In the years before and during the last true war of Equestria, The Big Grin had been home to countless medical and scientific discoveries of the eleventh AN century. Scientists of vision, valor, and genuine ingenuity were drawn to the facility to tackle the greatest technological challenges of the era.

It was a major blow when the ministry of Arcane sciences took it upon themselves to steal the new age of science from Big Smile. But they turned to the abstract, and a new age of technology magic emitters, starmetal alloys, DNA hybridization, force field particle research, Auto-Doc advances in cranial, cardiac, cybernetic, and trauma surgery... the hopes and dreams of a century became realities in the electronic and magical forges of Big Grin.

The central nervous system of this research was The Face. Behind its walls of magically reinforced stone, were the labs for every known; and several unknown, fields of science in the world. It was a think tank where no problem would be left unanswered, no stone unturned, and no question unanswered.

However, with the coming of the last war, there was a new energy that boosted the facility with great success. The old age of science, was combined with recruits, who sought to improve Equestria's chances with the more unorthodox sciences. In its labs the first true combat drugs, chemical warfare, and energy weapons had been made.

However, while far from the front lines, the scientists waged their own wars, fighting their battles within the deep magical and atomic levels. Equations, experimentation, and calculations marched endlessly across the laboratory of Big Grin, all leading towards one solution: Winning the war. For years the minds, computers, and subjects of Big Grin were a blaze of trajectories, weapon schematics, magical spell-work, and biological theories.

On the night of November 22nd, 1024 AN, the scientists received an answer that put all their questions to rest. In the aftermath, Big Grin's experiments went to sleep, their creators slowly dying in the new world that had been left behind. And The Face lay untouched, filled with countless technological and magical wonders.

Wonders, that in the end, had been answers to the wrong question.

I was met with a cold blue light as I regained my consciousness, the soreness in my leg had vanished, thankfully, though I couldn't say the same for the rest of my body. It felt like the time a brute had smashed me through a wall like a sledge hammer, only the feeling was beneath my chitinous covered body rather than all over the surface. As I blearily regained my awareness, I managed to force my eyes open enough to squint, I was on a bench, made of metal and rotten old polyester cushions, that and apparently I was outdoors, albeitly shielded from the natural elements by a large yellow glowing screens that separated me from the sky, I turned my own gaze to my own body. Well I wasn't in my armor anymore, instead a form of pre-war surgeons scrub had been put on me, two sizes too big. I lifted it up, and my eyes widened as I found a large amount of sewed together lines where someone or something had cut into me to look at my insides before sewing me back together.

I followed the lines as far as I could, though I lost sight of them once it had crossed my back and went up the start of my neck. My body tried to buzz my wings in alarm, but found nothing was beneath the orange elytra that held my two crucial instruments of flying. Now I wanted to buzz in distress, I was clipped. What else had my captor taken from me? The next thing I checked was my horn, which was mercifully still there. Four legs? Check. Drawing myself up while wiping the hint of sleep-drool from my face, I further reviewed my surroundings.

There was a door, similar to the stable standards, and it lead into a large grey home of what probably had been or still was, a ponies penthouse suit. There was some sort of fancy glowing map-table-terminal thing in the middle of the main room though, however it didn't really work at all. Nor did the auto doc that was built into the wall, or anything up here really. Guess it all must be out of order.

I was more shocked at the overall cleanliness of the place, as I walked through the penthouse and noted how there wasn't even a piece of trash to be found on the ground. Most places I've seen had a definite look of dirt or grime mixed with scattered trash, even the stable I lived in was often littered with papers of long since outdated experiments. Even entering the only other exit, which was an working elevator funnily enough, was clean as if it had never seen a day of dirt in its life. I arrived on another floor, and an irritating feeling crept through my skull as I walked down a long hallway towards a set of stairs leading upwards.

