Steam Babble

Chapters

The gears start turning
Mechanical encounters
When patience wears thin
Unfortunate news

The gears start turning

Inside his prison of stone Inventor floated, his mind drifting while a dark voice near the back of his mind tried to grab his attention. With some degree of regret Inventor dove back into his mind, to the subconscious where he had banished the evil. “Ah, there you are. I knew you couldn’t stay away.” The being was represented by a swirling mass of darkness that seemed to move and remain still at the same time.

“Doesn’t take a genius to know that, Nightmare.” Inventor said, calm. His manifestation in the mindscape similar to himself.

“This prison will break eventually, then I’ll be able to take over your body and this world will be mine.” The dark embodiment began to tighten and coil, as if overflowing with excitement.

“Not hardly, I’m going to kill you without this prison shattering. I’m just waiting for the fail safe to activate.” Inventor’s tone was patient as he stood perfectly straight-backed with his hands clasped behind him.

“What are you talking about, nothing can break this stone and you can’t kill me while you’re trapped like this, even then, I can’t die.” The nightmare proceeded to laugh. “You truly are insane, you thought you could actually escape this?”

“You’ve no sense of finesse. I’m not going to break out. I’m going to- Oh, there it is now, can you hear the fail safe activating?”

“Wha-” The Nightmare’s laugh ended as a loud whirring noise began to build within the mindscape, clearly coming from one of the machines that Inventor kept in his bag. The darkness stopped its movements. “What are you doing!?”

With a small smile the embodiment of Inventor grasped his top hat and tilted it downward to hide his eyes. “Show time.” The mindscape faded and Inventor’s vision was filled with white light while a loud clockwork beat echoed through his hearing. The man stumbled for a minute from his sudden ability to move and quickly activated his prototype invisibility device that he had managed to put back together.

A jolt of electricity shot through Inventor’s body, causing him to go rigid for a moment. “That gives me half an hour to get to Luna’s room then, hopefully this goes off without a hitch.”

What did you do! You can’t possibly have broken your prison.

Inventor smiled to himself once again and turned around to view his stone prison, still intact, on the pedestal behind him. “So little artistry and imagination in that mind of yours Nightmare.”

It hardly matters, now I can take control of your body faster without the elements to slow me down for centuries.

“Two months yes? I have no worries, we won’t be here for long.” Inventor answered, tugging his outfit back into alignment before running into the labyrinth around them.

Canterlot, Ponyville, doesn’t matter where we are. I will own this body in little time.

“Again, so little artistry.” Inventor said, slowing his pace for a moment as he rounded a corner before returning to his full speed run. “Tell me, have you ever thought about dimensional travel?”

I’m aware that’s how you arrived here, why? The Nightmare was beginning to sound worried and rightfully so.

“You know that every being is unique in and of its own universe. Held together by that uniqueness. That’s why you can’t reproduce actual copies of things with magic, they are torn apart as soon as they are created. Only the original can exist.” The exit to the labyrinth was close now and Inventor crossed easily across the threshold and kept his pace towards the castle.

So what are you planning exactly?

“And short sighted, you’re that too.” Inventor’s words were soft as he maneuvered through the crowded hallways of the noon castle trying to avoid any attention a wayward noise might bring. “I’m going to jump dimensions again, this time to one where you already exist. This will shred you to pieces due to the magical duplicity and the universe’s need to prevent paradoxes.”

You’re lying, even if that is what happens you wouldn’t have the guts to do it.

Inventor made his way to the upper floors where the princesses rooms were located. “Under normal circumstances, you would be absolutely correct. If you had come for me first, or if you hadn’t come at all and I had stumbled across you myself, I wouldn’t be able to kill you in my right mind. But that isn’t the case, you tried to embed yourself in my son.” The man stopped at a crossroads of halls and looked around for a moment before continuing his walk. “And for that... you die.”

With his eyes set in a determined glare Inventor found the door he was looking for and knelt in front of it. The Nightmare had gone silent, leaving the man to focus as he pulled out a small, extendable rod from his bag. Placing the tip of the rod at the back of the hole in which was built for the princesses to insert their horns, Inventor retrieved a rectangular box and hooked it up to the rod, causing it to start emitting a soft blue glow.

Several minutes passed slowly before the door clicked slightly and opened a crack. Inventor reached into the crack with his mechanical arm and used what little traction there was to open the door the rest of the way. After retrieving both rod and box Inventor made his way into the room and closed the door behind him.

The inside of the room made it appear to be midnight, causing Inventor to pause for a moment before he realized that the reason for the extremely dark room was due to the lack of windows, or any other opening for that matter, to show the sun outside. The small balcony that had been so easily spotted from his arrival in the room those many months ago had been removed for some reason or another, taking the few windows that had been on the walls with it. Shaking off his tangent the man looked to the bed near the the center of the floor that had started to come into view as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Upon the bed was the lunar princess herself and Inventor couldn’t help but flinch over the spike of guilt that shot through his heart. So carefree, I always hated these sisters. That was the main reason that I targeted the youngest first, to cause the eldest hurt. The echoing voice of the nightmare spoke from its silence, the voice clear in the man’s head but silent outside it.

Without a word Inventor slowly began heading towards the edge of the room, the point from which he had first entered the world. Reaching out his hand for the position the man felt a tingling sensation shoot up his arm, causing the man to nod to himself. Mimicking his actions from earlier he set up the rod and box again and placed the system directly adjacent to the dimensional instability.

The man flicked a switch on the side of the box and stood to his full height as a soft blue glow began to fill the room. Just as a ripple had started to cross the open air a rustle from the bed caught his attention and Inventor turned to the position. The lunar princess slowly rose from the bed mumbling.

“I thought I got rid of that clock.” She said to herself, moving to go back to bed before her eyes caught the soft blue glow. “W-what?” She asked, slowly standing from her position. Another ripple crossed the air and a jolt of electricity ran through Inventor’s body once again, freezing him in place as his invisibility device faulted.

