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Steamlord: The Ink Mechanic

by The Psychopath

Chapter 1: A message, sire

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The Crusader Knights had remained in front of Steamlord's ship, the gigantic monstrosity still parked in the front yard of the castle just like before. Several guards and other ponies of stature were outraged at this refusal to be heard, even causing one stallion to become so angry that he charged towards the three guards, a knife in hoof. The royal guards used to Steamlord's bodyguards, simply sighed in embarassment at the sight. It was a well known fact that the knights were frequently upgraded with minor tweaks, allowing them to become increasingly more reactive and deadly. Their loyalty to Steamlord remained absolute, even with their abilities far surpassing his. Their sleek appearance was nothing compared to the danger that their claymores posed, and this is what the attacking pony faced.

Teutonic, being the one to always intervene first, placed a foot right below the stallion's mass, causing him to trip forward clumbsily with a face full of surprise. The robot then grabbed the pony by the neck, threw him in the air, back-hit the pony with his hand, jettisoning said angered creature far away from the crowd; All this in a second. They had been upgraded from versions 9.1 to 10.0, and their claymores had become infused with a new alloy discovered in Equestria, allowing for more ample movement due to the metal's relative lightness.
After the scene, Teutonic repositioned himself in front of the ship's entrance as if nothing had happened.

"Come on! What's going on? I only need him to teach me how to make such sopisticated clockwork."

"This is outrageous! I am a noble! I shall not be treated like this by some common peasants!"
The bodyguards expelled steam in a manner similar to laughter at this remark.
"Are...Are they laughing?"

"Yes. They are." a guard interjected as he walked forward."Excuse me, but this is a very important manner to discuss with Steamlord. Celestia needs to see him at once.

There was a moment of silence as the three robots stared the guard down with their optics before taking their claymores out from their backs, spinning them, and slamming them hard into the ground. None could pass.

"What?! But this--"

An immense siren went blaring off from inside the ship, deafening everypony around who yelled in pain and protest. The three knights immediately plucked their weapons out from the ground and rushed inside. Before the ponies could follow, however, the entrance slammed shut, leaving everypony in the dark as to what was happening. It was at this moment that a certain yellow creature appeared behind everypony.

"What are you all doing in front of my house?"

Sunrise had arrived right behind everypony without making a sound, as surprising as that may seem judging by her height. She was about a few centimeters short of being the same size as Steamlord, and her "teck" had grown exponentially, reaching the base of her normal tail. Just like it, though, the teck swung around ever so gently. The little dragon had grown since the last year, and she had a rather feminine body structure not too dissimilar to humans, which has disturbed Steamlord who doesn't understand how a reptile can possess such an abnormal body structure. Even the more knowledgeable in the field of dragons hasn't understood what kind of species she was, nor how she had a body structure like this. Nothing has helped identify this "mutant" amongst draconic kind.
Needless to say, she was imposing enough to scare the ponies senseless.

"I...uhhh...Nothing. We were just...uhhh, waiting." a noble stuttered with a nervous smile.

"Really, now? And what do you want with my dad?"

"Your dad?!"

Sunrise rolled her eyes.

"Well, duh. Why do you think I asked why you were all in front of 'our house'." the dragon gestured to her body by pointing forward and back.

"Well..." there was an awkward silence until Sunrise caught on.

"Ewwwww. What's wrong with you ponies? That's nasty!"

"Well how were we supposed to know? We've never heard of you before.!"

"That's true. Ooops. I wasn't supposed to show myself to you. Crap. Oh well. What's done is done. Hm?"

The siren of the ship had been deactivated, and the door leading to the inside of the ship slid slowly open to reveal Steamlord in his typical attire of his dark, plaid pants; His black boots; His black coat and jacket similar to the boots, as well as his glove on the left hand and goggles to cover his eyes.

The knights followed as the man wiped himself clean of ash and gunk, each step producing a notable clanking sound. He had the same golden gauntlet the only covered the top surface of his left hand, although it seemed a bit more sophisticated.

"Hm? What do you all want?"

There was an immense brouhaha that erupted, annoying Steamlord to no end.

"QUIET! I have something important to do, and I need to do it now. Sunrise, can you escort atleast two of them at a time into the ship? Ask them to give their names and what they want, and Security System should note everything down for me.

"Okay!" the dragon shouted joyfully almost childly before doing as told.

"OH! One more thing. If they dare to touch anyhting, you have my permission to slice them." Steamlord pointed out.

The dragoness gave a bland face, soon followed by one of malice as she showed her very long claws and her sharp teeth. Once more, it has become apparent that the ponies had pretty much soiled themselves. They saw seas of yellow.

