“Rraaghh!” Len screamed as she tossed the empty vial only for it hit the wall just as Gilda was entering giving her pause. She honestly considered backing right out the room at that but sighed as she instead ventured forth to see if there was anything she could do to aid her friend.

“Hey Len, You alright in here?” The gryphon asked as her eyes wondered over the mess that was Len’s forge. Holographic notes floated about the room, broken glass had already been put in a pile while more littered the area. She was almost certain a mad mare had been living here by the state of everything.

An agitated grunt lead her straight to her friend as working in some kind of lab, chemicals strowed about and bubbling away. GIlda hesitated to actually take a step further into this madness. With a nervous gulp she attempted to speak and gain len’s attention. “L-Len, you’ve been in here ever since you got back from that other Equestria. That was like three days ago. A-are you alright?” She asked with a quivering voice showcasing her fear. it didn’t help she saw a dismembered bandit strapped to a table with a buzzsaw axe laying next to him and his chest cut wide open.

“Mom, Gilda is here.” Came a voice Gilda recognized as Len’s AI, Vanessa, except more mature sounding, but why wasn’t it coming from Len’s arm like usual rather than from behind her. Gilada turned to investigate only to go wide-eyed as she watched a tall, curvy, bipedal robotic alicorn with a dragon tail calmly swaying behind her.

The alicorn’s mane was made of some kind of hot pink smoke that faded into purple near the base of her head. Her deep violet metal hide shimmered in the light, only made that much more interesting by her silver stripes that reminded Gilda of zebra stripes. Despite all the curviness, which even Gilda had to admit made this robot look like some kind of goddess, it was also just as easy to see the power behind all the beauty, the danger that threatened to consume any who got in the robot’s way.

The alicorn wore a black shirt that tightly hugged her frame with its thick straps falling off the shoulders and a skull with a mohawk and some kind of black eyewear sitting on the front, a short ice blue skirt, and pink stockings that disappeared under the skirt with purple stripes. Her metal hooves were covered in black leather boots with mint green laces and her eyes, sweet Ashvatha those eyes, they shone with a dangerous amethyst glow that struck fear into one’s very heart and soul but drew them closer as if her gaze beckoned them forward. Gilda just stood there with a blush as her eyes followed the alicorn that held a worried expression as she focused on Len, who eventually answered.

“What? O-oh, right, sorry, I’ve just been really focused.” Said the obviously stressed mechromancer as she swiveled around in her floating chair made of entirely glowing sapphire gems. It would have looked uncomfortable were it not it not for the cushioning on the chair. Len gave a rather tired smile as she beckoned her friend closer while summoning up another chair. “Please, have a seat.” she said gesturing to the seat beside her.

GIlda was still a bit hesitant to enter the area but didn’t want to refuse her friends hospitality and did as asked, she noted that large alicorn bot summoned up a seat as well siting on behind them with one leg crossed over the other as she silently observed her Len.

“So, I take it that the project hasn’t been going as well as you hopped.” said Gilda as she looked over the table.

Len sighed as she turned to look over the reminders of her failed attempts thus far. “Yeah, but I’m sure I’ll get it soon, I know it. I just have to.” Gilda could not only see but hear the worry mixed in with all the stress that was eating at Len. “But let’s forget about that for a minute. I could use a break from this right now.” She said with a weak smile.

“Yeah, I can tell. You look like shit Len.” Gilda said jokingly earning a laugh from Len. It felt good to hear her laugh again. Three days without Len laughing, cracking a joke to lighten the otherwise serious mood, or groaning about something honestly had everyone feeling a bit awkward. Even the hydraksions felt it by the middle of the third day.

“Hey, I’ve been working my ass off for three days straight bitch, what’s your excuse.” Len retorted with a much more sincere smile.

Gilda grinned and gave Len a hard, yet playful punch in the arm. “Oh fuck you. I’m the hottest damn gryphon ever born.” Said Gilda as she spun in her chair.

“Oh don’t I know it.” Len said with an almost predatory grin. Len tried hard to contain her laughter, she really did, but the look Gilda gave her was just too much and she rolled over onto the floor laughing hard.