Luna’s eyes went wide when Inventor came in view and she immediately began to run toward him, not believing her eyes. The man tried to mouth his concern but the paralysis that ran through his body still hadn’t decayed and his vocal cords would not operate. As she swung her arms around the man electricity began shooting forth from the portal, realizing her mistake far too late the portal began to swirl, pulling both beings into the interior.

As they fell through the blue Inventor looked at Luna, who had fear shining in her eyes. And watched helplessly as her body began to disappear and fade away. He was too far away now and he could only watch as Luna witnessed herself being destroyed. Bah, you’re really something you know that? The Nightmare was once again talking, though this time it appeared that Luna could hear it as well. If she were to die right now you would probably kill yourself when you got to the other world. Which, to be frank, would be far too dark, even for me.

Inventor watched in awe as a spiraling black mist exited his finger, the mist itself slowly disappearing as well. You owe the me in this next world should you meet her, don’t forget. With that the darkness entered into Luna and her body began to warp into that of Nightmare Moon.

“Of course, she’s combining their magics.” Inventor said to himself, unable to resist analyzing the situation despite his surroundings. “But she’s leaving Luna’s magic as the primary, meaning that even if Nightmare Moon itself is still an entity in this next world it won’t have the same magical signature as Luna does right now.”

When the magic had completed the form of Nightmare Moon made itself known she immediately fell into an unconscious state from the energy required to completely change a magical signature. Inventor smiled to himself and tilted his hat towards the unconcious mare and laughed slightly. “I’ll remember Nightmare, you saved Luna. The least I can do is help you.”

Just as he finished the man saw the light rise up around his peripheral vision. “It seems this is where we get off.” The light covered Inventor’s sight and he fell helplessly through the air after exiting. Looking over his shoulder Inventor saw that they had emerged in mid air, high above Cloudsdale and set on a crash course with it.

Looking back up to Nightmare Luna Inventor quickly figured out that she would remain on Cloudsdale while he passed harmlessly through it. Panic began to rise in his mind at the thought of separating from Luna and his mind began to work frantically on a plan to change the events that were about to occur.

“Crap crap crap, there’s nothing for it. The only way I can hope that this works out in my favor is to get to Canterlot and hope to high heaven that they haven’t sent out a patrol for her yet.” With that resolved, Inventor flipped over in mid air, turning to face the ground, and made himself as aerodynamic as he could to reach the ground as quickly as possible.

A few pegasi witnessed the descending blur and moved away as he pierced through the cloud, leaving them to their own thoughts as he shot past the cloud level and got his bearings on where Canterlot was. With a flex of his muscles the wings snapped open on his sides and caught the air in a powerful jerk, choking Inventor for a minute, before leveling off and stablizing into a glide.

Redirecting himself in mid air Inventor began his glide toward the mountain city only a fair distance off, his speed still quite high. “I hate time trials.” Inventor said to himself, the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he did so. “But I can’t let this happen, I won’t allow Luna to be hurt on my account.”

Steamlord had finished re-adjusting his mechanical arm, the cogs having slightly rusted after his latest invention. It needed a few tweaks. It was supposed to help the pegasi get water up to Cloudsdale. However, he didn’t exactly make it as perfect as he had hoped. The first test, as he witnessed, flooded the plains it was used in. A few nanobots sent by Security System was enough to remove the red rusting. The man tried to bend his arm and his fingers. Test successful. With this, he finally left his bedroom within his newly refurbished ship. It had only been a month since he was named Chief Engineer by Celestia, and he cherished this brand new title. In-fact, he was the first to receive it, and the first non-pony to receive a special title from the princess, let alone pony royalty.

“Crusader Knights, let’s go.” he said with a deep bellow.

It was a good thing he wore goggles, as his deep voice and clothing slightly shocked everypony who saw him, even if they knew him, let alone his silent, robotic bodyguards that followed him everywhere. Said bodyguards were shaped into three of the medieval ages’ crusader orders. This, followed by their strange agility, similar appearances, massive claymores, and imposing height, lowered them to a symbol of fear. Why? Not many ponies had seen sophisticated robots in Equestria, let alone gigantic, reconverted war machines that tore through the world. Every clanking noise made by both the bodyguards and Steamlord’s boots were met with fleeing servants and other task forces within the castle.

The final thing that made the bodyguards so creepy were their “eyes”. Although they are actually special cameras developed by Steamlord and built by the ship’s AI, Security System, they still looked like glowing eyes with the grayish helmet plates that served as their heads. Templar had red eyes, that burned through one’s soul with fury. Hospitaller had white, and these had a tendency to make everybody shrink when seeing “him”. The last, perhaps, was the most fearsome of them all. Teutonic. It always kept to itself, and was the man’s most trusted “friend”. Perhaps, because they went through quite alot together despite the other two being at the same location.

Despite this, Steamlord ruffled his brown coat and continued through the castle grounds, admiring the green grass that had been waiting ever-so patiently for the new sunlight. The bushes were trimmed into fine shapes, and the paths were all so clean, that you could eat on a pile of mud thrown down on that path, and still become healthier than ever.

Celestia had called for him to meet her in the throne room as soon as possible for some urgent matters. She needed him to start working on another possible invention after he finished the water expeller. Waiting in front of the sunny castle entrance was a single stallion who looked for “hoity”. This elderly gray pony wore a black tuxedo and had such good manners that even the beasts of Tartarus would learn to drink with a cup and eat with a fork while complementing each other.

“Sir Steamlord?” he asked in the calmest of manners.

“Yes. I’m here for Celestia’s summoning.” the man said with a mild smile.

The elderly stallion huffed, and gestured for the weird giant to follow him, along with his bodyguards.

“Sir, I should ask that you refer to her highness as ‘princess’. I don’t take lightly to formalities here.”

“I know, Jumcolt, but we know eachother quite a lot now. Plus, I don’t care about her title of royalty. You need respect to earn someone’s trust.” The colt tilted his head slightly towards Steamlord and gave a faint smile.

