Written for Technology Isn't Magic. ---------------------------------------------- >That stupid, smug ass Twilight Sparkle, always relying on magic to get her work done. No wonder this civilization is still primitive even with such cities as Manehattan, because everything is ''MAGIC THIS, MAGIC THAT'', always the same thing! It does have its benefits, like the use of Electromancy to power up your secret hideout, but even then...would it not be better to understand everything going behind that single blue spark of lightning? >It was an even bigger pain in the butt to build up your ''evil lair''. All Twilight did was use a spell to dig out a cave and call it ''your home'', while you took months to use everything this place had to offer, let alone mine its vast resources and minerals that YOU had to dig for yourself. The most painful part (for you at least) was building the computers, now that there are no materials you can simply order online and assemble it together... >Oh, but alas, you are about to prove them wrong, for your heavy work and hours of smelting, crafting and mining are about to be rewarded. Magic is useful for the most part, yes, but this thing...this new body...finally those 24 hours of /g/ and /diy/ every week were useful for something. >And now, brain surgery, the final step towards evolution. It's not rocket science, but even considering the complications of it it does not matter...for you are about to leave Humanity behind, and step above these tiny Equines once and for all >...from the looks of it, it was a successful operation! You open your eyes to find yourself laying down on your workbench, like some sort of dead-body, rising from death. Now...to test this thing out, and hope it better not be a defective unit like everything you've built prior to this [ALL SYSTEMS READY] >And thus, after an hour waiting for everything to charge up...you get up on your feet. Finally, your new body is ready to hit the road! Initiating... Monitoring brain-activity... Scanning environmental activity... Adjusting vision... >Similar messages keep appearing in the corner of your eye-sight. It reminds you of those programs from those classic sci-fi novels of your childhood. All it could use now it's a shotgun and some sunglasses, but unfortunately, you were able to build neither of them since you wanted to make this thing work first! >Let's see...enhanced body movement? Check. Great combat capabilities? Check. Yup, no worries, you are a literal killing machine now even though this is the least violent place for you to be in...you just couldn't help yourself! >Now you must get properly dressed up... the working suit you arrived with should do the trick since, well, no one bothered on making your clothes except for that white unicorn that lives next town...yeah, she never got the measurements right, but it's the thought that matters! [ALERT, PROXIMITY ALARM ACTIVATED] Flying objects nearby! Environmental magic detected! The front door has been knocked twice! >ARHG! THESE ALERTS ARE SO LOU- >After turning down the volume in your ear-sensors and getting properly dressed up, you walk towards your front door. It shouldn't be anyone, no one ever visits this place unless it's Twilight or the Princess. You gently open the door and peek through it ..''yes?''. It seems to be the Royal Guard. Two winged stallions next to a golden chariot, one earth pony in the middle. He approaches before speaking up >''Sir Anonymous! The Princess demands your presence at her castle in Canterlot. Come without any complaints, or I will be forc-''. yeah yeah, whatever ''Where to now?''. He looks rather dazzled as you hop on the golden carriage. The stallion...whatever his name was, simply sits next to you before both pegasi take flight. Eventually, you lift off, and you can't help but admire the lovely view from above >After gazing at the Equestrian landscapes from the sky, you arrive at Canterlot, landing directly in front of the main door of the castle. There are two--no, four guards waiting for your arrival...for an unknown reason. Why do they need so many guards in the first place? What's going on here? >Your scanners pick up an unusually high level of magic in the enviroment...but all things considered, this is the big city of the big magical horses after all. And well, here live the roothiest, toothiest ponies of the land, so...maybe it's just fear for your superior technological knowledge! >You enter the castle, the four guards escort you through the many hallways of the place. It's like a labyrinth almost, and your analysis seems to reveal that this structure makes no sense and should have collapsed years ago! Again, the magic is probably to keep the bloody thing stable so it doesn't fall off the mountain! >Well, at least the interior looks nice with all these bookshelves and lamps and expensive-looking plant pots, but they probably have some sort of enchantment as well to prevent anyone from stealing them. [!] Suspicious movement detected! >You halt your movements. Using your eye scanner, you check for every corner in the room before your radar finds something walking through the walls of the place. Zooming in reveals that a cockroach is wandering about the walls of the castle... >It stopped moving when you saw it, and now it's just standing there...MENACINGLY! But for real though, all this magic and they can't even clean the place? You continue walking...hopefully, no more alarms will trigger after this >Before you know it, the guards have stopped at the sight of a mighty door. Two of them rush in to open it before you, to reveal a round table inside of it. This must be one of the towers, you can identify the windows lighting up this tiny room. You also notice a white horse... >A female, she seems to be sitting in one of the four cushions surrounding the table. Not only that, a tea set is on it, and a cup is magically flying into her mouth. Yup, that's mommy Celestia, but why did she call you to partake in a tea party...? >''Greetings, Anon''. Her head tilts in your direction right as she puts the cup back on the table. ''We meet again. Come, please take a seat...'' Before you're able to move a single extremity, the guards force you into the room. ''Oy! Have some manners will ya?!''