Gilda puffed up in embarrassment before a grin found its way back onto her face. Taking advantage of len’s current position she hopped on top of her pinning ehr to floor as she straddled her waist staring into Len’s eyes with her own predatory gaze.

“Ooh, you like it rough I see. Good, that's another thing we have in common.” Len said in her seductive tone with half lidded eyes. Gilda immediately got worried seeing her plan fail miserably and looked ready to run until Len started laughing ehr asss off again. “Damn you're to easy, Gilda!”She hollered out through her fit of laughter.

Gilda unstraddled her friend and helped the mechromancer to her feet as well before they both retook their seats as Len’s laughter calmed down. “Thank you Gilda, I really needed that. You have no idea just how stressed I've been lately.” Len said with big grin on her face.

“Yeah, I don’t think its that hard to imagine!” Gilda said with a sigh of relief. She was happy she could do something to help her friend. Feeling useless never sat well with the gryphon warrior and with Len being as badass as she was she rarely actually need her help. It felt great to be useful to her for once.

“Hey, I don’t usually drink much, but I feel like I could use a little something to sip on,. How about u G, want to share a drink with me?” Len asked as she stood stretching with light moans. Gilda blushed unable to tell whether she was doing it on purpose or not.

Gilda shrugged with a faint blush and got out of her surprisingly comfy chair as well. “Well, so long as your treating I suppose I’ll have a drink or two.” she said as she followed a grinning Len over to a bar in the back of the forge, Vanessa close behind.

Len stepped back behind the bar and mixed up aa few drinks Gilda had never seen nor heard of before as well as some hard cider before pouring three glasses. GIlda looked at the glass weirdly before taking a small sip. Her eyes widened from the amazing flavor of the drink before pulled it away from her face staring at it. “Welp, thanks a lot len, you’ve just ruined every other drink out there for me.” Gilda said glaring at the drink before downing it one shot.it was an almsot imidiet reaction as she flet her self gettign tipsy already.

Len giggled as she sat beside her tipsy friend slowly sipping from her shot. “This is one of those drinks you drink over time not all in one go sweetheart. Three of these will put you on your ass faster than can scream “fuck.”” Said the mechromancer as she sat her drink down. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a watered down version next time.” She added with a light chuckle at the gryphon’s expense.

“Not sure if you’re joking or not but I think that would be a great idea.” Gilda said. Len just leaned back against the bar with her eyes closed for a bit, her smile seeming to by trying to make a permanent home on the stressed inventor’s face. The gryphon let out a relaxed sigh before jumping a little at the touch of something warm yet metal. A lookdown revealed it to be Vanessa’s tail poking her. Following the tail she slowly looked up to see Vanessa staring at her with a look of hunger on her face, and not the one you’d want a foal to see either, a banana in hand as she slowly peeled it before slipping her lips around it. The alicorn slowly stuffed more than half of the banana in her mouth before pulling it back out just as slow, her eyes never leaving Gilda the entire time.

If Gilda ever wanted to know how far her jaw could drop she now had her wish along with a wingboner so stiff you’d need a damn huge boulder just to force them back down. As if the the whole thing had been planned out exactly she stook a bite and happily swallowed it just as Len reopened her eyes. The look in her eyes now translated into one thing, “Don’t say a thing to Len and that could be you next time.”.

“Hey, you alright there Gilda? You’ve got that “Holy shit thats one hot bitch!” look on your face.” Len asked as she waved a hand in front of Gilda’s face not really acknowledging her daughters horrible attempts at holding back her laughter. The gryphon shook her head with her entire face being red. She quickly grabbed Len’s drink and downed the rest of it just as she had done with hers earlier, though this time she took extra care to avoid looking at Vanessa.

Gilda coughed in a poor attempt to act as if nothing was wrong. “Wow, ya know its pretty awesome how you can take a few completely different drinks, mix them together to make something so much better and works so well.”She said with a somewhat shaky voice. Len laughed a bit before a realization slowly came upon her.

