Steamlord: The Ink Mechanic

Chapters

A message, sire
Through the sky
Mingling with the locals
Planning and resting
NEW VEAPON
A next generation
Sinking feeling
The town trauma
Gun training and algae growing
Black ink has memories
The little rabbit
Blue beetle
Bug versus boot
Special: Secret operation

A message, sire

The Crusader Knights had remained in front of Steamlord's ship, the gigantic monstrosity still parked in the front yard of the castle just like before. Several guards and other ponies of stature were outraged at this refusal to be heard, even causing one stallion to become so angry that he charged towards the three guards, a knife in hoof. The royal guards used to Steamlord's bodyguards, simply sighed in embarassment at the sight. It was a well known fact that the knights were frequently upgraded with minor tweaks, allowing them to become increasingly more reactive and deadly. Their loyalty to Steamlord remained absolute, even with their abilities far surpassing his. Their sleek appearance was nothing compared to the danger that their claymores posed, and this is what the attacking pony faced.

Teutonic, being the one to always intervene first, placed a foot right below the stallion's mass, causing him to trip forward clumbsily with a face full of surprise. The robot then grabbed the pony by the neck, threw him in the air, back-hit the pony with his hand, jettisoning said angered creature far away from the crowd; All this in a second. They had been upgraded from versions 9.1 to 10.0, and their claymores had become infused with a new alloy discovered in Equestria, allowing for more ample movement due to the metal's relative lightness.
After the scene, Teutonic repositioned himself in front of the ship's entrance as if nothing had happened.

"Come on! What's going on? I only need him to teach me how to make such sopisticated clockwork."

"This is outrageous! I am a noble! I shall not be treated like this by some common peasants!"
The bodyguards expelled steam in a manner similar to laughter at this remark.
"Are...Are they laughing?"

"Yes. They are." a guard interjected as he walked forward."Excuse me, but this is a very important manner to discuss with Steamlord. Celestia needs to see him at once.

There was a moment of silence as the three robots stared the guard down with their optics before taking their claymores out from their backs, spinning them, and slamming them hard into the ground. None could pass.

"What?! But this--"

An immense siren went blaring off from inside the ship, deafening everypony around who yelled in pain and protest. The three knights immediately plucked their weapons out from the ground and rushed inside. Before the ponies could follow, however, the entrance slammed shut, leaving everypony in the dark as to what was happening. It was at this moment that a certain yellow creature appeared behind everypony.

"What are you all doing in front of my house?"

Sunrise had arrived right behind everypony without making a sound, as surprising as that may seem judging by her height. She was about a few centimeters short of being the same size as Steamlord, and her "teck" had grown exponentially, reaching the base of her normal tail. Just like it, though, the teck swung around ever so gently. The little dragon had grown since the last year, and she had a rather feminine body structure not too dissimilar to humans, which has disturbed Steamlord who doesn't understand how a reptile can possess such an abnormal body structure. Even the more knowledgeable in the field of dragons hasn't understood what kind of species she was, nor how she had a body structure like this. Nothing has helped identify this "mutant" amongst draconic kind.
Needless to say, she was imposing enough to scare the ponies senseless.

"I...uhhh...Nothing. We were just...uhhh, waiting." a noble stuttered with a nervous smile.

"Really, now? And what do you want with my dad?"

"Your dad?!"

Sunrise rolled her eyes.

"Well, duh. Why do you think I asked why you were all in front of 'our house'." the dragon gestured to her body by pointing forward and back.

"Well..." there was an awkward silence until Sunrise caught on.

"Ewwwww. What's wrong with you ponies? That's nasty!"

"Well how were we supposed to know? We've never heard of you before.!"

"That's true. Ooops. I wasn't supposed to show myself to you. Crap. Oh well. What's done is done. Hm?"

The siren of the ship had been deactivated, and the door leading to the inside of the ship slid slowly open to reveal Steamlord in his typical attire of his dark, plaid pants; His black boots; His black coat and jacket similar to the boots, as well as his glove on the left hand and goggles to cover his eyes.

The knights followed as the man wiped himself clean of ash and gunk, each step producing a notable clanking sound. He had the same golden gauntlet the only covered the top surface of his left hand, although it seemed a bit more sophisticated.

"Hm? What do you all want?"

There was an immense brouhaha that erupted, annoying Steamlord to no end.

"QUIET! I have something important to do, and I need to do it now. Sunrise, can you escort atleast two of them at a time into the ship? Ask them to give their names and what they want, and Security System should note everything down for me.

"Okay!" the dragon shouted joyfully almost childly before doing as told.

"OH! One more thing. If they dare to touch anyhting, you have my permission to slice them." Steamlord pointed out.

The dragoness gave a bland face, soon followed by one of malice as she showed her very long claws and her sharp teeth. Once more, it has become apparent that the ponies had pretty much soiled themselves. They saw seas of yellow.

Entering the throne room with is bodyguards, the group found themselves immediately assaulted by four armored griffins with their claws open and ready to cut down anything in front of them. They were promptly sent flying across the throne room, almost breaking the throne itself.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Steamlord exclaimed, his rage consuming him.

"That was only a test to see if you were the real thing. More than once have we had to deal with a fake Steamlord. Most notably, minotaurs and their compatriots disguised as you and your bodyguards. Isn't it hot for them to be constantly in those armors?" a scrawny griffin asked.

This griffin wore a black vest, and nothing more. He was rather scrawny compared to the rest of the of his kind, and he seemed a bit too curious as well, but this is what set his well combed physique apart from the other griffins; His kinder nature allowed for better interactions with the ponies.

"And who are you?" Steamlord snapped.

"I would appreciate you answering my question."

"Yet common courtesy is to present one's self before asking questions." the man said, crossing his arms.

Celestia just sat at the base of her throne and watched the two argue.

"I am Djiarl, dignitary of the Griffin Empire."

"And I am Steamlord. There's no one in those armors."

"Then they are powered by magic?" Djiarl smiled nervously as if hoping for him to be right.

"To YOU it's magic."

Steamlord walked in front of the grffin with his bodyguards in tow. The three expelled a violent amount of steam once in proper range, causing a high-pitched yelp to come from Djiarl.

"What is it, Celestia? I'm in the middle of finalizing my project."

"I was just watching you, so far. The one you should get an answer from, is the dignitary your machines just scared." Celestia scolded.

"M-Machines?" the griffin stuttered.

"Tell me what exactly is wrong that someone would come to the princess to summon me."

"Well, my Empire is in the far north, next to your Equestria. We live high in the mountains, you see. Um, we've heard that you have experience with...m-machines and-Could you all stop looking at me like that? It's making me nervous."

"Stand down, knights. You've done good."

The machines obeyed, and the dignitary gave a sigh of relief as he wiped his forehead with a cloth coming from his jacket.

"Thank you. Now then, we heard that Steamlord was good with machines, but we didn't know what you looked like nor where you were. Now you understand why we haven't called you earlier."

"Right. What exactly do you mean, though, by machines?"

"They look like giant copper constructs made of clockwork that belches steam. We've tried to defeat them, but we haven't harmed their exoskeletons."

"That's normal. You attack metal with claws. Unless your claws are serrated, you're not likely to damaged such constructs. By the way, I thought that nobody in this world had this sort of technology. Atleast, not mech standards." Steamlord turned to face Celestia.

"We didn't know either. It is probably because of your appearance that someone else came out to prove that they make better constructs than you."

"Yeah. Sure. Well, give me a map of the coordinates, and I'll be on my way. I'll get to research a new civilization and its culture, as well as this technology."

"You will? Oh! That's wonderful! I'll send a message to the chiefs to tell them of the news. Here's a map already prepared for you, and here is some griffin money, to buy what you need."

"Thank you." Steamlord said as he held a bag of coins and a map in his right hand.

"Great! See you in afew days."

"Right. Days." the human chuckled.

The griffin bowed and ran out of the throne room with joy whilst the man gave, himself, a sigh of relief.

"You know how to treat others."

"Says the one who was silent the whole time. I'm your chief in scientific and technological research and development, not your emissary."

"Still."

"Right. I'll see you in a few. Come on, knights. I am tired and we have a long trip to do, judging by this map."

The crowd of ponies had already left the premises, with Sunrise smiling widely. All four simply entered the ship, with a familiar voice speaking.

"You are back, yet your stress levels are very elevated. Would you like a copy of the demands now?"

"Later. I'm going to program new coordinates for you to bring us to in autopilot. Do it slowly so I can sleep after all this."

"Okay."

"Where are we going?" Sunrise asked.

"To the Griffin Empire up north. News about another mechanic have arisen there."

"Ooo! I wonder if they make as good things as you."

"...Ha!"

"It wasn't a joke."

"It is still funny to me. Anyways, I'm going into the navigation room and programming the route."

"Okay. I'll just stick around with the knights, then."

Once the door to the cockpit was shut, Sunrise was whispered to:

"Is everything clear?"

"Not yet." Sunrise answered.

"Stay hidden."

The three knights were looking at whatever was hiding behind one of the ship's corners with intrigue and confusion. It was an intruder, yet Sunrise did not see it that way.

"Keep quiet. This is a secret between us and SS."

While Templar and Hospitaller nodded and proceeded towards the back of the ship, Teutonic stayed in place for awhile, wary of the situation.

"It's okay, Teutonic. Nothing bad is going to happen."

The knight stared at the dragon for a long moment, before expelling steam from its body and proceeding to follow his "brothers", leaving the dragon to her biddings.

"I wonder who this mechanic is?" she thought to herself.

Through the sky

The sky above the far ground below was relatively calm. A few turbulences here and there, but it wasn't anything scary or dangerous. In fact, besides the occasionnal snore coming from Steamlord's room, there wasn't really anything to hear. The engines were very silent, and the engine room underneath was sound-proofed, preventing any noise to come out of crevices or doors. Sunrise, on the other hand, was talking with the stow-away while her 'father' slept, but both became silent when the door to the man's room slid open.

It had only been four hours, but he seemed quite full of energy despite this, shown by his stretching and heading immediately towards the bathroom compartment. Sunrise and the "guest" just sat in place, their bodies completely frozen up and their faces looking into a far emptiness during this event. As Steamlord walked by their corner, he said:

"Hello, Sunrise. Hello, Twilght."

He said this in a relatively calm tone, and simply entered the bathroom a few feet further away. Both frozen characters slowly turned around to look at the door where the man went, their faces coated in disbelief.

"You two do know that he has already reacted to Twilight Sparkle's prescnece, correct?" SS noted.

The two nodded nervously.

"They you know what will happen. I believe you have around five seconds to think of an 'excuse', as you would call it."

"Five seconds?! But we--" Sunrise was immediately cut off by the door opening and the sound of flushing, along with Steamlord readjusting his jacket.

"You best explain why you stowed away on my vessel, or I'll flush you too, Twilight." he glared at the mare through his goggles.

"I...Okay. I stowed away because I wanted to see what this was all about." her apologztic mood immediately flipped into a joyful and excited one."Can you believe it? There's somepony else here who can make things just like you!"

"Ahem. They don't make things 'just like me'. This technology is far inferior to mine. In fact, if I should ever admit something, it's that that technology is true clockwork and gears. The majority of the technology I have is only aesthetically like that."

"Why?"

"Are you kidding me? Even though this ship still works via clockwork and gears, I need efficient energy transfer sources and other complicated things just for SS to work!"

"Ah..."

"This still isn't an excuse. These sort of things are too dangerous. Don't you recall how powerless you were when you first discovered me?"

Twilight did recall her first encounter with Steamlord that ended in a black-out and a very painful lump on the back of her head, shown by her rubbing said area with her hoof.

"Magic may be strong, but technology, no matter what it is, will always evolve and become more and more powerful while spells tend to linger and remain the same. Were my technology from the early nineties, you would have easily defeated my bodyguards, but they aren't. This isn't some nature spotting game, and I don't want anyone to die because of me anymore."

Steamlord was actually showing some empathy here; something very rare.

"But, dad. She only wanted to--"

The sirens went blaring off again, causing the man to rush to the cockpit once more.

"Hmph. Every time I try to talk, the sirens go off." Sunrise pouted.

"Uhhh. Sunrise. What is that thing outside? It looks like a bronze bird." Twilight noted as she peered at the exterior.

"Bronze bird? I don't recall learning that from school."

Gluing her face against the windows, both managed to better distinguish the creature in question. It wasn't of flesh and blood. It was actually made up of clockwork and steampipes. The face, although still with a very large beak, had tiny red eyes cramped into rectangular compartments which belched tiny amounts of smoke every now and then. Its wings looked like extended, thin sheets of metal placed on flexible mounts, giving loud creaks and screeches as the gears moved the joints. Its tail looked like a fan, whilst the body itself was very naked, showing the entirety of its interior functions. Added to that, there was some sort of exhaust pipe above that belched fire and smoke, showing that this contraption, along with its rusted body, was poorly constructed, or, atleast, was made with some shoddy technology.

"Hey. There are others." Twilight spotted the rest flying closely behind this suffering pile of metal.

"It's...a whole battalion."

"ALERT! Exterior constructs are hostile. Brace and prepare for possible attack." SS announced.

"How about we show them just how much I've upgraded my technology?" Steamlord could be heard shouting in the pilot's compartment.

Twilight looked up to Sunrise for an answer.

"We kinda...went against Steamlord's wishes."

"What do you mean?"

