Epsilon-6

by atronosthelast

The Bunker

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/////BEGIN LOG-5833/////

-Boot up sequence initiated.-

-System scan initiated-

-Unit Epsilon-6 is coming online-

…

-Systems are nominal-

-Beginning hardware scan-

/////ERROR! FUSION CORE FAULT DETECTED/////

-Hardware fault detected, attempting to resolve-

…

-Hardware fault cannot be resolved. Fusion core is running at 64% capacity-

-Continuing hardware scan-

…

-No other major faults detected-

-Beginning scan pulse of local area-

-Scan pulse reports multiple beings in close proximity to unit-

-Caution: beings do not appear to be human. Possible animal signatures-

…

-Protocol five accepted. Defense module is now ready-

-Switching from Standby mode. Unit is now mobile-

/////WARNING! HULL DAMAGE DETECTED. ADVISE RETALIATION/////

-Attempting to resolve peacefully-

…

-Attempt failed. Retaliating-

It was another normal day for Twilight, she had finished a lot of her studies earlier in the day and was now heading out to visit her friends in the local field, which had quickly become their favorite picnic spot.

After everything they had been through, it was almost weird to be able to have these quieter times finally. Nothing major had happened for over a month now, and Twilight and her friends were finally beginning to relax. Being one of the Elements of Harmony was far more taxing than they ever thought it could be.

A short walk later, the tree she had seen so many times over the last few weeks came into her line of sight, her friends sat around it, and a large chequered blanket lay before them.

“Hey girls!” She called as she came closer.

The others looked over at her when they heard her call and gave her their greetings in response.

Twilight quickly sat down before them. There was a significant amount of food in bowls or on plates, most of which was brought by Applejack. Apparently, there had been a family meeting at her farm the day before, and so she had a large amount of food left over from it.

“This food looks amazing Applejack, thanks again for doing this for us,” she said with a smile as she looked over the near banquet before her.

“Aw shucks Twi; it was nothin' really.” Applejack replied, rubbing the back of her head.

“So how have you girls been?” Twilight asked as she started gathering various foods on a plate.

They conversed for some time, going over local news and the different things they had been doing with their free time.

It wasn't long before they were interrupted by someone calling Twilight's name. The six girls turned their heads towards the sound and found a royal guard running towards them. He reached them fairly quickly, but it took nearly a full minute for him to calm down enough to be able to talk.

“Princess... Twilight -huff- the guards -huff- in the forest -huff- found something... we are not sure what to do with it.” He said through labored breaths.

“Do you have any idea what it is?” Twilight asked, alarm growing in her mind as she tried to figure out what would cause a guard to become anxious enough to run half a mile to find her.

“We think that -huff- it's an old bunker... but it looks far more advanced than anything we have ever seen before.”

Twilight's attention spiked at that. A highly advanced bunker that nopony had seen before? Surely if it had been found, it would have been blocked off, or at least be written in a book somewhere.

But before she could start to get excited, her mind forced her body to calm. It may be something unexplored, but an advanced bunker in the middle of nowhere could have something dangerous inside of it. And as a princess, it was her duty to make sure it was safe.

“Alright, stay here for a while and rest. Rainbow and AJ, could you come with me?”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack nodded their heads in response and got up, as they did so, Twilight turned to the guard once more.

“Where exactly did you find this bunker?” She asked.

“To the northern side of the White Tail, we were on patrol at the time. I remember seeing a large boulder next to the path that leads to it if that helps.”

“It does, I know that area of the White Tail. I will look into it; you are free to remain here with my friends if you like.” She said with a smile before beginning her walk towards the forest.

“Thanks...” The guard said before falling onto his side.

It took a lot more time than Twilight thought it would take to even reach the halfway point to the forest, and so to save time, she teleported her and her friends to the side of the woods they needed.

“Gah, that hurt...” She said, clutching her head as she endured a magically induced migraine from teleporting that far.

“Yeah, but you got us to where we needed to be.” When she heard this, she looked up to find a massive forest in front of her.

“Well...ugh... no use standing around... let's go and find those guards.”

They had walked for quite a while before they came across what they believed to be the boulder that the guard had mentioned. Seeing no other real way to go, they pushed forward through the path.

Before long, they came across a clearing with three guards standing before a hole in the ground. As they got closer, Twilight began to see many colored wires and steel beams that covered the walls.

One of the guards heard their approach and rose his head to look at them.

“Princess, thank you for coming. We were not sure on what we should do. We were going to go in, but we thought that you should be here just in case.” The guard said when the three girls got closer.

“You did the right thing. Now that I am here, I would quite like to know what is in there. I know you have not entered the bunker, but do you have any idea what we might be looking at?” Twilight responded, getting closer to the hole for a better look.

“There appears to have been a door here once, but we think that it has either fallen off at some point or sompony removed it. From what we could see, there is a massive amount of wiring and metal beams all along the walls. It is unfortunately too dark for us to see anything else from up here.” The guard said, happy to be able to talk to a pony that knows what she is doing.

“I see... well we aren't going to learn anything by speculating, let's get in there.”

“Of course, princess.”

/////TITAN ONLINE/////

-Status report begun-

-Intruders detected at unknown time-

-Memory bank error detected. Attempting to resolve-

-Resolve could not be completed. Compensating-

…

-Memory bank error compensated. See error log #43 for details-

-Intruders do not appear to be human-

-Entrance gained via main entrance. Door appears to have been damaged/destroyed-

-Protocol 1 engaged. Protect bunker from invaders-

...

