Pilot's Story

Chapter 20: Answers: Part Three

Tommy, James, Eva, Twilight, and Trixie were seated around the low round wooden table in the center of the room, candle light illuminated the room in the dusk hours of the day as the quintet conversed.

"You know, I don't think we've had a chance to just sit down like this since you got here," Eva said across the table to her human companions, "normally I'd suggest breaking out the bourbon but Twilight will probably turn me into a tree or something if I pull that again."

"You might be right," Twilight ground out through gritted teeth, memories of that night and morning still fresh in her mind, "It would keep you out of trouble, at least."

"I think I'd pay money to see that," James laughed. "It has been a while though, hasn't it?" he asked, waving a hand across the table.

"Once upon a time, when we were all younger, with more years ahead of us than years behind..." Eva said with a sigh, "You know it's been more than a few years. You didn't have to come and I wouldn't have held it against you."

"No, you wouldn't, but I couldn't just leave you hanging in the wind either. If there was even a chance..." he started before trailing off.

Eva laughed softly, "You know, this isn't the first time that sentiment has gotten you in trouble so why do I feel like it won't be the last?"

"Benefit of age and experience," Tommy joked as he jovially shoved his brother in the arm.

"If you're done laughing at my expense... What do we know and what are we going to do about it?" James asked, directing the conversation towards the matter at hand: the drones.

"Well, what Trixie and I were able to establish so far, our best guess anyway, is that most of this tech is low tech. It's better than anything we've got but no where near as good as it ought to be, considering when we are." Tommy started to explain as Eva interrupted him with a raised hoof.

"Tommy, the things were flying without any kind of visible engine or exhaust output, how is that low tech? How is that even possible?" She asked in an incredulous tone.

"This is why it's possible." Tommy said simply as he tossed a small metallic cube with wires trailing out of it onto the middle of the table, "I said most of it was low tech. That part right there is where it all goes pear shaped. It's putting out nine hundred kilowatts and it's the size of an orange. For comparison, one of your DC-3's engines puts out slightly less power than that."

Eva whistled and raised her eyebrows, "So, what is it? Some kind of battery?"

Tommy shrugged, "Could be, could be some kind of generator, though that scares me more."

Twilight paled at that as she stared intently at the device, "Oh no."

"Mind sharing with the rest of the class?" James asked as he looked between the unicorn and his brother.

"I don't fully understand your units of measurement, but I have a pretty good guess as to how heavy that airplane is, and what two of those engines can do for acceleration, so I've got an idea of how powerful it is, but if I'm getting the right idea from what Tommy said," Twilight started to explain as she levitated the device in front of her, "if this isn't just storage, if this is actually generating electricity, it has to have some kind of fuel source, which means not only is it generating the electricity, it's also storing the fuel within the same volume, that kind of energy density..."

"Should be impossible, more impossible than if it was just a battery." Tommy finished for her, "and I still don't know how it flies, but I know enough to know I don't want to have to get into a fight with whoever made the thing."

"Trix- I mean, I was able to use a freezing spell to stop it, when it started to move again while we were taking it apart," Trixie added.

"That's right, we do have some limited defense, and as James and Eva proved, they do stop working when shot, at least for a little while. On that note, it doesn't look like they self repair, but it does look like they attempt to route around damage if they can." Tommy offered as he leaned back in his chair.

"So if we shoot it enough, it'll stay dead?" James asked, "I guess that's a small comfort, what do we do now?"

"I'm going to go sit on a bench in the park and... See if I can't meet up with a new friend." Eva said as her eyes drifted to her guitar case.

~~

Her hoof slid across the guitar strings. A soft note echoed through the small clearing, catching the attention of a few passing ponies as the mare settled into a rhythm. The notes strung together in a melodic flow as she leaned back on the bench, opened her mouth, and began to sing.

"Way back on the radio dial, a fire got lit inside a bright-eyed child. Every note just wrapped around her soul, from steel guitars to Memphis, all the way to rock and roll..." she began, her voice soft and quiet, her eyes closed as the words crossed her lips.

"Ohhh, I can hear 'em playin', I can hear the ringin' of a beat up old guitar! Ohhh, I can hear 'em singin', keep on dreamin' even if it breaks your heart!" Her voice intensified as she sang.

"Downtown is where I used to wander, old enough to get there but too young to get inside. So I would stand out on the sidewalk, listen to the music playin' every Friday night.

