Great. I just love it when that thing starts up while I'm asleep.
The cyborg sat up and looked around. His vision was still blurry from whatever had happened. Even the lettering cluttering up his field of view wasn't quite as crisp as it should have been.
Where am I?
{LOCATION UNKNOWN
Oh shut up...
As his vision slowly cleared, he looked around again to try to get his bearings. He was in a bed in a simple room. The walls around him consisted entirely of curtains, and he could hear some activity beyond them. Through a gap in the curtains, he saw a door, although he couldn't tell where it led. Hearing a beeping behind him, he stretched his neck around to see some monitoring equipment.
Well, that at least explains where I am. But why am I in a medical facility?
{DATA UNAVAILABLE
He rolled his eyes.
The curtains parted, and a creature walked in with a clipboard. The creature was some sort of quadruped with blue fur and a green mane. How the hair formed such colors in the first place, he didn't feel like trying to guess at the moment.
{NAME UNKNOWN {SPECIES UNKNOWN {AG...
He turned off the facial recognition scanner. Fat lot of good it would do anyway on what was clearly an uncharted world.
"Oh, hello there. Good to see you're awake. My name is Nurse Tenderheart." She set a pen to the clipboard. "So, how are you doing this morning?"
Might as well answer honestly.
"A bit disoriented, and I don't quite remember last night. How are you?"
She made a few notes. "I'm doing well enough." She looked up from her notes. "You were brought in here unconscious, but we still don't know why."
She flipped a page on her clipboard and looked at him. "The kinds of things that can knock a pony unconscious usually involve brain damage, so I have to ask, do you remember anything about yourself? Your name perhaps? Where you came from?"
His mind was still foggy, but the question of where he came from stirred a memory. It was not much of one, though. It was just a word that repeated in his head...
The nurse made a note on her clipboard. "Shadowpiercer... Interesting name."
...a word that, until that moment, he did not realize he had said out loud.
He was about to specify that that wasn't actually his name, but decided against it. He went by pseudonyms often enough anyway, and it wasn't every day that a locally believable one was dropped in his lap.
Are names like Tenderheart and Shadowpiercer normal around here?
At least his new name wasn't something stupid like "The Wizard" or "Mr. Machine." Those got old rather quickly.
"Uh... thanks."
"The good news for you is the tests we have so far show that you aren't too seriously injured. We'd like to run a couple others, but other than that, you should be able to go soon."
"Thanks. I was just wondering about that."
He decided to try standing up. As he picked himself up though, he found that he had a harder time balancing than he should have had. His feet were long and stretched out, and they automatically bent at an odd angle as if they were meant for a digitigrade stance instead of a plantigrade one.
He proceeded to collapse quite unceremoniously onto his face.
{IMPACT DETECTED
It was at this point that he noticed his hands, or rather his lack thereof.
"What happened to my hands?"
He looked down at his legs.
"What happened to my feet?"
He then made the mistake of looking at his reflection in a piece of equipment. His skin was covered with gray fur, and his physiology matched that of the nurse. He looked at what should have been his hand again. In its place was a hardened hoof.
This had better be dream or a simulation or something.
The way the nurse was fussing much more over his fall than over his change in physiology indicated that he must have been brought in here in that state. He made a note to go over every recording he had as soon as he got out.
At least his eyes were still green and his hair was still brown, although he never remembered seeing it in a style quite like this before. It went all the way down the back of his neck.
Looking around, he saw that the staff and the patients he could see all had the roughly same physiology as well. Had they been affected by what had happened to him, or were they the native species here?
This has to be a dream. That's it.
He slapped himself across the face, startling the nurse again.
No luck. It must be a simulation then.
He gave a quick command to his processor.
{SHUTTING DOWN
No change.
". . ."
There was no change at all.
He climbed up into all fours and examined himself more closely.
For some reason, he briefly considered the possibility that some form of shapeshifting was involved, but he dismissed the thought just as quickly. He was no expert on the topic of shapeshifting, but he knew he should have been incapable of it. He only knew of one species that was capable of such things, and except for a a couple old friends, most members of said species wanted him dead. Details like that made it rather hard to figure out how the process works. Even his friends weren't entirely sure beyond "it's just instinct."
He looked again in the impromptu mirror.
He was not unaccustomed to bizarre circumstances. The incident involving a talking asteroid came readily to mind. This, however, was far enough outside his usual realm of normalcy to slowly develop into an entirely new form of terror. Here he was, a quadrupedal, fur-covered, alien creature on an unknown world with no idea how he got there.
For reasons he himself didn't understand, he turned his processor and facial recognition system back on and looked at his reflection.
{SPECIES UNKNOWN
He turned it off and back on.
{SPECIES UNKNOWN
Third time's the harm, I guess.
{SPECIES UNKNOWN
Stepping closer, he tapped the surface, staring at his reflection.
"Where am I?"
He rotated to one side, still scrutinizing the image.
It was a bit later than he'd wished, but the cyborg now officially known as Shadowpiercer had finally gotten checked out and was able to explore the town.
Of course, considering his reaction to the first reflective surface he had seen, it had taken quite a bit of effort to convince the staff that he did not require mental treatment. Even then, at least two of the staff had followed him almost all the way out the door with a straitjacket hidden behind their backs.
Naturally, he made a point of checking his surroundings very carefully after that.
The town was a quaint place, somewhat resembling the rural communities on his people's homeworld. Unlike his native homeworld, the charming atmosphere appeared to be genuine rather than a facade, although he would have to explore a bit to find out for sure.
There was still the matter of becoming accustomed to walking in a quadrupedal stance. While the balancing part was easy, getting all his legs to work in sync was proving to be something of a challenge.
Ok. Front left leg, rear right leg, front right...
He tripped and fell again.
After several more minutes of blowing dirt out of his nostrils and feeling his face for potential bruises, he gave up and ran a motion capture algorithm on a couple passers-by. It wasn't perfect, but it at least got him up to speed enough that he wasn't constantly tripping over his own hooves.
Convinced that he could finally walk without assistance, he finally started exploring the town. The air there was quite refreshing, and walking around provided an opportunity to observe the townsfolk.
He mostly observed them from alleys, generally staying on the sidelines.
These stupid habits are just gonna make me look even more out of place.
He cautiously moved further out into the open and went back to observing the community, but he invariably found himself back in the shadows every few minutes. Forcing himself into the open was getting annoying.
It's an uncharted world. No one's trying to capture you or anything like that. So get a grip and stop acting like you're wanted for treason or something.
He shook his head. These internal dialogues were getting ridiculous.
The internal dialogues were at least good for keeping from worrying too much about getting home. Worrying would get him nowhere. If he wanted to make it, he would have to analyze the situation rationally.
First off, there was the question of what happened to his clothing and equipment. Presumably, he must have dropped them when he appeared, but finding out where he appeared would be a challenge. He doubted that the equipment would have just disappeared. After all, his internal circuitry was still intact. A quick systems check showed that everything inside still worked, although his antenna was useless at the moment. Evidently the rest of his equipment was either out of power or out of range.
Except for learning to walk, he had shut down his internal computer shortly after that systems check. Without any of his equipment and with no existing data on his surroundings, the data processor would be more of a hindrance than a help. Besides, there was no point in wasting the battery, especially since there was no apparent way to charge it. Thus, for all intents and purposes, he was a completely normal person... er... pony, as the locals called themselves.
He'd have to get used to that if he wanted to maintain any kind of cover.
There were other quirks to which he would have to adapt as well. For one thing, their society appeared to treat clothing as optional. While they did not appear to require it, the concept still made him uncomfortable.
Also, the town had three predominant races, although he was unsure whether or not others existed outside it. To the best he could tell, he was what they called an earth pony, as he lacked the distinguishing features of the other races.
The most pressing matter was the technology. Their society appeared quite low on that scale, although they clearly did well enough without it, and they had some isolated pieces that were surprisingly advanced.
For him though, the general level only meant traveling home, or even contacting home, would be difficult.
His files did contain some information about the Shadowpiercer project, but without a charger, he would run out of power long before he could finish sorting through it all. They at least confirmed that the project had sent him here, apparently as a result of some lab accident. All he had to do was figure out how to make it send him back.
His thoughts were promptly interrupted by a rapidly moving pink blur that came out of nowhere.
"Are you new here? I know everyone in town, but I've never seen you before. You must be new! I'm Pinkie Pie!"
She then pulled a wagon out of nowhere and promptly defied several laws of physics. When she was done with that, she returned to the wide-eyed pony who was now inexplicably covered in cake batter.
"Let me guess your name. I'm really good at it. Let's see, is it Light Side? Inclement Weather? Daryl?" She suddenly stopped as one of her legs began shaking uncontrollably. "Sorry, somepony's stuck in a tree again. Bye!"
With that, she disappeared, leaving a cloud of dust shaped roughly like her head.
What just happened?
He considered setting up some notes for analysis but shook his head. He needed to keep his priorities straight: basic necessities first, mysterious anomalies later. He needed a place to stay and some parts for building a charger, and for that, he needed a job. Best to start checking around if anyone needed work.
He picked up a discarded newspaper and started looking through the want ads. It was time to start step one of the journey home.
"It has awakened. Can you feel it? This energy in the air..." he breathed in, "breathtaking."
Two figures approached a cave. Both had dark brown manes, not that anyone would be able to tell from under their cloaks. The older of the two had a tan coat and a mark of two crossed swords in front of a circular shield. His brother was reddish-orange, and had a mark of several stars linked to each other by fine lines.
"But how? The ring isn't even completed yet."
Sierra Springs, the older of the two, chuckled. "It doesn't need to be complete. Somepony on the other side must have built one of their own and sent something through."
His brother, Summit Creek, stopped just short of entering the cave. "What is on the other side exactly? What do we want from it? I know you said it had power, and you said we could conquer anything we want with it, but you never said how."
Sierra Springs stopped and considered his brother's words. "I'm surprised you haven't guessed." His brother gave a look of confusion, so he continued, "you already know there are other worlds than these, countless others.
"Somewhere out there is a world where the rulers of Equestria lay defeated already. From there, we can learn what brought about their end.
"In another we may find tools or weapons or new forms of magic to assist us, and in another we may find creatures utterly incomprehensible to our kind.
"Our advantages will be limitless, and now," he grinned, "some creature from another world had contacted ours."
"What if these creatures aren't on our side?"
Sierra Springs snorted. "We'll find ones that are."
"No, no, I meant the ones that sent somepony here. And come to think of it, who did they send, and why did they send him?"
His brother nodded. "Odds are, they aren't on our side. They likely don't even know we exist. They probably just sent some harmless object just to see if they could. It's all irrelevant anyway.
"For now, let's finish the ring before the magic fades." He rubbed his hooves in anticipation. "That burst of energy will reduce the ring's charging time to a matter of hours. The magic from between the worlds will do the hardest part for us."
Summit Creek sighed at his brother's carelessness. Sure, the proof that the portal worked was a great source of confidence, but on the other hoof, interdimensional magic was fairly uncharted. It was a realm right adjacent to the chaos magic of Discord.
Now, they had plans to harness such unexplored magic.
He shook his head and forced his thoughts to return to the task at hand. The cave entrance was near.
The cave tunnel was long, but it was well lit thanks to some torches. It opened into a cavern with a ring of stones in the center and a pile of unused stones laying next to it.
The two began pulling out gems, iron tools, and books on the theory of the world's foundations. The construction was slow work, and rather tedious for the most part, but soon, an unmistakable blue glow appeared around the edges of the ring.
The ring was pulling in residual energy from the other worlds, and would soon be ready for its first test.
Shadowpiercer checked his list and walked towards Sugarcube Corner. Apparently, business had picked up enough for them to be looking for an assistant baker. It seemed simple enough, follow the recipe and nothing goes wrong. As he approached, he saw Pinkie Pie decorating cupcakes.
He watched as someone bumped into her, causing her to mess up the icing. She looked around, picked up the tray with her tongue, and ate it in its entirety. She promptly pulled an identical one out of her mane and began decorating it.
Shadowpiercer, upon realizing that he would be working with her, checked the next possibility on his list and promptly headed off in that direction.
Soon enough, he was kicking trees at an apple orchard. The owner, a mare appropriately named Applejack, showed him the proper technique and sent him towards a field that needed harvesting before tackling the field next to it herself.
He was starting to get the hang of it, or so he thought until he saw that Applejack had finished her section and was already starting on the one after that. Her brother, meanwhile, was matching her pace exactly.
At least it was an opportunity to practice walking, running, and other such skills.
While he was at it, he went ahead and turned his computer back on. One of its functions included a virtual model of his body. As long as he was moving around so much, he might as well get it calibrated. It might come in handy later.
The model had a few missing variables, of course. To fill the first of them, he hopped in place a couple times and checked his accelerometer readings.
He deleted those readings and tried again.
How did I gain that much weight?
He then bucked another tree and watched the apples fall.
Gravity's about average. So that must mean...
He walked over to an apple that had landed on the ground and kicked it into the bucket with one of his front legs.
He looked at his hoof.
Right, new body. Forgot about that.
He facehooved, then immediately winced.
Note to self: never do that again.
Just as he was about to start on the next tree, he heard screaming in the distance. Before he could turn to look, the source of the screaming came to him.
A wagon with three kids in it rocketed past, propelled by six soda bottles duct taped to the sides.
For the second time that day, Shadowpiercer was coated in sticky, food-based liquid.
He watched them plow into a haybale, emerge unscathed, and check each others legs. They then retrieved the wagon and duct taped even more bottles to the sides.
Shadowpiercer shook off and returned to his work, glad that they were at least not as strange as that first one he'd met.
Just before he could buck another tree, he was again covered in pressurized soda.
