"It's empty!" The group was surprised, they were expecting to meet somepony sitting at the throne waiting for them. They did not expect an empty throne room, it's lavish decorations making it an even stranger sight. Stained glass windows decorated the room with depictions of the most important moments in the city's history.

"For an empty room it is quite well guarded." Midnight Edge spoke looking at the guards inside the room. Large machines shaped like centaurs, their quadruped bodies with humanoid torso resembled that of Tirek himself, their heads however were not as reminiscent of the horrible tyrant. Their clockwork bodies had heads with three eyes and the engraved resemblance of a menacing face, with one horn in the center pointing upward. The guards were armed with shields and what looked like decorated metal pole arms. On their bodies they had all engraved the same name, “Efreet”.

"Oh! She must be asleep. Sorry about that. I shall wake her up shortly. Meanwhile enjoy the depiction of our history, It was inspired by the one in Canterlot. Look! That one depicts my birth!" Bernardt pointed at a window depicting a reddish purple unicorn assembling a bipedal machine.

Bernardt entered through a door near to the throne and locked it behind him. The ponies waiting for his arrival, observing the windows. They noticed the windows rarely depicted the so called Princess of Artifice, who was never fully shown.

...

After a long wait a pony entered the Throne room, followed by Bernardt. The hooded figure sat on the throne and then spoke. "Welcome to my kingdom. I hope you are pleased with what you have seen so far. For you have seen the future!"

"Behold! The mare of mystery!. Come on dude! Cut it out! Stop pretending to be some sort of high royalty. You are nothing but the daughter of a craftspony and a sorceress." Midnight Edge challenged the mare, he felt no contempt for her but was angered by her behavior.

"Oh my brother. Why do you hurt my heart with your words." The hooded figure took her hood off and revealed the face of a young unicorn mare. Her reddish purple hide contrasted with her blue mane, her eyes had strange red irises which made her look almost sinister.

"Well. You were kind of ruining this sweet family reunion with your silly princess role play, Gears."

"Princess Midnight Gears for you brother!" The mare laughed and looked at the other ponies, "You call this a family reunion. But you brought ponies I don't remember as blood. Who are these? What are they to you?"

"Well. Technically part of our family now."

"Which one links to our bloodline? Which have you granted your love my brother?" The unicorn mare looked at the group, not sure what to feel. "What kind of mare could accept a meat eating mutant?"

"I do! I am almost his wife already!" Babs Seed stood firm, challenging the mare with her eyes. "Got any problem with that, sister?"

"Insolent foal! Show some respect to the Princess of Artifice!" Bernardt looked at the filly, his eye red in anger.

"Quiet Bernardt! She is my brother's wife. Or so she says. I guess she has earned some privileges from that. A filly... Oh brother. I knew your tastes were weird, but I did not expect you to become a filly fiddler. I must admit I keep some surprises for you too. And who is the other mare? Her sister? Her mother? No... She can't be her mother, she would have killed you."

"I'm her cousin. And you shouldn't be so rude to us." Applejack responded, she was ready to fight against what looked like a villain to her.

"Forgive my manners. I have been here for so long. I guess I got a bit carried away. I can't help but mock my dear brother. He always amused me with his abnormal behavior."

"I have been a terrible brother. I acknowledge that. But it's over. We are going home now."

"Why should I leave. Here I rule supreme!" The mare stood removing her robe, as the robe fell, her secret was revealed, wings. The mare was an alicorn, wearing adorned decorations and a black cape. "See? I told you I had a surprise for you."

"It can't be!" Applejack was shocked, her eyes couldn't believe what she saw.

"Sister. What have you done! How did you get those wings!" Midnight Edge was as surprised as applejack, but he was also angry, whatever his sister did challenge the natural order of things in his eyes.

"Science brother! Science is the answer to everything! Tell me. Do you ever wonder why other ponies don't like the taste of meat?"

"I knew there was a reason." Babs Seed spoke. She was slightly less surprised than the others. She guessed right when she assumed the princess was also Midnight Edge's sister, and also expected she would reveal some sort of change to her own look at some point.

"We have some mutations which allow us to eat meat, by understanding those mutations I created a mutagen which allowed me to alter my form using my own bloodline as template. Remember our grandfather was a pegasus? Well, I realized, just like our brother was born a pegasus, I could grow wings with the right mutagen and become an alicorn."

"But that isn't how alicorns are made! You must earn it!" Applejack was surprised, she couldn't imagine somepony would try to become an alicorn through science.

"Is that why you were hiding that the last time we met. Right? Why?! Why would you hide it?"

"Well. My transformation is not complete. My magic is not strong enough. These wings are functional, but I can't walk on clouds, and my magic is not alicorn magic yet. I needed something else I guess. And it had a few side effects. It affected my temper."

"You did not just go insane then. I should have suspected before, that madness came from somewhere else. That mutagen of yours made you go insane."

"Silence! I can control my anger now, I am stronger, it is just a matter of time before I become a true alicorn."

"I'm sorry to tell you, but that's not how alicorns are made." Applejack responded trying to reason with the false alicorn. "You just can't become an alicorn by drinking some potion. It takes more than that."

"Sister. Listen to her. This is absurd. Insane. You ran away from home pursuing this madness. I should have never told you greatness was more important than a good life. I was wrong, I failed to be a good example. You pursued something impossible."

"You are wrong! I pursue the future! These machines will help and serve us, they will make everything easier for us. My automatons will take care of pointless menial tasks such as bucking apple trees and cleaning sewers."

"I'm pretty much sure ponies don't need machines to do everything for them." Applejack understood well how automation and mechanical labor could ruin some processes.

"How do you know? My workers could do the work of a single pony twice as fast, they are twice as efficient, and they don't make mistakes."

