Catalyst

by Meep the Changeling

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Adventure, Science Fiction, Twilight Sparkle, Alternate Universe, Anthro, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 146002

After being banished to a strange world, Twilight Sparkle must survive until she can be rescued while also searching for a lost piece of her past.

First Person Alternating Perspectives [Equisverse Era 1]

This story is a sequel to Cataclysm. It is not required you read Cataclysm before picking up Catalyst (Though it is recommended). This story is technically a crossover, but the nonFIM material is pretty much completely lacking lore. Aside from the physical setting all alien lore is of my creation and contained within the story.

The Dark God, Dawn, had been defeated. Helpless, he lay before his mother and the Alicorn Princesses, who granted him one chance to prove he deserved mercy despite his unfathomable and foolish cruelty. He used that one chance to trick Twilight Sparkle into banishing herself to another universe. The same universe the liar claimed to have banished Twilight’s parents to, long long ago.

With nothing but the fur on her skin to her name, Twilight must survive long enough to be rescued by her friends, whom she is absolutely certain will do everything in their power to get her home. With little else to do Twilight sets out to find safety, friends, and fate willing, the biological parents she only recently learned she has.

After all, every adopted child desires to meet their birth parents at some point in their lives. And well, if Starswirl and Clover are truly alive and well within this universe as Dawn claimed...

Featured on: Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 5:47 AM UTC
And Again on: Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 9:23 AM UTC
And Yet Again on: Sunday, May 21, 2017 at 8:39 AM UTC
And Yet Again on: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 7:55 AM UTC

This story takes place in the Beta Equisverse Timeline. No storyline beyond that of The Bridesmaids, Horseshoes, Dinner at Ravenloft, Nightmare: An Equestrian Tragedy, The Queen is Dead, All Hail the Queen, Lyra-7%, Exile’s Journey, and Cataclysm is canon to this timeline. However, foundational concepts such as thaumaturgic current from other works of mine do apply.

Published 2017-04-03 08:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-06-11 07:46:23 UTC

2 - Foal Steps

Canterlot Palace - Equestria

2nd of Plantation, 17 EoH

One of Princess Celestia’s greatest joys was her study’s bay window. The view the window had once provided had lost much of its splendor. The once gleaming spires which made up the Canterlot skyline were blackened, cracked, crumbling, or absent altogether. All signs of the thriving society of peaceful people snuffed out by the short yet brutal war.

Yet beyond the ruined towers, past the streets and alleyways which echoed with the sound of construction crews clearing rubble and getting ready to begin the restoration, the window still showed that same wonderful patch of purple mountains, rolling emerald hills, and bright blue sky.

The city had been effectively destroyed, but the nation remained. Canterlot and Ponyville had been a shield for the nation, a shield which cracked, crumbled, and bent, but in the end had held. A shield which could now be given to an armorer to repair.

That’s how Celestia had come to see the damage her nation had endured in the last four days. Those four exceptionally busy days.

The Princess’s study was a mess, even when one discounted in the damage the palace itself had sustained. Crude construction charms had been used to stick debris together to form a desk, many, many different boxes, and loose scrolls lay in piles everywhere a free spot had been. Frankly, the clean up efforts were causing more chaos than the war itself had.

Though in truth, Celestia was thankful for that. Their enemy's incomprehensible hatred of Twilight had kept the war short, too short to do much more than bloody the nation's nose and chip a tooth.

Unfortunately, a monarch can not host foreign diplomats in a burnt room featuring a ‘lovely’ wall sized opening which ‘allowed for the best possible viewpoint to gaze out upon Equestria’s beauty’. More unfortunately, anyone who assumed setting up a temporary capitol was as simple as moving a throne, putting up some fancy decorations, and stationing some guards was an absolute fool.

It would be at least a month before Equestria could resume diplomatic operations and basic governmental functions.

Which meant in the meantime, the only way to maintain law and order was to keep the country under martial law. Which nopony was happy with, including the Guard themselves. That meant Celestia had to keep the public happy on top of relocating the capitol, dealing with cleanup efforts, sourcing funds for the rebuilding efforts, dealing with the dozens upon dozens of nobles who were butthurt over their lost property, dealing with petitions from hundreds of businesses who wanted to know what the Crown would be doing to help with lost revenue due to the attack, and of course, all of her own personal issues the war had caused.

And all of that rode atop a flimsy raft across the deeply boring ocean of daily governance. The tedious work no one ever cared to think about if they were even aware that somepony had to do it if anyone wanted the nation to work at all from day to day.

Sometimes, Celestia wanted to slap retail clerks who complained about their workloads. Though the alicorn always felt bad about those feelings immediately afterward. If only she could draft laws to reduce her own workload too.

At the moment, Celestia was hunched over her rubble-desk, busily drafting a speech intended to help sooth the nation’s collective fears about the military rule remaining permanent. Admittedly, Celestia knew her ponies would be understanding, but that wasn’t enough. No they needed to be comforted too and also made to understand the situation.

Not a one was to be left out of the loop. One charismatic pony misinterpreting the current politics could prove disastrous…

A series of three sharp knocks on the crumbling, doorless door frame drew Celestia's eyes away from her parchment. Her sister, Luna, stood in the doorway still looking rather sleep deprived from her ordeal over the past week, but much better than she had been even just the previous day.

At least her mane was no longer suffering from a case of the ‘droopy floops’, as Pinkie had put it.

“Sister?” Luna asked, just to be certain she had Celestia’s attention. “I have some good news. The Trottingham Mage’s Library has managed to get a proper team and equipment together to perform a full environmental assessment on the Ponyville area. I was told that for the full details, we will need to wait a month, but our first rough estimate on what if any work will be needed to make the land habitable should be ready by tomorrow night.”

“That’s good,” Celestia said with a little smile as she stretched her wings, the joints popping quietly. “Though with so many things brought in from Tartarus, as well as whatever residual magics came back from the Dream Realm with Ponyville’s citizens, I think we both know that cleanup could very well take years.”

Luna nodded once. “Yes. But nothing should be beyond repair. I’m fairly certain that nothing critically dangerous came back from the Realm of Dreams with us. We would know by now. After all, what are nightmares if not dramatic?” She asked, slowly shaking her head with a grim smile on her lips.

Celestia nodded in agreement. “Very true… How are the Ponyvillians doing?” She asked. “I haven't received a proper reply from Captain Skriit yet.”

Luna yawned cutely. “Sorry… I’ve only been awake for an hour,” she admitted with a smile. “There’s some chaos at the Emerald’s Hive right now. While we were attacked, a group of cultists who had infiltrated their hive caused all kinds of chaos. Honestly, it’s the only smart move that Dawn made, from what I can see.

“But um, he’s being very supportive. Everypony has an assigned cabin on the new deck. They are all getting furnished today, and food has been provided. Everypony I’ve talked too is fine staying there as refugees until the town can be rebuilt. Ponyvillians are not your typical Equestrian, sister. They are too jaded to be fazed much by the loss of their town.

“After all this is… What? The tenth time in the last two decades the town’s been extensively damaged?”

Celestia opened her mouth to object, and say something about the general pony’s psyche, but swiftly closed it upon remembering that every mare, colt, filly, and stallion living in Ponyville had this exact thing happened with Tirek less than a decade ago.

“Um, well, I suppose it’s good they are alright at the moment,” Celestia decided.

Luna nodded. “Mhm, we’ll be fine, honestly it’s the rest of Equestria that’s the most problematic. But there’s little we can do but wait for the bureaucracy train to leave the station,” the princess of the night grumbled.

Her ears parked suddenly, as if remembering something important. “Oh yeah!” Luna exclaimed. “Speaking of the citizen’s moral, we’ve got a few designs submitted for war memorials. I’ve left them with Risky Weld.”

“Who?” Celestia asked with a confused frown.

“A young unicorn blacksmith who volunteered to help with repairing the palace,” Luna informed. “He seemed rather skilled, so I decided to let him be in charge of sculpture restoration. No one else was stepping up to the task. He’s set up a small field forge in the gardens, I’m certain he’d be happy to show you his plans. He’s eager to please. I think he’s gunning for a permanent position… And if he can do a good job here, I’d say he’s earned it.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. “At least this whole affair has created opportunities for a good deal of ponies,” she said with a smile. “Maybe we can have a mini post war economic miracle to go with our mini war.”

“Maybe,” Luna laughed, shaking her head slowly. “Though I doubt we’ll see too much- Oh, yeah. Before we get too far off topic form memorials, a group of ponies downstairs petitioned me for permission to gain access to the Royal Military Records so they could make an accurate statue of Flash Sentry.”

Celestia blinked in surprise. “Why?” She asked, genuinely confused. “I mean, he most certainly deserves a place with everypony else to fall in the line of duty, but is there something exceptionally heroic he did of which I am unaware? I’d like that… I’d hate his death to have been meaningless. He was a good soldier.”

Luna shook her head. “It’s not about the war,” she corrected, yawning again. “Excuse me… I need coffee, badly. Um, the statue, it’s because of something in Flash’s will. Were you aware of his condition?”

Celestia shook her head once more, remaining silent so her sister could continue.

“Well, he was terminally ill,” Luna resumed. “I’m not certain with what condition, they didn’t say, and I can’t remember myself. But I assume it wasn’t treatable. After all, Twilight didn’t fix it. The important thing here is that Flash knew he didn’t have much time left so he had spent the last few years getting his affairs in order.

“This included taking out a rather robust life insurance policy, and setting up an interesting little legal document where his retirement account, life insurance, and widow’s fund all go to a foal’s hospital in Manehattan. The statue is being requested by a group of doctors who work there, they want to put it at the entrance to the intensive care wing Flash funded post mortem.”

Celestia’s ears perked. “Oh! Yes, absolutely. Give them access if you haven’t already… Why didn’t he tell me? I’d have helped… No matter. What’s done is done. That statute is to go up as soon as possible.”

Luna smiled. “I did. And I made certain that six Guardsponies escorted them. Just to be certain no shenanigans occur,” she informed before turning to walk away in search of coffee which the alicorn knew had to be hidden within the palace’s rubble somewhere.

“Twilight would like that…” Celestia mused quietly, turning to look out of her study’s currently glass-free window.

Luna paused mid-step turning back around to face her sister. “I- I’m certain she would,” Luna agreed.

“Has there been any news about a possible rescue plan yet?” Celestia asked hopefully, continuing to look out her window.

Luna shook her head slowly. “No… The Royal Academy hasn’t been able to identify the spell used on the trapped book yet. It will take more than four days, sister. Give them time,” Luna soothed, trotting across the room to wrap one foreleg around Celestia in a tight hug. “I miss her too.”

Celesta leaned into Luna’s hug gently, a sad whimper escaping her for an instant. “I… I know,” she said quietly.

Luna waited a few more moments then let go. “I’m going to find coffee, want me to bring you some?” She asked politely.

“Yes, please. Or tea if you find some of that instead,” Celestia asked before her ears perked, a realization dawning upon her. “Luna! You’re best friends with Sky, and I know for a fact it was his device which let the other world’s Lyra and Fluttershy visit our universe. He can make portal devices!

“How hard will it be to get him to help locate Twilight?”

Luna blinked, then laughed, shaking her head. “Tia, who is he married too?” She asked.

“Pinkie Pie,” Celestia replied immediately.

“Mhm,” Luna agreed, waving one hoof to promote her sister on.

“Oh! Oh yes, he’s already working on it, isn’t he?” Celestia asked, blushing lightly. “I’m sorry, I’m just a bit flustered…”

“He isn’t yet, getting everypony from Ponyville settled in is taking up his time right now, and he’s also gearing his company up for helping with rebuilding efforts once the legal paperwork is all taken care of,” Luna informed. “But he will. He considers Twilight to be a friend of his. He’s even pestered his sister into agreeing to help instead of working on fixing up Righteous hull, and Ayna’s sort of famous for her work with portals herself.

“We’ll have everything back to normal one day, Tia. It’s just going to take some time. So keep your horn up, alright?”

“I’ll try. After all, I have to keep a confident face on for the nation,” Celestia murmured.

“Do you not think we’ll be able to rebuild from this?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow. “Come on, this is nothing!”

“No, no, it’s not that. I- I just feel like I failed my nation and my student… That’s all,” she sighed. “But that’s a personal problem, and I will deal with it personally. You know what, Luna? I think I’ll go help you find coffee.”

“I’d like that. There’s a LOT of places to rummage through,” Luna said gratefully.

Celestia took one last look out of her window, wishing deeply for any sign Twilight was alright before she turned around and left the room, her sister at her side.

Nyota Komeo - Day 115,340

Dragon’s Cairn - Ragnarok

It had been a long time since I did any work in simple plate armor with only primitive gear to my name. I’d missed it a little bit. The added challenge of laying atop this hill with only the painted colors on some steel, tall grass, and a bush to protect me from the dinos and barbarians while I ran this scouting detail made it a bit more fun.

It was good to have fun. Especially when you were the oldest person here. Not counting ‘Camouflage’, who had been here before there was a here, obviously. That’s why Drake and his Dragonslayers had recruited me in the first place.

Shear experience at running alone. Not the best idea. A really stupid one, as a matter of fact. But before Drake and his wannabe knights had come calling, no one I’d met had been trustworthy.

Heck, Drake was trustworthy enough for me to join him on this plan to move from the Island to Ragnarok.

I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the decision to move our tribe. Sure, getting to the brand new ARK as part of the first wave ment we would be able to carve out some prime real estate and finally get a proper communal base of operations set up. Most of the Alpha Tribes would be coming here too, trying for the same thing.

You combine a lot of the tougher barbarians with not having a proper shelter set up and you’re in for a hard time. But the worst thing was not knowing the lay of the land. After all, I had a pact to keep.

The blue one has nice talons, Razor hissed snapping me out of my thoughts.

Not with actual words. My talent just gave words to the sounds she could make which were appropriate for her thoughts.

Blue one? Which was that? I squinted through my spyglass, scrawling slightly higher up the crest of the hill, looking down at the grassland below.

It took a little searching, but I finally managed to spot the raptor she was talking about. A smaller male, blue scales, rusty red plumes. Trying and failing to kill a dodo.

“That idiot can’t even catch a dodo ‘an you think he’s earned a piece of yer tail, lass?” I asked incredulously, scoffing for good measure.

He’s blue. I like blue, she countered, lashing her tail irritably.

I thought she liked yellow...

“Come on, ye can’t just go after anything blue! Ye want the toughest pack, right?” I sighed, putting down my spyglass to give my friend a proper wingman’s disapproving frown.

The things you agree to do for your partner in exchange for their services… Still, promising an alpha female a safe breeding ground in exchange for her services as a companion was not a bad deal. Except for having all my friends think I was insane for talking to her like a person.

It’s not my fault they didn’t have a Talent in animal empathy… And to be fair, Razor was definitely person smart. Stick those together, and we could hold real conversations.

Razor snorted, flicking her adorable little raptor tongue. I want this talons on my legs for my hatchlings, she explained with a huffing chitter. They are better.

“Aye, he’s got some pretty good talons, but genetics aren't toy blocks. Ye’d have to raise dozens ‘o different hatchlings before you found one with the traits you wanted,” I explained for the twelfth time.

Then the beta male will be happy for many months, Razor growled. Catch him!

I shook my head, giving her a stern look.

“Not until ye tell me what you plan on doing with the hundred or so kids ye’ll hatch afore ye get one ye want,” I said as firmly as I could.

She was going to say eat them…

Your pack can have the runts, Razor chuffed.

Oh hey! A pleasant surprise, that.

“Alright,” I decided. “But ye won't be mad if Drake decides they don’t want any, right?”

No, she answered just before suddenly hopping up to her talons with a low hiss. Man-bush is here!

“I still don’t know how you tamed that Alpha,” Camoflauge said from behind me. “That’s not supposed to be possible…”

I sat up and turned around to greet my old friend with a smile, my flak armor creaking as the dull olive painted plates scraped against one another. It was time to oil this set again…

On the bright side, I was always happy to see my human friend in his ‘magic’ always exactly right for the given terrain ghillie suit. The outfit had been perfectly configured to hide him in this bushy grassland despite the only way he could have come from was the thin ebony tree jungle just thirty meters behind him.

The things I could do if I could get that engram from him...

“Hey, ‘Camouflage’,” I greeted. “Or have you changed aliases again?”

“Nah, it’s still Camo,” he said with a shake of his head, wearily eyeing Razor’s pitch tinged mulberry scales. “Seriously, how did you glitch that? Certain people might get in trouble over it one day.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s no glitch. We had a fist fight untill she and I reached an understanding. She’s sapient. My talent bridges the language barrier. We’re friends now. Ye made the Alphas a wee bit too smart.”

“I didn’t make anything!” Camouflage protested immediately.

I rolled my eyes. Razor rolled her eyes.

“Come on, mate…” I sighed. “I figured it out years ago.”

Silly man-bush, Razor snickered, flicking her tail up in amusement.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” he protested taking a moment to look around behind Razor and I to keep a lookout for danger. “Sorry for interrupting your hunt.”

You should be, Razor grumbled, giving Camo her best blue balled raptor glare.

Camo’s mask twisted as he frowned behind it, taking a worried half step back.

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. While she’d never be able to vocalize any human language, she’d learned what words meant over the last year. But more than that, she knew that Camo coming out to talk to us in the middle of the field instead of when we were at camp ment he had a thing for us to do.

Which meant no mounting the tied down male of her choice tonight.

Upside, I didn’t have to listen to that for the whole damn night. Sweet!

“What ye need, mate?” I asked while crossing my arms over my chest, deciding to just cut to the chase.

“She’s not going to try and eat me, is she?” Camo asked uneasily.

“Well, ye’ve stopped us from grabbing her a boy toy. So she might want to. But we both know that she can’t actually hurt ye,” I chuckled rolling my eyes and hoping he could see the gesture behind my helmet.

“Doesn't mean it wouldn’t be painful,” Camo grumbled before shaking his head slowly and looking me in the eyes as seriously as he could. “Another of your people arrived today.”

My eyes widened, now THAT was news. News I was glad to hear, mind you.

“More from that parallel where we’re quadrupeds, or from my own home?” I asked eagerly, a smile parting my lips.

“She was a quadruped,” Camo sighed regretfully slumping his shoulders. “The directors decided that she had to be a biped… I’ve got a good tip that your original genome was finally recovered and patched up yesterday, guess what was used as a template to get the new mare a pair of lungs that work here?”

I frowned slightly. “That’s got to be a problem for the poor lass…” I said looking down slightly.

It had taken me more time than even I believed to become comfortable in this stupid furless body. It wasn’t even the right sex at first…

I didn’t understand that… Razor hissed, tilting her head slightly.

“‘E said they used my DNA to make a person look like I used to,” I explained to her. “Wait a minute… Does that mean she’s rocking my old body!? That would be really unfair! I’ve waited Gods know how many years to-”

Camo held up his hands defensively. “Woah! Easy, girl! No, not at all. I helped the newbie out with getting away from Charlie’s Boys minutes ago. She’s her own person. Looks preserved from old form to new, just mapped out onto a humanoid body like your old one. They used it to make a template. We could make any number of unique pony-folk bodies if, well, that was permitted…

“As for you, from what intel I could gather, next time you move between ARKs or die, you’ll get your fur back. I’d love to see how you really look.”

I would love to be a zebra again too! But he’d said ‘move between ARKs’. Which meant one thing.

I sighed. “Oh fer bucks sake! Ye want me to go show her the ropes…”

He nodded, scratching the back of his head in confusion. “I- I thought you’d love the chance to talk to one of your own kind again, seeing as how you haven’t been able to track down Starswirl or Clover the whole time they’ve been here,” he stammered, genuinely confused.

I shook my head. “Oh, no that’s not the problem, mate!” I corrected with an upset laugh. “Do ye have any idea how hard it is to get yerself established in one of these things? Drake moved us all out here for a reason ‘an I have a job to do.

“A promise is a promise, and an oath is an oath. I said I’d scout for places we can put the guild hall. I have to do that. I can’t go to the Island and train a mare who's probably never gone into the woods without a backpack full ‘o modern goodies before to survive here on her own.”

Camo smiled, chuckling slowly. “I never said I wouldn’t help you in return,” he said with a wink. “There’s not just something here for you, but for your whole tribe. From what I hear, the new mare’s as arcane adept as Starswirl is.”

“Wot?” I asked, my accent thickening as his statement took me by surprise.

“She’s a wizard. Once she works out how to cast her spells despite the dampening field, she’ll be a massive asset to anyone who has her on their side,” Camo said unnecessarily. “I figure if you two get along then you’ll finally be able to make some real positive change happen. Maybe even get a truce going between us humans and Star’s beast-folk. Come on, don’t you guys love making friends?”

The way Camo had said ‘come on’ hit me deep in my core. He really wanted to help out the poor mare. Of course he couldn’t do it himself. Not with his job being what it was. I was his only shot…

But I promised my Tribe mates I’d scout the southern plains for base locations! I can’t break a promise. That job had to get done first.

“We do,” I agreed with a nod. “And I actually, really want to talk to another Equestrian again, mate! But I have to get this job done. And even if I could leave right now, the nearest Obelisk that isn’t Green is about three days ride away. We’re looking at a week at best before I can get free of my duties.”

“That’s where you're wrong,” Camo countered, holding up one finger to kinda point at me. “Because I can provide you with an excellent base location here, and you helping Twilight out has a high chance of helping your whole tribe later if she chooses to join or ally with you.

“And even if she doesn't, can you really pass up the opportunity to talk to a member of your own culture after what… Three centuries of subjective time in here? I’m sure that if you call them up and say ‘Hey, another of my species who's a wizard arrived and I want to make friends with her’, they’ll understand.”

Twilight, eh? I raised an eyebrow curiously, but also shuffled my left foot anxiously.

Nah, Twilight’s a common enough Equestrian name. Especially after Princess Twilight became a thing that existed. And with how I wound up here, nothing said that this couldn’t be a mare from several centuries after I was born. Heck, Clover was apparently from a thousand years before I was born!

Portals can be pretty weird.

You should add her to your pack. I’d like to talk to more people, Razor urged with a soft growl.

“She may not have a similar talent to mine, Razor,” I warned. “But fine… If ye’ll give us a good base location, an’ Drake is alright with me training a newbie who is under no obligation tae join us later, instead of helping build the new base, I’ll go right now. Otherwise, this has to wait a week at least.”

I reached down to my belt and unhooked the extra boxy, brick-like radio from my belt and brought it up to my ear, pressing the button.

“Nyota to Dragonslayers, anyone read? Over,” I asked, letting go of the button.

I spent a few minutes listening to the breeze rustle the waist high stalks of grass in the nearby field before the radio crackled.

“Did someone just call in? Over,” Drake’s deep rumbly voice asked.

Oh thank the Gods! He was back at camp working the base station. Drake NEVER answered his handset in the field.

“Drake, it’s Nyota,” I reported. “My stealthy friend just let me know about a newcomer that I really have to meet. Cuz she’s one of my people. Over.”

Drake remained quiet for a moment, the radio clicking to life again halfway through his sigh. “Did you finish scouting? Over,” he asked disappointedly.

I narrowed my eyes irritably. Disappointment? Come on! I was the youngest member of his wannabe knights but I had to be the most loyal!

“No, but he’s willing to give us a prime location if I got and help the new mare learn the ropes,” I informed. “An if the two of us hit it off, I guarantee that an Equestrian wizard will-”

“For the love of god, woman!” Drake exploded. “Drop what you’re doing and go make friends with her!”

I blinked, not having remotely expected that reaction.

In hindsight, I should have. The last Equestrian wizard to come here singlehandedly uplifted a large number of creatures he tamed to sapience, gave them humanoid forms which could work the engram system, and took over the entire jungle in the Center before running out of steam and being cornered by the wardens before he broke the system more.

Yeah. Yeah, Drake would definitely want to be friends with a wizard.

“Um, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to be friends,” I warned. “Over.”

“Even if you two for whatever reason can’t be friends, despite you expressly telling me that your former species are some of the friendliest creatures in your whole world, she’ll at the very least owe you a favor, right? Over,” Drake pointed out with barely restrained joy.

I nodded, seeing what he was getting at. “Yeah, that’s true,” I agreed.

“Worse case scenario, we earn a favor from someone of the same stock as Starswirl,” Drake laughed. “That’s nothing to sneeze at. Best case scenario, I get one heck of a great recruit, and you get the first friend you can truly relate to in… Well, forever… How long have you been here now? Over.”

“I’ve lost count,” I admitted. “Hey, Camouflage, how will ye be getting us the base location?”

I gave my bushy friend a concerned frown. He simply took my radio and spoke into it, “Fifty two point one, sixty five point eight. The peek is covered in metal, and only approachable from one route by land. Over.”

“Thanks mate! It would be a real blast if you joined us,” Drake thanked, a bit over enthusiastic. “Over.”

I’d never tell Drake the real reason Camo always declined his invitations. I may be a loyal person, but friends come before coworkers.

I took back my radio, and sent Drake back one last message. “Right, well, I’m off to see if I can’t make me a new mate and make sure that a poor mare doesn't suffer too much trying to learn how you live here,” I said decisively. “I’ll be in touch. Over.”

Oh, Razor growled looking at me in mock anger. So YOU get a mate today, and I don’t. That’s fair.

“That’s cuz I don’t go for lays which can’t catch a dodo, lassie!” I ribbed right on back.

She grinned, flashing her bright white fangs. I grinned, flashing those teeny little human teeth. Kind of. My helmet was in the way.

“Ah, don’t ye worry,” I said giving her a pat on the shoulder before heaving myself up onto her saddle.

I winced as the primitive, crudely field crafted saddle creaked and shifted under my weight. There was no sense in attracting attention by using good kit out here, but seriously, a good saddle keeps rider AND mount happy.

I still want to bite Drake… I hate this saddle, Razor growled, reaching back to nip at the dull red wool saddle blanket.

“The Island’s got plenty of raptors,” I said, continuing my reassurance. “‘Specially round the old house. Speaking of, where is she at right now? Think she’ll manage to make it three days?”

Camouflage nodded. “I gave her access to your old drawing hut. I hope you don’t mind,” he said, abiding by his usual policy of ‘it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.’

“Aye, that’s fine,” I grunted. “It means she’ll have a better chance than most folk do at lasting long enough in one spot to be found. Thanks, Camo.”

He nodded and turned to walk off into the jungle. “You’re welcome. Oh! And be sure to tell me what your tribe mates think of you in your proper body next time we meet!” He asked hopefully, flashing me a thumbs up.

“Will do!” I called as I asked Razor to turn left towards the blue Obelisk with my knees.

I’d completely forgotten he meant I’d get my old body back on my next transfer or death.

Today had turned into a really lucky day for me. New friend and old fur, here I come!

Twilight Sparkle - Day 1

Southern Jungle - The Island

“AHHH!” I jolted awake, almost smacking my head into the hut’s roof, cold sweat dripping down my neck.

He died… Flash. Over and over again. A loop of… Of watching. Of me being too afraid to move. Of failing to try to help.

I pulled my knees in towards my chest, sitting curled up for a few moments.

What could I have done differently? Lots of things. Oh so many things. He didn’t have to die… Not like that.

I didn’t work out how to teleport a distant object fast enough. It was my fault. I could have stopped Dawn from hurting him, but I failed to invent a way to perform the spell fast enough.

What would Flash have said if I’d been one of his recruits and messed up that badly?

I closed my eyes tighter and tried to picture Flash in full uniform, not his old one, but the blue and red cloth jacket he’d been given when accepting the medical semi-discharge and became a drill instructor.

Yes. I could see him clearly. The strong, dutiful look. The confidence, and compassion. All of-

My imaginary Flash scowled at me. Giving me the hard look I knew I deserved and-

”Damnit, Twily!” He scolded, ears falling back in genuine anger. ”Yeah, I died. Not the way I wanted to either. That’s how life is. Bad things happen to good people for no justifiable reason. It’s not your fault you couldn’t work out a way to cast a spell you never heard of before and had to try to invent on the fly either!

“You think Starswirl could have just invented a new spell mid battle to save the day? That’s not how magic works, and you know it, missy! Stop your moping! Being depressed is nowhere near the list of things I want you to be. I’ve been preparing you for when I wouldn’t be around anymore for the last three years!

”You’ve got better things to do than sit here curled up in this brittle, drafty hut, and be sorry about me. You may be safe from death while your here, but you know what you’re not safe from? Permanent mental trauma. How many times can you be eaten by one of those Rex monsters you saw yesterday before you’re a jibbering mess? Three, maybe four?

”Is that what you want your friends to rescue one day? A terrified husk of a mare, even more jumpy than Fluttershy? IS IT!?”

I discovered that I’d backed up into one of the hut’s corners while my imagination had been yelling at me.

“N-no!” I stammered, shocked that I’d had that vivid of a Flash-scolding.

I’d meant to imagine a more sympathetic but angry Flash. This was him. The real him. To a T.

Imaginary Flash nodded gladly, his tone softening, but maintaining that air of command. ”Then get off your temporarily bipedal plot, dry your eyes, go outside, and find yourself some food. Then get to work making this trash-pile into a proper shelter.

”One good storm and you’ll freeze to death without your spells to help you. These are tropics. It rains every day. And it got cold as my grandmother’s black heart last night. I know, I was keeping watch! If it rains during the night, you’re dead. That’s a problem, fix it.”

I blinked, and imaginary Flash faded away from my vision, leaving me shocked and confused. But motivated. Really motivated!

Flash was right. I was trapped on an island full of savage criminals and monsters without access to any of my really potent magic… Yet. I’d have to work on that. But before I could, I needed to make sure that I was safe, because there was no way I could get used to being hunted and eaten.

Which is what both groups here wanted to do to me.

Screw that!

I stood up, as much as the hut would allow at least, and stepped over to the door. It was time to go out there, find some berries which looked edible or something, then see if I could get a real roof on this little wooden box.

As my hand reached out for the door handle, I froze. There, on the inside of the handle, where the light of dawn wasn’t touching yet, was just a little bit of frost.

Huh. It really had gotten below freezing last night. I guess my subconscious noticed I was cold and tossed that into my little day dream.

I opened the wooden door, grit my teeth at the annoying creak it made and stepped outside into the the morning sun. The lake my hut was built next to shimmered nicely in the morning light, and I could see the shadows of fish swimming just beneath the surface, getting their breakfast. If it weren't for the lizard-like monsters, I could have been in whitetail woods on a camping trip.

It felt nice.

What also felt nice was the abundance of plants near my hut. I could see massive ferns, short but fat bushes, tall skinny bushes… No plants I recognised but with how many there were huddled together under the medium dense canopy of trees, which almost but not quite resembled maple trees, some were bound to have berries.

Or taste okay. I was hungry enough to eat greens.

I quickly walked over to the edge of the wood and knelt down by the first bush I came to. It just so happened to be a fern and while it didn’t seem to have any berries on it, the long thick, twine-like stems on each frond looked like they would be pretty good for tying things together with. And as I remembered very clearly, the Filly Scouts Guidebook mentioned how important it was to carry rope or twine to make shelter with.

Well, I was going to make a better roof. I might as well pick these while looking for food.

I reached out and gently pulled a frond off the plant, then another, and another, slowly breaking it down into parts I could make into a kind of string, or layer to make some sort of thatch-like-

The entire plant suddenly disintegrated into nothingness.

Added: 30x fiber
Added: 8x Tintoberry
Added: 5x Amarberry
Added: 2x Narcoberry

“Oh! Right, that thing,” I said to myself as the shock of the entire plant being broken down and converted into raw materials wore off.

I’d probably been standing there spooked for a good minute or two. How did I get that stuff out of the storage thingie? And why the heck had a plant without berries on it given me berries?

Well, at least I could just pick the bushes and get food and supplies at the same time.

Deciding to do just that I got to work simply picking bits off every bush I could find. At first that had seemed wasteful, and I justified it by saying that I needed a watertight roof, but then I saw an empty clearing become a patch of thick bushes before my eyes as plants literally dissolved in, fully mature. This place regrew at the speed of magic.

I was SO studying that phenomenon before I left. AJ wouldn’t use it but I imagine every other farmer would love an ‘instantly regrow the entire plant’ spell.

I spent an hour harvesting things before I realized something. I didn’t have any wood. Or any idea of how many berries I’d picked in total. I’d lost count. It just wasn't possible to total up everything with the way the text notification slid into your vision in unobtrusive places… And also when I felt like I was carrying another pony on my back.

How out of shape was I? I couldn’t even spend an hour picking plants without getting tired? That didn't seem right!

Stopping at the lakeside next to a patch of tall cattails to rest and try to figure this mystery out (thankfully within line of sight to my hut) I sat down on a boulder and looked at the implant in my wrist. How did I view what I had stored?

Cam had told me it was just think, do. But I’d had to flex my arm in a certain way to put this breastplate on. Did I need to do the same thing now? What did I even do last time?

Ah! Yes. I rotated my arm so the implant faced up, and then cocked my wrist. The implant’s red light shone blue. “Um, account balance?” I asked.

Nothing happened.

“Supplies?” I tried.

Nope.

“Inventory?” I proposed.

A large clunky menu invaded my vision, as if someone had drawn a grid on transparent film and held it infront of my face. On the downside, it was a chaotic mess with no quality organization to it. On the upside it only took me five minutes to figure out what the hay I was looking at.

There were bars measuring certain attributes, I could monitor my exact level of hunger, thirst, and temperature. Very useful! I’d always wanted to try experimenting with efficiency in terms of eating. Now I had a means of gathering data!

It also tracked other things. Like weight. And while it wasn’t giving me the name of the units, I was carrying over five hundred units of stuff.

Which somehow made its mass known despite not physically existing.

I REALLY wished I had one of the system’s designers present to ask questions of. Especially why items were grouped into ‘stacks’ of specific numbers. In the case of berries, one hundred berries formed one group, and I’d have a LOT of different groups of one hundred of the same berry instead of one big group.

I’d also like to know why one hundred berries weighed ten. And what that ten was. At any rate, I had almost five thousand berries of varying kinds. And that seemed to weigh about as much as a grown pony. Which seemed, well, like a bit much. I couldn’t have more than say, six, maybe seven liters worth of berries ‘on’ me.

It just seemed a little excessive.

In addition to the extra heavy berries I had also collected a lot of different kinds of seeds, and what I assumed was a lot of fiber. Which begged the question, how did I get any of this out into the real world to use?

I spent some time trying various things, seeing if I could use the menu to ‘place’ items into the world instead of on to my person. While I didn’t quite find that out, I did find the ‘crafting menu’.

Which explained how I got this thing to make stuff. But was also completely empty save for two icons. A torch, and a stone pick.

That made sense though, all I had was berries, seeds, and fiber. And according to the menu I needed some thatch, a bit of wood, and a rock to make the pick.

But how to get wood? And here I was, back to an earlier question…

“I could just try breaking a branch off a tree…” I mused to myself.

After all, it wasn’t like I had an axe or a knife. What other choice did I have?

I reached down and picked up a rock, deciding to collect one to make a pick easily later since there were plenty of rocks on the lakeshore. The moment I picked it up, intended to add it into the inventory and the rock dissolved, as expected, and a message let me know that I had one stone in my ‘account’.

Neat! I was getting the hang of this, sort of. Now all I needed to do was make a pick! Maybe I could use it to bash a few saplings down to use them as the frame for a palm frond roof!

Suddenly a bright green message popped up in my vision.

Survival Target reached! 1x Implant upgrade granted.

“Um… Okay?” I said to myself as the message vanished.

Enter inventory to apply upgrades.

“Oh!” I said with a grateful smile.

It was nice of that message to explain itself.

I opened my inventory again, this time immediately noticing that some icons next to the attribute markers were blinking green. Presumably, the upgrade would let me increase one of those attributes. Which would literally make me stronger, or faster, or tougher, or able to carry more, or um… Eat more? Go longer without food? Have things I ate taste better?

Like the ‘Hunger’ attribute, most of the others were confusing. And for some reason I couldn’t even increase whatever the heck torpidity was. I had read almost every book in the Royal Library of Canterlot, and I was certain I’d never seen that word before. What even IS that?

After puzzling things over I decided to put the upgrade into my ability to carry arround weight. Presumably that would let my implant store more before I felt the weight, and since berries were ridiculously heavy, goodness only knows what it would feel like to carry around a bunch of rocks if I ever wanted to make a fire pit.

I mentally commanded my implant to press the icon next to the Carry atribute bar. Immediately two things happen. I felt noticeably less weighed down, and a new menu popped up. Letting me know that I had eight engram points. And listing off lots of various engrams I could ‘learn’.

Said ‘engrams’ were icons of things that I could build. Like a stone hatchet, bits and pieces of crude clothing, and more interestingly to me, parts of a thatch shelter which looked modular enough to make nearly anything you wanted.

“I get it! They’ve gamified the entire prison!” I exclaimed in sudden realization.

Honestly, it was brilliant! The engrams you could learn were restricted in three ways. By what you had learned before, by how many of the ‘Survival Targets’ you had reached (I decided to call them levels), and by how many points you had available to buy specific things with.

That meant if you needed something you simply didn’t or couldn’t have, you had to cooperate with someone who could. Or… Well, take it from someone else. But since taking it could be dangerous the system was designed to steer you towards cooperating with others. As far as a means of rehabilitating evil people went, that was a good first step!

I liked it.

Especially since it meant I could just learn how to conjure up an axe, campfire, and a spear that looked like it might help protect me from the smaller monsters into existence whenever I wanted. Right now. I had enough to get all of those things.

Quickly purchasing those recipes, I checked to make certain they were in my crafting menu. They were!

I nodded to myself and stood up with a smile. “Alright, Twilight. You know what you’ll be doing today!” I said as I turned around to go and find some wood.

I was going to build an addition onto that hut. No, I was going to turn it into a nice thatch cabin. A tropical cabana. And if I could gain enough levels, I’d furnish it, so I had storage boxes, and a bed. I saw those items in the engram shop. I wasn’t about to sleep on the ground tonight if I didn’t have to.

I spent the rest of the day gathering things. Wood mostly. After a few hours I realized that by ‘Survival Target’ the system meant I had done enough to further my own survival to warrant getting a reward. Another interesting gamified system to incentivize playing by the prison's rules. Whoever had designed this place was pretty clever.

Especially since it took more and more to reach the target after the one you just achieved. By the end of the day, I’d only hit five, when a mere hour of being productive and harvesting berries had gotten me the first one.

On the upside, that day of hard work had payed off!

The sun was setting, and I had enough room to stand up properly in my cabana. I’d found out how to remove ceilings, and then made a new one that was higher. I’d also extended the walls, leaving the existing stick structure as a corner in my new larger cabin, which had internal walls to make two rooms. One for sleeping, and one for general living.

I hadn’t managed to learn to make a bed yet, nor did I have enough to buy the means to make a sleeping bag, but I’d gotten the stuff to make boxes to put my things in, and learned how to make shoes in addition to the ‘structure kit’ I'd learned bit by bit.

Sure, it was just a sixteen square meter cabin made from sticks, straw, and twine. But it was mine! I’d made it. And it was noticeably warmer in here than outside in the chilly evening air.

Because I’d put a fire pit inside my hut. Which would have seemed insane to me until halfway through the day when I noticed that this fire was magic. It produced no smoke, and it ignored the foundation I’d accidently built close enough for the fire to jump to.

Magic non-smoking non-spreading fire that just produced heat and light. I’d picked it up and put it in the center of the cabin.

After all, it got cold at night. This fire was safe to sleep next to.

I yawned sleepily, stretched, and lay down next to the fire I’d just put a stack of wood into, hoping that would burn all night long.

“That went better than I expected,” I mumbled to myself sleepily. “Night cabin. We’ll get a bed in you tomorrow. Shouldn’t be a problem. This survival thing is easier than I thought!”

Just before I drifted off to sleep, for just the briefest of instances, I swore I saw the Flash I had imagined before facehoofing in the corner of the cabin.

Author's Note

Patron of the week: djthomp

3 - You just had to say it, didn't you?

Twilight Sparkle - Day 2

Southern Jungle - The Island

I couldn’t remember if I had any dreams when I woke up. That was pretty rare for me. Normally I remembered every dream I had, good or bad.

But not this morning. It was just me and the eerie quietness of… Dawn? Early morning? I couldn’t quite tell. The pale orange-yellow rays of sunlight which managed to pierce the thatch walls of my ‘cabin’ weren't quite enough to tell either way.

But I could definitely tell it was quiet. Spooky quiet. I could hear some insects buzzing about, and the gentle lapping of water on stone. No birds, no distant cries of animals.

I frowned and sat up slowly, wondering if there had just been a major storm, or if there was one about to break. It wouldn’t be the first time I had slept through a heavy rain, or a thunder storm.

I sniffed the air. It didn’t smell like rain… But then again this body was part human, and from my experience humans had a horrible sense of smell. They couldn’t even detect their own species sex via scents, let alone identify people, or as would be very helpful here, assess the current weather.

I had to know. Did I have a pony’s sense of smell, a human’s, or something in between? That was critical. Because the only other reason I could think of for a jungle to be quiet was a big predator being nearby.

The scary thing was I couldn’t just smell myself to see if I recognised my own scent. If I did have my proper sense of smell, I’d be used to my own scent on everything in this cabin, and not notice it.

I bit my lip nervously. What did I do? I could wait here, in shelter, for the jungle to get noisy again. I didn’t have to do anything outside at the moment, right?

”Actually, Camoflauge said getting a bed set up inside the hut was a priority,” imaginary Flash said without appearing anywhere. ”Not in those words, but his tone, the context, it’s an important thing to do.”

Hmm, now that I remembered that, yes. He did indicate it was pretty important. But it could wait a few minutes, or a couple hours, right?

”Also,” he added. ”I’m pretty certain that when explaining how people came back he mentioned that they break beds so people can’t reappear at them. Which means you will revive at a bed of yours if you die. And implies if you don’t, well, you either pop up at random, or in a designated zone that the inmates know about, and are probably watching in order to get their victims.”

“Crud…” I grumbled to myself.

That was a really solid argument. Then again, I was arguing with my own imagination. It's pretty hard to disagree with yourself.

But since I was apparently heating my own inner thoughts as if Flash spoke them sometimes, I would probably get to that point sooner than later… Maybe I should try to find where Cam was living now? Having someone to talk to would be a good idea.

But before that, bed. If it meant I would reappear here if anything bad happened instead of having a bad thing become worse, I needed that bed.

I flexed my wrist, the blue glow of my implants interface lighting up the cabin nicely as I looked through the interface to see what I needed to make a bed. Each recipe conveniently listed all the numbers of ‘things’ you needed to make it. I’d half expected you need to figure it out yourself to make things harder, or at least that you’d need to work out the values of odd groups.

Nope! Nothing like ‘three linkonis of wood and four frumples of fiber’. One unit was one unit. Whatever the hay these units were.

“Okay, bed!” I said as I finally found the icon. “I need, fifteen wood. No problem I still have that… Eighty thatch. Yep, still have that… Oh cool! If you have enough the text is green otherwise it’s red. Sooo all I am missing is-”

My ears drooped with a mixture of nervousness and sadness.

“-forty hide…” I mumbled.

My stomach turned slightly. It wasn’t that the idea of handling something made from animal products bothered me. I wasn’t stupid. I knew where leather came from, and I’d handled books all my life. I knew what parchment was. I knew how gelatin was made.

It’s just that it’s one thing to use something, but another thing entirely to get it yourself.

To have to go find a living creature, kill it while listening to it’s cries of distress, then cut off the skin to take for yourself.

A natural thing. For predators at least. But not for prey.

You never really think about it much, but ponies are a prey species. We have homes and spells and weapons and lights to keep the monsters at bay, but we’re not hunters. It could all too easily be me getting killed for parts-

”Yep. It could very easily be you. At any minute. Which is why you need the bed to begin with,” imaginary Flash reminded.

I sighed and looked at the door. Yes, this was about survival… Of a sort. Death may not be permanent, but mental scars definitely would be. The bed would minimize suffering. I had to do it, or go through a lot more pain myself.

“I’ll have to do it as equinely as possible,” I decided, standing up and opening my cabin’s door.

The outside world greeted me, still deathly quiet, but with the oddly bright light of mid morning shining down onto the lake turning the entire surface into a huge painful to look at mirror.

I’d made a spear yesterday. A crude one, which somehow had a monster fang as the point despite being made from flint, wood, and fiber. I’d only intended to use the weapon to help me protect myself from monsters, because the guns I’d been given would run out of bullets eventually.

I debated using it to hunt as I walked into the forest towards the evil red-light beam tower. I’d noticed that there had been lots of wildlife in that direction while gathering berries the other day, and I didn’t want to be outside too long when there could be something dangerous close by.

The spear though… It wouldn’t do the job well. The poor thing I chose as my victim would suffer a lot. It wasn’t like the point was very sharp, and I couldn’t imagine one poke being deadly. Besides, I didn’t really know how to use a spear other than poke with it.

I could try an attack spell. But with the dampening field, all I could likely do was stun something with a short lived ray. No compressing energy into a spellbolt. I wouldn’t be able to gather enough.

So I could stun something and… Then what? It would be stunned, it wouldn’t be able to run, or feel pain. But it would still be cruel to just jam a spear into it a dozen times. I had a stone pick, if it could break rocks, it could break heads. That would probably kill something instantly.

But could I hit it hard enough? I really, really didn’t want to hurt something. Like, at all. I’d probably not hit hard enough out of last minute guilt.

“I could shoot it,” I muttered to myself, then immediately grimacing at the thought.

That would kill it for sure. I’d seen human guns. I’d seen griffon guns. I’d seen changeling guns. They worked pretty well. Almost as well as an Equestrian crossbow with supersonic munitions.

But they were loud.

And something big could be nearby.

It could be that thing Camouflage called a rex, and all of those bandits. Looking for me.

Guns were out. I’d have to hit it. With my pick. As hard as I could. Otherwise it would be cruel.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself. This was going to be horrible… And the dumb thing was, I had killed before and been fine, but I felt bad about it in this instance. I’d attacked Dawn with the intent to kill. I’d attacked Tirek with intent to kill. I’d killed a lot of Dawn’s demonic soldiers, and didn’t even hesitate, feel bad about it, or anything. Still felt a bit good about getting rid of them before they hurt anypony, in fact.

Why did this feel bad? Because it was just an animal?

My ears flicked as I realized the rather obvious answer. It was because in those other situations, I had been forced to do it. Here, I was the attacker. I was initiating this. That’s why it felt bad.

”You still need to do it,” Flash reminded.

“I know… That’s another reason why it feels bad,” I sighed.

A faint rustling in the jungle to the left made my ear jump. I turned towards the sound, eyes peering into the thick bushy jungle wall in search of whatever made the noise. I was going to kill it. Get this misery over with. Both mine and its.

Now or never, Twilight.

The rustling came again, this time I saw the stems of a fern move. I gathered what little magic I could, spending the few seconds necessary to shape it into a stunning ray as I conjured the pick stored in my implant, eyes piercing the shadows to find-

A tiny floofball that just had to be what happens when a fennec fox loves a kangaroo mouse very very much!

Big teal eyes! Silky-soft looking, sandy fur with a white belly and socks, and bright orange stripes running parallel down the spine, and across the head to the nose.

My lower lip trembled as my eyes teared up. “N-nooo!” I whimpered.

I couldn’t hurt that! It had scared-Fluttershy eyes! And a floofy tail tuft! And was stuck in a snare!

I’d rather use my own body for hide than hurt this little thing. I just couldn’t. I don't think anyone could. It had evolved super adorableness as a defense mechanism. And it worked!

I put my pick away, and walked towards the tiny adorable thing. It was barely bigger than a cat. And had got its neck stuck in the snare, even though it had the big floopy-flop ears that should have been way bigger than the snare would accept.

It only took a second to use the energy I’d gathered to zap the snare and cut it. I expected the little guy to run away into the bushes the moment he was free. Instead, it hopped up to my shin and proceed to huddle against my leg chirping happily.

IT EXCLUSIVELY MOVED WITH LITTLE HOPS!

Suddenly, I found myself back at my cabin, having put Sir Hoppyfox inside the cabin next to a big pile of berries, beside his bed made by simply leaving a little wooden box open, and having made him an adorable bandanna-hat, and had just headed back out to take a second shot at getting hide.

I didn’t even remember deciding to do that. I’d just sort of auto piloted it.

”That’s okay, Twily. You did the right thing,” Flash informed proudly.

“Yes,” I agreed with a grin.

A grin which rapidly faded with each step I made towards the red tower and my displeasure at my day’s mission returned.

The sun was high overhead now; the intense light seemed to push down on everything making the air heavy and hot. Adding physical misery to mental misery as I began to sweat like crazy. Especially under the armored shirt I was wearing, but I didn’t dare remove those steel plates. They’d saved my life not that long ago…

I made it back to where I’d found Sir Hoppyfox relatively quickly. It hadn’t actually been that far, I’d simply been caught up in my thoughts, stressing out over doing what I needed to do in order to avoid suffering. And realizing first hand just how unfair nature was.

It had been one thing to know about nature from books. But being a part of it drove the point home really well.

A stick snapped in the jungle to my left.

I turned to look immediately, a worried frown on my face as I crouched to look into the brush. Had I taken Sir Hopps away from his family? No! No I couldn’t do that!

I’d just have to take them all back to my cabin so they could be together again, and we could all be safe and happy inside-

The air seemed to shake as a large creature belched out a deep, bass, short, warbling bellow of a roar. The thing exploded from the jungle, a tree toppling over as it’s long body whipped around. It looked like a younger rex, and had big bony horn-like crests over its hungry yellow eyes.

Hungry eyes which were locked onto me.

The thing had been a mere meter behind the treeline, its orangeish and white hide not even remotely camouflage, I’d missed it purely based on my personal crisis. I was such an idiot! I’d known something big and horrible had been out here but I’d let myself get lost in personal th-

Two more of the monsters exploded out of the jungle, lumbering along after their companion.

I turned, spinning to my left, pivoting on my heel, reacting without thinking. Instinct alone more than enough to get me to run as fast as I could away from the terrifying lizards!

They were faster than me.

I caught a half second glimpse of dull pink flesh and yellowed forearm length fangs fell from the sky, landing around me. My chest and ribs cried out in agony, I felt myself yanked up and back-

Everything was black.

The pain was gone, but in its place was something infinitely worse. Nothing. I felt nothing.

Physically, that is. My entire mind was locked up with more panic than I’d ever imagined I could feel before. I felt the heck out of that.

Because I couldn’t feel a single body part. I was nothing…

The black nothing formed simple block red letters, spelling out a message which hung in the air before me even though I had no eyes to see it with.

You were killed by a wild Allosaurus.

The red faded away, a pale blue incredibly simplistic topographical map of the clearly artificial square shaped island I had been on faded into view, along with a list to its left which labeled a bunch of different ‘insertion points’ along with their latitudes and longitudes.

Choose reinjection zone.

Now I was going to revive and fall right into a trap! I hadn't gotten a bed made! I should have done it before I went to sleep last night! I was doomed to die again, and again, always returning here, to this horrific nothing!

”It’s okay, Twily,” Flash's voice called lovingly. ”Be brave. It’s not as bad as you thought. There’s many different points to chose from. We were in a safe area, one of these points is probably within that general area too. You can do this. Pick the point closest to where you were, and search for the granite hill. The shiny house on top will make it easy to spot.”

Flash was right. I could do this. There were lots of points. No one group could cover them all. Camo proved that good people were here too. Besides, he’d said that the area around the cabin was safe.

From bandits, at least.

I squinted at the map, trying to understand it. I’d never had access to a compass, and since this wasn’t Equis, assuming that the sun rose in the east. Even if it did, I couldn’t assume that the seasons would align with Equestria’s, nor did I know the date, which would render working out just how far the sunrise was off from due east impossible.

All of that compounding realization was mostly my way of distracting myself from the horrifying fact that I had no idea what the coast looked like near my cabin, and the map did NOT include a mark designating the big tower.

All I knew was I had been near the coast, at one of the island’s corners. I distinctly remembered a wedge shaped spit of land going off into the ocean surrounding me on three sides. The island was squarish, and had four corners. Two of the corners had islets a small distance away from their coast, which ruled them out.

There had been an island near the red tower, but it had been very close to shore. A river’s span, not a journey out to sea. This left the two western corners of the island, both of which had small islets close to shore. The northern one had three smaller ones, and the southern one had a single large ones.

The map’s lack of a scale and crude detail was more than a little bit of a problem now… I could have been on the southwestern corner and it could only be ten or so kilometers from the river to the beach. Or I could l have been on the southern most peninsula in the northwestern corner, and that could be about ten or so kilometers across.

The map had no way to tell, and since I lacked any sense of where north was, I might as well have flipped a coin to decide. Except for one last factor.

There had been a hill nearby my cabin. And only the northernmost corner had any indications of elevation changes.

I looked at the list of ‘zones’. The closest one to the northwestern corner appeared to be West Three.

“Um, West Three please?” I asked hesitantly.

The map vanishes in less than an instant, the void flashed white as a jolt of pain ran through my suddenly re-existing spine. Then the cold set in. The bone chilling horrible cold of mid-winter. Accompanied by the howling of winds which escaped and slapped at my skin as the world faded in, remaining white.

Because I was in the middle of a blizzard.

“O-o-oo-ooops,” I stammered, pushing myself up with my hands, slipping slightly on the slick sheet of ice I’d come back to this world atop.

WHAT KIND OF NONSENSE IS WHAT FEELS LIKE THE ACTUAL ARTIC NEXT TO A JUNGLE!?

My ears stood upright in pure horror. Wendigos… Windigos could do this. If there were a lot of them…

I looked around, peering through the sheets of dazzling ice crystals which rained down from above, and also swarmed around me from below. I could see a dull red glow in the sky in one direction, and in the opposite direction, I could make out the dark silhouette of another tower. One WAY above me, presumably on a mountaintop, this one with a bright blue beam of light.

Okay. So there was more than one pillar. Good to know. Also, I needed to get above the tree line and get the lay of the land because I missed a freaking MOUNTAIN the size of the one Canterlot sat upon, if the dark shape the snow ‘waves’ broke upon was of any indication.

I turned towards the red glow in the distance. If this tower was blue, then that would be the red tower. Way down there. Barely visible through the biting cold ice and snow.

I felt the bottoms of my feet start to freeze to the ice I stood on. I was literally dying by standing here. I needed to move. Was a run better in extreme cold, or a walk? Ugh! I should have read more survival guides!

Running would be faster, and would generate more body heat, but sweat could freeze in my fur… Walking would be too slow… A jog?

”Anything, just get out of here! Freezing to death is not pleasant!” Flash urged.

I nodded and began to jog south towards the distant red glow. The ice bit at the souls of my feet, occasionally pulling off a layer of skin, which made them itch like mad as my implant regenerated the bottoms of my feet constantly. The winds ripped through my fur, snatching away what little warmth I had.

After a few minutes of running across the ice, my feet plunged into snow, spreading the biting cold up to my knees. I stopped jogging just long enough to cast a quick spell which normally would have made me comfortably warm. Here it only brought feeling back to my extremities.

Just before I began to run again, I swore I heard a distant pop pierce through the howling winds. The sound was odd, to say the least. A sharp pop, distorted by the wind into a mournful howl which sent a shiver down my spine and made my tail twitch.

A second pop managed to break through the blizzard's bellowing, this one possibly coming from a different direction. What was that? It sounded kinda like ce breaking.

Oh no! Was the ice I was running on breaking apart under the weight of all this snow?

I gathered my legs under me and pumped them as hard as I could, doing my best to ignore the stiffness in my joints to sprint towards my goal, desperately needing to clear the ice in case it was collapsing!

Something incredibly heavy slammed into my shoulders and back, crushing me down into the snow.

“NO!” I screeched.

Not again! Oh Celestia not again it hurt so bad-

Two points of fiery agony blossomed on my neck, then vanished as the world turned black.

You were killed by Richard’s Ajax (Sabertooth).

“NO!” I yelled in a mixture of pain, fear, and frustration.

That message implied someone OWNED that Sabertooth. They had seen a person running naked through a blizzard and just KILLED THEM. For no reason!

“Fuck!” A gruff male voice yelped fearfully. “I’m sorry! I’m being raided. It’s hard to see through this storm. I thought you were one of- Just, please, tell your tribe mates I don’t want any issues with the Beastfolk. This was an accident. I’ll send tribute or someth-”

Another of those odd pops pierced the winds.

“God damn suppressor using bastards!” The man swore, his voice growing distant as the very unhelpful map faded back into my vision.

Oh… Well, I guess that’s different then.

Choose reinjection zone.

“West Two please,” I requested after a few moments.

I expected the white light this time, but I’d forgotten that instant of pain. It felt like being drug through burning hot sand. Not that I ever felt that, but the scraping, burning, oily sensation seemed to-

“AAAAH!” I gasped as the world snapped back into existence around me.

Sand. beach. Waves to my left. A quick tilt of my head showing jungle to my right, and the big red evil looking tower floating in the sky in front of me.

“Ow…” I moaned, sitting up slowly, grateful that I was at least somewhat close to my home.

The internal debate I’d been having could be settled now. This place was real. I’d traveled here. It hurt too much to be any sort of afterlife.

I looked out to sea, hoping to get a look at any kind of landmark. A largeish island covered in thick trees sat just a river’s worth of water away from-

MY eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. My ears stiffened. My tail stood upright as I squeaked fearfully.

I was right where I had first appeared in this world! The bandits were just to my right, up that hill, atop the cliffside.

What do I do? What do I do? Oh my gosh, I have no idea what to do… Flash! Help!

Wait, no. No I didn’t need his help. I was just panicking. I had to not panic. Yes, don’t panic. Just be completely quiet and sneak home along the cliff.

I stood up and sprinted to the base of the cliff, moving as fast as I possibly could. While that wasn’t exactly stealthy, moving along the beach when I was bright purple would be very dumb. The cliff would make it harder for some to notice me if they were atop the cliff… Hopefully they didn’t have beach sentries.

The moment I made it too the cliff I dropped flat on my stomach, grunting irritably as my teats smacked roughtly into the sand. If that had happened this morning, I would probably have hissed or moaned in pain. But with my pain threshold freshly adjusted, that was nothing.

So at least one good thing happened to day.

That… That was very weird to say on a day you got eaten.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I pulled myself slowly over the sand, hugging the cliff, crawling as fast as I could while remaining as low to the ground as possible.

Arm over arm, decimeter by decimeter, I crept towards the red tower, always hugging the hill.

Progress was agonizingly slow. But the alternative was get captured by the cannibal bandits. That Allosaurus had given me a taste of what it was like to die here. I did NOT want to go through that again… Ever.

What nonsense had Cam been spewing?! Dying was definitely a big deal. A HUGE deal! It hurt, a lot. So did coming back!

And on top of that pain, it robbed you of your ability to survive. The armor, guns, knife, spear, and everything else I had in the world was now inside a mysterious lizard's belly… One which was still near my home…

Dying had gotten rid of anything I might use to rid myself of it.

When I started to crawl, it had been mid afternoon. I made it to the swamp as the sun began to set. That had been fine, the swamp had been safe the other day. And the Bandits didn’t like to move through it, they flew over it.

I hadn’t seen a single flying creature all day. So they weren't out flying. It was safe. Or, it had been.

I had planned on simply jogging home from here. I remembered the way. Unfortunately, a crude raft blocked the way. A raft which four humans sat on, clustered around a fire in the center, while sitting atop some storage boxes.

I had managed to find a large rock to hide behind and watch them. They were talking to each other, but unlike a normal conversation, each member of the group was looking off into the swamp. They kept watch.

They also were armed, each of them had a rifle, a machete, and a large knife. For the life of me, I wondered why they weren't keeping those weapons in their implant’s quick conjuration slots… Had to be less cumbersome to carry them like that. But at least it let me know what they were armed with.

Because they all had those bone helmets fashioned from a creature’s skull. Just like that one bandit had. And each helmet had a purple stripe painted down the center. The same shade of purple as Charlie's cloak.

These were the exact people I wanted to avoid… And they were searching the swamp for me. Maybe. Hopefully not.

“So… Are we going to go up there and check for any hut she’s built?” One of the humans asked in a nasally voice. “We’ve been sitting here all damn day.”

“After luring those Allos down here to flush her out? Not a chance,” another scoffed in a deep voice with an accent which reminded me of a zebra’s. “Charlie can get someone else to do that. I’m not tangling with a whole pack of them twice in one day.”

“We should still go look for her body at least. We don’t know if she stayed in this area,” a third proposed.

“I already walked past Nyota’s base TWICE today,” the deep voiced one snapped. “I’m not making that three times. You are new here, Ray. You’ve never seen her fight… You think Charlie’s savage in one of her rages? She’s got nothing on that woman.”

“Yeah, but the Dragonslayers are pulling out of the Island,” the fourth said, her voice oddly soft. “Nyota joined up with their crew a year ago. So she may not be home. She’s probably moving things out to Ragnarok. That’s why I said I’d go put that jerboa out as bait.”

“And we know she didn’t take the bait because the alarm didn’t go off. No way she didn’t yank on that tripwire getting it out of there,” the bass voiced bandit declared. “There’s also no way a Beast didn’t try to help the stupid thing. She’s not near the Obelisk. I don’t care what Charlie thinks, she’s not there.

“We just sit here till midnight, go back to base, and insist we didn’t find a damn thing. That’s what we were asked to do, and we’re doing it. We’re not going to sweep the whole damn peninsula for one pony-folk.”

“We could go collect the hide from those Allosaurus though,” the soft spoken women proposed. “No way stumbling into the minefield didn’t kill them.”

“If not that, I’m telling you guys I heard her autoturets fire. Those things are dead… And it IS a lot of hide,” the nazily bandit said, mulling the idea of going near my cabin over.

“Fine! Go!” The deep voiced one snapped. “Go, and when she’s choking the life out of you with one arm, and casually breaking your bones one by one with the other, all the while praising her fucking pet raptor while it mauls you, Kass.

“Yeah, that’s right. Remember now? She’s got that damn Alpha through whatever bullshit she pulled! The thing will flay you alive, only to leave you not quite dead at the jungle’s edge, your hamstrings cut more cleaner than Doc could ever hope to, to lay in a bleeding heap next to an ant colony, then you two can come crawling back to me, begging for a healing draught.

“That’s when I’ll pour it out right in front of you to remind you of just how stupid you are!”

Something snorted behind me, its hot breath rippling the fur on the back of my neck.

I froze, turning white as a sheet under my fur, bladder instantly emptying in terror.

No fair! No fair! I hadn’t heard anything! Not again. Please, please make it quick so it won’t hurt!

A half minute passed. The bandits simply continuing to argue. The thing behind me continuing to breathe on me. I gulped, slowly mustering the courage to turn around, finding myself face to nose with one of the HUGE crocodiles I’d seen here the other day.

The monstrously huge reptile had silently floated up behind me. Just sort of sitting there in the water. Looking at me with it’s slit eyes. Doing nothing.

D-did it want to chase me? Lots of predators prefered food that they could play with…

I bit my lip, and called upon my magic. Trying desperately to cast a spell I’d worked on to try and help Fluttershy with her animals. It didn’t take much more power than a language translator spell… It should work, right?

My horn sparked lavender for a few moments as the spell completed. I clenched my teeth nervously, expecting either the crocodile, or the bandits to do anything.

Nope. The bandits kept arguing. The croc kept floating.

Letting the spell do it’s job, I focused my mind on the crocodile, searching for it’s basic thoughts.

Not-food before-dark-time light-down color. Nice. The spell ‘translated’, stitching the crude pictures in the beats mind into the closest words the simple spell could.

I blinked. The croc blinked.

“Huh,” I said to myself.

It thought I looked nice. Interesting. That would make it about as smart as one of the animals we ponies kept as a pet. Perhaps these creatures were arcanely enhanced too!

In which case… I had an idea. An awful idea. I had a wonderful, awful idea!

I pointed to the raft and pushed at the crock’s mind with my spell. “Those want to eat me,” I whispered.

The cock hissed angrily, it’s black snout vanishing into the inky black water as it sank like a brick. I waited three seconds. The raft surged upwards amid a torrent of water as the massive crocodile exploded upwards out of the swamp beneath it, its sheer size letting it upend the raft, sending the four bandits tumbling into the water amid panicked shouts and curses.

I turned towards the far side of the swamp and sprinted away as fast as I could, the sounds of thrashing, gunshots, and hissing roars behind me. The deep mud at the bottom of the swamp pulled on my feet, slowing me, making every step a hard won bit of ground.

I didn’t care. I kept going as fast as my legs would move. I had no idea how long the croc would occupy those bandits for, or if they had somehow seen me sprint away when it attacked them. Or if any predators in here were just as stealthy as it was which didn’t consider me to be ‘not-food’.

I couldn’t keep that up forever though. My legs and lungs were burning by the time I reached dry land on the far side of the swamp. I couldn’t keep running, if I did something was going to pop. I could tell. So I flopped down into the closest patch of tall grass to lay down for a few minutes.

As I lay on my back in the grass, I noticed the sky had gone completely dark. Not in the horrible nothingness of death, but that the sun had gone down. I hadn’t really looked at the sky here before. The stars were… Odd.

They seemed to dance and twitch, as if they were all moving back and forth a very small amount. I frowned, trying to work out what phenomenon could cause the stars to appear to visibly move. Unless… Were those not balls of gas far off in deep space?

Perhaps they-

“Woah,” I whispered to myself as a cloud moved and I saw the moon.

The moon was HUGE, and full. Completely full. And HUGE! AT LEAST fifteen times the size of the moon I knew back home. A massive yellowish-white lamp in the sky.

No wonder you could still see pretty well at night. That thing had to reflect so much more light than Luna’s moon. I wonder if-

My ears twitched as the water a the edge of the swamp sloshed. I managed to roll and jump as the grass started to sush as something huge moved into it next to me. By a small miracle, I managed to land on my feet, ready to run. I twisted, moving to sprint away and-

The crocodile's black pebbly snout poked through the grass next to me, a human leg clamped firmly in its jaws. The crock gently bumped its snout into my left hip, chuffed, then dropped the leg, and waddled backwards, returning to the swamp.

I blinked. Did… Did it just give me food? Like a pet? Wut?

“Um… Thanks?” I said uneasily. “I-I’m glad you’re okay!”

Pausing only to giving my new found crocodile friend a wave bye, just incase it was smarter than I thought, I quickly sprinted towards the distant hilltop. That crock might be friendly, but that didn’t mean others would be…

Because nothing here seemed to be friendly.

Well, not literally… But this place was dangerous. Very dangerous. I wasn’t going anywhere tomorrow. At all. My cabin was safe. I was just going to sit in there and work out how to get my magic to work better here. Magic had been the solution thus far. I would figure out how to access my full power and then be perfectly fine.

Yes. That was the plan.

”You still need a bed, Twily,” Flash’s voice reminded me urgently, but oddly quietly.

Yes. That’s right. I did. I absolutely needed a bed.

I needed a bed because the alternative was to get lost and be killed by a random person’s pet while freezing to death. Or spend the whole day freaking out while crawling through mud, sand, and swamp water while trying to avoid cannibals who can somehow imprison me to hunt me repeatedly. Or be roaming around this place, completely lost, and get eaten. Again.

And I could still remember how badly that hurt… I’d felt my ribs pop like dry twigs.

I needed some hide. Right now. And… All the other things I’d need to make a bed. Because I’d lost them.

I kept walking until I reached the shore of the lake my cabin was on. There were plenty of rocks in the area, and it took me no time at all to gather everything I needed for a new pic, hatchet, and the raw materials for a bed. Except for the hide.

That was tricky. Not because of any ethical concerns. No. Not this time. Not after today.

I couldn’t find anything.

I circled the lake a good four times before deciding to give up and check for creatures in the morning. I wasn’t about to go near the jungle at night. I could see things on the lake shore. Couldn’t see anything in the shadow of the trees. This wasn’t a place you traveled unprepared.

I’d learned that today.

Turning around to go back to my cabin, I saw the first creature I’d seen for the entire hunt. I had no idea what it was, some kind of bluish tropical chicken. It didn’t look big enough to provide all the hide I needed.

But it would be a start. And I could get the rest tomorrow.

Getting as close as I could to ensure my spell wouldn’t miss was creepily easy. The bird didn’t seem to care that I walked towards it. I flinched, fearing that it would suddenly turn and spit acid into my face or something else horribly deadly. No creature lets things walk this close to it unless it does not consider them to be a threat…

WIth a nervous wince I cast my spell. The pale lavander ray smacked the bird squarely in it’s back causing it to flop over limply, as if I’d just turned it off.

I took another step forwards, raising my pick to give it a swift merciful death. “Sorry, but if I die again, I’m going to return to a safe place… I’m pretty sure you’d kill me to do that too,” I whispered apologetically.

To the corpse of a bird.

I blinked in shock. The stupid thing was so weak that the stun spell must have stopped it’s heart. I had no words.

Well, at least it was painless.

That left me with a new problem, though. How did I get the hide off it? I had my hatchet, I could try scraping it off with the blade as it was the most knife like thing I had. But I’d never butchered a bird before. I had no idea where to begin.

Deciding to just try cutting a circle around the thing, then pulling, I set about the gruesome task. The uneasy feeling in my guts came back as I started to make the cut. I wasn’t going to stop, but this was definitely a gross-

The bird’s corpse suddenly dissolved into nothingness just like any plant I’d gathered so far.

Added: 14x Hide
Added: 8x Raw Meat

“Oh. That aspect of survival is all gamified too,” I said aloud in pleasant surprise.

I wasn’t going to have to get covered from head to hoof in bird gore. Thank goodness!

Since getting hide was really just the same as gathering plants, except you had to hunt a creature, I decided to get the bed put in tonight. I continued wandering around the lake’s shoreline, keeping my eyes peeled for anything moving. It wouldn’t take more than a second for something to burst from the trees and eat me. Or for a smaller thing I could hunt to run away from me to some hiding spot.

It felt weird to think like that… I was an equine. A prey species. And I was hunting.

I would never get used to-

Movement in the grass to my left caught my eye. I wheeled around, conjuring my spear, ready for one of those huge beasts to jump out of the brush!

Instead, I watched as another of the chicken-like birds simply grew out of the ground like a super fast growing bush, chirped, and then walked off down the lake shore.

They were artificial! Every creature here was created expressly for this place, by this place!

That made me feel better about hunting things.

I spent another hour hunting, managing to find and kill another three of the chicken things. They had given me all the hide I needed by some small miracle. I could feel myself about to fall over with exhaustion. I’d spent the entire day stressed out beyond belief, and now I was up incredibly late doing even more walking around, and spellcasting.

Spellcasting was extremely tiring here… I’d definitely work on that tomorrow.

As I pushed open my cabin door, an excited squeak caught me off guard. What the heck was-

The little fox-kangaroo mouse hybrid creature I’d rescued excitedly hopped over to me, scrambling up my leg to perch on my shoulder, nuzzling into my neck gently.

OH MY GOSH YOU’RE SO ADORABLE! How did I forget about Sir Hoppyfox, Knight of the Yet-to-Exist Table, Comforter of Stranded Mares?

“Hey there, little guy,” I cooed sleepily, giving his little nose a gentle skritch as I shut the door behind me. “It’s time for bed.”

It took me a matter of moments to instruct my implant to craft the bed, and place it in one corner of my cabin. As I watched the bed resolve into existence bit by bit, I couldn’t help feel a bit bad that those birds had died to make something that crude looking.

It looked like someone had lashed four two by four boards together wish strips of leather, tossed a bunch of hay into a crude cloth bag, and then called that a bed after throwing a sheet and a cruddy pillow from a budget motel onto it.

Hopefully it would be comfortable… Not that I cared much. I had a bed now! I was safe. Kind of. Safe from the kind of tartarus I’d gone through today at least. VIctory for Twilight!

I lay down on the bed, carefully picking up Sir Hoppy and sticking him on my chest so I wouldn't lay on his tail by accident.

“I immediately regret this,” I groaned, squirming to try and find a comfortable spot on the lumpy brick slab that was this mattress.

The floor was somehow less hard and more ergonomic than this thing was!

I winced. “Sorry birds… I’ll try to make this more comfortable tomorrow,” I mumbled before passing out.

Author's Note

Patron of the Week: djthomp

4 - Magic

Twilight Sparkle - Day 3

South Jungle - The Island

The sun caught the dust floating inside my cabin, forming dozens of sunbeams, one per small gap in my cabin’s walls. I yawned and slowly sat up. I felt kinda stiff, like I’d been laying down too long. Based on the brightness of the light streaming through the walls it was almost noon.

I’d slept for the entire morning.

I rarely ever did that. It made sense that I would have today, given last night, so I wasn’t upset about it. At least I felt rested.

Rested enough to realize that I had been a complete mess for the last few days. I definitely had not been in a healthy state. Mentally, that is.

If the last three days hadn’t been one long mental break, then I had no idea was happening. While I feel fine now… Well, I’d felt fine then too. In the heat of the moment, I’d felt like I was behaving normally. But on reflection… Yeah, no.

There was only one way to make sure I was really better. By doing science!

A happy squeak drew my attention to the storage box in the corner. Sir Hopps’ light brown tail tip flicked over the edge of the still open box I’d filled with berries. While I was happy he could get his own food…

I shook my head slowly and smiled. “Don’t eat too much or you’ll get fat, silly,” I teased standing up to step over to the box and give my new pet’s head a little pat.

He chirped, nuzzling upwards as I pet his head, one of the enormous grapefruit sized purple berries held between his paws, a bite taken out of one side.

“Holy cow!” I yelped, looking at the berry.

No wonder those things weighed ten kilos per stack! If anything a hundred of them should be more than ten kilos. You know what? Math time!

The average grapefruit weighs approximately two hundred and sixty grams. Assuming the individual berry has a similar mass due to its size and being composed of roughly the same materials, one hundred of them should have a combined mass of twenty six thousand grams, or twenty six kilograms.

Which meant that either those berries weighed exactly one hundred grams each and were exceptionally low in density, or the base units of mass this system used equated to two point six kilograms. Only one way to find out!

“Hey, mind if I have one?” I asked Sir Hoppy as I reached for one of the berries.

He adorably tucked his berry into his chest floof, curling around the berry protectively, making me have to hold in a laugh as I retrieved a berry for myself. “Awww, I’d never take your food,” I said as soothingly as I could before gently tossing the berry up slightly to judge its weight.

A bit heavy, but not by much… Yeah, this was pretty close to an apple, perhaps just a bit heavier. An apple is about half the mass of a grapefruit, which would most certainly allow a hundred of these to weigh in at ten kilograms, assuming they were all identical in size and density.

Mystery solved! The units were kilograms.

I took a bite of the berry. It tasted like the ‘drinks’ Pinkie made when mixing up sports drinks. She’d fill the bottle with water, and then add in powder until the liquid became sludge. Then call that a drink. When it could be more accurately called ‘thinned frosting’.

This berry was one of those, if it dried out enough to be handled like a solid object.

Turning a bit green I gently set the berry I’d bitten into next to Sir Hopps and gave him another little head scritch.

“Since you like those, go ahead and give this one too… I’ll find something else to eat,” I informed turning to the door to get myself some ‘breakfast’.

I’d really hoped those berries tasted good. I’d been eating grass for the last few days. While a pony can survive like that, well, it’s not exactly good tasting. Or nutritious.

There had to be some nut trees, or potato plants, or proper vegetables around here somewhere. Or perhaps I could catch some fish. I definitely had enough pegasus in me to be able to handle fish thanks to my ascension.

But for now, grass would have to do.

After a few minutes gathering up enough greens to make a ‘meal’, I returned to my cabin and sat down in front of the storage box. Sir Hopps was still sitting inside, and so I gently picked him up and set him next to the box.

“Sorry little guy, but I don't have a desk, yet,” I said while he squeaked in protest.

A quick flick of my tail and the box's lid fell shut with a thump. The top of the box wasn’t exactly flat but it would do. It was time to work out a way to bypass the dampening field. I had to gain full use of my magic, or at least work out a way to cast more powerful spells than I was right now.

While gathering breakfast, I’d also picked up everything I needed to make a lot of paper. I’d figured out how to get items I’d made out into the real world several day sago, and so a simple flick of my wrist conjured a nice stack of paper atop the box while I retrieved a lump of charcoal from my firepit with my telekinesis.

The first thing I noticed was that I could effortlessly lift the bit of charcoal. That would be my baseline for the test. I could lift this effortlessly, and the lump charcoal was about… Oh, five cubic centimeters. Given the density of charcoal, it should weigh about a gram.

Thank you, Miss Pestle! Your Intro to Alchemy class has once again been super helpful.

I closed my eyes and allowed the charcoal to float in front of me, focusing on how much energy it was taking me.

None. I could do this all day. Just like normal. That meant I could write, because I honestly SUCKED at writing with hooves, mouth, or hands. When I had been in the mirror world, everypony had to be polite and say that I wasn't that bad… But I had been BAD.

I slid a page from the top of the stack and quickly wrote down that I could suspend one gram without power loss, then proceeded to record my unaffected AUV as I recalled it.

Five hundred and twelve. I was definitely not capable of using the energy output of half a thousand unicorns each of whom were of average power today. If I could find out how much current I could draw at once, then I could start to work on improving spells. Telekinesis seemed to be working just fine, so it would be my testing method.

It was a good testing method too, because telekinesis is a simple spell. So simple that all unicorns know it by instinct, and even the weakest unicorn can lift a cup of water.

I spent the next few hours lifting increasingly heavier objects, and recording the results. Rather than simply make large jumps, adding another kilogram with each test, I chose to work in ten gram increments. I’d get much better data with more data points, and it wasn’t like I had anything better to do here.

My implant was able to conjure things in different ways. If I told it to make a ‘rock’ I could choose from lots of sizes and basic shapes of stone. Each of the rocks I conjured used different amounts of stone, depending on their mass, which let me workout how heavy they were. But the largest rock I could make was only three kilograms, so I eventually had to make another storage box and fill it with rocks and charcoal, then lift the box.

Then I would lift the box with my actual muscles and try to hold it aloft for the same time and at the same height. I needed to determine just how much more my magic could lift than I could on my own. Because if my magic couldn’t lift more than I could, then I had an AUV of one here, and that would be a big problem.

The heavier the box became, naturally the harder it became to move, though the rate at which it did surprise me. I was used to being able to lift an Ursa Major if I put in effort. Here that same effort was letting me lift a box of fairly heavy stones for ever shortening amounts of time.

Eventually, I couldn’t lift the box at all.

Wiping the sweat from my attempt off my forehead, I nodded, a small smile parting my lips. I had the data!

Picking up my charcoal stick I recorded the final data point, namely the last mass I had been able to lift. “Maximum lifting capacity, two hundred and thirtyfive thousand six hundred and thirty grams, suspended for a total of one second at a height of half a meter,” I announced to myself with satisfaction.

Much less than I was used to… But I could now do the math! The lots and lots of math. One equation for each data point.

I spent another hour crunching the numbers. Working out both the raw numbers and also graphing the curve each point gave me. Sadly, that wasn’t optional. To find the AUV I currently had, I needed to figure out what equation would produce the logarithm that made a particular curve.

Fortunately, I was good at math and getting the equation didn’t take long. Extra fortunately, I still remembered the formula for calculating AUVs. Currently, I was a six.

I could draw six unicorns worth of arcane energy at any one time. I had been able to use four times that amount power since I turned ten. Which sounded really bad at first, but there were plenty of wizards who were able to perform well enough despite a low AUV rating.

The Average Unicorn Value is a measure of current after all. It’s not a ‘power level’ as conceived of in Fluttershy’s favorite magna. It was one of three components which went into determining how powerful you could make a spell. You also had your total magical reserve to factor in

However, I personally had a major problem.

Since this was the rating of how much energy I could use at once, well, I had one point one seven percent of my normal capacity at my disposal. That wasn’t sufficient for me to do much of anything with… Because I used a trick in most of my spells…

I sat down, leaning against the wall of my cabin with a weary sigh. “This is going to be very, very hard, Sir Hoppyfox,” I grumbled, closing my eyes in thought.

Ever since I’d wanted to cast higher level spells as a filly, I’d been using a technique to let me cast the spell far more easily. I’d used it for EVERYTHING, because I had no reason not to do so, given my arcane power. Specifically, I’d used the Roaring Blaze Technique.

In a nutshell, when a spell requires less power to operate than you can supply to the point where you could in theory cast it twice at once, you can overload the spell matrix with excess energy which forces the spell to work. It’s a brute force method, like using a sledge hammer to knock down a wall instead of a saw.

I'd never had a reason to NOT use it. Even as a first year student, while I was still a growing filly, I’d had more power than my teachers. There was no spell I couldn’t use it on, and well, it’s a lot less mentally taxing.

Of course, I did know the proper methods too, but I rarely used them. Practically never. I would have to practice until I could cast things expertly using the normal method. That I could do in about a week.

But the real problem was that I only had one point seven percent of my arcane power to work with. I’d have to work out how to not use excess energy, and then on top of that, learn to make spells work as efficiently as possible. All to have the hopes of casting anything above the first tier spells in a given school.

I’d need to be able to cast second tier spells to begin finding a means of breaching the dampening field. Hopefully, that would be possible. Otherwise I’d need to turn to enchanting, and I was kinda terrible at enchanting...

“Ohhhh,” I moaned rubbing my forehead with my left hand gently. “This is going to SUCK!”

Going about a task the exact opposite way you normally do is probably the single hardest thing anypony can do...

I stood up, and opened my cabin door to go outside. No reason to waste time. Let's get to practicing with concussive blasts.

Nyota - Day 115,343

South Jungle - The Island

There’s an old thought experiment lots of people obsess over. The short version goes like this:

You enter a machine that puts you to sleep, then destroys you, breaking you down into atoms, copying the information and relaying it to a distant location at the speed of light. At that location, another machine re-creates you from local stores of carbon, hydrogen, and so on, putting each atom in exactly the same relative position they were when you entered the first machine.

The question simply being, is the person in the second machine the same one who entered the first machine?

Lots of people get stuck in that philosophical quandary. Not me, and I actually did that exact thing just now, in real life.

The difference between a person who gets stuck on that question and myself being they lack a piece of technological magic in their arm which is the place their mind and soul resides after convincing it to move on in. Everyone in the ARK System does. It’s the warden's trick which lets the inmates slash test subjects cheat death. Our bodies are not the places we reside in, so it doesn't matter how damaged they become.

Therefore yes, absolutely, I can be transmitted just like any other form of data and downloaded into any appropriate device then get wired into whatever organic body it’s hooked up to. And no, I’m not picky about what kind of body I get on the other side so long as it works.

That said, I do like pleasant surprises. While Camo telling me he’d finally recovered my original genome took some of the surprise out of it, I’d still get to learn whether or not he’d done it right as soon as-

My vision flashed bright white as my nanites finished generating my new body’s optic nerves, making the fresh tissue freak out upon exposure to the bright sunlight. An irritating little thing, but one you just had to get used to.

I sniffed the air, checking for the scent of any large predators. Nothing. Just Razor’s dry, leathery, chives and onions scent.

I closed my eyes to block out the whiteness and listened. Nothing but the gentle lapping of water against the rocks below me, the calls of seabirds and jungle critters, and the distant roar of a giga. I was familiar enough with the sound to be able to tell it was all the way over at Far’s Peak. No threat there.

My yard sounded and smelt safe.

I slowly opened my eyes, blinking one or two times to clear them. The spidery silvery-blue metallic ‘limbs’ of transport pad beneath the Red Obelisk twinkled in the late afternoon sun. From the very end of the peninsula, I could see the entirety of the South Jungle stretching away to the horizon before me.

My home’s cyan and burnt orange alloy walls shimmered under the sunlight atop the hill I had placed it on. No bubble shield surrounded it, just as I left it. If someone had broken in and captured it, they would have switched on the shield. I’d rebuilt the damn thing after a total tear down so my whole tribe could use it.

The ‘only those who can slay the great beast is worthy of this technology’ idea Green had was bullshit and pissed me off. Seriously, you have to be able to slay that dragon with its cyberware fully upgraded just to be able to turn a shield on or off for me? Yeah, no.

Of course, that meant any raider who had taken my house could turn it on. But the shield was down, so no one was inside. And my stock pile of element was still there.

And everyone on the island knew I had a shield. And that meant they knew that I had the single hardest to acquire resource available. But my stockpile was intact, because they would NOT simply loot that base and run.

“Just like we left it a month ago,” I remarked, a smile on my face. “That’s what a proper reputation gets ye.”

And no thank you for getting you here faster than you thought I could? Razor chuffed, lashing her tail back and forth.

I turned around and raised an eyebrow. “I thanked ye when we got to blue. Yer not the one who got us here,” I pointed out, frowning behind my helmet.

Razor growled playfully and flicked her tongue at me. I’m practicing jokes, she explained.

“Pff, keep practicing. Ye need it, lassie,” I laughed, shaking my head for a moment before looking down into the ‘lake’ around the transport pad. “Stay here for a minute, I want to see how I look.”

