Pony Power Battles

Archimedes scrubbed himself free of the dirt and grime furiously. He kept muttering to himself, angrily, careful not to let the others hear him. “What kind of pony does she think she is? Can’t she see how much I love her? Can’t she see how much I care? And that Moonlight gets all of her attention, what does he have that I don’t? Why can’t she see that I’m better? I do all the hardest work, I try the hardest, and I fight the hardest. Even back at the academy, I did everything, and she didn’t even notice me!”

Archie stepped out of the shower, completely clean. His orange scales glimmered seductively in the dim light of the room. “I’ll just try harder, yeah. She’ll see that I’m the dragon for her!” He said, bulking himself up. He then let his chest down dejectedly, “Aww, who am I kiddin’? I’m not even a pony. She’d never love a dragon like me.” The door to the outside swished opened and closed, tickling his ears as he grabbed his saber and headed to the door.

He opened it, poking his head outside. “Trixie? Moonlight?” He called into the hallway.

“I’m here, Archie,” he heard Trixie say. Her voice sounded so sad.

“Are you alright Trixie?” He asked, leaving the comfort of his room to find her with the broken map, drying her tears.

“No, Moon is going to go get a droid and he’s going to die!” She said, letting more tears out.

“What do you mean? Moonlight Scroll is one of the best students from the academy,” Archie tried to comfort her, ignoring the broken map.

“I know that,” Trixie began, “It’s just I had this nightmare and this horrible feeling all day, and the terentatek is a horrible monster! And it’s out there and we don’t know where and I don’t know what to do!!”  Trixie degenerated into sobbing, becoming a pile of mush on the floor.

Archie didn’t know what to do either, as he tried to comfort her, “But he’ll be fine! He’s smart…Here, I can configure the map to track his lightsaber energy source, that way you can see where he is!” Archimedes offered. It was a long shot, but with the right tinkering he thought he could pull it off. At least it would help Trixie calm down while he worked.

“Really?” Trixie asked, recovering somewhat, “You can do that? I mean, Moonlight said he couldn’t do anything with the device at all!”

“Psh! He didn’t ask me, first!” Archimedes said, smiling. It worked. He set to the device immediately, popping it open to look inside. A small matter of wiring and…there! “Alright, now we should see his…oh my…” Archie blanched at the scene unfolding on the map table.

“What is it?” Trixie asked, rising to her hooves. There was indeed an energy signature, two of them…or a dozen…or a hundred! The map spanned out, covering the usual ground, but they saw an energy signature, presumably Moon, walking away from the compound. On the other side of the forest, well away from them both as well as Moon, sat a hundred lightsaber energy signals all clustered on the same point, moving swiftly toward where Moon was headed. It looked like it would be there in an hour, maybe two. At the edge of the map, right where Moonlight was heading into, there were another hundred, maybe two hundred small energy signatures, all stationary.

“I think we’ve found the terentatek,” Archie whispered to Trixie, grimly.

Trixie didn’t respond, instead backing to the corner of the room and turning white.

“Trixie, just calm down, the beast isn’t heading this direction, and I’m sure Moon will be fine! He’s got his training as well as his ability to use the force, he’ll see it coming,” Archimedes said, moving to her. As he approached, she didn’t move or say anything. He put a clawed arm around her, thinking sarcastically about how wonderful this was all going to be. “Come on Trixie, remember: you’re a Jedi. You’re above fear, right? We’ve got to make a calculated decision here.”

“What, is he going to be okay?” She whispered, staring unblinkingly at the screen. He couldn’t even guess what was going on inside of her at this moment. He was worried, too. As much as he was jealous of Moon, he did call the colt a friend. He’d hate to see him fall to the terentatek.

“I’ll tell you what,” Archie began, still with his scaly appendage wrapped around her, “Let’s go when the thing is just a little ways away from him, but still in enough time to catch it. If we’re lucky, we can all fight it together. As for that cluster of lightsabers…I’d need to analyze the data. If Moon’s fortunate, he’ll run right into a supply of more firepower than he can use at that place.”

“Okay,” was all Trixie could manage. Archie could tell she was far gone. Then, surprisingly, color flushed her cheeks and she came back to life! “Yes, Archie, you’re right, I’m a Jedi and Moon needs our help! Let’s analyze that data, it will go faster with the both of us!”

“Great! Let’s get started,” he said as he leaned back over to the device, “I’ll need to rewire the terminal here, and repair the system…” as he was looking at the main computer he felt a peck on the scales of his cheek. He looked back to see Trixie with a smile, blushing.

“Thank you, Archimedes,” She said, lovingly.

Archie couldn’t help himself as the shock and overwhelming sensation of Trixie’s kiss paralyzed him. He almost fell backwards as he shook himself, hearing Trixie’s voice asking him what was wrong.

“Archie? Are you okay?” She asked with a little worry. Finding himself on the floor, he sat up as she explained to him, “You went all limp there. Are you fine?”

“I’m-wah…I’m fine!” He said, regaining his composure. He smiled at her one more time, indulging in the sweet sensation. He then dove under the computer, flipping a few switches and hooking wires, one to another. He had trained in computers while he was becoming a Jedi, and he recalled all of it for this momentous task. He deftly rearranged the circuitry to more up-to-date standards, using his fire breath for lighting and welding. Trixie handed him parts they brought from the ship as well, including the holographic device that mapped the terrain. Pretty soon, the computer monitor flickered to life in a language they could understand.

“Well,” Archimedes said, brushing himself off of the dust and cobwebs as he climbed out from under the terminal, “I’ve rerouted the main interface and hardware of our little device into the main systems of this station. Hopefully, with a little programming we can use what we have to get a greater analysis of the situation, as well as cycle the data through the banks of the computer itself. If we can do it right, we can even find out what that cluster is.” Archimedes tapped away at the keys on the computer, reprogramming it to the best of his knowledge. A hiccup or two here and there, and fifteen minutes later, the screen displayed the proper data. A picture of a large tree with strange, ancient red symbols appeared.

“Well, it isn’t translated, but that’s the same location where that cluster of sabers is stashed,” Archie said, looking over at Trixie. Her expression was scrunched into determination, but she relaxed while meeting Archimedes’ eyes.

“I’m impressed, Archie,” she said, giving the dragon a sly wink. “Well, would you like to go check it out now?”

“Hmmm…” the dragon thought for a minute as he flipped the screen back to the tracker. Moon had already reached the tree, but the terentatek was motionless…odd. “Let’s see this monster for ourselves,” Archie said with a cocky smile.

“Yes!” Trixie said, giving him a full hug. Butterflies filled his stomach and redness touched his cheeks as he felt her warmth, his scaly arms embracing her. She finally let go as Archimedes hardened himself, ready for the task at hand. She loved him, back, it seemed, but there were no words to exchange; at least, not yet. They’d get their friend back, and save him from the terentatek!

Together, they left the compound, taking lightsabers and packing light. Trixie looked over to him, a hint of shame in her smile. “It will go faster if you ride me there,” She said, motioning for him to climb on. Archimedes almost squee’d as he climbed delicately onto her back, feeling the softness of her mane. He ran his claws up her neck and fondled her ears. She let out a soft cooing noise.  He stopped after a moment, drawing the hilt of his blade to be ready.

“Onward, then!” Archimedes said triumphantly as Trixie sped off into the jungle…