“Indeed. True titles are earned. They are not born with. However, I should still ask for some manners.” Jumcolt turned around and adjusted his bow-tie. “A true gentlecolt always acts his best in front of any crowd.”

Walking along the hallway revealed quite a few things to the attentive pony...and griffon...and whatever manner of creature passed through these corridors. The walls seemed to still be plastered with their lovely wallpaper of blue covered in yellow flowers, but it seemed to have some form of red lights here and there within the center of said flowers. To show his good will, and allow Security System some freedom, Steamlord installed new security measures within the castle. They weren’t complete, though. Sure, they covered the entrances and windows pretty well, but they didn’t go too deep with the castle itself. At best, the security reached a few feet away from said doors and windows.

“Tell me, Jumcolt.” Steamlord started, keeping his arms behind his back. “What else do you do,besides being the head butler of the castle?”

“Umm...not much, really. Like most servants, my family has catered to royalty’s every whim and desire. We are one of the few to have been serving them for...ohhh...well over twelve centuries.”

“Twelve?”

“Yes. There are others besides the princesses, you know.”

“True. True. Like the griffon king and all that.”

“Quite.”

“Indeed.”

“Indubitably.”

“Most indeededly.” Steamlord finished as he stroked his inexistent beard.

“Mhmmm. Well then. We are here. I would ask your...mechanical monstrosities to wait here.” The knights leaned closer to the pony, who did not flinch at their attempt to intimidate him. “But I do not think they will listen to me.”

“No. Heh. No they won’t.”

“Then, please. Enter the royal throne room.”

“Gotta push these huge doors first.”

Most indeededly. The doors to the throne room were quite immense. Like always, they were extremely tall, very thick, with the left side of the door wielding the symbol of Luna, while the right wielded that of Celestia. Now, for any non-unicorn ponies, it would certainly take ten individuals to open these doors, while it would probably take five minotaurs. Not for the upgraded bodyguards of Steamlord. Teutonic even showed how “worthless” they were by standing next to a door, and pushing it open with one arm. The “camereyes” of the Crusader Knights are capable of modifying their glow to show a limited amount of expressions, but Teutonic. He had no glow. It was a misconception during his creation. This didn’t bother its creator however, as the black pits that should be eyes were empty and increased his intimidating capabilities. The bot crossed its arms and turned towards Jumcolt’s position, imposing its superiority. The gentlecolt made no attention to the actions of the “ruffian” and simply left afterwards, but not before saying one last thing:

“I will be seeing you afterwards.”

“Yes. Yes. I’ll see you afterwards too. Now then. In we go.”

The human entered the gigantic chambers. Sure, the doors leading to the throne room were big, but these doors held nothing to the height and width of this nearly white room. Tapestries and such on the walls, decorative plants and marble statues lined along the walls and next to the throne, and stained glass above the throne and decorating the rest of the higher walls with the feats of past heroes of ponykind. The throne was met with a silky red carpet that stretched from the entrance to the said seat with a great shine. The throne itself looked like a cake. Several layers of circular steps, precisely ten, were needed to be climbed to reach the princess’ regal seat. I

Instead of just the typical giant golden throne with sun ornaments on them, there was now a brand new, silver colored throne with blue cloth instead of red, and with moon ornaments instead. Steamlord found this one to be prettier, but was still raveling in the brightness of Celestia.

“Steamlord.”

“Yeah?”

“Still so familiar i see? Anyways, I need you to create a new invention.”

“Yes. I still need to tweak out a few things with the aqua vacuum and a new contingency scanner.”

“I know what your aqua vacuum is for. It’s to lesson the work need by pegasi to get water to their cities, but what is this ‘contingency vacuum’?”

“You know how I got here from another dimension?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ve picked up quite a few quantum energy wavelengths here and there, and they have been popping up here and there. I suppose it’s because of my uncontrolled entry into your world."

“Oh my. Is it bad?”

“Not really. They’re really too small to let anything through, but there are certainly bigger ones that I can’t detect with my current equipment.. This contingency vacuum will reel in air particles from a large zone and analyze them in order to home in on their point of origin. I-”

“Steamlord. Respond. I have detected a tearing in the fabric of space. Attempting to locate.”

“Security System?”

“What is it?” Celestia seemed worried by this sudden, unexpected event.

“It seems that SS detected another tear, but above Canterlot.”

“Hmm. I’ll send my guards to scan the areas.”

“Bah. I’m sure its just a small hole that doesn’t have any impor-”

“Organic life-forms detected. Interference detected.”

“And that, dear Celestia, is why she is my best AI ever. This would be a good chance to go scout the area. I’ll go with my Crusader Knights to sweep every nook and cranny of the castle while your guards check Canterlot.”

“But what about-”

“Your invention? It can wait. This might be a very dangerous creature, so it would be wise to protect the present so your ‘needs’ can have a future.”

“You’re right. Let’s go. I’ll call for the guards while you sweep the area.”

“Send someone to me if they find anything.”

“Understood.”

Steamlord and his bodyguards left the interior of the castle while the creator’s ship had begun to ring a danger siren. Celestia, on her side, called for the captains and generals. This would either be a dangerous mission, or one that needlessly mobilized everypony.

Mechanical encounters

Inventor flapped his metal wings once, pathetically, before folding them shut into his clothing once again. With his surface area and lift gone he dropped towards the ground and landed in a crouch to dissipate his energy into the stone. After a second or two to stabilize his posture the man rose and took a look at the castle in the distance, only to be slightly surprised as he witnessed a group of ponies approaching his destination from the castle.

Straightening his top hat the man took his first step towards the approaching group, wondering what could have given away his arrival and approach soon enough for the entire guard to have mobilized. All the while remembering that he needed to hurry to Luna’s aid as soon as he could.