. They don't respond, they simply stare back at you. >''It's fine'', she looks at the guards. ''Leave us alone...''. Their green eyes exchange looks before they salute and exit the room. Now, time for answers. You take a seat in front of her, she quickly handles a plate towards you using her...magic ''No thanks''. Yeah, you did not come here to eat a strawberry donut and take some coffee. ''So what's the deal?'' >''Hmm? What do you mean?'' ''Did you seriously brought me here to have a little tea party with me?'' >''Well, taking the tea with my sister is rather exhausting. I hope you understand...'', that's just lovely! Or conflictive, or...what? ''...well?'' >''Anonymous, I summoned you here to inquire about your progress in technology. Twilight is currently out of town, so I can't help but ask it myself...'' [!] Something feels unnatural Hmmm, of course! You were supposed to inform Twilight next week, not today! And she's always around to see what fancy stuff you've built upon, why be out now? So why would Celestia of all pon- >''...something wrong?'' ''Yeah, I was supposed to report after a month or so, not today!''. Something's not right, have they got their dates mixed up? Do they not know how a calendar works? >''A month...yes, a month is 29 days according to my learnings! So well, Anonymous, how do you plead?''. She insists, oh well, nothing you've shown Twilight is really something to be marveled at to be honest...at least from your perspective ''...mmkay...''. You move your fingers out of their place, unplug and reinsert your arm, among many things that androids typically do to show that they're beyond human. And hey, a little demonstration won't hurt anybody! >''...extraordinary! How I wish Twilight was here to see it for herself...!''. [!] [!] [!] Multiple red [!]'s go wild in your vision, as the windows that where once lighting up the room completely shut down! ''...beg you pardon?'' In the pitch darkness. her eyes begin to glow green, and before you have time to react, a flashing green light knocks you out of the tower! As you're falling, your audio recording devices pick up multiple loud noises, similar to that of a building collapsing under its own weight! Hey, is that a boulder...oh dear, it is! ------------------------ [EMERGENCY BATTERIES ACTIVATED] [LOADING GENTOO...] ... [Secure Interface LOADED] [Recalibrating senses] ... >First, comes your hearing. Although the sound of silence is very present in the area, you can pick up faint water drops nearby, their noise echoing, traveling through the solid walls of a cave system you seem to be in >Next up is skin. Yours is synthetic, noticeably green, but it's very resistant and completely wraps a body made out of metal, cables, and printed tissue. It feels...rather cold. The ground you find yourself lying on is very harsh, it feels like a solid rock rather than dust or dirt. >And lastly, the light-receptors kick in, thus regaining your temporarily lost eye-sight. You find yourself in a huge cave entrance, at the edge of a deep-looking lake, so big it eventually disappears into the darkness of the overhead mountain. What is this place? >You stand up and take a better look around. It is, indeed, a huge water body, but nothing outstanding can be observed besides its natural beauty. Then, you slowly turn around and instantly notice lots of bricks that have dug themselves into the ground, only a couple of them can outstand. Not only that, the purple head of a tower seems to be...attempting to rise from the dirt. It reminds you of the tower you were just in, minus for the fact that this one seems to have been reclaimed by nature. Only a quarter of its body seems to be visible, and even that is surrounded by a bunch of square-shaped cobblestones, maybe the ruins of what once was the wall of a fortress >Far from that, it seems like a boreal forest has grown right outside of this cave, yet you can clearly see that some of the trees that grew up in the hills are standing in the top of unnatural, perfectly edged rocks. You can't tell much from there since your vision seems to be limited by a dense fog, showing from between the trees...what...is this place? [ALERT! NO SUNLIGHT] [NO SOLAR ENERGY OUTPUT/SOURCE] [RETURN TO BASE FOR ENERGY CHARGE] >A better question would be...whatever happened to you? You were talking to the Princess when all of the sudden she went bananas and...actually, a better alternative would be to look at the Alarm files. From 2 hours ago: [!] [ALERT! Tremor activity detected!] [!] [ALENRT! Intense magic drop-off detected!] [!