “That’s… true… but we have a responsibility not just to the Princess, but to Equestria. I’m sure we can make it up to her later.”

“You’re just telling yourself that because you feel guilty, don’t you?”

“Please don’t shatter my illusion, Spike. I really don’t want to feel worse than I do…”

An equestrian train chugged northward, billowing steam beneath an airborne vehicle that placed a stark contrast on the technological developments of differing worlds. A Cicada - an amalgam of rocket science, computer science, aerodynamics, and gravity propulsion, among other STEM areas - hovered above the train, following it like a dutiful hound on the hunt.

Of course, the Cicada was not actually following the train, but rather those within it: six ponies, a baby dragon, and two humanoids, all gathered around each other for a train ride that would last the rest of the day. Thorax opted to stay behind and watch the library on Twilight’s behalf. As disappointed as she was that her newest friend prefered to stay in Ponyville, she at least understood the need for there to be at least one resident librarian at any time. It was only good policy, after all.

Rose, who routinely changed bodies like a human changed socks, brought her newest iteration of “off road” chassis, which was her own term for a combat chassis that was tough as nails yet light on its feet. Dark grey metal composed the outer shell, gilded with intricate golden patterns around her joints, breasts, and forelimbs. Like one of her previous models, a brilliant blue light shone from a gem-like object in the middle of her chest, matching the eyes that rested in her frozen, emotionless face. A streak of blue regularly pulsed from what would be Rose’s collarbone, around each side of her neck, and into a point at the back of her head. The chassis’ overall frame was sleeker, with virtually no exposed mechanisms, and could even be confused for being more delicate and less imposing were it not for the fact that she was seven feet tall, yet moved with an eerie silence and grace.

Alex’s armor had not changed in appearance at all, save for slight physical alterations to the arms that allowed for internal magical mechanisms to radiate light, which did so several times already. For the third time, a ball sitting on the floor of the moving train shakily hovered into the air on its own before an inevitable bump in the train’s path sent it gliding forward and thumping against the door connecting the cars, eliciting a thoughtful hum from the nearby observers. None were louder in their thoughts than Twilight as she scrunched her muzzle.

“So what kind of thaumic feedback are you getting when you levitate something?” she asked after a moment’s thought.

Alex flexed the fingers in his raised arm as its glow dissipated. “I’m sorry, the what feedback?”

“Thaumic feedback,” Twilight repeated. “The magical feedback you get from casting a spell. How does it feel to you?”

“Uhhh…” Alex blinked before closing his hand and shooting a look over to Rose, who sat off to the side with her arms crossed. Both of them understood the workings of the system, which, in the case of levitation, only used magic to generate gravitons around an object. However, as a result: “It… can’t really provide feedback. The whole system’s strictly one-sided…”

“Oh dear,” Rarity blurted from one of the nearest benches, placing a hoof over her chest. “I’m not an expert in magical affairs by any means, but even I know the importance of thaumic feedback. It’s fundamental! I don’t know how I’d be able to levitate anything without it! I daresay it would be like trying to walk with legs I couldn’t feel.”

“Rarity’s right,” said Twilight, picking up the ball in her own lavender aura and returning it back to Alex’s hand. “Thaumic feedback is a crucial part of any spell. Without it, we don’t have any means of regulating the flow of our magic.” She shot him a smirk. “I think we just found your problem.”

“Christ…” Alex sighed before plunking himself down next to Rose. “I’ll be honest with you; I really hoped we had it this time. If your horn provides you some kind of feedback, that means we’ve gotta go straight back to the drawing board. And this problem just became a lot more complicated… I mean, feedback with electrical or software systems is one thing, but implementing a feedback system with energy unbound from the Higgs field sounds like a headache and a half.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, darling,” Rarity smiled. “It may not have been what you were aiming for, but you still created something quite impressive! I’m not quite sure what it could be used for, but I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

“Two readily available applications would be for elevators that forgo the use of moving parts through the application of remotely directed gravitational fields, and the generation of artificial gravity in space-faring vehicles without the application of rotary components and centripetal force.” Rose turned her head squarely on Alex, who was already eyeing her with a measure of astonishment. “Just a couple of ideas.”

