Twilight looked at the town that they had arrived at as they passed through. Everyone seemed really nice but there was something off about it. All the same cutie marks, the creepy smiles, and the greetings seemed monotone. Rarity’s blue eyes gazed around as she listened to the thoughts of the ponies around her. It was creepy on how many were the same.

‘The mountains, just a little longer and I can get to the mountains.’ a thought caught her attention for a moment. She looked around trying to pinpoint the source of the thought but couldn’t as they were stopped by a stallion.

A filly walked down the road, her copper mane falling in front of her face. She looked around with blue eyes making sure no pony spotted her before heading towards the mountains. This was Gears, a unicorn raised in the strange place known as Town. She was short and stalking having large hooves. She rolled her eyes at the excited chatter about new ponies coming to their town before heading off towards the cave that she found earlier that week.

Her horn glowed as she sent up a small light above her casting a orange glow around the surrounding area. It flickered before turning into a flame as she walked along. Gears frowned as she examined the writing on the wall.

“Let’see here, Room of Creation. That sounds interesting.” she mumbled looking to the left, shrugging the filly head off down the road. “Whoever built this place made it to last.”

Her hoofsteps echoed down the hallway until she reached a large room that seemed to light up in her presence. Gears watched as the furnaces lit up with fire casting the room in light and warmth. She let out a squeal when she saw all the machinery begin to move. Then groaned when it came to a halt, she walked over to one of the large gears and tapped the metal.

“Something is jamming it.” she mumbled looking around before walking around the gear. Her eyes stopped when the light reflected off something metallic. Walking closer she saw what looked like a metal body.

“What is that?” the filly asked before grabbing ahold of it with her magic. She tried every trick she knew of to get it unstuck to no avail. ‘Maybe it’s the way this thing is stuck in there.’ she thought examining the machine closer. Frowning she noticed a part being crushed by the cog while being what was jamming it.

“Alright, whoever built this thing must have taken in for jams.” Gears mumbled as she looked around. “Meaning they have someway to lift the gears. Now let me just, is there a lever that I can pull? There is always a lever….”

Starlight Glimmer was singing her song to the Princess of Friendship when she noticed something was amiss. One pony was missing, she forced herself not to growl. ‘Where is Gears?’ she thought her eyes glancing around for the small pony that she took in. The greyish gold filly always managed to slip away when a new guest came into town. The only reason why she wasn’t locked in the reforming room all the time was the fact that she acted her part when she got back. ‘She’ll go in there when she gets back. That filly needs to learn her lesson one of these days.’ thought the two colored maned mare as she continued with the song.

Rarity didn’t say a word as she glanced over at Starlight. Her thoughts concerned her but also an innate desire for friendship. The fashionista took a deep breath as she continued to pay attention to their surroundings.

“I think I got it.” Gears mumbled as she managed to find the mechanism to lift the heavy gear. She pulled the lever causing it to raise, the only problem was that she had to hold onto the lever and her magic wasn’t that strong. ‘I have to try.’ she thought using her magic to get the jammed part out of there before removing the metal object. She lowered the gear slowly before it clicked into place and everything started to move again. The filly trotted over to the object and noticed it was made with different metals than anything else in the cave.

“So how did you get caught under the mechanism?” she asked as she heaved it over to the table. “And what are you made out of?”

The being was made from a strange kind of metal but was colored in mainly black and pinks. The arm that was being crushed seemed to be some kind of weapon.

“Time to fix you up.” the gray gold filly told the machine before looking around for some tools her eyes spotting quite a few. “And perhaps an upgrade.”

Twilight couldn’t believe what happened, their cutie marks were taken just like that. Now they were stuck in this room and it was her fault. ‘If I didn’t ask then none of this wouldn’t have happened.’ she thought before Mythal began to chuckle inside her mind. ‘What do you want?’

“Twilight, we both know that you have been using just the surface of core magic your entire life. Perhaps Cutie Marks do the exact same thing in present time, rely on the surface instead being embedded deep down.” the Witch of the Wilds told her and the princess lifted her head. “Remember your lessons Twilight, they may help.”