$#%] [RecRecReovering fr-from-om fall-fall damage, initializing hybernati-] [-] >That seems rather bad, and you have no idea of what that could possibly imply. Maybe you fell out of the city, somehow, and landed in a place below Canterlot. To think that your body managed to recover from that, especially considering the huge altitude of the city...geesh, even your clothes are all torn apart. Your pants and shoes show no sign of damage beyond a scratch or two, but your suit and t-shirt are just...well, you're better off without them, right? You take them off and take a look at your body. It looks exactly like the body you had before putting your brain inside this thing...okay, maybe you added some muscles to it so you don't look like a complete weakling after all. Whatever, it's a new body nonetheless, change is good right? Now if only Twilight was around to see it... >Yeah, you have no idea where you are, where is she, or what happened. Welp... >You decided to walk loosely trough the density of the forest up in the hills. If you reach a high place and this is below Canterlot, maybe you can have a clear view of your surroundings, right? It's very silent, you hear no birds chirping, no bugs singing, nothing, but the lonely wind that sometimes, caresses the pine leaves. Occasionally you stumble upon a piece of stone, and indeed, not only it shows signs of overgrowth by nature, but it also seems to be the piece of a castle wall. But that's not even possible, but...no...it cannot be...maybe you weren't the only thing that fell from the sky after all... >You manage to find yourself a road, that goes directly uphill. Using your enhanced legs and feet, you begin to run as fast as you possibly can. It's quite the hard task considering how steep this is, but you're sure you can still reach there. Finally, the fog is clear, and you spot the distant ruins of an outer wall...and as you slow down your pace, you notice it's not the only thing missing. It appears that half of the city is no longer there...it's gone. It looks like the earth ripped in the place in two, and part of what was closer to the edge of the mountain seems to have...fell off. >The inner city is no better, everything that was once built now looks like a huge labyrinth for lab-rats to solve. Some roofs are missing, vines are growing, there are huge boulders crushing what once were towers, all of this looks like an authentic war zone! >...you begin to lurk trough what used to be the streets of the city. It's all done for now, but some of the pathways still show. They're not lonely, for they do a remarkable job showing pieces of armor lying around the area. This all seems rather suspicious like it happened years ago. As you continue walking, you notice more and more pieces of armor, whore by those from the Royal Guard. Swords, spears, flags...Could it be that...maybe...how long did you actually hibernate for? [!] >Something is watching you, and you can feel it getting closer... [!] [Movement] >Quickly, you take a sword from the ground before you. It looks sturdy enough for self-defense, so it should be no problem with whatever problem or dangerous situation...despite it's primitive look, you know this has to do [!] [COMBAT PROTOCOLS ACTIVE] >As something black jumps in from the front, you stand out of it's way before it can hit you. The thing hits a wall, before turning back and looking at you. You have never seen such horrid creature before, but it looks hostile enough to raise your guard up... >Here you stand, holding a Claymore with both of your hands, facing some ugly-ass looking horse in front of you. It opens its mouth, drooling, revealing a dozen of very sharp teeth, while also hissing like some sort of snake. You slowly, take a step back, the creature staring into your soul with a pair of sharp, lifeless, blue eyes. [ANALYZING LIFE-FORM] [METALLIC TISSUE DETECTED] >...right, whatever this thing is, your scanner tells the presence of metallic tissue...but that's not right at all. It's an organic life-form, right? [!] [ALERT! SIMILAR MOVEMENT PATTERNS DETECTED] [DEXTERITY PROTOCOLS ENGAGED] >You quickly turn in the direction of the signal, a creature jumps from the top of a ruined building and LANDS A POWERFULL BITE INTO YOU LEFT ARM! Such sudden attack drops the sword out of your hands, while the thing begins to move it's head around, like a lion trying to rip the leg out of his prey! [INITIALIZING COUNTER-ATTACK MEASURES] >You attempt to break free, using your right hand to grab it by the snout and hold back its teeth! It makes it bite harder, forcing you to make a quick motion and pull the thing out of your arm... >Due to the immense strength of your body, the creature was sent flying towards one of the city walls, before destroying the upper parts of it by crashing violently against it. Such power actually lifted a small cloud of dust and also created a small, shockwave, that was heard as loud as a thunderstrike. You stand back up on your feet and focus your attention on the other creature, which begins to rush towards you... -[!]-[!]-[!]