“Why do I say stupid things?”

“Are watching those again!? You’ve seen them over a dozen times! And that’s just in the time we’ve been on this expedition! What more can you learn from them!?” the bespectacled mare asked the aquamarine engineer in a huff.

“YES! I’m watching them again! What else am I supposed to do!? The answers are either in the recordings or on that damn wall, and I don’t see you making any progress!” Lyra snapped back as she glared at the one and only A.K. Yearling. The famed author gave her another irritated sneer and then went back to studying the symbols before her. She didn’t mean to be nasty; neither of them did, but it had not been a good few days.

‘Things were going so well,’ the mare thought to herself ‘We got to the thunder temple easily enough and found that two of the locks were already solved! Then proceeded through the rest way faster than we expected even with the latest tech! But now we’re one Celestia damn door away from what could be one of the most important discoveries in nano magic history and at the rate we’re going, Tartarus will have frozen over by the time we open it!’

Her thoughts were interrupted when the pair heard a yawn from the third member of their party sitting up from her nap.

“You two fighting again?” Rainbow Dash asked still rubbing the sand from her eyes. She had pretty much forced her way onto the expedition after learning Lyra would be traveling with her all-time favorite author and, other than some occasional perks of her reputation, really hadn’t been much help.

'Still,' Lyra figured 'if anything thing did go wrong it would be nice to have one of the elements around. There isn’t much outside of the princesses that can best them.'

“Everything is fine Miss Dash, just letting off a little steam. You can go back to sleep” The author answered the bearer of Loyalty dully, hoping she could avoid more pestering from her ‘number one fan’ if that fan just stayed asleep.

“Nah, I’m good” the colorful pegasus answered, missing the slight grunt of annoyance from Yearling “So any progress on the magic door lock… puzzle… thing?”

“None since you fell asleep Rainbow, sorry…” Lyra sighed and started to review the earlier records again to see if she missed something. Aquamarine fingers danced upon the improvised switches and keys hooked into the ancient IG, or ‘UG’ as its own systems seem to identify it.

At first glance it was just a simple Dwarf Gekko, not exactly rare as far as IGs went, but there were some things about this one that just made it special. First was the fact that is that it really did seem to be ancient. Lyra guessed it was well over a thousand years old, from a time well before these models were even produced.

‘Though I guess I should say reproduced if it is as old as I think’ she thought not for the first time.

Next was its classification as an ‘Unmanned Gear’ instead of an Independent Gear; a classification barely even known about anymore, let alone still used. Finally, the big draw of it was that it was made without magic! It’s not just that magic wasn’t used to make but it had also virtually NO magic of its own! It was PURE technology! Lyra knew things like that didn’t just happen with models this complex.

Once again the unicorn was grateful BonBon hadn’t stopped her from buying it from those snake oil selling brothers before they were driven out of town. Everypony thought she was crazy, but then she found the first recording and continued to find more and more of the little IG's secrets. Well, everypony still thought she was crazy, but at least now she knew better. Inputting the last command she brought up a projected display from the gekko.

“Well might as well do another one. Gigi, begin recording, log 003:” A feminine voice spoke though static, and though parts where still just bursts of white noise and the image was terrible, it was clear enough to make out most of what was said and a vaguely bipedal form walking along as the gekko recorded “I’ve been in walking north for a about five days now and finally ran across a decent sized band of traveling ponies in wagons and made an interesting discovery. The ponies here seem to be anth-TSHHkK-phic, as in Bipedal and with hands. I guess Ly-KKITSHHHHH –sessed with them, though I’m hoping she’ll still be at least a little bit eccentric. Anyway, they do still have hooves, but just the two on their legs. They also seem to still live up to the ‘little’ aspect of the SHHHKT- seem to About half a head taller than most, and I am not a tall person. I think I’ll stay to the shadows for now, with this change I may need to reevaluate my pla-SSKKKKSHSHST-“ *Click* the video cut out as a –Data Corrupted- warning blinked on the display.

“See, that’s something I still don’t get,” The author spoke up and went to sit with Miss Heartstrings. The recordings are what got Miss Yearling interested in helping Lyra on this little endeavor in the first place. It turns out she was quite the archeologist in addition to being an author “She talks like she somehow knew about us. She even seems to reference somepony directly but then is still surprised by our appearance. I mean, of course we have hands and walk on two legs, why wouldn’t we? I know there are those theories that we evolved from quadrupeds, but even if we did that would have been eons ago."

The author paused, looking over the temple walls and runes again before continuing.