"He started to become paranoid, so the Knights, SS, and I, all went along and refitted his ship with reactive armor action by steam-pumps and turrets which fire compressed, explosive shells."

"Then how does he know about that?"

"He noticed the changes the second he returned to the ship. I'm still stumped on how that's possible."

"Wh-AH!"

Twilight's yelp was founded by the creatures slamming against the ship, and producing a notable screeching noise as they rubbed themselves against its metallic surface, only to be projected further away by the reactive armor. Watching the whole scene as best they could, the two passengers wathed as twin-linked cannons arose from the hull of their host, and began to open fire at the metallic creatures. Each shot almost exploded on them, but that was only when it neared their bodies. Sunrise explained to Twilight that this was the "flak" system that she read about in the history of humans. Although crude, it was very effective, as the targeting and navigation systems of the birds outside seemed so simplistic that they became confused when their paths were clouded, causing mid-air crashes.

This lasted for about half an hour until something came out from the mountains. Steamlord didn't catch a good glimpse of it, but it seemed to be a gigantic biped of the same creator as the birds, although this one held an immense cannon on its left shoulder which, with one strong fire, blew out the left of the ship, causing it to fall down in smoke.

With a face of fatigue and irritation, Steamlord simply said:

"And...I'm back to square one."

Both girls were screaming with fear in the back of the ship while the birds flew out of sight and the vessel began to shake violently. Its 'crash' was rather violent, tossing everyone around until grinding to a halt. Sunrise had found herself to be upside-down while Twilight layed on her left foot.

"Are you two okay?" Steamlord asked in a panic after leaving the cockpit.

"Y-yes, dad. We're alright."

"Are you sure?" he insisted

"Yes. Thanks for asking." Twilight answered.

"I must check on the project! It can't be lost now!"

The man quickly scampered away into the lower levels of the ship where the three Knights were at, completely terrified of damages that could arise if his "secret project" were destroyed or damaged.

"Ugh. Perhaps we should get out of the ship?" Sunrise proposed.

"Suggesting we aren't floating in the open." Twilight answered with a sarcastic smile.

"Aha."

"We are not floating. We have crashed next to a griffin city. I have no data on griffin territory, and my databanks are still incomplete for Equestria, most notably for regions such as the Nyubet climat."SS said.

"Near a griffin city? That's both good and bad news." Twilight rubbed he back of her head.

"And why is that?" Sunrise wondered.

"Well...They aren't exactly the most polite or kind to outsiders..."

"We should get out anyways. It'll give the interior of this vessel some fresh air during the repairs. How long until it's fixed?"

"About twenty-two days?"

"WHAT?!" Twilight and Sunrise shouted.

"...Is what I would have normally said a year ago, but upgrades have allowed for more effective working mechanisms and nano-repair bots. A day should be sufficient."

The two wiped their foreheads and gave a sigh of relief.

"You scared me." the dragoness smiled before being grabbed by Twilight.

"I thought you said she couldn't develop emotions." the unicorn whispered.

"I guess she has atleast understood the concept."

"...Fine. Let's just get out and be yelled at by the griffins."

The two, expecting a huge army to welcome them after the door slid open, only found a small village nearby with an immense lake next to it, along with what looked like some country-folk with straw-hats and green, yellow, and red clothes. One, in particular, with his head feathers combed and twisted in a way to make them look like they were curving along his face, stepped up with a burning piece of straw in his mouth. He took it and said:

"Well, hallo dere. What are da odds of some crazy pony-folk comin' bah here on some flyin' metal tingie wot fo'. Nice ta see ya, horned poneh and da strange reptile gal."

The two simply stared at this bizarre display of kindness and cultural differences with a simple neck strain and a bit of eye-twitching. Where had they fallen?

Author's Note

Seeing how many people have been liking this, I feel inspiration to begin updating everyday again. Some comments so I know what you think to help me prepare the future chapters would be nice though, or your general thoughts.

Also, do note that I'm currently going over the first Steamlord's spelling and punctuation, so you don't have to put bleach on your eyes every time you re-read it.

Mingling with the locals

Steamlord, wiping his head with a tissue, sighed in relief, relaxation plastered onto his face...that is, until he spotted the griffins. To this new encounter he walked up to Twilight Sparkle whom he slapped on the back of her as discreetly as possible. Her yelp wasn't helping.

"And who are you people?" the man asked with a direct questioning.

He had not seen any griffins within Equestria, and, so far, considered them to be beasts just like a manticore or other creature within the forest.

"We'ze be griffins. What are you? Some kinda hairless monkeh?" the dreadlock griffin answered as the others laughed behind him.

"Aha. Very funny. No. Really. I am crying tears." the man answered with no emotion.

"Heeeey! Tis just a joke. No need ta frumple yer feathers. You'z crashed inta our village."

"And what is it called?" Sunrise asked.

The griffin looked at her and scratched his head. Her body shape was bizarre and confusing.

"I...I dunno watcha are, but you crashed in FishLake. It's where me pals and neighbors live. We are actually one of the richest communities in the Griffin Empire."

"Really, now?" Steamlord was intrigued. "Well, as for introductions, I am Steamlord. This tall dragon is Sunrise, and this pony here is Twilight Sparkle, WHO SHOULDN'T HAVE STOWED AWAY IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Steamlord closened himself to the pony's face, making her shrink in fear.

"Woah! No need ta get angry at her. Curiousity is what meks us what we are. We'ze always learnin', and dat emotion helps with it."

"That isn't an excuse. This mission we were tasked with doesn't involve frail little ponies to serve as cannon fodder!"

"WHAT?! I'm not a frail little pony!" Twilight shouted as she teleported in front of Steamlord.

Before Twilight could speak, however, Teutonic grabbed her by the horn and tossed her away ever-so "gently" into Sunrise's arms.

"TEUTONIC!" the dragoness scolded.

The griffins started mumbling and backing as they saw the three robots appear. Their appearance seemed to have a strange effect on the inhabitants, and this interested Steamlord.

"I didn't get your name, dreadlocks." he smiled.

"Uhhh." the griffin was sweating rather profusively."It's Red Pepper. My brudda works as a chef at Canterlot."

"I wouldn't know. I rarely ever went into the castle."

"Even though you live in the yard?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. We get out a bit too much." Sunrise looked shamefully to the side.

"Where did ya find dem tings? Dey'z from dat inky guy who went 'n stole our mines from us?"

"What? No! They're my creations and faithful companions and my closest friends as well. We've seen everything together, and they protect me and help me with my projects. Speaking of-" Steamlord turned around and pointed to Templar,"-Templar. I need you to check on the energy fluctuations and bracers. Make sure the joints can deal with more than fifteen tons of recoil or impact."

The machine nodded and hurried away back into the ship. While the newcomers wanted to continue their conversation with the locals, there was the sound of something loud and screeching coming from behind the wall of stone, itself, behind Steamlord's ship. The tall mound of minerals did not withstand the tremors caused, and, with one movement, the whole group became covered in dust and debris. From the surprise, some yelling was heard until a cloud of dust rested in the air, allowing the gigantic, rusted being to appear directly in front of the whole group.

Steamlord was oddly shocked as he looked at this abomination. It reminded him so much of the events preceding the Ash Fall, but he faced that ghost a long time ago, and his wounds were still healing. Looking closer at it, this thing was easily fifteen meters tall and five meters wide. It had the same structure as the birds, what with the pipes, cogs, and rusted chassis, although this one's face was...incomplete? One side of the face looked like a dome and had a single red optical camera, while the right barely had anything but free wires and pipes. It had two extremely bulky legs with black armor plating, although, like the rest, it was rusted. Its left hand was actually an immense cannon that seemed to be an old model from the early years of humanity. While there was a main cannon, there seemed to be two stabilizers fixated into its top, and it seemed to have been recently used. The right seemed non-functional, judging by the sparks it was shooting and the steam it was belching.

"Run! It's back!" Red Pepper shouted.

"Where are you going?" Steamlord yelled.

"We can't destroy that tin! It's too powerful!"

The whole group of griffins scampered away like frightened mice, leaving a huge puff of smoke behind.

"Sunrise. Take Twilight and get in the shi--"

"NO! I've had it with you minimizing us ponies! Just because we're smaller than you doesn't mean we're weaker! I'll show you what a unicorn can do, so stop mocking us!"

Twilight, after yelling directly in Steamlord's face via levitation, stood firmly in front of the metal titan, who promptly aimed its cannon at her. The mare's eyes glew brightly as her horn sparked. A violent, ear-shattering explosion was heard, and the explosion echoed into the distance with another explosion. Twilight had slid back some. The titan had fired an immense shell at her, and the unicorn raised a shield to reflect the projectile, but not without consequence. The pure kinetic force was enough to destabilize her. She wasn't expecting something this strong. Science was not a play thing, and neither were mechanics.

"Fine. If you want to help, try and make it fall down so Sunrise can deactivate it."

"What? Why don't you have the knights destroy it?" Twilight winced.

"Because I want to analyze this thing. There's no time to talk about it. Drop it!"

"Okay. I'll try."

"I'm ready whenever she is, dad." Sunrise exclaimed with joy.

One more shimmer shone from Twilight, which engulfed the titans legs. As it tried to move forward to break the grasp, it found itself wailing its arms everywhere to regain its balance, only to fall flat on its face, allowing the dragon to hop on its back and slice the exposed wires, shutting it down for good with one final exhale of steam.

The lavender mare was hunched over and gasping for air. She was extremely tired and sweaty after this ordeal, but Steamlord patted her on the back and walked closer to the titan while Sunrise went through its body.

"Hey, dad. It works on coal."

"Coal?"

"Yeah. See?" the dragoness held a black rock in her hand.

"What a piece of junk. This downed my ship? Well, any weapon from any era can still kill you..."

"Ya did it! Ya killed dat ting! Oh! Ya must be dat Steamlord da dignitary told us about." Red Pepper had returned.

"Yah. I am."

"Den come with us. We needz ta talk to yas."

"Fine. Sunrise, could you and Twilight survey the landscape? Hospitaller and Teutonic will come with me. You still have Templar, so don't worry about anything."

"Psch. Like I would be disturbed by anything." Sunrise smirked.

"Says the dragon who was scared of her own shadow at one point."

"DAAAAAAD!"

The human smirked as he left with the griffin and his two robots, leaving the two alone once more. The situation was kind of awkward, as Twilight didn't really know how to study the machine nor how to ask the questions pertaining to its domain of study. She hadn't really though this whole escapade through. She didn't have any quills, paper, or anything to note things down.

"Sunrise." she asked while looking towards the grame.

"What?"

"Do you have any quills and paper?"

"We don't have quills. We have pens and paper, though. Steamlord says that he prefers old pens and papers to the digitized versions and 'burn-in' variants."

"Burn-in?"

"He told me that it was like giving paper a tatoo, only it goes extremely fast. It was cost efficient because no ink was used, only focused light."

"A laser?"

"Yes."

"Great! I can't wait to start taking notes on how you do things together."

"Then let's get started!"

Twilight's face was adorned with a smile as she walked towards the damaged ship, slowly stopping as noticed something standing atop the still intact, mountain barrier. She only caught a glimpse, but there was a strange figure that was spying on them, and as it bolted away, it left a thin trail of a lingering black mist that had the appearance of ink mixed into water.

"What was that?" she wondered aloud.

Templar, within the bowels of the ship, observed several monitors built into the walls. This room was very small and no doors separated it from the main energy conduit outside which glowed a golden hue and created an extremely loud noise as it moved back and forth and transferred energy throughout the ship, although the hue seemed to turn the surrounding areas into a fine, copper color. It was directly linked to the generator at the top floor. Something that was still as dangerous before as it is now.

Finally checking off the joint analysis, the screen indicated an increased effectiveness of thirteen percent over the original calculations. Most likely SS's doing.

"Templar, can you adjust the visual interface? I wish to upgrade it and give a zooming option of about one-hundred times." SS asked.

The robot nodded and went to work on what was placed into the hold within the wall between the monitors

" A few adjustments to propose to Steamlord, and we can complete it. Project SPQR is well underway."

Author's Note

I apologize for the lack of updates on my stories recently, but my brain has been killing me and I've been rewiring it for personal purposes in writing. Yes. I can do that. It's easy. Your logic is but spaghetti on my silver chestnut waffles.

Planning and resting

Steamlord find himself in a type of bamboo hut with a long wooden table and wide assortment of chairs and plants decorating the edges of the open hut. The blue sky outside could be seen as easily as the nearby houses and clouds. The chairs were understandably enlarged to accept the griffin size and stature, but it seemed to fit Steamlord's posterior just fine. He simply didn't have anything to push his back against, making him somewhat uncomfortable as he tried to adjust to the creaky wooden bars. Red Pepper and a few other griffins had come to the table. Each greeted the human as they sat down.

"Okay. I understand that formalities must be important for you, but this is no time for small talk and story sharing. We need to talk about this...this 'ink mechanic'."

"Ah yes. Ya'z tinkin' about dat goy dat's been makin' dem machines.." Red Pepper said pensively.

"Aboot that. They's been only comin' ter our village recentleh. It's noot like we haven't troyed ta reason wit them." a female added.

"They come randomly, I've noticed. They don't have that much intelligence and, as you've noticed, they're poorly built." a fatter, straighter griffin added.

"Wait...they attack randomly?" Steamlord asked.

The griffins nodded. The man began to think to himself, putting his right hand to his chin and remaining pensive for a moment. Why attack randomly? No territory was ever taken besides the mines...wait...