It was getting cold, and the air around the cave had a mist in it. It was thus a perfect night for testing a machine that, with any luck, would help the two brothers conquer Equestria.
Summit Creek pulled out a stone tablet with an array of holes drilled through it and placed it on a pedestal. He then began arranging various crystals in the holes.
"What should we look for first?"
Sierra Springs thought a moment. "Let's find a world where Nightmare Moon defeated the princesses." He grinned at the thought. "Yes, let's recruit the true Queen of the Night."
Summit Creek arranged the remaining crystals on the tablet and slid it into place. "It's ready."
The blue glow from the ring grew in brightness, and an undulating sphere appeared above the ring. The air grew cold as a strange wind from nowhere howled through the tunnel. The pulsating increased, and the air was soon charged with an electric crackle. With a hiss, the void between worlds was ripped open, and a dark figure appeared before them.
A dark... filly... appeared.
The two brothers stared in disbelief at the tiny cat-eyed creature before them. She stared back for a moment, then quickly turned around and ran back through the still-open portal.
"MOMMMMMMMMM..."
The brothers continued to stare until the portal collapsed.
"Well," Summit Creek finally said, "that was unexpected."
Shadowpiercer was certainly tired. Of course, it was a good type, the type you get from a good day's work, and it did produce a few bits he could use to find lodging.
Oh, right... lodging.
He looked around. Nothing would be open for checking in at this time. He walked around checking for places that he could at least hunker down for the night. Perhaps the forest would provide some protection. The place seemed harmless enough.
Upon seeing a tree with a particularly interesting set of branches, he got a stupidly amusing idea. It was also amusingly stupid, but then, it seemed he rarely got the chance to act on such ideas, and it would make a good field test for his virtual model anyway. He closed his eyes for a moment:
{SETMODE: PREDICTIVE {ALGORITHM: PATHFINDER
He opened his eyes and saw everything. He saw targets on various branches and trunks, he saw paths leading from one to the next, he saw the arcs and trails that compensated for gravity, the cones that compensated for error.
He smiled for a moment. There was always a certain beauty in the arcs and lines that no one else would ever see. Of course, in his mind, the simple fact that the entire design of the world could be summed up in a few equations was beautiful in and of itself.
He galloped up to the first tree on the left and took a step up the side before kicking off towards the tree on the right. He slipped a little, but was just enough within the margin of error to catch a low branch. He climbed up onto it and jumped to a branch on the first tree. He then adjusted the calibration of his model and jumped up to a different set of limbs.
He continued this process a few more times before landing on the collection of branches he had seen.
The path turned out to be lot longer than he had initially calculated. There were too many slips and incorrect strikes, often leaving him on whatever branch he could catch to keep from falling. Evidently the strange body would take more getting used to than he had thought.
The final collection of branches was a nice spot really. They spread out just right to lay down on, and the view was quite pleasant.
Okay, maybe it was just a little hard and bumpy, but it was at least better than stowing away on a garbage barge. Pretty much anything was an improvement after that experience.
He blinked a moment. The memory, while not completely pleasant, was reassuring nonetheless.
With that, he smiled, shut down his processor, and laid down to rest.
The next day, he was gently awakened a bird poking at his head.
"AAAAGH!"
Fine, he was startled awake, but don't tell anyone.
"Hello? Who's there?"
Well, so much for no one else finding out.
He looked down and saw a pegasus looking back up at him.
"What are you doing up there?"
"Just enjoying the view of the town."
"From a tree?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"How did you get up there?"
He pointed with his hoof. "I jumped up to that branch, then to that one, and... I jumped back and forth a lot."
"How are you going to get down?"
That one had him stumped. He remembered the path he took last night, of course, but following it in reverse might be difficult. He tried turning his processor back on:
{BATTERY: 69%
He turned it back off and scolded himself for being a bit too careless using it yesterday. He looked around. Maybe there was an easier path, one he could find without using the algorithm. He looked down again and got an idea.
He jumped down into a lower branch.
This might work...
From there he jumped towards the other tree and kicked off the trunk back towards the first one.
So far so good...
He bounced off the first one towards the ground.
Uh-oh...
He tried to crumple into a roll to reduce the impact energy, but his momentum carried him a bit too far, landing him upside-down in a thorn bush.
Ouch...
The pegasus meeped at his less than graceful climb down.
Shadowpiercer, meanwhile, poked his head up out of the bush and looked around.
"Well, that was a thorny landing."
"Are you okay?"
"I think so." He extricated himself from the bush and stood up. "My name's Shadowpiercer, by the way. What's yours?"
"Fluttershy. I was just going to check on Applejack's animals.
"Oh, I was going that way too. She hired me to help harvesting."
"Oh... She did say there was a bigger crop than usual this year. ... Are you sure you're okay?"
They continued on to the farm. When they got there, they saw that Applejack had recruited some others from around the town as well. It looked like there was enough ponies now to harvest the whole place within a day.
The others certainly had unconventional ways of handling things. A couple were apparently telekinetic. That skill certainly must have made everyday tasks easier. A blue pegasus was flying around everywhere, and Fluttershy had apparently decided to stare at a tree.
He couldn't figure out whether it was stranger that she did that or that it actually worked.
"HIIIEEEEEE!!!!!"
Shadowpiercer's ears drooped. Slowly, he turned around. Sure enough, behind him stood Pinkie Pie.
"I never did get your name by the way. Were any of my guesses right?"
He looked back and forth between her and the others.
My boss... is friends... with a reality warper.
All things considered, she at least seemed friendly.
"Weeeeeell?" Pinkie asked, standing an inch from his nose.
Excessively friendly...
"Shadowpiercer," he finally replied, "the people here call me Shadowpiercer."
"Okie dokie loki!" She pronked off.
Shadowpiercer moved over to one of the trees that hadn't been harvested yet and set to work. He very deliberately chose the farthest section possible from the strange mare.
Shadowpiercer wasn't quite sure how they would handle "I'm from another planet," so he figured a cover story was in order.
Fortunately, he had overheard the names of some of the other cities while watching the locals. Unfortunately, he had no idea what any of them were like, so coming up with a decent cover story would be difficult. So, with nothing better to try, he gestured in a particular direction and hoped there was a city that way.
Twilight looked skeptical. "You're from the Everfree?"
Was that a city? No... right, that was the forest. What would be a good excuse to use for that?
"Well... that's where I was last. I travel a lot."
"Is that why you were sleeping in a tree?" Everyone looked at Fluttershy, then back at Shadowpiercer.
Rainbow Dash spoke first. "He did what?"
"When I met him, he was in a tree near my cottage. He said he liked the view of the town from there."
Twilight turned back to him. "So, traveling through the Everfree and spending the nights in trees. Sounds interesting enough. What brings you here, anyway?"
Perfect. What would sound believable after all that?
"I don't know. This place just seemed interesting."
I hope this works...
Everyone looked around at each other for a moment, then split off to go back to their various roles. However, as Big Mac and Shadowpiercer went back to the trees the others reconvened in a barn.
"Okay," Twilight asked, "anyone else think this guy seems suspicious?"
"Because he spent the night in a tree?"
"I was thinking more because he claims to be from the Everfree," Twilight clarified. "Ponies don't usually live there by choice."
"Careful," Applejack interjected, "remember what happened with Zecora?"
"Good point. Did he do anything else unusual?"
"Like watching all the townsponies from dark alleys and behind buildings and that sort of thing?"
Everypony turned towards Pinkie, who just kept talking, "just studying everypony while trying not to be noticed like some sort of spy or something."
There was silence in the barn for half a minute. Twilight broke it first.
"When did you see this?"
"While I was restocking my emergency rubber ball supplies around the town."
Twilight shook her head and groaned, figuring she should have expected an answer like that from Pinkie. "I don't know for sure, but coming from the Everfree, studying the citizens, being unnecessarily vague about every answer he gives; something's just not adding up."
"Come to think of it," Rainbow added, "did anypony else notice his mark? How does somepony get a target for a cutie mark anyway? Assassination?"
As Fluttershy whimpered, Twilight facehooved. "And assumptions like that are exactly what we were trying to avoid."
"So, what should we do?"
"Let's keep an eye on him. We'll see if he does anything else unusual."
A few days later, Shadowpiercer wandered around the town. Now that the harvest was over, the Apples didn't need a hired hand anymore. Thus, he was off looking for work again.
Most of the places he already checked required skills he didn't have, and some required skills he didn't know existed. The next place on the list ran delivery services around town.
Maybe it would at least be something that didn't require the constantly-used-for-everything magic. He was beginning to wonder if his experience was what it would be like for someone who never heard of electricity to move to his world.
An hour later, he was pulling a cart around the town, making deliveries for a private parcel company. It wasn't too bad, although he couldn't help the feeling that he was being watched. As he passed a bush with a pair of binoculars and a pink nose sticking out of it, he tried to...
Wait, what?
He turned, but didn't see anything. He shook his head.
Weird.
He continued on, but still occasionally felt the odd sensation again.
Just ignore it. You're being paranoid... I think.
He checked his map again, then continued on his route. He had to figure out more information about the town if he was going to be here. Perhaps he could check the local library after his shift ended.
As he traveled, he also made note of places where he might be able to pick up supplies with which he could rebuild some of his equipment. Not that he would be able to get back his plasma gun or any fancy stuff like that, but he could at least build a couple sensors. Anything that could be used to trace the spot where he first landed on this world would help.
As soon as his shift was over, he headed out in the direction of the library. He stopped along the way to pick up a saddlebag, as he was getting quite tired of carrying everything around in his mouth.
He remembered passing the library during his route and being rather amused at how it was decorated to resemble a tree.
Surprised as he was to find out that it was, in fact, a real hollowed-out live tree, he was even more surprised to be greeted by the creature at the door.
"Hey Twi, it's that weird guy you were talking about."
Twi? As in the one from the farm the other day?
"What do you mean...?" Twilight approached, then stopped upon seeing the subject of the dragon's introduction. "Oh."
While he was not amused at finding out that he was "that weird guy," Shadowpiercer couldn't quite resist making the situation a just bit more awkward.
"Please don't tell me I'm weird because of the whole living-in-a-tree thing, because by the looks of things..."
Twilight didn't let him finish. "Spike, would you go reshelve those books in the other room. I need to speak with this one."
Shadowpiercer did not like that tone of voice at all. As soon as Spike left, there was a glow around the room. Shadowpiercer noticed that it appeared to be coming from the unicorn's horn. Considering the things she had done with it the other day, he became nervous very quickly.
"So, to begin, who are you, and where are you really from?"
"I'm from Canterlot. Could you handle a quiz about the place, or do you want to tell the truth?"
Might as well tell the truth.
"Okay... The truth is... I don't know how I got here."
"Don't give me that."
"No, I'm serious. I know where I'm from, but not how I got here. I just... appeared here with no idea how or why. I remember what my life was like before coming here... well... mostly anyway, but I don't know why I'm here."
"And you didn't say that the first time because..."
"Someone would have asked what the place I came from is like, which would have been really hard to describe without looking like I'm some sort of invader or a threat or something."
If looks could kill, Shadowpiercer would probably have been riddled with rifle fire, strangled, and electrocuted at this point. The only question was the order in which these would have occurred. Judging by Twilight's eyes, electrocution seemed like a safe bet.
"We already thought that because of the way you were acting. Pinkie thought you were a spy, Rainbow thinks you're an assassin, I thought you were a changeling, and you don't even want to know what Fluttershy thinks." She paused a moment. "You're not a changeling, are you?" After a look of confusion from Shadowpiercer, she continued, "so what makes you think the truth is even more suspicious than that?"
He looked around nervously before asking, "can anyone else hear?"
"I soundproofed the room. After all, if you are a changeling or something, there's no point in the whole town panicking. Why?"
It was at this point that he noticed a variety of objects, most of which appeared decently heavy, levitating behind Twilight, all enveloped in the same glow as her horn. He did not want to find out what would happen if she decided he was a threat.
"Those things you described... well, some of them anyway..." he seemed to be searching the walls and ceiling for the right words, "are exactly what I was designed to be."
A cast iron skillet dropped to the ground with a clang, along with a half-dozen other assorted items.
While the look on Twilight's face said everything necessary, she said it out loud anyway:
"WHAT?!?!?"
She hastily picked the dropped items back up.
"Look, I escaped before they could do any field testing but, yes, I was designed to be a spy."
"How do I know for sure this is real?"
He sighed. To be honest there wasn't much he could do to prove anything...
Unless...
"Do you have a radio?"
Twilight couldn't see how it would help, but she figured she might as well see where this went. She turned the radio on right as a weird song describing outlandish events as if they were entirely normal came on. She had to get that thing fixed.
Shadowpiercer put a hoof on the station knob and turned it until there was nothing but static. He squinted at the channel setting and then closed his eyes as if trying to concentrate on a spell.
Wait, why would an earth pony be trying to use a spell?
A couple beeps played on the radio, and he looked up, apparently satisfied with whatever he'd done.
"Okay, it's ready," he said, "say something, anything you want."
"Like what?"
"Like what?"
Twilight turned to the radio, her eyes much wider than before.
Was that my voice?
As if to answer, the radio played the question again.
"Like what?"
Twilight stepped closer to the radio, looking back and forth between it and the stranger.
"Th-... that was me."
The radio repeated her exactly.
"Th-... that was me."
The self-proclaimed spy closed his eyes again for a moment, then opened them and turned off the radio.
"What was that?"
"A recording. I... I recorded what you just said... and then played it back over the radio. It was the only sure proof I could think of."
Twilight thought a moment. On the one hoof, this pony has just confessed to being a spy. On the other, he also just displayed a bizarre ability that no earth pony should have had. She couldn't let her curiosity get the best of her... again..., but they were trying to keep an eye on him.