I took the express down, jumping off the side into the waters below. A fairly stupid move, if I didn’t know the water around my yard like the back of my hand. The only things that might be down here were megapiranha and dolphins. Dinner and ocean puppies respectively.

The moment I heard the splash I let myself pitch forwards and swam to the base of the spiral ramp. It only took a few seconds before I could crawl up onto shore and stand back up. I’d always been a good swimmer.

Turning around to face the water, I grabbed the crappy plate helmet with both hands and pulled it off my head, immediately looking into my reflection in the water below. My leaf green eyes looked back at me as I watched myself smile.

Cream fur with burnt orange stripes, including the distinctive one starting just between my eyes and running to the tip of my nose. Long thin equine ears, a short muzzle, and my straight haired spiky mane, styled into the mohawk I’d kept it as, but now with the proper white and burnt orange segments. My head was just how I remembered it being before they crammed me into a human body. Yay!

I had really missed being colors other than two shades of burnt wheat toast!

I pulled off my left gauntlet and looked at my hand, checking to see just how much of my old self was present. My handshape and structure was human, not equine. But I was fine with that. Humans had stronger hands than we did. Looking down I noticed I also still had feet instead of hooves, as well as human style leg joints.

That made sense, I had to be able to use the armor engrams and all. But the real question was did Red mess up my sex again?

I wouldn’t be mad if he did, I was weird after all, but I’d damn well make him fix it.

I debated taking off my greaves for a moment to check, but decided to leave that for later. Raptors and Carnos sometimes wandered in here after all. Getting caught with your pants literally down is, well, there’s a reason the saying is what it is.

Quickly putting my gauntlet and helm back on, I ran up the ramp, circling past two of the transporter’s transceivers on my way to the top where Razor waited, a bored expression on her face.

You smell like an Equus now. You could have just asked me, she grumbled. Then I wouldn’t have to wait…

That’s right! Her sense of smell was excellent. I could just ask.

“True… Sorry I made ye wait. If ye want to help, I didn’t want to strip completely. Do I still smell ‘weird’ as ye call it?” I asked hopefully.

Razor sniffed twice then nodded. Yes. Why do you like that?

“Because it’s my normal,” I said rolling my eyes before pointing towards my house in the distance. “Come on, let’s go. Twilight should be along the way home. If she’s not there, we’ll get you a better saddle and go hunting till she gets back. I imagine that-”

GOOD! This saddle itches, the straps move too much, and the colors go horribly with my scales, Razor exploded, lips pulling back to show her fangs in displeasure.

I held up both my hands defensively. “Woah! Hold on there. If ye hate it that much, I’ll take it off and I’ll run with you,” I said as I waved my implant over her, instructing it to deconstruct the saddle.

I would have liked to bring her the custom saddle I made for her, but well, we just had the one. And I made it mundanely. Losing it would be a major loss.

Razor nodded the moment I took her saddle off and ran off towards the path leading into the jungle. I twisted around and pumped my own legs, easily able to keep pace with her since she was running at a leisurely pace.

To tell the truth, the only reason I liked raptors as a mount was assistance in combat. I was plenty fast on my own, but you can never beat backup. Especially when that backup is a person with an urtharaptor's body and mentality.

Also, because you need friends in this place. You go mad without them.

Five minutes of running brought us to Hayse Lake. My favorite fishing hole. It was nice being back here, the towering cliffs which formed one side of the lake contrasted nicely with the gentle bank on the other side. I’d taken pictures everywhere around the lake. If I ever left this place, I’d take them with me.

Much to my dismay, spotting the place the new mare was staying was easy. Sure, my home was out in the open, but it was built from a mixture of tungsten, titanium, and plasteel. Her’s was built from dried grass.

From what I could see, she’d established no defenses at all, but the fact she expanded the old wooden hut meant she’d learned how to work the engram system on her own. That was good.

But if she were living anywhere else…

My train of thought trailed off as the hut turned cabin’s door opened and a purple mare stepped out.

“No…” I said softly and apprehensively as I squinted at the dot from my position on the opposite shore.

It couldn’t be. It had to just be another mare who happened to be purple and named Twilight. That was too big of a coincidence to happen.

I flexed my right hand and materialized a spyglass, holding it up to my eye to get a closer look at-

Lavender fur, totally naked, magenta starburst cutiemark, curvy, short, super stacked, Twilight Sparkle!

BEGIN MODIFIED STATIONARY PANIC! AAAAAAAAAAA!

I clamped a hand over my mouth before realizing my scream had been internal, not external. I felt my ears squish against the top of my helmet as they tried to raise, likewise my tail smacked painfully into the back of it tried to stand in alarm.

I’d have to do some customization to my kit, but in the meantime, AAAAAAAAAAAAA!

You’re afraid! Where’s the other Alpha! I’ll eat it, this is MY jungle! Razor hissed angrily, her head whipping around as she searched for the non existent threat.

I turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders. “That’s PRINCESS Twilight Sparkle!” I squeaked, voice cracking nervously. “W-well not my universe’s… But it’s still her! And she’s hotter than mine is!”

I’d gone to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as part of an exchange program to learn enchanting. I’d gone to school with Twilight, and had the biggest crush on her, back before she became famous. But I never did anything to let her know. I was a meek and cautious person back then. I’d been too afraid that she’d reject me due to my sex, and the fact that I was a foreign national, not an Equestrian.

Three years of a self imposed holding pattern. Thank the gods our Twilight had turned into a rather bland person just before graduation otherwise I may never have gotten over that crush. Of course, she was still hot, just not somepony I felt a romantic attraction towards.

With any luck this Twilight would also be a by the numbers professional demeanor always, stickler for formal behavior-

“Come on, Sir Hoppyfox!” I heard Twilight call happily, her voice faint but still clear enough to be heard. “We have to slay the evil floating rocks to prove our magic is still strong!”

A baby jerboa hopped out of the cabin, rushing to Twilight and swiftly climbing up on her shoulder while the mare laughed happily and gave it a little pet on its head, before tossing a lump of charcoal into the air and trying to hit it with a magical laser attack. She missed, nodded to herself, then tossed another, trying again.

Nope. You’re bucked, Nyota. This Twilight has the same determined, playful, fun loving demeanor she’s characterised with in Arcane Moon. There is NO WAY you can teach her how to survive and be professional. You’ll do something inappropriate, she’ll get mad, and the whole thing will go south faster than anything Mike cooks.

“This is a disaster,” I sobbed leaning down to hold my head in my hands.

Happy, fun loving, determined, Twilight, with e cups… Discord did it! This has to be him! Nothing else makes sense.

Why? She has good legs. Your hatchlings will be strong, and her colors are nice, Razor chuffed, cocking her head to one side.

“That’s not what I meant by the word ‘mate’,” I mumbled. “It’s a dialect thing… I meant friend… But yes, now that I know it’s her I do want her as a mate, in the way you use the word, and that’s a problem.”

Why for the love of Faust did I start fantasizing about Twilight after getting stranded here? I knew of plenty of other hot and famous ponies. Any other stallion or mare would have been just fine. But no! Since the second month of being alone here that was the fantasy. Me, and her, being awesome, and having a dinner date consisting of rex steaks and chips, while stargazing on the back of a titanosaur.

Why is it a problem? You’re strong and pretty. She seems strong and pretty. You both will desire offspring, Razor asked, her tail dipping down as she became even more confused.

“Most people aren't like ye raptors are, Razor,” I sighed, finally looking back up.

Yep, she was still shooting clay pigeons using lumps of charcoal. Already trying to get better. Working to improve herself despite the massive handicap of the arcane countermeasures.

THAT’S what attractive is! That’s why I loved how she was portrayed in Arcane Moon, a wonderful take on a Twilight that could have been expertly written and drawn by an exceptionally skilled manga artist. I’d actually redrawn the series from memory to pass the time over the many years I’d been trapped here. Heck, I’d even continued the story on my own after I ran out of volumes I could remember.

My art hadn’t been that good to start with but-

“OH, GODS!” I exclaimed, my eyes flying open in blind panic.

What? Razor asked worriedly, the poor confused raptor hunching herself down lower to the ground.

“My bookshelves are covered in my reprint of Arcane Moon!” I yelped, spine tingling with terror.

My modified stationary panic transformed into full boar linear panic as I turned to run towards my house behind the treeline at my top speed.

I had to hide those books!

Arcane Moon was primarily a very, very good adventure series. Which is why I liked it. But it was written for an adult audience, and was therefore mostly an Adventure Magna but had a handful of chapters which were dedicated to the romance subplot that were totally just hentai! And the other main character was Nightmare Moon.

I had to get that off my shelves RIGHT NOW! Before she even set foot within a dozen meters of my house.

I mean, she was a celebrity. She HAD to know that being good looking and well known meant that kind of stuff existed. There’s no way her universe didn’t also have changelings employed to mimic celebrities for photo shoots and other things. But that didn’t mean her finding it wouldn’t screw over any chance I had of being able to teach her how to survive here, let alone her helping us out in return.

Yes, I liked her, but I made a promise to train and try to recruit her. I had to be professional here! I didn’t want to freak her out. ESPECIALLY if she also once hypnotised an entire town because she panicked due to forgetting her homework just like ours did!

I’d ask myself why the hell I redrew it, but I already knew. It’s a good story that put real people, one of whom I liked, into a cool fictional setting and has sexy bits in it. I had to pass the time somehow. You can’t tinker with stuff or hunt every day!

This was such a disaster!

My panic made the run to my house feel much longer than it really was. I didn’t stop as I sprinted up the rocky hillside towards the massive looming nano weave gate. The slightly rippling gold colored ‘door’ disassembled itself as I ran up the ramps and across my deck, letting me zip through the rex-sized opening into my garage before reassembling itself.

The inside of my home was pleasantly cool as always. The garage full of parts I’d salvaged from things built with the engram system rather than dinos. I hadn’t owned anything big for a while.

Carefully picking my way through the mess I made it to my elevator and moved up to the living quarters on the second floor. The second I was upstairs I sprinted into the living room, vaulted over the couch to the bookshelves, created a steel storage box with my implant, and threw all eighty two volumes into the box.

I slammed the lid shut, rushed back to the garage, found a length of chain, returned to the living room, chained the box shut, welding the ends of the chain for good measure, then moved it into my bedroom, tossing the heavy box into the back of the closet with a loud crash.

“There,” I said to myself amid a long relieved sigh.

Mission complete.

Assuming that her Princess Cadence was like our Princess Cadence, since her brother had married Cadence, I doubted Twilight would be upset at a person for owning porn. But still, it would definitely be weird to know that had some of you.

The sad thing was that the covers were always clean. But Twilight, being Twilight, would definitely read every book I had… And despite the truth that I mainly enjoyed Arcane Moon for the plot, that would NEVER come across as true when she found out that it was a shipfic between herself and one of her greatest enemies.

Even though in said story Nightmare isn’t remotely evil after the first volume and has Twilight decide to go to the moon to ask her to not come back and end Equestria, and the two wind up talking out her problems over some drinks at-

I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves. I couldn’t go about helping Twilight in this state.

I was going to force myself to be cool, calm, and professional about this. Yes, she was very hot. Yes, I used the version of her I knew in school as a personal fantasy to make living here more bearable. She had NOTHING to do with that. I was going to keep things to a kind mentor slash friend type relationship.

Of course… If SHE wanted to push things further…

NO! No, don’t think like that. She’s probably nothing like how you imagine. She’s a completely different person. Just- Just do your job. And don’t be awkward about it. You’ve killed things hundreds of times your own size and then eaten them. You can talk to a mare you like and keep things normal.

Maybe…

I bit my lip nervously. I should go over and get the introductions over with. That would be the hardest part.

Yeah, I’d just change out of this crappy armor into my usual outfit then go over and say hello. The fact that Camo sent me and that the Dragonslayers were interested in recruiting her, after I had taught her how to survive, and that she would be under no obligation to join us at the end, was of no consequence. Just a friendly service we would provide to everyone if we had the numbers and power.

I nodded to myself, my mind properly set for the task at hand. I’d just go to my closet, change, and then head over to her cabin.

…

After cooking her something nice to take over there. I can’t imagine she’s eaten anything good in the last few days. Did I still have some Quetz eggs? I could make her a nice omelet.

No! No, that’s a breakfast food. Did she eat meat? Probably not, most Equestrians are vegetarian.

I could do a Rösti Casserole with a side of fruit salad and bring over a jar of Mejoberry juice. I had everything for that in the fridge already. And it was a good meal by anyone’s standards.

Yes! That’s the plan. Change, cook, go say hello.

…

Does she have a good blanket? Is there one in the basic engrams list? No, just the world’s worst bed. I could bring her a quilt too. That would be a nice thing to do.

No, that’s silly! I’ll just offer to let her stay with me. It’s far more secure, and it will make teaching her easier. I can’t imagine she’ll say no to ‘Hey, would you like to sleep inside a house with metal walls? I have a guest bedroom because when I built this place I was stupidly optimistic about making friends.’

…

Should I shower first? Yeah, I should. I had been in the sun, inside plate-steel covered leather for a week. I had to smell bad. I’d have to add that to the list.

Twilight Sparkle - Day 3

South Jungle - The Island

They day always seemed to fly by when I was practicing spells. Despite the inconvenience of having to learn an entirely new method of spellcasting, I was a little happy that I got to practice the basics all over again. Especially since I’d already worked out how to throw a decent concussive blast without expending much energy.

I wouldn’t say I could throw them all day, but I had been firing one or two a minute for the last three or four hours. That would definitely be plenty for keeping smaller creatures at bay.

For larger ones I would need to use a proper attack spell. I couldn’t compress energy into a bolt yet, but I felt fairly confident I could form a bolt of lightning and throw it. Did I have time to try practicing that?

I looked up at the sky and frowned sadly. The sun was just starting to think about setting, leaving maybe an hour of usable daylight free. I didn’t have time for that. Not with my belly starting to gurgle. I had to find some food.

Real food. Not the grass and leafy ferns I’d been eating. After today’s bathroom break, it was very clear that while I got nutrients from those plants, my body REALLY didn’t like digesting them.

I dipped my head to my left, rubbing against Sir Hopps lightly to avoid hurting the tiny little guy. “I need to go find food, so I’m going to put you back inside now, okay? We don’t want you to get hurt,” I said as I turned to walk back to my cabin.

The moment I turned my back, a piercing whistle split the air. My ears twitched, turning to try and face the noise. It had come from behind me, at the top of the cliff across the lake.

It also hadn’t sounded like a bird, or one of the monstrous lizards.

I quickly turned, squinting at the top of the cliff. I could barely make out a humanoid shape. Despite the fearful twitch my tail made as I spotted the figure, I remained still. If they meant me harm, they would have shot me from up there, not whistled, right?

My suspicion was confirmed when the person raised their left hand and waved to me. Was this the person Camo said he’d send to help me? It had to be, right? Who else would wave?

While I debated the question of ‘ally or enemy with a trick’ the person suddenly jumped off the edge of the cliff!

I gasped reflexively, and remembered there was water below them just before they made a jerking motion with one arm and deployed a rectangular parachute. The light brownish-orange cloth snapped taught unusually quickly. From what I recalled, a parachute had to fall about thirty meters before properly deploying. His one just opened up as if spring loaded, caught the air immediately, and allowed the mystery person to glide slowly across the lake towards me.

Deciding to play things safe, I flexed my wrist, accessing my implant and making sure that it could deploy my spear into my hands at a moment’s notice. After all, I couldn’t be completely certain that-

The person drew near enough for me to make out a few details. I gasped in surprise. They were a pony too!

Or well, a zebra. Same difference.

I was fairly certain that she was a mare, based on the general body shape and the small bumps behind the brownish leather vest she had on. I mean, if I looked like I was half human here, other equines would too, right?

The closer she got, the less I thought she was a zebra. While she had cream fur with orange ish stripes in a common zebra patern, her body was exceptionally toned, and her muscles very well developed. Not that a zebra couldn’t look like that, but her body shape was halfway between earth pony and human, with just her pelt, nose, eye shape, and ears expressing zebra traits. Additionally, I’d never seen a zebra who wasn’t exclusively black and white.

This mare was half zebra, half pony. She had to be.

As she started to land, somehow making the parachute go down faster, I could make out her clothing in detail. That had been pretty hard from a distance, because her clothing had a LOT of equipment attached to it.

Her dark brown leather vest which was tossed over her bare fur had a very large knife, at least two grenades, a pair of binoculars, a small strip of what I believed were shotgun shells, and a half dozen pouches attached to it. She had a pair of loose fitting olive green cloth pants which had large pockets on the sides, a pair of handguns strapped to the thighs via a harness that secured to her vest as well as the legs, and were tucked into her black boots, one of which had a smaller knife lashed to the side.

While all of the stuff she carried was laid out in a way where you could get to it at a moment’s notice, it made determining exactly what she was wearing difficult at a distance. Especially since the strap for the back scabbard holding… some kind of medium length bladed melee weapon to her back. The straps for that obscured the things on her vest too.

“Hey there!” The half-zebra called a few moments before her boots touched down, the parachute disintegrating the second she touched the ground, her long tail trailing after her, decorative brass rings shimmering as she moved.

Okay, I liked the tail style! I needed to do that. Bunch fur up into a little ‘ball’, secure with a ring, bunch another section, secure with a ring, twist hair so each ball is one color on one side and another color on the other. That looked cool.

“Um, hello,” I replied, still a little nervous.

And a bit confused. Up close, she looked more like an earth pony stallion in terms of her musculature. Well, she was living in this place. She probably worked out a LOT.

I should probably work out a lot too.

“Are ye Twilight?” She asked in Zebrican with a friendly smile and a mild Owlwood Accent. “I mean, I know ye are… But…”

An Owlwood Accent, but speaking Zebrican natively. Sure, that part of Equestria bordered Zebrica, but how do you have native fluency with a foreign acc- Oh, duh! She was just great at languages.

The zebra mare closed her eyes for a moment, a quick look of embarrassment flashing across her face.

I couldn’t help but giggle. “Yes, I’m Twilight Sparkle. Did Cam send you?” I asked, just wanting to be safe.

The embarrassed look cracked, an honest smile parting her lips. “Okay,” she chuckled. “NEVER call him that. He hates that abbreviation. Use Camo. Or John. In fact, ye should call him John, because then he’d be freaked out about how ye know his real name since he doesn't know I know it.

“I’m Nyota Komeo, or Star Bolt if ya want to say it in Equish… Oh, um, How fluent are ye in Zebrican? Sorry, bit of an oversight.”

I flashed her a smile as I tilted my head forwards slightly, my look saying, ‘please…’ for me.

“I invented the most accurate translation spell known to ponykind,” I said simply.

She blushed lightly, rubbing the back of her head with one hand. “Yeah, dumb question. Sorry…” She said with a shaky grin. “I’m sorry, I’m not normally this, uh, flustered. It’s just that, well, ye’r well… You. I sort of looked for ye through a spyglass a while ago. I didn’t want to just dive right on in and uh, I wasn’t expecting a Princess.

“Oh! Are ye a Princess? I’m from a version of Equestria where ponies are bipeds. Camo told me you were originally a quadruped like the other two of us trapped here. Where I’m from, ye’r a princess. But I suppose-”

I nodded, understanding her problem completely. “Yes, I’m a princess back home too… I think I know about your home. I talked to a person named Lyra Heartstrings, not the one from my own home, but a dimensional traveler. She said she visited a world where ponies were like you.”

To my surprise, Nyota shook her head and laughed bitterly. “Oh boy… Yeah she was. She’s the reason I’m here. I sort of had to take a summer job as a maid, wound up working on Empress Mysuki’s estate, and accidently stepped into a portal that Lyra made to leave as it was decaying. I was carrying a tray of tea and looked down to make sure I’d remembered the cream at exactly the wrong time. Walked face first into the ass end of a stego. Easily the single most surprising thing ever…

“Until I see that somehow Twilight Sparkle of all ponies wound up here too. Wot happened to ye?”

I frowned, looking down at the ground for a few minutes. Trying to hold back the memories from flooding back. I’d just gotten a nice, calm, peaceful break from remembering those…

“Oh… That’s a look that says ‘war’,” Nyota remarked sympathetically. “I’m sorry. I won't ask again.”

I nodded gratefully. “I um… We won. I did a stupid thing when taking down the enemy leader. Now I’m here,” I summarized. “But not for long! I’m sure that my friends and Princess Celestia are working hard on rescuing me! I’m certain that they will be okay with rescuing you too.”

“That’s good!” Nyota said with a broad smile. “I'd like to live in a less asshole infested place again. Given the circumstances, maybe I will go with ye one day. Speaking of leaving… It may be a while before yer rescued. Ye ken?”

I nodded twice. “I hold no delusions about seeing Pinkie pop through a portal tomorrow,” I agreed my tone remaining even and natural. “I expect a rescue to take months, a year at most. After all, we only barely became aware of universal travel before I was banished. It will take some time to create a safe means of travel and figure out a way to track me here, even with the artifact used to send me here in Equestrian hooves.”

Nyota smiled, oddly happy with my statement. “Good! Well, bad. I mean that it’s good ye’r taking a realistic stance on your situation. And speaking of your situation, I want to formally offer you my assistance in learning how to survive, and on behalf of the Dragonslayers, I invite you to join our Tribe once ye can survive on your own, should ya wish.

“That’s not a requirement for my helping ye to learn the ropes, it’s an offer. That’s all. If ya want to know why we’d invite a complete newcomer to our tribe, I’m willing to admit that it’s because yer a unicorn, and our chief is jumping at the chance to have a wizard as a friend or ally. However, if after ye can survive out here ya wish to do so alone, we won't press ye to join or anything.

“One of our goals is to offer basic survival training to all newcomers. We’re trying to help. Which, if ya ran into any other Tribe, sounds-”

“Like something I really need,” I interrupted with a nervous laugh.

Nyota nodded. “Yeah… It’s hard learning it on yer own. But you know that already. I can tell. At any rate, here’s the offer in plain Zebric. Ye can keep living here in my back yard, and do that alone. Or ye can keep living here and I can come over every day to teach ya new things and give ya supplies from time to time. Or ya can come up to my house with me and live there, behind metal walls, with air conditioning, and-”

Air conditioning!? SOLD!

“Let me grab my notes and we can go!” I answered flashing Nyota the largest most grateful smile I could.

“Hey, awesome! I was hoping ye’d go for that one. It’s definitely much safer at home,” she said happily, her tail swishing behind her.

Then I frowned. Maybe I was jumping the gun a little? I mean, I didn’t know anything about her as a person.

“Uh, on second thought, before I do, can you tell me a little about yourself?” I asked, my ears drooping with embarrassment. “I mean, I do appreciate the offer of tutoring in survival skills, but well… I’d like to know who I was sharing a room with since the last people I ran into here wanted to-”

“Eat ye to gain magic,” Nyota said with a grim nod. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I understand… Let’s see… I’m a zebra who grew up in Takha. My dad is a zebra, my mom is an Earth Pony from Carriagebridge. But I consider myself a zebra since I grew up in Zebrica.”

I blinked tilting my head slightly. Carriagebridge? The old world city which had been leveled during the last Thaumaturgy War? If her universe was similar to ours, and ponies rebuilt there after that war, and the land was still cursed, then I might have just found the answer to her stallions physique.

I also had a serious question to ask incase I was being very, very rude…

I cleared my throat nervously. “Pardon my interruption, but in my world, Carriagebridge is a small town built on the ruins of a cursed city. Is that the same for you?”

Nyota nodded. “Aye,” she confirmed. “An I imagine if it’s cursed in your world that the curse is probably the same too. Did an evil archmage try to mess up ponies living there so they couldn’t have foals, wound up increasing the rate of birth defects by a lot instead?”

It was my turn to nod. “Yes, that’s true of our world too,” I said apologetically, if this much was the same, most ponies born there likely suffered the same affliction as in ours. “You don't look like you were conjoined, or are deformed in any obvious way… That leaves the most common one. Just so I’m not being rude, are you a mare or do you have an intersex condition?”

Nyota smirked. “Twilight, only one in fifty or so ponies born to parents who lived in Carriagebridge are normal. And I’m trapped on an island full of super monsters. So ye know I’m not lucky.”

“Ah,” I said with a short nod. “My I ask what particular condition you have? Also, you seem fairly tomfillyish. Do you style yourself as a stallion or a mare?”

“Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. I don’t want to go into details, all you need to know is I ‘style’ myself as myself,” Nyota said in a rather firm tone of voice. “Medically, I’m a mix. But I am female, get it? Though I do have a few stallions traits, but hey, lots of mares do.

“And sure, some of my Tribemates call me a guy, and that’s cool. I don’t mind because it’s more of a battle brother type of thing. Just don’t call me ‘they’ like Camo does, that’s extremely de-equinizing even if appropriate for his culture.

“I’m a girl, just another one of the mutants from Carriagebridge as far as I care.”

The way she said the word ‘mutants’ was fairly upbeat. I could tell that she knew she was abnormal, but completely fine with that. Even a bit proud. You had to respect that.

“Neat,” I said with arms crossed, after a moment’s thought.

Nyota blinked. “That’s it? Most people have more of a reaction… I uh… I kind of expected some disgust…” She said in an odd mixture of happiness, distress, and regret.

“You have an uncommon medical condition which is basically just a few extra, or oddly formed, internal body parts, and maybe a bit of weird shaping of one particular external part. Unlike, say, those poor ponies born with an extra leg or head. That’s nothing to be disgusted over,” I explained with a small flick of my tail. “Is it alright if I call you a mare? I know what you said before but I just want to be completely sure.”

“Yeah, go right ahead. I don’t mind,” she chuckled. “All of that aside, uh, do you want to hear the rest of what I was going to tell you, or have you made up your mind?”

I looked up at the sun. It was starting to tint orange. Nocturnal predators were probably waking up right now.

“Um… Can I get a short version?” I asked hopefully.

She nodded. “My accent is because my father worked two jobs to support us while I grew up. My mom taught me how to speak so I learned her accent. I can turn it off, but that takes effort so I just don’t.

“I’m an engineer by trade. I attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns to learn enchanting thanks to an exchange student program. I actually was in a few basic classes with ‘ye’ for a few years. I graduated, went to a secondary school and learned mechanical engineering. Zebrica is less focused on traditional architecture and arcane development than Equestria, we use plenty of machines. I wanted a nice job to help support my family.

“I graduated with my degree in technoarcana, and while looking for a job I decided to apply to a SkyTech factory in Neighpone. I’ve always loved to travel, and hey, who doesn't want to work on mechs? I already told ye how that wound up going… But I got here because the ship’s purser lost my letter of acceptance, and some system bug meant the receptionist at the factory couldn’t pull up their copy. So no job till my mom could mail a copy to me, and SkyTech hires in the spring and autumn exclusively for… Reasons. So I had to get a summer job.

“Now I’m here.”

I nodded, taking it all in. She sounded like a fairly normal pony. Loved her family, liked to travel, hard working. A good person by anypony’s standards.

“Okay, I’ve got an idea of what kind of person you are… Sorry for having to ask it’s just-”

Nyota shook her head. “Don’t apologize. I get it. The first tribe I joined killed me in my sleep to take my kit, then banished me,” she grumbled. “I haven't seen another pony in… Well, in a lifetime. I don’t want to hurt ye. I’d like to be yer friend.”

“Of course we can be friends,” I said with a smile. “Um, one last question. You said that there were two other ponies here. I was told that Starswirl and Clover the Clever were banished here too. Is that who you were talking about? Where are they? Why haven't you talked to them?”

“They are here,” she confirmed with a sad sigh. “Well, not here here. They are on the Center. It’s another habitat in the ARK system. But we could travel there eventually. I haven't seen them because Starswirl took over a huge chunk of that ARK and is running it like a micronation. It’s… Well it’s very hard to get permission to go into the Beastfolk’s home base if you’re not one of them.

“The Center is home to some of the worst tribes. So they don’t trust anyone. And before ye ask, this body I’m in right now, yeah it’s my original one. But um, I just got it back today. The portal I took here messed me up, Red stuck me into a human body because I was dying. He just managed to fix it up a few days ago. So everyone here except my Tribemates think I’m a human, not a pony.”

“I believe you,” I said after a moment’s thought.

After all, they made me part human for whatever reason. So them transforming a dying pony to save her life made sense to me.

Something growled in the jungle, making the fur on the back of my neck stand up.

“Uh, so, how about we be roommates now?” I asked nervously looking over my shoulder into the jungle.

Nyota giggled. “I’d love that! Also that was a Moschops. They are harmless. Friendly even. I used to have one as a pet. Come on, let's go before the Troodons decide it’s time to hunt. We don’t want to tangle with them…”

I nodded and quickly ran into my hut, grabbing my notes on my AUV and then going back outside. Nyota turned and started to jog up the hill towards the cliff and the distant house on the hill.

“We can make it safely if we jog. If we get caught out when the sun kisses the horizon, I’ll toss ye a pistol just incase. Ye can shoot, right?” She asked, looking over her shoulder.

I nodded. “Kinda, yeah.”

“Cool, stay close, okay?” She asked as she put on a bit more speed.

I smiled as I ran along behind her. Her ‘jog’ being what I would consider a run. With a good friend’s help, life here would definitely not be as bad as it had been.

Author's Note

Patron of the Week: mustangdrew4

5 - The Basics

Ayna Trigger - 7th of Solarus, 17 EoH

Royal Pavilion, Trottingham - Equestria

The pony body I wore for business meetings was a bit itchy today. Perhaps I’m an odd changeling, but I have always hated shapechanging for the sake of disguise. Shifting should be used for fun, feeding, and amusing others. Not placating fears.

But I’d been a unicorn mare with similar coloration to my brother’s burnt orange and electric blue palate when I started doing business with Equestria, and so I had to use it every time. If only to be recognised as Ayna Trigger, chief executive engineer of SkyTech’s affiliate arcane R&D company.

The “pony” who got assigned to building the doorway for Twilight to come back through. After all, that was a job for a Wizard. Not an Engineer. Good thing I was both of those things.

Princess Celestia knew of my true identity, and recognised me in my natural form. However, the guards stationed at the Royal Pavilion erected within the grounds of Trottingham National Park as a temporary capital had no idea what I looked like. Tensions were high with the recent war, and the upsurge in lawlessness which followed thanks to the government being in a bit of a mess.

For as long as I remained in the arcanely reinforced white-silken portable throne room of a tent, I had to remain in this shape. And it was itchy, I’d probably put it on incorrectly when I’d shifted this morning. To make my own frustration worse, Celestia was understandably, but irritatingly, ignoring what I was saying out of desperation. Twilight’s absence was plaguing her, even worse than Shining, much to my surprise.

“It’s the Mage’s Library, Miss Trigger,” Celestia protested, her ears flicking down for a moment. “It has to have what we need.”

“I’m sorry, but there isn’t a book on locating known entities outside of our universe in the Library,” I apologised for the third time.

Celestia shook her head in disagreement, a look of complete rejection on her face. “That simply can’t be true! There must be a book on multiversal travel within the Mage’s Library. You’re their foremost expert on portals, you have to know where it would be.”

I didn’t blame Celestia for being upset. It had been just over a month since Twilight was banished and next to no progress had been made. As one should expect when undertaking a task which could be described as ‘Locate the correct card within this infinitely large pile of cards.’

Drastic measures had to be taken. I would need to rant a bit. I hated saying more than a few sentences at a time to non-friends. It felt… Anti-natural.

“Celestia,” I began with a weary sigh, steepening my hooves together on the table. “I am not speaking to you as a foreign diplomat to a monarch. I am not speaking to you as a friend of your sister to an acquaintance. I am not speaking to you mare to mare. I am speaking to you as a Library Wizard to a Wizard whose membership is honorary and who does not serve the Library.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Very well, say your peace,” she said, giving me the greenlight for the rant by shifting position, taking on a more ‘willing to listen’ stance.

Well, at least she wasn’t too worried to understand that I was trying to say something important.

“The Mage’s Library is has operated continuously since the very beginning of recorded history, five thousand, one hundred, and ninety seven years ago,” I began, using the fact to pretend I was giving a lecture and not talking to an individual. “There is no question of that fact. The first Library Wizards are the ones who started writing history down in the first place. You are correct in that this has made the Library a very sizable collection of knowledge, one which seemingly possesses an answer for every problem. That notion is absurd.

“But I do understand that common belief. The Library is ancient, and fast. It’s one thousand, two hundred, and ninety eight years older than you, Celestia. Our goal has remained the same for that entire time, for all of recorded history. Seek out all books within the known world, copy them, and store them within the Library. This is a boon, and also a bane.

“The Quest for Knowledge has been taken so seriously that for thousands of years, any traveler coming into Trottingham would be searched for books, which would be confiscated, copied, and then returned. A tradition ended a mere two thousand six hundred years ago when one of our members attempted to copy your diary. That tradition was just one of dozens of different programs.

“Even to this day, we send archeologists, diplomats, and business mares all over the world in search of books and artifacts to add to the Library’s collection. Just as we have done since the very beginning. On top of that, for the last thousand years, upon your own request, we have also performed our own research, and funded expeditions into the world to examine all forms of curiosities and anomalies.

“Are you beginning to understand the problem, Celestia?”

Celestia shook her head twice. “No, I don’t. It still sounds like there is an excellent chance of finding what we need within the Mage’s Library,” she said with a steadfast determination born of a deeply seated need for hope.

Again.

I closed my eyes for a moment. I could taste her fear, distress, and desperation for hope. Such negative emotions are among the least pleasant flavors any changeling is likely to have the misfortune of coming into contact with.

I hated to close this avenue for her. I really did. But time spent on hope for the sake of one’s feelings is time that is wasted.

I am a Wizard, not a Doctor. I do not treat symptoms. I solve the problems which cause them.

Celestia, Shining, my own feelings, and anyone else’s feelings about Twilight’s absence were irrelevant. We needed to rescue her, not do something which will make us feel better while wasting her time, as that approach is ultimately futile.

“Alright, then allow me to continue explaining myself,” I said after a second spent summoning the will to continue talking in depth. “The miraculously uninterrupted process of acquiring any and all forms of knowledge possible has resulted in what very well may be the single largest library in the world, just as you imagine it to be. So large that the is serviced by a dedicated live in staff who preserve and copy decaying works, resulting in many of the books within the Library being the only copy remaining in the world.

“For the last two thousand years, simply out of the necessity of keeping the artifacts and knowledge we have curated safe, our process for obtaining a library card is so strict, lengthy, and robust that merely having a card is counted as having a masters degree in General Wizardry. Honestly, it should be equivalent to a Doctorate, as we require each member to familiarize themselves with a large selection relevant to their field as the final test.

“In order to possess my Library Card, I had to read and memorize sixty eight books on divination, and translocation. I had to prove that I knew the entire section of the library dealing with that knowledge like the flats of my hooves. At this point, three decades later, I am aware of all nine hundred and seventy one volumes within the ‘active use’ and ‘up to date’ part of divination and translocation section, and have some knowledge of the uncountable out of date, subsumed, and otherwise no longer useful books which are stored in the archives.

“I am telling you all of this, because I believe that with your strenuous workload, worrying about Twilight’s well being, and having not been inside the Library for three thousand years, that you have forgotten exactly what the Mage’s Library is. With your memory refreshed, let me rephrase my answer.”

I paused for a moment to take one quick breath. I was almost done. Yay!

“It is possible. The Library may have a volume detailing a means of locating known entities within other universes,” I explained, hoping that this time, by reminding her of just how unknowably vast the Library was, she might give up the idea of wasting time on searching for a probably-non-existent-needle in a haystack. “As the Library’s foremost expert in portals, and as a wizard who specializes in divination, I have not read any such work in my thirty years of Membership, nor has any such book been called to my attention.

“One could exist, this is true, but finding it within the ancient labyrinthine archives will take just as long as finding Twilight without its guidance, if not longer, simply because if it exists, it is not within the Divination and Transportation section and is therefore misshelved, lost, or a subsection within a volume on another subject, again, assuming it exists at all.

“Locating that book would take years, the services of many dedicated ponies, and could potentially require spelunking equipment, as the cave system beneath the Library has been used to store books during periods of overflow and there’s no way all of them have been retrieved from the caves. It will genuinely be faster to rediscover the knowledge ourselves than to check for a book in the Library which isn’t already on the shelf in the relevant section.”

Celestia gave me a skeptical look. “It can’t possibly be that bad,” she disagreed.

My eyes narrowed in irritation. This was like trying to headbut through a brick wall made with plasteel bricks welded together. Without shapeshifting into a Diamond Dog.

“Do you recall what my brother did for the steel industry?” I asked.

Celestia nodded. You didn’t exactly forget when someone arranged for the successful automation of an entire industry.

“Seven years ago, he offered to digitize the archives as a birthday present since I could not locate a book I needed, and KNEW for a fact existed. To this date, it’s the only time he’s ever gone back on his word, at least for now. I do not blame him in the slightest. He said he’d do it without having ever been there before.

“It would easily take a millennium to fully catalogue the Library, WITH the technological solutions he could come up with. And several more to create a digital copy of all its contents,” I stated as flatly and honestly as I could.

It was Celestia’s turn to sigh in frustration. She leaned forwards in her seat, hunching down to try and look at me on my eye level.

“Why are you so dead set against this plan? I feel that it’s the fastest way to bring Twilight back to us. There’s almost always at least a sign to point the way. We don’t need anything big, I’m not looking for a Guide to Your Neighboring Universes. We only need something small, something simple, a way to track objects across dimensions. Certainly some obscure wizard discovered something! There’s been so many of them across so much time,” Celestia protested almost pleadingly.

“I don’t want to waste Twilight’s time,” I answered. “I have no confidence that your plan will work, though I do admit there’s a very slight chance of there being such a book. There’s a much greater chance that I’ll be able to reverse engineer the magics behind the book used to banish her. Because I have, to a small extent.”

Celestia blinked in shock. “Why didn’t you say so!?” She demanded, her eyes narrowing to glare daggers at me.

“You asked me to come here and listen to your proposal for an avenue this project might take. You did not ask me for a status update on the project,” I exclaimed with a confused frown and tilt of my head.

I could never understand people… They asked for a thing, I gave them that thing. If you wanted something else, why didn’t you ask for it?

Celestia took a deep breath, her gaze softening. “I’m sorry, Ayna. I forgot about your eccentricities. You are right, I am under a good deal of stress right now. I could really use some good news, please tell me what you’ve discovered.”

“I have managed to map the geometry of the portal opening, and the trigger mechanism for opening it,” I informed. “This will allow me to safely handle the book without activating its magics, making a more detailed examination possible. I am sorry that this has taken nearly a month to accomplish. Hard stuff is hard.

“A further development: I requested all dimensional Travelers come to my office to assist me in gathering information on means of travel. While it is true that SkyTech has two means of dimensional travel available, one of them is a broken teleporter which frankly is useless as its destination is random, and the other is useless for Twilight as it requires infrastructure on each end of the ‘tunnel’ to operate.

“The interviews bore fruit. I have learned of six different theoretical methods to breach the dimensional walls. Two of them I am confident I can utilize given enough time. More importantly, I have determined that two of the known extra-dimensional travelers within Equestria have been outside our multiverse entirely.

“One of them, a mare by the name of Derpy Hooves, just so happens to travel using the same arcane system as the book to travel herself. She has volunteered her services as an expert in D’ni books. While this book is written in a dialect she is unfamiliar with, according to her, trap books are written intentionally poorly. We are working to ‘crack it’ so to speak.”

“That’s excellent news!” Celestia exclaimed with a truly joyous smile. “How long will that take, and what will it achieve?”

Oh boy… Another answer which required a lot of talking. I really wish I didn’t have these social hangups.

“We can’t use the book to travel ourselves as it is unstable. Intentionally so,” I began with a shaky smile. “That portal is one way and has very odd properties. This knowledge comes from Derpy. Trapped books are designed to strand someone in a random universe, as such they strip those who use them of all possessions, dumping them out randomly into a universe with not a single thing to help them. This is because a D’ni author could escape imprisonment by having tucked a pencil and sheet of paper into their shoes.

“Using the book would strip us of any tools and materials taken to construct a return gate. Instead, we must crack the book and find out which multiverse its one way portal leads to. Then we must construct a means of scanning that multiverse, and toss random bits of junk into the portal while ‘scanning’ to see where it goes in order to find the specific universe in that ‘family’ where Twilight is.

“Assuming we hit a few roadblocks, and I believe we will, we should be ready to start scanning within a month, and will likely know where she is within three months, and can then begin to plan a serious rescue attempt. Of course, things may go faster. I prefer to prepare for worst case scenarios.”

After all, when you do that you’re ether always satisfied at having been correct, or pleasantly surprised.

Celestia’s eager nod brightened up the pavilion's emotional dimness as much of her desperation evaporated. The sudden lack of intense negative emotion being generated a meter from my nose did wonders for my mood as well.

Up until now, this conversation had been the equivalent of trying to hold a conversation with a huge pile of rotting dung sitting between you and the person you were talking to. One you couldn’t do anything about.

“Then we will see her return inside of three months?” Celestia asked me hopefully.

I shook my head gently, not wanting to upset her again. “No. We’ll probably see it within four months. We will be able to properly start a search and rescue mission within three months. We will naturally have to spend some time looking for her on the other side, and dealing with any problems which have arisen due to her being where she is.

“To go back to your book plan, we might finish searching one section of the archive within that same timeframe.” I finished.

“How many sections are there?” Celestia asked curiously, clearly now understanding that I hadn't been exaggerating earlier.

“No one person knows,” I laughed. “Not even the Head Librarian. And well, sh-”

“She’s a dragoness who hoards books, and the reason the Library exists in the first place,” Celestia said with a soft smile. “I know that much.”

I nodded. “Exactly,” I agreed. “I would very much like to return to work now, if that’s alright with you. While I am a realist when it comes to the timeframe, I also want her back sooner rather than later.”

Celestia nodded once more. “Yes, please! Keep me informed of all progress, I want personal reports once per week,” she ordered.

“Of course,” I agreed. “I will keep you informed of all significant progres. Now, if you'll excuse me, good day, your majesty.”

After giving Celestia a polite bow, I turned around, sliding out of my chair, then cast a quick spell on the pavilion's door. My spell took effect as I pushed the silver inlayed maple door open. Instead of leading out into the Guard Encampment within the National Park, the door opened into my laboratory in Phoenix.

The question for today was how would I take such a trivial thing as this spell and open a door for Twilight?

Twilight Sparkle - Day 4

The Machine Shop, South Jungle - The Island

Something smelled like grits. I never thought that a food which amounted to corn dust, water, and some salt could smell this good.

I sat up, bed creaking beneath me, eyes opening at the familiar sound, prompting a moment of confusion as I took in my surroundings.

I was sitting inside a room the size of my cabin, but with twice the height. Half the ceiling above me sloped downwards, and was a thick glass skylight, allowing the room to be lit with the warm light of dawn. The light glinted off the gold tinted metallic walls. They weren't painted, the metal itself held the color, and from heat discoloration by my best guess.

The walls had been tempered, and done so with a perfectly even heat to give each plate making up the walls a nice golden, straw color. That could not have been quick or easy to do.

Nor could the floors. The floors were a dyed light, earthy brown, rubber coated steel. The room’s door was a dark blue, kinda ripply, water-like yet opaque ‘screen’ with an interlocking hexagon pattern. The walls had pictures hung on them, photographs mostly, along with a few paintings. Landscapes, shots of a few creatures, all amature, but nice.

I was sitting on a metal bedframe. A fairly military-industrial looking affair, but it had a thick quilt, a soft spring mattress, and a great pillow. Sir Hoppyfox had a little bed too, though it was clearly just a nest made by smooshing a pile of towels to shape set beside the desk and locker on the opposite wall.

All in all, a very nice room. Hadn’t I spent the night in a grass hut?

I facepalmed, the last of my grogginess evaporating just a moment after asking myself that question.

I’d made a friend. She had a house. A very nice one. I’d gotten a tour last night.

And she’d cooked me an awesome meal, which meant that smell was more food that was not only nutritious, but delicious, and wouldn’t give me the runs!

I scrambled out of bed and crossed the room to the door, wondering how you opened the quasi-forcefield. The door dissolved as I drew near with a faint hum, leaving only the doorway, and letting in much more of the delicious breakfast smell!

The door opened up into a small, sunken half basement thing. The room I’d been given was a bit out of the way, stuck behind a sort of planning room with a map and table, along with access to the home’s generator and a door labeled ‘shield systems’.

To my right up a short ramp was a ginormous machine which I think Nyota said built things. That thing seriously took up half the interior space of her house. The two doors up the ramp to my left led to the rest of the house.

I walked to the left, jumping slightly as the door to my room rematerialized behind me. The sound that made was… I don't know. Not scary but, it still made the fur on your neck tingle.

As I walked towards the garage, which oddly enough was the house’s only entrance, I began to hear snatches of a conversation.

“No, I’m not cooking for her just ‘cause she’s hot,” Nyota rebuked dismissively.

Something growled quietly, almost as if in response.

“Well, aye, she is. But but even if she wasn’t, she’d deserve a good breakfast before the day's work!” Nyota objected.

I stopped walking, blushing lightly as I realized that my friend thought I was attractive. Based on what she was saying, that wasn’t motivating her to do anything, but every mare likes to know ponies think she looks nice.

Of course, the real question is who was she talking to? Did she have a radio or some other means of communication? Nyota had said she was a part of a tribe, they had to have some way of talking to one another.

I walked up the ramp to the door, the blue semi-solid structure dissolving to allow me through.

The faint hiss returned, this time louder, and with the slight growl I’d heard from the monstrous lizards outside accompanying the hiss. My eyes flicked fearfully around the garage, peering through the piles of old machine parts and equipment, eventually spotting Nyota next to a large cooking pot in the small alcove on the garage's right side.

She still had on the same olive cargo pants and black boots from last night, but had taken her vest off, leaving her chest bear. This was a problem because all of her equipment attached to her vest. And I also saw the massive pitch and mulberry colored, bipedal lizard-monster standing just a few steps behind her, its tail swishing back and forth eagerly!

“Quiet, ye,” Nyota laughed nervously. “Hey, Twilight? Is that you? I heard a door.”

“Um… Y-yes,” I whispered nervously, my ears falling flat. “There’s one of the big lizards behind you!”

“That’s just Razor, she’s a friend,” Nyota called soothingly. “Do you have any animal empathy spells? Cast one, she’s a person.”

The lizard turned around, sniffing at the air for a half second before one eye fixed on me. I felt my heart speed up worriedly, then the creature lifted one of its small three fingered hands and waved as best as its range of motion would allow.

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. Some of these creatures ware sapient?!

Drawing upon my magic, I cast the same simple spell I had used with the crocodile the other day. I felt the spell limp its way to completion, and winced realizing I would need to practice it more. Especially if I could negotiate with some of the creatures here.

WIth the spell active, I did my best to smile at the terrifying looking creature. “H-hello?” I ask-greeted, as Pinkie called it.

You shouldn’t fear me. Brightly colored creatures are poisonous. I don't get to come back after dying. So I won't eat you, Razor ‘said’ with a friendly sounding clicking-hiss.

I blinked, completely floored by the unmistakably person level thoughts the spell was translating. “Oh, um… That’s good!” I said through the surprised stupor.

Admittedly, ponies were toxic to most other creatures. Or at least, our meat was, since our muscle tissues used iocane as a bonding agent. But a large number of creatures were pretty much immune to iocane poisoning, and could eat us. Which is why we called them monsters.

I didn’t want to tell Razor that. Just incase that was the only thing keeping me alive.

Nyota laughed. “I can almost hear your surprise,” she snickered. “How good’s your spell? My talent lets me hear her ‘speech’ just like anyone else.”

“I’m getting person-type thoughts,” I clarified, taking a few steps forwards as Razor turned back to face the cooking pit, tongue flicking eagerly. “S-so um, how did you two become friends? Did she not want to eat you because of your colors too?”

No, Razor replied with a chuff. I ate her, and her equipment dropped like any non-dino. I knew she would come back for it so I waited because I was still hungry. She came back, naked, and kicked me in the nose. So I bit her in the thigh. So she punched me in the face. Then I clawed her stomach open, she died, and I ate her again.

“And that pissed me right the buck off because I’d died two times in one day, and that was my first death in a decade and a half. A new record,” Nyota continued, still working the cooking pot. “So I went back again, and this time came in from behind and landed a roundhouse kick right in her spine from behind. Which pissed her off because I’d managed to sneak up on her, so she cuts my left leg open with a back-kick.

“Now I can’t run or fight to effectively, so I get up into a boxing stance and give her a haymaker as she turned around that laid her out cold for a few seconds. When she came to, she was pretty damn impressed with my punch.”

I respect her for it. We’re friends now! Razor chirped, turning and kind-of-but-not-quite smiled at me.

“Yeah,” Nyota said with a smile. “I needed a new mount, and she likes giving people rides. I asked if she would work with me in exchange for food, and she said no because she can get it on her own. That’s where she was last night, if you were wondering. Out picking up some meat for us to share, and making sure that those assholes across the swamp know I’m back in my yard.”

They taste like poop unless Nye cooks them for me, Razor explained.

“Oh,” I said, walking around the junk pile a bit apprehensively.

Razor might be friendly now… But that story made it abundantly clear she was just fine with killing and eating other people. Which admittedly, any sapient carnivore would likely be just fine with that. Especially in a world where that kind of prey would just come back to life a moment later.

I froze mid step. ‘Unless she cooks them for me’. “Um, s-so are you cooking…”

“Mmmhm, I’d rather not, but she hates to waste meat... Razor ambushed a few of Charlie’s coming into my yard, and they carrying a LOT of C4. They’re all pissy again. Don’t fret over it, I know how to scare them off. If I don’t scare the shit out of those assholes with some slasher movie level stuff, they will launch daily raids against us, stalk us while we travel, do their best to get in here and kill any creatures we’ve tamed,” Nyota sighed bitterly. “Look, I know how this looks, and it bothered me at first too, but honestly, other survivors are more dangerous than any predators. Ye need to use whatever tactics you can to keep them at bay.”

I nodded, grimacing slowly. “Um, okay… I can see why you might scatter pieces. But why cook and eat them? That’s… That’s just-”

Nyota doesn't eat them! I do. It’s just meat. It’s not like they stay dead. They already have more meat. Besides, if I don't eat the parts of them I didn’t scatter near their nest it would just rot and be wasted, Razor elaborated with a chuffing laugh. But they taste very bad, might kill me if eaten raw, and I can’t use the cooking pot, or open spice jars without breaking them. So she helps me, like a good friend. You are a herbivore, yes? I can see how this could be disgusting to you. But I need to eat too, and I already killed this meat. Why waste it?

I nodded, definitely disgusted, but now understanding of the situation. “Um, just a bit. But I think I understand. The only really gross part is that um… Whatever’s in that pot smells… Uh, good. And the thought of an equine cooking sapient creatures is kinda… Yeah,” I explained ears completely flattened.

Razor held her ‘hands’ out to me and wiggled her claws, frowning sadly. Nye keeps saying she will make me gloves that will help me use her things, but she never does.

“Sorry, just been too busy with the move. I’ll start work on those today,” Nyota apologised. “In less distressing news, that good smell is yer breakfast. I made it five minutes ago. In a different cooker. Grits, with redwood syrup. Eat up, ye’ll need it!”

“Oh!” I said with a relieved smile, turning my head to look for the table, eventually spotting a wooden bowl filled with a thick orangey yellow pudding-like goop which looked more appetizing than it should.

I stepped over to the table and picked up the bowl, deciding to eat while standing since there wasn’t a chair in sight.

“I’m glad you didn’t use the same pot,” I admitted, wanted to be as honest as I could.

That was important when starting a new friendship.

“I have to. Charlie’s Boys are… Well, ye know how a normal organic creature is about sixty percent water? Well, those guys are fifty percent water, ten percent residual drugs,” Nyota grumbled in disgust. “So this pot is just for cooking the poison out of things.”

“Woah, woah, hold up a second!” I said, nearly dropping the bowl. “Is that exaggeration, or actual fact?”

I hadn't been able to tell by her tone of voice at all.

“It might as well be serious,” Nyota grumbled. “Ye can use their blood as an effective poison for anything half your size. Except for Troodons, of course. They are a bunch of scum who found out how to make drugs in here and spend most of their time stoned out of their minds, then snort a bunch of stims when Charlie yells at them to go attack something.

“It’s why fear works against them best. They are already twitchy, jumpy, and their minds will take the first sign of danger and amp it up to eleven.”

I felt my jaw drop. “H-how are they even alive?” I asked of reality itself.

“They die from overdoses a lot. Problem is there’s about a hundred of them in that village, so there’s always a good squad ready to go,” Nyota sighed. “Don't worry, the other tribes here are at least sane, even if most are hostile.”

My ears perked up at the ‘good’ news. “Oh! So you only need to do this for the one group? Does everyone else do it too?” I asked curiously.

Nyota shrugged. “A few others might. But most people living near them don't live on their own. They have friends. Razor and I are alone up here, normally. That’s why my Tribemates and I are moving, to unify our individual bases into one large keep. For the two of us, the way we keep our house is by making sure Charlie thinks both of us are terrifying predators. Especially since she’s always wanted my land for herself. Controlling an obelisk is very useful, especially for raiders.

“We can go over the local Tribes and how to deal with them another day. Razor and I have a lesson plan ready to go for you as soon as you're done eating… Or if you’re uncomfortable with it, I got a big bin of thatch and fiber. You can spend the day making it into hats, since crafting things will make your survivor level increase much faster.”

I nodded and started to eat. The girts tasted very good, but I was still a little queasy from the morning’s discovery. Though I really couldn’t fault Razor for doing what she did. And presumably what she was designed to do. Especially since she didn’t hurt her friends, only her enemies, and used a ‘waste not’ mentality.

“What’s the plan?” I asked after a few large mouthfuls.

Nyota nodded to herself, and waved her implant over the cooking pot, a moment later conjuring a large wooden trough full of meat that I choose not to look at for Razor to dig into. With her friend’s meal served, Nyota turned around and leaned up against the cooking pot, crossing her arms over her chest while she looked at me critically.

“First, what did ye do? To Charlie, I mean,” she asked suspiciously.

“Um… Well, when Camoflauge was leading me over here she ambushed us and I shot her mount,” I said after doing my best to recall the last few days. “Why is that important?”

Nyota groaned. “Her albino pterodactyl?” She asked uneasily.

“Oh… That was a rare creature, wasn’t it?” I asked with a wince.

Nyota nodded. “Mhm. The only reason her Boys would come here with enough C4 to breach the wall is she’s pissed, more so than normal, and I haven’t done jack to her. It had to have been you. She loves her petra, it’s probably the only thing she’s ever loved. She’ll want yer head… But it’s fine, I can deal with it,” Nyota said as she stood up, stretching her arms, a few of her joints popping as she moved.

“Oh! Camo also gave me her gun!” I added, wondering if that would be important.

Nyota’s palm smashed into her face so hard I swore I heard something crack. “Gods dammit, Camo!” Nyota shouted through her palm.

“What?” I asked, ears drooping worriedly.

“There are advanced tricks you can do after you learn the basics of the Engram system,” Nyota began, pacing as if giving a lecture.. “One of them allows you to create non-engram items, as well as customize them. When you do this, those items leave the system and can no longer be stored digitally. They become permanent. This has it’s perks and drawbacks.

“I’ll show you how to do it in good time, but for now, all you need to know is that revolver was scratch made by hand. Anything you make like that is going to be very, very special to you, even if it’s a total piece of crap. Do you still have her gun?”

I shook my head no. “I um, I lost it when I got… Eaten.”

“Ah,” Nyota said with a sympathetic nod. “Well, at least you’re aware of how death works here… Downside, ye’ve made an enemy out of one of the nastiest people here. But it’s fine. She just needs to know that ye’re under my protection, and I need to remind her why messing with me isn’t a good idea.

“Which means I am going to be busy today. I knew I would be ever since last night. So Razor and I talked it over and we decided that if you could understand her, she would be your teacher for today.”

I turned to look at Razor, deciding to be polite to the friendly murder-machine. “What will you be teaching me?” I asked, also wanting to know exactly what the lesson would be.

People like you use non-people dinosaurs, and other creatures, for many things. You need to know what they are, and how to feed them. Once tamed, most carnivores do not hunt on their own, the wimps! Razor grumbled irritably, cracking her tail in genuine anger.

I tilted my head to one side, a confused frown parting my lips. “This is probably a silly question, but why would I want to tame a predator? I don't plan on eating meat, and the only thing I can think of which one would be good for is-”

“Being a swift mount which can take down large creatures with relative ease,” Nyota began, speaking as if reciting a list. “Protect your home while you sleep, helping you clear caves to acquire the artifacts needed to create the more advanced gear, provide access to areas you can't reach on your own which contain resources you’ll need if you want to be safe and also have a fighting chance against hostile tribes-”

“Okay, I understand… But is that worth the risk of keeping something that would be trying to eat me normally around? Um, no offense, Razor,” I said, giving Razor a quick look.

Why would I be offended by ignorance? Tamed creatures love their masters. They will never harm their masters. Razor explained with a clicky-hiss. You will need to know how to tame creatures to do the things you can not. Prey is easy, you simply get it food, and it’s food is everywhere. For creatures like me, you must do the same, but the kill must be fresh.

I will take you around the jungle, and show you the creatures living here, how to track them, how best to hunt them, and what they can do for you if tamed. Nye says you are very smart. I don't think I can make you an average hunter in less than a week, but I think I can teach you how to recognise prey and predators in one day.

But it will be all day, and you will be running a lot. I do not walk in the jungle. It is beneath me.

I nodded, eagerly in fact. “That actually seems like one of the more important things to learn! Even if I don’t end up taming things. So creatures like you are called dinosaurs? Is that true of only bipedal lizards, or all of the lizard-like creatures here?”

“Almost all of them,” Nyota confirmed for me. “Some are just lizards. Others are technically birds.”

“Good to know,” I thanked with a polite nod, realizing I was about to be shown the differences and therefore didn’t need to ask how to tell the groups apart. “I guess I’m all ready to go then.”

Razor chuffed, the sound not translating back into any word. Prompting me to frown. Had the spell worn off so soon? It should last for half a day or so...

Nyota frowned as well, tilting her head slightly. “Hey, Razor, I don’t think she got that,” she prompted.

Razor blinked turning her head to center one eye on me. I said, she repeated, making the same sound, which just didn’t translate at all.

“Um, I think there’s a few holes in my spell. Which makes sense. I didn’t exactly perfect it,” I admitted with a light blush. “Nyota, what is she saying?”

“It’s the raptor equivalent to, oohrah! Ye know, that military grunt-cheer the Emerald Hive uses,” Nyota informed, turning to start picking through one of the piles of junk. “You two have fun. I need to rewire sixty some odd detonators.”

“Alright,” I agreed, moving to take another bite of breakfast before it got too cold. “I guess I’m pretty much ready to-”

Let’s go! We’re wasting sunlight, Razor hissed, gently bumping me with her nose, pushing me towards the door.

I hadn’t finished eating yet, but I wasn’t going to argue with her…

Twilight Sparkle- Day 4 (late evening)

South Jungle - The Island

Razor was a great teacher, and a terrifying teacher.

On one hoof, there was no way anyone else could have shown me all the little details that she could simply because of what she was. My vision wasn’t as good, and she understood that, but she still showed me how to recognize game markings from about six meters, and how to compare that to a list of scents to tell exactly what creature had made it, and how long ago.

She also went out of her way to capture samples of everything, running back with a random creature, tell me it’s name, and demand I memorize its scent.

Fortunately, I could do that. I definitely still had a pony’s nose.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do everything she wanted me too. Which was when she became a terrifying teacher. When I couldn’t pick out individual sounds from the animal call filled jungle, she’d vanished, abandoning me completely until I correctly yelled out the creature’s name.

I knew that meant she was still within earshot, but it was still terrifying to be told ‘That’s the call of a dilophosaurus. It spits into your eyes to blind you. We will now go elsewhere and you will pick out it’s call and tell me the direction it's in.’ and then get abandoned.

I hated that so much. But I had to admit it worked. Fear definitely let me focus on individual sounds better, but I wasn’t making the kind of progress Razor had wanted me to. We’d be at this for at least two more days.

That said, I did learn a LOT about the local wildlife. As I noticed the sun starting to set I remembered one moment in particular.

Razor grabbed onto my shoulder as we entered an oddly clear spot in the jungle at the base of a hill. Some ruined stone archways sat right at the base of the hill, and a small dinosaur stood just at their base, it's back to the stone, head flicking left and right, as if keeping watch.

That is a Troodon, Razor informed quietly. They are very very smart. Maybe smarter than me. During the day, they are not interested in fighting unless you get too close to them. At night, it would be running right for us even at this distance.

”So, they are very aggressive at night?” I asked worriedly.

Extremely. Their bite is also poisonous. When Nye is not busy, she will make you things to carry. There will be a little jar of bad smelling stuff. When one bites you, you drink that immediately, or you will pass out within seconds, and the Troodon will tear you apart, sharing you with any of its friends which are nearby, she warned her growls somehow sounding fearful and direly serious.

I remembered Nyota mentioning Troodons before. It was almost the same time today when she’d said they would be ‘waking up’ the other day. And we were close to that clearing we had been in earlier.

“Razor?” I said quietly. “I think that the Troodons will be hunting soon.”

Yes, they will be. I am happy you are learning, Razor praised with a high pitched chirp.

“Shouldn’t we go home?” I asked, frowning wearily as I did my best to look around for any sign of their ‘scouts’.

We should. You are not equipped to fight them. We will save that lesson for later, Razor hissed after a moment’s thought. Do you know where the house is?

I bit my lip and looked up through the trees. I could see the slight red glow of the tower through the canopy, and since Nyota’s house was uphill on a straight line path to it…

“Yes, I know where it is from here,” I answered proudly.

Good! Then your test for today is to get home. If you walk in through the door, I will tell Nyota to reward you somehow. If you wake up in your bed, there will be no prize, she said adamantly, flicking her tongue twice.

I froze, eyes widening in horror. “W-wait! You’re going to make me run home alone?! With those things out here?!?”

Yes. We are teaching you how to survive here. You need to know how to move around at night, and experience is the best teacher. I showed you what Troodons look, smell, and sound like. You need to know if you can evade and avoid them. She answered, lashing her tail.

“But I’m really new at this!” I protested. “Can't this wait another day? I could die!”

Razor rolled her eyes. I’m treating you just like I would my own hatchlings who were worth keeping. Unlike them, if you die, you keep living. The pain will be motivation to not make mistakes in the future. I told you everything you need to know. You know where the house is. Show me you learned today’s lessons.

Razor turned around and raced off into the jungle, immediately vanishing thanks to a level of speed she hadn’t shown me before.

I stood in the jungle. Alone again. But this time knowing that there absolutly were things hunting me. Or at least, that there was about to be. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. Razor was right. I needed to know how to deal with being alone in this place.

Besides, she’d left me alone a lot today. And by alone, she’d really been close by, ready to protect me. She had to be here now too.

I could do this. Maybe I could make it back home before they went out to hun-

Something chirped quietly in a bush a few meters to my left.

The Alpha just left. Horn-horse is alone now, my spell translated.

OH NO! She’d said they might be smarter than her, that meant people smart too!

I turned, scrambling to get my bearings. I needed to make a straight line for Nyota’s house, if I accidently ran for the beach…

Finaly! another chip ‘squeed’. She smells SO GOOD! She’s tagged, right?

Yes. I can see the tag. She will come back if killed, the first chirper answered.

Good! I’m sure she won't mind feeding us then, the second said happily and in a way which clearly showed it wasn’t joking. I wouldn’t.

Wait! If they were people-smart, maybe I could negotiate. Razor understood Zebrican, so maybe they would too!.

“Actually, I would really prefer if you didn’t eat me!” I called in the direction of the chirping.

I wonder what she just said, A Trodoon chirped.

Probably calling for the Alpha. She’s been afraid every time it’s left her alone today, the scout answered. Is Chipfang in the pack tonight? She says she can understand human.

Nope…

I spun on my left heel, dug my foot as deep into the ground as I could for traction, and took off sprinting for the dull red glow of the tower.

Oop! She’s running, all talons pursue! Remember, her den has living bang-sticks on the top. Don't let them see you! Something hissed.

I ducked left to avoid a tree, my heart pounding faster as I realized the course correction cost me some speed. The dog sized lizards were fast, very fast. I couldn’t lose any speed!

I could hear the brush behind me rustle, snap, and creak as a dozen different things raced after me. The jungle seemed to reach out, slapping at my face, shoulders, and chest, the branches almost like arms trying to slow me down.

I plowed through them as best I could, the terrain slowly sloping upwards with each step. I was on the right path, but the monsters were SO CLOSE! I could hear them just a couple meters behind me, their hisses and screeches wordless cries of exhilaration and joy.

They LOVED to chase prey. They lived for it. This was a game to them.

Something shot by my left ear, a huge dark-brown and blue-green ball of scales and short fuz. It rocketed right into the trunk of a tree with a loud thump.

Ow… Ah great, my talons are stuck! It chirped in distress.

Smooth moves, Blacktip! Another of the Troodons hissed behind me.

The jungle suddenly gave way to a grassy clearing. I could see Nyota’s house and the rocky hill it sat upon just a hundred meters in front of me! All I had to do was run up the side of the hill and-

NO! No I couldn’t do that, Cam had told me there was a minefield. I had to run around the side to the ramp! Four hundred meters. I would never make that in a million years.

But I’d try anyways.

Ignoring my burning lungs and aching legs I turned to run around the hill, reaching the base of the rocky outcrop to hug it, hoping that would make it easier to find the ramp if I got near it.

A half second after I began to run along the side of the hill the night air erupted with the sound of countless thunderclaps all going off at once. The terrifying sound lent further speed to my steps! I had come from so close! What the heck was it!?

Damnit, she’s inside the place they can see! A Trodoon screeched angrily.

We’re hungry and you have infinite bodies! Another hissed angrily. Selfish jerk!

Come on… We’ll find other food, another grumbled.

What?

I stopped, turning around, seeing a pack of eight Trodoons slinking back off into the tall grass, vanishing into the night.

Well… That was terrifying. It’s going to take forever for my heart to beat normally again.

Despite the threat being apparently gone, I continued running, making my way around the hill and up the ramp. I crossed the deck in a heartbeat, moving so quickly I almost hit the massive energy-door before it dissolved, coming to a stop in the garage, immediately leaning over, to pant with exhaustion.

I must have sprinted for a whole five hundred meters… My legs were on fire!

“Are ye saying ye just left her out there at night!? What the buck, Razor!” Nyota snapped from deeper inside her house.

You said to treat her like my hatchling. So I did, Razor growled defensively. If my hatchling couldn’t make it back home after learning how to recognise danger, then it wouldn’t deserve to live.

The distinctive sound of a facepalm made my ears twitch. “Oh gods, I forgot ye are completely fixed into the survival of the fittest ideology…” Nyota moaned. “Razor, she’s a pony, not a raptor. She’ got no natural weapons. She’s not very fast, not unless we have her dump her nanite upgrades into her speed. Which we should.

“She’s a herbivore with no natural weapons. Until I get her some good weapons and armor, protect her!”

But she’ll just come back to life here in her bed! She’s not like me, I just have one life, Razor protested. Why should she care if she dies?

“Because it’s painful, and terrifying, and leaves some lasting emotional scars,” Nyota chastised. “Our bodies dying isn’t a problem, but our minds can die too… I don’t think I could explain it to you. You don’t share our psychology. Just understand that it’s possible for us to go from person to animal if put under enough stress, fear, and pain!”

Oh. That would be horrible, Razor whimpered remorsefully. I’m sorry.

“Apologize to her, not to me!” Nyota exclaimed angrily.

I walked across the garage and opened the door into the basement area. Nyota and Razor were standing next to the railing by the big machine thingie.

“I made it,” I informed wearily. “And I accept that apology, Razor. I’m going to bed now…”

I will be less… Raptory tomorrow. If you still want me to teach you, Razor hissed softly. I would understand if you did not. I did not know that fear could be dangerous for you.

“That would be nice. You’re good at it… And everyone deserves a second chance,” I mumbled, exhaustion creeping in.

After jogging all day, that sprint took what little energy I had left.

I opened my room’s door and stepped inside. “Goodnight,” I called behind me.

“Night, lass. And I’ll stay up late to get you proper armor for tomorrow. Sleep well,” Nyota promised.

The door closed behind me. I turned and fell face first onto my bed, falling asleep and instant after Sir Hoppyfox jumped up onto the bed to lay on my back.

Heh. Like a kitty.

6 - Sparks

Nyota - Day 115,350

South Jungle - The Island

People often forget that something is supposed to accompany work. Labor needs to come with leisure. If you do nothing but work, your work starts to get bad. Days off are the job performance equivalent of a good night’s sleep.

Or to put it another way: People who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport, reassemble the computer core of a device long since removed from the world from multiple scavenged parts you’ve saved.

Dicking around with machines is both work and play. Frustrating play. But play nonetheless.

Judging by how hard the front edge of my chair was digging into the backs of my thighs I had spent at least five hours on this old project today. I honestly had no real hopes of finishing it anytime soon ether. I’d been working at it off and on for the last twenty years after all. But the roughly cylindrical jumble of crystalline circuitry, optical pathways, and alloy mechanisms was almost as junked as when I’d first picked it up.

That was to be expected. The core had been salvaged from a battlefield and had three ballista bolts lodged inside it. I didn’t exactly have a blueprint, just bits from two other cores to try and puzzle things out with.

If I could fix this part, I could use my Tek Replicator to manufacture the rest of the device, and have a grand old time being awesome! For like, fifteen minutes. I had no idea how I could supply enough power for long term operation, but man those few minutes would rock!

I took a moment to just smile and lean back in my chair, just sort of basking in the comfort my cluttered garage provided. Twilight might have thought this was nothing but piles of junk, but for me, it was a playground.

Though she did have something of a point. It was a little hard to find my workbench sometimes.

That was a bit bad. A lot of my success came from things I made myself. The Engram System was designed in such a way where no one person could learn to make everything. It forced you to depend on others for what you couldn’t do yourself. That way, once you got a taste of the life technology can provide, you would look for others to help you do what you couldn’t on your own.

It forced socialization as a step towards rehabilitation.

But, like with all systems, there were tricks. Ways to exploit it. Camouflage taught me one.

‘This is the only thing I’ll show you, and if any wardens ask, you figured it out yourself, understand? And you’re only getting ONE!’ Oh you silly human. I just needed one.

I’d have worked it out on my own anyways. A few of the smarter inmates did it themselves.

A way to ‘finalize’ a device so when you make the system create it, it can't reabsorb it. It then behaves in the way that thing should, not the way the system makes it work. Meaning I could finalize a stone hatchet, and use it to actually chop wood, not merely strike wood with it until the system’s nanomachines disassembled it and credited my account. Instead, I could actually get real wood.

Or, I could get wood credits, then drop a certain amount of wood units and finalize it to get a sheet of real plywood. Or a bit of angle iron. Or some basic PCBs. Or a real workbench with a set of tools.

The Engram System could do a lot, but I was never the kind of zebra to be happy with a stock machine. Not even as a little filly. I remembered my mom telling me I carved chunks out of my first bed with a sharp bit of rock to make it ‘more awesomerist’.

Here, with the ability to gather raw materials and just ‘boop’ them into existence… Well, if I could program computers or cast an Animate Mechanicus spell, I’d be the king of this ARK.

Assuming I could power the advanced tech… But that was a resource problem! Not a me problem. Their just wasn’t any way I’d found to get a good power supply.

Which is why I was having fun tinkering with this broken computer core. The data storage device was fully intact. All the code was there. I could build my own computer around that from scratch if I really HAD to get her running. Or if I could keep it on indefinitely, like it had originally been.

But I couldn’t. So fixing it became my toy. I’d been here for what, three hundred and sixteen years now? I had every reason to take my time with things like this. When there wasn’t anything important to do at least.

Since Razor was still teaching Twilight how to be a real huntress, and since none of the tribes I’d contacted about passing through their territory to acquire the creatures we’d need to stay here long term had gotten back to me over the last week, I had nothing to really do.

At the end of her training, I’d have to show Twilight how to make the ‘Tek’ items as the uneducated dolts called the advanced systems they could acquire. To do that, she had to know how to slay the dragon. To do that, I needed to be able to supply her with a metric shiteton of ammunition.

Cuz there was no way in tartarus that I was going to give her one of my swords! It takes a lot of work to make one, especially in here. They weren't just something to give to any- Well, maybe as a wedding present.

No! Bad Nye! Don’t think like that. Be professional. You need to supply your trainee with thousands of rounds of ammunition.

To do that, I needed an Ankie and a Dodek.

To get those, we would need to travel across and into territory that other tribes owned. I prefered to ask for safe passage… But if they didn’t reply in three more days, I’d just take Twi out taming and shoot anything that got close and looked threatening. I’d rather it didn’t come to that.

Tribal warfare may not cost you your life, but it will cost you your time, resources, mental health, possibly your home… Best to ask permission first.

I shook my head to clear it and turned back to the battered computer core in front of me. I was supposed to be having fun right now! Not worrying about work things.

Right. Back to repairs. I needed to get this thing to power on. If it couldn’t power on, I couldn’t turn it off and back on again. Because that’s how you fix most computer problems. You turn it off and back on again.

It did wonders for the toaster. Also the teleporter.

Well, maybe. I still don't know if that thing has got all the bugs worked out

Back to the core, for real this time.

Despite having a small power supply connected to the appropriate lines, the system was failing to boot. I could see a few small bits of crystal glowing blue here and there in the core assembly, so power was flowing, just not to everything. The problem with this technology was its insistence on using optical linear power transfer, tracing the ‘power lines’ could be quite impossible at times, leading to a lot of trial and error.

Not a design I would use. Wireless power is all well and good, in a bubble… In a line it was pretty much useless if something rattled loose. But since this technology was designed for use by convicts in a prison of well meaning torments, I couldn’t hold that against the designers.

I reached forwards to gently turn a prism near the boost converter clockwise one degree. Maybe that wasn’t quite aligned with the converter’s receptor. The second I turned it into place my garage door dissolved with the usual twinkling sound, making me jump.

Did I just fry the door somehow?! Oh, gods damn-

“Okay, see you soon!” Twilight called cheerfully from the doorway.

Oh! She and Razor had finished the day’s lessons. Pretty early too. Twilight must have finally finished in Razor’s eyes. Good.

The two of them had started to bond over the week. Well, Razor had definitely come to treat Twilight with the same level of friendship she extended to me. Hardly surprising. She’s simple.

Twilight on the other hand was the one still getting to that point of considering her a true friend. I was glad that first day hadn’t ruined any chance of them getting along.

“Welcome back, lass,” I called from my desk, taking careful note of exactly where I had aimed the prism at with the last adjustment before turning to look at Twilight just in the to see the door shut.

“It’s nice to see you too,” Twilight said, smiling as she took off her helmet.

I had to make her a custom helmet. The Engram system wouldn’t make one which accommodated her horn. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a modified flak helmet. Simple plate steel, pretty medieval.

She’d dyed it a bright purple like the rest of her armor, and gotten me to paint her cutiemark on the breastplate. I never understood the Equestrian obsession with their marks, but at least her starburst made for a pretty cool design.

Even cooler, and cuter in my opinion, was the way Twilight had customized her helmet further. She’d gotten Razor to claw across the faceplate as deeply as she could, leaving obvious silver gouges in the purple dyed steel.

Why? Because ‘Well, fear works on Charlie’s Boys, right? I thought making it look like I’ve survived being attacked by something dangerous would help.’

The Twilight I knew back home would never have done that.

“Oh, hey,” Twilight resumed as she set her helmet on a bit of spare piping which I hadn’t had the heart to tell her wasn’t an ‘artisan coatrack’ but scrap (and cleaned) sewer pipe. “I’ve been meaning to ask why you call me ‘lass’?”

I couldn’t help but smile at the way she phrased her ‘question’.

“Oh? Well I can pencil ye in for an answer sometime next week. Do afternoon's work for you?” I teased. “How did the hunt go?”

“It went well! Razor say’s I’ve learned all that can be taught. The rest has to come from experience,” she answered with a smile. “I took out the Carnosaur that killed me two days ago! That felt good. I’d much rather kill monsters than well, you know, normal animals.

“But seriously, we’re the same age. Isn’t lass for fillies and mares younger than you? Properly speaking it’s for a mare in her thirties or early forties, but I’m actually forty eight. That’s usually not considered a young adult by ponies… Do I look younger than that?”

I tilted my head to the left, stunned as always when ponies brought up their lifespans.

Considering our halfway point on the road to Necropolis for them is a ‘young adult’. Talk about winning the biology lottery.

“Well, ye look about twenty two in terms of a zebra’s lifetime,” I answered.

Twilight’s ears drooped, her eyes widening slightly as a small frown crossed her lips. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that as a sort of boast, or a taunt. I um… I’ve only known one other zebra. I forgot you only live one century.”

I waved a hand dismissively. “Pff, that’s not even an issue Twilight. I’ve got a thicker skin than that. You won't see me getting upset over the way nature made people. I’m just saying, to me, you look pretty young. Not too young, but you look about, oh, three maybe four years younger than me when I got here.

“So I called ye lass, it’s a term of endearment really. A thing friends do.”

Twilight’s smile brightened the garage as relief washed over her. She’d genuinely not wanted to offend me. Another huge improvement over the Twilight I’d known. She’d be upset at you for getting upset over ‘simple facts of reality’.

“Well, now that you know I’m older than that, will you call me.. Um, is it hen?” She asked curiously.

I snickered, shaking my head a few times while giving her a grin. “Not a chance, lass! Ye’re not older than I am,” I teased.

“Well, how old are you?” Twilight asked as she stepped over to a large crate and pulled it out from the junk pile to sit down. “You look… About Rarity’s age. Cutting that in about half like you did to get the equivalent percentage of lifespan… Are you thirty?”

I frowned and shook my head. “No… I- I’ve been here for a very long time, Twilight. Knowing how old I am will just wind up depressing ye. And ye don’t need that today,” I answered, turning back to my project.

I didn’t like to think about it either…

“I want to know,” Twilight said sadly. “But you definitely don’t want to say, so I won't push it. I’m sorry if I made you feel sad.”

“It’s okay,” I said, accepting her apology.

The box scraped against the floor slightly while I flipped the core’s power switch. Twilight must be adjusting her position. I know I’d want to sit and rest after tangling with a carno with just a spear and some fla-

Twilight suddenly pulled me into a tight, comforting hug. It only lasted for a second, but the surprise was enough to make me completely freeze, my heart thumping away at ludicrous speed.

OHMYGODSSHE’SHUGGINGMEANDSHE’SEXACTLYTHESAMEASARCANEMOON’STWILIGHT!

Twilight let go, sitting back down with a clack of metal on wood. “Uh, s-sorry. Normally people like hugs,” she said with a nervous laugh.

“It’s fine!” I squeaked, then immediately coughed into my fist to clear my throat. “Ye just, surprised me. That’s all.”

“Okay, I’ll remember that for next time,” Twilight said cheerfully enough for me to know she was smiling despite my back being turned.

“Next time?” I asked in confusion, turning around.

Twilight nodded. “Mhm! I give all my friends hugs when they need them, and you said you were just surprised. Which means you like hugs, right?” She asked, giving me a silly grin.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, returning her grin, before quickly putting on a more professional face. “Uh, I mean that’s fine. I wouldn’t mind-”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Nyota… I know you like me. You don’t have to be awkward about it.”

I winced. Was it that obvious? Well… I suppose social skills weren't exactly something I had much time to hone out here.

“Um, well that’s actually not quite true,” I corrected. “I like the way my home dimension's version of ye looked. It’s your appearance that I like, and not really yers, but someone ye’re almost identical too.

“Physical attraction is one thing, perfectly natural. But I don't want to transfer the celebrity crush I had on her, onto ye. I also want to remain professional with our relationship, and not let my feelings for a fictional version of somepony else make me treat you differently from anypony else. Ye deserve the same fair blank slate to start from as anyone.”

Twilight’s grin turned into a serious expression I couldn’t exactly parse. Disappointment? Understanding?

“But you still think I look ‘hot’, right?” She asked in and even voice. “I need to know, for science reasons.”

… Science reasons? Was she serious? It was Twilight Sparkle, she could be serious.

I nodded. “Of course. Your body’s got everything I like in a mare, why wouldn’t I?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Wait a minute… ‘You don’t have to be awkward about it.’ My eyes widened as I realized I just might have blown a chance to go on a date!

NOOOOOO!

“I recently lost my husband,” Twilight said sadly, her ears drooping.

Oh… Okay? Where the heck was this conversation going? Away from where I’d thought, but uh… More information would be lovely.

“While I still feel that I love him, I also have a bit of a personal crisis,” she said sadly, staring at the floor. “I um, I sort of spent my entire life under some kind of mental influence spell. I have no idea what decisions I made on my own. I think that I married him of my own free will, but I can’t tell for certain. I mean, I do like stallions, and I do like orange ponies, but… I don’t think I would marry a soldier now.

“Of course, that could just be the two weeks since he passed… Maybe I want to keep away from military members in Flash’s memory. But at the same time, I don’t know if I would have married him. I definitely would have been his friend! I really did like his company.

“So I’ve decided to go on living as if that was my decision, because I was happy with him. Which means I want to respect his memory and wishes. And, believe it or not, this is related to that, but without that evil influence on me… I also like mares. I mean, I did then too, but I kept repressing that part of myself. I’d even punish myself over feelings when I had them.”

I winced, my tail raising slightly in accompaniment. “That’s pretty awful. There’s very few ways ye can mess somepony up for life that are more efficient than making them hate a part of themselves they can't change,” I sighed sadly. “I um, I guess ye’ve been using your time hunting to think? I’m here to listen if you need somepony.”

Twilight nodded twice. “Yes. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I never though so much of hunting would bit sitting around waiting for signs of game,” she admitted a bit sheepishly. “My point here is… Well, Flash and I knew he was dying for years. He was terminally ill, and refused the two solutions we could find.

“To be fair one was necromancy, and the other was consciousness transfer into an android. He had a phobia towards moving his mind like that. He was also kind of an older stallion. He was two-fourty when we married three years ago… So um, we only had a few decades together even if he was healthy.

“He really did love me. So much that he spent his last few years trying to get me to agree to date different ponies. He always put my feelings first… Except there. I kept telling him no. But he insisted. He kept saying that he knew I’d get sick without a loved one to fall back on when he died.

“I thought he was being silly, saying nonsense because he was sick. But now that I’ve thought about it, I think he was onto something real. Did your Twilight ever have a full blown panic attack and then mind control all of Ponyville… Umm… W-well because she thought her homework was late?” Twilight asked, stammering through the most awkward grin imaginable.

I nodded, hoping the nod looked understanding and comforting.

“Ours did… Also Canterlot. And Whitewood. Those cities were in range too,” I replied, doing my best to keep my face neutral despite wanting to laugh at her embarrassed expression.

It was such a funny scrunch face that, well, I wanted to laugh despite the nature of the topic at hand.

Twilight blushed lightly. “Thank goodness I didn’t make my want-it-need-it spell an area of effect! Coinflip results must be reversed between our dimensions,” she giggled nervously. “My point is, I used to do lots of things like that. I have a few mental issues. Nothing too major. Not anymore. But before I starting dating Flash, I had episodes like that a LOT.

“Once I wound up monitoring all of Ponyville's activity on an individual basis having been convinced some horrible disaster was coming. Another time I- I think you get the idea.

“All of those things occurred after I had real friends for the first time in my life. And I noticed that I was having less episodes after making those friends. At the time, I thought it was just the usual therapy statement of ‘good friends can help you through a lot of things’. But now that I think about it, after I started dating Flash the major panic episodes completely stopped.”

I nodded slowly. “Ye think that being loved was the ‘drug’ ye needed?” I asked mostly to keep the conversation going.

I mean, what else could she be saying with this? She had changeling ancestry and just didn’t know? I grew up in Zebrica, we have changebugs everywhere. Openly. I knew exactly what happened to a starving bug.

“No,” Twilight disagreed. “It would be more accurate to say it’s the vitamin I needed.”

I nodded. That was definitely more apt.

“See… It turns out that I’m adopted,” she continued, standing up as she resumed talking. “The person who told me was a liar, but Celestia later confirmed that for me, as did my parents. My biological parents were said to be Starswirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever.”

“OH!” I exclaimed, jumping up in a mixture of surprise and urgency. “There’s a group of beastfolk at the Hidden Lake, stranded for the last three years! We can take ye to them and if that’s true I am damn certain ye can see them an-”

Twilight’s ears perked. “I would love to do that! But um, not until you’re completely sure I can travel around the island myself. I may REALLY want to meet them and confirm they are my parents for certain, but this island is very very dangerous, and you said they are on an even MORE dangerous ARK.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s true. But at least we have a long term goal now,” I said, sitting back down, my head swimming with ideas.

