Meaningless Murder Pony Portal Pals

I was not surprised to find that Vibia had lied to me, and that Overmind’s lair was completely unprotected. The brown mare explained it away as a short circuit, as if personally designing three arcologies hadn’t given me enough knowledge of electrical engineerings to discern bullshit.

Overmind’s chamber was in total disarray. Two pyramids of machinery, one inverted on the ceiling, pointed towards a single point in center of the massive room. A mess of dangling wires hung off the ceiling, spitting liquid onto the electronics below.

Celestia was missing. Without her, Overmind was less than useless. Without Overmind, the knowledge stored on the millions of computers of C.A.R.E. could never be accessed.

“The twin is still here.” Maneframe said to me.

Indeed, tangled up in the wires was a mechanical alicorn, an android replica of Celestia. I flew up to it’s level for a closer look. The artificial skin and hair had rotted, but the machinery seemed perfectly functional, save for one part.

“They took her magic chip.” I called down where the others were standing.

“And the box of spares.” Vibia noted. “And without that brain, she’s just a tin pony.”

“It’s not a brain. It couldn’t think on it’s own, just say what Celestia directed it to.” I corrected. Magic chips were the cutting edge in my day, an electrical architecture that simulated a pony’s attuned lobe. Maneframe’s observer robots each had one that emulated me, which allowed her to direct them as she had my sleeping body.

Speaking of which, the observer was pulling itself up the pyramid. “I brought a spare.” Maneframe said. “I anticipated this.”

“Then give it here!” I swoope up and took the chip from the observer’s outstretched hooves with my magic. I brought it to the twin and slid it into the vacant slot in it’s neck.

The twin jerked violently, untangling itself from it’s wiry prison. It succeeded, and tumbled downwards, it’s featherless wings doing nothing to slow it. It bounced into a pile of garbage.

“Graceful.” I said.

“I give it ten outa ten.” Vibia clopped her hooves against the ground.

The twin pulled itself out of the garbage. It had a mouth, and so Maneframe’s words were infinitely more audible. “I’m used to operating Twilight’s body. This one is much lankier.”

“Operate Twilight’s body?” Vibia snickered. “Is that a wierd sex thing?”

“Shut up you. I told you about the possession thing already.” I snapped.

In a mimicry of a pony clearing her throat, the electric alicorn vocalized a choppy grunt. “I’ve accesses the twin’s temporary memory.” Maneframe said. “I know where all the ponies of C.A.R.E. went.”

-

We were below the deepest core in the facility, in recently excavated tunnels. Without ventilation, the air down here reached hundreds of degrees, something that was being slowly remedied with the return of power.

Maneframe explained as we moved. “Overmind was directing multiple highly experimental projects, and I can only find fragments of each. The full reports are somewhere in the facility proper, but i can give you a summary.

“Apparently H.A.R.M. wasn’t the only arcology to militarize. The labs here have been experimenting with genetic engeneering far beyond anything we’ve seen before. Cloning, surgical augmentation, psychological conditioning, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Why would Overmind make supersoldiers?” I asked.

“For project number two.” Maneframe said. “She was building up huge stockpiles of survival equipment, agricultural equipment, and military equipment. It wasn’t very sophisticated, but there was enough for every pony in C.A.R.E.”

“Where in the hell would they settle?” Vibia asked. “The surface is a worse hell than this hole.”

“That brings us to project number three: The portal.”

Oh gods, I had forgotten about that. I had, for whatever reason, assumed that the portal had been incoming, like when the late Sunset Shimmer had tried to take the element of magic. The fact of the matter was beginning to dawn on me.

“Overmind created a stable portal to another dimension. She intended to take her followers, and settle them there, no matter what lay on the other side. I believe that she was very prepared for was if the other world proved hostile to her ambitions.”

“Oh Celestia, what have you done?” I wailed. “We… We have to stop her.”

“That would be a fine idea, if she hadn’t days ago.” Vibia said. “Or didn’t you notice that Dodge was gotten the hell out of.”

-

It was at the end of one of the tunnels, in a specially designed room. I was expecting something sophisticated and advanced, a successor to the magical mirrors of the past age. This was not that, though it was somewhat reflective, but otherwise it was simply a massive shallow silver dish laid against the wall.

“Portal technology has not advanced much since the days of Starwirl.” Maneframe said.

“Star-who?” Vibia scratched her head.

I sighed. There was nothing we could do now. Celestia and her ponies had already gone through. There was no putting that cat back in the bag.

“I’m going through.” I announced. I have to see Celestia, and get her side of things.

“That’s insane.” Maneframe said. “Celestia has lost much more than you and I, Twilight, and this is her way of coping.”

“By going on a potentially genocidal crusade?” I challenged. “I’ve been to the other worlds before, and I can assure you that absolutely none of them could withstand a technologically advanced army of supersoldier ponies.”

“Then do what you feel is right. It’s not as if I can stop you.” Maneframe said.

“You could still try to stop her.” Vibia suggested. “An then I can watch a sickass alicorn robot battle to the death!”

“What are you still doing here? Go back to the staging area, and evacuate with all the others.” This crude mare was starting to wear on me.

“I’m cool with just following you around.” Vibia said. “But maybe I have a deal for you. A coin toss. You win, I leave. I win, you sleep with me.”

“What the FUCK.” Maneframe balked.

“Watch your language missy.” I said. “And as for your bet, I refuse.”

“Pussy.” Vibia taunted.

“Did you know I could melt the fat off your bones while you still live to experience it?” I raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Sounds sexy.” Vibia grinned.

That was it. I was leaving right then. I didn’t even care what crap Celestia might have waiting on the other side. I was crossing through the portal.

“Just so you know, the destination of the portal may have changed.” Maneframe was saying as I experienced the surreal transformations of dimensional shift.