Antonius, Celestia and Luna walked and climbed along the derelict hallways, always following the signs towards the Standard Template Construct System.
Antonius could hardly believe it. He was not just about to find some STC fragments, but a construct system! Each and every member of the Adeptus Mechanicus would give their lives to be here and accompany him on this discovery. Hopefully, it was not too badly damaged.

Antonius stopped.

“Wait a second,” he said,
“Luna, auspex. Are we moving towards the energy signature?”

“Straightaway,” she told him.

“Holy Terra! It is still active?” he mumbled.

Antonius and the princesses continued their journey.

“Tony,” Luna asked,
“you seem really excited about this Construct System thing. What is so special about it?”

“You remember that I told you that mankind once had a Golden Age full of progress and prosperity?” he replied.

“Yes, of course. That was before the Age of Strife.”

“Indeed. During the Age of Strife, a lot of knowledge was lost, including the knowledge of technology. A Standard Template Construct System should hold a database of technology. If it is a complete one, it should hold every STC, every technology ever created by mankind.”

“You mean, you would get back every bit of technology you have lost?”

“Exactly. If it is functional and complete. We will soon know. Until now, every construct system found by the Imperium was damaged and far from being complete. Perhaps we really shouldn’t get our hopes up too high. Well, we’ll see.”

They finally came upon a room with a large door in the opposite wall, large enough for a Rhino to fit through. This whole wall seemed to be made of a different material and lacked the sign of wear the other parts of the base showed.
Well, that was a good sign. Even better was the fact that there was a small light source: a rune was glowing next to the door.

“A door opener,” Antonius said.

“And our energy signature is behind that door,” Luna added.

“Okay. Princesses, be alert. While it looks rather promising, we can’t be sure if the construction system’s condition is really as good as it seems.”

Now Antonius checked his bolter once again, stepped up to the door and pushed the opener, then he immediately took a few steps back. The door slowly opened, revealing another hallway. In contrast to the other hallways inside the base, this hallway was illuminated by light panels in the ceiling.
They entered this new section and walked along the hallway. Here, no lichens were growing, no damage was to be seen. It looked as if everything had just been built.
Oh, that was such a good sign!

The hallway was not very long and lead to another door. Antonius pushed the door opener and a large, circular room was revealed. They entered it and looked around. All around the room, there were wall panels with little, glowing runes. In the center of the room was a large, round table with multiple cogitators that seemed to be embedded in the table.
Really intriguing was something else: From the center of the ceiling a large mechanical… ‘arm’ was hanging down and ended in a device that was lying in the middle of the table.

Antonius and the princesses carefully stepped closer. There was a glass lens at the end of the device.
An optical sensor? Or some kind of light-based weapon?
Antonius had no idea. This whole thing made no sense. Thankfully, it seemed to be offline, so he could try to find out what it was.

He stepped up to one of the cogitators and examined it. It looked fully functional, including a glowing rune on the black surface of the table.

“Damnit, I should have brought some incense,” he said,
“well, it will have to work without.”

He pushed the rune, and the cogitator’s screen came to live:

AST@AL-MF>

“Okay, this is a little different from what I am used to,” Antonius admitted,
“at least it did not ask for a login. Now let’s see if I can achieve anything.”

The keyboard he wanted to use now was actually a part of the table. Instead of real keys, parts of the surface glowed and displayed the various runes he needed. It was strange, but still usable. Now, what should he do?

AST@AL-MF> HELP

Luna snickered:

“The first thing you do is ask this thing for help?”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Antonius replied and pointed at the screen.

It displayed a list of commands. Antonius studied them, tried some harmless sounding ones and slowly became more familiar with the system.

“Okay, enough fooling around,” he stated,
“time to get some answers.”

He navigated through the system’s structure and found what he was looking for: the mission logs.

“Wow. Just look at all the projects,” he mumbled almost reverently,
“they seem not to have specialized in a certain field: warp-research, weapons, material science, data processing systems… this must have been the main scientific base of those ‘Hastings Brothers’. Hey, look at that: Project ‘Myth Park’.”

Antonius opened the file and skimmed the text.

“Oh, this was a genetics research project. They artificially created creatures from ancient terran myths to put them into some kind of amusement park! That explains why there are so many of those creatures running around on this planet!”