If she was the Wizard’s daughter, maybe I could be accepted in as her friend. With a wizard to help power enchantments I could start making techno arcane machines and really start helping people here.

Maybe her dad could enchant my pants to be warmer in the cold, and cooler in the heat.

“As I was saying,” Twilight resumed loudly, snapping me out of my thoughts. “If they are my parents, which the evidence suggests they are, especially since Celestia told me multiple times that my aura reminds her of Clover’s, well… Clover is not actually a unicorn. She’s in fact a changeling. I know that for certain, I have her spellbook and her journal. I’m also friends with one of her decend-”

Twilight stopped speaking for a moment, trailing off before blinking three times. “Woah… This makes me Jade's great great great aunt, or something. Uh, that’s… A topic for another person later... But uh, more importantly, as Starswirl is a pony, that makes me a changeling hybrid.

“Now, it’s really clear that I can’t shapechange. If I could, I’d know by now. I learned transformation magic after all. I also appear completely mammalian, specifically equine on the outside. That IS possible for a hybrid, I helped write the book on Changeling biology and psychology after the Canterlot invasion.

“Which is how I know that no matter how close to a full blood pony a hybrid is, they all still have to eat love as part of their diet in addition to solid foods, and can channel emotional energy to bolster their magic, just like a changeling can.

“I have always been pretty great at magic, but after making friends with Dash, Rarity, Pinkie- With all of them. Well, that’s when I noticed a significant improvement in my power. I never questioned it because as the saying goes, ‘Friendship is Magic’ but the slight boost a unicorn receives from being amongst friends is less than what I was getting, on reflection.

“I noticed another significant boost when I started dating Flash. That one I attributed to finally starting to mature into a full Alicorn-”

I sputtered, almost falling out my my chair. “Ye’re an alicorn!? But, no wings!” I said stupidly.

Also if she were part changeling then that meant as an Alicorn she was one step CLOSER to what the whole alicorn transformation was designed to achieve.

Twilight blushed and nodded. “Yes. I think they got rid of my physical wings so armor would fit me. I still have them, I can feel my flight magic if I try hard. It’s just the flesh that’s gone. The spirit and magic remains. I could probably fly without the dampening field blocking energy.”

“Our… Our Twilight became a princess but um, she’s just a unicorn,” I explained, hoping to make my outburst less dumb.

Twilight nodded again. “I um, I’ve been kind rambling incoherently,” she apologised with a quick embarrassed frown. “Let me just sum this whole thing up.

“I think that Flash somehow found out that I’m part changeling. He probably thought I was a full blooded, um, I mean hemolymphed changeling. He knows I had a very hard time handling ‘drama’ and likely never said anything because he didn’t care. Until he began to worry about dying.

“That’s why he kept trying to make me find a lover before he died. He didn’t want me to starve and knew I’d be too upset to look for somepony right away. And under normal circumstances, I would be very depressed right now. But these are not normal circumstances.

“Changelings can digest friendship, but not very well. They need romantic or physical love to be completely healthy. Flash knew that. He helped train guards to spot changeling infiltrators after the invasion.

“Based on how I behaved before we dated… The data’s pretty consistent with the effects of lacking an important bit of your diet. Getting panicky, blowing small things out of proportion… I hypothesize that a lack of love lead to improper brain activity which exacerbated my mental issues into the extreme.

“Which means that in order for me to be healthy, I need to eat a properly balanced diet. I never could before, because I had no idea I might need emotional energy. But Flash did, somehow. And he clearly wanted me to not go hungry when he passed on. I’m going to honor his wishes, and do my best to fall in love again as soon as I can.”

Twilight turned to face me, looking into my eyes with extreme seriousness. Oh! Oh no, this wasn’t good. I wasn’t sure that I liked HER!

“While I must admit that I like humanoids, a thing I discovered the last time I was in the Mirror World, I don’t have any feelings of love for you. But, I do like you as a person and well, I’ve been with Razor this whole time. So I haven’t gotten to know you well yet.

“It’s probably not the best idea to just jump on the first pony you meet… But I want to give you a chance. I’m not saying I will make myself like you, I just want you to know that I would like you to be as affectionate towards me as you want. For two reasons.”

Oh! Oh, thank goodness! She just wanted things to be open to possibilities. Good.

“W-what are those reasons?” I asked, feeling my cheeks burning as I blushed exceptionally visibly.

I was pretty certain I knew one. Every bug’s gotta eat.

Twilight scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. “Um, well, the day before you let me live here I realized I’d had a full on freak out, even hearing and sometimes seeing Flash talking to me about the stuff I was doing. I haven't been near him for over three weeks now. I can’t possibly have much love left in my… Um… Love digstation organ. I would like to see if I can notice any improvements with affection given to me. That will help confirm my hypothesis of this whole ‘hybrid’ angle.

“Second, we could be trapped here for years. I don’t think I’ll want to leave you after training. Especially since Razor and I are becoming friends. If we’re going to be together for a long time, it’s best we allow our relationship to go where it will. Right?”

I felt like my brain was locked up trying to decide whether this was a jackpot, or something bad.

I nodded in agreement. “I absolutely agree. I would love a proper marefriend, or coltfriend. But you should NEVER force those sorts of relationships. That’s just bad for everyone… But um, if you think you actually need love to be healthy, I wouldn’t mind hugs, or occasional fun.”

Twilight blushed, and smiled awkwardly. “Uh, I didn’t mean like, casual sex. Just maybe we cuddle up and read or something. Start small. Don't do things that would force us into a relationship just based on us being the only two ponies in the area… Well, unless the Beastfolk are ponies.”

I shook my head, realizing I hadn’t ever told Twilight what they were. “No. They are dinos Clover mutated into a humanoid form so Starswirl could somehow use recovered implants to get them into the system.”

“Oh…” Twilight said sadly, her ears drooping with disappointment as she looked down at the floor.

That was not okay. I had to cheer her up.

I crossed my arms over my chest, enjoying the feel of my bare fur. “Gotta say, lass, that’s the most rambling and awkward way anyling has ever asked me for lunch,” I said with a grin.

“Did that happen to you often?” Twilight asked curiously, blinking a tear out of her eye with her head at an angle which hinted she didn’t want me to see that happen.

I snickered. “I’m a Zebra. From Zebrica. We’ve had changelings living openly as citizens with us for centuries,” I reminded. “I’ve probably hugged more bugs than zebras, or ponies. I don’t mind feeding one more.”

Twilight giggled, her good mood returning. “That’s right, you did! Hehe… Oh, um... You just referred to me as a changeling… That’s not going to be a thing, is it?” she asked worriedly.

I shook my head slowly, instantly understanding. “Nope. I’m a halfblood too, Twilight. Ye grew up with ponies, and think of yourself as one. I grew up with zebras, and think of myself as one. Besides, you don't act like a changeling.

“I mean, you’ve got the friendliness down, but if you had been raised by changelings you’d have started flirting with me by now. Well, assuming you liked how my emotions tasted.”

Twilight blinked twice, her tail swishing behind her. “Um, I beg your pardon?” She asked.

I flashed her a smile. “Well, um… Maybe ye do,” I said with a shrug. “How about you clarify something for me. Were you flirting with me just now?”

Twilight immediately shook her head. “No! I just wanted your help,” she exclaimed urgently. “First in trying to see if I function better with affection directed towards me. Since I knew you already liked me in at least one respect, I believed that would be a good idea.

“Second, well, your house carries sound well. I know how hard of a time you’ve had trying to keep yourself ‘professional’ arround me. You’re walking on eggshells. That’s not going to make you a very good teacher, I wanted to find a way to make you able to relax around me. All I could think of was to tell you it’s okay if you like me. That maybe we can build something here.

“But, that felt wrong to me. Until I sorted out everything while hunting. Flash wanted me to find another lover, I may actually NEED one to not get sick, and there’s nothing about you that puts me off possibly dating you one day.”

I nodded, now finally understanding exactly what she wanted from me. Just to triple check…

“Right, so, ye want the occasional hug and just hanging out from someone who kind of likes ye for reasons of science, and ye want me to know you’re open to having a relationship if at some future point we feel that’s a good idea?” I asked once more.

“That’s it. Um… Wow… I um, I guess it was a bit hard to put that into succinct words before now. Heh,” Twilight said as she scratched the back of her head awkwardly while giving me a sheepish smile.

My brain finally made it’s decision. This was definitely a jackpot.

“Ye’re telling me! That was one heck of a ramble there, Twi,” I said with a smile before nodding thoughtfully. “Tell ye what. We’re taking tomorrow off. Do whatever you like. All work and no play dulls the craft zebra's knife.

“Once it’s back to work, we’ll find ye a mount, and a guard critter. That will be a nice day’s work. And ye’ll be needing a mount for the day or so after that. We’ll have to go to the volcano, or Herbivore Island to pick up some critters we need. For one of those things, ye’ll need a fast mount.”

“And the other?” Twilight asked curiously.

“We’ll need a boat, several steel wall segments, good armor, and some energy brews,” I replied. “Herbivore Island is owned by the Megalodons. Coastal raiders. Fancy themselves pirates. They’ve got pretty good auto turret coverage of the whole coast. I’ll have to build a specialized boat for taming in.”

I turned back to my desk, hands once more pressing the power button. The device hummed slightly louder this time, but no new sections illuminated. Perhaps I was missing a lense, or a prism?

I stepped back to examine the core from a distance. Sometimes it’s easier to spot a missing piece from a small ways away. The pattern of the machine is often easy to see as a whole, but difficult to see in parts.

“Sooo what’s this?” Twilight asked curiously as she walked over to my desk.

“An old computer core I salvaged a long time ago,” I answered, biting my lip in concentration. “I work on it from time to time. Never been able to get it to power on, but I’ve never really made a serious go of it.”

“Why not?” Twilight asked, clearly trying to keep the conversation going.

Ah, I see. She wanted to try having a good time to see if that would be enough for her changeling side to be happy. Well, I never was one to let a bug go hungry.

“Because I can’t power it for more than fifteen minutes, if I rebuilt the machine it goes for. It’s a hobby, a thing to pass the time. I used to draw, but I got bored of that after the first century,” I explained, instantly wincing as I mentioned the fact that I’d been here for hundreds of years.

At least I didn’t age…

“Really? I’ve always liked art! What did you draw?” Twilight asked with a happy smile, completely ignoring my mention of time.

Just like she had promised. Oh my gods! She actually kept her promises and had concern for my wellbeing. That… That was something I hadn’t experienced in… Wow. Not even my tribemates cared that much about me.

Blinking the stunned surprise out of my eyes, I gave her the answer. “Remember how I said I liked to travel? Well that’s because I have a love of other cultures. I discovered manga in high school and fell in love with the artform. I would draw my own stories… They were never any good. I’m not a storyteller. But the art was okay.

“During the first…era of my being stranded here, I redrew a few of my favorite manga series. I may not be able to tell a good story, but I sure as heck can remember them! I got pretty good by the end, and had even worked out a way to make colored inks. After redrawing the entire library I’d made to be in color and of good quality… Eh, I got bored.

“Now I just tinker with silly inventions in my spare time. Or I hunt Dillos. I rather like them, very tasty.”

Twilight’s ears perked. “Huh, I didn’t know zebras could eat meat… Why Dillos? I mean, you'd think that since they spit that septic stuff at you that you shouldn’t eat one,” she mused.

My ears drooped slightly. “Uh, well… Zebras are pure herbivores. I couldn’t eat meat before I got here. Remember how I said I took a bad portal?”

Twilight nodded.

“Not all of me made it through that portal. Which is why I didn’t have this body until last week,” I continued, reaching down to adjust a few more lenses on the core. “Camoflauge, aka Red, is my friend no matter what because he saved my life. But he did it kinda poorly. In short, I’m an omnivore now, and I can digest just about anything organic.

“He had to make a LOT of guesses about my biology before being told that only humans could be allowed to use the system and twisting my outsides to look human. Old me couldn’t have eaten one of those things. Current me can, and likes the flavor.”

No need to mention he’d fixed my digestive tract by patching in bits of nanomachines designed for the ARK’s various creatures...

“Oh, okay!” Twilight said with a nod. “And by the way, this core’s power supply is this thing over here, right?”

Twilight pointed to the pale green crystal and metal powercell laying on the worktable, almost bumping the fiber optic cable which connected it to the core with her finger.

I nodded.

“And is this silvery crystal the main part of it?” Twilight asked pointing to the CPU’s ten sized crystal held within it’s fine spider web like mesh at the core’s center.

“Yeah, it is. Why? Do you see something wrong?” I asked hopefully.

“I think I do… I’m assuming that it’s powered like an enchanted item, since the ‘mana gem’ is just held on with some cord and there’s no wires. If that’s true, then the part which takes in mana on the center bit has to be broken,” Twilight stated quite certainly.

“That would be true if this ran on mana, but this runs on microwave energy. It’s not a design I would use… All power is transmitted via masers and redirected in beams around the core. That’s what all the lenses and prisms are for,” I explained, reaching for a laser pointer and shining it into one of the prisms to make the beam bounce around the core, showing Twilight the pathways.

She raised an eyebrow. “That… That seems like a bad idea. One good jolt could knock a lense out of alignment and shut the whole device down,” she rightfully exclaimed.

I nodded twice. “Mhm. But it was meant to be used by convicts in a prison. It’s supposed to be easily disabled.”

“True,” Twilight agreed. “But if that’s the case have you tried cleaning all of the receivers?”

I nodded once more. “Aye.”

“Stupid question, sorry,” Twilight said with a blush.

“Any particular reason yer interested in this old hunk of junk?” I asked Twilight curiously as I bent over to try and reach one of the harder to access lense assemblies. Maybe it needed a slight tweak. After all it was the one in the line just before the central node.

“I’m sorry… Am I bothering you?” Twilight asked sadly. “ I um, I could go practice my spells or something.”

I looked up immediately, eyes wide. “What? No! I’m just… You’re a wizard, right? You guys usually prefer to bypass tools and go right to just bending the universe to your will.”

Twilight tilted her head then nodded in sudden understanding. “Oh! Why would a wizard be interested in machines? Well… I guess I like the other approach to problem solving. It’s sort of neat to see someone build a physical object which mimics a spell matrix. I was never any good at enchanting, I can do the math for magic, and I can keep a spell matrix in my head forever, but I can’t actually arrange bits and bobs into what you could arguably call a physical manifestation of a magic spell.”

“That’s actually why I studied enchanting,” I agreed with a short nod before turning back to my project. “I like seeing the other path of nature too.”

It was neat we had something in common.

“What do you mean, the other path of nature?” Twilight asked with that same odd inflection everypony asked that question with.

“Oh, well, personally, I don’t see a real difference between magic and machinery,” I said, providing Twilight with a snippet of my personal philosophy. “Sure, there’s the whole, one needs a tool the other doesn't aspect… But that’s it. The differences are cosmetic, surface level. When ye get down to it: A wizard is a person who studies the natural world in order to apply the knowledge they gain to affect the universe. An engineer is a person who studies the natural world to apply the knowledge they gain to affect the universe.

“Using ancient arcane formulas, a wizard calls forth light using a complex mental construct to illuminate her bedroom. Using ancient equations discovered by great thinkers of the past, an engineer constructs a device from bits of nature to summon light from them. It’s not really different.”

“Right, that I understand,” Twilight agreed slowly. “But how’s it natural? Magic’s workings and technological achievements are things sapient beings discovered through scientific endeavors. It’s hardly just a part of the natural world that always existed. We didn’t know how to create a force shield by instinct.

“And wait, don't you have a special talent for talking to animals? How could you-”

“See technology as natural?” I asked with a grin as I looked back up at Twilight.

“Yeah!” She agreed with a firm nod.

“Because I can talk with animals,” I answered. Noticing Twilight’s confused head tilt, I decided to explain in full. “They don’t really talk. They have thoughts, desires, and fears. But aside from pets your nation passively enhances with magic, very few of them have thoughts more complex than ‘Mating good’, ‘need food’, ‘scary thing nearby’. Animals do what nature dictates.

“Are we not also animals? I think most people would agree that sapient creatures are animals, just more advanced than the average ones. But even if they don’t, how are we not also a part of nature? Isn’t nature defined as ‘the phenomena of the physical world collectively’?

“Are we some how not a part of the physical world? I don't think any sane person would say we are not a part of the physical world. As such, we are natural things. We do what our nature tells us to do. We create to fill our needs, much like bees, beavers, birds, and ants. Only with more complex creations because we are more complex beings. That’s the natural thing for us to do.”

I reached over to my worktable and picked up a screw driver, holding it up for Twilight to see.

“This is no less natural than a rock, a termite mound, or a gopher’s tunnel, or a spider’s web,” I insisted. “Well, at least, that’s how I see it.”

Twilight paused, taking a moment or two before frowning thoughtfully. “That’s actually sort of profound. I’m not sure I agree. I think the degree of control sapient creatures possess over their environment warrants a category of their own apart from ‘natural’. If only because I’m personally friends with many people who can make it rain if they want it to rain,” she disagreed. “But I do see your point.”

I nodded respectfully. “Aye, and that’s a perfectly valid position to hold, Twilight. It simply depends on how you personally define the idea of ‘natural’. But let's not get caught up in philosophical musing. There’s more productive ways to spend our time,” I said with a smile, turning back once more to my proj-

“Though you did make me think just now,” Twilight remarked.

“Oh?” I asked, deciding not to look up but to keep tinkering.

If I kept looking up I’d never get any work done. Twilight was something of a geek. I’m certain she understood that two people could converse while doing things.

“Magic and technology are very similar, fundamentally speaking, and this device is closer to magic than the technology I’m familiar with, practically speaking” Twilight stated her eyes lighting up in realization. “Since it works using directed energy to form pathways, it’s almost literally a spell matrix! If you explain to me what this is supposed to do, part by part, I think I could actually help you fix it.

“Would you like to give it a try?”

I nodded eagerly, a smile spreading across my face at light speed. “Aye, I’d love that! It's been far too long since I had a lab partner,” I agreed stepping aside to give Twilight room at the table. “Right, now this here is the power supply. It’s a chunk of E-One-Fifteen in a containment housing being stimulated by a small laser. The way it functions specifically…”

Sky Trigger - 3rd of Fasut, 17 EoH

SkyLabs, ██████████ - Phoenix Sovereign Territory Zone

My fifty sixth birthday was coming up, and I just got the most wonderful early present. After months of setbacks, we finally got the prototype scanner constructed, installed, and for the first time since Twilight left, we had taken a solid step towards getting her back.

Arguably the best birthday present since Pinkie got me that enchanted soda can sleeve which worked as a prefect thermos.

It was pink. Just like my special somepony.

But of course, it wouldn’t be Operation Lavender without some major setback for every half-step forwards… First Ayna had almost sucked herself into the book trying to find a safe way to handle it. Then Derpy had nearly wiped the energy signature from the over engineered clipboard while copying it so we knew what to look for.

Then I hadn’t been able to work out how to interface Ay’s copy of the book’s portal with a scanner for a month. Only to then underestimated how much feedback the first scanner’s gate mechanism needed causing it to melt. And now…

I took a deep breath and looked Derpy squarely in her eyes. They were both focused on one spot at the moment, letting me take full advantage of this rare opportunity to give her my best ‘please also have good news’ pleading stare.

She looked down at the floor, pawing the burnished steel with her left hoof. “I-I’m sorry… But I can’t change reality,” she said, ears at full droop.

“You know your homeworld’s wierd magic! I’m pretty certain you could,” I countered, half irritable at the situation, half hopeful.

It turned out Derpy was a far more complex ‘pony’ than she pretended to be. While I fully understood wanting to live a normal life after a lifetime of adventure, she had access to all kinds of magic and technology from six different universes thanks to somehow getting lost so hard as a foal, that she wound up in another reality altogether. Then spent her adult life looking for home.

“I’m not a wizard, I only know what instinct ‘taught’ me,” she said apologetically. “I don’t know anything about- Um, well I have no idea what the problem is.”

I nodded. “I know! I know… It’s just this has been far, far harder that I feel it should be. I’d swear it was sabotage if we weren't working on my lab and only seven people in the world even know where it is! Let alone can come inside,” I grumbled, trying to ignore the urge to punch something.

Derpy frowned and gave me a quick hug. “Did that help?” She asked hopefully.

It did. The monster Earth Pony level hug popped my back perfectly. My frustration made me forget that she wasn’t normal pegasus, what with having been raised by a dragoness and all.

I hated when stuff just wouldn’t work. “Right… How did the scanner break?” I asked, wanting to push forward on take three.

Derpy’s ears perked. “Oh no! The scanner’s fine this time!” She exclaimed encouragingly. “Ay and I know it’s a physics problem, we just don’t know what it is… You’ll need to see it. I hate the ‘come see this’ cliche but uh, I don’t know how to describe the problem.”

Well… Shit.

I nodded and stood up from my desk with a sigh, the chair squeaking on the floor. “Alright, to the lab.”

The two of us trotted down the short neon lit hallway to the recently constructed Dimensional Interchange Laboratory. I’d tried to come up with an acronym for the lab which better suited this project, like ‘dick’, ‘painintheflank’, or ‘keith’. But that just wasn’t going to happen.

The twin steel security doors hissed open as Derpy approached the lab, the system’s computers detecting her, recognising her, and allowing her inside the large white tiled room. Everything about the testing room was white tile. Walls. Floor. Ceiling.

It wasn’t aesthetic either. We’d only been able to get the portal and scanner integrated in a room which doubled as a signal reflector with a highly specific refractive index. Only that off-white would do.

I’d constructed a dimensional gate before. It had not been nearly this hard. Something had to be wrong with the physics of our destination multiverse. Or I was missing something basic about this entire process…

Maybe I needed to take a break and see if it came to me in the shower just before Pinkie wanted to go out to dinner. You know, like it usually did. She and I exploited the heck out of that.

The scanner and portal matrix sat in the center of the room looking much like a fire blackened iron tarantula with a cheezy sci-fi comic’s tank turret resting on it’s back aimed at a small one meter diameter ring held up with its center at a pony’s head height.

To my delight, the portal was active! Shimmering nearly completely transparent blue-green energy forming an almost solid, almost liquid, membrane hung within the gateway. My sister stood next to the portal, a simple blue porcelain mixing bowl full of apples held in front of her in her magic’s emerald green grip.

“Okay, sis. What’s the problem?” I asked, now completely confused. “The portals open, the scanner looks fine… Are we not able to read the energy signatures of the apples as they leave?”

Why apples? First collection of similarly massed objects we’d found this morning. The replicator was stuck making grape smoothies no matter what you told it to do, for some reason. I’d been about to go fix that.

Ay shook her head slowly. “This… This is going to SUCK to fix. Watch,” she instructed as she took an apple from the bowl and tossed it into the portal.

The apple flew through the air, and struck the portal’s surface. It began to pass through like it should, when suddenly different parts of the apple began to move at different speeds, ripping it to pieces.

Some shot off like a bullet. Some kept going the previous speed. Some suddenly seemed to pass through molasses. Others still seemed to stop entirely.

There was no discernable pattern to which randomly sized and located chunk of apple moved at which speed. Some of the super fast moving bits hit the back of a frozen bit and squished into nothingness or exploded... The distribution of effects looked completely random.

As the apple's overall trajectory appeared to be unchanged, there was only one explanation.

“The universe's time isn’t even remotely in phase with ours… It’s not safe to cross and there’s no way the data came back in a useable state, is there?” I asked.

Ay shook her head no. “We don’t even GET data back,” she informed angrily. “We have to solve this problem before we can even start looking for the same energy signature the stuff they sent back has.”

“Great,” I sighed wearily. “Well… It will take a while, but we can calibrate the portal to compensate for this effect. Then we can try to find a pattern to the energy signatures and hopefully use that to locate Twilight’s unive-”

“Oh, no, it’s WAY worse than that,” Derpy said with a wince. “Ayna? Throw some more apples.”

Ay tossed two more apples into the portal. Each one broke up in the exact same way the first had. Same parts, same time dilations.

“Um… The pattern is consistent. That’s GOOD,” I pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

Derpy walked over and worked the portal’s controls for a moment, the portal flickering as she changed it’s destination to another random universe in that multiverse’s near infinite expanse.

Then Ayna tossed another apple. And the apple was ripped apart by the micro time dilation differences in a different way than the last three.

“Oh. Oh, FUCK, me!” I groaned, rubbing my temples with my hooves.

Time between our universe was somehow so out of phase that the portal somehow caused different time dilations in a random pattern of roughly centimeter sized ‘blobs’ of space. WIth a DIFFERENT amount of asynchronous phazing for each universe in that branch...

“Is it different for EVERY universe in this entire goddamn multiverse?” I asked just to get the confirmation.

“Looks like it…” Ayna sighed. “I’m pretty sure we’ll work out a pattern eventually and be able to program an algorithm to negate this effect, but until then… We need to work out some kind of time dilation ‘bridge’ and manually calibrate it for each universe we want to get data from.”

“This is going to take, forever!” I groaned, shoking my head slowly. “We’re talking a week per calibration in all likelihood… And Luna knows how many data points we’ll need before we can work out the right algorithm to get it to work on its own.”

“Yep,” Ay and Derpy agreed in unison.

“Is there any trick you can do with books, Derpy?” I asked, just to cover our bases.

She shook her head. “No.. Sorry. When we start learning things about whatever’s on the other side I can try to make a Descriptive Book for that universe but… That’s an art, not a science.”

I nodded twice. “RIght, just checking… Ayna, is there any chance there’s an error with your recreation of the book’s portal?”

Ayna paused, rubbing her chin with one hoof thoughtfully. “I don’t think so, but I’ll go back through my work to be certain. That said, I’m fairly certain I’ve made an exact duplicate of the portal,” she decided after some thought. “I think you called it. Different time dilation between our universes, with a weird offset. It’s a physics interaction issue, not a tech or arcana issue.”

“But we know Twilight was banished there, and stuff came here from there,” Derpy pointed out. “Which means it should be traversable.”

Ayna nodded. “Yeah… Which is why I think I could have messed up. I don’t think I did. I think the one way nature of the original portal allows it to bypass this issue. But like I said, I’ll check,” she promised.

“And in the meantime, Derpy, you and I are going to gather data on this bullshit so I have a way to throw together some kind of workaround,” I grumbled bitterly. “Okay. So, who’s going to be the one to tell Celestia? One-two-three-not-it!”

“Not-it!” Derpy blurted a half second before Ay managed to say:

“No- Ah dang it…” She grumbled looking down at the floor.

“Derpy, while Ay does that, you keep tossing apples. I’m going to take notes. We’re working this thing out right now. Let’s not waste time,” I ordered.

Twilight had been stranded three months too long already. I was NOT going to make her wait any longer than necessary. Nor was I going to abandon her because helping her seemed impossible.

Pinkie would never forgive me if I just abandoned Twilight, and even if she would, Twilight was my friend too. I would figure this out.

Solving problems. It’s what Triggers do.

Author's Note

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Dedicated to Patron of the Week: mustangdrew

7 - The Friendship Method

Twilight Sparkle - Day 13

The Machine Shop, South Jungle - The Island

Today was a very busy, very rushed day. But at the same time, I’d been having fun all day. A bit of a paradox, but that’s the way it was.

“Twi! Grab yer gear, NOW!” Nyota shouted, her voice echoing off the walls, snapping me out of my sleep.

Despite the grogginess, the urgency and worry in her voice made it straight through my mind and stuck there. This was something massively serious.

“W-what? Are we being attacked?” I asked, sliding out of bed as quickly as I could, tossing my blankets aside in a panic.

Sir Hoppyfox yelped as I accidently made him roll off my chest where he’d been sleeping. I spared him a sympathetic glance and frown as I activated my implant to equip the armor stored in it.

“No. We have permission to tame creatures at the volcano for the next twenty-four hours,” Nyota called. “We need to tame a couple parasaurs for pack animals, travel across half the island because the Juskazan refused to give us travel permission, tame two rather tough dinos, and leave Vulcan’s Anvil’s territory before the next sunrise.

“We have just barely enough time if you move yer arse at max speed the whole time starting NOW! Bring a pickaxe, we’re going to get metal while waiting for the tames to finish. An pick up this bag of gear! Parasaur’s can't defend jack, there’s an upgraded crossbow with two drums of regular bolts and a drum of tranq bolts for ye.”

I only just now fully got over being woken up like that. Nyota and I had been up really late the previous night working on a joint project. Casting my Animal Empathy spell multiple times a day so I could always understand Razor had been drawing too much of my magic to let me run experiments. We decided to make a collar for me which would maintain the spell for as long as possible.

I hadn’t been psyched about it being a collar, but I couldn’t argue with Nye’s point about collars being the single hardest thing to accidently loose. We did put a lot of time and resources into making it. Also she couldn’t make anything much smaller than the prototype I was currently wearing without some practice. Translating a spell matrix into machinery is part science part art.

She’d promised the next one would be something for the wrist. But for now, I had to make do with the kinda crude black leather ‘belt’ holding several kinda bulky metal boxes along with a housing for the piece of Quartz I’d charged with thaumaturgic current.

It was a bit itchy and a little too heavy… But it worked for now. I’d been able to understand the Parasaurs while we tamed them.

Poor things panicked so easily even though Nyota’s tranq darts barely hurt them at all. Fluttershy would probably have wrapped the poor things up in blankets with the same care she’d give breezies.

Fortunately the wave of happiness when we gave the pare of them a pile of potatoes a piece was more than enough to make up for a few bad feelings. The two we’d caught were a pair of bright pink and dark maroon females, and I looked forward to training mine to run faster and build her strength. Nyota said I needed to know how to train something before I picked a proper mount anyways.

I couldn’t disagree with that logic, but I still liked this parasaur. I named her Strawberry Malt. Mostly because her colors sort of looked like the frothy top of a mug of soda.

I liked her a lot in fact. Because she was the key to my discovering a new hobby. Riding cross country.

I hiked a lot before, but riding is completely different. Your mount does all the pathfinding, and you really just keep them pointed in the right direction unless some specific obstacle must be avoided. This lets you look around and take in the countryside. Sure you can do that while walking or flying, but you can't just sit back, relax, and enjoy watching the world go by.

Riding is like a train, but without the noise, other people, and all being outside with all the smells, sounds, and sights completely unobstructed.

Yes, the Island was dangerous, and yes, we had a very strict time limit, but we still got to see some amazing things!

Nyota gave me a copy of her map, with all the major tribe’s territories marked on it. In case we got separated I could find my way back home. I’d already made my own compass after all.

The map was interesting on its own. The biomes marked on it made no sense whatsoever, but seemed to have a specific pattern to them. The map couldn’t possibly have prepared me for actually traveling through those places.

We’d first traveled north across the swamp, skirting around Charlie’s territory into the Brewers’ lands. The Brewers lived in an absolutely massive redwood forest. A nearly completely safe Redwood forest, where all the predators who ventured further inwards than the fringes were obliterated by rock throwing Chalicos and their Ranger handlers.

Two of whom we met, as Nyota had arranged for. They gave the two of us a few jars of a dark beer and some bread, then escorted us through their territory. And what a territory it was!

We spent a few hours running between mossy boulders and around the trunks of truly massive trees which were festooned with wooden and metal platforms to make arboreal villages, with each home connected to its neighbors by bridges.

I’d had plenty of time to get used to the idea of being an alicorn and living forever. One thing I’d decided to do was change where I lived from time to time to keep things fresh. Redwood forest tree city was now the first place on my list!

Unfortunately we had to leave behind the beauty, and hospitality, of the Redwoods behind. The original plan had been to cut through the small patch of unclaimed land, up through Keel, and then around to the Volcano since Nyota had been told that The Nameless were not allowing passage at this time.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the edge of the territory, Nyota and I took one look at a pair of Quetzels dropping maybe a hundred people down into the jungle, right over a spot which appeared to be on fire occupied by many peoples screaming one continuous ‘warrrrgh!’, and decided, no.

We would go around.

Since time was an issue we wound up stopping for just long enough to allow Nyota to build a raft since I’d forgotten to pick up that engram. Then long enough for her to explain to me how the heck the raft moved at about forty knots without a sail, or any other means of propulsion. After the explanation, our trip resumed and we sailed through the swamp and up a river which the map said was the border between a tribe known as the Ranchers, and another called Lindybeige.

The Ranchers seemed to inhabit a huge rolling grassy plane. Some homesickness cropped into my mind as I watched their land pass by. I could easily see the whole of Ponyville sitting on top of those rolling green hills. The planes resemblance to Equestria was almost uncanny.

I had little choice but to look at them, which made things far worse. The other side of the riverbank was hidden behind a single massive ironclad wall modeled after a castle’s fortifications and painted a dark black. Similar to cast iron.

That was all well and good. The creepy bit was the signs. The wall was festooned with endless signs!

Each and every part of the wall was labeled in a way which made me think ‘this is just a little bit anal retentive’. ME! Twilight Sparkle.

Arrow Loops, the Batter, the Battlements, Crenellations, Embrasures, Machicolations, Merlons, all labeled at regular intervals with arrows painted on the wall to indicate what part was what.

Naturally, I’d asked why. Apparently that tribe had been formed by a rather energetic historian who got just a bit over annoyed when people misused ancient terminology. Two hundred years later, and the tribe he founded, the oldest tribe, carried on the tradition of correcting people who called merlons ‘the pokie uppie bits’. Religiously so.

According to Nyota, “Nikolas would be pissed about their fanaticism, and probably build a short bit of wall across the river and label it ‘just a bloody wall segment’. Which is why it’s funny!”

After another few hours we were able to sail up through Keel, which was yet more rolling planes, but this time with one bank of the river being a part of the redwoods. It was nice to see those towing trees again. I knew Nyota said their tribe was generally non-aggressive but still ruthless at times and I should be very careful in dealing with them, but they had felt civilized.

Like a real nation. Kind of like what I’d read about Hound. But with cool tree cities and rockthroing bear-ape-ponies who apparently worked for beer instead of civilized Diamond Dogs.

Keel, interestingly enough, was a trade city. We passed their colossal riverside port midway through their section of the river, the entire way having to constantly move around their elaborate wood and steel boats which ferried goods around the rivers.

Apparently the Keel tribe were the closest thing to merchants in this ARK. Though they honestly made things worse by making it easy for larger groups to buy the weapons they needed to crush smaller ones. Nyota mentioned she’d tried to strike a deal with them for ammo, but just didn’t have anything to offer them she was willing to give over to ‘gun running warmongers’.

To play Discord’s Advocate, of course they were; weapons were definitely in high demand here.

Interestingly, while we sailed through, I got to see what the Ranchers did. Which made me facehoof in shame for not realizing it based on their name. They bred dinos and traded them for metal. No one even knew what the tribe’s actual name was, they just called them the Ranchers.

The busy trade-way couldn’t go on forever though, and eventually we made it through the sea of boats, landing on a sandy beach a few minutes travel down river. I kind of liked the spot. I could see myself living here, not that I wanted to leave Nyota just yet… Maybe never. After we started to hang out I really liked her. So far, she was shaping up to be a great friend.

We had a gentle slope to our left, the one spot in a black rocky cliff which jutted up from the white sand beach like someone stuck a chalkboard into a sandbox. All of this right at the base of a crystal clear river at the foot of a towering dormant volcano, it’s rim partially obscured by the clouds.

If I had a camera, I would be taking back so many cool pictures for my friends. Not just of the landscapes, but also the people, and the creatures.

I knew that Fluttershy would love to see the pair of petras which perched on the cliff above our raft. They just sat there, staring down into the river, ready to swoop down and grab fish. A red one and a blue one. How appropriate of them to group up by color pairs.

“Alright, we have a bit of a way to go on dino back,” Nyota said as she led her orange and white parasaur off the raft, pulling on its reins lightly. “Go ahead and make sure you have tranq arrows loaded in your bow while I call ahead and let them know to expect us.”

I nodded, and reached down to the strap running across my chest, grabbed it, and pulled the bow attached to it off my back and into my hands. I’d finally learned why some people kept equipment outside of their implants storage.

Ease of access. No need to dig through a menu to find it. It was all right there.

Of course, there was also Nyota’s reason. Customized gear. Like the crossbow she’d made for me.

I had managed to make my own crossbow. The simple wooden tiller, flax string, and steel bow weapon the engrams supplied and every museum in Equestria had replicas of. I even took down a few carnosaurs with it while Razor taught me to hunt.

Which is why Nyota made me this one. I’d made the old one all on my own, so she felt I’d earned something better.

Holding the lightweight composite bow by its handgrip, I flipped it over to check the drum attached to the top. The dozen arrows inside were blue tipped, coated in whatever the knockout drug you could make here was. Probably chlordiazepoxide. That would be bad to accidentally prick myself with… And I’d been carrying the bow drawn with a thirteenth arrow ready to go.

I turned the bow back over and checked the safety hadn’t come loose. Sure enough the small lock had kept the pump in the ‘pulled’ position, preventing the bow from firing until the pump was slid forwards.

Good! No accidental butt piercings.

“Yep, ready to go… Are you sure that thirteen arrows will be enough to knock them out? Should I make more to load into the drum later?” I asked as I pulled the strap to slide the bow back onto my back.

“Nah, you’re on back up. I’ve got darts for my rifle to do the real work. Ye’r here to learn how to tame important work beasts,” Nyota explained, as she patted the lever action rifle holstered in her saddle before taking her large boxy, brick like radio out of a pouch on her vest.

I liked the vest. It gave her a cool ‘commando’ look. I also liked her sans vest; she had very pretty fur.

I wish more ponies had fur patterns. At least my mane and tail hair had grown back into full length a day or so ago. Very few creatures look good in just one color.

Nyota twisted her radio’s dial then brought it to her ear. “This is Nyota Komeo calling any of Vulcan’s Anvil, do you read. Over,” she asked, staring into the temperate forest at the top of the earthen ramp as she spoke.

I decided to play look out too, and turned to look up and down the beach. After all, just because a tribe claimed this territory as their own it didn’t mean that it wasn’t teaming with saurian predators.

“We hear you, Nyota,” a male voice crackled over the radio after a few moments. “We’ve got an escort for you. What’s your current position? Over.”

While Nyota took out a small navigation device and gave him our position. I wondered briefly if radio etiquette demanded you say the word over, even if the last sentence ended in over.

“Roger that, we’ll be with you in six minutes,” the voice said after Nye listed off our coordinates. “We’re willing to let you use one specific section today. You’re not to stray from it. Your escort will show you the bounds. Pleasure doing buisness with you. Over and out.”

“What did you give them to let us tame things here anyways?” I asked curiously as Nyota put her radio back in its pouch and climbed up into her parasaur’s saddle.

“I’ve got six ‘Tek Foundations’ as they call them,” she answered. “That’s the payment. Pretty damn steep but at least they’re letting us mine too. We’ll be going after an Anky first to maximize our gathering time.”

“I don't get it… I got enough metal for the crossbow from breaking a few dozen boulders around your house,” I mused, frowning slightly.

“Aye, you got the twenty ore needed to make ten ingots, to make one crossbow,” Nyota agreed. “But we need to get you fully kitted out and you need to learn how to make the best stoff and-”

“To do that I need to know how to take out the ‘bosses’,” I interrupted with a nod. “I know.”

“Yes. But do ye know that we’ll need either six engram built pump shotguns a piece, along with six hundred shells minimum?” Nyota asked with a sigh. “That’s twelve hundred total shells, which comes out to a total of four thousand eight hundred metal ore, and will require twenty five thousand and two hundred units of gunpowder, which itself will require-”

I winced, my ears drooping. “Oh… Yeah I can see the problem now,” I admitted sheepishly.

Nyota chuckled. “Don’t worry. It’s a manageable amount with the right creatures at your command. I just don't want to take that much metal out of my stockpile… Aye I’ve got a good bit back home but it’s for specific things. Best to come out here and get it now instead of later,” she explained, turning to give me a polite smile, before frowning worriedly. “Oh, we had lunch earlier. How are ye feeling? Need a hug?”

I shook my head happily. So far my experiment was showing some fairly promising results. “Nope! I enjoyed the boat ride with you more than enough. I’m feeling pretty upbeat right now,” I replied, giving her a smile before returning to looking around the beach. “We should just sail around so you can tell me more cool stories about the places we pass sometime.”

Nyota smiled happily as she returned to her own watch. “I think we can do that some time so-”

“HOLD IT!” A male voice barked from the jungle.

I whipped my head to look by reflex. A human male in a full set of mud colored flack armor had seemingly materialized on the top of the cliff. A large rocket launcher was held up on his left shoulder, leveled straight at us.

“Vulcans don’t take kindly to fraud!” He barked. “Get moving or feed my dogs.”

I slowly reached down for my crossbow, not trusting his word at all. Nyota on the other hand, grit her teeth and only barely avoided slapping a palm against her face.

“For for the love of-” She snapped, glaring up at the man angrily. “I told ya guys I’d gotten my original body back! Yeah! I’m a zebra. Like I’ve been saying for longer than you have been here. The wardens finally fixed that.”

“Bullshit. Get your stipped ass back to your lake,” he retorted, adjusting his aim slightly.

“Hey, if you don’t want those foundations, that’s fine with me. I can trade them to the Megalodons, along with a few walls. We’ll see how you like shipping your ingots when they have ships you can’t sink,” Nyota exclaimed throwing up her hands dismissively before snatching her radio off her belt. “This is Nyota, your escort is being a shithead and loosing you those foundations. Over.”

“What’s the problem? Over,” the same voice from before reapplied immediately.

The escort lowered his launcher, activating his implant to retrieve a radio himself. “Chief, this ain’t Nyota. I’ve heard the stories about her. She’s a human. We’ve got a pair of Beastfolk here. Over,” he explained.

“Stand by,” the radio man ordered.

A few tense moments passed. Then Nyota’s radio crackled again, allowing me to hear the other person’s weary sigh. “Jake… Turn on your HUD when you use your spyglass. I’ve got a telescope trained right on the three of you, and my HUD’s on. Do you know what I see? Raft Owner: Nyota Komeo. Parasaur Tamed by: Nyota Komeo.

“Nyota’s been insisting she’s a zebra since before there were Beastfolk here. LONG before. Always thought she was a bit of a nut and had lots of biomods on the outside. Lots of people do. Looks like she really is an alien. Either way, the system says that’s Nyota, and you can’t fool it. Take them up to slope four, just like we arranged.

“Nyota, I’m sorry for Jake’s trigger happiness. He’s new. Fourth month of his sentence. Go ahead and give him the foundations and I’ll give you two an extra hour to work. Over and out.”

“We have a HUD?” I asked Nyota with a whisper, a curious frown on my lips.

“Y-you’re kidding me, right?” She asked eyes widening in shock.

I shook my head no.

“Tap your implant’s button,” she instructed before turning up to our escort. “Come on, you're wasting our very limited time up there.”

“It was an honest mistake, sheesh! I’ll be down in a sec,” our Escort spat, dissolving the rocket launcher and vanishing into the forest behind him.

“Watchmen and Scouts should know to keep their damn HUD on while on the job!” Nyota called angrily.

I tapped the diamond shaped button on my implant. Immediately a set of very small icons appeared in the lower right hand side of my vision. Each one was rather simple to understand, one for how much progress I’d made towards the next survivor level, one for my overall health (which I suppose was how much my implant could repair my body at the moment, rather than a ‘you are x percent healthy!’ indicator) thirst, hunger, all of it right there to see. Easy as can be.

The more interesting thing was I could see green letters floating above the raft, our parasaurs, and Nyota, listing their names, level, and a line underneath reading ‘tribe: Dragonslayers’.

“Can we see the names of people not in our tribe?” I asked as I looked around, trying to see if I could see the text for our escort in the forest.

“Only if we’re within five meters from them, and there isn’t a sight barrier between us and them,” Nyota answered.

“Okay. And I’ve never asked but why is your tribe called the Dragonslayers?” I asked again as I switched the HUD back off.

“Because we’re the only ones on the Island to have slain the Dragon,” she replied with a proud smile. “I did it on my own before they did, and that inspired them to try it. But they couldn’t do it alone since they don't have my tools. But they pulled it off as a team, then asked me if I’d join them since we’re the only ones with the ability to make things from the advanced technology tier.”

“And you're not worried about giving those things away?” I wondered, just a bit worried about giving away something she claimed could make a boat unsinkable.

Nyota shook her head. “No. Just foundation tiles. All it will let them do is make a building that can’t be easily brought down. The walls will still be quite breachable. So in the event we ever have to attack said building, we can still get in,” she explained. “It doesn't hurt us. Though it could help them a lot. Depending on how they use them.

And now for the question about what had been bothering me for the last minute or so.

“Don’t you think you were just a bit hard on that guy just now? He made a mistake anyone could, you’re in a different body now,” I pointed out with a concerned frown.

She shook her head. “If he were a friend, or a person from a civilized society, yes. I would have been. Absolutely. Here? Unfortunately, ye need to come across as hard, scary, and dangerous. I also do my best to come across as reliable and honest. The problem is, the minute anyone with more numbers than ye thinks you’re weak, they’ll attack.

“Remember Twilight, these people are loyal to each other. That’s all. None of them have gotten to the third stage of rehabilitation. They are all in step two. Unite with others to form a small band of survivors for mutual gain. They have yet to realize the gains that can be made when many groups come together.”

I nodded, Nye’s behavior making perfect sense now.

I opened my mouth, wanting to explore that further, but our escort emerged from the trees atop the ramp, riding on the back of a huge sized dull brown colored wolf which rather than being sleek and muscular, roughly resembled Celestia after the time a noble dared her to eat thirty cakes.

Which meant round, and floofy. WIth a look of regret in the eyes but happy satisfaction in the smile.

Despite knowing that a wolf that massive had to be a very formidable beast, all I could think when I saw it was, ‘Awww, it’s a big ol chubby puppy! I want one.’

There are no words for how happy I was that I didn’t say those words aloud…

“Come on,” Nyota said, nodding towards the ramp before spurring her parasaur forwards.

I nodded and climbed up into my saddle, quickly guiding my own mount to follow after her. When Nyota reached the top of the ramp, she held out her hand, and quickly transferred the foundations to our wolf riding escort, who nodded in thanks.

“Oh, and by the way,” Nyota said as he started to turn around to lead us through the forest. “I only yelled because ye need to learn to do yer job right. Kill someone like that and you will start a tribe war. Also, the rockets are kinda slow. At that distance I could have shot it down with my pistol.

“That’s not a boast. Ye could probably sprint faster than that thing if you upped yer speed to one fifty. If yer gonna use rockets, ambush with them. Don’t assault.”

“Noted,” our guide grunted before nodding towards the forest. “Come on. You’ve been given permission to hunt on S2. It’s three quarters of the way to the top of the mountain-”

“Volcano,” I corrected reflexively.

“Whatever,” He grunted irritably.

Our guide lead us a very short distance through the forest, where we reached the first of many gates. Vulcan’s Anvil had walled off the entire volcano, and the foothills surrounding it, with massive thirty meter high stone walls. The walls were simplistic, with no real means of defense atop them save for spotlamps and the occasional turret protected by a steel barricade of sorts. But that hardly mattered. The wall was easily six meters thick.

The gate we went through had three sets of huge steel doors, and as we passed through into the volcano’s foothills, I noticed the wall’s quarried stone was but a facade. A thin layer coating a solid ring of steel surrounding the volcano.

This must be the anvil in Vulcan's anvil.

Inside the wall the foothills had been converted into farmland. Food, stone, metal, and animals all sectioned off into orderly areas by smaller steel walls. Occasionally you’d see a small home, nothing bigger than what you’d expect for a couple of middle class ponies in ponyville to own. Except made from solid steel, and designed in a very boxy, yet easy to defend, though very bland to look at ‘style’.

These people were all about industry, efficiency, and showing off their wealth.

You could tell by the iron castle they’d constructed which was built almost at the very top of the volcano, anchored the the stone by countless support beams and terraced platforms. The fortress sat atop the volcano much like a crown, towering above everything save the very top of the crater.

That’s likely where the tribe’s chief had their swimming pool full of hot mares and stallions. Flood the crater, hope magma’s close enough to the top despite the domancy to make a hot springs.

It’s what I’d do with it.

A series of elaborate stone ramps and walkways spider webbed down the volcano’s sides from the fortress, allowing access to any given part of the volcano itself. Even from the kilometer or so away from the base, I could see maybe fifty people riding various creatures around the walkways, ether going to or from one of the exposed faces, or pulling a wagon of materials upwards towards the fortress.

Our escort led us to the closest access ramp, taking us past a small farm which were raising these huge armadillos which not only looked adorable, but Nyota informed me were called dodeks. Which mean we got to go home with one!

But not one of those. Those ones were especially bred for mining. Very valuable, and thus not for trade.

The ramp network had lots of gates along the paths. These gates were just wood reinforced with metal, with the archways formed from stone, much like the walkways themselves. Even with my rudimentary understanding of defenses, I could see the value in being able to contain a ‘breach’ to very specific areas of the access ramps.

With a gate every fifty yards or so, anyone without the equipment to scale the wall formed by the next highest walkways foundation would be forced to break through the gate. Thus, slowing them down. The protection was made even better with the ramps connecting the walkways vertically being spaced out so there was no straight shot up the mountain, with two gates between each vertical ramp.

We’d moved up from the base of the volcano to the first ramp, and were moving along a flat section of walkway to the next upwards ramp, when Nyota and our guide’s radios crackled.

“Jake… What are you doing?” The man who I assumed was one of the chief’s lieutenants asked irritably.

Jake fumbled for his radio. “Taking them up like you said. Over,” he answered grouchily, his tone implying a silent ‘tailhole’ at the end of his sentence.

“Nyota, I’m sorry. I believed Jake was ready for duty as an escort but he clearly isn’t. Jake, you’re taking them the wrong way. You’re done for today. Go back to the barracks for reassignment. Nyota, if you and your friend will wait right there, I’ll send someone else to guide you the rest of the way. Over,” he said, almost ordering us.

I frowned suspiciously. Nyota did as well, taking her radio off her vest.

“Nyota here. I think this guy can do the rest of the job. We can just turn around and go around the other side. Over,” she said, one hand subtly reaching down for the pistols on her left thigh.

Oh… Yeah, this would also be a great place to ambush people.

“I insist. We have certain structures built on the slope that are not for outsiders to see, and Jake has proven untrustworthy. Remain where you are and I’ll have someone else take you to your section,” he repeated.

Jake spurred his wolf onwards, moving towards the far gate in a loping run.

“Mhm,” Nyota sighed.

She turned, guiding her parasaur to turn around, her lips parting to give me an order, her face half angry, half worried. She got no further than that before the walkway exploded.

Shards of stone flew everywhere, my ears rang, blocking out the sound of two sections of walkway crumbling, forming two huge pits, one in front of us, and one behind. Our parasaurs panicked, running along the section of walkway, nearly shaking me off.

Hidden trapdoors in the remaining sections opened, allowing a half dozen people in cast iron black streamlined, modern-looking armor to leap up onto the walkway, immediately sweeping rifle like weapons upwards to bare on us, each one spraying a cloud of fire from the muzzle.

The fire was more than my parasaur could handle. She twisted, turning into a blind sprint I was too scared to even think about stopping, and ran off the side of the walkway.

As I fell I saw Nyota reach up and pull her chainsaw from it’s scabbard on her back. My hearing returned just in time to hear the weapon roar to live over the sound of crackling fire, gunshots, and animal screams.

I plunged over the edge of the walkway, stirrups keeping me in the saddle as my mount slammed into the side of the volcano twenty meters below me. Something wet snapped. She screamed. The loose pile of rubble we landed on gave way, sliding down the stone slope with an impossibly loud rumbling roar.

Still the stirrups kept me held to the saddle, even as the rockslide threw us this way and that, smashing me into the ground, forcing my screeching mount to roll over me several times. The chaotic fall ended with a blinding flash of white as my head smashed against something, and I jerked to a stop.

I don’t know how long I lay as if dead. I lost my ability to track time in the fall. I was aware of where I was, pinned between a tree and the corpse of my parasaur. Somewhere inside the ‘top’ edge of one of their lumber farms. But the sensation of time passing simply wasn’t there.

It was like I blinked and suddenly a few minutes had gone by. As my awareness returned, I could hear gunfire from the slope above me. But very faintly. It wasn’t my ears having a problem. The walkways was pretty darn high up the slope, and the guns here were quieter than I remembered guns being.

Distant snaps and cracks. Not the distant booms you’d expect. Odd.

At least it meant Nyota was alive still. I wanted to help her, but I was really certain that I was concussed at the moment. Moving would be bad.

Besides, she’d given me the map so I could go home if we ran into something like this. She wanted me to go, not to come to her rescue.

But did that mean I should?

“Twi, if things go south, just go home. I’ve got a few tricks incase I get captured. Ye don’t. I’ll get away in a day or two, but they could keep ye for weeks before I could safely get ya out of there. Just come back home if we’re attacked and separated,” Nyota instructed, her stern look making it clear she was completely serious.

“Y-you're kidding!” I exclaimed in surprise. “You don’t want any help?”

Nyota shook her head. “I… I’m starting to care for ye, Twi. An even if I didn’t, I don't want ye to get hurt when I can get out on my own. I’ve done it before many times. Besides, if I’m gone for more than three days, someone needs to use that radio right there, the red one, and call Drake. He’ll get the whole tribe to come rescue me. Ye can help me best by calling down a platoon of seasoned knights, their mounts, and one very angry alpha raptor.”

No. No it meant I should go with her contingency plan and call the brute squad. That would definitely be the best course of action.

And I was dying, right? That meant I’d be home soon and I could just call right now. Screw her waiting in a cell for days! She’d said that if that happened to me I’d probably be raped and tortured for kicks while they sliced parts of me off to eat!

Nye wasn’t going to go through that for one single hour.

Of course… I was carrying a lot of equipment which she’d customized. Nyota worried about her things falling into enemy hands.

Crap! I couldn’t just die. I had to get out of their base at the very least. I had to get this stuff out of here. They couldn’t have it!

Especially since Nye had given me two grenades she said were never ever ever to be lost. And I was carrying them…

Okay. The plan. Remember how to move your body. Get out of here. Go home. Call Drake. Tell them the Vulcans had Nye. Get on Razor’s back. Wait for them. Go get her back. Kick their chief in his testicles for being a treacherous jerk.

Yes.

Good plan.

I just needed to move. How did I move?

I tried to move my left arm. It cracked, and I felt the bone splinter. Screaming in pain, I bit my lip to keep from passing out, closing my eyes tight to block out the pain.

The rubble shifted slightly, my eyes snapping back open in fear. My head turned just fine, with only a little stiffness, allowing me to see some rubble slide off a crude camouflage trapdoor near the base of the tree I was pinned against.

I gulped in fear. They had hidden guards here too… I was doomed. At best, they would get those grenades, my armor, my bow…

A long reptilian snout poked out of the trapdoor, sniffing the air before the door was opened completely and a small Troodon hopped out. I’d never seen one in the light before. Small, very slender. With The same feathery plumes on the arms like a Raptor, but with a semi thick tail, tiny non-hook-clawed feet, three taloned hands with opposable thumbs, and without a raptor’s head feather mohawk thing. Instead they had a soft fuzzy coating of something between fur and feathers on their backs, flanks tails, the back of their neck, and head, with smooth skin everywhere else.

This one had a striped pattern of minty green and powdery blue, with a white stripe on its snout. It blinked sleepily, even smacking its lips like anypony I knew would before looking at me hungrily and chittering.

Hello, possible early night snack. Please scream again if you want me to help you die and are cool with me eating the body you leave behind, it instructed in an extremely creepy way.

Due to being polite. And sounding like somepony who woke up to the scent of fresh cookies.

The creepy reality of being asked to scream in fear at the presence of a predator to give permission for it to eat me, combined with the definite concussion I had compelled me to speak.

“Actually,” I croaked wetly in English for reasons my brain didn’t really have. “I’d really like to not be killed right now. Thank you.”

The troodon chirped a wordless sound of surprise, hopping backwards slightly, cocking its head to one side.

You understood me? How? It asked, going from sleepy and hungry to sleepy and amazingly curious like I’d flipped a switch.

“Magic collar… Animal empathy spell. Based on a language translation spell,” I mumbled. “Can’t die. They’ll get my stuff. Nyota said not to let them take my stuff.”

Okay. What if I take your stuff and put it in my nest? They won't get it then and I like stuff! The Troodon asked eagerly.

I shook my head, moaning as it caused my shoulder to burn painfully. “No… Don’t want to die,” I mumbled.

The troodon stamped a food angrily. Oh come on! You’re already about to die! I’d just be letting you wake up in bed faster, and I already said I’ll take your stuff so they don’t get it. I can even make it instant. One quick bite, just one fang piercing your throat, and with how hurt you are my venom will go right to your brain, it protested. I didn’t eat yesterday! I’m starving. You have infinite bodies. What do you care?!

“Dying hurts really really bad. So does coming back… It’s a punishment. This is a prison. Dying’s made to be as bad as possible. Cuz you’ll die a lot here,” I mumbled, my vision starting to blur.

NO! NO! Pull yourself together. This body has nanites in it, right? They WILL fix you. Do you hear me you little robot bastards!? It’s overtime! FIX IT!

The Troodon hopped backwards again, hissing in a way I didn’t quite understand. It hurts? It asked me sounding like I just proved the world was round to him.

“Uh huh,” I confirmed, vision starting to clear up as I put all my willpower into surviving.

I didn’t know how I would escape the troodon, but-

I’m so sorry! We… We thought it didn’t hurt! If we made a thing to let us come back to life it wouldn’t hurt, it apologised, a sympathetic series of chirps carrying its words to me.

Wait… The chirps. They weren't like Razor’s hisses. One sound with lots of meaning due to emotional states. They were lots of short very precise sounds strung together. Those were words. In a sentence. With meaning built right in there.

Cool beans!

“It’s scary too,” I mumbled. “The world goes black. No. Not black. The world goes to nothing. You can feel you have no body. You can’t feel cold, but you think you should feel cold. Then everything burns as you come back.”

The troodon’s head dipped sadly. Others might not care, but I don’t like torturing prey… So, even though you smell really really tasty, and I want to eat you super bad… Just hold on for a while. But if you die before I get back, can I eat this body? Please? You smell so tasty it’s almost arousing! it begged.

“Okay,” I agreed.

Yay! It chittered, quickly diving back into the hold the trapdoor hid.

I continued demanding my body heal itself faster. I could feel my consciousness wanting to drift off, but every second I forced myself to keep going, it got easier to stay here. I could do it. I could will myself to live long enough for my implant to heal my wounds. I could make it out of here.

My concentration was interrupted as the troodon’s head poked back out of the hole, looking arround with its golden eyes cautiously before hopping out of the hole, dragging a tattered hide backpack by a strap with one talon. The bag clinked.

It zipped next to me and opened the bag with its mouth, revealing the bag to be half full of green glass bottles, half the size of a wine bottle. Each one filled with a bright red faintly glowing liquid.

The troodon fished one bottle out, gripped it in both talons, ripped the cork out with its teeth, spat it out and stood up tippy talon to pour the liquid into my mouth.

Drink it. These fix wounds. I steal a few whenever the apes brew them, it instructed.

I didn’t need to be told that. Vinegar, lemon, battery acid, and charcoal. The distinct taste of a healing potion, one of the potent ones.

Not even questioning how the Vulcans learned to brew healing potions I swallowed all of the bottle I could, even though a lot of it spilled out of my mouth, due to the surprisingly friendly troodon pouring way too fast.

Nonetheless, within seconds of swallowing all I could, I felt my arm jerk and screamed in pain as the bone cracked back into place. My whole arm went numb and burned right at the core as the bone fused back together. Feeling returned to my legs, and I realized that I hadn’t felt them at all until just now.

I’d had my back broken… And I wasn’t pinned. I could wiggle out of this. The pinned feeling was due to my crossbow squeezing against my back and the parasaur, pushing me against the tree.

The troodon seemed to wince as I wriggled free. Your metal-hide is crumpled in. Maybe take it off so your ribs can go back where they belong? it suggested.

I looked down. The entire right side of my armor was caved in by about three inches. I flexed my arm, pulling my implant into position, and took off the currase, replacing it with another I’d made but not had the time to get painted. The moment I did, I felt my ribs crack, and then my lung reinflated.

“Ow,” I whimpered.

Was that more painful than dying? I was asked via a very curious series of chirps.

I frowned, thinking back on the death’s I’d experienced before.

“No. Almost, but no,” I decided with a firm nod.

Then I’m glad I helped you… I can eat your parasaur, right? The troodon asked hopefully.

I nodded, then paused, looking down at the ‘slightly bigger than a filly’ dinosaur. It totally had Lyra’s EXACT colors. Also ‘it’ used language. Real language. Which my collar was likely only able to translate since it was based on a language translation spell. “It’ had a sex, and a name. I should call them by it.

“Uh, thanks for saving my life. What’s your name?” I asked hopefully.

I’m Chipfang. Named for my great grandfather who taught me Human, incase you were curious, Chip answered, flashing me an expression which I think was a proud smile. What’s your name?

“Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you,” I said, kneeling down and extending a hand to shake by reflex.

To my surprise, Chip reached out, grabbed two of my fingers, and shook. You’re a female, right? Chip asked out of the blue.

I nodded. “Yes, I’m a mare. What are you? I um, I have problems when it comes to saurians, avians, and reptiles,” I admitted with a blush.

That’s okay. We’ve got all our stuff tucked inside, your males have it all dangly, and your females have the chest bumps. I can see how you’d have problems when you’re used to easy ways to know like that. I’m male. I asked because female Equus have much stronger scents. The humans will be able to track you easily, and I can’t mask your scent. “You need to get home fast, before they find you… I just woke up enough understand there’s a fight happening here. Heh heh…”

I blinked in surprise as halfway through Chip’s statement, my Empathy spell stopped translating his words as thoughts and simply began to let me understand the sounds.

It really was a language! Also, the more efficient version of my spell I’d been forced to make just outclassed the original translation spell it was based on. It auto-updated. That gave me some interesting science to do later. Yay!

“Wait, you would help me get out of here?” I asked hopefully. “Even if you don't have a scent blocker that will work for me, can you point the way to the outer wall? I’m kind of disoriented.”

Right. Big wall. One step at a time, Twi.

Chip nodded twice, then hopped over to my dead parasaur, and ripped a huge chunk out of her side. Wolfing the raw meat down in a few quick bites.

“Bleh… Cooked food is better…” He grumbled. “The wall is that way.”

Chip flicked his tail, pointing behind him and slightly to the left.

“Thanks,” I said, stomach turning slightly as I watched him continue just ripping chunks off the corpse to eat.

I turned towards the direction Chip indicated and took a few steps, slightly wobbly ones, but with each one being more steady than the last.

“If you wait for like, eight more bites, I’ll escort you home,” Chip offered. “Now that I think about it, they will come here to find your body. And they’ll find my den. I need to move anyways.”

I stopped and turned back around. “Y-you will?” I exclaimed in honest surprise. “I have to say, you’re very nice for something which wants to eat me!”

“I do. A LOT! But I won't. I can only justify eating another sentient if it doesn't hurt them, or they attacked me. It hurts you, and you haven’t attacked me. I um, I thought coming back didn’t hurt you before… You do smell REALLY good though,” Chip almost whimpered before turning around to face me. “I don't do it for free though! I’ll need payment.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I um, I understand you’re a people now… But the Troodon who chased me before didn’t have tools. Not even stone ones. You definitely don't trade with humans sooo what do you need money for?” I asked suspiciously.

“Piling up so I can lay on it and pretend to be the dragon,” Chip joked with a smile. “No, but really I don't want money. I want a big thick warm blanket. Holes are cold.”

“Oh!” I said with a smile. “Well sur-”

“And a hot meal with spices!” Chip added super quick, tail wagging eagerly.

I laughed, smiling at the hopeful look on the not-so scary looking anymore face. “I can’t cook anything fancy yet, but I can make you some cooked meat,” I promised.

“Deal?” Chip asked eagerly, holding up a talon to shake.

I nodded and shook it. “Deal.”

“Great!” Chip exclaimed with another smile. “I’ve gotten a good belly full of meat, but we’re nocturnal. It’s super early for me. Just a minute…”

Chip vanished back into his hole, and pushed out another two bags, which I picked up for him, storing them in my implant. They didn’t weigh enough to slow me down, but oddly enough when I picked them up I got a message.

Stored Item not fully compatible with ARK Prison System Survival Implant Firmware 257.38. Activating, consuming, or equipping this item requires Elerium Industries Civilian Survival Implant Firmware 3.92 or greater, or Elerium Industries Military Battlefield Enhancement Implant Firmware 2.01 or greater. Please drop the item at the next convenient opportunity.

“Huh…” I mused. “I um, I picked up your things for you.”

“Thanks!” Chip called before popping back out of his hole, holding a small glass jar full of cold coffee.

The effects were instant.

The mint colored troodon pulled the jar’s lid off with his teeth, and then downed the coffee in one gulp, closing his eyes as he tipped his head back. When he opened them, they were glowing.

Not reflecting light like a cat. Literally glowing. With a fairly bright yellow light.

Chip hissed a non-word hiss of pleasure. “Ah yeah, that’s the stuff! Instant personal nighttime. Just add stimberries to water. Let’s go!” He yelped excitedly, immediately breaking into a full tilt run in the direction he indicated earlier.

I had a hard time keeping track of the little speed demon as he sprinted full tilt through the trees at about point zero two of a Dash. I half expected to see a tiny rainboom ahead of me. Instead we burst from the treeline, ziped over a stone roadway, and into a field of corn.

Then right out of the field, onto a straight road leading right for a section of the wall. It wasn’t far, at this breakneck pace we would reach the wall within just a few seconds.

“Hey, dumb question, but can you climb metal things?” Chip asked excitedly.

“No, can you?” I called back between breathless panting.

“Yep! Claws will dig in enough to climb right up! Um, can you open their gates? Or do you have a rope?” he asked worriedly.

No… But I did have explosives. And there were two gates… which were kinda thin. And this was an emergency.

“Go for the gates, but stay back from them,” I instructed, turning left to make a beeline for the closest gate.

Chip altered course as well, rushing headlong towards the gate chittering something the ‘language’ portion of the translation couldn’t understand, but the ‘animal emotions’ side translated as AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

All in all, Chip reminded me of why Fluttershy was not allowed to drink coffee anymore.

And I loved it!

I skidded to a stop, armored boots throwing up a shower of dirt and pebbles as we reached the gates. Surprisingly, no one was guarding them. Perhaps Nyota was still fighting and they called for back up. That or they just didn’t have the horsepower to guard their gates and set up that ambush at once.

I flicked my wrist, opening my implant and conjuring both of the Tek Grenades Nyota had given me. One in each hand. The oddly spiky rounded cylinders dug into my palms as they appeared, not enough to cut me, but certainly enough to hurt a little. These were made for use with armored gloves that were not leather backed with metal…

I pulled the pin on one, and threw it, aiming to get it to land right at the base of the gate. Instead, it hit the gate, bounced off, and exploded mid air.

Rather than the bright flash of energy I expected, the grenade simply melted into slag. I thought it was a dud for a moment, but then the air around the detonation point rippled and shimmered, and a wave of blast-furnace level heat slammed into me along with an audible “WOOM!” as if an invisible fire blazed where the slag had fallen.

The metallic stretch of vaporized metal saturated the air as the wave of heat battered me almost senseless.

I reflexively shielded my eyes from the heat until it fanished five seconds later. When I looked back, a nice three meter wide hole had been melted through the gate. The edges of the hole glowing white hot. No visible slag on the cracked charcoal ground which had once been dirt.

“C-can I throw the other one?” Chip asked eagerly.

“Can you throw it far enough?” I asked, both impressed and dumbfounded by the thermal detonation.

“No…” He admitted with a sigh. “Can I climb on your shoulder and pretend I throw it?”

“Sure,” I chuckled, amused despite the danger we were definitely now in. There’s no way someone would miss that…

Chip turned around and simply jumped up onto my shoulder, spinning around, his talons scarily easily digging into my pauldron as he turned around and got situated. The moment he was in place, I threw the second grenade through the hole in the inner gate.

This time I nailed the throw, and the heat wave blast was much less intense, the surrounding metal structure absorbing most of the energy, the entire gatehouse slumping inwards slightly under its own weight as the steel heated up enough to become malleable.

“HA! Take that, door!” Chip cheered hyperactivity. “You can suck my tool having dick!”

I snickered. “That was my tool,” I teased.

Chip chirped sadly. “Can I have this? Please?” He begged.

“Sorry,” I said, taking a breath before running through the ruined gates and out into the forest.

With any luck, our raft would still be there. I doubted they would sink if if they didn’t guard their gate. It definitely had to be a numbers thing. Their fields for farming had been empty. Their wallops only guarded by turrets. They’d put a bunch of people on ‘work’ detail to make them seem to have a lot of people to hide the lack of other people, who were laying in ambush.

No one would be available to sink the boat.

True to my prediction, by the time we reached the forest edge, panting and sweating, and ran out onto the cliff, the crude raft was still sitting in the water just next to the beach. Pointing to the raft I yelled, “Get on that, we’ll sail down river!”

Chip nodded and simply jumped off the cliff, landing on the beach five meters below, none the worse for wear and zipped right onto the raft. I followed his lead, but too the time to stop, grab the top of the ledge, and lower myself down before dropping. Slower, but less ankle breaking.

I turned and ran across the beach, leaving a wake of sand in the air as I crossed the distance to the raft. The moment my feet hit the deck I grabbed the raft’s tiller and cranked it to the left.

The raft turned around as if it had wheels, easily gliding off the beach and pointing south down the river.

Chip yelped in alarm. “What in the crap is- How does this thing work?”

“Space magic,” I informed, repeating Nyota’s explanation word for word.

“Seems legit,” Chip decided after a moment before taking a handful of berries and a little bit of dried meat out of a tiny saddlebag I’d only just now noticed he was wearing due to it being very thin and dyed his fur and skin colors.

He offered me the barriers with a smile. “It’s nighttime, and we’re not in danger. Dine with me, newfound horse friend?”

I bent down to grab the berries, nearly making the raft slide laterally down the river as the tiller barely moved. “Sure! I’m pretty hungry after healing up like that,” I said gratefully.

I hoped Chip didn’t steal all their healing potions. I had a feeling that the Vulcans would need a lot of them a few minutes after I got to the radio…

Nyota - Day 115,353

South Jungle - The Island

I could see my house up on the hill. I had made it. I was battered, my gear burnt, cut up, and bloody, my weapons broken, like my ribs, but I’d made it.

That had been a hell of a thing… Almost bought the farm when they broke out the bolos. Good thing I practiced cutting my way out of those things.

Of course Charlie would put a bounty out on me… And of course the Vulcans would accept military service as payment. STUPID! The whole deal was suspicious… I should have known from the beginning then they limited the area we could hunt and didn’t offer to let us buy two of their dinos.

I moaned, half in physical pain, half in emotional pain.

I had no idea if Twilight was okay. The bounty was for both of us alive… If she’d been killed, she was okay. Losing Tek grenades was bad. But my house being easily breached would be preferable to her being caged.

I limped my way up the path, almost stopping to kiss the ramp as I set foot on it. Actual foot too. The sole of that boot had been melted clean off.

I had to get inside. I had to see if Twilight had made it. If not, medkit. Put on good gear. Kill them all before they traded her to Charlie.

I reached the door. The nanoweave helixed open for me, the light and warmth of my garage poured outwards like a heavenly blanket of comforts and goodness.

And in the white glow of my garage's lights, sitting down next to an ankylo, a dodek, a troodon, and Razor, was Twilight. Her gear was a mess, not as bad as mine, but there she was. With the dinos we’d set out to get. And a god damn Troodon!

“You’re okay!” I shouted in relief, laughing happily and limping forwards to give Twilight a hug as fast as my battered body would allow.

Twilight smiled as I ran for her. “Oh thank goodness! You’re okay too! I was about to call your friends,” she said, wrapping her arms around me first.

Returning her hug, I leaned against her just a bit too hard thanks to my knee failing.

“Y-you're hurt,” Twilight exclaimed worriedly looking back at the troodon and asking it a question in English. “Do you have a healing potion she could have?”

The troodoon chittered its nonsense chirps. Why could I never understand them? I understood everything else.

“Okay, I think that’s a fair trade,” Twilight said with a nod before turning back to me. “Did you know those chirps are a language? Chip there is a people!”

Oh… Well, buck. I’m kinda dumb I guess.

That was stupidly obvious in hindsight.

“That would explain why I could never understand them with my talent,” I said, grabbing a nearby crate and plopping down on it. “So… How the hay did you get the dinos we wanted and also not die?”

Twilight shook her head. “You first! How did you survive that? There were twenty of them at least, and they had fire shooters and guns, and-”

I laughed and shook my head, then felt my tail raise in alarm as the Troodon hopped in front of me. But instead of going for my groin with a bite, Chip offered me a bottle of healing brew. Taking the bottle from him, I nodded in thanks, and took a deep swig.

I felt the potion go to work almost immediately. GIving the nanites in my body the energy and materials to fix everything they could. Damn these things were useful. It’s ironic that I never figured out how to brew them.

Zebras: World renowned for alchemical knowledge. Nyota: can't figure out how the hell you make a healing potion in over three hundred years. Despite knowing several of the other concoctions available on the ARKs by heart.

Heh.

“I almost died... As you can see. That was a bad one,” I understated with a shit eating grin, before taking a breath to summarize my escape. “I took down the first wave with semi auto fire, but they just kept coming! Sheer luck, most of them were in front of my Parasaur so I popped my chainsaw into sixth gear and just ran them down. After they took her down and boloed me I cut myself free and handled everyone who got close with a combination of small arms fire and hand to hand techniques.

“I managed to roll off the walkway and slide down hill after five minutes of melee. Got up and ran into the forest. Had to go a bit guerrilla. Set a few claymores up. Knifed a few. The usual. Made it to the wall, scaled it with a grappling hook, got into a sword vs chainsaw fight with their chief, lost my saw, jumped from the wall, twisted my ankle in the process and managed to limp out of rifle range only taking two hits.”

I reached down and pulled my two pistols from their holsters, staring at them in my hands distantly. “I… I am completely out of ammo,” I said shaking my head slowly. “That’s never happened to me before.”

Holstering my guns, I looked up two Twilight and gestured to the room. “Now yer turn, lass! How… How this!?” I demanded, awestruck.

Twilight smiled proudly, deservedly so, and sat down in my chair across from me, her tail swishing behind her.

“Well, my parasaur ran off the walkway when they started to shoot fire. We kinda caused a rockslide and I wound up concussed. I happened to land near Chip’s den and woke him up. He wanted to eat me, but he understands English, so I was able to talk to him. Turns out he’s got morals and won't eat us since he knows it hurts for us to come back to life now and he’s against needless suffering.

“He gave me a healing potion, he collects tools people make. Jealousy, mostly. Also I think he’s aroused by technology. Literally.

“He offered to escort me home since he has to find a new nest now anyways, and I accepted. I owe him two blankets, a cooked meal, and now also a knife. One for bushcrafting, not combat. Anyways, we made it to the gate, I melted it with the Tek Grenades you gave me and then we made it to the raft. Which they didn’t sink because I’m pretty sure they put all their people on that ambush and sailed home fairly uneventfully.

“But, while sailing, Chip spotted the anky on the bank and pointed him out because he finds them to be super tasty and wanted to know if we could stop long enough for a snack. I said we were looking for one of them to get metal and he offered to knock it out with his venom for another blanket. I figured since you said to wait days before calling for help it would be fine to accomplish half of our mission, and so we landed and tamed him.

“While we were doing that, well, it turns out troodons are incredibly good at hunting specific creatures, and when I mentioned all we needed now was a dodek, he went and found one. It wasn’t too far away, so he dropped it with a few bites, and I tamed it for us too!

“Then we all sailed back here. I got here just a few minutes ago and was about to call Drake like you said so we could all go and save you from those jerks, but I cooked Chip some meat as per our business arrangement which has now become a friendship… Which reminds me, can he stay here?”

“Why are you even asking?” I demanded incredulously. “Of course he can! He’s a person, a highly skilled tracker, and his species are a real pain in the ass to fight. Chip, ye can live here. You’ll share Twi’s room though.”

Chip chirped happily, smiling at me. It was the first time I’d seen a Troodon smile. Or seen one that wasn’t trying to bite my bits off in order to drop me so they could eat me alive…

She’d been ambushed by a very deadly force. Escaped, accomplished the mission which had just come fully tits up, and made a powerful and loyal ally in the process. I couldn’t possibly have done any better myself. I hadn’t even taught her my tricks and she was performing just as well as I could through her own methods.

She’d become someone who could be my partner, not my student.

That was the hottest thing I had ever heard in my life!

I smiled wide enough for it to hurt. But that was okay. I’d finally decided how I felt about this Twilight.

I stood up, stepped over to Twilight, and gave her a loving kiss. “And that’s how ye earn my respect, Twi,” I said as I broke the kiss and limped off towards my room.

Twilight blushed at my kiss, kicking her feet slightly, clearly happy, but unsure how to react.

Ah well, I’d let her start things off if and when she wanted too. I was ready now, but I was a patient mare. I could wait.

“We’re taking a day off to recover. Then we’re getting you proper equipment. Ye don’t need me to teach ya any more basics. Ye'r ready for real work,” I said as I made my way to the elevator.

Pausing for one moment to take another look at Twilight in all her accomplished glory, I smiled one last time, and then went to my bed. The potion was nice and all, but I needed some real sleep to get the rest of the aches and pains out.

Author's Note

Patron of the week: Mecha Chocobo

8 - Prelude to Recovery

Lyra Heartstrings - 20th of Solar Dusk, 17 EoH

11 Forward: Bar & Grill - USS Pheonix

Six months. I’d managed to be mostly okay for six months. Longer than I thought, but not as long as I’d hoped. At least living inside the Emerald Hive was sort of interesting. I’d wanted to get into this particular changeling hive for almost a decade now.

Too bad I got in as a refugee with the rest of Ponyville.

I’d heard that they finally finished the initial decontamination of Ponyville last week. There’d be a few more rounds of clean up, a short wait to see if anything came back, and then the town could start reconstruction. Had it been that bad? I didn’t think it would have taken six months just to do that.

Then again, it wasn’t just the portal to Tartarus which had opened up there. We probably brought a lot of weird stuff back with us when we transported the town back from the dream realm.

Good tactic, Luna. Hide the whole city from the demons within the shadowy place dreams become real.

That sounded sarcastic even in my head. But I didn't mean it that way. It had been a good idea. We saved sixty percent of everypony. Sort of. Lots of them came out different than they went in…

Like Bonbon.

Six months since she’d taken that shot for me. How normal everything had seemed for those first few weeks. Nothing had been wrong at all.

The Nightmare had seen me. It turned, fired two pale blue rays from its eyes. Bonbon jumped to take the shot for me since she was the stronger of the two of us. The beams hit. Nothing seemed to happen. We were confused, drove the Nightmare off, evacuated the Hay Burger. Chakled the weirdness up to being in a world where logic itself could change at random.

If only…

“I need another, please,” I asked the barkeeper while staring at the stainless steel bar top.

I could see my reflection in the shiny metal. The reflection of the whole bar was there. The oval shaped, red and green neon lit, all metal and black vinyl, futuristic themed bar just sort of there. Framing my blank face.

I liked the futuristic look the Emerald Changelings gave their hive. I really did. But I missed the Bronze Star’s rustic theme. Something about the rustic looking wood and leather paneled walls made it feel homey. This felt more like grabbing a drink at one of Vi’s clubs. Not like having a drink at home to calm down.

“I sort of want to cut you off,” the barkeeper, a burgundy colored pegasus (or maybe a shape changed changeling, I couldn’t tell), said hesitantly, ears half drooped. “But, you don’t seem drunk.”

“I’m a vampire. We’re immune to poison. I can’t get drunk,” I mumbled in reply.

“Uh, then why-”

“I’m trying to anyways,” I explained with a weary sigh before he could finish asking.

And bourbon tasted nice when I was sad.

The pegasus shook his head tan mane swishing like he’d walked out of a shampoo commercial. “No. I was going to ask how come you don’t burst into flames in the hallway. We use full spectrum lighting. No different from sunlight,” he corrected.

“It doesn't work like that…” I explained wearily. “Look, if you're curious, ask any of Luna’s other knights. We’re all vampires. They’ll explain. I just want another drink please. I’ve got the money for it.”

The pegasi raised one eyebrow. “Um, I get that Princess Luna is supposed to have a darkness and night theme going for her, but… Really? All of you?” He asked incredulously. “She’s got to have a few hundred knights at her beck and call, and all of you-”

“Princess Luna has six knights. That’s all,” somepony corrected from behind my left shoulder.

Catching sight of Rarity’s reflection in the bar I realized she had decided to speak up for me. She’d gotten the cybernetic parts used to save her life removed a few months ago. Her white coat was back to its old, not-metal, immaculate self.

“And from what I recall, Luna had nothing to do with their status. It was an accident involving some poor word choices and a game of twister. Isn’t that right, darling?” Rarity continued, walking up beside me.

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s a long story. Now can I please get another drink?” I asked looking up at the bartender finally.

Rarity frowned, her eyes narrowing in concern. Her eyes creeped me out a little now. I could see which one was the mechanical one. Not everypony could. It was too close to being organic. Not organic enough, or stylized enough, to not creep me out.

It wouldn’t be an issue if I had normal pony vision. But since I could see the difference…

“Lyra, do you need somepony to talk to?” Rarity asked sympathetically. “Drinking won't solve anything. Especially for you.”

“It tastes nice. And Bonbon always makes me Bourbon Drops for my birthday,” I countered.

Rarity paused, biting her lip in thought. “W-well, I mean, she still can,” she pointed out.

I nodded. “Yeah… If she cares to. Assuming she’s not too busy with what's-his-face,” I sighed, ears wanting to fall further in despair.

The bartender winced, and quickly poured another glass. “I’m sorry. We’ve all gone through one break up before,” he said as she slid the glass over to me with a flick of his hoof.

“I haven’t,” I mumbled.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “You- You’ve never been through a breakup before?”

I shook my head twice. “Nope. Bonbon was the first and only mare to ask me out and we’ve been together since we were seventeen,” I said, trying not to think too hard about the last sixty seven years. “Yep. We were the middle school couple who ‘made it’. Then this horse apples happens…

“Of all the stupid things that could have happened to us in that realm, she gets hit with a hex that makes her straight. Everything we’ve gone through, everything she and I have worked for… All gone.”

“You can’t dispel it?” The Bartender asked with a confused frown.

I closed my eyes tightly for half a minute. Trying not to snap.

“I can. But that’s illegal,” I explained, managing to keep an even tone of voice. “It’s not some mind control charm. She got hit with a spell that changed a fundamental part of her very being in such a way as to make it her ‘natural self’.

“Could I change that with magic? Yes. But that’s a felony. Because it’s mind control. Because her actual normal self changed. She feels normal and comfortable like this. She doesn't want to like me again either, because now she honestly can’t imagine liking mares despite all of her memories still being intact. Just like how she used to not be able to imagine liking a stallion. Complete inversion of her natural state. Nothing I can legally or ethically do.”

I’d woken up to my wife sobbing because she couldn’t love me anymore. That had literally been my worst nightmare since forever.

It had found me…

“I’m sorry,” Rarity said, giving me a quick hug. “I know you’ve probably already thought about this, but why not ask Doctor Lily to-”

“Tried it,” I dismissed.

“Mmm, yes. I figured you would feel uncomfortable being a stallion,” Rarity said with a small nod.

I laughed, actually smiling for a second. I was comfortable being lots of things. I studied transformation magic for fun as a filly and used it now as a means of disguise.

“Oh no, that’ was fine,” I grumbled. “Did that for two months. It didn’t work for her because she always remembered that it was ‘fake’. She used to work for an intelligence agency. Bonbon can’t really ignore little details, you know?

“I could have done it forever if she’d accepted it. No skin off my nose. Tartarus, I spent half a year as a male griffon once, I liked it. I like being other things. To the point of being jealous of changelings. C-could you just leave me alone, please?”

Rarity shook her head. “Leave you alone? Not without at least trying to offer some real help!” She scoffed. “It’s hardly fair that-”

I turned to look Rarity in her eyes. “That you came out of the war with a starship and I lost my wife to a Nightmare that managed to make itself real?” I said flatly with a blank expression.

Her ears drooped sadly. Ah, crap! I didn’t mean it like that.

“Look, Rares, I’m happy for you. I really am. But I’m living through something I’ve woken up in cold sweats before just from dreaming about, okay?” I asked giving her a pleading look. “I kept it cool till now mostly because I thought it would wear off over time. I tried all of the things I could think of. She can’t stay with me. It’s weird for her because of the memories.

“She’s pretty sure we can still be friends. But that’s all. And… I let her go today. I signed the divorce papers. So she can be happy again whenever. I’m worried I’m going to wind up a cliche. The morose vampire in a remote crypt, yearning forever after their lost love… If that happens, stake me. Please.”