The guards were flying and galloping all around Canterlot, searching for this “anomaly” detected by Steamlord. While the man and his bodyguards searched around the castle for any potential threats, the royal guard was given the task to comb every portion of Canterlot and its outskirts. Three particular guards were tasked with scanning the path leading to Canterlot. One that had been under good watch as it was practically the only entrance by hoof, foot, or claw. Those already stationed there were searching the mountainous regions. A bit “weird” as they thought to themselves. All three weren’t the best soldiers, so guarding the path would be the best thing they could do. However, the biggest of the three was mostly muscle, and he was a very violent one. His hearing also seemed more acute than normal, but the rest of his senses were practically broken. As such, he depended on his two comrades to be his eyes.

The three were already at the path that they saw something in the distance. One of the guards spoke with a rather nasally voice:

“Hey? What’s that?”

“It looks stupid.” spoke the other, more rude guard.

“Where? Where? I can’t see it.”

“Over there.”

The nasally guard grabbed his gigantic pegasus friend’s head and twisted it in the direction of some sort of biped.

“Is that it?”

“You’re pointing at a bug.” the rude one facehoofed.

“There, then?”

“Wh-? That’s the mountain you lummox!”

“Oh.”

The being started to come closer with a clickety sound following every step.

“Hello my good gentlecolts. I’m on a rather time sensitive goal. Would you mind giving me a guard escort to the castle to save on time?”

“Who’s this lout?” the rude one jumped forward, and eyed the creature from top to bottom.

“I dunno. He looks a lot like Steamlord.”

“Pfff. Steamlord doesn’t wear a silly hat. He has cool goggles and a nice brown coat.”

“Ah yes, well, I’m a bit short on time as of the moment. This really is very important. My name is Inventor and I really must ask you to either give me an escort to the castle or to MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!” Inventor said, a sudden shift in his personality as he glared at the dimwits in front of him.

The rather large stallion heard this violent tone and spun to the source of the noise, obviously a few centimeters short of the proper location of Inventor.

“Hey! No yelling here. You need documents, proof of your sayings...and what else?”

“Ugh. You’re so stupid.” the rude stallion literally banged his head against a rock.

“That’s it, I’m done with this,” Inventor said, quickly closing the distance between himself and the guards while making it clear that he was going to walk past them if they didn’t interfere.

The nasally and rude guards put themselves between Inventor and his path, making sure that he couldn’t go around them.

“Oy. Lummox. This Steamlord wannabe who calls himself ‘Inventor’,” the rude one mocked with spinning eyes. “Wants to pass. How ‘bout you show him a thing or two about royal guard tactics?”

“Perfect. Any sound you make, I’ll hear, and I’ll know where you are.” the bulky guard lowered his head and fluttered his wings a few times before closing the distance between him and the one who looked unimpressed at this show of events.

“Uhhh...you shouldn’t say how you’re going to fight? It’s a bit...dumb.” the nasally guard pointed out.

“I’m afraid,” Inventor sighed. “That your skills won’t help you.” The man dashed forward quickly towards the oncoming bulk and withdrew the glove from his metal hand. “Assuming no drastic shifts in anatomy or evolution in this dimension, three swift blows to...” his voice dropped as he ducked under the pegasus and delivered a trio of swift strikes to the underside of his neck, causing the blood to flow awkwardly and forcing the stallion unconscious.

The pegasus fell to the ground behind him and Inventor stood from his crouch to look at the other guard who blocked his path. “Two choices, lead me or drop out.”

The rather rude stallion simply sniffed and looked bored at the scenario, while his companion started to shake like a leaf, slowly backing away.

“Pff. Big deal. I’ve had to go through some painful training with Teutonic. Like I’d be surprised by that kind of-”

It was at this point that the stallion felt a pressure on his back for a moment, looking around to see what had touched him, he saw the biped sailing through the air after using his spine as a stepping stone.

“What the? OY! GET BACK HERE!” the rude stallion shook a hoof in the air while his friend sighed and slumped to the ground in relief. He was literally sweating lakes.

“You didn’t make a choice, so I assumed the latter!” Inventor shouted back. With a rolling landing Inventor was off once again in the direction of the castle, pulling his glove back on midstride.

“By the Abyss. We need to catch him!”

“How? Bulky is unconcious, and we’re too slow to catch up to something like that. Besides. Did you see its hoof? How could something hit that strong? Bulky has NEVER been beaten in a match of strengths.”

“Whatever...wait...I’m an earth pony...you’re an earth pony...and the unconscious muscle ball over there is a pegasus. WE HAVE NO UNICORNS! Oh crap oh crap oh crap!” the rude stallion began to hop around in panic, his eyes literally darting everywhere.

“What’s wrong? We can find one of the other patrols around here and ask them to send a message to the captains and generals.”

“That’s a great idea! Let’s go!.”

The two left the bulky guard in his spot and hurried on into the mountains, desperate to find a unicorn, or, atleast, a very quick pegasus.

Inventor’s steps moved him calmly through town, past the groups of guards scouring the city, and toward the castle in the distance. No eyes saw the man as he moved past them, though those with sharper eyes would look around for the source of the sudden clockwork beat that echoed through the air around them.

Each move was carefully chosen as fast as possible that would enable the man to move undetected for the most part. More than once he would be forced to duck into a niche or cranny to let his invisibility recharge, the prototype having lost a lot of its efficiency from the rebuild.

Eventually the man made his way into the castle grounds and his real trick began, getting into the castle. It was locked up tight, the doors closed and the windows shut. As he patrolled the perimeter his eyes caught a single window open on the third story. “Well, that’s about the biggest trap I’ve ever seen, but I have no other choice at this point, time runs short.”

After ducking into another cranny and letting his machine recharge Inventor started his climb, using his mechanical arm as much as possible to save energy in his normal limbs. Progressively the man made his way up the outside of the slick stone until he finally arrived at the window sill. Knowing his machine would run out of energy soon the man quickly pulled himself up and over the stone and into the building.

Only to be greeted by three swords pointing at his neck. Following the steel up to their owners the man saw each was held by a machine, and standing in front of them that Inventor never believed he would see again, another human. The man’s arms were crossed as he looked directly at the mussy-haired biped who had diligently came to the castle just as he had suspected. At this point Inventor’s invisibility flickered away, leaving the duo to look at each other in plain light.