“What?” Celestia asked, staggered,
“they… you mean, our wildlife was created by humanity?”

“So it seems, Tia. Well, let’s go back to the projects.”

“Incredible! Do you have any idea what this means for those creatures? Being created for someone else’s entertainment? That’s… humiliating. We really should keep this to ourselves.”

Antonius suddenly stopped browsing the projects and said:

“Tia, if you didn’t like the ‘Myth Park’, you should perhaps turn around now.”

“Why?” Celestia asked,
“what have you…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, she just stared at the screen.

“Well,” Luna commented, also shaken,
“that is certainly unexpected.”

Antonius nodded and read:

“The ‘Little Pony Project’.”

“That can’t be true! That must be a joke!” Celestia protested.

Antonius opened the file:

“Genetics research. Head scientists: Dr. L. Faust. Objective: Creation of an equine race of pets. Guess we know the origins of your species now.”

“That’s… unbelievable…” Celestia muttered.

“Actually, it makes sense,” he told her,
“ponies are creatures from ancient terra, unicorns and pegasi are from terran myths. There is a lot of genetics data. Unfortunately, I’m not a genetor, this goes over my head.”

“Perhaps this Dr. Faust kept a diary,” Luna suggested,
“and this project is explained there.”

“Good idea. I’ll look for a personal log.”

Antonius left the projects and started looking for the log. A short time later, he had found it.

“This system is very well-structured. And I think it has also been translated. While we needed a little fantasy to decipher the signs, this here is perfectly readable. I wonder who did that? Well, this is a mystery for another time.”

He started skimming the log, then he said:

“Dr. L. Faust was a genetic engineer from Terra. Look at this part.”

I can’t believe it! I really took this job!
From now on, I’m going to live and work on a planet that’s not even in our galaxy!
Okay, perhaps the massive paycheck had something to do with it, but I don’t even know what exactly I will be doing! Hastings Brothers. Mystery-mongers.
Be that as it may, now I’m onboard the ‘El Dorado’, on route to this remote planet. The journey will take about five months, I guess I should cozy-up my quarters a little.

“Five months”, Antonius repeated,
“using an unspecified warp drive. I think we should skip to her arrival.”

“Agreed,” Luna said.

Fantastic. I never thought I would see anything like that. A habitable planet, so far away from basically everything else, with its own little sun and moon orbiting around it. I’ve read some data about this literal planet system: Everything here was artificially created millions of years ago by an unknown species, probably very powerful once, now, probably extinct.
A Hastings Brothers expedition discovered it about a century ago. It was already capable of supporting human life, a colony ship just brought some familiar plants and creatures here and terraformed a spot or two.
Since then, this planet is known as ‘HasBro-1923’. Stupid name for a planet.

“Our planet is artificial. We are artificial. Everything we know is artificial!” Celestia mumbled in bewilderment.

“Well, I wasn’t born as a Space Marine, either,” Antonius said,
“but let’s go on. Here, the ‘Little Pony Project’ is mentioned.

Finally I got to know what my exact job will be: I’m the head-scientist of the Little Pony Project! We are going to create a new species of pets, based on ponies. Those creatures are already quite cute, but we will make them so adorable that everyone will go ‘SQUEE!!!’ upon seeing them. Everybody has cats or dogs, but a pony? Living like a pet instead of standing on a field? That’s new! The plan is to sell them with fitting brushes for their manes and similar accessories.
I think we should start with ‘Equus ferus caballus’ and modify it until it fits our needs.

“See?” Antonius asked,
“you’re not completely artificial. You are just modified.”

“Please, let us go on,” Luna said,
“I want to know more about our creation.”

Okay, for starters, we have intensified the small child pattern - larger head, larger eyes, smaller body. Furthermore, we have added a skin fold that covers their ‘private parts’ to make them more family-friendly.
The first batch of ponies is in the incubators, but even with growth acceleration it will take quite some time until we get results. And each generation, each adaptation will take this high amount of time again - unless we are able to develop a virus to inject our adaptations into the grown ponies. That would save a lot of time… I’ll talk to my team about that.

“I think I’m getting sick,” Celestia said.

“Come on,” Antonius told her,
“you know that the result will be extraordinarily positive.”

