Origins: PGS-1, Survivor Of The Rainbow Factory (V 2 Edit)by Janson DarkmaneChaptersFailure Results in EliminationPecatoriusDarkness AppealsAnti-Survival 101Of RedemptionFailure Results in Elimination Janson flew through the open sky in an amazing blur. A trail of pure red streamed from his amazing breaking of the sound barrier. No problem. If Dorkmane can do it, anypony can. Dave thought. He geared up to begin, his red coat glistened in an anxious sweat. His wings spread wide. "Begin!" an announcer shouted. Dave began. He shot out towards the newly reset clouds. He append one and rushed to the second. He mis-struck the cloud and went into a tailspin. The cloud-ground of the testing area was approaching fast. He shot his wings out to attempt to correct his falling. That only succeeded for a moment before he fell more wildly. Stands, sky and ground became a blur of motion and noise as he fell to the ground with a soft "whump". He looked up, sweat and tears running down his muzzle. Thoughts raced through his mind as he contemplated what had just happened. Then a familiar tale began to unravel itself in Dave's mind. A tale regarding Rainbow Dash that was meant to scare fillies. At least, he used it to do that. He remembered the story clearly. Rainbow Dash was a judge one day at the contest. She saw four pegasi fail their test, and she took them away to speak with them. Black suited ponies came out and took the failures. Rainbow Dash turned around and said... When you fail, you've proven what you're worth to Cloudsdale. She left, and when she returned, SHE CAME BACK WITH A BLOODY MANE! And do you know whose blood it was? YOURS! That was the story, at least. He hoped it wasn't true. He prayed it wasn't. "Failure. Go to your post and await the end of C Group testing." A judge said in an aggravated tone. Dave whimpered and slowly trotted to the small gate labelled "Failures". He sat there alone for the duration of the tests, until a small yellow pony with an orange and blue mane failed. She managed a perfect takeoff and proceeded towards the cloud-clearing portion. She was kicking and flailing at the clouds, unable to dissipate even one. This continued for several minutes before the judges failed her. She glided over to the gate to join Dave. "Are the stories true?" she asked. Dave recognized her. She was Naomi Oasis. He thought back to Flight Kindergarten. "Stop it!" Naomi cried. "Never, gnome! N-o-m-e! Gnome!" Dave began to tease her. Her friends always called her Nome. He teased her because it sounded like gnome. He thought it was fun. "Yeah, GNOME!" The others joined in. They began to chant it. "Gnome, gno-ome! Gnome, gno-ome!" "I hope not..." Dave's eyes showed genuine fear and sadness for the first time since his father went on a drunken rage and killed his mother. He remembered that as clear as day. "You WHORE! I know that you've been sleeping around on me!" Dave's father screamed. He was so loud it woke up Dave from his nap. He walked out, peeking around the corner to see what was happening. "No! I haven't! Really! Whatever Janie told you was a lie!" Dave's mother cried in her defense. Dave's father back hooved her. "Liar! She showed me pictures!" Dave's father hit her again. She was bleeding from her lip, and bruises showed through her pink coat. Dave held in his screams and watched silently. "Those weren't of me!" She cried. Dave's father walked out of view blaring swears and denying her claims to innocence with more irrefutable proof. She was pointlessly defending herself. Dave had seen other stallions around the house lately. Dave's father returned holding a kitchen knife. "W...what are you going to do with that?" She cried out in horror. "I'm cutting the problem off at the head." He replied cooly. He stepped behind her and took her mane in his teeth. He yanked violently. She sat on her haunches, crying out in pain and fear. Dave covered his mouth with a hoof. His father rested the knife against her neck and breathed out. He then began to viciously hack and saw at her neck. Blood flew everywhere and splattered the walls and Dave's toy furniture. He gasped quietly as his mother screamed through gurgles of blood. His father threw one last powerful chop at her neck and tore off her head. He dropped the head and sat in one of Dave's toy chairs. He plunged the knife into the toy table. Dave ran to his room and lied awake in bed until his father came into his room, coated in his mother's blood. He sat down and kissed Dave's head. The whiskey he had seen him drink earlier, before he went to bed, was still strong on his breath. "I love you." He whispered. Dave cried silent tears. That's when the suited ponies came. They got the yellow pony rather easily into the vehicle they had. Dave was more trouble. They grabbed him, and he sunk his teeth deep into one suited appendage, and quickly bucked the other. Neither released their stone grip. They looked to each other and nodded. Dave took a headbutt to the face. He bit them again, bloodied face spewing hatred and spittle. They huffed and placed a small object against his side. He felt a sudden burn and his muscles contracted. He quickly blacked out. When he awoke, he was in a strange contraption in the middle of an abandoned movie theater. A strong stench of blood and death hung in the air, screaming to him of the night of his mother's death. He looked around. He was bound in chains and there were orangish brown gears rotating above him. What is on the roof?. Then he realized. He was upside-down. He looked around to see multiple suited ponies. They all looked towards a black suited figure who stood, barely visible, in the shadows. She gave a signal and the suited ponies began to shuffle. He heard the machine begin to croak to life. The chains tightened, and he couldn't breathe. He looked around and saw the suited figure begin to laugh as it left the theater. His ribs began to crack. His spine tore itself out of alignment. He was paralyzed. Tears rolled down his face and he put his thoughts to good things. His sister before she died. His mother. His life. The gears contracted until he went went mentally numb. He was then dropped into the gears. He thought one thought mid-air. I wish that I could fix it. My life, my family, all of it. I'm sorry... He hit back-first, and slid beneath the turning pieces of pure steel and wrought iron. Dave was dead. Suited ponies came to the end of a conveyor belt at the base of the machine and took his body, as streams of pure Chroma flowed into correspondent vats below. Pecatorius Scion looked around, and to his avail, a hooded figure approached. The figure was wheeling a gurney that was, presumably, empty. The hooded pony moved closer. Close enough to smell what he had eaten. Scion held up a gloved hoof. Through his gas mask he radioed a simple message. "Get the body from Level Seven. Patient number: 115431101. David Francis Blackhoof. Better known as Dave Blackhoof. Tell Fissionmane to bring the contents of locker number 27. We have work to do." The hooded figure shuffled off to comply. Scion smiled as he contemplated the work to be done. David would live again if Scion had anything to say about it. After several infinite minutes, Fissionmane brought the contents of the locker and "H" brought Dave's body. The gurney was taken by Fissionmane. "H" shuffled off with a grunt. Fissionmane lifted the silk cloth covering the body. What remained of Dave's bright red body was a pinkish husk. The pure black hair was a pale grey. His hair's yellow details were a pale lemon yellow. The bones were all shattered and some even poked through. The skull was fractured and one eyeball had dropped clear of the socket and was nowhere to be found. Excrement covered the back of the gurney, showing more color than the entire body's remnants combined. Horror was too weak of word to describe this mess. Scion smiled beneath his mask. "We're lucky, Fissionmane. This one is relatively intact