“Son of a bitch, those are actually damn good ideas,” said Alex. “If we set up an array of these things then… yeah… yeah those are more than possible.”

Rarity smiled. “I have no idea what either of you two just said, but see? I told you you’d come up with something.”

“Gravity lifts and artificial gravity…” Twilight breathed. “That’s stuff straight out of science fiction.”

“I thought we already established that that’s the kind of stuff that they do?” said Dash. “You know? Doing the impossible?”

“Eh, not really,” replied Alex, interlocking his fingers. “The more you learn, research, and engineer, the more you realize that nothing’s impossible. Hell, the stuff humans did even five years ago would have been thought impossible a hundred years before that, and downright unimaginable a thousand before that.” He paused. “Actually, it probably would’ve been considered witch-craft and I’d have been burned at the stake, but that’s beside the point. The point is: the longer you work in science and technology, the more you realize that there’s a solution to literally every problem, even if it’s weird, complicated, and the technology to do so might not even exist yet. It’s kinda funny, really. Stuff only becomes impossible if you believe it is from the get-go.

“I mean, a lot of people thought a computer could never become intelligence or sapient, and yet…” he motioned toward Rose. “To be fair, though, the people who thought that probably weren’t aware of the principle of the universality of computability. I am, so I never thought it was impossible to begin with.”

Applejack’s face contorted. “The universe of what now?” she interjected.

“The universality of computability,” Twilight repeated. “It’s a principle that states that if one type of computer can solve a problem, then another type of computer can solve the same problem; like intelligence.”

Applejack only appeared more confused. “But what other computer besides Rose is intelligent? Wasn’t she the first?”

Twilight and Alex smirked at each other for a brief moment before each looking at Applejack and simultaneously tapping the side of their head.

That evening, the train slowed to a crawl before stopping entirely, although no one could really tell if it was because it had reached its destination or the snow had gotten too deep for the train to safely plow through. Outside, a blizzard raged on, dramatically reducing visibility and putting the Cicada’s stabilizers to the test. If there was anything out there that wasn’t frozen wasteland, it certainly wasn’t obvious.

Twilight walked into the car with the rest of her friends, magicking closed the connecting door behind her. “The conductor says we’re at the empire. He also says he wants to get the train moving again before the snow buries the tracks. I guess this is our stop.”

“Well shit…” Alex muttered as he peered out a window. “I was hoping this storm would’ve let up by the time we got there… How’s the Cicada holding up?”

“The gyroscopes are getting a work out, but it’s fine for the time being,” Rose answered, slinging a large object over her shoulder that Twilight recognized as the deployable communication dish she originally saw on the balcony outside Alex’s room during the wedding. “Wind speeds are currently being measured at around fifty kilometers an hour with an alarming exponential increase. If the trend continues, they’ll reach fifty six kilometers per hour within twenty minutes with no guarantee of slowing down any time soon.”

“Geez, that’s insane!” Rainbow Dash blurted as she looked out of the same window as Alex. “Whoever’s in charge of the weather around here needs to be fired. This has gotten way out of hoof.”

“I’m not sure anypony is,” said Pinkie, face pressed against the glass in an attempt to see past the flurries, barely able to make out what seemed to be a passable train station.

“I’m not so sure coming here was such a good idea anymore…” Fluttershy muttered from the safety of the middle of the aisle.

“I know it’s not looking good, Fluttershy, but Twilight needs our help keeping the Empire safe,” Rarity reassured her by placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll make it through this. We always do. Besides, I brought plenty of scarves for all!”

“Uh, yeah, ‘bout that…” said Applejack, drawing the fashionista’s attention. AJ had wrapped herself in scarves dyed every color of the rainbow, each one attempting to cover one or more patches of thin fur that had yet to fully regrow since her surgery two weeks ago. One navy blue scarf had even been tied as a bonnet around her hat to keep it secured to her head. “Ya got any more of those scarves?”

