I was programmed for this...

Oh Celestia, what have we done!?

Alternate title: Another Path

Despite my protests, the mares began to lift me. To my horror, they were able to lift my weight and began to slowly move me over to the opposite side of the abyss. I thought about demanding to be put back, but it was already too late.

Alarms went off throughout my system as I watched Fluttershy slowly begin to lose her grip, Rarity and Twilight began to break into a heavy sweat and Applejack just watched in horror with a straight-maned Pinkie Pie beside her, they both knew what was about to happen.

Fluttershy lost her grip first, my weight shifted, causing Rarity to scream in pain as blood trickled from both her nostrils, Twilight grunted, another magical layer appearing around her horn as blood trickled from her left nostril, though not as much as Rarity.

Rarity passed out, collapsing to the ground, Rainbow Dash lost her grip, Twilight remained. Her horn was so bright it was painful to look at, blood dripped from her nostrils onto the ground, producing a puddle underneath her, She's going to kill herself if she doesn't stop! I realised. In a panic, I turned to Applejack, "Applejack! Stop her! She's killing herself!" She just stood there, shocked, I tried again, "Applejack!" That broke her out of it, she shook her head and turned towards Twilight, she turned back to me and nodded, mouthing, "I'm sorry." Before she tackled Twilight to the ground, breaking her concentration and causing me to fall, alarms flashed, silent klaxons blared, my systems shutting themselves down one by one as I spun down into the depths of the abyss...

Twilight Sparkle slowly regained consciousness, she felt as though she was bring shaken and her ears were ringing. Her senses started to clear, "-an you hear me? Twilight!" She blinked, staring at Applejack as she shook her and screamed at her to wake up.

"A- Applejack? W-where? Wha-?" Suddenly, she remembered, "Oh Celestia, FalAIr!" She tried to get up, but her head spun and she collapsed back onto her side.

"Woah there Twilight, settle down," Applejack soothed, Twilight turned to her in a panic,

"But FalAIr! Is he okay?" She frantically looked around, searching for the stallion. She couldn't find him, only succeeding in giving herself a headache.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but, ya dropped him into the abyss. He's gone." Twilight just blanched, staring into space for a moment before she broke down and began to cry. Applejack leaned in and hugged her friend, offering her a shoulder to cry on.

Rainbow Dash comforted Fluttershy nearby, as she cried into her arms. Pinkie Pie checked up on Rarity, her mane and tail straight and tears in her eyes, Rarity had not woken up yet.

Twilight stopped crying briefly to utter a single sentence, "Celestia, what have I done?"

Commencing system reboot...
Performing systems check...DONE
Performing Software check...DONE
Performing Diagnostics......DONE
Diagnostic report:
Severe hull damage
Right foreleg unresponsive
Left optical lens damage detected
Motor damage detected
Synthetics unresponsive
Shields down
Arcane Battery level: MED
Loading last accessed data.....ERROR
Data corrupted
Attempting data recovery.....DONE
Some data was unable to be recovered
System reboot complete

The lights in FalAIr's eyes slowly flickered to life, illuminating some of the area surrounding the wounded robot, some rats and mice scurried away from the light. The robot groaned, slowly moving its limbs in an attempt to get up.

I was able to get up, only to crash back down onto my other side, I moved my head to look at my right foreleg to assess the damage, the leg looked salvageable at least, as long as someone knew how to reattach it, the leg lay close beside me, only held on by wires and circuitry, if i tried to move it, the wires would spark.

I looked around, my vision slightly impaired because my left lens was cracked, but I was able to make out an opening in the cliff face, it was my best bet, so I slowly tried to get up again. I was successful this time, wobbly, but successful, I slowly made my way towards the hole in the cliff face, avoiding bumps and cracks in the ground so as not to fall over and waste time getting back up, as far as I knew, right now I just had to get back to the girls.

It took me some time to get there and I stumbled a few times, but I finally made it to the hole in the cliff face, I looked inside, enabling night vision for a better view, my leg sparked again, briefly blinding me, but it passed. I was able to see into the hole, and I sighed at my luck, there was a stairway, leading upwards towards a small ladder that led to a trap door. Possibly leading into the ruins, I made forward to head up the stairs. I struggled taking the first step, my motors complaining at the extra work, I had to lean against the wall due to my missing leg.