“Sweet Ashvatha Gilda, you’re a genius!” Len grabbed Gilda by the face and kissed her deeply before shooting off towards her lab area. Gilda was stunned by the surprise kiss. She hadn't been expecting that at all, but she quickly snapped out of it with a furious blush.

“D-damn it Len! Why do you like fuckign with me?!” She yelled after the human waving an angry fist at her. She sighed before hopping off her stool and heading for the exit. Ash she walked she had this uneasy feeling, like something was stalking her.

The gryphon warrior simply shrugged it off and continued on a bit further before remembering she;d also come to borrow something from Len. She simply jogged down to Len’s storage unit near the back and began searching, that is, until the door suddenly slammed shut and the lights turned off. A strange giggling echoed through the room and suddenly she wished she’d paid more attention to that feeling from just a few minutes ago.

Len felt a shiver run up her spine for some unexplainable reason. She simply shrugged it off and continued to work.

After a full five hours of nonstop work Len ran a virtual test of the serum she had created. Thanks to Gilda she had seen the answer that had been sitting right in her face the whole time. Len stood there praying as she watched the holo screen for what seemed like eternity until it beeped and droned out in a feminine monotone voice. “Test complete. Serum 015 100% successful.”

“Yes! I’ve done it! I’ve successfully created a serum that’ll turn my body techno-organic and and stop me from going completely insane!” She cheered as she hopped up and down in happiness. She stopped her celebration and quickly grabbed the vial of blue liquid and injected it straight into her bloodstream before she eagerly waited for it to take effect.

Len suddenly reeled in pain letting out a silent scream as she fell to her knees, her veins became visible through her skin, glowing as the serum passed through them. Her skin started to shift from form her normal pale human color to a silverish blue color as it gained its metallic luster. her eyes fully turned into their robotic state shining Green as the changes continued down to her hand becoming more like robotic claws. Even her robotic arm changed to be more like her other arm. Her hair changed into a luminescent blue mist in the form of ponytails that stopped just above her waist and started to fade into green half way down.

Though outside Len looked to be on the verge of dying as she collapsed over onto the floor unconscious, inside a different story was unfolding. Len groaned as she stood on shaking legs. “W-wha... what happened?” She asked as she looked around the empty void.

“Well, I guess its that time hugh.” came a familiar voice from behind. She whipped around to find Gaige standing behind her with her shotgun up and ready. “The darkness within you isn’t going to go quietly so we’re going to have to drag her ass to the slag pit kicking and screaming.” Gaige finished as she cocked her gun.

Len gave out a sigh of frustration as she rubbed at her temples. “Of course she wouldn’t. Why in Ashvatha’s name would shit be that simple and easy for once.” She groaned out. “Just ... jsut... FML man, FML.”

“Dude, you are literally preaching to the choir here.” Gaige sighed out as she got ready.

“So, why do we have to fight her anyways, I mean, she's part of me so why can’t we all just, I don’t know, be friends or something?” Len asked. She honestly was not looking forward to the battle against herself but just wanted to get all of this over with as soon as possible.

A low sadistic chuckle suddenly rang out seemingly from every direction.

“How pathetic, a psychotic little machinist wannabe and a gender swapped loser destined to fail. Is this really the what I have to deal with? I honestly feel insulted.” Gaige immediately tensed up, ready to fight for her life inside Len’s mind. Len simply stared around in amazement at s a an entire facility slowly formed around her until they found themselves in a poorly lit rusty looking hallway. It reminded her of the bandit fort from the game except without the bandits.

“Gotta get the number of your interior decorator, he really knows how get that ‘bandit’ theme on point.’ Len stated sarcastically as she peaked around a corner seeing a badass loader just standing there with its back turned.

“Oh sure, her name is Len Heartworthy, ring any bells? I actually plan to ‘fire’ her. The bandit look is about as played out as the punk rock vault hunter look. I feel a more futuristic, robotic, and organic free theme would look just perfect.” The voice quipped in response. Gaige growled as she checked around another corner to find even more Loaders idly patrolling down another hallway as the two conversed.

“Nah, I think organics and robots should be together. It brings a much more friendly feel to it.” Len countered. “Besides, in the end neither can truly live without the other anymore. So why split them up when they’re all equally important?” She added as she slowly opened a door. She sighed in relief as she saw nothing inside and motioned for gaige to follow.