“That’s it!” the alicorn spoke quietly careful not to wake her friends. “Now all I need to do is figure a way out of here.”

“What do you mean she hasn’t returned?” Starlight asked Double Diamond who was looking very nervous. “She is normally back by now.”

“Gears has been distant lately, I’ve tried everything you’ve taught me to handle her but nothing seems to stick once she’s in the mountains.” the white stallion confessed looking to the side. “It’s like she’s drawn there.”

“And she hasn’t even earned her Cutie Mark yet.” the leader of the town mumbled as she looked towards the mountains. “Something has to stick. We just have to find out what it is.”

“There, that should do it… I think.” Gears said standing back and tilting her head to the side. “I think there are a few parts missing. Maybe… no, I found every part that fit. So why isn’t this working?”

The filly sat back to gaze at her work, the machine in front of her was back in working order. Yet she couldn’t find the switch to turn it on. There was one on the back but that just turned into a rectangular machine then back.

“I don’t get it.” she mumbled flipping the switch over and over. “Is there something missing?”

What she didn’t notice was a small pink ghost floating behind her. The copper maned unicorn banged her head against the table letting out a small groan. The ghost almost let out a squeal of excitement as he possessed the body.

"Why thank you darling, I’ve been wondering when I was going to be fixed.” the filly let out a shout. “Now would you mind telling me where that human is?”

“What’s a human?” Gears asked backing away. “What in Hades are you?”

“I’m an artificial intelligence, though it is amazing that my body managed to make it through whatever happen.” the robot responded and the filly nodded her head before sitting down. “Are you looking for a story? Well don’t worry my future adoring fan, I will tell you what you need to know about myself.”

“Wait… what? I was just sitting down because I’m…” she didn’t get a chance to speak after that, the machine was content on telling his story for a moment. ‘Seriously?’

“That was delicious pie, where did you learn how to bake like this?” Celestia asked setting down her fork as Sans chuckled. “a friend gave me her recipe.”

“She must have been a good friend.” the elder princess spoke and Sans hid the twinge of pain he felt thinking of what happened to Toriel. Celestia didn’t say anything as she sipped at her tea. Moonlight cooed from her spot on the counter. The white alicorn had put up a barrier keeping her teleporting to the room and Sans hid all the sharp instruments.

“she was, how much did fluttershy tell you?” the smaller skeleton was curious on why there weren’t anymore questions. The Princess of the Sun gave him a sad smile before saying. “She didn’t, I have experienced loss as well. That and my sister has a way with dreams. She is worried that you are sleeping all the time.”

Sans just let out a chuckle at that before looking around the sparse kitchen. Celestia, noticing the gaze looked around as well.

“I never got the chance to take a look around when this first appeared.” she spoke catching the filly easily as she teleported into the air and dropped. “This place is empty, just like the first castle my sister and I lived in. It too was a gift from the Tree of Harmony.”

"doesn’t seem to suit her, too big and empty.” the lazy brother replied bring the small periwinkle child to him. Celestia just gave him a smile as she began to clean up. It had been a long time since she did any work herself, she missed it. Sans chuckled as he just leaned back petting the foal’s back gently taking a small nap. Moonlight yawned before curling up on his shoulder ready to take a nap as well. The older princess smiled as she saw the two before returning to cleaning up.

Twilight was surprised that Starlight wasn’t willing to accept that everyone was different. She stared at the tunnel that the mare fled through. ‘What happened that made her like that?’ she thought before turning away to leave.

"Twilight?” Fluttershy’s voice asked as she came up by her side. “Aren’t you going to join the party?”

"I will in a second.” the mulberry alicorn told her turning around. “I’m just… concerned leaving everything like this.”

“It will be fine, if she comes back we both know you will know what to do then.” assured the Element of Kindness patting her shoulder. They both smiled at each other before turning to leave.

“And that is how I managed to survive.” a familiar voice caught Fluttershy’s attention causing her to turn towards the cave. Tears came to her eyes when she saw a familiar robot walking out of it with a young filly beside him.