"Okay, let's make a deal. I'm guessing you don't want anypony to know you're a spy, right?" As he nodded in agreement, she continued, "so, in exchange for that, you show me exactly how what you can do and how."
"As in, like a test subject?"
"Well," she looked away, "I wouldn't put it quite like that, but..."
No! No, no, no, no, no!!!!!
It was going to be just like growing up all over again. He was sure of it. He couldn't let anyone put him through that again.
No, calm down. The locals here aren't like that.
Besides, the alternative wasn't much better anyway. Evidently, he had already made himself suspicious enough just trying to... not be suspicious.
Some of the locals apparently suspected he was some monster of the forest while others were already guessing uncomfortably close to the truth already. Telling them they were right would not be particularly helpful.
The research consisted of nothing more than questions at the moment, but the sheer number of them was unbelievable. At the moment, she was going over her notes again to confirm everything.
"So, this same antenna is what you used on the radio here?"
"Pretty much."
"And it gets controlled by the processor..."
"Yes..."
"Which gets controlled by those electrodes in your head."
"Exactly."
Twilight looked through her notes a bit.
"And the process does only work that one way right? It can't be used to control you, can it?"
Shadowpiercer did not like where the answer to that question would lead, but since admitting he was designed for espionage seemed to result in gaining her trust, perhaps answering the question would help matters as well.
"Actually, it can."
Twilight looked up from her notes.
"What?"
"Those nodes don't just read what I see and hear, they can write information there too."
Shadowpiercer was suddenly a lot more uncomfortable.
"When it's active, I can see things that don't come from my eyes. I see extra information about what's in front of me. I've seen and heard things from cameras and microphones placed in other rooms. I've felt magnetic fields and radiation." He held out his hooves as if feeling something intangible.
"Normally I use it to my advantage, but yes, if someone breaks through the security settings I've got, they can implant false images and use them to manipulate me."
Twilight thought a moment about everything he had just told her. After about a minute of flipping back and forth through her notes, she looked up and asked, "so, in that case, how would you know for sure that if you're really here, or if you're really talking to me?"
Shadowpiercer didn't answer. He stared at her instead, tilting his head and swiveling it around as if trying to analyze her face from every side he could reach. After about a minute, he sat back down and mumbled something barely audible.
"Technically, I don't."
He looked back at her and continued, "I'm pretty sure you're real. There haven't been any glitches or mistakes yet. Those would be a dead giveaway if you weren't real, but technically, the lack of them can't prove anything. Of course, I have shut my processor down a few times, but that can be simulated too, especially by those who know me well enough to try something like a simulation in the first place."
He thought a moment. "I think you're real. I don't know how or why, but I'm fairly certain you're real."
Summit Creek shook his head. Disappointments, all of them. Too many powerful weapons were unusable because they were designed for claws, tentacles, and who knows what else. Too many potential allies either couldn't cope with the side effects of the portal or were too weak to be of any use.
Then, of course, there were the ones that were too strong. He lost count of how many he had to send back before they could kill him and his brother.
Perhaps, he should try a new approach. He needed something strong, but loyal. Besides that, he needed something that could use its own weapons so that compatibility wouldn't be an issue. Tough, loyal, well-armed — certainly there had to be something out there he could use.
Just as he was about to turn back to his house, an idea struck him. This might work. They didn't exist, of course, but then again, wasn't that the point of the ring? Instead of summoning things that might possibly exist in this world, could he summon something that couldn't possibly exist? He hurried back to the cave. There was work to do.
"So, if somepony does start controlling you, are there any warning signs we should look for?"
"If it's anything like what I described earlier, just look for any remarks that don't match reality. Basically if I start lying to myself."
This was going to get uncomfortable.
"There is another way to control me," he admitted. "I have certain... protocols... that I haven't been able to fully remove."
Upon noticing the look on Twilight's face, he felt it would be necessary to reassure her. To be honest, he needed to reassure himself as well.
"I promise, you won't see any of my direct control protocols. I don't think anyone around here even has the tech to run those anyway, besides me at least, and I'm certainly not going to use them myself.
"Besides, they're all encrypted. Even if someone does develop the tech, they'll have to break the code to use it."
Twilight, however, still looked worried.
"You do realize codes can be broken, right? Especially with the right spells to assist the process."
The comment about spells made Shadowpiercer particularly glad that there was no magic in his own world.
"Don't worry, not even my programmers could break the code I'm using. It's one I learned from an old friend. I mean, he's nuts, but most of the time, he knows what he's doing."
Twilight became even more worried.
Maybe I shouldn't have specified "most of the time."
At this point, he decided not to tell her about that one time someone did break his code. Besides the ever increasing likelihood that it would only make her even more anxious, the story was, quite frankly, embarrassing. He never did look at doorknobs the same way since.
Twilight spent about a minute flipping through her notes again. At the end, she looked up. "So, are there any warning signs for those?"
Shadowpiercer shook his head. "There are, but they're all different for each protocol, and so many of those are locked behind firewalls that I'm not even sure how many there are. On the off-chance it does happen, you'll know it when you see it."
He sighed, "I wish they weren't so deeply ingrained in my system. Then they could all be deleted."
He made a sweeping gesture with his hoof. "Clean slate, no control systems. I don't want to not be a cyborg; I grew up one, so removing everything now would be like cutting off an arm. Still, I don't like the thought that I was designed to be controlled like a puppet."
Twilight looked back at her notes. For once, she has not written down what he just said.
After a few minutes, Twilight said said something that was a relief to them both.
Well, that was exhausting. How many questions can one person have?
Shadowpiercer looked around for a shelter for the night. Once again, it had gotten late enough that checking into a hotel or finding an apartment was out of the question. As inviting as the tree on the edge of the forest was, he didn't want to waste processing power on running the pathfinder again to get up and down. Twilight had made him promise to show her whatever he could of his other abilities tomorrow, so he would need to conserve the battery as best as he could.
Besides, considering the exact promise she forced him to make, he would have to ensure that he had enough battery for everything as doing otherwise would provoke the wrath of the pink extradimensional anomaly.
"Foreeeeeeeevvvvvvvveeeeeerrrrr..."
He shuddered briefly.
He did not want to find a spot in the town, as his goal was to avoid suspicion. Besides, staying on a park bench would make him look homeless.
The fact that he technically was homeless was irrelevant.
He ended up going back to that stupid thorn bush at the base of the tree. There were enough of those scattered around that, with a little searching, he found an almost-complete ring of bushes. He jumped over the nearest bush and settled down in the clearing inside the ring.
Before he went to sleep, he wondered how much he should reveal during those research sessions. Part of him hoped that perhaps she might help him find a way back home. The other part worried that she might see him as a threat. After all, the only reason he has agreed to these was because everyone already did see him that way. Who's to say she wasn't simply looking for a weakness to exploit?
Then again, she was, in a way, already exploiting a weakness. He sighed.
Blackmail... I hate blackmail...
Dear Princess Celestia. I met a new pony the other day. His mannerisms were a bit suspicious at first, but none of us wanted to repeat the Zecora incident, so we watched him from a distance without telling anypony else about our suspicions. Upon finding out who he really was, I was finally able to blackmail him into...
Twilight crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash...
Shadowpiercer woke up the next morning and looked around, glad that the bushes provided some concealment. He peeked through the branches to be sure no one would see him emerge from his strange hiding spot and, when the coast seemed clear, jumped out and began walking to town.
As he was leaving the Everfree, he saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy talking to each other. Naturally, they saw him right as he was about to sneak back.
Dash spoke up first, "What are you doing in the Everfree?"
"Just enjoying a stroll. Have a good day." He trotted off and pretended he couldn't hear anything else from them.
Rainbow looked over to Fluttershy, "I'm beginning to think your idea about him was right."
"So, you don't think he's an assassin anymore?"
"Nah, I still think he is. He's got the mark for it. Besides, it's not like he can't be both. I'll find out."
"Oh, okay, but if he is one of those things, you're not gonna hurt him, are you?"
Rainbow smiled.
Same old Flutters.
"No, I won't. I'm just gonna talk."
For now...
"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!!!"
"AAAAAGH! CLOSE THE PORTAL! CLOSE THE PORTAL!..."
Shadowpiercer was about to reach Rough and Tumble's Delivery Service when, out of nowhere, his path was blocked by a blue pegasus.
"Yikes." He realized it was Rainbow Dash. "What are you doing here?"
"I was gonna ask you the same thing."
"Uhhhhh..."
"Who are you really, and what are you doing here?"
Not this again.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't give me that, of course you do. Now what's your game? What are you trying to pull?"
Here it goes...
"I'm a cyborg from another planet who doesn't know how he got here and just wants to get home. There, happy?"
She blinked a moment. "Fine, have it your way, but I'll find out what you're really up to soon enough." She gave an "I'm watching you" gesture and took off.
"Great..."
After the workday was over, Shadowpiercer was back at the library wearing a strange helmet covered in colored lights while answering complex math questions, rattling off whatever nonclassified data he had compiled, and running some of his background subroutines.
When that was over, they went back up to the main room to go outside where Twilight had apparently been planning to use tests for the motion prediction system.
However, before they could go outside, there was a knock at the door. Spike answered.
"Hey Twi, Fluttershy's at the door. She wants to know if you have a book on how to care for water moccasins."
"I think I have a book on reptile care somewhere around here." She turned back to Shadowpiercer. "Would you wait here a moment?" She then turned to go visit her friend.
Shadowpiercer, meanwhile, decided to have a bit of fun. He had his processor running most of the time he was there anyway, so he had several recordings of Twilight making her notes and asking questions. All it needed was a quick analysis, a bit of processing, and some voiceprint synthesis. Besides, she did say she wanted to see as many of his tricks as possible. He snuck over to the radio and turned up the volume.
Twilight was just finishing up visiting with Fluttershy and had just closed the door when she heard herself calling from the other room.
"Hey Spike, could you help me move these books?"
She ran to the other room to find Spike looking around confusedly. At the moment, his back was to her.
"Where are you?"
She and the radio answered at the same time, "I'm right here."
"Huh?" He looked around and, seeing her, he made his way over to her.
"Careful Spike," the radio warned, "I heard there might be changelings in town."
His eyes went wide. "What!?"
Twilight, the real one, frowned and walked over to the radio to turn it off. As she did, she heard muffled snickering from behind the door. "Alright, the joke's over, so come on out now."
Shadowpiercer emerged from his hiding spot trying not to laugh. "Sorry, it's... it's been a while since I got to pull a trick like that. Your faces were great by the way."
With that, he stopped trying not to laugh.
Twilight, meanwhile, gave a nonlethal but still annoyed glare, and Spike simply remained confused.
Twilight was standing at the end of a small clearing. Shadowpiercer stood on the opposite end next to a straw dummy.
Between them lay an assortment of stones.
Naturally Twilight had gathered as many notes as possible on the voice synthesizer, AI generator system, and other assorted processes used in that prank.
That said, hearing him use the radio to mimic some of her closest friends, while fascinating in theory, was slightly disturbing in practice. After all, he had just told her that he was not a changeling.
Spike had, on the other hand, had a ball giving him suggestions.
"Oh, uh... hello. I'm here to make the night last forever. If you don't mind that is..."
When she had finally gotten them back on course for the project, Shadowpiercer took them back to the tree so he could demonstrate the pathfinder.
On the way back was another interview regarding how the physics simulator and virtual model worked. He was quite thankful that she didn't ask about his mass.
The next tests were for his targeting system.
The target tracker was similar to the pathfinder, except that it tracked everything outside Shadowpiercer's body. While it was far more useful than the pathfinder, it cost more in battery usage.
Twilight's test of the targeting system started out simply enough, using her telekinesis to chuck rocks in his direction while he knocked them away to defend a dummy. When she realized that, given enough training, almost anypony could do that, she decided to make things harder.
Next thing Shadowpiercer knew, there were 18 projectiles in the air with 23 more being wound up. He didn't have enough time to block all of them, but he could at least slim down the field.
He started kicking rocks of his own into the air, using the targeting algorithm to calculate exactly when and how to kick them. Each of his rocks skipped off an incoming projectile, knocking it off course. What remained, he blocked with his hooves as before.
Just before Twilight could launch another volley, he skipped a stone off her front left hoof, startling her and throwing off her aim.
"So, is that part of what you were supposed to do?"
"Well... somewhat. It does come in handy from time to time. I think the target tracking was more of a test to see how well they could implement it. Perks of being an early prototype, I guess."
"So, that's everything?"
"Everything I can show off at least. Most of what I can potentially demonstrate is pretty dependent on my equipment, and I lost most of that when I got here."
Shadowpiercer shut down his computer, somewhat relieved that the tests were ending before it was completely drained. He was going to need to get a charger built soon.
"Well thanks for showing me how you work then," she said, "of course I still have questions about where you came from."
Of course she did...
It was early enough to actually find a place to stay this time. He found a small place with decent fees, enough for his job to easily cover them. It wasn't much, but for him, it would be plenty. He went back into town to pick up some supplies.
He had just finished his errands run when he saw a familiar figure flying a patrol along the edge of the Everfree. He smiled, glad that his apartment was in the opposite direction.
He made it back without any incidents and went to bed. He was certain it would be good to sleep in a bed again that night, but he couldn't get comfortable. He felt like he was sinking, as if he would wake up and have to crawl out of a hole. Besides that, the air was beginning to seem stagnant and stale.
Ugh... this wouldn't work at all.
Rainbow Dash was tired of patrolling the Everfree. The plan was simple: watch him enter the forest, follow him to his hiding spot, and find out what he was really up to. She briefly considered that he might have snuck past her, but she doubted it. She could see everything from up there. Now that it was dark, it was beginning to seem unlikely that she would find him.