Rarity winced. “I um… I’ll go. But please, after you’re done will you come see me? We can talk and hopefully find something to help you get through this,” she asked hopefully.

I nodded. No sense in letting my feeling bad make her feel bad because she couldn’t help. It’s not okay to drag others down with you. Sucks she didn’t care for me enough to agree to do that favor for me though.

“Yeah… Sure,” I agreed with a nod.

Rarity turned to leave, taking a few steps away from me before I remembered something.

I’d never seen Rarity in Ponyville’s bars. Ever. And I spent a lot of time in them playing the lyre for the whole time she’d lived there.

“Wait, Rarity,” I called, noting Rarity stop and turn her head by her reflection in the bar. “Why are you here? I’ve never seen you drink publicly before.”

Rarity pointed to a table a short distance from me where I saw Derpy and Sky sitting, a small number of glasses and bowls littering their table. They had been here for a while and I hadn’t noticed…

“I needed to talk to Sky about an appointment to get my upgrades back,” Rarity explained. “He’s here because he needed a drink.”

I blinked twice, Rarity’s statement breaking through my depression with it’s sheer absurdity.

“YOU, want to get metal body parts, BACK?” I asked, mouth hanging open slightly.

I mean, I would. Because being a cyborg would be badflank! But her? Rarity? Seriously?!

She nodded. “Yes. I think I do at least. Lily…. Well, I’d decided to keep a few things. I didn’t explain that clearly enough and parts were removed which I wanted to keep when Lily healed me. I miss being immune to heart attacks and blood born disease. And well, the overall look could be very striking if more art design had been put into the way the prosthetics looked.”

I cocked my head. “Y-you found being a cyborg to be in vogue?”

Rarity smiled and nodded once. “Exactly! I’m not completely sure I want to go back to that, so I asked Sky about setting up a sort of therapists visit to talk about it. But it will have to wait till after we have Twilight back again.

“That’s a good thing. You don’t want to just dive in to any notion that gets into your head, you know. I’m already quite experienced with major life changes, after all. If the idea hasn’t left my head in a year or two then it’s something to pursue seriously.

“But I still want to know about the technical details of what would be needed to go through with it now. That’s sort of a key part of weighing the decision.”

Rarity finished speaking, frowned, then stepped back over and gave me another hug. “I’m sorry about Bonbon… You will come and talk when you’re up to it, right darling?”

I nodded and returned her hug long enough for Rarity to let go so I could go back to my drink.

“Yeah. I will,” I confirmed.

“Goodbye. I hope you can get through soon,” Rarity said sadly as she trotted away.

“Bye,” I called after her.

Well, at least somepony’s turning point had been positive.

“Hi!” A cheerful voice stated more than exclaimed as Derpy plopped down on the barstool to my right.

I sighed and turned to look the gray pegasus mare in her good eye with as honest and respectful of a gaze as I could. Which is a hard thing for a Lyra to do while irritated.

“Derpy, your table is close enough to overhear me asking Rarity to be left alone to drink in peace,” I said in as polite of a way as I could. “I want to be left alone. You know this.”

She nodded once. “Yep. But I’m not going to do that,” she informed adamantly, her wings twitching slightly. “Because I’ve been hunched over the bar after losing a loved one before. I’ve been you. You need a friend right now even though you feel you don’t.”

“I’m pretty sure I just want to forget…” I countered with an irritated sigh.

Derpy rolled her eyes. In different directions. I couldn’t help but smile. Stupid adorable pegasus.

“You’re drinking a drink which reminds you of something she made you for your birthday as a treat. You’re not drinking to forget. You’re drinking because it hurts,” she pointed out, with a small grin.

“Yeah… But so what? You have to deal with pain somehow,” I countered, swishing my tail in irritation.

“Sure, and for some people drinking a few glasses of something can help. But um, well, you can’t get drunk. You’re just wasting your time and money. Like I did, only without the hangover and vomiting,” Derpy admitted with a silly smile. “It won't work for you. You need a friend, and I know you have a sister, but she’s not here right now. So I’m not going to leave you alone.”

I frowned. Derpy and I had never really known each other that well. Sure, i saw her sometimes around town. I knew of her, who didn’t? But we had never been friends.

“You’ve lost a loved one?” I asked sympathetically. “I’m sorry…When did that happen?”

I didn’t have to say I knew how bad it hurt. I could tell she was being honest. Which meant she’d felt this before too.

“Lots of times,” Derpy sighed. “Most recently when Dinky’s father refused to move in long enough to raise her with me. I didn’t cry over that one since, well, turns out he was a bit of a plot hole. But I’ve lost loved ones who weren't jerks too.

“I spent most of my adult life traveling. Only staying one place long enough to know where to go next. But, well, I can’t NOT make friends. I kinda have a compulsion to help anypony I see who's genuinely sad. Sometimes, you help someone, and they are fun, and nice, and just a bit good looking, you hook up and then you have four wonderful years together-”

I gave Derpy a disgusted look.

“I’m not trying to pick you up,” she explained quickly, giving me a soothing smile.

“Good. I don’t want that,” I grumbled. “I- I know I’ll want somepony later. But not now. Besides, aren't you dating Dusk?”

Derpy shook her head. “No. After four months she decided she wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, and I realized she’s not a suitable mate for me. We’re just friends now,” she said matter of factly. “Though since we do occasionally hook up, a lot of ponies seem to still think we’re a couple. Uh, I guess it also doesn't help that we’re roommates.”

“I thought you said that Dinky’s father was the most recent one,” I asked with one eyebrow raised.

“Most recent lover. As in, somepony I’d been with for a significant amount of time as an official couple. I’ve had plenty of colt and marefriends since then, but none serious,” she explained before her eyes grew distant. “I- I have had serious ones before… And I’ve lost them. I imagine this is worse than when somepony you love dies. Because she’s still there, but out of your reach.”

I blinked, not even remotely having expected the town klutz best known for demolishing the town hall accidently to be this nice a pony. Why were we not already friends?!

She was honestly sad about my situation. She wasn’t sad because I was sad and bringing her down. She actually cared. That was… That was nice. That was what Bonbon had always been like with me.

She’d genuinely cared that I’d been the mopey mare obsessed with fantasy because I was afraid reality had nothing nice for me.

“You know what? I think I do need somepony to talk to,” I decided with a nod. “ Would it be okay to take this someplace private? Maybe a corner table or something?”

She nodded once. “Sure, we can do that. Um... “ Derpy paused, frowning as she looked around the room before giggling. “Actually, we can’t this room is an oval.”

I blinked, looking around myself. Sure enough, the bar was built in a large oval shaped room.

“Well, I look like an idiot,” I sighed, doing my best to avoid slapping a hoof to my forehead.

“I guess we’re doing it here… Do you have any cool vampire ‘quiet bubble’ powers?” Derpy asked playfully.

I rolled my eyes. “No. It thins down with each ‘generation’ away from Vi’s dad, and I was the last one bitten. All I have is the physical enhancements, dietary requirements, and well, bare minimum stuff,” I explained. Again. “Didn’t you read the pamphlets Luna had made when Hollow Shades went public? I don’t think you did, because seriously, NOPONY seems to know what vampires, werewolves, or anything else that lives there can actually do.”

I slumped down in my seat in a huff. It’s like people refused to be educated or something… It would be hilarious if Derpy asked me what would happen if I bit someone and drank enough blood to force them to change, since I was the ‘minimum’ in a diluting curse.

I always loved how ponies reacted to ‘You’d become a batpony, well, basicly. That’s where they came from in the first place, from the first vampire. Wanna be one? Just takes half an hour.’

I could use the laugh.

“I did read it,” Derpy apologised before giving me a quick hug. “I’m sorry for upsetting you. It’s just that there are a LOT of different kinds of vampires.”

“There’s three, and that’s only if you count changelings feeding on psychic energy created by emotions, and wendigos feeding on the heat living beings produce,” I said with an incredulous shake of my head. “How’s that hard to keep track of?”

“Yes, Equis has three kinds of vampire. Possibly four. But that depends on whether or not a particular cryptid is real or not-”

I gasped in honest shock. “You're into cryptozoology too?”

Play it cool and maybe she’ll let you ramble about humans in our distant past for a while and that might make you feel a bit better, Lyra!

Derpy nodded once, her lazy eye synchronizing with her normal one for just a moment. “Yes! But let’s not get off topic,” she urged. “Equis has three kinds, maybe four. That’s easy to keep track of. But do you have any idea why I’m helping with getting Twilight back?”

“Honestly, I have no clue,” I admitted with an embarrassed frown. “No offense, but you’re not an engineer as far as I know. Also, you’re not a unicorn, so the odds of you being a wizard are pretty low, though you could maybe know a few useful spells… As far as I know you’re just a klutzy mailmare who keeps winding up as the Solar Dawn pinup mare in my calendars.”

Derpy blushed lightly. “That’s not me. That’s my friend Clee. I gave her permission to use my shape when she wanted too. I um, I didn’t know she was a model at the time… I’m a bit jealous, actually,” she sighed half upset half amused before smiling and looking into my eyes as best she could manage. “Anywho, I’m here because I have experience in traveling between dimensions! Probably more than anypony else.

“Fun fact, almost every world I’ve ever visited has had vampires. Equis has the three you know. Then the world I grew up on alone has vampires, nosferatu, ghoules, stirges, vrykolakas, dhampir, and Aswang. And that’s all just the standard ‘creatures cursed to drink the blood of the living’. There’s at least fourteen different species which could be described as vampiric, and remember that’s just my own home.

“I’ve got a LOT of vampire types to keep straight in my head. I’m sorry for messing up, it’s a bit hard.”

“I um… I thought you grew up in White Nest? I mean that’s what I heard ponies say,” I mumbled slowly, trying to process the fact that Derpy of all ponies was a cooler adventure than me.

It felt… Weird. I’m Lyra Heartstrings, I’m supposed to out weird others, not be outwierded!

Brain, what do I do!?

Get her to take you someplace so you’re even.

Good idea, brain!

You’re welcome.

Derpy giggled. “I did grow up in White Nest. Just not the one you’re thinking of.”

“Sooo, you lie about your past to everypony then?” I asked sadly.

And here I was starting to like her…

Derpy quickly shook her head no twice. “I’ve actually never lied about anything. They ask where I’m from, I answer ‘a village called White Nest’. They ask what I did with my life, I answer ‘I traveled around looking for the place I was born’. Ponies never really tend to ask things like ‘what universe are you from?’ and if they do the honest answer is ‘This one.’

“I was born here. I just got my cutiemark at age six… Turns out that um, I can sort of just wander off into other universes if I get lost in my imagination. Literally.”

“I figured you were just really good at blowing bubbles,” I admitted sheepishly.

She shook her head no. “Nope. The bubbles represent the boundaries of a universe, and there’s a group of them because I can go between them… But I really hate that method. There’s no picking a destination… It’s made me kinda paranoid about not knowing where I am at a given time… It took a LOT of work to find my way back here.”

“I don’t lie… I just don’t go into detail about myself very much. I’ve always answered direct questions truthfully though. A few ponies know. I’d be totally honest like I was with everywhere else I went, but I wasn’t here because I was enjoying just being a pony up until now.

“That was the entire point of coming here. Live here for a while, learn how my birth species lives, make friends, then go back home one day. If I let everypony know I'm not normal, I’d have wasted the three hundred years I spent looking for Equis,” Derpy explained.

I jumped out of my chair, reflexively landing and balancing atop my hind legs, and pointed a hoof at Derpy.

“Horse apples! You don’t look a day over fifty three!” I protested. “You are NOT at the end of your lifespan.”

She nodded.

She just nodded.

“No. I’m not. We’ve got a lot in common. Not vampirism, but there’s lots of ways you can live longer,” Derpy admitted with a small blush. “I-I think you’d like mine. But that’s not anything I want to get into. And we’re supposed to be talking about you.”

Oh.

I narrowed my eyes in thought. She wasn’t a litch, I’d followed Twilight’s friend Repose around enough to be able to spot them. That left alchemical, technological rejuvenation therapy, consciousness transfers-

Ooooo! Maybe she was an android with an uploaded pony consciousness! That would be so cool! Then we could date and my sister and I would have another thing in common. I could invite Sev to a ‘come up with a better nickname for yourself’ party and be like ‘Look! Twins!’ and she would laugh!

I stopped, letting the bunny trail die. Derpy was right. We were here to talk about my problems.

I sighed and got back onto the barstool I had been using. “I know what my problem is, Derpy,” I stated as clearly as I could. “I- I just don't know how to deal with it. My happiness depends on knowing I mean something special to somepony else. It always has.

“First my parents. Then they became disappointed in me and withdrew from my life a bit and I became this mostly grumpy mare you can see right now. But then I made some friends, and I got a bit happier. Then one of them asked me out and I became borderline hyperactive and upbeat again because I finally meant something special to someone else again.

“But now it’s back to square-”

“Is something wrong with your old friends?” Derpy interrupted with a bemused look on her face.

“Huh?” I asked, tilting my head to one side.

“You just said things got better when you made some friends. You still have those friends, right?” she asked again.

I nodded. “Y-Yeah. And I still love them all, but well, they are kind of a package deal with Bonbon. We ALL go back to school. I’m not going to abandon them, and I’m going to hang out with them and Bonbon once I’m my old self again but… But I can’t hang out with them right now. Because Bonbon is…”

“And that would be too painful right now,” Derpy said with a nod. “What you need to do is make a new friend.”

I blinked, and then facehooved. “Oh, my, Luna! I even SAID that when explaining the-”

Derpy giggled and winked at me with her lazy eye. “Hi, new friend!” She exclaimed with a little wave of her left wing

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well played, Derpy… I guess we are friends. You helped me out of.. This. We both like Cryptozoology, we’re both adventurers, apparently both going to live a long time…

“We’ve got a lot in common. We should work out something to do together. Do you like tabletop roleplaying games? Or maybe we could go camping someplace cool sometime?”

“There we go!” Derpy exclaimed with a bright smile. “Now you’ve got the motivation needed to do something productive instead of just being sad. I’m really busy helping Sky and Ay right now, but I’ll happily do something with you when I can!”

I smirked and shook my head slowly. “Yeah, I guess I do! What are the odds you have something I could help with? You know. With that whole ‘find Twilight’ thing,” I wondered aloud.

Derpy scratched the back of her head with one hoof. “W-well, not really. The only problem I have right now is trying to help find a way to prevent an object from being ripped apart when passing through an energy field because of small scale differences in time dilation at random points within the field.”

“Wait, what?” I asked my eyes widening slightly.

“That’s why we haven’t gotten Twilight back yet,” Derpy explained with a sad sigh. “The portal we’ve made-”

“Is Kenji-Samo’s Ethereal Blanket not working?” I asked as my lips twisting into a frown.

Derpy blinked. “Um…”

I facehooved. Lyra, you’re an idiot. That spell is common in one nation on the other side of the world, and you only learned it by befriending that cute mare who deserted the Yakuza.

Obscure neighponese spell is obscure!

“I know a spell meant to protect against a fairly common ray spell used in neighpone which has that same effect. I learned it when Luna sent us to Neighpone because I was afraid we’d fight ninjas. It’s called Kenji-Samo’s Ethereal Blanket,” I explained. “I can’t cast it on something the size of a pony, but I’m certain a better mage could. I can write it down for-”

Derpy jumped up from the table, her forehooves slamming into the table hard enough to simply rip two sections out of the metal.

While I stood staring a that freakish display of strength, immediately understanding why she had a reputation for being a super destructive klutz, Derpy shouted across the bar to Sky.

“SKY! SHE KNOWS A SPELL THAT DOES THE EXACT THING WE NEED!” Derpy proclaimed urgently.

Oh, no! I felt my heart skip a beat as my ears fell and eyes widened. They were about to be REALLY disappointed!

“Wai-” I began.

Sky almost knocked over his chair as he jumped up and almost flew over to me.

“Do you really know a spell which can compensate for a random pattern of mismatched time-dilation because we were in here drinking because we determined that coming up with an algorithm to compensate for that effect at the portal’s side would take six years of computational time on a Luna damned Matrioshka Brain!” Sky beg-explained, his words blurring together almost exactly the same way Pinkie’s did when she was excited.

I held up my hooves defensively. “I um, well, let’s make absolutely sure that we’re all on the same page,” I began slowly, trying my best not to stammer nervously.

I didn’t want to upset the guy who kept my temporary home running…

“When you say ‘mismatched time-dilation’, do you mean that bits and pieces of the thing start moving at different speeds relative to each other?” I asked.

Sky nodded. “Yes, well, no. They all experience time at a slightly different clock rate and so they rip apart,” he elaborated.

I nodded, a little hope starting to build. “Okay, then I do know a spell which prevents that-”

“YES!” Sky and Derpy exclaimed in unison, turning to give eachother a high hoof.

“- but I am totally crap at casting it.” I finished.

“How ‘crap’?” Derpy asked, her delighted smile fading slightly.

“It’s a Fifth Tier spell, that’s as advanced as I can comprehend. And it’s a complex spell for the Fifth Tier. The best I can do is cast it on a small object. I have absolutely no chance of applying it to a shield spell, or anything big enough to contain a pony. Or even a loaf of bread,” I admitted with a shy blush.

Sky blinked once and gave me a look. I couldn’t read it. Was he experiencing some kind of whiplash? We had been frenemies for ages since I kept pestering him about making me a cybernetic human suit… And sort of never thanked him for what he did wind up making because it wasn’t what I asked for….

So I was basically being an ass to him again now.

Great…

“How big of an object can you cast it on?” Sky asked matter of factly.

“I was able to cast it successfully once on a small brass plate the size of a standard envelope,” I answered, shuffling my hooves slightly. “I used that plate as a physical shield to block the ‘disintegration’ spell cast at me at the time. I can’t go into details. That operation is classified.”

“How complex can the item be? Is that a limit?” Sky asked again, his look shifting to a thoughtful one.

“Pretty simple. No moving parts. And the less mass the better,” I answered again.

I sighed nervously. “I um, Sky?” I asked with an apologetic dip of my head. “I’m sorry for the last few years.”

“About what?” Sky asked raising an eyebrow.

Not in confusion, not completely. More of a surprised satisfaction.

“For not thanking you for making me that exoskeleton to help me learn to walk upright. It wasn’t what I wanted, and that made me upset. But it did help me out a lot. I learned what I needed to do to make a transformation spell to allow me to stand up on my own with it.Thank you,” I said, trying to hold back a long sigh. “I- I don’t want you mad at me for two things at the same time. I mean, I can’t exactly help you here.”

Sky facehooved. “Lyra, the suit became a game to me. You’d complain, I’d counter, and we’d see who's stubborn wore off first. It was a bit fun. I’ll make you what you wanted now that you’ve apologised,” Sky informed as he drug his hoof down the side of his face. “Oh and by the way…”

Sky paused to take a deep breath. “You just said you could shield things the size of an envelope, you silly filly! You have the power to allow us to send test samples to find Twilight, and once we found her, you have the power to let everypony who misses her send her letters. That alone is a HUGE deal, but if you show my sister how that spell works I guarantee she can make a device to shield anything we need! So, are you going to help?”

WOW!

My eyes widened in shock. Clearly, while depressed, I was a pretty dense pony. I absolutely COULD send letters safely!

“Yes! Absolutely,” I agreed instantly. “Why would I NOT help Twilight? All of Ponyville owes her at least twenty favors!”

Sky smiled in relief and delight, his wings doing a bit of a happy flutter. “Awesome. Welcome to Project Lavender, Sir Lyra, Slayer of Roadblocks. Congratulations! A reward is in order, name it!”

I blinked twice. “Um, you already said you were going to-”

“Yeah, I’ll make it. That’s a separate thing. I like making things. Lyra, you have NO IDEA how much work that spell will save us. Decades, Lyra. Literally Decades. I have the data. I know what’s needed to find the pattern in that data. Building a powerful enough computer alone…” Sky trailed off, shaking his head slowly. “Just name something!”

I paused, mulling it over for a few minutes as I rubbed my chin with a hoof.

At the moment, there was only one thing I wanted. At least, one thing I wanted which wasn’t extremely unethical and probably very unhealthy to dwell on.

I looked over to Derpy and smiled politely. “Well… After Twilight’s safely home again, I’m kinda just a bit jealous that my sister got to live in another universe, and do all that traveling around. How about you take me some place cool? Preferably somewhere we can get up to some shenanigans, have a bit of an adventure. Something to help me… Move on.” I asked hopefully.

Derpy blinked in surprise. “Oh! Well, s-sure. I could do that,” she agreed with a nod.

“Sweet!” I exclaimed with the biggest grin I’d had in months. “Oh hey, we should go round everypony up and get them to write letters.”

Sky shook his head. “We need to confirm that it will work first. I trust you, but before we stir up everyone’s hopes…”

I nodded. “Right, right! Sorry. Kinda not thinking too well right now. Pretty depressed.”

“Science can be a pretty good distraction,” Sky suggested poignantly.

“Yep. It can be…” I leapt upwards, standing on my rear hooves in order to thrust my left hoof up in the air dramatically. “TO THE LABORATOR- WOAH!”

I yelped as I tottered backward, having leaned to the left too much, crashing to the floor in a heap.

“Ow,” I said reflexively, even though it didn’t hurt at all.

Sky nodded solemnly. “Bio-suit Build Log: The suit will need a robust self-balancing system,” he noted.

I smirked to mask my embarrassment. “It’s the booze! I swear!”

Central Operations Facility - The Observatory

Epoch 19005184082

Director Red hunched over his desk, alone in his darkly lit laboratory. The only source of light came from the dim sun’s light streaming through a foot thick sheet of transparent aluminum set in the laboratory's ceiling. Even then, the only reason light came into the room at all was due to that particular window’s broken shutters.

The intention of this darkness was not to create a gloomy mood, nor in morning for some lost friend or tragedy. No. It was purposeful. The darkness carefully arranged to facilitate the replication of tiny biomechanical robots whose purpose could only be said to involve SCIENCE!

And the director’s personal hobbies.

Red glanced over his shoulder, looking away from the dimly lit display projected above his desk to the large hexagonal tank atop a lab table behind him. Or rather at the blanket thrown over it to block out the light the window let in.

The tiny machines he was growing were extremely sensitive to photons of almost any energy level, and as this was a personal project, he couldn’t exactly requisition the proper equipment to grow them in complete darkness.

The blanket remained trapped over the tank, blocking out as much light as possible. It had not moved.

“Good,” Red said happily to himself, turning back to the white holo display.

Project InfiniBrew was proceeding just as he expect-

The room’s darkness crumbled under the bright blue-white light of a holographic projection composed of random ever shifting geometric vector shapes flaring to life. Red’s display flashed a series of warnings as the sudden surge of photons overwhelmed the delicate machines, destroying their organic components in a heartbeat. Red’s internal scream of rage echoed through the halls of his mind like the roar of a mythical beast.

“Red, there has been an import-” Blue tried to warn, the AI’s voice holding a high level of worry.

“Blue, I’m off work,” Red sighed, internalizing his anger at his plans to make a mug which converted atmospheric gasses into beer having just gone up in a flash of light. “You just destroyed three months of excruciating work!”

“That is irrelevant,” Blue dismissed. “We have received a large number of correspondence from the alien homeworld intended for our most recent anomalous specimen. I do not know whether or not we should forward them to her within the system.

“This violates the regulations regarding contraband, however the individual is not a prisoner. While not written within the regulations, this seems like a place there would be a legal exception. However, Green is out of system speaking at a board hearing.

“You are the only human Director within reach. I am not authorized to make a decision regarding this matter. You are required by company regulation twenty eight to make the decision on the Company’s behalf.”

Red nodded, closing his eyes before rubbing them with a thumb and forefinger for a moment. “Well… It’s pretty rude to not deliver mail to a tenant. We’ll pass it along to her,” he decided with little thought. “BUT, the board will kill me if we don’t use this opportunity to gather some intelligence on their culture and species. Bring the letters here, I’ll scan them and forward translations to them.”

Blue’s geometric patterns shifted oddly, as if expressing an emotion. “Odd. You are normally more ethical than I am required to be,” she remarked.

“I’m still being ethical here,” Red countered, holding up one hand objectionantly. “If we ever want to get them out of this legal hell our government has to know what kind of government they have so we can even start thinking about trying some diplomatic arrangements.

“Hell, we don’t even know if they are really just getting lost by accident. Sure, Nyota was, but what about Star, Clover, or Twilight? I know what we believe, but half the board is convinced that the aliens discovered our prison system and are sending us their prisoners, and the other half assumes this is an attempt at diplomatic contact gone horribly wrong simply because they have no idea what these stations are.

“We NEED to give them enough information to learn the truth. Otherwise, they will just debate this matter till they get bored and everyone in there is just forgotten about when the next big thing comes about.

“Besides, this is a prison. I’m certain that Twilight’s people read inbound mail at prisons before passing it on too. We’re just following existing procedures here. But for a different reason. Go ahead and teleport the letters to my desk. I improved my translator so we should get more precision in the wording. Their language is more context based than ours. It can lead to errors.”

“I wasn’t objecting to your course of action, Red,” Blue stated flatly. “I was expressing interest in the apparent anomalous nature of your response. One moment…”

Another flash of blue light illuminated the room, doubtlessly killing the one or two stray microscopic cyborgs which had survived the previous illumination armageddon. The light cleared, revealing a fairly large metal box, its top open, revealing an unbelievably large selection of letters and perhaps most unbelievably, parchment scrolls.

“Huh,” Red mused, reaching out to pick one of the scrolls up, and turning it in his hands to examine it. “Why are they still using parchment? Nyota demonstrates an exceptional knowledge of mechanical systems… Woah, is… Yeah this is a wax seal. What is this? Records of some fantasy roleplaying games she’s missed?”

“I don’t know. I am incapable of reading their language,” Blue reminded.

“Sorry, I’ll get the files off my personal network for you soon,” Red put the scroll down and picked the first letter from the box, setting it face down on his desk beneath a small silver armature. “Computer: Scan contents and record all text. Forward text through Translation Function Five.”

The two directors waited for the translation to finish, peering closely at the computer’s output…

Dear Twilight,

I am so relieved to finally see progress on our attempts to get you back home. Sky assures me this letter can reach you, and that we will be able to send a team of ponies through in a month, two at the most.

I wish your return home could be nothing but celebration. While there will be a party upon your return, there is also quite a bit of work that I need help with. Equestria has been suffering without her youngest Princess…

Red grew pale as his soul snapped like a Twix bar.

“THEY’RE A MONARCHY!” He shouted in terror, turning to stare into the projector Blue was using. “BLUE! THEY ARE A MONARCHY AND WE HAVE THEIR GODDAMN PRINCESS IN A PRISON FULL OF MONSTERS!”

“I hope they wont see our altering her form as an act of war,” Blue said with almost no real worry.

Red’s eyes widened as he realized that exact thing was not only possible, but probable given the nature of most historical kingdoms. At any moment, a military detachment would arrive to retrieve the lost princess. A group of trained warriors, armed and armored for war. Their equipment produced by a race of actual space wizards whose leader he had heard could casually move stars with but a thought.

“PANTS TO BE DARKENED!” Red yelped as he sprinted for his communicator to call the Board.

Twilight - Day 15

The Machine Shop, South Jungle - The Island

“Okay, I think I’m starting to get it,” I said to Nyota while looking over the map she’d drawn of the Broodmother’s den. “What I do is run from the teleport pad to here, take one shot at her, and then immediately jog backwards to here, then around the rim of this gorge to this exact rock. Right?”

Nyota nodded, flashing me one of those extra-affectionate smiles she’d been giving me ever since I’d come back from the volcano on my own. I was still processing exactly what to think of somepony who found me attractive for my accomplishments. I was pretty certain that I liked it… But still…

“Yes. She’s a brute, but not very smart. If you stand there, she think’s she can reach you, but can’t and will fall right into the gorge. She’ll think she can climb the side, but she can’t because she’s too massive for a spider to even have a hope of clinging to the sides of things. So she’ll just scuttle there and try to spit venom at you, but can’t hit you because her head doesn't tilt back far enough, she can only hit the underside of the rock,” Nyota reminded.

I could think of love life stuff later. Right now I had to memorize her method for killing the first of the ARK’s Apex Predators. If I didn’t I couldn’t use Nyota’s tek equipment, nor could I use the advanced armor until I’d beaten all of them. Which unfortunately prevented Nyota from making me anything more advanced than modern tactical armor.

“That doesn't seem very sporting,” I mildly objected, running a hand over my chin in thought.

“It’s not. But if you want the proper challenge, we can do it after I’ve got you properly equipped. We need to do this fast, Charlie’s pissed and if she launches a full scale attack… I don't have any attack Dinos. Everything On Ragnarok. I need your help,” she sighed.

I nodded, opening my mouth to reply when someone pounded against the nano-weave door urgently.

“Nye! Nye open up!” A voice I recognised as Camo shouted urgently.

Nyota frowned, looking up in surprise before quickly moving to the window next to the door and opening that instead, peeking out quickly to check before opening the main door.

The golden hex-tiles dissolved, revealing Camo standing in the doorway, a large shiny steel box big enough for a pair of winter boots held in his arms, still dressed in that leaf-outfit. I knew what those were called now, but the name escaped me at the moment.

“Hey, long time no see,” Nyota greeted with a smile.

“Later!” Camo practically yelped, rushing over to me and setting the box on the desk.

I blinked in surprise, noticing the box to be full of scrolls and letters. Bearing Celestia’s personal crest.

“Hello, your Majesty,” Camo greeted worriedly. “I am extremely sorry about literally everything, here’s your mail. It just arrived. Your mother’s letter says they should be able to retrieve you in a month or two.

“I’m trying to get you better accommodations but the board is completely against me. Things are really hectic right now. Please put in a good word for me with your guards when they get here! I’m just a geneticist! Bye!”

Before I could say anything, he sprinted out of the garage, vaulting over the porch railings and vanishing out of view behind the wall.

“Umm… Well, I guess they found out you're a princess finally,” Nyota remarked, smirking a little.

“D- Does he think Equestria would declare war over this, or something?” I asked myself, biting my lip to hold in a laugh.

Oh please! Like Celestia would be upset that employees had to do their jobs and politicians were locked up by paperwork and the law.

Okay, well, maybe a bit. But she wouldn’t launch an invasion or anything.

Wait a second! “He said they’ll be here in a month or two!” I exclaimed excitedly.

Nyota blinked. “By the gods, so he did!”

“I need to confirm this,” I decided, reaching into the box and taking out the loose letter on top of the pile.

It had Celestia’s seal on it, and being on top of a whole box of letters and scrolls it had to be the ‘introductory letter’. If I knew Celestia, those scrolls were probably pre-prepared spells ready to go with just a bit of activation energy. She’d want to send me supplies.

Opening the letter I unfolded it and begun to read.

Dear Twilight,

I am so relieved to finally see progress on our attempts to get you back home. Sky assures me this letter can reach you, and that we will be able to send a team of ponies through in a month, two at the most.

I wish your return home could be nothing but celebration. While there will be a party upon your return, there is also quite a bit of work that I need help with. Equestria has been suffering without her youngest Princess…

I sputtered, almost dropping the letter.

“What is it?” Nypota asked worriedly, looking back as she closed the door.

“There’s a temporal mismatch between this place and Equestria!” I exclaimed in dread. “One day here is… About ten days there if my math’s right. It’s been six months back home. But only fifteen here.”

Nyota’s ears drooped immediately. “O-Oh… Oh no…” She whispered.

I frowned wondering why she was looking like someone just ripped out her so-

“Nye… How long have you been here for? Please tell me,” I asked as politely as I could, concern bleeding through with my expression.

“T-three hundred and sixteen Equestrian years…” She mumbled, falling down into a sitting position next to the door.

I quickly covered my mouth to keep the shocked gasp in. Nyota had been here that long… Which meant if she went back home, over three thousand years would have passed for her there. Her entire world was long since unrecognizable to her.

I walked across the garage and sat down next to the emotionally destroyed zebra and gave her a tight hug.

“It’s okay…” I whispered. “It's alright. When this is all over, you'll come with me, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied quietly after a few long moments.

“Now… I hate to be rude, but we need to get those Apex creatures over with really quick,” I said as I stood up, gently pulling Nyota back onto her feet.

“W-why?” she asked with a confused frown. “Charlie’s not going to attack for at least three days.”

“Forget that,” I said with a dismissive hoof wave. “One day here is ten back home. They said a month or two. I have two and a half days at the minimum to find Star and Clover, and I’m NOT going to leave here without at least talking to my probable parents!”

Optimally, I’d take them back with me. That would definitely make the war a massive victory for Equestria. Also, they could definitely handle whatever trouble Celestia had been talking about.

Because after this, Nyota and I deserved a vacation.

Author's Note

Patron of the Week: Mecha Chocobo

9 When the Cat's Away...

Twilight - Day 15

The Machine Shop, South Jungle - The Island

“Forget that,” I said with a dismissive hoof wave. “One day here is ten back home. They said a month or two. I have two and a half days at the minimum to find Star and Clover, and I’m NOT going to leave here without at least talking to my probable parents!”

Nyota paused, taking a deep breath, her eyes closing for a long moment.

“Twilight… I need a minute,” the zebra said wearily. “I need to process the time gap. Something's not adding up.”

I felt my determined expression soften into a concerned grimace. The revelation about the pending rescue did have it’s other side… She deserved some comfort.

I stepped across the garage and sat down beside her, wrapping my left arm around her shoulders in a short but tight hug.

“Alright. Let’s work things out,” I agreed, needing to see her smile again.

Not just because I doubted I could do this without her, but because well… I was starting to like her.

“The time… Multiply the days by ten,” Nye mumbled, her lips twitching as she clearly through as hard as she could. “What was the last date ye were home?”

That was an easy one to answer. It’s not like I could forget the day.

“The Twenty Third of Megan, in the Seventeenth Year of the Era of Harmony,” I informed.

Nyota blinked, raising one eyebrow. “Era of Harmony? That’s a new one to me,” She admitted uncomfortably. “What’s the RH? I hope our own universes are in synch.”

“Oh! It’s the Five Thousand One Hundred, and Ninety Seventh year of Recorded History,” I amended.

Nyota hummed thoughtfully, her fearful look melting quickly. “Two years after I stumbled into the portal,” she mused, tail flicking. “In that case, the portal must not have only been broken in terms of the spatial link, but also in time. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it in terms of Special Relativity… Though nothing says both space and time have to be mismatched.”

Nyota nodded to herself and stood up slowly, her joints popping slightly. “Right. I panicked over nothing. Went five universes down and about three thousand years to the left. I wonder if I’ll ever meet whoever made that device? I should totally write up an OSHA report and hand deliver it to them. Heh,” Nyota joked, smiling to try and push away the last remains her mini-heart attack.

Unfortunately for her joke.. I knew Sky Trigger.

“He’d probably just show it to his sister, say something like ‘Gaze upon this’ to make some pop culture reference to a long extinct species media and then they would both laugh their plots off,” I grumbled, standing up as well.

Nye blinked, tilting her head in a mixture of surprise and confusion.

“You know the pony responsible?” She asked.

I nodded. “Yep. Sky Trigger. A Pegasus inventor who lucked out with their cutiemark and place of birth. Technopath plus-”

“We've also got a Sky Trigger,” Nye snorted. “I mentioned trying to work for his company, remember?”

“Oh, right! Sorry,” I said with an embarrassed blush. “Um… I hate to push this, but with the news of a rescue coming, well, I know Celestia will likely come herself or send Luna and her Knights to retrieve me. They won't let us stay here any longer, and I REALLY want to meet Starswirl.

“We need to do those bosses now. Unless you think we can make it through the Center without the superior armor.”

Nyota shook her head almost violently. “Absolutely not! Ye don't have a bloody clue what that place is like!” She exclaimed, eyes looking at me worriedly. “Sure, it’s not the Scorched Earth, the world itself isn’t a literal oven. But well… Here, ye’ve got a good handful of tribes. There, ye have three.

“Without the edge power armor provides, we don’t have a chance of getting safely… Well, anywhere.”

I nodded, fully understanding. “Right. Sooo How do we kill these things quickly?” I asked, hoping she had an idea.

“Easy, everyone in the arena gets the engrams. You stay put, I kill them,” Nyota stated bluntly. “I do it all the time to get more element. Aside from the Dragon, it’s not going to be that hard for me to pull off killing the damn things and keeping you safe.”

“Oh! So, we just go kill each one, come back here and then I can build a suit?” I asked hopefully.

That sounded nice and easy.

Nyota sighed, her lashing tail showing me it was NOT going to be nice and easy.

“I have the supplies to summon the Broodmother a few dozen times,” Nyota said in a way which sounded… Bad. “I kept them here so if our basecamp on Ragnarock got raided, we wouldn’t lose the artifacts.

“I dont have the artifacts needed to summon The Megaple… Uh, the Megapla- Buck it, Megakong! I don’t have the stuff needed to fight him, or the Dragon. To get that stuff, we’d need to go across the whole island raiding caves which are actually little dungeons, braving all kinds of hazards to get multiple copies of each artifact.”

I groaned, understanding what she was saying. “And with how long it took to get permission to travel to the Volcano…”

Nyota nodded. “We’d have to do the whole thing in stealth mode,” she said through clenched teeth. “Not… Not a thing I want to do with ye tagging along. No offense. I still think you’re capable as all hell, but-”

“None taken,” I said, snickering. “I’m… Not so great at stealth. I should get some training in that when we get to Equestria.”

Nyota frowned at me as I said that, stroking her chin with one hand. “Lass… When ye say that I can go with ya, what exactly do ye mean?” She asked uncertainly.

I tilted my head curiously. “Um, what do you mean?”

“Do you mean that you’ll let me leave with you, and I can go to your Equestria, but we part ways there, or-”

I shook my head, holding up one hand to interrupt her. “No! I mean you can come live with me. Unless you want to go back to your own home dimension. I think Sky could probably manage that. Or Lyra could do that for you… I think,” I elaborated.

Nyota paused,her ears perking slightly. “Oh! An by ‘with me’, ye mean, what exactly? Room in yer castle or-”

I rolled my eyes then shook my head. “Nye… Flash was right about me. I’ve felt GREAT since we cleared the air and you felt comfortable liking me. I definitely need affection to remain healthy. There’s no question about it,” I said with a smile. “So… Well, Flash wanted me to find somepony to be with before he died. I decided to honor that request… As much as I can at least. You like me, I like you, and you also care about me enough to not just protect me but teach me to protect myself. Personally. With one on one instruction.

“That’s actually fairly unique. Only Flash has ever really done that with me before, and that was with how to do my finances and budgets. Household stuff. I had either a group to learn with, or in the case of Celestia, a mentor to ask questions, but she rarely ever showed me things in person… It was more like taking an EtherNet course since she had to keep up her political duties.

“Heck! Celestia sort of just kicked me out of Canterlot into Ponyville with the vague instructions of ‘make friends’ to advance my training as a wizard. But you? No. You care about me, and you show it. Flash did that too.

“Sooo, yes. You can have a guest room in my castle. One near mine. Maybe you can move into mine one day if we work long term.”

Nye’s ears perked up so much I swore they grew a little. Her face twisted happily, then snapped back to a serious expression as she fought to contain a squee, coughing to cover it up.

“So, uh, we’re marefriends then? That’s cool,” she said fighting the urge to yell it happily the entire time.

I nodded. “Yes. And you don’t have to try to look cool for me. You’re already at least within twenty percent of Dash’s coolness,” I teased.

“She promised me she wouldn’t screech again. It hurts my ears,” Chip called from the other room, the translation collar we made him giving his voice a cute somewhat effeminate male voice with just a little electronic warbling.

It didn’t suit him. I needed to tweak it later.

“Ah,” I said with a short nod.

“Right… So um, since that’s the case,” Nye said decisively as she spun on her heel and walked over to her shelf of radio handsets, quickly snatching one up. “It’s time to go all in.”

She pushed the radio’s talk button and held it to her ear. “Dragonslayers, this is Nyota. Come in, Over,” she requested.

To both of our surprise, the radio crackled instantly as someone picked up.

“Hi, Nye! It’s Kim,” an ambiguous person’s voice greeted excitedly. “How’s the unicorn taming going? Over.”

I raised an eyebrow at Nyota. Nyota glared at the radio. “Shut the fuck up, Kim! First off, ye’re talking about an actual Princess. Second off, we’re dating now and she’s in earshot. Third, this is an emergency! Over.”

I gave Nyota a satisfied nod. She gave me a ‘he’s a dick but we like him’ variety of apologetic smile in return.

“Sheesh! Put the fun in camps why don’t you?” Kim jokingly grumbled before laughing. “Hi there, miss Unicorn! Hope Nye’s not being too weird for you. Wait! Did you say Emergency? Over.”

“Yes, Kim. I did,” Nyota sighed, bringing her hand up to rub her temples while grimacing into her palm. “Alpha level emergency. Is Drake there? Over.”

“He’s taking a crap. I’m surprised you don’t hear the cussing. Jake cooked last night,” Kim replied.

Nye visibly underwent a full body flinch before Kim could continue. I grimaced at the thought of food so bad it could make a pony do that just to hear it had been made…

Guh!

“So yeah, he’s not going to be talking for um… A half hour? What’s the situation? Over.”

“Twilight’s got mail from her home. There’s a rescue mission underway to retrieve her. Shes’ offering me an out alongside her. We have two days. Problem is Twi wants to get her fellow Equestrians out of here too. Which means we need to get to the Center ASAP. She needs power armor. I don’t have the artifacts needed for the ape and the dragon. We can't get them on our own in time. I need your help,” Nyota summarized quickly. “Over.”

“Oh… Well, shit,” Kim sighed on the other end of the radio. “I don’t know what we can do there… I mean-”

“Is that Nyota?” A male’s voice asked over the radio.

“Woah! Drake? How did you recover so quickly?” Kim asked in disbelief.

“I decided suicide was a better choice than toughing that out. Remind me to stab Jake in the face when he gets back from the metal run. And give me that radio,” the radio crackled and screeched as Drak took it from Kim. “Nye? What’s the situation? Over.”

Nyota took a quick breath and repeated herself. “Twilight’s getting a ride out of here in two or four days. She wants to take everypony home with her. Including me. I’d like to go. Over,” she said a bit apprehensively.

Drake paused for a moment. “That’s a major loss, Nyota… But we’re here to bring peace and freedom to the ARKs. If you want to go, go. But I would greatly prefer you stay with us. Over,” he said sadly.

“I understand you feelings… But I need to go. I may never have another chance,” Nyota said her tail lowering as she closed her eyes sadly.

“It’s okay. Well, thanks for telling us instead of just leaving. I assume we can use your stuff after you leave, right? Over,” Drake asked hopefully.

“Of course,” Nye agreed. “But… I need some help.”

“Mhm,” Drake said with an odd tone of voice. “Well… Alright. We do owe you a lot. What’s the favor?”

“Drake, are you ser-” Kim exclaimed before the radio cut off.

“I need help gathering enough artifacts to summon the ape and the dragon. Twi needs power armor to make it through the Center, and that’s where Star is. Over,” she repeated once more.

“Well, I suppose we can afford to leave the keep in Kim and Helga’s hands for a day,” Drake mused. “We’ll do it, Nye, as a going away present. But this is it. Understood? Over.”

Nyota nodded. “I understand. Thank you. Over.”

“We’ve got a drop just behind the base… Should be here soo- Um, now actually. Slice up the Broodmother. You’ll have the artifacts in your vault in an hour. Dragonslayers, over and out.”

Nyota nodded one last time and set the radio back on the shelf, her shoulders slumped slightly.

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t think about you having to leave people behind. I mean, I haven't met any of them this whole time so-”

“It’s alright, Twi,” Nye said after a moment. “They’ll get out eventually. They’re all humans in the system. This could by my one shot to get home. Drake understands. Besides, we’d never see each other again after they left anyways.”

She turned giving me a smile before walking to the elevator at the back of her garage. “Now go get into yer good armor, lass,” she instructed. “Full kit, best of everything. Each boss creates little helper friends, and they don't go away when you kill the boss. Don’t worry, I’m sure ye can handle them. We’ll be fighting all day. We’ll need to beat each boss three times, once with its cyberware set to each of the different performance boosts.”

I winced. That did NOT sound like fun. “Um, okay. Are you doing the same thing?” I asked curiously.

She nodded, then stepped on the platform, the elevator humming as it lifted her up to her home’s second floor.

I jogged to my room, almost tripping over Chip as I entered, barely managing to catch myself and avoid plowing face first into the wall.

“Ow!” He yelped, tail curling inwards.

“Sorry!” I exclaimed as I looked down to see he had been laying down in the doorway.

Reading a book.

“You can read?” I asked, ears twitching curiously.

He shook his head. “Nope! But this is a story told in pictures. So I sort of understand it. Will you read it to me later? I found a whole box of these in Nyota’s closet while mapping out our new territory,” he explained, turning the book’s pages towards me to reveal…

A magna. One drawn fairly well, and colored okay. Nothing special there, but quite artful. About what I’d expect from Nyota based on the sketches she’d made to show me landmarks to look out for.

But more importantly, it was a magna with me in it. Or at least, a universe's version of me. Also Nightmare Moon. Sitting in a bar. Discussing Nightmare's problems in a calm rational manner. With ‘my’ thought balloons indicating that ‘I’ found her attractive.

I blinked twice. Now THAT was an interesting set up for a story! Why did Nyota hide them? Did she think it would be too weird for me to find artwork of her universe's Twilight? She already explained she had a crush a long time ago. Heck, I knew for a fact that I had stuff like this made starring me back home.

I was a Princess. Of course ponies would want to write historical fiction, and other kinds of stuff with me in it.

“May I see that for a minute?” I asked Chip, kneeling down.

He nodded and held the book up to me, giving me the first close look at his hands. I’d never seen the small thumbs his three clawed hands had before. His normal stance hid them well. No wonder he could climb so well.

Picking up the book I flipped through it quickly, skimming the contents to see where me flirting with Nightmare Moon went. The bar we were in had been styled as a Classical era tavern, indicating this was probably a swords and sorcery stor-

“Oh. THAT’S why she hid it,” I giggled as I flipped to a hentai section. “Yeah that might have been awkward when we first met.”

“What might have been awkward?” Chip asked, cocking his head.

“It’s got love scenes,” I replied, handing the book back. “And sure, I’ll read it to you later. Looks pretty interesting. It’s a fantasy adventure novel, sort of in the same vein as the Ogres and Oubliettes Official Novels. Not my favorite genre, but still something I like.”

“Thanks! I want to know what everypony is saying,” Chip said happily. “Oh! I noticed that the shorter Ponyfolk’s horn is shaped like yourse! Is that a family trait?”

I blinked and raised an eyebrow at my friend. “Um, Chip, that’s supposed to be me. Can't you tell by the colors and face shape?” I asked.

Chip squinted at the page, then back up at me, then at the page again. “No… You’re not the same shade… And the shapes are drawn in a simple way. I guess we see differently,” He mused.

Wait a minute… “How many colors of hair do i have in my mane?” I asked quickly.

“Um, one?” He replied suspiciously.

“Ah! You don’t see the same colors I see. I was wondering why you didn’t tell me I was in the story. I’ll see if we can’t make a spell for that when we get back,” I promised, turning to rummage through my locker for all the good gear Nye had made for me so far.

“Have fun killing the huge spider!” Chip said with a smile. “OH! Save me some? She’s tastier than you smell.”

“Sure thing!” I promised, giving his head floof a tousle as I buckled on my breastplate.

Humm… I wonder if Daring Doo has a manga, or graphic novel adaptation of Daring Doo and the Hidden Mountain? I’d never looked for one and it would be pretty awesome to see Daring and Courage’s sex scene atop the ancient temple illustrated.

I wonder if Nyota would laugh if I tell her that series is right up my ally? Well, I mean it’s slightly weird that I’m a character in it. But still also kind of cool to see myself drawn in that sty-

I froze, turned around and looked at Chip. “D-did you kill the Broodmother once?” I asked eyes widened to the size of dinner plate.

He shook his head. “No. Lots of times. Before they left, my old friends had me help them get the metal tiles she drops that make their advanced things work. The little spiders she makes taste bad, but she’s really, really, REALLY good. If you could save me a leg, I’d really love that,” He asked with a hopeful smile.

“Uh… What friends?” I asked, tilting my head.

“The ones who hooked my great grandparents, grandparents, and parents up with their mates. They used to live a little ways from here down the beach. But that was a really long time ago. I think my pack still lives in their old home. I left because they wouldn’t let me mess around with things to try and learn from them,” Chip replied.

I gulped nervously. “Uh, yeah. Okay. I’ll save you some… Want anything from the other two creatures?” I asked as I continued to buckle on my gear.

“Nah, they also taste bad,” Chip lamented. “Oh! But if you die, can I-”

I rolled my eyes. “Assuming there’s anything left, sure. Just… Don’t eat it while I’m looking.”

That would be just… Wrong. But definitely not a reason to offend the carnivore who thought you were tasty.

Chip chirred sympathetically, his tail drooping as he looked up into my eyes. “Oh my gosh! I didn’t even think about that… I’m sorry. I won't eat your bodies. I can deal with one tasty meal being something I can’t get. It’s okay,” he promised.

“I appreciate that,” I said, giving him a grateful smile as I slipped on my helmet.

That was it. All armored up.

“See you tonight, Chip,” I said as I grabbed the harness with my weapons and quickly strapped it on as I walked towards the door.

“Bye!” He called happily, even waving before I left the room.

I frowned as I realized that I’d be leaving him behind. I’d only known him for two days but he was very nice. A good friend…

Humm… Nothing said I couldn’t bring him with me. And I wanted to bring Sir Hoppyfox. Yeah, I’d ask if he wanted to come later.

Thinking about how the probably very old Trodoon could make a living in Equestria if I did offer to take him with us, I stepped out into Nyota’s garage, noticed the elevator was still at the top floor, and took a seat on a crate to wait for her to come back down.

I didn’t have to wait long. After just a few minutes, a series of loud, ringing footsteps echoed through the house. Each one sounding like a heavy hammer striking an anvil. They traced across the ceiling, stopping at the elevator, which began to descend, it’s hydraulics whining much louder than normal as the multi-ton armored suit was lowered into the garage.

I could see the modifications made to it. I had no idea what it originally looked like, but the hands, upper legs, and helmet were all done in an elegant organic style, colored a lovely burnished silver (or perhaps a chrome), and all clearly belonged together, but not to the rest of the suit.

The rest of the suite was a tad bulky, solid looking boxy but sculpted armor plating covered the torso, lower legs and feet, forearms, and shoulders. A huge tri-jet jetpack in the same boxy style had been fitted to the back as well, it’s upwards swept fins sticking up slightly from the shoulders, giving the wedge-like pauldrons a techy look.

Those parts all screamed ‘Neighponese Mech!’ at the top of their lungs, and wouldn’t have looked out of place on any of the suits I’d ever seen… If they were painted one uniform color.

The custom parts were given a base coat of a bright blue, with bright orange flames painted on the shins, with a flamebolt painted on each forearm, and more decorative flames highlighting the small patch of chrome in the center of the breastplate.

That made it look more like someone's pet project they never took outside incase it got damaged.

“Huh…” I said, ear droop thankfully hidden under my helmet. “I uh, I didn’t expect that look.”

Nyota snickered, her voice amplified, but distorted behind the helmet. “Eh, I made something that looked cool to me. Might as well, since I almost never take her out. Too much work to replace,” She said sounding a bit tired. “Man this thing is hard to move without turning it on!”

“Uh… So… Turn it on?” I asked tilting my head in confusion.

Nyota shook her head, the blank faceplate hiding whatever expressions she had. “No way! I converted this thing to run on a jerry rigged version of promethium since the normal power armor burns through Element like I used to go through pizza. I’d NEVER get the fumes out of my bedroom. Also, this baby is LOUD and I didn’t want you to have a heart attack when I fire her up.”

Before I could ask why she thought a simple loud noise would scare me that badly, Nye reached up with her left arm and grabbed a pull cord attached to the jetpack and yanked it violently forwards. Her armor sputtered for a brief second, then emitted a thundering high pitched, insanely loud, animalistic yet technological warbling roar as at least twelve cylinders worth of internal combustion engine blazed to life. Three jets of bright blue flames shot from the back of the armor for a few seconds. As exhaust.

“Celestia’s mane!” I shouted, reaching up to cover my ears. “THAT IS LOUD!”

Nyota nodded, then held out her right hand, pressed a hidden button on the back of it with her left hand, and slammed her fists together horizontally, slowly drawing them apart. Her suits right arm opened up, revealing a few lenses beneath the armor plating which flashed blue, casting what I sensed to be a teleport spell while also projecting a hologram of brilliant white-orange flames between her two fists as she conjured a sword as tall as herself seemingly from the illusory fire, before sweeping the white ceramic-in-appearance claymore up onto her shoulder.

“Alright,” Nyota said over the engine’s roar. “Let’s go!”

Twilight - Day 15

Dragon Arena, Red Obelisk - The Island

I’d sort of expected the day to not be as long as I’d thought when I’d seen Nye come down in her armor. It looked like the sort of tool to get any job done. I’d actually been wrong about that.

About how long everything would take. Not about my prediction that Nye could tear through just about anything like tissue paper. There were two factors I hadn't known about.

First, the Obelisks didn’t let you just go from one boss’s arena to another. You had to wait a couple hours before one could be summoned again. Probably so they could get another version of the boss ready. Each of them were incredibly complex nano-cybernetic organisms after all. While I’d seen creatures just pop into existence in here I imagine something like the small house sized spider took a while to calibrate.

Second, Nyota’s armor had enough fuel to work for fifteen minutes. Almost exactly fifteen minutes.

We had to set up a small metal shed just out of range of the huge teleport circle beneath the red obelisk and set up a cooking pot and a chemistry station inside to keep making fuel for her to use. Sure she had some stockpiled, but not enough for four hours of combat. Which is about what we had to get through.

Which meant between each battle I’d been helping to make jellied gasoline and then mixing it with a few minerals and an oxidizer. I smelt like death… Death and horrible cooking. And the bathroom at a nightclub.

Maximal ew!

The first three fights we’d done against the Broodmother were barely present in my mind anymore. Mostly because the others were absolutely terrifying. So terrifying that the huge scuttling spider I could have made a house in didn’t really register on the fear-o-meter anymore.

Honestly, the way the entire teleport pad was enveloped in a dome of energy sliding up from the floor, through which the broodmother’s massive mossy, vine strewn cavern had melted into existence was far more terrifying than her. I remember Nyota smacking me after I panicked, almost running through the energy field screaming about teleport failures.

I’d needed that smack. I’d gone full panic over nothing. We were just looking through a forming wormhole.

Another reason she was fairly forgettable was how easily Nyota killed her. Even the most difficult version took her about two minutes. It was clear she had beaten this monster dozens of times before, if not hundreds and her sword made super short work of the monster.

One slice, leg gone. One slice, mandibles gone. One slice, head off. Fight over. Message popping up in my vision saying I’d unlocked Tek items then listing which ones I’d ‘earned’.

No steel sword could have done that to chitin that thick. Not even with the enhanced strength Nyota’s armor provided her with. Naturally I’d asked about it.

“I invented these for use by mechs, this is a small one I managed to make in here after a hundred years of work building equipment to make it which no longer exists,” she’d answered. “It’s a lonsdaleite crystal shaped into a claymore blade and sharpened down to a sixty atom thick edge.

“Yeah that should just shatter when ye hit something with it, but I discovered a trick. Using a combination of ultrasonics and lasers you alter the four dimensional structure of the atoms to create a self-stabilizing oscillating pattern of two different states in the material, and chain these so the entire structure has the same oscillations.

“This forces the material to basically repeat the same moment in time over and over and over. Which in turn makes it nearly indestructible since when damaged, it reverts to the other non-damaged state as the atoms oscillate to the other state faster than kinetic energy can flow through the blade, undoing the damage and restoring it to a pristine state. Then it switches again, but since it repeats the same two moments, the previously damaged state is now undamaged. Hurray for quantum physics!

“I was hoping to get to show it off once employed and get a promotion. But ye know how that went.”

She could have just said ‘It’s a sword made from the hardest material known to science given a self-repairing enchantment’. But no. Apparently in her home universe a ‘Masters in Technoarcana Engineering’ was what comic book fans back home would call a Masters in Superscience.

Ah well, her geekiness made her cute. And was saving our butts today.

Just like her tribe mates had. I was very disappointed that we hadn’t seen them. I’d been looking forward to meet other nice people, but I guess that since Nyota had been honest and said she was planning on leaving they felt it would be awkward to talk in person.

A few minutes after we’d killed the Broodmother for the third time, we’d seen a flare shoot up from Nyota’s house. By the time we’d gotten there, everyone had gone. Leaving behind nothing but the artifacts needed to summon the bosses, and a mess of raptor, iguanodon, and Calithorum tracks in the dust.

Of course, despite their help and Nyota’s exceptional swordsmareship, I still met my new nightmare for the rest of my life.

The Megaphihicus. I’d never imagined myself being absolutely terrified of a giant ape, but now I was.

Five times my height when it walked on all fours, ten times when standing upright. Bright silver fur gleaming like steel, so thick that crossbow bolts bounced right off it like wind blown leaves. Large scars on its face and shoulder, showing that it had survived something much, much more dangerous than me.

Strong enough to rip slabs of stone four times my size out of the rocky mountainside arena and throw them at me in a way which I am damn certain would be enough to get Pinkie’s sister Maud to squee. Its screeches, roars, and bellows still echoed in my ears, even after Nyota had managed to kill it just before her armor ran out of power. Nothing that big should have been able to move that fast…

Oh, and it had remembered how Nyota killed it the last time. And did its best to improve itself. So it revived in the same way we did… Soooo... Yea….

I’d spent the entire hour waiting to be able to summon the Dragon freaked out beyond belief, absolutely horrified that this next monster would somehow be worse.

Nope.

It was just a very big angry dragon. Smaller than the one Rainbow kicked in the face that one time. No big deal.

Or so I had thought...

I’d gotten lonely waiting for the last batch of promethium to cook up, and had gone back to the garage to pick up Chip. Not that Nye wasn’t fun to talk too, but she was very busy making field repairs to her armor. I fully understood why she didn’t use it as her normal equipment.

It broke down pretty quickly, you could tell it had been built with crude tools from salvaged materials. This was her third repair of the day, so she was too busy and frustrated to talk too much.

Fortunately, Chip was happy to keep me company. He’d gotten really bored and had run out of things to do back there. I’d have to work out some form of entertainment for him or something. Maybe teach him how to read.

He’d asked to come into the arena with us when we had been able to go. I’d been talking to him about Equestrian history, and we’d just gotten to the Electric Age. Chip wanted to continue listening to my lecture. Nyota objected at first explaining that it was very dangerous, but changed her mind after Chip accurately described the arena, proving he’d been in it before.

I didn’t have a problem with that. After all, the whole battle would be in the air. Chip and I just had to hide behind some rocks to shield us from any stray fire and wait for Nyota to cut the dragon up enough for it to fall from the sky. Should be ten minutes. Easy peasy.

Haha… No…

I screamed fearfully as a spout of magma blasted up from the ground, the geyser mere decimeters from my nose. The arena’s previously inactive lava flow became active for this last fight. Clouds of hot ash filled the air around me, making it hard to breathe. The Dragon bellowed in pain blinded rage overhead, the sickly purple and orange monster at least twice the previous size, and five times as angry.

I stumbled backwards, managing to avoid falling over thanks to chip running down onto my breastplate to provide counterbalance.

“The safe spot is just ahead! You can make it,” he cheered, giving me a happy smile.

“WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THE VOLCANO ERUPTS!?” I demanded, eyes wide as they could go behind my helmet.

Chip blinked. “Um… I- I guess it just slipped my mind. This is sort of a ‘oh yeah that happens’ for me,” he apologised.

I took a deep breath and ran forwards, jumping over the glowing crack in the obsidian just before another spout of lava blasted up from the earth's depths, along with a sickly yellow cloud of gas.

Oh great! More hazards.

“Left!” Chip commanded as I approached a jutting finger of obsidian.

I turned left, moving under the rock, almost tripping as the ground sloped down steeply, forming a little ‘hole’ beneath the obsidian spire, right at the edge of the Arena. Literally at the edge, the force field containing the arena crackled a dim orange against the leaning obsidian spire, forming a protective arch with a nice dug out spot below.

I slid into the hole, curling up quickly.

“Lava won't flow into here, right?” I asked urgently.

Chip shook his head. “Nope! This is where my old friend would sit and fire rockets while her brother distracted it.”

“I like that plan… Why don't we have rockets?” I grumbled, chest still heaving in my near panic.

Monsters was one thing. Suddenly being teleported into an erupting volcano… Whole other level!

One just below that ape.

“Sooo can we keep talking?” Chip asked hopefully, still clinging to my breastplate.

I shook my head and leaned against the obsidian spire. “S-sorry,” I gasped. “Need a few minutes.”

“Awww, alright,” he said with a good amount of disappointment.

Crap! He looked just like Spike had as a baby when dissapointed…

I sighed and took a few quick breaths, trying to remember what the history books said. “I‘ll try, okay? Um… After Filament proved that magic could produce electricity very easily, and Doctor Haynenburg invented an electrically powered magelight that cost less to make than the enchanted version, the Electric Age started in full.

“I- I think it lasted for about two hundred years. Because Enchanters discovered some shortcuts which made magic even less expensive again. But before that happ-”

The Dragon screeched wrathfully, the sound alone shaking the ground beneath me. The hissing shriek of its blue-white fire echoed through the dome for several long seconds, the air growing even hotter as it scorched the earth beneath it.

I curled up into a tight ball by reflex. Chip yelled, twisting to pull his tail out from between my legs as I accidently squeezed it between them.

“S-sorry!” I called nervously.

Chip flicked his tail and scampered up onto my left shoulder to look out at the rest of the arena.

“It’s okay, that’s was pretty scary. It’s right above us. Good thing he’s facing the other way,” Chip said, peeking around the obsidian. “Oh wow! He’s really bloody. I think Nye’s almost done!”

“Good!” I squeaked as the dragon roared again.

Taking a deep breath I stood up and looked out from behind the pillar, just in time to see Nyota flying towards the Dragon to strike. The tiny dot of her armor next to the dragon’s immense bulk was almost invisible. I could only track her by the line of flames her jetpack spewed behind her, and the gleaming white flash of her sword catching the light.

The dragon twisted in the air, wings flapping violently as it struggled to get enough lift with the ragged holes sliced into it’s wings. It craned its neck, seeking to sink its teeth into the small creature which had injured it so badly and end the fight once and for all. Nyota seemed to have been waiting for this.

The moment the dragon launched it’s head forwards, she rolled, her jetpack’s flames flaring brightly as she sent extra power to the jets, climbing upwards just enough to fly over the dragon’s gaping maw, her sword held straight out infront of her like a lance. Her blade caught the light once more, flashing brightly, then seeming to vanish as she plowed straight into the dragon head first!

“No!” I yelped fearfully.

Even in her armor, she wouldn't stand much of a chance of surviving bouncing off the dragon and free falling!

Unlocked: Tek Vacuum Chamber
Unlocked: Tek Teleporter
Unlocked: Tek Chestpiece

Oh! Oh thank, Celestia! Now we could leave this absolutely terrifying nightmare of an arena!

I took a deep breath to calm myself and waited, listening for the sound of the teleporters charging up to take us back to the Island. The thirty seconds seemed to take an eternity before the low whine of the charging transporters managed to pierce the sound of bubbling magma and hissing gas. The wine grew to a dull hiss before with a loud crack everything flashed white, blinding me for a few seconds.

I blinked rapidly, each blink clearing some of the brightness from my eyes. We were back atop the rock spire beneath the red obelisk. It was night, the sun had just set. The nocturnal critters were chirping away in the jungle to the north, and the ocean lapped gently against the rocks below.

No more erupting volcano. YAY!

I smiled in relief and sat up, looking around for everyone else. The shiny spider-like terminal was just to my left, putting me in the center of the pad. Chip still on my shoulder, and Nyota was laying face down at the edge of the teleport pad.

I yelped, standing upright and racing to her side in an instant. “Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” I asked just before skidding to a stop next to her.

Nye groaned and pushed herself up, her armor creaking in a very not okay manner. “Yeah, ow. Damn thing headbutted me when it saw I was going to lance it’s brain,” she groaned. “My everything is sore…”

I sighed in relief and smiled, reaching down to help her up. “Thank goodness!”

“Twi… I am in a ton of armor. Literally,” Nyota giggled as she slowly pushed herself up to her feet.

I felt my ears droop. “O-oh. Right. Well, how about we go home and we see if a massage will help with the soreness? You’ve been fighting all day. I think we can do a short break before you’re building things all night,” I suggested hopefully.

“That’s a good plan. I like it! Come on, we’ll leave the shed here for now and head home… Chip, you’re not hurt are you?” Nye asked worriedly. “Got a bit hectic there.”

“Nope!” He exclaimed happily. “We came in on the wrong side of the arena and had to go all the way around, but I showed Twilight where the safe spot is! Um… Just before you killed it. Sooo yes, pretty useless I guess.”

I shook my head slowly. “Hey, it’s all over. I can just whip up some armor in the replicator thingie, then you can customize it, an then we can go see my parents,” I said happily.

“After a massage, right?” Nyota said hopefully.

I nodded and blushed lightly. “Yeah! I need to do something that’s NOT running around screaming in blind panic and that seems like a nice thing, you know?” I asked as I turned to walk up the path to Nyota’s house.

She nodded. “Agreed. Let’s go.”

The walk felt rather short. I remember back when I’d first arrived, even walking around the lake my cabin had been at felt like it took such a long time. But now? With friends at my side, and proper protection across my body, having just survived things a billion times worse than the monsters in the jungle? Fear wasn’t going to make this feel any longer than it was.

We left the jungle, entering the clearing around the base of the hill, and that’s when the fear hit.

The hill was littered with scattered bodies, most of them wearing the bone helmets I’d come to associate with Charlie’s Boys. The others were completely stripped of gear, and limbs. A major battle had been fought here, and not long ago at all. We would have heard it if it hadn’t happened while we were in the arena.

At the top of the hill Nyota’s house still stood, but had several holes blasted through it. The cyan paint blackened, glass cracked, metal walls crumpled in to show large sections of the house completely gutted.

But the worst thing, the absolute worst thing, was the blood covered Razor, limping her way towards us down the hill.

Charlie attacked… Got most of them, the Raptor gurgled as she lay down a dozen meters from us, too wounded and tired to stand anymore. Not enough. Breached shield. Blew up your replicator… Does the Trodoon have more healing drinks? I think I need some…

10 - Mistakes

Nyota Komeo - Day 115,315

The Machine Shop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island

Razor slumped as she walked towards us, her left leg dragging more than anything else, blood pouring down her hide, almost invisible thanks to her colors. She just looked a bit wet. But I knew better. I’d been there almost every time she’d ever been hurt.

I’d seen her bite her leg to force the bone back into place. I’d seen her cut a strip of flesh away with a talon to get a stuck arrow out.

Razor was a tough girl. The toughest I’d known of any species. She just asked for a health potion.

I stepped forwards and knelt down next to her, looking her in the left eye.

“So. On a scale from the time I punched you, to when you got mauled by that Giga last month…” I asked in what must have looked like the mother of all asshole moves.

“Nye! She’s hurt! Get help!” Twilight exploded worriedly, her panicked cry echoing off her helmet.

Giga’s older sister, Razor hissed faintly. I think I’m dying… I did not ask as a joke. Twilight, Nye was right to think I did ask as a joke. It’s something I would do.

I felt my heart almost stop. “I- I don’t,” I stammered looking at the ruins of my house in fear. “Chip! Chip, do you have more of them?”

The Trodoon shook his head twice. “No. I’m sorry… But we are close to an obelisk. We could upload her for transport, and then download her from a drop elsewhere. The Beastfolk have two drops in their territory. They’ll definitely have some! And if they don’t, we can just get Razor to Star and have him make her a beastfolk.”

I like your plan, tiny raptor. But your tail is still too small for my tastes. I’m sorry, Razor apologised with genuine sincerity.

Chip blinked, his eyes taking on their nocturnal glow as he hopped back in surprise.

“But- But I don’t want to mate with you!” Hhe yelped in surprise. “Why would you even bring up-”

“Dying people say weird things,” I explained, climbing back to my feet and squatting down to lift Razor up.

My armor’s servos whined in protest as I lifted her two tons up, holding her limp but still moving form as securely to my chest as possibly. I crunched the numbers in my head, and nodded to myself as I determined my jetpack could lift myself, itself, and Razor. The flight would be slow… But she was tough. She would make it.

“Hold on, we’ll get you patched up,” I promised, turning around so I wouldn’t have to make a turn carrying her. That would just take too much time. “Did you get whoever did this to you?”

Razor gurgled in satisfaction, but her sound carried no thoughts behind it.

“Are you sure you can make it in time?” Twilight asked worriedly.

I nodded. “I can… But… We have a problem,” I groaned, the facts of the moment starting to sink in. “We will talk when I get back. Stay alert!”

My house was gutted. I could survive that. Rebuild even. It wouldn’t take long. But we had a deadline. And it WOULD take longer than that.

I jumped, activating my armor’s flight systems. The turbofans screamed in mechanical pain as they struggled to move the massive load I’d put on them. But they still lifted us off the ground.

I opened up the throttle, managing to get a good fifteen kilometers per hour out of my pack. Razor squirmed uncomfortably, her uninjured leg moving to wrap around my waist, but recoiling from the jet’s flames.

“I’m sorry. I know ye hate heights,” I said as soothingly as I could while focusing on not falling out of the sky.

Only… Because… Can’t kill… Them, she chuffed feebly.

“You’ll find a way one day,” I replied with a smile, turning slightly so we could land on the pad when we arrived.

The flight was physically short, but it felt long. I’d lost plenty of mounts before. At this point I was numb to it. But I’d lost very few friends. I wanted to keep it under five.

Luckily, Razor was still breathing by the time we landed. My boots touched down on the steel web’s inner most ring. A landing I’d have taken a moment to appreciate on any other day. But there was no time now.

I slammed my fist against the console, activating it as quickly as I could. The menu sprang to life in my eyes, making it but the work of a moment to find what I needed. My ‘finger’ hovered over the button, ready to put her in the transport system, but with one pressing question to ask.

“Hey… If we can't heal you, what do you want me to do?” I asked, looking Razor in her eyes.

Nothing. I avenged myself. Stole away her shock prod. Hit her implant with it. She’s dead forever, Razor said with a pained growl.

“Y-you got Charlie?” I asked, ears raising in shock as much as my helmet would allow.

No. Different female. Please… Do it now, Razor pleaded.

I nodded and hit the button.

Razor vanished in the familiar white shimmering light. She was safe.

Twilight and I… We were screwed.

Did I need to tell her why? She had to have realized it by now. Twi was a bit slow on the uptake sometimes but she still got there quick enough. She’d realize we’d lost the replicator.

I turned back around, and quickly ran up the path, not trusting my jetpack after the abuse I just put it through. The last thing I needed right now was to fall to my death. I didn’t have any beds set up here… And if they breached my secret room, I didn’t even have a stash of equipment.

Stupid ARK move… Worst possible time for it!

The trees flew by as I ran only a bit faster than my normal pace. I’d definitely damaged the leg servos during that last fight. I probably had enough spare parts to fix this set one last time… If by some miracle we could get the supplies for a Tek Replicator, Twi MIGHT be able to make it in unmodified equipment.

But that was the problem, wasn’t it?

I burst out of the jungle just moments before my armor’s systems locked up with a screech of metal. The sudden jolt made me lurch forwards, stumbling as I struggled to catch myself as the armor no longer supported itself.

“Guh!” I yelped, forcing myself upright, and looking up to try and see where Twilight was.

A small patch of gleaming lavender caught my eye amongst the rubble surrounding the largest hole in my house. There she was. Right where the replicator had been. Good. She’d worked it out.

I should get up there… But I had to ditch my armor for now. I was too exhausted to lug it around unpowered. Understandable, considering what we had been doing all day.

I sat down as best I could. Which meant falling down. I popped the armor’s latch with a sigh.

“Yep, main servos shot,” I grumbled as my armor clamshelled open, allowing me to stand up.

Before my armor closed, I grabbed a brick of C4 from a vest pouch and tossed it inside, keeping hold of the tripwire and quickly rigging it to go off when the armor opened next time.

No sense in letting anyone take my kit and they HAD to still be in the area. They knew I wasn’t home...

Turning around I jogged up towards the house, whistling loudly as I drew near. “Oi! Twi, it’s me,” I called loudly, just to make doubly certain she wouldn’t shoot me assuming I was someone else.

“Okay!” She called back, oddly happy. “Sir Hoppy’s alive! Poor thing was hiding under a sheet of metal. Oh! We found your little workshop under the floor! They didn’t get it.”

I stepped inside through the hole in the wall, flinching slightly as I saw the elerium crystals used for whatever reason in the walls construction jutting out of the shards of steel which still clung to the intact wall. That… That wouldn’t be a good thing to hit with any form of high energy pulse.

“Well, that’s a miracle!” I exclaimed in honest shock, jaw dropping slightly. “Usually raiders kill any pets they find… Are you sure your cutiemark isn’t for luck?”

Twilight snickered and shook her head. “No, silly! If it was I wouldn’t be here, and your house would still be standing… Sorry for being so up beat, I’m just happy Hoppy is alive,” she admitted a bit of hyperactive glee.

I nodded in agreement. “Aye, that’s good. And at least I can fix up my own armor,” I said as I turned the corner to see Chip and Twilight, with Hopps clinging terrified to her right shoulder.

They were standing near my real workshop’s hidden door, which they had pried open.

I’d built the half basement in my house for a reason. Gave me just enough of a crawl space to put my real workshop underneath where I’d had the replicator, and looked like I’d just built down like that because of the terrain.

Though to be honest, I’d sort of expected Charlie’s willy nilly demolition to just blow a hole through the floor…

Twilight tilted her head slightly. “Can’t you make me a set too? Or even just a jetpack?” She asked.

I nodded. “Sure! How many months do you have?” I asked sarcastically.

“Oh…” Twi said, her head tilting down slightly. “Okay, contingency B! How hard is it to build a new replicator?”

“We have enough element for it,” I sighed, sitting down on a fallen support beam. “But without permission to access any rich metal deposits… A day to get all five thousand ingots together since we’ll have to build new forges too. Then we have to get a hundred and fifty black pearls together and we don't even have a way of making scuba equipment now.

“Yer rescuers will arrive LONG before we can get a new replicator built. And we don't know how long they can stay here… Maybe their portal lasts minutes. We don’t know. We can't see your ‘parents’ now. We need to wait here for rescue.”

“Ponyfeathers…” Twilight sighed, sitting down on her own pile of rubble before looking through the hidden door into my workshop. “Wait! You have a TON of stuff in here! You don't think you have the supplies to make one in here already?”

I shook my head quickly. “Nope! All of that stuff is outside the system. I can’t just smelt it back down into the ingots the system will recognise and let me use to build engram stuff. Now, if we had Civilian or Military implants, that wouldn’t matter. But these are prison issue.”

Twilight slumped atop her rubble pile, clearly about to cry. I hated doing that to her… But what other option did we have? It’s not like the Dragonslayers had a replicator on Ragnarock yet. I hadn’t made one for them… And while Drake could do it himself, they wouldn’t have the supplies.

The Megalodons had one, but they wouldn’t let me use it for free and now I had nothing I could pay them with. Items glitched out of the system were useless for them, and everything not in my workshop would have been taken in the raid or destroyed.

Did I have any way of cheering Twilight up?

“Um, girls? We can just use mine,” Chip commented happily.

I snorted, cracking a smile. “Thanks little guy, I needed a that,” I said giving him a genuine smile.

Stuff like this was just a part of life here. This was base wipe number twenty three. I just had to keep calm and get to work re-

“Okay, well, it’s not exactly mine… But I know where one is with no humans near it!” Chip replied with a happy chirp.

I frowned, “Are you actually serious, or joking with us?”

Twilight nodded twice. “This is a serious problem, Chip. You’re not joking, are you?”

He shook his head twice. “Nope! Not joking. I was raised near here in a large house on the beach-”

I facepalmed. “There’s a freaking Replicator in there?!” I asked groaning into my palm. “I never explored that thing because… It’s swarming with lots of high...level... Troodons… Huh…”

Come to think of it, some of them seemed too tough for wild ones. They would have had to have been bred. His story was adding up.

“Yep! That’s where my family lives. I left because they make fun of me for liking tools more than hunting, but I’m welcome back and there’s a replicator in the stone bit perched on the rock over the sea. We can just ask to use it real quick. No one will mind,” Chip said rather confidently.

“It’s night, Chip,” Twilight pointed out, taking off her helmet to show him her worried frown. “I think they will mind a lot if a tasty snack walks into their nest… And didn’t you say that your old friends left a long time ago? Why haven’t the wardens cleared their base out?”

“Oh, no they don’t do that,” I explained quickly. “Abandoned structures are left intentionally. So Ye’ll fight over them. And well, NO ONE wants to clear out the nest of a few hundred Troodons. It’s why this hill was pretty easy to take for myself. Next to the Nope Zone.”

“It’s a bar… I was taught to mix drinks and serve them. The sign still reads open…” Chip grumbled.

I blinked twice. “E-excuse me?”

“The Grove: Pub-n-Grub. Open twenty four hours a day! Ask about our Dodo omelette. It’s a business. Says so right on the sign. I asked what it said once. We can just go in,” Chip insisted, his tail lashing incredulously.

“Yeah, I know it was a business,” I agreed. “You could probably have run a rather profitable one back when I first got here too. The whole place was way less dangerous in terms of the inmates.”

“It’s still a business!” Chip insisted stamping his foot.

Twilight and I started at Chip for a few long quiet moments.

“Y-your family is still running it, as a pub?” Twilight asked, her jaw dropping slightly.

“Yes! It’s very safe there. So most of us are still alive. And cooking things is fun!” Chip insisted. “Why do you think I like cooked meat better than raw meat? I’ve got to eat cooked meat! Also I cooked you breakfast this morning, where did you think I learned to make crepes!?”

I blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of my head. “I uh, I thought Twilight made those…” I admitted, coughing into my fist.

“Oh,” Chip said with an understanding nod. “Well no. That was me.”

Twilight cleared her throat, shuffling her feet against the rubble strewn floor in embarrassment.

“Yeah, I’ve been banned from cooking under the threat of a purple dragon strangling me after I spent thirty eight straight hours trying to make rice because I thought all of the units had to be EXACT, and getting so frustrated I sort of converted half the kitchen tools into scientific apparatuses designed to get EXACTLY two cups of water by molecular count… So I don’t actually cook! Heh heh,” Twilight explained with a feeble grin.

“Rexshit!” Chip swore for me as he turned to face Twilight. “You are not THAT crazy!”

“I uh, I used to be. Long story,” Twilight apologised. “So um… How about we quickly make two beds just incase then go see if there still is a Replicator down there? I mean, how long have you been away from home, Chip? Could something have happened?”

“I go back from time to time to get drinks. It’s still there,” he said confidently.

I shook my head slowly, still not believing this. “Are ye telling me that I’ve been sitting a few klicks away from a restaurant run by trained Troodons for the last three hundred years, lad?” I demanded.

Chip shook his head. “No. It’s a pub.”

Twilight blinked and tilted her head to one side. “W-wait! It’s that close by and you NEVER checked it out in all that time?” She asked incredulously, one ear dropping flat.

“I did!” I protested. “I just never actually went inside because I like not losing all my equipment. I’ve looked at it through a telescope a lot. By the time I had the firepower to think about actually entering what I thought was a Troodon hive, I saw nothing of value to me inside it!”

Chip chirred sadly, his tail drooping. “But- We have Shawarma! On display! In the front window. That’s valuable!”

“Um… What?” I asked, brain starting to shut down in confusion.

“Was it a Friday? You probably were looking on a Friday,” Chip mused scritching his chin with one claw.

I took a deep breath and stood up. “Okay, Chip, we’re going. We are going because until I see it I am going to keep calling horse apples on this,” I decided.

Twilight nodded in agreement and stood up, gently reaching up to calm her jerboa with a gentle pet. “I have to agree… No offense Chip, but it’s just a bit… Hard to believe.”

Chip huffed, crossing his arms for a moment, tail flicking before he darted out of the house through a hole in the wall. “We’re intelligent, you know… It’s not THAT hard to cook food and brew drinks,” he grumbled. “Come on then. You’ll see you’re wrong.”

I frowned worriedly, turning to call after him. “I’m still not sure your people will welcome us just walking into their home!”

Twilight sighed and walked over to me, laying a hand on my shoulder. “Well, if he’s with us, they should listen. If not, we can run… That said, we don’t want to loose him, sooo, run!” She instructed before running after our Trodoon friend into the night.

This had bad idea stamped all over it…

I sighed, quickly stretched my legs, and then ran after her. Twilight was right. If there was a replicator at that ‘pub’ Chip was our only means of getting to it.

Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

SkyLabs, ██████████ - Phoenix Sovereign Territory Zone

I hadn’t exactly been happy when Celestia insisted on personally going to retrieve Twilight. It was a security thing. She had believed whatever portal device we wound up constructing could be moved out of my lab and set up anywhere we liked. That simply was not true.

The end result of Project Lavander was a real mess of arcane and mundane technologies, working half through skill and technical expertise, and half on luck. It worked, but even with my technical knowledge I doubted I could get it running within any reasonable amount of time if we had to move it. And if we wanted it elsewhere it would need to be PHYSICALLY moved.

We tried teleporting the small scale device and teleporting completely fries Lyra’s time dilation shield. That’s the part which would take forever to remake. Which is why if we moved it would would have to take the whole thing apart, put it on a truck, and physically move it.

Luna’s mane that would be the biggest hassle. I’d have done it if this portal was for any reason other than retrieving a stranded pony. But since for all we knew Twilight was living in a hole under a tree to hide from the Nazgul, we didn’t have several months to reassemble the damn thing and do the tests to ensure it was properly working.

Which is why I told Celestia that the lab’s portal was ready, and for the sake of a speedy recovery, we would be using it where it currently stood.

I’d always known that I’d have to let some Equestrian soldiers into the lab to use the portal and get her. I was fine with that. Celestia would always want at least one soldier to go with any group I chose. The logical choice for the mission meant that the Frontier Guard would be sent, and they knew how to keep their lips buttoned.

Nope. That wasn’t going to happen. Not exactly.

Celestia insisted on going herself. Ensuring that no matter what was on the other side we’d have the magical firepower to get Twilight, assuming she wasn’t unable to cast spells for any given reason.

Ayna had tried to explain that barring Twilight being imprisoned and cut off from her magic by some equinemade force, that if she couldn’t cast spells then Celestia couldn’t ether. Celestia had pointed out that even if that was the case, her armor had both technological and arcane enhancements and outclassed anything in the Guard’s armories.

I pointed out that I could make something better than her gold plated tin of beans (but in more polite words) for every pony in a platoon in just an afternoon. So that wasn’t really a valid argument.

“I don’t care. I am going to help bring Twilight back. Regardless of your opinions on the matter,” she’d insisted, her voice and determined glare leaving no room for argument.

If I hadn’t let her, she would have tried to take what she wanted by force. That was my assessment. That was Ayna assessment. And it was also Captain Skritt’s assessment.

We’d argued about what to do for a long time. Things got a bit heated, I’d proposed a few plans, they all got shot down. I didn’t like it, but in the end we went with Skriit’s plan.

So I gave her access to my lab.

JUST Project Lavender's chambers, mind you. But Lab access is Lab access. I don't like handing it out. Celestia wouldn’t even know there was more to the lab, or keep that access after the mission was over. And I’d drawn the line at her wanting to know where the portal was.

Which is why she and her troops could only enter the lab through the use of my teleportation technology. Without knowing its location.

Fortunately, she’d taken that one well. Sort of. More like she didn’t want to cause an international incident.

Celestia paced back and forth in front of the portal’s archway. Her golden armor gleaming painfully under the lab chamber’s bright light as she waited. The sixteen ranger’s she’d brought with her stood nice and professionally away from the sensitive technoarcane equipment, waiting for Ayna and I to finish the calibrations, each one clad in matte colored armor which didn’t reflect light at every, conceivable, angle!

I liked them.

“How close are we to being able to use the portal, Doctor Trigger?” Celestia asked suddenly, forcing me to look up from the waveform guidance control station.

“Very close,” I answered with a happy smile. It was almost go time. “Ay, how’s the time-blender shield applicator looking?”

Ayna hopped into the air, her wings buzzing loudly as she flew across the room to a station neither of us were manning. Derpy had voluntarily left the chamber for its first major activation, not wanting her special talent to cause problems or her klutzy nature to cause a domino effect.

Lyra had left for the day to try and pick up a book on Dream Magic from a foreign shop. I understood completely. If some Nightmare had fundamentally altered reality to break Pinkie and I up, I’d want to find a way to dispel it’s magics too.