Steamlord stared at this strange creature who also seemed to be a human. He even seemed to have some similar clothing aspects. However, he knew that no one could have come from his own world, let alone another technical genius. The three bodyguards, their sleek form allowing it, reflected the light of the surrounding area onto the man’s face. Templar and Hospitaller both looked at the man from the sides of their “eyes”, showing a bit of curiosity. However, the black pits of Teutonic served no other purpose but to intimidate and force submission through fear. It was the only of the three that didn’t move.

The man looked at his counter-part and pointed a finger at him from his still crossed arms:

“Who are you and where did you come from?”

Slowly, Inventor stood from the ground, keeping his gaze on the machines at the sides of the man. With his same cautious movement the biped put his mechanical hand out in front of him in an offer to shake. “My name is Inventor, from earth. What a pleasure it is to know that some humanity survived somewhere.”

Steamlord cocked an eyebrow, although his eyes were hidden by his golden goggles.Teutonic closened its claymore in response to the arm extension, letting out a bit of hissing steam in the process. The other two just stood their ground, analyzing every movement made by this “human”.

“Yes.” the man started to have a bit of suspicion in his voice. “I’m sure many others that survived the Ash Fall turned out to be like me and have dimensional transporters in ships.”

Seeing that the handshake had gone without acceptance Inventor let it fall to his side and looked at the man who stood apart from him. “Ash Fall?” Inventor asked. “I assumed you survived the nukes. Though, I suppose it might have been called Ash Fall elsewhere...”

“Nukes? We haven’t used nuclear technology since its abolishment in twenty thirty-five. Were my prototype, defective generators called ‘“nukes’? I suppose they did have a similar effect, although thrice as deadly.”

“It appears...” Inventor said as he glanced toward the ground for a moment before looking back to his counter-part. “That we come from different earths. Because you see, mine didn’t make it past twenty thirty-five.”

“I assumed just as much. Then I guess that you never had to deal with the nations turning your machines of construction into gigantic mecha and airships to try and capture said generators? Crusader Knights, do not let your swords down. I must see what else he wants.” Steamlord tightened his unviewable glare through his goggles, although he did let his arms slide down to his sides.

“No, rather....” Inventor paused, flinching slightly to himself. “It is of no importance. I was wondering if I could speak with the princesses, a friend of mine came through with me and I fear she may receive a similar, if not worse, greeting then mine.”

Steamlord chuckled a bit, then turned around slightly, putting a finger to his ear. Hospitaller and Templar both looked at him for a moment before looking back at their capture.

“Security System?”

“Yes?” a robotic female voice spoke through his communication link in his ear.

“I believe I have located the entity you detected earlier. However, it claims to have been accompanied. Can you use our other search modules for anything out of the ordinary? Maybe heat, spatial renditions, energy fluctuations-”

“She will be on cloudsdale, and...” Inventor looked back to the man “She will look like Nightmare Moon.”

“Who?”

“She will look like a possessed version of Luna, Celestia’s sister, because that’s what she is, essentially.”

“Hmmm. How do I know this isn’t some trick to allow you to do something to Celestia while we’re out ‘searching’ for this ‘second Luna’?”

“THEN IMPRISON ME! KILL ME! JUST DON’T LET LUNA BE ALONE!” Inventor shouted suddenly, feeling the passage of time around him while he was unable to do anything. This act caused the machines to ready their blades against him once again.

Steamlord kept a long silence after this, and tilted his head a bit more to the side, revealing a part of the metal plating hidden under his ruffled, blackish-brown hair.

“Security System, vital signs?”

“Extreme blood flow. Heartbeat abnormally high. Brain activity is also elevated in certain regions. He is speaking the truth. Recommended action?”

The man looked once more at this so called “human”, then spoke once more to his Security System:

“Prepare for private imprisonment. He is not to leave the ship. Understood?”

“Affirmative.”

“Good. Templar and Hospitaller, you shall accompany him to the ship, while Teutonic and I go speak to the generals.”

The bodyguards did as told, lowering their swords. While the two with “eyes” gently pushed Inventor a bit, Teutonic took the opportunity to shove him powerfully away while keeping itself between its creator and this newcomer. Its anger was reflected by the sound of clockwork underneath its armor and the emission of more hot steam.

“I thought I removed that. Hmm.” Steamlord thought to himself as he passed through the other corridor.

As he was walking away with the other two Inventor took the opportunity to tip his hat to Steamlord. “Thank you.”

The walk back to the ship was a relief for Inventor, trusting that the man he had met earlier would take care of what he himself was unable to do. Because of this drop in stress the man found his attention wandering to his ‘escorts’ and began to muse to himself about their construction. It wasn’t long before the ship came into view, a view which was quite the sight for Inventor.

The giant ship rested calmly upon the grassy floor of the garden, surrounded by the green bushes and the reflection of the sun shining off the bronze hull, giving it a golden tint. While it looked like an old-fashioned ship, it was actually modeled out of Steamlord’s old fashion loving. It seemed to be made of a lot of different sized metal plates, but they were just for decoration. The ship, in itself, looked a lot like a bird’s head, and the front showed. There was a pointed “beak”, while the “eyes” were actually a single, large window. The back wielded three engines, while the underside had at least five, smaller versions. All looked like they had been recently used, too.

The two mechanical beings led him through the entrance and into the deeper portions of the vessel. Their lack of vocal words making it quite easy for him to admire the craftsmanship that had gone into the hallways and rooms therein. On the surface it seemed quite the chaos of metal but to Inventor, who had spent his life working with machines, it was beautiful painting crafted in steel and sealed with copper.

His amazement had not yet reached its peak though, for there was one more thing that would add to the scene. That was a room protected by an extremely thick, sickly green and grey-blue door and walls with the words ‘Generator room. Do not enter without protective gear!’ emblazoned upon the metal. Resisting his urge to immediately tap the metal with his knuckles Inventor allowed the robots to lead him deeper into the ship until they came to his ‘cell’ which appeared to be nothing more than a repurposed storage space.