She was trying to figure out what went wrong as she was flying back. That was when she noticed something odd down below.
She looked closer.
It was him.
Shadowpiercer heard a loud crash behind him and looked up to see Rainbow Dash glaring at him.
"What are you doing on somepony's roof?"
"Sleeping... well, I was at least. What are you doing on my roof?"
"Your roof?"
"Well, it's technically the landlord's, but I am the one paying rent on it."
"Wait. You live here?"
"That's normally why someone rents a place."
Rainbow Dash looked at the structure under her hooves, then back at the reclining pony.
"You actually have a roof."
"Yes..."
"And you're sleeping on top of it?"
"You sleep on top of clouds. What's the difference?"
Rainbow shook her head in frustration. "You're making even less sense than Pinkie Pie."
Shadowpiercer wasn't quite sure what to feel about being compared to that particular anomaly, but since Rainbow's frustration was becoming rather entertaining, he said the fifth thing that popped into his mind:
"Thank you."
And with that, a particularly frustrated assassin hunter flew off into the night sky.
Shadowpiercer spread the contents of his saddlebags across the table. There was plenty of material to work with: a radio, a couple blenders, an alarm clock, and a few other odds and ends. The bag on other side held a few screwdrivers, a soldering set, some pliers, and a couple bracelets designed to make it easier for earth ponies to manipulate very small objects.
The bracelets were simple enough, just a loop of metal with an arm on it. At the end of the arm was a spring clamp with a string, and the string had a strap that went around the upper leg so that flexing the leg would open and close the clamp.
Supposedly, it was better than trying to use tweezers for everything. That's what the ad said, at least.
He checked the clock on the wall. He'd have to save the tinkering for later. It was time to head to his shift.
Summit Creek flipped through the book before him, mumbling to himself the entire time.
"Integrating the vector fields of the magic flow should give..."
His stomach growled. He really needed to start paying better attention to the time of day. Evidently, he'd skipped lunch again.
He shook his head and scratched out a couple equations on the slate beside him, then compared the results to those in the book.
"Hmm... I'm going to need more zirconium."
He thought about sneaking into the town to see if he could buy some, but the odds that anypony would even know for sure what it was, much less have it, were slim at best.
He was halfway through rewriting the equations to find a substitute material, when a thought struck him.
He facehooved in embarrassment, then adjusted the portal and pulled out a supply crate full of the stuff. While he was at it, he picked up some other useful materials.
A bit of silver for conducting magic flow better, some emeralds for storing excess mana, the latest Setting Star album because why-in-Tartarus not?- all were imported from a realm much like his own. He should have thought of this idea ages ago.
He went back to his slate and scratched out a shopping list.
He then used the portal to pick up a sandwich.
Later that day, half the items on the table were in pieces, and Shadowpiercer himself was thoroughly confused. There were electronics in there, like he'd expected, but there was a number of enchanted crystals and stones wired into the circuitry as well.
Oh right, world of magic. I guess I should be more surprised that there are any electronics at all.
Evidently, he would have to do some research regarding this.
Sierra Springs stepped into the lab, catching a faint whiff of electrified ozone and... cheese.
As he approached, his brother was sitting in the ground with three calculators, a whiteboard, a chalkboard, and a small pile of papers.
"Oh, hi Sierra. Just finishing up these calculations. I think I'm onto something."
"Good to hear," he nodded, "but if the calculations aren't done yet, why do you have the portal open?"
"Oh that?" Summit Creek looked behind him at the glowing orb hovering above the ring. "I just got a bit hungry."
With that, he pulled a slice of pizza out of the portal. "Want some?"
Sierra Springs opened his mouth, but no sound came out. It took a few tries, but he finally found his voice again.
"You're using the portal to steal food?"
Summit Creek merely shrugged. "Might as well." He took a bite. "You really should try this, by the way. It's fresh from Manehatten."
"The other end of the portal is in Manehatten?!"
"Oh relax. It's not our Manehatten."
Sierra Springs looked on for a moment, then walked away shaking his head.
Shadowpiercer approached the library, only to see his self-appointed arch nemesis heading out with an adventure book.
She glared at him.
"You!"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm going to check out a book on appliance repair. What about you?"
"That's none of your business."
"I was just curious."
"What's going on out there?" Twilight approached, trying to figure out what exactly the source of the argument was.
"He keeps acting suspicious, and I've been trying to get to the bottom of it."
"It's old habits, okay." Shadowpiercer could see that he wouldn't get any relief at all until this was cleared up. "I know you think I'm an assassin. I'm not, but I was designed and trained to be a spy. Okay?"
"So you're what, a former spy or something?"
"I KNEW IT!!!" Pinkie appeared out of the bushes.
Shadowpiercer jumped straight up in the air and turned around.
He most certainly did not scream like a little filly in the process.
"How do you keep doing that?" He stared at the pink mare.
"Doing what?"
"Appearing behind things... and in things... and in things too small to fit into and teleporting at least twice and... and... how?!?"
Pinkie was about to answer when Twilight placed a hoof over the party planner's mouth. "Don't ask," she said with a face that looked like she was remembering something particularly unpleasant. "Trust me."
As Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement, Twilight continued, "so, what were you here for?"
"I needed a book on electronics repair, specifically how the circuitry interacts with enchanted crystals."
"I think I might have a book on that; I'll go check." She disappeared back into the tree.
"So," Rainbow asked, "designed?"
"It's a long story."
"Uh-huh..." She took off, still casting suspicious glances backwards. Pinkie, meanwhile, pronked off into the distance while Twilight came out with the book.
"Found it." She noticed he was still watching Pinkie. "I was serious. Don't question how or why she does what she does."
"B... ... ... but her head came out of a flower pot the other day."
"Her head came out of my mouth once. Seriously, you'll only hurt yourself trying to figure out how she works."
And with that, the librarian went back into her domain while the former spy stood still.
He remained frozen for at least a minute. By the time he could move or speak again, there was no one to answer.
While the components of the appliances were beginning to make a bit more sense, Shadowpiercer was starting to get distracted by the tool bracelets themselves. They could stand a few improvements.
No, focus. You're trying to build a generator.
Several minutes later, he had disassembled several more items and was sliding the tool holder on one of the bracelets in and out of a new hidden slot.
Okay, now that I've had my fun, I need to get back to making this thing work.
He flicked out the tool holder and used it to pick up the soldering iron. The iron flipped over in the loose attachment, nearly flicking hot solder into his face.
That was disappointing, especially since he did not want to resort to using his teeth again.
I should have fixed that part first.
He was about to try to fix that when another idea came to him.
What if I just stuck all the tools on it to begin with. There's plenty of room. Of course with the way it's shaped, the whole thing could rotate...
Soon enough, he was out shopping for army knives and cheap tools to take apart.
Sierra Springs made his way through the tunnel, trying to think of some new strategy to try, when he was stopped by a... thing. It was bipedal and metal and looked like nothing more than a skeleton of whatever creature it once was.
"Halt. Who goes there?" It pointed a strange black tube at him, and the tube looked like one of the weapons they had gotten earlier that they couldn't use. Before he could answer, his brother approached.
"Lower your weapon. This is your new commander." The bipedal skeleton lowered its weapon and saluted.
"What is this thing?" Sierra Springs was unsure whether to be impressed or worried by the strange turn of events.
"This," his brother replied, "is a machine... a thinking machine." He smiled as he continued. "It can operate its own weapons, its body is made of armor, and it is loyal to whoever it believes its commander is. Best of all," he rubbed his hooves together, "whoever was using these things has been making them by the hundreds. We can take as many as we need, and they wouldn't even notice."
Sierra Springs smiled. They would need a test target of course, something small and out of the way. "How many of those can you bring in for a test run?"
I've got to market this thing
It had been a few hours, and the bracelet now looked almost nothing like the old one. Instead of being a simple loop with a metal arm and a spring clamp on it, it was now two wide bands, one spinning on the outside of the other.
The outer band had a series of slots along the side facing downwards towards his hoof, and the outside of it was equipped with sliders and buttons. Pressing a button would launch a tool out of the slot, where the slider would lock it in place. It also locked the spin so that the tool would remain in one place. Pressing the slider down and pulling it back reset it.
Shadowpiercer may have spent a bit too much time flicking the tools in and out just for fun.
He also may have spent a bit too much time building another one to wear on his other hoof.
Fine. He wasted the whole afternoon on that stupid project.
Summit Creek stepped into the cave to find a rather unusual sight. Considering the things he had been pulling out of the portal, an out-of-towner tied to a stepladder caught him off guard by being almost sane.
"Who is she?"
His brother stood on the other side of the cave next to one of the battle machines. "She's just a visitor from Canterlot. A fabric seller, correct?" He turned to the red unicorn mare, who directed her response to Summit instead.
"My name is Red Shirt. I just came to fulfill Rarity's order, nothing else. I don't carry anything, I'm not particularly rich, there's no reason to hold me here."
Summit turned to his brother. "What are you doing with her?"
"I just needed a test subject to determine how effective these weapons are."
Summit stood blank for a moment, as the implications of Sierra's statement washed over him.
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. This wasn't what the system was meant for."
"It was meant to conquer a country. How did you expect to do that? A letter? Asking politely? This is warfare."
"This isn't warfare!" Summit Creek marched up to his brother's nose. "It's not a weapons test, this... this is outright murder.
"If you really want to test the weapons, why not just shoot a rock outside? Or a tree? There's plenty of those."
"The weapons run on a strange magic unlike anything I've seen before. I must know if they work as intended."
Summit Creek snorted. "If you do this, I'm blowing this whole thing open."
He was already turning to leave when his brother spoke calmly.
"Do that, and you implicate yourself."
Sierra Springs watched his brother freeze.
"You opened the portal, you found the weapons, you looked for the most effective answer. If you report anything, you report yourself far more than me. Besides," he lowered his voice, "you've seen too much already."
Summit Creek's ears drooped, and he collapsed to his knees. His brother nodded.
"Fire at will."
When Summit Creek could move again, he set the portal to an uninhabited world, and Sierra Springs tossed in Red Shirt's body. He then closed the portal and wandered out into the forest.
As he did, he considered his options.
Sierra Springs was right. As it stood, he was guilty of conspiracy to commit treason already.
Shadowpiercer had finished the morning shift and was wandering around the town when he saw some fillies running out of the forest. It looked like that crusader group that had soaked him with soda while trying to set a new land speed record.
Fortunately, Rainbow Dash saw them and swooped down to meet them. It seemed something out there had scared them pretty badly.
He knew he shouldn't let his curiosity get the better of him. After all, their rescuer still considered him suspicious. Besides, they spent about a quarter of the time complaining that they didn't get any "wilderness explorer" cutie marks.
He was about to leave when one of them mentioned how the creatures walked.
"They stood straight upright like a stick," Applebloom balanced on her hind legs to demonstrate, "and they carried these weird black things, and they wanted to know where we came from..."
Shadowpiercer was directly behind Rainbow Dash in a moment. "What?"
Rainbow Dash glared at him, "you just leave them alone..."
Shadowpiercer, meanwhile, ignored her, his attention completely on the three. "Where were they?" All three pointed into the forest.
Immediately, he ran off in that direction. He ran past the nearest tree, bounced off the next one and the one after it, and scrambled up onto the limb of the first. From there, he peered off into the forest.
"What are you doing up there?" Rainbow Dash was getting more than annoyed by now with his erratic behavior. She was about to fly up there herself when she saw his eyes grow wide. He jumped down, bounced off the second tree, and rolled across the ground, getting up as quickly as he could.
"Get those three to safety and grab everyone who can use a weapon, now!"
"What are you talking about now?"
"Combat machines," he yelled, "they discovered combat machines out there, and they're all heading this way."
"What did you do?"
"I gave your minions a test assignment." Sierra Springs quietly followed the mechanical soldiers through the forest. "All they have to do is capture that tiny town."
"That 'tiny town' has the element bearers. Not to mention it sits right next to a forest filled with some of the most dangerous creatures in the area. Did you think they wouldn't be prepared for threats?"
Sierra Springs only smiled. "It wouldn't be a proper test if it were against an old folks home now, would it? This is the perfect combination. It's small enough that we can keep news of the strike from spreading too quickly, but it's defended enough to be a decent test for these machines."
Summit Creek hated when his brother started acting like that. First the "weapons test" on an innocent bystander, now invading a town that was simultaneously full of bystanders and guarded by the element bearers.
More flaws came into his mind the more he considered the implications. "Doesn't this town have a direct link to the princesses? Regardless of whether this attack succeeds or fails, they'll find out, and we'll completely lose our element of surprise."
Sierra Springs smiled. "First off, once the army is complete, we won't even need the element of surprise. The number of machines we can pull from the ring is practically limitless anyway.
"Second, I already considered that. That's why I sent three groups. The first will disable the train to ensure that the townsfolk can't send messages by rail, and the second will capture the local librarian to prevent any direct messages to the princesses. The third will simply lock the place down and ensure nopony tries to escape by any other means."
As the machines approached the town, they expected a relatively docile population that, with the exception of a few troublemakers, would surrender. Instead, they marched directly into the troublemakers themselves.
"GET 'EM!"
A barrage of rocks flew towards the drones. It didn't damage them, really, although it did slow them down. If the townsfolk's plan worked, that was all that would be needed. The distraction would keep them busy, while some of the ponies better equipped for combat took them out.
Rainbow Dash was already filling this role via her own rather unique method... SMASH... commonly known as ramming.
She wasn't the only one on the offensive, of course. Rarity had dived into the middle of the group, displaying a surprising degree of skill in martial arts.
"And that's for scaring my sister, you ruffians!"
The combat drones suffered at least two decapitations due to her.