Entering the throne room with is bodyguards, the group found themselves immediately assaulted by four armored griffins with their claws open and ready to cut down anything in front of them. They were promptly sent flying across the throne room, almost breaking the throne itself.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Steamlord exclaimed, his rage consuming him.

"That was only a test to see if you were the real thing. More than once have we had to deal with a fake Steamlord. Most notably, minotaurs and their compatriots disguised as you and your bodyguards. Isn't it hot for them to be constantly in those armors?" a scrawny griffin asked.

This griffin wore a black vest, and nothing more. He was rather scrawny compared to the rest of the of his kind, and he seemed a bit too curious as well, but this is what set his well combed physique apart from the other griffins; His kinder nature allowed for better interactions with the ponies.

"And who are you?" Steamlord snapped.

"I would appreciate you answering my question."

"Yet common courtesy is to present one's self before asking questions." the man said, crossing his arms.

Celestia just sat at the base of her throne and watched the two argue.

"I am Djiarl, dignitary of the Griffin Empire."

"And I am Steamlord. There's no one in those armors."

"Then they are powered by magic?" Djiarl smiled nervously as if hoping for him to be right.

"To YOU it's magic."

Steamlord walked in front of the grffin with his bodyguards in tow. The three expelled a violent amount of steam once in proper range, causing a high-pitched yelp to come from Djiarl.

"What is it, Celestia? I'm in the middle of finalizing my project."

"I was just watching you, so far. The one you should get an answer from, is the dignitary your machines just scared." Celestia scolded.

"M-Machines?" the griffin stuttered.

"Tell me what exactly is wrong that someone would come to the princess to summon me."

"Well, my Empire is in the far north, next to your Equestria. We live high in the mountains, you see. Um, we've heard that you have experience with...m-machines and-Could you all stop looking at me like that? It's making me nervous."

"Stand down, knights. You've done good."

The machines obeyed, and the dignitary gave a sigh of relief as he wiped his forehead with a cloth coming from his jacket.

"Thank you. Now then, we heard that Steamlord was good with machines, but we didn't know what you looked like nor where you were. Now you understand why we haven't called you earlier."

"Right. What exactly do you mean, though, by machines?"

"They look like giant copper constructs made of clockwork that belches steam. We've tried to defeat them, but we haven't harmed their exoskeletons."

"That's normal. You attack metal with claws. Unless your claws are serrated, you're not likely to damaged such constructs. By the way, I thought that nobody in this world had this sort of technology. Atleast, not mech standards." Steamlord turned to face Celestia.

"We didn't know either. It is probably because of your appearance that someone else came out to prove that they make better constructs than you."

"Yeah. Sure. Well, give me a map of the coordinates, and I'll be on my way. I'll get to research a new civilization and its culture, as well as this technology."

"You will? Oh! That's wonderful! I'll send a message to the chiefs to tell them of the news. Here's a map already prepared for you, and here is some griffin money, to buy what you need."

"Thank you." Steamlord said as he held a bag of coins and a map in his right hand.

"Great! See you in afew days."

"Right. Days." the human chuckled.

The griffin bowed and ran out of the throne room with joy whilst the man gave, himself, a sigh of relief.

"You know how to treat others."

"Says the one who was silent the whole time. I'm your chief in scientific and technological research and development, not your emissary."

"Still."

"Right. I'll see you in a few. Come on, knights. I am tired and we have a long trip to do, judging by this map."


The crowd of ponies had already left the premises, with Sunrise smiling widely. All four simply entered the ship, with a familiar voice speaking.

"You are back, yet your stress levels are very elevated. Would you like a copy of the demands now?"

"Later. I'm going to program new coordinates for you to bring us to in autopilot. Do it slowly so I can sleep after all this."

"Okay."

"Where are we going?" Sunrise asked.

"To the Griffin Empire up north. News about another mechanic have arisen there."

"Ooo! I wonder if they make as good things as you."

"...Ha!"

"It wasn't a joke."

"It is still funny to me. Anyways, I'm going into the navigation room and programming the route."

"Okay. I'll just stick around with the knights, then."

Once the door to the cockpit was shut, Sunrise was whispered to:

"Is everything clear?"

"Not yet." Sunrise answered.

"Stay hidden."

The three knights were looking at whatever was hiding behind one of the ship's corners with intrigue and confusion. It was an intruder, yet Sunrise did not see it that way.

"Keep quiet. This is a secret between us and SS."

While Templar and Hospitaller nodded and proceeded towards the back of the ship, Teutonic stayed in place for awhile, wary of the situation.

"It's okay, Teutonic. Nothing bad is going to happen."

The knight stared at the dragon for a long moment, before expelling steam from its body and proceeding to follow his "brothers", leaving the dragon to her biddings.

"I wonder who this mechanic is?" she thought to herself.

Next Chapter: Through the sky Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes
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