Chapters
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Bit went with Keen up into "Revolution Square." But of all the old parts of the city, she'd never been inside the subway station, so she didn't know what had changed. The crystal dome ceiling looked intact, though she doubted the old one had so many red banners. Zircon's city colors had been silver and blue before, and she couldn't see those anywhere.Just through the doors waited soldiers in black armor, the kind made of complex interlocking metal rings. All painted black, though the cloth underneath was…-
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Bit returned to her tower a little over an hour later, with Keen in tow. He had been entirely subdued during their trip, asking no questions about what she had discussed with Sombra or what her future would be. He said very little until they returned to the tower steps. "If it doesn't interfere with what the secretary has required of you, I would still like to bring you on a tour of the factory plant," he said. "When will you have time?"Tomorrow, technically. But she still didn't know what was waiting in…
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"Your delay will not bring rescue. The royal guard all perished.""Against my wishes," he grumbled. "I ordered them to surrender to you. But they haven't listened to me since Equestria..." He sighed, straightening in bed. "I offer you an exchange. I will disable the defenses of this tower for twenty minutes. You will let the apprentices and slaves leave. I will remain in this bed, and employ none of my magic to defend myself. You may come and execute me, and nopony else needs to die."There was a little…
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Bit watched the polisher count down from just beside it. The sand had stopped several minutes ago, with only the water-pump still circulating. It was the wash at the end of a cycle, when all that was left was dislodging residue before the automaton within was released. She'd always found it to be the most refreshing part of the cycle, though in retrospect the water was incredibly cold and got into all parts of her body. Someone who used to be organic would probably not enjoy the process much.I hope you're…
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Bit barely noticed the time pass. She scoured the vault, drained its reservoirs of reactants and catalysts, and brought them all back to the Wizard's lab. What had been his lab, anyway. The place that would become his lab again. She dredged out her transcriptions of the old notes, reviewing them with painstaking attention to detail. The process used to create her, the same one that she would now be forced to undertake, had stakes no lower than the translation process that had saved Pathfinder's life.…
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Twenty minutes later, the automaton in the room with her finally stood, this time without flopping around. At her instruction it walked slowly from one end of the room to the other, an even-more accurate mirror than what it had been before. Not only did the automaton look exactly like her, but it also moved like her too, its back legs swaying exactly as hers did, occasionally shaking its mane in precisely the same configuration. Did I give it too much of myself? But that was an organic way of…
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Keen seemed surprised as they stepped outside, watching the space over Bit's shoulder with considerable confusion. "I didn't think any other pony was allowed into the tower. Wasn't that the payment you requested in exchange for your help?" Then he saw Pathfinder, and he trailed off completely. "Pathfinder, could you come forward a moment? Lower your hood for the secretary." Pathfinder was no automaton, but after remaining stubbornly still for a few moments, he finally obeyed. He kept glancing to the…
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Weeks passed in Zircon. The Secretary of Labor had not been exaggerating or overpromising—Bit received everything she wanted. Within the day, a secondary workshop began to rise at the foot of the tower, a thin metal building packed with old electric heaters. But the oncoming winter would be a benefit for the chemical factory within—slower reactions were far easier to control.But before she could make use of the new facilities, she had to grow a crystal seed, and no addition of supplies or extra labor…
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There was nothing unexpected in what happened next. The process of conversion to creatures of crystal was never intended to be explored by unscreened convicts in a nonmedical setting without support present. At least the victims were up on an isolated surface, where the crystal growth wouldn't spread to others. But all that could do nothing for the screaming.Bit's ears flattened tighter to her head, and still the sound echoed through her. The cries of the dying, echoing so loudly that she would hear it in…
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Bit wasn't there to see her first victims wake—the process still wasn't timed precisely enough for that.What the secretary demanded, he had received—laborers had arrived the very next morning to haul equipment away. Bit had considered resisting them, sealing up the tower and letting its defenses keep the Zirconian army at bay. But while she could imagine soldiers battering up against its magic and melting onto the snow, she couldn't face what Sombra would do to Pathfinder.So she let them come, loading…
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