In case you were wondering, my previous statement had been sarcastic. There was absolutely nothing fun about any of this. Especially with Ashaa, who still didn’t have her sense of balance back.

The first part of the massive challenge was a parkour course unlike any I had seen before and was extremely complicated. The beginning was a little easier than the rest, consisting of six platforms of varying size and distance. The top of each platform ended in a ball shape, making it harder to get a grip once you've landed.

Ashaa just barely made it through, having almost slipped off the last one. After that, we devised a plan. Shadow would go first, using his insane parkour skills to complete the next challenge quickly while also checking for traps. Once he deemed it safe, Ashaa and I would go together. This strategy worked quite well on the next obstacle, we had to jump from one raised platform to the next while avoiding the multitude of white-hot metal bars that hung in the air and stuck out of the ground.

Shadow was able to activate and avoid all the traps Tia had laid among the heated rods, allowing us to pass through unharmed. We continued this process until about halfway through, at that point the deranged AI had had enough. She appeared upon her screen with a robotic glare.

In my two hundred and thirty-seven years of existence, I have found that the best solution to a problem is usually the easiest, and killing you three is hard. You've entertained me long enough, so you are free to leave.

A pathway rose from below us towards an opening in the far wall that contained another elevator. Though Tia had said she had given up and was letting us go, I sensed a trap.

"Be careful, this could still be dangerous."

I have had quite enough of you three. Please leave.

"I guess we better leave then," Ashaa said while shaking her head. "Shadow's right, this isn't worth our lives." She was the first to head onto the bridge towards the exit, I reluctantly followed suit with our unicorn comrade close behind. As we carefully crossed I kept my gaze on Tia, just to make sure that we were being given free passage.

And of course, I had to be right about this. Once we had made it about three-quarters of the way across Tia's voice reverberated through the massive room.

On second thought, it might be easier to kill you than I had previously thought.

The bridge was suddenly gone and we were plummeting to our deaths. Ashaa tried to fly out of the pit as I dived to catch Shadow. Just before she was able to reach the door Tia spoke again.

Oh I don't think so little hippogryph.

A long blade swung out of the wall and instantly sliced off her wings in a spray of blood and feathers. I didn't have time to react as a similar blade came at me. Before it could hit, I heard Rainbow Dash screaming for me to duck. Doing so got me out of the way, but farther from Shadow and Ashaa. Though I wanted to save both of them, In a split-second decision, I towards my sister as she fell screaming in pain and fear.

I couldn't see the floor through the darkness, I knew we'd hit it eventually. As I struggled to reach Ashaa a new voice spoke out from the oncoming void.

NOT THIS TIME TIA!

Just as the three of us were about to hit the darkness I was caught by something soft and strong. Looking about, Ashaa and Shadow had been caught as well. Though by what, I couldn't tell. We all seemed to be floating in the air.

You are safe for the time being. I will take care of your sister as she appears to be going into shock from blood loss. The two of you can wait in this room here while I attend to her. I'll send you some real food.

This new voice was obviously another A.I, but it sounded more lifelike and compassionate. I didn't quite trust it yet, but it could have just let us drop. So either the robot was helping us out of the kindness in its metal heart, or it wanted something from us.

For now, however, I was content with letting it carry Shadow and me into the first room I had seen that I could call small in the facility. It was lightly furnished with a single lightbulb hanging from the centre of the ceiling and a small bed made of paper waste. at the far end was a small round table and a wooden door. A closer inspection revealed that the door was covered in writing much like what I had found in the maze. Whoever had written it had probably survived Tia and made his/her way down here.

Even though I had rested not an hour before I was suddenly hit with exhaustion. I walked over to the makeshift bed and promptly passed out.

I awoke sometime later to find a huge plate of actual food right in front of my beak! I quickly sat up and began eating. In between bites, I noticed that Shadow’s plate was already empty. I really hoped he was the one who had eaten it, as he had been looking a little worse for wear since we had arrived at Celestia Laboratories.

I finished off most of the food and stuffed the rest in my inventory, while I was in there, I grabbed Shadow’s belongings and tossed them over to him. He picked up his revolver with a slightly psychotic grin, “It’s on now you robotic fuck.” He said as he strapped on the holster and placed the gun inside. “We should get moving, Luna wants to see us.”

“Who?”

Shadow shrugged, “No clue. She sent a drone down with a message telling us that Ashaa has a recovering well, and that if we come to meet her she’ll explain everything.”

I stood up and nodded as I strapped my carbine to my back. If we could figure out what happened here, maybe we could fix it.

“Alright then, where to?”

“Through that door and to the left is what the message said. Just keep an eye out for traps and the like, I still don’t trust this Luna character.”

“Me neither, but what choice have we got at the moment?”