Applejack, meanwhile, had lassoed a drone and dragged it unceremoniously to its doom. She was already winding up for another while her brother bucked the body of the first through some of the others.
Pinkie had pulled out her cannon and was covering the drones with cake batter from the roof of a building. It was astonishingly effective.
Fluttershy was staring at a group of drones with a disappointed expression on her face. After a few minutes, the drones inexplicably dropped their weapons and ran off into the forest, screaming the whole way.
As for Shadowpiercer, his strategy consisted of sneaking through the bushes with his multitool bracelets and dismantling anything that got within pouncing range. He tried picking up a gun at one point, only to be reminded that he no longer had fingers.
It didn't take long before it was down to a science. Pop the neck joint and cut a couple wires, and the motor controller becomes worthless.
Unfortunately, there was one flaw in the town's plan, summed up by the drones' first words:
"Open fire!"
Soon, bolts of red plasma were flying through the air. Everypony quickly fell back behind whatever they could use for cover as the red bolts tore through wooden boards and left scorch marks on the stones. The drones, meanwhile, began reforming their group and marching towards the town again.
Some of the more combat-oriented ponies maintained their attacks as best as they could. Rainbow Dash, who had the advantage of height, had no problem doing so. Neither did Pinkie, who had somehow managed to switch rooftops. Shadowpiercer, who had seen enough similar designs to know what parts to strike, kept trying to pick them off. It was a lot harder with them shooting back. He turned on his processor and activated the targeting prediction system.
He unfortunately found out rather quickly that bushes do not work quite as well for concealment as he had hoped.
"There's another one in here!"
Fewmets.
The drone pointing its gun was at too far a range for him to attack directly, but it was too close to dodge even with his predictive algorithm running. There was the sharp crack of a plasma rifle, but he felt no blow on his body.
He looked up.
The drone had collapsed, its head replaced with a trail of smoke. For just a second, he was relieved.
That second was over far too quickly.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders, expert marksponies! YAYYYYY!"
By Grabthar's hammer, where had they come from?!?
The same three fillies that had run out of the forest earlier had now somehow managed to obtain one of the drone's weapons. Applebloom had the handle gripped firmly in her teeth, and she held the weapon at an angle. Sweetie Belle was looking through the weapon's sight and giving instructions to the other two. Scootaloo, meanwhile, sat on Applebloom's back gripping a stick that had been jammed through the weapon's trigger guard.
Shadowpiercer ran towards them. They were already drawing fire.
They're going to get themselves killed!
He began kicking rocks into the paths of the blaster bolts.
Okay. It's just like the demonstration with the dummy... except faster and with kids... and with deadly weapons. Great...
A couple bolts flew over his head.
"Sorry"
Perfect, they'll either get themselves killed, or they'll get everyone else killed. This day had started off so well too...
He began targeting the weapons themselves. If he could just knock them out of their hands...
There was a loud crash from the direction of the library. A second later, he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.
Twilight had been enjoying a book on quantum thaumetics, when she heard a knock at her door. She was expecting to see one of her friends. Instead, she opened the door to find several stick creatures holding strange black tubes.
"Don't move," one of them instructed. He then turned to the others. "Search the place."
Twilight did not like the way this was going at all, but the way they carried those tubes, she had to restrain herself. Who knows what those could do. It was then that she heard a commotion coming from the edge of town. She narrowed her eyes and lowered her horn at the nearest creature. "Alright, what's going on?"
None of them responded, but one of them did come in carrying Spike, who was naturally not amused at this. "I found this thing sleeping in the other room. What do I do with it?"
"Hey, who are you calling a thing?"
"Keep it here for now, and don't let either of them try anything." The creature tossed Spike at Twilight, who caught him in her magic.
"Hey," all the creatures pointed their weapons, "Don't do anything like that." She slowly put Spike down on her back.
She watched them carefully, especially as the scouts came back reporting that there was nopony else in the library. It seemed they were satisfied with that, as they completely stopped searching the place and focused instead entirely on their new prisoners. Naturally, they were watching her horn for any indication that she was trying a spell, but if she had something to distract them with...
"I have to use the restroom."
"It's a trick. Don't move."
"May I have a drink of water?"
"No."
There went those ideas.
There was one other possibility. She just had to wait for them to get careless. As soon as they would lower their weapons...
Come on, come on, any second now...
"Oh come on," her patience was wearing thin, "could you look at anything else for a moment?"
"Why would we do that?"
"Because that's a far more interesting thing to guard." She gestured out the window with her hoof.
Luckily, the guards were as stupid as she had hoped, and all looked out to find nothing of interest. Immediately she fired up a shield spell. It was only a small one, but that was the point. She widened it to fill the room within a spilt second, slamming the guards against the walls. She then disappeared in a flash of light.
Twilight reappeared at the scene of the commotion to see more of the strange metal creatures, many on the ground, and the rest firing their weapons at the townsfolk. She lowered her horn and called out to her friend on a nearby roof.
"Pinkie! 2-26 maneuver!"
Come on, quit moving around!
Shadowpiercer was running low on loose stones and on patience. He had managed to keep the trio safe for now, but for every drone he disarmed, an armed one would take its place. Besides that, they were constantly turning around to fire shots at him as well.
Unfortunately, he had been low on something else as well, something of which he'd completely forgotten to keep track.
{WARNING: {BATTERY LEVEL CRITICAL {SHUTTING DOWN
No!
And with that, his interface winked out.
He could no longer see the paths the bolts or the weapons would follow. Even is he could, without the targeting system controlling his legs, he couldn't kick accurately enough to ensure that they followed those paths anyway.
He tried kicking stones at the machines themselves, but they only bounced off their armor. He even managed a headshot, but it only served to distract the thing for a second.
They were lining up another shot. It was going to hit the crusaders, and he knew it. There were no other options.
He charged out and bucked the nearest one into the others.
The plan worked, but there was now an entirely different problem. He was out in the open, and his charge had gotten the attention of even more machines.
He grabbed one of the guns and extended a screwdriver on his bracelet, jamming the shaft into the trigger guard as he had seen the crusaders doing.
Why hadn't I thought of that before?
Unfortunately, the awkward weapon sights made aiming unnecessarily difficult. He aimed for the largest group of drones he could find and pulled the trigger as quickly as he could, hoping to achieve a shotgun-like effect against the machines.
Numerous bolts flew into the nearest cluster of drones. They were significantly more effective than the rocks, but as the drones spread out, they became harder to hit.
Suddenly, with a new noise, the air was filled with purple bolts that blew through the remaining machines. Shadowpiercer ducked down, only glancing up when the sound moved away.
He peeked up to see Pinkie Pie aiming Twilight like a machine gun and cranking her tail, while Twilight's horn fired the barrage of bolts.
Twilight was right; he really needed to not know how that mare worked.
After a few seconds, the firing stopped entirely.
It appeared the battle was now finally over.
Shadowpiercer got up and looked around. Everything in the immediate vicinity had burn marks or blast craters on it, and a number of walls had holes punched through them like cardboard. One roof had caught fire, and a team of pegasi were organizing a local rain shower to put it out.
To prevent further damage, Shadowpiercer ran over to the crusaders and took away their gun.
"Awww... can't we keep it?"
"No." He thought a moment, "not unless you can at least learn some basic safety with these things. Besides, I'm not the one to ask." He gestured towards the other ponies, who had come out to survey the damage.
Sweetie Belle sulked. "But we already know they'd say no."
Shadowpiercer shook his head and walked away towards the others. "Come on. I think they'll want to talk to you about this anyway." As he approached, they were already discussing the nature of the attack.
"Wait, they showed up at your house? Why would they do that?"
"I don't know, Rainbow, but once they got there, they seemed content with holding Spike and me hostage."
"They came out of the Everfree right there," Dash pointed in the general direction. "Scared the Crusaders half to death."
"We weren't scared... we were...uh... making a tactical retreat!"
"Scoot, you shouldn't have even been in the forest in the first place."
"Sorry Rainbow."
While the others were reprimanding the Crusaders, Shadowpiercer began sorting through the drone parts and examining what he could.
"So who sent you?"
"I don't think a severed head is gonna talk back." Twilight approached from behind.
"Right, right..." Shadowpiercer continued to look at the head, "but this doesn't make much sense. Why here? Why now? What would anyone have to gain by sending these things to a small town like this?"
"Sending? They didn't just come in their own?"
"No... here, look," Shadowpiercer flicked out his screwdriver and opened up the casing on top of the head. Inside was a mess of wires and boxes with colored pieces of plastic on them. "They couldn't have. Machines don't just attack. Someone has to command them to do so."
Twilight took a closer look. "Rainbow did say you called them combat machines. I guess you've seen these before?"
"Not these specifically," he answered. "These are more generalized than what's on my homeworld. Look at the limbs here... and the hands. These hold a gun just fine, but they'll also carry boxes. It's as if they were designed to replace existing soldiers."
"So, you're saying somepony built a mechanical army and then sent them here?"
"Pretty much, but whoever did it must have been bipedal. They went to a lot of effort just to make these things stand upright, when a quadrupedal or hexapedal stance would have been more stable. Are there any bipedal creatures here?"
Twilight shook her head. "Minotaurs, but they don't look quite like that, and I doubt they would do something like this."
He nodded. "Something else is off."
He paused a moment. "Who would go to the trouble to make these things and not include some flyers?" He pointed towards Rainbow, who was organizing the weather patrol to put out the rest of the fires that had started due to stray plasma bolts.
"Air superiority is key, and flyers are usually easier to make than walkers anyway, yet this invasion consisted of nothing but ground troops."
He shook his head and sighed, "none of this makes any sense."
Sierra Springs headed back to the cave. To his surprise, he found his brother already by the portal pulling out more machines and snacking on a sandwich.
"So," Summit Creek began, "when are we getting arrested?"
Sierra Springs rolled his eyes. "We aren't getting arrested. They don't even know who we are."
"But they will. You know there's going to be an investigation, and it's only a matter of time before they find this cave."
Sierra thought a moment. "There will be an investigation, but I doubt we'll need to worry. I still have some stones enchanted with concealment runes to put near the entrance, and I see you've already been strengthening our guards."
"I had to do something while I waited for you to get here. By the way, I've been doing some more portal searching, and I found some stuff that might prove useful."
He gestured to you a table covered with assorted doodads and gizmos.
At Sierra Springs' look of confusion, he walked over to a white box that had been set up on the end of the table.
As he approached, he stated, seemingly for no reason, "Hot coffee. Black." A glittering light appeared, and a ceramic mug materialized inside the box. He then pulled it out of the box and took a sip. "Want some?"
Naturally, Sierra Springs was unsure whether to be flabbergasted or annoyed. "What is that thing?"
"I'm not sure what to call it, but it makes whatever you ask for."
Sierra Springs blinked, then spoke slowly.
"So you have a machine that makes whatever you want from practically nothing, and you're using it as a coffeemaker?"
Summit Creek turned slightly pink. "Well... it also makes sandwiches..."
Sierra Springs facehooved and shook his head. "No... never mind, I have a new task for your portal searching. I listened in on the ponies investigating our machines, and they brought up an interesting idea."
He glanced at the portal before turning back to his brother. "What do you think you can find for aerial combat?"
Summit thought a moment. "I believe I saw some machines for that in the same world as those," he pointed to a guard, "but they're pretty big. We'd have to find a place to hide them."
Sierra nodded. There were plenty of hiding places around the forest. "Go ahead and do that then. I'm going back to the town to keep an eye on somepony."
Upon seeing Summit's raised eyebrow, he clarified, "I think I found the source of the breach from the other world. Gray skin, brown mane, cutie mark of an assassin. He recognized our minions."
The townsfolk had finally finished cleaning up the place, and things were, for the most part, returning to normal. As a result, Shadowpiercer was back to trying to build his charger.
He would have helped repair the train tracks; evidently those lunatics had decided to sabotage them as well, but there was already a full team working on it, and any more ponies would have just gotten in the way.
He was getting close to finishing the power converter, and besides, there was now a very good reason to get his systems back online. He had recorded the encounter with the machines. It wouldn't do much good for the others without a display, but it would at least allow him to analyze them himself.
Perhaps the next thing he should try to build should be a projector so others could see what he saw.
It took at least another hour, but he eventually had a power converter. It was simple enough really, magic would pulse back and forth around a loop of crystals on one end, and electricity would mirror that pattern on the other. All he had to do was wire it to a coil, and it would be ready.
As soon as he flicked the switch, the ring of crystals began to glow and pulsate.
That was it, really. There was no indication other than that that it was working.
Unfortunately, it would be several hours before he could try turning his system on again. Radiant charging may be convenient, but it's still painfully slow. With nothing else to try, he stuck the charger in his saddlebag and headed off to check the forest again. Maybe there was something he had missed.
Sierra Springs was tired of searching discreetly and not finding anything. He was just about to head back when he heard a growl.
"Arrrrgh!"
Curious. It didn't sound like a monster. It almost sounded like...
"Dead ends, dead ends, and yet more dead ends! Are there any tracks that lead somewhere useful?"
It was him.
Sierra peeked through the bushes at the strange being. It was clear that he was becoming frustrated with the fruitless search.
And Summit said picking a base here was a bad idea.
The gray pony finally gave up and started on his way back. Sierra Springs followed.
It was getting dark, and finding further tracks was proving fruitless already anyway.
Clever of them to choose a path across stony ground.
As he got back, he found a number of pegasi and unicorns that he had never seen before, almost all of them in armor. Most of them were examining what was left of the machines, although a couple were snapping photos of a red unicorn that had been shot while trying to hide behind a cart full of fabric.
As he approached, some of the armored ones drew their weapons.
"Stand back and identify yourself. This is an official investigation."
"My name is Shadowpiercer, and I've been trying to figure out exactly where these things came from."