this time. Not much muscular reconstruction to be done. Minor organs are missing." Scion said, laughing. Fissionmane's eyes lit up. He was smiling beneath his gas mask as well. The large steel box of a room was hermetically sealed as soon as Scion picked up his bonesaw. There was no way out without the correct passcode. Only Scion could authorize exit. Work on Project P.G.S. was commencing. Hours passed, and organs were replaced with engines. Veins with wiring and tubing. Brain with motherboard. Eyes with optic units. Ears and mouth with speech receptors and audio units. Wings with thrusters and plating. Most of the flesh with red plate steel. Hair with metallic fiber. Slowly, pegasi became cyborg After what seemed to Scion to be an eternity, he pressed the power button on his latest creation. Scion always loved to see his contraptions come to life. Pegacyborg G Series, Unit number 1 began to whirr and buzz. Slowly his eye units adjusted to the low light of the boxy room. They fully opened and their central valves began to cycle open to allow for more light to enter the processor. His audio receptors let out an ultra low pitch sound that made Scion and Fissionmane's ears split in pain. The interference corrected itself and the noise died. His vocal output unit let out an electronic beep to signify a test. The ABC's came out in a voice resembling what Time Turner commonly talked about and referred to as a "Dalek". His hooves and wing units shot out in a flexibility test. Then, everything died down to a small whirring and buzzing once more. Scion assumed he was done, and walked over to a computer terminal, and began his report on the first conversion. Fissionmane left to get a drink. The pegacyborg began an internal diagnostic check. Quietly, he repeated what his motherboard processed. "Accessing memory files. File: Converted Memory Files(x86). Begin extraction of non-corrupted data." The pegacyborg informed to anypony who listened. Scion overheard and began to eavesdrop onto the pegacyborg. He looked at the glossed-over inscription on the exoskeleton. It shone the letters PGS in a brilliant red, and the -1 were in a stunning gold plastic gloss. "Memory: Name of Enemy-type: Janson Darkmane, race: pegasus. Memory: Electricity. Storms. Weather event: Electric Storm. Memory: Death, killed, kill. Final analysis: Kill Janson Darkmane, unless otherwise directed." PGS-1 began. "Additional input: String name = (Electric Storm); I am Electric Storm." His volume faded up when he said this. Scion's smile returned. He's learning... scion removed his gas mask and he began to return to punch in letters and numbers into the computer in front of him. Electric Storm slid off of the table with a loud scrape and he corrected himself to a standing position. Scion ignored this, figuring it was a result of further diagnostics being run. Electric looked around and scanned the room's diagrams. He then looked directly at Scion. He assessed his threat level. Likelihood of interrupting mission: 100%. Final assessment: Achieve exit and destroy obstacle of achieving final goal. Electric turned and raised a metal hoof. Scion kept at his work. Electric put his hoof forcefully through the back of Scion's head. It passed through with Electric using less than 1% of his strength capacity. Brains splattered the monitor of the computer. Scion's mouth dropped low. Electric then ran a current through Scion's smashed brain remnants. He jolted to life. "Th...the co...code! F...for the d...door i...is th...th...3! O...on...1! S...si...sik...6!" Scion stuttered out. He stopped reacting, and his head exploded from a massive surge of power. Grey matter splattered every revealed surface for six feet. The chunks shot small jolts of electricity to each other periodically. Electric let a small hose out from his chest and hosed himself off. Electric punched in the code. 316. The door slid open with a loud hiss, as pressure returned the room to a normal niche in the building. Electric brought up the schematics to the Factory work floor in his Motherboard Internal Neurolelectronic Device, MIND for short, and scanned for and exit. The MIND was an integration of learning softwares and necessary storage hardwares, and quickly was able to locate the blueprints. "H" returned with Fissionmane. They froze in horror. Before them stood a soaked Pegacyborg, stronger than all of the Factory work floor's entire workforce. And he looked angry to boot. Electric took off, lighting his engines and lifting vertically into an open access shaft. Fissionmane and "H" went up the long flight of stairs leading towards Construction Room 1. They saw a scene of horror and chaos. The bolted down gurney had been overturned. PGS-1's pure weight had torn it out of the reinforced concrete flooring. Scion, or at least what was left of him, was in a heap on the floor. The dull grey walls were now pink with brain, and small bolts of electricity occasionally shot out from some pieces of brains. They both fainted. Darkness Appeals Electric surfaced on the Factory work floor. Suited ponies stood around conveyor belts that dragged bodies and husks of bodies. They picked out things like valuables and identification of any kind. They tossed them into holes that, according to the schematics, led to the Factory's smelters. The suited ponies sweated and cringed heavily whenever a taskmaster came around. The taskmasters where virtually the same, except they wore cyan helmets in lieu of the standard white ones. Electric guessed that they were linked to his overall creator. Components of creation. The components of his creation were unimportant. Therefore, they were unimportant. Do you ask the mockingbird why the bluejay sings? No, because it is senseless. They cannot answer my questions, neither would a mockingbird be able to. Electric looked up a small staircase that lead to a solid steel door. Above it, a sign read "The Awesome Office". He assumed it was that of the taskmaster's taskmaster. His creator. He approached it and electrically disabled the bypass lock. He pushed the door open. A cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane looked up from a wooden desk and gave a cockeyed look at Electric. She spat the pen from her mouth and shuffled some papers into order. A painting above her OF her shook a little. Electric looked back to see that the door had automatically shut. He returned his view to front and locked eyes with her. "What, pray tell, do you want?" the cyan pony asked, obviously annoyed at being interrupted. "Do. You know. Me?" Electric's vocal commands glitched for a moment, but regained quickly. He barely noticed. "Yes. David Francis Blackhoof, a favorite of mine." She replied. Electric did a history scan to find this odd name. He also referenced the pony ahead of him in the town history. He learned that she was Rainbow Dash, and also found no entries on David Francis Blackhoof, apart from a Canterlot Guard royal decree, stating that George Harold Blackhoof was to be publicly executed for murder, as an example to anypony who wants to think about killing another pony for any reason apart from war. "There are no records... Rainbow Dash." Electric reported. Rainbow Dash laughed. "There wouldn't be. I had them erased from all digital and written sources." "I need knowledge. I am a database. How can I have knowledge if you keep me in the shadowed area of information?" Electric questioned. "This, robo-boy, is need to know, and you don't need to know. I do happen to have need of your services." Rainbow began. "My interest is now peaked. Go on." "I heard about your little incident with Scion. Nasty business. That's why I need you to track down somepony who I know you will want to. Janson Darkmane, does that ring a bell?" Electric's spinal unit straightened at this comment. "KILL. Directive is to KILL!" Electric screamed in an electrical buzz of words and sparks. "Yes. I want him dead. He is stealing MY glory