“Organics and machines? Eww! Now that’s just disgusting. Organics are too imperfect to ever hope to be equals to machines.” The voice retorted in disgust as len Quietly shut the door they had came through before the two girls made their way through another door leading them into another hallway. “Oh, and it's the organics that need machines, not the other way around.”

“You seem a bit too closed minded. You speak as if machines can be alive without organics. They can’t. Now a days the same can be said for organics as well. Separate they are weak and doomed to failure, but together, they are an unstoppable force with a chance to become so much more.” Clarified Len. She quickly grabbed Gaige and ducked into another room, closing the door silently just as a group of loaders came around the corner.

“Len is right you know. And you should know that hatred isn’t going to bring about anything but your own destruction.” Sadi Gaige as she peaked out into a hallway.

“Oh, so you wish for me to prove you wrong then? Very well, I accept your challenge.”Came the voice.

Len sighed as she peaked around a corner to see three loaders guarding a door. “We’re not challenging you to do anything, but if you let me, maybe we can come up with something that works for both sides. All of this is pretty unnecessary don’t you think?” She hopefully asked. In response The loaders suddenly started charging in their direction. Lne Quickly pulled out her electric sniper rifle, The Zap, and unloaded two rounds each into the single red optics of the first two before gaige unloaded a full clip of a corrosive smg into the third one, melting right through its hull.

“Guess she’s done talking.” Said gaige as she kicked the remains of one of the bots.

Len nodded as she stepped over them and made her way to the door. “Looks like it. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to find little miss sunshine and try beating some sense into her since taking obviously isn’t going to get us very far with her it seems.” Len added in a rather annoyed manner. She had really been hoping they could just talk things out and be done with all this. This was what she got for thinking things could just be simple,and quick.

(Gryphon Kingdom)

Jax grinned as she silently strode through the training yards watching her warriors’ viscous training. After securing guns from bandit attacks that she personally put down she had her gryphon soldiers trian their buts off. They were no where near ready to go into combat and finish this war, but all in good time.

Jax could just taste victory as she watched the creation of her new badass gryphon soldiers. Sure it required that they sacrifice their intelligence and free will, but that was a small price to pay for the power she was giving them. With a few more months of training her army would be ready and well equipped to take over Equestria and get her what she desired. Soon the world would be covered in eternal night, ehr eternal night. And nothing would be able to stop her, not even that blasted mechromancer.

(back in Len’s Mind)

Len quickly shut the door behind her before melting the lock and panting. “W-why the fuck is there a tentacle room in my mind?!” She raved to no one in particular. Gaige just shrugged with a slight shudder as she looked at her torn skirt and stockings.

“Don’t know, just not going back in that place ever again.”

“Well, Atleast I think we’ve finally made it.” Len said through her heavy breathing.

“What makes you so sure.” asked Gaige. In response Len just pointed to the unamused looking robo Len standing on the other side of the room near a console. “Oh, that bitch, right.”

“You honestly think you can take me. I’d laugh if that wasn’t such a terrible joke.” She said narrowed eyes.

Len shrugged and pulled out a bottle of hard apple cider and chugged a bit of it before handing it to Gaige who promptly did the same as she rested on the floor. “Nah, won’t have to. I just had this little realization that this,” She gestured to the whole room. “is my mind. And you, my dear, are nothing more than a piece of it. But I’ve still got all the power.”

Gear glared even harder at her, growling before charging at her. Len yawned as she sidestepped the charge, leaving her foot out to trip the girl and send her face first into the door. SHe fell to the ground in pain holding her face.

“I also realized that I’m the better fighter. And you honestly never had a chance to begin with.” Gear just snarled as she shot up and landed a punch to Len’s gut, following it up with a knee to the face. She hadn’t been expecting Len to be able to fight back so quickly though and wa staken by surprise as Len headbutted her before stomping the side of her knee effectively breaking the leg. Gear jumped back allowing herself time for her leg to auto repair itself as she pushed it back in place despite the pain it caused.