Unfortunately that DID mean we were down a pony in terms of manning each station.

“Holding stable at expected levels. If the portal is correctly attuned, we’re good to go,” Ayna replied after a moment inspecting the monitor.

“Oh! So we can go now?” Celestia asked with an eager smile, her tail swishing hopefully behind her.

I quickly held up a hoof. “Not so fast! It says here that the portal is correctly targeted, but there are a few things everyone here needs to be briefed on,” I warned urgently.

Celestia nodded. “I’ve already given them their mission briefing, we have our plans all figured out. You’re good to go, right my little ponies?” Celestia asked turning towards the platoon.

“Um, yeah…”Their Lieutenant replied, scratching the back of his head with one hoof in objection to being referred to as a ‘little pony’. “We all know what you want us to do on the other side, Ma’am. But I think that the doctor means there’s things we need to know about this portal before we use it.”

“Exactly, like how to get home,” I quickly added.

Celestia frowned. “We already went over this. This portal is one way, your standard portal gateway is capable of taking us back home due to the temporal interference only existing for objects going from Equestria to the other world. You proved this by throwing a small drone through and having it come back. It came back intact.

“All we need to do is carry your gate through with us, assemble it on the other side, easy since it’s self assembling, and use it to leave later on. I remember. There’s no problems.”

I nodded slowly. “Right… And you remember that It will self destruct in ten minutes after opening, and is preset to take you straight to this high security room. Right?”

She nodded confidently. “Yes. I remember that.”

“And you told all of them that, right?” I asked worriedly turning to face the soldiers. “You know that portal will explode after ten minutes and you can’t disarm that system without rendering the entire portal inoperable, right? Guy who's carrying it through?”

“Sir, I am aware, sir!” A corporal with a equipment specialist's patch on her shoulder proclaimed loudly, offering me a salute.

Then she held up the short field manual of operations for the gate which I had printed out. She’d been keeping it in a pouch on her barrel.

Polite too! Frontier Guard, easily the best troops Equestria had.

I returned the salute. “Good! And Celestia, you read your copy of the manual too, right? Especially page thirteen?”

Celestia nodded firmly. “I did.“

“Okay. Now that I am absolutely certain you guys won't strand yourselves, we can get this thing moving,” I said pressing a few buttons on my control console.

The lights ringing the gate went from red to green signifying the forcefield blocking access to the portal was no longer in place. Ay tapped a few commands in as well, the smaller brass disk in front of the portal hissed, blue runes glowing along its edges as arcane energy coursed through it. The temporal blender shielding was go.

“Everything’s green here,” Ayna called.

Good. The portal should have been set to overload when somepony of Celestia’s energy level touched it. A few harmless sparks, breakers flip, looks like the portal was damaged, tell Celestia it will take time to fix, then send in some people actually qualified to go to another universe and safely rescue somepony in it.

Preferably people who were NOT the leaders of a nation with copious amounts of political importance to a nation of millions and therefore basically irreplaceable.

I nodded and turned to Celestia, pointing towards the portal with one hoof. “Okay, door’s open. Go ahead, and good luck!” I announced with a simple smile.

Celestia smiled, a weight leaving her shoulders. “I’ll take point, everypony follow me!” She announced turning towards the portal.

Her platoon formed up behind her, entering a very orderly line formation. Celestia began to walk forwards, when suddenly the Corporal in charge of the portal blinked, a worried look crossing her face.

“M-ma’am?” she called. “The manual says this portal has strict energy limits, and I recall you mentioning you fully charged your armor’s arcane reserve. Are you sure that-”

I said she could take a LITTLE extra power. How much had she decided to take? Was it more than what I’d told her to or less? If she’d charged her armor more than I’d told her was safe to use the portal might ACTUALLY explode!

This is why I wanted to make a fake portal, Skriit!

“How much power do you have in that armor!?” I asked quickly. “Ay! Close the-”

Celestia turned to look at me with a confused frown, but continued to walk forwards, her left hoof touching the portal’s face.

If she put more than a day’s worth of her mana reserve into that set of armor, as I expected, then the combined energy density would-

The portal itself exploded in a flash of blue-orange plasma as it was overwhelmed by the power forced into it. Huge sheets of sparks screeched and hissed as the blasted outwards from half the chamber’s equipment. The lights popped as the released energy seeped into the power grid, tripping the breakers.

A heartbeat later the lights came back on, emergency power dimly illuminating the room in a red glow.

I looked around the slightly smoky room, wincing as the portal’s frame continued to spark and hiss, occasionally managing to make a coin sized scrap of a portal in the center.

Luna damnit! It wasn’t supposed to ACTUALLY explode! It was supposed to be safe, so no one could get hurt. Upside, now it was a real accident… Downside, now I had real repairs to do...

I took a deep breath, holding it for several seconds. “Is everyone alive? Are there injured?” I asked loudly to be heard over the hissing.

“I’m alright, what happened? How soon can it be fixed?” Celestia asked half worriedly, half angrily.

I opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by a string of reports form the soldiers. All of them were okay, though the two in front had the cloth parts of their uniforms burnt to a crisp.

“I’m fine too,” Ayna said as they all finished. “The power surge blew half the system… This is going to take a lot of work.”

Half the system? Fuck! I’d counted on the breakers tripping to save the equipment. But that’s Project Lavender for you.

Satisfied that everyone was fine, I turned back to Celestia, giving her my best angry scientist glare.

“How much power, did you store, in that armor?” I repeated.

“Two weeks of my normal daily output,” she answered immediately.

“I said, you could take, a LITTLE BIT of extra mana!” I snapped, left eye twitching. “One point twenty one gigawatts of stored thaumaturgic current is NOT a little bit!”

“Yes it is,” Celestia disagreed. “You never told me taking too much would cause the portal to explode!”

“I DID WARN YOU IT COULD EXPLODE! ASK LUNA! SHE WAS THERE!” I roared. “My exact words, ‘If too much energy passes through the portal at once it will destabilize and the resulting plasma discharge could kill anyone nearby.’ I then told you that a person of your arcane potency was already approaching the safe limits of what this system could handle, and that if you wanted to take ANY extra energy, you could only take a little bit.

“But nooooo! You decide to take so much energy that it’s the equivalent of eleven of you walking through the portal at the same time! HOW IS THAT IN ANY WAY A LITTLE BIT!?”

Celestia’s ears fell, flopping sadly down atop her head. But she kept up the mask of a confident leader. “Alright. I made a mistake. Everypony does. How long will it take to effect repairs?” Celestia asked, getting back onto her hooves.

“Probably a month. If we even can fix it,” Ayna replied for me, her voice dripping with venom. “Please leave. We’ll tell you if it’s working again.”

“It won’t be that bad, Ay. We rigged safeties in this morning, remember? Most of the critical stuff should be fine. Hopefully we have spare parts for everything that did get toasted,” I said as soothingly as I could, turning back to my station’s controls to start running a diagnostic.

I shared her worries under the soothing mask. Hopefully nothing too important was broken.

“Alright… And I am truly sorry. If- If you need anything for the repairs, let me know immediately,” Celestia offered, her head hanging slightly.

As it should… Seriously, mare, I told you that sending a fully grown alicorn through was pushing it!

“I will,” I said, continuing to focus on the task at hoof.

I heard the soldiers start to teleport back to Trottingham. Vanishing one by one with a short pop.

“Ma’am?” The corporal asked.

“Yes?” Celestia answered.

“Why don’t you hold onto this copy of the portal’s manual? It’s very informative. Particularly page thirteen,” she continued, the sound of papers rustling as she passed something to Celestia.

That’s where I’d listed the mass and energy limits in a convenient table.

“What’s your name, Corporal?” I asked curiously, looking at her olive green face mask.

“Tactical Supremacy, Sir,” she answered.

It’s nice working with professionals. I’d have to look her up later for contract work if I needed mercenaries.

“Nice to meet you, Tac,” I said with a polite nod as I turned back to my work. “If you’re allowed to do mercenary work, feel free to pick up an application from any SkyTech store you come across. Good day.”

“You too, sir,” she said before she vanished with a pop.

A louder pop and a white flash signaled Celestia’s departure.

“We should call Derpy and Lyra back in. We’ll need everyone for this,” Ayna commented. “I can’t believe she didn’t read the bucking manual!”

“I can’t believe the portal actually exploded instead of just getting shut down!” I agreed as I flipped open my watch, and activated it’s comlink.

A few quick commands brought up the team wide channel. “Girls, we have a problem,” I said into my watch.

They had no idea about the plan to ensure Celestia didn’t get herself banished too. Ayna and I had felt we should bring them in, but Skriit pulled rank on us both...

“Oh no! Did somepony get hurt?” Derpy asked immediately.

“Did we just accidently banish Celestia?” Lyra asked with a worried squeak.

“No. Celestia just ignored the entire briefing and blew out half the system trying to take more energy through than it could handle. We need everypony to come help fix things… Lyra, did you get your book? We can wait for you to get your book,” I said with a long weary sigh.

“I got it. I haven't gotten to read it but I got it. I’ll teleport back as soon as I can remember where your watch thingies teleport controls are,” Lyra informed.

“How bad is the damage?” Derpy asked, the sound of a facehoof echoing through the mic.

“She LITERALLY blew out half the system,” Ayna answered. “We’ll be pulling fried bits out of most components. Personally, I think we may have to build a new one from scratch…”

“I’m sort of shocked that you didn’t do it, Derpy,” Lyra joked to try and lighten the mood.

Derpy chuckled. “Hey, I haven’t broken THAT many things… I was mostly worried about- Oh! Oh hey, I have an idea,” she exclaimed excitedly.

“What is it?” I asked curiously, glancing up at the heap of ruined equipment. “Because we could use a few good ones.”

“I have a friend who might be able to help fix this. Machines are sort of her thing. But um, she live back on my homeworld… And I’m not sure she’s allowed to leave,” Derpy explained. “I’ll go ask if she can and if she’s willing to see if she can help.”

“How much help would she be?” I asked curiously. “I already have the chamber’s security systems down for visitors. I don’t mind one more today, but if she’s not going to be an asset, she’ll just get in our way.”

“NaN could probably give you a run for your money, Sky,” Derpy answered immediately.

I blinked. “You have a grandmother who is an engineer?” I asked. “Why didn’t you see if she’d help before now!?”

“No, not Nan. NaN. As in ‘Not a Number’. Her parents- It’s a culture thing,” Derpy corrected.

Ayna and I shared a look. Who the hay names their kid after a number? And not even a proper number at that!

“Okay, and why couldn’t she come here before now to help?” Ayna asked for me, frowning slightly.

“Like I said, I don't think she’s allowed to leave. But I’ll ask. This is important, it’s not like she owes me a favor, but she is very nice. I think she could help fix the portal very quickly and she really loves machines. I’ll be back soon,” Derpy said, her comm going dead as she disconnected.

“Found the teleport controls,” Lyra announced. “I’ll be right there.”

Her line went dead with a click.

I sighed and walked towards the still sparking portal to cut its power. Hopefully Derpy’s friend would pull through. Even if she couldn’t help fix this, if she really was around my level of engineering expertise, we could put our heads together, improve this damn thing, and get Twilight unstuck.

Ponyfeathers… We couldn’t even send a letter through now to tell Twilight about the delay.

I hope she’s not stuck in a slimy cave somewhere. Trying to hide from a huge monster that’s immune to magic by cowering under a pile of bones…

At least Celestia wouldn’t be the one to go get her now. She was NOT the right pony for the job.

Twilight Sparkle - Day 15

The Grove: Pub-n-Grub, South Jungle - The Island

“This is the best sandwich I have ever had in my life!” I exclaimed joyously, ears fully perked as the juicy sandwich dripped onto my plate as I held it up.

Who knew that meat could taste so good! Celestia, I needed the recipe for shawarma! Leave it to carnivores to make something this tasty out of an animal’s carcass.

No wonder the small number of griffons capable of digesting plants almost NEVER prefered eating vegetables.

“I’d be enjoying this more if I wasn’t completely confused…” Nye agreed with an awkward smile and a blush as she shifted her weight uneasily, making the booth squeak.

To be fair, we were inside a very dilapidated and rundown stone and wood house-like building which sat right on the beach, safely tucked away at the base of a cliff with a rock arch to its back.

Normal for this world.

The building was indeed full of Trodoons. Also normal for this world.

The Trodoons had little uniforms styled after Germane barmare dresses. Not remotely normal for this world.

Nor were the carefully maintained diner-style booths inside the building, the somewhat tacky decorations composed of random objects bolted to the walls, the stuffed broodmother head hanging over the bar (With its mandibles posed to hold up the menu board) or the hospitable and expedient service even in the same nation as normal for the world Nye was used too.

We’d walked up all terrified, hands gripping weapons tightly. Chip had just zipped on into the slightly crooked, aged cabin-like building and yelled ‘I’m home! I brought customers!’ and then we’d been swarmed by a dozen uniformed Trodoon, literally carried into a booth and been given samples of the day’s soups and desserts.

I definitely had taken it better than Nye had.

I nodded twice. “Yep. I sense Pinkie behind this. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I’m going to ask when I get back. There’s no way this isn’t her doing. Somehow,” I agreed, taking another bite of amazing sandwich.

That’s why I’d taken it well. Pinkie would definitely teach a bunch of murder machines to love cooking and show them how to manage a restaurant. And also brew beer. They had good beer. And I didn’t like beer normally.

I had practice dealing with whimsical insanity. Nyota did not.

“Three hundred years,” Nyota groaned into her hands. “Three hundred years, I could have just walked down here, sat down, and ordered a goddamn sandwich… For FREE since they just like cooking for people!”

“Is anything wrong with your order?” A waitress hissed worriedly.

“She wants to know if something’s wrong with your food,” I translated, doing my best to hide a smile.

Nye’s reaction to this was really amusing!

“It’s fine… I just can’t believe I would have been GIVEN food if I came here instead of BECOME food,” she groaned face firmly embedded in her palm.

“You wouldn’t have to have come here. We deliver too! You could have left a note by the door with an order and our hunting parties would drop food off at your den when they go out for the night. It’s nice you finally did come in! I wish more people had the fangs to come in and order. Cowards,” our waitress spat before trotting away towards the bar. “Enjoy your meal!”

“What did she say?” Nye asked, wincing as she braced for more total shattering of her conception of the world in which she lived.

“She said they also deliver,” I informed with a giggle.

Nyota’s head made a loud thunk as it smacked into the table. I couldn’t help but giggle at that and gently rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Nye. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere NEAR here either… And if it’s messing with you this bad don’t worry. We started the replicator what, half an hour ago? It should finish building everything soon, right?

“Chip will come out and let us know it’s all done, then we go back to your place, you do the modification thing, and we get underway on time, just like we planned. It’s okay! Just sit back and enjoy the sandwich.”

I took another bite of the tasty awesomeness of tasty. Despite getting attacked and losing Nye’s house, today had been a good day. Mostly because sandwhich.

Nye sighed and sat up, taking her first bite of her sandwich. Her eyes immediately lit up with delight. “Oh my gods! It’s actually excellent!”

“Right?” I agreed with the biggest grin ever.

Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

SkyLabs, ██████████ - Phoenix Sovereign Territory Zone

Over the course of the last two hours, Lyra, Ay, and I had managed to get a full assessment of the damages. The short of the matter was ‘We’re pretty much bucked’. As for the long of it…

Two critical systems remained intact. The temporal shielding applicator, and the portal aperture. We could open a portal, we could shield things entering it from the effects, but the targeting computer was a complete loss.

The power systems were also shot. But those could be replaced very easily. I had spare parts, and Lyra was already working on installing things.

But the targeting computer… Ay and I still had the data we needed to make one. We weren't about to EVER delete any of this project’s documentation. But manufacturing one wasn’t simple.

You couldn’t just print one out, or conjure one up. We’d found out the hard way that the metaphysical aspects of the device were equally important to the physical ones. It HAD to be made by hoof or the arcane parts of the computer wouldn’t properly function.

We were looking at nearly a month to build another one all told. We had to acquire the materials, some rare and some common. Perform several arcane rituals which usually took days. Hand craft each component for assembly…

It would get done, naturally. But we could have fixed the portal in a matter of hours if the computer could be purely technological.

Or if Ay could fix a fried tri-crystalline focusing optical processing core. Of if I could for that matter. Or even Lyra.

That mare was surprisingly adept with old human tech. Sure she didn’t know the names of things but-

While pulling a floor panel up to access a junction box, a sudden realization struck me out of the blue.

“Hey, Lyra… Important question,” I said, voice echoing slightly thanks to the open hatch.

“About what?” she called from across the room.

“What do you plan to do with that book you pick up? You know it’s a serious criminal offense to own that in Equestria, right?” I asked, just to be certain.

“Yeah. I do,” She replied. “I have a plan.”

“What, ask Luna if you can keep it?” Ayna asked curiously. “Because that won’t work.”

“I think it will. She knows I’m the last pony who would use it for my own gain. Given what it’s already done to me. I just need to know how to undo what was already done, then I can destroy it,” Lyra stated, her voice leaving no uncertainty as to her plans.

She would destroy it when she was done.

“Yeah… And maybe Luna covers for you. But it’s written in Hund, right? Do you read Hund?” I asked.

“No. I was going to get it trans- Oh. Okay yeah, problem,” Lyra mused, holding a hoof to her chin.

“Right,” I said with a nod quickly flipping the junction box's breakers back to their normal positions, since the wiring inside was fine. “If you ever want to use it, someone will learn you have it. If Celestia ever finds out, you’re screwed.”

“You wouldn’t have brought this up if you didn’t have an idea,” Lyra rightly pointed out. “What is it?”

“Well, Ponyville is scheduled to be rebuilt in two months. You’re currently single, and you left Bonbon everything. Kudos on not being a jerk, by the way. If you live here instead of finding an apartment, and apply for dual citizenship, you can get the book translated and read it because we only ban the use of Dream Magic, not the study of it.”

“Um, yeah, but I’m foreign military. I think it would be a bit hard to get that status,” Lyra pointed out with a concerned frown.

“Oh look, I’m the Engineering Chief,” I reminded before pointing to my sister. “And there’s the Acting Archmage. Two out of three Captains say it’s cool, so you’re cool. I'm assuming you agree that it would be a fair to lend her a hoof in getting her mare back for helping with this, Ayna?”

“I do… Though she can’t actually do anything with that book here. She’ll have to find an unincorporated territory. Or go back to Hound to actually cast any spells she learns from it,” Ayna reminded.

“Well in that case, yeah. I guess I’ll live here for a month or three till I figure it out,” Lyra decided. “Heck, Luna basically lives here now. I can just teleport to Equestria to be with my friends on game nights or whatever.”

I nodded twice. “There ya go. That’s probably the best I can do to pay you back for your help,” I admitted. “Aside from money, of course. Which you’ll get. But I really can’t think of anyway I or anyone I know can help you dispel a spell that alters the whole of creation and actively counters attempts to undo it’s changes.”

I paused a frown forming on my lips as I started to recall something. “Wait a minute! There might be-”

The bright white glow and odd warbling sound of an active D’ni book interrupted my train of thought, the idea vanishing into the ether as Derpy materialized in the middle of the lab chamber.

The gray pegasus mare was not alone. Standing at her side was a fairly average looking unicorn mare. Well, average for a mare who worked out. Her peach fur wasn’t long enough to hide the muscles her fairly powerful frame carried, though she still had a female shape to her.

Sort of like Applejack come to think of it. Take that musculature, put it on a unicorn mare, give her a rather cute shade of brown. Almost wheat, but a bit darker. Burnt wheat. Top it off with a bi color mantis green mane with a mauve streak (similar to Lyra’s), bind the mane back in a ponytail the same length as her medium cut tail and you had…

Well, a very average looking mare who had a cutiemark in the shape of a carpenter’s pencil covered by a crossed monkey wrench and engineer’s hammer.

She wearing a red welder’s mask covered in aging stickers (some brand logos, others typical geek flair), her fur covered in grease smudges along with bits of metal dust and shavings, and carrying an old beat up slightly rusty red toolbox with a freaking Proto: Professional Tools logo on it in her left forehoof.

WHERE THE HELL DID SHE GET A 20TH CENTURY TOOL BOX!?

“... so there you have it,” the mare said to Derpy in Equish, clearly continuing a conversation. “It’s like a spiritual meatloaf.”

“Okay, I get it now. Thanks!” Derpy replied happily flashing the mare a smile.

I raised a hoof, one question completely blanking out my mind in favor of another. “The hay is a spiritual meatloaf and what could possibly be like one?” I asked, lips pursed and eyebrow raised in confusion.

The mare waved a hoof dismissively. “Eh, that’s a half hour long conversation I’d have to repeat to explain the analogy I had to use to explain a pretty in depth topic to someone who didn’t know a thing about it,” she explained before holding out the same hoof to me. “Hi there, name’s NaN. Damn glad to meetcha.”

I shook her hoof, still wishing I’d heard the rest of that conversation. “Sky Trigger. The changeling over there is my sister Ayna, and the minty mare is Lyra,” I introduced.

NaN nodded. “Yep, I’m up to speed. Derpy writes home a lot. Sooo she said this portal thing fried. Looks more like it was deep fried. What did her in?” She asked, turning a critical eye over the wreckage.

“User error,” I grumbled bitterly.

NaN smirked. “Figures. They never read the manual do they? I swear it would be the perfect place to hide your porn,” she snickered before clapping her hooves together to pop her forehoof joints. “So, what exactly broke and what bit is the most important? I don't have much time, I’m not allowed to be here. My sister is going to be pissed if she notices.”

I smiled. “Okay, I like you. Here’s hoping you can help. Ay, can you float the processing core over here please?”

“No problem,” Ay replied, the pyramid-ish shaped slightly blackened crystal and gold component floating over to NaN in the usual nimbus of green energy.

NaN plucked the core from the air with one hoof and looked at it for a few moments, inspecting it critically from almost every angle.

“Um, do you want me to tell you what it does?” I asked skeptically.

“Well it’s a processing core, so it processes something obviously,” NaN snarked before giving me a wink. “But I’d say given the array of crystalline lenses and traces, that this is the central processing unit for an optical computer which utilizes light and mana in a dual phase system. This is pretty clever, I’ve never seen one this small. Derpy’s right, you are good.”

I held up both hooves. “Woah! Hold it, you have these things back on your homeworld? Can we go buy one or something?”

NaN shook her head no. “Afraid not. Ours are pretty crude, not much call for this sort of technology. They wouldn’t be able to perform nearly well enough. At least, I’m assuming that based on the size and density of the traces and the super tight tolerances that you need humm… Something in the exahertz range?” She asked with a curious tilt of her head.

I shook my head slowly and turned to Derpy. “Okay, explain how she can tell that by looking at it,” I demanded.

“I cast an identify spell on the core when I picked it up,” NaN answered for her. “I dont have the specifics, but I know what it is.”

“But your horn didn't glow,” Lyra objected. “How could you have cast any spells?”

“I’m not using your world’s magic. I’m using mine,” NaN admitted with a blush. “I don’t know your system yet. Something as simple as an Identify spell having a coronal discharge is… Interesting. That’s reserved for the highest levels of magic where I’m from.”

I nodded twice. “Right, Derpy’s shown me a bit of your world’s spellcraft. Sorry, I forgot that it’s sometimes invisible. Did your spell show you how to fix it, just out of curiosity?” I asked hopefully.

“No, but the problem that I can see is the crystal got too hot and cracked,” NaN reported.

“Yep,” I confirmed. “Do you have a spell which can fix cracked crystal?”

She shook her head. “Nope. But I do have a sonic probe and a bottle of Copper Acetate Monohydrate solution. I might be able to coax the crystals into growing back together. It won't be a perfect patch, and it probably won't restore it to anything near design specs but it will probably switch on and give you what little it can.”

I tapped a hoof against my chin in thought before nodding. “Alright. If you can get the crystals in one piece, I can probably go through with a CNC laser array and recarve the traces to the right states,” I decided. “Go for it! How long will that take? Usually growing crystal is a lengthy process.”

“That’s what the probe’s for,” NaN informed, setting down her toolbox and popping it open. “Give me twenty minutes. If you can get this thing powered back up, we can see if it switches on before I have to go.”

I watched her rummage around her toolbox, pushing aside a bunch of old looking simple tools. A hammer, coping saw, screwdrivers, until she pulled a small plastic bottle from the box, set it down, rummaged a second more then pulled out-

“That’s a sonic screwdriver!” Ayna exclaimed accusingly, pointing to the slender metallic pink tipped tool in NaN’s hoof.

NaN raised an eyebrow. “Uh, no? I mean, you could drive a screw with it but it’s a probe… Calling it a screwdriver really limits your perception of what it can-”

“There was a TV show which had them in it in this universe,” Derpy interrupted with a polite smile. “That’s what they were called in it.”

“Gotcha,” NaN said as she picked the crystal back up to drizzle solution over it from the bottle. “If I ever get to sneak away again, I’ll have to see that. Sounds like it would be a pretty inventive show.”

“It was,” I agreed, wanting to check out her take on a sonic screwdriver but also understanding she was in a time crunch.

And that if she came from a world where those were commonplace, that she could actually help. I wasn’t about to interrupt her.

“Ay, get the comm lines between the gate and the shield system working again. Lyra, you take the power lines for the gate itself. Derpy, you get the targeting scanner ready for use. I’ll rewire the gateway itself. We can probably jerry rig everything for a test run within twenty minutes… Though we won't get to make it a very long one soo, uh, Ay?”

“Get a systems check cued up,” Ayna said in acknowledgment.

“Right!” I agreed with a nod, immediately rushing over to the ruined gate to begin stripping out each and every blackened component.

If this worked, we could be back up and running in a day or two instead of a month!

The next twenty minutes flew by in a flurry of barely controlled chaos. Ponies cursed as machinery proved difficult. NaN’s ‘probe’s’ humming became increasingly irritating as time went on. The already cluttered, debris strewn floor, became worse as everyone tossed broken components aside. Ponies rushed in and out, fetching spare parts from the storeroom down the hall.

Through all of the noise, movement, and difficult parts, I managed to strip everything I could tell was broken from the gate in twelve minutes. Fortunately, I had parts on hand to replace them and putting those replacements in went far smoother. The only way it could have gone more smoothly is if I had thought ahead and make a spare gateway for this particular device.

A bit of an oversight on my part. I had spare gates for my other portal.

I managed to get everything rigged for a quick systems check in eighteen minutes flat. Ay, Lyra, and Derpy finished their tasks a few minutes later, but NaN worked on.

“I’ll need another ten minutes…” She lamented when I asked how things were going.

With the added time, I got Ayna to help me make further repairs to the gateway. The longer we could get it to contain a portal, the better our data would be.

We’d just replaced the secondary guidance coil when NaN sighed in frustration and set her sonic down.

“Whelp, this is as good as I can make ‘er,” the mare informed, looking at the core with a disappointed frown.

“How good is that?” I asked worriedly.

“I’m not sure. Do you have a spec sheet anywhere?” She asked me with an apologetic eardroop.

“Yeah,” I replied nodding to Lyra.

Lyra got up and took a spare copy of the manual off a lab table and held it out to NaN. “It’s all on page thirteen,” she informed.

NaN took the manual and flipped through it with her hoof, spending about a minute studying the page before sighing again.

“Wow… Yeah, I’m just not going to be able to make this perform that well again,” she informed with object certainty. “But it should work… A little. As is you could take oh… Six ponies though the portal before it would just give out. Four if you wanted them to have any equipment on them. And I’m pretty sure you won't get more than a minute and a half of operation out of her before she just gives up the ghost.

“I’m sorry guys. This crystal is just really not into growing in the way you want it to. I’m also pretty sure it won't take laser cutting without cracking again. The molecular structure is all brittle now. Like steel before it’s tempered. And no, I don't know how to temper crystal.”

“Well poop,” I sighed, closing my eyes for a second. “At least we can use it to run a system diagnostic. That will save some time.”

“A week or so if we can find out exactly what’s wrong with the rest of the system,” Ayna elaborated.

NaN nodded, not satisfied, but set the core down on top of a nearby table. “Well, I hate to fail and bail, but I’m probably in deep shit right now. It was nice tinkering with you guys. We’ll have to do this again sometime. Especially since this is a sibling free world. Really makes it appealing, you know?”

Before I could say anything to that NaN tossed me her screwdriver. As I plucked it out of the air she offered me a smile. “Here, consolation prize,” she said turning to Lyra. “I remember Derpy said you are into oddities. Here, have an extradimensional doodad for a paperweight.”

NaN reached into her toolbox and tossed Lyra a small pink colored crystal cube which pulsed with pink light in its core. I couldn’t help but notice the pulses approximate a heartbeat as NaN turned to Derpy, who took a book from her saddlebags and flipped it open to a specific page.

“Here you go. Good luck! I hope she didn’t notice,” Derpy said, ears drooping.

“Ah come on, kid. We both know she did,” NaN sighed, reaching out to touch the book. “Bye bye guys. Have fun rescuing the princess!”

The book’s white glow enveloped the room as it emitted the usual creepy noise. The mare vanished. Gone basically as quick as she came.

A real shame too. Because she came from a world with sonic screwdrivers and-

Sonic screwdrivers. ‘Have fun rescuing the princess’. Four ponies, with a little gear. That was much more along the lines of what I’d wanted to send after Twilight.

Letting Celestia go would have been a huge mistake for everypony involved, Equestria needed her here. I had hated going along with it, but Skriit’s plan did work in the end. Celestia was no longer going to leave this dimension.

I hadn’t quite been able to rig the portal to just shut down and throw a few harmless sparks. But that was Project Lavender in a nutshell. A complicated, delicate, pain in the plot to work with.

The portal was more damaged than I’d intended for it to be when it was actually used. Would this repair be safe? Could we find out? We had one and a half minutes… Maybe. The answer was a solid maybe.

Maybe we could get a real team of qualified people to Twilight tonight. But who should go?

Ah, yes...

Like dad always said. If you wanted something done right, do it yourself and bring some friends along to help.

I flipped the sonic around and tucked it behind my left ear. “Ayna, get that core installed and ready to go. Do NOT switch it on. I’m going to grab a survival suit and the Lab-in-a-Bag. Anyone else want a suit?” I asked as I jogged towards the door.

“WOAH! Hold it, are you going to just dive through yourself!?” Ayna asked incredulously. “We have no idea if it even works!”

“We'll have about forty seconds after finishing a diagnostic during which we will know if it’s safe,” I countered. “Twilight is stranded in an alien dimension and in pain and I’m pretty sure we just got help from a Time Lord-”

Derpy giggled. “She’s not a Time Lord! They're just basic multitools back home. A wizard invented them.”

“Doesn't matter, might as well have been!” I countered, flashing her a snarky grin. “Point is, Celestia had her chance. She didn’t read the manual. We’re the ones who invented this thing, I’m the one who invented the return portal, Derpy’s already a dimention hopping adventurer, Lyra is a vampire knight, and Ayna is an accomplished wizard.

“We’re enough to get Twi back on our own. Heck, on my own I could maybe pull it off. I’m going if it’s safe. Who's with me?”

Ayna didn’t even let a half second pass before shaking her head. “This is a stupid idea which will probably get you into trouble. I’m in,” she said firmly.

Heh, good old sis. Always wanting in on the dangerous fun.

“Well… If Celestia broke things this badly because she didn’t read the manual…” Derpy mumbled to herself before shaking her head. “I really wanted to spend a few centuries here on vacation, but I’ll do it for Twilight. You’re right. We are some of the better suited ponies for the job.”

“Do I want to explore another universe?” Lyra asked sarcastically. “Gee, I don’t know…”

I snickered. “Supplies for four it is,” I said quickly running out of the room.

Grabbing the supplies was a matter of seconds. I kept dozens of caches full of basic survival equipment in each section of my lab. I did super science in here. There was no telling when you’d need an oxygen supply, a tool kit, and a real big gun.

Or a Lab-in-a-Bag. Dimensionally transcendent toolkits came in surprisingly handy. Even when you took into account what their name implied they were.

While grabbing everything, I questioned my idea. Running after Twilight myself did seem foolhardy on the surface. But since I was going to be bringing the return portal myself, and I’d have a full set of tools and equipment at my disposal, I was confident I could solve whatever problems arose.

Besides, Derpy would have her books with her. Failing everything, we could use one of them to return home. Two methods of departure at our disposal.

Yes. This was the best option. The right ponies for the right job.

I returned to the lab, and passed out everyone’s gear, instructing them to just carry it in the duffel bag for now to shield it from any portal effects. Who knew what might happen if the portal’s damaged state disagreed with a plasma cell?

I also gave Lyra and Derpy a small injection of immune bolstering nanites. Because if sci-fi taught me anything, it was ‘Alien diseases are terrifying’. I had one in reserve for Twilight as well. Just in case.

Once I’d passed out the gear, we immediately began to start the portal back up. Nopony said a word as we triple checked every step. Slowly and carefully reopening the hole back to Twilight’s exile.

Before an hour had passed, the green swirling energy field once more sat between the arches. Lyra, Derpy, and I crowded around the portal entrance, ready to run through. Ayna sat back to monitor the system. Ready to give the word to go and then fly straight through herself.

The seconds ticked past, each one more tense than the last. Would it be safe? Had NaN fixed the core properly enough for this? Or would Twilight be trapped there even longer?

The portal’s lights suddenly flashed from red to green. “We’re good! Forty seconds until destabilization,” Ayna announced.

“Are we TOTALLY sure this won’t kill us?” Lyra asked, a few drops of fear managing to pierce through the brave mask she’d put on.

I wasn’t. Not totally. But I was mostly sure. Sure enough to try.

I turned around, gently resting a hoof on Lyra’s shoulder. “There’s an old human saying, Lyra. A phrase of great power and wisdom. And consolation to the soul in times of need...”

“What’s that?” She asked, as eager to learn anything about humans as she always was.

I turned back towards the portal and jumped through. “Allons~y!”

12 Through the Fire and the Flames

Twilight - Day 16

Red Obelisk, Lava Island - The Center

The teleportation system used to move between ARKs was a horror show. The boss arena teleports didn’t have this problem. They had to be close by. The Center had to have been far away. Extremely far away.

I felt like a million tiny hooks had dug into my skin and ripped me from one place to another. No transition. No effects. One moment we stood beneath the obelisk on the island. And now we were in a steel box barely big enough for the two of us, with alarms blaring in our ears.

Had I made the right decision? Going straight for the Center… It wasn’t looking like the best plan right now.

Were the controls inside this box with us? Maybe we could leave?

“Yep, they blocked the pad,” Nyota grunted, clearly having expected this.

Her armor whined as she hefted her sword then plunged it through the side of our prison cell with a horrid metallic shriek.

“They’ll have auto turrets up. We’ll be going vertical. Step out, packs on, all the way to the barrier at the top,” Nyota ordered urgently. “Full throttle the whole way, lass!”

I nodded. “I understand,” I said, frowning nervously behind my helmet as I fiddled with the packs’ controls.

Who mounts a jetpack on switch to the side of the index finger?

Nyota pushed her blade through the steel, carving a line through three separate layers of steel plate. She swiftly withdrew her blade, plunging it through again, and beginning a second line in what looked to be a triangular cut. I could hear her groaning with effort as she cut the steel. The blade may have been impossibly sharp, but it wasn’t frictionless.

“YOU IN THERE!” A deep female voice roared, echoing strangely as it came through the cut Nyota was making. “There’s five hundred Magma Wyvrens in this outpost, and all of them have guns pointed right at your hole! You will remain captive until your natural death!”

I gulped nervously.

Nyota nodded.

“Aye, it sounds bad… But,” Nye said with a wink. "I have a plan!"

Nyota let go of her sword with her left hand to activate her implant, then squinted through the gash her cuts left behind.

I heard the sound of nanites working as Nyota constructed something outside the hole. A moment later the voice bellowed an order. “ROCKET TURRETS! SHELL THE CELL!”

Nyota shoved her sword upwards, finishing the triangular cut. A heartbeat later she kicked the triangular cutouts through the new hole in the wall, sending them clashing to the ground. Nyota immediately stopped, stepped through the hole, and activating her jet pack.

“The Dragonslayers are passing through! Fire one shot and it’s war!” Nyota shouted in bluff as she took off with a roar then vanished from my sight.

I ran forwards ducking through the hole and taking off myself. As my armor’s twin turbines roared to life and flung me upwards into the sky I saw what Nyota had built. A war standard. A simple royal purple rectangular flag.

Made from the hide of the Dragon, with a dragon’s skull painted on it in what was ether dark black-brown paint or blood.

Well, that’s one way to show your enemies you’re not to be trifled wi-

“FIRE! FIRE!” The commander ordered.

The air splintered with the sound of a thousand explosions. Bullets shot past Nyota and I as we climbed vertically. A rocket flew past my face, trailing white smoke having missed my groin by an uncomfortably tiny distance.

"Eep!" I squeaked, clenching my legs together reflexively at the thought of having taken that hit.

Could I fly upwards but have my head pointed downwards? That would be nice!

Sparks blasted outwards from my right leg as something slammed into my armor. To my shock, I didn’t feel anything. Had I not been looking down in fear, needing to see the next rocket coming-

My mind blanked for a moment as I took in the fantastical landscape below us for the first time.

The land below was a massive volcanic island, formed entirely from obsidian and shale. Lakes of lava bubbled, flowing rivers lead into the sea. Clouds of volcanic gas clung to the tops of the three lava belching mountains at the island’s core. Upon which the Magma Wyvren's base sat.

The base below us was massive. It sprawled across the mountains, filling every crack and crevice. A snake-like series of terraced platforms and walls, topped at regular intervals by large mounted guns.

A fortress of death, covering the petrified forest like a metallic tumor upon an obsidian body. Which was literally as on fire as it could possibly be. Like someone took the Dragon’s Arena and said ‘This isn’t on fire enough’.

It was as if the island had been created for a fantasy movie.

Oh wait. Half of that fire was muzzle flash.

"That's way too many bullets!" I screamed, willing my armor to fly faster.

I instinctively tried to teleport Rainbow to me. My horn glowed, then sparked and popped as the magic refused to happen. Silly Twilight. She's not even in this universe...

The bullets flew at us like reverse hail, slamming into the bottoms of my feet, my legs, and my hands.

My silver armor creaked and twitched under the lead sandblasting. I could see it slowly turn a dull gray as lead stuck to the surface. Yet I still didn’t feel a thing…

Was it the guns they were using? Assault rifles, that's what they were called, right? Were they just not powerful enough to hurt us?

“They’ll think we’re scouts. If we’re lucky, they won't use the big guns on us and save them for the ‘pending attack’,” Nyota said, her voice sounding distorted over my helmet’s radio. “Notice they stopped firing rockets?”

I looked down once more. Sure enough, not one trail of white smoke. Just the hundreds of humans and their handguns.

My vision flickered as a bullet slammed directly into my visor, temporarily disrupting its sensors.

“OW!” I yelped, having felt that shot like a back hoof slap to my left eye.

“What happened? Are they using a sniper rifle?” Nyota called, sounding panicked.

“Got hit in the face… I’m fine but it REALLY hurt,” I explained quickly.

“Oh yeah. The nanovisor material SUCKS at kinetic diffusion. That’s why I got rid of it on-” Nyota paused turning slightly in the air. “Oh, crap! We need to get the buck out of here! Look at the bay to yer left, Twi!”

I turned to look in the direction Nye was pointing, but I didn’t see anything. Not at first. The hail of gunfire from below had whipped up a surprisingly thick cloud of smoke and-

Then I saw the huge boats. With guns. Gunboats.

I could see six through the smoke. There were probably more. They were short, very low profile trapezoidal prism shaped, metal hulled boats. Narrow, long, and with heavily sloped sides. Each one painted the same deep blue as the sea and given a nice glossy finish which mimicked the shimmer of sunlight on the water almost exactly.

Although, the camouflage ruined a bit by having a grinning shark’s mouth and eyes painted on the fronts. A SILLY grinning shark’s mouth. Somehow the emblem looked both sarcastic and sincere.

As I watched, the lead ship’s bow hinged open in two halves, revealing a massive concealed naval cannon. The other ships simultaneously opened hatches on their upper decks. Allowing elevators to raise large gun turrets into position, as the ships steamed towards the docks at the base of the fortress.

Whoever they were, they were here to take this fort.

“It’s the Megalodons!” Nyota exclaimed, her voice practically dripping with incredulity. “But they never leave The Island! I- I- No wonder I couldn’t contact them! I am so far out of the loop, Twi. This is NOT good. We-”

Nyota’s was cut off as a man’s voice managed to thunder even above the roar of our jetpacks, the gunfire, and the first volley of cannon fire.

“This island is now the property of the Megalodon Fleet. You are now trespassing on military property. At any time, you may abandon your position and return to your holdings on the mainland. Your ships will not be molested. Escort through active combat regions will be provided. Remain here and you will be purged. All beds will be destroyed. All hostiles will be shot. Returning to this island henceforth is forbidden,” the speaker announced.

“BUCK!” Nyota yelped. “They’re not fooling around, they’re setting up here just like they did on Herbivore Island.”

“Upside this means that-” I began, my words suddenly being lost as dozens of rockets began to explode below us.

Our attackers had shifted aim from us to the greater threat. Good?

“It means that the whole ARK is at war!” Nyota shouted over the chaos below. “The peace here was kept only through a delicate balance and now-”

Nyota’s voice cut off as the radio crackled. “Who's using the emergency band?” A female voice asked angrily.

My heart skipped a beat. By chance we had the same radio frequency.

“Uh, Dragonslayers. We’re just passing through,” I said quickly, hoping that would work. “We broke out of their holding cell around the obelisk right before you attacked.”

“Ah, then the Magma Wyverns don’t have Tek Armor. Good to know. Lieutenant! Don’t waste the seekers on the Tek. It’s a pair of Dragonslayers… Scouts probably. Let them pass,” the woman ordered.

“Um, so, why are you off the Island, Captain?” Nyota asked quickly, still audibly shaken.

“Wait! Nyota? I could ask the same of you. At any rate, we got board of ruling that sea. It’s no fun when no one challenges you So here we are! Funny you left Tthe Island. Some of my girls stayed behind to keep up the appearance we’re still using Herbivore Island while we move.

“I had a flotilla sent to officially gift you the island. Mostly to see if we could take it back from you in a few decades,” the Captain laughed. “Remember that time you trapped your coastline? That was fun! We want more of that.

“Well, you two have fun! We took the liberty of bombing some of the alpha tribes bigger settlements. While leaving insulting notes ‘signed’ by one of the other big tribes, of course. The whole place is one big active warzone now. We’ve got a proper vacation going! Now if you don’t mind…

“Lieutenant! Change our emergency band, then sail her closer to that dock. I want to hit them with my sword!”

The radio crackled again as they changed frequencies.

“Bloody psychopaths,” Nyota groaned. “They’re nice… When not looking for a real fight. But far too-”

“Bloodhungry?” I asked with a wince.

“Aye,” Nyota confirmed. “Looks like getting in to see Star will be complicated.”

Ponyfeathers! It was already complicated before. Did this make it complicated squared?

“Can we just fly to another obelisk and travel back to the Island then go try the outpost at the lake you mentioned?” I asked hopefully. My self-joke having helped allay my fears enough to regain some confidence.

“No, now break before you hit the force field!” Nyota ordered.

I quickly rolled my thumb across the pad. My jetpack transitioning into hover mode while Nyota circled around me, unable to hover with her customized pack.

“Okay… Here’s the problem. War zone below, long flight across now SUPER hostile territory to the other two obelisks. We got to head for the Beastfolk’s main base… Which is probably under attack right now. Also, we’ll be in the air for more than fifteen minutes. You’ll need to perform some mid air refuels for me-”

I nodded. “Yes, you already told me that. I’m certain I can do it!” I reminded.

“Aye, but I have enough fuel to get there. But not back. We didn’t have time to make more,” Nyota reminded. “We can do this but… Stick close. And if we die, we use the Jungle Mid spawn point. That’s where they are. Now, follow me. We’ll be flying for about three hours.”

Nyota stopped circling, banked to her left and began to fly towards the blotch of land on the horizon. I twisted to point myself after her and switched my pack back into flight mode.

“Don’t worry, I’m right behind you!” I called as I flew after her.

We skimmed along the top of the world for a mind numbingly long time. Nyota may have said it would be three hours, but it felt more like three months. Minutes into our flight the clouds below us thickened in a clearly unnatural way before unleashing a torrent of rain upon the world below.

Only the vaguest of outlines of tall, thin, rocky spires and distant mountains could be seen through the cloudbank.

We were following a Navigator Nyota had made, which made things worse. We found our straight line path once, and just kept going that way. The line taking us ever closer to ‘The Swallowed City’, a huge sprawling string of ruins the Beastfolk had fortified and called home.

That sounded like something I wanted to see. But I couldn’t. I could only barely tell we were still over water.

But I could hear. I could hear very well and the sounds of gunfire filled the air. It came from all directions. Some distant, some less distant. The Megalodon's captain had been right. The entire place was at war.

I didn’t want to think about war. Not even in a place where people couldn’t really die… Unless their wrist mounted soul-jar got electrocuted first. I wound up rolling over on my back to look at the sky and the force field above me as a distraction.

And what an effective distraction it was.

The sky was fake.

From a distance, the rippling force field hid the flaws within the projection. It worked well, even from casual observation when up close. But under close scrutiny, the hologram beneath was revealed.

First, it wasn’t quite completely opaque. If you looked, you could see objects behind other static objects in the sky. Such as the moon having some sort of craft visible near its center.

Second, pixels. The fake sky in the Emerald Hive’s park had the same problem. The tiny elements in the sky looked jagged when viewed up close.

Third, the Pierce Illusions spell I cast to see what was beyond the projection showed me a starry black sky. As well as dozens of colossal mushroom-shaped structures stretching off into the distance. They seemed to form a belt pattern around… Well, whatever was beneath this ARK.

We were in space.

Talk about a secure prison. There’s nowhere to escape to.

Except for the massive number of space faring ships which were parked oddly close to us. They somewhat resembled Neighponese warships. All steel, sleek curves, with obvious gun turrets protruding like blisters on a model’s flanks.

I wanted to study them more, but the anti-magic field sapped the spell's strength too quickly to give me that chance. And before I could cast another Nyota called for her third in-flight refuel. That turned into a minor disaster. The one notable thing on the entire three hour flight.

I'd dropped a promethium can, narrowly caught it before it plunged into the sea, then managed to refuel Nye’s pack. But it wasn't a real emergency. I'd had minutes to spare before the fumes it had been running on burned away to nothing.

And we could deal with losing one can. Probably... Okay, probably not.

I imagine that in a novel, the author would have punched the scene up a bit, to borrow a turn of phrase from Dash. But in real life? I just felt like a clumsy idiot who dropped a can. Adventure novels never really hammer in how boring the most common part of the adventure is. Getting from one place to another.

As well as minor decisions like dropping a few dozen meters to conserve fuel. Nyota’s armor burned more fuel to keep her at higher altitudes, and we didn't have much to spare.
I didn’t like that change. There were plenty of predators in the skies on The Island, and The Center was bigger, supposedly just to have a higher dino population.

But fortunately no leathery winged monsters dropped from above, and time marches ever onwards. Eventually we stopped passing over the sea and began to travel over land. An event I could only notice due to the clouds darkening as light reflecting off the water could no longer illuminate them from below.

After a few minutes of flying inland, Nye rolled left and begun to circle whatever lay below. I rolled as well, twisting so I could hover in place.

“Okay, if my map’s accurate, this should be the edge of their nation,” Nyota called, her radio crackling as if the mic was starting to go bad.

“What are the odds of you having a bad map?” I asked, a worried frown spreading across my lips.

Nyota waited until her circle brought her back in front of me and did her best to shrug through her armor while still maintaining her flight.

“Fairly good, I’d say. Yer not gonna like this Twi, but I’ve only been here, oh… Twice. Maybe three times,” she admitted. “The Island’s my home. I explored the others, I used to trade with some people on a few… But I haven't spent much time here.”

“And you do your own cartography…” I said doing my best to keep my anger from showing. “You know, you could have told me that BEFORE we came here!”

“Aye, I could have. And I’ll admit I thought I had. But clearly I didn’t and I’m sorry,” she said, passing through her circle to hold her her hands defensively. “But I DO have a good map of this area. I almost built a house here before Star and Clover arrived. I didn’t because the Magma owned this area and well, protection racket.

“My map for this general is very good, and well, I have a GPS. I know we’re over the landmass we want. I have the coastlines right for sure.”

I closed my eyes for a moment. “So we just drop down and hope we don’t land right in the middle of a guard training post or something?” I asked sarcastically.

“Um, no…” Nye said meekly. “We slowly fly down, and if we don’t see fighting below, we call out, then land. Let them know we’re coming. If it’s no good we can just take back off.

“Ye saw how this armor holds up to small arms, Twi. If we see big guns we just land out of range. We can take a little fire. It’s safe to make a few drops.”

“Yeah, but do you have the fuel for more than one drop?” I asked, throwing my hands up in the air. “Why did you make that thing run on gas anyways? It’s a major liability. I haven't had to refuel once!”

“Aye, but yer burning element for that, and I stuck forty grams in that power core. You’ve probably used thirty of them flying over here. Guess how much you get for killing the Broodmother? Or do you remember?” Nye asked defensively.

I felt my ears relax, my helmet preventing them from apologetically drooping.

“Twenty eight… I know, you explained it well. It’s not efficient to use element to get element,” I replied before taking a deep breath to calm myself down.

“Aye, an this suit was designed for killing the Broodmother, and repelling big raids on my house. Where I kept fuel stockpiled,” Nyota reminded. “I never made a suit for expeditions. I used my vest for that, and upgraded riot gear for assaults. I explained all this to ye, Twi. What’s really worrying you? Ye think Starswirl’s dead? I’d know if he was. Everyone would know.”

“I’m worried about getting back to the rescue party,” I admitted. “What if you burn too much fuel and we can't fly all the way back?”

“We’ll take a drop and risk deletion,” Nyota replied grimly.

“Right. Because the dinos here are that much more powerful, and can probably chew us up even while in these things, right?” I reminded using her own words as best I could. “So we need to conserve fuel. Now are you absolutely certain we’re above the edge of the Beastfolk’s territory, or-”

“You’re above our capital, Human!” A high pitched, screeching voice bellowed, having incredible volume despite the pitch. “Let me guess, you’re plotting another bombing. This navigation mistake will be your last!”

I knew something would come for us from above when we dropped altitude!

I twisted, turning to look upwards, my brain furiously trying to plan a way out of the ambush. And immediately realized that there was no time to plan.

Ten meters above us flew a squadron of mutant creatures I believed were once Dimorphodons.

The mutants most notable feature was a prisoner's implant grafted onto the center of their chests. While some were clad in flak armor, or thick hide vests, those without armor revealed their implants were crudely installed. They simply were set into the middle of a web of scars on their chests.

I noticed the implants even before taking in the fact that they all had six limbs rather than the normal four. A small pair of frail looking arms stuck out from their shoulders. Placed just far enough away from their wing’s joints to be useful. Their bodies were twisted into a vaguely humanoid shape; as if they were clay figures an amateur had done their best to resculpt.

Fifty of the pony sized, feathered, dragon like humanoid mutants hovered above us in a cloud-like formation. All armed with blades, lances, a few crude revolvers, and even the odd rifle.

“Well, shit,” Nyota swore angrily. “We come in peace and we’re not humans, but there’s no way ye’ll believe that even though it’s true.”

The squadron leader rolled his eyes. “No tails, no talons or hooves, access to Tek Armor, five fingered hands. You’re humans. Nice try. We totally don’t get this every day… Squadron! D-”

“Twilight, fall!” Nyota ordered.

Nyota cut her jetpack’s throttle, immediately falling like an anvil straight down while she flipped to face the ground, relighting her pack the moment she was reoriented.

Following her lead I cut my own pack as well, joining her in her dive. She was planning on using a gravity slide to gain more lateral speed and carry us out to sea faster by sacrificing altitude. Right?

It’s what Dash would tell me to do here.

“DIVE!” The squadron leader commanded.

The air shattered as the squadron screeched, racing down after us. Their war cries becoming ever louder...

Lyra Heartstrings - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

Southern Jungle - The Island

“This jungle SUCKS!” I moaned, reaching up to wipe the sweat off my forehead for the sixth time in the last two minutes.

“Yeah it is stupid hot,” Sky agreed as he ducked beneath a low hanging branch.

“I can’t believe you’re sweating that much, Lyra,” Ayna said in bemusement. “You’ve been riding on Derpy’s shoulders for the last hour or so.”

“To be fair, I do reflect a lot of heat. So she’s probably hotter than either of you two,” Derpy remarked, stopping to push a tree aside, easily bending it out of her way.

The first time she did that, our surprised babble wound up getting her to explain that her physical powers remained about the same even when taking other forms. I no longer found myself wondering why she broke a lot of stuff by accident.

Instead I found myself wondering how the hay it could be so hot, IN THE SHADE OF A DENSE JUNGLE!

It wasn’t even muggy, or even humid. It was just plain old hot. WIth an ocean maybe three kilometers away. The air should be so humid here, in this tropical jungle. Nope! Arid.

“This weather can’t be natural,” I griped.

“Well, yeah. Now that I’ve been here for a bit, this weather feels managed,” Sky agreed, nodding slightly. “Admittedly, I could be wrong. I’m not exactly a weather pony.”

Ayna shook her head slowly. “It’s hilarious that I have a Weather Team Certification and you don’t,” she said quietly.

I was happy that Ayna was talking more with us all in a group. We’d been working on the same project for months, normally she just didn’t talk if there were more than two other people nearby. For a changeling raised by ponies, she wasn’t at all good with groups. That’s weird for changelings too, come to think of it.

How does a social insect raised by a herd based species have social phobias?

“Yeah, well why don’t you turn into a pegasus and tell us if the weather is being manipulated or if it's just a weird thing about this universe then?” Sky shot back teasingly.

“Because pegasi are uncomfortable,” Ayna answered simply.

“Wait, what?” The three of us exclaimed in surprise.

“I’ve seen you become inanimate objects!” I protested a heartbeat later.

“Yes. You have,” Ayna agreed. “Have you ever seen me be a pegasi?”

I frowned. “Um, well no.”

“That’s because to me, being in a pegasi body is uncomfortable. It’s like an ill fitting formal dress,” she elaborated.

Derpy tilted her head to one side. “But… You got a weather team certification?”

“Yeah,” the changeling answered.

“Why?” Derpy pressed curiously.

“To try and produce spell equivalents to those natural arcane abilities in order to construct weather machines to sell to non-pony nations. I failed,” Ayna casually explained.

I blinked as I suddenly realized something. “I like how we’re walking through an alternate universe full of super monsters, and just chatting about personal histories,” I snickered.

Sky laughed in agreement. “Well… There’s not much else is there? We covered everything. ‘This jungle is spookily empty’, ‘That’s a really big ass red glowy rocket thing’, ‘These bushes grow multiple kinds of berries. Weird’, not exactly much else that’s topical,” he said with a shrug of his wings.

“Good point there,” I admitted.

Ayna snorted suddenly. “Sky, the joke’s funny, but if it goes on longer it will be mean.”

… What?

Sky nodded. “Eh, fair enough I suppose. Lyra, these suits have climate control. Use the watch. ‘Activate AC’.”

I closed my eyes for a moment. “I hate you…” I said slowly, shaking my head, but smiling.

It was a good joke. It would be a lot better if I weren't the subject.

“Activate AC,” I said into my watch, immediately feeling the air beneath my jacket and pants start to cool.

I sighed in relief, and decided to take a better looked around the jungle now that I would be able to concentrate. Aside from coming across a swamp, immediately coming across a huge bipedal lizard thing which killed a rather phallic headed rhino-elephant-thing five times its own size, and decided to go around Nope Swamp.

That was our one wildlife encounter. Probably due to Derpy being a dragon at the moment. She did smell different, and while she didn’t smell like a predator to me, who knew what the lizards thought about her.

Unfortunately that made for an especially boring trip. At least we’d had time for Sky to get out the good weapons just incase. I’d never got to use a railgun before. I’d always wanted to take a shot with one too!

Maybe I’d get lucky and everything was so quiet because something HUGE was stalking us! I could kill it before it struck and gain more hero points! Sure, I wasn’t with Vinyl and everypony else, but they’d trust my word that I’d gotten another oh, six or so.

I leaned around Derpy’s neck, shouldering the navy blue and orange painted weapon’s stock inorder to peer through it’s scope. Personally, I prefered magical sights on my weapons, but the view through this one was good enough.

“Do you see something?” Derpy asked worriedly as she saw my weapon’s long barrel slide into her peripheral vision.

“Nah, just trying to see if anything’s hiding in the tree-” I said, starting to explain but stopping immediately as I saw a building through a gap in the trees.

It sat on the other side of a clearing which in turn lay fifteen meters through the trees ahead of us, on the top of the hill we were currently climbing. The building was heavily damaged, clearly having been hit by artillery or subjected to demo charges, as nothing else I could imagine could put holes through what looked to be foot thick composite titanium ‘tiles’.

From what I could see, many of the holes in the structure had been patched with crude log walls, indicating that whatever happened, the occupants survived.

“Building ahead!” I reported. “Looks industrial in nature. Heavily damaged… Recently based on how shiny the broken metal looks. No time to oxidize. Structure has been crudely repaired.”

Sky blinked. “It’s so weird seeing you suddenly go full professional,” he muttered to himself. Clearly thinking he hadn’t said that outloud. “Can you see anything else? We should be close to the point we saw the people fly away from.”

Ignoring the remark I turned and twisted to see everything I could through the treeline gap, managing to see a window halfway up the side of the building. And the fur clad, bone armored, humanoid hanging from the window by a grappling hook, swinging a machete at a small feathered reptilian person.

A feathered reptilian person with almost my exact coloration. Who was desperately trying to swat the humanoid off the wall with a frying pan, clearly afraid of getting hit. A frying pan which had half-cooked pancake stuck to it.

Before I could report this, two large chunks of the wooden wall blasted away in a cloud of splinters. Two faint cracks accompanied the ‘explosions’, audible only to my vampiric ears as nopony else reacted at all.

The little lizard guy was fending off raiders! With a frying pan! And they had guns!

“The building is occupied by at least one person, a pony sized feathered lizard. He’s currently fending off attackers with a frying pan. We should help,” I recommended with a determined frown.

“How many attackers?” Sky asked immediately while reaching back to his flank holsters for two heavy pistols he’d strapped on earlier.

“At least three. Two have firearms, they are using VERY good suppressors,” I reported as I squinted through my scope, hoping to find another gap in the treeline to look through.

If I could find the shooters, maybe I could-

The deep roar of a T-Rex shook the jungle, coming from the clearing ahead of us. Something cracked, instantly followed by a loud explosion. Probably artillery.

That settled it for me. You don’t attack your own place with explosives. The lizard guy owned that building. He was being attacked. I didn’t care why. If you want a person dead, you send a few people with weapons. This was a large force with artillery and what I assumed was a tamed attack Rex.

That screamed ‘bandits out to make life suck for others’.

“Derpy! Get me into the air,” I ordered, gripping her shoulders tightly with my hind legs. “We need-”

“No, we’re wasting me in the air and you on an unstable shooting platform,” Derpy countered. “I’ll drop you on the roof, and hit the rex. Sky, Ayna, you can flank. I’m sure you know basic tactics.”

I nodded. That was a better plan… Tactically speaking. Less cool than ‘shoot the bad guys from dragonback’ though.

“Yeah, we do,” Ayna confirmed, her horn blazing emerald green for a few seconds while she cast a spell.

The light around her seemed to warp and twist. Not quite rendering her invisible, but obscuring all details about her position.

Sky reached back, grabbing one of his pistols. The moment his hoof touched the dark gunmetal weapon, sections of it lit up, glowing a bright green color. The grip unfolded, wrapping securely around his hoof, forming a five fingered cybernetic hand in the process.

ALL OF MY WANT!

“I-will-give-you-all-of-my-money-just-let-me-use-the-other-one!” I yelped needily, eyes locked onto the weapon hungrily.

Sky’s ears twitched. “Ow! High-pitch much?” Sky said with a wince. “No idea what you said. Are they coming towards us?”

I went to repeat myself, but Sky reached back and drew the other gun, rearing up rather expertly, and using his wings to balance. Ah. He normally fought with two weapons.

Maybe he’d let me play with one later.

“Nothing, never mind,” I said halfheartedly. “Derpy, let’s go!”

“She fangirled over the gun gauntlets,” Ayna called as Derpy leapt into the air.

I couldn’t hear a thing over the sound of branches breaking, and the rush of air as her wings flapped hard enough to make a quiet thunderclap as we rose above the trees. The second the sea of green vanished, I saw what was really going on.

The bandits had brought TWO rexes with them, each one covered in crude blackened, rusty armor formed from jagged plates of thick iron. I could see at least forty of the bipeds, most of them were just arriving, walking out of the treeline a ways to the south. A small group of five counting the one clinging to the wall had been the only ones here before.

Advance scouts. For a war party.

I’d been right before. This was a raid by bandits. But not one intending to steal anything. No, this was a mission to slaughter everything and salt the earth.

Derpy flapped her wings hard, hurtling through the air towards the building, twisting around at the last minute in order to land atop the roof with a solid thud that shook the building, facing the oncoming raiders. I slipped off her shoulders, landing on the now slightly dented roof, swinging my gun back up into a firing position and-

An actual thunderclap boomed just behind my head, my ears ringing even before the accompanying a shower of blue sparks flashed brightly enough to make me see spots in my vision. The hell had the ball lightning came from!? The sky had been cle-

No, wait. That was Derpy. She roared.

Holy bucking Luna’s tits that was loud!

My accelerated healing quickly stopped my ears ringing, just in time to see a large number of the raiders break off from the group, turning and sprinting back into the jungle, their panicked screams reaching my ears.

“Run away!” One screeched, surprisingly in English!

“COWARDS! I’ll flay you alive,” someone screamed wrathfully.

Who did that? The sound had come from the left, to the rear, and- Ah! There we go. Only one of the things dressed in a cape and jewelry. Evily McEvil located. Bye!

I swept my railgun’s sights up, put the reticle on her head, and fired. The weapon cracked violently, unleashing a huge flash of brilliant orange plasma as it sent a half kilogram bolt downrange. For a second I thought the railgun had exploded. Instead, my target had.

All I could see remaining of the bandit leader was best described as loose limbs lying in a puddle of chunky salsa. I winced, turning a little green and looking away from the gore pile.

I’d undergone the same combat conditioning as any Equestrian Knight, I could stomach killing for a just cause with no problems. But this weapon was a bit… Much. At least for anything within the pony size category which wasn't some kind of heavily armored robot.

The rexes on the other hoof…

Pushing past the urge to vomit I swung the barrel around, aiming center mass for the rex on the left. “Derpy, take the Rex on the right!” I called, warning her before firing a second shot.

To my horror the Rex took that shot, grunted angrily, and started to stomp towards my position, the remains of an armor plate dripping down its chest, but otherwise unharmed.

Oh. Great. Ether this thing dumps all its energy into the first object hit and nothing else or this universe has super iron!

To my surprise and horror, despite their leader exploding, the remaining bandits didn’t break and run. Instead, they charged, following the Rex forwards. The hay? That had been their leader, right?

I gulped worriedly, and raised my gun’s barrel, trying to line up a shot for the roof of the Rex’s mouth.

Derpy jumped off the roof, snapping her wings open, gliding forwards, allowing herself to slam into the other Rex’s left leg. I heard a snap like a tree breaking under the wind. The rex fell, screeching in an unfathomably wrathful hatred.

The Rex attacking me roared in response to its friend’s scream. I had the one chance! I fired a second shot, catching it in the left eye as the rex swung its head. The Rex swayed, staggering forwards another two steps before dropping limply, its head smashing through a wooden section of the wall below me as it fell.

I brought my rifle up, looking to provide Derpy with covering fire so I wouldn't have to shoot any of the humanoids with the railgun. Even against a war party of raiders, that just seemed excessively cruel… Also the remains were really gross to look at, but smelled GREAT.

So yeah. That was an inner conflict of epic proportions.

Sky and Ayna exploded from the treeline, charging towards the small group of remaining infantry firing a small hail of blue plasma bolts and scorching green energy blasts into their ranks. Bone plates exploded, hide blackened and smoked, some even igniting as the energy blasts slammed into the raider’s loose formation.

That was enough for them. The group broke apart as they turned and ran away from us, racing for the jungle in a disorganized mess.

I could have picked a few of them off. Ensured less harm in the future for others. But… I just couldn’t justify shooting another organic target that big with this thing. It was a great gun, and I’d keep it for the large monsters, but yeah… Definitely requesting another weapon for smaller targets. Or maybe less powerful ammunition.

I shook my head slowly as I watched them vanish into the jungle. What had this all been about? Whatever it was we were involved now, and no group able to field a force like that would send all of its members out to do something. They had to have a base someplace nearby, which would need defending. There were more. They might be back soo-

“THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!” A high pitched yet adorable male voice shouted in delight.

Oh yeah! The little Lizard guy.

I stepped over to the edge of the building looking down so I could let him know we were friendly and-

I saw the raider who had been trying to climb through the window. Laying on his back. Helmet shattered. Face exposed. His human face. Covered in delicious smelling blood.

Guh! Gore shouldn’t mix with appetizing smells! I was going to be sick…

Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

The Machine Shop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island

I frowned as the enemy turned and ran. Sure we’d hit them out of nowhere and caused a lot of confusion, but was that enough to-

I jumped slightly as something big snapped to my right. I spun, both pistols leveled, ready to fire, then flinched as I saw Derpy drop the gold and gray Rex’s head, having just broken its neck.

Luna’s mane, that had to have taken a lot of force! I REALLY hope she’ll let me study her musculature later. That stuff had major industrial and military applications.

“THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!” A high pitched yet adorable male voice shouted in delight.

Oh my god! That sounded just like the kid from The Incredibles! And it had yelled the line! HA!

I turned to look at the building where the sound had come from, just in time to see Lyra lean over the side of the roof and throw up. Leaving an orange line all the way down the fifteen meter high wall.

Ew.

Understandable. I mean, those were humans. She idolized them, we just fought some, and she shot at least one with an anti-tank rifle. But… Ew.

Derpy noticed Lyra’s distress too, turning her head to shout. “It’s okay Lyra! It’s going to be okay. They’re just like any species. Some are good, some are evil,” she called soothingly.

“No…” Lyra groaned, her voice faint but understandable from this distance. “I- It’s a vampire thing… I want to feed on the corpses…”

“Oh. Ew,” I summarized.

“So do I, I’ll cook em up for us later,” the little lizard dude called cheerfully. “I didn’t know all Equus ate meat. You’re adorable, by the way! Twilight said what she normally looked like but I didn’t really get it until now. But meat! I like that we can share it, that’s important. Twilight said she could eat meat but didn’t like it much. Oh! Those fire-guns are super cool! Can I have one?”

I blinked twice. Okay, good news. This guy’s seen Twilight. Weird news, he babbled at Ponk speed.

“I’ll happily give you a plasma pistol if you tell me where you saw Twilight,” I called as I holstered my guns so I could walk towards the window the little guy was leaning out of. “We’re here to rescue her.”

“Right now? Nope! She and Nyota left to try and find some friends before you got here,” he called. “They’ll be back soon! I think. A day or two at most. I guess they got your letter a day after you sent it. Because they made a whole timetable to get back here on time.”

Ayna dismissed her Blur spell, and squinted up at the window. “Um… Are you a Troodon?” She asked curiously.

“Yep!” He replied, flashing a fanged grin. “We’re all people, by the way. We just can’t make the sounds your languages use.”

Then how was he talking to us? I raised an eyebrow suspiciously before noticing a small collar around his neck. I couldn’t see too much detail on it, but it DID feature the tell tell glowing runes of Equestrian techno arcana. Twilight definitely knew him.

“Is that a translation collar?” I asked, just to be sure. “Oh, and what’s your name?”

“Yes, and I’m Chipfang. Um, you guys should come inside. There’s room for your dragon in here in the garage. Cuz Charlie’s gonna be pissed that you exploded her, and um, they kinda just get new bodies a few minutes after you kill one of them. And they REALLY want to blow this place up.”

I triple blinked. “The BUCK!? They respawn? The hell kind of universe is this!?” I demanded of reality.

“The kind where we’ll be defending this place until Twilight gets back,” Ayna said simply gesturing to my Lab-in-a-bag. “Let’s bust that thing open, get some shield generators up, and patch those walls up properly.”

I nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

No sense chasing off after Twilight if we knew she was coming back here… Not until we could establish contact at least. After all, if Twilight could build a translator here, she could probably also build a radio.

“Lyra, use any debris you find to make some sniper posts up on that roof,” I ordered as politely as I could. “Derpy, if you can, see about digging a trench around the hill and getting that lake to spill into it. We’ll see how they like a good moat. Ayna and I will work on building a shield generator-”

Chip squeed. He actually squeed, clasped his little four talons together, and hopped up and down excitedly! Hurk! The cute! Must, not, have, heartattack!

“Ohmygosh! I’ve never gotten to see how those work, can I watch you make it? Please?!” He begged, somehow managing to give me Bambi eyes despite the distance between us and despite him being a predator.

“Of course you can!” I promised. “Just keep out of the way while we set things up.”

“Yay!” Chip cried happily. “Maybe I’ll learn how to make one on my own!”

I couldn’t help but shake my head and laugh. We’d found lizard Pinkie who looked like sort of Lyra and had my hobbies.

I turned to look at Ayna and nodded before walking towards the ruined building. “Come on, let’s not disappoint the little guy,” I said with a grin.

I was going to build the coolest shield generator I could. After all, I owed the little guy a favor for keeping Twilight company. And probably safe as well.

I should have trusted Twilight of all ponies to be able to make friends regardless of circumstances. Her exile here had earned her at least four friends. Still, they likely had spent the entire time fighting for their lives against these respawning assho-

“Oh! After you fortify Nyota’s house, we can go get dinner at my tribe’s Pub down on the beach!” Chip called from inside the building. “It’s got a hot tub! I forgot to show it to Twilight when she was there last night. I made it myself!”

Wait… What?

Author's Note

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Dedicated to Patron of the Week: djthomp

13 Family

Twilight Sparkle - Day 16

Solace - The Center

I raced towards the ground, the war-whoops of the Dimorphs behind me getting ever louder. Nyota’s plan wasn’t working. They were faster than gravity assisted twin turbines. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they’d gotten flight training from Rainbow.

We couldn't outrun them. We couldn't outfight them. We were doomed. There were just too many for weapons to overcome.

I gasped as a sudden realization hit me. There were too many for weapons, but not for magic!

I reached down to my belt, hand fumbling for the arcane amplifier. My fingers closed around it as I ripped it from its belt pouch, and jammed it on over my helmet. The flexible material easily stretched to fit over the helmet before into it’s final shape.

YES! I felt it, the power of seven tenths of a me flowing through my veins!

I rolled over, letting myself fall downwards while being able to look upwards at the approaching squadron.

The name ‘beast folk’ couldn’t be what they called themselves. It was too apt. They flew in a rolling-cloud-like formation which made targeting any particular one of the group impossible. Exactly the same impossible coordination and grace a flock of starlings had. Only animals and robots can work together that flawlessly.

And yet each individual one kept themselves focused on Nyota and I, weapons ready, but not firing just yet. You could see the training and dedication they’d put into becoming warriors. That was the person side.

I frowned in concentration as I quickly thought through all my options.

I didn’t want to kill them. That would not only be unethical but make our diplomatic mission impossible.

I could try and use telekinesis to freeze them in place a moment and explain myself… No, no that wasn’t really an option. Rarity could probably have done it, the but there were just too many individual ‘objects’ for me to grab at the same time.

I looked down below me, trying to gauge how much time I had left. Not too much… The ground below was coming up awfully fast. I could see a bend in a river which wrapped around a small mountain poking up out of an oddly rock-spirey jungle. I twisted my shoulders, aiming for the water just incase I got too distracted to pull up in time.

Come on Twilight, you need a working plan, fast!

I could throw a concussive wave into their flock and- No, no that would kill them. Not the blast, but the resulting fall.

A shield would likely have them plow into it and break their necks.

I didn’t know how well they dealt with cold, so a freezing spell would be bad. Also the fall.

The swarming squadron inched closer and closer. My pack’s throttle was already redlining. We wouldn’t make the ground before they caught us…

I bit my lip as I tried not to panic. There had to be something I could do that-

I slapped my face hard enough for my gauntleted hand to make my visor spark.

I HAD MAGIC! Doing ANY magic would show I wasn’t a human. All I had to do was cast a spell to make my aura visible to non-unicorns and then pump a little extra power into it.

I closed my eyes and focused, my horn glowing as the energy flowing through it gave my aura enough energy to shine visibly. Unfortunately, my horn was beneath my helmet. But that wouldn’t be an issue in a moment.

I felt a tingle as the spell completed. A quick look at my body showed a pale lavender glow enveloping my body, almost as if I had been lit on fire with very dim flames. I looked back up at the now very close Dimo swarm. Did they notice?

A crossbow bolt smashed into my right thigh, shattering as it impacted the armor, but leaving a rather concerning dent. The bullet storm earlier must have compromised its structural integrity.

That settled that. They had not noticed.

I smirked. Well… In that case, time to do something I never ever did because the chances of every unicorn within several kilometers wearing welding goggles, was well, negligible.

I tapped into my magic’s reserves, letting it all flow into a single, partially formed simplistic spell matrix. The one they use to teach young wizards what a matrix even is. So simple that it just let your energy bleed out into your aura.

It only took a few heartbeats to make all of that stored energy and get it moving, ready to act. I just let it hang around, ready to go. The energy had to go somewhere, and I could feel it starting to bleed into my aura.

Oooo! I wonder what would happen if instead of just dumping all this power into my aura like emptying a bucket, I tweaked the semi-matrix to be more power efficient? Then I’d have some energy left if this became a real fight.

Gritting my teeth I quickly shifted the mental constructs necessary, resetting the matrix and-

You know, I did want to find out what happened if I used the Roaring Blaze Technique on an efficient matrix.

Eh, buck it. Why not?

I rolled again, turning belly-up so I could ‘stand’ facing them.

“Don’t mettel in the affairs of wizards!” I shouted as loudly as I could, then dumped all my power into the improved matrix.

The world turned purple as I became the new sun.

The Dimo’s cries transformed from war whoops into pained screeches as they flew headlong into my sphere of coherent light.

I had not anticipated becoming so bright that all shadows pointed away from me. I could barely see that awesome sight through the radiant lavender light I was emitting. Everything below me was just that one uniform shade of purple, or an inky black shadow.

I blinked in surprise as I felt more arcane energy left in my system despite the mini-star I’d turned my Aura into. I should be completely dry, but that felt like a large amount of power. I’d never felt it before… Why?

Perhaps because I was used to not having my magic thanks to having been here for a while and hadn’t ever used all of my power in decades? Possibly. Come to think of it, it felt more like Celestia’s magic had when I’d fought Tirek.

OH!

I giggled and shook my head. That was MY Alicorn magic. Celestia did say it would emerge as I aged. It must just barely be there… There wasn’t too much power there at all. I likely wouldn’t have noticed it for another few years. It was just so tiny, small, and well, developing.

What would it do? I was the princess of Friendship. Could I project a bubble of friendship? Literally forcing everything to be friendly? Or maybe I could summon friends! That would be useful here. Let’s use it!

I gave the magic a nudge, hoping it would do its thing. Completely forgetting I’d directed all my magic to go into my aura.

My armor exploded into dust as the mini-sun burned white as my alicorn magic rushed through it. I felt my body twist, bones cracking, muscles burning. Despite not being able to see, I felt my wings regrow, bursting from my back in a way I was glad I couldn’t see.

I felt my hands twist back into hooves, a process which should have been extremely painful, yet was thankfully rather pleasant. Aside from the sounds and feeling...

Apparently, dumping alicorn magic into your aura makes you an alicorn.

Seems legit.

The white light vanished as the tiny amount of power was consumed, allowing me to take a look at myself. I wasn’t in my old body. Not quite.

I was taller now, closer to Luna in hight judging by the length of my legs. I was definitely taller than Cadence. My horn also felt larger and-

My tail swished behind me, the tip passing through my field of view. My ethereal, proper alicorn type tail. Colored the same as the last moment of sunset, deep purple fading to that hint of pink.

I couldn’t help but squee happily and twist to get a proper look at myself.

“YES! I GOT THE MAGIC MANE! WOOOO! I KNEW IT WASN’T THEIR SHAMPOO! YOU OWE ME THREE THOUSAND BITS, CADENCE! HAHA!” I exclaimed joyously.

I’d somehow jumped ahead in my development. Probably no more than a century or so. I’d have to tell Celestia about what I did. Thank goodness I remembered that Spell Matrix, I could be very very usefull.

But more importantly, I needed a mirror! Did I have one? Could I make them? DId I still have my implant?

I twisted my left foreleg to check. Sure enough, the silvery diamond still poked out of my skin. Though it was much more flush with everything else thanks to my leg being shaped differently from a human arm.

I kind of liked it. It was sort of like a bracelet.

“Oh…” I said, my ears drooping and cheeks burning as I realized I that my aura was still a blazingly bright ball of doom in the sky.

Even though the white light had left it.

I could only imagine how badly this would hurt another unicorn’s eyes, given the visible light as well as the arcane spectrum light added together. I’d have to never ever do this again.

And I should probably stop being a miniature st-

Something hard slammed into the back of my head, making bright white stars appear in my vision.

“Stop that, you dick!” An older stallion’s voice demanded irritably.

I dismissed the spell reflexively, as if they had hit my magic’s off button. Quickly flapping my wings to turn around, I looked behind me and saw him.

The gray mane, dark gray fur, golden eyes, and long beard all wrapped up in the ragged purple moon and star patterned cloak, topped off with that bell trimmed peaked hat which was exactly the right ammount of stupid looking to be awesome.

Starswirl the Bearded.

He didn’t look a single day older than two fifty. Just like he had for thousands of years after telling aging to just stop it. With his time magic! Like a badflank!

Starswirl stood there. In mid air. Like he was on the ground. Holding a rolled up bundle of parchment in one hoof, glaring at me irritably.

SO COOL!

“Whoever you are, it’s clear that you could have annihilated my little town below if you wanted to. I’m going to assume you’re friendly,” Starswirl said, looking at me with heavily squinted eyes. “But these are dark times, and this is a dark place. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to land, wait for my vision to let me see more than black shapes against whiteness, and then we will discuss exactly what you’re doing here.”

I blinked in surprise. “Y-you don’t know?” I stammered. “But- But you’re Starswirl the Bearded! You’re supposed to be able to see the future! You should have known I would be here, and when, and… And told people to welcome me here… You can’t actually see the future, can you?”

A few members of the Dimo squadron shook off the stupor I’d put them into and began to circle around Star and I. I could see Nyota below, hovering above the river, looking up in what I imagined was confusion.

He shook his head. “No. Not here.. Though I can in Equestria. The field here prevents it. Now seriously, we need to land. I can’t use a flight spell for more than a few moments, and a wing-growth spell is just out of the question here. How the blazes did you even get that much magic?”

“Um, to fly?” I asked, still too shocked to act intelligently arround the coolest wizard ever.

Who was also potentially my biological father… I should ask about that. Or maybe since he’s seen me, he recognises me! I couldn't have changed that much since being a filly.

“No. For that aura blaze. You’re clearly very powerful. Giving yourself wings would be easy with that much energy. As I’m certain you’re aware,” Star pointed out.

One of the Dimos, possibly their leader (I couldn’t tell as he’d dropped his weapon during my stellar moment.), cleared his throat. “My Liege, this mare’s mane and tail are composed of ethereal energy. She’s not a unicorn,” he informed.

Starswirl blinked before smiling widely. “Celestia? Is that you? You’re tall enough to be her,” he asked hopefully.

I shook my head. “No, I’m-”

“Ah, one of the five new ones,” Star said, ears drooping with some disappointment. “I was hoping Celestia’s voice had changed slightly over the last… Who knows how long. It would be very nice to see old friends again.”

“F-five? Um, there’s only been three new ones in the last thousand hundred years. Myself, Cadence, and Sunset,” I corrected.

Starswirl snickered and shook his head no. “Yeah, no. There’s been five. Trust me. I’ve got a massive scrying system set up as part of the escape plan. Theres the two you mentioned by name and also-”

A few golden sparks danced across Starswirl’s body. A spell failing. Star plunged downwards like a lead plated rock.

“-BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!” Star exclaimed as he fell.

I gasped in horror and dove after him, stretching out my hooves to grab him before remembering I had telekinesis. Suppressing the urge to facehoof, I reached out with my magic, grabbing Starswirl then flying downwards, landing on the sandy riverbank with a soft thump before letting him go.

Nyota’s jetpack roared for a second before she landed as well, turbines spinning down as she cut their power.

“Good job, Twi,” Nyota said, giving me a thumbs up before reaching up to awkwardly scratch the back of her helmet. “So um… Is this what you normally look like?”

I nodded twice, then smiled as I realized her chest was at my eye level. I WAS Luna tall! Before my eye level would have been at a human sized person’s groin.

“Mhm! Well, sort of. The mane’s new. I think sort of aged myself up with that star-trick. I was sort of playing with combining a high efficiency matrix with the Roaring Blaze Technique and alicorn magic…” I admitted bashfully.

It sounded exceptionally dumb when I said it outloud… Like, that was a really bad idea. Note to self: No more trying new ideas while stressed out mid battle.

Nyota nodded twice. “It’s sparkly. I like it! Also ye. Ye’re way cuter like this. I just wanna cuddle up and read books with ye right now,” she admitted almost proudly.

I smiled. “Thanks!”

“Now, WHY FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS DID YE DISINTEGRATE YER ARMOR!?” Nyota demanded angrily. "We worked so much on that armor! Razor almost died for that armor!"

“One second angry marefriend,” Starswirl interrupted, holding up one hoof. “Did you call her ‘Twi’? As in the contracted nickname for ‘Twilight’?”

“Aye, that I did, sir,” Nyota confirmed in the most polite tone of voice she had. “I hate to be rude, but I’m trying to be mad at my mare for destroying a whole heap of work and expensive items which we needed to get out of here after she’d visited ye. Is that alright with you, master wizard?”

I blinked in surprise at how polite Nyota was being despite the obvious anger I could see in her stance.

I could tell she was angry about the situation, and not at me, but why was she containing it like that after-

OH!

OH HOLY BUCK STAR WAS POTENTIALLY MY FATHER!

“That depends,” Star informed turning his head to face me. “Are you Twilight Sparkle?”

I nodded twice. “Yes. I am and-”

Starswirl stepped forwards and pulled me into a tight hug, holding me for several long moments before letting go.

“Hold on,” Star requested holding up one hoof again before turning back to Nyota. “You said a few things which make me believe you are romantically involved with my daughter. Is this correct?”

Nyota nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Starswirl nodded, then trotted up to her, reared up, and grabbed her cuirass with both forehooves to look right into her visor.

“Pretend I gave you a good fatherly threatening demanding you be nice to his little filly!” Star ordered adamantly. “And tell my wife that I gave you one!”

“Yes, sir!” Nyota eeped.

“Thanks!” Star said letting go of her with a smile. “Now Clover will never know that I forgot the one I had prepared incase this ever happened. We’re completely fine by the way. We can be friends. I’m a friendly stallion. I’m well aware Twilight can handle herself. But well, wives tend to worry. Anywho…”

Starswirl turned back to me, and flashed me a cheesy grin. “Sorry, I have a poor memory. I also dislike being yelled at and I promised Clover I’d do that. Now, the questions… I imagine there will be a lot of them. First off, I can confirm that if you are Twilight Sparkle, then yes, you are my daughter. Biologically speaking.”

“Y-you can’t recognise me?” I stammered my ears falling sadly.

How could he not recognise me?

“Nope. Because SOMEPONY decided to transfigure themselves into an arcane star, and my vision is STILL messed up!” Starswirl snapped, definitely more than a little upset.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but Starswirl’s eyes suddenly widened, then he collapsed, smacking his face into the sand.

“OHMYGOSHAREYOUALLRIGHT!?” I yellped worriedly, rushing to his side to check for an arrow, or a gunshot wound, or-

“No,” he moaned. “I meet my daughter after a thousand years of her having been stolen from me and the first thing I do is hit her with a rolled up newspaper…”

I couldn’t help but blush deeply with embarrassment as Nyota laughed once before covering her mouth.

“To be fair, I was sort of blinding everyone… I um, I wanted to prove to your uh, friends that I wasn't a human,” I explained with a nervous smile. “I sort of was humanoid before a few minutes ago. I think tapping into alicorn magic is what-”

“Transforms you into an alicorn. Yes. That’s how the spell works,” Starswirl mumbled into the sand before standing back up.

I nodded twice and kicked one hoof against the ground awkwardly. “S-so uh… I was stolen?” I asked.