and My SKY. His stupid supernovas have stolen even the Princess' attentions. That was MINE. I want what is rightfully mine." Rainbow started with dignity, but ended up spewing out bits of spit with her teeth clenched during her orders. "The laws would be broken..." "You don't follow the Three Laws of Robotics. We designed you around those..." Rainbow started, but stopped herself from declassifying anything else. "I... I shall obey!" Electric began with a delay, but then responded with vigor and ambition. "Then go!" Rainbow screamed. Surely Twilight would understand a 'rouge robot thingy' killing her most fascinating acquaintance. And Rainbow would get away with it scot-free. Electric left the room with a renewed cause. The floor workers whimpered as a burly pony with a dumbbell cutie mark came by. He was overly buff and bore a cyan helmet. Electric ignored the new addition to the floor, and began to move towards the exit but he stopped himself. There was some unfinished business he had to deal with back in the science labs. And, now that his optical units were correctly functioning, maybe he could actually see what he was doing. He descended through the dark shaft once more. He came out into a dark room. Overhead lights then snapped on, detecting motion in the large corridor. The steel room he was born in lay ahead. He rotated to see hundreds more identical rooms. They were mass producing an army of pegacyborgs. Electric felt appalled. But how could he? He was a robot. Robots don't have feelings. He descended to the floor through several large metal shelves. Walls made entirely out of lockers made the north and east walls look almost armored. He couldn't see the south or west walls, but he assumed that they were similar, and he assumed that the shelving was basically a labyrinth. He began tossing through a random assortment of boxes and crates. He tossed out gears, tubing, wiring, armor plate pieces, optical units and other assorted junk. He eventually came to a box labelled "David Francis Blackhoof" and tossed it over. He found three things among the robotic junk. He found a family photo, a wallet and a letter. He read the letter. On this day, October the Ninth, I write my last will and testament... it began. He skipped to the sender's signature. It read Audriana Renee Blackhoof. He looked at the family photo. A small pegasus was in the photo, and was labelled Little Audrey. Electric stared at the photo, microprocessors nearing meltdown heat while trying to make connections. Foreign emotion programs flooded his MIND. Fear, pain, disgust, empathy, sympathy and others. Thoughts and data raced throughout the electronic highway of his MIND. He concluded that it was not important enough to worry about. He'd looked about, and began to contemplate how to go about his business. He was going to destroy the labs. None of his kind should be allowed to exist but him. He was to be unchallenged by any. Or was it disgust for the atrocities being committed? "Auxiliary power activating, weapon arming..." He stated. A small, metallic tube came out of his central armor plating. His skull pulsed with coolant being diverted to his chest. A small red laser emitted itself from the tube. It locked onto his lab room of birth. It was followed by a high-intensity green laser. THAT was then followed by a pure ray of blue energy. It tore through the metal plated walls like butter. He began to work his way down the corridor of rooms. Fiery explosions and high-pitched screams came from the occupied ones. The other simply melted instantly, having not been refurbished. Metal shelving began a process of sublimation. Electric began to laugh. Robotic howls came from the debris. His brethren were dying. Unmatched in any fields... A single wing unit raised above the death and chaos. A robotic version of a yellow pony rose. Like Electric, the only flesh was her head skin and skull. The rest was vibrant armor plating and robotic components. She rose her half-crumpled figure up onto her hind legs, and screamed in a low tone. Her melting vocal unit lowering her tone to a stallion-like scream. A laser burned IV was embedded in her breastplate. Four. PGS-4. Nemesis. Electric accessed his memory banks for information OTHER than her name and serial number. There was no relevant information. He was on his own. She looked familiar, and he tensed further. Electric took up a fighting stance, but PGS-4 ran. She plowed through a few lockered walls, and flew off. She had her own agenda. Electric concluded that it was wise to continue his agenda as well. He took the exit she made, and took off to find Janson. He could not survive the day. Anti-Survival 101 He adjusted his thrusters to a weaker setting and dropped to ground level. He then killed his thrusters and approached a nearby building. Records say Janson takes residency here. It will also be his grave marker. Electric looked around. It was a heavily forested, yet populated edge of Ponyville. Small shops and homes littered the forest and a single road led into the town's center. He let out a huff of static and went to begin landing at the inn. Electric adjusted his wing units to fold in, and approached the door. He thumped the ground once, so hard that it shook the door off of its hinges. It flopped forward, and the innkeeper who'd had his hoof ready to open the door dropped his jaw in pure amazement. "Summon the one that they call Janson." Electric demanded. "What are you?" The inkeeper asked. "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." "Your name?" "Mortals call me PGS-1. I am named Electric Storm, a name of mine own choice. Now, fetch me my prize." "Give me a moment. I'll see if he's in." The inkeeper said, beginning to perspire heavily. He moved to shut the door, but remembered that it had been broken and gave up. "Be quick." Electric switched to a darker tuning for the comment. The innkeeper went up a set of stairs and turned a corner. He came back down with Janson poking along. Janson paled and froze. "Look into the eyes of your executioner. Do you tremble in fear?" Electric asked cooly. Janson looked past Electric. "Not today!" He screamed. Janson bolted past Electric, taking him by surprise. Electric turned to receive a blast of heat. A small supernova erupted and blew a hole in the front of the inn. The inkeeper screeched, and fainted. Electric barely noticed the explosion. He extended his wing units and vertically took off. He easily spotted the supersonic trail that Janson left, and began to tail it. Janson was a good thousand feet ahead of him. Electric activated his afterburners and shot after Janson. Nothing would contain his hate. No speed would save Janson. He was mortal. He had to rest. Janson began to slow down. Electric quickly caught up with him. He tackled the red pegasus mid-air and tumbled to the ground with him. Electric raised a super strong hoof and swung a hard right. Janson pulled his head back and countered with a suppressed punch to the midsection of Electric's armor. Janson grunted in pain, flipped himself, and escaped Electric's grip. He bounced backward with the sheer force it had required to do so. "Why are you trying to kill me?" Janson shouted. "It is wished by the overseer." Electric hissed. Electric raised both his hooves and sprung forward in an attempt to regain dominance. Janson sidestepped and bucked a hard shot to Electric's head. Electric effortlessly evaded the bone-shattering blow, and shot a hoof upwards. He narrowly missed, instantly bruising the flesh that he skimmed. Janson again grunted, attempting to contain external expressions of physical pains. He was actually doing quite well. "What overseer?" Janson huffed out, exhaustion beginning to take hold. "The great and powerful Rainbow Dash!" Electric laughed. Janson swung a vicious axe kick into Electric's back. Electric felt a dent assert itself in his armor. How?! Janson recovered quickly and put a roundhouse into Electric's