The second step was even harder, the individual motors in my hind legs didn't fare well, clicking every so often as they tried to lift each leg. I made it partway up the steps before I realised that my missing leg was going to catch on the ledge of each step. I had to remove it. I brung what was left of the leg up to my muzzle, bending down as well to meet it partway and I bit into the wires. They sparked against my muzzle, causing warnings to flash all over the place. This was going to waste a bit of energy. By the time I had removed the leg, my battery power was reading at LOW. I was going to have even more trouble getting up he stairs now, not to mention that ladder.

I hobbled my way up to the stairs, ignoring the low battery warnings I was getting the entire way. I noticed one in particular however, the one that caused dread to drop inside me. BATTERY POWER: CRITICAL, SWITCHING TO EMERGENCY POWER. The lights in my eyes went out and I was plunged into darkness. I could faintly see the ladder, but it would be enough. I went through and disabled most of my system software to allow more owner to be redirected to my three remaining limbs, it caused me great discomfort and I became confused very quickly, but I knew one thing, I had to get up this ladder. I didn't know why, I just had to. I began the agonisingly slow climb, grabbing with teeth and legs to pull me up the ladder. It was so slow it hurt. By the time I made it to the top I'd felt like centuries had passed.

I looked up, expecting to see something, but I saw nothing, I pushed upwards with my head experimentally, and felt something move. I pushed more this time, and shifted he tile out of the way enough to pull myself out onto the surface. My systems re enabled automatically and I looked around, immediately searching for the girls. I didn't see anyone, I sighed in defeat. I began hearing a low beeping sound, I looked around for what it was, only to realise it was me. I was dying. My emergency power was all used up. I lay there, waiting for the inevitable end.

But suddenly a light flashed above me, and none other than Twilight Sparkle flew out to land in front of me, I heard another pony land behind me, but I could not move to see who it was, whoever it was had noticed me however, "What the buck is this thing?" I felt them prod me with a hoof. Twilight looked at me, mouth agape, "No matter, it is none of my concern."

Twilight glanced at me, then at the pony behind me, then back at me, then at the pony again. Finally, she couched down and started pawing at the ground, "You're kidding," the pony behind me said, "You're kidding, right?" Twilight however, was obviously not kidding, she began to advance as her horn glowed bright atop her head. She began trotting faster and faster, eventually breaking into a swift canter.

I heard hoof steps behind me as well and I saw a huge black alicorn in dark blue armor run by me, I'd never seen anything like it! I subconsciously disabled all my systems except my optics to reserve power and to watch what was happening. The two ponies gradually got closer and closer as Twilights horn glowed brighter and brighter until when they were about to collide, Twilight disappeared! I did not know where she went, I re enabled my hearing just in case.

I'm glad I did though, I heard Twilight behind me, "Come on, come on" the pony in front of me suddenly turned into a blue tornado and flew by my head. I heard a yelp and Twilight went flying in front of me.

"No, no!" I heard the mare behind me say, Twilight smirking in triumph as she got back up. She suddenly gasped

"But, where's the sixth element?" She asked, as the mare behind me started to laugh evilly. I heard a bang and something shatter and Twilight's spirit seemed to shatter as well.

"You little foal! Thinking you could defeat ME!" Twilight cowered in front of me, sparking something inside my Hardware. Streams of data poured through my head.

DEFENSE SYSTEMS ACTIVE
WARNING: LOW POWER
TARGET ACQUIRED

A circular reticule glowed around Twilight.

DEFEND TARGET

I slowly rose to my hooves, hearing both Twilight and the mare behind me gasp in surprise, "What is this thing?"

I turned toward that dark alicorn and raised my head, "Y-you s-s-sh-shall n-no-not t-touch-ch a hai-ir on thi-this m-m-mar-res h-head!"

Suddenly, Twilight, who was behind me now, began talking to the dark alicorn. I moved backwards slowly, keeping my eyes on the mare 24/7. I couldn't hear anything they were saying because I'd lost power to my hearing, but I had an idea.

As I watched the dark alicorn, I noticed shards of something start flying past me, I wasn't fast enough to stop them, so I kept focusing on the alicorn. A few moments went by and the shards kept flying past. Until they stopped.

Then, suddenly a rainbow burst from behind me and struck the alicorn, who struggled in its light,it seemed to vaporise her, causing the data that was streaming through me to stop suddenly. I stood there for a moment, before beginning to stumble, I saw a light descend towards the ground before I collapsed, clanging onto the ground, my vision fading to black. The last things I saw:

POWER DEPLETED
SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN
FALAIR SHUTTING DOWN...