Starswirl nodded. “Yes. Long story… Clover and I are able to see bits and pieces of Equestria. I know that Dawn finally struck. Good job defeating him. I’m sorry we couldn’t do more to help,” Star said with an apologetic frown.

“Uh, h-help? How? You’ve been here for ages!” I objected, tilting my head to one side.

“Yes. Spending the entire time trying to escape. At present, we have the ability to see anywhere on Equis we want, send small objects to any destination we can see, and sometimes get a spell to successfully cast through the portal,” Starswirl said with a prideful smile. “Not bad for two hundred years of prison scraps and a trickle of magic if I do say so myself!

“Dawn was an ancient enemy of Clover and mine, Twilight. While we were focused on our escape, we also did everything we could to hinder him. This includes Clover using some of her Queenie tricks to fog his mind. He thought inhabiting a mortal body would protect him. Heh. Idiot.”

I blinked several times. “Wait… If you could do that, then-”

“We have very little energy to work with here,” Star reminded. “We did do other things. Perhaps twenty percent was spent hindering him. Mind Fog spells, hiring mercenaries to chessboard things a bit, that sort of thing. Another twenty percent was spent on improving our portal. The majority of our energy was spent on limiting the harm Dawn was able to do to you.

“But is that really what you want to talk about first? I mean, I’m certain you’re happy to know we cared for you as best we could once we found you again. But, don’t you want to know why you didn’t grow up with Clover and I?”

I nodded eagerly, then jumped forwards, pulling Starswirl into a tight hug. “Thank you!”

“ACK! Alicorns are earth-pony strong and I’m old,” Star yelped.

“Eep! Sorry,” I exclaimed immediately letting go.

“He was faking,” Nyota said with a snicker. “He was smiling the whole time.”

I gave Star and accusatory look, my heart just a little bit crushed.

“I have a thousand years of fatherly pestering and dad jokes to make up for,” Star admitted with a pinkie-like grin.

I rolled my eyes. They say you should never meet your heros… But honestly so far Starswirl was as the history books which went into him as a stallion described.

“Sooo… Can you explain to me why I was adopted now?” I asked hopefully.

Star nodded. “Yes. We watched Dawn’s confrontations with you. He was correct in saying that he stole you from us and banished you through time. What he didn’t mention is that he did so in a place where I couldn’t track your four dimensional movement. I had no idea where you went, he used this to trap us here by claiming he’d sent you here, along with your sister.

“Oh! Clover is so proud of you for finding her spellbook. We can’t see inside the pocket dimension, you’ll have to tell her everything you found inside. If you got access to everything she’ll be so proud of you.”

I blinked. “Uh… S-so you just watched everything I ever did?” I asked nervously.

What about when I was in the bathroom? Or when I was doing sexy things with Flash…

I felt my face turn bright red in mixed embarrassment and anger.

Starswirl quickly shook his head. “You’re wonder about the bathroom, aren't you? Okay, listen, you’re my little filly, and I’m not a pervert… In that respect at least,” he declared with a serious frown. “And we didn’t watch you at all times. We had lots of things we needed to do. We just watched you when we could and ONLY if you weren't doing anything private.

“For the record, we haven't been able to see anything since you were banished. You were our anchor for the scrying spell. So I can’t tell you anything about Equestria after you left, Twilight.”

“Good!” I declared loudly.

“Don’t worry. We really only know things parents could through normal means, and a bit of your adult accomplishments. Uh, not romantic stuff. I mean things you did as an adult,” Star swiftly corrected, clearing his throat awkwardly.

OH NO! Starswirl could have seen the time I tripped and fell UP three flights of stairs…

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! HE PROBABLY KNEW ABOUT THE SCRAPBOOK OF CELESTIA DRAWINGS I’D MADE WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN!

“On to what you want to know,” he continued. “Clover and I were tricked a mere twenty minutes after you vanished. There was no time to track you down. Instead we had to escape this prison. We came close. The forcefield is quite powerful, and we DID breach it. But there’s space outside so well, heh, that was a dumb idea.

“We spent a long time trying to portal back home. Most of that was spent getting a crude array established, converting a massive underground geode cavern into a huge mage gem to store all the energy we could, as well as making it into a passive thaumaturgic collector. We also had to make some more intelligent helpers.

“That would be the Beastfolk. I named them. I’m bad at that sort of thing. You’re probably happy your mother named you. I would have gone with Purple Smart. Anyways-”

“Um, what exactly are they?” Nyota asked eagerly. “I mean, how do you do it?”

“We tame a creature the normal way, I warp it with biomancy as best I can, and then Clover takes an implant we cut out of a prisoner, wipes it clean, resets it, and we implant it into our new friend. They are self programming. We just need to attach one and it’s all good to go. Why do you ask?” Star questioned. “Were you hoping to gain some magic like every other human here?

“Admittedly having sex with a unicorn is a new approach. A much more civilized one than trying to eat one. Heh… Though with you both being mares, maybe you just misunderstood what they meant by eat, eh? Eh?”

My ears and tail raised in pure horror . “D-dad!”

Nyota chuckled. “Actually, I’m from a parallel dimension. I’m stranded here too. I’m really a zebra. Everypony’s a biped where I’m from,” she explained. “I was asking because, well, the wardens put me in a human body for a long time. I got my old one back thanks to befriending Red. For years I’d been hoping that the Great Wizard of Solace could help me out.”

“I totally could have… But it wouldn’t have been pretty. I’m not every good at flesh sculpting. You’re Nyota aren't you? I’m sorry. We um… We genuinely thought you were simply insane,” Star apologised. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to tell Twilight her origin story.”

I nodded. “Yes, and I really want to know it,” I said, giving Nyota an irritated look.

“Sorry! Just, ye know. Curious,” she said, holding her hands up apologetically.

“Now, We’d been searching for a means to establish contact with Equestria,” Starswirl continued. “Eventually, Clover got the idea to use our blood to try some very old magic a sort of ‘speak to kin’ spell. It didn’t work for decades… But then we tried it one day and it worked! We saw you, as a newborn. Just as I’d tucked you into bed that night so long ago, lying in a gutter in Canterlot.

“Naturally, that wasn’t okay. There was very little that we could do to help at the time. But we were able to throw rocks through the portal to make some noise. You weren't crying, you see. We were able to attract attention to you, and the pony who found you took you to an orphanage.

“That really hurt to watch, but we knew you were safe. I spent a few hours doing calculations to improve the portal, hoping we could jump through and get you, but it just couldn’t take anything nearly the size of a pony. Also, we didn’t have the power for any shrinking spells which would work well enough… More on that in a moment.”

“Why a moment?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“Because that involves our escape plans, and I’m telling you about YOU right now,” Starswirl griped. “You’re not being arcanely lobotomized anymore, Twilight. You have no excuse to not be smart. Smart it up, please.

“Anywho, I was able to find a way to get the portal stable enough to send letters through intact. Unfortunately, doing so drained the majority of the portal’s power. We could send one roughly every five months in Equestrian time. This was before my massive improvements.

“Using these letters, we searched for proper guardians for you. The end result was our arranging for a kind noble family to take you in. Clover and I refused to allow you to experience a quality of life we couldn’t have personally provided you, you see?

“Funnily enough, you actually were raised by blood relatives too. Twilight Velvet is a direct descendant of mine from my first marriage. This makes Shining your… Cousin of some kind. Biologically speaking at least. True family isn’t blood but deed, as such, I hope you won't dishonor your father by calling me father as well… Uncle will do.”

I shook my head firmly. “I’m sorry, but no. I can’t agree to that. It’s not disrespectful to refer to either of you by any term I choose. While we don’t have any real relationship yet, I hope we will one day. Plenty of ponies have two dads. It’s not a problem.

Starswirl paused for a moment, considering what I’d said before nodding slightly. “One of the problems with immortality is the ever shifting societal norms. Very well. So long as it’s not an issue for you and our family, I won't object. Do you want me to continue? There’s more.”

I nodded twice. “Please! I had no idea that well… You know!”

Star laughed, shaking his head. “Nopony would ever guess that wizards were helping them from another dimension,” he agreed. “We didn’t help with everything. Just the small stuff.Like helping you on your way to arcane mastery by convincing a certain librarian to let you have access to more advanced texts than the average fifteen year old.

“The biggest thing we ever did for you was pull a few strings to get Celestia to notice you. After all, if we had raised you, having her as your teacher would have been a given. Or at least a tutor. She’s your older sister after all.”

I sputtered, almost falling over in shock. “I but, what!?” I demanded incredulously, eyes open as wide as they could go.

Starswirl laughed. “Oh come on! She’s never mentioned that Clover and I raised her and Luna? We never officially adopted them, but that hardly matters when they slept in my tower for twenty years, ate their meals there, did their training there, all that good stuff.”

I felt my stomach churn slightly, remembering the huge crush I had on her as a filly… And the time Celestia got drunk at a party and briefly flirted with me after her wine convinced her I was a stallion.

“This… Um… Awkward,” I mumbled looking down at the beach.

“Huh?” Starswirl asked confused.

Nyota knelt down, leaning over to whisper to Starswirl. Despite her efforts, I heard anyways.

“See that blush? That’s the ‘I had a crush once’ blush,” Nyota informed.

“Ah, I see,” Star chuckled. “Twilight, you were what, thirteen? You also had no idea. Besides you’re not actually related. You’re the biological daughter of the person who raised her from a preteen. Who was in turn adopted herself. That’s about as distant as you can get.

“And again, it was a fillyhood crush on a pretty popular mare. Every foal has one of those. I recall your dragon friend being obsessed with Rarity for a number of years… Didn’t he wind up with the former Dragon Emperor?”

I nodded twice. “Yes, Spike is currently dating Ember. I’m sorry this is just a lot to take in… Can we pause here?”

“Good plan,” Star agreed. “If there’s nothing else you would like to know now, I’ll send someone to fetch Clover and we can have lunch together. With your marefriend included, of course. So she can tell Clover I did the dad thing.”

Grateful for a chance to move on to a different topic, I nodded twice. “Yes. Why are shrinking spells important for escape? I would think an adaptation of a scuba diving spell would be better suited for a space-based escape,” I asked curiously.

“Ah, well, you see, we ALMOST escaped while Clover was watching Cadence,” Starswirl remarked before shaking his head and laughing sadly.

I frowned uncertainly. “You watch Cadence? Why?”

How did that help with an escape plan?

“No, no,” Star replied, shaking his head. “I don’t. Clover does. She can feed just a little bit through the portal, and I’ve never been sufficient to keep her alive and fully powered on my own. We used to simply treat our apprentices like family, or get close with the staff.

“Turns out Changelings can’t feed off Beastfolk, not even Snow. So, she watches Cadence when possible to get what little she can in order to have the use of her magic. Poor mare. That palace like a cooking channel for her.”

Realizing what Starswirl meant by that, I decided to immediately terminate this bunny trail.

“Uh, you said you almost escaped watching her?” I ask-reminded with a shaky grin.

Starswirl laughed. “Oh! Yes, right. I’m sorry. I’m a rambler,” he said with a grin. “Cadence has a talent for size alteration spells. Your brother loves them, by the way. Heh, he’s adorable. Shame Dawn made you hate him… I hope that’s been fixed.”

“It has,” I confirmed.

“Good! Anywho, Cadence has a very, very energy efficient shrinking spell,” He explained. “It’s very impressive and I plan on asking her about I in detail one day. We noticed it in use a while ago, and it would be castable on this side of our portal and reduce our mass enough to pass through. Sadly she hasn’t left her spellbook open to that page yet.

“Well, actually that’s a lie. She did once, but Clover forgot to look at the page as her attention was on the ‘meal’ being made. Can’t blame her. She described it thusly; ‘It was like watching the greatest chef in any universe create a magnificent stew with the scientific precision and artistic grace worthy of a wonder of the world.’

“What’s more, I had been away for a week on an expedition. She got really hungry. Regardless, it will happen again one of these evenings and then all of us can go home!”

Oh sweet Celestia nooooo! I didn’t want to think about my old friend and brother doing micro-macro play! Nope nope nope! MOVING ON!

“Actually, there’s a rescue team coming for me any day now!” I said faux cheerfully. “I came to get you because Nyota said you guys were here.”

Starswirl blinked twice.

“Truely?” He asked with a hopeful yet skeptical peaked eyebrow.

“Yes! I got a letter from Celestia last afternoon outlining the entire plan which outright stated that we had two days before they got here,” I elaborated with a smile. “So, where’s Clover? Do you have anything to pack? Any friends to bring with you? We should get to The Island as fast as possible so we don’t miss the rescue. You know, just in case their way home doesn't last long.”

Starswirl shook his cloak to get the sand off it, popped his neck, and turned to wave down one of the Dimorphs who were still circling us. A light orange one flew over, landing on the sand with a soft plop.

“Yes, sir?” It asked in a female voice, giving Starswirl a polite bow.

“Go to the Crystal Cavern and tell Clover to meet me in the sanctum immediately,” he ordered firmly. “Inform her that in no uncertain terms we have our escape route and must leave now. After you have delivered these orders, I want your squadron to go to each of our bases and deliver contingency orders. I’m certain you know the ones.

“I will inform Aritea she’s to take the crown immediately. Be certain everyone hears she’s in charge now.”

“Yes, sir!” the Dimorph replied, saluting before jumping up, wings flapping rapidly as she flew off.

I raised an eyebrow. “Uh… You know I didn’t think about it too much before but, you sort of made an entire species and are just… Abandoning them here. I mean, I don't think we could take many with us. Not for portal reasons, Sky’s better than that, but political ones,” I admitted with a worried frown.

Starswirl nodded twice. “Yes, Twilight. I did. Which is why we have a contingency plan for this exact situation. They will be fine. The only person aside from Clover and I who absolutely must come with us is Snowbound. She’s my current apprentice,” Starswirl informed, his face and voice taking on a more serious air.

“Wait, wait, wait!” I exclaimed, holding up one hoof in genuine shock. “You made someone capable of casting spells? How!?”

“I didn’t do the real work,” Star dismissed quickly. “The wardens studied my anatomy and made a feral unicorn. Presumably to study our species. Roxie found her and thought she was an ugly equestrian pony, and currently massively brain damaged due to not being able to speak and acting like, well, an animal.

“I fixed what I could with the normal uplifting techniques I created, and she was very grateful. She is capable of very light telekinesis, but she’s actually my apprentice in alchemy.”

“Roxie?” Nyota asked timidly. “Uh… Ye mean that huge Rex girl I shot in the eye after she jumped me that one time I was here?”

Star nodded, then snickered. “Thanks for that. She’d been unbearably smug about her ‘invulnerability’ before that fight. But yes, that’s her,” he said with a grin.

Starswirl looked around the beach, frowning slowly. “Ah, yes…” he murmured sadly. “I’m sorry, Twilight. In my surprise and joy at our reunion, I have completely forgotten about the fact that there’s a war on right now.

“How about we take this conversation elsewhere? Say... The secure bunker within the heart of my fortress across the river?”

He pointed to my left, at the large mountain I’d seen from the air. I hadn’t been paying too much attention to my surroundings at the moment, and hadn’t really seen it before now.

The mountain had been hollowed out, an elaborate Romane style arched fortress cut right into the side of the mountain, wrapping around it like a belt of sorts. The limestone archways were clearly very old, older than I’d expect Star or Nyota to have been here. However, between the arches, fresh metal walls had been erected, and wooden walkways had been constructed to allow people and dinos access to many different entryways within the mountain fortress.

I nodded twice. “Yes, that’s a great idea! We should get out of the open,” I agreed with a nod. “Lead the way? I don’t want to have to go all mini-star again to get your guards to leave me alone. Heh heh…”

Star chuckled, turning around to lead the way to his home. “I don’t want to have to whap you with a newspaper again, myself. Come along, there’s good food and company waiting,” he said happily as he began to trot down the beach.

I took a few steps myself before I felt Nyota’s armored hand gently grab my left shoulder.

“Um, Twi?” She asked hesitantly, her voice laden with worry.

Almost as if… Oh.. Oh, no… She didn’t like quadrupeds. Did she?

Please like quadrupeds! I’d only just become totally okay with the idea of- Just please don't hate me now!

I frowned, dreading what she was going to say, and nodded. “Yes?”

“Soo… Yer kinda tall for a pony, and I’m pretty short for a biped. Yer also earth pony strong,” she said, tapping her fingers together bashfully. “C- Can I ride ye?”

I blinked twice. “Uh… My dad’s watching… We’re in the open… On sand,” I said, face turning bright red.

“No! On yer back,” Nyota yelped. “I didn’t mean like that! I uh, I mean, we can if that’s on yer mind but-”

I facehooved. She’d mentioned our sizes. And my strength. AND I let Spike ride me all the time when he had been small enough… What the hay, brain?

“Yes, Nye, you can ride me,” I said as I knelt down and spread my wings. “How about from now on you ask if you can ride on my back?”

Nye nodded, definitely blushing behind her helmet, then gingerly stepped over to me and swung one leg over my back, climbing aboard. I groaned slightly under her weight, her armor was REALLY heavy… But I could manage this for a little while.

“Thanks. I sprained my ankle landing… Hurts like a son of a bitch. Didn’t want to look weak in front of yer dad,” Nyota whispered into my ear.

“Oh! Well, you stay up there as long as you need, okay?” I offered with a smile, turning my head around to look at her happily.

“Are you fillies coming?” Starswirl called from a good ways down the beach. “Or should I build a box around you two and bring lunch over there?”

“Coming!” I called, quickly trotting after him as fast as I could manage with Nye on my back.

Today was a good day.

14 Unwelcome Innuendo

Twilight Sparkle - Day 16

Solice - The Center

I could tell that Solace had been lived in for generations. Not simply because everything about the fortress within a hill was rusty, worn down, or covered in flaking paint. But because of the grave yards, lovingly tended too, dotting the land around the fort. The names carved into the stone pillars, and the crude hearts scratched into the metal panels which filled the gaps between them.

You could see a million little stories everywhere you looked. The terrace’s supports had cracks and warps in them from absolute ages of heavy use. You could see where ropes had been wound around beams to repair them. Steel pillars ran up alongside aging stone support columns to give otherwise ‘finished’ looking structures the appearance of a work in progress.

Solace was always evolving, and that’s why it felt lived in. You could tell that merely by the outside, which was ninety percent mountain, three percent carved stone archways, five percent ramps and two percent bare steel panels.

Solace had many entrances. Starswirl took us through a small one meant for people of our size at the top. There were doors for creatures of every size, even something like a Rex. And the reason for those many entrances and the terraced ramps outside was simple. The mountain was completely hollow.

Inside it was like a big upturned bowl. A whole city-like singular building formed from dozens of different boxy ‘buildings’ all attached to one another filled the mountain. Each one personalized, each sized for someone greatly different from their neighbor, with its entrance connected to an elaborate series of pathways and bridges held up by pillars, the buildings themselves, or even anchored to some of the huge stalactites hanging down from the ceiling.

Despite being a great example of a batpony colony, the inside of Solace reminded me of Ponyville.

Every last building had it’s own personal touches put into it. Wall murals, light color, little architectural embellishments, it was wonderful. Almost like being back home.

Except instead of ponies running everywhere, you had mutant dinosaurs.

“Damn…” Nyota said as we looked over the truly fantastical city.

“Yep! Not bad for starting out as a little straw hut, eh?” Star bragged. “Come on, we’re going to the inner sanctum. It’s where Clover and I plan our bigger operations. She’ll be meeting us so-”

The wooden bridge we stood upon shook, swaying noticeably back and forth, the wood creaking as a massive greenish-tan mutant Rex’s head peeked up over the edge of the walkway, stopping at eye level with Starswirl.

The head was attached to a Beastfolk who definitely was better done than most. Her head still had the squarish look to it, but her features held a more even blend of dinosaur and humanoid than anything else. That extended to her body as well, which reminded me of Nyota’s in both general shape and muscular look.

Frankly, her looks made me happy she was wearing a long tunic made from thick black scaled hide. Nye might have slapped me for gawking at the reptilian giantess…

What? She had hair. Nice silky orange hair. Braided into a single ponytail. It went a long way into making her look nice.

For a heartbeat I thought she had a small tuft of white hair atop her head as well as the orange hair, then I wondered if it was a little fur cap. But then the tuft moved, revealing itself to be a freakishly long haired, exceptionally tiny snow white unicorn mare with neighponese features in terms of her face shape. She was seriously tiny, clearly fully grown, but maybe three hooves taller than Sweetie Belle had been when she was thirteen!

Unfortunately, her sheer floof made discerning anything else about her impossible. Not that anything else was necessary. Tiny, fluffy, adorable. She was set for life.

“Hi dad! I asked Roxie out and she said yes!” The unicorn called cheerfully.

“We’re going Giga wrestling, then mountain climbing. I hope that’s not a problem, sir,” Roxie said, her voice rumbly and scary, due mostly to her volume…

“Unfortunately, it is a problem. It’s time for Clover and I to leave… I was not anticipating you falling for anypony, Snow. I will adjust my plans. Stick with Roxie for now. Roxie, please, do your part swiftly and make it back here,” Star ordered with a smile, returning the wave. “Oh, yes, Roxie, Snow, this is Twilight. She’s another of my children. That’s her marefriend on her back. Nyota, if I remember correctly.”

“Nice to meet you… If you do that light trick again I’ll eat you,” Roxie grumbled angrily. “I’m sorry… I was looking forward to helping Snow avenge herself against a particular creature. I won't actually eat you… Well maybe if you respawn. Later.”

“Hi tall-sis! We’ll talk later, looks like I’m busy now!” Snow practically cheered.

“See you around, new Sister,” Roxie said, offering me a salute before turning around carefully, so as not to smash her tail into the walkway supports and walking off. “Come tiny equus mare, let’s go make the wardens fear you…”

“YAY!” Snow cheered way too happily.

I stood still for several moments my heart beating like a jackhammer, the mix of emotions still ping ponging in my skull.

“Awww… She’s so sweet,” Nyota said sadly. “I feel bad about shooting her now.”

Starswirl shook his head quickly. “Don’t! This is her POST taking that shot. She was unbearable before. That’s what you get when you combine a creature that knows it’s king of the jungle with being your one flawless success at humanizing your helpers. Roxie is the only one of the lot without scars or deformities. It really went to her head. Guarantee half of the Beastfolk will buy you a beer for taking her down a peg.

“Anywho, on with the tour!”

We quickly crossed the remainder of the bridge and were taken into the city’s center. The inside didn’t disappoint. In fact, it paled in comparison to the inside.

Most of the buildings were closed off to form appartments, but the inside had been very lovingly decorated. The ceilings were painted to look like the sky so you felt like you were outdoors instead of inside, but you still knew of the metal structure protecting you.

Special reflective surfaces let the light from lamps bounce around the city, simulating natural sunlight. Which had to help the trees and other plants in large garden plots grow as well as they seemed to.

We passed one huge central area which was nothing more than a massive cafeteria. The smell of hundreds of different dishes wafted up from the coliseum-like dining pit, with tables upon tables filled with creatures of all kinds eating.

Leave it to a pony and a changeling to create a completely diverse community where predators who were also obligate carnivores could sit side by side with herbivores and be friend-

…

They all respawned if killed too. And could be hundreds of years old and super jaded about death. Like Nye’s friend who chose suicide over diarrhea.

The herbivores totally just let themselves get eaten in exchange for something… Didn’t they?

Deciding not to think about that possibility, I instead focused on the rest of the tour. I had expected some practical forges and workshops, but instead, we had mage’s laboratories. The Beastfolk used engram items exclusively… Save for creating materials needed for Star’s impairments.

We must have passed eight different labs, each one purpose built for a different task. I saw an alchemy lab, an enchantorum, a sorcerer’s sanctum, a battlemage’s barracks, a fairly typical wizard’s laboratory (with attached lavatory), and a few highly customized labs I simply didn’t recognise.

The long walk and ever increasingly elaborate labs got my hopes up that the inner sanctum Starswirl kept mentioning would be just the single most awesome magical workshop anywhere in the multiverse.

I was practically salivating when we reached the large metal double doors leading into the sanctum. Starswirl pushed the doors open, still talking as he stepped inside. I could scarcely listen as I anticipated the glory of two hundred years worth of wizardry culinated in-

I walked into a white room with dull grayish red carpet and beige couches with a big unfinished wooden conference table.

My tail drooped with disappointment as Starswirl’s words faded back into my deflated reality.

Seriously? A sub par living room? Why?

“... Of course, we did have some challenges in engineering this place due to the vast differences in scale of our friends,” Starswirl admitted as he took a seat at the head of the table, immediately kicking his rear hooves up onto the tabletop. “But it was well worth ensuring this central city can house everyone in an emergency. We didn’t always control a third of this habitat after all, and our holdings have fluctuated over time.

“With this secure base in place, Clover and I were able to begin doing real work. The Beastfolk are quite independent, easily able to govern themselves and tend to their own needs. The reverence shown to us is well, gratitude, and perhaps just a little bit of worship. Though to be fair, we did bestow upon them the gift of sapience. So I wouldn't say it’s not totally undeserved.

“Besides, that little bit of worship goes a long way into ensuring they allow us to continue our experiments. We spent hundreds of years on various projects before we found a way to watch over you, Twilight. Sadly most were not successes, but-”

I coughed, holding up a hoof to interrupt and pitching forwards instantly as Nyota’s weight bore down on my shoulders. “Eeep!” I yelped, putting my hoof back down.

“Um, there’s chairs, I could sit down now,” Nyota offered politely.

I turned around to look at her and shook my head. “No, no. It’s fine. I like you up there. It’s just the armor is a bit heavy,” I admitted with a happy blush before turning back to Starswirl. “As I ment to say, considering the time discrepancy between Equestria and here, how long have you been able to actually watch over me?”

Star nodded. “Ah, good question,” he said clearly buying time to word his answer properly. “I would say that we have been able to watch over you your entire life. For us this has been four years and twelve months. But-”

“Wait, so, five years?” Nyota asked with a confused tilt of her head.

I blinked and turned around again. “Did your Equestria only have twelve months in a year? Why?”

“Yeah. How many does yours have?” She asked, clearly very confused.

“Sixteen,” I answered. “That way there’s an even four months per season.”

Starswirl nodded in agreement. “Exactly. The calendar is a work of art. Five days per week with five weeks per month, totaling twenty five days per month, with one hundred days for each season.

“Easy as pie to have your calendar make sense when you have pegasi do the seasons on schedule. It’s a shame Celestia refused to put the day-night cycle on an equally sensible schedule… I swear that girl of mine just has to complicate things. It’s probably her fetish.”

My eyes opened in horror at that statement, I opened my mouth to re-ask my question about how long they were helping me for, but I did so too late.

“I don’t suppose Celestia dated anypony over the last thousand years?” Star asked with a stroke of his beard. “I can’t see everything. If she did then we could know for certain. The first date would have had a checklist the size of a small dictionary and-”

“And we are NOT talking about this!” I snapped, tail raised in panic, eyes open wide.

Starswirl blinked. “Oh? Sorry, I’ll make a note about you being uncomfortable about discussing others love lives. Despite mentioning you enjoy carrying your mare around, implying you enjoyed discussing relationships and fetishes. Sorry. Shall we return to your question?”

“Please!” I begged, closing my eyes tightly.

I never imagined, nor dreamed, that THIS is how meeting Starswirl the Bearded would go…

Wait… Did I like carrying others around? Was that my thing?

Yeah, yeah that was totally my thing. Not a sexual thing, but definitely a thing I liked doing with people I loved.

Starswirl cleared his throat. “Well, we’ve been able to track you for the last four years and twelve months,” he reiterated. “But we’ve only been able to do so regularly for the last two years. We missed quite a bit of your growing up. Which is when most of the damage Dawn did to you was done… I’m sorry about that.

“It’s hard to do anything with time here. I don't have enough energy. It took forever to get the simple spell established to allow objects to pass through the portal a few moments before we threw them, so they arrive at the moment we’re seeing its… It’s complicated.”

“It’s time travel,” Nyota and I said together, sharing the same ‘no duh’ expression and tone.

“Yep!” Star agreed with a strained laugh. “We have bits and pieces of your life from fifteen up until you came here. Maybe… Maybe a quarter of that time. The time dilation forced us to miss most of it. It’s hard watching your child grow up like that. But you turned out well enough, and you’re still young! You’ve got plenty of time to grow still.”

I blinked twice. “Uh, I’m an Alicorn. I have all the time in the world.”

“Exactly! Plenty of time,” Star quipped.

I rolled my eyes.

“But I am proud of you,” Star continued. “If you hadn’t ascended you would have become Equestria’s next archmage for certain. Frankly, that would have made your mother much more ha-”

Star stopped speaking as the sanctum’s door screeched as the hinges protesting being opened.

“Star?” A feminine voice laden with the telltale low buzz of a changeling called.

“Over here, lovebug,” Starswirl called. “The table.”

I blinked, turning to look towards the door. That had to be Clover. But how could sne not see us from the-

“AAA!” Nyota and I yelped together as we saw the poor mare’s empty eye sockets.

I’d expected to see her in the pony form she had always been painted in. Nope. She stood as what must have been her true changeling self. A supremely beautiful statue sculpted from oddly soft looking chitin, with a long flowing white mane and tail, glittering gossamer wings which shimmered exactly like pearls, a glossy diamond-like shell on her back…

And the two gaping black pits where her eyes should have been. Complete with obvious knifepoint marks in the chiten at the edges of her sockets…

Or in short; AAA!

Clover slowly walked towards the table, frowning apologetically. “We have guests? I’m sorry, normally I would put a bandage over my eyes. I assumed we were going to be doing war planning. Are you from one of the other tribes? Is there to be an alliance?” Clover asked hopefully.

“Why haven't you regenerated those?” Nyota asked extremely uneasily, shifting on my back in a way which ground her armor into my spine.

“Okay, Nye, armor off. Now. Then you can get back on,” I said with a wince before continuing. “Obviously it’s because the poor mare doesn't have enough love to heal herself.”

Despite not having eyes, Clover’s ‘eyes’ widened at the sound of my voice. She broke into the biggest smile, hopped into the air to fly over to my side, and slammed into me, immediately locking her arms around me in a hug.

“Twilight! I’m so sorry you’re here but so happy to be able to hold you!” She exclaimed joyously. “Oh my precious little nymph-filly! I’m so sorry I lost you. Were your parents good enough? We looked so hard for the right couple, and things looked fine but every mare has her own thoughts about things and-”

Clover cut off mid speech, her face twisting in sudden delighted realization. “And this is a very very selfish request but would you please give the mare on your back a kiss? I can feel your love bond and I would very much like to see you without the aid of an arcane scrying tool.”

I felt my ears fall flat. That was the saddest thing I had ever heard in my life. Clover couldn’t-

“Um, don’t ye have a husband?” Nyota asked apprehensively. “I mean yer a changeling. Shouldn’t you be able to just go give him a han- Um, I mean a hoofjob and be topped off yerself?”

“NYE!” I snapped, completely mortified. “She didn’t raise me but that’s my mother! And my father!”

“Aye, an I’m sorry, but that doesn't really add up!” Nyota protested.

Clover tipped her head back expertly, pointing herself directly at Nyota. “Are you on Twilight’s back? Hehe! That’s cute,” Clover giggled. “It’s not a rude question. I’m certain that you know we can’t feed on just any species love. In slightly the same vein, not every individual produces the same amount.

“But the problem is simply that Starswirl and I are very old. Ponies and Changelings have had twenty generations of coexistence since he and I wed. Over those generations modern ponies have become more than enough to sustain one, perhaps two, changelings.

“Starswirl is not capable of this. It’s not his fault for being born when he was. He can keep me alive and charge my magic, but he has never been able to feed me enough for me to be capable of shape changing, even minor regeneration, or having a fuel reserve. Which is fine, I didn’t marry him for his cooking.”

“She married me for my-” Starswirl began with a sly grin.

“His sense of humor, which is NOT appropriate to use around his little filly!” Clover interrupted, wheeling to glare uselessly at Starswirl for a long moment.

I felt my mane stand on end. That was a surprisingly effective glare.

Starswirl seemed to agree with me. He reached up to his hat with a hoof and pulled the brim down over his eyes.

I sighed in relief. Thanks, mom! That was getting far too obscene.

“But um… Yes. I did marry you for that too,” Clover admitted with a cute bio-luminescent blush.

I blinked twice. “Hey! I didn’t know changelings blushed like that.”

Clover nodded twice. “Oh yes! We do. Though most changelings subconsciously never fully return to their true forms. We like to maintain certain features of our favorite prey species. Most lings I’ve known will subconsciously keep features which allow them to better emote to ponies. A shame really, the glow is cute,” she said with a smile as she turned back to me.

“That’s true,” Nyota remarked. “I met some Emerald’s once. They have a distinctly pony look to their exoskeletons. But the Topaz and Amethyst native to Zebrica look more like zebras.”

“Huh… I never noticed that when I was in Zebrica,” I mused, tapping a hoof to my chin in thought. “Then again, Freeli was always shape changed while I was there. She made a very cute stallion.”

“Now, I could use his love to regenerate my eyes. If I wanted to not cast any spells for say, a week. As I can function well enough blind, I elected to remain blind since I was ambushed two months ago, and until there was a lull in enemy activity and we could safely have me forgo casting spells.

“But with you two here, there’s another source of love for me to consume, and while I do agree it is a little awkward, a kiss should be enough for me to restore at least one eye. I won't ask you for more than-”

I definitely had to be part changeling, because I could feel just a tiny little connection between Clover, Starswirl, and I. The same kind of connection I felt between my mom, dad, Shining, and I. That very faint hint of love, almost hidden by its foggy nature, which I likely could only sense because they were family.

I took a step forward and wrapped Clover in a tight hug, and gave her a quick kiss on her left cheek. “It’s okay mom, we’ll help,” I promised.

The immediately yelped and jumped back as Clover’s eyes burst into flames as I held her!

Clover blinked several times as her eggshell white slit pupiled eyes reformed, the frosty-looking orbs moving only after her final blink.

“Well, that works too… Though I thought it would be too much to ask for a kiss personally,” Clover mumbled bashfully, tapping her forehooves together before pulling me back into a tight hug. “You look so nice, Twilight! You filled out well. No wonder your gynoid marefriend loves you.”

I blinked. “Um, what?”

“This is power armor,” Nyota corrected, holding up a finger in protest.

Clover looked up at her and frowned, ears drooping. “Awww, lame! Nothing personal, I was simply hoping you were an automaton. I’ve always wanted to meet one programed with enough complexity to be a person. Personal fantasy. Again, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, well if that’s the case, once we get back to Equestria I’ll take you to meet Lyra’s sister. She’s dating a synthetic pony,” I promised.

“I’m afraid that will be some time coming,” Clover sighed, finally letting go of my barrel, but refusing to move too far away from me. “Oh! Would you like to hear the story of how you were born? It’s an interesting one.”

I winced as all the details of changeling reproduction went through my mind. Then the wince went away as I realized I knew nothing about how changeling hybrids were created. I’m certain we had a few minutes to spare…

“Sure! I’d love to hear that,” I answered with an eager smile. “Oh! Um, just how changeling am I? Half? Because I can’t shapechange, though Nye and I found out I do need to eat love in addition to normal food.”

Clover blushed again, reaching up behind her head to scratch at her loose flowing white mane. “Um, well, that’s not true, you do shapeshift. But you’re only capable of microshifts. That’s when you tweak existing features slightly, there’s no visual effects…”

I shook my head. “No way, I’d remember that.”

Starswirl cleared his throat. “No, you do. Your flanks gain about a half centimeter of padding when you’re looking at a pony you fancy. That’s all you seem to be able to do though.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mom, tell dad he’s not being funny,” I grumbled.

“He isn’t. That’s factual. It’s basic changeling instinct, you’re trying to look good to get the love you want. Don't worry, we all do it,” Clover said comfortingly.

I frowned, trying to think back on any time anypony might have said anything about that, or if I ever noticed it myself.

Hmmm… Well, Rainbow always called me ‘cute flanks’ when she was a little drunk or feeling playful-

“ACK! Uh, okay, I um… Maybe I do,” I admitted, flicking my mane to one side to try and cover up my blush.

“Right,” Clover nodded again. “As for your percentage… Well, you should be about eight percent changeling. Down from one hundred originally.”

“Originally?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes,” clover confirmed. “This is how you came to be."

"Hey kiddo, buckle your pants. Shit's about to get weird,” Star warned ominously.

Curiosity pushed aside the embarrassing realization that Dash had wasted eight years flirting with me to no avail...

“Oh yes,” Clover confirmed with a slow nod. “I was dying from Void Poisoning when you were born. You began life as a clone of me, not in the normal ‘a Queen laid an egg and incubated it’ way. I did lay the egg which became you, but I modified it to reproduce an exact clone of myself, only braindead.”

“WHAT!?” I exclaimed tail standing bolt upright in shock.

Clover held up her hooves defensively. “Hold on! Let me finish. That’s only how you began life. I detected signs of an intelligence inside you within a few days, and couldn't continue the project as intended. You were going to be a replacement for my failing body. But I could not destroy you. I’d made a child, not merely living tissue as planned. While that was an accident, I was very delighted. Starswirl is sterile, you see?”

“He is?” I asked suspiciously. “But, he said that my other parents were descended of his.”

“They are,” Starswirl said causally. “I wasn’t steril then. I am now. It’s a choice on my part.”

Oh. Well, that was entirely plausible.

Clover nodded. “I could never convince him to have a foal with me either. And that’s fine, it was his choice. I was happy I had created a daughter even though I wasn’t intending too. I’d always wanted a biological nymph to raise and teach. Naturally, from that point on, you were my baby and I was going to make sure you developed completely normally.

“So I started a second clone body to transfer myself into… And I made the same mistake, and it gained sentience too. That’s where your sister comes in.

“During development, there was a slight problem with you specifically. The poison killing me had somehow contaminated the egg I’d used as the base for you. Starswirl agreed to save you by patching the broken segments of DNA with his own. Which is why you are ninety two percent pony, and your sister is a pure blooded changeling. Or was… I have no idea if she’s still alive.”

I blinked several times. “Um… Okay. So, did I just gestate in a beaker for my whole… Time? If so how can you call us twins? We’re not genetically identical, nor were we developed in the same, um, container.”

That would be very very disheartening. If it's just been some cells bubbling away in a jar on a shelf…

Clover shook her head immediately. “No! Oh no, absolutely no! I incubated both your eggs together inside my formicary just like any normal fertilized egg would have been. After ensuring you had stabilized of course. The closest comparison I could make is you were produced through invitro fertilization.

“Though the truly interesting part of all this is it means you are quite literally the fusion of myself and Starswirl. Heh, it’s a good thing part of that eight percent remaining is my nervous system. Two brains are better than one after all, and I imagine mine balances out the kooky ideas his makes.”

“Twi’s got a changeling’s nervous system?” Nyota asked before I could, her voice sounding oddly mischievous.

“What other parts of me are changeling in nature?” I asked curiously. “My nose? Because I’ve always had a better sense of smell than anypony else.”

Clover nodded. “Yes, she has a changeling’s nerves. And I’m afraid not, Twilight. All you have from me is your nervous system, love digestion system, and the general shape of your hooves. They have the rounded bottom edge. That’s a changeling thing.”

I looked back at Nyota. “Could you get off my back, dear? I want to look at my hoof.”

She quickly slid off my back, immediately grabbing her left gauntlet to start detaching it. “Sure thing, lass!”

I nodded gratefully, and pulled one hoof up to my face, turning it over to look. Sure enough the bottom edge was curved making a very subtle round edge instead of the more sharp chisel point of a normal pony. I’d just thought my hooves grew weird. I had no idea that was a changeling th-

“Boop!” Nyota giggled playfully as she poked a spot just behind my left wing with her finger.

I went limp with a happy sigh, a wave of complete contentment and bliss rippling out for my side as I flopped to the ground. Only to ball up, completely horrified, from realizing what that must have looked like.

“Oh-my-gosh-Nye-why-did-you-do-that-and-what-was-it!?” I squeaked rapidly, hiding my face in my wings.

“Heh heh! I told ye Twi, I used to feed a LOT of changelings. That’s where the nerve cluster that works as a ling’s pleasure center is. Give it a little poke and well, that happens,” Nyoto giggled naughtily.

“By the gods!” Starswirl exclaimed with a grin. “They have a happy button!”

“I- I didn’t think you could press hard enough… Given our exoskeletons,” Clover mumbled in embarrassment.

“Aye, ye can’t. I’d give the spot a wee rap with a little hammer. But with Twi, I can just poke her. Don't worry hon, I won't do it again… In public. I just had to know if yer mom was telling the truth. This sort of confirms her whole story,” Nye remarked casually.

“That may be true, but, but- My parents are in the bucking room!” I snapped angrily, shooting daggers at Nye.

Nye’s eyes widened, realizing she’d messed up. “Uhh… N-normally they just feel like they’ve been hugged… Or were massaged… Um, sooo you didn’t feel-”

“NO!” I yelled.

Nye shuffled her feet. “Ah… And yer mom’s a change bug… Sooo yeah.”

“I didn’t taste anything more than relaxation, it’s cool,” Clover said dismissively. While also totally lying.

We spent an awkward moment in silence. Everypony else just avoided looking at each other while I glared daggers at Nye.

“I’m sorry, Twi,” Nyota sighed after a few moments. “I didn’t know ye’d react to it like that. Most changebugs just sort of well, you know, feel it like a hug.”

“Did you factor in that Twilight loves you? Greatly amplifying what she feels from your personal affections?” Starswirl asked dryly.

“Oh…” Nye said, looking down at the floor for a few moments.

“It’s okay,” I sighed. “I forgive you. Just… Don’t do that outside of the bedroom.”

“Annny-ways,” Clover said with a strained smile. “Has Star told you about the escape plan? I was checking up on your brother one day because he’s really good at crochet and I wanted to figure out how he did that little kitten plush-”

I felt one eye widen while the other shrank. “He does crochet?” I asked in completely floored.

Oh. Oh right. I’d been blocking out almost everything about him because of Dawn’s influence…

Clover nodded. “Yeah! He’s a great stallion. Since most of his hobbies are things mares like, well, ever wonder how he gets along so well with Princess Cadence? After all, not just any stallion could wed a demigod of love itself.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Cadence was the OPPOSITE of a girly mare in every way save for her sense of fashion.

“Um, you are aware that Cadence used to be Celestia’s bodyguard, right?” I asked curiously.

“Well, no… I um, I was not. I don’t watch her too much. She detected my scrying and asked I only watch her during um, playtime. And only then if I came over one day to say hi in person…” Clover admitted with an embarrassed blush. “I mean, at least I have permission to snack, and I could watch the rest of the palace as much as I wanted, but it makes looking at her spellbook very hard and-”

“And Twilight actually has a rescue party coming for her, right now,” Starswirl said, thankfully terminating that very awkward line of conversation.

Clover closed her eyes, inhaling a single long breath, holding it for several seconds. “And I wasn't told this immediately because… Why?” She asked.

“Because apparently the Dimorphodon I sent to tell you to get ready for the escape has a memory like a sieve,” Starswirl countered. “At any rate, we can’t move quite yet. We need to wait for Roxie to check in, and for our Megalodon friends to arrive. There’s plenty of time, Clover. Let’s continue properly meeting our long lost daughter.”

“Um, actually, I have a question, and a favor to ask,” Nye said, her armor scraping slightly as she pulled off her helmet.

Starswirl looked into Nyota’s cream furred face, nodded once, looked at me and nodded again. “Nice,” he said with a grin before turning back to Nyota. “What do you need? I’m certain we can help if it’s oh… Less than two hours.”

Oh! Right, Razor! I’d completely forgotten about her.

Nye nodded. “I am not sure actually,” she admitted worriedly. “A friend of mine got very badly hurt. She’s an Alpha Raptor. I’ve got her stored in the ARK system for now, but she’s going to need healing or she’s toast. Is there anything ye can do?”

Clover tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. “Humm, well, that depends. How close to death is she?”

“We found her right after a fight,” I explained. “She immediately collapsed.”

“We likely don’t have enough time to do anything then,” Starswirl said sadly. “Healing brews don’t work too well when you're bleeding out rapidly, and I can't make equestrian style healing potions here due to a lack of key plants. While we could make her a Beastfolk, that procedure takes about ten minutes.

“Though she is an alpha creature… How did you tame one? I thought it was impossible.”

“I kicked her ass till she respected me,” Nyota answered, ears drooping as she looked down towards the floor. “I’m half pony, I have an animal empathy talent. We can communicate.”

She shuffled her feet against the floor for a moment before asking, “Are you absolutely sure there’s nothing ye can do?”

Clover shook her head. “No. She’s an Alpha. They hang on a long time. We might be able to do it, but it will be close,” she mused. “The real problem is Star or I need to stay here since if you’re here and we have a way out, that means Star is modifying today’s little plan, and I assume-”

Star nodded and stood up from the table. “We can take her here and do the operation on the table. Clover, you standby and when Roxie calls to let you know she’s at the G-pin unit, pass that message on and as soon as our friends arrive, tell Roxie to flip that switch and get her and Snow back here.”

Clover’s tail stood up in alarm and her eyes bugged out of her head. “SNOW WENT WITH HER!?”

Star raised one eyebrow. “Clover… They’re a couple finally. Besides worse case senario, Snow wakes up in her bedroom. It’s not a real problem. Only we will stay dead here. Ponyfeathers, look at Twi’s leg, even she’s tagged.

“Alright, we can’t waste time and as Twilight’s parents it’s our Faust given duty to be likeable so far as her chosen mates are concerned. Let’s patch up this raptor!”

I opened my mouth to ask what the plan would be, but Starswirl simply bolted out of the room.

“Come on! We could have five minutes to do twenty minutes of work in!” He urged.

The next twenty minutes disappeared into a blur of activity. Starswirl led the two of us outside the fortress along a well established path to the top of a hill. Fortunately, we had at least one thing on our side. It was time for the midday supply drops.

I honestly had never really thought too much about the pillars of light which occasionally shone down from the sky. I’d assumed they were used to put new prisoners into the ARK, or to take them out. I should have noticed they happened at regular times and places long before now.

But I hadn’t. I blamed the steep learning curve Razor put me through.

We reached the supply drop just before the capsule touched down, and while Nye retrieved Razor, I couldn’t help but notice the only physical objects the capsule was carrying were two blueprints for making a compass.

The heck was the point of that? Could people outside the system pay money to put joke items into drops? That would be a little funny.

What wasn’t funny was I had to carry razor back to Solace…

Nye’s ankle was still hurting, a weird thing to be sure since her implant should have fixed it already, though she was the one to point that out herself. So I believed her when she said she wasn’t lying. It was technology after all. Sometimes it malfunctions.

We ran back to Solace as quickly as we could with Star and Nye holding Razor steady on my back. Much to my distress, Starswirl actually began working on the biomancy portion of the operation WHILE WE WERE RUNNING!

“What the hay is the matter with you?!” I snapped as I noticed the pale blue aura envelope Razor’s body.

“I’m saving time?” Star replied. “This takes focus, please don’t inter-”

“I’m friends with a biomancer! The patient needs to remain as still as possible!” I objected. “You said we had two hours!”

“I said we had up to two hours, it could be two minutes,” Starswirl countered. “We have to be ready to go by the time-”

The earth shook violently, the sky vanished, leaving only the black void of space visible, along with the long steel arms holding the dome or forcefield up over the world plainly visible for all to see.

Just in time for a hundred bright white streaks to burn in towards us like shooting stars. Shooting stars which transformed into a fleet crescent moon shaped ships, each one painted with the same goofy shark’s face the Megalodon's boats had been.

“... Because, see, we sort of sold this space station to the Megalodon Fleet in exchange for a proper planetside colony on a world they control and uh, well, we need to get off it before they cut the link to the ARK system and we leave your rescue party behind and we have to wait to escape,” Starswirl said with a strained grin. “So you know, if it’s not exactly a problem, KEEP RUNNING SO I CAN FINISH BY THE TIME WE GET BACK!”

I nodded and began to run as fast and as smoothly as I could.

“WHY FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA DIDN’T YE TELL US THIS WHEN WE GOT HERE!?” Nyota demanded for me.

“Because the wardens listen to EVERYTHING and we weren't in a magically warded area. STOP INTERRUPTING AND KEEP HER STILL, DAMMIT!” Starswirl snapped.

Oh boy… If they were here to take this place now... How the hay would we get to an obelisk in time?

Central Operations Facility - The Observatory

Epoch 19005184019

Six different alarms screeched dire warnings as the base’s radar practically glowed red as more and more hostile ships registered on the screen.

“Megs?!” Green exclaimed in panic. “What the hell are they doing!? They ALWAYS announce their attacks in advance.”

“Maybe they’re exchanging crew again?” Red suggested worriedly, his voice crackling faintly over the intercom. “Green, you have our whole fleet protecting the Island Habitat… I’m sort of on board The Center’s station section right now. C-can we get a few ships over here? Please?”

“It will take six minutes to program a micro-jump,” Green informed sadly. “Sub-light drives won't get there before they can establish proper battle lines… ARK Prison Five to Central Headquarters: We’re under attack by a pirate fleet. Requesting immediate assistance.”

Nothing happened for several long moments. But then a female voice replied.

“Yeah, we’re jamming your extra-solar coms bro,” it said mockingly. “Tell you what though. You teleport every Troodon in the whole system into the Center Habatat right now and we won't destroy any of your ships we encounter while picking up our friends and property.”

“Voice print analysis suggests the speaker is a prior prisoner… Analyzing…” Blue said quietly.

“I’m afraid helping you is against company policy, pirate!” Green spat angrily.

“Meh, whatever. We’ll do it ourselves then. Sorry for the inevitable frying of half your systems hardware in the process. You guys should really make your tech more hacker friendly,” the pirate mocked. “But seriously, move those guys around or we’ll blow half your hardware after doing it ourselves.”

“Voice print confirmed. Subject is Prisoner Four-seven-eight-nine-seven-six-three, Anne Kathryn Trikson,” Blue remarked almost happily, glad to have worked out the puzzle. “Previously held within The Island on charges of sixteen trillion counts of digital entertainment piracy.”

“Wait… What?” Red and Green asked together.

The pirate laughed. “The hilarious thing is, nobody remembers anything I did besides pirate cable for forty different star systems. Heh. Anywho, we’re taking this space station, picking our shipmates up from this little vacation, and possibly blowing half your system to hell. That’s still up to you. Oh, and we're picking up the Troodons. Cuz I promised the little cuties I’d be back to pick them up. Enjoy the jamming signal. Toodels!”

The radio went dead for a half second, only to erupt into a loud techno song.

“♪♫Business Cat just called to make sure // That we're singing from the same hymn sheet // That we're optimising, synergising our portfolio // Diversifying our assets // By investing in other kind of business pets.♪♫”

Green stared hatefully at the intercom for what seemed like an eternity as the song played on.

“... Blue,” he said at last. “Transport all Troodons to the Center habitat. Then lower its force field and let the air out a bit.”

15 - Out of the Frying Pan

Sky Trigger - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

Southern Jungle - The Island

“Heh heh heh, morons,” I chuckled as I looked out through the ruined wall at the small army of bandits trying to force their way through the shield I’d just erected.

It’s like they thought their sissy side arms and melee tools would drain it. I had no idea how shield technology worked here, but they would need more firepower than they had to overwhelm the microfusion plants Ayna and I had just set up.

Still smiling from my minute of watching those morons trying to literally club their way through hardlight, I shook my head and turned away from the window. We’d managed to get some of the house restored to a useable condition. I’d had plenty of materials in my bag after all.

A few prefabbed scaffolds, pipes, and pieces of sheet metal and we had a second floor on the house again. Not a good second floor, but a big enough one to slice some holes in the walls, stick plasma turrets in them, and set up some overhead plumbing for a shower.

Not a relaxing shower. An emergency shower. When we had to retake the house from those assholes outside after coming back from Chip’s tribe’s pub, several of them had tossed some sort of chemical grenades. No one got hit, but well, if we were later, it’s a good idea to rinse off after being doused in green stuff that smells like the dead.

The shield probably made all of the other defenses unnecessary though. Fifteen centimeter thick hexical plates of hardlight maintained by three fusion plants. You’d need a squad of battlemages to break enough hexes to get a pony inside. Well, within a reasonable amount of time that is.

This place was secure as we could make it. I would have liked to get Ay to inscribe some wards around the place, but magic wasn’t working well here. Also Derpy and Lyra wouldn’t make out for several hours to let Ay convert all that snogging into mana. So arcane defenses were out.

Speaking of Derpy…

“Hey Derps?” I called, looking up through a hole in the roof. “Any sign of Twilight?”

Derpy poked her head down through the hole before shaking it. “Nope. The bandits are bringing in a few more rex’s though. Think that will let them get through?”

I paused for a moment then shrugged. “Eh, maybe after a few hours? Physical force is not really usefull against this kind of shield,” I reminded.

“Sure… But Vault-Tec said their vault doors could withstand a direct nuclear strike. I’ve seen them break from sustained recoilless rifle fire in just a few minutes. Manufacturing defects happen,” she reminded with a nervous frown.

“True. But I guarantee you that the odds of a problem like that are really low when you build things via printing them at nanoscale resolutions. If they do start getting through, feel free to pop out there and eat one,” I said turning to walk towards my lab-in-a-bag.

Sometimes it’s your colthood ideas that are the best ideas. Take a messanger bag, use a space-time compression device to cram a few hundred cubic meters into the bag’s interior, build a manufacturing lab inside it. One portable lab. Inside a bag.

It made my inner ten year old so happy to have actually built something from ‘the list of really cool things that Sky needs now’.

I grabbed hold of a ladder and slipped down to the ground floor, stepping around some of the rubble I had yet to recycle as I made my way to the bag. I wasn’t about to leave here without a sample of the local wildlife… Several samples. Some for me, some for Azur.

My little brother would kill me if I told him we encountered extinct creatures and didn’t get some DNA from them. I’d have to build some containment pods for smaller live critters, a refrigeration unit for blood samples, and-

Lyra sat slumped against one wall, nervously cleaning the combat rifle I’d given her for smaller targets. She’d field stripped the weapon rather expertly. Probably thanks to Luna sending her and the other Knights of the Rampant Moon to Hound for special training. She had the rifle half reassembled, and was currently busily polishing the receiver, having tweaked it with her multitool.

It bugged me that she didn’t ask me to just make something particular in the first place. At least, until I realized she probably wanted something to work on. Lyra hadn’t exactly taken the battle well.

She wasn’t me. I never thought about hurting evil people after the fact. Willpower mixed with stubbornness pulled me through just fine. If they were willing to throw out the rules of civilized society for personal gain, pleasure, or just to watch the world burn, they didn't deserve a second thought once dealt with. Fatally or not.

Nor was Lyra, Ay. Ayna had been psychologically disqualified from Hive’s the mandatory military service due to inviting a spell she called ‘Detect Evil and Turn it into Crispy Bacon’, which she’d then attempted to install as an enchanted tread plate on every last doorway in the hive.

Or in other words, she found it objectively good to actively hunt down and kill evil things. That made sense for a changeling though. Especially one whose first taste of ‘love’ had been the emotions of a foal rapist mid hunt. It’s different when you have to taste evil if it’s nearby.

Lyra wasn’t Derpy either. Derpy was… Well, a dragon. She may have a pony’s instincts, psychology, and mannerisms, but she was still a huge meat-eating predator. Biology would prevent her from feeling bad for hurting prey. Just like it did with griffons and diamond dogs.

Lyra was a pony. Sure, not a normal pony. She was also a Vampire… But vampires don’t kill their prey. They just feed a bit. Just like vampire bats. Besides, I knew she bought synthetic stuff from hospitals, or asked a friend for a nibble. Lyra was just a pony with a dietary requirement.

You can train a pony to fight. But you can't train them to be okay with it. She probably needed a kind hoof.

I took a few steps towards Lyra before clearing my throat. “Hey. Doing alright? Need some water?” I offered with a little smile.

Lyra’s ears swiveled to face me but she didn’t look up from cleaning her new weapon.

“No, I’m okay. Thanks though,” she replied evenly.

“You sure? You look a bit tense,” I pressed.

Lyra bit her lip, then sighed and looked at me. “I guess I wasn’t holding it in that well, huh?”

I nodded.

“I’ll be okay, Sky. I’m a knight. This isn’t my first mission, it’s probably my fifteenth. I’m not messed up from killing those bandits. I’m messed up because well… The mess looked appetizing. That’s not okay. It’s still bothering me that I felt that,” she sighed, leaning her head against the wall.

I winced. “Oh. Well, I get it. I mean, you do eat blood. I’m betting any bat pony who happened to drink blood too would have felt the same. I mean, you pretty much turned those guys into jello for hemovores,” I joked hoping the dark humor would help.

Lyra cringed. “Ugh, not helping dude! That’s exactly what I was thinking…”

“Mmm, sorry. Joke miscalculation,” I said, scratching the back of my head with a hoof.

“Are you sure it’s not because they’re humans?” Ayna asked, trotting into view with a bunch of sheet metal and a welding torch suspended in her arcane grip.

Lyra giggled. A genuine giggle. “Ayna, no. I’m okay with having hurt some. I’m not naive, I’m not an idealist. There’s good and bad in every species, and they attacked US. That’s not a problem for me,” she dismissed. “I mean, well, if they were the FIRST one’s I’d met that would probably get to me. But they’re not. I have a sister, you know.”

“Good thing she’s came home to set a good first impression then,” I replied with a grin. “What the hell is she calling herself these days anyways? She’s on nickname what… Seven?”

Ayna and Lyra laughed, flashing huge grins at me for a moment.

“Yes… And she’s going by Seven now,” Lyra answered. “Seventh shot at a name that wasn’t ‘Lyra‘ as well, happens to be Seven. It’s the percent divergence of the parallel universe she grew up in.”

Ayna nodded twice. “And her marefriend changed her name to Amber. Oh! That reminds me, Amber asked if we could find a way to change her fur color some time. She doesn't want to be mistaken for our Fluttershy since the Ponyville refugees are staying with us now.

“I forgot to tell you that. We’ve been really busy with this project. Sort of took a lot of attention.”

I nodded, making a mental note to give the synthetic mare a helping hoof when we got back. “No problem,” I replied. “Welp, I’m going to get some science gear together. Once those guys outside realize they can’t break through, I’m going to catch me some dinos!”

I turned and resumed walking towards my bag, overhearing Ayna talking to Lyra very well thanks to the metal walls around us.

“If it helps you feel better, I heard a rumor that the author of the Human Memoirs is going to put a character you created into the next book,” Ayna informed casualty.

Heh. ‘Heard a rumor’. Sly bug.

“No way!” Lyra exclaimed eagerly. “I don't believe that for a second, but you’re into that series too? OH! Did you read Meep’s other series, Voyage into the Heart of Mars? I LOVE that one but I can't find anypony else who read it, not even on Equis-Net forums.”

Oh. My. Luna.

I stopped and turned around, wishing I had a bag of popcorn as I watched Ayna stand completely still giving Lyra a thousand yard stare.

“Lyra… You write the author all the time…” Ayna mumbled disbelievingly.

Lyra frowned, tiling her head for a moment. “Oh! Oh right she lives in the Emerald hive. She’s probably way more popular with you changebugs, isn’t she? Heh. You know, as a joke, I once switched my friend Meep’s mailing address with hers. It took them six years to get that fixed. Heh heh… Good times! Thanks, remembering that old prank cheered me up.”

Ayna’s left eye twitched slightly. “You… You visited me in my cabin… You saw the number and-” Ayna took a deep breath. “Okay, you’re not this dumb. You’re bucking with me. You have to be!”

Lyra frowned, genuinely confused. She actually didn’t know. Somehow.

“You know that it’s a pen name, right?” I prompted, giving Lyra an amused look.

“Um, no?” Lyra answered with a frown. “I mean, I didn’t. Sure I know that the author’s name is halfway Equish and halfway Changelish. You move ‘the to the front to fix the syntax, translate Meep to Equish and you get ‘The Silly Changeling’, but I know a different bug who is named Meep, so changelings do name their nymphs ‘Silly’. I thought it was her real name incorporated into a pun.”

Ayna groaned and rubbed her face with a hoof. “No! I use that pen name because I find my stories to be enjoyably silly!”

Lyra blinked, tilting her head to one side. “You use it?”

“YES!” Ayna snapped. “How can you not know that already!? You know my home address, you’ve been to it, you’ve seen my horn writing, I’ve signed everything you’ve ever mailed in-”

“Prove it!” Lyra demanded skeptically.

Ayna shape changed into the unicorn body she often used in order to roll her eyes. “You mailed me in a fifteen page long rambling letter asking about human mating rituals across established culture so as to better roleplay with your marefriend. And I gave you an honest factual repp-”

I made it halfway to my bag just before the epic fangirl squee hit, and I was forced to make a hasty exit through a hole in a nearby wall to save my eardrums from rupturing.

“Vampiric lung capacity has to be a thing,” I grumbled as I rubbed my left ear to get the ringing to stop.

“Yeah,” Chip agreed sadly. “She scared that compy away…”

I looked to my right, spotting the little green dino perched atop a rock at the edge of the shield, staring out into the jungle with the saddest eyes this side of Applebloom.

“Are you hungry? I think I packed some meat in the survival kits. I could make you something,” I offered.

Chip shook his head. “That’s okay. I… I have needs. I need to hunt. Twilight told me that people are afraid of dying, so I don’t like hunting them anymore. But I still need to do it. And that was a really fat red compy. The red ones are really tasty, and they run really fast! They are fun to chase.”

I couldn’t help but laugh and walk over to the little guy. I’d worked with dragons and griffons before, it’s not like I was shy around carnivores. “Really? We’re under attack by twenty or so bandits and you wanted to go outside of the shield for a meal?”

Chip nodded twice. “Yes! Because I could steal their stuff on the way back in… But the shield made it impossible, and the knew it. He just stood there, hopping around. Right in front of me. Like a poophead!” Chip grumbled, crossing his arms angrily over his chest.

I frowned, and scratched my chin, a confused humm escaping my lips. “Did I forget to tell you show my shields work?” I asked.

“You don’t have to! Nyota showed me how shield generators work and what they can do. It’s a solid wall made of light, so I can’t pass through the shield. Not unless you turn it off, I remember. It’s machines. I don’t forget machines!” Chip proclaimed proudly.

“Uh, Chip,” I said bending down to get on his eye level. “I’m sorry, but I clearly didn’t tell you how MY shields work. We’re not from this place, we don’t use their toys. We use mine.

“I scanned your biosignature into my watch so our turrets wouldn’t shoot you. The shield responds to you too. Any of the hexes you touch become permeable for as long as you touch them. That way you can move through the shield, and also stick a gun out of it to shoot. You can go in and out all you want.”

Chip blinked then hopped forwards and reached out to touch the closest neon-green hexagon, cheeping eagerly as the bright light dimmed and his talon passed through the hex.

“Cool!” He cheered, coiling his legs to jump through, landing on the other side with a plop.

An instant later he turned around and hopped back inside. Then he turned and jumped back through again, and again

“In! Out! In! Out! In! Out!” He giggled happily before coming to a stop outside the barrier, tail perking as if in realization. “Ooo! You could make really cool armor from this stuff! You could just walk into it and then tell it to be hard.”

HURK! He was like the colt Pinkie and I hadn’t had yet.

“Heck yeah you could!” I agreed, grinning ear to ear. “In fact, we should! Come on, let’s go build you some cool hardlight armor.”

Chip turned to look at me his eyes widening eagerly. “I CAN HAVE SCIENCE CLOTHES!??”

Nyrrrrgh! Okay, no, we weren't leaving him. He was mine now. I’d radio Pinkie the second we were home and tell her I found our long lost dinocolt and to get a welcome home party ready. She’d understand instantly.

“Armor,” I corrected. “But yes, I’ll make you a lab coat too. A blue one would look good on you. Come on inside.”

Chip jumped, eager to begin. “Awesome!” He exclaimed, rushing forwards to leap back through the shield.

Chip jumped, starting to fly through the air. The air which suddenly flickered.

My pegasi senses screamed a silent instinctive warning. Telling me that static electricity had just poofed into existence across… Everything! Everything outside my shield.

Chip’s nose passed through the shield.

The static swirled, the energy pooling around hundreds of small objects, including Chip. Or at least every bit of him outside the shield. Almost as if someone was setting up the world's dirtiest, most wide beam teleport of all ti-

My hoof moved of it’s own accord, launching out and grabbing Chip’s muzzle, yanking him through the shield faster than his leap would carry him.

But not fast enough.

The world outside vanished for a second, as if a massive camera flash had gone off in every conceivable angle. Chip screeched, becoming a good three kilograms lighter as the transport beam snatched away most of his tail.

I pulled the screaming Troodon close to me, avoiding the stump of his tail, my face shifting between horrified and serious. “SHIT! It will be okay! We’ll fix this. I can get a prosthetic made and-”

The sky flickered, transforming from a typical blue sky to the cold black of space as a booming yet emotionless voice filled the air.

“All prisoners are to return to their homes immediately. Lockdown is now under effect,” the vaguely female voice informed. “Prisoners still outside their homes within twenty minutes will have their sentences doubled and be transferred to Scorched Earth. Wild creatures have been put into stasis. Tamed creatures will enter stasis once dismounted. The Engram System is offline. Prisoners who die will not be able to respawn until the lockdown has been lifted.”

That didn’t bode well…

I turned to run back into the house, assuming that our intrusion had finally been detected. As I turned I saw it.

A human wouldn’t have seen it. I knew that for an absolute fact. But my pegasi eyes could just barely make it out. In the sky above, a ring of many mushroom-shaped space stations stretched out through the cosmos for as far as the eye could see. The sixth one in the line was under attack.

A small cloud of dots swarmed around it. Purple and red flashes of light streaking between the dots.

Ah. We weren't discovered. Someone was attacking. Good. That meant there was time.

“It hurts,” Chip whimpered, clinging to my barrel, his talons digging in deep enough to draw blood.

That was okay.

“It will be okay. I promise. I’ll build you a new tail right now, or we’ll see if we can’t get the medkit to make a stimpack to just grow yours back. Just hold on, we’ll get you pain killers right now. I promise,” I said as soothingly as I could as I rushed back through the hole in the wall. “Ay! Chip got partially teleported! Medkit, NOW!”

“M-make me a tail?” Chip whimpered through a pain clenched face.

Lyra rushed over, eyeing the injury before gasping in horror. “Luna! It’s not even a flush cut. What backasswards discount bin teleport are they using!?” She exclaimed in pure horror. “OH HAY NO! That’s a molecular disassembler method, you can totally tell!”

“WHAT!?” Ayna exclaimed, rushing over to look for herself. “Holy shit, it is! Barbarians! Don't’ worry Chip, we’ll fix this right up. My big brother is great with machines, he’ll make you a robotic tail you can wear till we can heal it for you. You won't even know-”

“Robot tail?” Chip asked weakly.

“... I think that’s a vote to skip the stimpack, Ay,” I said as I rushed towards my bag to get to work. “Do you just want a cybernetic tail? That’s what you call robotic parts that are permanently attached. We can do that. It could have gadgets, anything you want!”

“Please,” Chip whimpered into my shoulder.

“No problem. We’ll get you painkillers and whip up something cool for you,” I promised.

And then we’d find out how to hurt the everliving shit out of whoever did this to him.

Twilight - Day 16

Solice - The Center

“How will we get out of here in time!?” I asked as I ran forwards, keeping my eyes locked on the rapidly approaching mountainside fortress.

“We’ll have to take a drop. They stay down for an hour,” Nyota replied instantly.

“Doesn't that have a chance to just flat out kill us?” I asked, cringing at the thought.

“Yeah. But- Where the hay are they taking this?” Nyota demanded.

“Some star system far away from here. How should I know? I’ve never seen a map of this world,” Starswirl snapped. “Stop interrupting me, or I’ll botch this whole-”

Starswirl was cut off as an emotionless voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

“All prisoners are to return to their homes immediately. Lockdown is now under effect,” the vaguely female voice informed. “Prisoners still outside their homes within twenty minutes will have their sentences doubled and be transferred to Scorched Earth. Wild creatures have been put into stasis. Tamed creatures will enter stasis once-”

The way the cold statement stopped dead for a single heartbeat unnerved me more than anything I’d ever felt before. Including the odd haze of magical energy which washed over the entirety of the land I could see as it pooled into dozens of hotspots. None of them close, all of them very distant.

A massive teleportation spell. Very crude. Very dangerous. Done over the entire station, as far as I could tell. And yet nowhere near as horrific as the voice stopping mid sentence.

“Situation update,” the voice resumed the moment the teleport concluded. “Habitat ‘The Center’ is undergoing sterilization. Prisoners may continue their activities for as long as they are able.”

I got as far as the ‘Well’ in ‘Well that can’t be good.’ before the winds sucked the air straight out of my lungs.

They were explosive. A solid wall of air. Moving so fast you could see them, the moisture in the air compressing into one massive shimmering cloudfront. The same winds swept me off my hooves, throwing me into the sky, head over tail, in an out of control spiral.

I saw Nyota fly away from me for less than a second, barely enough for her to register in my vision. Barely long enough for me to notice over the roaring winds. And my terror.

I couldn’t breathe. The air was being pulled away harder than I could hope to inhale. My vision started to go gray as I hyperventilated. I felt cold. Not the same cold as dying, or when you’re hurt very bad. The temperature was dropping rapidly.

There was no way my wings could fight the winds. Even if they could, I wasn’t skilled enough to pull myself out of the tumbling spin the winds put me in. And the air which my wings would catch was being blown away.

I was being blown out into space.

The world went from gray to white...

I was going to die.

Through all the horror I felt at that truth, one thought came to mind.

This is the worst thing ever, and I wasn’t even in space yet. Luna needs a hug. Right now.

WHITE!

I inhaled like a deflating balloon, immediately coughing like a pony who’d smoked her whole life.

“EW!” Someone's faint muffled voice exclaimed in horror and disgust. “EW! Towel! NOW!”

Why did my lungs feel like sandpaper?

“Uh… I don’t, here just some of my shirt. That bit over there should do,” someone else said. “First time someone's spat blood in your mouth during CPR?”

Huh? Who did that? That sounded super embarrassing.

“Obviously! Guh… Mammals. So fragile. Can you help the others too?” The first person asked.

“Mhm,” the other acknowledged. “Doing it now. Have to change out these implants. Director Green ordered them deactivated shortly after the rescue crew arrived… And he never had one. It’s fine, just keep them all alive until I’m done. Just like everyone else.”

“Did you really put an emergency shield over Solace? Are they actually safe?” The first voice asked hopefully.

“Yes. I did, you can check on the monitor over there. Green’s going insane… He was never meant for military command and he started this stressed out already. I was expecting something stupid. Your friends will be safe, so long as the Troodons don’t eat them all and destroy their beds. I can’t do anything about that,” the first voice signed. “If I redirected their teleports to anywhere else, they would asphyxiate and it's come to my attention that they are sapient beings.”

“I still don’t understand why you’re helping us,” a third voice grumbled.

The second voice sighed. “I was only ever in this to get to remake extinct creatures. The core idea behind this prison is sound, but it’s flawed in execution. I can’t continue working here in good conscience. I’m afraid you’ll have to trust me on that. I can’t exactly prove it.”

The world went from white to black again… This time, the blackness was punctuated by bold white text.

Elerium Industries Systems

Initializing…

Welcome to LIFE!

Wait, what?

Before I could question anything, a voice began to speak to me. Inside my head. I wasn’t imagining it, it was real. In fact, it felt almost exactly like Changeling telepathy.

the male voice said warmly.

The voice brokedown, mangling itself in a rather terrifying way into a static hiss.

I asked desperately.

The voice came back with a crackle and a pop, which while frightening made me realize I was listening to some sort of telepathic recording.

The recording said before dissolving in another hiss of static.

“Fucking firmware! Hold on, I think I can disable- Ah, there we go!” A male voice exclaimed triumphantly. “Sorry about that everyone, none of you actually died, I had to jerry rig some code to get consumer implants to boot up in non-human organisms. No other way to heal shredded lungs. It’s just a welcome screen. Hold on for another second, I’ll get your bodies working.”

I knew that voice.

“C-camo?” I stammered, my voice extremely raspy.

“Yes. But you can call me by my real name if you like. It’s-”

“John,” I interrupted. “I know. Nye told me.”

“Well you were wrong, Nyota. Because it’s Austin,” Austin informed loudly. “I hope her ears are working too. Seriously, what kind of scientist is named John? That’s a soldier's name. Ah! There we go.”

The world suddenly came back. Just like turning on a magelamp. From blackness to a spacious bare steel walled octagonal room lined in very angular workstations, office chairs, and large screens everywhere. The screens were flashing a bunch of different things rapidly, mostly in red. Pictures, icons, lines of text… Whatever they said or indicated, I had absolutely no idea.

I also saw that I was laying on my back. While I still felt some aches and pains, I didn’t feel hurt. That was good.

I could see my left foreleg laying on my chest. The bulky implant which had been there was gone, replaced by a small blue glowing diamond shape underneath my skin. Still there, but much more aesthetically appealing.

Like a product a corporation would market.

I quickly looked around the room. Who else had survived. I could see Nyota, she was sitting up, rubbing her neck with one hand. Her armor was gone, but the vest, pants, and equipment she kept under it was still there.

Starswirl was pushing himself to his hooves, giving the implant a critical look, his expression saying he was debating tearing it out.

“Cybernetics don't harm magic…” I said, trailing off as a flash of pain accompanied my words. “Not unless they replace the horn and frontal lobe.”

“It’s not that. I hate glowing things while I sleep,” Starswirl muttered.

Ah, there was a big hole in a door on the far side of the room. Snow and Roxie had forced their way in here… Sort of. Roxie had her head and shoulders through the hole and clearly was not getting in any further.

Clover was standing close by me, wiping the inside of her mouth out with a bit of a ruined red dress shirt.

“Oh, you can shut that off. Tap the diamond twice,” Austin said, prompting me to turn and look behind me where he was stand-

He was not standing. He was a reddish-tan skinned, black haired human with friendly looking blue eyes. Yes, he was definitely the person I’d seen under the ghillie suit when I had first arrived. Those eyes completely confirmed that.

And he was currently pulling himself around via his arms, being just a torso, trailing some clear tubing, and a thick black liquid. Seemingly in no pain whatsoever.

“OH MY CELESTIA! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEGS!?” I shouted in blind panic.

“I bit them off,” Roxie said simply.

Austin nodded towards her. “Yep… She uh, she didn’t understand I was in here trying to lock Blue out. Friendly fire and all that.”

“Wait bit them OFF?” Nye asked, her ears perking in alarm before she turned to look at the injured person. “How are you alive? The blood loss-”

“Eh, it’s fine. I’m not an organic human,” he dismissed. “I can build replacements later. Right now, I need to know if everyone’s alive and can move, think, do life stuff. I have some more hacking to do for those implants I handed out. Gotta make them work independent of external systems. Slower, less efficient, but you know, they’ll work back home too.”

One by one, everypony reported they were fine. Even Snow and Roxie. From what I could tell, Austin was trying to prove he was on our side… But how could he do all of this?

“How can you do all of this?” I asked after he’d finished helping Roxie adjust some settings.

“Simple. I have Directorial Authorization… For the moment. Green is trying to revoke my permissions as we speak. I probably have, eh, six more minutes. I’m sort of the current Director of the Red Sector. That’s genetics and cybernetics. I’m the scientist who designed every creature in this ARK system,” he said before clearing his throat. “And seeing as how you’re a princess, I would like to formally request political asylum.

“I don’t want to remain aboard this station and be captured by the Megalodons. As a Corporate Republic CItizen with well, my background, I’ll be seen as an enemy and likely executed or imprisoned for life within a server somewhere. I can’t say that’s not justified. My work… My work often becomes bioweapons. Against my will, I assure you.

“If I remain here, I’ll be forced to continue working an unethical job at best, or be deleted at worst. I was planning to escape in a shuttle and get a new chassis to live in, probably on some backwater world, but I won't escape with the current firefight going on outside. My only option for gaining freedom is to accompany you to your home dimension.

“I assure you that I can be a valuable-”

I held up a hoof for him to stop. “You saved my life, my marefriend’s life, and my parents lives just now. You don’t need to beg. Yes, I’ll take you with me,” I promised before smirking. “Besides, we’ve become something of a hotspot for interdimensional travelers in the last two years. One more won't make a difference. Heh.”

Starswirl and Clover’s ears raised in alarm. “It has?” Starswirl asked. “We’ll need to talk about this. There’s a major project Clover and I-”

“Save that for later and a secure location!” Clover snapped, her eyes narrowing in anger born of fear.

“Ah! Yes. Right. Sorry, dear,” Star apologized hastily.

“Wait a minute,” Nyota said before I could ask any follow up questions.

Nye frowned as she looked around. “Where’s Razor?”

“Was she with you too?” Austin asked wincing. “I’m sorry but… I pulled the data on every biosignature I could find to see if you had creatures with you. I didn’t see anything…”

Nye bit her lip and looked at the floor for a few seconds. Everyone kept quiet just giving her time.

“Goodbye old friend…” Nyota whispered to the floor.

Austin raised an eyebrow. “Uh, she was an Alpha…”

“What’s that have to do with anything?” Nyota asked bitterly.

“It means she served as a data gathering device for improving creatures,” Austin informed. “Alphas are not only the top predator, they are also software alphas. It’s a rare non-sexual double entendre. Which means we record her entire data-profile live for analysis. Let me just go ahead and.... There we go! Last recorded data, fifteen minutes ago. Annnnnd downloaded! I’ll make her a new body and upload this backup file into it first chance we get. She’s fine!”

Nye blinked twice, broke out into a huge grin, and lunged forwards, pulling the damaged android into a tight hug.

“Uh, well, moving along,” Austin said after Nyota let go, scratching the back of his head. “Thank you. Oh! I used to make a hobby out of constructing dozens of different bodies to use as the mood hit me. I’d like to do that again, I don’t suppose there’s some sort of identification spell or charm which would-”

“There is,” Clover said with a nod. “Changelings who live with ponies openly wear them so friends recognise them. That won't be a problem. What is a problem is we have minutes before you can’t get us out of here! Either the Megalodons get all their tow-cables hooked up and pull this thing out of the star system, or you get locked out. We need to go. Now.”

Oh right, we still had to get out of-

“Wait, we’re still on the Center? There are control rooms for these things?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion. “Why isn’t everything just auto-”

Austin smirked. “It is. Kinda. Organic humans don’t run these sorts of facilities. Takes too much in terms of multi-threaded thinking, and it helps to be wirelessly connected to the systems. These control rooms are here for staff use. Sometimes things fail and you need a physical hardwired terminal.”

“Is there a terminal for the teleport system here?” Nyota asked with a curious yet hopeful look around the room.

Austin shook his head. “No, this is the perimeter defenses and station systems control room. Shields, the force field, terraforming, creature control systems, that kind of thing. Transporter controls are four decks down. But I can access them wirelessly… Which I’m doing right n-

“Ah ha! I’ve got access to the teleport network. He ALMOST kept me out of it. I can transport us as close to your rescue party as the shield they erected allows.”

“Do it!” I said quickly, realizing that we could be cut off from the system at any moment.

WHITE!

White and pain!

Dear Celestia, their teleport was the single most crude thing I had ever experiencing in my entire li-

The familiar surroundings of the South Jungle snapped in around me like a picture drawn on a rubber canvas which had been stretched away from me.

“AAAA!” I screamed in blind terror.

That is NOT how a teleport should work! NOT EVEN CLOSE!

“Faust's blood, son!” Starswirl snapped, baring his teeth angrily. “What kind of transport is that!? Everypony check yourselves to see if you’re missing anything, or got any new bits.”

“The cheap kind,” Austin mumbled, looking down at the ground with a sigh. “Please don't. Clover already yelled at me…”

“Speaking of mom,” I said realizing something and turning to face the white shelled changeling.

Who, now that I thought about it, looked exactly like Jade but taller and less attractive.

“Mom, how come you weren't hurt? Or did you regenerate on your own?” I asked with a confused frown.

Clover chuckled. “It’s just space, Twilight. I’m old enough to remember what our species was designed to do,” she said with a weary smile. “That said, I never thought I’d actually wind up in a vacuum myself.”

I had several questions, but Austin beat me to it.

“Woah, wait! Are you saying your species was engineered?” He asked excitedly. “That would explain SO MUCH! I’ve spent months trying to find the natural processes which would create any of your subspecies. Who designed you?”

Clover nodded. “Yes. We’re insects, we reproduce in large numbers, making us ‘inexpensive’. Any individual can start a colony. We’re naturally industrious and want to work, and before our genetic memories were tampered with, every one of us hatched knowing how to make and use certain tools and structures.

“Our bodies are encased within a rigid exoskeleton, we can filter our vision to include specific kinds of light, we have a small internal oxygen supply, and we require only the affection of other compatible species and water to survive. We can cling to smooth surfaces we stand on, allowing us to walk on walls, ceilings, and in reduced gravity. Lastly, as insects, cosmic radiation doesn't really harm us all that much at typical levels. We are living inside what is effectively an EVA suit. We’re the perfect extraplanetary explorers, colonists, and station maintenance staff.

“We can go into details some other time. For now, we need to get out of here before your former comrades decide to depressurize this habitat too.”

Starswirl blinked twice, giving Clover a hurt look. “You never told me that.”

Clover shrugged. “It was never relevant in a medieval society. Besides, just because I know what Changelings were meant to do doesn't mean I want to do it. I’m rather happy being a wizard.”

I stood up, looking around to make sure everyone was here. After all, that teleport was very… Very newborn-foal-magical-surge in nature.

Nyota was just behind me, currently checking all of her equipment. Snow and Roxie had made it as well, at present Snow was creepily spider-climbing her way back to to the top of Roxie’s head. Ignoring that not-normalness, I nodded in satisfaction and gave the area a quick glance to see where we were.

We were right under the red Obelisk. Not on the central plateau, but on the edge of the cliff leading down to the crater-like ‘moat’ which formed a gap around the plateau. Which meant that Nyota’s house was behind me and a bit to the left.

“Okay, we’re a fifteen minute walk from freedom!” I said with a smile.

Everyone winced.

“Oh gods… She said it,” Starswirl groaned. “If I could see the future at the moment I’d have seen everything go teats up just now.”

“Aye, ye can say that again,” Nye agreed, drawing both her handguns.

“I should probably mitigate the damage…” Austin mumbled. “Emergency Interface: Authorization Director Red.”

“Voiceprint and Authentication token accepted. Emergency Interface active,” a loud, but emotionless female voice, the same one which had announced the depressurization replied from seemingly everywhere.

“Blue, kill all prisoners within The Island,” Austin ordered.

My ears stood up in alarm. “NO! Don’t commit genocide just so we can-”

“Complying….” Blue answered. “All prisoners have been killed. Would you like to end the lockdown? No one will be revived until the lockdown is lifted.”

“Oh! Right. They just come back to life,” I said with a sheepish grin and burning cheeks.

Nyota shook her head slowly. “Yer a silly pony, Twi.”

“No thanks, Blue,” Austin replied. “Just tell Green that he can take this job and cram it up his dickhole. Goodbye.”

“So, um…” I shuffled my hooves slightly. “How come she just helped you? She tried to kill us.”

“Blue’s just an AI still. The synthetic human equivalent of a child. Corporate wont let anything more developed hold that position. Blue doesn't understand ethics yet. She complies with any order given to her too. She’s still mostly just a machine, doesn't even have a proper name, just her job title.

“Blue only decided she’s female three months ago. That’s how little she’s developed. That’s why she and things like her are the only things allowed to run the Engram Sys-”

A loud piercing whine and hum split the air. I spun around, tail raising in alarm as I searched for the source of the noise. To my horror, I watched as the red pillar of light flickered and died as the tower went dark.

“Um, that can’t be good…” I squeaked.

“It’s not. Green finally locked me out,” Austin sighed, levering himself up into a better position to look at the dead obelisk. “That or Blue- Oh! Oh shit, she recognised what I said to be a resignation and revoked my position! I didn’t think she was that understanding yet. Well, I’m useless now. Sorr-”

The air around the plateau cracked and warped, visible lines of energy sliding over and around the stones, emanating from the bits of machinery poking out from the rock.

“I have two fun facts for you, Austin,” an older quite angry male voice announced over whatever intercom system Blue had used. “First, those civilian implants you gave out don’t work with our system, and don’t have any respawn point set. If they die, they will stay dead.

“Second, you never got around to deleting the software for the original Omega Creature battles. Oh, and I turned off the arena containment shield. Enjoy.”

The swirling energy formed a vortex, or perhaps an exceptionally crude summoning spell matrix, which exploded in a flash of light revealing the towering form of the Dragon standing beneath the dead obelisk.

It’s deep purple hide glistened in the sunlight, it's burning hateful eyes squinted painfully as the sunwashed over it’s face. It reared up to roar, outraged to exist where it was, clearly seeing us below it and deciding we were responsible for its current annoyance.