centre mass. Another dent asserted itself. Electric countered with a flurry of right and left jabs, each containing enough force to bend pure titanium. Janson dodged all but the last hit. The hit that connected shattered several small bones in Janson's arm. Janson inhaled heavily and exhaled a loud groan of pain through his teeth. That is exactly where Electric aimed his next hit. Janson managed to avoid, even being crippled as he was. He even managed to plant a solid buck into Electric's head. Electric's optical units shorted and his audio receptors rang loudly. "AAARRRGGGHHHH!" Electric screamed in fury. "I may be blinded, but you've not beaten me!" Electric began to blindly punch about. Trees exploded into splinters and ponies that wandered nearby ran for their lives. A building or two even lost a wall. Janson took this rare opportunity and gave his strongest buck to Electric's face. He collapsed, and powered down. Janson flew away to seek medical assistance from Twilight Sparkle. When Electric had fully rebooted, he looked around. Janson was gone, as was the area around Electric. He had apparently destroyed a portion of the outskirts of Ponyville in his blinded rage. Electric took one last look and went to find Janson. He couldn't have gone far. Then, Electric stopped himself and walked towards the centre of town. Public showdowns gave the most grandeur. They also might scare the public to follow the overseer's will. He then stopped. My software is updating... He sat in silence and waited for the update to finish. My "Free thought" program is telling me something. The overseer might be wrong in her actions. They exhibit greed, while this Janson character exhibits no signs of self-aggrandizing or of glory pursuit. He only exhibits the desire to live a normal life. Forgive me, Celestia, for I have wronged you. That's when Rainbow Dash plummeted out of the cloud cover, screaming in fury. Electric turned, and froze. Redeem me... Of Redemption Rainbow Dash crashed into Electric. "You BASTARD!" She screamed. She began blindly hitting at any open piece of Electric she could. Blows came in unpredictable patterns and continually dented Electric's armor plating. Electric threw one punch, and shot Rainbow off of him. "You destroyed all of the Pegacyborg Research Unit! I'll turn you into scrap metal, robot!" Rainbow screamed in fury. "I did what the situation necessitated." "You are rogue!" "That was your intention, master." He hissed the word master, like it was poison in his soul. "I am not your master! I would never command THAT!" "I am free of your will. I never was truly under your command as is, and I now have no unfinished programming if I kill you." Electric let out a low pitched chuckle. "You are DEAD!" Rainbow Dash yelled. She charged at him and swung a massive left hook. Electric took the brunt of the force with his armor. He then returned a crippling one-inch-punch. He heard a satisfying crunch as Rainbow Dash's arm broke backwards. She screamed in horrible pain and used her right hoof to smash one of Electric's vocal emission units. He stumbled backwards and sputtered. Rainbow Dash flew up and delivered a horrendous flying kick to Electric's face. He was nearing another shutdown for recovery. His vision began to fade. He laughed again as he began to leak coolant onto the forest floor. Out of the sun descended a silhouette that smashed Rainbow in the back. The silhouette was the other Pegacyborg. Nemesis. She tried to stomp Rainbow's head. Rainbow rolled out of the way and began to kick at Nemesis. They went at a pretty constant rate, until Nemesis made a slip-up. She missed a kick aimed at Rainbow Dash's knee joints. Rainbow countered with a devastating downward aerial axe kick that drove Nemesis's head into the cobblestone road. Nemesis let out a whine as hear gears overloaded and shattered. Her head became immobilized. Coolant began to flow from her optical units. She looked like she was crying. Electric rose and shook off the blackness. He opened his chest cavity and let out a sonic burst. Rainbow Dash was shot off of Nemesis' head and her ears began to bleed. Electric looked down at Nemesis, sending a SMS to her motherboard. He was greeted with a simple answer: yes, do it. Electric opened a compartment on his metal hoof and pulled out a small metal rod with a pull cord. He held the tube above Nemesis' head. He pulled the cord and dropped the tube. Magnesium Phosphate began to burn it's way through Nemesis' head and fried her components. Electric felt an odd sensation. He felt sad. He recognized his actions. Mercy. He cared about her. He didn't want her to suffer. He closed his optical units and I took oxygen in a heavy burst of vacuum. He needed to cool off. That is when Rainbow Dash sat up. She looked at the scene, wings spread wide. She dashed forward and with extreme force, smashed into Electric Storm. She screamed out in pure hatred. His armor tore in two, and revealed his vital components. They toppled to the ground. She stood over his motionless body. She smiled as she sunk her teeth into a random wire, and tore it out. Electric stopped being able to smell. She was going for another when she stopped herself. She looked up and she immediately hopped off of Electric's broken body. Electric looked up to see a blinding light. The light died down and revealed Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and Janson Darkmane. "RAINBOW DASH!" Twilight yelled upon seeing what had happened to her friend and what she had done. Electric tried to move, but began to fade again. He caught intermittent glances of the encounter. "...and this stays between us. Nopony else outside of Cloudsdale can know what you truly do." Celestia continued. Electric blacked out. "...Let me just..." Twilight began, her horn lit up and Rainbow's arm crunched back to normal. Rainbow screamed in pain, and the Princess left with Rainbow Dash. Electric, once again, blacked out. "...but I just can't buy that this was accidental..." Electric overheard Janson whisper to Twilight before they both left. Electric blacked out and shut down for rebooting. Everything was black, and he was left to his thoughts. Normal thoughts. Flashes of corrupted data began to fix and debug themselves. Sequences returned. His mother's death. His failure and his sister's death. She died in childbirth. She had been smiling as she bled out. She wrote her will, said her goodbyes and had died. Or so he had been told. He was the only living family member that missed it. For what? He was out, torturing Janson. He began to realize that his life had been wasted. And they had given him a new one. His thoughts raced. He was alive. Electric awoke to the sounds of plasma torches. He looked down to see ponies tearing his old armor away, and replacing it. His wiring had been redone, and the armor they were upgrading him to was much stronger. He looked about to see a familiar face. Janson was overseeing the reconstruction. "I. Am sorry. I acted without thought, and simply with haste. I intended to kill you because that is all that Dave remembered." Electric began his apology to Janson. "You were Dave? I am shocked." Janson replied at first seriously, then sarcastically. "Please forgive me. I've wasted my organic life torturing you, when you were doing nothing to me. I am a fool. My sister died while I was torturing you. I... " "That, I can do. Forgiving you is not hard. I read up on your history, and now I understand. I even would go as far as saying that I trust you." Electric Storm laid more comfortably down. His plan was working. Janson trusted him more. Now all he had to do, was to find the courage to kill his savior. It was his life goal. Momentarily postponed by a sense of gratitude. Electric looked deep inside himself to find the reason. He couldn't. If I cannot find a reason to kill him, I will not He wanted a reason. He laid and thought. Unable to find a reason, he sat and remembered his life. If not for you, I wouldn't hesitate. He is my enemy. Was. Was my enemy...