"Say, Red Pepper."

"Ya?"

"Ya said...Ahem...You said that your village only lost the mines, correct?"

"Ya."

"What were you taking from there?"

"Mostly metals."

"What kinds?"

"Iron 'n steel. Some copper too if we'ze 'n lucky."

"Hmmm."

Steamlord thought to himself then pushed on his goggles and spoke:

"Security System."

"Yes?"

"Two things. First, how is project SPQR going?"

"It is progressing at a steady rate. It is currently already at eighty-seven point give-one-three percent completion. Neural circuitry and platings have been completed. Additional sub-routines and decorum have yet to be installed."

"Really? I estimated it to be at around sixty percent by now."

"Steamlord. Who are ya talkin'--" Red Pepper was interrupted by the man lifting a finger to silence him.

"Has Sunrise given you a sample of the metallic alloy?"

"No. I, however, instructed her to do so before showing the horned equidae material for scribing."

"You're having fun with this, aren't you?"

"I was not programmed with those routines."

"But I never limited your abilities to evolve."

"...What is the second query?"

"The one with the metal." Steamlord sighed in irritation.

"After Sunrise retrieved a sample, I analyzed the metallic composition of the mechanoid. It is composed of iron and copper, along with some heavily damaged steel conductors."

"Hmmm. Thank you, SS." Steamlord pushed his goggles again then looked at Red Pepper.

"I think I know why they have invaded your mines, and I also think I know why they randomly come out to attack you."

"'N why is that?" another griffin asked.

"They're general composition is that of the metals you've been finding in your mines, so their builder must have programmed them to keep you out of there while he takes the ressources for himself."

"Then why do they come out and attack us?" the fatter griffin asked.

"I think it's because they hear you, somehow, and attack you to dissuade you from trying to retake the mines."

The griffins nodded in agreement together.

"Den what are we ta do?" the female wondered as she scratched her head.

"I'm going to rest in my ship for today and think about how I'm going to proceed tomorrow. I'll probably leave around sunrise. In the meantime, make sure you don't talk about this to anyone. Got it?" Steamlord spoke with a serious tone.

"Aye!" the griffins answered.

"Good! Then I'm going."

"Oh. Iff'n ya needz anyting, just ask us. We'ze gotz anytin' dat ya'll meyt beneedin'." Red Pepper proposed with a nervous and begging smile.

"Thank you, but I'll manage for now."

"...And that's what Teutonic has been doing recently." Sunrise told Twilight outside the core chambers.

"I didn't think that he would be showing anything besides...well...a lack of emotion. I mean, Templar seems interested in young creatures, and Hospitaller just seems to be develpping a creative touch to things. Yet, Teutonic is the only one who doesn't seem to be getting that interested in anything. He isn't changing." Twilight seemed worried as she said these things.

"Because he is the most conservative. He was the first of Steamlord's creations, and humans have a deep connection to many 'firsts' of their creations." SS interrupted.

"Huh? That doesn't explai--"

"Twilight Sparkle." Steamlord said with a stern as Teutonic and Hospitaller turned left immediately after entering the ship to go down to the lower levels.

"What were you talking about, Sunrise?"

"About our times together."

Sunrise looked around for a bit as she tapped her claws together.

"Hm. I need to planify some things, so I'll be in the lower levels. AND before you ask, Twilight, you're coming along seeing as you want to 'document' everything."

"Thank you!"

Twilight's eyes gleemed as she thought of all the things she could be seeing and studying, literally falling into a trance and weirding out Steamlord, who slowly backed off while Sunrise just snapped her fingers in front of the pony's face, breaking off her trance and returning her to reality.

"What?" Twilight wondered aloud.

"I'll be below. If you need me for anything IMPORTANT, ask SS to call me."

"Can't I just go and find you?" Twilight asked.

Steamlord stopped in his tracks and crunched up.

"No. Everything below can only be viewed by me, the Crusader Knights, and SS."

"What about Sunrise?"

"Don't worry about that, Twilight. It's only temporary."

"Yeah, and don't forget to study the mechanical books if you want to be able to do what I do."

"Ugh!" Sunrise whined and rolled her eyes.

Once Steamlord left, Twilight levitated a few books on the shelves to the two's spot and took one.

" 'Conductivity of elements and placement of electronics'. Seems complicated. You know, Sunrise, while I'm here, we can study this together. "

"How? It's boring and takes too long. Plus, I've never seen dad apply what's in these books. Security System does all the work. No offense." the dragon said to the ceiling.

"That's because he built her using those techniques. You know, when I study, I like to imagine things happening while I read those. How did the ponies think about them? When did they get the ideas? What happened when they did? It always helps to know some things over others."

The dragon grabbed the floating book and stared longly at the cover, then lowered it and looked at Twilight. She scrunched her lips and began to nod slowly.

"You're right. My dream, for now, is to create my own robot, but there's still too much I don't know, so I'm forced to read this."

"Well, let's get started."

Steamlord stayed in his developpment room, thinking about the decorative ornements of his project. He sat on his wodden stool and tapped on his drawing table.

"Should I use blue or red? Red is overused...maybe purple? No. Those were special, and that would clash with the rest. It's almost ready and I can't think of any good decorative figures. The knights have their symbols of different colors. Perhaps a golden plating for the body, give it not just the appearance of those leaders, but have the head have the shape of their helmets. The lower legs will have the appearance of their sandal-boots. Yes! The parts left between them should be that of the golden frame. Perfect! Then I can put those here...and modify this..."

The next day, the six "investigators" had arrived at the mine entrance. This "mine" was a very strange one. Even though it went through the mountain, the griffins had always managed to dig cliffs and openings in the ceiling of the mountain, which allowed them to take materials out of the deeper portions of the mines and, after gathering them into carts, fly them away to their village for smelting and extraction. Atleast, that's what Red Pepper told Steamlord before the six entered the mines. Now they were in, and there was no turning back for Twilight Sparkle. Luckily, there were small bridges of wood made to connect tunnel opening to tunnel opening, so getting from one place to another didn't require intricate cave traveling.

Wind flowed through this area, taking on the properties of a whistle or flute. Each entrance to mining tunnels proved to only be accesible through the wooden bridges comprised of two wooden boards. The open tops seemed to be the only place where light came in, and they were uneven and with different sizes. The mines still went deep, down below, but it had no real impact on the rest of the trip which only went straight.

"Hm?" Steamlord noticed.

"What is it?" Sunrise asked him as the robots became more wary of their surroundings.

"This place is filled with wiring and what looks like husks of rusted metal. The griffins didn't mention anything about this. They didn't even say anything about those minecarts."

Right in front of everyone sat a minecart on what looked like brand new rails. It was fairly big, being capable of holding atleast ten ponies. Twilight went towards it to analyze said cart to see if anything was special about it.

"Steamlord. It's brand new. These were placed here recently. It seems to even go through those tunnels down there."

"So?"

The Crusader Knights began to get restless, attracting the attention of both Steamlord and Sunrise.

"So?! It could lead us closer to the builder of those auto...atoma..."

"Automatons." Sunrise finished for Twilight.

"Right. Automatons."

"Sunrise has been teaching you well, it seems." Steamlord's voice raised in anger as he turned around to look at his 'daughter'.

The knights suddenly looked upwards and unsheathed their claymores and held them tightly. Steamlord looked up again and locked eyes with an inky figure. It was standing right at the edge of an opening and simply stared stared down back at its opposer before walking away.

"Get in the cart." Steamlord told Twilight and Sunrise.

"What? Why?" the unicorn protested.

The man didn't answer but got Sunrise in it. Templar grabbed Twilight and tossed her upside down in the transport. Templar and Hospitaller hung onto the sides of the cart while Teutonic ran and slammed into the cart to get it moving. He then hopped into the cart and stood in the back while the other three remained crouched as the cart began moving slowly on its own before beginning to gain momentum and begin racing downwards, kicking up sparks on the rails as it did so.

Steamlord looked at his gauntlet for awhile as they raced down, the pressure being created by the speeding cart hunkering its occupants down. The man gave a smile and thought:

"It's finished and on its way. Good. This should prove interesting."

NEW VEAPON

The cart ran at a tremendously high speed, and the little holes in the roof bringing in a bit of sunlight just created temporary flashes in the tunnels. It was clear that whatever had been digging here had done so thoroughly judging by various holes in the walls. Twilight was still unsure of how the knights were hanging onto the cart. Any pony would have let go by now, not just from pressure and speed, but from fatigue as well.

"What's going on?!" Twilight shouted.

The wind and the sounds of the wheels rolling on the rails was strong enough to mute out anypony's voice.

"We're getting away from our previous position." Steamlord answered.

"Yeah, but where are we going?" Sunrise added.

"I don't know. There was no time to think this through."

"Hey, dad?"

"What?"

"What are those boxes against the walls?"

"Boxes?"

Steamlord dared to poke his head out of the the confines of the cart to see that there were, indeed, several squarish casings against the walls with a cable going through each one. Steamlord felt a pressure.

"I think those are point-defense turrets."

"What?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"Automated defence system that shoot those not designated within the system.'

"They shoot you if they don't know you?"

"...Essentially. Yes."

The three beings hiding in the cart could distinctly hear a strange crackling sound running behind them and getting louder as time passed. Suddenly, they cart went uphill with the same amount of speed, but the crackling continued, showing it to be an electrical surge passing through the cables and into the boxing, electrifying them and creating small sparks.

"KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN!" Steamlord shouted as he covered Sunrise and Twilight.

The boxes all opened to show what looked like a small gun with an ammo pouch underneath it. The weapons began to spool up and fired at the cart and the ones occupying it, bringing about several thousands of flashes and deafening explosions echoing throughout the caves. Using their claymores, the knights were more than capable of deflecting the incoming bullets by swing their swords at incredible speeds. This was a most stressful test for Twilight and Sunrise who had never gone through such horrors. The only ones who seemed unaffected by the situation were Teutonic and Steamlord, with Templar and Hospitaller stressing their ligaments to intercept each bullet and deflect it.

"Oh dear Celestia! Make it stop!"

"Stop your whining! You're the one who wanted to come on this trip."

The cart suddenly sped up and turned around a corner to reach a higher point in the mines where, what the ceiling cracks had reappeared.

"But I didn't think it would be this bad!"

"You destroyed a machine weighing several tons and you're complaining about a few bullets?!"

"A FEW?! There are hundreds, if not thousands of them flying through the air."

Teutonic poked Steamlord's back, but Sunrise told him before he could look up:

"Are those robots. They look like they're holding something."

"Huh?"

What stood around the cracks seemed to be even more rusted robots, but these ones had a peculiar shape. Several pieces of them were mismatched and the legs could be either rear-jointed or forward-jointed, and their bodies took the shape of a ball. Unfortunately, several of had what looked like missiles on their backs. They were rusted and properly mostly duds, but they were missiles nonetheless.

"Oh crap. Teutonic, while the other two intercept the bullets, you think you can intercept the missiles?" Steamlord asked him.

The robot nodded and jumped onto the edges of the cart, using his claymore to eventually cut away at the incoming missiles. Just as expected, a volley of rockets flew towards the tracks, to which both Sunrise and Twilight screamed. Steamlord had also calculated the possibilities with the missiles, and he was right. Several of them were so rusted that their inner components could not trigger the explosives held within, so many felt dully into the ground. This wasn't true for all of them, and even as the bullets flew in, the pressure coming from the explosions of rockets intercepted by Teutonic were very real. Each explosion brought in a new heat wave that Twilight felt could and certainly would singe her mane.

Finally, after much screaming and potential explosions destroying the tracks, the group managed to reach the top, but they were going too fast. If they kept up like that, the cart would derail and toss everyone into the air and have plummet to their doom. Steamlord didn't have to say anything that his Crusader Knights used their claymores and planted them into the ground, turning them sideways to let the blunt, and bigger, side take all the pressure. After awhile, the cart slowly came to a stop, finally allowing some breathing time for the group.

The man simply stepped out of his cart and helped Twilight and Sunrise out as well. Both looked like they were drunk as they tipped from side to side before craching into eachother, making Sunrise fall over and on top of the lavender unicorn. Both groaned in pain at the result of both their soothing and relaxing trip along with them "meeting" eachother again.

"That's done. Perhaps we should rest here and wait for them to recuperate. Knights, I want you to form a peri--"

The group was already encircled by several bipedal robots blasting out toxic black smoke from their exhaust areas. They had the same interior build as the "birds" from before, and their heads were the same, although their bodies seemed rather bulky and the fists seemed to crackle with sky-blue electricity. That same energy waved over the fists, becoming denser in some areas and weaker in the rest before passing over again and producing the same effect.

The man was wary of all these dangers he wasn't expecting and let the knights take care of the problems. Surprisingly, these rusted bots were capable of moving forward very quickly and, unlike many others, didn't give a moment of hesitation to instill a prescence or any such thing. The knights cleaved right through each one that came, bringing up sparks and pieces of metal. Eventually, one was going to reach Sunrise who was just getting back to her senses. Hospitaller grabbed its wrists, broke them, then tossed it against the others with one arm. Templar took a few hits with its sword, blocking huge bursts of power that began to push it back gently, but surely.

"Kinetic bursts? But there's nothing in this world that has technology of that calibur." Steamlord thought to himself.