Then I was faced with staring at the most horrendous abomination of a machine I've met yet, and that was after meeting the bucking ultra sentinel back in what I presumed was a few days ago. For one, it had a brain in a jar whose liquid contents were colored a faded yellow, second it was built in the format of a pony sized crab around the underside of the jar, a saucer like body giving way to six long spindly metal legs. Sticking out of the top side of the saucer next to the brain container, was enough metal arms with different attachments arranged around the back half of it to make a mister-handy jealous, on the front however, as it turned around, was a screen with some ponies face on it. What I had failed to realize was, until that moment that there was also five more of these robots for a grand total of six throughout the room, each one with a different colored preservative in their brain-jar.

"Ah," began the yellow jar-saucer-robot quietly, "I thought I heard the pacification field kick in."

A purple one all but scuttled its way around me eyeing me over, her voice smooth as a young seductress, "We seem to have an intruder Dr.Magic. The lobotomite from earlier today."

"That thing's still breathing?" came a heavily accented reply from a green one, "Thought that autodoc screwed it up like everyone else."

A hiss of static from a red jar-bot.

"Evidently not, Dr.Honesty. If that is your real name." the yellow one, Dr.Magic presumably, stared at the green one, its face flashing to a similar image of the face, only with a paranoid expression instead.

Dr.Honesty's own face, a bearded unicorn on the screen, swapped to a deadpan, "you've been doing this for the past two hundred years Mag. For the last. Bloody. Time. I am who I say I am."

"Rrrright." Dr.Magic switched to an expression of narrowed eyes before swapping its gaze back to me, by simply rotating its chassis to face me again, "Get out of here you little invertebrate insect thing. Shoo, shoo." he rose his mechanical limbs in a threatening posture that reminded me more of a crab from the zoology books back in the Stable.

I backed up a step, since one of those arms, one with a saw blade, nearly grazed me when it was raising its arm. Only to feel a pair of articulated claws brushing through my tail, causing me to yelp and go to the side to dodge around the one who had a grip on it, "But her tail looks so soft," said the blue one who had a grip on my tail, "Can we keep it?"

"Why on equis would you want to keep that?" Dr.Magic commented again, "I mean look at it, with its hole filled cheese legs, and its ruptured horn. Heck, she had a mutation on her back giving her the appearance of one of those pathetic bugs back in the wa-" he paused, "This is because she looks like a bug, doesn't it Dr.Laugh?"

The bot nodded its head screen vigorously with such noise I thought she was going to break her screen, "She's so cute though. All long and gangly, with an orange shell to boot! Just like you Mag."

"My case is yellow thank you very much." Dr.Magic snarked, "And you're going to have to feed it and clean it yourself if you want to keep it, and I hope you can potty train it. As I will not accept a messy workstation within these walls."

"Do I have a say in this?" I spoke up, and they all went silent.

"Did it just speak?" a white cased one asked, "Did it really?"

"Yes?" I answered.

Dr.Magic replied, "Impossible, it's a lobotomite, how can it be speaking, not unless... the procedure was successful...?" he considered his own words before hurriedly adding, "no wait, of course it was successful, that is the power of the think tank!"

"He says that after the four thousand seven hundred and eighty four other failures over the last two hundred years..." Dr.Honesty snarked.

"Shut up." the purple one advised, something he took to heart.

"Can you understand us?" Dr.Laughter asked, her face a poofy mess of yellow hair framing a purple face with narrow reading glasses.

"Yes." I said again.

"Is two plus two four?" the white one asked.

"Yes?" I said for the third time in a row.

The red one hissed static ominously.

"Pardon?"

"Amazing, she may be of some use." Dr.Magic whispered to himself, "even after the surgery she retains sentience."

"You do know what that means though, right?" Dr.Honesty declared excitedly, "She can get us our-"

Dr.Magic made a nod towards his companion, "Yes, Hon. She could. That is if she agrees, not that she has much of a choice if she wants to leave."

"Uh, what?" I asked, I didn't like these things already.

"You're going to need to go on three fetch quests and two assassination quests for us pretty much." Dr.Laugh cooed, stroking my mane, I let her, it actually felt sort of nice, and it was better than some of her other arms that would of caused some pretty serious injury had she used those instead.