Failure Results in Elimination Janson flew through the open sky in an amazing blur. A trail of pure red streamed from his amazing breaking of the sound barrier. No problem. If Dorkmane can do it, anypony can. Dave thought. He geared up to begin, his red coat glistened in an anxious sweat. His wings spread wide. "Begin!" an announcer shouted. Dave began. He shot out towards the newly reset clouds. He append one and rushed to the second. He mis-struck the cloud and went into a tailspin. The cloud-ground of the testing area was approaching fast. He shot his wings out to attempt to correct his falling. That only succeeded for a moment before he fell more wildly. Stands, sky and ground became a blur of motion and noise as he fell to the ground with a soft "whump". He looked up, sweat and tears running down his muzzle. Thoughts raced through his mind as he contemplated what had just happened. Then a familiar tale began to unravel itself in Dave's mind. A tale regarding Rainbow Dash that was meant to scare fillies. At least, he used it to do that. He remembered the story clearly. Rainbow Dash was a judge one day at the contest. She saw four pegasi fail their test, and she took them away to speak with them. Black suited ponies came out and took the failures. Rainbow Dash turned around and said... When you fail, you've proven what you're worth to Cloudsdale. She left, and when she returned, SHE CAME BACK WITH A BLOODY MANE! And do you know whose blood it was? YOURS! That was the story, at least. He hoped it wasn't true. He prayed it wasn't. "Failure. Go to your post and await the end of C Group testing." A judge said in an aggravated tone. Dave whimpered and slowly trotted to the small gate labelled "Failures". He sat there alone for the duration of the tests, until a small yellow pony with an orange and blue mane failed. She managed a perfect takeoff and proceeded towards the cloud-clearing portion. She was kicking and flailing at the clouds, unable to dissipate even one. This continued for several minutes before the judges failed her. She glided over to the gate to join Dave. "Are the stories true?" she asked. Dave recognized her. She was Naomi Oasis. He thought back to Flight Kindergarten. "Stop it!" Naomi cried. "Never, gnome! N-o-m-e! Gnome!" Dave began to tease her. Her friends always called her Nome. He teased her because it sounded like gnome. He thought it was fun. "Yeah, GNOME!" The others joined in. They began to chant it. "Gnome, gno-ome! Gnome, gno-ome!" "I hope not..." Dave's eyes showed genuine fear and sadness for the first time since his father went on a drunken rage and killed his mother. He remembered that as clear as day. "You WHORE! I know that you've been sleeping around on me!" Dave's father screamed. He was so loud it woke up Dave from his nap. He walked out, peeking around the corner to see what was happening. "No! I haven't! Really! Whatever Janie told you was a lie!" Dave's mother cried in her defense. Dave's father back hooved her. "Liar! She showed me pictures!" Dave's father hit her again. She was bleeding from her lip, and bruises showed through her pink coat. Dave held in his screams and watched silently. "Those weren't of me!" She cried. Dave's father walked out of view blaring swears and denying her claims to innocence with more irrefutable proof. She was pointlessly defending herself. Dave had seen other stallions around the house lately. Dave's father returned holding a kitchen knife. "W...what are you going to do with that?" She cried out in horror. "I'm cutting the problem off at the head." He replied cooly. He stepped behind her and took her mane in his teeth. He yanked violently. She sat on her haunches, crying out in pain and fear. Dave covered his mouth with a hoof. His father rested the knife against her neck and breathed out. He then began to viciously hack and saw at her neck. Blood flew everywhere and splattered the walls and Dave's toy furniture. He gasped quietly as his mother screamed through gurgles of blood. His father threw one last powerful chop at her neck and tore off her head. He dropped the head and sat in one of Dave's toy chairs. He plunged the knife into the toy table. Dave ran to his room and lied awake in bed until his father came into his room, coated in his mother's blood. He sat down and kissed Dave's head. The whiskey he had seen him drink earlier, before he went to bed, was still strong on his breath. "I love you." He whispered. Dave cried silent tears. That's when the suited ponies came. They got the yellow pony rather easily into the vehicle they had. Dave was more trouble. They grabbed him, and he sunk his teeth deep into one suited appendage, and quickly bucked the other. Neither released their stone grip. They looked to each other and nodded. Dave took a headbutt to the face. He bit them again, bloodied face spewing hatred and spittle. They huffed and placed a small object against his side. He felt a sudden burn and his muscles contracted. He quickly blacked out. When he awoke, he was in a strange contraption in the middle of an abandoned movie theater. A strong stench of blood and death hung in the air, screaming to him of the night of his mother's death. He looked around. He was bound in chains and there were orangish brown gears rotating above him. What is on the roof?. Then he realized. He was upside-down. He looked around to see multiple suited ponies. They all looked towards a black suited figure who stood, barely visible, in the shadows. She gave a signal and the suited ponies began to shuffle. He heard the machine begin to croak to life. The chains tightened, and he couldn't breathe. He looked around and saw the suited figure begin to laugh as it left the theater. His ribs began to crack. His spine tore itself out of alignment. He was paralyzed. Tears rolled down his face and he put his thoughts to good things. His sister before she died. His mother. His life. The gears contracted until he went went mentally numb. He was then dropped into the gears. He thought one thought mid-air. I wish that I could fix it. My life, my family, all of it. I'm sorry... He hit back-first, and slid beneath the turning pieces of pure steel and wrought iron. Dave was dead. Suited ponies came to the end of a conveyor belt at the base of the machine and took his body, as streams of pure Chroma flowed into correspondent vats below.
Pecatorius Scion looked around, and to his avail, a hooded figure approached. The figure was wheeling a gurney that was, presumably, empty. The hooded pony moved closer. Close enough to smell what he had eaten. Scion held up a gloved hoof. Through his gas mask he radioed a simple message. "Get the body from Level Seven. Patient number: 115431101. David Francis Blackhoof. Better known as Dave Blackhoof. Tell Fissionmane to bring the contents of locker number 27. We have work to do." The hooded figure shuffled off to comply. Scion smiled as he contemplated the work to be done. David would live again if Scion had anything to say about it. After several infinite minutes, Fissionmane brought the contents of the locker and "H" brought Dave's body. The gurney was taken by Fissionmane. "H" shuffled off with a grunt. Fissionmane lifted the silk cloth covering the body. What remained of Dave's bright red body was a pinkish husk. The pure black hair was a pale grey. His hair's yellow details were a pale lemon yellow. The bones were all shattered and some even poked through. The skull was fractured and one eyeball had dropped clear of the socket and was nowhere to be found. Excrement covered the back of the gurney, showing more color than the entire body's remnants combined. Horror was too weak of word to describe this mess. Scion smiled beneath his mask. "We're lucky, Fissionmane. This one is relatively intact this time. Not much muscular reconstruction to be done. Minor organs are missing." Scion