In the city of Outskirt 12, ponies were frightened. They were not afraid of anything in particular, but the atmosphere of the city was saturated with anxiety and nervousness. There were whispers among the ponies of terrible devastation throughout Equestria, of entire cities being wiped away in the blink of an eye and the slaughter of countless billions of ponies. According to official media, however, nothing was wrong. There was no destruction, no loss of life; there had simply been an anomaly in the Thebean golems, causing them to move for unknown reasons.

Outskirt 12 had recently had its own problem with golems, of course. One of the tremendous creatures had wandered its way into the city, leaving a trail of damaged buildings and wreckage behind it as it moved. Fortunately, the timely response of the city’s emergency services had evacuated the ponies in its path. Many ponies had been left homeless, but not a single pony had been seriously injured. The refuges had been taken in by their fellow 12ens until their district was rebuilt.

The golem itself had become something of a curiosity. It had stopped roughly in the center of the city and ceased to move. There had originally been no golem in Outskirt 12, but most of the ponies were aware of how they worked from the several that could be found in nearby Manehattan. They simply stood, never doing much of anything for centuries, a bizarre tribute to Equestria’s eternal ruler and goddess who had supposedly constructed them.

Many ponies saw this as an ominous sign, and many were leaving as quickly as they possibly could. These were mostly ponies who had relatives in the other cities and found that they could no longer reach them. They were not sure what was happening, but they knew that the golems were something to be feared.

To others, though, the golem was just a curiosity. Some even took time out of work to go to the police barricades around it and stare up at it, wondering exactly what kind of creature it was- -or, if the legends were true, what kind of a creature could have built it.

Thousands of miles away, Thebe watched through the golem’s eyes. Her body was linked into her newest creation, its cables and wires piercing her body, linking her directly to the Crystal Heart. Her body itself was now immobile, suspended permanently inside the heart of a machine of her own design.

At her side, a final checklist was projected from one of the several datacubes that surrounded her, and she processed the information rapidly, ensuring that all the channels and complex spells were clear and ready for use. She knew that her new body should work, but she wanted to be absolutely sure.

When the checks were finally complete, she directed her attention toward her chosen city, a the Manehattan subdistrict of Outskirt 12. On some level, she nearly felt bad for what she was about to do- -but the excitement of the easily overwhelmed her reservations.

“Time to begin,” she said.

Ponies in around Outskirt 12’s new golem gasped in awe as once again it started to move. Many panicked and ran, trying to get out of its path to avoid being trod upon. The golem did not walk, though. Instead, it moved one of its hands outward over the crowd. Several ponies who were looking up saw the surface of the great mechanical hand shift, and all of them watched as hundreds of head-sized cubes dropped from above.

The cubes tumbled through the air as they fell, but then stopped just before they hit the ground, spreading out as though they were being poured onto a wide, invisible table. The ponies watched in awe as the cubes spread and aligned themselves into perfect formation, separating themselves from each other.

Then the cubes stopped. The ponies watched, expectantly, but none of them were brave enough to approach. Then, finally, one did.

He inched forward gingerly, as if he might spook the strange-patterned cubes. Slowly and gently, he reached out and tapped one with his hoof.

The cubes reacted in unison. Their structure shifted, and a large glass eye opened on each one. As they did, red, shimmering mist poured out from them. All the ponies involved jumped back and looked angrily at the pony who appeared to have started the process, but then their attention as pulled back to the cubes as the mist around them pulled together, resolving into the shape of ponies. At first, they were nebulous, like red clouds, but then a deep black substance seemed to pour out from the cubes, binding the mist with something like metal.

Within seconds, the cubes had become an army of black-armored, faceless unicorns with crisp, red light seeping out from between the wide seams of their armor. Then they started walking.

Ponies ran in terror, jumping over barricades and cars to escape. The strange constructs did not, though; they simply phased through any solid object in their path.

“Return to your homes,” they said, their voice oddly female. “This city is under lockdown.”

The tantabus golems spread through the city. Thebe watched through each of their eyes. She saw the scared ponies running, hiding, but eventually obeying. Within a matter of hours, she had blockaded the city, preventing any possible escape.

That, of course, was not the point of their presence. This was primarily a test of their capacity to serve in a practical sense. That, and they were each loaded with important sensory equipment to observe the test. Their ability to phase through solid matter allowed them to move quickly to key locations, accelerating the timetable for the test.

Thebe was, of course, aware of the irony of using the golems based on Luna’s original Tantabus. The original had been created by Luna herself as a kind of self-punishment. It was a creature that fed on guilt and regret. Thebe, of course, had neither. She was as incapable of guilt as she was incapable of fear.

She waited patiently, watching through the eyes of her new soldiers, controlling the actions of each one personally. Then, finally, when they were all in place, she began.

Ponies cowered in their houses as the army of red and black creatures stopped in the streets. Families held each other close and slowly peeked out the windows. They did not know what was happening, but they were all afraid. Not one of them knew what was going to happen, or why it was happening to them.

Nopony was around the golem when its horn activated. The entire city was lit with the red glow of the spell, and there was a single, nearly musical tone that rang out over the city. The note was followed by a wave of red energy that engulfed the city.

Every pony who it came in contact with cried out, even though it did not hurt them. They looked at each other, or at themselves. Then they started to feel strange: weak, and strangely tired, as if they were starting to come down with a mild illness.

Then, simultaneously, their bodies collapsed into dust as their intrinsic magic was pulled into the central golem.

The Crystal Heart erupted with energy, and Thebe screamed in agony. She had not anticipated the synergistic amplification of the magic; absorbing the energy from so many ponies at once created exponentially more yield than acquiring it sequentially. She felt the energy pouring into her, tearing at her flesh. Her suit could barely contain the pressure, and nearly ruptured from the energy within.

Thebe focused her mind, though, ignoring the pain- -and laughed. She had not anticipated the true power of the Crystal Heart, but she was confident in her own power. All three of her horns ignited, and she poured the energy back into the Crystal Heart, creating a feedback loop.

The excess energy flowed into the machine she had built, and she suddenly felt it stabilize. Her body was ablaze with magic, more than it had ever been, feeding on the looping lifeforce of so many millions of ponies.

Even without observing the data that her army had acquired, Thebe decided that this test had been a resounding success. Even better- -a fact that, upon occurring to her induced a strong smile beneath her mask- -was the fact that she had only used one city, and a small one at that.

Soon, she knew, her power would be much greater.