The robots had stopped moving so Inventor assumed this to be the end of the line and sat in the corner, his back to the wall, and closed his eyes. Allowing his mind free run of ideas without input from the surroundings.

The two bodyguards stared at Inventor one last time before turning around and leaving the room. They hadn’t closed the door this time, but it slid shut, causing a loud echo through the room, followed by the sound of some mechanics locking it. There was no sign that the guards did it, nor that the other man and his guard were present on-board the ship itself. It was still very dark aboard and, it didn’t seem to change anytime soon, despite the presence of two small windows near the ceiling.

Inventor smiled to himself for a moment before grasping at a straw that he suspected might lead to something. “Security System?” he asked, a slight tone of curiosity in his voice.

There was a strange whirring sound in the air, but no response was heard. It seemed as though there was nothing on board the ship besides the two other guards, but Inventor wouldn’t let up.

“See, now the only thing I have left to guess at without anyone talking to me...” Inventor said, his smile still on his face. “Is to try and figure out if you are another being who is talented with technology, or if you are technology itself. Of course if you don’t want to talk or if you can’t hear me for some reason I’ll just keep talking to myself and look like an insane fool. But I don’t mind, that’s pretty much what I am anyway.”

The sounds happened again, but this time, at their end, a mechanical female voice was heard:

“I am an A.I. developed by Steamlord. I was his first creation. What intrigues you so about technology? It appears you do not have the same level as he possesses.”

“So his name is Steamlord...” Inventor said as his mind divulged onto a tangent. “That is obviously not his real name but it’s not like I can get mad at him for that. Anyway, you asked what intrigues me about technology yes?”

“Affirmative.”

“Well, I’ve always been attracted to the idea of creation. Creating things to help others, creating A.I. to help out large organizations. Though I suppose that deep down it’s just because I get such a thrill when I make something that works.”

“Hmmm.” the A.I. was deep in processing as “she” searched her databanks. “You also created A.I.? Do they still exist, and were they donned with free will?”

“I was on the cusp of finishing the design when I ended the project. It seems I had attracted the military’s attention with my designs and I swiftly stopped it. Of course, if I knew then what I know now... I probably would have finished the project anyway and let them do with it what they will.”

“I assume you met the Crusader Knights in a more ‘personal’ perspective as you tried to sneak into the castle? That was an illogical action to take. Steamlord has installed several measures of security of which I will not divulge.”

“Aye, me and the Crusader Knights got straight to the point.” The man smiled at his pun. “As for the lack of logic, sometimes you have to do anything to achieve your goal regardless the cost to yourself. For which I would have gladly been killed so long as the safety of Luna was guaranteed. On a side note, how was I supposed to know that Steamlord was waiting for me? If I don’t have the data I can’t make a logical choice.”

“Improvisation. Yes. Such as when the Monster hunters were beaten by the Crusader Knights after their major upgrade, a portion designed by me. They had also come with a mass contingent of the armored equidae. Steamlord simply beat the weakened one who seemed quite adept with swords, and considered himself akin to flames. Needles to add, that stallion’s partner has been mentally scarred by Teutonic.

I do not detect anything revealing negative qualities of your character, but Teutonic is different. Seeing as you met them personally, you must have noted that they reacted differently compared to the basic ‘robot’. Such as curiosity for actions and similar aspects, as well as violence and aggressiveness.”

“I make no claim to understand anything outside of my field of expertise. Of which these ‘Crusader Knights’ Are far beyond me. I do know that I deserved far more than a shove from that robot though. Perhaps a broken arm would have fit the situation better.”

“Just so that you are better informed, the Crusader Knights are also AIs that do not wish to speak. They are Steamlord’s bodyguards. This is why they were so reactive when you made sudden movements. The one with red linings, Templar, and the one with black linings, Hospitaller, are the two you don’t really need to concern yourself with. Teutonic, the black one with white lining, is a more...aggressive one. Its mind is also scarred as it went through the same ordeal Steamlord went through right before the Ash Fall. Perhaps, with additional trust, my creator will tell you about it.
As for your claims of retribution, they are unjustified.”

“The Ash Fall...” Inventor said, his smile fading. “It can easily be assumed what occurred by the name alone. Pompeii version two point oh I would guess. You say I will need trust from him to hear about his past? I’ll need three barrels of wine and a lobotomy to tell him about mine.”

“False.”the AI spoke blandly, with an undertone of anger.

“Well, at least you don’t let me prattle on pointlessly about stuff I don’t understand.” Inventor said, his smile returning. “I’d offer to take you out for a drink, but, well...”

“The ‘Ash Fall’ is a name given to it by Steamlord. It is an event that came from a prototype experiment of his that was...no. I shall not divulge the scenes or details. Additionally, there is no point in offering drinks to my creator. He has a poor tolerance for fermented beverages, and I have forbidden him from drinking any for medical purposes. I believe this interaction to be terminated.”

“Alright then, have fun doing whatever it is that you do, Security. I’ll be here, thinking, should you need to vent frustrations on someone.”

Steamlord and his remaining bodyguard walked through the halls of the Canterlot castle, carefully avoiding any passing ponies. After climbing a few steps, the man found himself in front of a rather large wooden door with Celestia’s symbol carved and painted onto it. Two guards were blocking it with their wings.

“This is about the intrusion.”

The guards bounced into alertness and quickly retracted their wings and opened the door. In it sat several wooden pedestals which carried several generals, many of them having personalized armor. A few were still in their mid-ages, while the rest were pretty old. The brouhaha they were creating suddenly stopped as they saw the biped walk into their chambers.

“I have news regarding the intruder.”

“We know. He is from your race, and has a metal arm, like yours. The reports say it was different in appearance to yours.”

“Yes. About that-”

When patience wears thin

As Inventor was pondering in his makeshift cell, Security System activated some sort of widespread call throughout the ship.

“Hospitaller, it’s time to pick up Sunrise from the Ink Mechanic's embassy.”