said, laughing. Fissionmane's eyes lit up. He was smiling beneath his gas mask as well. The large steel box of a room was hermetically sealed as soon as Scion picked up his bonesaw. There was no way out without the correct passcode. Only Scion could authorize exit. Work on Project P.G.S. was commencing. Hours passed, and organs were replaced with engines. Veins with wiring and tubing. Brain with motherboard. Eyes with optic units. Ears and mouth with speech receptors and audio units. Wings with thrusters and plating. Most of the flesh with red plate steel. Hair with metallic fiber. Slowly, pegasi became cyborg After what seemed to Scion to be an eternity, he pressed the power button on his latest creation. Scion always loved to see his contraptions come to life. Pegacyborg G Series, Unit number 1 began to whirr and buzz. Slowly his eye units adjusted to the low light of the boxy room. They fully opened and their central valves began to cycle open to allow for more light to enter the processor. His audio receptors let out an ultra low pitch sound that made Scion and Fissionmane's ears split in pain. The interference corrected itself and the noise died. His vocal output unit let out an electronic beep to signify a test. The ABC's came out in a voice resembling what Time Turner commonly talked about and referred to as a "Dalek". His hooves and wing units shot out in a flexibility test. Then, everything died down to a small whirring and buzzing once more. Scion assumed he was done, and walked over to a computer terminal, and began his report on the first conversion. Fissionmane left to get a drink. The pegacyborg began an internal diagnostic check. Quietly, he repeated what his motherboard processed. "Accessing memory files. File: Converted Memory Files(x86). Begin extraction of non-corrupted data." The pegacyborg informed to anypony who listened. Scion overheard and began to eavesdrop onto the pegacyborg. He looked at the glossed-over inscription on the exoskeleton. It shone the letters PGS in a brilliant red, and the -1 were in a stunning gold plastic gloss. "Memory: Name of Enemy-type: Janson Darkmane, race: pegasus. Memory: Electricity. Storms. Weather event: Electric Storm. Memory: Death, killed, kill. Final analysis: Kill Janson Darkmane, unless otherwise directed." PGS-1 began. "Additional input: String name = (Electric Storm); I am Electric Storm." His volume faded up when he said this. Scion's smile returned. He's learning... scion removed his gas mask and he began to return to punch in letters and numbers into the computer in front of him. Electric Storm slid off of the table with a loud scrape and he corrected himself to a standing position. Scion ignored this, figuring it was a result of further diagnostics being run. Electric looked around and scanned the room's diagrams. He then looked directly at Scion. He assessed his threat level. Likelihood of interrupting mission: 100%. Final assessment: Achieve exit and destroy obstacle of achieving final goal. Electric turned and raised a metal hoof. Scion kept at his work. Electric put his hoof forcefully through the back of Scion's head. It passed through with Electric using less than 1% of his strength capacity. Brains splattered the monitor of the computer. Scion's mouth dropped low. Electric then ran a current through Scion's smashed brain remnants. He jolted to life. "Th...the co...code! F...for the d...door i...is th...th...3! O...on...1! S...si...sik...6!" Scion stuttered out. He stopped reacting, and his head exploded from a massive surge of power. Grey matter splattered every revealed surface for six feet. The chunks shot small jolts of electricity to each other periodically. Electric let a small hose out from his chest and hosed himself off. Electric punched in the code. 316. The door slid open with a loud hiss, as pressure returned the room to a normal niche in the building. Electric brought up the schematics to the Factory work floor in his Motherboard Internal Neurolelectronic Device, MIND for short, and scanned for and exit. The MIND was an integration of learning softwares and necessary storage hardwares, and quickly was able to locate the blueprints. "H" returned with Fissionmane. They froze in horror. Before them stood a soaked Pegacyborg, stronger than all of the Factory work floor's entire workforce. And he looked angry to boot. Electric took off, lighting his engines and lifting vertically into an open access shaft. Fissionmane and "H" went up the long flight of stairs leading towards Construction Room 1. They saw a scene of horror and chaos. The bolted down gurney had been overturned. PGS-1's pure weight had torn it out of the reinforced concrete flooring. Scion, or at least what was left of him, was in a heap on the floor. The dull grey walls were now pink with brain, and small bolts of electricity occasionally shot out from some pieces of brains. They both fainted.
Darkness Appeals Electric surfaced on the Factory work floor. Suited ponies stood around conveyor belts that dragged bodies and husks of bodies. They picked out things like valuables and identification of any kind. They tossed them into holes that, according to the schematics, led to the Factory's smelters. The suited ponies sweated and cringed heavily whenever a taskmaster came around. The taskmasters where virtually the same, except they wore cyan helmets in lieu of the standard white ones. Electric guessed that they were linked to his overall creator. Components of creation. The components of his creation were unimportant. Therefore, they were unimportant. Do you ask the mockingbird why the bluejay sings? No, because it is senseless. They cannot answer my questions, neither would a mockingbird be able to. Electric looked up a small staircase that lead to a solid steel door. Above it, a sign read "The Awesome Office". He assumed it was that of the taskmaster's taskmaster. His creator. He approached it and electrically disabled the bypass lock. He pushed the door open. A cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane looked up from a wooden desk and gave a cockeyed look at Electric. She spat the pen from her mouth and shuffled some papers into order. A painting above her OF her shook a little. Electric looked back to see that the door had automatically shut. He returned his view to front and locked eyes with her. "What, pray tell, do you want?" the cyan pony asked, obviously annoyed at being interrupted. "Do. You know. Me?" Electric's vocal commands glitched for a moment, but regained quickly. He barely noticed. "Yes. David Francis Blackhoof, a favorite of mine." She replied. Electric did a history scan to find this odd name. He also referenced the pony ahead of him in the town history. He learned that she was Rainbow Dash, and also found no entries on David Francis Blackhoof, apart from a Canterlot Guard royal decree, stating that George Harold Blackhoof was to be publicly executed for murder, as an example to anypony who wants to think about killing another pony for any reason apart from war. "There are no records... Rainbow Dash." Electric reported. Rainbow Dash laughed. "There wouldn't be. I had them erased from all digital and written sources." "I need knowledge. I am a database. How can I have knowledge if you keep me in the shadowed area of information?" Electric questioned. "This, robo-boy, is need to know, and you don't need to know. I do happen to have need of your services." Rainbow began. "My interest is now peaked. Go on." "I heard about your little incident with Scion. Nasty business. That's why I need you to track down somepony who I know you will want to. Janson Darkmane, does that ring a bell?" Electric's spinal unit straightened at this comment. "KILL. Directive is to KILL!" Electric screamed in an electrical buzz of words and sparks. "Yes. I want him dead. He is stealing MY glory and My SKY. His stupid supernovas have stolen even the Princess' attentions. That was