The knights charged forwards and cut up swaths of these constructs, tearing them to bits and performing special moves to block and redirect punches towards others, blasting the rusted buckets into piles of parts. U,fortunately, the three knights were pushed back into the circle where Steamlord stood and both Sunrise and Twilight sat, the two finally regaining their proper trains of thought. As soon as the knights were about to perform a technique that they were famed for, more of the missile creatures appeared on the hilly regions nearby, taking a height advantage on the ledges. THere was even another of the giant machines from before that had appeared.

"Crap. They can deal with these pitiful machines on their own, but I haven't perfected their cooling mechanisms, and the constant high speed twisting of their wrists from early must have caused an over-heat. That, and those ranged machines would prevent them from going forward."

"Well, Twilight. It was good to have known you." Sunrise said as she looked around with stress.

"Same here. I don't think I can make a powerful enough shield, and even if I did, it wouldn't hold forever."

"Well, it's best you do it anyways, Twilight. We need to stall."

"Stall for what?"

"JUST DO IT!"

As the strange ball-machines prepared the missiles on their backs and, rarely, arms, Twilight's horn flickered and created a protective pink bubble around everyone, even the knights, and just in time. Missiles had been fired and, although several of them bounced off harmlessly, a few brought what they were intending to deliver, putting a great strain on the poor mare's mind and body. Sunrise bent over and held Twilight up with her arms and looked at her father who was now smiling. The same kind of relaxation could be felt with the three knights around him who kept their swords on the ground and their hands on the hilts, like statues.

"What are you expecting?" Sunrise asked.

A huge explosion rocked a hilly formation and tore it to pieces, sending rocks and rubble into the ranks of the "punching robots". The robots holding the missiles were also torn to shreds or thrown down below. The rusted metal constructs seemed unfazed by the event, striking the man as something abnormal. They truly were automatons only made to defend the area when something was in it. What looked like several beams of lime-green passed through the heads of several of the bots at once, causing them to collapse due to excessive damage. Several more explosions erupted everywhere, much to the surprise of Twilight and Sunrise. The automatons then finally turned around towards one direction as they were filled with holes that caused them to short-circuit due to a sudden burst of electricity and collapse. The giant robot stepped on its brethren, only to find huge portions of it melted away at a distance, allowing it to collapse on the floor and remain there.

Twilight let down her shield, and both she and the dragon stared at Steamlord with whide mouths, but the human simply said:

"Centurion. Rejoin me."

A machine stepped out from the shadows, and it looked quite fierce. Its body was of a silvery hue, but the main torso, the forward arms, and the legs were made to look like ancient Roman armor. It even looked like it wore a roman Pu, with silver coloring being placed within the straps. Its head was the shape of a Roman soldier's helmet, with the nose cover and large openings from the eyes and lower. Strangely, though, these details on the helmet were only diistinguishable by silver linings. It still only had a long, black visor in the eye view points that were more reminiscent of a Spartan's helmet than a Roman's, leaving way for two, fierce blue lights. It did, however, have a brush with red follicules placed vertically across its top. It held what looked like a pilum in its right hand and a bronze shield in its left.

"Meet Project SPQR: Centurion version two-point-zero. It has the equivalent amount of upgrades to the Crusader Knights, with a few extras specifically designed for its role."

The robot stopped next to Steamord and expelled a very cold steam.

"And what was he designed for? You never told me when I was helping you design and build him." Sunrise asked.

"It was designed for ranged combat."

"Ranged? But it doesn't even have any ranged weapons!"

Centurion's back clicked, and several pieces came into its opened left hand, where they formed what looked like a very long gun lined with pulsing blue lines. The shield was kept along the wrists, so it wasn't completely hindered.

"It has many more, but I prefer for it not to show them."

"But...if it was made for ranged combat, why did you give it a javelin and a shield?" Twilight asked.

"Every archer needs a knife or sword for their protection, and it's a pilum, not a javelin."

The lavender unicorn walked up to the newly activated creation and smiled, attracting its attention as shown by the dark blue lights moving down to her position.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, how are you?"

The robot neither reacted nor answered to the question, causing Twilight's smile to fade away into a face of sadness and pity.

"He's exactly like the other three when I first met the them."

"Twilight, it's newly activated. That, and the others had years to develop and evolve, like SS did."

"Well well. Look who it is. It's the Ink Mechanic."

Sunrise growled as she took an aggressive stance with her teeth bared and her claws out. She had even placed herself diagonally compared to the creature opposite of her, ready to charge at it and tear it to shreds. The man and the unicorn turned to look at what was waiting for them after the dust had cleared. It was a tall, bipedal creature whose body seemed completely black and surrounding by an inkish mist. Despite Twilight and Sunrise readying to attack it, Steamlord, the knights, and Centurion didn't move. Centurion was also the least mobile of the four concerning reaction time.

Ink Mechanic, despite keeping its arms and hands behind its back as a smug creature, seemed frightened. As more of the dust cleared, a large building appeared behind it with the appearance of a shack of two stories. It was built near one of the mountain's edges. The second Sunrise and Twilight took a step forward, an enormous beast jumped from a height and slammed down in front of them, casting the two would-be assaulters away. The creature turned around and roared. It was a tripedal beast with only one white eye with a single black dot that served as its pupil. Its body looked like it was made from many silicon shards, and the winds only brushed off clouds of black dust with them. It was ready to charge at any moment.

A next generation

The creature simply vibrated somewhat bizarrely as its body lowered and elevated at regular intervals. It seemed to be protecting the Ink Mechanic who still seemed to be secretly trembling.

"T-Twilight, what is that thing?" Sunrise asked as she slowly began to back away.

"I...I don't know. It's not in any of my books of wildlife or Equestrian monsters. It doesn't even look organic." the equally frightened unicorn answered as she imitated the dragoness.

The three knights stomped forward in front of centurion and held out their blades, taunting the creature. The newly activated robot did not seem to react to such an act. It was, after all, made for long range fights, so this did not impede its initial programming. However, whilst Centurion prepared its cannon, the knights readied their swords, and the two 'tourists' were backing away, something about the creature struck Steamlord's nerves and began to anger him. He remained still and silent, but slowly, a growl began to form on his face. He rushed forward, pushing the bots away, three of whom responded with confusion and surprise.

"That thing is a bio construct! How DARE you create organic life! Do you know the consequences this thing can cause?! Judging by the surrounding equipment, you haven't even properly tested its functioning organs and mental stability."

"What's wrong with Steamlord?" Twilight wondered as she was amazed to actually see him genuinely mad.

"I don't know."

"Groosh-fa." the Ink Mechanic said as it swayed its left arm to the side.

The creature acknowledged and moved away in said direction. The creature moved forward, although it looked like it was floating, what with all the smoke. When it spoke, it sounded like ash flying through the wind, and whatever it said, the creature acknowledged. The Ink Mechanic stood up to the human, showing it to be atleast a head and a half taller than Steamlord.

"...Why...are you...here?" it strained to say.

"We're here because we heard reports of you causing destruction and stealing land from civilians." Steamlord scolded as he stared directly into the white eyes of the mechanic.

Said creature tilted its head a bit to the side, then righted it back up.

"These are mine. Not the birds. Mine alone. Why do you destroy my creations and condemn my others?"

"Bio-creations were condemned in the rewritten Geneva Convention of twenty-thirty-eight after they were used to create massive destruction as bioweapons. Some were even used as mobile bombs. They would enter the middle of a fortified area or city, and swell up before turning into a flaming ball of pure malice. The carnage they created was too 'costly' and the effects lingered for too long. As for your creations, they've been terrorizing a nearby colony who, if I understood correctly, have been mining long before you arrived."

"HOZATI! THIS PLACE IS MINE! IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN MINE! ALWAYS! MINE! They came and stole it from me. My mines. My minerals. My materials. They destroyed my mining machines. They took it all away. I took their lands away. They stay away from my mines, I stay away from them."

The creature began to seethe with rage, as noted by his body beginning to bubble. The other creature began to act aggressive, although it was still quiet. While the three knights were beginning to spread out, Centurion remained next to its creator. While Sunrise kept passing this through her mind, she couldn't help but feel fear from it. Was this what the other three were like before their algorithms changed and began to develop personalities and mifnds of their own? Were they really just mass-murdering bipedal mechanoids armed to the teeth? No. She wouldn't have it. She would help it develop a personality faster than the others did over the course of several years.

"Your aggressiveness isn't helping your position. I suggest you lower your tone. We are both more numerous and technologically adva--"

Steamlord was pushed aside by Twilight Sparkle. She moved forward with determination on her face. She seemed to be trying to become a diplomat.

"Ignoring what Steamlord is saying, I think I might have a solution for you, but we need to enter your house to talk about them."

The creature's body stopped bubbling for a moment as it turned what seemed to be a head towards her. Its white eyes glew brightly as it stared at the tiny pony.

"Tiny equine. Quadrupedal creature with diverse genetic possibilities. This one...Is amusing and displays a keen need to discover and learn...It is also cute and tiny." the creature spoke aloud.

Sunrise chuckled almost quietly while Twilight's eyes twitched. She didn't like being called cute and tiny, even if, anatomically, the observation of her size compared to this creature was correct. Her cheeks puffed up red a bit in frustration. Atleast she made some progress that pushed away from Steamlord's personal and ethical beliefs. Said human still crossed his arms in anger.

"Come. Into my home. It's dangerous for non-ink. Caution is a must."

As it moved away, the beast watched them closely with its only eye and rested atop another stone nearby with patience. The shack that the ink-mechanic livved in seemed literally slapped together with various amounts of scrap metal and decayed wood. Bits of steam would occasionally blow through one the cracks in the walls, but the building still seemed to stand, especially with it being several floors tall and with another, smaller building on a balcony to the left. The most dangerous part about it was that it literally hung off a cliff. It was a rickety old box for sure.

The mechanic melted into a puddle right in front of the grounp, then crawled along the floor, up one of the wooden pillars, then disappeared in one of the crevices of the shack's walls. It took awhile, but a ladder literally slammed through the floor, tossing debris and scrap metal everywhere. The ladder wasn't any better looking, either. Tiny little robots on single wheels slid out from under giant rocks and began to pick up the pieces. Sunrise and Twilight were careful to not step on them, but the other five had no qualms with doing so. Luckily, their rudimentary programming was more than enough to deal with the problem of getting crushed by giant feet.

The interior of the shack was no better than outside. It looked like one of the houses that Steamlord had the 'pleasure' of seeing when he was still on Earth. Several walls were uneven, and pipes and cogs spun around everywhere. There were various holes covered with cut plastic that served as some form of window. Several machines were implanted into the walls, and they worked well, too. It was something Steamlord wasn't expecting. The knights sheathed their swords and looked around in nostalgia. It looked like the early form of the lab they were built in. Their creator had a knack for decorating things as he saw fit. As for the mechanic, it literally reformed from beneath some floor tiles where, as Sunrise, Centurion, and Steamlord noticed, held what looked like several important wires coursing and sparking through the complex.

"Quite the place you have here. You must have a good intellect to find ways to create all this through garbage." Steamlord taunted as he pushed some crap away with his foot.

"Hm. Nothing is garbage to me. I use as much as I can. Your flying machine managed to get destroyed by my 'garbage', did it not?" the mechanic answered.

Twilight and Sunrise slowly turned their heads to look at the human. They were worried at how he would take that comment.

"Perhaps, but my craft was not made for warfare. In my homeworld, a single contruct would have been more than adept at destroying your constructions and resisting their rudimentary ammo."

The mechanic had been fumbling through a pile of scrap brought to him by his scavenger bots when he heard this comment. He turned to face what seemed to be turning into his first rival. He was ecstatic, but Twilight interrupted the conversation, especially after hearing a threatening bending of metal.

"I don't think we should talk violently to eachother. Besides, what should we call you?" Twilight asked the creature.

"I do not have a name. I believe I was abandoned at birth. I was taken in by a machine far more advanced than my own,"

Steamlord thought that such a feat would be obvious and easy.

"but it has long since become inactive. After trying to repair it, I discovered that its pieces and parts were already damaged, and it had been malfunctioning for quite a long time, longer even than when it found me."

"Oh...Did it give you any names?"

"It would call me 'Unit-91411', certainly based off of my appearance."

The mechanic was bent over Twilight, defying what a normal creature could do, but its semi-closed eyes did not hold any aggression. It was simply towering over the unicorn even more directly than before, causing her to shrink down in fright.

"I don't get it." she answered.

"It's related to the position of numbers of the modern latin alphabet. It means 'Ink'." Steamlord answered with suspicion.

"Oh. Oh yeah! Of course!" Twilight facehoofed.

"Hm. Yes. 'Ink'. I approve.Now, why did you come to me again? For the mines?"

"Well, yes. We came here to try and figure out what was terrorizing the locals and preventing them from getting their much needed money."

"Money?"

"You don't use money?"

"...Is it a type of chemical?" the mechanic answered.

"Oh colt...No. I'll just tell you that it helps one live through exchanges."

"Hmm. Why should I give them MY mine?" Ink began to boil.

"Nono! f they were yours to begin with, they belong to you, but I would suggest atleast giving forty percent of the mine to the village so they can get their much needed ressources."

"No. I mine alone. I will be willing to give them thirty percent of daily finds if it means I can see where you come from."

"Thirty percent daily? That's gre-Wait...where we come from?"

"Yes. I wish to see the world away from these mines. My creature would be more than adept of overseeing and protecting my home whilst my repair and scavenger bots would be maintaining the area and mining equipment. This voyage would give me access to new technologies, knowledge, understanding of the surrounding regions, and much more positive aspects that I can imagine would become profitable to my constructs."