Rarity’s eyes grew wide, both at the sudden realization that Applejack needed those scarves more than anypony else and at how utterly hideous she currently looked. “Oh. Oh dear…”

The blizzard whipped and howled around the group, cold biting at their eyes, ears, and nostrils. Leaving the comfort of the train proved to be one of the most unpleasant experiences they had ever felt, save for the two humanoids, one of whom felt comfortable in his temperature regulated metal shell, while the other only felt annoyed at having her effective vision reduced.

Above the wind, the only sounds the group could manage to hear was the humming and swishing propellers of the Cicada that floated just a few meters above them. Its searchlights made an attempt at revealing anything beyond the flurry of snow as it rocked back and forth, the result of the constant battle between the wind trying to blow it away and the aircraft’s gravity engines trying to keep it on course.

“Are we even goin’ in the right direction?” Applejack shouted over the wind.

“We should be!” Twilight answered back.

“For your sake, I hope you’re right,” commented Rose, who didn’t shout as much as she turned up her volume. A brief moment later, she called out again: “I see someone!”

The Cicada’s lights focused forward, highlighting an approaching figure: a white unicorn wearing a black mask and scarf. “Hey!” he called out. “Over here!”

“Shining Armor?” Twilight called, instantly recognizing the voice. She ran ahead to meet her brother, who magicked his mask over his horn and his scarf below his muzzle, exposing a relieved smile.

“Twily!” he cheered, throwing a hoof around Twilight, though almost as quickly pulled away, his face suddenly somber. “Come on, we’ve gotta move. There’s some things out here we really don’t want to run into after dark.”

“Care to elaborate on that?” asked Rose, not missing a beat.

“Let’s just say the empire’s not the only thing that’s returned,” he said, flicking his head to beckon the others to follow.

“And what, precisely, returned with it?” Rose pressed.

“We can’t exactly say for sure,” Shining answered between gusts of wind and snow. “Something keeps trying to get in. We think it’s the old unicorn king who originally cursed the place.”

“King Sombra?” Twilight blurted. “But Princess Celestia sent us to protect the Empire! If King Sombra can’t get in, then it must already be protected!”

“Everyone stop,” Rose commanded, holding up her left hand. Everyone did, including the Cicada, whose searchlights flicked around in an attempt to find something beyond the blizzard.

“What’s the matter?” Alex asked.

Rose didn’t answer, instead her head darted to the right of the group, synchronously with an airborne searchlight. Everyone followed the motion, though saw nothing through the snow. Through his visor, Alex noticed a flicker of something, though it was impossible for him to be sure what it was; if it was anything at all.

“We need to keep moving,” Shining Armor urged her. “We don’t have much further to go.”

“There’s something out there,” Rose announced, though privately detailed her thoughts into Alex’s ear: “Humanoid. Large. Moving too fast to confirm.”

Alex furrowed his brow. “Likelihood that it isn’t a unicorn?”

“Eighty three percent.” Several of the Cicada’s searchlights suddenly swiveled to the left. “Unknown entity presence confirmed. Can’t track, but it’s stalking us.”

“Look alive!” Alex declared. A light shone around his lower back, whereupon a Shock Rifle materialized from quantum storage. Above the group, a repetitive clunking could be heard as the Cicada loaded its rocket pods. “Whatever’s out there is stalking us.”

Everypony stood their ground, attempting to stare through the veil of snow. If something was out there, it was impossible to tell. Then the wind changed. It was subtle, at first. Only Rose noticed it through how the bulky Cicada had to readjust its gravity engines just to keep stable. Billions of calculations flashed through Rose’s processor, and thousands of possibilities were considered, ultimately leading her to a decision to simply turn the Cicada around and have it face the rear. Soon after, Rainbow Dash noticed the change. Where the wind was initially blowing perpendicular to the group, but now it was aimed slightly forward. Out of instinct, she steered her gaze backwards, only to be met with more opaque blizzard.