MINE. I want what is rightfully mine." Rainbow started with dignity, but ended up spewing out bits of spit with her teeth clenched during her orders. "The laws would be broken..." "You don't follow the Three Laws of Robotics. We designed you around those..." Rainbow started, but stopped herself from declassifying anything else. "I... I shall obey!" Electric began with a delay, but then responded with vigor and ambition. "Then go!" Rainbow screamed. Surely Twilight would understand a 'rouge robot thingy' killing her most fascinating acquaintance. And Rainbow would get away with it scot-free. Electric left the room with a renewed cause. The floor workers whimpered as a burly pony with a dumbbell cutie mark came by. He was overly buff and bore a cyan helmet. Electric ignored the new addition to the floor, and began to move towards the exit but he stopped himself. There was some unfinished business he had to deal with back in the science labs. And, now that his optical units were correctly functioning, maybe he could actually see what he was doing. He descended through the dark shaft once more. He came out into a dark room. Overhead lights then snapped on, detecting motion in the large corridor. The steel room he was born in lay ahead. He rotated to see hundreds more identical rooms. They were mass producing an army of pegacyborgs. Electric felt appalled. But how could he? He was a robot. Robots don't have feelings. He descended to the floor through several large metal shelves. Walls made entirely out of lockers made the north and east walls look almost armored. He couldn't see the south or west walls, but he assumed that they were similar, and he assumed that the shelving was basically a labyrinth. He began tossing through a random assortment of boxes and crates. He tossed out gears, tubing, wiring, armor plate pieces, optical units and other assorted junk. He eventually came to a box labelled "David Francis Blackhoof" and tossed it over. He found three things among the robotic junk. He found a family photo, a wallet and a letter. He read the letter. On this day, October the Ninth, I write my last will and testament... it began. He skipped to the sender's signature. It read Audriana Renee Blackhoof. He looked at the family photo. A small pegasus was in the photo, and was labelled Little Audrey. Electric stared at the photo, microprocessors nearing meltdown heat while trying to make connections. Foreign emotion programs flooded his MIND. Fear, pain, disgust, empathy, sympathy and others. Thoughts and data raced throughout the electronic highway of his MIND. He concluded that it was not important enough to worry about. He'd looked about, and began to contemplate how to go about his business. He was going to destroy the labs. None of his kind should be allowed to exist but him. He was to be unchallenged by any. Or was it disgust for the atrocities being committed? "Auxiliary power activating, weapon arming..." He stated. A small, metallic tube came out of his central armor plating. His skull pulsed with coolant being diverted to his chest. A small red laser emitted itself from the tube. It locked onto his lab room of birth. It was followed by a high-intensity green laser. THAT was then followed by a pure ray of blue energy. It tore through the metal plated walls like butter. He began to work his way down the corridor of rooms. Fiery explosions and high-pitched screams came from the occupied ones. The other simply melted instantly, having not been refurbished. Metal shelving began a process of sublimation. Electric began to laugh. Robotic howls came from the debris. His brethren were dying. Unmatched in any fields... A single wing unit raised above the death and chaos. A robotic version of a yellow pony rose. Like Electric, the only flesh was her head skin and skull. The rest was vibrant armor plating and robotic components. She rose her half-crumpled figure up onto her hind legs, and screamed in a low tone. Her melting vocal unit lowering her tone to a stallion-like scream. A laser burned IV was embedded in her breastplate. Four. PGS-4. Nemesis. Electric accessed his memory banks for information OTHER than her name and serial number. There was no relevant information. He was on his own. She looked familiar, and he tensed further. Electric took up a fighting stance, but PGS-4 ran. She plowed through a few lockered walls, and flew off. She had her own agenda. Electric concluded that it was wise to continue his agenda as well. He took the exit she made, and took off to find Janson. He could not survive the day.
Anti-Survival 101 He adjusted his thrusters to a weaker setting and dropped to ground level. He then killed his thrusters and approached a nearby building. Records say Janson takes residency here. It will also be his grave marker. Electric looked around. It was a heavily forested, yet populated edge of Ponyville. Small shops and homes littered the forest and a single road led into the town's center. He let out a huff of static and went to begin landing at the inn. Electric adjusted his wing units to fold in, and approached the door. He thumped the ground once, so hard that it shook the door off of its hinges. It flopped forward, and the innkeeper who'd had his hoof ready to open the door dropped his jaw in pure amazement. "Summon the one that they call Janson." Electric demanded. "What are you?" The inkeeper asked. "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." "Your name?" "Mortals call me PGS-1. I am named Electric Storm, a name of mine own choice. Now, fetch me my prize." "Give me a moment. I'll see if he's in." The inkeeper said, beginning to perspire heavily. He moved to shut the door, but remembered that it had been broken and gave up. "Be quick." Electric switched to a darker tuning for the comment. The innkeeper went up a set of stairs and turned a corner. He came back down with Janson poking along. Janson paled and froze. "Look into the eyes of your executioner. Do you tremble in fear?" Electric asked cooly. Janson looked past Electric. "Not today!" He screamed. Janson bolted past Electric, taking him by surprise. Electric turned to receive a blast of heat. A small supernova erupted and blew a hole in the front of the inn. The inkeeper screeched, and fainted. Electric barely noticed the explosion. He extended his wing units and vertically took off. He easily spotted the supersonic trail that Janson left, and began to tail it. Janson was a good thousand feet ahead of him. Electric activated his afterburners and shot after Janson. Nothing would contain his hate. No speed would save Janson. He was mortal. He had to rest. Janson began to slow down. Electric quickly caught up with him. He tackled the red pegasus mid-air and tumbled to the ground with him. Electric raised a super strong hoof and swung a hard right. Janson pulled his head back and countered with a suppressed punch to the midsection of Electric's armor. Janson grunted in pain, flipped himself, and escaped Electric's grip. He bounced backward with the sheer force it had required to do so. "Why are you trying to kill me?" Janson shouted. "It is wished by the overseer." Electric hissed. Electric raised both his hooves and sprung forward in an attempt to regain dominance. Janson sidestepped and bucked a hard shot to Electric's head. Electric effortlessly evaded the bone-shattering blow, and shot a hoof upwards. He narrowly missed, instantly bruising the flesh that he skimmed. Janson again grunted, attempting to contain external expressions of physical pains. He was actually doing quite well. "What overseer?" Janson huffed out, exhaustion beginning to take hold. "The great and powerful Rainbow Dash!" Electric laughed. Janson swung a vicious axe kick into Electric's back. Electric felt a dent assert itself in his armor. How?! Janson recovered quickly and put a roundhouse into Electric's centre mass. Another dent asserted itself. Electric countered with a flurry of right