All of the ponies in the room huddled together as the sarcophagus lid raised incrementally.  The latches and rivets covering the dust laden surfaces disappearing behind a torrent of white fog that streamed out of the ever widening gaps.  To counterpoint the whimpering yellow pegasus, the Alicorn stepped forward strongly into the now freezing air.

“Come on girls.  We don't know whats in here, but at the very least we need to turn this off so the other researchers can come in here safely.”

Naturally, she left out the part where she was curious of what lay inside the darkened metal canister.  The air from within smelled old and stale like an old freezer, but without the taint of festering rot.  Regardless of her thoughts, she took a step back as more displays blazed to life.  The formerly blank walls illuminating the room in a blinding blue light.  Unknown figures and images streamed across the monitors in a rainbow of multihued chaos.  Little did they know that beneath the fog a set of frozen steel arms waited to strike.

***Sublimation of solid state coolant 98 percent complete.  Activating final warming sequence.

***Armatures 1 through 5 active.  

***Arming neurological probes for phases 5 and 6.

The ponies could only stare in awe and confusion as the frosted metal lid lifted away to reveal golden glowing elements within.  Streams of liquid poured from within the device, making the floor scream and crackle as its temperature dropped.  Those chaotic thoughts were quickly forgotten as four squealing steel arms lifted out of the coffin, hoisting a rag doll figure aloft like some sort of fetish.

“AH don't care what is in this room Twi!  We're out of here before those things get us!”

Save one, the ponies turned and ran, leaving the purple one alone with the corpse of history past.  Her mind noting and processing infinitesimal details in a fraction of the moment passed.

“Girls!  It's safe, come back!”

As she looked closer, her mind wandered toward what the thing really was.  Some kind of golem with its metal skin.  But why would they lock it away like that if it were dead?  Maybe a method of preservation.  The room had grown quite chilly after all.  

Either way, she stared in awe as the arms pulled the slumped figure to a point above a series of previously unnoticed rings in the floor.  A floor that had a strange clicking and whirring noise coming from within.  Idly, she wondered what would happen next.

“Come on Twi, lets leave that thing alone and get out of here,” a voice echoed from the hallway.  A voice soon forgotten as beams of light illuminated different parts on the golem, and a final golden arm unfolded from a compartment within in the wall.  The limp figure barely shifting as the unit pushed against its back with a dull set of clicks.

***Armatures attached.  Proceeding to next phase.

***Injecting mixture 193Alpha

***Measuring conductivity of all connected points... 87 percent of units within parameters.

***Arming system.

It was all Twilight could do to not to scream or cover her ears as a high pitched squeal poured from the machines and the limp figure seized and shook like a madman as shock after shock poured through it.  The entire room pulsing in a defiling blue glow that cast foreboding figures on the walls.  Down the hall, the black shadow of an unmoving alicorn stretched into eternity.

***Natural rhythms acquired.  Injecting endorphin/electrolyte mixture for final stage.

***Activating nanite swarm

As the shaking and nightmarish electrical show stopped, and the whimpering from the hallway slowly ceased, the group finally came back together to stare at whatever the unknown thing was.  Confusion reined free through the group as the object only seemed to make mechanical noises and get electrocuted, not threaten to chase them down the hallway to crush their bones with its teeth.

“Twilight, don't get me wrong, seeing lightning like that in a room was kind of neat, but what the hay was that?!?”

It was all she could do to shrug.  Whatever it was, apparently it was broken beyond repair if it shot arcs of electricity everywhere.  Something to catalog and figure out another day.

“Lets just go back to camp girls.  I don't think this thing is going anywhere soon.”

Nopony said a word as they turned to leave, hardly noticing the pink one just staring at the limp figure sullenly.  “I thought you were going to be my new friend,” she whispered as she turned.  Her eyes never leaving the figure until she faced away.  Eventually the darkness of the hallway engulfed them whole.

God knows how long I hung there waiting for the damn aliens to leave.  Why the hell they were in the secure vault, I have no idea.  God knows that I couldn't understand a word they were saying with their whinnies and nickering like some sort of demonic horse.  I remember the old Greek mythos about a pegasus, and the old english about unicorns, but I have no idea what that other damn thing was.  Some kind of hybrid maybe.  That or the cryo fried my brain a little extra crispy.  Either way, hanging from the vault walls was starting to get painful.  With a gesture, I triggered the release mechanisms and was lowered to the floor.

Breathing hurt.  A lot more than it should.  Everything was tinted a little bit red at the same time.  Either way, the onboard AI should be connecting to my armor any time...now.  Thin green text scrolled across the armor plate in front of my eyes.

***Greetings, I am <corrupted> 73, the sole remaining AI in vault <corrupted> You have been in cryostasis for ***<data unavailable> years.  This vault has undergone severe damage from unknown events.  Backup servers are ***unavailable at this time do to severance of networking hardware.

***As you have noticed, there is significant scarring of your optical and internal tissues.  Nanite swarms have already been ***dispatched to mitigate any permanent damage.  Please limit your movement for the next several ***minutes while they work.  You may experience momentary blindness and/or tightness of chest and ***pain as these issues are resolved.

***At this time, there are currently 28 unknown creatures occupying this vault.  Count is estimated 73 percent accurate ***due to lack of functioning security hardware.  All data in regards to this species and subspecies will be uploaded to ***your neural network at the completion of biological repairs.

***Unknown species has not shown hostile intent at this time.  Please proceed with extreme caution.  Systems are ***prepared to strip cryo components from your suit <Type 18 undersuit> and replace with your  ***standard issue <Type 18 Combat Chassis>  Would you like to proceed?

Through all the wheezing I was doing, I could barely make the meager gesture to the AI to get myself prepared.  As the compartments around me unlocked and more components sprung to life, everything began to fade to gray as the nanite swa...

I woke up hanging in the same spot several hours later.  Thankfully with the blindness and pain gone as the nanites had done their part apparently.  Even better was the fact that the AI had donned my armor for me while I was unconscious.  Wonder what I'll end up calling the thing.  Even for an AI, only being called 73 is an indignity.  First things first though.  Lets see what these creatures...

###Neural drive accessing:

Species within the vault refer to themselves as “Ponies.”  Recorded designations in archive below.  Linguistics has been uploaded to allow for translation.  Human vocal chords are unable to match patterns.  Please use AI <corrupted>73 to translate for you.

Well ain't that interesting.

“73, get me my guns...”