The robot kept its vow of silence, but the rhythm of metal feet that echoed across the halls told the imprisoned man that it was quickly making it’s way to said school. Though the man was curious as to who this new being was he knew that Security System probably wasn’t going to be talking to him after the events moments earlier. Deciding to ask Steamlord about it later Inventor fell once again into his undisturbed thoughts.

After half an hour, the sound of a door opening up resonated throughout the hollow interior of the ship. Hospitaller was back, but there was a voice...another, a bit younger yet feminine one, and it didn’t come from Security System. This one felt like it was full of joy and so forth. It also seemed like she was trying to communicate with the bodyguard who picked her up, despite it not responding.

“-and then we ‘accidentally’ tossed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon into the mud pile while playing tug of war. Of course, they thought that it was cheating seeing as I have hands, but I told them that I’m not that strong just because I’m a dragon. They still complained, and asked for a rematch, which we still won anyways. Those times were fun.”

“Sunrise, we welcome you back. How was your day at school, ignoring your tug-of-war game.”

“It was...fun...” her voice started to fill with nervousness.

“Your pressure is rising, and so is your temperature. You have received a scolding?”

“Umm.”

“A bad grade then.”

“Yes,” it sounded like ‘Sunrise’ was surrendering.

“In what material? Biochemistry? Dimensional manipulation through light bending and energy distortion? Calculus?”

“What?”

The AI gave off a few semi-silent noises, but gave another, more understandable answer for such a young being:

“Have you failed at science, math, english?”

“Math,” the little creature responded with an even lower, almost guilty, tone of voice.

“HA!” A short barking laugh echoed from the ship’s halls, as Inventor found humor in the subject that she had failed.

There was a short amount of silence, until this “Sunrise” seemed to be quite happy for some, unexplained reason.

“Dad’s home?”

“Negative.”

“Then who made that voice?”

“I’m haunting you. OOoooOOOOO,” Inventor was in his insane state, and worst of all... he was bored.

“Yawn. A ghost. Pff. Not scary. I’ve seen worse,” her voice gave the impression of “smugness”.

“You will fear me when I draw your soul out of your body and all you feel from on is the dark endless space of death, but you won’t be dead. You will be living in eternal torment and hoping, praying, that your father will kill you to release you from the prison of your own body.” There was a pause for a moment where Inventor seemed to reconsider what he had just said. “I mean, I’ll take the appearance of your Dad, though it will be slightly askew.”

Sunrise gave out a cute little laugh, but Hospitaller and Templar, who could be heard from somewhere deep within the ship, didn’t seem to find the joke amusing.

“You’re funny. But, I bet you don’t know who my dad is. And you’ll have to guess which one is my real one.”

“Well, I would say that your adoptive father would have to be Steamlord. However the way that the robots are taking care of you I would only have to assume that your actual father is dead, what his name is though, I can only guess.”

There was a long moment of silence, and Sunrise did not speak during this long feeling of agony. She had gotten over that traumatic moment where Steamlord saved her from the cave where her true father had already died in, but whenever she was reminded that her true father was dead, she would cringe and feel a bending pain in her stomach.

“I only now realize that what I just said may not be something you like to be reminded about. Sorry. If it’s any consolation I know how it feels to lose one’s parent.”

“sniff*”

“Do not pertain to that subject any longer, prisoner. That may be the stocking area for the food and liquid sustenance, but there are still things in there that can sew your mouth shut.” Security System gave out a louder tone than usual.

“My apologies, Security System. I did not thoroughly think through my words before I said them. I will now only treat her with the same degree of respect I gave to my own adopted daughter and son.”

“You adopted too? Are they ponies, like you?” Sunrise seemed to have gotten over her little crisis.

“Heh, there is a small problem with your second part of that question but yes, they are ponies. Well Insight is... yea, they’re both ponies.”

“Well, what are you then? A minotaur or a griffon?”

“While I feel this could go on for a bit and distract me from my boredom. I feel it would be better just tell you now that I am human, like Steamlord.”

“Huh? I thought there was noone left there. He doesn’t tell me much about it, but I did hear him when he spoke to Celestia.”

“Different world, long story... kinda complicated without intimate knowledge of travelling across dimensions...”

“Uhhhhh,” she seemed confused, obviously. “SS, could you let him out? He seems like a nice guy.”

“Negative.”

“But Hospitaller is here. It’s not like he can hurt me.”

“Negative.”

“So, I suppose that you wanted Steamlord to stay inside all the time after he came here?”

There was a long pause, but the sound of metallic footsteps could be heard coming from the right side of the door. Templar was there. Finally, the door began to open, revealing that what had that voice was actually a surprising creature to look at.

“Oh, a...bipedal, humanoid dragon. That’s actually very interesting.” Inventor stood from his spot against the wall, His ragged clothes drooping around him as he did so. “Sorry again about earlier, don’t kill me after you gather a bunch of gold aight?” A slight smile danced across his face to indicate that he was joking. “Now, if I were back in my world and Scootaloo was having trouble with her math I would offer to help her understand it, though I’m not sure how Steamlord might feel about me offering you the same option.”

The dragoness had very bright, yellow scales, that seemed almost bleached. Her eyes were of an equally bizarre color, but they seemed full of curiosity and intrigue. On her head, there were green scales that pointed outwards in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of the scales. Not only did they double as a sleek and smooth set of eyebrows, but they reached the little dragon’s neck and cut off to form some sort of “tail neck”. Something Steamlord and Security System affectionately called a “teck”. Strangely, she even had a very humanoid appearance akin to that of human females. She seemed a bit angry and puffed up her face a bit while crossing her arms.

“I forgive you, but I’m not a baby, and I hate gold. As for the math, Security System here can help me with it.”

“Ah, I see. I’ll just chill here then shall I?” Inventor went back to the spot he had been in earlier and sat down once again. “I just hope Luna is okay.”

“What about Luna? Maybe I should tell Celestia.”

“The Luna from my world came here with me but I’m sure she’s a bit out of sorts physically and mentally. No need for you to worry yourself about it though, Steamlord has agreed to help. For which I guess I owe him.”