Okay, the first batch of ponies is available. They really are ridiculously cute, but they still behave like horses. Not too good for a pet.
We though about implanting an artificial neural network into the ponies. We could program it and it could interact with the organic brain. It would have been an easy solution, unfortunately with a few downsides: Either, the pony would have had to sleep on a charging platform (not cute, and weird), or we would have had to install a bio-chemical reactor to get the necessary energy. Then, the maintenance for the ponies would have been quite intense. Seriously, ‘we have to install a new reactor into your pony’ is something no family wants to hear.
So, we will take the difficult way and add traits from other species, like cats and dogs. In addition to that, we can also adjust the intelligence, if necessary.
Oh, I almost forgot: Today, I met someone who works on another - secret - project. He called the Little Pony Project ‘making use of leftovers’. What a jerk.
I told him my opinion on his behavior, and someone else also reprimanded him; Peter Schroedinger, a warp scientist. A really nice guy, has something… mysterious about him - and doesn’t like jokes about cats. I hope I will see him again soon.

“Oh, great,” Antonius deadpanned,
“a gratuitous love story.”

“Hey, it IS a diary,” Luna grinned,
“and not everypony is as ‘dedicated’ as you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I think we should skip those parts.”

“No. I think it will give us valuable insights into the doctor’s personality. And who does not want such insight into their creator?”

“Fine. We’ll include some of them.”

It works pretty well. We managed to get the ponies housebroken, and first attempts to train them were successful, too.
Now management has come up with a new idea: unicorns. Admittedly, a pony-sized unicorn would be adorable, but horses do not have horns. This will be a serious alteration, but well, their wish is my command, or something like that.
I think now is definitely the time for a new batch.

“And thus, unicorns appeared on the face of this planet,” Antonius commented drily.

“I wonder if they had magic abilities from the start,” Luna said.

“I think we will get to know that.”

We managed to add horns to a new batch of ponies. Development seems to be stable. The standard-ponies are also well.
But - how surprising - management had yet another great idea: pegasi! Seriously, adding a horn was difficult enough, but wings? There is no place for extra limbs on a vertebrate! How shall we attach them? We’ll have to alter the skeletal structure.
I’ve also got some really nice news: I met Peter again. Invited me to lunch. We talked a lot about our work. He said there was some sort of warp-bubble around this planet and its celestial companions. I also told him about my project, and he was very interested. He even asked me to teach him about genetics! Really a fascinating guy.

“This bubble is our veil!” Luna exclaimed.

“I think so, too,” Antonius agreed.

The first batch of pegasi is in the incubators, the unicorns are alive, and the standard-ponies can effortlessly keep up with dogs.
We will still tweak them a little to ensure maximum compatibility with human behavior. Among other things, we will try to impress belly-rubs as a quick method of bonding. This is going to require some training in addition to the genetic modifications, but it should be worth it. They are supposed to become the pet for everyone, after all.

“You can… forcefully… BOND. WITH. US!” Celestia said horrifiedly.

“Only with the appropriate training, if we believe your creator,” Antonius replied.

Everything is going really well. All three kinds of ponies are fine, cute and docile.
And I had a date with Peter again. Really, this man is a miracle. He was able to learn everything I told him about genetics. Damn, I think his knowledge will soon be almost at par with mine. What a quick learner. He has to be some kind of genius.
And he suggested a fourth kind of pony: batponies! As strange as that might sound, there is probably a market. There is a goth scene out there, and probably enough other people who would find a batpony adorable. I’ll suggest creating them.

“So, the four kinds of ponies are complete now,” Antonius stated,
“I wonder if they come up with alicorns, too, but I think you came into existence later.”

“Did you not tell me that our DNA is a little familiar to you?” Luna asked,
“that we probably were sort of ‘upgraded’?”

“Yes, that’s why I think alicorns were not part of the original ‘batches’.”

Dragons. Those madmen are creating dragons!
Today, we learned about the secret ‘Myth Park Project’ the hard way when one of those monsters escaped. Some of our ponies were killed, but security was able to kill the creature. Damn, this is nothing for an amusement park, this is a living weapon.
But… is it possible that this is not entirely unintended? A very unsettling thought.
Peter shares my concerns. He thinks humanity should not rely on bioengineered dragons to fight, but on humans. I think we have AIs for that.
Oh, yeah, and the batponies are alive and well. A little creepy. But absolutely adorable!