"Well...What do you think, Steamlord?"

Sunrise began to talk to Steamlord in whispers, making both begin to converse and decide what to do. Finally, the human stood back up and said:

"I believe we have a deal. He gives an exceptional deal for a trip. We'll tell the griffons immediately and, as soon as my ship has repaired, we will leave immediately. Pack your things, ink. We leave as soon as possible."

"Packing? Packing what?"

"Y...Your clo...food and water? Books?" Sunrise answered awkwardly.

"Food and...water?"

The three visitors stared at Ink with utter dismay. He didn't need to eat OR drink? Steamlord became interested in the properties of his system while Twilight became crazy over the biological compounds and mechanics of its body.

"Whatever. We'll have to figure out a way to get through the mines again, especially with your security methods." Steamlord scolded.

"I had forgotten about them. I know a way that solids can use to get to the other side. I'll deactivate the defences."

Ink melted once more then climbed along the wall and through the ceiling. This gave the three time to talk.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Twilight asked. "He's an unknown form of creature with a nack for building, well, weapons of mass destruction!" the unicorn cried out.

"Oh please. You don't even know what nuclear power is, so you most certainly don't know what WMDs are. Another form of insurance are my knights and the new addition."

"Speaking of, dad, why is he so...emotionless? I thought you would have installed a similar algorithm in him as the others to let him learn."

Sunrise questioned her father as she stared at Centurion, who was still looking straight. Its "eye" slid to the right to look directly at her, chilling her to the bone. She couldn't stress it enough, but it seemed way too different from the other two.

"I did. Don't forget that it took the other two seventy years to learn emotions, and it required another dimension to do so. I also know why you fear it. It won't have a sense of 'honor', or whatever trivial effect swords give, as it can destroy many things from afar. Don't you worry about Centurion. Nothing bad will happen."

The ink mechanic slid back down and readied itself for its eager trip. It couldn't wait.

Sinking feeling

Well, once the group had exited the mine, being careful not to disturb the few mining robots along the path, Ink reactivated his defence grid. The reasoning was that he did not want the griffons to go against the deal he chose. It literally took several hours for the griffons to agree to what the creature had agreed upon in mere minutes after passing through the hundreds of ways and tangents that could have been used. It took a lot of convincing and explanations from Steamlord and Twilight to let the ink mechanic go despite all the damage he had done. In the mean time, Sunrise was taking him within the ship, along with Centurion. She wanted to get closer to the machine whilst teaching the mechanic about the better technology available to her and her father.

SS had already uprighted the ship and corrected its position. Her control over the ship was still intriguing to Sunrise no matter how long she lived with that AI. Ink was rather hesistant to enter the ship, looking from left to right whilst inching along and grabbing the entry way.

"It's okay, Ink. This is my home. There's nothing to fear."

"Are you sure? This being of metal seems rather aggressive in appearance." Ink answered.

"The non-carbon based life form should know better than to comment on something's appearance." SS answered.

"What? Who said that?"

"Sunrise, define this guest and intentions."

"He's here to come with us to Equestria."

"Am I to conclude that you have properly executed the task given to you?"

"Yes."

"Confirmed. What of our guest?"

"Well..."

Sunrise slowly turned around to see the mechanic tapping some of the solid pipes running through the hull. He was not only trying to figure out where the voice was coming from, but also how this craft was so well built. He was only used to scraps, after all.

"What is that voice, and how did you gain access to such refined materials? I must know."

Ink twisted around to look at Sunrise directly. His eyes seemingly scrunched from underneath as if showing a smile. Centurion was still in front of the entrance, its body facing the wall. It still stared at Sunrise from the corner of its occular receivers. This was unnerving to Sunrise who had to ask SS now that she was at the ship:

"I will answer your questions, but I first have to ask someone else something." she said to Ink before looking up towards the ceiling."SS, why is Centurion so...scary? It's like his eyes are staring through me. Plus, you and dad created him to be a weapon of mass destruction whilst--"

"The Knights are not? Teutonic may have been initially built to show off my creator's skills in robotics and programming, but Hospitaller and Templar were designed solely for close warfare as well as anti-vehicle maneuvering. However, unlike the three knights, Centurion was designed solely as a unit of war. Its hull was specifically created and molded to intimidate, so as to keep the undevelopped creatures of this world away from it as it shoots from a distance. Judging by how you feel, I would check the intimidation sequence to be a succesful first initiative. It was also programmed with sub-routines to give it frightening habits and actions. For example, it staying in place, straight, like a statue, while its occular bionics stare at you from the corner of its viewport, along with the glowing red glare, is an example.

A secondary intimidative addition to its occular bionics are the white dots that an organic cannot properly see. It is registered by your sub-concious, bringing you a feel that it is 'watching you'. These are the words and comments of Steamlord. Do not feel fear for it is not there to hurt you. Its mission is like that of the other three knights."

"So, that would explain why he's so creepy, but why did you build him solely for war? Do you plan on having a battle? Something my father left me out of? I AM a dragon!"

"Yes. A dragon doing certain things behind her father's back simply because she has the genomes to adapt and compensate."

Centurion's eyes glew brighter as it seemed to narrow its view onto her face specifically. Ink didn't like the sound of that either. Sunrise gave off a nervous smile from over her shoulder.

"Don't talk about that. He might hear!" she whispered.

"He will not. My promises are held and kept, like you beings seem to appreciate."

"I would very much appreciate that you teach me more about this 'SS'. I came to learn, and I must do so, or the deal is off."

The dragon sighed and rubbed her eyes in irritation.

"Fine. If you really "need" it." Sunrise nagged.

The dragoness began to explain, with as little detail as possible, to the ink mechanic. She couldn't let him reproduce this technology. It could lead to problems when he returns to his home in the griffon mountains. Needless to say, the explanations amused him greatly. He was even able to somehow guess the correct methods of functioning in the ship that were nothing like what was in Equestria or in his constructs, if the analysis on that giant was anything to go by. What exactly was that robot that raised him? Where did it even come from?

After negotiations were complete, Steamlord, Twilight, and the three knights returned to the ship with a few snacks to accompany them during their trip back to Canterlot. Steamlord had given Centurion the order of observing and tracking Ink in every and all movements and to report them to SS every three hours. This was to ensure that the stranger's actions and thoughts were closely monitored. Surprisingly, though, the mechanic's incessant questions ensured that the trip ended up being shorter than expected. Security System was the first to remark it. Eventually, Steamlord became more interested in the origins of Ink, as no creature discovered yet in this world has had the technological prowess to create such a robot.

Nevertheless, the return of Steamlord and Twilight was met with enthusiasm. The vessel was even greeted by Celestia who was curious about what the events were. After all, nopony has dared to go into the Griffin territories because of their relative danger. There were even quite a few nobles stading behind the princess and poking their heads out like frightened foals. The roaring engines shut down, and the door began to open.

"Ah. Steamlord. What news do you have for us? What was--"

The princess was immediately silenced after she saw an exploding black cloud erupt from the door exit and float about like stangnating dust. The nobles all screamed in terror and the guards lifted their spears and swords. As soon as the weapons were unsheathed, the mist spun around violently then landed near Celestia. She remained immobile until a finger pushed her head from below and another grabbed her wing to stretch it.

"Hmmmm. This equine specimen possesses both a horn and a fully functional pair of wings. The excessive muscular strength in the wings suggests this is a leader of sorts, but it is too tall to be of the same species of equine as the tiny purple one."

Celestia was starting to get angry until she heard that specific part about a tiny purple pony. She batted Ink away and asked him with a semi-frustrated face:

"Tiny purple pony? What d you mean? How do you know about her?"

"Because she was a stow-away. She sneaked onto my ship before we could leave. By the time she showed herself, it was too late." Steamlord answered as he got off the ship.

Twilight came towards Celestia with a red face of embarassment. They ignored Ink's fascination of the simplest things, such as the grass and bushes. He was even curious about the solidity of the building and constantly punched it at different areas.

"Twilight, I am very disappointed in you. I believe that Steamlord had already told you that he did not want you aboard his ship."

"Well...I...I just wanted to see and learn about other places."

"You could have asked me about--"

"But nopony ever goes into the griffin territory. This was a once-in-a-lifetime occasion!"

Sunrise intervened before Twilight's nervousness ruined her ability to dialogue.

"Princess, if I may, she was actually very skilled during this trip. She helped us out with one of HIS gigantic constructs that shot us down in the first place. She even convinced Ink to stop attacking the griffins and share his mining ressources."

"You were shot down? And I'm assuming that Ink is that creature who came a bt too close and personal and...who is punching the castle..."

"Yes and yes."

"We will discuss the events in the castle, if you will. I have much to report." Steamlord interrupted.

"Right. Well, come in. Will your...friend be joining us?"

"No."

"Guards, watch the black creature and report any disturbing events back to me."

"But...it's licking a flower..."

Sunrise facepalmed and so did Twilight.

"As for you, Twilight, seeing as you were a part of this trip, I would like your feedback on the events as well."

The lavender unicorn's eyes glittered with excitement as she began to accompany Steamlord and the others. However, Steamlord had forgotten something. He called his knights to him, but ordered his new creation to stand guard in front of the ship. Hearing a fourth coming of metallic stomps brought the ponies' attention to the ship. Many of them cringed when they saw Centurion, who preferred to ignore the retractable pathway and jump besides to slam heavily into the ground. Judging by the small height, the small crater is made showed that it carried much more on it than it should have. It walked forward and stood next to the pathway, only to remain static and follow every movement with its occular bionics. Some of the guards stepped back. It had an entirely different "aura" about it than the other three. Even Teutonic, who had gotten the reputation of being extremely direct, violent, and dangerous within the guard wasn't as scary as this one.
The princess of the sun stared at Centurion for a moment, only to have its gaze direct itself towards her. She was worried.

"I'll explain along with the report." Steamlord added as he went to push the princess along.

The town trauma

The Ink Mechanic, Sunrise, and Centurion were all at the edge of Canterlot city. They had been sent there by Steamlord after the mechanic began to complain about not seeing new things. He was extremely impatient, yet he still seemed to be calm and curious during his outbursts. Exiting the castle was already full of...special reactions, so how would a city full of ponies, griffons, and so on react to an immensely tall black creature that seemed to be picking about everywhere.

Sunrise stepped in front of the creature that seemed to be twisting to look in every direction of the city. He was even rubbing his arms together in excitement, but Sunrise had to place some rules before any of them did anything.

"Okay. Ink, I have things to tell you."

"Like?"

"Stay close to me and don't start poking and prodding everywhere. It's impolite and intolerable. Oh, and don't take what doesn't belong to you."

Ink just stared at her for a moment before 'floating' down the hill and into the city at an incredible speed.

"Hey, wait!" Sunrise shouted as she chased after him.

Centurion seemed unphased by the whole situation but enforced its mission and followed after the two. It wasn't until it arrived that it saw that Sunrise had little to no control on the curiousity of the Ink Mechanic. She kept scolding him and telling him that his actions were wrong, but no matter what she tried verbally, he just wouldn't listen. She even tried to use more physical forms of submission, but her claws would just pass through Ink's body. Centurion's jog turned into a simple walk as it looked at screaming ponies running away from the creature, only to go full stop once they saw Centurion's height and gaze and simply stare at him with a frightened look. Some gulped, some had their mouths remain agape, but they were generally frightened of Steamlord's new creation.

Ignoring these creatures, Centurion walked towards what was a clothes store and saw that vestments of all shapes and dcolors were strewn about everywhere on the street and in the store. Ink seemed to be analyzing the whole fabrics of each one and openly displayed his enjoyment or disgust for each particular one. Surprisingly, he didn't leave any marks on the clothes despite his body.

"Oh. Centurion. Great. Get him out of here. We're going back to the castle."

Centurion took out what looked like a pistol with a revolving blue disc where the firing chamber should be on a revolver, but Ink stopped what he was doing and immediately slid out of the door and into the streets.

"Oh great. He's like a child. We'll split up and search for him. Also, m'am, I apologize for the damages. Hopefully we can pay for the repairs in the future."

Sunrise hurried outside and quickly disappeared as she somehow swung on a clothes pole just to swing upwards and onto the roofs of buildings. She quickly looked around in panic but soon ran away into some random direction. Centurion did not care. It had its directive. It had to find and contain Ink's destructive curiousity, and following the trail down the road wasn't that hard after a certain distance was reached. Ponies were yelling in outrage as stalls full of food had been disturbed with the food half-eaten on the floor. There were some that had the eaten halves splattered next to their bodies. It was clear that Ink did not like the tastes of these things and openly showed it. There were even some that had benn thrown against the ground so much he despized the taste.

Centurion was on the right track. A little further down the road, however, it lost track of the Ink Mechanic. In fact, the mechanic seemed to have ignored this part of Canterlot as it had nothing new to offer. Walking down the street revealed to Centurion that this part was also unaware that Ink was rampaging about after getting an unquenchable thirst for discovery. Whilst scanning the surrounding areas, Centurion accidentally crashed into what seemed to be a rambunctious minotaur with a punk style addled to him. His green fur was only overshadowed by what looked like jacket made from black tar. He stood well over the robot who ignored his feat and stared at the giant.

"HEY! Who do you think you are bumping...into...woah. You look real weird...You stepped into a chrome spray painting?"