"Why?" I asked, finding myself unable to work myself into an anger, was this an effect of the pacification field? Buck me with Luna's moon...

"Well Doctor Terrible sort of stole all your Brain and the stuff you came in with." the purple one said, a hint of a bitter tone in her voice when she said the name, "Oh, but we still have the other organs we replaced, though you'll need your brain if you want to put those back in."

I felt violated, that explained the scars and why everything was sore, but what exactly did they replace? "Other Organs?" I whispered, wide eyed in shock.

"Aw, look, shes in wonder." Dr. Laugh misinterpreted my slack jawed expression, "Shall I tell her or you Mag?"

"I will." the doctor she had addressed answered, "First we removed your brain, though when we were in the process we had complications with your heart, so we replaced it. with a robotic replacement that will last five times longer than the pony equivalent."

"What."

"Oh wait." Dr. Magic said, "After your brain second came the spine, THEN the heart. Nervous system was incompatible with it. But as a result of your spine being taken out, so did those wings that were in that strange shell on your back needed to be taken out."

"What?"

"We also had to replace your eyes, since they were mismatched in color slightly," the purple one replied smoothly next to Dr.Magic, "We value symmetry here. Much unlike Doctor Terrible."

"What?!" I replied a third time, just how much of me was left of me?!

"And that's about it." Dr. Magic finished, "Really. Though if you wish to put any of those back in, your going to have to grab what we need anyway."

"And what is it that you need." I tried to hiss my reply as venom at them, but it came out as neutral. Bucking pacification field. It was hard not to think about how strange it was to have so many cybernetics installed in me.

Mr.Magic answered for me, "The blueprints for three things, which can be obtained by completing their respective experiments. First thing you're going to need to grab is a magic-emitter. As well as a sample audiolog in which to reset its data, as no doubt a lot of junk programming after years of disuse."

He paused, searching his memory, "After acquiring that, you will have to acquire the experimental metal cutter known as the 'C.L.A.W.' from its testing facility as well as an experimental stealth suit. We were unable to remove your metal..." Dr.Magic paused again, before saying the next word extreme distaste, "Pipbuck... So the information you need on where these projects of ours have been downloading automatically as we speak. As for the predictable why, you're going to need it in order to get your brain back."

I didn't really have no choice did I? "And you guys didn't get this yourself, why?"

"Doctor Terrible, more commonly called Bull Frown, has an army of robots, ghouls, as well as the very many failed experiments that have escaped their holding cells over time." Dr.Honesty confirmed.

I sighed, and with a deadpan that would of done Grey proud, I asked, "Do you have any guns?"

Xp Footnote: 90% left until level up.

New Perks!(not that you chose them)

Brainless: Your brain has been replaced with advanced technologies: Your head can no longer be crippled and is resistant to chem addiction by +25% and shock from bodily damage, +5% Damage Threshold, minimum +1.

Heartless: Your heart has been replaced with advanced technologies: You cannot be poisoned, and filters in your heart will also regulate bleeding and healing, allowing all healing items to function at a higher level. Robots are now confused by you and 50% less likely to score a critical hit.

Spineless: Your spine has been replaced with advanced technologies: Your torso can no longer be crippled and your Strength and Damage Threshold have been increased by +1.

Color Corrected: Your eyes have been replaced with advanced technologies of a singular color. No changes in stats visible though, well besides a 15% S.A.T.S. capacity upgrade and a 5% weakness to electrical dampening weaponry.

Wingless: Your wings have been removed, you are no longer able to fly and all perks related to flying have been temporarily disabled until such a time you regain the ability to fly. As a result, however you gain a +1 to endurance to compensate for your troubles.

Please note: While cybernetics are installed, you are unable to take any perks under the Zebra Alchemy perk tree.

Next Chapter: Summer Smiles DLC 2: Psychos... Psychos Everywhere. Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 37 Minutes