"But they can't cook." Babs Seed attacked her argument with the only weakness Midnight Gears was forced to acknowledge, the truth was they were unable to create new things when they required certain senses, such as new dishes, and even their cooking was bland and automated. "Maybe they could learn a recipe or two. But they will never come up with something new, they don't even know what things taste like. An apple pie made by your robots will never be as good as the ones Granny Smith makes."

"But there are few limits. They could make life easier."

"Maybe. But they won't make life better. Easier isn't always better. And there are many things ponies would rather do on their own." Applejack tried to reason with the mare.

"Sister. Listen to them. These are the ponies you want to help. But you can't help them like that. You want to make a better world for everypony, but this mechanical city is not a better place. At it's best is an amusement park, at it's worst a prison with golden bars."

"Machines are the future. But not like this." Applejack approached the mare and looked at her in the eye, finding kindness in those mysterious red eyes. "There's a place for your machines in Equestria, but you won't find it here."

"Come with us sister. Let's go back home. Let Bernardt handle this place in your absence."

– Maybe you are right. I spent so much time building this place, I didn't even care to think what everypony needed, I just wanted to make them need what I wanted them to need. Maybe it was not innovation, but pride that guided me. I should have created more machines like Bernardt and less like those simple drones and the Efreet. Machines that could be our friends, not our servants.

The mare stepped down from her throne and approached Midnight Edge, she was ready to let her crazed dream go and start anew. She could never revert her change or dismantle her city, but she could stop the growth of her city and face the truth of her transformation. She was not an alicorn princess with a great nation, she was just a mutant ruling a city with no inhabitants.

Right before she decided to leave, a window broke. A cream colored mare with pink and blue mane entered and impacted Bernardt with her hooves, damaging the sentient and forcing his deactivation. "Stop right there! You are under arrest for conspiring against Princess Celestia! I knew you would take me to something big if I followed you. I, Sweetie Drops, declare you as traitors!".

"What is this supposed to mean! Bon Bon! I knew you meant trouble. How long have you been following me?" Midnight Edge was enraged, he did not expect the intrusion of the only inhabitant of Ponyville who had no respect for him.

"Ever since you arrived. I knew you were behind something dirty. I couldn't get you for your acts with that filly, but now I have proof you have been conspiring with the creator of those strange machines. Did you think S.M.I.L.E wouldn't notice their presence?"

"You!" Midnight Gears held her broken creation with her hooves, treating it as if it was her own son. "This is all your fault! I had built a dream land and you brought this filthy mare upon us! I should kill you! Brother, you have betrayed me!"

"Calm down. There is no need to fight." Applejack tried to solve the situation avoiding any kind of conflict.

"Sister... It was not meant to end like this. I am so sorry." Midnight Edge was filled with rage and suffering, what was meant to be a warm reunion could end with the death of somepony, and an innocent was harmed already.

"You! Filthy mare! You broke my Bernardt!" The artificer looked at Bon Bon with murderous intent, her eyes full of tears. Her masterpiece, her friend, destroyed by an invader who had the nerve to accuse her of betraying the only one she was loyal to. "I should kill both of you! Maybe I should kill all of you! Efreet! Show these ponies the exit. You are allowed to use lethal force on the S.M.I.L.E agent if needed!" After issuing her command the mare left carrying the broken pieces of her cherished sentient. The artificer entered an elevator and went down several floors into her workshop.

As soon as the Princess of Artifice left, her Efreet guards proceeded to attack the group. Attempting to incapacitate their targets and take them as far from the tower as possible, and in the case of Bon Bon kill her if needed.

"I should leave you to fight these big boys alone. But I wouldn't like to see Lyra mourning your death. You should be thankful I kind of like her." Midnight edge decided to defend the mare who brought trouble upon all of them, he acted out of a recently discovered mercy. "Applejack, Keep Babs Safe, this is going to get ugly."

"No need to ask. I'm on it!" Applejack and Babs Seed took cover while Midnight Edge and Bon Bon handled the situation.

The team was outnumbered but they managed to dispatch their enemies with ease. The Efreet were powerful, yet their thinking pattern was limited and based on an identical template, any unusual strategy was all they needed to neutralize them, proving again that machines were not always the best for a task.

"If you have a way out you should leave now. My sister won't be pleased to find out you survived." Midnight Edge spoke to Bon Bon in a serious tone. "And thank you for causing so much trouble. You should be thankful Celestia is a merciful leader, otherwise you would be sent to the gallows for this."

"You are the traitors to the crown, not me!"

"Traitor my horseshoe! You have no idea what you are dealing with! My sister would never betray Princess Celestia. She was trying to help!"

"I don't think you are helping us at all Bon Bon." Applejack spoke to her friend who was reluctant to admit she was mistaken. "I am sure we're on the same side."

"If a savior of Equestria says so. But she is still a threat to Equestria. Just look at those monsters!"

"And we were about to stop her! But you came in through that window and made a big mess!" Babs Seed was harsher toward Bon Bon than Applejack.

"You should leave... The three of you. I can handle my sister on my own."

"I'm staying, and so does Applejack." Babs Seed responded, she was reluctant to leave Midnight Edge alone knowing he could need help to reason with his enraged sister. "Bon Bon should get the heck out of here though."

In the end Bon Bon was forced to leave and report her failure to her superiors, she was meant to inform Princess Celestia directly of the events and make sure she would meet with the involved parties. Celestia was the only one with enough authority to handle the situation worsened by her own secret agents commanded to protect Equestria. By the end of the day all that protected Bon Bon for serious retaliation was Celestia's kindness.

The three ponies took the elevator to follow Midnight Gears. She intentionally left everything set in case anypony managed to escape her Efreet guards. She would greet them with a surprise.

Author's Note

Midnight Gears. The gears of insanity.