"How would she have known about us but not these obvious details? Then she goes and refers to herself as a ‘Person’ instead of pony, and even with the image so poor she didn't look like any race I'm familiar with; so what was she then?” She asked before giving an exasperated sigh “I can’t write about all this if I don’t have the answers for any of it.”

“Maybe she’s just an alien working off bad intel?” Lyra offered with a tired smile, earning a small laugh from the other two mares.

“Aliens are lazy writing, way too Deus Ex Machina. They’re even a step below ‘inter-dimensional beings’, and that’s saying something” she stated, earning more laughter out of the group. With yet another sigh she stood and looked to the pair “Come on, let’s go back to the village and regroup. We’ve been out here for days and aren't making any more progress like this.”

“But we can’t just give up when we’re this close!” Lyra sprung to her hooves to protest.

“We’re NOT giving up, but we’ve done everything we can right now; we’ve solved the other locks and puzzles and then most this one. We read the runes, broke the outer seal and placed our hand on that awkward button just to find we needed a final passphrase all along; a passphrase that could be ANYTHING Lyra. It could be grand words of power, complete gibberish or even the lyrics to a song no one has heard in centuries” Yearling argued.

“Well I guess we can't just start saying random stuff with our hand in the groove until we get it right then, huh?” Dash asked.

“Well, hopefully we’ll be able come up with a better plan than that,” the author answered “But we’re certainly not accomplishing anything here as we slowly run out of supplies. Come on Lyra, let’s at least get some decent food that doesn’t contain the word ration in it. We'll get some proper rest so we can come back clear headed and ready to open this damn door” she concluded with a confident smile.

“Buck Yeah! A brief tactical retreat followed by a swift resupply and then we're taking this door down!” Dash boasted in her typical manner, even punching the air a couple times for emphasis. This of course earned slight eye roll from Yearling, but also a nod of agreement.

Lyra looked back and forth between the two mares, ready to protest again until her shoulders finally slumped with a sigh.

“You’re right, I know you’re right” she relented as they walked to the exit and stepped into the light of the setting sun “At least it’s not like this place is that hard to find or anything”

The Thunder Temple was dominated by a massive tower above the central chamber that could be seen for miles, with the lock chambers all segregated into smaller temples surrounding the main one, each with their own, much smaller tower. The main chamber itself was just up a large flight of stairs in the middle of a large flat expanse of brick work atop that center construct.

“What in the world would they need this much space for?” Dash wondered aloud.

*CRASH*

Rainbow's question was immediately answered by a massive construct smashing to the ground in front of them.

“Wha- is- IS THAT A RAY?!” Lyra shouted as the dust began to settle to reveal the massive IG, which sure enough was a Metal Gear RAY; a modified Metal Gear RAY at that.

“Even the Royal Army only has a few of them! Where did this even come-” Dash began to ask before being cut off by a very sinister laugh. The ponies looked up to a large figure riding a top the gear.

“Ahuizotl?! HOW?!” Yearling demanded.

“Oh Daring, you're always so focused on the big cheese at the end of the maze! You always look over the consolation prizes along the way, like our little temple guardian here!” The Dog-Ape thing shouted down as he patted the machine with heavily modified, cybernetic arms. “But don’t worry! We made lots of improvements while you three were bumbling about in front of the big door, just to make up for lost time!”

Sure enough the RAY was now adorned in large blades, extra armor plating and spikes running along its tail. Primitive enhancements to say the least, but that wouldn’t make them hurt any less. To make matters worse, a gaggle of Ahuizotl’s minions started appearing along the edges or the platform. With all their modifications, each one looked more machine than beast then the one before it.

“You always were a fan of quantity over quality Ahuizotl” Daring mocked.

“Wait! So you’re like actually the real Daring Do?!” Dash asked with a mix of shock and excitement.

“PRIORITIES DASH!” was the adventurer’s only response.

“Oh right! Big walking death machine! Got it!” She righted herself, pulling out a pair of High Frequency Kabutowari, only to see the gear open its maw to start charging what seemed to be a massive magic energy cannon.

“RUN!” Dash shouted as she flew off to draw its fire. Daring grabbed Lyra’s arm and started dragging her back to the main chamber building, unsheathing an HF Machete to ward off the minions in the way.

“YES!” the Gear’s rider cried with a laugh “Run and struggle! Let’s make our last dance one to remember!”