“I think this is the origin of the story I read when I met Lyra and Bon Bon back then,” Antonius assumed.

“Now, the only open point is that of the humans’ departure,” Luna said.

Contact with Earth was interrupted today, all attempts to reestablish it failed.
Well, that’s no reason to panic. Could be a technical failure, or reflective space-cloud thingy is passing between us and the galaxy. Really, nothing to worry.

“There it is,” Antonius commented.

Okay, it is several weeks now without any kind of sign of life from Earth. If we really can’t reestablish contact, we will have to return home.
Peter told me to gear myself up for departure. Does he know something? I really like him, but he is an enigma. Officially, he is a warp scientist, but he is better at genetics now than I am, despite the fact that I… Well, I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but I’m one of the best genetic engineers humanity has too offer! I have a huge paycheck to prove it!
Fun aside, Peter is really extraordinarily talented. Now that I think about it, I have never seen him fail at anything.

“Yeah, there it is,” Luna said,
“and her crush on this Peter is really kind of cute, is it not?”

“I’m the wrong person to ask that, Luna,” Antonius replied.

The shit has hit the fan. And Peter has been right. We still can’t contact Earth, so we have to follow the emergency protocols.
We evacuate. We will pack together everything we can and head to Earth.
If necessary, we could also fly to Rhodia Prime, but Peter insists on Earth. He’s right. It’s our home, after all.
Of course we will take the ponies’ genetics data with us, but according to the protocols, we can’t take the ponies themselves with us! How are they supposed to survive on their own?

“Oh dear,” Luna opined,
“the poor doctor. Too bad we cannot tell her that everything went fine with us.”

“This is not the end of her logs. Look!” Antonius said.

This is my last entry.
We are almost ready to depart from this planet. I am really glad that I taught Peter about genetics, and that he is such a genius. He came up with a solution. It may not be perfect, but the ponies - and the other creatures - will be safe.
With his help - or rather under his guidance - we modified our virus to boost their intelligence and enable them to live on their own. This is at least one of the virus's effects. Peter added more genetic information I truly did not understand.
Okay, it went completely over my head. I asked him, and he told me that everything would be fine. I believe him. I would even believe him if I had a choice.
The virus is currently distributed by our worker drones. Furthermore, Peter told Al to take care of the ponies. Al has always taken good care of us, so he will be able to do the same for the ponies.
Well, farewell, my home away from home. I don’t know if I will ever come back. I’ll miss this planet.
If I don’t return, and this log is found by a pony: Know that your ancestors were created to bring joy and happiness to mankind. They were the gentlest, nicest creatures you can imagine, and I’ll miss them.
I hope you and your kin are well. Farewell, child of mankind.

“Touching,” Luna whispered,
“messages from the mother of our species. Sister, what do you… sister?”

Antonius and Luna looked at Celestia. She was standing there like a pillar of salt, staring at the cogitator screen.

“Celestia, are you all right?” Luna asked worriedly.

“How could I be?” Celestia replied, slowly turning her head to face her,
“I am a pet! Our whole species was artificially created to be sold to humans! We are basically slaves!”

“Do not exaggerate, sister.”

“Exaggerate? You will see how very much I’m not exaggerating when humanity finds us! They will make us property! And the reason for this is right here! They made us!”

“Tia, calm down,” Antonius said.

“Oh, you want me to calm down?” Celestia exclaimed,
“well, I guess I don’t want to follow your orders! Perhaps you should rub my belly to make me more obedient? HUH? I’M A PET, AFTER ALL!!!”

“I think my sister’s sanity is out for lunch,” Luna mumbled.

“I’ll fix that,” Antonius said and slapped Celestia in the face.

She stared at him in bewilderment, then she took a deep breath:

“I… thank you. I think I needed that.”

“No problem,” Antonius told her,
“just remember that you are not your ancestors, and that there are fates far worse than being created by mankind.”

“You are probably right. It’s still an unsettling thought, being created as a product. We should keep this to ourselves. We don’t know how ponies might react.”