They looked at each other, then back at him as if trying to gauge whether or not he was telling the truth. Fortunately, Twilight showed up and verified that he was, in fact, on their side.
Beside her was a taller creature, white with... a horn and wings.
Okay, considering the biology of the locals, I really shouldn't be that surprised...
"This is Shadowpiercer, the one who warned us," she continued. She then turned to him while gesturing towards the taller figure, "This is my mentor, Princess Celestia."
Princess?
Shadowpiercer tried bowing, but he wasn't quite sure how it worked for quadrupeds. After a few attempts, he gave up.
"It is good to meet you. I do wish to apologize however for not knowing the correct protocol for greeting royalty."
Celestia smiled slightly. "No need to worry, my little pony. It's not like crime scenes are the place for that type of formality anyway, and besides, considering where Twilight says you're from, I'm not too surprised."
Shadowpiercer looked at Twilight. "There was only one thing on your end of the promise..."
Twilight nervously checked the area for signs of Pinkie Pie until she finally remembered that she had not, in fact, used the cupcake-in-the-eye oath.
Meanwhile, Celestia continued, "I came as soon as I got Twilight's letter. Normally, monster attacks on Ponyville aren't much of a concern, but since this one appeared to be coordinated, it may be considered an act of war."
Shadowpiercer nodded, then suddenly looked up upon realizing exactly what she had just said. "Wait... not much of a concern?"
This time, Twilight spoke up, "we get those a lot, so it's more of a pest control problem really."
Naturally, he wasn't sure what to make of that information. "Ooo...kay. So, is there anything I can do to help?"
"I was told you had seen these before. Any information you could give would be helpful."
He began recounting what he knew while an investigator took notes. While he was explaining, he pointed out the various parts of the machines and how they worked.
While he was at it, he decided to pick up an arm to show them a closer view of how the hands worked. Unfortunately, instead of extending the grabber claw from his bracelet, he accidentally extended the knife.
The guards' reflexes were most impressive.
THUD
"Please get off him. I'm quite sure he's not a threat."
As Shadowpiercer was getting back up off the ground and brushing off the dirt, some of the contents of his saddlebags spilled out, including his new recharger.
He figured it would be best to apologize to the guards. "Sorry about that, I hit the wrong button. I knew I should have labeled these better."
As he retracted the knife, he suddenly noticed that everyone was now frozen in place, some staring at him, others staring at the recharger. "What's going..."
"EVERYPONY BACK! HE'S GOT A BOMB!"
There was a dull whack. Shadowpiercer didn't quite remember anything after that...
Shadowpiercer woke up in a dim stone room. He got up and looked around.
My head hurts.
Feeling the spot where it hurt, he noticed a rather large welt.
Oh... right.
For the moment, he was relieved that they did not use their swords.
Looking out the bars, he saw that he was the only resident in the cell block. Evidently, they either didn't encounter too many threats that would justify incarceration, or they didn't keep prisoners around too long. He was hoping quite desperately for the former.
After a few minutes, a guard came in, saw that he was awake, and left. A couple minutes after that, several guards came in and opened his cell. They escorted him to a room with a table in the center, to which they cuffed his forelegs.
Great. Another standard issue interrogation.
Shadowpiercer made note of his surroundings: bright lights, bolted furniture, air just warm and humid enough to make someone uncomfortable without their knowing exactly why they were uncomfortable, and of course, the one-way mirror in one wall.
Why do they even use those? It's obvious that someone's behind it.
He waved at the mirror.
That's right, I know you're there.
It was a while before someone came in. The one who did was an older fellow with hard eyes and an impassive gaze. The guy was evidently accustomed to dealing with the worst types around; it was visible in his face.
Definitely ex-military. Probably seen some stuff too.
"Let's start this off simple. What is your name."
"Shadowpiercer."
"Where are you from?"
"Ponyville, and before that, another planet... and before you ask, no, I'm not joking."
The officer scrutinized his face, as if trying to determine for himself whether or not Shadowpiercer was joking. Finally, he made his notes, apparently deciding it wasn't worth arguing, and continued.
"So, I suppose you know why you're here today?" His glare would have frozen someone's blood if they hadn't turned up the heat in the room already.
Stupid "sit and sweat" tactics.
"Well, my battery charger got mistaken for an explosive device, and then I got knocked out."
Whether the detective was expecting an answer like this or not, he gave no indication. Instead he explained his own answer for the question.
"The device you had was not mistaken for a bomb. It was a bomb, specifically a class B magical burst resonator. Now why would someone be carrying an anti-magic weapon near the princess and her protégé?"
Shadowpiercer paused a moment. This was new information, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Because, I needed to recharge my batteries, they happened to be nearby, and I had no idea that the charger could be used as a bomb."
Shadowpiercer figured that repeating that he had no idea it was a bomb wouldn't convince this guy, so he decided to ask a question of his own. "So, what exactly would have happened if it was one?"
The officer looked up from his notes. "Shouldn't you know?"
Shadowpiercer answered without any hesitation. "No."
The officer blinked. He had seen stubborn ones before, but this one was different. How could anypony have enough knowledge to make something that complex and not know that it was a bomb? Perhaps he just wanted confirmation that it would have worked. He decided to just tell him.
"An anti-magic bomb that size would have killed just about everypony within about 20 feet."
"WHAT?!?"
"Fortunately, it seems you forgot to wire in the trigger. Pretty sloppy, all things considered. I figured somepony with the cutie mark of an assassin would take better precautions than that. I'll give you some credit though. I've never seen one that compact before."
Shadowpiercer very deliberately decided to ignore the comment about his butt badge. He thought instead about this trigger he supposedly forgot. He wasn't sure how far he was allowed to go, but he had to ask.
"May I borrow a notepad for a second?"
The officer raised an eyebrow, but then he gestured towards the mirror. A younger officer came in with a second notepad and a pen. Shadowpiercer thanked them, then began drawing a diagram in it. He scratched it out a couple times and started over, but finally, he had a drawing that satisfied him. He scrutinized the diagram while mumbling to himself until finally, he slid the pad to the officer.
"This trigger wouldn't happen to be a short between these two components, would it?"
The officer looked over the drawing. He had sketched out a diagram of his bomb and was now asking how to complete it. Of course, from his tone, it seemed he already knew the answer.
"Yes, that's where it goes."
Shadowpiercer immediately pulled back the diagram and began writing out equations on it.
"So if that connects there, the feedback would cycle through here... this doesn't make much sense... no, wait... so that means the signal would........"
His eyes grew wide.
".....oh no...."
Shadowpiercer had finally gotten out, and it was a peaceful, sunny day in Ponyville. The air was clean, the birds were singing, his saddlebags were ticking...
Wait what?
He checked his saddlebags and pulled out his charger. At least, it had been his charger. Someone had shorted out the terminals between the tank circuit and the magic resonator loop. He broke the connection as quickly as he could and put it back. A few minutes later, he could hear it ticking again. He pulled it back out.
This time, it had a large display counting down. He bucked it as hard as he could into the forest and ran the other way.
What is happening?
As he got back to his apartment, he found another one right beside the front door. This one was next to a couple tanks of refined fuel, enough to take out a good chunk of the surrounding buildings. He separated the tanks and took the charger to the water fountain. If he could short out everything, it would never go off. He made it to the fountain, and was relieved upon throwing it in to see enough sparks and smoke to prove it would never work again.
As he turned around, he froze at the sight of the town hall. On its steps was another modified charger. This one was bolted down, and, like the last one, it also had two tanks. This time, however, they were labeled "DANGER CHLORINE". Sitting on either side of it were Twilight and Celestia, both tied up and gagged.
Before he could react to the bizarre image before him, something threw him into the wall behind them with enough force to leave an impact crater. It then threw him into the building across the street, then launched him through the statue on the fountain.
A bellowing voice reverberated from behind him.
"HOW DARE THOU TRY TO KILL MY SISTER!"
He looked behind him to see another winged unicorn descending, this one nearly black and with a face full of rage, as if her voice wasn't angry enough already.
"I'm not trying to kill anyone. These things keep appearing and I can't seem to get rid of them. Come on. We can at least get them untied."
With that he ran off towards them. Once he got there, he spun through the tools on his bracelet before finding the knife. He flicked it out.
What?!? That's not a knife!
What had flicked out of the slot was a heavy plasma rifle with an underslung neural stunner.
How something that large had fit in his tool bracelet was beyond him, but at the moment, he was more concerned with putting it back. Besides, Pinkie probably had something to do with it .
Instead of sliding back into the slot, the stunner fired, leveling a building across the street.
Ask four of them stared at the resulting damage for a full minute. It was at this point that Shadowpiercer snapped.
"Th... that doesn't even make any sense!"
The newcomer, however, adapted much more quickly to the absurdity of the situation.
"SO IF THOU ARE NOT TRYING TO KILL THEM, WHY DIDST THOU BRING A BOMB IN THEIR PRESENCE IN THE FIRST PLACE?"
"IT WAS NOT A BOMB! Making it into a bomb would have rendered it useless as a battery charger, and what I needed at the time was a battery charger."
He broke the gun mount off of his bracelet and began muttering to himself, "...pink reality warper, semi-regular monster attacks, a bomb in every household appliance... does anything on this stupid planet make sense?"
By this point, he had finally found his knife and was trying to cut through some of the cords.
Suddenly, he realized something. "Wait you said this was your sister?"
"VERILY"
"Then why aren't you doing anything to save her?"
The black one lifted an eyebrow at his question. Before she could speak, however, the bomb went off with a horrendous noise.
Shadowpiercer woke up in his cell lying on the stone floor beside his bed. Relieved that nothing he had just witnessed was real, he rolled over and tried to return to sleep.
The next day, Shadowpiercer met with his court-appointed lawyer, a green pegasus named Short Brief. He was a decent enough fellow, if a bit dull. He explained to Shadowpiercer that the trial would occur in Canterlot due to the high-profile nature of the crimes. This would give them a bit of time to prepare, as the train wasn't quite ready yet.
He was, of course, as surprised as the police that the bomb had been manufactured unintentionally.
"Based on everything you've said so far, I recommend trying to plea down to unlicensed possession of a class B magical explosive. It'll still land you in jail for a few years, but it's better than a death penalty for treason. It would probably get you out of the attempted murder charge too, although the prosecutor would probably try to add reckless endangerment to the charges if we do that."
All things considered, that was the best deal he'd heard yet. It was definitely better than what some of the patrolling guards offered.
Just like everyone else, of course, Short had a hard time believing his story. There had to be some way to verify it.
Then, Shadowpiercer remembered.
"What about Twilight?"
"The princess's protégé? What about her?"
"She found out about where I'm from, along with several other things, and she took detailed notes on all of it. If we could get a copy of her notes..."
"She might be considered a trustworthy expert witness." He thought a moment. "Of course, we would have to go through the courts to obtain such documents legally."
They continued discussing strategies for the rest of the allotted time.
Sierra Springs was disappointed that he could not learn more about this stranger from another world.
It was odd that he would switch from defending the town to trying to bomb the Princess, but assassins were an inscrutable lot. Perhaps he just didn't like harming fillies or something. It at least meant they were somewhat on the same side.
No matter, Sierra Springs had country to conquer. He, Summit, and their troops had been marching through the forests ever since the attempted assassination.
Above them floated their newest machines. The things were more alien than even the foot soldiers, with long forward-pointing legs connected to a flat disk-like body and a domed head. With a word from him, these machines would leap into the skies and strike everything from above. Nothing would stop him.
"All rise." Everyone rose. "Now hearing the State vs. Shadowpiercer. Her majesty, Princess Luna presiding."
Shadowpiercer was surprised to see the figure from his dream the other night taking position behind the bench. He hoped she would not speak in the same deafening voice as she had in that.
He leaned over and whispered to Short Brief.
"She's a judge?"
"The princesses sometimes judge high-profile criminal cases, especially crimes against the state. Normally Celestia would be doing it, but she's one of the witnesses."
Perfect. The avenger of blood is my judge.
Before the trial began, Luna summoned an aura that began at her horn and enveloped her entire body.
Short Brief leaned over and whispered to a thoroughly confused Shadowpiercer.
"Spell of Impartiality. It temporarily blocks personal feelings so that only the testimonies will affect her judgement."
Shadowpiercer nodded. He wasn't very much relieved, though. For all he knew, it was just a glowing cloud to provide an illusion of a spell with no net effect on the user.
The case started out as expected, with the prosecutors demanding that he get dragged off to Tartarus and the defense claiming the device in question was neither intended for use as a weapon nor known by the defendant to be one. The opening arguments were simple enough, although Shadowpiercer quickly grew tired of the prosecutor citing his crosshairs cutie mark as evidence that he was an assassin.
Witnesses were called, of course, to testify of his actions leading up to that point. Relieved as he was to hear them point out that he tried to save those around him from the machine attack, he did not like hearing what they initially thought he was.
Rainbow Dash smugly pointed out that she knew who he really was all the time, Pinkie went off on at least five tangents, and Rarity had apparently believed he was merely an out-of-towner with some rather odd mannerisms.
Shadowpiercer was not too surprised to hear Applejack claim that he "seemed a little shifty at first," although he was surprised by what Fluttershy thought he was.
I really wish I could unlearn that.
Finally, the two victims were called forward.
Twilight went first, describing her research into the nature of his identity. The princess considered pausing the trial for a couple days when the research notes were brought in as evidence. Nopony was entirely sure if that would have been enough time to review all of them, but Luna didn't want to postpone the trial for an entire month. Fortunately, she accepted a short summary instead.
The summary still took forever.