“You wretched bitch, you think I’ll just slip back into the void, back into nonexistence that easily?! Well think again you little shit! I’m running things now, and I’ll be damned If I let you just waltz in here and take me ou-” SHe was cut off by sudden magical force tossing her into the monitor before slamming her into a wall and then the opposite wall. As the magical force left her she looked up just in time to see Lem airborne and about to deliver one magically enhanced kick to the face. She caught it at the last second and flung Len into the monitor to be electrocuted.

Gear grinned smugly as she prepared to press her advantage only to have hand grab the side of her head before slamming her head into the wall and being stomped by Gaige.

A pulse of electricity was enough to deal gaige long enough for Gear kick her in the stomach and send her into the opposite wall. Gear roared out an enraged cry as she got to her feet and charged at Gaige. She whaled on ehr with all her rage beating the mechromancer unconscious before she dispersed into nothing. WIth her taken care of she turned her attention to gaige,only a moment too late though as len Drop kicked her through the door ehr and Gaige and came through.

“Have fun yall. Tyr to have her back before nine alright?” Len shouted after her but being wary to mentally close the hole now that she had time to process and think clearly. Gaige reformed right behind her looking around furiously.

“Calm down pigtails, I just drop kicked her ass into a world of porn the likes no one has ever wanted to actually see.” Said Len as she pointed to the door. Gaige shuddered actually feeling a bit sad for the poor girl.

“So what now, she’ll just come back eventually and then we’ll be doing this again.” Gaige asked.

Len grinned at her before making her way to the door. “No she won’t. She’s been defeated, bested in fair combat. Now, we can move on to the next phase, absorbing her and fixing this fractured piece.”

“Guess that means I got to be absorbed to?” Gaige asked with a big smile.

Len just looked at her like she was crazy, well, crazier than usual. “What, why would I absorb you? Youre not causing any problems here.”

“Yeah, but your mind won’t be truly fixed until you absorb both of us. Besides, I’ve been waiting for this day for a while now, It's finally time for me to become one with you and together the three of us will be made a new, something better than the sum of our parts.” Replied Gaige as she stepped up to Len. Her now half lidded eyes locked with len’s before she suddenly kissed ehr and ehr body began to glow and turn into mist that flowed into len. It was sort of like when the dragonborn absorbed a dragon’s soul except into burning nor badass shouting. Len blushed as Gaige disappeared into her just as Gear broke through the door, sealing it behind her.

“Why the fuck is this even hear!” Raved Gear as she panted and glared at the offending door. Something felt off though and she slowly turned to see len with a small smile on her face and a hand extended out to her.

Gear sighed as she begrudgingly accepted it and groaned as she stood to face len one last time. “You know you’re still going to go insane right? This doesn’t change much.” She stated.her metal cheeks suddenly became red hot as Len gently wrapped her arms around her with bedroom eyes on full blast, or at least that was the only way gear was able to see them after coming through the room.

“Yeah, but it changed enough. And now we both get to exist, together, as it should be.” Just as Len was about to seal the deal Dear stopped her.

“Wait, I should warn you. Ever since that battle with the hydera there has been a new power inside of you, lying dormant. I imagine this shall not be the last time you have to have a mental battle with your own mind. It will, however, take a lot more work to fully unlock this power to get to that point.” gear warned.

“Don’t you mean, we? We’re about to become something more than what we were separate. Together I know we’ll be ready for whatever this new owner is and We’ll become so much stronger because of it. Now then, I think the others are waiting on us outside.” Said Len with an even bigger smile.

Gear blushed even more as Leaned took her time finishing things up. Soon she was gone, sjtu like Gaige, Leaving len’s body to change to match her new outward appearance. She grinned as everything faded back into an empty void before being replaced by a massive pristine ship. She sighed as she felt herself waking up, ready to get out of here as and back tot eh real world having had her fill of mental bull shit for a while.

Author's Notes:

Yo, here's the next chapter for you guys. I hope you guys enjoy it, ti honestly took me a bit more time than expected to get it written out. I hope to get you guys another chapter in soon as well. Hope you guys enjoy. As always, you guys rock.
~Meta Out~