"Ohhh, I can hear 'em playin', I can hear the ringin' of a beat up old guitar! Ohhh, I can hear 'em singin', keep on dreamin' even if it breaks your heart!"

A small crowd of ponies had gathered and listened intently as the mare played her song. They enjoyed it despite the few lost references, and still, the stallion she was searching for did not show up, and so she played.

"Some dreams stay with you forever, drag you around and bring you back to where you were. Some dreams keep on gettin' better, gotta keep believin' if you wanna know for sure...

"Ohhh, I can hear 'em playin', I can hear the ringin' of a beat up old guitar! Ohhh, I can hear 'em singin', keep on dreamin' even if it breaks your heart!"

Eva's eyes scanned the small crowd of ponies, looking for that brown stallion, the one who knew too much, her playing slowed, and finally stopped, the final note hung in the air as she spoke the final line, "Keep on dreaming, even if it breaks your heart."

"So it looks like you do come here often... but then I never did ask you that did I? It seems like I'm always drawn in to a good song. Even saw a song save an entire race of people once... no matter."

Eva's head whirled around on her shoulders to face The Voice. There he stood, the one she had sought, behind her and leaning casually against a tree trunk. "I was hoping you'd show up," she said, "I don't know if you know what's been going on, but it's obvious you know more than any of the other ponies here and you gave me something that you should not have had..."

"As it happens I have been needing to have a talk with you Miss Lohengrin, and I think now would be a good time, but perhaps not the best place. So, your place or mine?" He asked with a wry smile.

"I think my place will be fine," Eva said as she stood and pushed her guitar onto her back, "And you have me at a disadvantage, you know my name but I don't seem to know yours."

"Well... You can call me The Doctor," He said with a grin. "Lead on, madam."

"Alright Professor, I assume you know where the library is?" Eva asked as she started to walk away, keeping one eye still trained on the other pony.

"I said 'The Doctor' you know." the brown pony said, his expression half way between a grin and a frown

"I know what you said," Eva answered with a smirk. "Come along Professor."

~~

"-and that's pretty much what's happened so far," Eva finished explaining as the pair crossed the threshold into the library, the brown pony followed right behind her.

"So the other two retained their original form? Fascinating..." The Doctor replied as he rubbed his chin with a forehoof. "It's almost as if something is controlling the morphic field..."

"You're losing me, Professor; I don't speak geek," Eva said with a laugh as she shrugged her guitar case off her back and up against the wall.

"I'm fluent, however," a different voice answered, "So I guess you found who you were looking for?"

"That'll be Tommy," Eva said as she pointed towards the man with her forehoof, "the smart one."

Tommy smiled and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off before the first syllable.

"Well, smart-ass one anyway," Eva added with a laugh.

Tommy frowned, "Okay, you have me there, I guess. So, 'Professor' was it?"

"Doctor, actually," the brown pony answered with a smirk, "I think our friend is just enjoying poking a bit of fun at me."

"She does that," He said with a grin, "And you don't seem surprised to see me, Doctor, why is that?"

It was The Doctor's turn to laugh, "Well, you might say I'm rather familiar with the human race."

"That's not a shock, I'm guessing you got the pony treatment too?" Eva asked, "Maybe not quite the same way though, I think."

"You're not wrong about that," he answered, "My people were there at the birth of your race, and I was there at the end but this... This is something else and yet... well look around, why don't you?" he finished with a sad smile.

And they looked, Tommy and Eva took in the library's interior, the chairs, the table, the bookshelves set into the living walls of the tree. The windows, the doors, the cupboards in the kitchen beyond the open door in the side of the room.

"You've noticed it by now, you'd have to have noticed it by now. Nagging at the back of your mind just out of reach, a whisper in your ear even," He continued. "That something is familiar and yet different, a certain wrongness that you just can't put your finger on."

Eva's eyes flicked across the table, the still half full cups from their meeting earlier in the day, the latches on the windows, the knob on the front door. She paled as the implication started to sink in.

"The question that you haven't quite asked, haven't quite consciously thought of yet. It took me a few days before it clicked, It wouldn't have been the first time one race left out and another took its place, even on this planet, but still that question keeps nagging in the back of your mind..." The Doctor trailed off.

Tommy turned towards The Doctor, slack-jawed as all of the tumblers fell into place, as the wheels finally stopped turning, their work done. Everything could be summed up in a single word on the tip of his tongue, "doorknobs."

"Indeed."

Author's Note

Oh snap. And while you're at it, listen to this, just because I really like the track and have had it on loop for a while. doop