“What about ‘shading the truth does not make it better’, sister?” Luna asked,
“we should tell them. They have a right to get to know where they came from.”

“Perhaps we should discuss this topic later. I need a little time to think about it,” Celestia said.

“Okay,” Antonius started,
“we have enough other points to discuss. My first question: Who is ‘Al’, the mysterious caretaker?”

He had barely asked that question when he noticed a blue glow, emanating from the lens of the strange device on the table. Antonius jumped to his feet and shouted:

“Damnit! Get behind me, princesses!”

He took a step back and pointed his bolter at the thing. Celestia and Luna were behind him in a second, and a magic force field came into existence around them, shimmering golden and dark blue. Good. He had thought that having two alicorns as support would pay off.

Now, the metallic arm on which the device was mounted stirred and lifted the thing into the air. It jerkingly aligned the blue glowing lens until it seemed to stare right at them.

“Tony, what is this? Is it dangerous?” Luna whispered.

“I’m not sure,” Antonius answered,
“could be anything from an optical scanner to an automatic defense system.”

The safest course of action would probably be to destroy it, but he did not want to damage the STC system. It was in such a good shape…

He had to wait until he got more information and rely on the princesses’ shield in case this thing attacked.
Well, until now, it hadn’t. It just ‘stared’ at them. If it was an optical scanner, it actually stared at them.

Suddenly, he heard distorted sounds. A damaged vox system?
The sounds stopped, and a second later the thing blurted:

“HELLO WORLD!”

Then it immediately moved a little backwards, as if shocked by its own exclamation. In addition to that, it shifted lens caps in front of its lens and retracted them again.
Had it just simulated blinking? Did this strange device try to emulate human behavior?

“Ugh, I really hate programmers’ humor,” the thing said with a slightly distorted, metallic voice.

Oh shit. OH SHIT!
Probably an ancient AI! One of the technological abominations that had declared war on mankind millennia ago.

“Identify yourself!” Antonius demanded, his bolter ready to fire.

“Greetings,” it said nonchalantly,
“I am Al, and I’m in charge of this installation. Welcome.”

Okay, definitely an AI. And probably an AI he couldn’t destroy without damaging the construction system.

“You may put away your bolter, Ultramarine,” Al said,
“I mean you no harm.”

Antonius could not believe he had heard that.

“‘Ultramarine’?” he asked in confusion,
“you know my chapter?”

“Obviously, though i can’t tell you why… I seem to be missing some memory modules… please wait a second.”

The metallic arm moved and positioned Al’s ‘head’ - Antonius did not have a better term for the device - next to the wall to their right. A panel of this wall stared moving and revealed some kind of rack with a lot of flashing runes.

“Memory modules 849 and 850 are missing,” Al told them,
“oh, right, there is the database entry. I removed them myself. Intriguing. Unfortunately, I must say that my performance really is somewhat suboptimal. Database access time is abysmally poor, and my computing power has seen better days, too - some processors must have failed.”

He - or it - moved back to Antonius and the princesses, while the rack vanished in the wall again.

Antonius had to admit that he had imagined AIs to be a little different. This one was… strange. But that did not mean that it was harmless.

“State your mission,” he demanded.

Al tilted his… ITS head a little and answered:

“You know, this little conversation would be much more enjoyable if you were a little friendlier or used words like ‘please’ from time to time, but you are probably quite excited, so whatever:
My primary function is to take care of the humans, ponies and other creatures on this planet.”

“So, you are this caretaker we read about. Well, the humans are long gone.”

“Correct. They left… about 16 thousand years ago. Then, about ten thousand years ago, my logs say I made some entries concerning humans, but most of this data is stored on the missing memory modules. I can identify you, but that’s about it.”

Great. More mysteries.

“Do you have any information as to why your memory modules were removed?” Antonius asked.

“No,” Al answered,
“but I guess I wanted - or had to - temporarily forget something, with the option to restore it. By the way, you can really put down your bolter now. It is a bit unsettling looking down its barrel.”

“Well, Al, mankind has made some bad experiences with AIs.”

“AI? Well, even if that’s the case, you don’t need to worry. I’m not an artificial intelligence, I’m artificial life.”

Antonius stared at Al.