Naturally, the princesses wanted to see the radio trick when that was brought up. This worried Shadowpiercer. For one thing, he had never tested his battery after the incident, so he had no idea whether or not it had charged up enough to work. For another, even if it did work, it could just as easily be seen as confirmation that he was spying on them, which could potentially result in other charges being added.
He explained this to Brief, who in turn relayed the first problem to the judge. It was decided that the demonstration would have to proceed anyway, although he would be allowed to test it for himself first if he wished. He decided to test it in front of everyone to save time.
As they were bringing in the radio, several alarms began sounding.
"Attention everypony. Please remain calm and make your way towards the castle." The message repeated itself as everyone began moving that direction. Fortunately, the castle was nearby.
As they all stepped outside, Shadowpiercer could see that the sky had changed color and seemed closer, as if...
There was a flash of light off to one side, and some burning material sprayed out from the point as if it had hit a wall.
His guess was correct; they were under a shield.
He looked up to see something flying overhead. What passed for wings was a set of tapered beams parallel to the direction of its flight. The beams were connected by a wide bridge with a smaller bulge on the trailing edge in the center of the bridge. More pulses of light came from the wings, sending more flashes across the shield.
As bad as another invasion was, there was one thought that kept echoing through his mind.
This was my idea.
Someone somewhere had overheard him discussing the flaws in the last invasion, and they had added an air force to compensate.
Everyone was huddled in the center of the castle as the faint sound of impacts against the shield dome echoed in. Shadowpiercer had, of course, wanted to get a closer look at the new machines, but his escorts wouldn't even permit blinking without their permission.
Besides that, he was chained to a column.
Apparently, the castle's only internal passage to the dungeons was being renovated. This was quite likely the only time he would ever appreciate a lack of redundancy in design. Unfortunately, this appreciation was offset by his recognition of the lack of redundancy in another design...
"So, how long does the shield last?"
"Long enough."
"Long enough for what?"
The guards were getting annoyed. "Long enough to stop these things from getting in."
Shadowpiercer was, for the record, equally annoyed. "In other words, you're waiting for their batteries to run out, or for their fuel to run out... or until you can find a plan. I take it there's no protocol for enemies that can outfly everyone?"
The guards rolled their eyes. "We have protocols. The catapults are being prepared as we speak."
Shadowpiercer rolled his eyes.
"Please tell me that these catapults include ballistae and that they're loaded with anti-armor shaped explosive charges, because that's the only thing I can think of that will bring down those machines."
The guards scowled, although Shadowpiercer was certain he heard one of them behind him whispering about getting notes from some "Builders and Busters." He really hoped that that was an ordinance team.
Another voice came up behind him in rather short order.
"So, you do work with explosives then."
He turned around to see Twilight approaching. The guards were, of course, hesitant to allow her to approach the one who had supposedly tried to kill her, but she stopped at a range where the advantage belonged solely to her. As long as they were both unarmed, she could beat the snot out of Shadowpiercer with her magic, and they both knew it.
"I... may have been programmed to recognize weapons that would work against particular defenses... and I may have had to use it enough that figuring those things without my processor became instinctive."
She raised an eyebrow. "Spy thing?"
"Spy thing."
Thunder rolled overhead from a series of repeated impacts.
"How much longer will the shield last?"
Twilight didn't answer, but she was worried. She hid it, of course, but the look on her face was one he himself used countless times in his own realm. Some things, it seemed, were constant across universes.
The look was not troubling because she had doubts. The troubling matter was that she had none. He could see it in her eyes. She knew roughly how long the shield would last, and she knew what would happen if it fell.
There had to be a way to get out of the cuffs and sneak past these guards. Suspected criminal or not, Shadowpiercer was not inclined to sit back while everyone was at risk.
Yet, he couldn't help it. They were all armed, some with ranged weapons, and he wasn't. Besides, as long as the trial remained unresolved, he would have to be under their watch.
He fidgeted. The guards glared. This was not going well.
He looked out a window to see several large projectiles bounce off a flying machine. Looking out another one, he saw a machine get taken down by a concentrated burst of magic. At least something works.
A burst of magic...
An idea came to him. He turned to the guards. "Those burst resonators, what effect do they have exactly? At they concussive? Thermal? Electromagnetic? Can the area of effect be directed towards a specific target?"
The guards, of course, demanded that he remain silent and not bring up that topic again. Twilight, however, questioned why he would want to know these things.
"Because," he explained, "we may be able to make anti-armor artillery shells from whatever happens to be on hand."
Twilight had to process the idea. On the one hoof, somepony who stood accused of, among other things, building a bomb was suggesting doing so again. On the other hoof, he was at least suggesting using it against their enemies.
She wasn't exactly an expert on weapons, but the military officers had to be. She pulled a notebook out of her bags and tossed it to him.
"Wait here and draw up some diagrams. I need to get somepony."
A few minutes later, Twilight was back, along with a few unicorn soldiers.
They had all been sliding the notebook back and forth across the floor, making comments, adding details, and otherwise trying to improve the design.
"This might work," their highest ranking of them finally said. He gestured to the others. "Pick up the components and meet me at the roof. I don't care what you have to take apart, just do it."
The finished device was, without a doubt, ugly. Fortunately, its job was not to look nice. Unfortunately, they had no time to test it properly. They would have to skip straight to field testing instead.
The bomb was loaded into one of the ballistae and a string was tied between the frame of the ballista and a pin on the bomb.
Several aircraft were flying overhead, but they couldn't just shoot whichever one they wanted. The bomb, much heavier then the usual bolts and stones, would not fly nearly as far from the catapult. They would have to wait until the fighters came within range.
Shadowpiercer was getting agitated. He should have been relieved at having been able to at least help in some way, but he wasn't.
Perhaps it was the helplessness. After all, he was more accustomed to being in the fight than on the sidelines. Like it or not, it was the purpose for which he was designed, and he would much rather use his mods for good than not use them at all.
He looked up. Watching the battle didn't exactly help the feeling of helplessness, but there wasn't much else to do.
Flashes from the shield were becoming brighter, and cracks were appearing across it. There was no more time to wait for a closer shot. The soldiers swiveled the ballista around to an approaching group of fighters. A slight pause, and they adjusted their lead on the swarm. They pulled the trigger.
Shadowpiercer was still watching the fight when he heard an unexpected sound. Looking around, he saw a filly crying so softly that he was surprised to have heard anything at all.
"What's the matter?"
She looked up. "I can't find my mom."
He wasn't entirely sure what to do. The crowd was thick enough that a search through them would take forever. Besides that, he didn't have too many options regarding movement anyway.
Then again, perhaps there was something he could do. It wasn't much, and it certainly wasn't as reliable as he would have liked, but it was better than nothing. He just hoped he had enough battery...
He closed his eyes.
{BEGIN STARTUP PROCESS {INITIATE SCAN [======= 29% =======] {SCAN CANCELED BY USER {INITIATE SYSTEM CHECK {BATTERY: 37% {NO PERIPHERALS DETECTED {SETMODE: FACIAL RECOGNITION {ALGORITHM: PHENOTYPE RECOGNITION {SETGOAL: FAMILIAL RELATIONS
It works!
He scanned her face for the control sample, then began scanning everyone else in the room.
This wasn't working, but then, at this range, they would have found her themselves anyway. He began checking reflections from every object he could find. There would be distortions, of course, but those could be removed in editing.
He kept scanning the room until he saw two ponies reflected in a decorative sconce.
{PROBABLE RELATION: 73%
Normally, he would have looked for a higher confidence level, but there was something in their faces and behavior that his AI wasn't looking for. They were looking around, searching the place, asking ponies around them about something. They were also far more worried than those around them. It had to be them.
He turned to the guards. "This child is lost. Do you see that pillar? The second one off that way?" He pointed towards the column in question. "Her parents are near it. I can't guide her through the crowd. Could you?"
One of them, a unicorn with a firm telekinetic grip on his crossbow, glared at him.
"This had better not be a trick."
"It's not."
The guard clearly didn't believe a word he'd said.
"Look, I'm chained to a pillar, that guard also has a crossbow, those two have swords, and there are two plainclothes officers right there. Trust me, I can't escape. It's not a trick."
The guard simply maintained his glare in response.
"Please..."
The guard stared him down for a moment, then turned to the other one with a crossbow. "Keep a close eye on him."
He then walked over to the filly and began escorting her in the right direction. He only stopped as he passed a particular stallion and mare.
"You two really need to work on your disguises."
As the bomb left the catapult, the string pulled its safety pin free, starting a timer. It sailed into the path of the swarm before releasing a bright burst of magic, the appearance of which would later result in the weapon being nicknamed "the Party Sparkler."
It had to be the second least impressive explosion they had ever seen from an artillery shell.
The swarm dove, lining up a shot straight at them.
The shots never came. It wasn't that they were blocked by the shield. They were simply never fired in the first place.
The craft hit the shield themselves, broke into pieces, and slowly slid down the side.
It took a moment for the guards to register what had happened. As soon as it did register with them, they gave instructions to assemble more of these devices as soon as possible.
They had a weapon that worked.
Sierra Springs enjoyed watching cracks form in the dome. He did not enjoy watching his air force get shot down. A couple losses to the unicorn squadrons was not unexpected, but entire swarms dropping at once meant something was very wrong.
He checked his telescope. There were still several swarms remaining. He watched as one of the swarms began another strafing run on the castle. As it approached, someone on the roof fired something from a catapult. He couldn't see what it was exactly until reached the middle of the swarm and exploded.
A firecracker?
He watched as the swarm dropped into the dome.
An anti-magic bomb.
That didn't make much sense though. Those bombs were too dangerous to keep around, so nopony ever researched them. The last one he'd heard about was...
It couldn't be.
He checked the telescope again just as another firecracker went off.
Whose side was that pony on?
He turned to his brother. "We're switching to plan B."
His brother nodded and signaled the ground troops. It was time to breach the walls.
The guard returned to find his prisoner still chained to the column. He shouldn't have been surprised, as that was, after all, the point of the chains. Perhaps he was still surprised to find the filly's parents where he had predicted. He was at least glad that it wasn't a trick.
"How did you do that?"
The prisoner pointed to a wall sconce. "I saw their reflection. She looks just like them, and they looked like they were looking for someone."
The guard looked up at the sconce and saw a hundred distorted blobs. "You saw them in that?"
Shadowpiercer nodded. He'd explain if the guard wanted, but there would be no demonstrations. He was saving the rest of his battery for when the trial restarted.
The guards had shot down most of the aircraft, but the cracks in the shield were worsening from the impacts. The last swarms were gathering together and flying away, but the guards did not breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, they watched carefully to be certain it wasn't a trick.
There was no trick, but it wasn't a retreat either. The guards watched as the craft began to spiral, climbing higher and slowly moving towards the center while remaining out of reach of the catapults. At the center of the spiral, they dove straight down and immediately began firing. The guards fired as many bombs into the air as they could, but this time, the craft themselves were the weapons.
Everypony heard the collapse. The announcement came soon afterwards.
"We need to get everypony moved into the center of the castle. Please remain calm and follow our directions."
Shadowpiercer could hear the sound of fighting outside already. He recognized those footsteps. The mechanical army had returned.
Several guards ran past with crossbows while the ones assigned to Shadowpiercer began unchaining him to take him away to the next room. Most of the civilians had already been evacuated.
Before they could finish, the machines came in, firing their weapons before even entering the room. Everyone took cover behind the pillars, and those with crossbows began firing back.
Free from the pillar, Shadowpiercer couldn't remain out of the fight. It was time to utilize the purpose for which he was designed. Like it or not, he was programmed with subroutines for combat; even his mark confirmed it.
He scanned the memory files of everyone in the room as quickly as he could, sending a quick command to his processor.
{IDENTIFY AS TYPE: ALLY
He made sure to add the guards to that list, then turned to the mechanical soldiers.
{IDENTIFY AS TYPE: ENEMY
There were too many of them to take out the way he had in Ponyville. He had to break a promise.
Sorry, Twilight.
{ACTIVATE SUBROUTINE: AUTOPILOT {DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE? Y/N {Y {PASSWORD: {***************** {PASSWORD ACCEPTED {SETMODE: COMBAT {INITIATE? Y/N {Y
His vision was soon filled with symbols and graphs. They blocked his view so that he shouldn't have been able to fight at all.
He didn't fight. He rode along as his body moved of its own accord. All he could do was keep his mental finger on the override command, just in case his processor began targeting the wrong things.
"We can't just do nothing."
This time, Twilight was the one getting agitated by lack of involvement.
"Surely thy intentions are true, but we must take care. Their forces have already overcome Tia's shields, and the strain hath left her unconscious. We must remain as a last line to guard the ponies of the city."
"Uuugh. You're right."
As she turned away, she heard crashing and shouting guards from the other side of the door. She had to at least know what was going on. She looked around the room. There weren't to many hidden places, and sneaking off into a hallway would only invite suspicion... unless...
She began making her way towards the restroom.
As soon as Twilight was alone, she lit up her horn. In a flash, she was on the opposite side of the large doors that separated the citizens of the city from the battle.
The scene before her could best be described as chaos. The guards, having evidently run out of crossbow bolts, were using swords and shields. Many of them were holding the swords backwards by the blades, using the heavy pommels as war hammers. The machines countered with their guns, splintering shields and leaving scorch marks everywhere.
In the midst of the machines was a gray pony.
He was different from before. He seemed less like a pony and more like an animal. There was almost no regard for personal safety, and there was no regard at all for damage to his surroundings. His movements were unnatural, somehow random and calculated at the same time.
Then she saw his eyes. They were lifeless, devoid of feeling. They may not have gone glassy, as if he had died, but they still appeared empty, as if the soul behind them had left.
You'll know it when you see it.
She looked into his eyes again.
The warning signs.
He was one of the machines now.
