Zero Signal

Queen Chrysalis looked around the room nervously, ever so slightly risking a glance at the giant figure next to her throne.

The figure came to her hive about a week ago and requested her presence. At first she thought it was new prey, coming willingly to their own demise.

What she found was not what she expected. A figure taller than her, with skin a grey metallic shade, almost like he had metal for skin. Various tubes and wires criss-crossed his entire body.

His head was even more disturbing, almost looking like the gas masks the ponies sometimes used to make themselves more intimidating. But his eyes were what drew her gaze.

The figure only needed to look at Chrysalis with his two bright red eyes, although they seemed more like lights than eyes.

His gaze evoked a primal fear within her and she felt entranced. She immediately took him in as her advisor with no words spoken.

She shifted in her throne, throughout the entire week the figure never spoke, only communicating somehow by glancing at them.

A pony was dragged by the guards to her and thrown at her feet.

She dismissed the guards and looked at her advisor. He gazed at her silently, his red eyes blaring into her own. A few seconds pass before Chrysalis spoke.

"But I do not wish to keep this scum alive!" she spoke boldly. She never dared to speak to him this way, she was too afraid of what would happen.

He gazed more intently at her, before he suddenly turned his head to the pony at their feet, the pony was smoking slightly, clearly dead to a blast from Chrysalis' horn.

"I will make the decisions here, not you!" She spoke fiercely, believing she had successfully dominated him.

Her heart stopped as a loud mechanical warbling filled the air, piercing her ears and filling her with fear as the figures eyes glared at her with glowing red eyes.

She started to shake in her seat and unintentionally started crying as the mechanical warbling grew higher in pitch.

Changeling guards burst through the doors and roughly grabbed her, dragging her through the doors as she went from crying to sobbing.

When the doors closed shut, the figure walked over and sat in the deposed Queen's throne.

Quietly he whispered in an echoing, mechanical tone, "Phase one completed."

Chrysalis continued sobbing as she was dragged to the Procedure room, her frantic wails reached a new crescendo as she arrived to the procedure room.

The guards dragging her threw her onto the table on her back and strapped her down, keeping all four of her legs spread for the machine to have easy access to her body.

When the Guards finished strapping her down, they left as a voice spoke over Chrysalis' sobbing, now turned to screaming, "Modification procedure active."

Four mechanical arms dropped from the ceiling and three of the arms began cutting off one leg each with a high-powered laser, instantly cauterizing the wound to prevent Chrysalis from bleeding out.

She screamed in agony before passing out as one arm cut her torso open.

"Modification procedure complete, downloading directives" sounded out across the room as an arm descended from the ceiling to attach to Chrysalis' head.

Chrysalis only had one leg left, left there for the programming to take advantage of her changeling biology.

Her skeleton was reshaped to a bipedal structure for more manuverability. Her body was covered in a smooth black metal and half of her head was covered in a device whose purpose was to control her under pre-programmed directives.

Almost nothing remained on the other half, the only feature left is one of Chrysalis' eyes.

"Download of directives complete"

Chrysalis woke up as the arm ascended back into the ceiling.

Canterlot was in chaos as Chrysalis rampaged through the city, heading for the castle.

She was relentless, hacking down mare and stallion alike. Periodically, she aimed an arm to the side and fired an incendiery bomb at various buildings causing more disruption.

Eventually two alicorns swooped down in front of her and confronted Chrysalis, making her stop in her tracks and look at them, the red eye glowing more intensely.

They were wearing their armor as they scowled at her.

"Why have you come back to our fair city, Chrysalis?" Celestia spat.

Chrysalis looked at them, then spoke with a rigid mechanical tone, nothing like her old voice. Only then did the princesses notice her changes.

"I am Unit Prime, this Chrysalis you speak of was tainted, and Unit Prime is pure. I come bearing a message from the machine king." Unit Prime spoke with no inflection in her voice.

Celestia shared a confused glance with Luna before speaking, "What is this-".

She was cut off by a piercing mechanical warble emitted from Unit Prime. Celestia and Luna grimaced, covering their ears and some of the guards surrounding Unit Prime fainted from the sound.

The warble eventually stopped and Unit Prime spoke, "There will be only one path to peace".

She paused before saying "Extinction".

Unit Prime then turned transparent before vanishing.

Celestia and Luna stood there stunned.

A few seconds passed before Celestia spoke up, " Guards! Help the populace and clean this place up, my sister and I shall retreat to our chambers." She then teleported Luna and herself.

Unit Prime walked through the hive, with sounds of mechanical bangs and whirring echoing through the halls, periodically sounds of raging cires and mechanical warbling would drown out the whirring.

Unit Prime walked into the throne room, changes immediately becoming noticeable.

There were giant cables flowing down from the ceiling and resting down near the throne.

New guards were stationed around the room, only they were similar to her, the only difference was that both of their eyes were modified.

She stopped before the machine king and stood rigid as she recived signals from him. She immediately processed the new orders and nodded.

She turned around and headed for the assembly line.

The machine king sat on his throne, the silence making his circuitry's buzzing more noticeable.

He quietly sent two guards to keep an eye on Unit Prime and leaned back. The two cables resting near his throne suddenly moved back with a loud whir. They moved towards his head and slowly connected with a loud hiss.

The machine king's red eyes turned blue, then turned off.