For just the time it took to bat an eye, the wind appeared to stop, suspending each snowflake in the air on an invisible string, before they all simultaneously rushed forward as the wind violently shifted.

Rose spun on her heel to face the rear of the group. “Go! Run!”

Before anypony could think, they acknowledged Rose’s command and bolted forward, following Shining Armor’s leading form as a howl that clearly wasn’t windy in origin bellowed from behind them. Alex joined Rose in facing the rear, Shock Rifle in hand and aimed into the blizzard, waiting for the opportunity to bring down whatever it was that decided it had enough balls to attack them. “Come on, come on!”

As if to respond to him, the veil of snow flashed open. An amorphous black mass of liquid shadow came rushing at them at blistering speeds. A curved crimson horn formed atop a pair of neon green eyes leaking violet fumes, each of which projected rage and bloodlust onto the human.

“Oh fuck!” Alex blurted as his nerve fled. His legs immediately began to backpedal as he fired off his Shock Rifle twice into towering form, each of which accomplishing nothing. As he began his full retreat, the Cicada reared its front end up as it flew backwards, allowing its underside plasma turret a full view of the attacker.

In a display of awesome firepower, the Cicada unloaded its sixteen rocket pods in a rapid-fire burst, whereupon it then fired off rockets as quickly as they could be loaded. At the same time, the plasma turret unleashed a torrent of lightning fast bolts of ionized gas.

Wherever a rocket would have found its mark, instead a hole opened through the “body” of the attacker, resulting in each explosive sailing cleanly through and blasting a small crater in the snow. The plasma onslaught told a different story, as the bolts landed faster than it could react against them, however, the effect appeared the same, and seemed to do little more than cause an annoyance.

In no time at all, a tendril formed out of the side of the shadow monster and lanced out, piercing the underside of the Cicada and coming out the other side, only to then disappear in a puff of black smoke. The damage, however, was real, as an explosion rang out from the aircraft and it began to spiral out of control. How the fuck?! Alex watched in horror as the flaming Cicada’s momentum sent it careening towards the fleeing ponies.

Without a single moment wasted, Rose sprinted into action, her legs moving her at inhuman speeds. Comms device secured to her back, it left her arms free to come up from behind and grab Rarity and Pinkie Pie from around their barrels and carry them off to the side, the latter making a high pitched “Wheeee!” as she was lifted to safety. A split second later, the Cicada crashed into the ground they would have been running on and erupted into massive fireball as the Tarydium fuel tank ruptured.

That shouldn’t be possible! Alex stumbled as he changed his direction in the snow to avoid the crash, bringing him just that much further behind the others. He stopped himself in his tracks, however, as shadow replaced blizzard. A massive black tempest cut off his path like a giant snake slithering around him. Spinning around, Alex found himself trapped: stranded on a island of snow and flames in a swirling ocean of black. Neon green eyes appeared beneath a crimson horn in the shadow before moving up to tower above the human, and the two properly met face to face for the first time.

Unbridled hatred flowed from the monster’s eyes as a growl echoed around Alex. “This time, you’re mine.”

“Come on! Everypony in!” Shining Armor shouted as they neared the barrier that covered the Crystal Empire. He beckoned each of the girls through, requiring himself to be the last.

Rose allowed herself to drop Pinkie Pie and Rarity upon reaching the barrier. When she did, she unslung the folded communications device from her shoulder and shoved it in Rarity’s direction, giving little more instruction than “Hold onto this for me.”

“Hey, where’s Alex?” Shining Armor asked.

“Still out there,” Rose answered as she ran back into the snow. “Come with me! Now!” The unicorn captain did not hesitate to follow.

Meanwhile, Alex leapt out of the way as a tendril impaled itself on the ground he was just standing on. With as much confidence as he had in his armor’s ability to neutralize magic, the Cicada was evidence that the creature currently assaulting him played by a different set of rules.

“Stand still!” the monster commanded as it made several more attempts at impalement.