The minotaur with awful mockeries looked at his 'friends' nearby, forcing them to laugh along with him. Centurion did not react.

"What? You aren't saying anything?"

"..."

"Oh. The silent type, huh?"

A mare in the group gasped suddenly as her pupils shrunk.

"I...I don't think you should touch him. He's--"

"Shut up! When I want you to talk, I'll say so." the minotaur rudely shouted at the poor mare."As for you, I'll make sure you stay silent for bumping into me."

The giant cracked his knuckles then sent a punch towards Centurion, who intercepted the fist with its left hand. Before its opponent could react to what just happened, the robot twisted the minotaur's wrist and arm, then thrust powerfully and, not only did it bend the arm in the wrong direction, but it also pulled the yeller towards it, only to let go of the arm and swipe the minotaur aside into the nearby buildings. It then ressumed its course through the city, ignoring the yells and stares it was getting.

Coming across a few mores treets, the Ink Mechanic seemed to be getting closer than anything, but that's not what caught the sight of Centurion. The heavily armed robot had stopped in place and was looking, by the corner of its occular visor, a tiny colt recieving a gift from his mother and father outside of a rather large store. The colt seemed overjoyed by this 'Daring Do' figurine and was hopping about, only to finally hug his parents in a thank you. All three walked in Centurion's direction, only to hop back in shock the second they saw him. The little pegasus colt even dropped his toy at the metal biped's feet. It simply looked downwards towards the toy, then back at the child, who seemed less afraid than his parents. He seemed...in awe at the thing he was looking at. The same couldn't be said for the parents who quickly grabbed the colt and his toy and galopped around the robot to sprint away.

For some reason, the moment stayed longer within Centurion's memory banks, but it followed its directive and smashed through a cart blocking its way. Unfortunately, for the residents of Canterlot, it spotted Ink looking at a toy car in the middle of the street flanked by buildings and high walls. To remedy to him running away again, Centurion's back opened up to reveal three long pieces of what looked like a gun. Mechanical arms pulled them out and twisted them into place to form an extremely long, blue rifle. The robot looked through the red scope, then fired off a shot. Three vents on both sides, directly above the trigger of the rifle, opened up and vented out what looked like sparkling blue smoke with a gray contour. It had a peculiarity to it that would certainly make Steamlord nervous...especially as he had nothing to do with the design or creation of that gun.

The shot burnt through the toy car and somehow degraded the house it hit to a grayed husk along with shriveling the small vegetation patch pushing through the tiles next to and under Centurion's feet by contact with the particles. Ink looked at the result of the strike on the building and, with his arm still in the air as if he was still holding the car, looked to his left to see Centurion. The Mechanic's eyes widened exponentially.

"There you are!"

"?"

Ink was bodyslammed into the ground by Sunrise who had jumped from a nearby rooftop. She managed to surprise Ink, so he could not turn into his liquid form in time.

"We're going BACK to the castle. I was hoping to teach you something, but it seems that you're too excitable for your own good."

"..."

"Come on, Centurion. We're going back."

Centurion did as told. He did, however, reflect on the moment with the child and the two progenitors for longer than normal,. It then started to think about its creator and the robotic constructs that came before it.

Steamlord suddenly sat up and moaned:

"Oh no." as he face palmed.

He was sitting at a round table with Celestia, her sister, and a few other ponies. The room was highly decorated with what looked like banners hanging from the walls and ceiling and painted portraits here and there. The room was brimming with heavily armed and armored guards.

"What's wrong?" Celestia asked.

"I've got a feeling that something bad happened."

Author's Note

A recent...event which allowed me to determine who was pretentious scum has allowed me to use this new cover image here and not care about after effects. I should also mention that I based the Ink Mechanic on one of my older creations that I might implement in one of my stories here.

Gun training and algae growing

Steamlord and Celestia were just about to get out of their seats to see what was going on, but not before an explosion rocked the castle, and a guard who, luckily, had a blue, magic shield in front of him blasted through the wall above the doors and smashed into the decorative vases standing on the opposite of the room. The guard was about to say something, but he passed out before he could utter anything but smoke. The doors were pushed open to reveal Centurion carrying what looked like a rocket launcher with many silvery tubings running to and fro through it. Ink and Sunrise followed, although the dragoness was the one with the most panic on her face. Centurion didn't have the necessary facial features to show anything regarding that, and Ink didn't care.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Luna roared. "What is this abomination who dares to hurt our guards and destroy our home?!"

The mare began to radiate fiercely.

"Luna. It's okay. We can--"

Before Celestia could finish, her sister had blasted a cone of energy at the robot, casting it out of the castle and into the gardens far behind it. Luna followed.

"Shit!" Steamlord shouted as he threw his chair onto the ground when he got up.

The others followed lead.

"Dad, I don't--" Sunrise stuttered.

"It's not your fault. Now hurry up. We have to control Luna before they end up destroying the whole mountainside."

"-Yes! Get all the guards around. We have to protect the surrounding areas with a shield barrier. What do you mean by 'destroying the whole mountainside'?" Celestia asked as she diverted from giving her guards orders.

The council and guards in the room all left to handle the situation. Explosions and sounds unknown to the ponies were echoing in the background. Luna was never too good with handling her anger.

"The three Knights are my bodyguards. They were designed to be centered around defensive capabilities more than offensive."

"Am I to understand that this new creation that you explained to us...Centurion was it? Am I to understand that it is centered around offensive capabilities?"

"And it possesses weapons that you won't know about until far in the future."

Celestia felt her heart race. It nearly stopped when a bright flash caused one of the towers to break off and begin to rain bricks and broken glass down below. It took the strength of many pegasi guards to keep it from crashing down onto the ground and the added strength of the earth pony guards to hold the tower down furthermore.

"I can see now why you didn't want to give us your technology."

"We can talk about that later. Sunrise, come with me, and you." Steamlord pointed at Ink."You stay here and don't do anything. I know I'm going to have to deal with whatever you did in the city."

Ink didn't move but just followed the human with his glowing eyes.

"Twilight, I need you to get your brother and Cadence."

"But they're days away from here!"

"Not if I help you get there. Cadence should know how to perform long-range teleportations to get back. They're the most skilled at creating magic shields, so they should be able to protect the citizens around here."

The princess concentrated and created a white portal right in front of Twilight. The mare nodded and galopped into it, only to have it fade into nothing. Soon after, Celestia rushed after Steamlord and his knights. The carnage happening was still unviewable, but the tremors being created were more than enough to explain what was going on.

"Just how powerful did you make it?" Celestia asked in gasps.

"I made it purely long-range to medium-range offensive, which means that I gave it weaponry capable of sustaining both types of combat. It has many things that you wouldn't understand unless I showed them to you."

"DAD! Over here!"

Sunrise was looking through an opening in the castle walls to show blue beams of light coming from random areas of the maze. It constantly caught Luna off guard despite her being high above the ground and more than capable of seeing Centurion.

"I didn't give it camoflaughing techniques and neither did SS. Knights, subdue the moon princess without harming her. I'll go talk to your comrade."

The knights expelled steam in acknowledgement and took off. Steamlord rushed down the stairs and through the grounds. The whole place reminded him of the war he was stuck in, but he tried not to remember. It was a traumatic event that would still come back occasionally. Craters lay strewn about the grounds and rubble was everywhere as well. The man walked about and dived into one of the smoldering craters when one of Luna's bolts deviated from its initial trajectory and crashed near him. Mustering up his anger, the human ran into the labyrinth and searched thoroughly for Centurion. Instead, he found that what was firing those beams was a tiny mobile automaton rolling along the floor.

"If that's here...then..."

"AH! Luna!" Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs.

Steamlord rushed through the bushes to see that his three knights had impaled the night princess with their claymores. She had flown too close to the roof. Celestia was trembling and crying, but she soon rushed after the robots who blocked her blasts and magic spells using their claymores. The night princess fell limply to the ground, creating a loud thudding noise.

"I didn't tell them to kill her...Why?"

Sunrise and several of the guards walked towards the mare who was breathing heavily. When Steamlord arrived they all glared at him. The human pushed some of the ponies away and looked closely at the alicorn. There was something strange about this. Centurion was given the objective of non-lethality unless ordered otherwise, and the three knights had achieved enough self-awareness to know right from wrong, so why would they kill her? Were they protecting their "brother"? Centurion landed right behind the whole crowd and pushed through them and their violent yells. It took out a pistol from its leg sheath and aimed at the alicorns head.

"Centurion. why are you doing this? I did not give you the order to use lethal force. Self-defence does not require you to kill."

The robot ignored its creator and pulled the trigger. The ponies who had jumped on it did not hinder the creation in the slightest. At the same time, an enormous barrier formed around the castle, and Twilight, along with Cadence and Shining, arrived on the scene. The lavender unicorn looked at the human with a smile which soon faded away when she saw the fury he had when looking at Centurion.

"Steamlord?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, is that a changeling?"

"Huh?" the crowd wondered in confusion.

Everypony jumped back when they saw that Luna was actually a changeling that had taken the original's place. Centurion placed something in Steamlord's hand, then walked behind him to stand near his creator, as per priority orders. The human looked to see that it was a type of mucky, algae. There was no real reason to give it to him. So why?

"Twilight, could you get Celestia? She's attacking...My knights. I'll also need to know quite a few many things..."

Author's Note

It's a bit short, but that's because I wanted to cliffhanger you all.

Black ink has memories

Guards were rushing through the castle whilst Celestia tried to recover from her sniffling and tearing up with the help of Twilight and Sunrise. Shining Armor's barrier was still up, so if there were any changelings trying to flee, it wouldn't work. Cadence and Steamlord were both analyzing the body very closely.

"So you're the sister-in-law of Twilight Sparkle?" Steamlord asked as he plucked out some innards from the morpher.

"Yes. And who are you?"

"Steamlord."

"What creature are you? I've never seen your kind. And what are those...things behind you?"

"You haven't seen my species because I'm not native to this dimension, and those four are my creations. Who is the guard who accompanied?"

"He's my husband and Twilight's brother."

"She has a brother?"

"Yes...I can't find anything relating to Luna's whereabouts. This changelings. I hate them so much."

"I didn't know of their existence until now. I guess that the visual scanners of my robots managed to detect that this was not the original. I also believe that you simply haven't searched thoroughly enough."

Steamlord took some 'algae' from the changeling's body and gave it to Centurion.

"Take this to Security System. Have her scan the composition of this mass and pinpoint the most likely locations that they can be found in larger quantities."

The robot took the item and rushed to the other side of the castle. Sunrise ran to her father to tell him:

"Celestia seems to be doing better. She's still in shock from what just happened."

"Yes. I know. Just console her and bring her to her room. She would need the rest."

"Okay, dad."

Cadence just followed the dragoness with confusion and curiousity. The human had started checking his knights for any damages.

"Dad?"

"I adopted her after discovering that her father had died from a bizarre disease that she seemed immune to."

"The Praetorian Virus...but that's impossible..." Cadence whispered under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'll tell you later. We need to find Luna first."

"You'll have to wait, then. The scanning is being done right now, if I'm correct."

The pink alicorn kicked the dead changeling, letting its limp body move a little bit.

"What I don't understand is why this is a siege changeling."

"Changelings have different types?"

"Yes. After their invasion two years ago, we discovered several of them disguised amongst us. Some actually pleaded to stay with their 'loved' ones, so, after an extensive study of their psychological profile along with their partners, we let them go, but they're followed very closely amongst ponykind."

"Really now? Seems rather risky. Besides their infiltration potential, what is so dangerous about these creatures?"

"They feed on love."

Steamlord stopped his analysis of Templar and stared at Cadence with skepticism.

"It's true! They feed on your love."

"What kind of love." he said half-heartedly.

"Any, really, but true love seems to be what they prefer."

"Riiiiiight."

Cadence started to become irritated.

"I'm starting to think that you don't believe in true love."

Steamlord chuckled as a response. Cadence began to growl in anger. Before she could say anything in response, Hospitaller slammed its claymore right in front of her to keep her away from its creator. She turned a pale white once she saw a thread of her mane droop down. The robot removed its weapon once it saw its creator walking away.

"I'll be checking the data in my ship. You...Do whatever it is you're supposed to be doing here."

Cadence didn't like his attitude nor the way this creature thought, but he did seems to have gone through something awful. However, when she tried to turn around, she was met with an inklike figure.

"GAH! WHAT ARE YOU?!"

"Hmm. Tiny pony with wings and horn. Similar to bigger, white equine. Still tiny with slender form. Suggests over-exerting of body and mind. Very tiny." it said as it patted Cadence on the head.

"INK! Don't be so disrespectful." Twilight shouted from afar.

"Respect is irrelevant. Analysis is necessary."

"But you don't have to be so rude."

"You are searching for teh changelings, correct?"

"Y...Why would you just throw that out there?" Cadence seemed very confused.

"Don't...Don't try to understand him. He's...weird." Twilight answered nervously.

"I know where the changelings are. They live in a swamp far north of here. Near city of ponies and griffins."

"The Bubblegloop swamp." the mares tapped their hooves in realization.

"This would explain prescence of algae on this changeling."

"How do you know this?" Twilight asked Ink.

"Ink knows. Ink has memories. Black Ik remembers where it was made and how it was placed. I sent automatons to record surrounding places. They never returned, but one always sent signal as to its prescence. Always had the position of a very moist and murky environnement ripe with insects and disease. Conclusions gave way to a swamp full of enlarged creatures. Changelings likely inhabitants. I will take metal and constructs in castle to make signal to automatons at home. I will tell flyers to arrive at swamp. They must be numerous for changelings are numerous like insect. Singular entity inefficient."