Shadowpiercer watched himself pull wires and break joints on the machines. The process was certainly more efficient than chucking rocks like last time, but the burn marks on his skin were slowing him down. Besides that, he had no protocols for removing pain.
Another bolt forcibly removed his cutie mark, along with a good chunk of the flesh underneath. He collapsed.
Right in the crosshairs... Of course...
How to describe the control process? It certainly wasn't an out-of-body experience, as he was still seeing through his own eyes. If anything, it was more like a dream, the kind where one does things without any input from their own mind, as if the mind and body were two separate entities. He hated those dreams. Unlike the dreams, he had an off switch, so he could wake up as soon as he needed to.
Oh, how much he wanted to hit that switch now.
Purple bolts hit the machines beside him. Looking over, he saw that Twilight had once again joined the fray. Then he noticed something on the ground.
Yes!
He targeted the severed machine arm.
{OVERRIDE LEVEL 4 {IDENTIFY AS TYPE: WEAPON {END OVERRIDE
His processor crawled forward and picked up the wrist, still holding a gun. He then braced the weapon on the floor and began yanking the wrist back and forth. Red plasma joined the purple magic.
It was less precise, as he had no means of looking through the sights, but it helped, and his predictive algorithm provided at least some targeting. Soon most of the machines were on the ground.
Shadowpiercer looked around. Several guards were injured, and those who were uninjured were already treating them. He was about to exit combat mode, when he heard a clanking behind him.
A machine rose from the floor, damaged, but still functioning. Before it could do anything a crimson bolt blew its weapon arm off. Three more bolts followed, the first severing it's other arm, the second blowing a hole through its chest, and the last blowing its head off.
Shadowpiercer turned around to see the guard who had been keeping him chained to a pillar. The guard held a gun in his telekinesis, with the shaft of a broken arrow through the trigger guard. The guard then turned towards Shadowpiercer.
"You may have helped, but until the trial ends, you're still a prisoner. If you don't mind making this a bit easier for the rest of us..." He used the weapon to gesture to the pillar.
"O...okay... but there's.... there's something I need to do... first."
This is not good. Please stop pointing that weapon at me!
{WEAPON IDENTIFIED {TARGET IDENTITY CHANGE: HOSTILE {IDENTIFY AS TYPE: ENEMY {OVERRIDE LEVEL 1 {IDENTIFY AS TYPE: ALLY {OVERRIDE REJECTED
Twilight watched as the twitching pony threateningly dragged himself towards the guard, then backed down and slinked towards the column, only to turn back towards the guard again. He repeated this process several times, his eyes shifting constantly between alive and dead.
Shadowpiercer could already feel his circuits overheating. Then came the headaches. They were a kind that few could feel, the kind caused by a malfunctioning piece of equipment sending random signals directly into his brain.
{WARNING: MEMORY 100% {WARNING PROCESSOR 100%
His vision turned red, then green, then orange; constantly shifting randomly through the spectrum as meaningless words piled up on his display and strange sounds filled his ears. Finally, the colors stopped on a single hue, and all was silent.
YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM HAS ENCOUNTERED A FATAL ERROR AND NEEDS TO RESTART. PLEASE REMAIN PATIENT WHILE WE DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF YOUR PROBLEM...
He twitched a few times, clenched his teeth, and fainted.
Shadowpiercer woke up chained to a column and heavily bandaged.
"What happened?"
He rubbed his head and looked around.
"Oh..."
It was a few days before the trials began. During this time, he had been shifted over to the dungeons. While it was at least more comfortable, he really wished he could help fix up the place.
Much like Ponyville, the city had taken surprisingly little damage, with most of it caused by crashing aircraft rather than deliberate shots. Of course, the palace was quite thoroughly shot up. It would take forever to fix.
Evidently whoever did this had not put all their forces into breaching the castle itself. A number of burn marks and destroyed machines on the ground indicated that the castle had been surrounded as well to prevent escapes. Reports even came in of machine stragglers being found a few days later, still patrolling on badly drained power cells.
Casualties were thankfully few, with only one known civilian casualty, a red unicorn. Evidently, miss Shirt had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was found in the street near the castle, buried under rubble where a wall was hit by one of the flyers.
Even now, nopony knew who the attacker really was. The officers did find numerous tracks leading through the forest, only to reach dead ends where the attackers had deliberately wandered across stony ground.
When the mess had finally settled down somewhat, the trial resumed.
"Since it is clear that thou didst not intend treachery by your actions. We have determined that thou are not guilty of treason."
As Shadowpiercer sighed in relief, the princess continued her statement.
"However, thou hast been found guilty of unlicensed possession of magical explosives, reckless endangerment, and willing possession host for a malevolent entity."
Shadowpiercer winced at that last one. The malevolent entity was, after all, himself.
"The full sentence shall be applied for endangerment, and partial sentences shall be applied for what remains. Thy recklessness is a bane that must be tempered before it dooms thee and those around thee. Therefore, after the completion of thy sentence, thou shalt be assigned observers to ensure that thou dost not become a threat again."
The gavel struck. All that remained was the fulfillment of the sentence itself.
TERRORIST ALLOWED TO LIVE
In a stunning decision, Princess Luna declares Shadowpiercer, the stallion who tried to kill Princess Celestia, not guilty of treason. In so doing, she has ensured that this madpony remain alive, free to pose a danger to the colts and fillies of your communities...
Shadowpiercer crumpled up the newspaper and stepped into the iron wagon. As he looked out through the bars, he hoped that the other papers might have been a bit more accurate.
Free? Danger? Terrorist? Didn't they hear anything at that trial?
The wagon soon arrived at a concrete and stone facility outside the city.
"You wanted to see me sir?"
"Yes, please sit down."
Shadowpiercer sat down opposite the warden's desk.
"I've been going over your records. It looks like you've been making effort to qualify for time off due to good behavior."
Well, this is a good start. They're noticing.
"Don't get too excited, there is still the other side of the sentence, not to mention that incident a couple months ago with the noodles."
"Hey, I was framed for that one..." Shadowpiercer began to protest, but he stopped when the warden lifted up his hoof.
"I just wanted you to know, I'm considering approval."
"Oh... " he nodded slowly, "thank you sir."
It was another month later, but it was worth it. Well, mostly anyway. The ankle monitor was a bit uncomfortable, and Shadowpiercer was not a fan of being followed everywhere by plainclothes officers.
That said, the fresh air and sunlight were things he had sorely missed.
He couldn't go back to his old job or apartment anymore on the grounds that he was not yet allowed to leave Canterlot, so he got an apartment on the outskirts instead.
He went back to cart pulling, albeit this time with passengers instead of cargo. Seemed a shame that all the cargo jobs were taken by pegasi.
Passengers who saw the mark on his flank would suddenly become excessively polite and ask to be let off early. He'd oblige them, of course. No point in worrying them over nothing.
He did find that as long as no one saw the crosshairs that had regrown, they were at least a little more comfortable. He ended up adding a cloth to his saddle bags to cover the rest of his flank. It worked well enough.
Overall, things weren't so bad.
On a Monday, a few weeks into his new life, Shadowpiercer received a letter in the mail. There were no markings on it at all. Strangely enough, there was not even a stamp. Somepony had apparently slipped the letter into the box in person after the mail carrier had left. He took the letter inside and dusted it, finding no hoofprints.
He did, however, find traces of motor oil on the edges of the envelope.
Using the knife on his bracelet (how glad he was to get those back!) he sliced open the envelope. The letter inside was typed, not written.
I feel I must apologize for what had happened to you. I have reason to believe my experiments are what linked our worlds, and thus what brought you here. I found you outside my laboratory while my associate was away. You were alive, but unconscious, so I took you to the nearest town.
Unfortunately, I must confess that I am also behind the machine attacks on this country. I assure you, there will be no more. Do not try to find me, as my associate and I have taken measures to ensure that we can not be followed.
Perhaps I can do one last good before, I leave. I know you wanted to know how you got here. Enclosed is the location where you were first found.
Shadowpiercer pulled another piece of paper from the envelope. In it was a map of Ponyville, with various locations outside the village highlighted and labeled. One circle, about a half mile from Fluttershy's cottage, was simply labeled "You were found behind a tree here."
The last circle, on the farthest edge of the map and in the middle of the forest, was circled in a different color from the others. It was simply labeled "The Ring."
Shadowpiercer gingerly approached the stone ring in the ground. His handlers were jumpier than normal today, but considering what they were dealing with, they had every right to be.
He had, of course, reassured them that he wouldn't use the ring to escape or try to summon some new weapon. To be honest, he still considered it sheer grace that the rulers had spared him from a death penalty or life in prison already, and he was not about to try anything that might jeopardize his position.
The fact that he had permission to travel all the way out here at all was surprising enough, although his permission may have been related to the report that the guards expected him to write afterwards.
Upon finding the ring, he took measurements and compared them to his notes on the one back home. The ring here was damaged, evidently as a result of the conspirators' "measures." Shadowpiercer was quite glad he had his notes still. The damage was fairly easy to repair, although it took several hours, half of which were spent obtaining more permission just to do so.
If his calculations were correct, the new portal should have enough juice for a flash in a few days. For that one instant, there would be a link between this world and his own.
Unfortunately, the margin of error was sufficient that he couldn't exactly predict which day it would be. Besides, even if it did flash soon, there was no guarantee it would lead back to the research station. Besides that, his travel agreement did not permit him to stay particularly long anyway.
So, instead of sitting by the ring waiting to see if it would lead home, he did the next best thing he could think of. He placed a bright orange box in the center of the ring and weighted it to ensure it would fall through as soon as a portal opened.
He then turned to his handlers and left.
Across the top of the box, he had written in bold print:
"Torak Dal K'tar. 8864323 East Industry Lane South Orbital Ring, New Eta"
Within the box was a message:
I'm alive. Thought it would be nice to let you know. The shadowpiercer works, albeit not in the manner intended. Rather than across the galaxy, I appear to have traveled into another realm entirely. There is currently no reliable way back, although I have found remnants of another portal similar to our own.
This message is a test. If you receive it, please throw a return message into the shadowpiercer portal so I will know that there is a way to return.
The world here is inhabited and easy to survive, and the inhabitants are quite friendly. I'll be back as soon as I can be sure that the new portal is working and as soon as I get out of my current legal situation. Don't worry, it's not like last time.
Can't wait to see you all again. Tell Norra and the kids that I said hi.
Sincerely, Dak the Wizard Known in this realm as Shadowpiercer
Alarms sounded across the station. "Warning... Perimeter Beach... Warning..."
Rezeneb checked his weapons and approached the six reserve guards at the checkpoint.
"Alright, we've got at least two who sneaked in through the east corridor. The active guards are already at the entrances and checkpoints to prevent escape, so you are all going to the project labs.
"Andoth and Nareel," he pointed to two of the locals, "check Firestar."
The four-armed creatures saluted and headed off in the indicated direction as Rez continued.
"Keel and Novi," he pointed to the other two locals, "Torchwood. Torak and Norra," he pointed to the two Narrodaqaans on the team, "Shadowpiercer."
Everyone nodded and headed to their assigned posts. No one showed it, but they were quite concerned. Some of the most secret projects in existence were in this cave, and someone had just managed to sneak in, only setting off the alarm at the innermost checkpoint.
Some bats stirred as they all went past. Torak considered that one of them might have set it off, but dismissed the thought. The sensors were calibrated to prevent such mistakes.
He also considered the people from whom he defected, but he doubted that too. If they knew of this place, they would be holding some city for ransom with one of their superweapons rather than just sneaking around.
It amused him that the people most qualified for stealth had such an affinity towards more overt tactics.
As he and Norra entered the room and closed the door, they heard something move. They turned on the lights and looked around. As they did, a pair of long, furry, centipede-like creatures approached the circular portal in the floor.
Torak picked up his radio.
"We're in the portal room. Nothing in here but a couple cave frongs."
He looked to his wife. "Funny. I thought pest control got rid of those."
As a curt "Roger that" came in reply from the radio, the cave frongs looked up at the guards, then at each other, then at the guards again.
Their features then began to melt. Their legs pulled into their bodies while new limbs took their place. Their fur shed away, and gray scales grew in its place. Long snouts and slitted eyes and triangular ears replaced the small round earless heads that the creatures once had.
This time, Norra was on the radio.
"The two creatures are Narrodaqaan shapeshifters, repeat, the two..."
The two guards looked up in shock at the two miniature versions of themselves.
"LLARA! VALLIR! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING DOWN HERE?"
"Hi Mom, hi Dad!"
"We're gonna save Dak!"
And with that, the two intruders jumped into the mouth of a recently completed eldritch abomination.
Torak and Norra were already starting their own transformations. They chose forest dragons from the moons of the planet Taln, small enough to fit into the portal, but with wings large enough to lift the kids to safety. Their only chance was to catch them before they reached whatever was at the bottom, where all the test probes disappeared.
Rezeneb ran into the room to see the only two Narrodaqaans he ever trusted diving into the Shadowpiercer. The last words he could hear faded unnaturally rapidly:
"When we get back, you two are grounded until..."
Rez stared at that portal for a solid minute, unable to process what he had just seen.
Torak fell through space flapping downward as hard as he could. He could still see the eyeshine of his wife and kids. As they all got closer, however, his thoughts became clouded.
No, no, he needed to focus, but... on what again?
The kids, right. They were falling.
Where were they?
There was nothing out in the darkness. Perhaps he could shift into something bioluminescent. He concentrated, but couldn't feel any change.
He tried poking himself to see if his skin was still the same, but found only empty air. He strained as hard as he could to see, but in the darkness, there was no way he could find anything.
Why was he down here again?
There were four flashes of light around the city of Canterlot that night, each one depositing a barely conscious creature.