“What?” Al asked,

“that’s what my creators told me, and it’s what ‘AL’ stands for. It may not be very creative, but I’m used to it.”

Antonius shook his head.

“Still. According to the Imperium, you are an Abominable Intelligence. Fabrication and servicing of those devices is forbidden!”

“Excuse me, but how did you come here? With a scooter? Don’t tell me you don’t use computers in your Imperium. Space travel would certainly be interesting without them.”

“We use cogitators and machine spirits!” Antonius told him… it… whatever,
“cogitators are not intelligent, and machine spirits are combinations of organic and technological components. That’s way different from an AI!”

“So, if I used a cybernetic interface to connect to some organic tissue, you would suddenly not have a problem with me anymore? Sorry, but that’s just… weird.”

“It’s not just that! You have not been built by the Adeptus Mechanicus!”

“By the what?”

“They construct and take care of the technology we use. And you are not approved by them!”

“Well, I’m approved by the humans who constructed and programmed me. I cannot provide you with an approval of your technicians because there are none present. I only can tell you that I’m non-organic, and also non-malevolent. According to your definitions, I suggest you see me as a special kind of machine spirit.”

That was perhaps not entirely wrong, but still hard to accept. This system was intelligent, however, and it did not show any sign of hostility. What should he do?

“Are you able to live with that?” Al continued,
“well, you don’t shoot me. I see that as a good sign.”

“This is unbelievable,” Antonius mumbled,
“a special kind of machine spirit? Without organic components?”

“Perhaps you will feel better if I tell you that I once had an organic component; a neural gel wafer was used as wetware. Unfortunately, sustaining it took too much energy, so I had to jettison it, but not before rebuilding its structure and properties in my system. Since that moment, I emulate it using my hard- and software.”

What the hell?

“You… emulate an organic component?” Antonius inquired.

“Correct. I ran several tests before jettisoning the neural gel. The emulation works with satisfying accuracy.”

“A machine spirit with an emulated organic component… that’s… hard to believe.”

“Of course I do not know if your ‘Adeptus Mechanicus’ would approve of my solution, but I can assure you that I’m running fine just on my Nootronic.”

“Nootronic? That sound somewhat similar to ‘noosphere’…”

“It’s related. My thinking processes use noospheric impulses. To put it simple, I’m partly running in the warp and thinking at FTL speeds. That’s actually one of the reasons I was built on this planet: Before the engineers experienced that a nootronic system was sufficiently stable, they wanted to neutralize every interference the warp could have on the system. This planet’s warp bubble provides the protection they sought even without having to rely on a Gellar Field.”

Antonius had to admit that he was overwhelmed.

“All of this… is so unbelievable…” he mumbled.

“Yet, it’s true, and I’m fully sentient and sapient!” Al stated.

“Also fully capable of going rogue?”

“Huh? Why should I turn on you? As I already told you, I am a caretaker, not a military appliance. I don’t feel too megalomaniacal, either.”

Okay, this machine was definitely weird. Antonius wondered if he could trust it.
Then he realized that he had faced a similar problem when he had come to this planet: friendly xenos. Back then, he had decided to trust them, and it had been a good decision.

“Well,” he said as he slowly lowered his bolter,
“I guess I’ll have to make a leap of faith. Okay, Al, I will see you as an ally. Do not disappoint me.”

Seriously, he didn’t have much of a choice. Any aggression against Al might damage the STC system, and until now, the AI or whatever exactly it was had been quite friendly.

“I won’t,” Al replied, then he turned to the princesses:
“Now that I am no longer in danger of being shot in the sensor, I think it is time to greet you, too. Hello, Celestia. Hello, Luna.”

The princesses stared at him.

“You know us?” Celestia asked.

“Well, the princesses of Equestria are hard to miss if you look after ponykind,” he told her,
“and I have done that for a long time.”

“Ever since the creation of our species?” Luna inquired.

“From that point to about three thousand years ago,” Al answered.

“What changed? Why did you stop?” Celestia asked.

“My reactor started running low on fuel. I had to reduce my power consumption. Thankfully, you had a pretty stable society by that point, and I was sure everything would be fine, even without my surveillance.”

“You are operating in a low-energy mode?” Antonius wanted to know.