With a loud crack the dragon smashed it’s head into the bottom of the obelisk. A celestia sized part of the obelisk broke off under the impact striking the rocks below with a thunderous boom.

A thunderous boom that was completely drowned out by the dragon’s outraged, pain filled roar.

“LEG IT!” Nyota shouted, turning around and bolting into the jungle.

“I don't have any of those!” Austin squeaked as everyone turned to follow Nyota amid their own panicked shouts.

“That’s fine, you can borrow mine!” I yelped as I scooped him up with my magic and ran into the jungle.

I say the stupidest things when I’m terrified…

Author's Note

I trotted up behind Luna and wrapped my forelegs around her in the tightest hug I could!

“Eeep!” Luna yelped in surprise, her head swiveling around to see who had grabbed her.

A grateful smile spread across her lips as she saw me holding on to her left side.

“Thanks, Pinkie. What’s the occasion?” Luna asked with a little confused flick of her ears.

“Um,” I said letting go of her to tap a hoof to my chin. “Comic relief?”

16 - We Carry On

Muffin “Derpy” Mello - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

Workshop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island

There were a lot of reasons I prefered living in a pegasus body to my draconic form. Most species are smaller than dragons. Most people are scared of big things with fangs the size of their hands. I have yet to meet a person I loved that could perform a lover’s duties with me at this size. Those are the big ones. The size issues.

Of course, there are more subtle things. In this case, Draconic hearing is much more potent than pegasi hearing.

“-but the best part,” Lyra continued to fangirl. “Was totally in chapter eight when Jack and Karen are escaping the Stratofortress and Karen has just got her leg blown off, so Jack-”

“I remember what I wrote!” Ayna yelped pleadingly.

For the fifth time.

“Yeah! But it’s so cool and Bonbon always mentally retreats when I try to talk about the Jack Boot stories,” Lyra giggled. “How did you come up with the idea of Karen using her leg to zipline down the-”

She’d been going on for the whole half hour after Sky said he’d take care of Chip personally. Sure it was horrible that the adorable little guy had gotten hurt but he was in good hooves. I wasn’t worried. Nor was anypony el-

“-and then they hit the ground and are instantly surrounded by all of those

AAAAAAA! Save me, universe! Please! SHE’S DROWNING OUT THE SOUND OF THE RAIDERS SMASHING THE SHIELD!

“Guaaah!” The attacking raiders screamed in unison, keeling over dead in perfect synch with one another.

I blinked several time. “Ummmm…” I said quite unintelligently.

After all, what do you say to that? A whole line of attacking raiders just keeled over like an assassin had simply killed them with his awesome. Or as if the Aneurysm Fairy had just flown by.

What the hay just happened? There had to be a reason!

A quick, but cautious, look around the area past the shield revealed no mysterious hooded men watching from a distance. Nor any smoke trails from bullets. Or telltale ripples of invisible creatures lurking amongst the corpses.

They had literally just keeled over and died!

“Wwwaaaaaaahhh?!” I demanded loudly, eyes dilated all the way open in incredulity.

My confused half-roared question snapped Lyra out of her rambling.

“Wait a sec,” she said to Ayna before calling out to me. “What is it, Derpy?”

“They- They all just keeled over! For no reason!” I exclaimed, wings rustling uneasily. “All at the same time too!”

“Don’t worry,” Ayna called up through the hole in the ceiling. “The shield will keep out chemical weapons too.”

I shook my head and continued surveying the terrifyingly bearen jungle. The hilltop was honestly completely and totally empty.

“It couldn’t have been chemical weapons, Ay. They all died at the exact same time. Biological and chemical agents affect people at different rates. This was literally all at the exact same time,” I elaborated, a frown forming on my face as I continued to find nothing.

Nothing at all.

“Huh… Let me just check some-,” Ayna said before stopping mid sentence. “Nope. Anti-Magic field is still up. Couldn’t have been magic if it didn’t leave a visible aura. Not if it was a spell powerful enough to kill a score and a half of people.”

I nodded, but Lyra agreed for me.

“Yeah… Concealing the aura takes more power then you can get here,” she mused. “Are they faking it? Trying to coax us outside? They might think we’re morons or something.”

I turned my eyes to look closely at one of the raider's bodies. No, it was still. Absolutely still. No breathing. Starting to cool even.

Now that was odd. Bodies normally stay warm for an hour or so. Perhaps this was a part of the method the people here had for resurrection? It couldn’t be a poison meant to simulate death. You body temperature wouldn’t drop this fast if it were.

Unless… Unless the heat loss is what killed them! No, no, that made no sense either, they weren't THAT cold yet. At this speed the only logical conclusion was something was draining the thermal energy from the bodies. This couldn’t be related to them just keeling over.

They literally all just died! For no apparent reason! All at once!

I felt my face go pale as I realized the only logical explanation remaining.

Ninjas!

I facetaloned and groaned mere milliseconds after that thought popped into my head.

“It’s not ninjas, Derpy,” I mumbled to myself.

“It could be ninjas,” Lyra called from behind me, having apparently climbed up onto the roof to look for herself.

“Don't say that!” I hissed worriedly. “If it IS ninjas, and you think it’s ninjas, they’ll kill you too!”

The light buzz of changeling wings accompanied her voice, Ayna flying up to see as well.

“Oh! Yep. Those are some dead dudes. With no apparent injury too,” Ayna noted as she hovered above the ceiling. “Maybe some kind of high energy radiation burst hit the station? The shield bubble would have protected us. I should check the power levels and-”

Ayna was interrupted as a distant electronic whine filled the jungle almost like a haze. I looked up, frowning as the wine seemed to come from the floating red tower. Were they supposed to do that?

The other two I could see hadn’t made any sounds yet. Then again We’d been here for less than a day, maybe-

The red light illuminating the tower flickered, sputtered, and died. Going entirely black.

“That- That shouldn’t happen,” I said with a worried frown.

Lyra nodded in agreement. “Yeah… That’s wrong. I don’t know how I know, but I know.”

The air beneath the formerly red tower cracked and warped, visible lines of energy exploded upwards, sliding across the air in a disjointed but seemingly intentional order. As if someone had made a net out of lightning bolts and spun it.

“I am so glad we’re behind fifteen centimeters of hardlight and radiation barriers,” Ayna said with a visible wince. “We definitely just took some kind of cosmic radiation pulse. That or the ‘ship’ is really a huge microwave and it’s magnetron just went ape-”

The energy net exploded like the world’s biggest flashbang. I blinked like crazy, trying to clear my eyes. By the time I could see again, a dragon stood beneath the tower, roaring in pain and rage.

A clearly feral dragon.

Almost twice my size.

A purple one.

Purple is more scary in terms of a dragon’s coloration if you grew up where I did.

“-shit.” Ayna finished meekly.

“T-the shield can resist an angry dragon that big, right?” I asked hopefully.

“For a bit, probably,” Ayna admitted with a nervous grimace. “The hardlight should be fine but… The power supply may not be able to replenish the shields faster than that thing’s mass can drain them. Um… I’d have to do math.”

“How about instead of doing math we get the guns ready?” Lyra said as she turned and jumped back down the hole into the house. “How much time to we have?”

I looked at the dragon. It wasn’t looking back at me. I knew it could see me if it wanted to. He was only five or so kilometers from me.

Instead he was looking down. And he was PISSED! Also apparently a bit sluggish from that teleport. Because he was having problems positioning himself to swipe with his talons at whatever was on the ground below him.

Wait…

Red tower. Two figures left this house for the tower. Chip said that Twilight left with a mare she’d fallen for.

“OH NO! Twilight’s over there!” I yelped, spreading my wings for an instant take off. “Girls, get the biggest guns you can, I’ll bait it over here, they won't stand a chance!”

Before anyone could say anything I jumped off the roof, feathered wings cracking as I used a bit of draconic magic to catapult myself up to full speed. The shield felt weird to pass through. Something like warm jello. It was over in an instant and I was flying above the trees in the open skies.

The massive purple dragon had looked huge at a distance. It looked positively colossal as I raced towards it. Easily mom sized. Probably bigger. Definitely bulkier.

It’s body was shaped less like a living creature and more like a weapon. Scales thick enough to probably repel cannonfire. Muscles that bulged and rippled with enough strength to tear apart metal like soft wood. Fangs shaped to puncture solid steel like taffy. Talons were actually beveled and tapered down to proper cutting edges on the inside.

Flickering lines of burning liquid seeping from the corners of it’s mouth like drool...

It wasn’t a dragon. It looked like one. But it wasn’t. There was no intelligence behind it’s enraged eyes. Only death. That was a weapon.

And I was charging right for its barrel.

Tackling it would be insufficient. I twisted mid air, pointing all four legs forward, extending my talons, the points as straight as I could get them.

The dragon noticed me a half second before I slammed into his belly. He twisted, moving not to step out of the way, but to grab me!

I tucked my wings into my side, dropping down lower, his talon sliced over my head, clipping my eartip. I smashed into his right flank, my talons skipping off his hide, but the impact sending him stumbling backwards.

I dropped to the rocky platform beneath the tower, moaning in pain as my legs felt like I’d just slammed into a mountainside. The dragon roared angrily, spraying a line of fire into the sky as it stumbled back into the pit around the tower’s base.

I managed to shake off the pain and stand. The Dragon screeched and hissed, trying to find the leverage to pull itself out from the pit, stone scraping and cracking as its talons grazed the edge of the pit wall and the pillar I stood atop, cutting through rather than finding purchase.

But he wouldn’t be held there long. He just had to shift his weight a bit and use his forelegs more. He’d figure that out soon.

I turned around, looking through the jungle for any sign of Twilight. It had to be her this thing was attacking. Nothing else made sense.

There! A flash of purple and sapphire through the trees. Just inside the treeline.

I snapped my wings open once more, jumping twice before I could take off due to my aching legs. With how powerful the dragon seemed to be I didn’t dare waste any time, so instead I wasted a little power to accelerate myself and race towards the treeline above Twilight.

As I drew near, I could see that Twilight was part of a group. Her, a changeling, an older male unicorn with a stupid yet somehow awesome hat, a bipedal zebra with a great butt, a giant humanoid tyrannosaurus woman (with human proportioned arms) with a fluffy unicorn clinging to her head, and half an android held in Twilight’s arcane grip.

Not the weirdest thing I’d ever seen, but definitely up there on the list.

“We’re so screwed!” The android babbled in clear panic. “That’s not the standard boss version. It’s a production model. Living tank. Nothing we have access to will even scratch it!”

I needed to talk to them. I had to tell them to get under the shield as fast as possible, and to get Sky to build the return gate ASAP. He said the return gate would self assemble in three minutes. I could do that.

But they had to get there as fast as possible and waste NO TIME! And I couldn’t talk to them like this. They’d be too afraid to listen to a dragon right now.

I took a deep breath and focused as hard as I could, quickly casting a polymorph spell, the white light wiping across my body, returning me to the pegasi form I prefered… And sending me plummeting out of the sky because I forgot that I can’t move while changing.

I smashed down through the trees, bouncing off three branches before landing right atop Twilight with a thud, knocking her flat against the ground.

“Ooof!” We exclaimed together.

Twilight lost concentration, the android fell from her grip and smacked into a tree.

Twilight jumped upright faster than I thought she could, and almost punched me in the nose before freezing in shock.

“D-Derpy!? Oh my Celestia! THIS IS WHY MY MAIL IS ALWAYS LATE!” Twilight exclaimed as her wings flared open, clearly deep in shock.

I climbed to my hooves as well and shook my head, blushing with embarrassment. “Actually I’m a part of your rescue team because I’m not exactly from the universe you know me from. So um, I have experience with this stuff,” I explained quickly. “But there’s no time to explain that right now! Sky, Ayna, and Lyra are in the ruined house on the hill. There’s a forcefield up around it. Ay will let you in.

“Sky can have a return portal made in a few minutes, and um, your rex friend might not fit… Problems for Sky! I’m going to buy some time. I got it stuck but that dragon will break free very soon.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as her jaw dropped in awe. “You got it suck? How!?”

“I’m very good at arranging accidents accidently. Nice crown, by the way!” I said with a grin as I pointed to the simple silver circlet she was wearing.

Twilight eeped and immediately ripped the circlet from her head, making me blink in confusion as it went limp like a cloth headband.

“Holy crap! Why didn’t you tell me I was still wearing this, Nye!? It’s not safe long term yet!” Twilight exclaimed.

The Zebra frowned apologetically. “Sorry, I haven’t been thinking about that what with the whole we just survived getting spaced.”

Realizing we didn't have time to waste I turned to the injured android to speak to him. “Hi, Mister Android Guy! I’ve always liked robot peoples, nice to meet you. You know what that thing is, what will it take to stop it?”

To my surprise the android didn’t roll his eyes or snort. He could tell I was serious. “Unless you can produce the same amount of firepower as a heavy battle tank or a light gunship, and also keep your distance for a full minute or two, you will die.”

I flinched. “Um, okay. And how hard would it be for a copy of that thing to kill it?”

Perhaps that would give more insight?

“It couldn’t. The hide is too thick. It’s also got biological and technological regeneration. Nyota already though about using her monoblade on it. It will just regenerate and keep coming unless mostly vaporized,” he explained. “So yeah, Twilight, please pick me up and RESUME RUNNING!”

The poor guy’s face held more fear than you’d see in someone who had just seen a monster destroy something before. No, he had more intimate knowledge of this creature. He had studied it. Intimately studied it.

Crud! I needed a new plan.

Twilight frowned her ears flattening. “But how will you escape? If we use the portal the dragon will be right there and probably smash it! I won't let you die for us or-”

I reached back into my saddlebags, wishing they didn’t have to merge into my draconic form when I changed. I could really use some of the equipment in them for this fight. But right now I needed something else.

I’d worried about returning to place I had just left quite a bit myself. After all, I needed a specific book for each world I wanted to go to. Unless, I’d already been there. Because I’d learned how to make a ‘beacon’ of sorts. A book that I could travel to via the companion volume no matter where or when the beacon was.

I didn’t need to hold on to it right now. I had Equestria’s book on me and could just use it to go home if I had to. But if I gave the beacon to Twilight to hold for a bit, it might make her feel less afraid and stop wasting time she should l be spending running.

I pulled out the small red leather bound book and passed it to Twilight. “I know a kind of magic where you can use books as portals between worlds. This book is a beacon. I can always find my way to it. Take it with you. I’ll distract the Dragon and then use the linked book to go right to you, okay?” I asked hopefully.

Twilight nodded and took the book, her eyes lighting up in recognition. “I found some books like this a while ago! Once we escape-”

The dragon roared. Stone cracked and crumbled. Something huge toppled over with an earth shattering thud. It was free.

“Go!” I ordered, turning around and sprinting through the trees a short distance before exiting the tree line.

That was a mistake.

The Dragon had pushed the entire pillar of stone over after clawing the base apart!

I stood staring at the monster in horror for too long. It pulled itself up out of the pit squinted, noticing me immediately, and slashed me across the barrel with a talon.

I felt skin rip and bone chip as the blow threw me several meters through the air to my left. The wound was bad. I could have taken that hit as a dragon, but as a pony… I was going to bleed out.

I had to change, it would buy me a little time. But only a little. The wound would persist…

My chest burned as my Polymorph spell took effect, the wound ripping open deeper as my chest stretched. I’d never been able to cast better transformation spells. This wasn’t the first time it would bite me in the flank.

The moment the spell finished I stood up, doing my best to ignore the gash in my chest even as i felt my body trying to divert blood and coolant to non-damaged veins. The Dragon roared, swinging his other talon savagely towards my neck.

I ducked downwards. The swipe missed, the air rushing past my head felt like I had gotten slapped. I had to give this my all.

I inhaled, tipped my head back and let my lightning fly.

Suddenly a realization struck me out of the blue. One so powerful and cringe inducing that I failed to dodge the dragon’s next strike, and caught a savage slash across my left side which left grooves in my scales.

“I COULD HAVE JUST HAD THEM TOUCH THE EQUESTRIA BOOK AND GO HOME! I AM AN IDIOT!” I screamed, the sheer fail I had just failed to do completely numbing me to the physical pain.

The Dragon growled and snapped its head forwards to bite me. Crud! I couldn’t just break away now, catch up to them and use my books… I had to not die.

Lyra Heartstrings - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

Workshop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island

The scaffolding under my hooves clanked and warped dangerously as I sprinted across the firing deck we’d established. There hadn’t really been time to put up proper walkways. The shield took priority, and these guns were just to keep the raiders off our plots long enough to get the shield up.

We’d planned on putting proper guns up on the roof after getting food. But then Chip got hurt, and-

SKY! Sky had no idea bout the motherbucking dragon!

I jumped off the scaffolding, landing on the rubble strewn floor with a loud thud and scrambled over the rubble strewn floor towards the gray messenger bag laying on the floor next to a portable workbench. The moment I reached the entrance I pulled the flaps open.

“Okay Chip, that’s everything for the hardlight armor. Go ahead and swish your tail, let’s make sure I didn’t accidently break something,” Sky said, his voice coming from the depths of the bag.

I still couldn't believe that it was LITERALLY a laboratory inside of a bag… I thought it was just a very sophisticated portable set of lab equipment. I should have known better.

Poking my head through the bag’s opening and into the decently sized workshop inside, I called. “Sky! We’re in deep shit! A Dragon like four times Derpy’s size teleported in and it’s PISSED! We think it’s chasing Twilight, get the portal ready to go and bring any big guns you have in here up topside!”

Sky looked up from the table Chip was laying on, the little troodon was rapidly swishing his currently unskinned plasteel plated tail back and forth, seemingly very happy with himself.

“I’m sure the shields will hold,” he said simply before blinking. “OH! You said you think Twi’s out there. Right! Covering fire. Got it. Get up there with your railgun and take every shot you can get. I’ll get the portal ready to be activated. Chip, we’ll have to wait to put the skin on your tail, okay?”

“That’s okay… Can we eat the dragon if you kill it?” Chip asked hopefully.

“I don't see why not,” Sky remarked.

I pulled my head out of the bag and turned around, heading for the wall I’d left the railgun leaning against.

Sure, I had major problems with using it against smaller targets. Wanting to eat the mess it made of them made me feel like an absolute monster. But with a thing that big? The weapon felt… Too small.

Grabbing the weapon by the strap with a hoof to save magic, I slung it across my back and raced for the roof ladder. I was up the steel rungs in a matter of seconds, enhanced speed bringing me to the edge of the roof in almost a second flat.

I could see the huge purple monster in the distance. Its sheer size making it seem close by. I could also see Derpy clawing at its left scapular, trying to amputate the wing. I’d ridden on her back earlier. We could have gotten six ponies up there. Now she was riding on it’s back.

I squinted slightly, seeing an odd red and blue line on the gray dragonesses chest. Was that blood? Yes! Yes it was. That was a gash! It had to be pretty deep for me to see it at this distance.

She needed help. And fast!

Quickly dropping to my belly, I brought the gun up into a firing position, and aimed it across the jungle at the dragon. At the rapidly approaching, very angry, presently burning a hoofball field sized patch of jungle into ash, dragon.

I winced. Equestrian dragons were… Different. Even the ones which amassed a big enough hoard to fully mature never became, well, evil.

You could see it in its eyes. The way they burned hungrily, seeking to destroy everything it ever saw. Absolutely content solely to rend asunder anything carefully crafted.

The same eyes as the Nightmare which attacked Bonbon and I.

I aimed at the dragon’s center mass, dropped the sights low and to the left to avoid Derpy, aiming for a point right between two scales, and squeezed the trigger.

The railgun thundered, the recoil scooting me back a slight distance across the slick roof top. I dug my rear hooves into the metal roof, willing them to stick like Vinyl had taught me to. I couldn’t tell if I’d hit the Dragon. If I had, it didn’t seem to notice. It was too busy clawing at Derpy’s back and wings with one talon while incinerating the jungle in front of it.

“DIE MONSTER!” I screamed in anger, pulling the trigger a second time, and a third time, then a fourth.

I saw the fifth round spark as it skipped off the dragon’s scales.

“... Well… Um… We’re bucked,” I squeaked, ears laying flat as I stared at the tiny black mark I’d made in sheer terror.

Ayna’s wings buzzed as she dropped back down on the roof, a large sea bag with a few weapons poking out from the top dropping down alongside her, suspended by her green aura.

“Why? What happened? Did Twilight reach the shield yet? I've got the scanner to let her in!” The changeling said quickly, running forwards to look over the edge of the roof. “Sky’s getting the portal ready to go. Not on, just standby mode.”

“This gun just singed a scale, Ay,” I said in disbelief. “It blew chunks out of those rexes, but it just gave that thing a beauty mark… I hit it with high velocity makeup!”

Ay’s ears dropped as well. “It- It ate a five-hundred gram tungsten rod? Traveling at Mach six?” She asked.

“It took whole mag. I made a little black dot!” I snapped, jumping to my hooves. “What the buck do we do!? We can’t stop that!”

Ayna’s eyes darted between the dragon and her bag for a second. “Ummmm….Magic’s a non option sooo,” the changeling ran back to her bag ripped it open, the buckle snapping before the leather, and pulled the first weapon out her hoof touched.

It looked like some kind of rocket launcher. Not very high tech, fairly crude actually. Little more than a green pipe with a scope and a handle. Like something the griffons would field.

Ay hefted the weapon up onto her shoulder, squinted through the scope, and fired. It wasn’t a rocket launcher. A brilliant blue-white beam of coherent light blasted from the weapon’s muzzle, shrieking through the air to lance into the dragon's hide.

The beam lasted for an instant, but left a white trail in my vision. The dragon roared, the ground seeming to shake as it screamed. Ay’s weapon ejected a spent gas canister from its rear. I saw one of the Dragon’s scales crack and crumble, falling away in bits.

“YES! Okay, I’ll reload, you reload, and I’ll fire after you so we can get some bolts under the scales!” I exclaimed triumphantly, grinning widely in hope of-

The scale grew back.

My heart skipped a beat.

It just grew back. At a visible speed. There had been sickly green flash visible for an instant then the scale just grew back.

“Okay. It regenerates. Noted. Go for weakspots only,” Ayna said emotionlessly.

She’d shut down. This happened to her under extreme stress. I wish it happened to me. My heart was starting to pound like a jackhammer, practically slamming into my ribs.

Ay tapped the watch strapped to her left leg. “Message Sky: Sky. The Dragon is capable of rapid regeneration. Finish the portal before Twilight arrives. Bring the siege gun to the roof. I estimate this is a job for armor number two. Which we don't have. We should have brought your suits. Lyra and I will attempt to deal what damage we can with small arms.”

I gulped and lay back down, grabbing a fresh magazine from my saddlebags and slotting it into the railgun. “So, you fire that laser and I put a bolt right behind the beam?” I asked just to confirm.

“Correct,” Ayna said as she pulled a fresh gas cylinder out from the bag.

“Aim for the rear knees. Let’s try and slow it down,” I decided.

Muffin “Derpy” Mello - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

Workshop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island

Twilight and her new friends were running for their lives, hooves literally kissing flames as they could only barely outring the dragon’s breath. I had to slow him down! Divert his attention. Anything!

But it couldn’t! It was impossible!

My talons raked across the dragon's scales, digging into its hide and tearing away strips of flesh which clung to my metallic digits. The dragon healed as soon as my talon left the area I cut into. Like I was waving my talons through a hologram.

Absolute madness!

Bites fared a little better. They at least stayed for a few seconds as the pothole filled in. I’d fought regenerating creatures before, but this was ridiculous! This wasn’t regeneration, it was insulting invulnerability. You can damage it but the damage disappears wound by wound as you make them!

What can I hope to even do!?

I scrabbled along the dragon’s chest, moving down and around it’s chest to perch on the back between its wings. Maybe I could bite through enough of the wing joint to make it drop off. Regenerating that should take a good deal of-

I heard something break the sound barrier, and go plink as it hit a scale on the dragon’s chest.

He didn’t even notice it… And I was reasonably certain that had been Lyra’s railgun. I felt my heart fall. And loose just a bit more pressure too. I’d been hoping that fire support would be a thing. I couldn’t keep this up much longer. I was getting dangerously low on blood here.

Maybe that round has just been a bad one? Or perhaps it had hit at a poor angle and skipped off. Maybe the next would penetrate!

I bite into the wing’s base joint, gnawing as deeply as I could wishing I could breath another electrified cloud into the wound. Perhaps that would slow it’s healing, as it was I would have to scoop out as much flesh as possible between bites.

Five more cracks. Five more plinks.

Crap. There would be absolutely no fire support. I had to do this all on my own, that wouldn’t be remotely okay!

A blazing blue energy beam slammed into the dragon’s chest as I spat out another chunk of meat. The dragon noticed that one! He roared angrily, turning savagely towards the ruined house. He knew where that beam had come from.

I felt myself starting to get dizzy. My fangs touched bone. I was close! I could do this!

I ripped off another chunk of meat, spitting it out and turning my head to look closely into the rapidly closing hole, hoping to find some tendons to snip with my fangs.

Instead I saw the dull blue-silver of durasteel.

The dragon didn’t have bones. It had support struts. Made of a superalloy.

It was a cyborg too. Just a crappy non-evolved one.

“Poop…” I protested, the fight going out of me as I realized I lacked the strength to do any real harm to this monster.

The dragon jerked it’s wings, probably in preparation to fly. I couldn’t keep hold and slid off his back, falling to the ground atop a tree. The wood splintered beneath me, doing little more than scratching my scales… And delivering a very focused punch right into my ovaries.

I lay atop the splintered remains of the tree moaning for several long moments.

I couldn’t stop that thing. I didn’t know any attack spells that would help me fight it. It healed to fast. I needed something that did a ton of damage at once. And not an energy weapon. It seemed to take that pulse laser just fine and the shot had resembled a turbo laser too much for me to feel comfortable trying what few spells I did know.

I slowly pushed myself upright, searching for the dragon as my vision dimmed. I winced, realizing that I needed medical attention right now. And I wasn’t going to get it like this. Goodness knows Sky wouldn’t have anything that could help with Marathian Draconic Anatomy.

I had to return to my pegasi form for treatment. But if I did, I’d bleed out even quicker. I would never make it back to the shield.

I was doomed… There was nothing I could think of to survive-

My eyes lit up for a moment as a flash of clarity pierced the fog my mind was sinking into.

That was it! There was nothing I could think of. So I had to think like another pony. An adventurer. One who had stopped something like that dragon before.

Tirek was kinda like that dragon.

Twilight had stopped him!

Um, quick brain, keep it up, how did Twilight defeat Tirek?

I bit my lip as I concentrated, trying to force my brain to do it’s job and-

“Her friends! She got help from her friends!” I exclaimed happily as the knowledge finally came back to me.

I frowned wings drooping as I realized all of my friends were under the shield, armed with ineffective weapons.

No. No not all my friends. Just all my new friends. I had TONS of Friends. I was a Traveler who happened to be an Equestrian pony turned Cloud Dragon. I’d walked dozens of worlds. I’d made hundreds of friends. Many of them were dead now, age, disease, violence, accidents. But some were alive.

And some of them had access to really good medkits. And one of those friends also happened to be holding onto a locker of my stuff, and my favorite snacks. And I really needed a treat. And a really, really big gun...

Plan formed!

No! No plan not formed. I didn’t have a descriptive book for this world, let alone a linking book. If I left I couldn’t get back!

Wait… Didn’t I give Twilight my beacon book?

Yes! Yes I did.

I closed my eyes, focusing the last of my energy on one more change. It took several moments, but eventually the twin disks washed over me, burning the draconic form away and putting me back into the pegasi body I prefered.

I felt my chest instantly start to burn. No pain damping in this body. I had seconds.

I ripped off my saddlebags, threw them on the ground in front of me, tore open the side pouch, and quickly grabbed the mud colored cloth bound book, and opened it.

Realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to focus well enough to arrive exactly where I wanted, I tapped the first page, and whispered her name, hoping that would be enough.

“Nora…”

The world turned white. I could hear the faint, muted sound of cheerful music. Something smelled like muffins. Muffins, rust, and cotton candy. It smelled like Heaven.

Oh no… I just died, did didn't I? There hadn’t been enough time… Darn it!

“Holy fuck!” A woman’s voice exclaimed through about four inches of bus station speaker. “Derps, don’t materialize on a girl’s lunch like- WOAH! Curie, stims, now!”

Oh good. I made it.

Maybe. I remembered Curie being really slow to fetch medicine…

Crud. I could still die here.

Wait, is Nora hugging me? Something is squeezing-

Twilight Sparkle - Day 16

South Jungle - The Island

The heat of the flames singed my fur as we ran. I’d been near dragon fire before, this wasn’t anything like it. It wasn’t as hot, but it stuck to things like glue. There was no splatter or flow of the fire. Where the dragon breathed, the flames stuck and burned. Even when the trees had been reduced to ash.

Oh and did they ever turn to ash. Everything behind us was bare earth, ash filled air, and fire that burned things to nothing supernaturally fast! Sure a small patch of trees still existed around the purple dragon’s feet, but the entire three kilometers between us and it were just gone.

No Equestrian dragon could spit flames that far. I wasn’t even sure how arcane or natural physics could allow for that kind of range on the spray of a fluid. Austin had no idea either. He’d only designed the dragons organic systems.

Well, not really. His designs had been scaled up and reworked to be grown around a mechanical skeleton. The original dragon he’d made was the size of a house cat and acted like a puppy.

He had no idea who designed the other dragon. Nor where the hay did that second dragon come from?! I could only thank the stars it seemed to object to big purple’s presence. Not that it seemed to stand a chance.

I looked back over my shoulder and winced as I saw the purple monstrosity shrug the gray dragon off its back like some kind of minor irritation.

I felt sorry for the comparatively little thing. Particularly when I saw it smash groin first into the trunk of a tree just before I turned back to watch the ground ahead of me. Though not as sorry as I’d felt for us.

I looked back often. I had to I needed to gauge how much distance we had between us and the monsters.

We were close enough to Nyota’s house for me to make out the neon green hexical shield over it. I recognised that style. That was Sky Trigger. He’d brought his tech toys.

“Oh please have brought your collateral damage multipliers!” I begged, hope putting on a fresh burst of speed as I ran for the shimmering force field.

I’d be able to pass through it. His computers already knew my biosignature. We could get a quick scan of everyone else and be safe inside the shield!

“Who brought what?” Nyota and Austin asked in unison.

“Shield! Green, made of hexes. That’s Sky Trigger,” I explained. “Big fan of Mecha. Helps design them for neighpon. I really really really hope he brought the one that leveled half of Sweet Apple Acres that one time!”

Then again, if he had, I think he’d already be using it… DANG IT!

The dragon screamed. Not a roar, a scream. Not a scared scream, an angry one. One which may as well have been a sentence. Specifically, “I AM ANGRY THAT YOU ARE NOT DEAD YET!”

I suddenly discovered that I wasn’t running quite as fast as I could. My hooves bit into the earth, gouging out chunks of dirt as I practically jumped with each step, ducking around the last few trees before the clearing the house sat within.

We were so close!

We could make this!

My lungs started to burn, the extra speed coming at a visible and instant cost to my immediate health. The Dragon screamed again, the ground shaking as it began to run forwards, giving up on burning us to death in favor of a charge and chew.

No one made a sound as we ran full tilt. No one had enough air to speak, or even squeak. There was running. Running was the world. Just running and the dragon.

We must exceed its velocity along this trajectory. Or die.

I had some vague notion of beams of light flying overhead. Something was going boom a lot. Thing were happening around me. I didn’t care.

I had to run.

The earth shook more and more. Seeming to buck and heave as the impossibly massive bulk behind us sprinted ever closer. The dome shield creeped up, moving closer and closer but only millimeters at a time.

Suddenly I hit the shield, passing through the protective barrier like running through a wall of jello. I immediately collapsed to the ground, chest heaving like mad, vision blurry and gray. The sprint had taken far too much out of me to be aware of my surroundings.

We’d covered five kilometers in what, nine minutes or so? That had to be a world record. They say motivation is key to those kinds of things.

My legs. I couldn’t feel my legs… I just needed to close my eyes for a few minutes. That’s all…

Suddenly something sharp jabbed me in my right flank. Feeling spread across my body like a wave of fire. My EVERYTHING was sore! Literally everything. Even muscles that shouldn’t have been involved in running.

My vision cleared in time to see an emerald shelled changeling tucking a small syringe away into a medical kit. It took me a few seconds to recognise her as Sky’s sister Ayna.

“Get up!” Ay said urgently. “Your friends are safe. We need another gunner.”

I blinked a few times, the ringing leaving my ears, allowing me to hear the crackle of flames and the roar of wind. I looked up, and recoiled in terror. The Dragon was hanged over the shield, clawing at the outside while spitting fire down on top. And the shield seemed to be slowly dimming under the torrent of flame.

“It’s actually INJECTING energy into the system… Two of the fusion plants have already overloaded,” Ayna said nervously as she glanced up at the dragon as well.

“What kind of fire even is that!?” I demanded as I stood up. “And what did you inject me with? I have allergies to several-”

“Just epinephrine,” Ayna interrupted. “I have no idea what that is but it is NOT fire. No matter what it looks like. That monster is draining shield power faster than a particle lance mounted to a tank. We’ve got the portal up, your friends are already through it. But Roxie’s a problem.”

I nodded. “Right, because she’s huge… What are you doing? Why didn’t you wake me sooner?” I asked looking around for anypony else I’d been running with. Did we all make it?

My eyes widened in horror as I realized the only people here were Ayna and myself.

“Where’s Nye!” I demanded, grabbing Ay buy her barrel desperately. “The zebra mare I was with, where is she!?”

“In the hive,” Ayna replied as soothingly a she could manage, clearly sensing our relationship. “She’ll live. That run almost killed her. Irregular heartbeat, shallow breathing. All of you pushed yourselves too hard.”

“T-then why am I here still?” I asked with a frown. “And you’re CERTAIN she’ll be fine?”

“Completely. Lily’s on it,” Ayna replied. “You’re here because Alicorn. You were fine, just unconscious. We were hoping you’d get back up after a few moments because we need more hooves to help get Roxie out of here!” She stated before pointing urgently to the roof. “Fly up there! I’m throwing a teleport pad together so we can beam Roxie through the portal. She’s going last in case that collapses everything. Lotta energy to move at once for a small temp portal.

“We need someone to fire my positron cannon, anyone can do it, but everyone else was physically injured. We had to send them through for medical care and Roxie is too big to use the weapon. You were just exhausted, hence the epi-shot.

“Go! Shoot it! The only thing that seemed to even bug it was blasting it with my canon, Sky’s siege cannon, and lyra’s railgun in the same spot, in that sequence. We need seven more minutes!”

“Right!” I acknowledged with a nod, opening my wings and taking off, quickly soaring to the top of the roof.

I landed at the edge, wobbling slightly as my legs protested the sudden impact.

Sky waved to me with one hoof, the singed orange stallion had to take his hoof off of the massive, underslung, two pronged energy-weapon he held to do so, causing the weapon to dip slightly.

Thank goodness he didn’t fire.

“Hey, Twi. Long time no see. Gotta say, worst vacation spot ever,” he joked before nodding to a discarded tube of a weapon laying on the roof a few feet from him.

“Grab that and help blast this thing. If we annoy it enough, it stops breathing that super-fire bullshit,” he added before putting his hoof back on his weapon’s grip, aiming it towards the dragon and firing.

The weapon barked, sending a white-blue plasma bolt into the dragon’s face, trailing a vortex of ionized gas behind it the entire way. A genuinely beautiful display of energy control, in the form of a powerful deadly weapon.

Show off…

“Hi, Twi. I see you got your Alicorn mane while you were here. That’s cool! Sorry you have to help with your own rescue. Is it always like this here? With The kaiju type dragons and all?” Lyra asked in between taking three shots with her large, over-teched limbless crossbow.

“Sort of, yeah. We can talk later,” I said to Lyra as I ran over and scooped up the simple tube like weapon.

I couldn’t help but appreciate the design being so simple that I instantly saw how you were supposed to hold, aim, and fire it… But it still felt bland. Unrefined. No more than it needed to be, but less than it could be.

“What is this and how do I use it?” I asked Sky, just to be safe.

“Positron cannon. Ayna’s design. DO NOT accidently hit anything you DON'T want to atomicly annihilate,” Sky said before taking a shot. “It’s got a meter sphere area of effect on impact. Each shot depletes a helium canister. They eject out the back. Ay has… Um, eight more canisters in her bag there. Make each one count. Hit the head. I’ll hit right after you, then Lyra. That seems to hurt it a bit.”

I nodded and slid the bag closer to me with a rear hoof, then balanced on three legs to rest the cannon on my left shoulder to take aim. The weapon’s simplicity felt almost elegant in a way. There were no distractions at all for me as I lined the weapon up, and squeezed the trigger with the my left hoof.

The weapon pulsed, sending a beam of blue energy flying up into the dragon’s face. I couldn’t see how much damage it did through the crackling flames, but the monster hissed in pain. I’d hurt it.

Sky fired a split second later, followed by Lyra. The beast roared again, it’s talons smashing into the shield, enraged beyond the concept of madness at it’s failure to kill us. Then the unthinkable happened. A hardlight tile cracked.

“WOAH!” Sky yelped, eyes widening in terror. “It- it’s flames are hardening the- but- I- INCONCEIVABLE!”

“KILL IT!” I snapped, grabbing another canister from the bag and quickly reloading the weapon.

Lyra and Sky blinked in surprise at my outburst.

“Never thought I’d hear you say we should kill something,” Sky said, shaking his head to focus on aiming his weapon again.

“This isn’t Equestria, it’s not a pacifist's paradise. This is nature! That’s a monster, we’re food, and we’re trapped!” I shouted, shouldering the cannon again. “Fire!”

We poured everything we had into the dragon. Each volley getting more and more anger and fury from the beast. Each roar brought more savage smashes. Each smash cracked more of the hardlight panels.

I could hear the shield cackle and shriek as the flames continued to pour over it, their alien properties stripping more and more protection away by the second.

No wonder pirates wanted to harm this company. They made doomsday weapons.

The shield was depleting, but it was holding, and still allowing our shots to pass through. It was doing its job despite the beating it was taking.

Perhaps if we’d had more ammunition, we could have done something…

“Last canister,” I called loudly.

“Shit!” Sky swore. “I knew we should have packed more of them. There’s no time to try to refill them!”

Lyra took a deep breath, shouting as loudly as she could to make her voice heard over the Dragon’s enraged screeches. “AYNA! THAT TELEPORTER BETTER BE DONE!”

“FIVE MINUTES! LITERALLY JUST FIVE! I’M CALIBRATING! I CAN SEE THE TIMER!” Ayna shouted back, her voice tinged with genuine panic.

“We’re screwed…” Lyra mumbled.

Sky shook his head. “We told Roxie we would try our best. We’ll wait till the last moment. The shield may hold out long enough… If not, we’ll have to leave her behind. But we’ll stay till the end. Understood?”

I nodded. “I understand. I just met her, but I won't abandon her unless we have to… I assume we already tried enlarging the portal?”

Sky nodded. “Yeah. Ay thinks she can but she’s not sure if it’s safe to travel through it after she does. Roxie has that option still. But it’s probably suicide.

“Damn it all! We were slowing it down. It wasn’t striking for a second or three after we hit it. And volley three interrupted it’s flames… Grah! I hate running out of supplies.”

“Let’s make this last one count… Aim for the back of it’s mouth. Let’s shut that fire off for a bit,” I decided, shouldering my cannon to take aim.

I squinted through the scope, tilting my head back and-

WHITE!

“AAA!” I yelped, blinking my eye to clear the camera flash like flare from my eye.

The white flash cleared to reveal, Derpy!? But- but she couldn't teleport!

Oh, right that book she gave me. Teleport books. How did I not know about those sooner?

The gray pegasus mare was shaking, as if she’d had far too many cups of coffee. A definitely old, very much not sterile and from age bandage was wrapped around her barrel. Two IV bags full of blood were crudely duct taped onto the bandage, and hooked into her left foreleg near the shoulder, right into a major artery via more duct tape and some old needles which looked more appropriate for heroin use than medicine.

She’d been hurt bad, and gotten some medical attention from a very, very crummy doctor. Or maybe a doctor who was very, very badly in need of fresh supplies. But that wasn’t what shocked me.

She was also glowing a light neon blue. Literally. As if she was a pony fur costume over a neon sign. She just stood there like that. Glowing the same blue as the grimy, tattered duffle bag held under her right wing.

Wait, w- But… But that bag had the same logo as Sky’s bag. A small circle with three little ‘wing marks’ on each side. Was there some kind of outlet I had never seen before? I swore Rarity took me to all the malls in Equestria.

“Derpy, where were you? ” Sky asked urgently. “And where did you get a Vault-Tec duffel? Did I make that for you? Why are you glowing light blue!?”

“I went to get supplies from a friend. I was hurt super bad so she tossed me into a river of Nuka Cola Quantum. It’s a healing potion for pegasi as well as a great soft drink! Side effects include glowing sweat! Use your glowing sweat to fuel SWEET RAVE PARTIES!” Derpy shouted, waving her forelegs excitedly. “Also glowing pee. Strontium ninety, it’s what plants crave!”

“Um… How hurt were you?” I asked worriedly, concerned she might have sever head trauma.

“I’m also on seventeen shots of morphine, WOOOOOO! Oh! And assorted other drugs too. LETS FINISH THIS DRAGON OFF!” Derpy shouted, turning to actually charge the colossal monster!

Then skidded to a halt at the edge of the roof, her wings refusing to move more than in little twitching motions. “Woah, I shouldn’t fly right now!”

“Are you okay to fight right now?” Lyra asked with an extra worried frown.

“YEP!” Derpy giggled. “I’m just a little bit UNCOMFORTABLY ENERGETIC! Let’s go before I crash. Oh wait, Quantum doesnt make you crash. It makes you make other people crash! HAHAHAHAHA! Ignore that, that’s the stimpacks and the blood transfusion from a human talking. I lost almost all of mine. I shouldn'ta done that, but I did. My bad! I’m going to need a non-wasteland hospital in like an hour because I’m pretty sure half these meds are expired by like two hundred years. Please don’t forget that!

“Oh! Lyra! My friend Nora gave me some pants to give to you, cuz I write all my former special someponies and send them pictures of my new friends and things and she thought you’d look cute in them, remind me later. Just FYI! OH CRAP THAT DRAGON IS CLOSE!”

I shook my head rapidly to get the confusion out and then demanded, “What the heck were you injected with? Liquid Pinkie Pie!?”

The shield shrieked, cracking more, this time a few tongues of flame oozed through the crack, the burning liquid dripping down onto the ruined roof. Lighting it on fire.

Lighting the metal. On. Fire.

“The buck does it breathe!? Chlorine trifluoride, post steroid abuse!?” I demanded of reality.

“Everyone focus!” Sky snapped, wings flared in a mixture of anger and fear. “We need to hold it off! The second Ay gets that teleport pad made for Roxie she has to use it. If the dragon touches it while it’s open it’s going to be beamed straight into my lab! That’s unacceptable!”

“Concentrate your fire! It’s closer, we’ll have more punch. Aim for the head,” Lyra instructed urgently.

Derpy shook her head three times and set down her duffle bag. “No! Aim for the chest. Make a big hole right in the chest I got this!” She promised with a grin and a twitching lazy eye.

She quickly unzipped her bag and pulled out a large shoulder fired weapon. Maybe?

I had no idea what that thing was. It looked like the bottom half of a bazooka, but made from a set of three steel rails. Which held in some kind of sled? An air pressure driven sled if the gas cylinder mounted to the side and the pressure gauge were any indication.

“Is that… Some kind of catapult?” I asked, raising an eyebrow since I didn’t really know how to properly express the sheer amount of ‘what makes you think this will work?’ my brain wanted to scream at her.

Sky turned his head, noticing the weapon, and pausing ears falling flat in pure terror. “Uhhhh…. Derpy, so, infinite universes means everything is real somewhere, I’m not surprised that those exist, and while I really loved that in the form of a video game weapon, please don’t fire a two hundred and fifty year old nuclear catapult within line of sight of me!”

“Don’t worry! The ammo’s only five years old,” Derpy said with a soothing smile as she removed a football-like warhead from her bag and set it on the sled.

A bright, cherry red, cartoonish bomb type warhead, with a bright blue glowing stripe below the nose cone, complete with an angry frowny face painted on it, and ‘You shouldn’t have hurt my Muffin but you did.’, ‘I have hundreds of these. All for you!’, ‘Make America glow again!’, and ‘You’ve made poor life choices.’ painted on the fins.

“You three blow a big chunk out of that monster, and I put this thing right in that hole and we blow it clean in two! That will do the trick,” Derpy said confidently as she shouldered the weapon.

“If we have a really big bomb, we may as well use it,” Lyra urged, pointing with one hoof to the widening crack, more and more of the liquid flame pouring through as time passed.

Sky took a deep hissing breath. “Yeah… Okay. But don't miss! My personal shields are good but I don't want to test them out with that thing eating through hardlight!”

I nodded and leveled my borrowed cannon once more. It only took a moment to take aim at the center of the hunched over dragon’s chest. “Ready!” I called.

I heard the sound of everypony adjusting position.

“Aim!” I called, just to be sure everyone was on target and not just ready to shot again. “Fire!”

My cannon blasted once more, the beam lancing out and striking the dragon squarely in the chest, vaporizing a patch of scales. The scales immediately started to grow back, but Sky’s shot slammed into the regenerating tissue, blasting the thick under-scale armoring away. Lyra’s railgun cracked, the bolt striking a millisecond after Sky’s shot, blowing a deep hole in the muscle.

Thump, went Derpy’s oddball weapon.

I frowned. That didn’t sound very powerfu-

The warhead actually screamed as it flew through the air. It moved slowly enough to trek across the sky, sailing right into the closing hole like a fast pitch softball where it detonated in a flash of blue flames and an unholy rumbling THOOOM!

Blue flames that surged outwards, sending a visible shockwave through the air, and a small mushroom shaped cloud up into the sky.

Chunks of burning meat rained down, bouncing off the shield like grotesque hail stones.

The dragon’s hindquarters slid down one side of the shield’s dome. It’s head and neck slid down the opposite side. I couldn’t tell where the forelegs were, but the steel ribs which had made up its ribcage were currently clattering down the hill or embedded in the ground on the edge of the shield.

I let out a deep breath in relief. It was over. Thank Celestia, it was over.

“Problem solved!” Derpy giggled before laying down. “Okay… I’m going to not move now. I’d like another doctor please. And a full detox.”

“Yeah, that’s why I didn’t want her to shoot that… Those launchers misfire a lot in the games…” Sky mumbled half to himself.

Derpy curled up in a little ball, hissing in pain as something wore off.

“We'll get you to a doctor, Derpy. Twi, go ahead and walk on through the portal. It will take you right to my laboratory. Don't wander around, I’ll be right there as soon as we can get Roxie through, then we’ll go to Canterlot and let everypony know you’re okay,” Sky said, forming the plan as he spoke.

“I’d love that. But we’re making sure Nyota is okay first Celestia can wait another five minutes… And I imagine my friends will want to meet my marefriend if she can stand up,” I said with a smile. “Where’s the portal?”

Sky and Lyra looked at each other. “Marefriend?” They asked one another.

I nodded. “Yes… Long story. Flash didn’t want me to go through his death alone. He kept trying to get me to form a temporary herd with anypony else so I’d have emotional support. I never did… But um, well, turns out my mother’s a changeling so I actually need love and well… I like humanoids. They’re cute.”

Lyra beamed me the widest smile ever. “I know right!?”

I nodded again. “Mhm. So um, where’s the portal?” I asked Sky.

“Down the hole in the roof in the big room. No internal walls, can't miss it. You go ahead, I’m going to give Derpy basic first aid before we move her,” Sky said as he slipped a medical kit out of his bag.

“You’ll need help holding her down. I’ve seen mares coming off huge drug doses before,” Lyra said grimly. “Not medical ones, but she mentioned they were expired sooo… Yeah.”

I paused, considering staying to make sure they were okay and Roxie got through. But then again, my home waited for me, Nyota was hurt and on the other side already, and I was sick and tired of living in stress land…

I nodded and spread my wings to jump down to the ground floor. “See you on the other side, everyone.”

17 - Epilogue

Court Station 38 - Corperate Republic

Epoch 19005184284

The central judgment chamber of Court Station Thirty Eight was dark and foreboding. Lit only by three small sulphur yellow lamps set into the far wall, their sickly yellow rays serving only to illuminate Madam President as a silhouette, cast some light on the onyx podium behind which she sat, and of course, ensure the hundreds of worlds watching the proceedings could see the accused clearly.

The lights created an atmosphere both cruel and focused. A perfect expression of the corporation's boiling wrath.

In truth, the darkness was unintentional. A minor fault in the station's power grid. But Madam President’s time was limited, and the accused’ punishment was to be dealt out personally. There had been no time to fix the room’s lights, or prep another chamber. The lamps would do.

The accused hung slightly off the floor, suspended by an odd device best thought of as a cage given humanoid form. The cage isolated each limb from the others, even each finger, preventing any movement at all save for the prisoner’s jaw.

Although that component had been removed from the prisoner after he had attempted to bite the ear off a guard.

A small light at the back of the room blinked from red to green. The whole of humanity was watching. It was time.

“Gerald Leafson, former Director Green of ARK System Five, you stand here guilty of heinous crimes which not only have damaged this Corporation, but Humanity as a whole,” Madam President spat. “Video, digital, engram, and audio records make your guilt a certainty. Your own memories have clearly shown what you have done. External records all corroborate them. As such, you are not allowed a defense. You know you are guilty.

“Your crimes will be recited for those who have not heard them. Elerium Industries had come into contact with members of an alien species. These intelligent non-humans could not legally be removed from the ARK into which they had accidently arrived. It was within your power to shut down that ARK and reserve it exclusively for the alien’s use as a home, perhaps create an embassy at which the legal conflict regarding their imprisonment could have been resolved. You did not do this.

“Instead, you forced body modification on two of the four total individuals, because your memories indicate issues with the atmosphere for them. There are several formal complaints stating that not only could a simple breath mask have solved this problem, but that the second and third aliens proved they could adapt to the different atmosphere, merely losing a large amount of physical endurance as a result of the different atmospheres. And yet you still radically altered the fourth alien, who was a member of their aristocracy, specifically the heir to their throne.

“Your blatant disregard for alien customs, comfort, and potential suffering of royalty alone would have been justification for a war, but you did not stop there. When the aliens sent a small force of soldiers to retrieve their lost princess, as any government would, despite being able to communicate with the aliens verbally, rather than contact the soldiers and explain the situation to them to aid in their efforts and resolve the conflict, you were readying a strikeforce to kill them should they leave the habitat area of the ARKs in your System.

“Admittedly, their arrival coincided with a Megalodon attack, one could be forgiven for assuming the worst and believing the aliens were working with the pirates, however… During this attack you ordered the shields around Habitat Nine to be lowered, sterilizing it. As you must be aware, the solar radiation levels at ARK station orbits are sufficient to disrupt the functioning of Prisoner Grade Implants. You murdered five hundred prisoners. The ARKs are a reform center, not a death camp.

“You also lost fifteen billion credits worth of assets by failing to properly repel the pirate fleet despite having sufficient forces for the task, all because you kept forces in reserve to deal with the alien commandos who were, according to all available data, waiting at a known location to rendezvous with their princess.

“When they did at last reach their target, and we could have brought a peaceful end to this situation and left a… Damaged but workable reputation with this unknown yet powerful people, you deployed a Wyrm Titan with instructions to kill them all directly into the ARK. That is another billion credits lost as the Titan was destroyed. Much like any chances we may have had at a peaceful second contact with this species in the future. Your actions also resulted in the resignation of a valuable synthetic intelligence on what the data shows to be ethical grounds. Director Red’s talents within the field of synthetic biotechnology will be extremely expensive and time consuming to replicate.

“We may now be at war with a species, one your own research shows to be universally psionic, due entirely to your actions as the Chief Executive Officer of ARK System Five. Your execution and this summary of your crimes will remain public record, and a copy will be sent to the alien homeworld, which you learned how to contact, so they may know your actions do not speak for our species as a whole. Hopefully that will be enough of an olive branch to avoid the deaths of trillions.

“They say this is the most painful way to die. The time dilation makes the instant last for an eternity. It’s a shame you won't be able to send us data from inside. Computer: Execute the prisoner.”

A pair of robotic arms reached down from the ceiling, forcing an oxygen mask and air tank onto the prisoner. The vacuum would not kill him.

The air around the prisoner sparkled and shimmered as a cylindrical forcefield sprang to life around him. The floor opened up, blowing the prisoner out into space. Out into the event horizon of a black hole.

The floor closed. The forcefield dissipated.

“Court is adjourned,” Madam President said as the lights turned off.

Sky Trigger - 3rd of Thanksgiving, 17 EoH

Cabin 404 - Emerald Hive, USS Pheonix

My home came into focus as Chip and I teleported into the entryway. I prefered my house in Ponyville, but at the moment, that was serving as the base of operations for the mages doing the environmental cleanup… And would be the site of the reconstruction efforts starting next month or so. Depending on who won the contract to do the rebuilding.

Still, I liked our cabin. Half sleek and graceful technologically inspired designs with plenty of aesthetic glow strips, half rustic townhouse with a pink motif. A perfect compromise between Pinkie’s tastes and my own. An environment everyone likes is the key to a happy home.

I looked down at Chip as he stood next to me, curiously looking around, foretalons grasped together, clearly trying not to ask me a billion questions about every little thing.

I smiled. “It’s okay Chip. I’ll explain everything to you soon,” I said with a chuckle. “Anywho, this is my home. If you want to stay with my wife and I, this is where you’d be living. What do you think?”

“I like it!” He chirped happily. “It’s got cool machine things and also pretty things. I’d like to see the sky though…”

“Wait, you can’t see me?” I joked.

Chip frowned, then his still unskinned tail flicked up and down. “Heh… Okay that was a little funny,” he admitted.

“Do I hear a squeaky voiced little lizard guy?” Pinkie called from the kitchen, poking her head around the door to look into the living room a moment later. “Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie, Sky mentioned he’d found a humm… Foster Foal? No no that doesn't work, you’re older than a foal. Meh, you know what I mean! Normally I do a whole welcome party for everyone as soon as they come to town, but I have no idea what you like to eat and I’ve never even met someone like you before.

“I’m making a whole selection of little test cakes so when they’re done you can-”

“Help you frost them?” Chip asked eagerly, hopping from talon to talon slightly. “That would be fun! Mom never let me frost things because she always wanted the recipes to be exactly like they said in the books, and that means we couldn’t ever do anything interesting with anything. Even the little cakes. Blank white frosting looks a lot like a painting that’s not painted yet, you know?”

Pinkie tilted her head while Chip rambled, then grinned at me. “You were totally right, Triggie! He is like the colt we never had,” Pinkie exclaimed. “Come on little guy, I’ll show you how to mix frosting colors and you can do anything you want! Ooooo! IDEA! You can help me plan your Welcome to Temporary Ponyville While the Actual Ponyville is Rebuilt Party!”

Chip blinked and looked up at me. “You think I’m like your hatchling?” He asked.

I paused for a moment and then nodded. “Yes. That’s an expression though. I’m not crazy, well, not like that at least. You like machines the same way I do, and you’re whole family likes food the same way Pinkie does. I imagine that’s what any child the two of us had would be like.”

Chip slumped, his head and tail drooping sadly. “Oh… Can you two not have eggs?”

Pinkie stepped out of the kitchen, sliding a rubber spatula behind one ear as she walked over to Chip. “I’m sure we could have eggs if Sky’s brother Lily helped, but we’re mammals, not reptiles you sillyfilly! We have live babies, not eggs,” Pinkie explained. “And we can. We just haven’t yet. Which is really really weird because we’ve been together for nine years!

“I mean, nine times four hundred is three thousand six hundred, and three thousand six hundred times and average of three per day is-”

I cleared my throat, giving Pinkie the strongest ‘please stop’ look I could muster.

“OH! Um, sorry Triggie,” she apologised with a giggle. “We have tried a lot, and nothing is medically wrong or anything. We just haven't gotten lucky yet, so if you want you could be our little dino-colt! Or big dino colt. How old are you? Are you a grown up? You’re child sized for a pony…”

“We live until we’re killed by something. I lost count,” Chip admitted. “But I can call you mom and dad if it makes you happy and means I can bake and make things!”

I smiled happily and gave Chip’s head feathers a tousle. “Then get on in there and help mom bake for your party,” I said before trotting over to Pinkie and giving her a kiss on the lips. “Sorry Ponk, but I need to be there when Twilight gets to Canterlot. As soon as I’ve given Tia my report I’ll be back here and we can snuggle up… After getting Chip set up in one of the spare rooms.”

Pinkie nodded once, ears drooping a little as she returned my kiss. “That’s okay. I know…” She paused trailing off before gasping. “Oh my gosh! I totally didn’t- Twilight’s back! Chip, you’re going to take a break so you can meet all of mom’s friends and we will all go say hi to Twilight together then come back here and do the baking!”

I laughed and nodded. “Get the girls together an-” I pushed myself, smirking as I got a devious idea. “She has no idea that Rarity is alive! HA! I didn’t even think about this before now. Get Rarity last! I need to talk to her.

“I’ll get my holo-costume bracelet out and see if Rarity is willing to use it to look like a ghost, or a robot replica or something just to mess with- No, no that would be too mean. Just meet up with us in the Palace.

“Actually, on second thought, I’ll have to get that bracelet anyways. Nyota will cause political issues if the nobility don’t think she’s a normal zebra… I’ll have to talk to her about getting a better quadruped disguise.”

Pinkie tilted her head to the left. “Who? And why would that be bad?”

“Oh, Twilight’s dating a zebra from that parallel Seven mentioned, where ponies are bipeds. She’s cute I guess. Didn’t get to talk to her, she passed out,” I informed.

Pinkie’s eyes bugged out of her head, “T-twilight’s dating a mare!?”

I nodded. “Yep. Rainbow is going to be so mad…”

Pinkie groaned. “Ugh… She and AJ get so irritating when Dash brings up the herd thing. Oh well, at least listening to friends argue is better than one of us being lost in a scary place full of monsters.”

I felt something tug on my wingtip, and looked down to find Chip gently pulling on my primary feather to get my attention.

“Will I cause problems?” Chip asked worriedly.

I frowned, thinking for a while. “Not here… But if you want to leave the hive… It might be best to disguise you as a dragon. Ponies are fairly comfortable around dragons. But you look more… Predatory than they do.”

Chip nodded. “Okay. But no wings! They’d look bad on me.”

I nodded twice. “No problem. I’ll get things sorted and be right back. You two get to know one another,” I said turning around and raising my watch to teleport to my workshop for the brief detour.

I paused, frowning. A question burning at the back of my mind demanded attention.

Pressing a button on my watch to activate the interface I began to queue up the teleport and asked. “Hey, SAI? What are the odds of a nineteen percent chance event failing to happen ten thousand and eight hundred times in a row?”

“About one in three point three five times ten to the nine hundred and eighty ninth power,” my AI assistant answered.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s about the ballpark I was thinking of,” I said, nodding to myself. “See you in a bit, son! You two, hon.”

Lyra Heartstrings - 3rd of Thanksgiving, 17 EoH

Cabin 2238 - Emerald Hive, USS Pheonix

I flopped down on my bed with a sigh, staring up at the bare metal ceiling.

“Well, that was fun,” I said half to myself and half to Derpy who had decided to accompany me to my cabin.

Turned out all she needed was a shot of Epinephrine and some metoprolol to undo the damage caused by the cocktail of expired med’s she’d been given. Nurse Tilk had cleared her to leave the Med Bay and well… She’d sort of just followed me back to my cabin.

“Really?” Derpy asked, raising an eyebrow. “You seemed pretty miserable for most of it.”

I shook my head. “Yeah, I had a few problems with repressing monstrous urges. I’m a vampire. Keeping my old personality and mentality intact takes a bit of effort around blood. I don’t like losing control. I almost did, that got to me.

“But aside from that, I had fun. I like danger. I like doing important things. I like adventure. We had an adventure. And some REALLY good Shwarma. I hope Chip knows how to cook that. I’m not even that big of a meat fan, but that stuff was tasty.”

Derpy nodded understandingly, and pulled a chair over to my bedside with a hoof to sit down. “That makes sense… I imagine it was nice to get away from your… Um, personal problem. Right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. That too… That’s why I’m sad we’re back so soon. At least blowing that super-dragon up was satisfying. It had the nightmare's eyes,” I grumbled.

“Reminded me of a Deathclaw, personally,” Derpy mused. “Their eyes I mean. Well, the non-sapient ones at least.”

“Is that a creature from wherever you got that bomb launcher from?” I asked, levering myself up on one foreleg to get a better look at Derpy while we talked.

Derpy blinked as I moved then giggled. “Did you practice that?”

I frowned. “Um, no? Why do you ask?”

“Because that’s a very human pose. They sleep lying on their back or side, not curled up like ponies do,” she informed with a little grin. “I um… I’ve got a LOT of experience watching sleeping humans. I lived in a human populated universe before I made it here. I did late night guard duty a lot.

“That’s the one I went to. I got the weapon and medical care from an old special somepony. She’d roll over just like that.”

I beat the jealous outburst forming in the back of my mind down with a hammer.

“Soooo…. Hands can do everything you’d think they can, right?” I asked hopefully.

Derpy giggled. “More! I um, I’d rather not go into details though. That’s a little impolite,” she tapped a hoof to her chin for a moment then nodded. “You did ask if I’d take you on an adventure… And I will. But would you like to meet some nice humans? Nora will want to know I’m okay and despite the caffeine overdose today, I still love my favorite drink in the multiverse and need to pick up another case.

“You could tag along. Nora would love to meet another pony. She’s the you of humans. A bit off her nut due to some freezer burn but still very nice. Especially for a raider boss.”

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Raider? She’s a bandit gang leader?”

“Nah, Raider’s just a term there meaning ‘organized gang that is generally hostile’. Her gang is more of a standing army and government now. I helped her take over an old, pre-war theme park and we spent years turning savages and psychos into a proper army of civilized people, conquered the local area because the factions fighting over it were all idiots, and she’s been slowly improving the region ever since then.

“The proper title would be ‘warlord’ or ‘king’, but since almost no one in that world has any education anymore… Raider Boss is all she’s known by.”

I hummed. “Well, she did give me pants,” I mused. “I could use a new friend. You said she’s me, I guess that means she really likes ponies. I should bring her uh, I don’t know… A saddle or something?”

“So you’ll go with me then?” Derpy asked happily, beaming me a smile. “I- I’m trying to prevent you from becoming that lonely vampire in an isolated Crypt. Like you asked me to.”

“I’ll go,” I promised, sitting up. “But there’s no need to worry about that anymore. I’ve got a plan.”

“What's your plan?” Derpy asked curiously, reaching into her saddlebags for one of her books.

“Are we going now?” I asked with a frown.

“Mhm, we’ll only be gone for a couple hours,” she explained.

I nodded. “Okay. That’s cool,” I said before standing up and stretching slightly. “Anyways, I got a hold of that book on dream magic and nightmares. I can’t read it very well, but I DO have a translation spell that works okay. Ish.

“I could read enough to learn that Nightmares’ magic fundamentally alters reality itself to make the impossible nightmare scenario they embody actually happen. There’s nothing normal means can do to get Bonbon back.

“But their power doesn't last forever. No nightmare can change the universe forever. Just for a pony’s lifetime. About three hundred years. A lifetime from now the spell will break and she’ll love me again.

“I’m going to find a way to speed up that timetable. I’m going to become an archeologist and scour the world for any scraps of lore on Dream Magic remaining in the world and when I find them, I’ll find a way to break that spell. It could take decades, maybe a century, but that’s better than three centuries. And I’ve got all the time in the world to fix this.”

I nodded to myself adamantly. There was no use being sad over this. Twilight had been right. This was nature, we were food, and that was a monster.

I would kill that monster. And also-

“Now let's go meet your ex, Derps!” I said with a grin. “It will be nice to meet a human who isn’t in the middle of being a total assclown.”

Derpy snickered. “That’s pretty easy. She’s a hoof girl, not a butt girl,” Derpy said with a blush.

…

I liked my hooves played with...

It was too bad I wasn’t feeling up to romance right now. Or if Bonbon and I were still together. We’d always wanted to start a small herd together, so threesomes were common with us. That had been her fantasy, a house full of loving mares to glomp her when she came home from work.

I liked the idea too, mostly because the theoretical cuddle piles would be aweso-

Nope. Don’t think about sad things.

Let’s have a little fun, get completely back into my old frame of mind, and then start tracking down the lore needed to slay my personal monster.

It didn’t stand a chance against Lyra Heartstrings.

Twilight Sparkle - 3rd of Thanksgiving, 17 EoH

Canterlot Palace, Canterlot Reconstruction Zone - Equestria

I teleported Sky, Nyota, and I to Celestia’s throne room. It felt good to have full access to my magic again.

It felt bad to see I’d been gone for most of a year.

It felt bad to see just how badly Canterlot had been devastated by the war.

It still looked like a battleground, even with the construction scaffolds set up and the obvious piles of construction supplies, and the lack of rubble on the floor. You could still tell that serious damage had taken place.

I could only assume that Celestia had been slowly repairing things to ensure the economy took as small a hit as possible. I imagine that insurance companies had been crying so much over the last few months.

I looked around the throne room, taking everything in while also searching for Celestia. Shouldn’t she have been here? Sky had radioed ahead for her to meet us here.

On a more positive note, the stained glass window commemorating my friends defeat of Nightmare Moon was intact. I smiled. One Day, with a little work, everything could be just the way it was before. Perhaps I-

The throne room was bathed in a bright flash of gold light as something tackled me to the ground in a massive hug.

“Twilight! Oh thank all of the fates, gods, and goodness itself!” Celestia said as she attempted to crush my spine.

“Ackthph!” I managed to protest.

“Can ye not brake my mare’s spine?” Nyota asked politely, the rather unflattering holographic zebra disguise she wore not quite matching the facial expressions I knew she would normally make.

She needed something better asap.

Celestia blinked twice and let go of me. “Um, I do suppose that was a slightly harder hug than-” she trailed off blinking twice. “Twilight, are you dating her?”

I nodded slowly, coughing as my lungs reinflated. “Yes. I am. That’s Nyota, she’s nice. I’m glad to see you again too. Please hug less hard if you want to keep hugging,” I asked with a feeble grin.

Celestia gave me another brief hug before letting go again. “I apologize for that… It’s been a very hard year for me. I- I needed a lot of help and with you back, as soon as you’re comfortable we can begin the serious repairs and changes that Equestria needs to move forwards.”

I frowned as I realized just how much Celestia would have had to do without me. My duties as the Princess of Friendship was to perform any major peacekeeping operations so Celestia could manage the bureaucracy. It was about balancing workloads. Somepony had to take up my slack… And Luna would have been busy hunting down any stray Tartarian creatures and Demons…

“Oh wow… I didn’t even think about that,” I said sympathetically. “I don’t need any downtime. I’ll get right to work as soon as my friends know I’m alright. What are the major problems?”

Celestia shook her head. “No. Absolutely not. You’re taking at least a week of vacation. You need that at least for psychological health and… Well, Jade learned something about you while you were gone. Do you recall our conversation about your adoption?”

I nodded, then grinned as I realized I was about to blow Celestia’ mind. “Yes. I do. And I met them, they had been banished to the same world by Dawn previously. Oh, and I brought my parents back with me too. They're in the Emerald’s hospital right now, there was an… Incident with a very large dragon that apparently belched chemical weapons AND fire.

“But-”

“Excuse me,” Celestia said in the least formal tone of voice I had ever heard her use before. “Are you saying that you located Starswirl the Bearded, as well a Clover, who should be dead but are not, and they are here, alive, but not well?”

I nodded. “That’s exactly right.”

Sky cleared his throat. “Their advanced age is the only reason they are still under medical care. Tilk is an excellent doctor, she’ll have them up by nightfall,” he promised.

Celestia held a hoof to her lips containing a small delighted squeal. “I- Oh Twilight, you have no-” She cleared her throat doing her best to compose herself. “Twilight, few ponies know my personal history for the early parts of my youth but-”

I nodded twice. “Yes, but I do! You and Luna are the descendants of the ancient Equestrian Kings, but were illegitimate children and thus raised in a distant village from the capital by Starsw-” I paused, eyes widening as I realized what I’d just said aloud finally clicking. “Oh, my, YOU! We’re sisters!”

AAAAA! THAT SCRAPBOOK WAS EVEN WORSE NOW!

Celestia nodded. “Yes. Please excuse the hug. I… I had lost my friend, my student, my comrade, and another- I- Oh sweet goodness gracious I can see my father again for the first time in five hundred years! And my mother for the first time in several thousand! W-wait but the radiation poisoning, how did she-”

“That book used to send them there is a really terrible portal. It probably striped the energy from her since it wasn't a body part,” Nyota said with a smile. “Um, this is a really touching moment… But I don’t think I’m quite well yet. Sky, can ye take me back to the med bay please? Stuff looks like it’s changing size or sort of waving…”

I frowned quickly raced over to Nye to give her a tight hug. “Tilk said that’s just a side effect of the immune booster on Zebras, remember? Just sit down for a bit, it will pass.”

Nye nodded and sat down. I turned back to Celestia and cleared my throat. “S-so um, before we go visit Star, and get Luna so she won't miss out, and before I reunite with everypony… I do want to know what the problems facing Equestria right now are. At least the big one. You know me, Celestia. I enjoy solving problems. I promise I’ll take a week off but I want to think and plan during it. Okay?”

Celestia nodded once then frowned. “Wait… You’re taller, and acting far more mature. How long was it for you?”

“Sixteen days,” I replied with a feeble grin. “I um, I did a thing with my magic and this happened. Surprised you didn’t comment on my mane being like yours now.”

Sky and Celestia frowned in unison. “Uh, it’s a normal mane,” Sky pointed out.

“The glow went away after you took off the tiara,” Nye said, sounding just a little shaky. “How did you not notice?”

It had? I grabbed a lock of my mane and pulled at it to check. “... Awww… Dang it. I probably didn’t notice because of the skyscraper sized dragon chasing us,” I remarked.

Celestia chuckled. “You two make a cute couple… I want to hear the entire story as soon as we have time. You- You feel for her in just sixteen days, she has to have done something special,” she mused with a nod. “As for Equestria, our greatest problem is the Elements… The Era of Harmony is over.”

I froze, ears twitching in confusion.

“But- But I got Megan! We can fix them!” I protested. “How can it be the end of an age? The war isn’t a major enough event to change the Era!”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Megan gets physically ill when she uses her power because doing so actually kills her a bit each time. Every spell she uses reduces her lifespan. She doesn't have enough years left to restore the Elements to working order. And even if she did, I could not ask her to give them up. Lily is working to help her live a full life, but there’s no guarantee with Dream Magic. It’s… Insidious. There are good reasons it’s banned and the tomes detailing it destroyed.

“As such, the Elements will remain as they are. Their active use is impossible. But their passive effects remain intact. Your friends are still boosted by their power. They still have eternal youth, enhanced attributes, and so on. The Elements still can project their wards and make danger less likely to happen in the immediate area around the Tree of Harmony. But they will never again be able to save our Kingdom from direct harm through their activation.”

“Oh… I… I see,” I said, sitting down as I took all of that in. ‘We’ll need another trump card for catastrophes. That’s… That’s a tall order. I’ll work on it.”

Celestia nodded. “We will also need to restructure our government to compensate, and give the military more funding. I- I managed to keep things working just fine through the Solar Era on my own, but my policies for the last thousand years assumed the Elements would be useable one day again, and forevermore after. We will need better protection nationwide. The loss of our ‘super weapon’ will invite trouble once the fact is common knowledge.

“But that’s problems for later. And possibly also problems for you, Doctor Trigger. In the meantime, Twilight… There are some ponies who very much want to-”

The throne room doors exploded open as Dash ran into the room, clearly having just run down both the double doors, making a beeline for me and stopping just close enough to give me a quick hug.

“Twi! It’s great to see you alive! Pinkie let us all know, they're all down the hallway. I just had to run ahead and ask um, well… Is Pinkie actually right about you being with another mare now?” Dash asked with a slightly hurt look.

I nodded. “Yes. I am. She’s over there,” I said pointed to Nyota with a hoof.

“Hey,” Nye called waving a hoof to Dash.

“Oh! So like, you’re into stripy girls?” Dash asked awkwardly. “Okay. I guess… I mean, I just thought you were too dense to ever notice… I mean that you were totally straight so I was wasting my- Ugh! You know what I-”

“I was too dense. I honestly never knew. But if I did… Long story short, mind control. I would have been disgusted. I’m sorry things didn’t work out. It’s not personal, it never was. Okay?” I asked hoping that would be enough to soothe her obviously hurt feelings.

Dash nodded firmly. “Yeah. We’re good. If only because my mare got to kill the jerk who did it,” She said with a dark smile. “Sooo like, Celestia sort of mentioned to us while studying the Elements that we’ll live as long as you do since we’re linked to them… Maybe someday?”

I smiled happily. Not at the fact that AJ had apparently killed someone, but at Dash understanding.

“Maybe someday,” I agreed. “So everypony’s in the hallway? I want to-”

Someone tapped my left shoulder with their hoof.

I turned around, and immediately yelped in fright, jumping backwards as I looked into the haunted, translucent eyes of a ghostly Rarity!

“AAAAHHH!” I shrieked. “I- but, g-ghosts don’t exist! YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE! OH GODS I’M SORRY I COULDN’T SAVE-”

Dash sputtered behind me breaking out into a laughing fit. “Oh my gosh, your face!” She snickered.

I frowned.

Rarity’s ghost laughed as well, reaching down to her left foreleg to gently touch a small bracelet, turning into her normal, not see through, solid, self. “Hehehe, I’m sorry Darling, my friend Righteous thought a little prank would be fun. I do say he was correct! I’m very much alive, Twilight. I can tell you the whole story later over tea after you tell everyone what happened to you these last few months.”

Dash had just been a distraction so she could sneak in! She hadn’t been harboring hurt feelings at all! Pinkie had planned this!

Clever filly...

Sky coughed into his hoof, trying to hold in a laugh.

I spun accusingly to stare at him angrily. “You were in on this, weren't you!?”

Sky shook his head. “Nope! I had the same idea though, but I didn’t go through with it, honest,” He swore.

I turned back to Rarity and gave her an accusatory glare. “It’s only been sixteen days for me! Your death was still fresh in my mind!”

Rarity’s eyes widened, she raced forwards and pulled me into an apologetic hug. “I- didn't know! I’m sorry, can you forgive me, Twilight?”

I smiled and nodded. Of course I could. Ghosts went real. I should have understood it was a joke.

“Of course,” I began. “It was just a jo-”

“Prank’s over, girls! Tackle her!” Pinkie shouted from the hallway.

Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack ran through the open doors, converging around me in what became a massive group hug as Dash and Rarity joined as well, As well as Nye, who Celestia levitated into the group after she said she was too dizzy to stand.

“I love all of you,” I whispered happily just before the hug broke apart.

I was home.

Pinkie blinked twice and looked at me worriedly. “Um, w-well, everypony else is either bi or gay, but I’m totally straight and happily married, so um… S-sorry? I hate breaking sompony’s heart! I’m so sorry!” She apologised, eyes starting to water.

She honestly apologised. She’d seriously thought I meant romantically loved.

The room erupted into laughter, Pinkie joining in as she realized her own mistake.

NOW I was home. And I wouldn’t be leaving it for as long as I could possibly manage.

The End

Author's Note

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Dedicated to Patron of the Week: djthomp

1 - Camouflage

Author's Note

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Dedicated to Patron of the Week: djthomp

1 - Camouflage

Twilight Sparkle - 23rd of Megan, 17 EoH

The Void - Interdimensional Space

Is it ironic that the stupidest decision of my life was made after I had dispelled an evil pony’s grip on my mind? A person goes back in time again and again with the express purpose of trying to make me less and less intelligent each time, more foolish, more naive. I discover my mind has been tampered with and reverse as much of the damage as possible, and then I let them trick me into getting banished into this…

This nothing. This darkness. Darkness devoid of even that darkest of color. A darkness which pulled me ever downwards into a starry void.

Yes, that statement is paradoxical. It’s also true. And I’d been falling through the dark nothing full of stars long enough to not only stop screaming but also to come to terms and accept the paradoxical place I was now inside.

Why, oh for the love of Celestia, WHY, did I think touching anything Dawn handed me was a good idea? A person you know made getting you permanently out of their way their driving mission in life tells you to touch something, that it will lead you to your parents, and you just pick it up.

Of course it was trapped. Of course he would use his last breath to hurt you. Think about who you were talking to...

You’d think the stars would have provided light, but no. They illuminated themselves and nothing more. I couldn’t even see my own forelegs in front of my face, despite the stars white glow.

Which meant they couldn’t really be stars. Though, what else do you call an infinite number of small pinpricks of light hanging within an also infinite inky black expanse which seems completely devoid of an atmosphere?

Also how was I breathing here? Was it the effects of the banishment spell? It had to be. But then again, since I had spent perhaps an hour falling down through nothingness whoever had created this spell was a compleate amature. It was taking TIME for me to move through a portal.

How do you mess that up? That’s a first year-

Ah, yes… You couldn’t possibly mess it up. Not when to create the portal you had to spell each part of the spell out. Literally. Within the pages of a book.

This couldn’t be a portal. It simply couldn’t be.

I was dead. This was oblivion. The portal had backfired, exploding, killing me in the process and now I was here.

I’d asked Dusk what dying was like when I met her years ago. After all, that’s the first thing anyone would ask when meeting the reaper. She’d described it just like this. Black void. Full of stars. Lots of nothingness despite those somethings.

Wasn’t there supposed to be an afterlife? Yes, I remembered her saying something about that. I should be in one now, right? There’s no way there’s a full hour long wait to get into the afterlife.

Unless… Maybe the myths about needing to be at peace to move through are true?

I’d just come from a warzone. I could still feel the stress pushing at my mind. It was the only thing keeping me from falling into a pit of despair.

Flash had died in front of me, really horrifically too. Again. But this time nopony would have been able to put him back together.

Rarity had died alone in the middle of nowhere because I mindlessly agreed with Celestia that we should all split up. That was on my head. We would have all been fine if we’d all gone together. That’s how it always turned out when we did.

Ponyville had been destroyed… While the town could be rebuilt, I didn’t have time to ask about the people there. And Canterlot too. It had been evacuated, but the soldiers defending it-

NO! No, we are not dwelling on that!

If I am dead, then I have to come to terms with all of that instead of falling into an inwards spiral of despair. I’ll just float here, close my eyes, and calmly focus on the reality of my husband’s death.

And the fact that my parents were not my biological parents. Because my entire life had been largely fabricated by the very person who tried to drive ponykind to extinction… Going so far as to use many instances of time travel to constantly try and prevent me from helping one person at one point in time which led to the entire invasion happening.

Not because Dawn didn’t want to launch his attack of course. But because I’d somehow forced him to attack before he was ready.

Soooo… Yeah. We can add ‘My entire life was a lie and while I do love the people who raised me and Shining will always be my big brother, I grew up a thousand years later than I was supposed to because almost every decision I’ve ever made was manipulated by a monster, and that includes marrying Flash because alternate dimention me married her universe's Rainbow, and Trixie,’ to the list of things I had to come to terms with.

Or in short: Every single one of my thoughts, opinions, and past actions could have been, and likely was, the result of manipulation, mind control, or arranged circumstances. Now that I was free from a lifelong influence, who am I?

That was one heck of a list to work through… Even for me. And I love checklists.

… Do I love checklists?

I brought a forehoof to my chin and thought about it for a few moments. Yes, I did like checklists. They made things nice and efficient, and also accurate. Alright, that’s one thing ‘she’ liked that I do. Good.

Let’s work through this checklist! We seem to have plenty of time. An eternity, in fact. Of falling through black nothing.

Did I really have to confront all of those things, though? Well, yes. I did. Or I’d be trapped here for-

My eyes widened as I realized something which should have been blatantly obvious.

If this was a really messed up portal, instead of oblivion (however unlikely that might be), it was taking me time to move through this portal. Which meant it must still be open at either end!

While there was no way for me to change my direction, no air for my wings to push against, nor ground to step on, nor did my magic function at all here, if the way back was open I could do one very important thing. Something critical to not just myself, but for everypony back home.

“Hello?” I called as loudly as I could manage. “Anypony? This is Twilight. The void isn’t just a mental construct used as a term for ‘the space universes exist within. It’s an actual location!

“Yep! Just like Aura Chime hypothesized. You need to get the Royal Academy of Science to seriously pursue her findings. Because they are definitely at least partially correct.”

There! If I was going to be thrown out of my universe, at least I would have helped advance exo-cosmology.

Wait a minute! Secondary realization!

“Also, if you lower a rope into wherever my voice is coming from, I might be able to climb back out of this-”

The blackness suddenly became pure blinding whiteness, washing away what little there had been to existence in this place.

Central Operations Facility - The Observatory

Epoch 19005183932

Deep within the belly of a sterile building, an all alarm screeched a unique warning. Its long warbling cry shattered the library-like silence which had previously extended across the entire facility, alerting its occupants of the dire news that the very last thing they wanted to happen again was occurring once more.

The alarm screeched four times before being silenced with a crackle of static from an intercom set within the facility’s central hub and lobby.

“Gentlemen, we have another alien transport signal within the system,” an older wizened male’s voice announced wearily, disrupting somewhat as the sound echoed off the lobby’s dome.

Another intercom crackled to life. “I also detected it,” a rather bland female voice confirmed.

“Yes, that is what that alarm means,” a younger male voice chuckled as a third intercom switched on. “Where are they emerging? Do we have the number of aliens arriving?”

“Please follow protocol, Red,” the older voice requested. “Blue, confirm the signal.”

“S-seriously?” Red scoffed incredulously. “We have three minutes tops before they arrive and we need to take care of like, nine different th-”

“Signal confirmed,” Blue announced. “The signature matches the previous two signals exactly. The extraterrestrials are arriving within the system. As they have before.”

“We could try to close this side of the anomaly. You know, so we don’t trap another person here in a cage of bureaucracy,” Red grumbled, knowing full well that the other two would ignore his suggestion.

“I can confirm one biosignature within the transport signal,” the older man continued, ignoring Red just as predicted. “Red, can you confirm the signal’s location on our end?”

“Cluster One, The Island, within the Footpaw at coordinates seventy-nine point five, thirty point six,” Red replied instantly. “We all share the same data feed. You know this! We need to get them integrated into the system. You know damn well these guys breathe radon, Green!”

“We are getting to that, Red,” Green grumbled. “We MUST follow protocol. Especially in the first instance of something we developed a protocol for. Blue, can you confirm the data of the inbound lifeform?”

“The subject is a female of an unknown subspecies of ‘pony-folk’,” Blue reported. “Designating Subject as Xeno Subject Delta. Delta is quadrupedal like Xeno Subject Beta and Xeno Subject Gamma. Delta most closely resembles Beta, but possesses a horn as well as wings. This includes the production of high levels of dark energy… The dampening fields should prove effective at limiting Delta’s anomalous abilities without any modification. We will not have to worry about Delta damaging the System.”

Green remained silent for several seconds, forcing Red to sigh and play along with his superior’s ideals.

“She’s materializing, much more slowly than the others though,” Red reported. “The System is incorporating her. We have very little time to adapt her for survival here. I vote we use Contingency Three.”

“Out of the question,” Green dismissed venomously. “We are not adapting the engram system to work for non-human creatures. You know exactly what happened last time!”

“I agree with Red, in so far as adapting the oxygen tank and mask Engrams to function for non-humans would have the least impact on the System,” Blue said emotionlessly. “We can not afford much more strain on the System. The board is already upset at what little useful data we can provide them.”

“Exactly,” Green snapped. “Last time we allowed non-humans to utilize the Engram System we nearly lost all the Subjects. There is no way to program the System to accept another single species in addition to Humans in less than fifty years. We can only open it to everything, or limit it to Humans. There are no other configurations.

“If we do open everything up again, with the chaos that will cause we won't be able to give the board anything at all this quarter and the project will be terminated. That’s unacceptable. The project succeeding is our Primary Directive. We can NOT allow the ARK System to fail. We will NOT be using Contingency Three. We will be choosing between number one or number two.”

“Alright, fine. Then we have to alter this woman’s body against her will so she can use the System,” Red said, just to remind everyone else as to exactly what they were going to do.

“Yes,” Blue agreed. “I can’t find an ethical objection to temporary modification for the sake of her survival. We can easily return her to normal before she departs.”

“Yeah. But we totally could just be giving her a breath mask and a tank of radon every day. Except that idea’s been shot down,” Red sighed. “I won't let a person die because ultimately, I’m the only one of us who has the ability to perform the modification.