and left jabs, each containing enough force to bend pure titanium. Janson dodged all but the last hit. The hit that connected shattered several small bones in Janson's arm. Janson inhaled heavily and exhaled a loud groan of pain through his teeth. That is exactly where Electric aimed his next hit. Janson managed to avoid, even being crippled as he was. He even managed to plant a solid buck into Electric's head. Electric's optical units shorted and his audio receptors rang loudly. "AAARRRGGGHHHH!" Electric screamed in fury. "I may be blinded, but you've not beaten me!" Electric began to blindly punch about. Trees exploded into splinters and ponies that wandered nearby ran for their lives. A building or two even lost a wall. Janson took this rare opportunity and gave his strongest buck to Electric's face. He collapsed, and powered down. Janson flew away to seek medical assistance from Twilight Sparkle. When Electric had fully rebooted, he looked around. Janson was gone, as was the area around Electric. He had apparently destroyed a portion of the outskirts of Ponyville in his blinded rage. Electric took one last look and went to find Janson. He couldn't have gone far. Then, Electric stopped himself and walked towards the centre of town. Public showdowns gave the most grandeur. They also might scare the public to follow the overseer's will. He then stopped. My software is updating... He sat in silence and waited for the update to finish. My "Free thought" program is telling me something. The overseer might be wrong in her actions. They exhibit greed, while this Janson character exhibits no signs of self-aggrandizing or of glory pursuit. He only exhibits the desire to live a normal life. Forgive me, Celestia, for I have wronged you. That's when Rainbow Dash plummeted out of the cloud cover, screaming in fury. Electric turned, and froze. Redeem me...
Of Redemption Rainbow Dash crashed into Electric. "You BASTARD!" She screamed. She began blindly hitting at any open piece of Electric she could. Blows came in unpredictable patterns and continually dented Electric's armor plating. Electric threw one punch, and shot Rainbow off of him. "You destroyed all of the Pegacyborg Research Unit! I'll turn you into scrap metal, robot!" Rainbow screamed in fury. "I did what the situation necessitated." "You are rogue!" "That was your intention, master." He hissed the word master, like it was poison in his soul. "I am not your master! I would never command THAT!" "I am free of your will. I never was truly under your command as is, and I now have no unfinished programming if I kill you." Electric let out a low pitched chuckle. "You are DEAD!" Rainbow Dash yelled. She charged at him and swung a massive left hook. Electric took the brunt of the force with his armor. He then returned a crippling one-inch-punch. He heard a satisfying crunch as Rainbow Dash's arm broke backwards. She screamed in horrible pain and used her right hoof to smash one of Electric's vocal emission units. He stumbled backwards and sputtered. Rainbow Dash flew up and delivered a horrendous flying kick to Electric's face. He was nearing another shutdown for recovery. His vision began to fade. He laughed again as he began to leak coolant onto the forest floor. Out of the sun descended a silhouette that smashed Rainbow in the back. The silhouette was the other Pegacyborg. Nemesis. She tried to stomp Rainbow's head. Rainbow rolled out of the way and began to kick at Nemesis. They went at a pretty constant rate, until Nemesis made a slip-up. She missed a kick aimed at Rainbow Dash's knee joints. Rainbow countered with a devastating downward aerial axe kick that drove Nemesis's head into the cobblestone road. Nemesis let out a whine as hear gears overloaded and shattered. Her head became immobilized. Coolant began to flow from her optical units. She looked like she was crying. Electric rose and shook off the blackness. He opened his chest cavity and let out a sonic burst. Rainbow Dash was shot off of Nemesis' head and her ears began to bleed. Electric looked down at Nemesis, sending a SMS to her motherboard. He was greeted with a simple answer: yes, do it. Electric opened a compartment on his metal hoof and pulled out a small metal rod with a pull cord. He held the tube above Nemesis' head. He pulled the cord and dropped the tube. Magnesium Phosphate began to burn it's way through Nemesis' head and fried her components. Electric felt an odd sensation. He felt sad. He recognized his actions. Mercy. He cared about her. He didn't want her to suffer. He closed his optical units and I took oxygen in a heavy burst of vacuum. He needed to cool off. That is when Rainbow Dash sat up. She looked at the scene, wings spread wide. She dashed forward and with extreme force, smashed into Electric Storm. She screamed out in pure hatred. His armor tore in two, and revealed his vital components. They toppled to the ground. She stood over his motionless body. She smiled as she sunk her teeth into a random wire, and tore it out. Electric stopped being able to smell. She was going for another when she stopped herself. She looked up and she immediately hopped off of Electric's broken body. Electric looked up to see a blinding light. The light died down and revealed Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and Janson Darkmane. "RAINBOW DASH!" Twilight yelled upon seeing what had happened to her friend and what she had done. Electric tried to move, but began to fade again. He caught intermittent glances of the encounter. "...and this stays between us. Nopony else outside of Cloudsdale can know what you truly do." Celestia continued. Electric blacked out. "...Let me just..." Twilight began, her horn lit up and Rainbow's arm crunched back to normal. Rainbow screamed in pain, and the Princess left with Rainbow Dash. Electric, once again, blacked out. "...but I just can't buy that this was accidental..." Electric overheard Janson whisper to Twilight before they both left. Electric blacked out and shut down for rebooting. Everything was black, and he was left to his thoughts. Normal thoughts. Flashes of corrupted data began to fix and debug themselves. Sequences returned. His mother's death. His failure and his sister's death. She died in childbirth. She had been smiling as she bled out. She wrote her will, said her goodbyes and had died. Or so he had been told. He was the only living family member that missed it. For what? He was out, torturing Janson. He began to realize that his life had been wasted. And they had given him a new one. His thoughts raced. He was alive. Electric awoke to the sounds of plasma torches. He looked down to see ponies tearing his old armor away, and replacing it. His wiring had been redone, and the armor they were upgrading him to was much stronger. He looked about to see a familiar face. Janson was overseeing the reconstruction. "I. Am sorry. I acted without thought, and simply with haste. I intended to kill you because that is all that Dave remembered." Electric began his apology to Janson. "You were Dave? I am shocked." Janson replied at first seriously, then sarcastically. "Please forgive me. I've wasted my organic life torturing you, when you were doing nothing to me. I am a fool. My sister died while I was torturing you. I... " "That, I can do. Forgiving you is not hard. I read up on your history, and now I understand. I even would go as far as saying that I trust you." Electric Storm laid more comfortably down. His plan was working. Janson trusted him more. Now all he had to do, was to find the courage to kill his savior. It was his life goal. Momentarily postponed by a sense of gratitude. Electric looked deep inside himself to find the reason. He couldn't. If I cannot find a reason to kill him, I will not He wanted a reason. He laid and thought. Unable to find a reason, he sat and remembered his life. If not for you, I wouldn't hesitate. He is my enemy. Was. Was my enemy...
