Chapter 19: The Video

After arriving back at the ProteC lodging building, the humans and Equestrians took a break before their first meeting to get cleaned up.

Soon, Celestia stepped through the doorway and into the softly lit conference room. Inside, she saw a large elongated table with recessed lights overhead. Several monitors were arranged around the room, currently displaying crisp images of the jungle surrounding the installation. Seated around the table were her Equestrian friends as well as her human ones, and several additional humans she did not recognize. There was a plate full of donuts in the center of the table. Pinkie Pie had one in each hoof and there was sugar all over her face. She dragged her tongue around in a circle, sloppily cleaning her muzzle.

"Welcome!" Jeff gestured to a seat near his own. Celestia smiled slightly when she saw that Jeff had changed into more casual clothes like she had suggested on the return bus ride. He had exchanged his dapper but uncomfortable suit for the same black ProteC polo shirt and cargo pants that Chris and his team were now wearing. She moved next to him and sat gracefully on the high backed swivel chair. Twilight took the seat next to her. Jeff made a move to reach for the pitcher of ice water and a glass sitting on the table, but Celestia swiftly grabbed it with her telekinesis before he could touch it. She poured a glass and gave it to Jeff, then one for Twilight and another for herself.

Jeff drank some of the water, aware that all eyes at the table were locked on him. He carefully set the glass down, and took a deep breath. "Well, here we go. Best get started now, you need to know what we know." He pressed a button and the room lights darkened while the large monitor screens turned on. "Before I play this video, I must warn you. It's extremely graphic."

Celestia looked around the table, noting the nervous but determined faces of her friends. "We are ready."

"I am beginning playback from the moment immediately after Gate Two connected. There was some kind of EMP that blew out most of the equipment over there, and the only video we have came from a hardened command connection."

Celestia was unfamiliar with most of the terms he was using, but she nodded anyway.

"Alright then, here it goes..." Jeff started the playback of the video showing Spencer in his last moments on Earth. He didn't focus on the screens, instead watching the reaction of the Equestrians in the flickering light. When the man hurtled across the screen and splattered into the wall, the ponies gasped at the shocking violence and gore.

When Spencer looked into camera for the last time, Jeff's mouth tightened. The Equestrians made various sounds of dismay. Jeff saw Rarity with her mouth hanging open. Applejack's eyes wide, frozen in position. Rainbow Dash grimacing, gritting her teeth. Fluttershy made a brief retching noise.

Seconds later, when the wickedly clawed tentacles sliced Spencer's throat and then entered his corpse, Fluttershy looked away, gagging. She tried to get out of her chair, but before she realized it, she was spraying a stream of warm, chunky projectile vomit directly into Rarity's face, who was seated next to her.

"Eeeek!" Rarity squeaked in surprise and mortification, throwing her hooves up defensively against the unexpected assault. Unfortunately, her reflexive reaction left her mouth wide open, and suddenly she was gargling on a sour-tasting mouthful of Fluttershy's partially digested meal. Chunks of abruptly regurgitated lunch dripped off Rarity's stunned face while Fluttershy slid to the floor, vainly attempting to hold back the pulsing flow of pungent fluid with both her hooves.

Rarity looked at her own shaking, puke-covered hooves in disbelief, finally gaining full understanding of what had just happened. Her eyes widened in horror, and her stomach did a flip-flop when she realized the chunks of food in her mouth were not her own. Her body stiffened and she retched hard, leaning rigidly over the chair arm while her churning belly strained in outrage. Then she was vomiting uncontrollably onto Fluttershy's face and mane, heaving again and again, groaning gutterally and sliming her with foul-smelling, chunky ooze like a rerun from Nickelodeon's heyday.

The video ended and the room lights brightened again, illuminating the spectacle in even greater detail.

"Eeew eeew eeew!" Rarity squealed when she recovered enough to breathe, frantically trying to brush the slime off her face.

Fluttershy was sitting on her haunches next to her chair, a large puddle growing around her. She puked the last remnants of her ill-fated meal onto herself and the floor, tears running down her face.

Rarity saw her and concern for her friend finally overcame her own panic. "Fluttershy!" She quickly climbed off her chair into the disaster and moved to comfort her sobbing friend.

Jeff grabbed a stack of napkins off the table as he stood up, then quickly walked over, squatting next to them. Fluttershy's pretty yellow face was thickly covered in snot and vomit. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked lamely, and held out the stack of napkins.

Rarity snatched them quickly and began trying to wipe Fluttershy's slimy hooves and face, bravely ignoring her own matted, stinking fur and mane.

"I... I'm so sorry Rarity," Fluttershy choked out. "Th.. that movie was ho... horrible to see. And then... I... on you... I've never been so em... em... embarrassed in my entire life."

Rarity sniffled and gave Fluttershy a hug despite the slippery mess. "Oh dear. Don't worry about me, darling."

"I'm very sorry you had to see that." Jeff said hesitantly. "I really wasn't expecting anything like this to happen."

Rarity looked up at him resignedly. "Can you tell us where the bathroom is? We need to wash up a bit."

"Yes, it's right over there, go through the doors and down the hall."

"I'll show you," Hamilton volunteered.

McAllister gaped as Rarity and Hamilton guided the shaking Fluttershy between them out the door. "I have never seen anything like that happen in my entire life. Anywhere. Ever. It was like something out of The Exorcist."

"More like a puke party," Pinkie Pie commented. She had been sitting on the other side of Fluttershy the entire time, yet somehow not a single drop of the mess had touched her. She reached out and bare-hoofedly wiped a stray splatter of vomit off the table in front of her. She then grabbed another donut and began munching on it, unfazed by the noxious odor of the puddle that reached all the way under her chair. "I hope they're both okay," she added thoughtfully, licking some frosting off her nose. "A puke party is shocking the first time. And that video was super-disturbing."

Several stares bored into her, but if she noticed, she didn't show it, and no-one asked for clarification.

"Remind me not to ask her about that, ever," Chris whispered to Emmy, who smirked at him in reply.

Jeff shuddered and pressed a button on the table, and an assistant came in.

"Yes sir?"

"Can you please get this mess cleaned up?"

"Certainly sir, I will have a janitorial crew in here momentarily."

The assistant left, walking briskly.

Jeff exhaled deeply. "Pr... ah, Celestia, I believe we should take a recess before continuing."

"I think that would be a good idea, yes."

They drifted to a corner of the room together, near the window, while the janitorial crew wiped down the chairs and deep cleaned the business carpet until it looked like new again.

"That was really rough. I'm sorry," Jeff said, after a while.

"It was... extremely unpleasant," Celestia replied. "But it was what we needed to see."

"You don't have to stay. We will do everything we can to protect you and your world, even if you choose not to help us."

Celestia shook her head. "I will not leave. I sense a powerful magic here. You will need our help. Your technology is powerful and advanced... but it is designed to be used against opponents that lack magical defense."

Jeff nodded. "You are right, that's next on the agenda to discuss. But will the others be willing to stay after this?"

"I am certain that none of the others will choose to leave, not even after what you showed us. I would not force them to stay, but they are brave, and they will not abandon a friend in need."

Jeff pondered for a moment. "We must plan well. I do not want you to be hurt on our account."

They stood side by side for a bit, looking out the window, lost in thought. Eventually the door opened, and Hamilton returned. "It's gonna be awhile, guys. They both went to take showers, as you might imagine. Oh, and Dr. Hardy is on his way up to join the discussion."

"Very good, thank you." Jeff said. Silence dropped between him and Celestia again, but it did not feel awkward.
Together they waited for Fluttershy and Rarity to return.