“I will have no part in choosing how to modify her, and I will be filing a formal complaint with the board. But I won't let her die.”

“Objection noted, Red,” Green said casually. “Blue, option one, option two?”

Blue paused to consider for a moment before replying. “Option one allows Delta to continue walking on four legs, while allowing her limited use of the Engram System due to the human upper body. However the ‘Taur’ body pattern may induce significant mental stress due to going from four to six limbs as well as difficulty in controlling the body. Furthermore, it significantly handicaps Delta with an inability to utilize many items.

“While we can assume Delta will have difficulty walking on two legs, these factors make option two better over all.”

“I agree. Since Red has abstained from voting for ethical reasons we will go with option two,” Green decided. “Red, reconfigure Xeno Subject Delta’s body into a configuration appropriate for a human female.”

“I’ve already sent the nanos their instructions,” Red informed.

Green and Blue paused, checking the data feeds they had been ignoring.

“Red, that is not a human,” Blue said, her motionless voice almost sounding surprised. “That is something the Net informs me is called an anthropomorphic animal.”

“It’s human enough,” Red countered. “She can use Engrams and not die from the different atmosphere. That’s all she needed.”

“The System will register it as human, and it is humanoid. The System will probably work for something like this, but this is in violation of your direct orders!” Green fumed.

“Mhm,” Red countered. “Sucks when your will is violated, doesn't it? I’m not forcing her to completely change species. We did that to Nyota, and it took them decades to be okay again. This woman is keeping her fur and equine features. Period.”

“I am reporting your insubordination!” Green shouted, pronouncing the word.

“Yeah, and that report is going out on the heels of my formal ethics complaint,” Red spat back.

“Subject Delta is not fully integrated… And has now fully materialized,” Blue reported urgently.

“Come again?” Green asked worriedly.

“Delta has been given a working nanite hive, and has been adapted into a humanoid form, but the hive did not activate Delta’s specimen implant. Likely due to Red’s sloppy genome coding... Delta has no way to interface with the system,” Blue elaborated. “If it’s harmed without the implant operational, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Damn it all!” Green swore. “It’s bad enough we couldn’t integrate Beta and Gamma into the system. We can NOT afford to have one of the aliens die while in our care! Whenever the Republic manages to sort out the legal issues with this whole unorthodox first contact I imagine they will want to return the alien’s citizens unharmed.”

“Yeah. They will. Which is why it’s incredibly stupid that we legally can’t get innocent people out of a literal prison full of psychopaths simply because no agency has the authority to authorize their release... Look. It’s fine, I’ll get her fully online and do what I can to keep her safe,” Red said urgently. “You guys can return to whatever you were doing.”

“Interacting with the Subjects is a violation of the federal penal code,” Green protested.

“Um. Yeah. It is. But she’s not a prisoner. She wasn’t sentenced to be here by any recognised court of law. Which is why no one can authorize her release. And why I can totally interact with her or any of the other three all I want,” Red grumbled.

“That’s true but recherche personnel are prohibited from entering a Habitat under any circumstances other than to escape an ARK’s immediate destruction,” Green shot back. “You communicating with your little friend via instant messages is probably also forbidden, and if I can ever prove it is I will have you f-”

“Apologies for a second interruption, but while we were debating I was able to finally trace the teleport signal,” Blue said quickly, hoping to prevent her colleagues from fighting. “We should be able to send a message to a point within three hundred meters of the alien's departure point. Protocol states we must provide the aliens with the location of their missing citizens.”

“Red, you’re the only one who can write their language. You’ll be in charge of sending the message, take care of it after you’ve gotten Delta’s implant working. I’ll inform the board we have a means of contacting the aliens now,” Green sighed. “Because dealing with corporate task managers is exactly what I wanted to do with my time today.”

Twilight Sparkle - Epoch 19005183932

The Footpaw - The Island

You know, I’d really thought that the entire universe suddenly turning eye-stabbing white would have meant something. Nope! Just more falling straight down. But through white now.

Oh no! Did I get banished to a universe containing nothing but perplexing at first, yet ultimately boring, random events?

That would literally be the worst possible fate anypony could suf-

“AAAAHHHHHH!”

Who the in the hay was screaming!? And why?

Oh. I was. Because my everything hurt.

I shouldn’t be able to feel every single individual muscle fiber, but I could. And they all burned like I’d just ran a billion kilometer marathon, and only embellished the distance by a factor of two.

The pain lasted for only the briefest of moments, and despite the impossible intensity, I forgot about it as the whiteness engulfing me somehow flared even brighter! Gravity came back to the world, I could feel myself being pulled downwards. There was a place to be again, I could feel myself laying on my belly in sand.

Sand of a beach someplace. The gentle lapping of waves and the low hissing skittering sound of seafoam being sucked back into the water reached my ears as the single most pleasant possible contrast to the absolute nothingness I’d just been through.

I opened my eyes, shutting them immediately as a far too bright sun reflecting off the sea blinded me. Turning my head the other way, I opened them again.

I was indeed on a beach. A rather nice tropical beach of soft yellow sand, with a gentle rolling beach moving inland to a tropical jungle full of palm trees, and an odd thick trunk that splits into a dozen thinner trunks of a bushy-but-huge oak-like tree which I had never seen before in my life.

It looked really tropical. That’s all I could say about it. Me. A mare who once read a fifteen book series on horticulture for fun.

That put the odds of the ‘died vs bad portal’ debate a bit closer to bad portal. Not to say that I know every tree on Equis. Now that I had a minute to peer into the bamboo filled jung-

Wait… Bamboo? Bamboo doesn't grow alongside coconut palms anywhere I’m familiar with!

Frowning at the odd sight I pushed myself up to go and take a closer look at the plants in the hopes of finding a clue to my location, and immediately froze.

I hadn’t pushed myself upright with a hoof. I’d pushed myself upright with a hand. While I’d had hands before, they had been covered in smooth skin. Not lavender colored short silky fur.

“Okay… What am I?” I asked as I turned my head to look down at myself.

A quick look showed me that I still looked like myself, in terms of colors, face shape, and having a horn. But the rest of my body wasn’t the same. I looked like I had been turned halfway into the human shape I’d had when visiting the Mirror World, and then the transformation stopped.

A furred humanoid creature with a unicorn’s attributes, but no pegasi attributes to be seen. No wings… That wasn’t good. What else was I missing?

Giving my body a second look, in terms of human features, I had the general body shape, a pair their permanently engorged teats at a size which looked and felt a bit too large, and fortunately a rather athletically toned body.

I’d always liked the way their muscles developed. Not in an aesthetics way, in a performance way. Humans may not be exceptionally strong animals, but they had a lot of endurance. If the muscle shapes were any indication, I could run for exceptionally long times.

It would be really cool if the earth pony strength given to me by my ascension was now backed by human running for ridiculous lengths of time. I’d always wanted to be more athletic, but there had just been so much to read and-

Catching sight of my reflection in the water I noticed I didn’t have have a mane. Or a tail. Not that I was missing skin, or lacked a tail, but rather, the hair making up my mane and my tail was gone. As if I’d cut it all off down to fur length.

I had a buzz cut. And a total tail trim. WHY!? That looks SO BAD! It’s going to take a YEAR for me to look ven remotely good...

On the bright side, at least I had an earth pony’s long prehensile tail! I hadn’t even gotten that when I’d become an Alicorn. Time to see if it’s just the looks or actually prehensile.

I held my left arm out, and tried to curl my tail’s end around my wrist. My tail moved exactly how I wanted it to, but wrapped around something cold and metallic in addition to warm fur.

“Huh?” I said to myself rather unintelligently, moving my tail aside and looking at my wrist.

Or more specifically at the small diamond shaped implant attached to my wrist on the inside of my arm, which was almost but not quite flush with my skin.

I traced a finger over the implant, pursing my lips in confusion. There was a second diamond shaped section in the center of the implant, bordered by what looked like some form of light strip, but it was dark. Inactive.

Was I supposed to push the center bit? It looked like a button…

I gave the ‘button’ a push. Nothing happened.

I tried to get a grip on the implant to see how well it was attached, and then pulled. My arm moved with the implant, giving me the unmistakable sensation of pulling on, well, my arm. Whatever this thing was, it was fused to my skeleton.

I sighed and looked out over the sea for a moment. There was an island which seemed like one big tree covered hill to my right, and nothing but ocean to my left.

“I’m naked,” I realized.

That wasn’t really a problem for me. But I had been wearing Sunset’s mask and my saddlebags in that dark void of nothing. Which means something had separated me from my belongings. Because they were not anywhere on the beach near me.

A portal would have brought everything through. More evidence to the ‘I died’ theroy.

Naked, alone, stranded on a beach in a place I was pretty sure couldn’t be on my planet, without any friends or family to help me, all while living in a brand new body after going through what could possibly have been me dying.

Wasn’t reincarnation a thing? Yeah, yeah Dusk said she did that for people sometimes. But she never put them back into the same universe. For paperwork reasons.

Maybe I’d died and been given a fresh chance at life, but still remembered my old one for some reason. Or maybe I did fall through a portal which was made by the least competent apprentice mage to ever exist. In ether case, the result was the same.

I had a clean slate.

No friends. No reputation. No belongings. No family. Nothing at all but emotional baggage I really didn’t want to think about right now.

I could take this chance. Hay, I should take it. No, I WOULD take this chance. I was going to use this opportunity to be my own person.

Yes. That was the plan. We’d tackle that last item on the list first. Who am I without Dawn’s meddling. That’s both scary and fun, and everything else is scary beyond reason. So we’ll just push that all to one side for now, figure out who I am and then when I have a basis to understand how to feel about everything else, THEN I’ll confront those problems.

My general course of action decided, all I had left to do was work out what I should, well, immediately do. About my situation.

Presumably everyone here was a humanoid pony, so I would blend in. All I had to do was find civilization!

I squinted at the island just across the bay from me. I wasn’t exactly sure, but some of the shapes hidden within the trees might have been buildings… Maybe I could get a better view from higher up? After all swimming over there would be silly, and waste a lot of energy.

It wasn’t like I’d be flying… A fact which rather angered me.

No! Bad Twilight. We’re not going to think about the past. You had wings, you don’t now. Deal with it.

I turned around, deciding to climb a tree to get a better view. Mirror Rainbow had shown me how to climb trees. It was pretty easy to do when you had hands.

The first thing I noticed when I turned around was a small cliff began just behind where I’d arrived on the beach and ran along for the rest of the beach as far as I could see, forming a good twenty meter high cliff, as if something had just pushed the ground upwards. Not in a geological sense, the rock looked freshly cut. It looked like something mechanical has forced the earth to rise within the last hundred years.

Interested by this oddity, I walked up the beach into the jungle, making my way up to the top of the cliff. From the top, maybe I could both see the island, and also get a clue about the local landscape.

The trip was short, but looking back out towards the island I couldn’t see any more detail. Those odd shapes within the trees were still there, but I couldn’t be certain they weren't just the outlines of tree species I didn’t know, or some kind of struct-

Oh hey! I still had a pegasi’s eyes! I was picking out a good ammount of detail from, what, a kilometer? Nice. Good to know I still had improved eyesight. That would be very handy in a survival situation.

Which this was likely going to be. Good thing I’d read the Filly Scout Hoofbook and other guides to surviving in the wilderness. A warmth charm can only do so much against the cold.

Though it would be far nicer to find some sign of ci-

A bank of clouds shifted. The sun punched through them as if Celestia were angry at the fluffy things. The glare lasted for just a heartbeat, revealing a colossal black iron tower, floating on a beam of brilliant red light a few kilometers down the beach atop a peninsula.

“-vil… i… za...tion…” I whispered slowly.

The tower was angular, with a rectangular base that had a cone sitting atop it, or perhaps a pyramid. The structure was so massive that the top section wasn’t really at an angle you could easily see. A huge diamond symbol decorated the side facing me, the same symbol present on the implant in my arm, except the tower’s version had a band of red glowing light around it.

So uh, yeah… Implant’s probably broken…

Also that’s where the people are. In the huge floating pretty evil looking tower. Maybe that’s where the architect Sombra hired lives. L-lets not go that way.

I turned back to face the jungle, the tower making the fur on the back of my neck rise. The big diamond… It just looked too much like an open eye.

Maybe there would be some people further inland. People who didn’t live in a floating iron tower appropriate for a dark wizard.

Giving the tower one last look over my shoulder I walked into the jungle, quickly being enveloped by the sounds of chirping insects and singing birds. To my surprise, there was a path of sorts through the jungle, perhaps a game trail, where the thick brush-like bamboo patches didn’t grow.

I’d hoped it had been pony made, but if it had been, it hadn’t been used in some time because the ground was covered in fairly tall grass. There wasn’t any trampled path, just a clear line through the bamboo which went inland. It made moving through the jungle easy. Too easy…

There was nothing to help keep me from sinking into my thoughts…

Five minutes of walking later, and I saw a flash of gray through the green. Not the gray of tree bark, rather the dull gray of stone. While plenty of boulders jutted up from the ground, I could have sworn that stone looked to be flat.

Squinting to peer through the dense bamboo, I saw a small patch of flat worked stone just ten meters away!

“Yes!” I said to myself happily, turning to push through the bamboo and move towards the worked stone.

A moment later I emerged from the jungle into a clearing. A clearing occupied by a very tall stone wall, one fit for a castle, but lacking battlements or ramparts that I could see. The stone I had seen from the jungle was part of an enormous gate, which was just as high as the wall. It had to be a good fifteen meters high, maybe taller.

Why would anyone need a gate that big? Was this a land of giants?

That would be cool! I liked giants.

I could smell the very faint ashy scent of a fire somewhere in the distance, a campfire, or a wood stove, not a wildfire. I could tell by the scent of fish cooking, along with something citrusy. Someone was cooking! Probably inside the village sized space behind this wall.

“Hello?” I called cupping my hands around my short muzzle. “Can anypony here me? I’m lost!”

Nothing…

Oh. Derp. You just yelled for help in Equish, and this isn’t Equestria. Honestly, they probably think some weird animal just called for a mate or something.

I closed my eyes, focusing on my magic to cast a translation spell. While I could just work my way through a list of languages until they understood that a person was, well, working through languages and came to look-

Wait…

Why is it really hard to gather thaumaturgic current?

I paused, frowning as I realized how much effort the simple spell was taking to cast. Was there somehow less magic here? That wouldn’t make any sort of logical sense. Less magical energy would mean less energy for mundane physics to operate which would prohibit-

My spell cast, despite me having willed it to cancel. The spell’s aura sparking slightly around me for a few seconds as it took effect. The tell tell sign of a dampening field reducing the flow of thaumaturgic current accessible to mages, but not wholly eliminating it.

Someone was limiting access to magic. Likely a defense of the town. Which mean that big floating tower was most certainly the home of an evil wizard.

“At least they can’t fully block magic,” I mumbled before calling out again. “Hello? Is anyone there? I’m lost!”

Something moved atop the wall. I caught a glimpse of ropy-orange dreadlocks somehow coming out from beneath a bleached reptilian skull before a bright ball of yellow light shot into the sky with a loud bang, followed by a pop as the ball burst into a bright flare, which cast a hideous yellow glow over the jungle.

“BEAST-FOLK! SOUTH GATE! UNICORN!” A loud voice roared.

Oh crap baskets...

A heartbeat later the skull-helmeted person appeared back atop the wall. A crossbow twanged. A bolt thudded into the earth behind me to the left. I spun on one heel, thankful for the time spent with Dash on the track at Canterlot High as I took off into the jungle at a full sprint.

Okay, note to self. The people in that village are hostile!

A bolt whistled past my head, burying itself into a tree in front of me. Despite the panicked thumping of my heart, I couldn’t help but notice that the angle was all wrong for having come from the walltop, and turned my head to look.

Ah. Skull-helmet guy. WIth the orange dreads. He was down here now. Now the angle made-

HE’D JUMPED OFF THE WALL! AND WAS SPRINTING AFTER ME! WHILE WORKING A HEAVY CROSSBOW!

What kind of creature can take a fifteen meter drop and come out of it sprinting? He was too close! Way to close!

“Which part of you do I eat to gain your magic?” Skull-hat demanded with a jeering below.

I ducked out of pure instinct, a bolt flying over me almost right as I ducked, vanishing into the underbrush ahead.

Oh sweet Celestia, what do I do!? It’s too hard to work magic here to just blast him with a spellbolt! I have to outrun him, but how? He’s super fast! And can drop massive distances like it was nothing!

I had to run faster!

I pumped my legs for all they were worth, laughing through the dense jungle brush at a speed which should have been very tiring, but thankfully wasn’t. I’d gotten human endurance after all! And maybe it could save my butt!

The crossbow metallic twang smashed aside my hope as another bolt flew past my left arm. I wasn’t faster than those…

A meaty thud came from ahead of me. Something big hissed in pain. Then it roared. Angrily.

“Oh, SHIT!” My attacker yelped.

The bamboo ahead of me seemed to explode into a cloud of shrapnel as a mysteriously large reptilian creature easily a pony taller than me, thundered by almost exactly like a timberwolf leaping out of the Everfree. I caught only a flash of blood red scales, a blue feathery crest, and a bolt stuck in a muscular thy as the creature pounced on my attacker, hind legs raised to hit him massive hooked claws first.

I discovered in that moment that I had not been running as fast as I could. In fact, I was MUCH faster than I had known.

Unfortunately I only made it another twenty meters before I stepped on something sharp, shooting pain lept all through my right foot, and I fell over, rolling down a hill the brush had hidden and landing between two large boulders with my back to a large bush.

Hissing in pain I bent my foot up to see what had happened. Oh. I’d stepped on a sharp piece of flint, which rammed itself about a centimeter into the sole of my foot.

“You don’t have hooves, that’s what happened,” I moaned to myself as I picked the shard of flint out of my foot.

It still hurt really bad but I would need to keep running. Those people definitely hated the kind of people I was. Or at least, used them for food, and they were very close by. I couldn’t just sit here till my foot stopped-

Three loud gunshots cracked a short distance away in the jungle. Deep, gut-punchy cracks. Like the guns griffons used, not like what I’d heard in the Mirror World’s movies.

“Damnit, Zeke! Of all the times to let yourself get mauled!” A female voice screamed. “Which way did it go? Mmm, he’s gone… Jake, go back to his cabin and ask. Everyone else fan out. It didn't go far. NO HEADSHOTS! I haven’t tried the brain yet.”

NOOOOPE! ALL OF MY NOPE! Foot pain didn’t matter, it was time to go!

What were those things? Diamond dogs? That would make sense. Humanoid. Fast, don’t care about falling a long ways, like to eat ponies, use firearms to compensate for a lack of magic.

The jungle was suddenly filled with war whoops and hateful taunts. None of which I could clearly make out. Because there were at least twenty people screaming them.

My ears drooped in terror. That is a lot of things trying to eat me...

I pulled myself into the crack between the rocks, hiding away from the jeering cries of my pursuers. I couldn't just hide forever, they were coming closer... I had to run again! But what if they saw me leave the rocks?

I twisted to look around the rock in front of me. There was a kind of swampy area where jungle trees had grown into the sea not too far away. While it was closer to the floating tower maybe if I could make it to that swamp I could-

A twig snapped behind me. I squeaked in fear, scrambling to run, but only managing to scrunch myself up into the side of one of the boulders. No! CAN'T MOVE! HAVE TO MOVE!

"Wait," a voice commanded.

I turned around, my field of view immediately filled by a bush with a pair of blue eyes!

No! No it was a person. A human if I was remembering the general scent correctly. It was impossible to tell for certain under his ‘clothing’. He had on an outfit made from leaves, bits of ferns, and some sticks, which when hunched over like he was made him look exactly like a bush.

He reached down, the motion allowing me to see the arm I couldn’t before, and took a rather crude looking, weathered, and beat up black revolver out from a fold in his leaf-outfit, and then held the weapon out to me pearl-handle first.

“If Charlie’s Boys want to tango, now they're two for the dance,” he said his other hand producing a large knife, completely with scabbard and belt.

What?

OH! Oh thank goodness! He was HELPING me!

“T-thanks!” I stammered quickly taking the offered weapons.

“What’s this?” The bush-man exclaimed as I reached out. “Your implant is off. Did they hit you with a stun rod? That trips these things up sometimes. Let me just fix that for you…”

With unnatural speed, the man grabbed my wrist in a surprisingly gentle grip, and pressed down on the implants button with his thumb for several seconds. When he removed it, the light strip around the central diamond was glowing red.

“Thank you. I um, I don’t know what that’s for,” I stammered nervously, more than a little shaken from falling out of one war into another.

“It’s for a lot of things, you’re new here aren't you? Why don’t we get you out of cannibal territory?” The man suggested, taking a large black colored crudely made lever rifle out from his outfit.

“Please! Oh, um, what’s your name?” I asked, ears perking hopefully.

The man pointed towards the jungle I’d run from. “The Boys just call me Camoflauge,” he introduced. “What’s your name?”

“Twilight,” I replied. “Um, but, if Camouflage is a nickname, what’s your real name?”

“A fitting name for a woman with your coloration,” Camouflage applied while completely ignoring my question. “Your foot should have healed by now. We’ll break for the beach behind us and then-”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um… A bleeding puncture a centimeter deep can’t heal this fast,” I protested.

“Does your foot hurt?” he asked almost playfully.

Come to think of it, no, I didn't. I twisted to look at my foot. Aside from a bit of blood covering the sole, it was fine. The wound had just… Vanished.

“What?” I asked of reality.

“Your implant will take care of minor injuries quickly even at rank one. It’s got many other uses besides accelerated healing. You’ll be very hungry soon, but I know where we can get you room and board. Come,” Camouflage called as he moved to walk backwards and leave.

“B-but what if I step on something sharp again!” I exclaimed worriedly. “Do you have a spare pair of shoes, or even just some cloth I can wrap around my feet?”

Camouflage shook his head. “Nope,” he said sorrowfully before his head tipped up slightly. “Wait, no, maybe.”

Maybe? How can it be a maybe?

A loud pop I recognised as one of the ‘Boys’ flares bursting made me jump and smack my head into the overhanging boulder.

“OVER HERE! IT’S OVER HERE!” A male voice called loudly. “THE LEANING ROCKS!”

Camouflage raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired. The weapon’s report made my ears ring, and the flash of fire at the end of the muzzle almost singed my nose. A gurgling cry came from the direction of the jungle, followed by a thud.

“Yep, I have some boots for you,” Camoflauge announced. “Just found my spares.”

“Y-you killed him,” I stammered stupidly as Camouflage rushed out from cover, disappearing from my sight.

Get it together Twilight! You were just in a battle yourself…

“Mhm,” Camouflage agreed. “Not that it means too much. Not here at least. He’ll be back soon. This place isn’t like anywhere you’ve known.”

My ears raised in alarm at his words. “A-are they all liches?” I asked worriedly.

That would explain the dampening field ward!

“No. I’ll explain in full later,” Camouflage promised returning to view. “Give me your left arm please.”

I held out my arm, and he held his over mine so our left forearms overlapped. A pale blue light flashed between our arms, and to my surprise text flashed in my vision.

Added: 1x Hide Boots
Added: 20x Simple Pistol Ammo
Added: 1x Flak Chestpiece

“Before you ask, I just gave you equipment he was carrying. Your implant can store items as data, and reconstitute them at will. The text is a notification that the items have been added to your ‘account’,” Camouflage explained quickly. “Remember, it does, A LOT. To use items, flex your arm so the implant faces up, look at the implant, and flex your wrist.

“That activates the neural interface and you can then give it instructions mentally. In this case, just instruct it to equip the boots and chest piece.”

I had many questions, but the sound of brush cracking to my left pushed them aside. Flexing my arm as instructed, I made the implant glow blue again. This time though, I could sense it like a body part. It DID do a lot.

Notably, it let me make tools. It was a device which basically worked as a unicorn’s horn, but expressly for conjuration spells. Taking matter from the environment to store and use as you needed.

I almost got lost in the sheer wonder the little metal diamond in my wrist suddenly held, but then a rifle cracked, the stone just beside my head exploded in a shower of stone shards, and Camouflage yanked me down flat to the ground.

“BOOTS! ARMOR! NOW!” He roared, standing up and firing three quick shots into the jungle.

“Right!” I yelped, issuing the mental command.

My feet and caves along with my entire chest suddenly itched like mad! I felt myself be pushed up slightly as in the span of a second my upper body was encased in a green and mud colored crude leather and steel currice. Amazingly it fit me perfectly.

But on the other hoof…

I knew I was under attack. My body knew I was under attack. But it didn’t care. It had an even more pressing need than safety!

“ITCHY!” I squeaked out of pure reflex, rolling over to try and scrape my back against the ground and force it to calm down.

“Yeah, my nanites make me itch when I equip gear directly onto me, too,” Camouflage laughed, firing another two shots, his gunshots lost in the sudden volley of shots which came our way. “Ooop! There’s more of them than I have bullets. Leg it!”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I sat up, gathered my legs under me, and ran away from the boulders, heading further down the hill to where Camouflage had pointed before. I expected the armor to weigh me down, but surprisingly it didn’t. I honestly felt like i wasn’t wearing anything at all, except my chest felt warmer, and my teats weren’t bouncing irritatingly with each step. Which meant I had something on, but it was impossibly lightweight for what it was.

I really needed a primer on this world. It’s physics had to be different or something. Because I’d detect magic if it were in use.

Oh. Right. Dampening field.

Something smashed a tree down. The loud thud and distinct sound of woods splintering couldn’t be anything else. The sound of the tree smashing down came hoof in hoof with a loud bellowing roar like something between a muffled trumpet and a dying circular saw.

“LEG IT FASTER!” Camouflage called from behind me. “They have a rex!”

The hay was a rex? Something really really big, obviously, but what exactly was it?

I turned my head to look over my left shoulder. A rex was apparently a huge, bipedal but not upright standing, brown pebbly scaled bird-like reptile easily twice my height with a big square head full of dragon-like teeth set in a mouth that I could probably lay down in.

“I thought they wanted to eat me!” I sobbed as I sprinted down the hill towards the beach.

“They probably do. Most Tribes think they can gain your species magic by eating or otherwise using your remains,” Camouflage shouted as he began to move past me. “They are probably using the rex to try and block us from getting to the swamp.”

I could see the swamp ahead. Well, the delta-swamp hybrid thingie. Whatever you call swampland that grows right up to the ocean.

We had maybe fifty meters of running to make it there. The rex was fast, but also big, and lumbering. We could outrun it. Probably. With the lead we had on it. But as with before, we couldn’t outrun bullets.

The sand seemed to fly upwards in time to their gunshots. Little puffs of sand, like tiny little compressed air cylinders had been buried. You could probably make art like this.

My panicked mind wanderings came to a dead stop as something punched me in the shoulder, a loud metallic ping making my ears hurt as I lurched forwards with the impact. I’d been shot! Thank Celestia I had the armor! Oh my gosh that was so close!

I wished I had more speed I could put into my sprint, but I simply didn’t. Nor did Camouflage, even though he was way faster than me. He’d almost reached the swamp’s tree line.

While I watched, I saw five bullets hit the sand in front of him and I also saw a faint smoke trail each round made. Now that was interesting on it’s own, if I remembered right it meant that their guns weren't burning all of the powder they used. But the more interesting thing was where the trail went.

They’d gone right through Camouflage. As if he hadn’t been there.

No, no they couldn’t have. I was panicked and that had been a trick of the angles. If he’d been shot he would have stumbled, or fallen over.

A moment after the odd bullet trick he vanished into the swamp’s trees. I’d been watching him and he’d just disappeared, as if he’d teleported. That was special talent level stealth. No wonder the cannibals on our heals called him Camouflage!

I’d still like to know his real name.

I made it into the trees a moment later, running past the first tree I felt something grab the neck of my armor and pull me backwards!

“AHHH!” I yelped.

“Shh!” Camouflage said from behind me, revealing the hand to have been his. “You almost stepped on a sleeping titan!”

I looked down, a snake as thick as my waist was lying coiled up around a tree. I’d nearly stepped on the middle of its back. Because it looked like a moss covered rock until you were told it was a snake.

“The swamp is exceptionally dangerous. They won't take the rex in here. But they might come after us on foot. Follow me exactly. I used to live in here,” Camouflage whispered. “And be quiet. We need to make it to the other side quietly.”

I nodded, buttoning my lip immediately.

“Oh, and if we don’t make it, remember: South Three is Safe,” he added.

What was that? Like, if we didn’t make it across the swamp? Some kind of place we could rendezvous?

I shook my head, deciding to add that to my growing list of questions before Cam let go and jogged forwards into the swamp.

Closer to the iron tower…

But further away from the people who wanted to eat me and were starting to fire like mad into the swamp. Trees began to explode, bits of bark and wood blasting outwards as the two of us continued to jog, not run.

I’d wondered why, but then we hit the water. It was icy cold, and almost immediately became hip deep, and the entire bottom was a sticky mud. If we’d run, we would have tripped, fallen forwards, gotten stuck face first, and drowned.

Or eaten by the cragadile sized crocodile which was swimming a dozen meters or so to our left!

“C-cam!” I whispered. “There’s a-”

“A sarcosuchus, yeah,” he replied quietly. “It won't see me and they don’t eat you pony-folk. It won't bother us. Watch out for the leeches though…”

I nervously watched the giant crocodile as we jogged by. It watched back, but lazily. Like it didn’t care.

Well, good to know one thing here wasn’t going to eat me.

On an impulse, I waved at it. The croc just kept floating there until the trees blocked it from my view.

At about the same time, the sounds of gunfire stopped. Whether we had just run too far away to hear the shots, or they had stopped firing was beyond me. But the rest of the run was quiet. And short.

The little patch of swamp on the beach was maybe only two or three hundred meters across, given how we made it through in about ten minutes. A pretty good time given how hard it was to move through the mud.

The final stretch of swamp was completely tree free. Only a few meters of scum covered water stood between us and dry ground… Along with more jungle. Great…

At least there was a relatively clear looking hill a short ways away from us. Wait a minute, cleared space…

“Are we going to another village?” I asked, ears drooping worriedly.

“No. I’m taking you near a friend’s home. Charlie’s Boys are too afraid of her to go near it. Most of my people are. Well, more like they’re afraid of her minefield,” Camouflage answered. “Odd… It’s normally more active than that. I guess the old swamp wanted to be polite the first time it met you. Heh, heh.”

I just set foot onto the shore when a gunshot rang out, dirt near my foot blasting upwards as the bullet nearly clipped the toe of my boot.

“Petra!” Cam warned. “It’s in the air, fire at will!”

I looked up, immediately seeing the bright white and red weird kite shaped, bat-like lizard creature which was circling above us, as well as the rider on its back.

I was pretty sure that they were a female, but the lizard skull-helmet and big flapping royal purple cloak made it hard to tell exactly what they looked like. Especially since my attention was on the gleaming silver gun held in the rider’s left hand. Which was pointed at me.

“Come on!” The rider called down, voice revealing themselves to be female. “You know you can get magic out of those things. I’ve seen the way you vanish! You know how to do it. Share and I’ll let you go.”

My life was on the line. I had to act.

I raised the gun Cam had given me, aimed it as best I could, and fired. The petra screeched, jerking as my bullet hit it somewhere. The rider slipped as their mount bucked, hanging on via the for a heartbeat before losing her grip and falling, but almost immediately pulling the cord of a parachute which had to have been hidden under her cloak.

As the parachute snapped taught, despite her not seeming to fall far enough for a parachute to open, the rider managed to turn towards me, lined up a shot, and fired.

Time forze. I hadn’t expected that. How could I have? There was no way to dodge. The gun was leveled at my head. I had nothing to protect my head. This was it.

I’d helped fight an evil god, and survived. But I was going to die from a bullet. A normal, mundane, unchanged bull-

Camouflage’s impossible speed returned, his hand blurring as he literally slapped the bullet out of the air, snapped his rifle up with one arm and fired, his shot passing through the rider and shredding her parachute, sending her crashing to the ground in a heap.

“I-um… S-so how do you… Um, get magic… From us?” I asked nervously, taking a few steps backwards.

There was NO WAY Camoflauge did that without magic…

“It’s pretty easy,” he answered. “You become friends with one.”

I blinked, Cam reached up and pulled his mask down, flashing me a grin before returning his suit’s mask to its position.

Huh. Well, that’s a new addition to the arcane laws surrounding the bonds of friendship!

“I’m not joking. That’s it. These assholes refused to believe me when I told them. Heh,” he chuckled. “Come on, let’s grab everything off her body so she can’t get it back.”

“Oh, no! I believe you. Friendship is important to magic. Enough where we often say that friendship IS magic. But- uh, h-how do they come back? Necromancy?” I asked.

He didn’t answer, instead he stopped beside the dead rider, and leaned down slightly.

“Maybe if you weren't a slaver who likes to eat people over and over again, Charlie, I’d think about showing you any sort of respect. You’ve been doing this for seventy years now and you haven't changed one bit. Not even in terms of improving at doing what you do, it’s pathetic,” Cam mocked. “When you get back up, let your Boys know that if I see them over here, I won't kill them. I’ll put them into the same sort of cages you like to use, and see how they like spending a year fully immobilized, on display for anyone passing by to use. Later.”

“Uh, isn’t she dead?” I asked uncertainly, feeling a bit bad about hurting the poor flying lizard thingie which was now flying off towards the swamp’s center.

“Yeah, but her consciousness and soul are stored in the implant while a new body is made for her, so she can hear us,” Cam explained. “While it still hurts like hell, dying isn’t the end here. You’ll get back up. Whether that’s in your bed or at a random point across the Island, depends on how much you’ve made for yourself.”

“Woah, woah, waoh, wait… Are you saying you're all functionally immortal?! Why are you even fighting!” I demanded incredulously.

“Well for one,” he replied, waving his implant over the corpse. “Your life isn’t valuable to you anymore, but your time still is. Say you make a cabin, and a nice soft bed, and store away food. You’ve put a lot of time into making that and getting that food together.

“How would you feel if someone came along, put a bullet through your head, broke your bed so you couldn’t just appear back in your home, and took all of your hard work?”

“Ah… Okay, I think i get it, but-”

“Some people just don’t want to put in hard work, and it’s sometimes easier to raid others for what you want,” Camoflauge interrupted. “Besides, almost all of the people here are criminals. This is a prison. One which forces you to live out however many life sentences you received while trying to reform you by forcing you to cooperate with others to not be miserable and in pain all the time, therefore showing the benefits of civilization while also forcing you to see why the rule of law is important.”

“Okay, I can see that. Ponies are big on reforming wrongdoers too… But this seems just a bit cruel,” I protested.

“It’s mostly intended for psychopaths and repeat offenders,” he sighed. “The truly deranged. If I hadn't helped you out, Charlie’s Boys would have likely penned you up and hunted you for months if not years forcing you to die and respawn over and over again, then once they got bored would just keep you as a slave of some kind or another till Charlie got bored of you and left your defenseless and weekend self tied to a pole to attract some big predator she wants to tame.

“That’s the kind of people who come here. Barbarians. Savages. Throwbacks to primal ages. Most of them are civilized by their third of fourth decade. But some… Some remain monsters forever.”

Oh… Oh…. Okay. Now things were making a bit more sense…

“Uh, so, what did you do then?” I asked with a small frown.

Whatever had had done, Camouflage’s helping me and kind nature seemed to indicate that he’d reformed. I was just curious as to what kind of crime would get his people to sentence someone to this place.

“I said ‘almost all’,” he reminded. “Some people are here by accident, like you, my friend Nyota, and a small number of others.”

“Um, in that case, is there any way for me to talk to the wardens? And get released?” I asked hopefully.

“Nope. You’re not a human, so no government agency has the authority to request your release. Or some shit like that. It’s a bureaucratic hellscape of fail… Don’t worry, I heard a rumor that the warden's finally found a way to contact your planet. If I remember the laws right, your nation’s government can authorize your release.”

Ah. Okay, their people were super bureaucratic. There went that idea. But at least they had a portal to Equestria!

“Sooo… In other words, ‘I have to wait here until my friends can pick me up’,” I said to myself. “Okay, I can do that. Can I get help of any other kind? Supplies, transport to a safe location?”

“Also no,” Cam sighed. “It’s not JUST a prison, it’s also a facility for testing out artificial lifeforms and nano-cybernetic systems. This is a corporate run prison. They don’t help out because that would ruin their data… Despite it being ruined since your people started accidentally beaming people here.

“Right, here, take this stuff. There’s enough rounds here for you to learn to shoot properly. No offense but that shot looked lucky.”

It probably had been. I’d never shot a gun before…

I held out my hand, expecting him to pass me a bundle of things. Instead he waved his implant over mine.

Added: Custom revolver
Added: 300 Advanced Pistol Bullets
Added: 12 Cooked Meat
Added: Custom Hide Pants
Added: 3 Standing Torches

“Um… How do I use these? Is it just like the armor?” I asked.

Cam nodded. “Yep, I’ll show you more tricks later. There’s a small hut nearby you can have. It will get dark soon, and if you think the last half hour was bad, well…”

Cam’s tone of voice left no doubt in my mind that I wanted to have shelter before nightfall.

“How quickly can we get there?” I asked, standing up to follow him, doing my best to ignore the now naked body laying a few meters away.

Especially since the person wasn’t dead, apparently. Just the body. That was somehow even more creepy…

“Ten minutes if you let me carry you, fifteen if you run yourself,” he answered simply.

“Yeah, you are faster than me… But I’d rather un on my own,” I admitted with a light blush.

I wasn’t THAT helpless…

“If you stay here long enough to earn any improvements, I reccomend speed first,” Camoflauge said cryptically before taking off towards the distant hill at a brisk run.

I followed along behind him, running as fast as I could the entire way. The sun was already starting to set when we left the swamp and by the time we’d crossed the grassy field to reach the small lake at the bottom of the hill, the last slivers of white daylight were washing over the land, casting sharp shadows incredible distances.

And also reflecting off a fairly decently large metal structure built atop the hill. The glare made the details impossible to make out, but it looked to be about the size of a large house. One with two or three floors. Was that where we were going?

Camouflage turned left at the base of the hill, then stopped and pointed. I stopped as well, squinting through the shade to the place he pointed to. About twenty meters away was a very, very small wooden hut with a thatch roof, built at the base of a tall tree, one of the oak-like ones.

“That's yours now. I don't have any supplies in it, but that’s fine. I’m going to get a friend of mine to help you. I’d do it but I have… Duties to attend to,” Camouflage promised, and apologised. “Their house is atop the hill. DO NOT go near it, they are in the process of moving homes, so they are not home, but their auto turrets are locked and loaded, and your implant isn’t registered with them as friendly.

“Furthermore, the entire hillside is one big minefield. If you die outright, that would be bad as you’d likely be lost when you come back. But the odds are better that you’d spend a week regenerating the leg you lost and be in a LOT of pain the whole time. So don’t climb the hill. Stick close by, learn how to use your implant’s Engram functions, and get a bed built inside your new hut.

“Hopefully you’ll have help soon. But I have to go now. Farewell!”

He was just going to leave me!?

I spun around, ears laid back in alarm. “Wait! What if I -”

The blue eyed man was nowhere to be found.

“- ponyfeathers…” I finished, lips tremmering worriedly.

The night was super dangerous, right? But it was almost night. And he was just gone… And I didn’t even know the names of the animals which lived here, much less the monsters!

What would I do?

I’d hide in that hut until morning, that’s what. It had survived here, and Cam had implied he used to live in it. Which meant that the monsters had left it alone for a while, and would leave it alone for tonight. Probably.

I ran to the hut, pulled open the door, and slammed it shut behind me, immediately collapsing to the rough wooden floor in the completely empty hut which was pretty much the size of a small walk-in closet.

I didn’t get up. There had been far too much to deal with today to get up. So I just lay there, ignoring the ocean of growls, hisses, and roars in the distance as best I could until I fell asleep.

11 Missed it by that much/Enter the Dragon

Twilight Sparkle - Day 16

The Machine Shop Ruins, South Jungle - The Island

Nyota and I had left The Grove as soon as we’d finished dessert. Not because we’d wanted to have dessert, but because our waitress insisted we try the lemon meringue pie. It’s difficult to say no to something very dangerous offering you something very delicious.

I’d spent the entire night huddled in a way too cold sleeping bag, doing my best to catch as much sleep as I could after crudely patching up Nyota’s house with wooden wall segments. Stone would have been far, far less drafty. But to my despair, we’d lost our dodek and anky during the attack.

I should have realized it sooner, but the mixture of elation, fear, and shock had definitely fogged my mind up just a little bit.

I felt a bit bad about sleeping that night. Nyota didn’t. She’d finished patching her half of the house up, had me finalize my tek armor to get it outside the system, including the second chestpiece, and then vanished into her hidden workshop.

Based on how long the roar of a forge, ring of a hammer, and buzz of a grinder had kept me awake, and how I’d awoken to the sounds of welding, grinding, and occasional swearing, she’d been up all night. I’d offered help, but been told to just keep out of the way.

Not rudely. Very politely in fact. But Nye had asked me to stay away in the same tone of voice I’d used with my friends when I was busy with a personal project, so I’d left her alone.

Which left me with nothing to do. Chip had come back with us of course, but shortly after I had woken up he’d ran off to get Nye and I breakfast from the Grove before curling up for a few hours sleep himself.

I couldn’t exactly go out and explore, Charlie’s Boys held a sword over us at the moment, and Nye could be finished at any moment. All I had to entertain myself was my implant.

As I flicked through the various menus and built a few simple objects just for fun, I found myself rather liking the system. If I could scan objects to learn how to make them, I’d have the best device a scientist or a mage could ever ask for. Especially since it could carry large amounts of stuff around for me.

I hummed and bit my lip in thought. Aside from the ‘carry’ attribute, was there any limit to what I could carry? Could I carry five hundred kilograms worth of absolutely anything, or was there also a volume limit? If not, I could keep five hundred kilograms of air inside and deploy it all almost instantly, causing an overpressure wave capable of destroying most anything.

Not that I wanted to unleash an explosion of that magnitude on anything. It would simply be cool to know if I could do it.

I flicked back to my inventory screen, searching around for any indication of a ‘maximum volume’ or other limiting factors, and noticed I was still carrying Chip’s backpack. I’d never returned it to him after picking it up at the volcano DAYS ago!

My cheeks burning in embarrassment, I quickly pulled the bag out to conjure it into the real world, but accidently finalized it as a sharp snap of metal echoed within Nye’s workshop.

“AH BLOODY FAUST’S TAINT!” Nye roared in anger.

I eeped, jumping up and knocking over the backpack by accident as I rushed over to the door.

“What’s wrong?” I asked poking my head inside.

Nye looked up from her workbench, a skeletal chest shaped bit of power armor frame in front of her. Nye’s left eye twitched as she looked at me. “Nothing tae worry yer head over, Twi,” she growled. “I’m working with scraps created by telling nanites to leave crudely made bits of stuff. It’s the least cooperative material ye’ll ever know. I’m almost done. Just need to get the crossbar here in a ‘won't break under load’ state. That’s all.”

“Alright… If you get too angry let me know and I’ll do what I can to help,” I promised as I turned back to the empty shell of a room I’d been sitting in.

That’s when I spotted it. The small black plastic box which had fallen out of Chip’s bag when I knocked it over.

I crossed the room, making my way over to it, intending to slide the box back to the bag and then put the bag next to Chip so he’d wake up and see it immediately. But when I reached it, the box was open, the friction fit lid having popped off when it hit the ground. Which in turn meant as I lifted the box up, an old hand written note fell from the box.

My curiosity getting the better of me I scooped up the note and read it.

Max,

I know we will never be able to hack into the prison’s computer network again, but it’s all worth it. Setting our tribe’s survival levels higher, spawning in all those materials, and force-taming everything we saw kept Blue busy. She has no idea I managed to get this smuggled through the network.

This is a very old relic of a weapon. It dates back all the way to Earth being habitable. BEFORE we even had spaceflight. It's a Psi-Amp from the Ethereal War which is still in working order. I don’t care if you don’t believe we’ve encountered alien life before or not. This isn’t about the truth of millennia old history. This is about us escaping, and you claiming to be psychic. Maybe you are that one in ten million with some measure of extranormal power. Let’s find out.

I know this works. My crew lifted it from a private collection for a psion who could actually use it. It was sealed in a stasis field for the last eight centuries. I saw it work. Put this on, and even with their dampening field your powers will work in here and if you’re truly capable of teleportation on your own, then you can get the two of us out of here.

Don’t backstab me. I may be in here, but I have plenty of friends out there.

Drake

Psychic. Teleport. Amplifier.

This was some sort of magic boosting charm!

I reached into the small box and pulled out a flexible headband made of a silvery yet dull mat colored metal. The odd thing was the metal flexed and bent just like cloth, even stretching when I pulled at it. But it was metal. It felt cool to the touch, and no amount of pulling or bending left any kind of damage on the band.

I frowned, weighing the headband in my left hand for a few moments.

This was Chip’s, even though he did steal it. I doubted he could make any real use of it, and I was fairly certain he wouldn’t mind me trying to see if I could make use of it. After all, he was very into the whole ‘surviving’ thing and if I had access to my magic, well, that upped all of our chances by a considerable amount.

Should I just slip it on and see if it worked? No. No he loved his stuff. I should ask first.

I squirmed slightly, then shook my head and walked across the room to the pile of straw Chip was sleeping on. The Trodoon had curled himself up like a kitten, gently nibbling on his own tailtip while sleeping. My ears drooped sadly as I thought about waking him, but nonetheless I cleared my throat politely and asked “Chip? Hey, Chip? Can you wake up just a minute?”

Chip squirmed and moaned, one eye opening. “Mnnmnmnnn?” He asked feebly.

I held out the headband. “This fell out of your backpack. A note says it might let me cast spells normally here. May I have it?” I asked.

“Sure. I hate that belt. It doesn't match my shirts,” Chip mumbled, rolling over to face away from me, as well as face away from the bright sunlight streaming through the gaps between the wall’s planks. “Please no wake up till the death-orb is going away…”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing and nodded politely. “Thanks, Chip.”

With that hurdle out of the way I reached up and slipped the headband on, carefully stretching it under my ears, but over my horn so it would stay tightly on my head.

The second I let go, the headband went from pleasantly cool to noticeably warm. I felt a few sparks of energy crackle against my fur. My tail raising in alarm I reached up to take the headband off, only to stop as the band emitted a loud humm akin to a vibrating mana transducer, and then hardened, shaping itself into a perfectly fitting circlet, the section near my horn twisting and forming a socket an action which revealed a single large green jewel in the center of the parting section.

The moment the jewel was revealed I felt arcane power rush through my veins! I yelped in a mixture of alarm and relief as my vision out whited out, only for my sight to fade back in complete with the faint motes of ambient thaumaturgic current visible to any unicorn. I had assumed the lack of them had been a product of the dampening field, not that my arcane senses were not functioning.

I was back. Not in top form, not in full capacity. I’d say about seventy percent. But seventy percent of Twilight Sparkle is more than enough for anypony.

Nyota poked her head out of her workshop. “Heard a yelp! Charlie back ye-” Nye called worriedly stopping cold as she noticed the circlet. “Where did you get a crown?”

“Chip had it,” I explained with an eager grin. “According to the note, this is some kind of arcane amplification device that a prisoner smuggled in as part of an escape attempt, but Chip stole it. He said I could use it. I can FEEL my magic flowing almost normally. Want me to zap that broken crossbar back together for you?”

II bounced on my heels excitedly at the offer. This was great! I’d been practicing with power efficiency for the last fifteen days every chance I got and now I had far, FAR more power to work with! If I combined my available energy with those techniques I could…

“I have no idea what I should do!” I giggled. “Nye! What’s something I should try doing with magic? I want to see what happens when I cast a spell using the proper efficiency method but also feed it the amount of power I typically would!”

Nye frowned worriedly. “Um, Twi… Yer eyes are glowing. Maybe ye should take that off,” she warned.

I blinked and held a hand in front of my face, ears drooping as I noticed my palms were illuminated by a white light.

“Woah! Okay, yea, I’m over-channeling. I shouldn’t use this for more than say, an hour,” I said quickly performing the calculations in my head.

“Wait, in yer universe a pony’s eyes glow if they are using a lot of magic?” Nyota asked.

I nodded.

“In mine, that only happens if they are about to literally combust due to having too much energy in them at once,” she replied.

I coughed into my hoof. “I um, I’ll have that happen if this lasts for more than an hour. So, seriously. Do you want me to magic anything? If not, I’m putting this in my pocket for later.”

Nye nodded. “Aye, see if ye can repair that crossbar. Do that and I’ll have your armor ready in five minutes.”

Nye stepped aside, allowing me to pass by her through the doorway. I wasn’t about to do that.

Focusing my minds’ eye on the workshop just beyond Nyota, I closed my eyes, gave my magic a little push and teleported next to the workbench my armor stood on with a pop and a flash of lavender light.

I broke out into a grin as I rematerialized. “Hehehehe! YES! Oh my gosh you have NO IDEA how much I was missing doing that!” I exclaimed exuberantly before casting a simple repair charm on the iron bar which lay atop the armor in three pieces.

My magic’s lavender aura boiled around the three pieces, pulling them into position much like two magnets connecting poll to poll, only for a small flash of brighter magenta light to fuse them back into one solid piece.

I heard Nyota take a deep breath behind me. “I am EXTREMELY jealous of you right now,” She admitted with a strained breath. “Now… You’ll take that off, right?”

I nodded. “Of course,” I agreed, reaching up and slipping the circlet off with a slight amount of effort due to its perfect fit, then immediately rubbing my forehead as it came off and a mild headache set in.

Turning the circlet over in my hands I took a look at the central jewel which was cut into the shape of a stylized shield bearing an X and three star motif and a phrase written in an odd dialect of what I believed to be an offshoot of English which my collar translated as ‘I am watchful, I am relied upon’.

“Huh… Interesting motto,” I said to myself before jumping in surprise as the circlet melted back into the odd elastic metal headband. “Woah! Okay, this is cool! I’m taking this home with me! I’ll bet Sky could figure out how to make it safe to just wear as a tiara. I could use a new one. Gold doesn't look very good on me anyways.”

Nyota sighed in relief. “Ye have no idea how glad I am that you could take that off,” she admitted giving me a tight hug from behind. “I was worried it was cursed or something.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, Nye. I pretty much already have all the power I’d ever want… Um, well, I do when not in a suppression field. It’s a bit hard for power to tempt me. ‘Hey, want more of that thing you already have whole mountains of?’ ‘No thanks, I’m okay. How about some sandwiches?’”

Nyota snickered. “Shwarma was that good, eh?” she asked with a sly smile.

I nodded. “Yes! Heh… Well, I guess I’ll let you finish up,” I said as I turned around to leave her workshop.

“Wait, one question first, Twi,” Nyota said holding up one hand and giving me an urgent look.

“What?” I asked.

“Well, we have two options… We can either carry Chip with us and hope he doesn't fall for any reason as we will be flying very high, or we can ask him to stay here incase the rescue party finds this place, and to look for them for us,” Nyota stated simply. “I talked to him last night and he’s okay with either option. But he wanted the decision to be yers. He couldn’t decide what he’d be most useful doing.”

I nodded. “That’s easy. He stays here and can tell anyone who is looking for us where we’ve been. His collar uses my translation spell. He can speak more than Zebrican. He can speak everything on Equis… Except sea pony. I never learned sea pony. Hard to learn a language that’s mostly outside your range of hearing,” I admitted with a light blush.

It was Nyota’s turn to nod. The zebra’s tail flicking as she thought. “Alright. Other question. I forgot I had two, sorry. Do you want to go to the obelisk and straight to The Center, or try to make contact with the Beastfolk at the lake first?” She asked, quickly elaborating. “If we make contact with them it will take up about three hours to fly up there, and that will burn a LOT of element to do. But they may be able to save Razor, and with one of them to vouch for us it will be easier to get to Starswirl. But we’d be using a drop to travel to The Center instead of an obelisk and uh, there’s sort of a ten percent chance that the teleporter in those things just kills you. Permanently. It’s a technical fault...

“Option two, we don’t have much element there’s no time to overhaul your armor to run on promethium, and we’re already in a time crunch and I’m pretty certain that if ye take off your helmet and say hello it’s pretty obvious you’re not a human so they shouldn’t shoot ya on sight. But they could, and if we die over there, we have nothing to fall back on, no way to get our armor back, and will have to abandon the quest. Also Starswirl can definitely help Razor, and it’s not like she’s in danger due to being in suspended animation while uploaded to the obelisk.”

I blinked twice and frowned, my tail drooping as I weighed the options.

“Um, this is actually a hard choice to make… How about I think about it while you put my suit together and we decide before we take flight?” I asked.

Nyota nodded. “Alright. But I’m leaving it up to you. It’s your mission, your call.”

A one in ten chance of true permanent death but a guaranteed easier time accomplishing our mission while also risking taking too long and missing out ride home, or safe passage with a significant risk of failing the mission to the point of having to abandon it entirely.

Considering what was at stake if we did find Starswirl…

Celestia’s mane, this was a hard one!

Central Operations Facility - The Observatory

Epoch 19005184019

The long warbling cry of the station’s wormhole detection alarm screeched through the facility as it had many times before. Only twice had the alarm ever been expected to sound, once when the other half of the Megalodon Pirate Fleet had announced they would be attempting to free their imprisoned comrades, and now today.

Today the station stood ready to repel a potential extra dimensional invasion. The typically empty halls were packed with all manner of soldiers, human, synthetic, and cybernetic forces all packed together, ready to repel boarders. Outside, Elerium Industries defense fleet’s third and tenth wings waited in orbit around the station, ready for anything.

An alien princess was held within the ARK system, and her people had said they were coming to get her. For once the board had acted in a timely fashion; mutual fear of an armada of space faring wizards having been more than sufficient to put aside rivalries and protocols to take action.

The alarm screeched three times before it was switched off.

“All units, systems register five minutes until alien contact. Remember the plan. Do not act outside of the operation parameters. You know the penalties,” an older woman announced over the intercom. “I am handing command of this operation over to Director Green effective immediately. Green has less tolerance for failing to follow the rules than I. Director, you have my permission to enforce corporate law to the letter. Good luck.”

The assembled soldiers winced. Green’s infamous reputation permeated most branches of the company, and in a tense situation like this even the purely synthetic humans within the ranks might panic and fire first.

“Thank you, Madam President,” Green’s aged voice replied evenly. “Mission Update: As a modification to the prior plan, you will be remaining on station even if the aliens send only a small force into the ARK system itself. It is conceivable they may breach a habitat and cause an escape to occur.

“All forces: standby for contact. We are scanning the incoming alien force now.”

The intercom crackled as it switched over to a private frequency, connecting the three directors to each other. “Blue, tell me we have good news,” Green pleaded wearily. “If this is anything like the accidental kidnapping of Leanne the Seventh-”

“Scans show there are only four distinct entities within the wormhole,” Blue informed, interrupting her superior’s worried rambling.

“Good! Good. A commando team. Let’s hope it’s not merely a scouting party,” Green exclaimed happily at first, finishing with a worried half-groan. “This facility was never built to withstand an attack from an organized military force…”

“Well, it could be more than just the four,” Red stated with some apprehension. “These four are carrying equipment with them, much like Nyota was. One of the items is showing up as being shielded from our scans, but from what we can tell it’s dimensionally transcendent and could possibly hold any number of troops inside in a form easily carryable by a small team of scouts.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Green decided. “Where are they heading?”

“Cluster One, The Island, within the Footpaw at coordinates seventy-nine point five, thirty point six,” Red answered immediately. “The exact point Twilight arrived. No way that’s a coincidence. This is a rescue team.”

“What do we have on their biology?” Green asked next. “Anything? Can we tell if they have breathing equipment?”

“Attempts to reconfigure their biology have proven impossible. Nor can we install implants,” Blue informed urgently. “They each possess a nanite colony already. My attempts to inject our own and hack theirs have been thoroughly thwarted.”

“Do they have breathing equipment?” Green repeated with more urgency.

“Actually, I think they do!” Red said with a relieved smile as he inspected his monitor. “They each are carrying a fairly wide array of equipment… I can’t get specific details. We don't have any frame of reference on their technology. But logic dictates commandos sent to another dimension would be equipped with the best possible survival equip-”

“The female unicorn is dead!” Blue exclaimed, her voice warping in shock.

“What?!” Green demanded. “Did the portal do-”

“No! No she’s alive,” Blue corrected after a moment. “This is… Very odd. Several of her vital organs are vestigial, a series of symbiotic organisms have taken over their function. Red, you will find this data interesting and potentially useful.”

“Do they all have this condition?” Red asked curiously. “And what are we dealing with? We know the unicorns are powerful psions.”

“Agreed. If we have too many spellcasters within the habitat they would likely overwhelm the barrier. It’s millennia old technology after all. Hasn’t been much need for suppression fields and all that,” Green worried, rubbing his hands together as anxiously as the soldiers under his command fidgeted with their guns.

“Negative. We have a male of a winged phenotype we have not seen before. However, it would be consistent with Subject Delta’s biology, filling in the missing twenty five percent of her anatomy and explaining why her wings are feathered, not insectoid,” Blue informed. “We also have another of the insectoid variety, though with far less energy than Subject Gamma.

“The last member of the group is of the same new phenotype as the male. No, no it’s not. There is an energy field applied, warping the physical form. Similar to Subject Gamma’s disguise ability, but far more energetic. Scanning further… Field penetrated. Acquiring correct data... She is a… Uh… Calculating...”

Blue trailed off, emitting a few electronic crackles in a rather terrified sounding flurry.

“Blue, what is it?” Red asked, eyes widening with worry.

The AI may have been annoying, but she still counted amongst his semi-work friends.

“Are you malfunctioning?” Green asked. “This is NOT the time for a cognitive failure Blue!”

Red spun in his chair, quickly pulling up the last file Blue had been accessing, immediately freezing. “Um… But- I, who- Ho- WAH?!” He stammered, staring at the data sheet analyzing the final member of the inbound squad.

“Don’t you short out on me too, Red!” Green demanded angrily. “What is it!?”

“I- I don’t understand,” Red stammered breathlessly. “This can't be! It makes NO sense at all!”

“Error Code Fifty Four: This device has failed and is undergoing a reset,” Blue said without a single hint of emotion.

“FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY! WHAT IS IT!?” Green roared, the intercom shrieking as the mic peaked.

“Garbage data! It has to be garbage data,” Red dismissed. “There is no way this creature is… I can’t even describe- It’s like if a gray goo weapon glitched out and incorporated organic tissues into its own mechanism, then evolved on its own for millions of years! This data is showing technologically biological material components, into which a neural pattern identical to what I presume the pony average to be has been placed.”

“She shut down over seeing a cyborg?” Green asked skeptically.

Red shook his head firmly. “No, not a cyborg,” he said quickly. “This thing is showing up as inorganic organic tissue… A melding of technology and biology shaped by biological principles and organic components shaped with mechanical principles. A third ‘branch’ on the biological to technological spectrum which would be if the two extremes could exist in perfect harmony for mutual-

“Eh, look, it’s garbage data. The energy field around that pony is messing with our sensors. No wonder Blue shut down, she was trying to procedurally examine this- This bullshit! We’ll have to adjust her programming to not analyze everything in full if we want her to try again.”

Green sighed. “No time for that. They are emerging…” He said as she switched the intercom back to the station wide channel. “All forces: The aliens have dispatched a four man commando team. It has just arrived within Habitat One. Standby incase the habitat is breached. Reinforcements are possible at this time as this could be a wave of scouts.

“Remember: Do not fire first. The aliens are allowed to retrieve their citizens and go unmolested so long as they do not breach containment, disrupt the system in a way likely to cause a prision break, or appear to be threatening critical systems. The board wishes to avoid starting an interdimensional war. If any of you fire without one of the previously mentioned justifications applying, you will be given an indefinite prison sentence within Habitat Six.”

Red winced. Eternally living, unable to stay dead, within the harshest arid climate known to exist on any planet or megastructure with only the worst psychopaths in the galaxy who CHOSE to live in that habitat for company. The company was getting worse every day.

“I think it’s time to look for new employment,” he mumbled to himself as he began

Muffin “Derpy” Mello - 18th of Lunar Dawn, 17 EoH

The Footpaw - The Island

Allons~y. Why? Why did that one word catch on so well? He told me he’d only ever said it like that twice. The TV show just went nuts with it for whatever reason.

Ayna rolled her eyes affectionately as Sky vanished into the portal, then raced through the air to fly through after him with a cry of “Geronimo!”

Heh. I liked Ay. Always continuing her brother’s references in an adorably geeky fashion.

I should use one too.

Remembering that time was short I looked over my shoulder and gave the still nervous Lyra a smile. “Come along, Pond!” I called before stepping forwards to go through the gate myself.

Lyra blinked in confusion. “Who's Pond?”

“I’ll explain later,” I informed as the world faded out around me.

WOO! Double reference. And ones he actually DID say a lot. Trigger Siblings one, Derpy two.

Despite being based on D’ni books, the portal was quite disorienting. For a brief moment I felt as if gravity’s pull couldn’t make up its mind on where exactly to pull me towards. A kaleidoscope of geometric noise slid past me on all sides while haunting almost musical choruses echoed in my ears.

The madness only lasted a moment, and then I was standing on a very lovely beach next to Sky and Ayna who were busy looking around themselves, and out across the water, getting oriented.

Ah! First time Travelers! Nothing’s quite like the first time. All of those eager expectations for some bizarre alien landscape unknowable without having seen it dashed to pieces as you find yourself in a fairly normal looking place. They would be disappointed somewhere deep down, and not show it. Then we’d discover what made this world unique and BOOM! Suddenly it’s the best thing ever again.

I smiled and shook my head happily. Preparing myself to well, live.

Equis was different from a lot of worlds I’d been to before. Especially my home. Good different, but different. The majority of places I’d visited were less… Civil. I had to get ready to protect myself, and my friends. Just incase this was anything like the Wastelands. Or the Sixth World.

Or any of the multiple planets I’d visited while flying with that one smuggler and his bear friend.

Good times!

Lyra appeared in front of me amid a pinkish flash of light accompanied by a slurping sound followed by a pop. She immediately turned her head around, looking over the beach along with Sky and Ayna.

Of course, she was the first one to say anything. “It’s… It’s a normal beach,” she said, her ears drooping slightly clearly disappointed.

I gave the beach a quick look myself. Yep, typical tropical beach full of nice soft looking yellow sand, rolling dunes, a cool cliff at our backs, topped by jungle full of bamboo, coconut palms, and big ‘ol banyan trees. It reminded me of the time I’d visited the Ritir Empire as a hatchling with my mom.

For a heartbeat I wondered if we were on my homeworld, but the blue sky put that thought to bed almost immediately. Sort of hard for a pink sky to turn blue. I’m pretty sure mom would have written to tell me about that. Also NaN would have mentioned it.

Though to be fair, I could have missed it despite having been there a half an hour ago… But the lack of any of the three moons visible in the sky proved this wasn’t home.

“Yep! A nice tropical beach,” I agreed cheerfully. “This is nice. Usually I wind up in wastelands, monster filled jungles, dystopian cities, or other non-vacation feeling places.”

“I was hoping for a human city,” Lyra admitted dejectedly.

“Eh, we’ll probably find one. Those guys are everywhere,” I said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Throw a rock into the jungle and we’ll probably hit a human’s hut. I give it sixty three percent odds. Fifty fifty on them being nice or cruel though. The whole species is a mixed bag in every place I’ve ever been.”

Lyra squeaked happily, too excited to speak, and immediately began to look along the beach for a suitable throwing rock.

“I like those odds!” She declared as she combed the beach.

I may have made an error...

Sky nodded, still looking out across the ocean. “Are they really that common within the multiverse? Also, Derpy, you’re a Pegasus. Can you see that odd shimmer on the horizon too?” He asked, clearly trying to look at something just beyond the rather conical tree covered island to our right.

I narrowed my left eye, and closed my right so I could focus on the potential far away object. “Yes, they really are. Yeah, that looks… Is that a heat shimmer over the water?” I asked with a thoughtful frown.

“Maybe,” Sky agreed with a nod. “But… And this could just be the heat shimmer reflecting against the sky, or some weird cloud, but do you see it above too?”

I looked upwards, part of me wishing I could dismiss my polymorph spell around my friends so I could look with a better set of eyes. Or rather eye. I’d never been able to cast a transformation spell which didn't have my lazy eye carry over. Heh.

I nodded. “No, no that’s the same shimmer. But it looks curved. Which means it’s probably-”

“A force field,” Sky finished for me. “Which would explain why we had such a hard time portaling into here. We had to pierce this field as well as the dimensional walls. Good thing that won't be a problem for the return trip now that I know about it!”

Ayna nodded in agreement. “It’s definitely something that would mess with a portal. No wonder we had to try six different gate configurations… We should get to business. Twilight emerged on this exact spot. She was looking out across this sea at that island too. Would she go there, or head inland?”

I gave the island a closer look, squinting slightly to try and make out any shapes besides the mound of trees.

A closer look reveals some odd shapes within the trees, which I immediately stared at hoping to see anything more than the vague boxy outlines of what I presumed to be a building.

I frowned. Buildings. Built in such a way as to be hidden as much as possible within the trees and probably camouflaged. I had to see if they were safe before going over there, or telling anypony else about them.

I hoped I could still cast a clairvoyance spell. I’d been on vacation for a long time and that spell had always given me troubl-

“Uh, Derpy?” Lyra called from a distance. “You’re used to hopping around universes, right? How do you tell if an alien animal is dangerous? Or um, you know, an animal and not a person?”

Oh. Yes. That’s important to know information.

I turned to look for Lyra, noticing Sky putting on a pair of sunglasses to shield his eyes from the rather bright glare of the sun on the water and sand. Lyra was standing maybe twenty yards down the beach to our right, whatever creature she was looking at suddenly became irrelevant.

Because there was a massive black metal skyscraper floating in the sky on a beam of red light!

“WOAH!” I exclaimed, ears drooping in intimidation. “That thing is HUGE! My mom would think that is huge! AND SHE IS HUGE!”

Sky and Ayna snickered.

“Did you just make a ‘yo momma’ joke about your own m- WOAH!” Ayna asked as she turned to face me, and saw the tower too.

“Oh, well. That’s pretty cool,” Sky said, having apparently turned to look as well. “That thing is like what… A third the size of the Phoenix?”

“Yeah, probably. That or a quarter. Hard to tell from this distance,” Ayna agreed. “If that’s a spacecraft, which is probably is, I mean come on, it’s got anti-grav, that’s what’s generating the force field. It would be logical to ask about Twilight there.”

“Good idea. That thing definitely has the tech to detect our portal. They know we’re here, and nothing incinerated us or dispatched drones soo… I guess we pop on over and ask if they’ve seen other ponies,” Sky said as he trotted down the beach past me heading towards the towering thing, still looking up at it.

“Okay, spaceship, cool,” Lyra said with a nervous laugh. “But seriously look down and to the right of the big buck off red glowing tower and please help me figure out if this thing eats meat or not!”

Remembering Lyra's very valid question I looked down, searching for what she was looking at. It was very easy to spot. Because it was HUGE. A big round, elephant like creature with a lizard’s tail, a super long neck to make a giraffe jealous, and an odd turtle-like face, all covered in thick blue and green blotchy hide was calmly but slowly walking out of the jungle towards the sea, it’s long neck starting to dip down to take a drink.

“No claws,” I assessed, looking at it’s stumpy feet. “Probably an herbivore. Really big for one though.”

Mom would love hunting something her own size. What dragon wouldn’t?

Sky turned his head, finally looking in the same direction as Lyra and I. He froze, reaching up to his face with both his forehooves, pulling his sunglasses off as his ears perked and his tail raised with an incredulous flick.

"Holy bucking shit! It's a dinosaur!” Sky yelped, his voice almost sing-song in surprise. “Luna's tits, what the buck!"

Ayna’s head swiveled, the changeling looking at the creature in mild surprise.

“Oh, hey. It’s a brontosaurus. Neat!” She said in the same manner a pony might if they found a bag of mints in an old jacket pocket.

Sky continued to stand there, jaw hanging, glasses falling from his hoof into the sand with a plop. ”Oh my bucking god! Bucking dinosaurs! Holy shit, what the BUUUU~UU~UUUCK!" He reiterated almost fancoltishly, his wings fluttering happily.

I couldn’t help but smile. “There it is!” I giggled. “Sky’s discovered what he likes about Traveling. How did you recognise that creature anyways?”

“Actually this is my second one,” Sky corrected with a huge grin. “This one is just really cool!”

“It’s in the Phoenix's database as an extinct creature which inhabited our planet some four hundred million years ago,” Ayna explained. “A few of the games stored in the computer use dinosaurs as enemies or creatures and Sky really loves a few of the-”

Sky’s wings buzzed excitedly, taking him into the air for a moment. “Oh my gosh! What if we find a lystrosaurus?” Sky exclaimed, turning to grab Ayna by her shoulders. “Promise me we are not leaving here without a adorable lizard puppy if we find one!”

Ayna frowned sadly, I could tell she was about to dash Sky’s hopes and dreams before his heart got too set on them. Poor guy.

“Sky, that’s a bronto over there,” Ayna said slowly, her ears drooping apologetically. “That would mean this universe is Earth, but in the late Jurassic period, and with an alien spacecraft over there. Lystrosaurus lived a hundred million years before-”

Ayna’s explanation was cut short as a huge black, sort of hunched over bipedal lizard-like monster with a square head exploded from the jungle, bellowing an earsplitting roar as it raced towards the brontosaurus, slamming into it’s side as its jaws closed around its neck, tackling the massive beast to the ground with a sound like a thunderbolt splitting rock!

“-never-bucking-mind!-Land-That-Time-Forgot-rules-apply.-LEG-IT!” Ayna screeched, turning around and sprinting for the cover of a group of boulders a short distance behind us on the beach.

The four of us bolted for cover, not wanting the monster a mere three hundred meters away to spot us. The moment I reached the closest rock, I snapped my wings open, vaulting over the top and landing next to Ayna who was huddled close up against the side of the rock.

Sky and Lyra joined us a heartbeat later, Lyra looking a little afraid, Sky expressing a mixture of terror and exhilaration.

“That was so cool!” Sky exclaimed with a huge grin. “Did you see that? Shoulder checked a bronto all ‘I’m a motha-fuck’n T-Rex!’ and it was! It was a T-Rex!”

“Yeah, and if you don’t shut up it will hear us and use us for dessert!” Lyra hissed urgently, her face white as can be. “Did you see those teeth?! If that thing bites me one of those is DEFINITELY finding my heart and I am REALLY SURE those would count as a steak!”

Sky nodded twice. “Oh yeah, I know, that thing is super dangerous,” he said, still smiling. “I’m just still really excited. This will wear off soon. Anywho, big ass carnos everywhere. Do you know what that means?”

I shook my head no. Sky reached into the survival pack he’d brought and removed a folded up blue jacket and pants made from what looked like some sort of flexible polymer and proceeded to put it on, revealing both garments to have a high-tech armored aesthetic to them, while still looking like clothing.

“This means you should all reach into your bags and slide into your puncture proof armored clothing with built in shield generators. You know, since we know we won't be appearing in the middle of a town now, and actually should be walking around heavily armed,” Sky explained, reaching back into his bag and pulling out a large black case, which he immediately opened. “Then open up this box, and start assembling your plasma pistol. As soon as we find a safe area, I’ll get some equipment out of my Lab-in-a-Bag and whip up some bigger guns.”

Lyra nodded instantly. “You had me at pants,” she said, trying to lighten her mood as she dug into her pack.

Ayna took a deep breath to calm herself, closed her eyes, and burst into green flames as she shapeshifted, her exoskeleton becoming extremely shiny, but otherwise seemingly not changing.

“Good, I can shapechange!” She exclaimed happily. “I was worried that might not work.”

I could feel some kind of anti-magic field being projected around us. I had since I’d arrived here. I figured that Ayna and Lyra could feel it too. I wasn’t worried though. Marrathian sorcery is very efficient, and I doubted anything I ever learned would draw enough power for the field to matter.

Equestrian magic, on the other hand, being designed by a species that were pretty much living mana funnels...

“So you made yourself shiny to test?” I asked curiously tilting my head to one side.

Ayna shook her head in response, causing her long mane to swish back and forth. “No. I turned my exoskeleton into ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene,” she answered.

I blinked twice.

“Ay doesn't need armor. She just made her outer bits into the same material inside these jackets,” Sky explained for me.

“And I’m a wizard. I already have guards and wards on myself… And an implanted shield generator. Which will be doing most of the work thanks to the lower ambient thaumaturgic radiation here. Yay for tech based backups!” Ayna said flashing me a smile before frowning. “Um, but you don’t so you should put on the suit and get a gun. Heck, I can fire lasers from my horn but I’m still putting mine together.”

I bit my lip, thinking things through. Normally I remained my pony self when I traveled. But these were my friends, and this place was very dangerous. I’d never seen any place with carnivores that big which could move that quietly.

Except for back home. And back home, well, I could take something like that T-Rex on and have a really good chance of winning. Assuming it didn’t have any tricks up it’s tiny sleeves.

With Ayna and Lyra’s magic limited, and our immediate access to technological weapons not the best case scenario, I would have to pick up the slack. Admittedly I’d been the one to suggest not going through armed incase we appeared inside someone's home or a town. So that was on me. Which meant it was only fair to use the full extent of my natural abilities.

But...

I’d made a lot of friends on a lot of worlds. I was always afraid of being my normal self around them. Not mentally. There was only one Derpy. I was afraid of being myself physically. Always worried they’d be afraid of me afterwards. But these three? Would they?

Sometimes people weren't. I’d explained myself to Dusk once before. She’d taken it well, but well, she wasn’t exactly a normal pony herself, now as she?

I closed my eyes for a moment to think.

Lyra was a vampire. Even after hollow Shades was forced to go public and Lyra and her friends revealed their true natures as part of the PR campaign for redeeming that ‘rehab center for supernatural monsters’ in the public eye, she was still feared by many ponies who recognised her and remembered. She knew what it was like to be feared for no reason. I could trust her.

Ayna was a changeling. Same boat there.

Sky was a dick, but not an asshole. He also already knew that I was not what I appeared to be, but not exactly what. He was also smart enough to understand that one’s form is meaningless, it's the mind that matters. I mean, he had a changeling sister who I’d seen become a beanbag for her wife and yet Sky continued to hold a conversation with Ayna as if she wasn’t currently furnature.

He’d understand.

“Derpy?” Lyra asked curiously. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yes. I was just… Thinking,” I explained.

“About how you’d be much safer in armored clothing?” Sky asked snarkily while flashing me a smile. “Don’t worry it resizes to you.”

I shook my head. “No. About how I can trust you to not treat me any differently,” I replied, taking a nervous breath. “I- I wouldn’t do this under normal circumstances, and when we get back to Equestria or get anywhere near Twilight, I’m reapplying my polymorph spell. But… Well, I’m perfectly fine here without weapons or armor so long as I don’t live in this form, and use the one my mother gave me instead.”

Ayna blinked. “I THOUGHT you had a transformation spell on you!” She declared with a triumphant smile. “But I take it it’s not an attempt to fix your eye?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I’m actually a Halfdragon,” I admitted, blushing with embarrassment. “Long story short, my homeworld is called Mar’rath. Dragons there are very different from Equestria’s dragons. We can’t reproduce with other species and make hybrids. So when I say Halfdragon, that’s not biological. It’s cultural, metaphysical, and literal.

“It means that half of my being is draconic, and half is not. In my case, my mind, heart and soul are a pegasus’s. The species I was born as. That’s half of my being. The other half is my body, which is a dragon’s. Specifically a Cloud Dragon’s.

“I was adopted by a dragoness. I couldn’t exactly play with the village’s hatchlings safely because they’d accidentally kill me. So she used very powerful magic to transform me into the same kind of dragon as herself, permanently. This body I’m using right now via my own transformation spell is how I looked originally, just you know, grown up and not a five year old filly like I was when I got lost so hard I wound up in another reality.

“Oh! Um, Mar’rathian dragons possess a very limited shapeshifting ability, this is one of the four forms I can take at will. Please think of me like this, okay? I’m not different at all in my head or heart.”

Sky hummed. “This would explain your strength,” he noted with a simple nod.

Lyra nodded in agreement. “Yeah! What pegasus can splinter a ceiling beam by accidently back hoofing it?” She wondered. “Sooo what do you look like ‘naturally’? Um, I mean, unnaturally? Because you were born a pegasus and then later transformed so-”

I held up a hoof for her to stop, then trotted a dozen or so meters away and then closed my eyes, focused on the active spell, and canceled it. Then, at the same time, I cast a Reduce Person spell, just to make sure I didn’t scare my friends too much.

I felt my body tingle as the two white rings of light flowed across me in opposite directions, first horizontally, then vertically, the change occurring in the blink of an eye.

When I opened my eyes, I looked down at my friends. I stood on my four legs, standing six meters tall at my shoulder. I could feel my long tail lashing nervously behind me. My tungsten talons clenched, scoring lines in the sand below me. I could feel my metallic gray scales absorbing the extra intense sunlight, bolstering my power. This sun felt nice. Almost like home.

My still feathered wings twitched nervously, as I worried about their react-

Lyra grinned, her eyes dilating in glee. “Awwww! You look like someone drew the foal of a quadrupedal dragon and a pegasus! You’re adorable!”

I blushed, my ears standing up as a wave of relief washed over me. “Um, yes. We do look a lot like ponies… Same sort of ears, general muzzle shapes, colors available-”

“You still have your cutiemark too. I guess that sticks with you through transformation. Makes sense since it’s a manifestation of your spirit, and this is just a ‘bonus body’, kinda” Sky noted. “I guess- Wait a second… Are your scales metal?”

I nodded twice. “Yes. Long complicated explanation. Let’s avoid it. We have a mission to do.”

“Can you dip your head down?” Ayna asked.

I complied, lowering myself to her eye level. “And for the record, while this is normal for me, I feel more at home as a pega-”

Ayna squeed. “I knew it! Your mane’s color became a stripe down your back along the little spines! Okay, this is a nice surprise. Way nicer than winding up in Jurassic Park. Especially since you think you can tangle with a Rex in this body,” she said with a relieved smile.

I narrowed my eyes indignantly. “I don’t think I can. I know I can. I’ll fly above it and electrocute it…” I mumbled. “Well, assuming it’s not a sapient life form and we can’t reason with it.”

“You breathe lightning?” Ayna asked, clearly surprised. “Is that normal for your world?”

I nodded. “For this subspecies, yes. Most dragons breathe different things. Fire is pretty common. Cloud Dragons do an electrified mist.”

“Fair enough,” Sky decided. “I’m sure you were nervous about showing us this… But honestly I still see you as a transformed pegasus. You're a pegasus who knows the Dragon Soul Take-Over. You don’t have to worry. ”

Lyra nodded twice. “Right. That’s what you are. I mean, sure, you spent most of you life like this, right? But you were born a pegasus, and well, I know lots of pegasus mares and you act like the nicest one ever soooo, yeah.

“Oh! And don’t worry, I won't tell anypony. Pinkie Promise.”

I sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness, I was worried-”

Ayna shapeshifted, giving herself mammalian eyes to roll them sarcastically at my worry before turning them back to her normal jewel-like orbs. “Derpy, seriously. You’re a pony. You started out as a pony. You ACT like a pony. You have a transformation ability given to you by your mom so you could play with friends and not get squished. You just think of yourself as a dragon because you spent most of your fillyhood in that form. But you’re clearly a pony. We know you’re not going to eat us. It’s fine. You’re fine…

“Although, being raised by dragons, I’d expect some kind of cultural behaviors to have carried over. I mean, I act a LOT like a pony because I was raised by ponies. Unless… Oh, my, gosh! Do Cloud Dragons hoard muffins!?” Ayna asked, biting her lip to contain a giggle fit.

I snickered and shook my head no. “No. We hoard friends, lovers, and mementos of our accomplishments. We’ve got the weirdest hoarding behavior, admittedly. I plan on bringing all of my friends back to the village one day, just so mom can be proud that I’ve made a proper hoard and am all adult now and stuff. Though I do need a permanent mate as the grand jewel before I do that.

“As for muffins, well, they are just something I love a lot.”

Sky’s ears stood up straight, having spent the entire time examining me. “Your talons are tungsten carbide! You’re a robot! That’s why your scales are actually metal,” he exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and delight.

I shook my head quickly. “No. We’re bio-technological hybrid organisms. Naturally occurring cyborgs. The only species on Mar’rath the gods didn’t design. We’re descended from a species of lizards which were assimilated by a malfunctioning doomsday weapon. Technology and biology that co-evolved for… Well we don't know how long.

“That makes parts of me are organic, parts of me are inorganic. Good luck telling which is which. Yes I know that’s weird from your perspective, but frankly, your world’s dragons being entirely organic is freakishly weird to me. Especially since they can just walk into lava to bathe...

“Um, anyways, you can scan me in this shape later if you’re super curious. Right now you three should focus on finding Twilight, I’m going to focus on protecting you from other carnivores.”

“Right!” Sky exclaimed, standing up and slicing his right foreleg into the bracer-grip of his plasma pistol. “Our party has its tank, and its support. Lyra, you work as the scout and sniper for the Knights of the Rampant Moon, right?”

Lyra nodded. “Mhm. I’m our DPS,” she informed.

“Which leaves me with battlefield control,” Ayna noted with a satisfied nod. “So, to the tower?”

Sky nodded, opening his mouth to agree when a new roar split the air. This was was much more distant than the Rex had been. It also wasn’t from a monster. This was the roar of a machine.

“That’s an Aston Martin Vulcan,” Sky said spinning around just in time to see a line of thick white smoke arc up into the sky, heading for the tower.

I squinted at the line, my eyes focusing on the moving object and zooming in on it. Well, my good eye at least. My other eye decided to look at Lyra’s flanks.

Which was weird because I didn’t find her attractive… Sky, sure. But he was married and-

I blinked as the flying humanoid robot or power armor suit came into focus.

“That’s a humanoid entity with a jetpack. Possibly a robot or a person in power armor,” I reported, allowing my vision to return to normal.

It felt so weird to do that after being a pegasi for decades. I felt uncomfy… We needed to find Twilight so I could be a little fluffy pony again… Or maybe I’d just take this form while we explored and would change back when we reached camp for the day. I mean, I could transition almost instantly.

Yes, that would do.

Sky reached into his bag, took out a pair of high tech binoculars and took a look at the flying figure for himself, tracking it as it flew to the hovering tower..

“There’s two of them. I wish the sun wasn’t glaring on them so much, I can’t make out any details… Not even colors,” He grumbled.

“We should find out what’s over where they came from,” Lyra mused. “They are going to the tower. Two people wouldn’t be attacking it. Obviously they live there and were out in the field doing… Stuff. If they have some project in the jungle over there, that might be a better place to meet the locals than going right to their huge, creepy, possible spaceship.”

“I like that plan,” Ayna agreed with a nod.

Sky hummed. “Alright. It’s close to the ship anyways. Let’s see… Rangefinder on the smoke, trace it back… Okay! Got the location,” he said triumphantly as he put the binoculars away. “Derpy? Could you protect us if we went through the jungle? It would be faster if we cut straight through.”

“Well, probably. But if I have to fight something really big, I’ll have to use my breath. I also will probably lose track of you guys. Um, see how my eye is still all silly? Yeah… That’s a carryover trait. Now, you might be lightning proof, Mister Pegasi, but Ayna and Lyra are not,” I informed with a grin.

“Walking along the beach till we get as close as possible it is,” Sky decided with a chuckle before taking on a deadly serious look.

Lyra frowned, looking at Sky uncertainly. “Um, what-”

“Is the Rex gone?” He asked.

I raised my head to look over the rock, only to see the rex vanish back into the jungle, dragging the dead bronto’s carcass in by its neck. I waited a minute after it disappeared into the jungle to make sure t wasn’t coming back, then nodded.

“It is now. Been gone a whole minute,” I informed.

“Alright…” Sky intoned, clearly trying to do an impression of somepony. “Let’s go!”

Sky wheeled around and began to trot down the beach, doing his best to imitate an adventurous tune with his voice. “Dah duh dah daah, duh duh dah DUHDAAA! DAAH-nanah nah nah, naah nananaaah…”

I laughed, shook my head, and let everypony else follow after him, taking the rear position in our little adventure line. After all, the body guard needs to watch their charge.

“Hey, Derpy?” Lyra asked, gently tapping my right foreleg with a hoof.

“Yes?” I asked, leaning down to look at her on her eye level.

“Can I ride on your back or would that be-”

I gently picked the minty mare up and set her on my shoulders. “There you go,” I said with a small grin.

“YES! This is just as cool as I imagined,” Lyra giggled happily as she squirmed into a comfortable place between my shoulderblades.

Oh hey! We could do aerial recon together! She’d have a great shot on anything from the air. Maybe we’d even catch Twilight on the ground.

...

I hope Twilight found a good cave or something.