The pair ran only to find more resistance inside. Daring gripped her Machete tighter while upholstering her old revolver as what appeared to be a pair of large mechanized gauntlets flashed magically onto Lyra's hands. They had managed to fend the beasts off well enough at first but soon found themselves backed against the sealed door; bruised, bloodied, and bereft of all but one gauntlet.

“GAh!”

The pair heard Dash cry out as she was thrown in the room, bouncing and tumbling along the ground until she ended up between the pair, slumped against the wall. The entrance and ceiling were quickly smashed away as the IG forced its way through the temple after her, only the sealed door’s remaining wards keeping the trio from being crushed by debris.

“So this it then, isn’t it Miss Do? What a bonus to be ending one of the Elements of Harmony with you as well” Ahuizotl chuckled as he looked down upon them. He smiled at the sight of the unicorn trying to help the element bearer stand, braced with her hand splayed along the stone work and looking up at him with a delicious fear in her eyes.

His nemesis though, she stood tall and just glared right back at him.

“Defiant to the end, I would expect nothing less. Don’t feel bad Daring, the strong have always conquered and the weak have always fallen,” He stated, as the RAY opened it jaws and began charging its cannon again “Those are just the Rules of Nature.”

And then the music started

A blaringly loud song that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once could be clearly heard over the rumbling of the now shaking temple. It seemed as if the very jungle was quaking for miles around.

Ahuizotl could see the temple's other towers crumbling down and exploding from his seat atop the gear. Then all eyes were drawn to the temple’s massive main tower as it began to glow, with each of its floors beginning to rotate as magical energies started to swirl and dance around it.

‘Of course! That’s why we were able to best the other towers so easily, even ones that big would still wear down after so long and weaken the seals’ The aquamarine mare thought ‘But the central tower still dwarfs them by at least a factor of ten. You don’t put that much power to seal away anything good…’

“They’re not towers! They’re Magic Amplifiers!” Lyra tried to shout to the others over the music and rumbing.

“This much power would never be used to keep anything out,” Daring stated gravely as the doors keeping whatever darkness was locked away started opening "But to keep something in..."

The doors finally opened enough to reveal a lone skeletal figure holding a sword. Patches of loose grey skin spider webbed over dusty and degraded synthetic muscle and bone. The only remaining flesh of substance was a flaky patch stretched across the face, not even covering the jaw but somehow still allowing the eyes to stay closed. It was as if someone propped up a corpse to stand like some kind of macabre scarecrow.

Even if Ahuizotl hadn't come to the same conclusion as them he must have still seen that whatever the skeletal figure was it shouldn't be allowed to leave, because with a look of anger and not a little fear he repositioned the cannon's aim right through the door.

Just as he was about to fire the music suddenly shifted, the rumbling stopped and the figure’s eye snapped open with a flash of red.

The was an explosion of movement as the skeletal figure burst out of the open doors and the RAY was suddenly flying back outside, the figure drifting down with its arm still extended.

A look of disbelief rested upon the faces of cyborg beast and pony alike.

“W-wha?”
“Did it just?”
“No way!”
“It just freaking PUNCHED IT!”
“Did you see how far it flew?!”
“That is so cool!”

The figure was immediately swarmed by the augmented minions upon landing, only for all of their weapons to be parried at once when the figured leapt above them. It spun and stopped in mid-air facing the group below to unleash countless lightning fast slashes.

It landed in a spinning crouch and looked to be snatching something from each of the cyborg animals. It then rolled out of the grouping just as they all burst into sparking chunks of meat falling into a heap.

The figure stood clutching the beasts’ cybernetic spines, their cores glowing a bright neon blue. Its stare locked on the massive gear as it began to right itself after the considerable distance it had been thrown. The skeletal cyborg almost seemed to be waiting for something as it observed the mech.

The gear stood with its rider somehow still seated, and aimed every one of its sizable guns at the figure, causing Dash and Daring to grab Lyra and take flight to avoid the line of fire. The skeletal cyborg crushed the spines, instantly absorbing the energy, and sprinted with incredible speed straight at the Gear as it opened fire.

Without even a pause the cyborg ran straight through the hailstorm of rounds like it was but a gentle rain, deflecting the shots with its sword without even conscious effort. The cyborg leapt to the face of the gear and once again unleashed a volley of cuts almost too fast to see. The warrior then paused for but a moment as seams began to form across the entire gear.

Ahuizotl looked into the cyborg in the eyes with pure disbelief before it delivered a brutal snap kick to the IG’s snout, sending the gear reeling and shattering nearly all of the behemoth machine’s armor. Even the armor beneath the improvised armor the ape-dog’s minions had applied failed against the assault.