-Intruders are moving in a cautious manner. Possible intelligence detected-

-Chance for intruders to damage/steal bunker technology... 78%-

-Chances are too high. Engaging bunker defense protocols-

…

/////ERROR! CANNOT ENGAGE DEFENCES! BUNKER MAIN REACTOR OFFLINE/////

-Attempting to resolve-

…

-Reactor disabled due to long term damages. Bunker defenses cannot be engaged-

...

-Situation reviewed. Engaging last resort option-

...

-Epsilon-6 is online-

Twilight was taking in every detail around her. There was so much to look at, so many things she had never seen. If this had happened only a couple of years ago, she would have likely still been at the entrance, looking at every little thing.

But now, she knew she had a job to do. She could not be distracted by the scenery.

As they walked, they saw many winding corridors leading off of the main one that they were walking through. The entire bunker was near pitch black, the only light coming from the light spells being used by the two unicorns and the one alicorn.

Eventually, they came to a closed door. It covered the entirety of the corridor before them and appeared to be built to keep ponies out.

However, this ability had deteriorated over the years and it was relatively easy to pry the door open with magic.

When the group finally entered the room behind the door, they were fairly disappointed to find a fairly small room. Near the back, there was a mass of machinery and wires and there were tables strewn about the room. But it was what was in the middle of the room that interested Twilight.

Standing there, illuminated by the unicorns light, was what appeared to be a metal pony. The metal that coated it didn't seem to have any rust on it at all, which was surprising to Twilight as everything else had been covered in rust. It didn't have a mane or tail, and its eyes were dull and transparent.

Not too far from it, there was a small computer lying on a table. The computer was amazingly advanced and was quite clearly many times better than what Equestria was capable of making. As she got closer to it, she heard a hum coming from her right.

Curious, she turned to find the metal pony beginning to light up. Its eyes flickered slowly to life and lights started flashing across its body.

“Princess! Get away from there!” She heard a guard say but was too entranced by the technology before her to pay attention. As she got closer, the machine began to make clicking and whirring sounds before going completely quiet.

Now more cautious than entranced, Twilight slowly walked up to it and gave it a quick tap. At this, the robot sprung to life. It dropped from the beams it was being held from and whirled around towards the startled alicorn.

“Twilight! Look out!” She had heard Rainbow yell before a streak flew past her face, slamming into the robot and knocking it backward.

When the robot got back up, it had a noticeable dent in its side. It gave the dent a quick look before turning to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow was hovering in the air, ready to attack again should she need to.

The robot then did something that she would never have thought could happen. It spoke.

"Pony. If you can understand me, I would recommend that you back away from this. You can not and will not win a fight against me."

It took Rainbow a couple of seconds to realize what the robot was saying, but her ego figured it out immediately.

“Hay no! You think I'm gonna back off and let you hurt my friends? Put 'em up!” She said, a glare on her face.

"So be it."

The robot made a couple of clicking sounds before moving again, or at least Twilight thought it moved. One moment it was standing there, staring at Dash. The next moment it was in the process of flinging Rainbow across the room.

Twilight stared in shock as she watched her friend go careening into a wall on the other side of the room. The guards, however, sprang into action.

One of the unicorn guards ran forward and fired a stun spell at the robot, hoping to detain it for the Princess, only to see his spell bounce off of the metal armor the robot wore. The machine in question span around and landed a punch on the guard, sending him sliding across the floor.

The other two, a unicorn and an earth pony, attempted a pincer move, coming from both sides but the robot saw this coming and move to counter. Before they could stop it, the robot had slammed both their heads against the floor, knocking them both out cold in a single blow.

The robot then turned to face the two remaining ponies.

/////COMBAT LOG #1/////

-Beginning at line 43-

-Attempting to end fight before casualties are sustained-

"Please, end this now. I do not want to keep this going."

-Awaiting reply-

-Reply received-

“You hurt my friends, why would you do that!?”

"Your friends attempted to attack me. I warned them about what would happen, and they continued."

-Awaiting reply-

-Reply received-

“But you didn't need to hurt them like that!”

"I followed my protocols to protect myself."

-Subject appears to have become angry. Advise readying for an attack-

/////WARNING! CORE CANNOT HANDLE THIS LEVEL OF USE WHILE DAMAGED/////

-Chances of survival are higher if unit attempts to resolve situation to prevent fighting-

"Please, just leave this place... I will not follow you."

-Awaiting reply-

-Reply received-

“What? Why would you let us go?”

"I cannot sustain this fight. If this continues, then I will have to resort to more... violent tactics. I do not wish for this to happen."

-Awaiting reply-

…

-Reply received-

“Fine... we will leave. But mark my words, this isn't over.”

-Subject is implying that she will return with a larger attack force. This cannot be allowed-

"This IS over, pony. Leave now and do not return."

-Awaiting reply-

…

…

-Subject is not responding. Facial expression indicates possible hatred towards unit-

/////WARNING! HIGH LEVELS OF MAGIC DETECTED/////

…

…

-Subject has teleported. Short range teleport. Situation resolved-

/////COMBAT LOG END/////

-Situation resolved completely-

-Deactivating unit Epsilon-6-

…

/////ERROR! UNIT EPSILON-6 IS NOT RESPONDING TO SHUT-DOWN COMMAND/////

-Retrying-

…

-Fatal software error-

-Shutdown program cannot be engaged-

-Attempting to resolve-

…

-Resolution cannot be attained. Issuing high alert to all bunkers in vicinity-

/////RED ALERT! UNIT RESISTING SHUT-DOWN COMMAND. ALL AVAILABLE UNITS IN THE AREA REPORT TO BUNKER 56-1 IMMEDIATELY/////

-Switching to standby until situation changes-

/////TITAN OFFLINE/////

/////END LOG/////

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