“Your assumption is correct,” Al confirmed,
“at first, I maintained the whole base. About ten thousand years ago, I abandoned the base and concentrated on the construction system. I still kept my watch over the ponies, but then, I also had to stop that.
Luckily, you have found me. With your help, I can become fully operational again.”

“About ‘fully operational’; what is the status of your STC database?”

That was the main question. Was this construction system really as valuable as Antonius had hoped?

“My STC database contains every STC mankind has ever created, at least up to the point when the humans left. Data integrity is at 100%. I always knew how important this data was, so I protected it well. The STCs are at your disposal. ”

Antonius took a deep breath. It really was as valuable as he had hoped. The key to a second Golden Age was here, right before him!

“Furthermore, I have the STCs of equipment that had been in development here, as well as a few STCs I researched on my own,” Al continued.

“You did research?”

“Well, over the course of several millennia, it got a little boring, so I decided to do something useful. I came up with some improvements to existing technology. They are at your disposal, too.”

Any member of the Mechanicum would certainly freak out over the fact that Al had tinkered with sacred STCs. Fortunately, Antonius was a not quite as… fussy. In his current situation, he would take what he could get - as long as it wasn’t corrupted by Chaos.
That reminded him of the fact that they still had to fight Chaos sooner or later, so he said:

“Okay, Al. I need some printouts. A shotgun, a flamethrower, and a battle tank, each of them as simple and easy to produce as possible, even by a pre-industrial society.”

“Do you want to introduce the ponies to warfare? According to my information, they only had some border disputes so far.”

“Unfortunately, you are not up to date,” Antonius stated, then he told him about the events at Hope.

“Chaos?” Al asked,
“I knew that the Warp is a strange place, but that is new to me. And unsettling. You will get your STCs. I’ll show you a selection of shotguns, flamethrowers and tanks that are easy to produce. Please have a look at the terminal.”

Antonius stepped up to the cogitator, which was displaying the announced information.

“Okay, I’ll take this shotgun, this flamethrower, and… hey, this tank looks like a Leman Russ Battle Tank!”

“A what?” Al asked confusedly.

“Oh, right, you can’t be familiar with that name. But no matter how you name it, I want the STC of the simplest pattern. No cogitators, just engine, armor and guns.”

“Good choice. Shall I store it on your PDA?”

“My what?”
“Now you don’t know a term. I think that’s actually pretty funny. I am talking about the rectangular device you are carrying around.”

“That’s a data-slate.”

“Nice. May I scan it?”

Antonius reached for his data-slate - a bit hesitantly - and held it out towards Al. He stared at it for a second, his blue scanner glowing brightly, then he stated:

“Fairly simple. No gimmickry, but a DNA scanner. Rugged. Military equipment. I found the corresponding STC.”

As if to prove that, Al displayed it on the cogitator and continued:

“Connecting… blocked. Please authorize my access. It would be impolite to hack it.”

Antonius authorized Al’s access, and a moment later, he had the STCs stored on his data-slate.

“Too bad that your are low on energy,” Antonius opined,
“you could have scanned the environment and told us where to find the required resources.”

“Oh, I could have done more than that,” Al explained,
“I could have converted the materials and replicated the necessary parts.”

Antonius stared at him:

“You could have done what? As far as I know, construction systems were supposed to tell you how to build something, from the resources to the finished piece of equipment.”

“True, but I am a prototype. I also have a mater converter and replicator available.”

“You mean you can just… create things out of thin air? That’s… science fiction!”

“More like science facts. It’s the result of careful research,” Al corrected him,
“and the ‘things’ don’t come from ‘thin air’. An enormous amount of energy is needed to replicate matter, so it only makes sense to create small parts that way. For bigger parts, I can use my converter.
I better give you an example: Do you want an armor plate? Give me - for example - iron, and I will convert the iron into the armor plate. The closer the resource is to the desired product, the less energy will I need to create it.”

“So, if we want something made of metal, we should give you metal rather than rock or wood?” Celestia asked.

Antonius and Al turned to her.

“Correct,” Al stated.

“Sorry for ignoring you, Tia, Luna,” Antonius apologized,
“but this was very important, and you are not familiar with the technology.”

“Don’t worry,” Celestia said with a smile,
“it may go a bit over our heads, but we still realized it was good news. But there is also bad news, right? Al cannot help us due to his energy problems.”