“Pfff. He always has to go through the council to send something to her. It could take hours. Maybe I can go directly to her?”

“Nah. Though if you are so set on it you can blame it on me, if you get caught by Steamlord or SS gets mad at you or something.” Inventor took a breath and looked towards the roof of the room. “You hear that Security System? My fault!”

“I hear everything that goes on in this vessel. Even your heartbeats, and the sound of the blood rushing through your ocular vessels.” SS spoke in a very creepy manner.

“Then by all means, kill mine off. I wouldn’t want to disturb your silence.” Inventor responded, his voice dark.

“It would be very tempting, but the reasons for your survival are up to Steamlord.” the bodyguards adjusted their stance.”If he orders it, then these two will behead you in a second.”

“Ha, you wish. I only give care of my life to those whose I ended. And Insight, these robots could not end me.”

“So you think. You are gravely mistaken, but, allow my databanks to store more information. Why will these Crusader Knights be insufficient in your destruction?”

“Because I can do this.” Inventor said with a manic smile as an electric pulse shot forth from his arm. The robots then flew and were pinned against the far wall. “A bit of electromagnetism and tadah, they can’t do jack all. But, that’s boring so...” Another pulse from his arm and the robots were released from the wall. “If you want to kill me, you are going to need to do it from behind. Like a coward.”

“Magnetism is a simple concept. Negating it would have been simple. However, your technology seems to be on a rather...low compared to my creator’s. In what year do you come from?”

“One between my birth year and death year, naturally.”

“Your humor is very low.”

“That would probably be because I’m not trying to be funny. I’m answering your questions with as little information as I can give.”

“Then provide more. A date of birth or the date that your technology was created would not allow me to recreate and propagate it, especially due to Steamlord’s strict refusal to give his.”

By this time, Sunrise had already left for her room, boredom on her mind.

“You assume I care about you recreating my tech? I don’t. I don’t care about this planet, or these robots or any other ‘data’ that I might receive. The only thing I care about right now is something that I can’t help, and it’s driving half mad. Hence the aggression to the robots moments ago. And the worst thing is,” Inventor clenched his mechanical fist until the metal began to deform from the pressure. “I’m completely useless to help solve the problem I created. Just like I was before.”

“Your problems don’t concern-”

“DAD!” Sunrise shouted.

In front of the only exit of the ship stood a man hugging his “daughter”. He actually looked happy. He was about to speak to SS when he turned around and saw that the door to the food storage was open, with the two bodyguards readjusting themselves from their previous position on the floor. Steamlord stepped in front of the open door to see Inventor.

“What did you do?”

“And your questions don’t concern me!” Inventor said, looking at the ceiling as he ignored the presence of Steamlord for the moment. After he finished he looked toward the man, a worry spreading across his face. “What’s the news on Luna?”

“What do you mean? She’s sleeping in her room, as far as we know.”

“Don’t give me your crap, Steamlord. How did your meeting with the council go.”

“What’s it to you? They said that you could meet Celestia, IF...”

“If what?”

“If you let me remove your gadgets and be escorted by me, my bodyguards, and a whole of veteran guardsponies.” Steamlord facepalmed.” I hate replacing ‘man’ with ‘pony’.”

“Sure.” Inventor pressed his shoulder with his regular hand. A hiss erupted from the joint and the limb fell from the sleeve, motionless. Then he took the bag from his waist and put it with the arm. “There ya go, all my tech.”

Steamlord crocked an eyebrow.

“You also lost an arm? Any OTHER limbs you’d be willing to share?”

“Though I could say eye just to creep you out, I don’t think I will. Just the arm.”

“Oh. So you only lost an arm and an eye.”

“No, you lost an arm and an eye, I just lost the arm.”

“Oho. I lost far more than just an arm and an eye. The guards are waiting for you outside.”

“Can I come too?” Sunrise asked after being silent for so long.”

“No.”

“But I want to.”

“I said no.”

“I’ll mess around with the Knights afterwards.”

Steamlord made a loud noise of fury, then conceded.

“Fine. Just don’t make any noise.”

“Yes!”

“Your daughter is odd.” Inventor said, mildly distracted as his eyes glazed over. “Not that I mean to insult her of course. Just... different...”

“She’s a dragon with a unique gene and has a teck that she moves like a tail. Plus, she grows, unlike the other dragons that I’ve been told require greed to grow. Seeing as nobody here has thorough knowledge of dragons, she might be a unique specimen. Now are we going or not?”

“By all means, lead the way.” Inventor stood from his seat, falling off balanced to his left. After a second try he managed to stand once again. “Sorry about that, losing an arm kinda messes with weight ratios. Especially when the arm is made of solid metal.”

“Yes. Yes. Just an arm. You don’t have to deal with other parts being torn off. Let’s go.”

Steamlord, accompanied by his bodyguards, surrounded Inventor, and they all left the ship while SS used the ships arms to grab the gadgets and pieces in order to organize them somewhere hidden within the ship. Outside stood several battle-hardened guards. Proof of their veterancy already came from the dentures and cracks in their armor, followed by a variety of physical “decorations”. The entire group left for the royal throne room with the clittering and clanking of metal armor.

Luna stirred, the clouds beneath her cushioning her movements as she did so. That was when she realized, she wasn’t on her bed, but why? Her eyes opened in a panic and several ponies who stood near her backed away in fear. “My apologies. I did not mean to frighten you, my little ponies.” As she spoke she became aware of a dark echo that seemed to haunt her voice.

“What’s... what’s going on?”

“It’s Nightmare Moon! Nightmare Moon has returned!” Came the cry of a pegasus. The resulting panic was to be expected and she was left to watch as the various citizens of Cloudsdale fled her presence. All except for two pegasi who looked very familiar.

“Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy? What’s going on?”

Unfortunate news

N64 forgot where he was going with the story and lost track of himself. Because of this, the story is cancelled, unfortunately for me, who was having much fun. There IS a possibility that another collab comes out with a third author, but we're still working on that.