Shit! Fuck! Alex thought as he practically stumbled out of the way of each strike. Were it not for the BioMech reacting automatically as it was, he might not have been so lucky. Every few seconds, he found window of opportunity to fire his Shock Rifle at the head of the monster, but each shot proved just as ineffective as the last as the beams only seemed to pass straight through.

The creature grew more and more furious with each failed attempt. Shadowy spear after impaling spear missed, some even inches away from their mark. When one attack only managed to graze past Alex’s arm, the creature bellowed a furious roar and swept a shadowy tendril beneath him, sending him flying onto his back. For a split moment, the wind was knocked out of Alex’s lungs, and he found himself unable to breathe. As he stared up, dozens of tendrils formed above him.

“This ends now, Xan!” it bellowed.

At this last word, Alex sucked in a breath. Across his brain, neural pathways suddenly exploded with activity, sending billions of signals through his armor’s exo-cortex. Processor clock cycles ramped up. Electrical impulses ebbed and flowed through neurons and transistors, obeying the commands of the connectome and algorithms; recursive, and adaptive, learning off of each other by design. Organic and artificial computers synchronized perfectly, as if a more experienced driver took the wheel. The pupil of his cybernetic eyes shrunk, and his irises blazed a brilliant emerald.

In an instant, core energy flowed through Alex’s arms and into his palms. As the tendrils came down, the BioMech practically flew out from underneath them. Alex slid through the snow just enough to escape harm, whereupon he used his momentum to flip himself back onto his feet and store his Shock Rifle.

The shadow roared in anger as it met eyes with Alex yet again, but beneath his helmet, the human’s face remained expressionless and focused.

More tendrils were launched, but none landed. Despite its bulkiness, the BioMech moved with an impossible grace that would make even the most practiced ballerina envious. Attempts to take advantage of Alex’s momentum were thwarted by a bending of physics as the graviton emitters in his palms shifted his weight just so, preventing even the forces being applied on his body from being predictable to the shadow. At the processor speed the BioMech was running at, they might as well have been moving in slow motion.

However, simply dodging would not be enough. This confrontation had to end somehow.

“Can you clear a path through that thing?” Rose asked Shining Armor as they ran towards the giant ring of swirling liquid shadow.

“I think so!” Shining shouted back.

“Good! Do it when you hear an explosion.” A Shock Rifle materialized along Rose’s back and she immediately equipped it. After fiddling with it for a brief moment, she said, “Stay here and wait for the signal.”

Shock Rifle in hand and running momentum undisturbed, Rose planted both of her feet together, bent her legs as far as they could, and launched herself skyward over the ring of shadow. Just past the peak of her jump, Rose aimed the Shock Rifle at what passed for the shadow creature’s head and fired. Instead of a bright purple streak of energy that normally appeared when firing the non-lethal weapon, a sphere of light formed as the weapon discharged all the energy in its shock-core.

The bright light drew the monster’s attention upward as Rose fell. Before even hitting the ground, she ejected the weapon’s spent core from its stock and inserted a fresh one. Landing on her feet, Rose effortlessly moved into a roll, stopping with one leg extended in front of her, her other knee on the ground, and the Shock Rifle pointed skyward. In the span of a heartbeat, the creature watched as the unstable ball of energy flew closer towards its nose, and a tendril came up to swat it away.

Rose waited until the ball was as close as it could possibly be, then pulled the trigger. The expected beam of light erupted from the weapon, impacting the previously fired sphere before the shadow creature could hit it, destabilizing the already unstable ball of energy. A microsingularity formed in an instant, warping the space immediately around before exploding with devastating force.

The armored individuals on the ground tanked the brunt of the shock wave, but the shadow creature fared far worse, as evidenced by its agonized howl and the annihilation of its apparent head. The rest of the ring of shadow around them calmed as the creature’s focus evaporated. Shining Armor wasted no time taking advantage of the situation and magically blasted a hole through the cloud of shadow.

“Let’s go!” Rose told Alex as she made for the opening.

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” said Alex as he bolted after her.