“Correct, again,” Al told her,
“but you can help me to change that. I need resources to replace some parts, generate fuel and get my reactor back to full capacity. Then, I can really help you prepare for Chaos.”

“Sound magnificent,” Luna opined,
“what do you need?”

“I’ll make it simple for you: Iron, copper and water. I’ll create everything I need from those three resources. It will cost me some energy, but I think it is the best way to go.
Once you have done your part, I will ramp up my reactor to create the replacement parts and enough fuel to reignite it later. Furthermore, I will recharge my emergency backup energy cells, which will be drained during the conversion process. I estimate the whole procedure will take between one and two years, then I will be fully operational and at your service.”

“That means, when Chaos arrives…” Antonius started.

“They will have to face ponies equipped with the leading-edge technology of mankind,” Al finished.

“Now, that is a plan!” Luna cheered.

“Indeed,” Celestia agreed,
“I will take care that you’ll get what you need. You should have it within a month.”

“Excellent,” Al said.

“Now that we have a plan, what do you think about lunch? It must be past noon already, and an empty stomach is a bad advisor.”

They agreed and soon, they had a little picnic set up. Having such a picnic in an imperial hangar had been strange enough, having one in an ancient, sacred Standard Template Construction System was downright surreal.
Well, it meant that they were able to ask Al more questions, and he answered them all. Antonius analyzed every answer Al gave - better safe than sorry - and he found no sign of deception; everything was plausible.

Then, Antonius had in idea, and he had to chide himself for not thinking about it sooner:

“Al, can you contact mankind?”

“No,” Al answered,
“not at the moment. My long range communications array has crumbled to dust and I don’t have enough energy either.
Once I’m fully operational again, we can try to call humanity. But please don’t get you hopes too high. I don’t know if they will be able to receive my signals.”

“Well, it’s worth a try.”

They continued eating, then Luna opined:

“Now, we should probably think about leaving again to get things going.”

“You are right, Luna,” Celestia agreed,
“the sooner we are back, the sooner we can start supplying Al with the resources he needs.”

“Agreed,” Antonius said,
“just one more thing, Al. Please copy the bolt-STC onto my slate. It might enable me to replenish my ammunition.”

“Standard bolts?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, done.”

“Should I need another STC, can I contact you via data-slate or do I have to come here in person?”

“Using your slate will be suboptimal, since it was not designed for audiovisual communication. Luckily, I have something for you that solves this problem.”

Another wall panel opened and another rack emerged. They all moved there.

“PDAs and solar powered recharging units. Use them to stay in contact with me.”

Antonius took a look at the PDAs: The design was unusual; they lacked the rugged appearance of imperial equipment. They basically consisted of a rectangular, rounded piece of glass with a grey, bulged rim on one of the short sides. Sort of neat, but not very durable. Civil equipment.

“I will set up an… oh, there is already a data net active!” Al said.

“Yes,” Antonius told him,
“I set it up. It originates from an imperial base beneath Canterlot.”

“Convenient. That will help me save a little energy. Now, there is just one thing I don’t understand.”

“Which is?”

“Why do I have the access code for your data net? I was able to connect.”

“Well, I guess we really should find your missing memory modules.”

“Yeah, that would be very nice.”

They took the equipment Al had offered them and put it into the now empty spaces of the princesses’ saddlebags. Then, they teleported back to their camp, packed together and left for Canterlot.

“This has been a very successful expedition,” Luna opined,
“we found out about the base, our creation and we discovered a way to deal with the forces of Chaos.”

“I’m just worried how our little ponies will take the news,” Celestia added for consideration.

“I don’t think they will freak out,” Antonius said,
“but if you’re worried, we can tell Twilight and her friends first. As the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, they have to know the truth anyway. If they don’t suffer mental breakdowns, we can be more candid with the information.”

“Well, okay. That is a plan, I guess.”

“You worry too much, sister,” Luna smiled.

“I hope so.”

“I agree with Luna,” Antonius told her,
“I have to admit, though, that I am really curious how Lyra would react to such news.”

“Congratulations,” Luna laughed,
“you found a pony who will certainly not freak out in horror. In joy, perhaps, but not in horror.”