- >Multiple sets of alarms begin to show within your eyesight, yet you remain calm. Anticipating the strike, and being confident about your body, you take a step back and direct your fist directly into the face of the creature! It flies, like the other monster, and crashes into a house, making the already fragile structure fall above it. Well...this is something you could get used to pretty quickly... [MULTIPLE MOVEMENT PATTE- >From the same direction the monster crashed in, 3 creatures rush out of the shadows of the ruins, HISSING, WHILE RUNNING TOWARDS YOU! Recapacitating your pose and raising your fists, you are ready to test the full strength of your body, no longer creeped out by the sounds these things make. Their speed is notoriously fast, they appear to be jumping in a zig-zag pattern, possibly to further confuse you about when will they attack. And so, you quickly raise your hand towards one of the creatures, getting a good grab on its neck before SLAMMING THAT THING TO THE GROUND, cracking the stone at your feet! This attack makes the creatures halt their movement, while the one you grounded is twitching and convulsing uncontrollably. [!] >One of the two notices this, and in a rush of fury, rushes in for a biting attack! Predictable enough, you motion your free palm towards this foolish animal, thus slapping it right in the face! [DECREASING OVERALL ATTACK POWER] [FOCUSING POWER ON MOVEMENT CAPABILITIES] >Right...well, this new body is proving to be fun indeed! If not for the constant alerts and obvious UI, this is a great feeling! Man, if only Twilight was here to see this spectacle. Regardless of that, it seems like this blow wasn't powerful enough, it barely sends the thing a couple of feet away from you. HOLD IT, HERE COMES ANOTHER ATTACK! >You dodge an impending tackle by stepping to the right, thus evading an attack from the last monster that was left alive. As it stands right in front of its downed companion, you decide to test how strong are your legs by KICKING THE GROUNDED ANIMAL LIKE A SOCCER BALL! As expected, both monsters are sent flying high up in the air, before the loud ''POMFT'' sound marks their crash, in a not so distant building. >One left to go...it seems to be lying on the ground, not moving at all or making a single noise. You slowly approach, as a green, transparent glow is trying to erupt out of its belly... [SUDDEN MAGIC OUTBURST DETECTED] >A light, smooth, green flame begins to emit from the body of this creature. It slowly gets back on its hind legs before raising its arm towards the sky. Looking closer, not only do you notice how broken up its face is, or how it bleeds a light green liquid from it...it also reveals some sort of cybernetic eye. And just like so, the arm of the creature beginning to...deconstruct, somehow. It slowly transforms into some sort of blade, before being brought down in a violent manner. Now it looks like a great sword, it's edge sharp enough to scratch the surface of the ground while it approaches towards you. Apparently, this...cyborg...whatever it is, is ready for round two. [!] >And in a quick motion, the robotic being jumps into the air, high enough to cast a shadow bigger than yours! It's not long enough before gravity brings it towards you, the mighty blade ready to slice you up! You manage to move out of the way just before it lands violently on the stone ground, the impact powerful enough to lift a wave of dust towards you [ANALYZING FIGHTING PATTERNS...] >And just after that, you flex your knees before jumping out of the horizontal trajectory of the blade! You land on your feet, only to avoid a diagonal slice by rolling to your side! Using that inertia to spin on its own axis, the blade of the thing begins to rotate like the blades of a helicopter, as this whirlwind of death begins to approach very quickly towards you. So much so that the street behind you is getting smaller and smaller, and the blade is beginning to slice up the buildings to your sides! [ANALYSIS COMPLETE] >It's head appears to be unprotected, so you quickly perform a jump before bringing your foot to its face! Surprisingly enough, the thing barely moves backwards, but it was enough to completely stop its attacks! Using this opportunity, you rush in to strike in a deadly punch, when all of the sudden, your fist hits a steel wall! >It seems like the bastard generated a shield before you managed to lend in a mighty blow. It was so quick and efficient, it barely moved the cyborg! And suddenly, the shield KNOCKS YOU INTO THE GROUND! You roll and attempt to recover, but the thing manages to run fast enough to- [PHYSICAL TRAUMA DETECTED!] >It managed to knock you with its shield twice, so well executed that, when you attempt to stand back up, you have trouble commanding your legs about what to do. You underestimated the situation...this land has magic before technology, so...how could a thing like this be possible? Unless they stole your research and put it to use in other malicious works then... >''Eeee''. A deep voice emerges from this thing. ''Eeee...''. ''I can't hear you! Speak louder weakling!''. That will teac- >''KILL'' [!] >The machine, rushes towards you with its shield drifting on the floor, as well as a blade strike coming towards you! Observing this, you note that the fight has brought you to the edge of the cliff, where there was once a castle! Having not much of a choice, you decide to jump out of its way, one more time [!] >It notices your evasion and brings the blade towards you in a slicing motion! You barely manage to dodge it, before standing back up on your feet. Now that you're facing it's back, you decide to strike at its head once again, so you perform one of those stunt jumps from the movies before KICKING THAT FUCKER IN THE HEAD! The machine falls under its own weight, exposing its backside to you! NOW FOR THE FINISHING MOVE! [POWER DRAFTED TOWARDS ARMS] >You stand on its back, and without further repercussions, BEGIN TO PUNCH IT AT EXTREMELY HIGH SPEEDS! One of your strikes targeted at the head, manages to penetrate its steel-like skin, completely shattering what apparently looked like the insides of a computer! And thus, the machine seizes to move, and your sensors stop receiving any sort of signal coming from it... -------------------------- Author's Note: This reeks of ESL, I'm glad I've improved ever since.