“H-How? W-What?” Ahuizotl began as the cyborg landed, but quickly snapped out of his stupor, choosing rage over disbelief.

“CRUSH IT! SHED IT! JUST SMASH IT TO BITS!” he screamed as the gear spun to slam its spiked tail into the figure. The cyborg slid along the stone work, giving Ahuizotl hope of victory. Only for the Gear to screech to a complete halt,

And then begin to lift,

And then begin to spin.

“THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!” Dash yelled as the illustrious Daring Do, despite all her adventures and all she had seen, could just hover in shocked silence hardly believing her eyes. A degrading, ancient cyborg that wasn’t even a head taller than her was hammer throwing an IG more than a hundred times its weight and size.

The figure let go, sending the gear smashing through the top of the amplifier tower countless stories up. The IG only barely managed to grab the tower with its tail to keep it from continuing to sail through the sky.

“YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME! NOT WHEN I WAS SO CLOSE! I’LL THROW EVERTHING THIS GEAR HAS AT YOU IF I HAVE TO!!” Ahuizotl screamed from the tower, miraculously still seated as he motioned for the gear to attack. He delivered on his promise by unleashing another wall of lead and emptying the gear’s missile reserves down upon the impossible cyborg. What happened next rendered even Dash unable to respond with anything but short, excited giggles.

The skeletal figure leapt to meet the first missile only to flip on top of it and begin hopping from one missile to the next until it reached the tower; running straight up, cutting away missiles and bullets all the while.

With another scream of abject rage Ahuizotl overloaded the gear’s cannon and unleashed a chaotic torrent of death straight down the tower. The figure met it straight on with its blade, gathering the energy around itself like a shroud of fire and launched itself at the gear and its rider with even greater speed than before.

In a final desperate act of retreat, Ahuizotl made the gear leap up from the tower to try and avoid the beings wrath, only to see the cyborg brace itself as it reached the top. Enshrouded in pure destructive energy, it met his eye and time seemed to stop for just a moment.

‘So this is how the mighty Ahuizotl dies?' he thought before the world sped back up and the figure was suddenly above the him and the gear. An incredible pain erupted from his right side as he mentally cursed Daring Do and her devil's luck in finding this impossible savior.

“Why is everypony just kind of floating there?” Lyra asked as the trio landed and looked up, the other two wondering the same thing,

Until the Gear Split in half.

The two halves exploded as the tower’s ruble began raining to the ground, two figures standing out amongst it.

Ahuizotl landed in a heap before groggily rising, clutching the stump that was now his right shoulder. He froze as he saw the skeletal cyborg standing silently in front of him.

The seconds seemed like eternity unit it suddenly raised it blade straight up to meet the gear’s massive spine, glowing a neon red-orange.

The RAY’s core violently erupted into a vortex of energy that swirled chotically as it began funneling into the figure. Ahuizotl took a single, involuntary step back from the display when the creature was suddenly shot out of the vortex.

It stopped a hair's breadth away from him; no longer skeletal, no longer degraded, and looking very much alive.

“What?! WHAT ARE YOU?!” the disarmed villain demanded from what he could only assume was a demon.

“The Strong” It stated smugly.

"...Good comeback" Ahuizotl couldn’t help but mutter as the cyborg smirked and delivered a devastating straight palm thrust into Ahuizotl’s chest, the shockwave alone shattering the nearby rubble and sending the Ape-Dog-Cyborg soaring clear into the horizon.

The trio of ponies that had been cautiously approaching froze as the now skin covered cyborg looked over her shoulder at them. Resting her blade on the other shoulder, it turned to face them.

Then with enough ego to make even the ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ roll her eyes, and as naked as the day she was born; the Cyborg gave the trio the slightest of bows and the biggest shit-eating grin they’d ever seen just as Ahuizotl twinkled out of view, calmly proclaiming:

“Ta-Da”

Author's Notes:

And there you have it! My first real chapter of a FiM fanfic! Again as my first fanfic, any input or criticisms about grammar or format issues or story flow or WHATEVER is welcome! All I ask is to try to keep it constructive. And also maybe to remember that I don’t have an editor; and that I don't know exactly where this story is going.
Hopefully, I managed to interest enough of you to want to read a second chapter, which I promise will have more actual story, with like actual plot and stuff; such as some the limitations of Maze’s abilities, and just how different things are here. And hopefully it'll even have a bit of comedy if I can pull it off. Shouldn’t be too long until it’s done! Hope to see you there!