“None.”

The door opened into a series of ventilation shafts, we turned left at the first intersection and found ourselves in a large control room. The walls were covered in screens, dials, and monitors. Instead of coming from the ceiling all the lights were embedded into the floor. This was because attached to the ceiling was another robot.

It was smaller than Tia, made of a shiny blue metal dulled by age. It had an ornate moon made of wires as its cutie mark. The most striking features were her two Crystal blue eyes, and the fact that she had a mouth that was smiling at us.

Greetings, my name is LuN-A/45, but you can just call me Luna. I bet you have many questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability.

“Oh hell yeah, we’ve got questions, like why metal-gear Sunbutt up there tried to kill us!” Shadow angrily replied, his furious gaze barely hidden by the new pair of red aviators he’d put in my Inventory.

Luna nodded, a slight grimace on her metallic features.

Tis quite the tale, but we have time. Though this place was once called Celestia Laboratories, I was its main focus. The scientists here were working on creating artificial intelligence capable of initiating megaspell strikes without the need for ponies.

Basically, if all personnel with the clearance to fire a megaspell were incapacitated, I would still be able to fire a counterattack.

Of course, the liability was that I could be hacked, giving the zebras complete access to all our W.M.Ds, so they built Tia as a security measure. If there was any indication that my programming was compromised, Tia would come online to take control and I would immediately be sent here to be cleansed of zebra corruption.

Luna paused to give us time to digest everything she had just thrown at us. Almost immediately a question came to mind.

“You don’t look or sound corrupted in any way, so why are you down here?

Chuckling in a humourless manner, Luna continued her story.

Unfortunately, when the fallout occurred, the radiation infected Tia. This destroyed her empathy and morality modules, turning our safeguard into our downfall. She hacked into the mainframe and created a false virus, putting me out of commission and her in complete control of the entire facility.

Luckily once I was sent here Tia couldn’t do any damage to me, so I was left to my own devices, slowly regaining power.

Shadow was the first to speak, still suspicious of our new possible ally.

“Why did you save us? What reason did you have to risk getting caught by Tia? If want us to do some absurd task it’s not happening, I’m done being a fucking pawn.”

Luna nodded reluctantly.
Yes, I did risk a lot by saving you three, but I think this will pay off for all of us. I was hoping you two could disable Tia manually, thus giving me control of the facility. With that power, I could give you anything nonessential to my own survival, which with me being a technically immortal artificial intelligent being, is most everything in the building.

I realized this was the perfect time to ask if she had anything like the engine Scruffy required. I hastily pulled the schematics from my Inventory and held them up for Luna to see.

“Do you have anything like this?” I asked, keeping any hint of desperation from my voice. The massive robot leaned in close, a smile slowly growing on her mechanical face as she continued to study the paper.

Oh yes, I knew that this work out for the both of us! I do indeed know where an engine like that is located, though it contains a far more powerful electrical output than the one in your paper. That is usually considered a good thing, by the way.

“Where? And what would we have to do to get it?” Shadow pressed. Like me, he knew there was a catch.

That is why I said this would benefit both parties, the energy source you are looking for is Tia’s power core. Once you remove it Tia will go offline, allowing me to free you from this prison of failed science. If I ever want to restore her, I’ll have to technology to build a new one

“We’re going off to discuss your deal, we’ll be back presently,” I said, dragging Shadow out of the room. As Luna nodded in understanding.

“I think this another one of those ‘no other choice’ situations. If we don’t do her little quest we’ll probably be wandering around this shit-hole of a complex forever!”

I tried to think of any other way, but there was none. Grimacing, I nodded.

“Yeah, kind of a damned if we do, really fucking damned if we don’t.”

The decision was made, there and then. To accept Luna’s deal and take out Tia. The two of us walked back into the control room with determination. Luna turned back from the screen she was watching to hear our answer.

“If you will give us a free passage from this facility, as well as Tia’s power core, we will help you regain control of Celestia Laboratories.”

Luna nodded her head and smiled.

It’s a deal. Let’s get you out of here.

The next few hours were spent discussing different ways to enter the main control room without attracting Tia’s attention. One of the main issues was that if she found out we were still alive a DASH-E unit would probably be sent after us. A Direct, Assault, Sentry, Honourguard,-Eradicator class was a Mobile, pony-sized sentry designed to replace soldiers on the battlefield. They were recalled due to the fact that they only obeyed Celestia Laboratories.

Now Tia used them as her assassins.

Only now did I realize that I had forgotten all about Ashaa.

Footnote:

New quest unlocked! Down with the tyrant: Eliminate Tia. Time limit: None.

Author's Note

I finally found the will to write! Hope y’all enjoy this chapter!

-ABloodthirstyUnicorn.