“Mettaton!” the pink maned pegasus exclaimed flying towards him tears coming to her eyes. The robot looked forward before smiling as he opened his arms wide accepting the mare into them. The filly let out a sigh of relief before looking around confused wondering why there was snow surrounding the entrance of the cave.

“What happened while I was in there?” the grey gold unicorn asked her blue eyes turning to Twilight who was staring at her. “What?”

“You didn’t happen to see Starlight Glimmer while you were in there did you?” the Princess of Friendship inquired gently. The filly thought for a moment before shrugging as she replied. “I was busy exploring the ruins in there. If I did see Starlight she didn’t screech at me for not being back in the village.”

“Ruins?” this caught the attention of the princess before tilting her head to the side. “You were in there by yourself?”

“She wasn’t alone.” Mettaton spoke setting down Fluttershy who now had her hair styled. “Though Gears I am surprised that you managed to even read any of the writing on the wall. It was completely unreadable! Not that I would have any problem with that.”

Gears just shrugged her shoulders saying. “No it wasn’t, the directions are really quite simple.”

Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin before looking towards the mountain. If there were ruins in there she wanted to get a lot of information from them. Yet the most important thing was to bring this filly back to the village. The princess sighed before looking forward only to find the blue eyed filly gone.

"Where did she go?” asked the mulberry alicorn looking at her friends. Applejack was also gone which meant that the filly probably wandered off.

"While you were busy thinking Applejack is bringing Gears back to the village.” Rainbow replied looking towards the reformed village. “She probably has a family there who is worried.”

"We should head back to the train station.” spoke the fashionista waving her friends over. “I think that the party is starting to wind down.”

"Pinkie where did you learn how to carry food like that?” conversations began to fade away as Twilight’s attention began to pulled back towards the ruins. Aqua Star had done a lot of exploring in her past to better Equestria. With Sombra’s return, the examination of the ruins would do the ponies some good. A dark shadow was cast over head causing the Princess to look up. A huge black dragon was in front of the sun and it was staring down at her.

“zyak wux re wer pony batobot myvish di sini chose.” (So you are the one that sister of mine chose.) the dragon spoke and Twilight gulped not knowing what had just been said to her. “So you are the one that sister of mine chose. Pathetic really.”

"What did you say?” all fear vanished when hearing that, there was no way this dragon was just going to insult her and get away with it. She took a deep breath to try and calm down. She was apprehensive on trying to fight the four eyed dragon.

"My sister choosing to side with ponies, what is UntryrUryte up to?” the dragon just ignored her as he settled down. Twilight Sparkle knew that Aurora was big for a dragon being almost seventy nine feet tall. The dragon in front of her was larger, he had blocked out Celestia’s sun with his body.

“UntryrUryte?” asked Twilight confused for a moment before thinking back. “Oh, Aurora.”

“Yes, the name you… you pronounced her name correctly.” the black scaled being sounded surprised at that. He looked down at his claws before digging it into the ground before roaring in laughter. The area around them shook as a claw shot out and grabbed the youngest princess. He brought her up to his face. Twilight’s eyes went big when she saw the purple mist exiting from his deep red eyes scars lined his face from a battle long ago.

"I was once called ThraxMaugh, now you can call me DurgUa.” the dragon didn’t release his grasp on her. “Where is my sister?"

“In Ponyville!” the princess shouted feeling the grip tightened as she tried to escape. “She’s in Ponyville!”

“Twilight!” Rainbow’s voice called out as a rainbow streak came towards her. “Let her go!”

“Rainbow!” the mulberry princess yelled as the dragon’s wings spread before beating. The blast knocked the pony back.

"Twilight!” the rest of her friends were coming to get her and the dragon behind her laughed saying. “Come and get her fools!”

The ground left quickly, Twilight tried to use her magic to teleport but the grip was cutting off her concentration. The mulberry princess of friendship’s eyes widen before turning gold as she began to chuckle. Once they were far enough away she was going to show this fool what he was dealing with.

Author's Notes:

I do not own MLP