“Nucleus.”

The lime green pegasus jumps, her darker green mane and tail standing on end before she turns and sighs in relief, seeing a familiar mare in the doorway of her lab. She bows. “Princess.”

Princess Celestia smiles, though one can tell it’s slightly forced. “I do not mean to interfere or pry, but may I ask how your assignment is coming along?”

Nucleus stands up, nodding rapidly. “We’ve been working on it day and night, Princess. I know it’s been a while, but… well, our first idea bombed, the prototypes for our second didn’t work out...”

The princess holds up a hoof, silencing her. “No need to explain, Nucleus. I know very well progress can take a long, long time. I am merely interested in where you are now.”

This causes the green mare to grin. “Actually, we’re almost done!” This prompts a raised eyebrow. “They’re just fixing up a few things.”

“I must admit my curiosity,” Celestia says. “The last I heard, your plan was to develop… robots, I believe?”

“Yeah…” Nucleus rubs the back of her neck. “They… kinda flopped.”

“Do tell.”

“Well, for one thing, programming AI from scratch is tough, especially when trying to couple it with pony-level intelligence and friendliness. Our first prototype tried attacking us and our second killed itself when it learned it wasn’t a real pony.” She coughs awkwardly. “So… we thought of something else.”

Celestia tilts her head. “What might that be?”

“We don’t need to program ponylike AI if they already have a pony’s brain, right?” Now Nucleus grins again. “So we found two ponies who died recently with their brains intact and began upgrading their bodies.”

“You… you what?” The normally unflappable princess finds herself taken aback. “You attempted to experiment on dead ponies?”

“Not just attempted!” The mare giggles as she turns to a closed door off to the side. “Hey, Circuit Breaker! They done yet?”

A few muffled sounds come from the door before it slides open. A dark gray unicorn stallion pokes his head out. “We just finished. Why?” Noticing the princess, he quickly bows.

“It’s time to show them off to our test audience.”

Princess Celestia finds herself standing in an odd chamber; one almost pitch-black aside from two glowing green lights at the far end from the door she stands by. She glances around, noticing she is surrounded by mares and stallions in what one would call ‘scientist wear’; lab coats, protective goggles, and for unicorns, a clipboard and quill for notes. Four of them, right at the green lights shrouding what seem to be giant capsules, seem to be waiting for a signal, their hooves on different switches.

Nucleus, standing right beside the princess, looks at her with a confident expression. “I’m sure you’ll like what we developed, Princess.”

“I hope so,” Celestia mutters. Nucleus grins and nods to the ponies at the switches.

They nod back and, simultaneously, pull all four before starting to back away. The green lights start to fade as the sound of a generator powering up drowns out all muttering and scratching of quill against parchment. After several minutes, the green lights fade completely, as the plain overhead lights turn on instead, and the generator goes quiet.

For a couple minutes, nothing happens. The princess blinks. “...what are we-”

A sudden creaking sound cuts her off, and a second later, the capsules start to open. The front of each capsule slides down into the floor, puffs of steam coming from them and briefly obscuring their view of what may be inside. Then, the steam clears… and reveals two regular ponies.

At least, at a glance they appear to be regular ponies, but a second look reveals otherwise. The one on the left has a navy blue face and forelegs, brighter blue mane, and… dark gray metal over one side of their face, as well as their entire body from their shoulders to their back legs. The eye that the plating on the face surrounds is a bright blue, almost matching the other one, but this one has an odd sheen to it. Lastly, their tail doesn’t appear to be an ordinary tail at all, but rather just dozens of thin strands of metal.

The one on the right seems somewhat more normal-looking; their dark purple coat is more visible, with just their legs and chest being replaced with the dark gray metal, along with patches of their throat. Their eyes are a bright red and have the same sheen as the other pony’s left one, while their mane is short and bright white. Their tail is completely missing, but unlike the other pony, their cutie mark - three chains tied around one another - is actually visible, albeit surrounded with scars.

Princess Celestia gapes at them. “...who…?”

Nucleus smirks, walking forward. She taps the two on parts of their neck, causing their eyes to glow briefly before they begin looking around, their necks making quiet buzzing sounds.

“Princess Celestia, meet the new defenders of Equestria.” She pats the purple one’s shoulder. “Chain Link...” She nudges the other. “And Deadbolt.”

For a moment, nopony speaks. Then, Chain Link opens his mouth, and everypony flinches back a bit. They expect some sort of robotic groan, or even an incoherent yell followed by an attack.

Instead…

“...who are you guys and what in Tartarus happened to me?” Next Chapter: Chapter 1: The Arrivals Estimated time remaining: 21 Minutes