Rose stored her Shock Rifle and scooped up Shining Armor as she passed by, knocking his breath away. It took the unicorn a moment to orient himself from atop Rose’s shoulder, though when he did, he almost wished he hadn’t. An enraged yell sounded from the shadowy creature to their rear. His blood ran cold as he watched it give chase, giant makeshift claws tearing into the ground as it closed them gap between them.

“Ahh!” Shining screamed, instinctively lighting his horn and firing bolts of magic behind them to slow it down until… it disappeared — replaced by a clear, rosy sky. Rose dropped Shining Armor on his rear, but instead of snow, he felt grass. At last, he let himself breathe. King Sombra couldn’t enter the Crystal Empire. Not yet, anyway.

“There you are!” Twilight exclaimed, rushing over to hug her brother. “What happened? Are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine, Twily,” Shining replied, pushing himself to his hooves. “It was a little more excitement than I was expecting, though.”

“Jesus, what the fuck even was that?” Alex asked as his helmet folded open, bending himself over as he finally took in some fresh air.

“That was King Sombra,” Shining Armor answered, walking closer to the human.

“Sombra?” Alex blurted, giving Shining an incredulous look. “You mean the old king that was supposed to be a unicorn?”

“Yeah,” Shining Armor confirmed. “He’s been giving us a lot of trouble, but I’ve never seen him this…” He paused as he attempted to find the right word “...angry before. He really seemed to have it out for you, but I can’t imagine what he—argh!”

Without warning, Shining Armor yelped and his hooves shot up to his head. Everypony jumped at the outburst and stepped in his direction, though halted when the problem became apparent. Where there were none just a brief moment ago, black crystals began to grow around the upper half of Shining Armor’s horn.

“Shining, your horn!” Twilight gasped, instantly moving to take a closer look at it. “What happened out there? Did he do something to you? Are you okay?”

“No, he didn’t do anything to me out there…” Shining Armor grit his teeth as he attempted to push magic through his horn, though his horn’s aura failed to move up past the crystals. “...But I’m not sure I’m okay.”

“It’s just a single unicorn with a bad attitude, he said,” Rose mocked as she picked up the deployable comms device. Her words were sudden and loud enough that she caught everypony’s attention, although her own was focused squarely on Alex. “I’ll just put a bullet in him and that’ll be the end of it, he said.”

Alex sighed as he hung his head. “Okay, okay. So maybe I underestimated the situation.”

“That is an understatement,” Rose deadpanned as she slung the device over her shoulder. “A Cicada was destroyed, we’re trapped in foreign territory surrounded by a magical monster that can bypass our shields — and clearly hates you — and we’re so far away from the facility that we may not even be able to organize and send reinforcements, nevermind whatever interference there is from the barrier they’ve erected to keep Sombra out.”

She walked up to Alex and placed a hand on his shoulder, her tone becoming softer. “I know you wanted to get out of the lab, but perhaps we should have waited longer before doing something like this.”

“Yeah, probably…” Alex muttered before raising his head and looking to the side. A soft smile crossed his face. “Although the vistas almost seem worth it.”

Across a set of crystal arches lay a path that led across an expansive field of green. Beyond it shone a brilliant tower that sparkled in the sun’s setting beams, sending rays of dazzling light across the oddly shaped and colored buildings that rested beneath it. What impressed Alex more than the sight was the wonder of the logistics that would have been necessary to construct such a place, if its name was any indication. All this before a single question fluttered across his mind.

I wonder what exactly it’s made of?

Author's Notes:

SURPRISE! I'm not dead, and I'm still working on this!

All that said, I do apologize for the horrendously long wait. I switched to software engineering from my previous electrical engineering curriculum and holy hell it is a lot of work. Nevermind the projects, learning some of the math necessary for my classes is absurdly difficult and takes a lot of practice. Especially combinatorics...

I finished this chapter maybe a month and a half ago, but it's been stuck in editing limbo. To be quite frank, I detest the idea of simply not finishing this story, especially since it's everything from this point onward that I'm most excited about. Although keeping motivation for this when other things are vying for my attention can be tough. Here's hoping I can get the next out in at least a somewhat timely manner.