The ink mechanic followed his own words and swarmed back into he castl in search of the necessary materials for whatever he wanted to create. In the mean time, everypony had to watch over Celestia and the castle. Thorough searchers were made throughout the castle, but no new changelings were discovered. It was still unknown as to how they had managed to grab Luna and replace her so discreetly, but had Steamlord not been there, they would have never discovered the fiendish plot...they might have discovered what it was if the bots hadn't killed it either. There was lots of speculation as to what would have and could have been done better amongst the council and the guard captains and generals, but what's done was done. In the meantime, Steamlord had already discovered the location of the changelings and activated his ship to bring it to Bubblegloop swamp. What he wasn't aware of is that Cadence had, like Twilight before her, sneaked onto the ship, although she used to magic to teleport aboard it. She had a personal grudge to settle with the changelings, most notably their queen. Ink and Sunrise had returned aboard not long before, luckily.

Unfortuately for the pink alicorn, she was discovered very early as she didn't have anyone's support aboard the vessel. Steamlord gave no thought to it and left her aboard the metal machine, allowing the princess to observe the interior of such a technological marvel.

"It's amazing. How did your species create such technology? We haven't even gotten close to it."

"I've noticed. You seem to be stuck in a technological era similar to the industrial age of my world." Steamlord answered from the cockpit.

"I would prefer that you do not speak of the old world. Steamlord prefers to not remember it." SS said.

Cadence looked around in panic. She didn't know where that voice came from.

"Who said that? Where did that voice come from."

"I am Security System. An AI. You cannot see me because I lack a physical body."

"O...Oh. That's not really helping."

"Irrelevant. Remain aboard the vessel at all times until my creator states otherwise."

"But--"

"There are no rebuttals."

"I understand."

"We're already above the swamp. I didn't know it emitted that much gas."

Cadance ran forward to see what was going on, only to see that this 'cloud' was actualy an immense swarm of changelings.

"That's not gas. Those are changelings."

"And like a swarm of locusts, we get to see one of the divine punishments brought from above. It's a good thing I created enough bug spray just for such an occasion." Steamlord said.

Pressing a few buttons, the ship deployed its weaponry, ready to strike at the incoming cloud.

Author's Note

I actually wrote "zerg" instead of changelings near the end. STARCRAFT, GET OUT OF MY HEEEAAAAAD!

The little rabbit

"INCOMING!" Steamlord yelled at the top of his lungs.

The cloud had bared down upon the ship and were tackling it or firing strange bursts of olive green energy from their horns. The cannons on the ship were creating a display of fireworks as the ammo tore through changeling after changeling. Ink was still near the entrance of the ship fumbling with his makeshift communication apparatus. Sunrise and the knights were busy controlling any damages being causeed to the ship's exterior whilst Centurion had exited the flying machine and had now stepped onto the roof. Several of the changelings looked at this bizarre creation. They had never seen anything like it, and it didn't give off any signs of love...or life, for that matter. Before these changelings could do anything else, they were gunned down by two arm-mounted gatling lasers held within the robots back. The assembled weaponry was creating an incredibly bright display of exploding insect parts raining down on the swamp below. Surprisingly, Centurion was capable of firing grape-shots from its gatling lasers, creating a lovely mist of impending doom in its trajectory.

"There's far too many of these bugs, dad." Sunrise shouted as she closened on the cockpit.

"I refuse to crash again. That'll be the third time!"

Steamlord twisted his ship towards the left to ram into some changelings in the way, which he did very well. Cadence was rather shocked at this being's ways. Ponies would never have performed such...acts of barbarity. Running down living creatures was a horrid thing to do in wagons, so why do it here? Even though they were changelings, the mere firepower this vehicle possessed was more than many Equestrian ships. The pink alicorn was nearly blinded by an incredibly bright flash of blue coming from a massive explosion in front of the ship. Centurion had blown an immense gap in the rank of the changelings, but it was quickly plugged up. Steamlord was clearly irritated.

"They have arrived. Imminent intereception." Ink said without removing his 'eyes' from his contraption."

"Who has?" Cadence asked.

As Steamlord was trying to correct the ship's trajectory, SS said:

"Incoming automatons. Forms are identical to those encountered near the griffin village."

Missiles came in from the left and blasted through the changelings like a machine gun. The creatures scattered through confusion and many more were gunned down as the bird-like machines flew through the crowd by the hundreds.

"How many of these things did you make?" Steamlord asked in surprise.

"Many. Many are reserve. Many are scouts for mineral deposits. Others are replacements. They aren't sole arrivals. Look through windows."

Cadence hopped up to put her two front hooves against the wall of the ship and took a peek. Two gargantuan beasts of metal were being carried by several of those flying bird automatons.

"I found a place where we can land." Steamlord said.

"It is close to the Luna's position. Digging is required." SS added.

The landing area was an open marsh in the swamplands surrounded by practically nothing. With a controlled rotation, Steamlord landed the ship gently into the murky water. At nearly the same time, the two giants were let go by the "birds" and smashed into the water. These machines screamed and screached as their rusted parts started to work, but they were than enough for the job. The changelings couldn't dent them, but the machines were more than capable crushing anything between their fists. When Steamlord exited his ship and saw this, he was surprised.

"I thought you only had one." Steamlord said to Ink.

"I have many. I only use one at a time. Too costly. Too much space needed."

Ignoring the murky water splashing everywhere as well as the trees being uprooted by the monstrous creations and thrown at the swarm, the group continued though the murky waters, hoping to find the queen, if Steamlord understood correctly.

"Wow. This place is very murky and dirty." Cadence noted.

"It's a swamp. That's how swamps are. Atleast, that's how I remember them."

The pink pony turned her head to look at the creature and hummed.

"I would really like you to tell me how your world is, because I don't feel any good coming from you. I actually feel sadness and regret in immense portions."

Steamlord glared at the alicorn who flinched at the sight.

"Cadence, it would be best if you don't speak to my father about these things. You must understand that there are things that should left in someone's mind." Sunrise pleaded.

"Yes. I understand." Cadence nodded.

Ink and Centurion had already split from the group and were bent over, looking at a vibrating portion of unstable ground. It seemed to be vibrating like water.

"What are you doing over there?" Steamlord shouted.

"Instability in mass. Possible hollowing beneath surface. There might be tunnels here." Ink said.

The creature faded down towards the ground, seemingly putting its 'ears' against it. After awhile, he stood back up and said:

"There are sounds of wing fluttering and hoofs stampeding below. Primary assumptions were correct."

"Then we need to puncture that quietly. Teutonic, could you--"

Before Sunrise could finish, a missile from one of the flying machines flew towards the group and conveniantly smashed near the soft area in the swamp lands. It created a tunnel through which the water of the swamp slowly but surely drained into. Some changelings flew out in terror and ignored the group in order to find a safer place.

Cadence and Steamlord walked towards the hole and looked into the dark hole. Surprisingly, the tunnel they were looking through seemed illuminated by fluorescent green mushrooms growing everywhere.

"Well, let's go."

Cadence was about to jump in, but was blocked by Steamlord's right arm.

"No. That's suicide. Knights."

The three had expelled steam in advance and had were already holding their claymores. They already knew what they were supposed to do.

"You too, Centurion. Multiple targets require rapid firing weapons with high holding capacity."

The machine's fore arms seemed to open to reveal components of arm-held gatling guns. These same components began to extend as the pieces intereacted and interlocked with eachother, the barrels extending and the cartridge belts coming out from its back. The four jumped in the hole, intent on performing their duty. The remaining four waited as silence seemed to be the only thing emanating from the tunnel. The fight still seemed to be going on behind them, with the whole thing apparently resulting in a stalemate. For Steamlord, the Ink Mechanic may have numbers and somehow capable of working with rusted apparel, but sometimes, quality trumps quantity.

Eventually, there were sounds of shooting and general combat in the tunnels that lasted for several long minutes. Smoke began to rise from the tunnel as battle continued to rage like a roaring beast. After atleast fifteen minutes, Hospitaller came out. His presence indicated that it was now safe for the group to enter. Cadence needed to warn the group:

"I must warn you that the changelings can take on anypony's appearance. Be wary of who is around you."

"I think we understood that already." Sunrise said in a disrespectful tone.

"Sunrise. Watch your manners." Steamlord warned.

"...Okay. Sorry."

"Don't use sarcasm."

The four slid down the short way down the tunnel entrance and landed firmly on the ground, or almost. Sunise and Cadence tripped and slammed face first into the mud. They both began to complain and curse in their own ways.

"Hmmm. Tunnel structure chewed out and carved to resemble constructs. Changelings attempting to imitate pony buildings and building techniques. Assume structural integrity of tunnels to be sound. Only things to be wary of are inhabitants." Ink said.

The mechanic...slammed his face into the mud, twirled it around, then lifted it up and blinked a few times. Steamlord just ignored the event and walked away. Ink was analyzing everything again. Steamlord ordered his Knights to watch the front while Centurion watched the back whilst the group walked in the middle. The entirety of these brownish black tunnels seemed rather long, if not excessively long. Every now and then, the group would encounter wht looked like the start of a building front, only to see it stopped midway. The changelings either had problems making them...or were extreme procrastinators. Either way, the group needed to find the 'throne room' as fast as they could. They couldn't evade the patrolling changelings for long.

"Over there." Cadence whispered.

There was what looked like a circular hole in the tunnel walls covered by green algae. Steamlord and the other three slowly walked up to the 'door' under the light of the mushrooms and slowly pushed through.

"Okay. Whatever is through here, you must be cautious. It might just be a citadel full...of..." Steamlord just stared at the horrid view before him.

"Oh dear. I believe we've found-" Cadence said.

Author's Note

-But not before a cliff-hanger.

Blue beetle

Author's Note

I find that this represents the changelings well, but don't click on it if you want a different atmosphere.

Blue beetle

"-a breeding grounds." Cadence finished.

The group were standing on a very high platform with two flat 'slides' leading down both ways. These slides were dug out of the wall so as to facilitate keeping the larva on the ground below. Looking through the thin film used to imitate windows, the group stared at the grounds from very very high up. There were millions of eggs everywhere. Many were glued to the walls whilst changeling workers were placing others near the middle. They seemed to be ready to hatch.

"Hmmm. Usually, the queen would be either in or near the chamber holding all the eggs." Steamlord wondered aloud.

"Then we need to get through one of the exits. There's two on the ground." Sunrise noted.

"But there's a bunch of holes in the walls." Cadence noticed."We can't sneak in here."

"Holes are incubators for newly layed. None are entries or exits. All are to be ignored."

"Oh. Look. They're hatching." Sunrise said.

"That's not important." Steamlord scolded.

"Sure it is. Even for changelings, I suppose. I bet their children are disgusting, acid-spewing worms as everypony says. I'll help with viewing them." Cadence said.

The alicorn's horns glowed brightly, creating what looked like little pink circles in front of everyone's eyes. They functioned like binoculars. Using this, the group looked below to see the changeling adults flying over or walking gently through the enormous patch of eggs by hopping and skipping. There was a bizarre looking one staying near the edge of this patch. It possessed several different limps in place of its wings, and its eyes seemed to be mutated in various areas, possibly for deep analysis of the larva. Being extremely watchful of the eggs, one changeling heard cracks and what sounded like a little squee. One of the eggs was broken open. Its strange, alien-like ribbed surface was broken open, and a viscous, vanilla colored liquid oozed out. There was a tiny, almost transparent changeling who had tirelessly broken through its shell, hoping for a loving world to greet it.

"Awww. It's so cute!" Cadence and Sunrise said in unison.

"...You were wrong about their appearance." Steamlord noted.

"I...I guess I was."

The little baby was violently ribbed from the ground, held by its legs, and carried to the bizarre changeling. Upon closer inspection, it was at least larger than normal changelings by a half. The little baby began to cry, then it was grabbed by the various, very long and boney appendages on the analyzer's back. It just remained sat as the baby was analyzed. It checked its throat, used on of the appendages to check its heart beat, another for chitinous properties, and many more. This all happened in a flash. It then held it up in the air for the worker to take it to the growing chambers. Another came by, but the baby wasn't moving.

"Oh no." Sunrise cried.

The analyzer checked the changeling baby, then said:

"Dead. Birth process defect. Disposable."

It then tossed the baby into a previously unnoticed pile right next to the left-most exit.

"Hm. They seem to have a very effective and direct method of disposing of the dead. I wonder what they do with the bodies afterwards?"

This happened for quite awhile until one of the eggs released a tiny blue flash. One of the changelings hesitated to grab it, but the analyzer forced it to. The baby seemed to have already developped its black, chitinous exterior whilst its "mane" and "tail" were a deep royal blue. It even had claws of the same color. The analyzer scanned it for quite awhile. The little blue changeling began to tear up and sniffle. The analyzer looked closer at its face, but was taken aback when it started to cry. It was affected so much that its head jolted backwards.

"This changeling is a defect. Mutations comprise wings of coleoptera family, and magic absorbing properties within its chitin, suggesting that this is the reason it has already developped an exoskeleton. Exoskeleton is reinforced to control the energies within, whilst the cranial fins store them for future usage. Changelings have no need for these mutations. Magic is irrelevant. This is a defect. Dispose of it."

The analyzer tossed it harshly over its shoulder into the pile, where it was buried by the dead larva. One could hear its muffled screams and cries for help, but the changelings cared not. This was an everyday occurrence to them, so they toiled on.

"I see. I guess that this is how they work in the changeling hives. They seem very Spartan-like now that I think about it."

Sunrise turned around and looked at her dad with anger.

"How can you let them just get rid of that poor changeling? It's just a baby!"

"This is obviously how it works for the changelings. We can't interfere with nature."

"Then why did you save me? Wouldn't my death have simply been a part of 'nature'?"

"Yes." Steamlord answered nonchalantly.

Sunrise was left with her mouth agape.

"Look behind you." Steamlord added.

"What about it?" Sunrise raged.

"Where's the inky creature?" Cadence wondered as she started to look around.

Sunrise turned around, then used the magic lens and started to search all around the grounds. Then she spotted it; A black puddle running along the walls and going towards the pile. It eventually rose up to form the mechanic who promptly tossed the dead larva away and grabbing the crying changeling mutant.

"...Is that why you were so calm?" Sunrise apologetically asked.

"My technology is still working, isn't it? I also can't use my cloak for more than four people, myself included. I haven't had time to perfect it."

"They're going to attack him!" Cadence yelled.

As surprising as it seemed, the baby seemed to like Ink's 'arms', although it was still sniffling and crying. The mechanic had walked to the side of the analyzer and just looked at the eggs. The changelings didn't seem to care. This wasn't normal to Steamlord.

"Let's go. Don't attack unless provoked. We don't want to cause unnecessary casulaties."

"But they're changelings! They're just monsters!" Cadence complained.

"That categorization is only relevant to certain individuals. Sometimes you do what you must to survive. Don't judge an entire race by the actions of a single individual, especially if it's a species."

The groups slid down the pathways, with the robots sliding on the feet, weapons in hand. They all ran towards Ink, but the mechanic asked them to stop.

"This is not a trap. This is my learning."

"The queen is the room to the right, if you wish to leave now. As for you, I did not think you would have been taken by that machine." the analyzer said.

"Machine?" Steamlord wondered aloud.

"Yes. It came one day and destroyed the hive. It took the defect to my left for unknown reasons. It appears that its brain capacity was far greater than initially expected. Excellent adaptation in unsatisfactory body."

"This body has provided increased adaptability to all environnements."

"It does not provided natural adoption of indiciduals for blending and love harvesting."

"Those are irrelevant to my needs and actions."

"Let's leave. These two are going to be arguing for quite awhile." Steamlord said.

The others followed. The robots passed through the algae-like doorway first to allow time to scout. Needless to say, they were 'provoked'. When the three followed, they were surprised to see Chrysalis hugging her throne and shaking in fear. Centurion had stopped in front of it with an enormous weapon in both hands, and the black stains and holes everywhere indicated that it had fired more often near the queen than anything. The knights had stopped in front of the throne and had their claymores slammed into the ground with their hands on the hilt.

"I see you tried to ambush us. Your tactical prowess is...laughable, at best." Steamlord taunted her as he walked towards the throne.

This room was...rather small. All it had was a mounting with small steps leading to the throne that seemed to be an exact copy of Celestia's, itself being even older than the one who sits on it.

"Who are you?! Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what are those th-th-things?!"

"Oh? You haven't heard about this creature joining my aunt's council?"

"Cadence? I was certain you would find out about Luna sooner or later. What did you do to my subject."

"My creations killed it. Rather gruesomly I might add. Now are we going to discuss where the princess is or am I to assume you'd rather have me destroy the entirety of your hive and its residents?" the human threatened.

The changelings were well-versed in emotions and the oldest had learned how to recognize bluffs and so forth from non-changelings. Because of this, the queen knew that whatever this thing was, it definately wasn't bluffing.

Bug versus boot

"What are you?" the queen hesitated to ask.

"That isn't important. Now get down from there. They can still strike you no matter where you go." Steamlord replied.

The changeling began to slide down her murky thrown and onto the ground. She jumped back when the three Crusader Knights stood in front of the path to the throne, then slammed their claymores into the ground. Cadence walked around them and greeted her "friend". She looked at Chrysalis with disgust, which was mutually shared.

"Hello, Chrysalis."

"Cadence..."

A clicking noise was heard, and Centurion was shown to have pointed a gun at point black range at Chrysalis' head from the side. The queen's eyes widened as she slowly rotated her eyes towards the weapon. She didn't know what it was, but it clearly wasn't for toying. Centurion let out bouts of steam as a warning.

"I...I didn't do anything. What's wrong with this monster?" Chrysalis' voice cracked.

"He obviously doesn't like that little stump you were growing on your right side there." Sunrise answered.

"Wh-wh-what stump?"

Sunrise passed the knights and walked towards the frozen changeling then poked the lump on her side.

"Right here."

The lump retracted into Chrysalis' body almost instinctively.

"Fine. I was going to try and kill her. I hate her so much. She ruined my invasion plans, as did that brat Twilight."

"Twilight Sparkle is not a brat! She--"

"ENOUGH! We did not come here to here your petty squabbles. You aren't children. We came here to free Luna."

"She is nearby. Why didn't you just let the changelings take you to me instead of bringing that monstrous army of toxic belchers?"

"Because that would be a terrible plan. No escape. Changeling numbers too great. Steamlord cannot be replaced as his knowledge is irrelevant to this world. Any plans would still be lost. Changelings can assume shapes and forms but cannot assume knowledge."

"Ink?" Cadence asked.

"Yes."

The little blue changeling gave a giggle as it still stayed in the creature's arms.

"Eugh. What IS that THING?!" Chrysalis asked with disgust.

"That is--" Steamlord was cut off.

"I am Ink Mechanic. I have learned that I was once a changeling. An unneeded mutation. I was to be disposed of like the failed hatchlings. I have saved this one from that fate. However, I have also learned that I was raised by a malfunction machine that penetrated the hive and made off with me. Do you know of what it was and how it was capable of such feats?"

"..."

"Dragoness. You and Cadance go get Celestia's sister from the prisons below. You need just head out of that passage to the left, then go left again. The changelings will show you the way. I must speak with these two."

Sunrise looked at her father who nodded in agreement.

"Wait, how do we know you won't betray us?" Sunrise asked after taking her first step.

"I won't. My situation is a bit precarious at the moment don't you think?" Chrysalis nervously laughed.

The dragon tightened her eyes, then took the pink pony with her to the catacombs below.

"That robot was actually brought into our hive by the third queen; My grandmother. It was discovered in the Elk forests far to the north. What they discovered was a powerful piece of technology that could have finally made our hive the dominant one amongst the others, and maybe even made changelings the dominant race. We would have emotional energies in such an abundance...But we could never figure out how it worked. The technology was unknown to us. Eventually, after coming across the very first emplacement and origin of this hive in the Corrupt lands near the end Dry-Devil Desert south of Equestria."

"What were you doing so far back if they're dead lands?"Steamlord asked.

"Not dead lands, Corrupt Lands. There's something there that mutated everything into hideous beasts of unrecongizable shapes and forms. We hoped that it would have healed by now so we could find another place to feast on, but it was still the same. Yet, the scounts found that the vegetation and ground became black and dead, which left some bizarre findings. We found strange metallic structures carved into the mountains and that there was no way to open them. This robot seemed to have been part of the conundrum."

"And you're telling us this why?"

"Because if that mutant was taught by them, we might have a chance to recover whatever is inside that construct. Imagine the power my hive could obtain. Old technology still superior to our own!"

Steamlord and Ink's eyebrows lifted up in skepticism...if Ink had any.

"And why would I help one who rejects mutations?"

"You could be reintegrated into our hive. You could have family!"

"Irrelevant. My constructs are my family, as is this litlle blue changeling. Explaining past events and hoping for positive results is inconclusive and does not pertain to good outcomes in experiments."

"But--"

"We have Princess Luna." Sunrise shouted.

The princess was knocked out cold. She was covered in mud and other swampy substances, and although she seemed n poor shape, she was alive and well.

"Let's go back to the ship." Steamlord calmly added.

The group began to walk away, retracing their steps in the process.

"You can't! We need to know what is inside that structure! It's imperative for our hive and species as a whole! You cannot leave, Ink!"

The whole group ignored her ramblings, and when a few changelings tried to block their paths, The knights sliced them to pieces.

"I should upgrade your rotary parts and speed. I'll think about that in the future." Steamlord told his knights.

After climbing out of the hole, everyone could see that the battle was still going on outside, although it seemed that, despite the time that had passed, there was still no progress for either side.

"Ink, once we leave, could you--" Steamlord asked.

"Yes. They will return home, as will I."

"You're not coming?" Sunrise asked.

"No. Must return home. Find way of raising fellow mutant. No love to give, but changelings feed on other thing. I only require transmitter."

"Then wait here, we'll get it for you."

Waiting as the war raged on in the swamp, Ink looked down at the baby changeling and saw that it had fallen fast asleep despite everything going on. This did not 'compute' with the mechanic's mind or logic. Cadance had actually waited next to the creature and had been looking at the sleeping baby with a smiling face. She couldn't contain herself.

"Awwww. It's so cute!" her voice break near the end. "So you were a changeling this whole time."

"Correct."

"Well...I guess that...maybe...I should visit you from time to time to learn more about your kind through a non-biased perspective."

"Then you were incorrect about us."

"But you must still acknowledge that it's a majority that are like that."

"...Yes. Survival requires these tactics."

"Here." Steamlord said as he passed the transmitter to Ink."We're leaving now. Come on, princess."

"Goodbye, Ink." Cadence said.

The mechanic just stared at her. Her face became nervous and she whispered to Steamlord as they made their way back to the vessel:

"He doesn't seem to understand the waving."

"He lived in the mountains. You honestly expected him to understand our cultue? It's already strange enough that he understands english. Anyways, I need to make my report to Celestia once we get back. I have a feeling Ink will become the connection between ponies and griffons and, quite possible, changelings, if ever they stop being aggressive."

"Why do you think that?"

"I have a hunch is all."

With a violent explosion beneath and a huge belching of mud waters, the cooked dirt broke off the bottom of the man's ship, allowing it to elevate and quickly fly off towards Canterlot. All that was left were the departing machines and Ink with his new friend.

In some deep, dark abyss, sounds of gurgling and roaring could be heard, but muffled by whatever was blocking it from above. The place was extremely dusty and certainly hadn't seen any maintenance in a long time, but it was too dark to know. In this dark abyss, a bright blue rectangle lit up, showing many things flashing across the screen. A voice resonated with varied volumes through what seemed to be an enormous area:

Iron Army Reactivating.

Special: Secret operation

Author's Note

This is a short bonus. It's all you need to know

Special: Secret operation

Steamlord and the Knights had left to find the Ink mechanic again, and while this was happening, the entire ship had been left in its dark and dreary state of loneliness, save for two characters that remained behind. Centurion had stayed behind, not because Steamlord wanted it to guard the ship, but because it was started to develop mechanical ticks reminiscent of when the three knights started to become "sentient". It stood in front of the medical room where Sunrise had been nursed back to health during her young years. The door was wide open, and said dragon was looking at the table with nostalgia. She would occasionally pass a claw across it for reasons unknown to the permanent resident. When she thought about it, Steamlord himself did not change since he adopted her on this table. Would he live forever? Would she?

"What troubles you, Sunrise? You do not wish to proceed?"

"I...still do...It's just...I'm simply reminiscing."

"I do not comprehend this 'nostalgia' concept that many organics talk about."

"And pray that you do not."

"As an A.I. I am incapable of religious customaries. I can create a deity if need be to commence 'false prayers'."

"But you still have a sense of humor. Now, about the procedure--"

"Yes. You have already undergone this procedure five times previously. As an added measure, I have taken dna samples from previous iterations. I have concluded, from the recent batch, that your immunity to a disease fatal to dragons in all cases is not due to a genetic adaptation passed down from the parents, but that you are the first step on the evolutionary chain of dragon kind. The disease is, therefore, incapable of infecting you properly, and your immunitary system has manage to create antibodies. This means that your blood cannot be synthesized to create cures for other draconian species, sub-species, and cousins.

Furthermore, as an evolutionary step, your genes are extremely susceptible to outside manipulations. Keeping your previous dna samples allows me to create a fail-safe and revert any changes, however, even if these changes are applied, doing so will cause Steamlord to become suspicious. I suggest you remain as you are."

"We've already talked over this. I want to be more like him."

"By injecting yourself with human dna and having them applied to your genetic sequence and have your molecular structure rebuilt by the nano-machines to accommodate? Previous studies of literature has deemed one to be cautious. If ever you were to obtain off-spring, they could develop into a vast culture that would--"

"I WON'T be having children! Now just get on with the process. This is the last one, right?"

"Affirmative. All traits linked to mammal reproduction traits have been cast out to allow only skeletal re-adaptations and more...forming. The draconic features are implemented and remain, as always. In essence, you are becoming a humanoid dragon, but each operation can have dire consequences."

Sunrise got onto the table and lied down, readying herself.

"I trust you you completely, SS. Let's do this."

Arms lowered from the ceiling and began disinfecting certain spots on the dragon's body and readied some syringes for their intended role. Centurion looked at the scene from the corner of the doorway. Despite his static posture and emotionless face, he seemed uneasy with the prospect of the dragon mutating her body to look more like her father, but it was her choice.